We have had a great summer so far. The highlight has been spending time with our family. In May Jen's sister Cassie graduated from Law School at Loyola in Los Angeles. Jen was able to spend an entire week with her. Jen's mom, dad and brother Zach drove to L.A. from Texas and the Kratz family drove from Utah. Jason's family also came for graduation, so we were able to expand our circle of friends. Jason has an amazing family that is as wonderful as he is. It was the trip of a lifetime and Jen will never forget the amazing time spent with her little sis.

In early June, Jen flew to Salt Lake and drove back to Texas with her big sister Stac and Stac's kids Emma, Grace, Kate and Max. It was a long but very fun trip and Jen loved having 24 entire hours to visit with Stac. The Kratzes (minus Gregster) spent 3 weeks in Texas and our kids loved having cousins around to play with. They spent almost every day in their Grandparent's pool, went to the beach and had several sleepovers. It was a very sad time when cousins drove back to Utah. We miss them every day, but look forward to seeing them again at our family reunion in August.

We spent the 4th of July in Mississippi at Maw Maw and Paw Paw Thomas' house. Cousin Lizzie was there also and we had so fun with all of them. We played on the slip and slide. DeDee used her girls' camp training and made a wonderful fire pit and fire and we roasted marshmallows, made smores and shot off fireworks. The trip was way too short, but we had a wonderful time.

Hannah is staying busy with orchestra practices, as she is getting ready for her trip to Chicago, Illinois in December for the Midwest Clinic with the Dulles Middle School syphony orchestra. She also has a new violin teacher that she loves. She is taking voice, theory and piano also this summer, so music is kind of dominating her life right now. She still finds time to talk to friends for hours on the phone and chat on the computer!

DeDee is a Dulles Middle School cheerleader and is looking forward to learning cheers and cheering at games in the fall. She loved having Emma around for almost a month and has spent time with friends from school also. She is taking piano and theory this summer also and rides her rip stick until she gets too hot. She is amazing on her rip stick!

Faith is becoming quite the gymnast. She loves doing tricks and practices all the time. She is working hard on her reading and is currently being read "The Underneath" and loves the book. She has become quite the swimmer also and is like a little fish in the water.

Jeb enjoyed having Max around so he could hang with another boy. They played cars, with balls and hung out in Jeb's room. Jeb loves riding his bike and spending time in the pool. He likes to run and do cannon balls in the water. He is looking forward to t-ball and football when it finally cools off!

Bella has become passionate about princesses. She loves them and Dora and says she also is a princess. She loves nursery and church and can't wait to go to pre-school in the fall. She is the comic of the family and none of us can stay mad at her long. She just flashes us a smile and our hearts melt.

Brad is staying busy at work and with his church calling. He is also playing on a softball team and loves it. He is looking forward to our trip to Utah so he can be somewhere where it is cooler.

That is about it for the Thomas Family for now...

The Thomas Family...The past four months

We are so far overdue on updating our blog. We had a wonderful Christmas and New Years, spending time with our family and friends. The highlight was having Cassie and Jason with us for two weeks. We started the new year running from place to place, and enjoying a variety of activities.



Hannah continues to be busy with violin, Destination Imagination, Young Womens and anything relating to Wolverine. She just celebrated her 13th birthday on Friday March 13th. She invited 13 friends and had a sleep over birthday party. She had black balloons, decorations and they played "toilet paper dead prom queen" took a personality quiz that told them if they were like Samara from "The Ring", Erik Lensherr (Magneto) from "X-Men", Jason Vorhees from "Friday the 13th", or Cruella De Vil from 101 Dalmations. They also watched scary movies. She has the most amazing friends and she loved her party. She is preparing for the middle school talent show, where she and Dee and her friend Kelsie are singing "Leader of the Pack". She is also preparing for the ribbon festival for violin and the UIL competition for orchestra.



DeDee is busy with piano, girls camp fundraisers, kickstart competitions and her friends. She has had birthday parties and sleep overs and is also getting ready for the talent show and a kickstart competition. She won 1st place in Team Kata and will be competing in the city wide tournament in April. She just was selected as one of six students at the middle school to send their Doodle for Google art projects to Google for a competition. She has been taking art this year in school and loves it.



Faith celebrated her 6th birthday in February. She is taking gymnastics and she loves it. She practices everyday at home and can now do a kickover, back hand spring and is working on walking on her hands. It is her passion and she enjoys it very much. She also loves the music from Grease and can sing all of the songs by heart. She is doing great in kindergarten and is doing very well with reading and writing words and stories. She also loves art and draws beautiful pictures.



Jeb started t-ball in February and he loves it. He can hit the ball great and is figuring out that you must run after you hit it, not just watch it. He luckily hits it so far that he can still make it to first base before the other team gets the ball there! He also catches well and is learning how to get the ball to the bases. After a few weeks of practice he asked his dad when he would be able to tackle the other players! :) We are looking for a football league for him to join in the fall! He is also learning to write his name and is able to pick a toy out of the treasure box at school every Friday because of good behavior.



Bella is learning so many new words and her recent favorite is actually. She loves to play rough with Jeb, do "nastics" (gymanstics) with Faith and she loves going to the park and playing outside. We recently went to the Houston Stock Show and Rodeo and carnival and she wanted to go on every ride. She loved the bumper cars and laughed so hard everytime we smashed into another car. She loves her family and especially loves spending time with Mom and Ba. She askes to go to their house 20 times a day. She is also a Daddy's girl and misses him so much when he is at work and on business trips.



Brad has been traveling a lot for work. He also keeps busy with our family activities and is helping to coach Jeb's t-ball. We recently spent 5 days in New Orleans for our 7 year anniversary during one of his business trips. We enjoyed the time together so much and since it is our first trip away without the kids since our honeymoon it was extra special. We plan on doing it again within the next 7 years! :)



Jen is keeping busy with work and the Primary at church. The TABC clinic is in San Antonio in May, so work is gearing up and getting really busy. We are so thankful for all the blessings of our family and friends. We will post a photo album soon so you can SEE what we have been up to the past few months.