Our 4th of July Celebration.....

Gary is in a band.

One of the band members had a block party on their street on the 4th of July....so, the band played. Rick and Ali and the kids and I went to join the festivities.

This is what I took to the party. Notice the red, white and blue theme....and can I say, it was delicious???? It was easy too. Thought you'd like to see all the yummy goodness inside.....ummmm
Erick sitting down eating his "chips"....yummy dinner huh???....waiting for the band to play.

This was Erick's reaction when the band started playing.

You can see he adjusted to the loudness. We were sitting right by the speakers, so that didn't help.

Laura, the singer in the band, knows Haylee loves microphones and singing....so, she called Haylee up to sing with the band and play a little tapping of sticks together.

She LOVED it!!!

After the band played their first set, Grandpa came and joined us. Erick being silly.

Even little Zach enjoyed the day. The music didn't seem to bother him at all.

He is so stinking adorable. I love those cheeks.

I love how when you hold Zach close, he takes his little hand and holds it on your face. It is so sweet.

This picture was great, because Rick is in the middle of these two in the background.

Grandpa just couldn't get enough loving from this little guy.

One of the activities was an ice-cream eating contest.....without your hands.....Erick got right in there and had a great ol' time.

Haylee.....not so much. She was NOT happy when they added chocolate syrup to her ice-cream.....What Haylee???? Are you kidding me???? That's the best part of the whole thing.

Later, some kids were so excited they started lighting off fireworks before it got dark. Some sweet kids were kind enough to share their poppers with Erick and Haylee. They had fun with those.

Just watching.

Later, the band played another set of songs. Erick went and asked Grandpa if he could play with him....Grandpa put him on his lap and played with Erick's help. He was actually playing along with him. Erick LOVED it. I have a video of him playing with a grin on his face from ear to ear. Maybe I'll post it later. He really did have fun. Poor Rick and Ali, another drummer in the family.....ughhh.

As the sun started to go down, out came the sparklers. {I don't know why this picture wouldn't turn. I'm still trying to play with this new computer and figure things out.}

I love this picture of Erick with his sparkler.

It was fun. The smoke from all the fireworks got to be a little too much for the baby, so we headed out. I hope everyone had a great 4th of July. I'm very grateful for all those who have served our great country, and their families that support them. While the economy might suck right now, I'm still grateful to live in this country and to enjoy all that we do....especially freedom.

Sleepover at Grandma's house

Wow....we had a horrible tragedy at our house.....our computer crashed!!!! It is for that simple reason I have not posted pictures lately. We had to wait to get a new computer, then when we finally got it, you got to try to figure out how to use the new computer. Trying to figure all these things out has taken some time. I decided it was high time I figured out how to upload pictures that I finally learned how to download on my new computer, onto the blog. Success!!!

We had a fun slumber party at Grandma's house on Friday, July 3rd. It was good times.
The above photo makes me absolutely laugh. I was trying to get Erick to smile for the camera, and he wouldn't. So, I asked him to say "peanut butter and jelly sandwiches", and this is the look he gave me, with the explanation that he doesn't like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. What a silly guy.

Trevor got a fun summer pool, and the kids decided to break it in. They really had a fun time. Now that I have figured this out, I will post pictures of our Fourth of July celebration tomorrow.

Have a happy day everyone.

Father's Day Fun

As you can see we didn't do anything fancy to celebrate Father's Day....we just hung out. But honestly, sometimes the most memorable times are the ones where you "just hang out". It was so nice to have Jeff and Nicole with us. They have such busy lives they don't get to "hang out" with us as much as I'd like, so it was great to have them there. I love just sitting around "catching up" with everyone too. That's pretty much what were doing here. There are so many of us that we don't all fit at the table, so some of us stood around the kichen bar. We stuck little Zach in his Bumbo, and he was so cute sitting there like one of the big kids.
Previously, I posted the pictures of little Zach being absolutely adorable. This is the picture of him from behind. While I was laughing and playing with him and taking the earlier pictures, everyone in the living room was watching and smiling. I couldn't figure out why, until they told me to come look at how cute the back of his head was. I love how cute his little ears are from the back of his head, so I had to get this adorable shot.
Rick and Ali have been scoring some great deals on Craig's List lately. They got little Zach this cute little bouncy, fun toy for a whole $5.oo. He was so cute playing in it. But I'm sorry, with grandma around, he didn't last in it too long. I had to just get him and love him.
Heather took the kids to the grocery store with her to pick up some condiments for our sub sandwiches. While at the store Haylee saw these "noodles". She told Heather something to the effect of "when I get my cast off in a few days, I'm going swimming at my friends house. Heather if you don't buy me one of these I'll drown." So, like a good Aunt not wanting her neice to drown, she bought them both one......sucker Heather!!!!!!
Here Jeff and Erick are having a "noodle" fight. Too cute.

Haylee and Nicole "catching up". {I love Nicole's new hair color}

This is Erick and I watching Ratoutioulle....however you spell that movie....ha ha ha earlier in the evening.....

and this is us later in the night. After dinner he came up to me and said, "Grandma, will you hold me"? So, of course I'm going to take that opportunity to cuddle. I knew he was tired, so we went into see if the movie was still playing. The credits were rolling so we started it again.....he lasted a whole 5 minutes if that. Trevor told me to lay him down on the couch and I said "NO WAY... I never get the chance to just cuddle Erick like that, so I took complete advantage of it, and we cuddled.

It was a fun night being together as a family. There's no where in the world I would rather be than with the ones I love!!!!!

Our goodbye to Hayden

Okay, I realize I'm backtracking on my posts here. I decided that I needed to blog these pictures before I blog our fun Father's Day celebration pictures.

On Wednesday, the 17th, Amy and I went out to Wildomar to say our goodbyes to Hayden. He left for 6 long weeks to go visit his dad. Amy and I just knew we couldn't let him leave without some loving from us. It seems like we are always getting pictures of the kiddos with Aunt Heather....well this time there was no Aunt Heather, so Amy got the loving. Lucky girl. They wanted to take a picture making funny faces too....so here is the funny face picture. Even Zach's face looks funny.
This was a picture I had to capture. Eric just sitting down reading a book in "the library". Ali is starting a preschool in September and this is the "library" section. It is a really cute set up and looks like it will be tons of fun. She is a great mom, so I know she will be the BEST preschool teacher ever!!

These next 2 pictures are just adorable of Amy and the little nugget. He is just so dang cute. I can't wait to see what his personality holds in store as he gets older.

You just can't get enough kisses in with this guy.

It was a fun night. We were both so glad we got to see the kiddos and say goodbye to Hayden. Hayden loves the show "Wipeout", so we sat and watched that with him. Crazy show.

World's Cutest Baby

That's what Zach's t-shirt says, but who am I as his grandma to disagree? I too think he is the cutest baby right now. He is so happy and fun. He just smiles and lights up all the time.
Grandpa getting some lovin in.

I think it's so funny how Trevor looks so much like Rick that Zach just lights up when he sees Trevor.

Rick doesn't like his son at all....NOT!!!!

This is just a tease of more pictures to come from our fun night last night.

We sure missed having Hayden there. If you're reading this Hayden....we love and miss you.

Great Movie

Can I just say that this is one of the cutest movies.

Trevor and I went and saw it tonight and I can't wait to see it again.

I have a list of movies I could watch over and over again

~ 27 dresses

~How to lose a guy in 10 days

~Just like Heaven

~The Break Up

~Disturbia

and of course

~Twilight

just to name a few...

well this movie will be making it to that list.

If you see it, tell me what you think.

Have a great day.

Who doesn't love a good In n Out burger????

My kids work for a great company. They work for In n Out. Every year In n Out has a great company picnic. They have TONS of food. Of course there are Burgers....you can see how much they were all enjoying their burgers...

Amy & Trevor Nicole

Jeff

Heather

And Amy again... looks pretty darn good if I do say so myself.

Jeff and Nicole having fun together.

Heather and Emily.

Amy & Trevor. This is my favorite picture right now. I love how my kids are all good friends. They are always doing things together and they enjoy each other's company. As a mother, there is nothing better in the world than when your kids are such good friends.

Trevor and Jeff....so stinkin cute.

Looks like everyone had a good time.....again.

Now that I am off work....I will be able to post more fun photos of the family....so keep peeking in for more fun.

Random cuteness ahead

Friday, June 5th, was Heather's birthday. All the kids and some friends went out to their favorite restaurant Toi in Hollywood, and Gary and I got the privilege of watching the kiddos. I think I had more fun that night with the kids than I ever have. They were so much fun. I snapped this hilarious picture of Erick "helping" grandpa do his sit-ups. Such a funny kid. Here we have our beautiful Haylee and .... yes...you guessed it...her PINK cast. I was privileged to be the first one to sign my name to it. She is so cute with her little cast on.
Now this picture.....well it needs no words ....
FREAKIN' ADORABLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hayden jumped in on the exercise frenzy that night too. He was showing grandpa how to do a proper push-up. He did a great job, I was impressed with his abilities.

I have lots more cute pictures to come....so stay tuned....

Jeff ROCKED IT!!!!!

I'm so proud of Jeff. He did it again!!! He ran another marathon. This time it was a full 26.2 mile marathon. It was in San Diego, and the weather was absolutely perfect as you can see in the background of the pictures.

We didn't just want to go to the finish line, we wanted to root him on along the way. Not really knowing our way around San Diego very well we realized the best place to meet up with him would be the 17 mile marker.....so we did.

Here we are waiting for him to come along. You can see to the left all the runners running past. I couldn't believe how many people were out running this thing. It was really impressive. The kids had made signs and T-shirts for support. The sign that says "the burger would be proud" is because he works for In-n-Out Accounting Dept. This picture below is kinda funny. We saw Jeff coming and got all excited and started yelling....this guy coming along saw Trevor's hand out waiting for Jeff and gave Trevor a high 5. It was GREAT. You can see Jeff's red shirt in the background coming up behind this guy.

And there he is.....OUR RUNNER!!!!! I'm so glad we were there at the 17 mile marker because he was at a good time. He was just under 3 hours. His goal was to run under 5 hours.....he would have made it too if an old knee injury hadn't flared up.
He stopped for a minute for some loving and refueling. He told us here that his knee was really starting to give him problems.

Nicole {Jeff's wife} is showing Jeff her T-shirt in this picture.

Look at that smile. I love him!!! As he started running off again, he had a hard time with his knee. I guess it had stiffened up on him while he stopped.....so, I jogged along with him to give him loving support and the last thing he said to me as he took off was, "I'm not quiting! I WILL finish this....and he did too.

After we left him at the 17 mile marker we jumped in the car, got on the freeway and went to the finish line to wait for him there. Here we are with everyone. It really is a fun inspiring thing to do. Even if you don't have a runner, to be there and watch and cheer on these people do this great accomplishment and goal is FUN!!! {We even got the wonderful....ummm probably not the right word....experience of watching some guy run across the finish line BUCK NAKED...yeah you read that right. Wait I take that back, he had a flag on his back and a helmet on and his running shoes, so not completely naked.}

The happy family waiting.

I don't have a picture of him crossing the finish line, because I was video taping it...I didn't do a very good job with that video I was so excited to see him "hobbling" in that it is pretty wobbly. Even with a knee injury he ran that 26.2 miles in 5 hours and 40 minutes. WOW!!!! For his first marathon and a knee injury I'm really proud of him!!

Getting through the crowd to get his hugs from his waiting family. Here his very happy and proud wife is hugging him.

Can you tell by the look on my face how I feel?

Sitting at the medic station to get some ice on that knee.

His number.

His number with the medal he received for running the marathon. He's getting quite a little collection of these things. From what I understand, he can't wait to run the next one....that's my boy!!!

Jeff and Nicole before we left to go to feed this boy....he needed some serious nourishment after that.

His knee was so badly injured that he could hardly walk or get in the car....poor guy has stairs in his apartment...ugh. He has been off work the past 3 days recovering.

I am so proud of him. Marathons are great....listen to me....I've never even ran one....will I???? still on the fence on that one....but they are very inspirational for setting goals and acheiving them.

I now have two marathoners.....my daughter in law Ali, and now Jeff. Great job both of you. Heather is talking about running the next one with him in Vegas in December.....so stay tuned for those photos.....

Thanks for peeking in. Have a great day.

Complete Randomness

On our computer, much like everyone else's, we have pictures from our computer as a slideshow. I get a kick out of looking over at the computer and seeing some random picture that makes me laugh and remember that day or moment in time. So, I thought it would be fun to just randomly pick pictures and post them for everyone's enjoyment.

I hope you smiled as much as I did. Have a good day!

Are you ready for more cuteness???

Okay, the cuteness here is the baby of course. I can never get enough of him when we are over there. He is just growing up so dang fast. It's hard to believe that he is already 4 months old. This was Erick most of the night. He was having so much fun playing games on the computer. I'm amazed at how computer literate a 3 year old is. It's funny how things change. When my kids were this age, there were no computers, and Erick doesn't know the world without them. Crazy!!!!

and how stinkin cute is that little guys face??? I just want to blow this picture up and print only that happy face....

Hayden was spreading the love. Hayden is going to go visit his "other family" here soon, and he is getting his fill of loving in. He is such a good brother....so loving and patient. We will truly miss Hayden while he is gone, but know he will have fun with his other brothers.

The adorable Zachary Roy Thompson

There are just no words necessary for this blog post.

Zachary's cuteness speaks for itself....just sit back and enjoy

100% adorableness!!!!!

I LOVE this little guy!!!!

Yes, we have broken bones!!!!

I thought for sure Erick would be the first child to break a bone. Guess I was wrong. It was Haylee! She and Rick were rough housing and Rick tossed her off his back and she landed wrong on her wrist, and SNAP!!! We went to visit them on Saturday and I gave her a visor with some stickers to decorate. Here she is with her lovely creation and an adorable face to show it off with. Here is the before....I should have uploaded the pictures the other way....oh well.

Here she is with her broken wrist. I asked her if I could take a picture of her broken arm, and this is the look I got for the camera.....talk about silly!!!

Check out that face!!!

Here her and Erick are both dramaing....{is that a word???} it up for the camera. Silly, silly, silly kiddos. When the swelling goes down and she gets her cast, we will have pictures of the new cast.

Look for the next post where I will have adorable pictures of that little brother of theirs.

Grandma's beauty session with Haylee....

So, what do you think??? Haylee was 'trying' to make Grandma beautiful.

She is so stinkin cute and so much fun to have around.

As they were leaving to go home, Ali said, "Blog that now Andrea". Everyone always gets on my case that I 'blog' everything....so.....this one is for my family....I will also 'blog' all of my lovely moments as well. I don't think it's Haylee's fault by any stretch of the means.....BUT Grandma does NOT look any more beautiful than when Haylee started. I think it's Grandma.....ha ha ha

Thanks so much for trying though Haylee. Grandma sure does love you!!!

Mother's Day Photos

How could I not have had a wonderful Mother's Day when I get to mother these 5 absolutely fun and loving kids? I couldn't imagine my life without these kids. They are my world!!!! There is nothing better in this world than that of being a mother!!! I LOVE being a mom!! Trevor, has been nominated as the designated BBQer. He did an awesome job again, as usual. Thanks Trevor. That's not a fun job on a hot day, so I really do appreciate you.

Amy snatched the camera and took a picture of herself and left me a little "message". I loved it.

I think these little toes are going to find themselves on my side bar as my favorite photo right now. How cute are baby feet?

Like I have said earlier in previous posts. I will never deny a photo opportunity with the kiddos. Haylee and Hayden were off somewhere else....

While Grandpa and I were at Target we scoured the dollar bins. We found some fun things in there for the babies. One of them was sidewalk chalk. We had fun outlining their bodies. You can see here Erick was spending the day in his undies....oh wait, what else is new???

Erick is absolutely in LOVE with Snow White. So while we were at Target waiting in line, I saw a Snow White toy....I won't use the term doll since it's for my grandson.....{big grin}....as you can see from the following picture...He LOVED it.

What an adorable face!!!!

It was a wonderful day. I came home from church to a dozen red roses from Heather, Trevor and Amy...a yummy smelling candle from Yankee Candles, and a fun container full of chocolate hugs and kisses. I couldn't have asked for a better day. Thanks kids for everything. It was wonderful.

Happy Mother's Day

This message was intended mostly for my mother and mother in law..

A great BIG Happy Mother's Day to you!!!

BUT...I would also like to wish and honor all mother's out there.

Thank you for EVERYTHING you do!!!!!

Love you so much.

P.S. this photo I got off of Patty Bennet's website....I loved it and thought it was perfect...I hope it's okay to borrow it since I am giving her credit. To see her fabulous blog....click here.

Photos of the babies

How sweet are the next 2 pictures. Grandma's little helpers. Haylee said she loves to do the dishes....well who am I to discourage that??? She even wanted the apron and everything....no problem. Erick wanted to help too. So, he had to have the green apron. I have to tell you....he is a man that knows what he wants and goes after it. I love, love, love that about him.

Hayden enjoying a sinful treat that Heather brought home on Saturday..... Sprinkles Cupcakes....shame on you Heather. I think Hayden liked it what do you think???

Erick was having fun playing with his tricycle in the backyard and Haylee wanted to take a turn. This is Erick's reaction to her request....I would say that is a definite NO.

Haylee showing grandma her lack of front teeth. She has lost two teeth already.

I can't believe how fast Zachary is getting. Heather, Amy and Trevor were playing with him on the living room floor and he was loving all the attention. Here he is giggling at them. So stinking adorable.

It sure is fun to have them visit. I miss having them so close.

What a "Marathon" of a weekend.....

What an amazingly fun weekend I had!!! First it started on Friday night. Amy and I went to dinner and to see the movie X-Men: Origins Wolverine.....great movie. I want to see that one again it was that good. Then Saturday morning I had a Stampin Up meeting in Corona....that was a lot of fun. On Saturday night, I went to dinner and the movies AGAIN...this time with both daughters, we went and saw "Ghosts of Girlfriends Past"....another cute movie. A one timer, but cute. BUT....to top off a great weekend....my son Jeff ran his first marathon today. It was a half marathon and he ran it in 2 hours and 30 minutes exactly. We were there at the finish line to cheer him on.

You can see him running the last stretch there in the front....so proud!!! Doesn't he look great for just running 13 miles???? I sure think so. He was pretty sweaty though.

Here he is with his proud wife.

Heather, Amy, and Trevor giving their support.

We asked someone to take a picture of all of us before we left. He is registered to run a full marathon, which is 26.2 miles at the end of the month in San Diego....Go Jeff Go... you can do it.

Talk about an inspirational experience. It was so much fun to be towards the finish line cheering on those runners coming through. There were all kinds of people, all ages, all sizes and shapes, running today. Makes us all want to start training for a marathon ourselves.

What a great weekend. Then we also had the kiddos over for dinner tonight. What a great way to end an amazing weekend. I will have to post pictures of the babes tomorrow. I need to go to bed to catch up with my rest from what was NOT a relaxing weekend....it was fun....and that was better by far.

How do you spell fun? C H A O S

Yesterday Rick and Ali had a bunch of people over for the UFC fight. It was a lot of fun and tons of chaos. There was a total of 10 adults, 14 kids and a dog. The kids had so much fun running around and playing.....it got kinda noisy, but they were having a blast. You can see Erick made a new friend. Erick and Penelope were so cute together. I love how they are holding hands in this picture. He has good taste, Penelope is adorable. The older boys got out the Halloween masks and decided it would be fun to scare the littler kids.
It worked.
Penelope tried to hide behind me.....although with that adorable smile on her face, she doesn't look too scared now does she????

This is where the little ones got to eat their dinner

The older kids grabbed the table and everyone ate and had a great feast. There was tons of good food to be eaten too.

Love this photo!!!!

Someone sat Zach down by grandpa while they went and dished up their food. He sat there and actually watched the fight.....it was adorable....hmmmm.... wonder if he was taking notes for later....

Talk about segregation....this is where the men were most of the night....in the living room watching the fight on the bigger TV.

Here we have the ladies.....in the kitchen....with the little ones....

And after everyone got tired of listening to the kids run around screaming, we rounded them up to watch a movie and calm down a little. Funny story: When I went upstairs to gather the kids to watch a movie. I said, "Let's all go watch Twilight". I thought, and totally expected, a NO WAY.....but to my utter astonishment, I got a YEAH, let's watch Twilight. So, here we have the kids watching Twilight.

Dallas had been staying with Rick and Ali since Thursday. Heather went to Vegas for Amy's 21st birthday and they babysat Dallas. So, Dallas had been there having an absolute blast with the kids since Thursday. When it was time to leave and load up all of Dallas' things, he saw me get my keys and came running. He wouldn't leave my side the whole time I was gathering his things. When I went outside to load the car he snuck out and ran into the car. He would NOT get out. It was pretty funny. He had so much fun with the kids, but he was missing his mommy. I snapped this picture of him looking at me when I asked him to get out of the car. He wasn't going to get out!!! So, since it was late and Dallas was already in the car, we headed home.

It was a fun night. Dallas slept the whole way home. When we got home he crashed!!!

Hoppy Easter Everyone

First off, I have to apologize for such a lousy picture.

Haylee was in a hurry to go give her creation to her Aunt Heather, so I had to take the picture quick.

We have a future scrapbooker in the making here.

Haylee is sooooo stinkin' cute. She has done this a few times now and I'm noticing how much she enjoys it, so I had to capture it on film. She will see a picture and go grab some paper and glue or tape and "scrapbook" it basically. It is so cute for such a young lady. She loves it and then can't wait to give her creation to whomever it was intended. Adorable!!

I just need to teach her about acid free products...lol. Grandma will just have to get Haylee her own little scrapbooking supplies to play with while at Grandma's house. I love it.

We were lucky enough to have the kiddos over last night while Rick and Ali went out on a much needed date I'm sure. We had a great time. While they were here the "Easter Bunny" came and hid some eggs.
Erick's favorite color is green, so he got the green bag....notice he is also looking for the green eggs.

I was SO proud of Hayden. He is really growing up to be such a good boy. They were playing outside and I went out and told them that there were eggs hidden inside the house. I gave them their bags....yeah grandma went all out, bags instead of easter baskets....{grin}

I told Hayden and Haylee that if there was an egg on the floor to let Erick get it. He was SO good and made sure he got them all. Hayden only ended up with like 6 eggs out of 36, but he was very mature about it.

What a great big brother he is!!!!! Boy, does he have a surprise coming tonight....I'll most likely blog about that later.

Haylee reaching for her find.

I think they had fun. I counted the eggs after they found them. We were 3 short, so I told them to continue to hunt. They never did find the other 3 eggs missing. Funny thing.....I come out to the living room this morning to Dallas playing with an egg. Dallas found one of the hidden eggs. It was pretty cute. Even Dallas got to hunt for eggs on Easter.

May you all have a wonderful Easter Sunday, and remember what the true meaning of this holiday is really all about....Our Savior.

P.S. Happy Birthday Jeff.....it is Jeff's 26th birthday today also. I don't think in his whole 26 years his birthday has ever fallen on Easter...interesting.