Christmas at Grandpa and Grandma's

We went to Colorado for a few days before Christmas. The advantage to that is we get two Christmas's. The kids love this. Another fun thing we like to do is go sledding. Well you would think Colorado in December, that would be easy to do. Well not this time. We drove for two hours and never found any spot to go sledding. It was crazy. The rain was coming down all over the western US and it was no different where we were. We spent lots of fun time with Grandma as we made cookies and she taught us how to make her famous bread. We enjoyed some time with Grandpa putting a puzzle together and burning all his wood in the fireplace. The kids enjoyed roasting marshmallows in the fire too. Only at Grandma's can you roast mini marshmallows in the fireplace. Grandma is a good sport too as she eats a few of those burned things. It was tons of fun and a very relaxing time. Good times were had by all.

Grandpa and Britton look at the new remote contol car he got.

Brooke shows off her new watch.

Grandma and Grandpa open their present from the kids.
They were way excited to give them the present. Gotta love those homemade gifts.

Every Child is a Story yet to be told. Lots of room for the other grandkids to put their hand prints on it too. Grandparents love those kids of gifts.

Family Picture Time

This is the time of year I like, well except when trying to determine what everyone is going to wear. But taking the pictures and getting beautiful results, I like that. But on the other hand, fighting with Darin about doing them when I have to hear, "Didn't we just take those?" Yes Dear, a year ago we did. :) Now I have Matthew who loves pictures as much as Darin, so the battle was swift and final. I said we are doing this on this certain Saturday, be there, wear this and don't argue. It went rather well and the results I was very pleased with. Our session was short so I received very little fight from the big boys. :) Here is the Thomas Gang!!

Our Crew

Mother - Daughter

My Boys

Father - Daughter

My Kids

The Three

Mom and Dad

Thanksgiving

Darin's parents had everyone over for Thanksgiving. It had been a rather warm fall so not many leaves had fallen. With Thanksgiving the leaves were finally starting to fall and oh what fun the kids had with all the leaves that day. Grandpa was pleased with the work since it gave them something to do outside and he did not have to rake up the leaves. :)

Mesquite Marathon!!

After a disappointing run at the St. George Marathon, Darin and his friend Cory decided they wanted to try the Mesquite Marathon. Early in November, we had hopes of Darin qualifying for the Boston Marathon and the two of us going there to run the Marathon. With the record setting filling of the Boston Marathon, which only took 8 hours to sell out, our hopes of going to Boston were destroyed. He still wanted to run the Mesquite race, so we went to Nevada with some friends and had a great time. Well, a great time as far as being with friends and laughing and enjoying ourselves. The race was another story. The weather was terrible. Cool temperatures made for a chilly start. The wind was the worst for running. There were 35 mph gusts, and constant winds blowing the whole race. Not so good for running a 26 mile long race. Well, it was tough, but Darin finished 3rd in his age group, was 26th overall out of over 200 runners. He was pleased. I decided the marathon was a bit much for me, so I ran the half marathon. I was 1st in my age group and placed rather high overall. The wind was way tough on my little body, I felt like it blew me from one side of the road to the other. It was a fun run. Glad Cory and Mel could join us. We had another couple meet us there to run too, Glen and Kasey Watts ran. The men felt strong or were crazy, which ever you choose, so they ran the marathon. The women were more sane I guess you could say that was a matter of opinion. We all ran the half marathon.

Darin and I at Packet Pick up

Mel and Cory Reese - our friends who do crazy things with us!

Flags blowing straight out showing how windy it was. Cory recorded a short video and put it on youtube.com, watch it here to see how windy it was at the race. Mesquite Marathon!

Glen, Jason Smith, Darin and Cory at the beginning of the race.

The Mesquite Marathon, the half looked just the same. :) Not much scenery in this part of the country. The marathon went through three states though, starting in Utah, then Arizona for lots, then finishing in Nevada.

My Little Wolves!!!

Pin #2 for each little boy. Fun stuff going on in scouts. They did great pinning my awards on me too. I wait for the day they poke my finger or theirs too. :) They are having fun learning new things and being with the other boys in an organized situation. They have really enjoyed doing different topics and learning interesting fun things. What a busy life they have.

My boys pin their mother pins on me.

I will do my best, I will do my duty . . .

Mom and her little scouts.

Banana Chair Catapult Anyone?!

There are times you like getting phone calls from your kids and times when the caller says, "Mom, come home right now!!!" I did not question it and I ran straight home from the church. Of course all kinds of things go rushing through your mind as to what could be wrong. I knew it was not too bad, but still bad enough not to discuss on the phone and to head straight home, Do Not Pass Go, Do Not Visit with your friends, just get home. Well as I ran in the house, Matt yells we are downstairs. I get down the stairs and there is Britton lying on the ground with a bloody paper towel on his head. I realized I can take pressure and gross things kind of well that night. We got things cleaned up and I called Darin to let him know we were headed to the doctor for stitches. Up to this point Britton had been rather calm, no tears, no freaking out, but at the word Stitches, he went crazy on me. I finally got him calmed down, but with the limited training I had I knew we needed them. The doctor was amazing and numbed it with some ointment and continued to let him know we had to close up the sore, but never said the "S" word again. We understood what she would be doing, but he did not, and he remained calm. Well, five stitches later and a nice black eye out of it, here he is. What fun a catapult on a banana chair can be?!! Whose idea was it anyway, brother? :)

Spooktacular Fun Run!!

A few years ago we started a fun tradition where we ran a race sponsored by the Elementary schools. We start with a good stretch and then line up for a fun race. We started several years ago by doing the 1 mile run, but over the past couple of years have changed to the 3 mile run.


It is a fun challenge to run with the kids. This year though, Bryce and Matt were flying for their race. After the race Matt told us he was working hard to stay up with Bryce. Bryce is really starting to develop into a quick runner. I am sure he is faster than me and I think Darin would have to work really hard to keep up with him.

We all wore our matching green shirts so we could see each other in the race. It works good for us. We may get matching orange ones next with some silly quote on the back for our next races. We always love this race though, Bryce usually wins us some pumpkin cookies for being the fastest runner in his age group, he is kind to share too.


After running that far with the kids, we are all feeling silly and make some goofy faces. We will be preparing for our next race which is the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving. Hopefully the weather will cooperate with us and we can all run a quicker race.

Halloween Fun

Halloween time is always lots of fun for us. We start the week before with cutting the pumpkins. They are old enough now I let them do the whole thing by themselves. Well almost all of it. I help take the gross guts out of the inside. Then they draw the face and take the amazing safety knife and cut it like they want it. Always an interesting face that is created.

Matt thinking of an amazing design for this year.

Brooke smiles with her master piece.

Britton never has liked his hands getting dirty and
this is beyond with all the slime and everything!

Bryce gives us the evil laugh as he cleans out his pumpkin.

Annual Costume Parade at the elementary schools are always fun. You get to see all the kids and the creative costumes. I usually let the kids pick two costumes - one for the parade and one for that evening at the Trunk or Treat. The school one is they want to be and the evening one is the Trio being something from a theme. This year we joined with our friend Jessica and her kids. We went with the Toy Story Theme and what fun we had. We started with school on Friday and party time. Then Saturday ran the race and then that evening went to the Trunk or Treat, then did our evening visits to many friends that want to see the Triplets all dress up. It make for a long evening and they are beat when we get home, but it is fun to show them off. Any ideas for next year and what the Trio can be, you just let me know. We start thinking a year in advance, but of course we are like everyone else and prepare the week or less before. :) Any suggestions?

Bryce as the Dinosaur from Toy Story

Britton as the Ninja for the school parade

Brooke and Bryce as Slinky and Rex

The Toy Story Gang - Brooke as Slinky Dog, Connor as Buzz, Britt as Sarge, McKendry as Jessie and Bryce as the Rex the Dinosaur. What a fun evening we had.

St. George Marathon!!

After many months, miles and sore muscles, here we are at the starting line of the St. George Marathon. It's hard to believe that 18 months ago Darin wanted nothing to do with running and now here he was getting ready to run 26.2 miles.
We joined several friends who we had trained many miles for the race and another 7400 runners at the start at Central. It was an unusually warm morning. Unlike the other mornings of the marathon there was no need for gloves or warm clothes. It would turn out to be a problem as the 60 degree start warmed quickly to a hot 94 by the end of the race.

It was a gradual problem that many of us would not realize until it had hit us and heat stroke was setting in. We saw many people walking a lot sooner than normal. We both finished, but not in the time we wanted. It was a good learning experience and I am sure we will find another race soon, even if we say hate running and never want to do it again.: )

It is always a challenging thing to do a marathon, but well worth the sense of accomplishment in the end. Good times were had by all even if one of us had to find a garbage can to visit.


Our cheerleaders on the course! Always a better race to do with friends out there to cheer you on. Thanks tons!

My Little Scouts!!

With the 8th birthday comes the start of Cub Scouts. I feel like I just got done helping Matt with his 9 years of scouting and now I am starting over. The boys are excited and remind us each week when it is time to go to their meetings. After a month we went to a Pack Meeting and I started my pin collection again. I love my little scouts, they are so cute. In September they attended the 100 year celebration of scouting. They had a great time making swords, shields and having a great time. They were reminded over and over to keep track of each other.









With the boys getting involved in scouting, Brooke is starting Achievement Days for the girls. I also have a friend who has a group of Girls Scouts, so she is doing that too. She is excited about it and we are excited because she will sell us Girl Scout cookies, who can turn those down?! : ) Fun stuff going on in our home.

Redrock Relay

The running world has lots of different races to experience. Darin and I had been asked to be on a relay team, we needed to find a few more people for the team, so we asked Matt to be on our team too. The Redrock Relay is a 186 mile relay that starts in Brian Head and goes to Zion. There are 12 people on a team and everyone runs 12 to 19 miles each. Our team started at 11:30 on Friday and started a 25 hour run from Brian Head to Zion National Park. It was a great time. We all did a great job and had lots of fun. I would have to say one of the best parts was running the race with Darin and Matt. I was able to handoff to Matt each time. That was a fun experience.

Matt hands off to Daryl at the LaVerkin church.

Logan hands off to Darin as he heads off for the longest, hottest part of the run.

We arranged for Earl and Louise to have the three little ones at the exchange between Matt and I. They stayed with us the rest of the race and saw Darin run later and then all of us at the final stretch. It was fun having them with us. Our team was 9th overall and it took us 25 hours and 50 minutes. That's one race we would like to try again.

Baptism Times Three!

With lots of family and friends there to support, we dressed up our three little ones and watched them on their Baptism day. It was a very exciting and spiritual day. There were so many people there to see the kids. Even our good friends Grandpa Clyde and Grandma Rose from Arizona came for the weekend. It was a great weekend with lots of people to spend time with us and be there for the kids.
It was definitely exciting seeing all three get baptized and then hear the blessings that they all got during their confirmations. Each one was unique and special to each of them. Afterward we had a fun gathering for all to attend and for everyone to visit for a bit. Crazy to see how time flies. Loving the moment though.