Cool Face Paint

Anyone in need of an amazing face painter for hire? My Aunt Valerie is the best. We were invited to a birthday party that she was at. She is so talented. Fun stuff!!

Extended Thorup Family Christmas Party

What a group (only 3 people missing)!  It was a good party with Santa showing up, the longest paper chain you have ever seen, lots of food and family, a nativity program, and more!

Cousins!

We had these pictures taken for my Mom and Dad for Christmas. I think they are quite possibly the cutest kids ever! We went to Foto Fly in Draper. They were awesome! I love how much fun these cousins have together. We are lucky to live close by each other. They get to play together often--at least every Sunday at Grandma's when we go for dinner and then sometimes more during the week. They have been able to have sleepovers and family trips together. Jack is at the cutest age where he just loves to be by the big boys and they love him too. Jonny can't get enough of Luke (really he can't)...Luke is the best thing in Jonny's world. Autumn loves to be with Sophia, Noelle and Megan (with good reason because they are so fun to play with). Brookley is adored by everyone. These pictures are fun memories of some fun cousins.

Best New Years Eve

This was the best way to end 2010! We had a party! Our friend, Debbie, was going to take the kids overnight so Bruce and I could go out and stay out late...but Carter got sick that day...bummer. At first it was disappointing changing our plans but it ended up being the best thing for us because we had the best, best, best night ever. It was so fun! I told the kids we were going to have a family party. We all got excited and the night started bursting with excitement. Everyone got to choose what they wanted to do:



Autumn chose decorations
Brookley (with help) choose Peek-a-Boo
Bruce chose to build a fort
I chose to do puzzles
Jonny choose to watch G-Force



So after some yummy Chinese food we played together the rest of the night. The best part was building the fort and then turning off all the lights and telling stories inside with a lantern. Bruce tells a great "Herman" story that makes us all laugh even though we have heard it a dozen times. We let the kids stay up as late as they wanted. It was so much fun that every month we are going to have our very own family party (aka: family fun night) again!

Christmas Morning Magic



One of my favorite pictures...ha! Autumn is wearing some of Jonny's PJ's because Santa brought him 2 pair and she didn't get any.  Jonny was good to share with her.  Here she is sporting her new dress up shoes and checking herself out in the mirror.





Jonny holding his Lego Commander Cody.  His other presents included a spaceship alarm clock, 2 remote controled tranatulas, an erector set, dinosaur puzzle and game, and lots of legos.



Autumn got a digital camera, my little ponies, a tea set, her own pink legos, dress ups, and Zuzu pets.





Brookley got her own singing purse, some babies, building blocks, a funny monkey rolling toy, etc.



Merry Christmas Eve!

Our tradition is that Christmas Eve is celebrated at Grandma and Grandpa Thorup's house. It is so fun because everyone else has that same tradition...so all the cousins are there too. We have a yummy dinner, a Christmas song sing-a-long by Grandma, a Nativity performance by the kids and then total chaos opening presents! Uncle Matthew was a trouble maker this year by yelling "Presents!". You should have seen all the kids come running and screaming with excitement. Only it wasn't time yet...so then there was despair. It was funny. The evening would have been perfect if we had built that sound-proof room for the kids to be in. Oh how we love them...but really how can they make that much noise? There was a lot of Christmas excitement in the air! All the kids gave great reactions but Luke made us all laugh with his reaction to a $20 bill that was taped onto a Lego board. He slapped his face and yelled. He gets excited over money. Jonny got a erector set from Grandma and Grandpa with a real power tool to build it. Autumn got her "Ariel" movie she was asking for. Brookley got her first purse that sings to her. Bruce and I got a Ham Radio. We were most excited to give Grandma and Grandpa their present which was a picture of all the grand kids that we just had taken. The pictures turned out soooo cute!

Say Cheese...

or "Pickles", "Batman", "Poppy Diapers"...whatever it takes to get you to smile. Here was some family pictures we had taken back in November. (We were at the Jordan Demonstration Gardens. Jason Ivers took the pictures.)