runnin’ runnin’

What a day it was. We started our weeking participating in our very first 5K as a family! (Todd’s very first 5K ever), I have to admit that I was pretty nervous about this endeavor. Granted we sarcastically commented all week about “what have we gotten ourselves into” or “thank goodness we’ll have a 5 year old with us so we can walk most of the way”, but beyond the sarcasm I genuinely was nervous about participating in this thing!!  Mind you I am married to the most competitive man I’ve ever known and he has succeeded in raising a 5 year old female version of himself. I am in no way, shape, or form competitive and yet they both STILL trash talk me…. no love…

I am so thankful for new friends that Ella Kate has brought into our lives. We ran the race with the Moss Family. I am so proud of Ella Kate and Jon for how well they did. They ran/walked at about a 14 minute mile pace and both finished 3rd in their division. Ella Kate’s competitive nature really showed through in the last leg of the race when she pulled ahead literally of everybody and booked it to the finish line. There was no way she was going to let her Daddy beat her in this 5K! She crossed the line at 41:50. Not too shabby for her first competitive 5K. When we were waiting for the awards to be announced she leaned in to me and said “This was so much fun!! I ran so fast!” and when we walked to the car she announced “In my next race, I’m going to get second”.

And even I have to admit, the 5K wasn’t nearly as scary as I thought it would be. Granted I haven’t ran since May the year I met Todd. He wasn’t even my official “boyfriend” when I participated in my last 5K! But once I got going in this race, I felt prettyu good about it. Now that its over I feel like I should push myself more because I think I could see that finish time go down a little bit.

I’m going to have to try because my competitive husband has already put a challenge out there to decrease his time by 5 minutes…….. oh boy…..

Thanks Chrissie, Josh, and Jon for a fun Saturday morning celebrating the Foundation of Arts in Jonesboro

Out with the Old….

We love a good celebration at my house. Us Thompson’s celebrate everything, birthdays, learning a new trick, the cats drinking out of the water fountain for the first time…. and most certainly Dad quitting his job!!

Today was my husbands very last day at a job he has had for 9 years. Since the day I met him he’s been talking about leaving this job and selling Real Estate. Today that dream becomes a reality. I couldn’t be more proud.

Last night we celebrated by having a bon fire in the back yard and making s’mores. Even though it was crazy windy and the fire became just a taaaddddddd bit scary at times, we had a blast.

 

 

 

 

 

We are so proud of you, Todd for taking a leap and changing career paths to follow your dream! Theres nothing I love more than for my husband to be happy 🙂 So goodbye blue polos for FOREVER!!!

 

stop growing up right this instant!

HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY from the Thompsons!!

This morning was crazy busy trying to get our girl dressed and ready for Valentine’s Day at school while we got ready for work and got out of the house on time with everyone’s teeth brushed and bellies full and dishes put in the sink and everyone wearing matching shoes…. you think I’m exaggerating but mornings get crazy when you add an extra person in there!!

But even with all the chaos of a Thursday Valentines Day, we still took time to cherish how precious this little kindergartener is. As her and her Daddy loaded up the car I ran out for extra hugs and “I love you”s and “have a great day”s. I started thinking about how much Ella Kate is losing the “toddler” look she had when I first met her.

My first date with Todd was the Thursday before Ella Kate’s fourth birthday and I met her 3-4 months later. She still had baby fat cheeks and little belly. She was just as precious as she could be… Now she’s getting so tall (literally almost as tall as I am…. she can seriously wear my tennis shoes if she wore thick socks) and getting slender. Its breaking my heart.

This is a picture of last year’s Valentine’s Day in Pre-K and today before heading to Kindergarten:

As cliche’ and cheesy as I think Taylor Swift is, a song of hers brought tears to my eyes today. Randomly it popped up on my iTunes on my way to work: “Never Grow Up”. As the song played I thought about how little time I’ve known this sweet girl and how much she has won my heart over…and she’s growing so fast! In one year she has just transformed inside and out. Its too much for this step mama to handle. Check out the song but be careful if you’re a sensitive heart because I needed tissues by the second chorus!

The first verse and chorus:

Your little hand’s wrapped around my finger
And it’s so quiet in the world tonight
Your little eyelids flutter cause you’re dreaming
So I tuck you in, turn on your favorite night light
To you everything’s funny, you got nothing to regret
I’d give all I have, honey
If you could stay like that

Oh darling, don’t you ever grow up
Don’t you ever grow up, just stay this little
Oh darling, don’t you ever grow up
Don’t you ever grow up, it could stay this simple
I won’t let nobody hurt you, won’t let no one break your heart
And no one will desert you
Just try to never grow up, never grow up

Mardis Gras

We were informed that in Ella Kate’s kindergarten class they ate a King Cake in celebration of Mardis Gras… and “whoever had the baby Jesus in their piece gets to the leader of the parade tomorrow!!” EK’s best guy friend Jon got “the baby Jesus” in his cake and he got to choose a girl to be the parade leader with him…but much to our girls sadness he did not choose Ella Kate. Telling us the story she didn’t seem too bummed but as the night went on she mentioned “having our own parade” to make up for not getting to lead her school parade line….. so what do we do? 

Complete with Jester’s hats and masks we paraded, just us three, through the house cheering for Mardi Gras!

So she doesn’t get to be the leader with Jon tomorrow at school… but I think just for a few minutes tonight she forgot to be sad about that. Afterall, we looked pretty silly running around and cheering with music playing. We even picked up the kitty cats and made them parade with us. 🙂

And a major shout out to my husband…. Did I marry the best Daddy in the world or what? He loves being silly, playing, making crafts, and overall being a huge goofball with us girls. We are so incredibly lucky

love is in the air…

or is that the smell of cookies and cupcakes baking?

Today we had a playdate at our house with four precious kiddos to decorate Valentine’s cookies and cupcakes.

Ella Kate and I started baking around 7 am. We made a huge mess but had so much fun! There is nothingquite like pouring flour all over the table and rolling out cookie dough to cut shapes. There was flour EVERYWHERE. Our finished product was two batches of sugar cookies, and one batch of strawberry, red velvet, and funfetti cupcakes. Perfect for decorating and cooled by the time friends showed up.

Judging by the state of our house after the playdate was over, I think the children had a BLAST and not at all due to the activity of decorating cookies. These children were wild animals, running through the house and getting out every toy that exists. They were hysterical putting on dress up clothes and pretending to make a band. There was a tiny accident with some finger painting but beyond that it was the “best day ever” according to Miss Ella Kate.

Thanks so much to Chrissie, Jon, and Kiann for letting Jon, Jacob, Paige, Peyton, and baby Julie come over for the afternoon!! We have to do it again soon!

Crazy Cat Ladies

with my protege…the future in crazy cat ladies 🙂 She makes me proud

Grinch Dinner

This being our first Holiday season to spend together, we wanted it to be FULL of magic and excitement. One of the most fun events we had at the Thompson house was a Grinch Dinner, complete with who-hash (hamburger helper) and Grinch Punch. Ella Kate helped cooked dinner and made the punch for us. She loves being the helper.

The Recipe for Grinch Punch is super simple:

2 Liters of Sprite

A can of Pineapple Juice

A Tub of Key Lime Sherbet

 

After eating dinner, which I would say was a major success because every plate was clean and every cup empty, we all climbed on the couch and watched the Grinch together.

 

Soul Mates

After Todd and I were engaged we tried to start spending a lot more “regular” family time together with Ella Kate. By regular I mean, every day, boring stuff that would become the norm after marriage. No more me showing up just in time to leave for the pool or to do an art activity. Add in more clean up times, bath times, nap times, hanging out at the house time.

During the summer we all climbed in the bed together for an epic three hour afternoon nap after a crazy busy day of putt-putt golf. Todd climbed out of bed as Ella Kate and I struggled to wake ourselves up. Out of nowhere, Ella Kate rolled to me and said “you know when I first met you, I was really shy but I’m not shy around you anymore”. I responded with “well I was really shy at first too”. She looked astounded. “why?”  “Because I wanted you to like me!” Then with a slight eye roll she waved her hands in the air and said “well I did!!”

Just like that.

Just like it was the most simple thing in the entire world and I was crazy to ever doubt the possibility of it.

 

Out of her mouth always comes the most profound simplicity.

The truth of all truths in dating a dad is that you can not find a soul mate in him without also finding a soul mate in his child. Ella Kate is just a much my world as her daddy is. There is no relationship with him without her involvement. The crazy thing is that although she didn’t enter into our relationship at first (we waited for months before we felt comfortable introducing her to me), I feel like they have both always been a part of my life. We were always going to find our way to each other because it was destined to be. Theres no more reason to be shy anymore because this misfit trio makes a family.

Although Todd is the best man in the world to wake up next to in the morning, Miss Ella Kate is absolutely the best little one to wake up next to at nap time. I wouldn’t trade her for the world

Here I Go Again

A couple of months ago I started hearing one question over and over again: “Why don’t you blog anymore?”. To be honest I’d purposefully quit blogging because I thought I didn’t have anything worthwhile to blog about!

I blogged in college and while dating. I blogged while traveling the world with Up With People International….. but here I am, getting married, settling down, becoming a stepmom. What do I really have to say?

Then a conversation with a co-worker changed my mind. There I was laughing over the daily happenings of what I would consider a fairly normal life and she said “That sounds just like a blog”. It got me thinking. Why not?

As it turns out getting married and settling down to one location could possibly be the most consistent challenge of my life. I’m born of nomads. A Navy family, wherever my parents are has always been my home. I’d never really considered the idea of “a forever home” or “putting down roots” until going on a blind date that let to my new marriage.

But here I am, trudging through as best as I can with a new husband and a brand new stepdaughter….. trying my best to not be the typical stereotype of evil stepmother-hood.