Bryan's Birthday!

Today is Bryan's 32nd birthday! In honor of his special day, I have come up with the 32 things that I love most about my husband. And here we go:

1. His smile -- melts my heart everytime!
2. His eyes -- I can just get lost in them, which usually makes him blush! :)
3. His laugh -- it is incredibly infectious :)
4. His hugs -- can make everything else disappear
5. His lips -- I love to kiss them. I know, I know...TMI!! :)
6. His sense-of-humor -- sometimes witty, sometimes dry, but always silly! :)
7. His creative side -- he can see beauty in just about anything, and then he tries to make the pictures capture what he sees
8. His sensitive side -- yes, he sometimes cries in movies! :) And I love that!
9. His love for people -- especially those in need
10. His love of God and devotion to following God's plan for his life -- ie. walking away from corporate America to allow God to utilize all of his gifts
11. His love for Shawn -- it is beautiful to see them interact! Shawn definitely loves his Daddy!
12. His passion...for everything! -- especially Gator sports! HA
13. His desire to always be improving-- He wants to be the very best Bryan possible.
14. His compassion -- he really feels for other people.
15. His perfectionism -- although this one usually drives me nuts! :)
16. His belief in himself -- he knows he can do anything if he puts enough effort into it
17. His ability to make me laugh when I'm down -- like no one else!
18. His love of the outdoors -- he's already planning a camping trip for him and Shawn!
19. His desire to serve, in any capacity -- he is ready to serve, any time, any place
20. His vision for where he wants to be tomorrow, next month, next year, and when we're ready to retire -- Colorado, mountain home, lots of land...just in case you are wondering. :)
21. His silly side -- as silly as they come. I think that is why the teens love him! :)
22. His serious side -- oh yes, he actually does have one!
23. His morning good-bye kiss on my forehead -- I usually sleep right through it! :) But I'm still glad he does it!
24. His ability to make me feel very safe -- no matter what is going on around us, he is such a comfort to me. Especially at night after a really scary movie!
25. His love for movies -- this is our favorite past time. I'm glad we can share it together.
26. His desire to provide more for our family -- he wants our children to be given every opportunity to explore their God-given talents and abilities
27. His willingness to put others first -- he is so selfless.
28. His courage to follow his dreams -- our photography business is growing because of his passion and his determination, and he won't let anything stop that! And he is currently working on several book ideas. One guy, so much imagination!
29. His love of life -- he is just such a cheery guy, and very little gets him down!
30. His good looks! -- I know a little silly, but he is SO hot! :) All the little old ladies at our wedding said he was gorgeous and that he would one day make pretty babies. So far only 1 baby, but they sure were right! :)
31. The way he shows me how much he loves me! -- No need for explanation! :)
32. I am so blessed that he is SO perfect for me! God definitely knew what he was doing when he sent Bryan my way! :)

Feel free to send him a quick brithday hello. His e-mail address is: airmack1@yahoo.com

Happy Birthday, Honey!

Happy Valentine's Day

This is the picture we took for our Valentine's cards. I loved this little onsie. Bryan and I actually called each other "Love Bug" while we were dating. I thought this one was so appropriate! :)
Here he is in his Valentine's bib.
Here are the candies that Grandpa got from Grandma. Grandpa offered to share them with Shawn. I have to watch them so carefully!! Always trying to sneak him bad things. :)

HAPPY VALENTINE'S from the THOMPSON family.

My Dad is HOME!!

YEAH!! My Dad flew home tonight. He left Lagos, Nigeria yesterday afternoon and after 40 hours of travel he finally arrived in Denver. Unfortunately, his bags did not arrive with him. They were apparently left in Cincinnati, OH and should be delivered to our house sometime tonight or tomorrow morning. Poor guy was SO tired and only wanted to eat and go straight to bed. His poor eyes were so bloodshot. But he was so excited to see Shawn and just wanted to hold him and talk to him. Tomorrow is going to be a fun day for them as they spend time together when they are oth awake! HA. But Praise God that he arrived safely and in relatively good health.

Yes, that is a major accomplishment traveling internationally. Especially into the parts of Africa that he travels to. He and his travel mates were in a car accident about 10 days ago. The african preacher they were traveling with was trying to pass a large truck and the truck swerved and sent them off into the shoulder. The driver over-corrected and sent them into the on-coming traffic lane--luckily there were no cars coming towards them on the VERY busy road. During this ordeal, the car blew two tires and bent both axels. Dad said it was pretty scary, and he is usually pretty mellow about these kind of things. He said the pictures are unbelievable, but I'll have to post them tomorrow. We were asked not to say anything about it until he made it home as they didn't want to frighten the families of his travel companions (Ruth is in her late 60s and her family is concerned for her safety in deep, dark Africa!). But they are all safe and hopefully have all made it home by now.

Thank you God, for keeping a watchful eye over Dad and the others.

I'm getting the itch....

...to run another Marathon. As soon as I crossed the finish line of the Denver Marathon on Oct 15th 2006, I was hooked. I started immediately conspiring to run another one. Plans were altered a little when I got pregnant a week after the marathon. But I am back to conspiring for #2. I was told I couldn't start doing long runs until I finished breastfeeding (something about spoiling your milk?) so I have to wait until at least July to start training seriously. But I keep getting e-mails from the Denver Marathon sponsors, and yesterday I got a magazine in the mail for running shoes. Also, I want to run another one with my Dad before he decides to hang up his shoes. :) I also want to see if I can beat my previous time. I haven't decided which marathon I would like to run. The Denver Marathon was amazing--a great course, good cheering section, very scenic, weather was awesome--but I also like the idea of running one in Austin, TX. This is where I ran in high school and where I would volunteer at marathons. I think for now I will focus on training and then decide which one to run when I get further down the road (no pun intended!).
Here is the picture that gets me inspired:

After finishing : My mom (1/2 Marathon), Me and my Dad (full Marathon)

2nd Girls Night Out

Tonight we had our second Girls Night Out. We had so much fun together. We met at Tamsen's house and everyone brought their favorite soup or salad to share. [Thanks ladies for all of your HARD working preparing your dishes from scratch! HA! :) ] We had a great time telling stories, laughing and playing games. Tamsen introduced us to the game: Apples to Apples. I think we would have played longer, but we are getting old and 9:00pm seems really late! :) HA!

Next month we plan to meet at Sara's new house. We will be meeting on the 15th for Pizza and some special baking. More details to come.

Here are some pictures from tonight:

Here is a group shot: (L to R) top-Tamsen, Kristyn, Shelley holding Quinn, and Nikki Bottom-Sara, and Laura (I took the picture).

Playing Apples to Apples Sara with Quinn--how does she always get the babies? HA! :)

Super Bowl to 2008

YEAH for the Super Bowl. I admit I love football as much as the next...um...football loving girl. However, I am much more fond of college football. Pro-football is just not as exciting to me, but I do like the Superbowl. I like it more for the parties and the social-interaction than the football. And tonight was no different. It was our second year in a row to spend the Superbowl with our teens at the church building. It is always great to spend time with these kids, they are so much fun! :)

We had a room set up for the game, of course. And that is where the guys mostly stayed watching the game projected onto the wall. Then there was a room set up for board games, where most of the girls stayed. There were all sorts of games. I especially enjoyed playing Catch Phrase, but unfortunately my team lost 2-1. Oh well, it was still fun.

Then there was also a room set up for all of the great food that was brought by the teens. We could have fed an army with our spread. (Thanks, Kristin, for getting it all organized.)

Here are some fun photos from the night. Although I didn't have an outfit for Shawn from the teams playing in the game, we dressed him in the home town heroes outfit--GO BRONCOS!!

Oh, and I was cheering for the Patriots. Oh well. :) Here are some pictures from the night:

Holly and Lindsay--I love the war paint. Reminds me of my High School Powder Puff days!

Some of our teens participated in a half-time coke chugging contest. Here is Jordan giving it her best shot!

BEFOREAFTER
The (unplanned) half-time entertainment started with the boys jumping over each others shoulders. It quickly became chair jumping--they started with 3 and before it was all said and done they were up to 5. It was very scary to watch...because I know someday this is the type of thing my son will be doing! HA!Lindsay with Shawn. He loved all the attention he got that night. The teens (guys and gals) were fighting over who was next to hold him. :)

Natasha with Shawn. It was after his bedtime and he was starting to get cranky.

Me playing Catch Phrase with some of the teen girls. I LOVE this game!

Family Date to the Art Museum

Well, as I metioned in an earlier post, Denver has several cultrual features that offer free days**. So today, Shawn and Bryan and I all made a trip to the Denver Art Museum. It was a great day and very fun outing for us. The Art museum expanded about a year and a half ago, but we have been really busy (for some reason:) ) during this time and have not seen the new addition. We were able to see the African art exhibit, which honestly was not as impressive as I had hoped it would be. The best part of the museum was the Modern Art exhibit. I admit some of it was fascinating, but most of it was a little odd or outright strange. Now I admit that I do not have an art degree and probably lack some of the appreciation in art that others have, but Bryan is even worse than I am!!! Bryan's narration of the display was my favorite part of the day. He had a great way of making the wacky displays seem a little odder than they were initially perceived. It was such a fun afternoon. Shawn enjoyed watching all of the people in the museum and the displays he could see.

Then we had a Starbucks warm-me-up drink before we headed for home.

What a great day! :)

**If you are in the Denver area, check out this website for more details, http://scfd.org/?page=home&sub=4.