Christmas

We had a great Christmas!! I was a little sad that this would be our first Christmas away from home, but I was also excited to be able to stay home and not be running like crazy in the snowy Utah weather. This year Santa actually visited our house on Christmas eve instead of coming early since we weren't going to be gone. Brynlee was so excited, I wasn't sure if she would sleep all night.

Morning came and at about 7a.m. Gracen was the first to wake up. I got him a cup of milk and once he finished that we went downstairs to wake up Brynlee. When she walked out in the living room and saw that Santa left presents, her little face just lit up! Gracen kept grinning and pointing to the presents, he was ready to dig in!

Because we weren't traveling this year, Grandma's and Grandpa's all sent money for us to get the kids something with to put under the tree or gifts. It seemed like a lot of gifts so we decided to split it up and we just opened our family gifts first, then we got on the web cam with Grandma's and Grandpa's so they could see the kids open their gifts and to talk to them for a little bit. There were a few times that Brynlee got impatient while we were getting things set up and she just started ripping into the presents, even the ones that weren't hers!

Here are the 2 VERY SPOILED Thompson kids!!


This made me laugh! At first she was afraid of it, then she kept laughing at it when she finally put it on! Nate thinks she looks like a gypsy!

Brynlee didn't want the day to end, she made a special request to sleep in her princess castle!

We had a great Christmas!! It was so much fun to see how excited Brynlee and Gracen were about everything! We all had such an amazing day, and are especially grateful to our family and friends who were thinking of us and for the wonderful gifts that we received!

Christmas tradition...

One of our family Christmas traditions is to make an ornament for the Christmas tree. A few years ago we started the tradition by making a simple hand print ornament on Brynlee's first Christmas and have been doing it every year since! This year we made little snowmen. Nate cut them out and Brynlee helped paint them. I think they turned out really cute! One for Brynlee and Mommy, and one for Gracen and Daddy!

When Brynlee grows up...

she wants to be... "a ballerina, and when I'm done being a ballerina, I want to be a princess!" When we went to the doctor about a week ago, he asked Brynlee what she wants to be when she grows up, well the response was a princess. Then a couple of days later she decided that she wanted to be "twins" with her friend Lauren and be a ballerina. Now it has changed to both. It is fun to see her at this age with her friends, preschool, dance and at church.

We had playgroup at our house yesterday and she and Lauren were playing dress up. They were both princesses going to the ball. They both ran over to their friend Caleb and asked him if he wanted to be the King. He said "No, I am going to be a garbage man!" It was so funny, these kids just crack me up!

On Wednesday Brynlee had dance, it was the last class of the month so the blinds were open so the parents could watch. They also invited us in to do a mini recital, it was so cute and they did a great job! I got lucky because Brynlee was at the front of the line where I could see her really good! Here are the 2 dances they did for us...

(starring Brynlee and Lauren!)

A couple of months ago Brynlee learned how to write her name, she can write it perfectly forward and perfectly backwards! She is really enjoying writing and asks me how to spell lots of words all the time. She is growing way too fast!

Lunch with Santa

Nate is in his pediatrics rotation right now and the office he is with invited us to their Christmas lunch. They did it at a resort that had a "lunch with Santa" They had balloon animals, charicature drawings, and Santa came to see all the kids after we ate lunch. First his sleigh, pulled by all the reindeer landed on the roof, there were a couple of times I thought they were going to fall through the roof! It scared Brynlee, she just about jumped out of her seat and into my lap. About 5 minutes later Santa came in, the kids were all so excited!

I was shocked that Brynlee sat on his lap. She has always been afraid of the mall Santas and won't go near them. She was pretty nervous standing in line so we practiced what she was going to tell Santa that she wants for Christmas. When she got up there, she was pretty quiet but she actually told him that she wants a cash register and a barbie computer. She also told him she wasn't going to leave him any cookies when he asked what kind of cookies she was going to leave. Gracen didn't want to sit on his lap, he was more interested in the "ball" on the Christmas tree!

We were finally able to get them both up there, I am so excited for Christmas!

When the house is a little too quiet...

This morning while I was cleaning up the breakfast dishes, Brynlee was coloring, and I noticed that there was no noise. I asked Brynlee if she knew where Gracen was and she didn't know, so I went to see if he was in her bedroom. Sure enough, he was and I found the reason he was being so quiet...

He found a pancake in the GARBAGE, gross I know! Smashed it into the carpet and was sitting there playing with it. And Nate wonders why I complain about never being able to get anything done! Here's your proof!

Bargain shopper in training...

Brynlee has heard a lot of talk about the day after Thanksgiving sales over the past week. Yesterday I was clearing off the table and Brynlee climbed up on a chair to where she could see the ads on the end of the counter, she started looking at the one on top and said "Ohhh, look at this dolly, it's ONLY twenty dollars!" and she pointed at it(she couldn't really read it, she just made the price up, I think it was really $10). I was laughing so hard at her! I guess I didn't realize she was listening to me so much. I also have to laugh at her when she asks me for a coupon and uses it when she plays "store" and when I am looking through the weekly coupons she always asks, "Are there any good ones this week?"

Sad face

Maybe I am a mean mom, but I think it is so cute when Gracen is being all whiney and pulls out his sad face! I was out and Nate took this picture of Gracen after he sat in his drum and got stuck.He said he could have taken some better pictures, but the camera batteries died. Here are a few more, just so you get the full effect!

We were having a snack, he had been upset about something, but mostly over it. All I had to do was say "ohh" and give him a little sympathy and he would get going all over again. He'd start curling up his little lips and pull out his sad face, then seconds later he was fine.

He is just so cute, even when he is sad!

Here he is being happy, I really wasn't torturing him.