Drolette & Angelina: Our New Fish

Yesterday Berkeley's and Carlie's grandpa (Corey's dad - David) came and spent the day with them.  We went to lunch at Nipp's and he spoiled them with toys and gadgets and played with them all day.  BUT, the best part was he took them to buy their first fish and set it up with them.  My kids are SOOOOO excited.  They both got a female betta.  Carlie named her fish Angelina after Angelina the Ballerina.  Berkeley named his fish Drolette after his primary teacher Sister Drolette (how cute).  I took pictures of them with their grandpa and their fish yesterday.  I went to download the pics today on to my computer and realized that I am a super airhead.  I didn't have a memory card in my camera.  Not sure how I took 10 pictures

yesterday and didn't notice, but oh well.  I had the kids pose again this afternoon,

but the pictures are not as great without their grandpa.

Love My Laminator

I am the primary chorister in my ward (song leader for kids ages 3-11).  I LOVE it, but it is SOOOOO much work, OR at least the way I insist I on doing it.  I bought myself a laminator at Costco for 20 bucks a month ago and OH MY I use it A LOT!!!!  It is so easy to use and makes my primary singing time visual aides much more durable.  What did I ever do before I had a laminator???  I love my Purple Cow laminator!!!!!!!

Here are some of my visuals I was making last night to teach the kids the song, Stand for the Right. 

It was a really fun song to teach. 

I Miss My Family....Feeling Nostalgic

I was scanning Carlie's basketball pictures and had my scanner out. It is an HUGE, ancient one that I do not use very often and it a pain in the rear end to get out. I was looking around the room and saw this picture of my family below sitting on my bookcase. I have been thinking about my mom, dad, my sister Michelle, and my brothers Lance and Scott A LOT lately. I am REALLY missing them and wish we lived closer and wishing desperately that my dad was still with us. Now some people will think this is weird (but I do NOT care), but my favorite TV show is Parenthood and EVERY TIME I watch it I think, "Man, I wish my family lived right next to each other like that.  It would be AMAZING!" Also whenever they have any dancing scene where the family dances all crazy around to some retro song....and I cry. My brothers and sisters and I all love dancing around silly like them. I have also started that tradition in my little family. My kids are amazing at dancing crazy like their mom and dad and their aunts and uncles. I LOVED when my parents would show off their dancing skills when we were kids. They really could shake it!! Soooooooo the point of my rambling is I scanned a few of my favorite family pics and decided to share them with the cyber-world to show my love for my super AMAZING family.

This picture was taken the day before Corey and I got married - September 1996

This is from the "Thomas Round-Up" family reunion.  I think it was in the summer of 1994.  It was with my mom side of the family in Flagstaff, AZ.  As you can see my brother was on his mission 

in Argentina so we represented him with a paper version.

This was after Corey and I got married and we were about to leave to go on our honeymoon and move to Oregon.  This is my FAVORITE pic of me with my siblings.  

We were really good at being silly and having fun.

My parents went on a 2nd honeymoon to Greece when I was only one year old.  This is a pic of them on this trip.  This is my FAVORITE pic of my parents.  They look so hip and happy.  Apparently, I was really mad at my mom when she returned that I didn't speak to her for a week.....silly little girl.

This was pretty fun to share some old pics.  I need to do this again soon!!