Baby Thompson

...and baby makes 6.

Newest Thompson set to arrive May 29, 2012!

40.

40 years of marriage.

Thanks for being great parents and a great example of "seeing it through".

2nd Annual Christmas Baking Extravaganza!

Last year, our first Christmas in SD, pregnant Amy came over with Mayah on one of her days off and we spent all day making and baking Christmas goodies. I think we had around 15 different cookies/snacks, and one big mess!

This year, because Amy is working 5 days a week and I now watch Micah full-time, our schedules were a little fuller but we still made it happen for 2nd Annual Baking Extravaganza.

Addie was a little more manageable this year, but still LOVES anything sweet and so you always have to keep an eye on her. We've barely begun and already she has chocolate on her face! (oh wait, maybe that's Amy's fault for bringing over doughnuts for breakfast!)

First batch...sugar cookies!

(note: Nathan started the day with a bad attitude and opted to not participate).

Amy made a new mix this year. She started by calling it "White Trash Christmas", but then we changed it to just "White Christmas" for obvious reasons. The mix: Crispex, M&Ms, pretzels, and almond bark.

Nathan's attitude changed for the better around peanut butter blossom time. His role was wrapper removal and placing the kiss on the pb cookie.

After several hours, the kids got to roll-out and cut-out the sugar cookies. Always a favorite.

Because we made these 2 weeks before Christmas and were running short of time, we didn't do any decorating this day. Instead they all went in to the freezer.

Overall it was a great success!

We worked from about 9:30 a.m.-4:00 p.m. including clean-up and feeding kids lunch.

The end result was:

1. sugar cookies

2. ginger snaps

3. white Christmas

4. caramel corn

5. peanut butter blossoms

6. peanut butter balls
7. peanut brittle

8. and lots of smiles, laughs (tears, yelling, etc.)

Snow?

I'm definitely not complaining, but so far it's been a mild winter in eastern SD. In fact, our children keep asking "when will it snow!" We've definitely had a few colder days and nights, but they seem to be the exception rather than the norm. This week, we've had rain and 40 degree weather. Yesterday it was a "cold" 30 degrees, but for the weekend they are predicting sunny and 49...49 in mid-December!

I'm hoping it holds out until after Christmas...I'll all for white Christmases and all, but brown Christmas are so much easier to travel in.

We did however get one "snow day". I took these pictures on November 21, so it's been a little while, but it did snow that day.

Here is what we got:

That was all the snow in our yard, but Nathan couldn't stay away from it. He even played by himself in it for a while, mainly making snowballs and throwing them at the house. Ella and Addie joined later, though so far their favorite snow activity is eating it.

So, they had their day of fun, and everyone was a little sad when it was all melted the next day. Since then we have had a few flurries, but nothing that stuck to the ground or you could play in. I tell Nathan it will come soon enough...he says, Let it Snow!

*update: it was actually in the mid-50's over the weekend!

Decorating at Our Home.

After decorating at Mom and Dad's on Saturday, we decided Sunday after church to go pick out our Christmas tree. Our two Christmases in Sioux Falls we have bought our tree from Lewis Drug-not quite the same as Stacey Tree Farm or Linder's in Saint Paul, but I guess the end result is the same. And this year they even had cookies, cider, and reindeer!

We didn't really get much out until after nap time, but the kids were really excited to decorate their tree and see all the Christmas decorations come out of the boxes.

Once again, Ella had to dress up and dance. It's just natural for her-why would you not take all the clothes off of Santa Bear and put them on yourself so you can make up a song and dance around:)

...and the toy story backpack.

(and a band-aid on her head...don't worry it was just a "feel good" band-aid, no actual head injury)

If you're wondering from these last two posts, yes, Ella does dress herself. It's important to her, and she may make a look a little "different"-but as long as it's not a special occasion and she's somewhat weather appropriate, we go with it.

Poor Matt had to try to figure out why one string of lights wouldn't work. We never did quite get it.

All of the kids took turns standing on the chair to put ornaments on. We did have to move things around a little when all was said and done.

I'll have to put up more later- I don't have any after shots of our place either. I was impressed that we didn't break any ornaments while decorating this year. Perhaps a first. However, we did damage one angel wing and a shepherd's staff.

Christmas at Home.

A few months ago, my mom was diagnosed (again) with cancer. Her blood work had been off for a long time, and finally they were able to find something that they could actually point to and treat. She did a round of chemo for a month, but there was no change in her blood work, so she is now on week 3 of a different chemo drug. I'm thankful that she is taking the medication as well as expected, and that with the new medication her numbers are at least moving back towards normal again. She is always so strong and so positive. I'm sure she waivers like us all-I just haven't ever seen it.

One nice thing about being in Sioux Falls is seeing my family more often (though on the flip side, we do see Matt's family less frequently-boo!). And given my mom's treatments we decided to drive up Saturday after Thanksgiving and decorate for Christmas. Since we were working with 3 kids 5 and under and one tired Nana, the theme was definitely keep it simple. But, it was a fun and special time.

My favorite part is taking out all the old boxes that are still the same as when I was growing up. Verda was my grandma.

Here is Ella decorating the tree with a little help from Papa. Of course everyone wanted to put their ornament up high, but I think we got them fairly evenly dispersed.

Not too bad:)

Ella found some "snow" and immediately brought it to me to tie around her so she could be a snow princess. I love that she does this kind of stuff for the sheer joy of it-she's never seeking attention or anything else.

More decorating:

Don't worry-these came home with us.

Besides decorating the tree, we also put up Nana's snowman collection in the bay window-as few as some other odds and ends around the up stairs. Here the kids are prepping the window with some snowflakes.

Unfortunately, I didn't get any "after" shots.

That evening we were able to go out for dinner and catch up with a good friend of mine. It was a blessed day.

Also, notice Matt's not in any pictures? He spent most of the afternoon out hunting. Unfortunately it was very cold and windy and not many pheasants were flying around.

Notes.

A couple of weeks ago, as Matt and I went to get ready for bed we found these on our pillows:

We each got a post-it note from Nathan simply stating Love, Nate.

I don't know where he got the idea that notes go on pillows, but I hope it sticks.

Last week in the morning, he also wrote me these on some old Christmas cards he found, and placed them on my bed.

It reads "Happe Love" "From Nate to Mom"

Ella made me one as well, and even took her own photo of it. Her card says the only thing she currently knows how to write, "Ella":)

eesh, should've closed my closet door.

Thanks Giving.

Though I'm a little late, I'll still report on my favorite holiday-Thanksgiving. We took the week off of school to just focus on the history of Thanksgiving, making Thanksgiving crafts, baking, and of course, giving thanks.

These pictures are in reverse order, but whatever.

Since we can't see all of our family on Thanksgiving, the kids started by making these cards to send to their grandmas and grandpas they wouldn't see, as well as their cousin. The inside says "count your blessing, name them one by one...Count your many blessings see what the Lord has done. " Ella and Nathan both signed their own names. Ironically since Nathan has to write his name more frequently he has started going by Nate:)

They each made cards with their hand print. Nathan did all of his on his own, including the tracing and cutting. This is the one we had left to keep after the others were sent off. For whatever reason the face is a little Picasso-esque.

Throughout the month of November Nathan and Ella also had Thanks and Giving trees. On the thanks tree they recorded what they were thankful for on different colored leaves. On the giving tree they wrote down ways they had given to others. When this started Nathan said his Giving tree was just going to look like winter, but it was surprising how many different things they could come up with!
Here are some of Nathan's Thanks:
Family, Friends, Awana, Bibles, Ovens, RC car, etc.
Some of Ella's Thanks:
Pumpkins, Grandmas, Babies, Micah's smile, Swimming Pool, Mom & Dad, etc.
Their giving trees were similar, they included:
Helping Micah, giving Birthday gifts, Shoebox, Angel Tree, etc.


On Monday, after reading the history of the first Thanksgiving, we made hand print Mayflowers. Here are Ella and Addie's completed projects. Matt took Nathan's to work.

And of course, my little pilgrims.

Nathan actually took quite an interest in the history and may know more than most 5 year-olds. Well at least he did, I haven't asked him about it lately.

Ella because she's Ella refused to have a black Pilgrim hat, and decided instead that blue would be nicer.

We're working on the glue application process, but they still look good:)

For the actual day, we went to Aunt Amy and Uncle Jeremy's to meet with all the Garners. We had a wonderful feast with family followed by lots of cleaning, and talking around the table while looking at ads and planning our next days shopping trip. I'm happy to report that we did not go out at midnight, but rested up to go at 4 a.m., after the rush had passed, and we still got most of what we wanted.

Homes Cool.

School is in full swing and we've been making our way through a new book for Five in a Row each week. The best part is that it makes Mondays exciting. The kids always want to know what the new book will be, and it's way more fun reading it the 1st time then it is the 5th time:)

On a related note, last week Nathan finished his first "Explode the Code" book, (an 11 lesson phonics book; he did book 1), as well as his Saxon K Math book. This book was 112 math lessons for kindergarten, but he started it in pre-school. It wasn't planned, but he finished them both last Friday. So, I told him we could celebrate...Nathan chose Cherry Berry, which didn't disappoint me:) We both have our struggles with school, but I'm so proud of how well he is doing. He's starting Book 2 for Explode the Code (I believe book 1 and 2 are first grade level), and we're continuing with Five in a Row. I've decided that with the extra time we'll be focusing on Thanksgiving this month, and then doing a D-term, as I like to call it; focusing more on art, music, and of course Christmas! Next January will start doing our more traditional schedule again and I'll start 1st grade math.

But anyway, here are some highlights from previous weeks.

One book we read was Madeline. It had great illustrations and was a great intro to Paris and France. On Friday we had "French cousine"day. For lunch we had Croque Mossiures (aka baked ham and cheese sandwiches).

It's not like it was a bold food choice, but all the kids liked it!

oh yeah...and for dessert we made crepes, with chocolate of course. Addie partook moreso in the chocolate than in the crepe.

Yummy...crepes!

Another book we recently read was Mike Mulligan and the Steam Shovel. A classic we've read before so it wasn't new, but it's a favorite so they enjoyed reading through it again. Friday, Matt and Nathan did an experiment to demonstrate the power of steam using a homemade pinwheel and a tea pot. It wasn't perfect-but it worked...the steam coming out of the tea pot spun the pinwheel!

Tent TIme.

These were taken about a month ago-notice Nathan is wearing shorts and a t-shirt...wait he still wears that now, and I have to tell him to change so that we can actually go out some days. Nonetheless, we've had many beautiful fall days. In the empty lot next to use there are some weeds that are about 6 1/2 feet tall. In the spring and summer they were green, but once fall came they turned very stick like. All of the kids, especially Nathan, loved to "harvest" the sticks and make different things with them (one day we even painted them). Nathan had the idea that we should build a house.

Daddy stepped in and made it a little more doable, and together they made this:

Their own little teepee made from the sticks, an old blanket, and the rope that one of them made at the Ingalls Homestead.

Everyone loved playing in it-but it was a one-night wonder. The next morining we woke up to find all the sticks laying on the ground and the blanket in the neighbor's yard. Should've known it couldn't handle the SD wind!