Happy Birthday Clayton!!1

This last Saturday was Clayton's 6th birthday!! He is such a good kid and a great helper to me. December is such a crazy month to try to do any type of birthday party with every ones busy schedules so Clay came up with this idea on his on, all he wanted was to see his friends to play and get a Happy meal. Awesome. This turned out well especially since one of our friends (Keli and her awesome family) will be moving away soon and Clay wanted to play with their really cute girls before they left. Being the ladies man that he is heheheheh. We did this mid-week since the weekend is always busy, and I get out of making a meal.

December 19th
Since Nathan just got done with his finals he had Saturday free and clear to celebrate Clay's day anyway he wanted. Clay picked to eat at Wendy's, he really loves the junior bacon cheeseburger, go bowling, and spend the ten dollars he great grandma Barbra sent him. Clayton has such a good personality. And if he feels like he has done something wrong it really bothers him and he tries hard to make it right. He is sensitive on things like saying sorry for being sick and will try really hard to keep things in his belly and not throw up. I told him he never has to say sorry for being sick, it is something that just happens sometimes. He aware of each person in our family and tries to do little things to make someones day. He is the perfect person to call when Justin is having a little fit and needs some cheering up, works every time!
I feel very blessed to have a great boy like Clayton as my son! Happy birthday Clay!!

Teacher Gifts?????

I have no idea what the whole teacher gift protocol is, especially here in the Midwest where there is a whole range of things given, but this is what I came up with. An empty can decked out with scrapbook paper and filled with holiday candy. Clayton helped with picking out the paper and gluing it all. He thought the "Sweet Teacher" part was cool. Oh, and the other cans, since Clayton only has one teacher, is for some of our neighbors.

Snowflakes

I really have alot of fun decorating for the Holidays even when it comes to homemade holiday craft things the boys and I play with. Here are some fun Snowflakes we did a couple of days ago. My mom has a snowflake book that can make unbelievable snowflakes like bears, 3D flowers, babies in carriages and such. These beauties happen to be my own cut here, fold there, snip snip snip and whoolaa they actually do look like snowmen, gingerbread peps and hearts NICE.I love the really big snowflake. Made out off 6 12x12 papers and stapled like no other. Here a website that shows how you could make the big snowflake. So Easy. So Fun.


And if you want to know what kind of fun you can have with a bow, Justin has his own tutorial below!!

Thanksgiving Recap!

What a trip we just had!! Nothing tops going to see family. We headed to our cabin on Henry's Lake in Island Park and had a cozy good time playing tons of card games, XBOX challenges, making and eating tons of goodies and sitting by a nice sometimes overly hot fire. ;) Thanksgiving day was gorgeous with tons of sunshine. My Aunt and Uncle have their own cabin near by and came for the big feast. Loved Aunt Tami's Chocolate Turtles and I had to go get seconds on my turkey just to go along with all the cranberry sauce I piled on that she made YUMMY!! Her kids are so great and such good helpers with everything, it was really good to see them all. I had fun making the little candy turkeys, a project I wanted to do with the kids and I think they had fun making them as well. Everyone had one on their plates as a tasty decor. You can never replace your mom's good cooking and that is for sure when it comes to my mom! She knows how to put on a feast all topped off with homemade rolls, pies, and that big fat Turkey! Thanks for all the hard work mom it was all so great!

We had family photos at the cabin. I didn't get a copy yet of the entire Thompson Clan but I'm sure I will soon enough. I had to post this one of our family just for the funny Pirate Pose Hayden decided to pull!! What a crazy kid! Grandpa Ron and Grandma Mindy bought new clothes for all the grand kids and fancy new cowboys boots too. Clayton and Hayden had tons of fun wearing them to church last week!

Look how gorgeous it was there!! We had just enough snow to enjoy some sledding on the meadow! The boys had a blast and thought it was fun going down so fast! They thought it was really funny when mom and dad went down together and had a mini snowball fight! Hayden loved going on the snowmobile with Grandpa Ron and said I was a pretty good at sledding, thanks Hayden.

We left early in the morning (Like 5 am) Saturday to go down to Provo to visit Nathan's Grandparents. It was so good to see them and just talk for awhile. Our flight was originally a non-stop flight to Chicago but the airline emailed informing us that we now had a lay over in Denver. Umm, no we purchased a nonstop flight it should be a nonstop flight! So upon me complaining during our baggage check we were then put back on a nonstop flight that arrived in Chicago 2 hours earlier! That's much better thank you very much! Sometime you just have to speak up a bit! The holiday season is upon us and we are trying to get it all done. Hope things are going well for each of you and your families and you are enjoying all the magic there is in the Christmas season!!

SWEET!!

I feel so giddy when I know that I just finished getting a SWEET DEAL!! I try to do lots with coupons but only if it is something that I buy normally or if I get something practically for free. Store brand items are great because usually they still are cheaper then name brands products even after a coupon, but there are exceptions where store brand just doesn't cut it, like saltine crackers, I have to get the Premium Brand and if I am after an OREO it had better be and OREO!! So here is my trip to Walgreens

See what I spent $48.94 See how much I saved $81.38!!!!!!!!!!!

I got all of this for only $48.94 that includes taxes!! The diapers only would have cost close to that much!
The breakdown of what I got:
2 Ocean Spray Cranberry Pomegranate Juice
3 Nestle Semi-Sweet chocolate chips
1 Jif Peanut Butter
1 Smuckers Jam
6 Progressive Soups
2 50FT rolls of wrapping paper
1 ACT TOTAL Mouthwash
2 Kleenex boxes
2 Cover Girl Lip Slicks
1 Maybelline lipstick
2 Rimmel blush
4 instant chocolate puddings
2 strawberry Jellos
4 packages of Huggies Diapers!!

Now this not even close to the deals I here about back in the west, but for Chicagoland its pretty good.

Again matching Items on sale + coupons + Walgreens coupons = me pretty giddy!

Halloween Bash

Halloween is so much fun and this year we hosted a Halloween Bash!! After the must do Trick-or-Treating even in the cold we had some friends come over for some good food and one last trick-or-treating for all the kids to do from each of the families. It is so much fun to see everyone and the awesome costumes that came through our door. Nathan claimed he had on his regular costume which is a nudist on strike but I told him he has to wear a sign that said that for it to count!

My good friend Melissa was a great help for the party and she came Trick-or-Treating along with her hubby and two fun boys Ethan and Blake who were a knight and dragon combo!!I am the accessory to Justin's Costume his Pirate Slave!! Every now and then I think his beak looks like a horn but I still like how it all turned out! His very First Halloween !!

Hayden is the Incredible HULK!! And something happened as soon as we put on his green face...He turned into the Hulk, seriously he thought that he had clearance to smashing everything and use his Hulk hands to do some punchin . That kid cracks me up!

Optimus Prime didn't last too long Trick-or-Treating. It's a little difficult to run to the next house with boxy tire legs. Clay would come to me after getting a treat from the candy bowls and say "Can you help me put this in my bag I can't reach?" Towards the end we had both legs off and one shoulder cap broke off! He loved the costume but I will remember to make sure he can be as mobile as possible next time we go trick-or-treating he he he

Everyone brought really good dishes to share and the kids had fun with their own party tables to eat on in the basement all to themselves. So glad everyone could come and have a good time. Melissa has a great camera that she used to get pictures of the party so we will have to see those later!! Hope everyone had as good of a time as I did!!

This last Saturday Nathan had a big mid-term test in one of his MBA classes. He studied all day Friday for it and like everyone is with test was not looking for to taking it. The test was the first 90 minutes of class and immediately following the test had the rest of the 90 min. for more lectures. And then he still had to attend the other three hour class for the day. Not to mention all these classes are in Downtown so he leaves the house at 6 in the morning and doesn't come home till after 6 at night.

And what did he surprise ME with when he came home??

These beauties!! Flowers from your man are the best!

I love surprises and Nate was so thoughtful with these. He said he knew I was trying to decorate for a get together and thought I might like some more fall colors to use!! And no he did nothing wrong to have to get these for me, he just did, without being asked to which makes them that much more great! Thanks Babe loved them and you!

Project Revealed!

Remember a previous post titled "Project Under Construction"? Well this is what I ended up constructing. Hopefully you said "Whoa awesome Optimus Prime Transformer costume" and not "What is that?"

It's not those cool transformer costumes that actually transform but Clayton loves it and that was the goal. Clay has a Halloween party in his kindergarten class Oct 30 and they wanted the kids to come to school dressed in their costumes. Yeah right I would love to see Clay try to get up the bus steps in this costume ha, so a quick email to his teacher and I will bring his costume to school and help him in it. He will have fun trick-or-treating but he was concerned about keeping his treat bag open for all the candy. It is quite the Boxy costume but for candy I'm sure he will think of a solution!

Completely home-made but that's what make a costume fun right! You got to love spray paints, hot glue gun, and good ole duck tape!

Polly want a cracker???

Is he not just the CUTEST PARROT you have ever seen?? He So is!

I am still trying to make little parrot feet to go over some shoes, but I think the rest turned out pretty good!

Since Justin is a fun parrot, I better slap some pirate getup on. You can't have a parrot without and pirate shoulder to rest, I am his slave after all he he he

You'll just have to wait for Halloween for those pics!

Green Envy

The work it process. . . . Hayden's Hulk shirt turned out awesome!! It was so detailed that I was really worried that it wouldn't turn out at all, not that I would be out much money with the shirt being a whole dollar an all :) but that I sat there and cut out each darn little piece to make it work! And work it DID! SWEET Hayden is planning to be Hulk for Halloween

Finished product!!

And not wanting to waste and mixed green paint I had...

saw a cute frog picture...free hand it on to freezer paper...Justin gets a new shirt...BRILLIANT!

Antique Tractor and Truck Show!!

Love all the expressions!!

Fall is Nathan's favorite time of year, so it's a little sad that he has to be at school all day long every Saturday now. He leaves the house at 6 drives to the train station and heads downtown to University of Chicago campus and has two 3 hour classes to attend before getting on the train again to come home usually at about 7 at night. The boys and I really miss him on Saturdays so we like to find activities we can go and break up the day a little bit and enjoy the fall season and colors. This activity was to the Antique Tractor and Truck show in McHenry. The Patterson's who have two boys Ethan and Blake came too which made it even more fun since all the boys have a great time together. Machine after machine the boys gave us their best engine sounds and actions to driving. They had tractors, cement trucks, excavators, bob cats, 1957 Chevy, semi trucks, and a horse trailer that Clay yelled out "My Grandpa Ron has one of these!! Just like this!!" So much excitement for a trailer filled with cow muck, love it! There was an old barn as well where the boys each made the letter of their names with glue and lots of different kinds of grains, seeds, and beans.

It's not as fun without Nathan there with us, and I'm sure he isn't doing jumping jacks over going to school to get his MBA but these are the things he does for our family to provide for us and make sure we have all that we need. We are so blessed with such a great father, and husband who thinks of his family first and steps up to the plate. We love ya tons! We won't rub our fun times at ya too much :)

Baby Teeth

I don't think I would like someone pulling on my chin either!!

My babe has teeth!! Just a couple of weeks before Justin turned 8 months old he popped two little teeth! This really suprised me because both Clay and Hayden didn't get any teeth until they were almost a year old. Justin really likes to bite down on things now the little munchin!

Freezer Paper project!!

I have seen this done all over and had to try it! I had so much fun with it. Using the freezer paper as the stencil was great especially since you can just iron it on after you have cut out your design.

I used bleach instead of fabric paint on the spider. Since bleach is so messy it was suggested to use a clorox pen hmmmm don't have one of those so I use an extra AQUA DOODLE PEN. Fill it up with bleach instant bleach pen!! I'm going to raid my boys clothes to see what else I can stencil up!!

Trick or Treat bags

I really love any type of holiday so they have become my excuse to do some craft projects. I have made these totes before but I only used 1 place mat folded it in half and made a smaller tote to carry my set of scriptures in. These were done with 2 place mats sewed together lengthwise to achieve that extra length for all those treats that are going to be piled in. I found the place mats at the dollar store!! We had a Do It Yourself class that made it easy to pin down a time to get these done. Although Nathan being Elders Quorum President had some last minute visits to make and still wanting to go to the class especially since Kelley was the instructor for the night (she really knows what she is doing with a sewing machine!!) I took all three of my boys with me. The other ladies, who each have at least 1 daughter of their own, I think got a taste of an all boy house! First it was the discussion of who's bag would be made first. Then they were being all too helpful and wanted to cut ribbon for me and stick it under the sewing machine or stick their fingers to close to the gears. They used my sewing pins to start a mini sword fight which I quickly ended upon hearing the first HI YAW! Kelley was great to take Justin for me and then told the boys how thirsty she was and wanted to see if they could help her find a water fountain! Kids on suggested tasks are always a good thing, keeps them occupied. The totes only take a few minutes if you don't have any interruptions I got the second tote done the next day while Clayton was at school, Justin was asleep and Hayden was fascinated with Popeye! Much better ;)

I am wondering about getting a new sewing machine or at least getting mine a tune up and repairs but if that is going to add up close to what a new one would cost I'd rather go new, so any suggestions? I won't be able to get the fancy of the fancies in a new machine but somewhere in the middle ground would be great! What is a good sewing machine to look at?

Project Under Construction!!

HMMM What will it be????

8 years ago TODAY!

Eight years ago today Nathan and I were married in the Idaho Falls Temple. To celebrate our anniversary we bought new GPS systems to put in each of our cars. To put them to good use we took a drive to Lake Geneva Wisconsin to do some site seeing. I love going for drives in the countrysides and towns to see different types of properties, businesses, and homes each one with their own style to landscaping, design, and use of the grounds located within their property boundaries. We found a big farm stand on the way around the lake that had a really fun hay/straw bale maze for kids to play on. We took our time going in and out of side roads, subdivisions, and scenic routes. Down Main street there are tons of little shops and attractions that you could spend all day at. To the relief of Nate, we wanted to just continue on our site seeing trip. We ended the day off with an ice cream treat at an all too expensive ice cream parlor but it's fun to splurge a little to make it special.
There are so many adjectives I could use to describe how great Nathan is to me as a husband and a father to our children. The one that does stand out is Consistent.

Nathan is consistent in his:

Work----Church callings----studies (spiritual and for school)----love for me----love for his kids---providing for his family----wanting and striving to always do what is right----an anchor and support to me----friendship----eternal companion etc etc etc I am truly blessed to have Nathan as my best friend and husband. Together we are going to be a consistently strong couple day after day!!! I love ya Nate!!!

Family Photos Fall 2009

KINDERGARTEN!!

Clayton's first day of KINDERGARTEN!!

Clayton has PM Kindergarten which means all morning long he is waiting to get onto that bus. He was really excited to start school and showed no signs of ever being nervous. When the bus came I had to pull him back for him to even say bye to me!The Bus comes right to the stop sign two houses down. Clayton's friends are there ready to take the bus ride too! Only mishap of the day was when he came home he still had his snack in his back pack for Snack time. When I asked him what he had for a snack he said pretzels that the teacher gave him. So on the first day of school his teacher thinks he has a slacker mom who forgets his snack, when he had one along inside his bag!! Oh well there probably will be a day or two in the school year where I might forget his snack! :)