Happy Birthday JoJo!!!

Today, my little man turned 5!!! I cannot believe that he is that old. He had come into our room at about 2:30 this morning to ask if it was his birthday yet. Here are some photos of the big guy through out the years. January 19, 2005 January 19th, 2006 January 19th, 2007 January 19th, 2008 I thought it was funny that he was wearing the same shirt the prev year!

January 19th, 2009

January 19th, 2010

The Primary gives each of the kids a 'birthday cake in a cup' kit... I let him make his for breakfast today, he liked it. :) Check out the curl fro he's been sporting. It looks better when it has been styled... he refuses to let me cut it! This is him on Sunday, when we had our usual birthday crowd over. I made him an Optimus Prime bust cake. The Optimash Prime Potato head made a fantastic addition. Note Han Solo on his shoulder... as per request by Joseph.

The Nerf Vulcan gun they got him. That thing is massive, fast and may weigh as much as he does... and it is awesome! Who wouldn't want an automatic shooter with it's own tripod?! Putting it into action....

Here is a video of the gun in action, Daddy was brave... note his hand placement though.

Happy Birthday to my little love! I have loved spending each day with you, and can't believe how big you have grown.. and more than just physically.

Our Christmas Adventure

When we planned this Holiday Season, we thought that would would just stay here and relax and have our own little Christmas at our own home this year... so we thought! It was about noon on Wed. the 23rd, we were on our way out the door to go have lunch when we got a call from our Brother in Law. Preston's Dad hasn't been feeling too hot lately and the rest of the family was there in Salt Lake. I had a panic attack when we all of the sudden, instead of going out for burgers, found ourselves packing the car with the clothes we found and our presents and headed for Salt Lake. We had toyed with the idea of riding the "Polar Express" line here in Boise to go to the North Pole to see Santa that day... but instead our train was a white minivan, and our destination was North Point Estates.

We got there just in time for the Thomson Christmas Party. We had fun, esp watching the Utes play in the Poinsettia Bowl (and winning...). Christmas Eve was fun, we just hung around, Thurston helped me make cookies and we decorated them while Preston watched football and JoJo played XBox. Everyone already had plans, so we came up with our own last minute dinner... Frozen dinners by candlelight!

The picure came out fuzzy, but I thought I looked better that way......We opened our token Christmas Eve Jammies and then got to open one more present. I opened mine from the boys, and they opened theirs from each other. Preston got to open the Helmet and display case before we left, so he was good. I got an adorable Diamond journey necklace, and the boys got (of course) Transformers.

This is Preston's giddy face... didn't want to pack it on the trip, so he got his early... he was super stoked!

We all slept in the Den, which had it's own fireplace (which the boys were very excited about). I awoke the next morning with JoJo right in my face yelling "MOM!!! Santa came and he brought be MEGATRON!!!" Please note the extra large stockings... we forgot ours, so Pres ran to the $1 store and found these. We have 5 of them now, and feel it only appropriate to make them the standard stockings for our family. I have a year to put our names on them.

We had our own little fun time, then headed downstairs with the rest of the family to open gifts. It was a fun unexpected Christmas that we enjoyed. It was neat having all of his family together, and it really meant a lot to his parents. I swelled like crazy from the drive and haven't gotten rid of it, but other than that it was great.

This is JoJo, Thursty and Jocelyn trying to wake up Cassie for Presents

When we got home, Sunday I made us our Christmas Eve dinner, complete with the Chocolate Lava cake. and ooohh, my! They were delicious!

And now, what year of adventures awaits us... like say, oh, a little girl!??!!

....this is me at 32.5 weeks

Nice Rack

I'm on a roll here... take 2 weeks to post and I put 3 on in one day! This one is kinda lame, but was proud of my work. The boys didn't really have a place to put their jackets and I was tired of always being the one who put them up and took them out of the closet... and then when they were all wet, we just threw them in the laundry room. So I went to Target and picked up a rack and cheap shoe shelf, moved some stuff around and now our laundry room is a little mud room too! Now the boys can take care of their own jackets with out them being on the floor! woohoo! And of course I needed to switch the artwork to make it all better. I had a frame I purchased awhile back that was too large... but has now found a home. The photo is an old photo of ladies scrubbing laundry.Here are some other prints I found. I have to say I feel like high fiving myself. Last year I did a faceless painting of the Mona Lisa (so you can stick your head in the canvas and take a photo). The boys had destroyed it, so I ripped off the canvass and painted the frame black. I had a mat from another frame, and a frame backing from a frame I used for a painting. I painted the backing black, pasted the print on that, then assembled it and nailed it together! I recycled the black frames from prev projects and cut my own mattes from card stock on the other 2 prints. Now, at one point I did pay money for the original items, but for this particular project, it cost me $00.00!!! :) They are all pictures of doing laundry. My favorite is the large one... there is a crab attacking the garment. :)This last photo is Thurston. I sat down to update the blog and he yelled "Hey Mommy, take a picture of me!" and then he posed...

Singapore goodies

I meant to post this last week when Preston came home, but it's been a busy week! He brought us all some goodies from Singapore! Here are a couple of treasures: This is a hand painted watercolor scroll. It's gonna look fabulous in my dining room... we both wish he had picked up a couple more! This is my Dress he picked up. I have been wanting one for a long time, and he has wanted me to have one for a long time as well. It's a little short, but I think it will do! Now I just need to have a baby and loose all the fat so I can wear it!

This one is my absolute favorite. This one is for Aleah! Ahhh! Soooo adorable!!!!

He also got me some smaller vases and a bracelet. The boys got solar powered waving cats! They are hilarious and yes, Thurston has already broken his. Preston got himself a Merlion (the symbol of Singapore) statue. It's actually really cool looking.

He loved his time over there and would jump at the chance to go back. We missed him like crazy and he missed us too. He said that if they ever offered him a year transfer over there, he would take us there in a heart beat. He said it is so clean, safe and full of culture from everywhere. Someday I think I would like to go with him too!

Snow and Treasures

We had another good snow storm last week, this time with Preston here. It wasn't the best snow for a snowman (too powdery), but they did manage to build an awesome snow chump. It was basically a pile of snow with snowman characteristics. They had fun.Thurston LOVES carrots, and will go through a bag of them before I realize it, so when I go to cook them, they are gone. Sadly, some fall by the way side and go bad with out me knowing it. In this case, it worked out great, our snow chump man had a long, skinny bendy nose!Here are the boys with Jazz, the Snow-chump-pile-man. Cute, eh?We had our Christmas Party with our friends last night. While we were getting ready, we put on "A Very Monkey Christmas" (Curious George). Below is one of the many reasons why I love George... he does this to my kids:The party was a blast and Preston scored some sweet presents. Below you will see a photo of some of the finest things money can buy... not one, but 2 collegiate snuggies, AND featuring on TanTo the dog, the Snuggie for Dogs. Preston's other prize was a Lady Gaga CD. (WoW, she's horrible.. I thought so before, but now I can testify to it with an educated opinion)... Bill is holding his big prize of the night... it is for a fancy picnic. He has in his hands a box of pink Walmart wine, complete with easy cheese and generic cheese crackers. Classy! What is not featured here are the bendy straws that came with the box o wine. Preston and Kim (the lucky girlfriend of the man holding the box o wine) had a Mt Dew drink off. They had 5 minutes to chug a 2 liter of Dew. Preston finished his in less than 3 minutes. But Kim held her own. Had it not been for the 3 or more previous Mt Dew's that day, (or the pasta right before)... she may have been able to beat him. The best was when she had to borrow my maternity sweats! Sadly, I did not get pictures of the said event, but I know someone did, so I may have to get a few of those shots.

It was fun.

Snow!!

The boys were VERY excited to wake up to snow this morning. Joseph's first response was

"Now we can make snow angels!" and then he said "And we don't have to drive anywhere today!" (little did I know I forgot to turn in a video at the library and was informed later of a fine I accrued today!!) But it was worth the 50 cents to spend the day in our jammies!

We went outside and had some fun. This year both the boys have adequate snow clothes, so it took them a long time to want to come it, we were out there an hour! I got the side walks and driveway all shoveled while they played.

After they were worn down, we came inside for cookies and hot cocoa. The rest of the day we just kind of bummed around in our jammies and made cookies and watched Santa Claus is Coming to Town. A great day! Just wish Preston was here. :/

cookie makin' and booty shakin' kind of Sunday

It was one of those cold Sundays in December, where all you want to do is make cookies and shake your booty! And that is just what we did! It was a lot of fun. Preston is over in Singapore this week, so we are missing him like crazy, and wish he was here for the fun. Here is how we break it down in the Thomson house, Enjoy!