Thompson Reunion 2010

This years reunion was up in Redmond, Oregon. We absolutely enjoyed ourselves with our family! It was especially wonderful having Matt with us all day for 7 days! Evan was such an adventurous kid and loved everything we did. Alex did so well on this trip and was just a little cutie. Evan and Alex were the youngest kids there. We left on Wednesday June 30th. We only drove to Boise Idaho so we didn't make our kids sit in car seats all day. It was fun being able to play and enjoy our drive by visiting some sites. We stopped at the Twin Falls LDS Temple. Alex fell asleep before we stopped so we didn't take him out. After that we stopped at Shoshone Falls. We never been there before so I'm glad we did make the stop. It was worth paying to see it. The water was low so it wasn't full like it normally is but it was still very beautiful. Uncle Micheal and soon to be Aunt Julie with Evan We tried to get a family picture but Evan was being a little stinker. So we got one with just Alex. They're so much easier at this age :). After we got to our hotel and had dinner we took Evan and Alex swimming. This was Alex first time and he seemed to enjoy it because he didn't cry. I actually expected him too so I was pleasantly surprised he didn't. Evan was on cloud nine. He no longer hangs onto us so it fun watching him swim around on his own. Early next morning we drove the rest of the way to the reunion site. Our Room. When we get a bigger bed room, we'll need to buy a California King. It was so nice! Friday we went to Lava Butte It was chilly but very enjoyable. Made it nice for our hike that we made into the Lava Cave. It was even colder in the cave. I think it was about 30 to 40 degrees in there. Cold enough to see our breath. It didn't make it easy to take pictures inside but made some interesting photos. You couldn't do this hike without a flash light or lantern. It was pitch black in there. We were at the front of the group and we thought it was so cool looking back seeing all our family coming down the stairs with their lights on. The Cave was so interesting. I thought of The Chamber of Secrets. Probably because I was reading the series again. I also thought of The Goonies and Indiana Jones. Since it was a long hike I also thought of our Savior, specially on the way out. I made the hike back with just Julie since I couldn't go as far as everyone because the cave went to a crawl. I was holding Alex in the Snugli. Our single light lite our path so we can see. The Light of our Savior can also light our path and show us the way even if it's dark as dark as can be. Matt was was with Evan and during the part that you had to crawl, Evan was just walking since he's short enough. He held the lantern for everyone to see. He was their guide. The Cave got to the point where Matt couldn't go any further but Evan was so eager to keep going. He kept pointing deeper into the cave and saying "This way!" Before he went any further where Matt couldn't go after him he told him "Swimming pool that way". That got him to go out :). Alex slept the entire time :). When I got him out of the carrier and put him back in his car seat he stretched. Looked around And went to sleep! Since Julie came with us to the reunion and will be married to Micheal in September, I thought it would be fun to throw her a surprise shower since all the Thompson Aunts will be together. Micheal knew about it and helped distract her from the living room. I wish I had a picture of her reaction because it was so priceless. We played two games. One of the games she had to answer questions about Micheal that he answered earlier. If she got them wrong she had to put a piece of gum in her mouth. She ended up with 14 pieces in her mouth! YUCK! The other game was the matching candy bar game. Then she got to open presents! . The next day we all went to Smith Rock State Park. There are trails to hike and you can rock climb. No one had gear to rock climb but on my Mother In Law's hike she asked a group of rock climbers how they do it and they were kind enough to let her try it. She actually tried it after much support from the group. She loved it! There was a writer for an outdoor magazine out there and watched her climb. He took pictures and asked her questions. She was asked if he could quote her and put her picture in a magazine. She's famous! Matt took Evan on a 3 mile hike around that mountain and Evan walked the whole thing except for the last stretch. Matt says the switch backs are worse than the ones going up the Y Mountain. Way to go Evan! I stayed behind because I was sore from the Lava Cave. I need to get back into shape! This is Evan after the hike. He was so tired! Later that evening Matt, Nathan and Uncle Devan put on a funny show for us. I made a video but blogger isn't letting me upload it for some reason. Sad because it was so funny. On the 4th of July we celebrated not only our Nation's Freedom but also Leanna's 20th Birthday! She's no longer a teenager. We had FHE and talked about Captine Moroni. For our activity we made our own Family Title of Liberty. We wrote standards that our family stands for on a white t-shirt. Since we weren't allowed to shoot off fireworks at the house, we exploded Diet Coke with mentos instead. Not the brightest display but fun results :). After dark we got to watch the big fireworks in town. Evan wasn't interested in them but truthfully they were very dissapointing. Monday was the end of the reunion but we drove to the Sacramento area to visit Grandma Haymore and the rest of the Haymore clan. Their reunion is coming up in August but Grandma wont be able to come so we wanted to make sure and see her since she hasn't seen Alex yet. I have no pictures of this but on Tuesday Matt, me, Leanna and Evan went to Sunsplash with our cousins. Yes I left Alex for a few hours and missed him like crazy but it was a very nice break. It was a lot of fun! They have some fun slides that actually scared me. That's unusual for me. They also have a wave pool. It made me miss Surf n Swim so we plan on going there on a Saturday sometime soon. Anyones invited! Wednesday we drove back home. It was an awesome reunion and we look forward to next years as always. It's our turn to plan it so I'm looking forward to getting plans together. Thanks Uncle Alan and Aunt Jenny for your hard work in putting the reunion together for us.

I want you to meet...

My friend Aaron!
I'm only 1 Day older than him and since I live right next door to him, we're going to grow up being great friends.



Love Alex

I'm Growing!

Alex is now 5 1/2 weeks old! I wanted to do a small video of him so we can remember what he was like as a newborn. At first I thought it wold be just for us but since he was smiling and talking a little I wanted to post it on th blog.

1 Month Comparison

Alex is a month old today! Usually I would say the time has flown by but as I think about my recovery it went by very slow for the most part. Things kept happening one after another so I was never catching a break. It looks like things are looking up now :).

During the first few weeks of life you are getting to know your little one. We have come to find that Alex is the complete opposite of Evan. It doesn't come as a surprise because all babies are different but this is good and bad.


So far Alex is a better sleeper then Evan when it comes to long stretches but Evan could always fall asleep on his own. Alex needs his mommy during night time feedings so he ends up sleeping in our bed after the first stretch. I'm not patient enough to rock him for almost an hour because I need sleep to take care of my mommy and wife duties during the day. During the day I noticed he will cry for a few mins and then he's out so now that I'm recovered enough I can start being a little tough and let him cry a few mins. But can I handle that? If it works I will probably get more sleep because I stay in one spot and I'm protecting him from being crushed by the both of us. Alex still sleeps most of the day. Makes it nice but makes me a little worried that he gets too much so he wont sleep at night and maybe his day's and night's are mixed up. So far he's sleeping great through the night though. He sleeps 3 1/2 to 4 hour stretches at night so I'm only waking up one to two times.


Alex is a better eater then Evan and I hope this lasts. Evan ate every hour and a half to two hours but Alex goes every three. He can go longer sometimes but I make sure to wake him up. Alex actually eats, Evan ate very little (still does). It's probably why he ate so often. It makes me wonder how he gained weight. Speaking of weight, Alex was weighed yesterday and he's now 8lb 13oz. He gained over a pound in two weeks! Keep growing babe!!
Evan and Alex both hated sponge baths but once their cord stumps fell off they loved baths. Alex reminds us of a frog in the tub but a very cute one!


Evan tries to jump in while he takes one but since Alex is too little I cant let him. In a few months maybe. Right now he can just sit and watch.

Alex loves having a pacifier. Evan hated them.
When I got pregnant with Alex I got a free sample one from a friends work. I gave it to Evan to see what he would do. He obviously didn't know what to do so it was funny watching him. Matt comes home and he goes and shows him. He has it in his mouth (upside down), has a smile on his face and says "Baby!" The nice thing is Alex doesn't always need it so hopefully he doesn't grow attached.

The biggest difference between the two is that Alex is a screamer and Evan wasn't. Matt's parents didn't really hear Evan cry till he was about 1 1/2 months old. Alex screams a lot but we figured out why. He seemed always uncomfortable after feedings. We thought it was gas so we gave him gas drops. It helped but not all the time. Eventually it got worse. I would hold him for a long time while he screamed. Nothing seemed to help. I made an appointment yesterday to have him be seen and they suspect Reflux (GERD). It could take up to five days to know for sure if the meds he's on works. If not we'll try something stronger and if it still doesn't help then there's something else wrong.

We're very blessed having Alex join our family. He's a sweetheart and we love him dearly. We look forward to getting to know him more as he grows up.

Powdered Sugar

Since my Mommy is now pre-occupided with my baby brother, my wildest dreams came true. Before my Mommy would catch me doing things I shouldn't be doing but one day while she was feeding my baby brother she fell asleep for a little bit. During that time I found a bag of powdered sugar and I had lots of fun dumping it all over the kitchen and living room. She's not very happy with me but maybe in a few years she will laugh about it.

I love you Mommy!

Love Evan

Brother's!

Evan is caring big brother to Alex. They're going to be best buds!

Bath Time!

Alex had his first sponge bath at home tonight. He smells so good! He hated parts but loved it for the most part. His pacifier did help.




All clean!

Evan finally held him for a few seconds. One of these times I hope Alex wont cry.

Home!

Alex and I got a very warm welcome home. The phrase "Home Sweet Home" is so true. The hospital treated us so well but it's so nice to be home, especially with Evan. I was a little worried about him because of the way he was acting around me at the hospital. He seemed sad to me for some reason. Now that we're home and getting back into the swing of things, he's my happy little boy again and he's not showing signs of jealousy with Alex.

Matt and I are making sure he's getting the attention he's used too. His Aunts and Uncles are giving him lots of attention of course. I appreciate all that they have done for us. Also to our Ward members. The meals are highly appreciated!
Matt kept telling me about a surprise waiting at home for me while at the hospital. I noticed right away as we pulled into the drive way. The weeds were gone in our flower planter and beautiful flowers in their place. It was a perfect surprise! I've been wanting to get out there and weed that planter so badly but never had the energy, plus I didn't want to over do it. I didn't see it coming because Matt was with me at the hospital taking care of me unless he was serving in his calling. Our wonderful neighbor, Bro. Nelson, helped make this possible.

The white Carnations in the middle are a present from my Dad. It will serve as a great reminder of us bringing home a handsome little boy this spring.
Here is Alex in his going home outfit and loving his swing.

Recovery has gone pretty well aside from the headaches I get from my spinal. I hope they go away soon. Since I'm doing well Matt has been able to work more on our front yard. Him and Elizabeth pulled the old rose bushes out and replaced them with new rose bushes. The other ones we had were just as old as the house. They were growing wild and it was hard pulling the weeds around them.

The plan is to get rid of all the rocks in the planters next to the house. Flowers and bushes will take their place so more pictures to come :).

Welcome Alex

Now that we're home from the hospital, I can Welcome our newest addition to our family :). The Internet was so slow at the hospital. It took forever to download pictures.

Alex David was born May 11, 2010 at 1:43 pm. He weighed in at 7lb 2oz and measured 19 1/2 inches long.

I don't have the most exciting labor story since I had a scheduled c-section but I have to say it was a great experience because the team of doctors, nurses and anaesthesiologist were awesome. It's always nerve wracking going into major surgery but Matt, my nurse Amy and anaesthesiologist made me feel so calm.


Here's me before



Alex has lungs! When my doctors got him out they didn't need to make him cry. He cried for an hour and a half straight. It was great because we knew he was healthy.
I didn't get to see him right away but Matt went back with him before they brought him back to me mostly clean and wrapped up.



I wont forget him crying and his mouth next to my nose. He smelt so good to me. It was a wonderful moment.

When Evan came to the hospital a few hours later we tried getting pictures of him with Alex but it didn't happen because Alex started to cry. It scared Evan so now he wont touch him unless he's quite but only to tickle his feet. I think it's cute! When Alex does cry he does come over to him and says, "What's wrong Baby Algex?". Evan pronounces his name two ways, Algex and Alkex's. This is the best photo we got of them together.




We love both our boys very much! One of these days we'll get a better family photo :).

What we've been up too

Matt turned 26 years old on May 4th. Or is he 62? Saturday before his big day I threw him a surprise party with close friends and family like I always do. It never turns out to be a surprise either but he's always surprised as to who shows up. Thanks guys for helping make his day a special one. It's been a while since I posted anything about Evan so I want to do so now. Here's a picture with him and his Daddy at the party. Evan is starting to give us silly grins and smiles. This last Monday we hiked to Bridal Vail Falls for FHE. It was a nice breezy day since we've been having a lot of rain lately. We wanted to take advantage of it because the weather in Utah can always turn a different direction without warning. I love rain but since we're about to have our second child, I've been wanting to get outside and play with Evan. I'm glad it's finally starting to become better weather for it. Before we got to the canyon, Evan and I met up with Matt at work with homemade deep dish pizza that Elizabeth made for Matt's birthday. It was so delicious! We got up to the falls and enjoyed watching Evan play in the water and throwing rocks. He had a great time. On Matt's birthday (Tuesday), we used his free meal coupon for Tucano's to eat lunch. You can never go wrong eating there. It's always so good and it's even better when you can eat there for free. Later that evening we had his family over for dinner. We also played games. Evan loves to learn and loves saying his ABC's and count everything. Last night as we were getting him into bed he started saying the letters on one of his blankets. Since it was BYU stuff we had to get it on camera.