Hardware Ranch

We were so lucky at Christmas time to be able to have Josh home for 5 days! He had 2 days off paid for Christmas and then he had an extra paid vacation day that he had to take off before the end of the year.

On Monday we headed up to Cache Valley to Hardware Ranch. I guess it isn't really in the valley but up in the Mountains. It is an Elk preserve.

They take you up in these Horse drawn wagons and take you into the field. The Elk have no problem with it! I was amazed at how close we could get to these amazing animals! We with with Josh's mom and his Aunt, cousin and her family that were visiting from AZ. It was SO COLD! But very worth it! We had such a good time. I loved having my husband home for so long. Another day and a half and we will get a 3 day weekend! So excited!

We really do still exist!

It has been a crazy "semester!" Preschool has taken over my life but in a really good way. I am sure that most people that read my blog before really have lost interest since it hasn't been updated in such a long time! So here is an update, in true Christmas letter form!

Josh (31) Has had a busy year as he has taken on the challenge of going to school full time and working full time! He gets to come home for about 45 minutes M-Th and spends some time with the boys. He is greeted with a huge exclaim of DADDDDIEEE and the running of little feet. He is doing so well in his drafting program as he is very talented in that department. It has made our monthly temple goal a lot harder as we took a hiatus for a few months until we could figure it out; but we are going again and loving the time we have to be together.

Tiffany (31) Has been very busy keeping up after two toddler boys full of energy and life! In addition to being a full time mom she has started a preschool and has loved teaching from her little heaven in the basement. The kids even put on a Christmas program and of course it didn't go as planned! One of the sessions is ALL BOYS (fitting for my life!) In January she will be adding Fridays so preschool will keep her busy 5 days a week! We are taking it for a test run to see if we want to offer it next year. The best part besides being able to keep her kids with her while she works and not having to drive in the snow to get to work... children's books are all tax deductible! Can't beat that for this Children's lit. fanatic!

Turner (3) Has also had a busy year! Potty training was successful as we discovered that he really knew what to do as long as we took the diaper option away :) He has been learning so much from preschool. I guess the repetition of going to 2 sessions per week is paying off! His imagination is exploding and he says the funniest things! One of my favorites is one night we were going through the drive through at McDonalds. He said that he wanted a toy and I said "No honey, we are not getting Happy Meals tonight." He thought about it for a minute and then said, "so we are getting sad meals?" I love it!

Max (1) Is also loving preschool- at least the loves he has been getting from the little girls. They have all adopted him and love mothering him. He seems to be the preschool mascot! Up to this point he has usually gone down for a nap during preschool and you won't hear this mother complain about that! I know it won't last forever but it has been useful. His vocabulary is growing all the time! At least our ability to understand him is improving. He is much better at communicating non-verbally as he brother foresees what he needs and does it for him. He loves to play with toys! He already is so curious about how things work... just like his daddy!

We are excited about the new year and all the new possibilities it will bring!

Love and Laughter,

The Thomsons!

ease does not equal happiness

I go to my Grandma's most Sunday nights and I enjoy spending the evening with her. Tonight I just happened to go to her house late and arrived after everyone had left. I had the most amazing conversation with her. We talked a lot about what life was like when she was growing up on a farm in southern Utah and raising her own children in the military. She didn't get a radio until she was a teenager or a bathroom in her house. I asked her what they did in the evening after all the daily chores were done. She talked about making huge bonfires in the road and roasting potatoes or pine nuts and playing run sheep run. She also talked about her mother playing the piano and singing and eating apples. She shared that my grandfather's father was a great storyteller.
I guess it use to be that you couldn't buy yeast in the store so if your "yeast start" went flat you had to go to your neighbors and get a start off of them. When you needed something from the store you went and gathered a few eggs and took them to the store to get what you needed. Her father belonged to a beef co-op where they all killed a cow once per week and all got a different cut each week. She talked about how they all looked out for each other's kids because whatever they were up to, your kids were too.

When I expressed that I grew up in the wrong time she stated that there is no way I would want to go back to that time. There was no hot water, they had to heat everything up on a coal or wood burning stove. It took all day to cook and clean and they had an outhouse. My response was that ease doesn't equal happiness. Although her mother had so much to do she also spent time with her neighbors EVERYDAY! We live in a day when people don't know each other. We don't know our neighbors and our entertainment is all on TV with people we don't know. We don't laugh the way we use to and we don't take care of each other. In fact I think people are more depressed because of the easiness of our lives. Well, really because the easiness separates us from others. We don't know each other anymore. If we have a social life at all it is digital. I saw on the news the other night that PRESCHOOLERS are having higher rates of depression. Our digital lives leave us alone.

Because of the easiness of our lives we are so ungrateful and expect so much. We just don't count our blessings as much as we use to. We want to eat out all the time and complain when we have to clean our houses with our store bought cleaning supplies and microfiber cloth and the magic eraser (I do love the magic eraser!). We are upset when we have to change diapers that we can just throw away in the garbage and have some man come and take it away once a week. I guess my point is that our lives are easy and yet we are some of the unhappiest loneliest, and confused people in all of history. But what do we do? How do we change it?

If anyone still reads this...

It has been a long time I realize. I have neglected my blog due to actually having a real life! Just kidding- I have been very busy with preschool. I have to say that I love teaching preschool. Some people need a reason to take a shower in the morning and I am one of those people. I do so much better when I have outside deadlines placed upon me. I am not very good with having no consequence to self imposed deadlines. I also love having a creative outlet and little minds to mold. I am a better wife, mom and self with this in my life. I am so grateful to all of the parents who took a chance on me my first year. I am going to be going to the Child Care Professional Development Conference in a couple of Saturdays and I am excited to learn how to be a better preschool teacher. I love learning and get inspired by conferences. Someday I would love to teach at one of these conferences. Turner had a really hard time at first sharing his mom. It was new sibling rivalry times 11. I also think that it was a lot to get use to to have preschool 4 days per week. Yet he is doing really good now. We don't have preschool on Friday but Turner wanted to play preschool today- he was the teacher. It was so good to see him recount the things that he had been learning in preschool. Of course he gets twice as much preschool as anyone else but he is learning so much! Again- I need external deadlines to even teach my own son! *B is for boy!*

Max for some reason had decided to only take one nap per day- pretty normal for an 18 month old but instead of it being an afternoon nap, he takes a morning nap from about 9:20-12 am. So he is around during learning centers and then he sleeps for the rest of preschool, what a blessed child. He loves preschool too though and when he goes to take his nap he waves "nigh night" to everyone and all the little girls go and give him a hug. It is so cute. I decided that we need to have a little brothers club. There are several kids that have little brothers about Max's age and they don't want to leave when they come with to drop off or pick up the siblings. Maybe in a couple of years it will be their turn. If you have any great preschool ideas send them my way! I have received so many good ideas from other people telling me things that they loved about the preschools their kids have gone to. Hopefully things have calmed down a little bit so I can blog more... here's to hoping!

Happy Birthday Boy Toy!

Boy Toy,

Happy Birthday Josh! I am one lucky girl to have found you! I hope that 31 is amazing and that we get to spend the next 31 together (plus infinity.) Not only because you are sweet and kind but because you are HOT! Thank you for being the amazing man that you are! I love you!

Love and Laughter,

Hot Lips

They just don't make men like this anymore

This morning my Grandpa passed away. He was 92 years old. He was an amazing man who lived his life full of service. He served his country, his community and his church well. He was full of wisdom and knowledge.He was disciplined and kind. His legacy will live on and I feel very lucky to be part of it. I feel a lot of peace that he is happy for this new adventure and is very happy to not be held back by his aged body any longer. I love him very much and will miss him.

3 year old pictures with a couple of cameos

There are times I just want to take my kids to some cheesy photo studio and shell out a ton of money for the same pictures everyone else has... just because my kids DON'T EVER SMILE FOR ME! I don't always feel like you have to have smiley pictures but I do want to document their cute smiles! Anyway there are my favorites from Turner's 3 year old shoot!

I can't tell if the color is off on my monitor- these look a little funky tonight... oh well good thing they are just my personal pictures!

It's offical

This post is about a month too late but Max is the cutest little walker you have ever seen! (Besides yours of course) Max was a little bit later in walking but once he decided to walk he just got up and walked across the room! The next day he fell against the fireplace and got a good shiner. You can see it in some of these picture :( Now he is an expert walker and I am so happy to have him be a little more independent!

I love you!

It has been an amazing 4 year journey! I can't even begin to think about all that has happened in the last 4 years! I love you more now than the day I married you and that is saying a lot. You have shown me what unconditional love is. You have been patient through crazy pregnancies, learning to be a mom and all of my emotional ups and downs. You have taken my side in all things and have been a true companion. I knew I was in love with you when being around you was like wearing an old shirt- always comfortable no matter the occasion. I have never known a best friend like you- you are the most loyal person I have ever known. You are a great father who "loves his boys!" You are always trying to improve yourself not for yourself but for your family. I love you! Thank you for choosing me!

They are gone

*sniff, sniff*

with only minor issues such as her name not matching her passport and the weight being over on every single piece of luggage they made it (at least to security) I am so excited for them for this new adventure!

It has been forever!

So it has been like 2 months since I have posted pictures of what is going on in my life. I am sure that you all have given up on me! So just a warning there might be a lot of pictures in this post. Not too many as I realized that I didn't take a single picture of my family in the month of May. That is what happens when I have a wedding going on. I spend way too much time taking pictures of other people that I for get to take pictures of my own family. June has been a busy month so far. Us Thomson's are all about free entertainment and my husband LOVES planes so we ventured out to the Hill Air Force Base air show! Along with every other person in Utah :) Just kidding it wasn't that bad. Yet as I saw people from every kind of walk of life I realized that behind the ear gages and fanny packs we are all the same. We all just want some free entertainment. The air planes were cool- the show was amazing and my boys got these free plastic airplanes that are still their favorite toys weeks later!

Well, Turner's birthday came and went. I can't believe that he is 3 now! I have to admit there are some challenges with 3 but over all I LOVE IT!!! I love the stories, the imagination, the curiosity (for the most part- maybe after hearing why 10,000x/ day I do get a little weary) I love how he is making sense of the world. He has become quite the protector of the elderly. My parent's went into the MTC on Monday (more about that visit later) but they took Turner to see my grandpa. It was the day after he had got his 3 year old check up and had a shot. While they were at the nursing home the nurse came it to check his blood sugar. Well, I guess he was pretty calm why they did it but then as the nurse was leaving he said to her with a stern face and a pointed finger: "Don't poke my grandpa again!" And he meant it! A few days later Turner had been out with me in the garden. Our next door neighbor is a 90 year old Japanese immigrant. While I was in the garden Suzie came out to say hello and offer Max and him a sucker. Suzie didn't have any children so a friend (a local police officer) takes care of her and came by to take her to the Dr. Turner yelled at him "Don't take Suzie! Guy!" What a great protector!

On Turner's birthday we tried to make the day special by having a picnic of his favorite (McDonald's cheese burger) at the park for lunch and going to the movies that night. We went and saw UP- very cute movie. The day after his birthday my parents came on their way to the MTC and we had a blast celebrating his birthday with them and Josh's family. The day after Turner's birthday is Josh's brother's birthday so we had a party with his parents, grandparents. and my parents and of course his brother- it was so fun!

Turner requested a train birthday so I made him a train cake. About an hour before the party I was about ready to throw the cake against the wall but luckily my mom came home, calmed me down and helped me. I think it turned out pretty good! But what really mattered is that he LOVED IT! He got so giddy and he was so excited and it made all of the frustration worth it times 10!

One of Turner's favorite gifts was this water snake that he got- Max loved it too! It turns the backyard into a water park :)

Random pictures- Josh and his dad washing their hands in gas after trying to tar the swamp cooler again trying to make it last yet another year. Of course a bowl full of gas needs to be lit on fire.

It has been fun to spend some time with my parents the last two weekends. We are enjoying every moment we can. Monday the 15th my parents went into the MTC now Sister and Elder Mangum

Turner was very good at helping them with their bags! You think when he goes on his mission he will be able to lift the suitcase into the car?

Since they don't have anything for senior couples do to on the weekend in the MTC my parents decided to come and spend some more time with my grandparents. I was lucky to sneak in some time with my dad (and mom) on father's day

They will fly out to Munich Germany on Wednesday and then will shortly be in their permanent assignment of Salzburg Austria. I know the end of this week is going to be really tough. I love them and will miss them a lot. I know that they will do amazing in this new calling. I am very excited for them!