Christmas Pictures!

Have a VERY Merry Christmas!

It is that time of year again, yes there is some excitement in the air! Santa Clause is just a few days away from loading up his sleigh and he's gathering his reindeer. Missoni received her very own message from him this morning. He announced that since she had been a good girl all year that he would be bring her a beautiful dolly to Aunt Brandi's house.

It has been a great year for the Thompson Family. I have to say we are truly blessed beyond words. We have had so many wonderful opportunities and blessings come our way this past year.

I spent the year playing with the most amazing little girl on earth. It has been remarkable to watch her grow from a little helpless baby, to a walking, talking and very independent and strong little girl. She brightens our lives in so many ways. She is quite an artist and has a sincere love for reading. She can sing Oma's song in German and knows a lot of Tagalog words that tatay speaks to her. She can say lot's of words and many sentences. Her favorite word is Chocolate, thanks to the Advent calender her Oma sent this year. Missoni is eating quite well now, she loves cashew butter and honey sandwiches, yogurt, scrambled eggs, pretzels, chips, turkey, pizza, cows milk, diluted juice and much much more. Mommy is working at the YMCA now so we spend most days there in the mornings, playing with the other kids and toys. We do crafts, sing songs and read stories. It has really helped us to get out of the house and get to know some very neat ladies and children in the community.

Missoni became a "frequent flyer" this past year. She went down to Florida to see Oma and Papa for Christmas last year, but before returning home to New York she took a ten day detour with Aunt Tiffy, to Mexico to see Grandma and Grandpa. What a great Christmas break! Then she headed back down to Florida this spring to spend another week with Oma and Papa in Florida for tatay's spring break. This summer was also filled with exciting places and flights. Tatay had a great internship at the International Trade Administration at DOC in D.C, so Missoni and I spent 4 weeks this summer visiting Oma and Papa and Tiffinie, Brock and Bryce and all of our other great friends in Florida. Then we went to see tatay for a short 4 day stay in D.C. Then we headed out to Wyoming for 4 weeks so see mommy's side of the family. We got to see a lot of our cousins that Missoni had never met. Then we headed back to D.C. to spend the rest of the summer with tatay in D.C. Oh, how we love D.C., Missoni and I would spend the day riding the metro to free museums, playing in the pool, going to local parks and just walking all over the city and loving it. At the close of the summer we headed back to Syracuse, all of us in a rental car, and tatay started school!

Can I just take a second to say that I have such a hard working, helpful, dedicated husband! Chris has done such a great job this semester as well as every semester, juggling his academics, family and church. We had the great and wonderful news of finding out back on Oct 22, 2008 that I am expecting baby #2, and so I have had some hard days, and Chris has not only helped me on those hard days but he has truly taken the duty of father, student and priesthood holder to a new level. He is just about to finish his last final this Monday and has done an outstanding job this year. He will have close to a 4.0 GPA in his Master classes and though his law classes are much more difficult he has managed to pull off great grades in these classes as well. He is also very close to being able to go to Vienna this spring to compete for a VIZ competition. Chris has been also playing a huge role in taking care of the house and cooking while I have had some very hard days, being sick. I am very grateful that he is so understanding and willing to help me. I am very blessed to have such a devoted man in my life. He adores his daughter more than anything and I know it has been hard on him not getting to spend every second with her. So thank you honey for your hard work!
On Dec. 16th we head off for another flight down to Atalanta, Georgia. We get to spend a week with Missoni's two aunts Brandi and Tiffinie and then on down to Florida for two weeks. Brock is going to fix Chris' tooth! So thanks Brock! We can't wait to get to some warm weather and take Missoni swimming. She has been in swimming lessons this fall so it will be fun to watch her show off to Oma and Papa.

Our hearts are filled with thanks and gratitude as this Christmas season approaches. We know that we are nothing without our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and recognize that he gave us everything. We are blessed by him everyday and so thankful for our knowledge of him during the Christmas season.

We love and miss all of our friends and relatives. Our thoughts and prayers are with everyone. We couldn't do this difficult journey of Law School without all of your help, so THANKS to all of you for your love and support. We Wish you a VERY Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

The BEST Thanksgiving dinner ever!

I will never forgive myself for not taking pictures of this wonderful day, but I still have to take the time to brag about what a wonderful husband and chef I have. So for those of you that know Chris and I pretty well, know that I don't really enjoy cooking, and Chris actually really enjoys it. So we have always worked out ways where Chris did the cooking and I would do the cleaning. When we were dating, one of the ways that Chris really "wowed" me was with his amazing ability to cook. I must add not just cook but follow very difficult and quite gourmet recipes. So anyway, he really outdid himself this Thanksgiving with the meal he prepared for Missoni, myself, Ileana, Doris and her boyfriend Eric.

We started the meal off with a delicious and very flavorful squash soup. This soup was made all from scratch and included butternut squash, carrots, leeks, apples, sage, thyme, rosemary and lemon, with a sauce made of apple cider and sour cream reduction drizzled over the top and fresh chives. Can just say YUMMY! To follow that we had a deliciously moist turkey stuffed with red onions and navel oranges, stuffing with fresh herbs, hot freshly made from scratch clover rolls with poppy seed, brussel sprout hash with apple cider vinegar and a delicious pumpkin pie with pecan pie topping. Everything, he made from scratch. It took him about 10 hours of straight cooking and it was a lot of hard work. I was very proud of him and am very thankful for having a husband that was so willing to make such a wonderful Thanksgiving Dinner! I didn't really give his meal much justice with my words. I wish I would have taken pictures, or that you all could have tasted it, but trust me, it was the best Thanksgiving dinner I have ever eaten. I love you Chris! Thanks for all you do!

Poopoo on the potty!

So I just have to announce, that my little angel now goes poopoo on the the big girl potty. And she says it too! So every morning this week after our big bowl of cereal for breakfast, or our fruit milkshake, Missoni and I go into the bathroom, where she sits on her potty and I sit on mine, it usually takes about 10 to 20 min of her unravelling all of the toilet paper or constantly looking in her toilet hole and saying poopoo, but eventually sure enough, she does it and we both get so excited, we dance around the house and she gets to pick her choice of candy out of the convenient Halloween pail! I don't know if she is going to be completely potty trained anytime soon, but it sure is fun to see her figure out that big girls go poopoo in the big potty!

Missoni just being cute!

She put her good friend Sawyer's boots on the other day and was walking around the house, I just had to take a picture, don't mind they are on the wrong foot.

This is Missoni in her adorable winter jacket and hat that Oma and Tanta Karin sent her, from her cousin, all the way from Germany! Thanks Oma and Karin!

Missoni gets all ready to go just like mommy, she gets her shoes, coat and purse.

This is her tunnel that she loves to play in! How fun!

China town in Toronto!

We ate some really good Chinese, now if Chris could have only gotten to do some karaoke, his life would have been complete!

Missoni, my church going lady!

Missoni loves to go to church. She is very reverent and understands that it is the house where Jesus is. She especially loves to get ready and look adorable at church. Here is some of her most recent outfits! Oh, and just to add, when we say prayers she bows her head and says "amen" at the end. It is so precious.

Cinderella, star of the ball!

This year's Halloween was so much fun. Missoni was Cinderella, because she fell in love with the sparkling glass slippers so we had to buy her the matching outfit!

She was so fun this year, she really started to get the hang of "trick or treating". She didn't really know how to say it, but she could say "thank you" after. I think she melted everyone's heart. Missoni had two different nights to shine, first we had the ward Halloween, trunk or treat, that got rained out, but was still very fun, (thanks Cort). Then we had a great time on actual Halloween, by going down to the mall, where Missoni could walk around like the little Diva that she is , and collect candy! I am really looking forward to future Halloweens and Holidays with Missoni , it really is getting so fun, the older she gets. Look at the princess sitting on her throne! She even knows the elegant way to hold her hands.

We put a little bit of blush and lipstick on her, which she loved and wanted to do herself, by the way! Just like her mommy!

This is Cinderella walking through the mall!

And of course, Cinderella with the most handsome prince on the planet!

She now can say Cinderella too, which she says like "Seella!" It is so cute!

BABY #2 YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Missoni was so enthusiastic when we told her about the baby that was coming, can't you see how excited she was?

Haha, I found out I was expecting on Oct 22, 2008. I had a feeling so I took a good ol' pregnancy test, and sure enough, we got a positive. We went to the Dr.s to make sure, and they confirmed that it was the fastest positive reading they had ever seen! We are very happy and excited to be adding another adorable bundle of joy to our family what a delight. The due date is June 28th! I am really excited to have a summer baby! Now if I could only get a little bit of energy back!

Niagara falls!

So on our way to Toronto last month we got to stop in beautiful Niagara Falls!
We came her last summer, but unfortunately, that was the day I lost our old camera :(Missoni really enjoyed the Falls!

Thanks Bonnie for taking a family picture for us!

Especially this one, it cracks me up!

We just took a trip to Toronto on Oct 10th, with 3 other couples and it was a great time. Cortnie took some really nice pictures, so here they are. Toronto was a cool city, I am thankful for this opportunity to live in central New York where we can travel to some really cool cities. Next will be Montreal!

Fun this summer in Wyoming!

Missoni and I spent 3 weeks this summer playing with grandma and grandpa Larry and Judy out in Wyoming. We also had the wonderful pleasure of seeing all of our extended cousins and Missoni got to play with her first cousins too. We had a lot of fun. We went to the mountains, went to a rodeo, got to play with our cousin Maddy who we had so much fun with and of course Londyn and Jordon. We also had a large family reunion where most of the Allen side cousins came. It was a real treat for us all to get together.

"NO, OUT, NO"

So Missoni is doing quite a bit of talking now, and not all of the the words I am very fond of. She has really mastered "no" even though I have to say, I don't know where she picked it up, because I never tell her "no". Yesterday at the YMCA, she was playing in this little house that has a door, one of the other kids was trying to get in and she was saying with a serous look on her face, "Out, no, out". I had to tell her that we share and not to be a bully. She is really enjoying the interaction at the Y, but she is also learning some bad habits there and at nursery. This past week she has learned how to push. I think it is because she has been the youngest one there and at nursery so she has had to learn to stick up for herself. Over all Missoni has a very sweet and kind disposition, and she usually spends most of her time saying "shoe, mommy, and tatay". I am not worried about it, I know she is just a normal 20 month old and she will learn how to share.

Missoni being silly around the house!

Missoni loves to get into things that she is not supposed to, like this tape here. She thinks she is so cute! And I have to say, I agree!

This is the perfect example of Missoni while hanging around the house. She has her baby stroller with my flip flops on. She thinks she is just like her mamma!