Thomas Family Update January 2019

Family and Personal Updates…….

Mom/Grandma Thomas:

Favorite color- orange

Favorite thing to do- go for a ride

Advice and Counsel for her children and grandchildren- 

Keep on keepin’ on.  

Search for the good in the world and you will find it. 

Kenny and Laurie Parker:

Laurie and Kenny are still serving a part-time mission in the Salt Lake City South Mission until June 30th, having extended one last time (which will make 4 ½ years.)  They love what they do, working with and helping train Senior Missionary Couples. Kenny helped put together the training manual for the couples, and is now working on a revision.

Kenny is in real estate, and has a website called www.pickmybuilder.com.  Laurie has now been working at home part time at JetBlue for 14 ½ years. They love to travel whenever they can! They love being with their family, including their 27 awesome grand kids.

Brad and Tess Parker:

The Tess and Brad Parker family is still loving the SF Bay Area after over a dozen years. They bought a home in Pleasanton, CA in 2014 and are now working on some remodeling. Brad works as the Director of Transfer Pricing (within finance, international tax) for Intel Corporation.

Tess is the Prime Minister of Domestic Affairs for the Parker household and recently started working part time as a health clerk for the school district.

Laney (11) is super excited to be in the Young Women's organization at church. She does cross country, piano, violin, and lots of homework now that she's in middle school! Cali (10) and Eli (almost 7) are in the Spanish immersion program at school and both coming along on the piano as well. Cali is a great artist and is putting her height to good use by playing club volleyball, while Eli enjoys playing basketball for coach dad, watching Warriors games and dreaming of being on American Ninja Warrior. 

Paul and Val Young:

Tyson is turning 12 in a few weeks, so we've enjoyed seeing him pass the sacrament for the first few times. We checked him out of school early on Friday to take him to the Jordan River temple for the first time (and avoid the 2-4 hour waits we've heard about). It was so much fun for us!

Kellie and Joe Hubbard:

Our family is having a fun adventure this year. Joe’s programming job at Hill Air Force Base is moving us incrementally across the country. First we will be in Denver for three months, then Boston for two months, Orlando for six months, and possibly back to Boston for six months. We are excited to experience living in different parts of the country and plan to visit many more as we go!

Joseph and Stacie Noall:

This Sea World picture is actually from November, but it's still a pretty good family representation! We aren't up to too much but school and work. Joseph is still with FamilySearch. The kids and I are enjoying a lot of time inside with the cold weather. Luke and Lucy turned 10 in December, Anna is 8 and was baptized in October, Thomas is 6, Andrew is 4, Leah, Viv's birthday buddy, turned 3 on Saturday, Jan. 26, and Isaac is 14 months. I also attached a picture of our new shelves that my good ol' Dad built for us in the cold storage! It's hopefully the first step on our long journey to a finished basement. :)

Matt and Jen Parker:

Matt & Jenn have Hannah (almost 3) and Benson (almost 1). Matt works at WCF Insurance ("Be careful out there!") as a senior accountant. Jenn is at home with the cute kids. We're currently busy house hunting while enjoying being with our kids playing in the snow and going to the aquarium.

Natalie and Parker Jensen:

Parker just got a new job as a superintendent, and is working on his construction management degree at UVU. Sadie is 4, Dax is 2, and Lincoln just turned 1! I'm just livin the life as a stay at home Mom! We live in Eagle Mountain (bought our house a little over a year ago), and are loving it!!

Emily Thomas:

Currently living it up in Austin, TX and work as a pastry cook/baker at a local restaurant called North Italia. 

Kevin and Amy King:

Kevin is working as an outreach director for Intermountain and was recently called as stake executive secretary.  Amy is working in Provo district as a special education compliance coach/facilitator.  She is in the RS presidency. 

Courtney is currently doing an internship at Intermountain and will be graduating from BYU in Exercise and Wellness.  Ashley and Kyle are both working hard at school.  Abby will be graduating from Timpview High School and has been involved in soccer, basketball and student government.

Casey and Bryan Briggs:

Bryan, Casey and Carson are in Charlotte, NC and loving the chance to travel and explore the east coast. Carson is starting to talk, is very active, growing quickly and will be 2 soon! He’s such a happy little boy who makes everything so much fun. Bryan is still working in Biotech for Wells Fargo and Casey is loving being a stay at home mom.

Paul and Karen Smart:

Andrew is currently in San Diego in a flight school, working towards his lifelong dream of being a commercial airline pilot.  He does door dash and a grocery delivery service to get money to pay the rent, until he has enough flying hours to be a flight instructor, which he hopes to be sometime this summer.  He loves sending pictures of the warm San Diego sun to us, haha.  

Kaylie is still working for Podium as their Marketing Events Director.  Her home will be finished at the end of next month, but we have mixed emotions about her moving in, because we've been having so much fun having her live at home with us for the last couple of months.  

Jake graduated from BYU in December and so far is enjoying his employment at Xactware as a software engineer.  He continues to live in Provo for the time being.

Stephanie graduates in April from BYU in Public Relations and is currently working as an intern for Horrocks Engineers, which is a P.R. firm for UDOT.  She has been offered a full time position when she graduates there as well! 

Aldo has been accepted to the U of U dental school!!  We are so excited and proud of him!  He will start there in August of this year!

Paul is still first counselor in the Stake Presidency and Karen is still teaching Sunday School, and now works in the Mount Timpanogos Temple on Tuesdays.

Vivian Grothe- Brown:

Madison Thomas-

I'm doing well in NC. Still with Sheetz, in fact I'll celebrate my 7 year anniversary in March! Not a whole lot new over here for me, I do have 2 really cute cats, Ducky and Petrie (from land before time) they're what I call storm kitties. Duck was rescued after hurricane Matthew, and Petrie was rescued from a storm drain after hurricane Florence. I'm hoping to visit Utah again this year, and would love to see everyone! I added a few pics, one of the super cute kitties, and another one of my boyfriend and I zip lining over the Blue Ridge Mountains. Sending love from the East Coast!!

Bob and Shelli Sivert:

Yuma is working out surprisingly well for us. We love it, actually. Especially this time of year, not having to deal with snow! (Not to rub it in.) It has been fun decorating our house and making it our own. Bob's job with Aerocare landed us here (ha ha). He transports patients needing specialized care to different hospitals. The base here is very busy, unlike Price, so work is steady. On his days off, he's been working in the yard, putting in all kinds of plants, trees, shrubs, cacti, and literally tons of landscaping rock. I help out when I can. As for me, I've been working on my young adult novel--same old story (to throw in another pun), taking care of the boys, and helping a few grad school hopefuls with essays here and there. Jed is really into Beyblades right now. (Spinning tops that battle each other.)  He's doing very well in school (5th grade) and reads like a ninja. We find ourselves at the library a lot. He recently won his class spelling bee and competed at the school bee. (He won his class bee in 4th grade, too!) Gunnar loves riding his scooter, helping Dad in the yard, and spreading sunshine everywhere. He turned 5 in November and we went to Legoland for his birthday. He goes to the sweetest preschool half-day and loves it. He'll start kindergarten in the fall.