Thursday, December 10, 2009

Friday, November 6, 2009

100th post

So maybe this is totally dorky; okay, I know this is totally dorky...Guess what guys this is the 100th post! So happy to post the 100th post Thompson Family Blog!

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Looks like Asher's taken up smoking...
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Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Friday, August 7, 2009

England Pictures

Here's a link to my pictures:
http://picasaweb.google.com/miriamwhittam/England2009#

A very nice trip, indeed. Kaelyn was a excellent traveler, garnering rave reviews from the other airline passengers. Matt did a great job driving on the wrong side of the street.

Friday, July 31, 2009

Our beautiful high school graduate:

Here she is, with a 4.0 GPA for her last semester...
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Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Happy Birthday, Rico...Richard!

Wish you guys (ALL y'all) lived closer...

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Happy Birthday, Clara "Bee"

When my kids were born, Grandma started signing things "Grandma Bee"...

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Happy Birthday, Betty!

Hope you are keeping well.

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

update

You are all hiding again... I have an excuse, at least. Four weeks ago, I had a small stroke and was in the hospital for about a week. I am doing fine now, but my typing was ragged for a while. I have some weakness on my left side, but it is coming along with some physical therapy. I'm pretty much back to doing everything I did before.

Other than that, things are pretty good. Everyone was over on Saturday for a barbecue, and it was a little hectic. Clara Bea has developed a way to get attention: she makes a sound like a Jurassic Park velociraptor (sp?). Fortunately, one of the other tenants has a macaw, and everyone may mistake Clara's screams for those of the bird.

Friday, April 24, 2009

Kind of like a chain letter, only better

I saw this on Breanna's blog and thought it sounded like fun! Here's how this works:The first 3 people to respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice. For you. This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:

1. I make no guarantees you will like what I make.

2. What I create will be just for you.

3. It will be done this year.

4. You have no clue what it's going to be.

5. I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.

The catch is that you must re post this on your blog and offer the same to the first 3 people who do the same on your blog. The first 3 people to do so and leave a comment telling me they did, win a FAB-U-LOUS homemade gift by me! Oh, and be sure to post of picture of what you win when you get it! Who's in?

Friday, April 17, 2009

The rest of the story

You've seen the pictures of the baby, but here are the events leading up to her entrance into the world.
Feb. 14, 2009: Breanna called about 3 p.m. to ask what it feels like when the water breaks. I told her, and she said she thought that was what had happened. I started packing right away, but didn't leave until Matt called to say the birth was definitely a go.

I raced up as quickly as I could--not quickly enough, but I would not have wished a longer labor on Breanna. Her contractions started an hour after her water broke, and Kaelyn was born less than 7 hours later!

As the numbers on the Elevation signs went up, the numbers on my car's thermometer went down. It was about 16 degrees in Orem when I arrived at 2 a.m. Kaelyn was relaxing in Breanna's arms, without a doubt the most beautiful baby ever!

Hospital policy dictated that the baby stay for a minimum of 24 hours, and fortunately we were able to leave right at the 24-hour mark. After being at home one day, Kaelyn had to go back for a bilirubin test. We thought it would just be a formality, but the level was high, and was STILL high the following day, too. So Kaelyn ended up having to go inside the UV "light box". Matt and I took turns watching her through the night, while Breanna got up every 2 1/2 hours to feed her. (Watched a lot of HGTV and Food Network; it was either that or infomercials.)

Due to our diligence in keeping Kaelyn in the box, her bilirubin dropped dramatically after 48 hours, but after two more days out of the box, the bili level shot back up. Back in the box for Kaelyn, and now daily blood tests. The lethargy made her almost oblivious to the heel sticks, but it broke my heart to see her little heel all cut up.

In the meantime, we took Kaelyn to Salt Lake, to Primary Children's Medical Center, to see a pediatric orthopedist. Breanna had noticed when Kaelyn was first born that one of her feet looked "funny", so she asked one of the nurses about it. She said it was nothing, that it would resolve by itself. The pediatrician, however, said it was a mild clubfoot, and needed to be checked by a pediatric orthopedist within the week. The orthopedist's office was a little scary, with a sculpture of little casts hanging on the wall! Fortunately, Kaelyn does NOT have a clubfoot--pretty much the opposite, in fact: calcaneovalgus--which should be easily corrected with some simple stretching exercises.

I stayed a few extra days to help watch Kaelyn through the night, but she improved quickly with the continued UV treatment. She's so beautiful and sweet, I could hardly stand to leave her.

Her blessing was scheduled for when she was three weeks old, so I didn't have to wait too long to see her again. Peter and I left on the Friday afternoon and stayed in Las Vegas for the night. We didn't run into too much weather in Utah, but Matt's family, who had preceded us by several hours, had to wait out a storm on the way. All we encountered was some slush between Cedar City and Parowan.

Got into Orem in time to spend some time with Kaelyn before her blessing. (And Matt and Breanna, too.) Matt's Aunt Liz graciously opened her home for the occasion. Mom and Dad came, as well as Mario and his family, so I finally got to meet Joseph and Andrea!

Kaelyn's other grandparents, Virla and Pat


and Great-grandpa Jim


Kaelyn behaved herself during the blessing, which is more than I can say for Matt and his brothers. After dinner, they took the Rice Krispie layer of Mike and Charaty's wedding cake (they got married that morning), and set it afloat in the stream in the backyard! (It was inedible, anyway.)



We stayed the night at Breanna and Matt's, then set off early Sunday morning and drove straight back home--back to Real Life...


My favorite road sign, just outside of Baker, CA:

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Four Generations

Coming out of hibernation...
Here's a 4-generation picture from Kaelyn's blessing:




And my current favorite picture of her:



Now I understand grandparents' compulsion to show off pictures of their grandbabies!

Hi

Here's Thomas & Kaelyn (Thomas & Mommy came up the first week of this month)
Just thought I'd let y'all know I'm keeping my blog pretty up-to-date & there's a link to it on the right side of this blog; so, if you want to see more pictures of Kaelyn you can find them there.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009




Hi! Where is everybody? Are you hibernating??

Here are some new pix of the grandkids.

David and Michael came for a visit, and Brian was trying out Michael's scooter. Clara was just happy to be there...

Saturday, February 28, 2009

Baby

We've updated our blog now that Kaelyn has made it here. http://mattnbreannastevens.blogspot.com/

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Aloha!


Thought you all might enjoy a sunset off the Na Pali coast of Kaui. Just got back from a week's cruise with some friends.

Friday, January 23, 2009

Check us out!

So we scored a "College" reading level (whoo-hoo!), though I didn't know how to incorporate it into this post...still learning.

Thursday, January 1, 2009

Adventures in Shopping




Thomas is going to Big Bear, so naturally he needed some boots and gloves. Boots weren't too hard to find; Big 5 had some in his size, and ON SALE. Gloves were another matter, however. Big 5 had some--for FORTY DOLLARS. Just couldn't bring myself to pay that much. Even though that's a mere pittance compared to the cost of treating frostbite.

Seemed everywhere else was sold out. Go figure.
Target had nothing. Wal-Mart had one pair which was simply inadequate. So we tried a few other stores at Anaheim Plaza. No luck until we went into T.J. Maxx-just because it was there, not because we thought they'd actually have gloves. But lo and behold, we hit pay dirt!

Please note that they are cashmere-lined--and for fifteen bucks!

Happy New Year

So last night I went to sleep before 10 pm, too. Then I had to pick Thomas up at 12:30 (I had told him to call, figuring I'd be asleep!) and drove very slo-o-o-wly through the fog. It was pretty bad. Had a scare when I BLEW right through a stop sign and worried for a moment that a cop might pull me over--in my jammies!! On the way home I was extra careful to watch for that stop sign, and a good thing, too, 'cause by then there WAS a cop right there!!

Happy 2009!