More family!

Just when you thought it wasn't possible to squeeze in any more family time before the New Year came, my sister and her family of 6 came to town!

But don't worry, before that happened we managed to squeeze in a trip to Applebee's to watch the Alamo Bowl :)

Clint with the twins, meeting them for the first time!

Cousin play time with the trains at GrandDad and Connie's

Tristan's BLUE Mohawk. I asked my Dad if he liked Tristan's hair and he said "Ummm...no." Lol :)

with the Twins!

Baby swap!

Tristan was majorly jealous! 

Cute smiles from Ethan!

GrandDad and Chase

Tristan helps Ryan out with Sophie.

Celebrated the New Year with the Parkers and the Jory's, and my little brother was even home from college. It was awesome to have my husband home for two weeks! I haven't seen this much of him since 2009! :) All in all, a great way to end 2011!

How many Thompson's can we squeeze under one roof?

I'm still not even sure of the answer.

Needless to say, there were a lot of Thompson's here this week.
Uncle Jordan and Aunt Ginnie came to visit from Virginia for the first time in 3 years, and they brought Papa and his fiance Joie up with them from California.
They arrived early Christmas Eve morning (2am). We started off their visit with a bang- the women spent all day cooking/baking/running last minute errands while the boys...well, I have no idea what they did!
Christmas Eve we went to Aunt Missy's house with the rest of the Flom family. Each year they have a big party where we play Secret Santa and eat delicious food, and then the real Santa comes to visit us.

Tristan's Mohawk

I'm going to frame this one.

11pm (I don't think Tristan has EVER been up this late. He was desperately seeking somewhere to fall asleep)

Eric and his siblings! Auntie JayC, Papa, Aunt B, and Uncle Jordan (Missing Uncle Reed)

ALMOST all of the Grandkids with Papa and Joie- Missing Roger!

Christmas morning included 2 separate present opening sessions, Christmas brunch followed by naptime, more food, more napping, etc etc.

Brunch

Reesey enjoying his Santa gift

Clint wishes Alaina was his real niece. He's okay with being her faux Uncle.
His nickname for her is "Cheeks"

Tristan and Aunt Ginnie playing with Tristan's new block table from Santa!

The following day we had a Thompson family get together which included all of Papa's brothers and sisters (minus one sister) and some of their children as well. There was lots of delicious food... it was on this day that I could barely keep my eyes open so I snuck into Tristan's room and crawled onto his toddler bed with him and took a nap :)

We then proceeded to stuff ourselves silly with all the delicous food and work off all those calories with a 4 hour game of Apples to Apples... 

Tristan with Nate's big Lightning McQueen- those two and their Lightning McQueen's...

Miss Alaina getting so big!

Aunt Patty, Aunt Diane with Ryan, and Papa

Uncle Gene, Aunt Diane (&Ryan), Rich, Eric, Joie- this was probably a Cougar/Husky debate...

Papa giving Tristan the "Hotseat" 

Uncle Jordan with Ryan 

Beef- Jordan and Ginnie's Great Dane

The Tuesday after Christmas, Reed (Eric's oldest brother) and his family came back from their vacation to Alaska for Christmas and joined us for dinner and another night of Apples to Apples.

Uncle Jordan showing Tristan's whats up :)

The Thompson boys. Eric with his brothers Jordan and Reed, and his Dad.

The next night, the Thompson's final night staying with us- we celebrated Aunt B's 27th birthday with cake and Pink Lassies!

We got creative with the candles. 

Finally!

Thursday morning our visitors departed. It was sad to see them go! We had such a great time with them. They were so good to us! They changed diapers, cooked, cleaned, played with our kids, filled our fridge with delicious food, entertained us, took me to get my nails and toes done! It was amazing. I felt like a kid after a big birthday party when all the friends go home and you're left with a quiet house and all your new toys. We didn't quite no what to do with ourselves for the brief couple hours that we had to ourselves!

The in-laws! Joie, myself,Annj, and Ginnie

Joie and Papa with our boys

Eric and his brother- can you tell they're related?

Baby Ry's Tiny update

Despite Ryan being the opposite of tiny (for his age), his life span is quite a bit shorter than say, mine. or Tristan's. or Eric's. So one might think that he may not have accomplished as much as we have in the last 3 months.

Boy, are we wrong.

I may have accomplished more in my ENTIRE life, but I am 23 years and 11 months older than him. I would only hope that this statement was true...However, in the last 3 months? Baby Ryan has me beat!

First, he worked as hard as he could to break free of the womb for fear that his own mother would evict him and he would be homeless. So he forfeited, and I'm sure he still owes me rent money. Then, he learned how to cry, and breathe, and pee, and poop, and eat. All in the span of 24 hours. I can tell you that in the last 24 hours the only thing I've accomplished is changing some poopy diapers and making some Easy Mac.

Then he learned how to flail/move those limbs attached to his tiny cute body. He learned how to turn his head towards sounds, and grasp a finger that was put within his reach.

And the sweetest, most amazing thing he has learned in the last 3 months is how to smile. He is a great smiler.

He learned to recognize Mama's voice from across the room, and that this dark featured, sometimes hairy man is Dadda, and mostly that the constant noise in the room- that's big brother.

Ryan has learned to giggle and coo and wiggle when he thinks something is funny. He has learned to kick his legs and hold his head up. He has learned how to roll onto his back when he's had enough of the tummy time nonsense. He has learned that it makes Mommy happy when he sleeps through the night.

Baby "RyRy" has been the sweetest little addition to our family. He keeps me calm and collected when big brother is driving me bonkers. He can bring a smile to my face at any hour of the day just by being the sweet baby that he is-- great for the ego too, his whole face lights up when he see's his Mama-- even if I haven't showered he still makes me feel like a million bucks. I could not have asked for a better baby, truly. I can't get enough of those sweet baby rolls on his thighs or those little baby coo's.

Just to prove how sweet he is:

T's Big Update!

Age: 20 months (Ok, more like 19.5 but who's counting)

Likes: Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, anything Lightning McQueen or Cars themed, story time, Kidz Bounce, Grilled Cheese, Nursery, Trucks or Hotwheels, being a big brother.

Dislikes: Any veggie that Mom might try to hide in my Mac N Cheese, being strapped into shopping carts or booster seats, being quiet in Sacrament meeting, putting toys away, being contained in any form, wearing any type of hat.

Recent accomplishments: Brushes his own teeth, brushes his hair (sometimes-- doesn't understand which side is supposed to brush the hair), Climbed all the way to the top of slide at Kidz Bounce AND went down the slide by himself, can point to "Reese" and "Chloe" (sometimes not sure if he knows who is who though), gives Ryan his blankie and binky (even when not needed), gives kisses to adults on command.

Working on: Asking for food (instead of standing at cupboard whining) and juice (instead of throwing his cup at me), sitting on the froggy potty (as opposed to standing IN it), coloring with Crayons and Color Wonder books, playing with Play-Doh and not eating it.

20 Q's as answered by Mama's Observations (Q's found via Pinterest)

1. Fave Color: Green
2. Fave toy: Lightning McQueen + Wobble House
3. Favorite Fruit: Blueberries
4. Favorite TV Show: Mickey Mouse Clubhouse + Little Einstein's
5. Fave lunch food: Grilled Cheese
6. Favorite outfit: Jeans + Hurley tee + Hoodie
7. Favorite game: Climbing on and off the couch, over and over and over.
8. Favorite snack: Fruit snacks + Nutrigrain Bars
9. Favorite Animal: Doggy
10. Favorite song: Little Einstein's theme song
11. Favorite Book: The Very Hungry Caterpillar
12. Best Friend: Hunter Green + Cousin Nate
13. What is your favorite cereal: Honey Nut Cheerio's
14. Favorite thing to do outside: Park
15. Favorite Drink: Apple juice
16. Favorite Holiday: Halloween
17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night: Doggy, lovie, blankie, binky, Lightning McQueen, Sippy cup (H2O or even empty)
18. Fave bkfast food: Waffles
19. What do you want for dinner on your birthday? Easy Mac
20.What do you want to be when you grow up? Musician

HowlOween

Tristan's first time Trick or Treating was, in a word: SUCCESSFUL.

I'm pretty sure it was one of his all time favorite experiences in his lifetime this far.
Last year, I ordered Tristan's halloween costume in September and spent about 30 bucks on a costume that he wore for about an hour. Learned my lesson.

This year, I took the complete opposite route. I ended up waiting till the last minute to get his halloween costume and the one we wanted was completely sold out. No big deal, I thought. WRONG. I never realized how serious some parents take their toddlers Halloween costumes until I could.not.find.any. At least in his size that were not 40 or 50 bucks. Finally found a costume in his size that wasn't more than 20 bucks and it turned out to be the cutest thing I have ever seen. And then, on top of that I scored an adorable baby costume for Ryan for 6 bucks at the Disney store! Talk about luck.

Baby Mickey :)

Cutest zebra ever.

Are you actually documenting this?

Scary skeleton, zebra, and frankenstein

"What are you wearing" "What are YOU wearing?"

We went with our friends, Justin and Kelci and their boys. They also have two boys (3 and 22 months). Tristan and Hunter (Frankenstein) are 3 months apart so Kelci and I decided that they were best friends when we were pregnant together eating Blizzards in a Dairy Queen parking lot while the boys were off somewhere in the snow. Anyways......

Tristan's trick or treating experience went like this:

Justin and Eric took the boys to the houses while we waited at the end of the driveways with the strollers.

I think this is the house they bolted into. Classic.

Door one: Tristan didn't get it.
Door two: Tristan and Hunter had clearly conjured up a plan to run inside this strange persons home as soon as he opened the door. Hilarious and awkward. I was glad to be at the end of the drive with Ryan.
Door three. Tristan starts to get the idea... Stand there and people put candy in your bucket...for free.
Door four: Tristan gets it.

Door five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, etc... we could hardly keep up. He refused to travel from door to door in the stroller so we had to hit up cul de sac's only. He ran yelling his gibberish from door to door while I laughed histerically at Eric trying to keep up with him.

He did not want the night to end, but we did, and so did Ryan. So we endured two screaming babies as we made the walk back to the car.


ps. it took me TWO HOURS to post all these pictures. thats how much i love you all and want to keep in touch with you. seriously. dedication.

Ketchup

I really dread doing catch up posts, so I'm just not going to do it. I'm just going to try my best to summarize what we've been up to the last 2ish months or so...

OCTOBER

• My mom came for a short visit the first week in October. It was her first time meeting Ryan and the first time she'd seen Tristan since he was 5 months old! Quite a lot has changed with him since then :) We spent our time together shopping (our favorite pastime) and chatting and running errands. It was nice to have the company of my mom. I hadn't quite realized how much I missed her until she was there. It has been the longest time spent apart in my entire life. 

• That same weekend was also Salmon Days. I'm an annual Salmon Day goer. I haven't missed a Salmon Days in my entire life (as far as I've been informed) and I don't intend of ever missing it. I wait 364 days out of the year to have a salmon bagel and there's no way I'm giving that up. We caught the parade early in the morning with Robyn and her girls and her mom, Shawna and then we headed over to the "Field of Fun" to meet up with the Green's and send the kids in some bouncy houses. There happened to be these random creatures walking around (creepy men in animal suits...hmm) that Tristan decided he REALLY liked. He would not leave them alone! It was starting to freak me out. He refused to sit in his stroller so I pretty much had to chase him around the field. It was one of those times where I really wanted one of those child leashes. 

Tristan and his best bud, Hunter learning the ropes of high fiving.

• Of course, the most important event of the month. My birthday. I turned 24. Boy, is there nothing exciting about turning 24...

And last but not least, for the month of October...Halloween.

Halloween gets its very own post.

ps. Sorry about the lack of photos. We finally did away with Comcast so we use my phone as a hotspot for internet so our high speed is limited to 2GB a month...which I'm sure you can imagine we eat up in the first week or so... yay for small budgets? :)

Mr. Thompson's new blog

I've been avoiding my blog.
Not because I don't want to update it, I do..I really do...
Not because I've been too busy (although, I have been really busy with Pinterest instead of blogger...)
But mainly because I know I am SO behind and there have been so many things to fill these last couple months with!

Today though, I REALLY felt like a slacker when Mr. Thompson actually took me up on my suggestion and got his blog started. I decided, enough was enough. If Mr. Thompson could do it...any one can. And that's saying something.

More about Mr. Thompson's new blog.
The Elders frequent our house a lot mainly because of Eric being a new member and my not so active history, and now also because they would like to teach Eric's sister more... but the real reason they come over so much is probably because Eric will talk their ear off about sports. If they ever need to know the score of a game, they can just call Eric. They can also get a play by play if they need.
A couple weeks ago Elder Stock told us about how his brother had started a sports blog because his wife hated hearing about sports so much. I thought that was BRILLIANT! I literally could care less who beat who, or who did what... and I seriously. cannot. go. on. listening to these play by plays any.more. I suggested that Eric do the same thing, that way he could chat with other guys whose wives also can't stand listening about sports, and then he'll get it all out of his system and I won't have to hear it anymore!

Here's his new blog. Please read and PLEASE- TO ALL THE MALE READERS- PLEASE COMMENT :)

www.uwhuskies1988.blogspot.com

Anyway, I really will update you all on the last couple months. Tonight. after the babies are asleep. I promise.