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!