Good Reads, Referrals Needed!

I have been reading like a crazy lady lately! Since sweet Preston has been born I've gone through 9 books! I'm almost done with #10 and I just started #11 this afternoon.

I've been listening to most of the books! Here is a few great ideas of how to get books on your iPod or iPhone.

One, sign up through Audiobooks. They charge you but you can use their service on 3 different devices. So, you can share it with two other friends. Pretty good deal.

Two, buy and borrow books on your Kindle. Some of the Kindle books will read to you, but it's a funky robot voice and gets annoying after a while.

Three, check out the audio CDs at the library! That's what we've been doing most of the time. Scott commutes about an hour a day, so he's been doing this for a while. I finally figured out this is an awesome way to get through some of my "to read" books. While I'm nursing, cross guarding or being the taxi service for my kids. It's been great.

Here are the books I've read and what I think of them.

1. Fifty Shades of Grey (Don't judge me!) **
2. Enduring Light *** (cute LDS romance novel)
3. Unbroken **** (true heart-wrenching story of an  extremely strong and brave man)
4. Lost in Shangri-La **** (Another true story of courage that also teaches us about judging and accepting others)
5. The Thirteenth Tale *** (most of my friends loved this. I thought it was ok, I just couldn't get into it!)
6. Outliers **** (extremely good read. Highly recommend!!)
7. Heaven is For Real **** (a true story about a boy who visits heaven and his interpretation of it and how it affects his family)
8. Abish Mother of Faith *** (cute LDS romance novel)

I'm almost done with
9. Confessions of a Shopaholic (this adorable British gal is hilarious and totally out of her mind. Very cute.)
I started
10. "The Five People you meet in Heaven" this afternoon. (I'm only 20 pages in...)

The next few books on my "to-read" list are:
The House at Riverton
Graceling
Heaven is Here
The Devil in the White City
The Forgotten Garden
The Kitchen House
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
Airman
Sarah's Quilt

Any other GREAT books I'm missing? PLEASE let me know! I'll add it to my list!

So here's my goal...I'm going to (either listen or read off Kindle) one book a week for the rest of the year. Lofty, I know. Scott thinks I should change it to 3 books a month. But I know I can do this. I want to do this. I'm already ahead of my goal (made last week) which is great! I just need to continue to read GREAT books! Referrals needed!

Also, I am a member on Goodreads.com, which is an EXCELLENT site for tracking the books that you have read, the books you are currently reading, and the ones that you have put on your "to-read" list.  If you want to add me as a friend, search for me by my email address, princess_belle@hotmail.com.

Tomatillo Salsa

 I have a ton of tomatillos in my garden, but here is the funny part. I only planted 2 tomatillos plants but I have 6 growing! The 2 IN my garden and the other 4 OUTSIDE of my garden in my pathway to the compost! I guess what happened was in the spring when we tilled the garden there were seeds in there. On the outside of the garden 2 tomato plants and 4 tomatillo plants started growing. Now, they're larger than the ones IN my garden! Crazy!

Thanks Simply Recipes for this easy and yummy recipe!

First Day of School

 The day has finally arrived... the first day of school. My boys have been so excited to head back to school and see their friends. I, too, am happy for them to be back.
 
Last night we had a special dinner and Scott gave the boys Father's Blessings. We held a short family home evening talking about school and the upcoming year.

 Will, 12, is in the 8th grade attending Evergreen Jr High. He is in all advanced Gifted and Talented (GT)classes and Honors classes, and last year pulled a 3.9 GPA. He is on the cross country team and other activities the school offers.

 Gavin is 6 and in the 1st grade. He is thrilled he gets to stay all day and eat lunch in the cafeteria. (Kindergarten was only half day) He is excited to have Mrs. Foy as his teacher.

 Jackson is 10 and in the 6th grade with Mrs. Sharp (a good friend of mine!)

 Tyler is 8 and in the 4th grade with Mrs. Witherspoon. Jackson had her a couple years ago and she is a great teacher! He has a ton of friends in his class with him.

 As we were getting ready for school, cute Brigham and Nathan grabbed their backpacks and headed out the door with us. They were both totally bummed when they realized preschool doesn't start until next week! Darn it!

Have a WONDERFUL first day of school boys!

Farm Country

 

Last Tuesday, the seven boys and I headed down south to Thanksgiving Point for another $2 activity.  This time, instead of the dinosaur museum, we headed on out to the Farm Country.  This was a cute Farm themed area that had a LOT for the boys to do!

 

 

They got to pet llamas!

 

Nathan loved the cows.... MOO!!!

 

Brigham was excited to show Nathan the Chocolate Milk Cow...  How adorable!

 

Jackson's favorite farm animal is a horse.  He was SO excited to see that he could pet the horses.  He was even more excited to find out he could ride the horses!

 

 

 

Here are the five of them all riding on their different horses. Will didn't want to ride and Baby Preston is still too little. Jackson was especially excited to get to ride on a spotted one.

 

And what Farm experience would not be complete without a hayride.  Nathan was really excited about the big tractor!  After every picture we take, he has to see the camera and make sure that he likes the picture that you took of him.  He will say "Me see, me see", meaning he wants to see the picture.  Then he will say, "Good" if he likes it.  Very cute!

Water Party!!

 There are 3 September and 1 October birthday's at our house so we've already started the planning of so many parties.
Gavin is not one of the birthday's that are coming up, but he asked if he could have a pool party with a few friends before school started. Well, we don't have a pool so what about a water party?!
He invited 5 friends and 3 were able to come over. They wore their swimming suits and brought water guns. They played in the sprinklers and hose, ran around like crazy kids, ate out of the garden and chased each other around.

 

 The drank Capri Sun's and ate Popsicles and ended on the tramp.

Will helped supervise while I was inside nursing. He was a big help and the boys had a lot of fun with him. He is such a great oldest brother!
The party was a success and everyone had a fun time! Thanks Gavin for the great idea!!

Pizza Sauce

Homemade pizza and sauce! This is an easy-cheesy recipe and it was really yummy!

Here is the sauce recipe:
4-6 medium tomatoes (out of my garden, of course!)
1 clove of garlic
5-8 basil leafs (from the garden too!)


Cut the tomatoes in half and squeeze out all the juice into the trash/sink/compost. Put the halves into the blender. Add the clove of garlic and basil leafs. Mix on high until pureed. Done. That's it. Simple. Yummy. Nutritious. Delicious.

Crappy Day

Yesterday was an unbelievably crappy day, literally, crap filled day!

I took the kiddos to the petting zoo at Thanksgiving Point, all was well so far. After we headed to Ikea for their free kids meals. We were just about done when all of a sudden Nathan gets this weird look on his face and Tyler shouts, "He just pooped his pants!" As I looked down at Nathan I saw green diarrhea slowly sliding down his legs and onto the floor. Nathan has just been potty trained to peep in the toilet for about a week now and never has had an accident. Right then and there I was wishing I hadn't come. Wishing Scott wasn't at work. Wishing I had left 3 minutes earlier. Wishing, wishing, wishing. I headed to the family bathroom and started cleaning Naters up. I cleaned his shoes. Tossed his socks and underwear and washed out his shorts. Again, wishing, wishing, wishing... Ikea is very Conservative and doesn't have things like lids or straws...or paper towels! They do have wipies and extra diapers in the restrooms though! After cleaning him up the best I could, and the area we were in, we headed to the sink where I used soap and water to really clean those cute buns and legs. I grabbed a few toilet covers to dry him off, put on an Ikea diaper and we were off.

A couple hours later we're at football practice when Nathan walks up to me with a sad face and says sorry. I looked down and he had peeped his pants. Not his day. A few minutes later Gavin comes over to me and tells me his bottom is really hurting bad. I asked him if when he did go poop if he wiped really well, he said yes. I turn back to watch the scrimmage when he says mom look. There was poo on his finger. Hello! He put his hand down his pants to itch his butt and there was a little poop on his finger from doing so. DISGUSTING!

When I got home I nursed the baby and he pooped, totally normal. I changed his diaper and as I'm walking away from the the changing table he poops again. I change him. Within 5 minutes he poops a third time. Each time completely filling his diaper! Thank goodness nothing leaked out.

Today is a new day. Today is a poop free day. Well maybe a little poop, in a newborn diaper. Other than that it will be a poop free day. And besides, Scott doesn't work today!

Talk in Church

This morning, my 12 year old, Will, spoke in church. For those of you who are not of my faith, every calling is done by a lay ministry.  This means that none of the callings in the church are paid positions.  That includes the talks that are given on a weekly basis in church.  Even the youth, those 12-18 years of age, are included in the talks. Below is Will's talk. He did a great job!

“What I am doing now to Prepare for my Mission”

Good morning, brothers and sisters.  When Blaine Smith asked me to give a talk in Sacrament meeting, at first I was surprised.  It hadn’t been a year yet...  In fact, I had already given TWO sacrament talks in the last TWO years, so I didn’t expect to have to do my THIRD one so soon. 

But then, I asked him what the topic of my talk would be.  He said “What I am doing now to Prepare to serve a Mission”.  It was at that point that I thought, what better way to prepare for my mission, than by giving another talk in Sacrament meeting.  Speaking in public is not an easy thing for anybody; especially younger kids like me.  The only way to really get over it is to keep doing it more and more.  As a missionary, not only will I need to be used to speaking in public and giving talks, but I will also need to be comfortable speaking in public to complete strangers... at least I know most of you, so this should be easier.

So what else should I be doing to prepare for my mission?  I guess the standard answers would be contained in “The List”.  You know... those automatic answers you always say to just about any church question... read your scriptures, go to church, pay your tithing, say your prayers, etc. etc.  And while these are ALL great answers, I want to focus on a couple that I think are not on “The List” and are pretty important.

First, it is important for missionaries to learn how to work.  President Ezra Taft Benson said “One of the greatest secrets of missionary work is work. If a missionary works, he will get the Spirit; if he gets the Spirit, he will teach by the Spirit; and if he teaches by the Spirit, he will touch the hearts of the people; and he will be happy. There will be no homesickness, no worrying about families, for all time and talents and interests are centered on the work of the ministry. That’s the secret—work, work, work. There is no satisfactory substitute, especially in missionary work.”  So it sounds to me, like I need to learn how to work.  I am not talking about doing chores around the house or walking the dog.  I am talking about working hard in the yard or the garden during a hot afternoon.  I am talking about sweating while you work to dig a hole and to plant a tree. I am talking about do the HARD stuff that would be much easier to leave for someone else to do.  In my family, we have a motto.  It is “We do HARD things”.  This is a reminder that just because the going gets tough, doesn’t mean we pack it in, and leave it for someone else to do.  As Thompsons, we have to be just as committed to the hard stuff, as we are to the easy stuff.

The second thing that is important for me to do to prepare for my mission is to save my own money to contribute towards paying for my mission.  I am not saying it wouldn’t be terrific if one of you stepped up and volunteered to pay for my entire mission.  I mean, my parents do have seven missions that they are going to have to pay for.  But seriously, I feel it is important for me to contribute to the cost of my own mission, because then I think it will mean more to me.  This is an experience that I have not only committed myself to spiritually, but it is an experience that I have committed to financially.  I think when I am invested in the experience, it will be much harder for me to quit when it starts to get tough and I want to pack it in.

Finally, the thing that is MOST important for me to be doing is to keep myself worthy to serve a mission.  That means not only doing the things on “The List” but also making a conscious effort to “Choose the Right” on a daily basis.  It means making sure that if I do make mistakes that I take advantage of the atonement and repent of those mistakes.  That way, I can be worthy to pass and partake of the sacrament each week, as is my duty as a priesthood holder and as a member of the church.  Have you ever thought of it like that?  That maybe we have a duty to partake of the sacrament each week?  As members of the Deacon’s quorum, Brother Towers has committed us to attend the temple each month at 5am in the morning to do baptisms for the dead.   In fact, we go again this coming Thursday.  That means we wake up around 4am, so we can be at his house and ready to leave by 4:45am.  This is a tough commitment, but I know that this is another way that I can not only perform my duties, but also maintain my worthiness to serve a mission.

Brothers and sisters, I would like to close by bearing my testimony.

[He then bore his testimony]

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Theme, Motto and Rule

Our family has a theme, a motto and, a number one rule. We remind the boys of these often and know them all by heart. Unfortunately they don’t always remember them, but they are doing better every day.

Our family theme is "Laugh, Work, Serve, Achieve" with the word "Love" spelled out diagonally through it.

This is such a wonderful theme for our family and is perfect for us.

We love to laugh and have fun with each other. We really focus and instill a work ethic into our boys lives. It’s so important to us for them to learn what the meaning of work is and that we do hard things.

Service is also extremely important for us to perform and teach our boys.

Last, but not least is achieve.
Having an education is very high on our family priority list. We expect the boys to pull straight A’s and work hard with them to do so. Having them attend extra classes, learning activities on the computer, practice with mom and dad and lots of reading help enforce this principle. For example, Will is really young for his grade, yet he’s in all Honor classes and was on the Honor role all year last year. He has the same goal this year.

Our motto is “Brothers First”.
Scott and both feel it’s extremely important to remind the boys to keep their brother’s feelings and needs before their friends. We don’t want friends to come over and all of a sudden they start teasing, ignoring or just being mean to their siblings. Since we started saying this in our family, several years ago, it doesn’t seem to be a problem. Of course there are still times this occurs, the boys truly like one another and have a strong connection with each of their brothers.

The Number One Rule is “not to embarrass mom”.
This is restated every day. Whenever we arrive at a new location or people come over to the house. This sums up any act of naughtiness that the boys may do.

Does your family have a motto, theme, song or rule??

Dino Land

 At the point of the mountain there is this wonderful place called "Thanksgiving Point" with many different fun activities for families and children to participate in. I remember when I attended UVSC (now UVU) and they were building Thanksgiving point. I heard a lot of people say they thought that was a bad idea, way out in the middle of nowhere. Now, it's hugely popular!

 Every Tuesday in the month of August admission is only $2 per person, we so headed out there last Tuesday for a fun family day. We headed to the Museum of Ancient Life.

 It was our first time taking the boys to the Dinosaur museum and it was a lot of fun. There were many different areas for the children to play, explore and learn about. Next week were headed there again, but this time we will visit the Farm area with the petting zoo.

It's not their fault!

When I'm 8+ months pregnant and waddling around, or if I am sick (which only happens about as often as I am pregnant!) or right after I've given birth, I try to stay pretty active.

I get people telling me quite often that I do a lot, and they are surprised to see me out and about in various activities with the family. And it's true... I go on outings and activities with the kids all the time. No matter what!!!

It doesn't matter if I'm 9 months pregnant or holding a newborn, because I don't think it's the kids fault that I'm sick or holding a new baby. If the kids want to walk around the zoo, head to the water park, or any other activity; I'm game!

Now of course, I make sure to rest (almost) everyday. I take a couple of naps a week and find time for myself, even if it is to garden or watch a little TV. I think it's moderation in all things. Also, I (usually) feel pretty good pregnant so I have energy to do the stuff that I want to do. I'm hardly ever sick, thank goodness...

And, when you add a baby, it's just as easy...at least with my babies it is. They have all been good eaters and sleepers. I swaddle them up tight and they can sleep anywhere.

I think that it all comes down to my determination to just keep the kids active, since it is far less likely that they can get in trouble if we are busy as a family doing fun things.  And besides, I would much rather their memories later in life be of the fun things we did, than the idea that our family never really did anything.  And I am confident that they have no reason to ever make that statement...

Ebelskivers and more!

While visiting Santa Barbara we always find time to stop off in Solvang, a cute Danish-style town with cute shops and yummy pastries. Oh yeah, and the 99 cents fabric store! Thanks Kandie for meeting us there, it was fun!

3 Ebelskivers for just $4, great deal. They're huge, like the size of baseballs, topped with homemade raspberry jam and a shake of powdered sugar. I just told Scott I want an Ebelskiver pan for Christmas. Not like the huge one pictured below, but a smaller one we can use.

Does anyone know the name of this pastry? Oh. My. Goodness. This is my most favorite of all. I have no idea the name (I've seen them in grocery stores before, but nothing like the ones in Solvang!!) We went to 4 different bakeries to find the best one of these. It was found. It was inhaled. I now desire more. I am glad to love to far away from this place or I'd head there more often to buy them. Yummy!!

Block Party Invite

This year our family is in charge of the Lambourne block party that has been held every year for the past 15+ years. I came up with this cute invite, that once again Scott helped me complete. It's always on the evening of the first day of school. A couple of the neighbor's that are true farmers bring a TON of corn freshly harvested from their garden and share it with everyone. It's really the best part of the BBQ!

Birth Announcement

Here is sweet baby Preston's birth announcement.

I sure love PhotoShop Elements and the help from a loving husband.

Beach Fun

 Of course heading to the beach is on the list of "Santa Barbara To-Do's", several times actually!! Because I have more of the little kids we didn't bring the skin board or the boogie boards. They played in the sand and jumped over waves. We were there for only 2 hours, it became a little chilly for the baby so we headed home.

 Nathan loved playing, but he didn't like how the sand felt on his legs. He kept itching them. I guess it's been too long because he's forgotten how it feels to play in the sand and splash in the water.

 This was Preston's first time to the beach, and he slept most of the time. I would of too snuggled in a chair hearing the waves crash. Nice!

It was fun watching the boys have such fun at the beach. I sure love the beach. I love the smell, the sand, the sound...It's so beautiful!