Not a dull moment.

While we were in Arizona we were busy everyday with fun things to do.  Here are a few of the highlights.

For my nephew Drew's birthday we were all invited to Airworx.  It is a building with nothing but huge trampolines for all the kids to play on.  Each age group had a different area.  The toddler group had a large bounce house type slide that Megan loved.

Rebecca taking a break.

Megan in the tunnel leading to the big slide.

Dakota jumping as high as she can.

Lizzie with her cousins and Grandpa.

Megan and Drew on the new jeep he just got for his birthday.

We took an afternoon just to be with Grandpa.  We went to Chuck E. Cheese's and then the mall.

Megan watching herself on TV.

She got to meet Chuck E. himself.

Getting on to the ginormous rocking horse (yes, it worked.)

The horse was so big it was a little scary for most of the girls.  They were
glad I was only taking pictures and that they didn't have to actually ride it.

Alex driving with his new buddy.

Dakota loved the Lego store in the mall.

The mall is safe with these two on patrol.



Try not to be jealous.

I got soooo spoiled for Christmas this year.  I couldn't believe what I was given.  It still blows me away!  First my dad, not knowing what I was hoping for most of all, gave me exactly what I wanted in all it's glory.  He worked tirelessly for a very long time printing and organizing my entire blog for me...every single post since the blog began.  Two and a half years of writing our family's story on the internet was now sitting in my hands.  I wanted to cry (and I did.)   He loves the blog so much and wanted to make sure that if anything ever happened to the internet I still had all of my stories to read and to cherish forever and ever.  That is exactly why I wanted to have my blog printed...but I never told anyone.  This was a secret wish of mine.


Each year has it's own book.



The first three books of the Thompson Tales series.

 

A few pages of the book.

 

I've been published...whoo hoo!

Seeing my blog in book form has really helped me see that I have been writing our family history all this time.  You would think that it was obvious but that was not my intention when I starting writing.  I really started this blog to let our family far and near be able to see all that we are up to and keep them up to date on our lives.  It never crossed my mind that I was writing a family history but here it is.  We have gone back and looked at some of the stories and were so glad I had written them down because we had already forgotten them.  Now we have all these stories with pictures for all of our posterity to read.  Even though it didn't start out as a family history that is what it has become and I will be more vigilant about keeping it up...although I do feel more pressure now that I know people will be reading it for generations to come, so maybe that's not a good thing. lol

Okay so if that wasn't enough my Mom gives me (okay CJ and I) this incredibly special gift as well.  She secretly had the kids write letters to me and CJ then she turned those letters into a beautiful quilt.


The quilt has their letters and many special pictures on it too.

 



Close ups.

This was such a surprise!  I love it so much and just keep staring at it so I can memorize every inch of it.  Not only did she do this for us but she made a similar quilt for all six of her children.  She is one amazing woman.

And lastly a gift that was given to me by my children (with a little help from me.)  I took pictures of the kids for our Christmas card and they took that picture and had it made into a fleece throw. 

Larger than life.

Now I never get cold anymore because my kids are always snuggled up tight around me.

Next year people will have to get really creative if anyone is going to top those gifts.

Over the river and through the woods...

...to Grandmother's house we go (and Grandpa's too.)  We were so blessed with a wonderful Christmas present this year.  We got to go to Arizona and spend Christmas with my whole family including my brother from Reno who isn't able to visit very often.  I think though what made this Christmas trip even more special was that CJ was able to go too.  I usually have to take the kids by myself for visits to Arizona because he can't take any time off work, especially Christmas, but not this time.  He was finally able to take Christmas off so we could be together as a family in Arizona.  On a side note, even though I have visited Arizona many times this was the first time he has been back since we moved.


With Maggie at Grandma and Grandpa Tanquary's house.



Megan and Sydni.

Our family has a tradition of getting together for dinner, games, presents, and a children's play on Christmas Eve.  The children take turns writing the play and Grandma does all the costumes.  This year the play was based on the song, "The Twelve Days of Christmas."



Dakota as "two turtle doves", Megan as " three french hens", and
Rebecca as "five golden rings".



Lizzie as "seven swans a swimming".

Our family picture on Christmas Eve.



Rebecca baking goodies with Grandma.

Christmas morning was so much fun being able to share it with Grandma, Grandpa, and Fred.  The kids were so happy because Santa seemed to know exactly what they wanted (even if they didn't even know themselves.)

Christmas morning with the gifts from Santa.



Alexander's first Christmas.

We had so much fun with all the family.  I am so grateful for my family and all the love they give to us.  It was such a wonderful Christmas.

Mini Photo Shoot

In the fall Lizzie took Megan and the camera outside and took a mini photo shoot of Megan just for fun.  I think this girl has some natural talent in photography because these pics are awesome.

Visit with Santa

At our Ward Christmas dinner we had a visitor and the girls were anxious to sit on his lap so that they could give him an earfull with their wish lists.  It's a good thing that our visitor is used to this kind of behavior from the children.  Liz didn't make the dinner so I don't have her picture but here are the others.

And making his debut to Santa this year (it's so hard to believe that this is Alexander's first Chirstmas since he is nearly one year old already) was my always smiley boy...

well he wasn't so smiley this time.  Poor little guy.  He only cries when he's hungry, poopy, tired, or sitting on the lap of a big red giant. 

Just a side note: Alex was so traumatized by the big red guy that he had nightmares that night. He only settled down when I put him in bed with me and held him tight so that he knew he was safe...he never did that before and he hasn't done it since so I feel bad now that I made him sit on the scarry man's lap.

Christmas Blizzard

Here is a little Christmas snow for us to enjoy (or at least it was a little snow 2 feet ago.)  This last Sunday it was so warm even in the middle of the night that the previous winter snow was melting then it rained a warm rain and almost any sign of snow was gone.  I thought it was a little odd for such warm weather so close to the end of December.  I told CJ that this isn't a good sign.  It means that we are in for an unusual cold and/or snow.  I just didn't know how fast it would happen.  It got cold enough to snow yesterday but it was still rather warm so it was a really wet heavy snow.  It hasn't stopped snowing since so we now have over 18 inches of heavy wet snow...and it's still snowing...and it's supposed to snow for 2 more days.  It was so bad that the kid's school was closed for the day.  I was told that this school district never closed for snow no matter how deep it was.  I guess there is an amount of snow that would cause the schools to close and we got it today.  I just wish they would have made that decision before I took the kids to school and not after.  Anyway, here are some of our snow pics.



The snow bank is almost as tall as Lizzie.



Dakota's huge snowball from the day before is totally covered.

Our snow covered street.



Our truck before the driveway was shoveled.



The truck after the driveway was shoveled.  It's in there somewhere...at least I think it is.



Dakota did the sidewalk while I was picking the girls back up from school and she said she understands now what they mean by digging yourself out of the snow.

  

Dakota digging out the main sidewalk.






Who needs a snow blower with hard working kids like these.I'm sure the girls would say..."We do!"





All I Want For Christmas Isn't My Two Front Teeth

I just love Alex's toothy grin...now that he has some.  I wanted to get a picture before he gets more in because he has such a sweet little baby tooth smile.  It has proven harder than I thought though because when he sees the camera he is either trying to get it out of my hands for himself or he is hamming it up with the biggest smiles he can muster.  This is one of my favorites with his new teeth.  He definately doesn't need to ask Santa for his front teeth this year.

First Hair Cut

I have said for a while that Alex needed a hair cut but I was unsure how to cut a little boy's hair and still have it look cute let alone the fact that he is super squirmy.  I don't know why I thought that day was the day to do it but as I sat him in the tub getting ready to wash him one day I just decided to give him a hair cut instead.  I took him out of the tub, cut his hair, then put him back in the tub to finish what I had originally started.  I can't believe I did it.  Looking back now he probably could have gone a while longer before people started whispering about his long hair but the urge to cut was super strong and what's done is done.



This is probably the best picture I have for the before picture.  His hair was long on top and went over his ears.  It was also so long in the back that he had tons of curls that I could run my fingers through (what was I thinking, cutting off those sweet curls.)

Here is the after picture for the back.  It didn't turn out too bad for a boy with two cowlicks.

This is the after picture for the front.  It is shorter on top then I pictured in my head but it doesn't look too bad, especially for a first attempt...did I mention that he is a squirmy baby.

While I didn't think it looked too bad I was told by a higher authority that it didn't look that good either.  I was asked if I would just let it grow and we'll see where it goes from there.  I don't mind because I am really missing those sweet curls more than I thought I would so I can't wait till he gets them back.

Christmas pictures

I have many friends that are wonderful photographers.  I see their pictures and I am just amazed at the shots they get of their families.  They are very inspiring.  I know though that a photographer I am not.  I do my best though and try not to judge my pictures to theirs because if I did I would never take any pictures of my kids at all and that would be sad so I just do the best I can.  These pictures are from our little Christmas card shoot in our living room. 



Alexander



Megan



Dakota



Rebecca



Elizabeth



I even had Lizzie take a picture of me and CJ.

These are the group pictures and I think they came out cute.

They turned out so well that after making the Christmas cards I had a collage poster made of them to put on my wall.  You'll have to come visit to see that one though.