Sam's Ninth Birthday!

Sam turned nine today! So sad that he is getting so old. He is the funnest little boy in the whole world and he makes our lives happy. You could say that all his sisters spoil him just a little.

Everyone had either school or work today except him and he was able to go over to Ben's house and play. He loves to go over there so it was a happy day for him. When we all got home, we met Grandma and Grandpa and went out to dinner to celebrate.

Here are 9 things that tell how awesome Sam is...

1. He is the hardest working boy I know. He comes home every day and has to work on homework and reading harder than anyone. He does complain some...but does it and tries hard too.

2. He does what you ask him to do and sometimes a little extra! Some mornings his bed is already made without me even asking him to do it. He just knows it needs to be done.

3. He has a great sense of humor. He makes me laugh and he laughs easily at other's jokes.

4. He is well liked by others. He has a lot of friends and he is a good friend to others also. In fact his teacher has told how kind he is.

5. He is very athletic.

6. He is a Cub Scout and has finished his first year.

7. Sam's room is consistently the cleanest out of all the kids in this family!

8. He is so handsome.

9. I am not his primary teacher anymore, but in sharing time he answers a lot of questions so I know that he is so smart and has a testimony. In fact he shares his testimony a lot in sacrament meeting :)

I love you Sam!

More Birthday Pictures...Happy Birthday Sam!

Grandma Thompson turns 98!

We all celebrated Grandma's birthday on Saturday. She turned 98 years old on Friday, November 26 and she looks so beautiful! She was born in 1912 in Liberty so she has lived up in the valley her whole life. She married my Grandpa Wells Thompson on January 21, 1931 in the Salt Lake Temple. She enjoys gardening and she always had the most beautiful garden every summer, she enjoys painting, quilting, making dolls, and having family close by. She is a very talented person and was always wanting to share her talents and was always encouraging me to learn and pick up on as many skills as I could. She is one of the most influential people in my life. I love her so much and I look up to her. Almost every memory I have as a little girl has her in it and what a happy childhood I had!

Thanksgiving Movie

Thanksgiving was nice this year. We didn't travel very far, we just had to go up to Steve's Mom and Dad's house. Greg and Paige were there, Ben and his family and so was Jennifer, plus us so his mom was very happy to have all of her kids there. It was a great dinner and it was good to spend time with everyone.

I am thankful for everything that I have...especially my family. You have to really think about things like that on this holiday you know! I am thankful for this long weekend and that I get to spend some time at home. I am thankful for my house and for Steve's job and for my job. Wow, I am really grateful that I got such a great job when there are so many people struggling for work right now and to think that this job almost landed in my lap. I am grateful for so many things...my friends and neighbors, the gospel, our health, but most of all....my family. I love my family so much and I am so grateful to be a mother to them. I would do anything for them and all I want for them is to be happy in life and I hope that I am raising them in a way that they will be able to grow up and live a happy life. That is a lot of responsibility you know! I am rambling! So...Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

After the Thanksgiving Feast and the visiting...we traveled down to the Syracuse Theatres to watch Tangled with the Larsen family and while we waited for the movie to start, we got a little bored and pulled out the camera...

Basketball Championships

Sam has entered a new frontier and is loving it...he is now playing competition basketball with his football coaches. During football season, his football coaches approached me and asked if Sam would be interested in playing basketball with them on a comp team. I told them that yes he would and that it would be something that he would love to do...almost as much as football. Coach Burke asked me if he was good and I said that I didn't really know because all he had ever played was jr. jazz. Then Coach Burke gave him that best compliment. He said that if he worked as hard as he did out on the football field in other sports, he probably was great or at least would be able to be coached. Well, Sam has worked hard on this basketball team and he has learned a lot from Coach Burke, he is a great coach. They took the championship and they will continue to play in more sessions throughout the winter season. I am excited to watch them, they have some really good players on the team!

Go Syracuse Thunder!

Sydnie's First Car Accident

Wow...Sydnie has gotten into her first car accident and she doesn't even have her real driver's licence yet! She was driving out of the parking lot of the church, leaving Night of Excellence and Steve was letting her drive. Steve had put a bottle of pepto on the dash board and has she pulled out and turned the corner, it went flying acrossed and she was fixated on it and just kept turning and turned right into a tree! Wrecked our Tahoe...6,000$ damage and it had to be towed away the next day. There was a big dent in the front of the hood and the bumper was all messed up and the radiator and I don't know what else. She felt awful. I felt bad for her and so did the policeman, she didn't give her a ticket and she was very nice to her. Things happen!

Halloween Night...

Halloween night was Spook-tacular! We had the Rices come over for some hot soup and bread sticks and then all of the neighborhood goblins met up and went out in the wet and cold to go trick 'r' treating. After awhile, we went over to the Crosby's house to finish passing out our candy from over there and to visit with them...they had a nice spooky set up and Adam was dressed up so scary to trick everyone. It was so Halloweenish! Virgina was there also and it was so fun to see her, she was dressed up as Michael Jackson (so funny). I always enjoy seeing her. She will come visit me and it makes my day.

Legacy Volleyball 2010

Starting Junior High was a big deal for Brinley because the very first day of school was also volleyball tryouts...I know...stressful! And then the second day was again tryouts and then it wasn't until the third day did they find out who made the team. Brinley made it and we were very excited for her. She has never even played volleyball, we had to laugh at the fact that she would have to learn the rules of the game. Well she had a awesome time playing, in fact, she even got to play a little in the varsity games. She did so good, she works hard and it pays off! During the season, she was at a Saturday soccer game and she felt instant pain in the back of her foot and she started to cry (which is very abnormal for her). A few days later I took her to a foot doctor and she had partially ruptured her Achilles tendon. Darn, that put her out for the rest of the volleyball and soccer season. She was so bummed! But she did get to dress for the last championship game, where Legacy came in second place!

Carrigan, Mia, and Brinley (all from the soccer team) made the volleyball team and they all purposely chose consecutive numbers! Funny Girls. The real funny thing is that I didn't notice it until the very last game and then took a picture of it! Ha ha!

Kim is finally turning 40! Finally! My Gosh! Tonia threw her a masquerade surprise party. It was a nice evening where everyone sat down to a yummy dinner and some reminiscing about how wonderful Kim is!

Happy Birthday Kim...you're the best friend ever!

End of Year Football Party

I have really listened to the song by Kenny Chesney "The Boys of Fall" since Sam has played football and I love the song. It really holds true to the game and the fact that football is a game that teaches lifelong lessons. Not once did Sam complain to go to that 2 hour practice and not once did he complain of how hard the practice was. He worked so hard day after day and loved it. He would pull his helmet off each day and be soaking wet with a smile on his face. His coaches were awesome and they all taught him to love the game. Sam had a great time playing football. Their team won all their games but one. Sam made a lot of touch downs but his favorite thing to do was to tackle. He was unstoppable!

More Football Pictures...

Best picture of all...quarter back 10 yard sack!!!