New York, New York!

Aaron and I will be celebrating our 5th Anniversary on June 4th this year. I cannot believe we have been married this long! It really seems like yesterday, but then again, we have two kids :) I recently wrote about how we met which brought back a lot of college memories. Anyway back to our anniversary....We wanted to do something fun this year since it is our 5th so we have planned a big trip to NYC! Everytime we start to talk about it or plan an activity when we are there, we both get so excited. However, because of school, we have to wait until we are done with our summer sessions, so we will be going in August.

We will be leaving the babies behind, which makes me sad to even think about. However, I know Aaron and I need this time together. I'm sure the kiddos will have fun with Grammy, Grandpa and Grandmom.

We have already planned a few things, but we want to keep our days open for site-seeing. We have decided that we are driving (I know, 13 hours in a car with your husband and you can really have some bonding time!) to Philly first and staying two nights, since neither of us have been there. We are going to eat at the famous XX deli for the Best Cheesesteaks in town. I think Aaron is excited about this! We will probably do some site-seeing here too. On Monday morning, we are getting up and heading to NYC. However, our first stop will be Carlo's Bakery. This one may sound familiar...it's the Cake Boss! It is one of my favorite shows and I can't wait to go there! I know I probably won't see anyone from the show, but maybe?!

After making our first pitstop, we will head on into downtown NYC to our hotel. We will be staying at the Doubletree Hilton, which is close to many things (at least I think it is). We don't have anything else planned yet, but here are a few other things on my list to do:

-See the Broadway show 'Chicago'
-Go to a Yankees game
-Go to the Trade Center Memorial
-Eat at the infamous Peter Luger Steakhouse http://www.peterluger.com/
-Walk around Central Park

I am getting excited just writing about it! If anyone has any other suggestions, please leave a comment and let me know!

Dancing Little Boy!

I had to share this. He gets so thursty when he dances! And he gets his dance moves from his daddy :)

Blake Dancing from Kaelin Thacker on Vimeo.

How we met....

I wanted to participate in Kelly's Korner - Show Us Your Life this week since I have never posted about Aaron and I before. So here it goes.

Aaron and I grew up 90 minutes away from each other, only to meet 21 years later. We had very similar childhoods and were very blessed in many ways. We both played sports our whole lives and were always busy playing one thing or another.

I decided to go to Georgetown College to play basketball mainly because my sister played there. I almost went to another college to play, but I think I would have missed my sister too much. Aaron almost went to a different college to play football and baseball, but decided to stay closer to home. Thank goodness we both made good decisions to go to GC!

Aaron and met our Junior year in college. I had seen him around campus a few times, but our paths had yet to cross. Georgetown College is a very small college, so it seemed inevitable that we would eventually meet. I was a Kappa Delta and he a Kappa Alpha, and our sorority and fraternity houses were right next to each other. We also had the same major and minor, but had not yet had a class together.

Before classes started that year, I was on campus for training and he had moved in early. I went out for dinner with a few friends and he was there with some of his buddies. That was the first time we talked and I guess the rest is history. That was August of 2002 and we have been together ever since. That year we ended up having three classes together and went to many sorority and fraternity functions together.

I married my best friend on June 4, 2005 and this year will be our 5 year anniversary. We will be celebrating by going to NYC in August!

Happy Birthday Katie!

This past weekend was my niece's birthday party. She is 2 years old! 17 days older than Blake. Wow it seems like yesterday she was born. She had the best birthday them - Hello Kitty! I use to love Hello Kitty! I actually found my Hello Kitty toothbrush the other day. I don't think I ever used it because I just wanted to keep it.


Katie was so interested in opening presents, then after the second present, she told my sister 'I'm done'. It was so cute. There were a few kiddos there so after cake and presents, we all went outside and played. Blake had a blast since he loves being outside! Every time we started to come in or we took him off the swing, he cried. He was also introduced to Austin's power wheels and he loved it! The pictures do it no justice.....he would have ridden it all night! The only problem was he didn't understand that he needed to steer. Haha! Maybe he will get one from Santa this Christmas :) Kylie was cute too. I think she is feeling much better since her surgery.





Happy 2nd Birthday Katie! Aunt KK loves you!

Kylie's Surgery

Kylie had her surgery this morning and it went great. It's been a very long day and I am very excited for bed tonight! We had to be at the hospital at 6am so we had to get up at 5am....way too early for me! We got Kylie up right before we left, changed her diaper and headed to the hospital. I was so afraid that she would be starving by the time we got to the hospital, but she did great. However, by this time it was only 6am and her surgery wasn't until 7:30. I thought for sure she would have a breakdown and cry her eyes out because she wanted her bottle. Our savior was her paci...she loves her it and it came in very handy today.

This was right before they took her back. She was so adorable in her little gown!

My friend Jackie is a Nurse Anethesist and she was doing her case, so it made me feel at ease to know that she would be there during the whole procedure. She even carried her to back to the operating room, which really eased my mind. The doctor came in and explained that her surgery would take 3 minutes for each ear, then she would go to recovery for 10 minutes or so then they would bring her to me. Well, it literally took 10 minutes from the time they took her back until then the doctor came out and told us she did great. Amazing how fast they work!

Everyone was pretty much right on when they told me how she would be when she came out of surgery. She was absolutely hysterical. I was so sad to see her cry so hard, but I knew this was the best for her and she would be better by tonight. When we got home, she slept for awhile and the first time she got up, she was still in pain. By the end of the night, she was pretty much herself, which was very relieving. I know she will feel even better tomorrow and I can't wait.

Here is a picture of her tonight right before bed. She was in a great mood!

Blake Thomas - 23 Months Old!

Blake turned 23 months old yesterday! I can't believe Blake is almost 2!!! I was looking at pictures yesterday for a project I am doing for the kids and he looks so different then he did as a baby. Here is a picture I love of him when he was a few months old and last year at his first birthday. I have also included a recent picture I took of him.





What a different a year makes! I can't wait for his birthday party. I am sure he can't either. He is having, of course, a Shrek party! I had to incorporate Shrek somehow because he LOVES him! We are also having it at my parent's house and they have a pool so it will be a pool party too. I would love to have someone dress up as Shrek and come to the party but I think he will FREAK OUT!!

Here are a few updates for Blake:
-You are such a good big brother! You love to make your sister laugh and you love to give her kisses.
-You love to eat everything! You love spaghetti, nutter butters, fruit, and chicken nuggets, but your favorite is bread! Daddy will give you a plain piece of bread and you would think he was giving you a million dollars!
-You LOVE being outside. You cry when it's time to come in at night. I can't wait to get your birthday present, because you will love it!
-You love when mommy and daddy sing to you. You also love to dance to the children's music CD.

I love you Blake!!

Green Thumb

I follow this blog and she recently talked about starting a garden and of course I had to jump on board. I had some tomato plants last year and I got a few tomatoes, but I wanted to do more this year. So I picked up a few of these at Lowe's and put them together last Saturday. This is what they looked like tonight!

Watermelon


Garden Beans


Tomatoes


Yes they are all Sesame Street too! I have also planted some peppers, but they haven't sprouted yet. I can't wait to plant them outside to grow in my new garden. I just hope my green thumb stays green!

Late Easter Present

So I asked Aaron to order something for Kylie for Easter and he forgot :( I didn't realize it until the week of Easter so I went ahead and ordered it then. Kylie got her ears pierced in December and she got another set of earrings for Christmas. So of course she needed something to put her other earrings in! I had one of these (not the same but similar) when I was a little girl so I wanted her to have one too. And yes, I know she is only 7 months old, but she 'needed' it :)

Milestone for Kylie

Kylie has hit a huge milestone this week! She has started sitting up! She is still a bit unsteady, but she can sit for a bit without tumbling over. I think she is excited now that she can sit up by herself and so is Blake. I may regret saying this later but I can't wait for her to start crawling!

Easter!

I cannot believe it is already April! This year has flown by and before we know it, Blake will be 2 and Kylie will be 1 (wow that is weird to say!).

We had a wonderful Easter weekend. We went to Aaron's parents on Friday night/Saturday to celebrate and my parents today (Sunday). We were inside most of the day on Saturday and it rained all day, but it was amazing outside today. Aaron mowed the lawn for the first time after the kids saw what the Easter Bunny brought them and then Blake, Austin and Katie played outside at Nana and Papa's this afternoon. Blake LOVES being outside! I can go on and on about that so I will save that for later :)

This was Kylie's first Easter and Blake's second. I really don't think Blake understood what was going on, especially with the Easter Egg Hunt. The first egg that he picked up broke open and all he cared about after that was the jelly beans. I know next year will be a blast for him. Here are some pictures from this weekend. Happy Easter Everyone!!

Another Beautiful Baby!!

It seems like it has been so long since I have posted! So much has happened the past week so here goes. I am going write each big event in their own post so bear with me :)

OK so probably the biggest news is my BFF, Emily, had her baby!! You can see the post about the baby shower here. The sex of the baby was a surprise so everyone (I know I was) was waiting to here who the baby looked like and if it was a boy or a girl!!! Well a healthy baby GIRL, Aislin Gayle, was born on April 2 and weighed 6lbs, 13 ozs and was 20.5 inches long. Now Kylie has a BFF!! I can just cry when I think about the girls growing up together . Honestly, I think I am about to cry :)

Emily looked wonderful after the delivery as you can see in the pictures. I am so happy for her and Matt to finally get to experience the joys of parenthood. I know Emily is going to be a wonderful mommy and Matt a very protective, awesome daddy.

Happy Birthday Aislin!