Tristyn a.k.a. "The Thomson Diva"

Watch out world...look what Tristyn got for Christmas!!

Landon's Legos

I think that my years of playing Legos and K'Nex (instead of Barbies and dolls) and my four years of drafting in high school finally paid off. I was able to build this Star Wars space ship for Landon in 2 hours!

Even though I have played Legos a lot, I don't remember ever going by the directions...now I know

why. You need years of drafting class just to understand all the diagrams. It's a total pain..not too mention, I'm sure will fall apart as soon as he really starts playing with it. I told my dad we should have put it together with super glue!

I must be getting old though because my back still hurts. It was fun though, my dad and I sat on their kitchen floor and built it together. Even though it was a pain, the look on Landon's face when I showed it to him was worth it all. I think he was pretty impressed that his mom new how to figure that out!

James

MERRY CHRISTMAS JAMES!!!!!!

As with everyday of our lives, James presence is always missed, but today..it was missed more than ever.

This week, two years ago, was the beginning of a very difficult time in our families lives. Sometimes it feels like yesterday, and sometimes it feels like forever, that I last held him. I know he is happy and healthy in the arms of Jesus, but sometimes that doesn't stem the pain. Just a little warning....because we are in the midst of the holidays and the anniversary of James' passing, there may be several more "James" posts.

Steve (the snake) Update

Here is our boy. "Crikey, isn't he a beauty?" We sure think so. Everyone did (and probably still does) think we are so strange to get Steve for Landon but our whole family is in love with this guy. He is so very docile and calm. He enjoys exploring who ever is holding him or he loves to just curl up and take a nap on your lap. Sound like fun anyone?? :)

Sisters

These are the moments I cherish. The times when Tristyn needs her big sister and Kyleigh is there for her. Kyleigh is so good about looking out for Tristyn and trying to help her feel better. I don't remember why she was upset all I remember is that she needed her sister.

Tristyn's Gingerbread House

Every year Tristyn's preschool does a morning of making gingerbread houses. It's a lot of fun, although this year Tristyn was not really interested.

But, she did enjoy her big bowl of candy and large jar of frosting. We did manage to use up a lot of her candy but I think most of it ended up in her tummy!

The finished product!

Playing for Grandpa

This is my Grandpa Lew. I am blessed to have him as one of my grandpas (my other one is awesome too!). He is one of the sweetest, kindest men that I know. Kyleigh & Madi had a band concert the other night but Grandpa is not able to attend and asked if the girls could come play for him.

We went over there on Tuesday and Kyleigh & Madi played their Christmas songs, and even figured out a few of their own tunes. We had a great time and Grandpa was thrilled with their progress since the beginning of the year.

I even learned that Grandpa has played just about every instrument out there, has been in several bands and would practice the clarinet for hours just to get out of his chores.

This reminds me of when me and my best friend played in the band. I played the clarinet and she played the flute. We always had fun "practicing".

Kicking the Habit

I'm finally doing it. I'm kicking the Pepsi habit. Before I go on, I'll let you get back up on your chair so you can keep reading. It has been a long and difficult process but has been helped greatly by drinking large amounts of green tea. It still has caffeine in it but is better for you. Consequently, I have not had such bad headaches or mood swings and for that I am thankful! I now allow myself only one Pepsi a day during my lunch hour. What has turned into an eight a day habit is now down to only one and I see so many benefits. So far I feel more "me" (that is hard to explain), I was very dependent on when I would get my next "fix" and I don't feel that way any more. I can start my day without the need to run to the fridge for the pop. Every day I would feel so drained and exhausted and I don't feel that way any more. I have a lot more energy and I am definitely not drained and exhausted.

My next two goals are to start eating more healthy and to start exercising.

Sadness

It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Kyleigh's favorite pet, Henry. Last night when we went to bed, Henry had passed away. He was a great hamster and we are all very sad.

But, thanks to Kyleigh's Aunt Bethany & Uncle Darrel, she has already been given a new hamster for Christmas. So, in the next few days we will have to post a picture of the "new one". He/She does not have a name yet. So far, Kyleigh is thinking of either Henry, Jr. or Henrietta...but, we'll have to wait and see.

A Great Story Behind This Face

Today was the day of decorating our tree and, of course, like every other family we tell a lot of stories about our ornaments. Who they are from, what we remember about them, why we like them, etc.


Kyleigh pulled this one out and asks what the story is behind it. So, for the first time, I tell her. This is an ornament that mom found Christmas 1995..the year Kyleigh was born.


I am putting a close up down below but as you can tell, it's based on the Pooh movies where he gets stuck in Rabbits house. Rabbit is trying to push Pooh out and Tigger & Piglet are on the other end pulling.

After I had Kyleigh, and was still in the hospital, Dan brought me a balloon that had this exact scene on it which said..."While Rabbit pushed and pushed, Tigger & Piglet pulled and pulled!"


Pretty appropriate, don't ya think???

The First Snow of the Season

Tristyn's look is exactly how I feel when I see the first storm of the year. And, this is how Tristyn looks after a day of no nap and Landon "innocently" beams her with a snowball!!

I have to admit to being a total snow scrooge...I have absolutely nothing good to say about it..it's cold, it's wet, it messes with my day...oh, and did I mention how cold I am?

My kids on the other hand love it! Dan took them out to play for an hour last night when it really started to fall.

They had a great time! And, I was inside enjoying the wood stove!

Thanksgiving Traditions

I forget that the first blog I do will end up being the last blog you read. So, these series of posts are out of the order I wanted them to be in. Anyway, I'm doing a series of posts rather than all at once because I'm afraid the format would get all messed up like they did with Landon's zoo post. We had a great Thanksgiving and I really hope that all of you did too.





One of our favorite traditions is playing games on Thanksgiving. Here's Kyleigh playing truth or dare Jenga.





Dan thinking up his next move.







Dan's dare: blow a raspberry on someone's tummy. The best tummy...Madi.








Kyleigh is learing to play chess in school so she challenged Dad to a duel.





Our favorite Thanksgiving game is Uno. This year we really missed playing with Uncle Bob! Don't worry Uncle Bob, I got picked on enough but I'm sure next year you will make up for lost time. We always have so much fun.

Thanksgiving Dinner

Here's our dinner!








Tristyn loves those olives.







Madi eating mashed potatoes.







Allie loves her dinner.

Thanksgiving

I am going to do a series of posts on our Thanksgiving. When I tried to do all my pictures at once for Landon's zoo trip it did not turn out...so, I will do this differently.

First, here are some of my favorites from the day.

The last picture is Dan with Bethany's husband Darrel. They are having a great time! :)

Here's some more!

I guess you can tell that I loved taking pictures of my nieces today! It's not often that we all get together. In fact, I can't remember the last time that Bethany, Katie & I had our picture taken together.

We haven't had a family picture taken in 4 years.

Amazing Friendship

Best friends..what would you do without them?? Here is Kyleigh with one of hers. This is Madi (she has several other wonderful names in our house, but we'd better not go there!)



Kyleigh & Madi are a total blast to be around. There is NEVER a dull moment. They are total jokesters and have you laughing constantly. I can't tell you how much fun we all have had watching their friendship grow into something amazing!



They are playing American Idol on the playstation...I'm not sure what Madi's face is all about but I'm sure she'll love that I'm putting her online! Love ya Madi!

Landon's Day

This was a great weekend. It started off with friends over on Friday night and then Landon and I off to Portland on Saturday. We stayed with some friends that we haven't spent time with in 2 years and it was wonderful..despite the bedtime mishaps! :) It was great to reconnect, and this time we won't let two years go by!

Sunday was all about Landon. He hasn't had much mommy time, so this was his day. We had a reptile class at the zoo. We left our friends house around 10:30 and headed to the zoo. It was POURING down rain, but we had an amazing time. Here are a few pictures of our day.

Landon had a blast playing and walking around in the rain.

This is what you look like after you have wandered the zoo for over an hour, in the rain, and attempting to take the picture yourself - LOL!!!!

The zoo was awesome today because there were no people, despite the rain it was not cold and the animals were out, which is such a treat! I'll add a couple pics of the animals, but my camera doesn't do them justice.

This is "Fred" the Peacock. His name is not officially Fred, but for some reason this is the name that our kids have given him. Fred roams the grounds and the kids love searching for him. Today he was striking a pose and loved having his picture taken.

This a the Nile Monitor...one of our favorite animals.

Here are the Mearcats. They were hiding in their burrow today, I guess they didn't want to be out in the rain.

After we wandered the grounds for about 1 1/2 hours (in the rain!) we headed to his class. Here are the pictures from his class.

Here's Landon starting on his turtle.

Cutting out the legs, head and tail.

The finished product!

Landon learned about Tortoises, Turtles, Bearded Dragons and Snakes. He was able to touch them all and ask as many questions as he could think of.

After all that walking around it was time for a snack!

Here's Landon learning how a snake sheds his skin! This was too funny and he wasn't able to get out until a friendly blackberry bush (a.k.a. his teacher) came and rescued him!

What a great weekend...I am so thankful to my mom who watched the girls for me. Tristyn even did a great job without mom. I have a cute picture of her that I will add later.

Okay, for some reason the formatting is totally off..I don't know how to fix it so this post looks really bad! Sorry! I will keep trying to figure it out.