Welcoming in 2009!

Every year Landon and I throw a New Year's Eve party. This year we decided to do an Halo (Xbox) party. We invited some friends and fam and had a blast! We had four tv's going and four people on each tv. It was madness! As usual we ate a lot of junk food, drank a lot of mountain dew and were up late. We managed to pull everyone away from the game to bring in the new year and watch the ball drop in New York and give each other our first kiss of the new year. :-) It has been a tradition of mine that I call my mom and dad on New Year's Eve no matter where I'm at. I have done it since I was little. I figure a nice way to start out the new year is kissing my hubby and tellin' my momma and poopa how much I love them. I'm sure I'll always do that.

So here we are, a new year. We are so excited to see what this year will bring. I know that most of our family is hoping for little ones from us, but you'll just have to wait and see. ;-)

Recaps from New Year's Eve party animals:

Happy Holidays!

We hope you all had a very Merry Christmas! We sure did! We had lots of family parties, work parties and time with each other. We did things a little different this year. Landon I felt that we wanted to do something really special this year to help bring in the Christmas spirit. So, we decided to help out a family. We took the money that we would have spent on us and our parents and put that towards helping out a family in need. Our ward had a giving tree they made on a poster board. On the tree were paper ornaments that had what each person needed on the back of each of them. They kept it all anonymous, but they had color coordinated the families in different colored ornaments. We grabbed all the ornaments of one color and on the back of each of them asked for things like, "12 yr old shirt and pants, size XX" or "mens dress shoes size XX". After reading what each person needed it made us think of how sad it was that these people, without our donations, would not have Christmas presents. We loved shopping for all of them. It was a very spiritual experience for both of us. You can't help but have a good feeling in your heart when you are sacrificing things you want for things that others need. We gave each our sets of parents a card that told them the money that would have been spent on them for Xmas was spent on helping out a needy family. They felt that was a perfect gift. There's nothing else we would have wanted more this year. This was one of favorite Christmas experiences.

We have made it a tradition that we spend Xmas Eve with my dad, Xmas day with our moms and the day after Xmas with Landon's dad. My dad, his girlfriend Audre, and Korey all came over to our house on Xmas Eve. We ate pizza and played games. It was SO much fun! I love spending time with my dad and little brother. There isn't a time that we get together that we don't all end up laughing hysterically about something. I really like my dad's girlfriend Audre. She is very sweet and fits in just perfect! My dad and Audre ended up staying until midnight playing Texas Hold'em with us. Landon had never really understood how to play until that night when my dad explained it to him. Landon ended up winning. Beginners luck! ;-) lol

Xmas day wasn't as busy as it usually is for us. Since it was blizzard we decided to veto driving to Herriman to see my mom because we knew we'd see her at our family party on that Saturday. We ended up relaxing a little at our house then headed to Debbie's to open gifts. I always get excited to see what gifts Deb has because you really know that she puts time and effort into picking out each individual thing. She gave Landon a gift card to Checker to work on his truck, a beenie, and some cash for our Park City day. She gave me some super cute decor, a book, and money for Park city. After opening presents at Deb's we headed to Britt and Tom's for Christmas dinner. She had the table decorated so cute! She is so creative! It was me, Landon, Britt and Tom, Deb,Steve and Heather, and baby Jack. We ate a delicious ham dinner and played games. It was SO fun! Thanks Tom and Britt for hosting! ;-)

The day after Xmas we both had to work. Bummer! But, after we both got off we packed our bags and Mia and headed to Gregg and Nec's. Everyone was out there except Meg and Aaron. It was fun to have everyone together. You'll never guess what we got from Gregg and Nec for Xmas!!! A new OVEN!!!!!! I was so excited!! They came over a few days later and helped us install it. For all of you who don't know, our old oven was the biggest piece of crap. It never cooked things evenly, it was TINY inside and burned about 90% of the food I cooked in it. I love our our new oven! It has a light that works inside, it's big enough for my BIG cookie sheets, and it looks SOOOOO much better than the last one! I have cooked a few things in it already and I can't even begin to tell you how much better it works. Thank you SO much Gregg and Nec for this wonderful gift! While we were out at their place we all went out and did some skeet shooting. I think I only actually hit one of the skeets, but it was still a ton of fun.

The next day we headed to my Uncle Lane's for my mom's side Xmas party. I love getting to see that side of the family. Not many people can say they know their second and even third cousins. Landon always gets confused because I refer to my great aunts as my aunts and my second and third cousins just as my cousins. LOL

Overall we had a GREAT holiday season! There's wasn't one thing we didn't enjoy getting to do with all our families. We are so greatful to have such a big family that makes this time of year so enjoyable. We love you all very much and appreciate everything you did for us this Christmas season and continue to do for us! xoxo

Here are some pics to recap our Christmas. Enjoy!

Uncle Lane helpin' Landon become Santa

Santa Landon

Me and Santa

Layton Lights

Opening presents at Deb's Xmas morning

Dinner at Britt and Tom's Xmas night

Landon and Tom shootin'

Me shootin'

Me and my Momma at the Retallick Xmas Party

Me and my Love after all our Xmas adventures

No More Moosey :*(

We're back! Now that the Holidays are over we have a few extra minutes to do the things we have been putting off like blogging. There's so much to share so I'll just dive right into the first topic.

Two days before Xmas Moose escaped from our yard and our grumpy, mean, nasty old neighbor held him until the dog pound came and let them take him. I had just checked on the dogs a half our before that and then Landon got home and noticed Moose wasn't in the yard. We searched for him for two hours until finally one of our other neighbors told us what Paul had done. I'm not sure how any human being feels right taking away a member of someone's family two days before Xmas, but that's what he did. We called the pound and sure enough, they had moose. It was a Sunday so we weren't able to get him out. The Animal Shelter said it would be over $250 by the time we'd be able to get him out. We talked a lot about what we should do about the situation and we felt that the best option for us and Moosey would let him stay at the Animal Shelter until they find him a new home. We love Moose SO SO SO much, but we haven't had as much time to train him and we certainly don't have the structured yard to keep an escape artist enclosed. Moose loved to dig and destroy. He tore up sprinkler heads, dugs 2-4 foot holes all over the yard, ripped up drains, ate our Dish wire.....I could go on. As much as we love Moose and wanted to run to shelter to pick him up we decided to let him go to a better home. :-( One of the girls at the shelter is thinking of adopting him. They said he will be adopted in no time. It has been very SAD without him here. Mia was heart broken for losing her best friend. But, we have been having her in the house a little bit lately and I think us giving her lots of attention has helped ease her pain. On the brighter side of things, we are thinking of breeding Mia soon so we may have a litter of pups running around here soon. I'll keep ya posted! We love you Moosey and will always keep you in our hearts!

Visting the Thompson Ranch

Last weekend we all went out to Landon's Dad and step mom's, Gregg and Denise, house for dinner. Almost everyone was there. The only ones missing were Landon's step brother, Cooper and his wife Kaleena. It was nice to have all us kids together. It hardly ever happens where we get us all in the same place at the same time. We got to lay around and relax a bit and help make dinner. I had Landon's sister, Brittney, take some pics of Landon and I for our Christmas cards, which most of you probably already got. :-) She did a great job! There were plenty good ones to choose from so it was hard to narrow it down. After we took pics we ate another one of Denise's delicious dinners. She is a marvelous cook! I try to pay as much attention as I can when I go there to learn some of her skills. Good cooking just isn't easy for me. My mom is a good cook. She cooks quick and easy meals that are delicious. But, for me it doesn't come so naturally. Whenever we eat a meal out at his Dad's we always go home super stuffed. This was another one of those times. Then of course there is always dessert. By the end of the night we are rolling ourselves out the door. LOL We appreciate them having us out to spend time together and for keeping us well fed ;-). Thanks Gregg and Nec! We love you!

8 Days 'Til Christmas!

I love this time of year. The smell of goodies and a Christmas tree, there's not much that beats that. And now that we finally have snow it actually feels like Christmas is almost here. Landon got all our Christmas stuff put up the very first of December so it's been fun having all the decorations up. Both Landon and I have childhood stockings that we put up. Our grandma's made them for us. Having them up makes us feel like kids again.

Growing up my mom would put up so many decorations it looked like Santa threw up Christmas in our house. lol I loved it though! Those are the kinds of memories I will remember forever. Instead of putting all our Christmas presents from Santa underneath the Christmas tree my mom, Santa ;-) , would put each kids presents on a different couch. Then the presents from her would be under our Christmas tree in a different room. We loved it. We'd know which couch was ours either by the things in the stocking or she would leave one thing unwrapped seating on each couch. There was one Christmas when we were little and my mom was trying to support us on her own, she didn't have enough money to wrap all our presents so she put our gifts on our own couch unwrapped. No matter how hard she had to work she always made it so we had a great Christmas. :-) These are the kinds of traditions I want to have with my kids. One traditions Landon I started was that we watch Elf every Christmas Eve. It's one of our favorite Xmas shows. This year we made a ginger bread house. Half way through building it Landon fell asleep with the frosting all over his fingers. Ha ha! But, with his effort he did put into before that, it turned out great.

Christmas day is usually a very busy day for us. Trying to see all our parents on Xmas turns out like the move Four Christmas's. LOL We spend the whole day driving and feel like all we do is run in get our presents and run out to the next place. So, this year we are going to start a tradition. We are going to see my dad on Xmas Eve, our mom's on Xmas day, and his dad the day after xmas. We would like to see them all on Xmas day of course, but spending more than half an hour with each of them is more important to us. I think that setting this tradition now will make it easier for us when we have kids.

Only 8 days until Xmas!!! Yay! We hope you all have a very Merry Christmas. If we don't get to see you know that we are thinking of you and love you all very much.

Dedicated to Shellie Nelson-Ernest

This year has been a tough year for my mom's side of the family. We all watched one of our loved one's life get cut short by a dreadful disease. My second cousin Shellie, fought Breast Cancer for five years until it finally got the best of her. She was sent to her Heavenly Father on November 2, 2008. She was only 38 years old and left behind her husband Danny, two sons Jake and Tyler, and daughter Emilee.

Shellie was one of the strongest people I have ever met. She battled an awful disease for so many years and the whole time all she was worried about was everyone else. Even up to her last words, she was trying to keep us all smiling by cracking jokes. She was an easy person to be around and love. I have never seen so many people at one funeral service. She had a line out the door the entire night. Shellie, we will miss you everyday. We love you very much and will do our best to take care of your family. Save us a place in Heaven.

Breast Cancer is a powerful disease that takes the lives of many of our loved ones each day. One in eight woman get breast cancer. You should be asking yourself, "Am I aware of my chances of getting breast cancer?" Get your yearly mammograms and make sure you are being proactive checking yourself regularly. Early detection can save a life.

We are still alive!

I realize I have neglected our blog for much too long. I'm sure that some of you are going through Thompson Blog withdrawls. No need to worry my friends! We are back! It has been an insanely busy month in the Thompson home. Landon had been working his little hiney off getting his new guys in his store settled and I'm trying to learn as much as I can about the biz. We have both been working a lot of overtime and will only be working more over the Holidays. Unfortunatley, this is the life of people in retail. Besides all the extra hours put in, I'm really enjoying my job. It's so nice to not be working in Escrow right now. That's not only because of the lack of work in that position, but also because I was just ready for something different. I think Landon and I both were ready for me to do something else. Working all these crazy hours we see less of our family, but we see more of each other. Honestly, we see each other more now than we have our whole time knowing each other. Okay, maybe we did see each other more when we were dating because we gave up all sleep just to be with each other. And lets face it, when you get married you just don't stay up as late. But seriously, we are doing really good. We are excited for this time of year. I thought I was going to be making Thanksgiving this year, but my Grandma Forbush ended up coming to my rescue and inviting us to join them. :-) This is our year with my dad. We only do one set of parents on Thanksgiving so we only spend it with them every four years. It sucks we have to do that, but it works out best for us to not have to run around all day and really get to enjoy their company for the whole day. We're not quite sure how we are going to do Christmas this year. It has changed each year. Neither of us like to give up seeing any of our parents, but it becomes an insanely crazy day when we try to see all four sets of parents in one day. No matter how it works out we want all of them to know we love them all and if we had the power we would spend hours with each of them on every holiday. :-) Since Thanksgiving is tomorrow I feel it necessary to say what I am thankful for.

I am thankful for:

-My husband who works so hard

-My family

-My dogs, even though they are pests sometimes. They fill that space in our family. :-)

-Our house. Many people are losing their homes and we have been blessed to have a home we can afford and keep as ours.(and the banks) ;-)

-Life-I lost someone special in my life this year who had lived a short life. All the way until the end she fought and had a smile on her face. We must live each day as if it's our last. Don't sweat the small stuff. Use all the energy you use for anger and saddness for happiness and laughing.

-Last, but not least my Heavenly Father. I know I can always count on him to be by my side through all my trails.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving! We love you all!