Family Photos!

Okay folks so my friend Ashley (who is in my fabulous bunko group) does photography. She is wonderful and sweet as can be! Check out her blog and check out her photo shoot giveaway! I hope I win! I would love to get some pictures done this holiday season by her. Here's her blog:


http://believeittoseeit.blogspot.com/2008/10/giveawayits-still-this-week-right.html

Why Don't I Post More Often????

Crew Happens!!

As I'm editing my last post this is what occurred in my house: Crew decided to "go bathroom". He took his diaper off (that unbeknown to me had poop in it) and hopped up on the toilet and felt around. As you can see, after he felt around, he cleaned his fingers off on his legs.


How about that? Where's the poop? Crew is checking to see if it's in the potty, but we all know where it really is....

After the poop was cleaned up and Crew bathed for the 2nd time of the day, I'm back to posting. While posting, Crew found some nail polish and painted his toes, mainly his big toe.

Then after that he found the binky that has been missing for 2 days! We thought that since it was gone we would be done with the binky. Well, guess not. Dang it!

So much for keeping up with my posting. I have to keep up with my sanity first!

The Votes Have Been Cast

The last few weeks have been filled with politics. Not just your McCain-Obama junk, but serious stuff like Elementary school elections. Yes. Blake decided to run for his school Vice President! I thought, okay, I'll support him in this even though he is only a 4th grader. So we gave it a good run. Blake did awesome! His campaign poster was by far the BEST! And his speech had character to say the least. But as fate would have it a 5th grader beat him out. Did I mention that 39 kids were running for office and out of that 39, 15 of them were for VP???

After the disappointing loss, Blake was a little bummed even though he know it was a tough run with so many candidates. A trip to Sonic with mom (and a pep talk), a "way to go" call from Grandma, and a cute candy poster from his buddy Brad and his family quickly dispelled any sorrow from loss. (Thanks guys!)

Ya it was a long shot from the beginning (for all the candidates), but a great, slightly stressful, fun experience for our whole family. Way to go Blake. I'm proud of you for giving it your BEST!



Aunt Kristi Marie had the best speech ever, but we had to cut it down a little and make it easy enough for the kids to really "get". It will be perfect when he's in Jr. High running for Pres! http://kmcriddle.blogspot.com/2008/09/getting-political-relatively-speaking.html
You have to go check this out, it's awesome!

So here is the speech final cut:

Let's get down to business people. My name is Blake Thompson and I'm running for the office of Vice President. Let me tell you a little about myself. I am a smart and responsible student. I have CreAtiVE and FUN ideas.
As the oldest of 4 kids and the oldest of 20 cousins, I KNOW about Leadership! I KNOW how to handle TOUGH SITUATIONS!!
My courage, talent and compassion are unsurpassed and what's more, I KNOW how to get things DONE!

I will be a big help to HV. As VP, I will guide the new president into the RIGHT decisions for the RIGHT kids at the RIGHT times!! You can count on me to do my VERY BEST to represent OUR school. I KNOW I'll do great, vote for Blake!



And hey, you know what the difference between a pit-bull and a leader? That's right, this SKYHAWKS SHIRT!!

HV ROCKS!!

It's a piece of cake, vote for Blake!
I'm not a snake, vote for Blake!
Give me a break, vote for Blake!
For goodness sake, vote for Blake!



Make NO MISTAKE! VOTE FOR BLAKE 2008!!!

Summer Fun

I noticed that I have 3 drafts saved from this summer in my "edit posts" category but have never finished any of those. I guess that means a recap...


Well, school has started and summer vacation is over, so now what? Time to remember how great summer was!!

Swim team...
I have to say that the first swim meet was a real downer for Blake and Ashlyn. They both finished last. Actually I think it was really a great thing because everything else was up from there. Ashlyn got 1st in breast stroke. Blake got 3rd place in butterfly and breast stroke. An improvement for both. I am proud of them for sticking it out and finishing the season strong. This was Ashlyn's first year of swim team and Blake's 4th. Great job kids!













The Beach!
What can you say about the beach. Ocean breeze, cool water, sand, cousins, fun! Yep, super good time. I even started off the beach adventure without Bill. I drove to Cali with the kids by myself. Fortunate for me, Amy was also husband-less so we took on the adventure together. I think we managed pretty good. Although we were sure glad when our husbands made it over. Of course the kids had a blast and it was swim suits and jammies everyday. I don't even know why we packed clothes.

I do have to say that on our last day at the beach we were trying to get a big family photo. The family was facing the ocean and a couple of girls were taking our picture with their backs to the water. As they were taking the picture Nathan noticed that there were dolphins out in the water and pointed to them. I thought he was just trying to get the kids to all look at the camera, but when I looked out, a dolphin did a big flip in the air and landed in the waves. They couldn't have been that far out! It was so amazing. It was almost as if we were at Sea World for a few minutes. There were several dolphins out swimming, but they didn't stay too long.

Oceanside Rock Jetty:

This was a fun place to find some interesting creatures. You can see that Crew has a baby crab crawling on his arm. The kids were all looking for these little crabs. It was a good thing Aunt Jamie was there to help them. She was expert in finding and catching those little guys. She good at finding those sand crabs on the beach too.

Oceanside Scripps Aquarium:

We just happened to hit the Aquarium on the last day of Shark Week. Totally awesome dude! The kids got to see a shark feeding with some divers, check out some neat looking fish and pet a baby horn shark and another shark that I don't remember the name of. Crew even touched one of the sharks and got it a little stirred up. Emma got up close to a tank with a large octopus. That was really interesting to see all the suction cups on the tentacles.

All in all it was a fun adventure.

Musical Theater with cousins:

Can you really beat having a summer music camp singing and dancing with some of your very most favorite people? I just don't think so. Ashlyn and Emma were so lucky to have their girl cousins from both sides of our family in the musical theater. It was a Disney themed good time.

The 4th of July at the cabin:

It is our yearly tradition to spend the 4th of July at my parents cabin. The parade is fun, fireworks are the best, and the weather is awesome. Best of all we spend time with family. The kids love playing with their cousins. They cut flowers, make crafts, fish, play games and go crazy! I love to spend time with my brothers and sister in laws too. We usually get some good games in.

Fun with Thompson Cousins:

We did a lot of swimming and playing when our cousins were in town. It was so fun to have Bill's sister Heather and her family here for a week in the summer. Blake even had the chance to go see them for a few days and fly home on an airplane by himself!

Memorial Day and

Emma's Birthday at the cabin

We did have several fishing poles end up in the lake with Crew fishing. Bill spent a good amount of time trying to fish out poles instead of fish!

Emma turned 4 on Memorial Day this year. She thinks it's so great to have her birthday up at the cabin. We had the Jackson/Lambson/Higgins family up with us too. The more the merrier and much more excitement to be had.

Wow! We had a great summer!! Fun Fun Fun!

Pinewood Derby.. the low down of '07--'08

And the winner is.......

Blake after Grand Canyon Council Race 2008

This story actually begins a year ago when Blake turned 8 and had his first Pinewood Derby race (April 2007). Blake and Dad worked really hard on a great looking and very fast car. Blake's first year he smoked everyone down the track and won every race. This was a total no brainer as far as who won, right? ... WRONG! Another cute boy was awarded 1st place even though Blake's car beat his car. It was a computer error and everyone knew who the real winner was even though Blake was awarded 2nd place.






Year number 2 comes (March 2008) and Blake and Dad prepare again for the race. Knowing what happened last year, the boys worked hard to make this a fast car. The race came and our pack decided to go a different race route than the other packs in our stake. Our pack borrowed a super fancy track and set in up OUTSIDE at a park surrounded by dirt. We were told this was going to be a fast race and we would be done in 20 minutes. SWEET! Well, we go through all the races and we carefully watch Blake's race times and the other kids. Blake won all the races and beat the boy from last year by fractions of a second, but still clearly won. The other boys are chanting Blake's name and cheering him on, giving him five as he walked by. We stood waiting with the camera ready to take the winner's picture when it was announced. Just then the Cub Master announces that there has been a computer glitch!! WHAT?? AGAIN??!!! Yes, it happened to us again! They had to re-race all the cars. By this point, an hour after the start of all this, all the kids who are watching are tired of sitting and waiting and start running around in the dirt ball fields, kicking up all kinds of dirt and debris.



When Blake's car races, it flies down the track and suddenly takes a huge jump in the air and drops back down crooked on the track and then bounces again. His car had hit a rock that had flown on the track. Blake's car never recovered. He went from 1st place to 8th place in a matter of seconds. He was baffled when they handed him the 8th place when he knew he originally beat everyone! I was so proud of Blake. He had excellent sportsmanship and didn't argue to anyone about the decision. (We waited until we got home and hashed it all out together! Cause trust me, Bill and I were fumed!!)



Blake and Bill decided to make a whole new car to race at the district race (April 2008) to go for some redemption. This car was not pretty and sleek. It was not painted, it was BURNED! Yes, they took a torch to it to really give this car character. Blake raced the car at district and won 3rd place in his age category. He was awarded a trophy and qualified to race at the Grand Canyon Council race in May.





The car was taken to the Council race, which covers all of Arizona (May 2008). Blake's car did AWESOME! It was "burning" up the track! Blake was originally awarded 2nd place. Of course there was a computer glitch... and he ended up with 3rd place! Totally cool, hu!?! Blake won a trophy, a shirt with his name on it, and aFULL SIZE MOUNTAIN BIKE!!! WoW!





Now that's what I'm talkin about!