Old men!

Jaden and Gavin took a bubble bath on Saturday. I asked Jaden what we should caption these photo's and he said, "Old Men". These boys make Grandma laugh!

Jessie and Gavin will be moving April 28th to the cities. Jessie got a job at Floyd's Barber Shop in Minneapolis. It is a new and happening barber shop with rock music and big screen TV's. Jessie is very excited about her new move. We will really miss Jessie and Gavin!

Easter Sunday

Stan and I thought we were going to have a quiet Easter Sunday. Erin worked a double shift and Jaden was with his Dad. Eric , Amanda and Daxton went to Fergus Falls with her family. Gavin was with his Daddy. I was hoping to not have to cook and go visit friends from church for dinner, but Jessie had no place to go. I wanted to keep our Easter dinner simple, so I headed to the cities Saturday morning...by myself to the Honey Baked Ham store and bought a ham and side dishes. While I was in the cities I went shopping at the Albertville Outlet. I had a great day... all to myself.

When we got home from church Sunday it didn't take long to heat up the ham and fixin's.  By evening it was quiet no longer, we had James, Jen (friends of Jessie), Eric, Amanda, Daxton and Gavin.

After Dinner Jessie and Gavin dyed easter eggs. Gavin was more interested in putting the stickers on his face instead of on the eggs. 

Daxton is 3 1/2 months old already. Where does time go? Daxton and Grandma posing for the camera on Easter Sunday. 

Let our voice be heard!

Stan and I can no longer stand by and remain silent over the direction that our nation is heading. We are so concerned that our current elected representatives are ignoring the United States Constitution. We will be writing our local representatives to let them know how we feel! We may even participate in a local Boston Tea Party on April 15th.  We hope that our family and friends will raise their voices of concern as well as the government continues to waste money, expand government and over step into our lives! My Father was always against government being to involved in our lives. The current administration is doing just that! I want to share with you just one concern of many that we have. Glenn Beck recently interviewed (March 27, 2009) Michelle Bachmann, a Congresswoman from Minnesota...Go Michelle!

Glenn: I want to talk to you a little bit about Timothy Geithner. Explain to America what is happening with how close we are to having Timothy Geithner being able to SHUT down PRIVATE businesses if they feel it's a threat to the economy?

Congresswoman Bachmann: Well, it's very close. That's exactly what was before our committee today. As if there wasn't enough on the treasury secretary's plate, he wants to broaden his power to a level never seen before and it's President Obama that's giving this directive. So this is at his directive that now the treasury secretary would have the authority to come in and essentially nationalize the private business before it's at the point of failure. He would be able to go and nationalize it and then also reset all of the employee wage contracts. 

Glenn: Your question was so fantastic. Where in the Constitution do you have the right? How did he answer that?

Congresswoman Bachmann:  He did not give me an answer regarding where in the Constitution it is. So I repeatedly went back to the same question, "Not there. Where." He was saying congress passed a law that said and I said, no, not that; where in the Constitution. Because he raises his right hand and takes an oath to the Constitution as treasury secretary, as I do as a member of congress. Everything we need, to everything we do, needs to be in accordance with the Constitution. 

Be educated about what is happening in our country. If you are concerned, raise your voice!

Happy "3rd" Birthday Gavin! March 13th

We celebrated Gavin's 3rd birthday by going to the Mall of America in Minneapolis on March 13, 2009.  In the center of the Mall of America is one of the largest indoor amusement parks, Nickelodeon Universe. Gavins's Mom and Dad, Grandma and Gavin's cousin Jaden had a great day and were pretty exhausted by the end of the evening. Grandpa Thompson was home sick and missed all the fun.

 Gavin riding the carousel. He had so much fun, he didn't want to get  off the ride!
Gavin and Jaden loved this ride. It is the Wonder Pets flyboat. The ride would go up high and would drop suddenly.

There was no fighting on who was going to drive this train! They both enjoyed being passengers.

Our family continues to grow...

It's hard to believe it is February already! Our family continues to grow. Our most recent addition is Daxton, Eric and Amanda's little boy born Dec 30, 2008. He was 6lbs 3 oz. He is perfect!

Jessie's little boy Gavin will be turning 3 years old on March 13th. Stan and I are amazed at Gavin's language skills at such a young age. Erin's little boy Jaden will be 5 years old on April 11th. Jaden has a wonderful sense of humor and makes us laugh!

Jaden and Gavin (pictured below) are showing off their dancing skills on Christmas Day at Grandma and BaBa's place. 

 

We have a grandaughter named Cicely who is 9 months old. She is Eric's little girl, but we don't get to see little Cicely much. She is beautiful!

Our greatest joy are our granchildren. We are so blessed to have our children and granchildren with us in Minnesota. There is no greater blessing than family. We count our blessings everyday.

Stan and I still work at RR Donnelley in Long Prairie MN.  Stan is a networking Admininstrator and I am an HR Assistant.  RR Donnelley is a printing company. We are so blessed to have our jobs and work for a wonderful company.

We are still busy with our callings at church. Stan is a counselor in the Bishopric and I am serving as a counselor in Primary. We love the Alexandria Ward and feel so much at home here. 

Stan and I have become Fox news fanatics and put Fox news on as soon as we get home from work. We are so concerned about the direction of our country and economy.  We pray everyday that our new leaders will make wise decisions, but we have to say, we are not impressed by the new stimulus bill!

We are so excited about Jim's wonderful idea of connecting our blogs. It has given me the motivation to update The Thompson Network! Thanks Jim!

Our family photo taken at our home on Christmas Day. From left to right we have Jaden and Erin, Stan, Jessie, Gavin, James (Jessie's friend), Arlene, Eric and Amanda.

MT RUSHMORE VACATION

Stan and I have been talking about going to Mt. Rushmore for 8 years since moving to Minnesota. On Thursday, June 19th at 4:30 am we started down the highway heading toward South Dakota with Erin and Jaden. We arrived at 2:30 pm in Keystone, gaining an hour due to the time zone. As soon as we checked into our room we got hit with a thunderstorm so we decided to walk around downtown Keystone. Since it was raining, we decided to sit and watch a saloon gunfight. Stan ended up an unwilling participant in the show, trying to retrieve his watch from a 7 ft giant gunslinger. We had a good laugh at his expense and he was a good sport.

We took a steam train ride to Hill City and got hit by rain and a hail storm heading back to Keystone. Temps really dropped and Erin and I were freezing, but we tried not to complain because there had been a drought in that area for years. We toured the Rushmore Cave and took a historic walk in the old part of Keystone. We went to Mt. Rushmore Friday night and enjoyed the evening program. We were honored to go down to the stage along with all veterans of the military while they retired the flag for the evening, we got a huge round of applause. We were proud!

By Saturday morning we were ready to leave Keystone so we did the Alpine Slide and headed North to Deadwood. We ate at the Midnight Star, Kevin Costner's casino, food was good and reasonable. Erin posing by the costume Whitney Houston wore in the movie The Body Guard. We decided to head to the Wall to see the Badlands and walk around Wall Drug. We enjoyed Wall Drug and Jaden had a blast playing in the backyard. Water set to music shot out of the ground leaving the kids guessing where the next water spout would come from. By the time we got to the Badlands, it was getting pretty late and the sun was getting ready to set, so we spent just about an hour walking around the badlands, that was enough for us... I kept watching for snakes.

On Sunday morning as we headed home we decided to stop and see the famous corn palace. It wasn't my favorite site seeing stop, but it was interesting. Sunday was warm and sunny, perfect for stopping at Falls Park, in Sioux Falls SD to stretch our legs. That was worth the stop and absolutely beautiful! We were home by 10:30 pm Sunday night. We had a great trip!