Mark, Debbie and Bailey Thompson: July 2012

Wow, haven't blogged in so long that blogger changed it's format - when did that happen?! Anyway, here's a little about December 2011.

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Holidays Begin

I started the Holiday season off with some neighbor gifts. I love baking, especially sugar cookies and pretty much any other kind of dessert. It's always so hard for me to choose which dessert to bring to something or make for someone, this year I made snowflake cookies and chocolate peanut butter balls. Yum! I also decided to actually make something I pinned off of Pinterest, snow globes.

The only place for decorations is this one bookshelf, no tree, just the shelf.

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Ward Activity

Our ward had it's annual Christmas activity, this year they had an ugly sweater contest. When I heard that, I was like, "Heck yes, we are so in!" So I bought some sweaters from the thrift store, and all the weird decorations I could from the dollar store and hot glued my little heart out. We ended up winning first place. Bailey also got to meet Santa, she was still in the "I'm afraid of everyone but mom and dad stage" so it was just for a moment.

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Home

After a couple grueling weeks of finals, we made the grueling drive home. It actually wasn't that bad since Bailey came down with something the day we left. She had a fever and threw up in a gas station, but then slept the rest of the way to Melba. However, once we got to Melba things got really bad. Bailey had never been as sick as she was there. Screaming all night, running a high fever, throwing up everything, lethargic, no appetite. I felt so bad for my little baby, holding her shaking body as we tried to break her fever in the middle of the night. Poor thing got over it within a few days, but then one by one it got passed around the rest of the family. Owen threw up, then Allie, then Marcie came down with strep and an ear infection, then Craig was next, Mark got it for a day, and Mike too. I think we'll look back at this year as the "bad year".

Despite all the sickness, we still had a good time and carried on all our activities. First off was decorating the Hadley Christmas Tree! We sang songs and Grandma (still recovering from hip surgery) handed out decorations to Owen and Bailey and we helped them put them on the tree.

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Hogle Zoo

One of our days in Utah we went to the Hogle Zoo with the Thompsons. I knew Bailey would love it since she was getting more and more into animals and making ALL the animal noises. Her favorite, of course, was the tiger.

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Pet Store

What's the next best thing to the zoo? The pet store! Sometimes we have to get creative at the Hadley home and go out and do stuff we haven't done in years. The whole grandchildren thing is still a little new to them. So one day we went to the Bountiful pet store, both Owen and Bailey loved seeing all the animals, especially the furry puppies.

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Temple Square

Mark and I decided to do a trip to see the Temple Square lights with just our little family. We bundled Bailey the best we could and strolled around until we were too cold for any more. Bailey knew "Temple" and pointed to it when we got there - she also thinks the Disney castle is a temple too.

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Joseph Smith Party

Every year on the 23rd of December Mark's sister Leslie and her husband Ben have a birthday party for Joseph Smith. It was a tradition in Ben's family that they've carried over to theirs. It's always nice to get together and remember our Prophet during the most busy time of the year. This year they focused the party on the women in Joseph's life and I gave a little talk on Emma, what an amazing lady. It was good for me to refresh my memory of her hardships and spiritual strength, and to bear my testimony to my family of my love for our Prophet Joseph.

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Christmas Eve

Since Christmas was on Sunday this year, we did things a little different and had Christmas on Christmas Eve with the Thompsons, and Christmas Day with the Hadleys on Sunday. Craig and Carol still wanted "Christmas" to be a surprise to the grandchildren so she had them all come over Christmas Eve morning for breakfast and told them we were all going to clean the church and help the elderly. Well, after breakfast we all gathered in the living room (all 24 of us) and she broke the news that we'd be staying home and opening presents instead! It was fun to see the looks on the kids faces change from "I don't want to be here" to "YESSS!" Of course it takes all morning to open presents in the Thompson family, and it's crazy, chaotic, and cramped, but that just makes it all the more fun!

Since we were going to be spending the next day with my family we headed over there in the evening to spend the night. We settled down after a busy morning and afternoon and read Christmas stories and sang traditional Christmas carols. Can you tell it's just a little more calm at the Hadley's? Ha ha!

Bailey fell in love with "MUPPETS" on Uncle Mike's phone.

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Christmas Day

Christmas Day at the Hadley's this year really didn't feel like Christmas, mostly because there were still people sick - Mike, Allie, and Mark. Only half of us went to church and then we didn't even open presents until about 4:00pm because no one really felt like doing it! We eventually did and like always, started off with reading the Nativity from the Bible. Grandpa shortened it a bit and toned it down for the grandchildren which was nice. Then we took turns opening presents and Bailey and Owen helped pass them out.

Art table from Grandma and Grandpa for Bailey

Hot Wheels track for Owen

All the PJ's we ever need from Grandma

I made a wedding book (finally) for my parents with engagements, bridals, wedding day, and reception in it.

The rest of the day was play time! Mike especially enjoyed playing with the new toys :)

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Christmas Photos

I tried to snap a few photos of Bailey in her Christmas dress after church, here's what I got, and of course she ripped out her bow before I got any with it in.