CONGRATULATIONS CHRYSTA

Chrysta, Kyler, Ashlyn, Hannah and Kate

After lots of hard work, Chrysta graduated with a Bachelor of Science-Nursing from Sac State! She'll take her RN test after the 1st of the year to become a Registered Nurse! Good Job Chrysta!!!!

YES!

I just have to say how wonderful it is in my house right now! Chloe is at school and Caleb is ASLEEP!! He hasn't taken a nap in so long and it's not because he didn't need it. It's been so cold and snow everywhere lately that they haven't played outside near as much and they're starting to go crazy in the house! I can finally get things done....like cleaning and maybe even Christmas cards. K, probably not both! The bad thing is that CHloe gets out of school at 2:30 (in an hour and 15) so I'm going to have to wake hime up! I'll enjoy it while it lasts!!

Busy Sunday

Sunday was a busy day for us. First, Jeff had to go meet with the Bishop for a new calling. He was called to be the Young Men's Secretary. That will be good for him, he's never been in Young Men's before, except for working with them as a Bishopric member. I got called to be Laurel advisor (teaching 16-18 year old girls on Sunday) and I'm really excited about it. There are a really good group of girls, I think there are 19 total! Jeff said that Young Women's is my life long calling, which it kind of seems like. But I love it!
Then we all got to speak in Sacrament Meeting. Chloe wrote her own talk all by herself (she told me word for word what to type), then gave it in Sacrament Meeting all by herself. She did an awesome job. Jeff and I spoke about Christmas! It went really well. We've both given so many talks lately that I don't really mind it, I actually kind of like it.....is that weird? Caleb could have given a talk, but he decuded not to...we'll give him a year or two. But he did sit up on the stand with us and gave his own different kind of talk. When the sacrament was being passed, Chloe took the cup of water next to mine (Caleb always takes the one right next to the one I took), so he got upset and wouldn't take one. We waited a little bit, but he refused, so we gave it back to the boy passing it and Caleb got so mad and cried really loud saying, "That wasn't very nice Mommy. That wasn't very nice for you to give it back!" while we were sitting up on the stand, so Jeff took him out. When the Bishopric member that was conducting stood up he said, "We've had the opportunity to hear from Caleb, and now we'll get to hear from Chloe...." Kind of embarrassing that he did that, especially since he was telling me how not nice I was, but I guess it was funny too.
We went to a stake Christmas sing a long program that was really good. I love Christmas music!

A whole year!

It's been a year today since we moved to Utah! I can't believe how fast that went by. A couple people told me that it takes a good year to year and a half before they loved it here...I'm still waiting to really love it! :) I like it, but it'd probably be better to ask me on a day where there isn't still snow everywhere and the forecast for Thursday-Tuesday is not SNOW!!! The snow is very pretty though. I love looking out in the morning when it has snowed all night and seeing the perfectly smooth snow on the ground and on the branches of trees...BUT I am still not a fan of the freezing cold temperatures. Highs in the 30's is WAY too cold! (That's just how cold it's been so far, last year there were a couple days where the highs were single digits....brrrr!) We are really liking our new ward. We have gotten involved pretty quickly...we're speaking this Sunday, I got a calling last Sunday and Jeff will get one this coming week. We're excited to really feel part of the ward and getting to know everyone. We love our new house and have great neighbors. It's fun for the kids to have kids next door to play with all the time. They love it. Jeff is loving his job at XanGo. It's a great, fun environment and he finally has a guy for a boss....way less emotional! He has gained a lot of great experience professionally working here. It is still really weird for me that this baby will be born in Utah (I'm already 6 months along..wow). I never thought that would happen. Kind of cool that we'll have her at the same hospital that Jeff was born at...I just always thought all of my kids would be "from" California...like me! I still miss California and everyone there as much as in the beginning. But I know that this decision was right for us and I've learned a lot since being here.

A fun busy day

Chloe being silly

We started off the day with a visit to Santa at the mall!!

Then the kids took a ride on the train at the mall. It goes around where Santa sits!

Then we got our Christmas tree. It was totally snowing and freezing. Chloe was fine, but Caleb is kind of a wimp in the cold weather...needless to say, it wasn't quite the experience we had at Apple Hill. It was more like, "That one looks good, tell them we want it...I'm taking the kids to the car!"

Jeff bringing the tree in. I love it...our whole house smells like a Christmas Tree!

And mom, we got a Noble Fir...HA!!!

Then Jeff went out and shoveled the snow off the driveway and walkways. It snowed a ton....like 6 inches or so. Our street is still completely ice packed. We live on a small street that nobody realy goes on unless they live there, so basically it probably won't get plowed very often. I found myself asking Jeff more than once yesterday and today, "Are you sure we want to live in Utah?"

The kids got their jammies on and we turned the fire on and warmed up. Then of course, the BYU v. San Diego game....and they won again! Then the ward Christmas party. We really didn't feel like going, but I had signed up to bring treats, so I just took Chloe. And that was our day!!

GO COUGARS!!!

It was almost really not worth flying home early from Thanksgiving in California to make it to the game, but fortunately in the end BYU won!! It was so exciting to be there and see Austin Colley catch that pass with 4th and 18...he must be so good because he's from El Dorado Hills! And when Unga scored (see above picture)...it was great (and he's only a Freshman)!! I'm really thankful because our house is MUCH happier with them winning! There were so many Utah fans there and it stunk when we were down and they were all cheering, so it was just great when we came back! Anyway....Go Cougars!

Christmas trees at Apple Hill!

Every year we go cut our own Christmas trees the day after Thanksgiving. And even though we weren't able to cut down our own tree this year, we still didn't want to miss the tradition. We have so much fun! We went up to Apple Hill this year to cut them. We loved being in California for Thankgiving...next year we'll be able to stay longer since we won't have to get back for the BYU game! (they won by the way...go Cougars!)

Ashlyn, Kyler, Chloe and Kali riding on Rudolph
Caleb and Avery playing in the dirt!
Mom and Grandma

Allyson, Mom, Grandma, Me, Lindsey, Avery and Chloe
Jeff and Me at Leatherby's after getting the trees (another Thomas family tradition!)

TURKEY BOWL!!

Jeff and Scott
All the boys from my family (well, most of them!!)

Tim, Jeff, Josh Jeff, Dad, Caleb and Kyler

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Happy 26th Birhday!! We love you Uncle Jeff!!!!

Jeff's trip to Chicago

Jeff had to take a business trip to Chicago for a couple days this week.....

L to R....Jeff's boss, Bob, his niece Amy and Jeff.

Bob's niece is the weather person for the fox news station in Chicago, so they went and hung out in the studio!
Jeff doing the weather report!
Jeff in front of Wrigley field

Jeff and Bob with their PR Firm at Harry Caray's Restaurant

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Our little pirate girl and pirate boy!

Chloe in her school Halloween Parade!

Chloe's class

Me and the kids with our pumpkins in front of our house.
Jeff in part of his work costume...you should have seen the dreads! (Tie-dyed shirt made by me!)

The kids getting candy from Grandpa

Family Halloween Picture!

Wear RED day!!

Here is Chloe on Wear Red Day!! And she won the most red constest in her class and got a pencil....she was so excited! She had 12 red things on including a red shirt, red shorts, red tights, red bows tied on her shoes, red fingernails, red bow in her pony tail, red bandana, red gloves, red heart painted on her cheek, red earrings painted on her ears, a red necklace made out of a red ribbon tied onto a red heart cookie cutter (how creative is that?), Caleb's red fireman jacket from his halloween cosutme last year, and of course a red pedometer hooked on her shorts! Yeah Chloe!!!

Wear Yellow day

It's Red Ribbon Week, and today was wear yellow day (I know it looks a little more like dress yourself day!) Chloe was so excited and tried to be the one wearing the most yellow to win a "Say No To Drugs" pencil at school. Unfortunately, there was another girl with yellow fingernails that won, so we're going all out again tomorrow for Wear Red Day! Hopefully she can win the pencil then...she really wants to!! Her tights have yellow stripes, by the way! You can't really tell in the picture.

The funniest part is that after we took the second picture she said, "I looked like I was hugging my boyfriend in that picture, huh? My Hawaiian boyfriend!"....silly girl. She also went around saying she looked like Sharpei from High School Musical 2 singing, "I'm fabulous" (those of you who have seen it will know the song!)

Hee Haw Farms!

Thanks to Chloe for being such a super reader for September and October, we got 2 kid tickets for Hee Haw farms to get pumpkins and go through the corn maze.

We had lots of fun, especially Chloe!

Of course I picked the cow one...hahaha!
Chloe and Caleb with their pumpkin!

In the corn maze!
Chloe's silly face is because she was yelling "PRINCESSES!!!"


Chloe going down the slide....love this action shot!!

Crazy BYU game......or maybe crazy us for staying!

Yeah...this is what we watched the BYU game in yesterday. It was 70 degrees and sunny on Friday, but of course a storm had to come in on Saturday....a really cold storm. It snowed lightly the first quarter, then it kind of cleared out during the second quarter and half time. Then in the third quarter it started really snowing. I kept thinking it was going to get better and when it did, I would take the kids to the car to watch a movie because we were all SO cold, but it just kept getting worse. They were sweeping off the end zone lines so that if they scored, you could actually see that they crossed the line...we could hardly see the other side of the stadium because it was snowing so hard. There was an inch or so of snow accumulated on the benches of the smart people who left early. We were seriously FREEZING. But as you know, we NEVER leave early, no matter what. We'll just have to wear more layers next time. It finally stopped snowing when we were walking to the car, shivering and wet.

It's a GIRL!!!!

We had our ultrasound this morning. It went really well and the ultrasound tech was really cool. It's been so long since we have done this and it was really exciting!! The due date is still March 8th...hopefully I'll continue the having the baby a few days early trend though! (chloe was 8 days early and caleb was 4 days early!)

Watch the video of me telling the kids that we're having a Girl! Caleb's reaction is pretty funny!

The Chandler Family

Here's Jeff's whole family in Denver (with Grandpa Morris)!

Our trip to the NORTH POLE!!

We went to the North Pole...really! We took a trip out to Denver because Jeff's sister, Melanie's daughter was getting baptized and son was getting blessed (thanks for doing them together Mel!!) About 45 minutes from there house is North Pole, Colorado. They have a little amusement park there where they play Christmas music, you can visit Santa, and lots of Christmas themed rides, etc. The kids loved it. The city is actually called North Pole and they have a post office where you can send things and have them post marked from North Pole. I thought it was pretty cool.

Me and the kids in from of Santa's house

Chloe and some of her cousins....Kim, Ben and Liz!

Grandparent's Day

At Chloe's school they had Grandparent's day. My mom and Jeff's mom went with her. They went in the classroom for a while, then did a program where they sang songs and then they ate lunch together. I wish I could have been there to see the program. Chloe sang the songs for me and they were really cute! Here are some pics my mom took!