Good 'ole AUNT HEATHER

Heather has always had a special place in our hearts! She'd come visit from time to time when we lived in San Jose... once or twice in Chicago... to Ladera also... so, she's always been known as ONE of our Favorite Aunts!

It was great to see her and Thomas again. NOTHING HAS CHANGED... all continued to wrestle her and "take her down."

There was only one bloody nose, three crying boys and a shiner to the noggin'! Pretty quiet night!

It was really fun to try on her stylin' Colorado Shoes! Whooo Hoo... luv it!

Everyone left on a good note that night...

Sunday Stories - A New Thomas Tidbits Tradition

When Mom originally started Thomas Tidbits the goal was 1. Keep us up-to-date with what is going on in our lives. 2. A journal of sorts for the family. Now that we are online it's the same, but we can include pictures and don't have to wait for Mom to compile the emails.

I have an idea to help us on the Journal aspect. So here is the plan:

Each Sunday one of the Thomas Kids is going to post a "memory" about growing up in the family (see mine below)

We are only going to do this 2 times through so everyone is only on the hook for two stories.

Here would be the order:

Eldon
Glenn
Brent
Melissa
Linnea
Heather
Melanie
Dad
Mom
repeat one more time.

The spouses will be included after we have each given two "memories". They can give us one memory of coming into the Thomas family. Those first few awkward months, or maybe years.

Basic guidelines:
(for the kids and Mom and Dad)
- A memory that is important to you or encapsulates a certain time or place, like a house or a vacation
- Funny or heart warming is fine. No gripping, complaining, therapy induced dribble
- As long or short as you would like
- Doesn't have to be Sunday when you post, but when you are on the clock keep it to a week

(for the spouses, start thinking now)
- A memory dealing with the dating and/or first year of marriage. ie meeting the other kids, mother-in-law/father-in-law stories etc.
- Or some other memory of a more recent family activity/event
- The idea would be to convey some of the quirky/funny aspects of the family as seen from an outsider

Any comments/thoughts? Post a comment.

Below is my memory. So Glenn you are on the clock
________________________________________________________

Suicide Ball

When we lived in the house on Brown Road Glenn, Brent and I played this game (I think we called it Suicide Ball). I remember spending hours and hours at this game over the course of years, but maybe Mom and Dad outlawed it after a few rounds. Somehow I remember a window being broken.

All that was needed was a Tennis ball and a wall. I remember using the back wall of the house. This would be the left-end of the house if you were looking at the back porch.

The rules were simple.
- You had to throw the Tennis ball at the wall
- It had to hit the wall first
- After hitting the wall it had to hit the ground without someone catching it first

If any rule was broken you had to run and touch the wall before someone grabbed the ball and threw it at you.

Usually the game went something like this.

Glenn messes up and I nail him in the back as hard as I possibly can. Inflicting excruciating pain.

Brent messes up and gets nailed by Glenn, who has channeled all his rage at me into his throw at Brent.

When I finally mess up I yell threats as I run to the wall. If I get hit softly the game continues. If I get hit hard, which is allowed, I throw a tantrum and chase down whoever threw the ball and beat on them a little. Then when they say they aren't playing anymore I threaten them again until they keep playing and let me inflict some more pain.

I remember playing this for hours and hours. Sometimes we would get a bunch of neighborhood kids over who would join in (Nelson's, Lane Anderson, Greg McInness). It also seems like it was always in the wintertime because I remember cold, bare feet and dead winter grass.

Whenever I drive by the house on Brown road I think of Suicide Ball.

Firefox

For those of you newly converted to the Mac, if you use FIREFOX instead of SAFARI when you post on the blog you have all the options to make your blog funky. Safari doesn't work as well.

I just read Melanies new blog and I have to say that it is nice to see the Grandpa Jack lives on through Heather & Melanie.

Yes Eldon, I have started to post and read all the blogs. (Yours scare me)

Skiing and Stuff

So we highly recommend the skiing/snowboarding thing as a family. Believe it or not you can do it cheaply. You can't beat those moments going up the ski lift with your kids. Nice and quite and nothing to do but talk. All are invited next year. It's only 863 miles from Mesa. A mere 12 hours. Just pretend you are driving to Utah.

More pictures.

Garrett during his lessons


Kate (notice the gloves and goggles? We buy a little big so they last longer)


Paige, Kate and Sam (friend we went with)


Cool dude shredding the slopes

Another perk of skiing. Coming back to the condo all tired and playing games/watching videos.



Other Stuff:

Kate finally lost some teeth. Two of them over the last couple of days.


Congrats again to that procreating couple in the mountains.

Guess What???

Well we don't know what HE will be like, but when we started poking around for the ultrasound, this is what he did.

In other news... Brent was called to be the new Elders Quorum President. We don't have a picture for that...

To Grandmother's House We Go...

It's that time again, when I "sacrifice" myself for the cause. Mike's got an exam coming up and in order to be supportive Thomas and I are once again going on vacation :) So party at Mom's house! I'm leaving on Feb 21st and I'm not coming back until March 8th. Mike will be joining me this time for the first few days of March so the weekend of the 3rd would be a great time to all get together. We can't wait to see everyone!

Gingerbread Party

You know, I dislike blogging for one reason. I still haven't figured out the pictures. They just go where they want to. So you will have to live with it. Here are all the fun pictures from the

Gingerbread House Decorating Party!!

It only took me until February to post them.

Lot's of good memories and yummy eats!

Valentine's Day

This is what I woke up to this morning. Aww, I love my boys!

Prison Break

It happened. That momentous occasion every parent dreads. The event you know will change everything from that moment on.

For almost two years we could control Ryan by tossing him in that wonderful piece of furniture shaped like a prison cell but often times referred to as a crib. If only cribs had a top to them we might still enjoy the piece of mind knowing the toddler is behind bars.

But alas Ryan has escaped. He discovered the classic joke played on every child and perpetuated as long as possible. He realized all he had to do was get that leg over the edge and he was free of the crib.

Yep. What used to be predictable in our life is now a crap shoot. Will he or won't he decide to get out of bed and wander around?

That first night of escape we waited until he opened the door of his room and then we put him back in his bed. Oh was he mad. He kept it up at least 20 times until he just collapsed.

Here is what a little boy looks like when you are ruining his new found freedom.

Heaven help us!

It's Girl Time!

While Logan and Mason are at school Sabrina and I have "girl time". It only happens twice a week for a couple of hours but we make the most of it. Long ago I bought a whole sack of dress up clothes from a garage sell in Mesa when Mason was just a baby. Brent thought I was crazy but I knew this day would come. (or should I say, hoped this day would come!)

Hi-
Two wonderful things happen to me this week, the first of which I won't mention any names BUT I needed to go and baby sit a certain person at our lawyers office while they looked through boxes of papers, all of which they already had copies! Yes, I was excited to go and spend the day because I had nothing better to do! After looking through 4 magazines that I had brought with me & 4 hours later, I pulled out my trusty ipod & watched the video of my grandchildren. I suddenly felt very sorry for that person because I have it all - everything that matters & they don't! I felt very much at peace about the whole situation. So when you are ready to wring a neck or two just remember how they made me feel on that long 5 hour day!

The second wonderful thing that happened to me is that my 4th grandchild is now a member of the church!! Allison Kate Lee has now joined the ranks soon to be followed I might add by Zach & Logan! What a wonderful day, she looked beautiful but Allison was too fast for me, the minute she got home, she changed her clothes & I missed the picture of her in her pretty white dress. Melissa had a feast for us after the baptism, we enjoyed a good visit with everyone.

Today was our ward conference. Our Stake President said, "Pray to know how often the Lord would like to see you in the temple. And pray to know what you can do for your spouse." He said we would be shocked at how fast we would get answers to our prayers.

Sunny is doing some beta testing for Family Search for the Church. They asked her to sign up 10 more people to help test. She asked us. We have submitted our names now we will see if they select us.

Life is still busy & now I have to stop & figure out this blog thing. As you can see I still can't get the pictures where I want them. They just go where ever. So just be glad they are even on this blog!!!
Technology is a great thing but my brain got left back in the 20th century!!!
I love every one of you!!

To Blog or Not to Blog...

That is the question...whether it is better to enjoy the bowl of ice cream offered by completing the obligatory blog or suffer in silence, un-sugared and unspoken.

I guess I'll blog - I want the ice cream carrot Cindy's offering me, and I made Eldon a promise that I'd do better.

Ok, this is a blog that should have happened a while ago, but since today was such a beautiful day - 75 degrees, partly cloudy and not much of a breeze, I couldn't resist:

You see, we got a call at 9:30 p.m. that fateful night from Mom, Dad and Melanie at the park - come they said - there's snow in Mesa! I thought, "Wow, there are snowflakes in the air, how cool!" "It's snowing?", I asked. No came the reply - "it snowed three inches just east of us. We're at the Alta Mesa park east of Higley Road having a snowball fight!" Well, we had put everyone to bed, so I figured going out there by myself wouldn't be much fun and what would the chances be of finding Mom and Dad there anyway. So I told Mom that we wouldn't be able to make it...throw a snowball for us :-).

But as Cindy and I got to thinking after the call...why not!?!

We went to the boys room and tried to wake everyone up. Benjamin was up in a flash and ready to go! Zachary sat befuddled in his bed unsure if he was dreaming or not. Eventually, he decided that if he wasn't dreaming, the pillow looked quite white and fluffy, thank you very much, and he was having more of that. Nicholas said he didn't want to go and rolled out of reach. Christopher just wouldn't wake up.

So leaving the three younger boys to their sleep, Benjamin, Cindy and I tried to find clothes worthy of a snowball fight. It took a while - they were buried somewhere in a closet.

We finally procured gloves and marched out to the garage only to realize we didn't have a sled. Or a garbage can lid, or a plastic tray, or anything that would resemble something to slide on the snow with. We began calling around to see if anyone else had toboggans of some sort. Then Cindy suggested our "boogie-board". No, I said in despair, I'm pretty sure it's got fins on the bottom like the surf board.

After another 5 minutes of searching, I opened the attic door and began a desperate search for something....anything to slide on. And there it was in the attic - the finless Boogie-board! Moments later, cameras in hand, Benjamin and I set off for the park to see if this was real!

I think the pictures speak for themselves:

Benjamin posing with the boogie-board!


Found the elusive snowman in Mesa!


Benjamin hits the slopes!

This story ends with the Mesa police showing up (we got there at 10pm right as the park closed) sirens flashing and bullhorns warning all winter wonderland revelers that their cars would be impounded and would not be released for days so MOVE IT NOW!

Needless to say, we moved, but not before we scooped up enough snow to take the snowball fight we were having home to Cindy! :-)

It was a night not soon to be forgotten - the night it snowed in Mesa!!!

Harper News

Our news... hmm. Well, last weekend Russ entered a mountain biking race. We laughed a bit because his group was called Rock Crushers. It was for 220+ lbs. I think he was tentative about racing because he thought he was pretty good, but when you compete it really shows you where you stand. He did fantastic though. He came in 3rd in his group and passed most of the guys in the group that left 3 minutes before his. I had fun, Russ had fun, and we both agree that he needs to do it again.

What else? Well, I thought of Cindy today as I was prying a piece of crayon out of Lindsay's nose with tweezers. What in the heck are they thinking? "Hmm, I think I'm going to shove this up my nose." I'm sorry but that's weird.

Well, we are finally taking steps to move from our charming, 1940's home. The charm has worn off. :) It's been one big remodeling project in the works for the 3 years that we've lived here and I am really excited to leave it behind. I'm excited to leave the foot traffic traveling down our street at all hours. I'm excited to leave the endless list of remodeling to-do's that take forever to get done. (I'm excited for different to-do lists.) I am sad to leave our neighbors and our ward though. But the part that I'm really not looking forward to is the finishing of all the remodel projects. For example, every single room and ceiling has to be painted because we relocated the a/c vents. Holy cow I'm glad this is a small house. And what really stinks is that we won't get the chance to enjoy all the improvements. Oh well.

I've started going to the gym again and I'm taking a yoga class. I love it and I see Christian Neilson and his wife there. Small world.




Haylee is Cinderella. No really, if you didn't know already, she insists that you call her Cinderella. She tells me that I'm the nice step-mother. :) I love it. She is so sweet and I love age three, most of the time. She loves to sing, dance, go to the park and play with friends.

Lindsay is my monster but she's at that age. I told Russell that she is absolutely the cutest kid ever, except when she's going AAAAAH! AAAAAAH! in the most obnoxious, screaming voice I have ever heard.

Rusty, well what can I say, I am absolutely spoiled. He is 15+ lbs. of happy bliss. He smiles, he laughs, he rarely cries and he's been sleeping through the night since 1 month. He is the love of my life. Whenever he sees me, he looks at me with such love in his eyes, how can I not be smitten? However, I keep laughing when I think about how different my thoughts will be when he's Lindsay's age. :) I'll enjoy it now.

So that's it.

Mischeif Managed

When I'm talking on the phone my kids find the strangest things to do. This happens to be lotion. Sabrina thought her hair needed a little more moisture.