Esther the Innkeeper

Esther had her preschool program yesterday. It was, of course, adorable. She had two lines and she did both with great enunciation and volume. She played one of the innkeepers in the Nativity portion of the program and was brilliant as she waved her hands and said, "We have no room!!" It was really cute to hear her practice that and all her songs for her program. I think it might have a break-down when she starts kindergarten next Fall. It's going by too FAST!

Isaac--4 months old!!

Things have been so crazy I almost forgot to take pictures today of Isaac. I can't believe how fast this time of year flies by! Here are some pics of my happy little (big) guy. He has smiles for everyone and laughs for most. He is getting so big even John struggles to carry the baby/carseat combo. Isaac is starting to get grabby much to my dismay--I've already lost a significant amount of hair but fortunately no earring incidents. His nicknames this past month: Chubber Bubbers, Chubs, Bubbers, and more I.Z. We should probably come up with something more street friendly... or just start calling him Isaac more. We definitely can have him growing up thinking his name is Chubs! But it is really cute to hear Esther talk baby talk and call him Chubs over and over. His nights are getting better--three nights all through the night this past week. Wahoo!


Got to have a cute diaper picture. It makes me sad how much older he looks.

Here's Isaac's new discovery--his tongue--he loves sticking it out and sucking on his upper lip.
This has also led to larger drool patches on his shirts and pajamas.

Here's my cute mom with Issac and Lucy at Esther's preschool program. He loved it!

And this isn't Issac--but I had to include a picture of Lucy with her cat ears and this time a hat in addition! She was SO mad we wouldn't let her wear this to church.

December Highlights and Lowlights

I guess I should start with the lowlights of the month:

-cold and lots of snow (especially driving in it)
-our garage stopped working
-still haven't found a coat
-major problems with static for Thompson girls' hair
-since telling Esther about Santa's "coal" policy she is frequently telling Lucy to do things or she's only going to get a rock or coal for Christmas.
-losing my camera cord (subsequently no pics)
-the snow--yes I mentioned it twice


Now the good stuff which fortunately there is a lot more!

-building a snowman with the girls (unfortunately it melted before we could get a picture)
-Isaac's new fascination with his tongue
-Winning $45 dollars to Target at John's work party (pretty awesome for people who never win things)
-Esther asking last night if Santa was going to come while she was "peeing" (sometimes at night she gets up to use the restroom)
-Lucy asking if Santa was going to "barf" since he lives so far away and has to travel so long (yes, she still LOVES to talk about barf)
-Having a neighborhood food drive instead of neighbor gifts
-Going to my cousin's basketball game (she plays for Weber)--the girls got pom-poms and LOVED every second of it!
-Listening to Christmas music (always a favorite)
-Shopping for Christmas gifts for the girls (much to John's dismay)
-Eating candy cane hershey kisses or drinking hot chocolate floats (hot chocolate with peppermint ice cream--yummmm)
-Lucy wanting to wear a cat ears headband everywhere!
-Making sugar cookies and decorating them as a family
-Esther looking for chimneys on all the houses as we drive around and asking endless questions about Christmas, Santa, Jesus, and anything else on her mind

This whole month has to be my favorite time of year!!!

Go BYU!

Yesterday was the big BYU/UTAH game. Isaac was so excited he insisted on wearing his BYU onesie.

I think he was just as excited about the game as he was about fitting both hands in his mouth.

He just loves those appendages!!

The girls love cheering for BYU and pretending to watch the football game (mostly Esther). This game Esther even drew a football picture for John. If you look close you can even see a blue uniform and if you look even closer you might notice the football!

We are glad that BYU won! Even if it was mostly for John's sake!! John wishes I had a little more enthusiasm so here's my effort: GOOOOOOOOOOOOO COUGARS!!! WAHOO!!!

Gingerbread Houses

Every year my Aunt makes a bunch of gingerbread houses and has her family over to decorate them. She kindly invited us this year and Esther was so excited about the event she brought me a paper and asked me to write it down so that we make sure we won't forget. Saturday morning at 10.
We each did a house and we thought we were pretty good until we saw my cousins do theirs (they've been at this competition a lot longer). I wish I had pictures of their houses! Ours were pretty good.

Here is John's house. You can tell he put a lot of effort into it (ha ha ha). He awarded himself with the best roof but as you can see in the next picture his house did not qualify.


This is my gingerbread house with the lovely rice chex roof. My fruit tree on the side was awesome until one of the orange runts fell off. Notice the especially aweome marshmallow (snow) ground.

Lucy had a great time. She even exclaimed at one point, "This is a fun day!!!" I guess our normal days are not quite so "fun." Lucy's house turned out as any 2 year-old's house might (an assortment of candy haphazardly placed all over the house with half the decorative candy in the belly rather then on the house).

Lastly, here's is Esther's creation. She saw my cousin carefully cute up oreas and layer them on his roof like tiles so she though she would attempt the oreo roof as well. Fortunately, nobody has to live in this house because it looks like it just came through a Candyland hurricane. Of course, I still think it's adorable and she was so ecstatic when she found out that we even got to take our houses home!!!

The girls had a fantastic time decorating their houses and then playing with my cousin's little girls. It was a perfect Saturday, especially after BYU won. Everyone in the Thompson family was perfectly content!!

Esther's blog

One day Esther worked really hard on coloring a bunch of paper and then asked for some magnets. When she was done she brought me to the fridge and showed me her "blog". I told her it was a really great blog. She even updates it from time to time.

Thanksgiving

We had a nice Thanksgiving at my mom and dad's house with some aunts, uncles and cousins. I love the holidays because we have a good excuse to get together with lots of family or friends and it is always so great to see them and catch up! The sad thing is I only have a few pictures from Thanksgiving--not of our feast or large table set up for 24 people either...

This is what the girls did after they ate. They LOVE Great Grandpa Hess! They somehow persuaded him to play Candyland with them--although I don't think they gave him much of a choice and since he isn't very quick on his feet any more there was probably no getting away from these two persistent girls.

I'm so glad they have been able to spend lots of time around my Grandpa Hess. They always bring him books to read with them too--and once again since he's the sitting target there's no getting out of it. He is so sweet to them!

The adults played some games after dinner too--we had a couple good rounds of Mafia.

I love Thanksgiving because the whole month I am reminded to be more grateful. My mom wanted us to all text her every day about something we were grateful for. As a family, we decided to mention something we were grateful for at dinner time (an idea from our family friends that do it all the time, not just November). I know I have so much to be thankful for(my family, my health, a great husband, the cutest chubby baby boy, two sweet silly girls, and the list goes on and on...) and I hope I do better at remembering that all year round.

Lucy Laughs

"Mommy, aren't I so adorable? I have arms and legs and..."

In the car yesterday we were playing I spy. Lucy just couldn't grasp the concept of the game.

"I spy wis' my little eye... a tree!!!"

"I spy wis' my little eye... Mommy--the best girl ever I luv!" (I didn't even prompt her!)

Then this morning on the bed the girls were expressing their love as they often do. Lucy said, "I love Mommy and Daddy... but not strangers right? And mean guys!!!"

Lately, Lucy loves to play memory and candy land. The funny thing is she calls it "Mary." So yesterday, before we understood this, we were really confused when she kept yelling, "I lost Mary!!! I lost Mary!!!"

Lastly, Lucy LOVES wearing pajamas. In the morning there are often threats when I try to get her to get dressed. She always pleads to stay in her pj's by saying, "But I'm SUPER COZY!" I don't know where she got that phrase but now we say it all the time just to laugh. At night Lucy wears two pairs of pajamas--one warm pair as the first layer (since we insist on it because a windmill sleeper never keeps her blankets on) and then her Ariel nightgown over it. She loves loves loves Ariel--especially on her pajamas.

Isaac--3 MONTHS OLD!!!

Our sweet baby boy is 3 months old today. We just love this little guy. He is so easy! Today at church he fell asleep during the first meeting and then slept for the rest of church (two hours!) Isaac is so mellow--he takes after his daddy and I'm so glad. As long as he's fed and well-rested he is a smiley little boy. He doesn't sleep through the night every night but most nights he is pretty good. I can't complain. Isaac LOVES baths, swaddling, and little tickles from Mommy and Daddy. He is starting to have little giggles-that is the best!

He is starting to get really heavy to carry in the carseat! I think he is definitely out-weighing the girls at this age. I have to stop and have little rests if I'm carrying the seat far.

We love this little hat on Isaac--so adorable and it just makes us laugh! (Thanks Cori!)

Here's our happy boy hanging out in his birthday suit plus diaper.

Here's our serious Isaac contemplating his maple leaf robeez.

It doesn't get any cuter than this...

Bobby

The girls have come up with their own curse word--"Bobby." That's what they call each other when they are mad. Occasionally, they even have called mommy or daddy a "Bobby!" So we've had to ban the word "Bobby" on principle. There's just no name-calling in the Thompson house... even if it's a harmless odd name like Bobby. The question is where in the world did they get that????

Snow Amateurs

The girls were elated when we got our first ground-sticking snow yesterday. They got dressed and then waited and waited until we told them they could go out and play (it was snowing really hard for a long time so we wanted them to wait until it let up a bit). Esther thought her swim goggles would give her sufficient protection from the snow in her face--my girls are snow amateurs--this is their first real winter. I think they will love it but it might be a little tough on Mommy and Daddy who aren't huge fans of cold and snow.

Here are the girls, goggles and all, ready to go play. A couple hours later they did.

Here is the first attempt at a snowman. The snow was obviously not good packing snow.

This is Esther's pleading/whining face wanting Daddy to come out and play!

After searching moving boxes for forty minutes all we could come up with was one girly red glove or some thin brown gloves with a couple moth holes. We still aren't ready for this snow/cold/winter stuff. Daddy was a champion and went out with the brown gloves anyway. The girls were in heaven!

Funny Ones

I wish I could remember everything that the girls say that makes me laugh.

On Saturday Lucy said, "Daddy, I feeling sick. Feel my tummy." Both Mommy and Daddy had to feel her tummy to "check" for sickness. Everything "seemed" okay!

The other day when we went to Walmart we saw a car dropping off two missionaries. Esther said, "I didn't know their mission was in Walmart!!"

Lucy loves puzzles. I sat down by one of her unfinished puzzles one day to nurse the baby and Lucy said, "Mommy, you can do the puzzle if you want." I said, "Thanks." And she replied, "But no sanks?" We can't get enough of how she says her "th". For example, when she tells us she is "sirsty" or when she yells, "Esther, come wis' me!!!" Love that girl.

John took the girls to a movie on Saturday. When the lights were going down Lucy couldn't take it any more and said to him, "Daddy, I'm SO EXCITED!!!"

Their simple pleasures are so endearing. It's one of the best parts of being a mom or dad.

A Sugary Halloween

Wow.. we had quite the Halloween. And not all our "celebrations" were on the 31st. It was a week of festivities (kid festivities--it's a kid holiday really). Here is our Halloween in pictures...

Lucy and Esther at a trunk or treat--we wanted them to get some good practice in for the "real" trick or treating run... get their bodies ready for all that sugar. Actually, our friends invited us and we thought it would be fun to hang out and there was no question the girls would love it.

There were a few scary costumes there but Lucy put on her brave face and went for for the prize (the candy). They got a ton of loot! And then hot chocolate after that!

This is at a Halloween play group with some of my friends. My friend put on a very festive playgroup--amazing--this is Lucy-very concentrated on putting foam stickers on her pumpkin.
Look at that focus!!!

Finally, she could take a small pause and smile for the camera!

Esther actually put a foam sticker face on her pumpkin! She is growing up so fast!

Scary plastic purple teeth and beautiful princess crowns!

Esther's preschool Halloween performance

Our scary skeleton baby boy.

Our warmer cute snuggly bear boy.

Lulu and Esther couldn't be happier as they begin real Halloween trick-or-treating.

Isaac could care less about this holiday... just you wait buddy.

Isaac caring so little about Halloween he's decided to take a snooze.

Lucy with her loot... once again no time for smiles.

Esther a little more composed with her candy pile due to the large succor in her mouth.

The girls had a great time, most of the time, trick-or-treating. Around the fifth house or so Lucy had a big spill and scratched her hand. It was bleeding but the thought of us putting a bandaid on her brought more screams then the actual fall. I don't know how both our girls developed a fear of bandaids. Anyway, Esther mostly ran from house to house and Lucy was a few houses behind most of the time. She kept yelling for Esther to "Come wis' me Esther!!!" but that didn't happen until it got dark and we forced Esther to slow down. The last few houses Lucy cried every time she got up to the step because of "scary pumpkins" but really I think she was completely exhausted. It's pretty fun to watch my kiddos have such an EXCITING time trick-or-treating. It's just adorable how purely happy they are--I need to be more like that.

Love my job

I just have to say I have the best job in the world... even though sometimes at night when I brush my hair there are major snarls and stiffness due to dried up baby barf. Love it.

AAAAAaagh!!!!

One of the worst feelings in the world is making one small mistake that can cost a large amount. Today, in a moment of O.C.D. and a moment of "worrying about burning my house down while I'm gone" I made one of those mistakes. I was in the car ready to back out and head to Costco when I had the nagging feeling that I should run back in and check to make sure I unplugged my flat iron (this drives John CRAZY--because I always get that nervous feeling and have to check something and it's always unplugged or turned off). When I hopped out of the car I did not realize the car was still in "DRIVE" and with my body straddling the car seat it continued to move forward. I panicked and froze for a few seconds too long. The car (like it was in slow motion) rolled right into the stairs leading to the back door of the house. Unfortunately, there was a couple of expletives and I finally found the STINKING brakes several seconds TOO LATE! This is when I wish my life was like my DVR so I could rewind just a minute and not inflict major scratches and a slight dent on the front bumper of my car. Alas, to be human is to err.... or something like that. I just have to keep telling myself the same thing I tell my girls: "Accidents happen." I'm glad I have a very patient husband who is excellent at repairs (the plywood stairs did not fare very well either).

Not ready for the snow...

John and I are realizing more and more how much more stuff you need for the winter. We haven't "done" winter in about six and a half years so we are very unprepared. Since it snowed today a little bit I did pick up a shovel at Costco. I really haven't bought a warm winter coat since right before I went to London for the semester. That was almost nine years ago... wow.
I also need to get some winter boots. I'm not a big shoe person--if I can wear flip flops that is generally what I go with but when there is snow on the ground, sandals just aren't feasible. What about snow pants? Do I have to get snow pants for my girls? We always had them growing up here in Utah(although I was generally wearing my brothers' hand-me-downs). It's a whole new expensive world living in a place that has a real winter.

2 Months Old

Time is flying--Isaac is already 2 months old and don't worry, he's also fifteen pounds. I think he heard his Daddy talking about him playing BYU football and he's trying to look the part. Either that, or he's gearing up to be a pumpkin for Halloween. Let's just say he is so squeezable and fun to snuggle. Isaac is having lots of smiles now--even for his smothering sisters. He is a really easy going baby--I can't complain. The girls like to call him I.Z.

Mommy getting in a good squeeze--I've got to do lots of snuggle now because five years down the road he may start shying away from the Mommy cuddles.

Love my happy boy--and yes, he is off the charts for his weight although surprisingly only in the 75th percentile for height! He is healthy and a mellow little (big) guy.

Good Smile!

I finally got a good picture of Isaac smiling, and of his monstrous kissable, squeezable cheeks!

Wedding Weekend

Over the weekend my big brother Jacob got married. We couldn't be happier for him. We LOVE his bride, Monique. The wedding was beautiful and the reception, although a little cold, was lovely as well. I'm glad my mom had the foresight to get a few patio heaters and to add hot chocolate to the menu. I wish I had some pictures to post of the reception because it really turned out nice. Unfortunately, my camera battery died and I didn't get very many pictures.

Esther was THRILLED with all the events of the day. She loves her Uncle Jake and now Auntie Monique. She was really impressed with the flowers too--who wouldn't be--they were done by the flower shop in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building (where I used to work).

It's so amazing these two are so much a like. I'm glad they fianlly found each other. Welcome to the family Monique!

Silly Kiddos

This is Lucy's third change of the day. She's been especially excited about her clothes since we pulled out hand-me-downs from Esther's winter box. You should have seen Lucy's face--it was like Christmas morning. Unfortuately, she came up with this combo this afternoon--should I let her go outside wearing this? I think I'm too lazy to make her change... who says black stripes don't go with a little bit thicker black stripes anyway?

I have one silly bunch of kiddos--except for Isaac. He's nothing but serious--I don't think a little face can be any more serious...

Nana comes for a visit!!!

We got to have Kathleen come visit this past weekend and we had so much fun! We all got to relax and enjoy General Conference weekend together, but we also had time for a little shopping, visiting, and of course, the famous Sour Cream Chocolate Cake.

Here is Isaac with his beautiful Nana quilt. He was so happy he smiled!!! I've been trying to get a picture of him smiling (he's been doing it for a couple weeks) but every time he starts to get grumpy when I get out the camera or the flash is too overpowering for him to handle so he stops smiling. Now I finally got one!! And it's blurry!!! Someday soon...

The girls LOVED having Nana visit--not just because she bought them adorable Halloween costumes either (Esther loves hers so much she HAD to take it to Show and Tell at preschool). They loved snuggling, chatting, performing their dance moves, and playing-especially the competitive game of Candyland (even with Lucy's cheating--hopping all around the board!).

We so enjoyed our visit with Kathleen. Thank you for everything--dinner, the gifts, the chats--and most of all just for coming such a long way! We wish you lived closer!

P.S. We have your coat and we'll bring it at Christmas! Can't wait to see you again soon!