Merry Christmas!

We hope everyone had a fun festive
Holiday!

Nutcracker 2009

The annual nutcracker performance. The girls did a great job as usual. This year Madison was in the Children's march and was also a soldier, Emma was the cutest Spice on stage. The dancing was fun but I think the part the girls liked the best was playing Little Sally Walker in the dance room while they were waiting for their turn to dance. It was lots of practices and a few late night performances but it is a fun holiday tradition that will last for a few more years. I had to add this picture of C.J. he sat and watched Wall-E on Tom's Ipod during most of the performance, but at least he was entertained.

Christmas Tree Lane

The girls danced at Christmas Tree Lane last week. Sorry there isn't a picture of Emma, she made me stand on the side of the stage during her dance, and Tom was video taping then after she was finished she would not allow her picture to be taken. Once Emma was on stage she did an awesome job dancing, I am not sure what was going on. Anyways, Madison did a great job dancing, they are both so much fun to watch. Now we will prepare for the Nutcraker.

All Aboard

The night before Thanksgiving we went to Heber City and rode on the Polar Express. It was such a fun and magical time for the kids. We ate cookies mande by Mrs. Clause and drank hot chocolate. There were elves on the train that asked the kids what they wanted for Christmas and got to know the kids really well. When we finally made it to the North Pole guess who came on the train for a vist... it was Santa. He came to every seat and talke to each of the kids. We had a great time.

Ho Ho Ho

i can't believe that it is this time of year again, this was actually the saturday before Thanksgiving. The kids were excited to see santa at Hallmark, I was excited to have them tell Santa what they wanted, so there would't be any mofre mind changing. It was an extra suprise to see Mrs. Clause as well...welcome to the most wonderful time of the year!

Happy Birthday C.J.

I know I say this about everything, but I just cannot believe that he is 4 years old, time flies by way to fast. He had a fun birthdy we spent the weekend in Park City where it was freezing,but that didn't keep my kids from going swimming in an outdoor pool. I thought they were all crazy and Tom was a good sport for getting in the pool with them, and good thing there was a hot tub.

For dinner we went to a Mexican Restruant and they brought out an icecream sudae for C.J. along with a sombriero (sp) for him to wear, you can see by the look on his face that he was not happy, but I think the ice cream made up for it.
Happy Birthday baby, we love you!

Called To Serve

It takes great Faith for a young man or woman to leave their home and their family to spent time in the service of our Heavenly Father

It takes even more Faith for a grandma and grandpa to leave their
15 grandchildren +
5 sons
2 daughters
2 sons-in-law
4 daughters-in-law
brothers
sisters
mother
and numerous friends
to spend 18 months in the service of their Heavenly Father in a third-world country.

My parents got their mission call today... they have been called to serve in the

Cambodia Phnom Penh Mission

for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

Why are they doing this... because they love their children and grandchildren so much and they know that their family will be blessed for their service.

I am so humbled by the spirit that they convey and their willingness to serve not only their Heavenly Father, but me and my family.

Mom and Dad, thank you so much We love you and are so excited to embark on this mission with you!

Halloween Week

I haved decided that Halloween is one of those holidays that can last a week. There was something halloweenish going on every day this past week, but it was a lot of fun. Here is a snapshot of what we did. On Thrusday It was Tom's birthday. We also had a ward party that evening and eveyone there sang to Tom and he didn't even blush to much, he was such a good sport about it. Happy Birthday Tom we love you so much!


On Tuesday Emma had crazy hair day at school for red ribbon week. This is the hair do she choose. It is sprayed orange and sparkly. I just love her face in the first picture it fits the hair perfectly.


Happy Halloween. This was actually Halloween evening right before trik-or-treating. With Halloween on Saturday the kids had to wait all day to out but they came home with plenty of loot. Madison told me hers was going to last until next Halloween...we shall see.


I was able to help at all of the kids school parties. At Emmas party we play don't eat pete. bingo. read a story. and had cookies. It was kind of crazy with all of those kindergarteners in costume, but it was a good time. In Madison's class we made a special witches brew and also played game and made crafts and had treats. It is so fun to go and be a part of the kids classes just for a little while.

These pictures are from C.J.'s class parade. He is such a cheese ball when you pull out the camera. He had a great time and was tellimg everyone that he was a nice skeleton-pirate (the only way we could get him to wear the costume was to tell him that it was a nice costume, but my the end of the week he was trying to scare everyone by saying argh and holding up his finger like a hook) such a funny boy. It was a fun week... bring on the next holiday.

October Tradition

The next few months are full of tradition for our family. Here are just a few of the things that we have done this month so far. Last night for FHE we carved our pumpkins as you can see from the pictures C.J. liked his as more of a jig saw puzzle than anything. Emma loved eating the inside of her pumpkin while Madison just tolorated it and C.J. wouldn't even touch the squishy stuff.



Emma has learned to ride her bike without training wheels and is very proud of herself. We knew that she could do it for a long time, you know when they can ride their bike and the training wheels don't even touch the ground, she just needed to find the confidence in herself. Now she is awesome at it. Now she has decided that she would like a bigger bike for Christmas specifically a Horse bike....Santa might need some hlep with that one.

Last saturday the kids had theri annual leaf party at grandma and grandpa Thalmans house. It was the perfect day for it and the leaf pile was huge. Grandpa also got the motorcycle and four-wheeler out so the kids could go around and around in the backyard it was a fun time.

Our family also took a trip to the pumpkin patch all of us found pumpkins that were "simply perfect" as Emma would say. We rode on the tractor and also the train. It was a fun time for all of us. Now if we can just survive this next week of Halloween parties, parades, recitals, and Toms Birthday we will be doing great! Happy Fall

Fun Fall Pictures

So the kids are out of school for fall break for the next two days so I decided that I wanted to take some pictues of them, they were less than excited about it, but with the bribe of a trip to the dollar store they put on their smiles and we were off. It was only about 50 degrees out but they toughed it out and the results are worth it!

Gooseberry and It's a hard Knock life

Well, we sruvived Goosebery. Madison and I spent two days in Goosebery learning about wildlife, preventing forest fires, and learning how to use a compass, well Madsion learned, I have never been able to figure those out. Tom came up for dinner on Thursday night and then Annie Bangs made her appearance, after a few tears and a long night in a cabin we made it home. We had a great time. It was one of those full circle moments for meI went to Gossebery as a 3rd grader, and now my daughter has been. good times!



Madison danced at a JV football game with her summer dance group. The dance was so much fun and the girls just love performing it. They danced to a Hard Knock Life from Annie. All of the girls were dressed like orphans and they did an awesome job.
The top pictures is of Madison and three of her cousins that were in her dance class. These four girls always have so much fun together no matter what they are doing.

Back to school

Madison started 3rd grade last wednsday. She has been having a great time. When my mom asked her if she had a friend in her class she said "No, I have lots of them". She was so exctied to go back to school and has been constantly talking about going to Gooseberry next month and has been singing songs about Annie Bangs. What a fun time for her, but am I really that I can remember in detail my experience at Gooseberry.




Emma was so excited to start on Monday! She met some new friends and even rode the bus home (I went to pick her up from school and she started to cry becasue she wanted to ride the bus home) She has ridden the bus to and from school every day since. In her class there are only 7or8 girs and the rest of the 24 are boys...good luck to her teacher.






C.J. went to his first day of pre-school today. He was a little unsure if he wanted to stay when I droped him off, and I have to say the I wasn't sure if I could leave him, but he had a great day and can't wait to go back tomorrow.

After taking C.J. to pre-school I had 2 hours and 15 minutes to myself it felt really wierd, I didn't know what to do, so I shed a few tears and started cleaning, I am not sure if I am going to like this. The house seemed so quiet, but I am sure I will get used to it. I sure was glad to go and pick him up.

August so far..

So far August has been pretty busy, and I know that it will get even more crazy with school starting this Wednsday. We are trying to squeze every drop of fun out of our summer. This past weekend we were able to go to a Conder family reunion (Toms moms family). We went and stayed at a girls camp in Heber City that is owned by the church. It was such a neat place to vist. I am always blown away to see how many different properties the church owns. Each family had their own cabin to stay in. The one drawback was that none of the bunkbeds had pads on them so we spent the night sleeping on a sheet of plywood, so Tom and I didn't sleep at all, but it surly didn't bother the kids. There was a lake at the camp so we got to go out in a canoe and paddle aroud it the kids loved it and the canoe was pretty steady. There was a sand box on the beach that the kids loved to play in. On saturday we were suppose to do a challenge couse but due to the rain we spent the day playing bingo with m&ms. We also played the newleywed game and I am proud to say that we tied for 1st place! If we had only know the color of eachothers toothburshes we would have had it. It was a good time, and Madison found a friend in Toms cousin Amy. When she found out that Amy was Toms cousin not hers we as shocked. It was great to see people that we only see every few years.


We went to the county fair! It was fun to see all of the animals. There was even a bear show with huge black bears. The kids got the pet some of the animals and watch some noisy pigs fight. They also got to learn how to be a farmer by picking apples, gathering eggs, and digging up potatoes. There were also animals there from the local animal shelter and the kids were sure that we needed a new puppy, I was able to talk them out of it, but just barely.



Madison got her ears pierced! She has been begging for about a year and we decided that when she turned 8 she could get them done, so she has been 8 for a few months and she talked us into it. She choose emerald earings because they are her birthstone. She didn't even wince she was very brave and it very good at taking care of her ears. I am still in shock that she is 8!

Thalman Clan 2009

Thalman Family Reunion 2009
The whole gang

Dad, Mom and Garrison

Jared and Janna's Family (Jared and Janna were not able to come, but it was fun to have their kids) Jaxon, Josie, Josh, Jake, and Jainie

Trent and Debbie and their girls Audrey, Lauryn, Tricia, and Julia

Judd and Katie with their Kids Caleb and Adelynn

The Bogh Family

My brother Trevor and his wife Alyssa

My sis Leslie and her husband Brett and Ethan

My Parent with most of their 15 grandchildren (some of them were done with pics at this point)

We spent time playing rounds of Mancala

Roasting Marshmallows on the deck

Lots of dancing with music blasting by Taylor Swift

Spending time on the boat (this was the only pic of Tom and I)

Super glueing Josh's wound closed

The girls making up a dance to a Taylor Swift song, I know that you all know the words since were heard it 579 times ..."she wears short skirt I were t-shirts" I dare you not so sing those word in you head

And some much needed rest...ZZZZ

4-Wheeler rides (I had Josie and Audrey with me and when we took as short-cut Josie was so excited and Audrey asked if we were aloud to do that)

We had a great time in Fishlake...
excellent food
great one liners "eww this lake stinks I can smell the trash fish" and "that wasn't a chipmunk it was a fairy-dog"
very little sleep
great company!

This is what summer is all about!!