Happy birthday Stephen!!

Happy birthday to my handsome, sweet and kind hubby I am so lucky to have you in my life and so blessed you decided to call me your wife!! (totally didn't mean for that to rhyme lol )
We celebrated like crazy on Satruday and had a great time! We had our first really BIG party at our house. Let me tell you party planning is not an easy task but worth it in the end! Stephen had a great celebration filled with many friends and their families! I don't think I have ever had that many people in our house at one time but it all worked out. Here are a few pics for Stephens big 3-1 Birthday party!!

Birthday breakfast  :)

I made special cupcakes (muffins as Sophia would call them)

Stephen's very special Chiefs Cake

Happy Birthday To you!

Happy Birthday Stephen !! Hope you had a wonderful 31st birthday and here is too many more birthday spent together as a family!!
Much love !
The Thompson fam!

tomseun-eun hangug-eulo gago issseubnida

After weighting our options and praying like crazy we have finally as a family made a final decision...

tomseun-eun hangug-eulo gago issseubnida .. THE THOMPSON'S ARE MOVING TO KOREA!!!!

Okay I know .. you are thinking.. ARE YOU CRAZY.. and yes may be a little.. but let's face it you have to be a little crazy in this crazy military life. Our family has endured a year long deployment and at this point two years together is to WONDERFUL to pass up... even if we are going to the single most  homogeneous country in the world. That being said the country is very modernized and safe. It's not the good ol' US of A but it will be a cool place to live for 2 years.

North Korea.. That is looming in the back of your head isn't it ? Well Don't you worry because we are not to worried. North Korea is a nothing more than an annoyance to the Korea's so I am told. I figure if they aren't worried than I am not going to be. I also believe in the Army enough to know they would keep us safe if we were ever in harms way. I don't anticipate this happening at all while we are living there.

We were pretty much devastated when we lost our chance to go to Italy. God has a funny way of working and by taking Italy away from us he gave a a HUGE  gift. If we had moved to Italy Stephen WOULD have deployed to Afghanistan for another year.. YUCK..
Best Part about  Korea is Stephen will never deploy!! YIPPEE!! Out of harms way for two WHOLE years!!

SEPTEMBER is when we will hopefully be heading over there. Stephen reports early Sept and I am praying we can go with him at that time.  If not then I will be making the trip with Sophia and the dogs solo. 14 hrs straight on a plane alone with a 2 yr old frightens me !!  Last time I was on a plane that long, I was on my way to Australia popped an ambien and was out for the flight. I won't have that luxury this time lol...

Anyways.. we wanted to share the news and hopefully you all will be as excited for us as we are :) The coming months are going to be filled with all the craziness that PCS's (psst...that's army jargon for permanent change of duty Station  ) will bring but we promise we will be visiting family and friends before we make the big move!

salang manh-eun( Lots of Love)
The Thompson fam!!

Happy New Years!

Well we said good bye to 2010 and a big hello to 2011. 2010 was a bitter sweet year for us. We spent the majority of it without Stephen. I learned a lot about myself last year. I found a strength I sure didn't know I had.  As a family we learned just how great the Internet and skype really can be and I slept with my computer on the pillow next to me many of nights. Sometimes waiting for a call, sometimes just falling asleep to Stephen's face smiling back at me and talking me to sleep. We learned humility as a family. Learned that god is who we need to turn to in times of turmoil and loosing faith is not an option. We learned that reuniting after being apart so long is true bliss but isn't always as easy as one might think. 2010 was hard at times but I came out of it a stronger woman, better mother and most importantly with a stronger marriage.

We rang in the new year Sick :( Stephen had a horrible cold and I was exhausted from potty training (um.. who knew teaching one munchkin to pee in a potty could really be so mentally exhausting.. ) So we brought the new year in with a kiss on each cheek, proceeded by both our head hitting the pillow and falling fast asleep. No matter how uneventful the evening was, the fact that Stephen was with in an arms reach from me was the best part!! Sick or not I just feel blessed he was right beside me :)

Who knows what 2011 will bring us. If there is one thing military life has taught me, it is never to plan. Just live in the moment.Which brings me to my resolution...

                          
       TO TRY AND GO WITH THE FLOW. TRUST IN GODS PLAN AND ENJOY THE TIME I HAVE WITH MY FAMILY.

I tend to get so worried about where we are going next that I forget to enjoy where we are now :( 

This year should bring us back to Des Moines for a few months while the Army is keeping Stephen busy as School. We can't wait to spend some QT time with family and friends. I am also hoping that 2011 may bless us with a baby. We have talked about another munchkin but at this point Sophia is enough to keep our hands full .. so we will see.. someday.. maybe..

Here are some pictures from the year .. some of my favorites :) Please ignore the three pics that didnt download right.. I have no clue how to fix it.. oops .. sorry

March - Stephen came home on R&R .. what a wonderful month!!

Add caption

April .. we visited the Easter bunny!!

May -Sophia took her first visit to IOWA STATE .. and met the new garden gnome

Very first trip to the zoo in May :)

Somewhere around December and May Sophia became a full fledged toddler and I had to call in some reinforcements!

Sophia took her first trip to Grandpa John's grave on Memorial day

In July we were trying to beat the Alabama Heat with the coolest sprinkler around!



Sophia in her very first big girl bed!



Cutest lil firecracker out there!

The entire month of August we anxiously awaited Stephen's homecoming

Very first gymnastics class :)

Vowel renewal and much needed vacay for mommy and daddy!

BUMBLEBEE!!!

Our princess turned 2 ..

Nemo stole the show!!

Christmas

2010 gave us the chance to spend lots of time with daddy!!




<><>

<>

<><>

So proud of our soldier and his bronze star!






Potty training..

First Trike!

Lil Beauty!





2010 Thank you for bring my family back together !!

Happy New Year to you and yours!!

Lots of love!

The Thompson Fam!! 

At work with Daddy

We are very proud of our Solider so whenever we get the chance we LOVE going to watch him work :)   Here are some pictures from a demonstration Stephen did with his new dog Bailey.

They make a good team :)

So sweet!

The next few are of Stephen receiving the Bronze star he was awarded during his last tour in Iraq.



And this picture has nothing to do with this blog but the picture is so stinkin cute I had to put It up :)

Happy holidays!! Much love!
The Thompson fam!

Hello 29!

Well I am officially on the last leg of my 20's and honestly am not to upset about this in the least. When I think back to my early 20's as fun and wild as the times may have been nothing can compare to life now. Yeah I may be in bed by 9 pm most nights and up by 6, My "bar clothes" have been traded for more "mommy clothes" but I love ever minute of it.
I am so blessed that god has truly given me so many AMAZING things in my life. I am so happy where my 20's have taken me. I cannot wait to hit my 30's and see what is in store :)

I was blessed to have Stephen here this year for my Birthday and as always he made it special!! We went out to my favorite pizza place and then spent the evening playing Wii with friends :) Again .. so different than I would have spent my birthday in my early 20's yet so much fun. Here are some pics from my Big day ;)

My Birthday tiramsu

Playing the wii..

4 man rowing team..



My love