Farewell Sayre!

My nephew got called to the Colubus, Ohio mission. 

We are so proud of him for being willing to serve his Heavenly Father for 2yrs. 

We went to his farewell talk over New Years weekend. He did a great job. 

Bruce, Brodey, and Sayre

 Our little Sayre is all grown up. :)

Christmas 2017!

We had a very merry Christmas this year. We spent Christmas Eve with Robert's family. We played games, had a great dinner, had a talent show and a live nativity story with the grandkids. 

Bruce was the narrator, so he's not in the picture.
Linda was Mary.
Claire was a horse.
Jane was an angel/star.

 Jane played the piano for the talent show.
Linda played the violin.
Claire did a dance with her cousin Audrey.
Bruce did the worm in the Scott Thompson family skit but managed not to be in a picture again.

My kids are so funny. They've been trained well by their mother not to be morning people. :) So, we set the alarm for 8am so everyone could get up to see what Santa brought. The kids loved their gifts and have had fun playing with everything since. 

Merry Christmas! 

We're ready for the new year now.

Thanksgiving Festivities

This year we went to Dan and Michelle's house for Thanksgiving with the Thompson side of the family. We had some great food and the kids played donut on a string and Kahoots. It was nice, and even nicer not to have to do a bunch of cooking and cleaning.

The next day we went to Palmdale, A bunch of Robert's aunts, uncles and cousins met up at Patty and John's house. Robert, Bruce, Linda, and I went shooting(the bruise on my arm just healed), and Linda and Claire stayed back for a turkey/candy hunt. That night we had a bbq around a fire. It was a lot of fun.

Our First Teenage Girl!

Linda is officially a teenager! She turned 13yrs. old on the 22nd. We had strawberry shortcake for her birthday cake. She got some new clothes, a riding helmet, a necklace, purse, boogie board, and all kinds of fun stuff.

We went to Medieval Times to celebrate. The kids really loved it and it was fun to see the knights and all of the beautiful horses. 

We love Linda so much. She was born a lady. She has a compassionate, kind spirit. She loves horses, babysitting, reading, and being creative. She has grown in to a beautiful young woman. We're so lucky to know her. 
Here is her yearly birthday picture with Grandpa Thompson.

Family Pictures - The Kids

Claire - 9yrs. old

Linda - 12yrs. old (almost 13)

Jane - 11yrs. old

Bruce - 14yrs. old

Family Pictures - Pt. 2

New Family Pictures Oct. 2017 - Pt. 1

Here are some of my favorites from our family picture session this year. 

 

Halloween 2017

I was ambitious and had a little Halloween party at our house the week before Halloween for the kids friends. It was pretty fun, and a lot of work. The next night was our Trunk-or-Treat at church. I felt like Halloween should be over at that point. 

On Halloween day I went to Claire's school for a little party for Literature Day/Halloween. You can't see the full costume but she was Charlotte from Charlotte's Web. That night we went to a friend's house and had a bbq. The adults hung out while the kids went trick or treating and the teenagers played video games.

Here are the costumes this year. 

Bruce - suspicious man :)

Linda - Red Riding Hood

Jane - Cop

Claire - Jaguar

I'd say is was a successful Halloween. The kids are passed out from all of the fun and they'll have candy around for weeks. 

Firsts For Bruce

Bruce has had a few firsts lately. He went to his first church dance. He was asked to dance pretty quickly. Because he is tall a lot of older girls ask him to dance, thinking he's older than he is. His Uncle Tom got a picture of him at the dance. Haha.

Also, he started to shave. It's fun when Bruce has firsts, because his first are also lasts. 

That's how it works when you only have one boy.

Vaulting

Linda joined a horse vaulting class at the horse ranch. She really enjoys it and it has brought out a new, brave side of her. They warm up on a barrel to practice their moves. Here are some pictures of Linda's latest tricks.

This is the horse, Big Boy, that they use for the lessons. He's huge. 

 Linda was so excited that they let her try standing up while the horse was walking. 

 Sitting backwards on a trotting horse.

Primary Program

A couple of weeks ago was the primary program at church. Claire spoke of how she tried to be more like Jesus by including people at school that might be lonely. This was Jane's last primary program and she couldn't be happier about it. :) She was the last speaker and she talked about all that she had learned in primary that would help her throughout her life. I'm so grateful for the primary program and for the amazing teachers my children continue to have in primary. They've blessed our lives. 

Brodey is Home

Our nephew/cousin Brodey got back from the Kingston, Jamaica mission. We're so proud of him. We went to Henderson, NV to eat some Jamaican food and hear Brodey speak in sacrament meeting. He still has a little accent. He did a great job on his talk. I loved hearing about the families and individuals that he served in Jamaica. He has grown and changed and become a great man of faith. 

Here are some pictures of our quick trip there, including some before and after pictures. 

We're so proud of Brodey for leading the way for Sayre and Bruce.

42yrs. Old + High Priest

On September 13th, Robert turned 42yrs. old. He didn't want to do anything major, and with our busy schedule I'm not sure we could anyway. His favorite soccer team played and we had his favorite chocolate chip cookie sandwiches filled with vanilla ice cream. Happy happy birthday to Robert!

Also, Robert was ordained a High Priest by his dad today during church. He will serve as the 2nd Assistant in the High Priest Group.