Happenings

It feels like it has been forever since I have last posted.  School is keeping me really busy with all the other things I have going on.  We are mostly doing the same as always.  Elizabeth and Rebecca are keeping busy with school.  They are such a wonderful help to me.  They have started walking home from school on nice weather days.  Not a big deal for them I know but for me it is a big deal.  They do enjoy the exercise and sunshine on the days they walk so that is good.  Dakota has spring fever and goes outside whenever she can but it is still pretty cold so she can't wait for warmer temps.  She is counting the days until she is in Young Womens with her sisters.  Megan is growing like a weed.  She is so sweet and funny and she just melts my heart every time she flashes her sweet smile at me and tells me that she loves me.  She still has a hard time when Alex touches her or her things but she loves him.  I love to watch her teach him something and then tell him he is a good boy and pat him on the back when he does what she says.  Alexander is growing too.  He is such a busy little guy.  He loves to touch and play with EVERYTHING.  Typical baby stuff yes, but it is still so fun to watch.  It still amazes me how fast babies grow and learn.  He is still so little that I just want to hold him and rock my little baby but he quickly lets me know that he is not a baby anymore no matter how little he is.  CJ still works for the same company and we are grateful everyday that he is able to go to work.  They have threatened to close his department so many times but still have not done it so we feel blessed. 

Being so far from both of our families I always fear when the phone rings and it is family.  I love to talk to them any chance I get but you never know when it is not going to be good news they are calling with.  The morning of March 9th I received a call from my mom and this time it was not good news, in fact it was one of the calls I fear the most.  She called to tell me that my father had a heart attack at work and was just rushed to the hospital and she would call again when she knew more.  My first thoughts were how to get to Arizona as quickly as possible, I couldn't stand being so far away at a time like this.  I am so thankful for the effort my mother made to keep me up to date on his condition.  She knew how hard it was for me not being able to be there.  She even had him call me when he was able just so that I could hear his voice and know that everything would be okay.  Because he got to the hospital so quickly they were able to treat him and stabilize him before any major damage was done.  I was able to go to Arizona with all the kids this last week to spend time with him.  What a blessing that was.  He is doing very well and has even returned to work.

The weekend that we were in Arizona happened to be the date of my niece Heather's wedding.  She and I had talked about the wedding and I really wanted to be there so I was very excited that I got to be there for her on her special day. 

Engagement picture.

Heather with her Bridesmaids and Sydni as the flower girl.

Heather



Patrick and the Groomsmen.

 

Heather and Patrick.

On the day of the wedding the girls got together with some of their cousins to hold a charity lemonade stand and bake sale.  I was busy helping to decorate for the wedding so I didn't get any pictures of the lemonade stand but they did a great job.  Together they earned $112 that they donated to the Red Cross for relief efforts in Japan.  They all signed a letter and sent it to the Red Cross with the money.

Elizabeth, Rebecca, Dakota, Maxi, Sami, Megan, and Dani
with the money and letter for the Red Cross.

UNCLE!

Just thought I would post a couple videos that I thought are really cute.

This is one that Dakota took while I was doing the laundry.  Alex is so funny.  He hears music and he will just start dancing.  I thought it was funny how Megan and Gavin (the little boy I babysit) started dancing Alex style.  Too cute.

The second one cracks me up every time.  Alex learned how to blow zerberts on his daddy's tummy and he loves doing it any chance he gets.  Last night Alex decided to give Megan a zerbert on her tummy and we actually got it on video.  Remember when you were a kid and your big brother was torturing you and he wouldn't stop until you yelled UNCLE!?  Megan wants Alex to stop but he doesn't so she says uncle.  It's hard to hear but it is so funny that she even knew to say it.  I love Alex's mischievious little laugh.

Megan

Here are just a few things that Megan has said recently that make me laugh.

I took Megan with me to run a quick errand and on the way back this is what she said.
Megan-"Are we going home now?"
Me-"Yes"
Megan-"Do we have to?"
Me-"Yes.  Why don't you want to go home now?"
Megan-"There are too many sisters there."

One morning I was busy and forgot that I hadn't fed Megan breakfast yet.  She said she already had breakfast.  I asked her what she ate and she said, "peoples."  I said you ate people for breakfast and she said yes, she was very serious even though I was about to crack up.  I looked at Elizabeth who had been with her most of the morning and Lizzie said that she had given Megan some Sour Patch Kids.

Dakota has a whoopee cushion she likes to play with.  Megan picked it up and Lizzie asked her what it was.  She replied, "that's Dakota's whoopin."

I found Megan and Alex in my bathroom where she knows they are not supposed to be.  As we were leaving the bathroom she told me how she had gone in there to get Alex and bring him out.  I thanked her for being such a big girl and helping me, she looked at me and said, "I am his sister you know" like it was her job as a sister to help the baby.

Goals

Lizzie gave the lesson for our family home evening tonight and the lesson was on setting goals.  She used the Preach My Gospel manual to prepare her lesson.  She did such a wonderful job!  I was so impressed with the ideas she came up with, the handouts she made, the scriptures that she included, and the activities she used not only for the big kids but for the little ones as well so that they could be included.  She was so confident in her teaching and everyone was so excited to participate.  We talked about making personal goals and even set two family goals together, one was long term and one we actually accomplished before the end of the lesson.  One of the handouts she made was from a handout she had received from her Young Women class that hangs on our fridge.  She made us each a personal copy so that we could have it with us every time we sit down to write or evaluate our goals.  This is what it said:

Make "SMART" Goals!

S: specific
M: measurable
A: attainable
R: record & report
T: time-based

The other handout that she gave each of us was a quote from the Preach My Gospel manual.  One of the talks given in Church yesterday talked about this quote and it really struck me, so when Lizzie used it in her lesson I was so excited.  I was especially excited that she made me a copy of the quote so that I could see it every day.   Here is that quote:

"I am so thoroughly convinced that if we don't set goals in our life and learn how to master the techniques of living to reach our goals, we can reach a ripe old age and look back on our life only to see that we reached but a small part of a full potential. When one learns to master the principles of setting a goal, he will then be able to make a great difference in the results he attains in this life."

                                                                         - Elder M. Russell Ballard
 
For our treat afterwards she had made everyone their own "dirt cup" and even put them in to the cups that I bought for ice cream sundaes so that they would look special.  It was so much fun sitting around the table with everyone talking and enjoying the evening.  Thank you Lizzie, for all of your hard work.

Eating woes

The first thing Alex wanted to do when he was born was eat.  This kid is one hungry eating machine.  Unfortunately eating has been a challenge for him since the day he was born.  First he had to struggle to get enough milk because I wasn't producing as much as I thought I was and I didn't supplement him enough to make up for what he wasn't getting from me so he was very hungry for his first 4 months.  I had to start feeding him formula full time when he was 4 1/2 months which was also about the time we introduced cereal to him so he was happy for a little bit because he was finally learning what it was like to feel full.  At about 6 months he started eating vegetables and some fruits.  That's when he also started getting a bad diaper rash.  I thought it was a yeast rash at first because the medicine for yeast cleared it up.  Unfortunately the rash kept coming back.  Eventually nothing would clear it up and diaper changes became torture for both of us, although he got the worst of it.  I didn't want to go to the doctor.  I guess I felt that it was just a diaper rash and that as a mother I should be able to handle it without running to the doctor.  Hind sight is always 20/20.  Anyway, I did pray much about it for help on what to do.  I got the answer that he was having an allergic reaction.  The only experience I had with allergic reactions was when Lizzie was an infant she had to have soy formula because she would spit up too much with regular formula but that was about it so I didn't realize that this rash might be a food allergy. 

I stopped giving him all solid food except for rice cereal because I knew it was safe.  His rash did get better so I started giving him solid foods one by one to see what he reacted to.  It seemed to be any "orange" foods would cause a reaction like carrots, sweet potatoes, and peaches.  I cut all those out of his diet and things were okay for a short time and then the rash came back.  After a while I cut him from all foods again out of frustration and just gave him formula deciding that I should just call the doctor and ask for help.  It had been about 5 months since we had started battling the unknown allergy.  With more prayers I again got the answer that it was an allergy but this time it was a little more specific.  The one thing I had not cut out of his diet was the one thing that he was allergic to.  The cause of all the misery and frustration was the formula.  I immediately went and got a can of soy formula.  The result was immediate.  His rash had started going away with the first bottle of soy and was completely gone by the next day.  I felt like such an idiot.  What a simple fix and because of my stubbornness my son had to suffer much longer than he should have. I'm sure the doctor could have told me right away to try soy formula.  A little back story on that though.  Because Lizzie had to use soy formula I just gave all my children soy formula without really giving much thought to it other than it wouldn't hurt to be on the safe side.  When Alex's doctor asked what formula I might need to supplement him with I told him soy and he asked why.  After telling him that it is just what I've always done he said that it wouldn't hurt but usually soy is only if the child needs it.  I thought about that for a while so this time instead of giving him soy I started him on regular formula since he wasn't Lizzie and he was just fine.  Things seemed to be okay so I didn't think anything more until the day I switched back to soy.  Now looking back I can see that he had a problem with it from the start.  He used to spit up so much we called him the spit-up king.  I now remember that was the reason Lizzie was switched to soy.  Because he was only supplemented with it in the beginning and I didn't give him full time formula until he started eating food I didn't see the connection between the rash and the milk.  If I had just given him soy in the beginning like I always did and not second guess myself then this all could have been avoided. 

With all the formula issues solved one month before he is old enough to not need formula anymore...ahhhh...I thought his eating woes might be over...nope.  Not wanting to give him regular milk, now that he can drink milk, I give him soy milk.  Unfortunately he is allergic to that too.  Poor little guy.  I did talk to his doctor at his one year check up and he said that I could just keep giving him the formula in a cup for now so that is what we are doing.  He is still a little eating machine.  He will eat as much as Megan at mealtimes and be hungry five minutes later.  I have a hard time keeping him full because he is hungry all day long.  I knew boys ate a lot but I didn't realize just how much "a lot" was. 

Beauty and the Beast Jr.

The first week of school started of with a bang for Rebecca.  That week she had auditions for her school's major musical production.  She had never auditioned for anything more than a part in a class play before so this was all new to her.  She had to come prepared with a musical piece and then recite lines as well.  She was so shy in elementary school that I was surprised at how excited she was to audition.  She really wanted to be in the show though so she prepared a song and set a goal to do her very best no matter what.  She did a great job and I am so proud of her for accomplishing her goal. 

This year the school chose "Beauty and the Beast Jr." which is the high school (or in this case Jr. High) version of the stage play for Disney's Beauty and the Beast.  I couldn't believe how early in the year the auditions were since the show wasn't until January.  I also didn't realize how big of a production this was and how much time they would really need to rehearse.  She was very excited though and being cast as a member of the chorus her rehearsals started right away.  They rehearsed after school for 2 or 3 days every week.  It was a grueling schedule for her but she enjoyed every minute of it.  She was so dedicated to the show and was so enthusiastic that she was given extra characters to play and even two speaking parts.  In the village she was a villager, outside the castle she was a wolf as they attacked Maurice then Belle and the Beast (she was one of the wolves who actually attacked the Beast), and inside the castle she was a dancing napkin.  One of the two speaking parts was in the tavern just after Gaston sang his big number and the other was as a narrator near the end of the show.  If I remember right she had to change costumes 6 times. 

About 3 months before the show Lizzie announced they were going to do a real pit orchestra this year for the musical and she wanted to be in it.  She has only been playing the clarinet for a little over a year so this music was difficult (impossible at times) for her skill level but she went to rehearsals every week as well and did her best.  She didn't like it at first but as she became more familiar with the music and was able to play more and more she came to love it.

Opening night finally came and the girls were so excited.  We all were because we were finally going to get to see this musical that we had been hearing so much about for so many months.  We got a babysitter for Alex and went to the show as a family.  I was blown away!  The set was wonderful, the costumes were great, the students were fantastic, and the pit orchestra rocked.  The kids had really worked hard and we really enjoyed the performance, no one more so than Megan I think.  I just beamed with pride as my Rebecca performed each of her characters flawlessly and got a little nostalgic watching Lizzie play in the pit (technically the school doesn't have a pit so they were just off to the side of the stage, but they made it work.)  I am so proud of both my girls!  They worked hard and it showed.  Congratulations Lizzie and Rebecca!

I think though that the best benefit they got from doing the play was all the new friends they gained.  They have this little circle of friends they hang out with at school now and that is something that both of them have needed for so long.  Because we move so much and they are usually so shy friends are something that has never come easy.  I am so happy to see them interacting with such a great group of kids. 

Obviously flash photography was not an option so I couldn't get any pics of the performance, but here are the pictures that we did get.


This is Rebecca on the night of her first dress rehearsal. 



Rebecca with "Madame DeLa Grand Busche" (the talking wardrobe.)

Rebecca with "Gaston".  He really played the part so well.

Rebecca with "Lafou", Gaston's sidekick.



Lizzie with her friend from pit orchestra and "Lafou".



What was I thinking?!

I was sooo excited to start school this year.  It has been something I have been looking forward to for a very long time.  I knew that it would be difficult with a baby so I waited until we were done having kids and the youngest kid was at least a year old.  That time is finally here and I couldn't believe I was actually going back to school myself.  We are only four weeks into school now and I am sooo not excited anymore.  If it were just a matter of making it to class, taking good notes, and taking tests it wouldn't be a problem but there is one thing that I forgot to factor in...homework!  I forgot how much homework each teacher likes to assign.  With everything else I have going on right now...what was I thinking. (Lest you think that I spend all my time blogging and not enough time on homework, I do all my blog posts on the weekend and just schedule them to come out during the week.)  I am going to finish this semester and do the best I can hoping for good enough grades that they let me go back, but I am seriously reconsidering whether or not this was the right time for me to go back to school.

Too excited.

Ever since we knew we would be buying a house with an unfinished basement we have been trying to figure out how we want to finish it.  I made copies of the plans of the basement we got when we first started building and we have sketched many different ideas, some of which we liked but couldn't really visualize any of them enough to choose just one.  To help with that problem we bought a program for the computer that let us design our basement (and landscaping too) and then showed us in 3-D what it would look like so we had a better idea of which plans would work.  We had so much fun playing with that program that it became a little addicting.  It did it's job really well though and we were able to settle on one plan that we all love very much.  It will add 3 more bedrooms (Rebecca and Dakota would share the big one, Lizzie would have her own room and I will use one as my craft room), a full bathroom, an entertainment room, and lots of great storage when its done.  The problem is that we can see the finished product and really want it done now so we can start enjoying the new rooms.  We are a little too excited for what will be the basement that it is frustrating to know it won't be done for a long time.  We plan to start buying the lumber here and there and work on the basement as time permits so we know it could take years before it will look like the pictures we are seeing now.  The saddest part is that if it takes too long the rooms we have planned for the girls won't be done before they are able to use them.  I am hoping for a miracle that somehow we are able to get it done soon.  Anyway, here are a few snapshots of our future basement complete with furniture.

1 year old

Yup...I blinked and my tiny baby boy is one year old.  What a joy it has been watching this little boy grow.  Oh how I love him sooo much!  He is so sweet and funny.  His personality is really showing now.  He loves to play, sing, dance, cuddle (toys and blankets...not so much mamma), eat, run, and do anything for a laugh.  Even surrounded by so many girls he is all boy.  He is really trying to communicate more.  His favorite thing is to point at things and say "ohhhh" like it's the most amazing thing he has ever seen.  It sounds so cute.  He also is learning that he has some power.  When anyone, especially Megan, has something he wants he knows just what to do and how loud he needs to yell to get it.  It's funny because I keep telling him to use his words, like he actually has a vocabulary, and sometimes he will settle down and just grunt instead of yell.  He does repeat "uh-oh" when we say it and he likes to hit his head on objects or fall down and say "ow" just for laughs.  He doesn't do it often but he will say da-da when he sees CJ.  His newest ones aren't words but he did finally start waving bye-bye, and he shakes his head "no" when he doesn't want something.  He loves to give high-5's and will even grab your hand and put it up so he can give you 5.  He also loves to give hugs to every child he meets.  Oh yeah, he did finally learn to run unfortunately his coordination hasn't quite kicked in yet so he can't run for longer than a few seconds.  His balance is still developing as well so he is constantly falling and he is getting so frustrated with falling.  I could go on and on but I won't, I'll stop talking and put up some pics of this little guy growing so big.

Sweet baby feet.



This is the outfit I've had since Lizzie was born and we didn't know if she was
a boy or girl.  I have been waiting a long time to put this outfit on a little boy.



6 weeks

3 months

5 months

7 months

10 months

1 year

Isn't he soooo sweet?!  His sisters just adore him and love to show him off where ever they go.  His daddy keeps planning all these father-son activities and even bought him his first set of Hotwheels for Christmas.  I love to hold him and wonder what he will be like in every stage of his life.  We all love him so much and are so grateful that he chose our family so that he is ours for eternity.  Our family definitely was not complete with you Alex.

Alex's 1st Birthday

We celebrated Alex's 1st birthday a little early so that we could share this most special day with family.  Everyone gathered together at my mom's house for cake and ice cream and to watch this little guy dig into his very own cake.  He was very intimidated by the huge number of people all gathered around him just watching his every move.  He grabbed at the cake when I first put it on the table but I had to tell him no because we hadn't sang the birthday song yet so after the song was done he didn't want to get in trouble and didn't touch the cake.  I felt bad because normally he would have had the cake gone in 60 seconds but he just sat there with a very tempting cake in front of him not knowing what to do.  I put a little frosting in his mouth and that seemed to do the trick.  The taste of frosting was more powerful than the fear of getting in to trouble.  He lightly touched the cake to see what our reactions would be.  Not looking at the cake but instead watching every one's faces he began to put his fingers in the cake.  Little by little he put his fingers deeper in to the cake until his whole fist was in it and since no one was taking it away he finally trusted his instincts to eat the cake.  He took a few big bites and then decided it would be fun to play in the cake while eating it so he grabbed on with both fists and just smooshed until there was no resemblance of the original cake.  He did eat quite a bit of that smooshed cake and even dove in face first to eat more.  It was so much fun to watch.
 

On his actual birthday we kept singing happy birthday to him all day. My favorite was listening to Megan just burst out singing to her little brother at odd times throughout the day. He got a ball pit for his birthday and couldn't wait to play. He likes to play in the balls but he likes to throw them more, it's a good thing he isn't that strong yet.

 Happy 1st Birthday Alexander!!

Happy New Year!!

We were originally going to leave Arizona the Tuesday after Christmas and I was so sad because I really, really, really wanted to spend New Year's Eve with my family too.  We always have such a good time with them and I didn't want to leave so soon after getting there.  Just as we were getting in the car to come home a miracle happened, so instead of going home we were able to stay for the rest of the week, so we unpacked the car and celebrated. 


Decorating for the big celebration.



Starting a new tradition of New Year's Eve fondue.



Lots of food is needed for 23 people and a 6 hour party.

I knew Alex wouldn't be able to stay up till midnight but I was surprised when I couldn't find Megan and when I did find her she had put herself to bed and was fast asleep.  My brother had gotten a writing pad accessory for the Wii so we played Pictionary on the Wii until it was time to watch the ball drop.

When the clock turned 2010 into 2011 we made tons of noise.  I think this has to be right up there as one of Dakota's favorite holidays because she went outside and screamed at the top of her lungs until she just couldn't scream anymore.  It's the only time she can do that (especially at midnight) without anyone stopping her and she took full advantage of the pipes she was born with.  What another great celebration with the family.  How grateful I am that we were able to stay and enjoy.

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.