things that rock.....

Anytime your 2 year old references Kilamanjaro Mountain, it's a good day.


More to come on Charleigh's verbal stylings......

babies, babies, everywhere.....

I came on here to check up on all the blogs this morning and what do I find? Lots and lots of babies!

This girl and this girl are having them.

This girl just had hers.

This girl still hasn't had hers.

This girl's isn't doing as well as he has been.

It's so fun to read about all the new little lives that are on their way. It makes me miss this little face......

worn out......

Life is so exhausting when you're 2.......

in trouble......

I did something recently. Something for which I got into trouble with my family. Something I told no one about and therefore did not ask permission to do. Something I do not regret.....

Want to know what that something was?

I got a new kid. Didn't know that was possible? Oh yeah, it is. It was so simple too. All I did was take this little girl into the shop.......

and voila! I left just minutes later with a brand new kid. Just look!

We miss the old Charleigh, but just look how cute this new little girl is.....

you never know.....

who might be watching the happenings in your backyard........

the aftermath......

Yesterday we went on the last summer hurrah Barbie had planned at Pump It Up. We have never been there before and truthfully, it was little overwhelming. Charleigh loved it, but having forgotten my camera, I have no pictorial evidence of that. All I have to offer is the photographic aftermath that was her run-in with a rude little boy who hooked her face (mostly her nose) and proceeded to basically throw her off the ladder. This resulted in lots of tears and a little bloodshed. Grrr.....

i won, i really won.....

As a person who NEVER wins at anything, I was more than excited to find out that I won this girl's giveway. Who would have guessed? And all for throwin' up some embarrassing pics of my kiddo. Nice.

In other Thompson related news, we went to their house Saturday night for some dinner and racing fun. Along with the 4 of us, Kurt and Alisha came too. *Sidenote: I really like K&A. We first met them on 4th of July and they are great. They were so friendly even though they knew no one really and it was the same Saturday. I love when you meet people that make you feel comfortable when you first meet. * We have talked off and on about watching a race together and we finally pinned down a date for Bristol, baby! The company was good as was the racing. See Barbie's blog for a picture of our adorable kiddos enjoying watching the race, er, I mean, Barney together.

And note to Barbie:

While I concede that Denny will never be this pretty........

it has been a much needed upgrade from this......

to this........

bloopers.....

Thanks Barbie for such a fun idea! Now I have a reason to actually use the random blooper pics I have stored all over my computer........

the goofy "cheese" face, I have hundreds like this.....
proof that potty training and photo shoots don't mix,

thank you Miss Lorie......
there are not even words...........

a good helper......

My kid can be so funny sometimes. I know that sounds biased because I'm her mom, but I really think it's true. I present the following case as an example:

*a little back story to understand the rest*

Seeing as how we have a 2 year old around here, there are times that instructions by us are followed by "no" or silence and a frown from her. So, much of the time when I tell Charleigh to do something I will say, "Charleigh, you need to (fill in activity)" and then I say, "Yes, Mama." To which she repeats "Yes, Mama" and 99% of the time does what I've asked.

Monday night around bedtime we told her that it was time to pick up her toys. She proceeded to walk over to her Woody doll, bend down and say "Time to pick up toys! Okay? Yes,Mama" (to Woody) then answered herself "Yes, Mama"

The pictures are a little hard to see, but she then picked Woody up and used HIS hand to pick up each and every one of her toys. Every couple of minutes she would proudly exclaim "Woody's a helper!!"
I'm telling you, this kid is a crack up. It took about 4 times as long as usual to clean up the living room because Woody is not as good with the motor skills as Charleigh, but it definitely provided endless entertainment.
I just love this girl!

cousins.......

...well, sorta. We recently stopped by Larry and Cabria's house to see their remodeling work and talk baby fabric. Our nephew is still "cooking" right now so Jake the dog is the only kid at the house. Charleigh loves Jake and spent much of the time laying on the floor like this just staring at each other. Every so often she would rub his nose and he would take his front paw and rub her arms. It was too adorable for words! The rest of the time she spent "sweeping" the floors.....

why we love davi......

Two Words: Tea Staining

Thank you, Davi!

a night out......

A few weeks back my awesome Mom surprised Josh and I with tickets to the Mercy Me concert. To be really honest, we were mostly looking forward seeing David Crowder Band, but were glad for the others also. So on that Tuesday night we left Charleigh at the house with some friends and headed out for date night.
As soon as we got there we ran into Barbie and Justin, as well as Julie. This was fun for so many reasons. First off, I have somewhat blog-stalked Brent and Julie for months now. I'm not really ashamed of that, I mean, we go to church together, I've just never met them. And now, a chance to meet. I'm always a little nervous when I meet new people, so I can't tell you how relieved I was when Barbie introduced us and Julie says "Oh yeah, you're Charleigh's parents. I look at your blog." Woohoo! Instant ice-breaker!
From there, it just got better. While visiting with some old friends, Barbie comes running up to me and asks if Josh and I might want to use some extra meet and greet passes that Brent had. Uh, do you really need to ask??? So we walked over, met Brent, thanked him for the hookup and met the bands. So much fun. And then we got to enjoy an amazing concert with two great couples. Thanks to both the Thompsons and the Laus for making it such a wonderful evening.........

with MercyMe

with David Crowder Band

her first wheels.....

To be completely honest, we have had some major duct-tape days around our house this week. (for explanation see me or this girl) And just when it feels like Mama's head is going to explode, I come home from my nightly walk to see this................

and my heart melts completely. I guess we'll go ahead and put the duct-tape back on the shelf for now................

*Please excuse the squeaky wheel. This is the same trike I rode as a child.*

flagged.....

A couple of days ago, I logged in to make a new post and found out that my account had been FLAGGED! It says that it was flagged by the system as being a "spam blog". Upon reading the error message I found out that it was most likely a false positive (duh!), but still. Errr. The best part was the the description of a spam blog says these types of blogs "can be recognized by their irrelevant, repetitive, or nonsensical text...." Ha! I know that I do not have the most intelligent or entertaining things to say, but that's a bit much, don't you think? :) Anywho, I had to submit an account review request and things are all fine now so hopefully I'll start posting some more regular and relevant items............

girls' weekend.......

Well, not really. It was actually a MOPS Steering Team retreat, but it sure felt like a girls' weekend. After months of pestering, I mean, politely asking, I finally gave in to Rhonda and agreed to be part of the team. There was a planning weekend scheduled for mid-July and to be perfectly honest, I was kinda dreading it. I didn't know anyone going besides Rhonda and really didn't know what to expect. The day before we left I found out that my cautiously social friend was going with us which made me feel better, but still nervous. As it turns out, I had no need to be. All the girls there were AMAZING. We all just clicked so well. It felt like we had been friends for years instead of just meeting that weekend.



To top off the great time of fellowship and fun, we were able to plan out what I think is going to be a great year of MOPS. I joined mops for the 06-07 year, but was not wildly impressed so I ditched last year. This year however, after praying for God to bring some activites into my world to become involved, the doors to MOPS swung right open. *Apparently I forgot to put the "I'm not crazy about MOPS" stipulation into the prayers. But then again, God is pretty hilarious about that stuff.* So after (reluctantly) joining in, I am super jazzed about the coming year. I'd love for those of you in town to join us! If you're interested, let me know and I would gladly give you the info...........

such the fashion plate.....

Let's hope these skills improve with age.

so long, Smoke....

It was a sad day for the NASCAR fans in our family as we learned that Josh's driver Tony Stewart will be leaving Joe Gibbs Racing to co-own a smaller team. We're bummed because now we are left with tons of black and orange stuff that we won't need as well as our drivers will no longer be teammates. Now, as Josh says, we will have to be enemies. Oh well, the stable of drivers left at Gibbs isn't looking too bad.

We still have my driver........

this guy.....who is currently first in points for the series.....

and all signs point to this guy taking over Tony's spot....he's only 18 but is supposedly some kind of genius at racing....

Oh well, we'll see. For now, I guess it's just a good luck wish for Tony!!

fun with TeeTee.....

Kids are funny sometimes. First, she named my aunt Beach. Then, she decided that my cousin Candice should be known as TeeTee (not sure how it would be spelled, but that's how it sounds). Anyways, these two are awfully fond of each other. While camping over Memorial Day they decided to have some fun with the camera.....

She thought she was pretty cool with her foot on the fire ring.
There were like 10 of these shots, check out the dirty kid!
This was just to show her super-cool butterfly.

a little late.....

but worth the wait.. Happy Father's Day Josh!!

Charleigh and I discussed what we wanted to say to Daddy on here and couldn't agree how to narrow down all the great things about him, so we have opted to go for a little ego boost.

Can you spot the difference in these photos?

Father's Day 2007

Easter 2008

We love you and are so proud of you!!!!

remind me not to forget....

Sometimes I find myself so wrapped up in all the difficulties of the 2 year old phase that I don't stop often enough to notice all the really great things. Here are some of the things I hope to look back on this time and remember..........

• when the letter W was pronounced "buttaboo"



• when a bird's nest in the front yard tree warranted 10 viewings a day



• when I never knew what she would look like upon waking up in the morning (clothes on? off? inside out? backwards? bottoms on top? top on bottom? all of the above? )



• when all 7 babies HAD to be in bed before going to sleep



• when the arrival of Daddy/Nana/Papa at the end of the day was cause for screaming excitedly "Daddy/Nana/Papa's Home!!!!" and running in circles in the living room



• when walking around with toy buckets on her head was among the top 5 favorite daily activites



• when bathroom trips at restaurants could result in clapping for the stranger she could hear peeing or loudly proclaiming "Yucka Poo-Poo!" for the lady she heard doing...well, you know



• when she so proudly announced "I Did It!" for all accomplishments



• when counting consisted of "2,1,6" or "1,2,5" or my favorite "1,2,1,6"



• when no matter how many times she'd driven Mama to the brink during the day all it took was one good grin and all was soon forgotten.........