Tubby Time

Here are my sweet babies taking a bath in my tub.

They love how big it is...so do I!

Nathan

 As you may already know, my sweet baby Nater's has turned ONE YEAR OLD! WOW! What an exciting year. He has been such a joy to have in our family. We all love him so much. He is so happy and smiley all the time. Each of the boys has fun with him too. Everyday Jackson will run in the back door from school and ask where Nathan is at. (He's always napping at that time!)

Here is some Nathan trivia for you:

1. What is the birthday boys full name?

2. How much did he weigh when he was born?

3. How tall was he?

4. How many teeth does he have now?

5. What is his favorite food?

6. Who does Naters love the most?

7. Who is Nathan scared of? (2)

8. What does Nathan do with most of his time besides smile and be cute?

*answers at the bottom...

Nathan has been taking a few steps here and there with the help of mom and dad. Here he is walking to Gavin while mom is trying to snap some shots.

I am one proud mama. I have SIX beautiful, wonderful and extraordinary young men. I am so happy and thankful for each of them. Nathan has been a true blessing to our family. I can't wait to get to know him better and learn more about his growing personality.

HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY baby doll!

I love you!

Answers

1. Nathan Joseph Thompson

2. 9lbs 11 oz

3. 22 1/2" long

4. 9

5. Bananas

6. Mom (Lucky me!!!)

7. A Diego doll and dogs

8. Sleep. Sleep. And more sleep.

Nathan's FIRST birthday party

On Wednesday we celebrated Nathan's FIRST birthday and had a little party for him. While we waited for our guests we played in the front yard with the bubble machine.

The first game we played was the portrait game. Everyone gets a sheet of paper and starts drawing the birthday boy. Then, we switch papers with someone else every 15-20 seconds. We do that several times and end up with master pieces!

This drawing was one of my favorites, Nathan is holding a sword!

Nathan got his own cake and devoured it! Love first birthday's!

Nater enjoyed pulling the paper out of the bags More than the actual toys/gifts themselves. It was real cute to watch him.
THANKS everyone for coming and helping to make this a very special party!

Mommy Cards

My mommy cards were just delivered...and I love them! They turned out so cute. I ordered them through Vista Print and they were FREE. I payed a few bucks for shipping and that's it!

Vroom!

Tyler was helping pay with Nathan this afternoon while I was crafting with an extra special cousin. Thanks Tyler for keeping Nathan busy and happy. But I do have one question for you...

...do you have a licence to drive that Nathan? Nathan is standing while Tyler is sitting behind him pressing the gas. Vroom! What fun!

Gettin' Ready for Fall!!

On of my neighbors had a ton of corn this year and let me cut down a few of the stalks to decorate my front porch! I gathered a bunch and tied them together with a cute black and white gingham ribbon. Soon, there will be a scarecrow sitting on the bench! I HEART fall time!

Gettin' Ready...

Oh my goodness...My sweet baby is almost ONE YEAR OLD! I just made his invites and planned a few cute games for the evening. I know he wont remember any of it, but the pictures will be great!

Is this wrong?

Really, I am interested in what you think about this one.

Let me give you some background...We just moved to Utah. And I LOVE it. BEST decision we ever made. House is rad! Ward is awesome. School is great. So many wonderful friends and family around. LOVE it!

So it had been like 4-5 weeks and I still hadn't received a calling. One of my friends was like, Shhh girl-friend. Enjoy it while it lasts. But I really wanted to be utilized. I enjoy doing, being active. Scott received a calling. Gospel Doctrine teacher every other week and High Priests teacher every other week. So basically he's teaching every week. He loves it. And I am happy for him. The ward is lucky to have him as a teacher. He's a great teacher.

A few weeks into living here I spoke with the Relief Society president and told her if she ever needed a substitute to teach that I was available...anytime. She said she was impressed with the offer and thanked me. I tried to drop a little seed. I LOVE being a RS teacher. I also love being the primary chorister. Both are my FAVORITE callings!

So finally I get called in and they ask me to teach the 11 year old class. Wha? Ok I say reluctantly. (I've never said no to a calling before). Then later the primary pres says she wants me to team teach the 9 year olds. Wha? That's Jackson's class. I love my kids, but I DO NOT WANT TO TEACH THEM! I feel like I spend all week teaching them about gospel principals and then love to have other adults instill the same message on Sunday's to them. Also, I have Nathan. A baby to disrupt class and I will have to leave to nurse/change diapers/take him home early to nap. Ugh!

I'm bugged and feel this is totally UNinspired. If you really knew me, you'd know that I would do better elsewhere! The thing is I really feel like primary teachers are the best in the world! Seriously I hold them all on a pedestal and am so thankful for their service. As a mother of six children I applaud their service and time they put into ewach and every lesson. But, I don't wanna do it. I know, I'm lame. I need to buck up. I just don't feel like it's for me.

Help!

What are your thoughts?

Hasbo Printable Coupons!!!

Click here for some awesome Hasbro printable coupons!

I’m glad to see that the Hasbro coupons are back this year (and hopefully more are released, too). These expire either 10/31 or 11/15.

THANKS Melissa at Saving Cents with Sense!!

Nie Nie is coming!!

This is Stephanie Nielson, a very inspiring woman and she is coming to BYU!! Well, she lives in Provo, but I get to hear her speak and meet her. WHat a great oppertunity for me and YOU! I am addicted to her blog Nie Nie Dialogues. If you live around here or will be in town check out THIS to get more info so you can see her too!

Mark your calendar for Thursday, September 30th at 7:00 pm. The event will be in the Wilkinson Center Ballroom.

GLEE

I have mixed feelings about Glee's season premier. Scott and I were so, so excited about it but then felt a little let down during and after. There were moments I laughed and thought were cute. I liked Finn's Cheerios audition. His dance moves are a lot better when he's singing... I loved Brittany: "People thought I went on vacation, but actually I spent the summer lost in the sewers." And Sue Sylvester always has quick little sarcastic comments and comebacks. She is a hoot!

This episode also introduced a new character, Coach Beiste, who took over for Ken Tenaka after his nervous breakdown. Honestly I thought the actor was male with fake boobies and lipstick on. It was very interesting.
I had to look this actor up on the internet to make sure.

I thought Sue and Schue's hazing of Coach Beiste was a little overboard. I know that's pretty much Sue's MO, but...really? You're going to make Poo Cookies for the new teacher? Disgusting. Both literally and figuratively.

The music choices were pretty good. I loved the ending song and it has been stuck in my head fever since that night... "What I Did for Love". I liked Cherise (Sunshine) and wish she would be a new addition to the cast. She defiantly has some pipes! That girl can really sing. I liked seeing Quinn strut her stuff in her Cheerios uniform.

And finally, I have to say that RACHEL DRIVES ME CRAZY. I hate how she kept flipping her hair as she sang. I also hate how she's desperate for the spotlight to the exclusion of almost everything else. And she's so, so very skinny this season.

I am so excited for next week's Britney Spears episode. I don't usually watch previews, but these were exciting and was the best part of the show! Hey what happened to Emma? I missed her!

Thoughts??

**Got this great info from my friend, Nikol ***

Wii Tournament Sleepover

For Jackson's party he wanted what Will did last year, a Wii Tournament Sleepover. He had over 20 4th graders at our house for the party. It was wild and crazy, but also a lot of fun! We went in the back yard first and ate pizza and drank juice. Then we went downstairs for the tournament. Groups of four children went up and competed against each other. We started with bowling then went onto winter Olympic games and ended with snowball fights. During the tournament we came upstairs for a little break with water and candy. We ate cupcakes and opened gifts. At 9pm all the girls and a few of the boys left. We ended up with only 5 boys sleeping over. (which was nice to have such a small group!) Scott stayed downstairs with the boys and in the morning I made everyone breakfast. It was a lot of fun!




HAPPY BIRTHDAY JACKSON!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Birthday Jackson!

Last Friday was Jackson's birthday! He turned NINE years old! It was half day and then his party. When he returned home we had the house decorated and gifts waiting for him to open. More pictures on his party later....It was a Wii tournament sleepover! FUN!

Jackson received two drawing books from his brothers and Scott and I got him three Guardians of Ga'Hoole books from the series. Nana bought each of the boys small plush owl's and soon we will go see the movie in the theater! He was very excited and thankful for the gifts he received. He also loved talking to his Nana and Papa on the phone!

Peaches Galore!

One of my neighbors invited us over to pick some peaches and pears from her trees in her backyard. I took a couple bags to fill and left with, literally, boxes full of them. AS we left the tree didn't even have a dent in it. There were still a ton on them both. I waited a day for them to ripen a little more then I started bottling them up. I ended up bottling 18 full bottles and froze 10 medium size Zip Lock baggies.

It was fun and easy and I am excited I am finally getting into canning and food storage better. I can't wait till winter comes!

Cupcake Toppers

I made Will cupcakes for his 11th party and wanted to show you how cute they turned out. I made regular cupcakes, with a confetti mix. The frosting is a basic white whipped frosting and then I made these adorable toppers.

I melted a bunch of semi-sweet chocolate and spooned it into a baggie. I wrote out letters spelling "HAPPY BIRTHDAY WILL" and made extra "W"'s for the remaining cupcakes. I then shook colorful sprinkles all over them. (Next time I'd use chocolate icing and white chocolate for the letter...it was hard to see the colorful sprinkles on top!)

They tasted great and Will loved them!

Minute to Win it!!

We had a Minute to Win party for Will last night at our home. We had 25 6th graders, all my boys, a couple friends, and Grandma and Grandpa in attendance. WOW! It was FUN! This would be a great party for 3rd-6th graders, adults and singles. There are so many fun games to choose from, that's why the party was THREE hours long. And Scott filled up every second of it! We went through the list of games on-line, made a list of what we liked best and ended up with 20 games. We later shortened it to 15. We also went on YouTube and watched some of the games done by children. It was funny to watch. We served everyone pizza, candy, drinks and cupcakes.

We had the kids do a few games all together and then we had them play against each other in a tournament. Above is "Junk in the Trunk" There are ping pong balls in tissue boxes belted to their booties and they have to move around to get them all out.

Here is one of the starter games that everyone played, "Chocolate Unicorn" They had to balance 4 Ding Dongs on their forehead. And then they could eat them!

Nathan is chillin' with his Grandma. At first he was a little nervous to have Grandma and Grandpa hold him, but he warmed up to them quickly and enjoyed playing with them. All the boys had a blast talking, showing and being with Grandma and Grandpa.

The little guys competing in "Junk in the Trunk".

Brigham taking a little break from all the games and eating a snack!

The parents even tried some of the games.

In "Stick the Landing" the kids had to throw water bottles onto the table. Harder than you may think! We also played "Defying Gravity" with balloons....I didn't take a picture of this one...I was playing it. I also forgot to take pictures of "Elephant March", "Face the Cookie", "Go the Distance", "Hanky Panky", and "Johnny Applestack".

Here's what Will looked like after playing "On the Nose". The player has to transfer cotton balls on his nose from one bowl to another using Vaseline on his nose. SO funny!

Here is Gavin practicing "Nutstacker". Using a chopstick you must successfully stack 5 medium nuts in a tower.

Here is Reed playing "Ping Tac Toe". There is water in the cups and you have to bounce a ping pong ball onto the table and then into the cup making 3 in a row.

This game was hard and took a long time. The kids said afterwards their fingers were killing! "Rapid Fire" is the name of this game. With rubber bands you have to shoot off 6 empty aluminum cans off the table.

Scott is showing the kids how "Caddy Stack" is done.

Will made it to the semi-finals by playing "Movin' On Up" where you have to move the blue cup one by one back to the bottom. You have to switch hands while doing this.

Here is "Stack Attack".

For the Finals the boys competed in a game called "Volcano". They had to drop Mentos candies into the 2 liter of Root Beer and make it explode. Reed was the grand winner and won a DVD of "Nim's Island".

Everyone seemed to have fun and most were talking about it at church this morning!!

Happy, happy Birthday Will!!