Emma's Birthday

With Emma turning 7 years old this year... she wanted to go to the movies! Beauty & The Beast was playing and she invited seven of her friends. Before the 11:50am showing of the Beast, we decided to take the girls to I-Hop. The brothers all obliged to go with us to I-Hop but DID NOT WANT TO HAVE ANYTHING TO DO with the movie. (After breakfast we dropped them back home.)

As we entered the theatre, the first comment made was, "My, that popcorn smells delicious!" You can see where this was going so quickly. Of course nearly all the girls commented the same. My thought was, "We just fed you over $100 worth of pancakes, bacon and hot chocolate... How Can You Be Hungry?!?!" But my response was, "You had better talk to Emma's Dad. You will not get very far with me!" :)

Let's just say that for the next 90 minutes (during the movie) they had Glenn hoppin' up and down the theatre stairs. (We were sitting at the top.) Glenn purchased the Xtra Xtra large bag of popcorn that had refills. He got himself eight bags and divided it up, then delivered.

Of course there is always a few who don't care for popcorn and wanted Sour Patch Kids. Glenn obliged and off he went back to the management and struck a deal for a pound of Sour Patch Kids. He once again got himself some bags and divided it all up in to eight bags. Delivery was scheduled and done.

Next there was - I'm sooooooooo thirsty. Of course I just leaned over and said, "Wait! The movie is almost over." But within minutes Glenn was back with eight courtesy cups of water. (I should have taken a picture of Waiter Glenn.) The Attendant who was at our movie door commented to Glenn, "Man, they have you hoppin' in there!" They sure did!

It is true what they say - Little Girls Have Daddy Wrapped Around Their Finger!

She's a great little gal! We love you Emma Lee!

Under The Homefront

For the past 2 weeks we have had a Foundation Company at our home. They will be lifting our home that is slowly falling in to the earth and is terribly crooked, but not yet cracked!

So, each day they have been tunneling under our home and removing the dirt, getting ready for the BIG lift that will happen in a few weeks. (The house will be raised about 12 inches in the front and about 4 inches in the rear.) As they remove the dirt, a pump has been put in place to drain any rain/water that enters. The steel piers are being placed throughout the foundation, in a grid-like pattern. The piers look like Hostess Ho Ho's... about 2 feet long. They are placed under the home (all 53) and when they get ready to lift, they will be pushed down and stacked on top of each other - about 35 feet (til they hit bedrock - or something stable). Once all the piers are in place, lifting the house, they will fill the Ho Ho's with concrete and cable.

They are now placing piers on the outside perimiters of the house. Each 3 feet they dig a hole down to get under the foundation to place a pier. Needless to say, all the tulip and daffodil bulbs that I planted last Fall will probably end up growing... growing... who knows where! We currently have bushes and trees that have been removed (and placed elsewhere) until all the piers are in place around the home...

It's quite the project and we will be much happier when it is behind us.

And yes, the curiosity has "killed all the Thomas Cats" and Zach and a bunch of friends wanted to go down and see what this was all about... so we let them. Glenn went down too and was amazed at the job that has been going on Down Under.

Merry Christmas!

Glenn didn't want much for Christmas this year... there were only a few requests...

Turkey Trot Frisco Style

The Thomas Family has this tradition from their Mesa Days Of Yor - unless you have a good excuse, all Thomas' should be on the starting line at 9am Thanksgiving morning to run the Mesa 10K Turkey Trot! While we won't make it for Thanksgiving Dinner, we will be heading to Mesa for The Thomas Family Reunion this summer.

I did not sleep-in, I did my 8-miler with one of my best running buddies at 6am. We were home by 7:30 and I took Glenn, Ben and Nick to downtown Frisco to join in on Frisco's Inaugural Turkey Trot 5K run. (I know, I know - it's not the traditional 10K like in Mesa, but we did our best.) The times were as follows - Ben with a 22:41 and Nick with a 22:54. (Glenn stuck with Nick.)

If for some reason we are in Frisco again for Thanksgiving 2012 Glenn has hopes to WIN this race! Go Go Glenn!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Emma's Front Tooth

Emma lost her front tooth last week. She will be able to sing, "All I want for Christmas is my little front tooth." She may lose the other one before the 25th... wait and see!

Camping Camping Camping

The month of June 2011 was SCOUT CAMP SCOUT CAMP SCOUT CAMP CUB CAMP CUB CAMP too. With a home full of boys - we definitely got our fill of camp! PLUS we threw in a few extra boys! (Emma and I did survive!)

Logan and Mason (April & Brent's sons) came for a visit. They came during our camp month and Logan was able to participate in the week-long camp with Glenn, Ben and Zach.

They did anything from horseback riding (where we found out Ben is allergic to horses), archery, guns, canoe, 1st aid (came in handy for the horseback riding incident), astronomy, etc etc. They also ate well too.

 Logan is on the left - not sure what's going on?

 Logan during instructional time.

 Zach examining a fish!

Ben, BEFORE, he realized he was allergic to horses!

While the older boys were at camp, the rest of us just hang out at home and went swimming and played video games... I am still looking for these pictures! Hhhmmm...

A week later, Nick went to Webelos Camp.

And a week later, Chris went to Cub Camp.

It was a very very productive month of June in our home. Emma and I just packed and re-packed the campers as they came and went... And actually, the "campers" pretty much did everything on their own! Thanks Guys!

A Wedding This Summer

In July (this past summer), one of Glenn's many cousins was getting married in St. Louis. Stu Thomas was at medical school and met a wonderful gal named Barb (who is from the Midwest). They decided to get married in the St. Louis Missouri temple.

At the time, Clark and Melanie (Glenn's sister and husband) were living near St. Louis, so we thought we'd make the roadtrip. It was about 10-hours and Melanie was right on the way. (Clark had to work so we picked-up Mel and away we went.)

Since we are a family of seven we need to rent two hotel rooms whenever we go out. (We can't sneak any one in anymore; they are getting WAY TO BIG!) So, it was easy to throw Mel in to the mix - she was a GOOD SPORT - hanging out with all of us in a hotel room for three days and two nights. We were grateful that the hotel had a pool and weightroom... and most of the time we were at wedding festivities.

(Cousin Karren and Zach, Nick and Ben)

After the festivities were over we decided to take a quick roadtrip to Nauvoo Illinois. It is only about 3-hours off the path. In Nauvoo Illinois there is much church history. We had an excellent time learning about the pioneers in the 1830s... all the many trials they went through.

Here's a photo of us all walking down the street that led the pioneers to the river, where they crossed and left Nauvoo on their journey West.

(Ben, Aunt Mel, Zach, Chris, Nick, Emma Lee and Cindy)