"Christmas Sunday"

I love the Sunday before Christmas. I love seeing all the cute little girls in their new festive dresses, I love the Christmas lessons, I love the music...This year, Ty, Jerrica, Bailey and I all sang in the ward choir. It was fun doing it together. Jerrica also sang a solo, "Oh, Holy Night". She's sung this several times, but each time it still gives me chills. She is amazing!

Thomas Family Christmas Party!

Every year we have our annual Thomas Family Christmas Party the Saturday before Christmas. This is the first year Ty's Grandma wasn't there-she passed away in the summer. When we got there, we noticed that Uncle Troy and the twins were wearing the same jackets! We had fun playing games like "Mother, May I" with all the kids, eating breakfast, and watching the kids talk to Santa.

Grandpa's Funeral

The Funeral Services for my sweet Grandpa Lemon took place on Thursday, December 18. It was such a nice funeral, with beautiful tributes from each of his seven children. It was nice to be with my parents, Grandma, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins, great-aunts, great-uncles. Two of my good friends came to show their support to my family and me, and it meant more to me than they'll ever know. As we were getting ready to leave that morning, Kyler said, "I'm sure going to miss the coolest guy ever-Grandpa Lemon." I agree!



My sisters and my parents. (Not the best picture since all of our eyes are red and swollen from crying!!)



My little family



My sweet Aunt Ann cuddling with Jerrica before the grave dedication.



My amazing Mom and her amazing Mom. What a legacy!



Carson fell asleep at the viewing. Guess not enough excitement going on to keep him awake!

Snow Day

Here are pictures from the first real "snow day". The boys waited all day for "the sisters" to get home from school so that they could bundle up and go play in the snow. We have a pretty cool hill in our back yard that they slide down on their tummies. Some of their friends came over later and brought sleds, which made it even more fun for them.

These hats are awesome!! Ty's brother brought them home from his mission a few years ago. He went to the Baltic states.

Happy Anniversary!

On Dec 13th, Ty and I celebrated our 12th anniversary! Even though it makes Christmas-time a little more hectic (especially with three of our children's birthdays also very close to Christmas) I am so glad that we got married at this time of year. We were married in the Salt Lake Temple, with our family and friends gathered around us. As we were the first to get married, and I'm the oldest, and Ty's the 2nd oldest, most of our siblings waited for us outside.
I remember that the day we got married, the weather was beautiful and sunny, and actually kind of warm for December. The blizzard hit about halfway through our reception, but we didn't care! We were reminiscing about previous anniversaries where I've been pregnant. Our very first anniversary I was VERY pregnant with our oldest who was born 10 days later! And then, our 7th anniversary I again was VERY pregnant with the twins who were born about two and a half weeks later. Good times!!!

To celebrate, Ty and I went to a Jazz game! We both LOVE the Jazz, and since they were playing on our anniversary-it was perfect! We bought each other an anniversary present at the FANZZ store before the game. Ty got me a cute baby-blue Kyle Korver t-shirt, and I got him a Jazz sweatshirt. How nice of us! It was a great anniversary.


This is a picture before the game with Thurl Bailey. It's fuzzy, but you can still see how tall he is! My battery in my camera died, so we didn't get any more good pictures.

Grandpa Lemon

On Friday, December 12th, I woke up and had this distinct impression that I needed to go out to my Grandma and Grandpa Lemon's house. My Grandpa has been doing really poorly for about a month, and for the last two days he had not woken up. I knew that my Mom would be there, and thought that maybe I was feeling like I should go so that I could be a support to her. My sister, Anna, and I drove out there as soon as I could get the twins off to preschool. When we got there, Mom and Grandma were back in the bedroom with Grandpa. His breathing looked shallow and labored. He quietly passed away about 15 minutes later while we were in the family room. I am so glad that I listened to that prompting which I know for a fact was the spirit directing me.

I love my Grandpa so much. He was such a great example of gentleness and kindness. Every time that I would see him, he would give me a big hug and tell me how much he loved me and how proud he was of me. I always felt special around my Grandpa. He also had a cute little sense of humor that my cousins and sisters and I were reminiscing about a little while after he died. We sat around his bed waiting for the mortuary to come and laughed about the funny things he used to say to us. I spent the day and evening with my parents, sisters, aunts, uncles and cousins. We laughed and cried a lot. I am grateful for the opportunity I had of being there when he went "home". I will miss him, and am sad at the loss, but am thankful he is no longer suffering and thankful for the atonement of Jesus Christ which makes it possible for us to see him again some day.

5th Grade Clear Creek Overnighter

I got to be one of the parent volunteers for the 5th grade field trip. I'm so glad that I got to go with Jerrica. She is such a fun girl and it was nice to see her with all of her friends. I taught the girls camp songs that I learned working at the girls camp Oakcrest several years ago. It was super tiring, but a lot of fun! Jerrica also has an amazing teacher (pictured here) who is also a lot of fun to hang out with.

Ky asleep under his bed

This is a picture of Kyler asleep under his bed. Ty or I always check on the twins before going to bed, and this is where we found him a few weeks ago! What a goof ball!

The Day After Thanksgiving...

All of the Thomas' met together at our good friends, Tom and Karen's, house for family pictures. Grandma and Grandpa gave the kids part of their Christmas present early-a new outfit to wear for pictures! They all looked so cute! While the photographer was snapping shots, Bryan announced that he and Cathy are expecting! After we did several different poses (all the family, all the grandkids, all the sisters-in-law, all the brothers, ect) the kids all got to ride Tom's shetland ponies. Jerrica and Bailey even got to ride by themselves. Bailey is a natural! She looked like she'd been doing it for years! Ky was excited to try as he waited his turn, but Kade said he was too scared. He finally said that he'd do it if I helped him. So, I led him around and tried not to show my fear of animals so he wouldn't be scared! We both did great!!

Hofheins' Thanksgiving 08

What a fun Thanksgiving we had! We started out the day running our very own 1st annual Hofheins' Thanksgiving 5K. Dad, Mom, Amy, Alicia, Audrey, Anna, Jerrica and I participated, and Jer was so excited that she beat Grampy! (Barely, I might add!) Ty played soccer with his brothers and some friends, so we both burned a few early morning calories before gorging ourselves on turkey, mashed potatoes, rolls, corn, salads, pies, and other stuff. I brought bingo and a bunch of prizes and we had a lot of fun playing that and other games together. I love being with my family, and it's fun to watch all of the kids play so well together.