Christmas 2015 in Arizona

Today Trent has to clear a TON of snow off his truck before we headed to the grocery store.  After 30 minutes of working outside, he got into the truck very grumpy.  I asked him if he was okay and he responded, "No. I hate the cold." And then muttered under his breath, "I hate this place."  I know that might sound a little dramatic.  But until your shoveling your car and an entire apartment complex that is covered in 3 feet of snow, it's hard to understand.  And Rexburg doesn't take very good care of their roads, so there is snow e.v.e.r.y.w.h.e.r.e -- needless to say, he is missing Arizona and our wonderful not white Christmas. 
It is always stressful visiting Arizona. We have a pretty long list of people we want to visit and 6 days to fit everyone in. Three of those days were dedicated to Christmas Eve, Christmas, and my older brother's birthday. So that left little room for everything else.  Rita is dealing with a kidney stone and was in SO much pain, poor thing! And my mom ripped her miniscus (???), so she couldn't walk.  I felt so bad!  So we tried to be of some help to the families and be with them as much as possible. We got there on the night of the 22nd around 9 p.m.  We headed to In-N-Out because we love that place and would live there if we could. The next day, we went Christmas shopping and went to top golf.  Trent has a HILARIOUS video of me golfing. Not only do I golf bad, but I look bad while golfing!  
The next day Adam and Andrea hosted the fanciest Christmas Eve dinner of all time.  Those instagram pictures of her adorable home? It's for real people. And their dinner was pretty incredible.  Chicken, prime rib, shrimp and sauce, lettuce wedges with dressing, croutons, and bacon, rolls, mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie, smore's cheesecake, asparagus, crackers and cheese, and EVERYTHING was homemade, down to the dressing on the salad! And everything was on beautiful trays with a fantastic place setting. Seriously.  It was incredible. Christmas Day was busy meeting with both sides of families and skyping two missionaries in between!  Porter basically had three Christmas and tons of little exchanges so he was over presents by Christmas.
The next day we celebrated my brother's birthday and then the following day we went to the zoo and temple lights with my family and the Merrells.  Chad couldn't make it (Trent was bummed), because he is a responsible man with a job!  Honestly. I thought the zoo was lame.  I think our zoo gives a better experience.  And Porter was a little booger because we went from 11:30 - 3:30, so prime nap time.  When we put the boys back into their car seats, they were out within 2 minutes.
And that was it! It was over! 

Trent kept telling everyone that we would be moving to AZ in May -- and it felt SO weird.  I just kept quiet and smiled.  Really? Are we actually coming back to AZ??  I guess so.

A Little Christmas Prequal

We had our own smaller version of Christmas this morning.  We decided to open up the larger gifts today so we didn't have to drag them to my parent's house.  Trent surprised me with a 50 mm camera lens! I had NO idea. I had just been texting a friend yesterday about what new lens to buy and she suggested the same lens! So needless to say, I am pretty excited!
Porter got a basketball hoop from Grandma Thompson.  Trent and I bought him a mini trampoline and clothes.  He will open up his books for Christmas along with another small spiritual gift.
Dallas has stayed with us for the past few days before we all go home.  Since he was spending Christmas with us, we wanted to get him a little something! We got him a pazookie maker and a BBQ set.  He actually picked out his gifts without knowing it.  Trent is sneaky that way.
Trent got his drone that he has been wanting.  So he has been between his little gift and playing with Porter and his gifts all morning.  It's a small Christmas, but that's what we wanted! We will get a few other things in AZ that we can open up Christmas day and call it good.  Porter is just the right age this Christmas and I want to bottle him up forever and keep this simplicity.  

Another Semester Down, Porter Stories, and Book Talk

Today, another semester was accomplished.  I am pretty ecstatic about that concept, and so is Trent.  This is it.  He has one. more. semester. left at BYU-Idaho.  If the Engineering program could have stepped it up a bit, we could have graduated this semester.  But we are sticking around for TWO stinking classes.  Trent graduates the second weekend of April (I think it's the 9th?), he accepted the job offer and his new job starts June 6th.  We have a baby sometime around May 4th, and the last day of May we will most likely be leaving Rexburg.  Really.  This is the last stretch.  When I think about Trent's graduation day, I get emotional.  I know I will be a wreck that day. We have just come so far together. Anyone else feel like the Thompson's have been in school for forever.  Yeah, me too. We had these big dreams, big plans, and big ideas for ourselves when we got married.  And we are knocking one of dreams off our list.  Also. Let's talk about Porter for a second.  Gosh, Trent and I just love that crazy toddler.  The other day, we were at McDonalds for McTeacher night.  A portion of the proceeds are given to the teachers.  Another co-worker and her TWO kids (ages 3 and 1), were there too.  I sat next to them because I thought Porter would behave better sitting next to other kids. Nope. My child was all over.  Her children sat politely at the table and ate their food.  Never wiggled out of her arms, or ran around the restaurant in between people's legs, or threw their food across the room.  About ten minutes into the event, I knew we were going to have to jet.  I grabbed our tray and thought, I'll run to the trash, throw the food in the garbage, put the tray on top, and run back.  It will be 5 seconds. Tops.  Welp.  In those five seconds, Porter managed to climb on top of the table and start dancing and jumping while my friend tries to hold her sweet girl and grab him down.  I hear, "Ummm... Chelsea?" before I even hit the garbage can.  Oh Porter. Also. I started reading this book yesterday: My friend and I were talking about life and she said she had just read this book and it totally changed her relationship towards her husband.  I just replied with, "Oh. That's nice."  Because honestly, in my head I was thinking how Trent and I are pretty solid and did not need marriage help.  Then she said, "I'll bring it tomorrow so you can read it too!"  And I was like, "Oh... okay."  I mean, how do you tell a girl -- "that's great, but my marriage is fine so I don't need your help." I'm not that forward. The next day she brought it and she told me to tell her what I thought after I read it.  I didn't know what to do.  Then, came the thought, listen lady, your marriage isn't perfect all the time.  So if this book can give you even the smallest advice to make your marriage a little more harmonious, then it's worth it.  And.... I really like it! She brings up, so. many. good. points.  Now, she isn't an LDS author, but she totally believes in those traditional values. She just very, very forward about it.  If you are into the feminism movement, this book will probably offend you, And I mean that in the nicest way -- just a cautionary thing. She brings up feminism a lot and how it is a destructive way of thinking.  So there is my warning. Honestly, she just really believes in putting your husband first, which might mean making meals, looking nice when he comes home, and concepts similar to those.    Some things apply to us, and some things don't. So you have to take some of her advice with a grain of salt. But it's a refreshing and bold point of view. And I like it!  I read parts out loud to Trent, and he loves this lady. Haha!
Here are two points I love so far: She talks about this woman who called her radio show and told her a personal experience.  Every Valentines Day for years, she expected this grandeur expression of love from her husband.  Her friends would tell her the wonderful things their husbands did on Valentine's Day and she expected her husband to do the same.  But every year, he didn't meet her expectation and she would silently fume for weeks after.  Finally, she approached her husband about it and he said, "I show you I love you three hundred and sixty-five days a year, but if this one day isn't perfect, then none of the others count?"  Guilty.  Our first Mother's Day together went through our mind (I posted about it awhile ago). I totally played that game.  And it's a losing game for all parties. Another point I loved was we were married first -- then we had children (usually).  She said, "just because you gave birth does not entitle you to ignore your man." She also said, "Some women begin to think that their babies are the center of the universe, and their husbands are just supposed to hang out like Uranus and keep revolving around then whether or not they're getting anything back."  Guilty again.  I am not the best mother by any means -- but I only have so much time with my baby in a day. As soon as I get home, I feed him, play with him, and do fun activities with Porter.  I expect Trent to just figure out dinner and other stuff out himself -- he is an adult so he can deal.  Plus I am exhausted -- which she puts that excuse to shame.  Plus, it's just not the right attitude to have. Anyways. I'm on page 40, so I'm interested to see how the other 100 pages turns out.  But for now, I am going to take these next two weeks and snuggle with my three favorite boys who really are my entire world.

Because I Will Never Get Over Rexburg

Why can't I be a professional photographer?
Maybe I have my hand dipped into a few too many things right now, but these pictures don't do this event justice.  Today Hemming Village put on a Christmas Event for the town of Rexburg.  We had Santa, the Grinch, real camels, sleigh rides, free milk and cookies, and a live Elf on the Shelf hiding through the event.  We had such a fun time,  Porter got really cranky towards the end, but at 5:30, they were playing a live Nativity play (with all real animals), and I sure wish we could have been there to witness such a special event. 
But hey. What do you do. 

Really. I can't take pictures to save my life. 
I hope to take a class soon.  I mean, I am not looking to make money off of this, I just want to take decent family photos when we go to these events!
Every day this week, I have planned a little Pinterest activity for Porter and I to do when I get off work.  We have played with muffin tins, playhouse balls, pipe cleaners and a strainer, and so much more.  They have all been pretty successful!  This has been a pretty good week for Porter and me. Porter has {{FINALLY}} started using his words and I am dying of happiness. Instead of throwing a fit because he wants a pretzel and can't tell me, he says, "Pretzel?" in his cute little voice.  Then I give him a pretzel. That's it. No meltdowns included. Your the best, Portmaster. I stinking love you and your sweet little words.
Today, Trent had to paint an apartment (boo!), so the little guy and I had the morning and afternoon to ourselves.  I had bought the ingredients for bath paints this week and decided to try it out.  I was super nervous the dye would stain our tub, or that this would be a failure.  But it actually turned out pretty good! The tub was a MESS with paints, and I was having a slight panic attack.  But the damage was done, so I let Porter keep playing.  Great parenting. 

If only you cold have seen the disaster.  That was just one side of the tub.  All four sides including the wall and the outside of the tub, were covered in paint.  The water was foggy with all the paint colors combined and Porter was a mess of colors.  But I mean. Look at that face! He had so much fun!
So after the anxiety reached an all time high, I let the water drain and ran warm water through the tub (without putting down the stopper) and let Porter play in the clean water.  I had a magic eraser and I got to work on cleaning up the mess.  Total clean up time: Less than five minutes.  That includes the tray, all for sides of the wall, and groggy water. I was shocked! It was SUPER easy to clean.  So I filled the bathtub with a few inches of clean water and we finished our bath.  Although I would not do this every bath time, I would definitely do it again.