Pie anyone?

This last weekend we had a chili/pie cook off in our ward. I decided to make a coconut cream pie. There were a total of 29 pies and I won 1st place! I couldn't believe it, I honestly didn't submit the pie thinking I would win anything. But when it came down to the pie contest they said there was one clear winner by far and then 3 people tied for second place. The criteria for judging the pies were: Did it look good? (Would you buy it at the store?), the crust, if the pie was set up, and of course the over all taste.

I would just like to thank my sister Robyn who gave me the pie filling recipe and my mom who gave me the awesome crust recipe and who taught me how to make it!

(I would've taken a picture of the pie but of course it was all gone and I really didn't think I'd win. But here's a picture of what I won!)

Halloween Fun

We've had lots of fun this Halloween season. First, we started by going to Harvest Fest in Idaho Falls. At Harvest Fest, the kids played games, decorated cookies, rode on a train, went through a corn maze, and did many arts and crafts projects.

Here's Riley with his cousins Zach and Nathan.


The next Halloween activity we did was decorate sugar cookies. Riley has grown immensely in his artistic abilities since last year. Riley was very aware of what color he used to frost each cookie. Notice the bat and the moon and the witch.

Next we went to the trunk or treat for our ward. I had asked Riley what he wanted to be for Halloween and to my surprise he chose to be a scarecrow. That was easy enough for me and very inexpensive. I must say, he made a pretty cute scarecrow!


The next week we went to the school's Halloween carnival. Riley had a blast playing all of the little carnival games. He got a picture with the bearded lady.



And he won "The Grand Prize!" (that's what Riley called it). One of the activities at the carnival was to guess how many candy corns were in the jar. Riley finally decided that he wanted to guess 514. Cody asked what he would get if he won, to his dismay, I told him that Riley would win the jar of candy. Just what we needed, more candy! Later that evening Riley and I were out playing some game while Cody was waiting to get us cotton candy. The next thing Cody knew they were asking if Riley Thompson was in the gym. Cody told them that he was Riley's dad, they informed him that Riley won the guessing game. Apparently, there were a total of 506 candy corns in the jar and Riley's guess was the closest. Later there was a lady that saw us holding the jar full of candy and she asked if we had won. When we informed her that we did and that there was 506, she told us that she had seen Riley's guess and she decided to guess a few more than him, her guess was 518. She seemed a little upset that she didn't win. We just thought it was funny that she wanted to win that badly, especially since she was competing against children.

Here's Riley holding "The Grand Prize"


Our next activity was to make haunted houses out of rice krispie treats.


Last, but not least, we painted pumpkins. Riley decided this year that he would rather paint his pumpkin instead of carving.




I hope everyone else had a fun Halloween season!
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

First Day of School

Riley started his first day of kindergarten yesterday. He was so excited, he could not wait to go. He told me when he was eating breakfast that he thought he was going to miss me. I told him that he'd be having so much fun that he wasn't going to have time to miss me. Then he asked me if I was going to miss him. I told him of course.

As we got to the school he couldn't wait to get to the door. School hadn't started just yet so he had to stand out and wait a little bit. He walked over to the line and forgot all about me. A few minutes later he finally looked around and waved at me, but that was the last time he looked at me. Once the door opened, he rushed in without even a glance in my direction.

This is him anxiously waiting for school to start. Look at that smile.

I hadn't felt sad at all, but once he walked in that door I started to tear up. I had to hurry to the car so none of the other parents saw me crying. Then the tears just kept streaming down my face and I couldn't make them stop. I was happy for Riley and how excited he was, but my little baby is no longer a baby.

When I picked him up later he told me all about his day. He told me that he wasn't at school for very long. If he could, I think he would've loved to be at school all day long. I'm just glad that he loves school right now and that he's so excited to learn new things.

It's a...

BOY!!!



We found out yesterday that we are having another baby boy! We're very excited, especially Riley. He can't wait to have a baby brother. The best part is that everything looks great and I'm measuring right on my due date (January 6, 2010)!

I guess I should change the look of my blog, it's a little girly for all of these boys. :)

Summer 2009

I can't believe how fast this summer has flown by. Cody's already back to work full-time and Riley will be starting Kindergarten next week!

We started this summer off by going to Yellowstone with my family (Robyn and her family, Hope and her family, my parents, and Scott). It was definitely a long three days in the car, but we did get to see some really cool things, including 6 bears!

The Grand Tetons

Old Faithful


Mammoth Hot Springs



The Falls


One of the bears we were able to see


The buffalo we got stuck behind. He decided to walk in the middle of the road, he wouldn't go right because he'd fall of the cliff, and he wouldn't go left because it was straight up. Luckily he finally moved to the yellow lines so we were able to squeeze past him or we might still be there following him down the mountain.

After Yellowstone we went to Lagoon. It was probably the worst day to go, only minutes after we got there, it started pouring. Since I'm pregnant, I obviously didn't go on any rides. Thanks to my brother living in Farmington, Robyn and I got in for free and we just watched Riley and her youngest, Cole, ride the kiddie rides. We weren't there very long until we all decided to head back home and dry off. A few hours later the rain stopped and we were able to go back and get a few more rides in. Riley had a blast riding all of the little rides, then we had Cody come join us (he had been riding the rides with the bigger kids) and he was able to go on a couple rides with the little boys. I think Puff still scared Riley to death, he is not a roller coaster boy. Then the boys decided they wanted to go on the Ferris Wheel. Robyn and I were a little nervous that they were going to get to the top and freak out, but they ended up loving it. Who knew!

You can see in the picture how wet it was. Poor Riley, he looks like he's freezing.



Riley looking a little less than thrilled with Puff, but trying to smile while he holds on for dear life.


Our brave boys on the Ferris Wheel.

A Successful trip on the Ferris Wheel, they loved it.

The next week we were finally able to close on our home and move in. We got everything moved to the new home and started the unpacking process. All of you that have moved, especially with kids, know how long that process can take. I'm just glad we only had one kid to move. How on earth do we accumulate so much stuff? My real question was, where in the world did we keep all of this stuff when we were living in our tiny condo? I have definitely decided that we will NEVER move again. Luckily we bought a house that we really could stay in for the rest of our lives. After being in our home for only a week, we took off to Idaho.

We spent a week in Idaho having a family reunion with Cody's immediate family (Carma and her family, Ty and his family, and Cody's parents). We were able to get family pictures done, go to the zoo, and go boating. The kids just had a blast being able to play together!

We were boating for 8 hours and the kids could've just kept on going but the adults were wiped out! All of the kids enjoyed riding in the tube. Here's Riley with his cousins Cade and Gabe.

Just having fun with cousins Cole and Nathan (Yes, Riley has cousins named Cole and Nathan on both sides of the family, we also have two Zachs.)

We came back home to finish unpacking and now here we are, the middle of August and the summer is over.

It's About Time...

I guess I should finally let everyone know the goods news. We are going to have a baby! We actually found out that I was pregnant the day that our condo went under contract. It was a big night for us. I actually couldn't believe it, so I had to take the test twice just to make sure.

The next day was Riley's birthday, for one of his presents we announced that we are going to have a baby. He is so excited, now he just can't wait to find out if he's getting a brother or sister. He wants a brother of course. When we went to the Dr. a few weeks ago the Dr. asked if we had any questions, Riley promptly raised his hand and said, "I have a question, what kind of baby is it going to be?!" The Dr. just laughed, he gave Riley a picture of the ultrasound (we did an ultrasound because it was still too early to hear the heartbeat) and he asked Riley if he could tell what the baby was going to be. Riley's sure it's a boy!

I have been more sick this time than I was with Riley so everyone tells me it's a girl. Even the Dr. said that, then he said he's usually right about 50% of the time, haha. Cody and I don't care if it's a boy or a girl, we just feel blessed to be having another baby.

I do feel really bad though, because of the timing, I won't be the biggest help when we move in a few days. I just get to sit back and boss people around. :) Oh well, Cody doesn't mind, we're both just so happy!

Finally!! Our New Home!

After months of looking at homes and putting many offers on short sale homes (stupidest thing I've ever heard. There's nothing short about the process!!) we found the perfect home!

We are so excited about this home. The person who built the home was never able to live in it so it's basically brand new. The bank owned the home and there were two offers made the first day it was listed. Luckily, our offer was the one the bank picked. The timing couldn't have worked out more perfectly and this home really has everything we wanted. It has plenty of room for Riley and run around and play. He's so excited, he can't wait to move. He actually wants to pack boxes. (We'll see how long that lasts, once we actually start packing.)

We'll be closing on our condo this Thursday, June 25th and then we'll close on our home around the 3rd or 6th of July. So we'll be with my parents for a week or so. Which again, works out perfectly because my whole family is going to Yellowstone June 29th for a few days and then we would've been at my parents anyways to hang out with my sister Robyn and her family. I'm just grateful for how everything has worked out!

Total Slacker!

I have been a really bad blogger these last few months. Now I feel like I'm so behind that I don't know where to begin, so much has happened. Since we've done so many things I decided to do 4 separate posts. Make sure you scroll all the way down to see everything we've been up to the past few months.

In March we decided that it would be a good time to move. With the prices of homes and the interest rates we thought it was a good time to try and find a house. We put our condo up for sale and started the waiting game. One good thing was that I really kept the house clean since it had to be show ready!

We had a couple offers but one fell through because the girl lost her job and the other offers weren't good enough. We finally got an offer that we would accept and we will now be moving out at the end of June. So this next week, we will start packing up all of our stuff.

Right now, we haven't found a house that we will be moving to, but it's okay. Since Cody works at a Jr. High, we can live with my parents or his since we're off for the summer. Hopefully, I will be able to post something about our new house soon!

Thomas the Train

Memorial Day weekend we went to Park City with Cody's parents and his sister and her family. Memorial Day we all went to see Thomas the Train. They had some fun activities for the kids.

They all got temporary tattoos.

They got to play with some lego train sets.

They got to draw with chalk and make bubbles.

Then the main event, they got to ride Thomas the Train!

Riley couldn't wait to ride the train, he has always wanted to ride on a train.

Riley's cousins Nathan and Zach. They got to take a picture with Thomas and Sir Topham Hat.

I think Riley's favorite activity was eating Cotton Candy. He just loves Cotton Candy! He didn't want to share with anyone, the little pig.

Riley's 5th Birthday

I can't believe that my baby boy is now 5 years old.

It's amazing how fast time flies by. He's going to be starting kindergarten this year!
(I don't know what he's doing in this picture.)

We decided to have a birthday party this year. Riley said that he wanted to have a dinosaur party. So I made a volcano cake. (It was supposed to have smoke coming out of the top but I didn't have time to go get the dry ice.) Oh well, the kids still thought it was cool.

Here's all the kids helping him open his presents!

Then we had a dinosaur pinata! It was a little more difficult to break it open then I thought. We eventually just had to rip it open, but at least all the kids got an opportunity to take a whack at it.

California

We went to visit Robyn and Matt during spring break. Scott also took a trip to California during that time, so we were able to hang out with him. While we were in California we all went to a Padre/Dodger game. Matt loves the Padres and Cody loves the Dodgers, so it's always a good time.

Cole, Christian, and Scott

Robyn and Scott (Scott decided that he is a Padre fan)

Since we had plans the next day in San Diego we stayed with Matt's parents that night. They made us feel so welcome. They even saved a special orange so Riley could have the opportunity of picking an orange off the tree. (The orange was really stuck on the tree, so Riley needed a little help)

The next day Robyn, Scott, and I took the kids to the zoo while Cody and Matt went to another ball game. Unfortunately, I got food poisoning or a strange flu bug and I was not feeling well at all. Plus, the stop and go traffic on the way to the zoo did not help. At one point Scott talked me into getting a wheelchair and he said he'd wheel me around the zoo. I was so sick I decided to do it. (Don't I look thrilled)

When Scott started wheeling me around I started feeling even worse, I don't think the rolling along was helping. I decided I'd go back to the car and lay down while everyone walked around the zoo. Cole was tired and wanted to go home anyways, so Scott said he'd take the kids to see a few things while Robyn took me back to the car and then he'd bring the kids to the car. What a nice brother, he was so caring to me and he was really sweet with the kids.

That weekend was easter so the kids were able to decorate easter eggs and then they had an easter egg hunt.

Other than getting sick, we had a great time in California.