The Thompsons

I've moved!

www.brandonandapril.com

Open Gym

On Saturdays, the place where Taylor takes gymnastics does an open gym for 2 hours.  The coaches are around to help but you can work on whatever you feel like working on.  We shot this video this past Saturday.  You'll be able to tell that Taylor's favorite thing is the bars.  She wanted to stay on those the whole time but we persuaded her to do a couple of other things.

And here are a few pictures my friend Jody took of us at the park last week.

 

 

 

Tooth Fairy stop here!

Funny girl

My mom came up to visit for a few days because my dad had to go out of town.  At mom's suggestion, Brandon and I headed out to dinner alone last night.  She was locking the door after we left and Taylor said, "Now the party can begin!"  I wonder what exactly happens when we leave.  It wasn't that long ago there was a similar situation.  We were pulling out of the driveway at my parent's house in Panama City.  Taylor was standing there with my mom and dad waving good-bye.  Before we had even made it out of the drive way she looked at them and said, "Yes!  No more 'no's" from the parents!!" 

I know I've neglected the blog.  I'm hoping to get caught up this weekend.

Brandon is 31!

We celebrated Brandon's 31st birthday today.  He opened presents this morning, we spent some time at the bowling alley this afternoon and we ate some cake tonight.  I had enough batter to make two cakes - so we used vanilla icing on one and chocolate on the other.  Can you tell which one Taylor was responsible for icing?

Happy Birthday Brandon!  We love you!

Oh the drama!

This past Thursday was Taylor's Christmas program at school.  The letter that was sent home said the kids needed to be dressed in Christmas colors.  That was the only requirement.  There was a discussion about her wearing a dress or a skirt but once we found out she'd be sitting down for some of the show, we decided against it.  She didn't protest once as she put on her freshly ironed khaki pants and red sequined sweater.  Fast forward to about 11:15am.  I get a phone call from her teacher telling me that Taylor has been distraught all morning.  She is the only girl in the class without a dress on and she's devastated.  So I did what any good mother would do - I took her a special outfit to wear for the program.  This was an outfit that she picked out at Target.  We bought it to go see Santa.  Cute Christmas plaid skirt, black velvet shirt and sparkly black shoes.  When I got to her classroom I expected her to jump in my arms and thank me a million times for saving the day.  Instead, she took one look at the skirt and burst into tears.  Again.  She was upset because I had brought a skirt, not a dress.  Is this really happening at 5 years old?  I shudder to think of all the drama in the future.  After a little discussion in the other room, she agreed to put on the outfit and to dry up the tears.  She pulled it together and sang her little heart out.  After talking more with her teacher, it turns out that at some point that morning, one of girls in the class had stood in front of her, twirled around in her dress and said, "Taylor, you're the only girl in the class that doesn't have a dress on."  And that's what did it.

Disney

We went to Disney last month right after Thanksgiving.  I don't think I have ever seen it that busy. We had fun, though.  But who doesn't have fun at Disney??

Thanksgiving/Black Friday/early Christmas

We came down to Panama City on Wednesday for Thanksgiving.  On Thursday we had a huge lunch followed by a huge dinner.  We scoured the Black Friday ads trying to plan out our strategy.  Our first stop would be Best Buy where I had my eye on a Garmen nuvi.  Anyone who knows me knows that I have no sense of direction.  None.  This has proved very difficult in Atlanta.  So that was going to be my Christmas present.  In the ad it said there would be a minimum of 30 at the store so we decided we needed to be there very early to get a good spot in line (they opened at 5am).  We set the alarm for 2am and we were standing in line at 2:45am.  Now Mom and I are not new to the Black Friday scene.  But Best Buy was ridiculous.  There were at least 100 people in front of us.  We almost left, sure that we wouldn't be early enough to get one, but decided to stick it out.  Once they opened the doors we were in and out within 10 minutes.  Mission accomplished! 

We used my new Christmas present all day and Taylor named the woman that talks to us Lucy Lu.  I don't know how I ever got around without her.  Mom loved it so much she decided she needed one.  So at 8pm she and I headed back up there to see if they had any left.  Surely not?  Everyone knows that the Black Friday deals are so good that if you don't get there in the middle of the night, you're out of luck.  But no, we walked through the doors and there were 2 huge Lucy Lu displays.  What a disappointment (for me, not for Mom). 

Last night we celebrated Christmas with my parents.  No one was more excited about this than Taylor.  She LOVES opening gifts.  She gets so excited she can hardly stand it.  I don't know where she gets this from.

This present was the favorite but the wrapping paper was dangerous - I think she got poked in the eye.

She's been playing with it all morning.  She loves to cut paper so this was a huge hit.  It's this little tatoo-like gun that perforates paper.  She decided that was kind of dangerous and she needed to wear safety glasses - which are really her 3D glasses from seeing the Bolt movie yesterday.

Halloween/West Point

Halloween weekend we were invited up to West Point for a new professor orientation.  It's been about 7 1/2 years since we've been there.  Brandon had some meetings, we toured some of the housing on post, went trick-or-treating, watched a parade, attended the Army vs. Air Force game and had a great time reminiscing.

Before the game the Army gymnastics team was seeing if they could flip over people.  Taylor was all over that.

Last Soccer Game

Toward the end of October Taylor had her last soccer game.  About 5 minutes into the game she fell and skinned her knee.  She doesn't recover well from things like that and I was sure she would just sit out the rest of the game.  But she pulled it together and had fun.