An Amazing Gift

I knew this time of year was going to be tough for our family because we are going through all of our firsts without Paula. We do have one amazing gift from God that we get to celebrate right now and that is the pregnancy of Emma and Nathan. I know I am so excited about bringing another little Thacker boy into this family because Blake needs someone to wrestle with! Kylie is pretty excited as well and I captured her on video talking about Aunt Emma being pregnant with a baby. We made this video to send to Emma and Nathan:

The Most Wonderful (and busiest) Time of Year!

December is so busy for us! With holiday parties, school ending, Christmases, dinners with Friends, Christmas shopping...I can go on and on....we are so busy but I love it! Especially since I am now officiallly completed with school for the semester. I huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders because it is one less thing I have to worry about and now I can focus on the kids and having a wonderful Christmas. 27 credits down and 9 more to go - only 3 more classes and I will have my MBA!
Here is how our December has gone so far:

The first weekend in December was packed full. Friday night we had Aaron's office party at French Lick Resort & Spa and we had a great time. It was so nice to get away for a night and see the beautiful decorations at the resort. They also have the Polar Express train ride where you can actually go on a train ride and visit Santa! Tickets sell out almost a year in advance so I will be getting our tickets for next year very soon!

Here is the beautiful tree outside of the hotel:

Saturday was my brother Brad's birthday and we went out to eat with the family. My sister and my cousin Lauren and I also did the shopping for my grandparents for our family's Christmas which is this coming weekend. We shopped for 18 stockings and 10 kids presents. It was a lot of fun but a lot of work. We did it pretty quickly and got finished in just over 2 hours. That Sunday was spent writing a paper and doing a presentation for one of my classes. Not fun but the end of the semester was near.

Picking up the pieces

It's been three weeks. Three weeks since we lost someone so special to us and there is not a day that goes by that I do not think about her. There are so many unanswered questions because it was so sudden. I am sure there will be a time that I need to get it all off my chest but I am going keep it to myself right now. It feels like a piece of the puzzle is missing and I know we will feel like this for a very long time. Please continue to pray for everyone.

I have thought about giving up this blog because of lack of time and it reminds me a lot of Paula because I know how much she loved reading it. However the past few weeks so many people have told me that they read the blog so I want to keep it up for them and so everything is documented for the kids when they get older. I am also still keeping up my other blog - One Frame a Day - which I take pictures of the kids everyday (almost everyday) and post a picture and then at the end of the year, I will print it off and have a copy made for each of the kids.

So many things have happened the past few weeks. Here are just a few:

- Kylie started at the same daycare as Blake, which she loves.

- Blake started back to preschool and his favorite part is riding the bus!

- We tried potty training with Blake again and he is NOT ready at ALL!

- Blake loves his new big boy bed. He sleeps so good in it and stays in bed all night.

This video is priceless. Aaron calls me KK which has been my nickname my entire life. However I never expected my kids to call me KK. Kylie has picked this up from Aaron calling for me through the house. You will need to mute my playlist to hear what she says.

What's My Name - Kylie from Kaelin Thacker on Vimeo.

Here are some pictures from the past two weeks as well.

Kylie's first day of school

The kids watching a movie in Blake's bed

Aunt Emma and Uncle Nathan came to visit!

Uncle Jonathan showing Kylie the moon

Blake trying to get mommy with the water gun

Grandmom and Grandpa playing cards with the kids

Buzz and Blake....can you tell which one is which? :)

Pretty girl

Here is the last video for the night. Blake and Austin had a great time wrestling with each other. I can only imagine what our house would be like if we had two boys. It is kind of long but very cute.

Wrestling from Kaelin Thacker on Vimeo.

Monthly Catch-Up

So I have been incognito lately. You would think I have so much extra time since I am not taking a class right now but I think it makes me even more busy because I am trying to do all of the stuff around the house that I can't do when I am taking classes. I have gotten a lot of stuff done but I still have many things on my 'to do' list.

 

So what's been happening around the Thacker household?

• The kids have absolutely LOVED swimming in Nana and Papa's pool. There are many pictures and videos to prove that including this video from tonight.

Blake's Summer! from Kaelin Thacker on Vimeo.

- Kristin, Megan and I got to go to the NKOTBSB concert and it was awesome! I felt like I was 13 again.

- One of my best friends is getting married in a couple of weeks and we had a little party for her a couple of weeks ago. It was great seeing many great friends.

- We had a family trip to Cincinnati and went to a water park and the kids had a blast.

- Blake had his check-up at the ENT and his hearing test results were great! Thank God!

- Kylie has turned into my little singer. She loves to sing Twinkle, Twinkle and Happy Birthday.

- Speaking of Happy Birthday, the big one for me is just 9 days away...Oh goodness.

- My job has been crazy busy, but I still love it.

- We made one more trip to the zoo and one to Chuck E Cheese with Blake's class. Both were so much fun!

- I finally started and finished Blake's big boy room! I painted last Friday after work and finished putting his room together on Saturday. I love it and so does he! I still need to put things on the wall but I will take pictures soon and post.

- School starts in 2 weeks and I am taking 2 classes which I have not done yet since being in the program. I'm a little sad knowing I will be away from the kids 2 nights a week.

- Aaron has ONE more class left and then he is DONE! I'm so happy for him and of course very jealous :)

 

And here are some pictures from the past few weeks. Of course I have been keeping up my other One Frame a Day Blog with some of these so if you follow us on that blog, some of these are duplicates.

I think the kids look so much alike in the next two pictures!  You can definitely tell they are brother and sister. Look at those smiles!

Visiting Daddy at work...

Kylie's Birthday is a little over a month away. I cannot believe that she is turning 2! I have already started the planning :) She is also starting at Blake's daycare next week and I know I am going to cry when I drop her off. I know she is going to love it!

For some reason I think I will do better updating the blog when classes start. It will be my excuse to get away from school work for a minute. I am making a promise now to update the blog more often :) Maybe I should show Aaron how to update the blog since he will have so much time on his hands.....I won't hold my breath.

A birthday, a surprise and a couple of water guppies

We had a great weekend. I think Blake set a record for how many times he jumped in the pool. We all got together Friday for dinner with Jonkey and Laura since they were in town and of course we went to our regular place - Puerto Vallarta. We love mexican food and they have a big room in the back so it is nice when there are 10-14 adults and 4 kids running around. The food comes out fast too which is nice with the kids :)

The reason for the celebration this time is Jonkey's birthday! The big 2-8. His birthday was on Saturday so everyone was over to mom and dad's to swim and we had a cookout. The weather was perfect - very hot and no clouds. Dad also got to come home for the weekend which was an awesome surprise! Here are some pictures from the weekend and the fun we had.

Kenny Rogers....I mean dad and papa Clay :) 

Austin was doing the motions to a song here and he was so cute! 

Nice picture birthday boy :) 

Aunt Kristin got pushed in by the birthday boy. She couldn't be mad since it was the birthday boy :)

Nothing better than a nice movie to end the night.  

Happy Birthday, Jonkey! We hope you had a great day!

On another note, we had a play date with Macyn on Monday and I got a shot of the girls cooking for us. They were cracking up at something here.

And I had to include this cute shot from tonight from the cutest little boy. Mommy had a day off because there was a water main break in downtown Louisville so our office was closed. What a great surprise this morning! 

Have a great week!

Happy 4th!

This weekend was great. We got to do a little bit of everything including a quick trip to the zoo, sliding, swinging, swimming and of course playing.

Here are a few videos and pictures from our weekend -

Blake is such a big boy! He will jump (more like step) into the pool and swim all by himself! Of course this is with his swimmies on.

Blake Swimming from Kaelin Thacker on Vimeo.

And of course I had to put a video of Blake sliding down the slide.

Blake Sliding from Kaelin Thacker on Vimeo.

My little bubble guppy.

And a cute little girl in a cute littel suit.

Daddy telling the kids all about the snakes at the zoo.

Whatever this creature is...

The kids watching fireworks on Sunday night.

And all of them watching fireworks on Monday night.

I hope you all had a great 4th!

Dad's Day

This dad's day I want to give a tribute to all of the men in my life. I will be writing a little something for a few of them.

Dad:
I have always looked up to you since I was a little girl. I was so lucky to grow up with such a great dad who was also supportive of me. I was also so lucky that you knew so much about sports so you were able to coach me in almost anything. And having you as a teacher at school...most kids would have hated it but I loved having you so close in case I needed you. Thank you for always being so supportive of me and my dreams. I am the mom, wife and person I am today because of you (and of course mom, too). The kids love and adore you so much and I love to see them with you. Thank you for being an awesome papa!

I hate that you are not here so that we can celebrate Father's Day with you. Come home soon because we all miss you so much! Happy Father's Day!
(He works for FEMA and is in Alabama where the big storms hit in May.)

Aaron (The love of my life and baby daddy):
Thank you for being such an amazing father to our kids. It melts my heart to see you with the kids and I couldn't have picked a better father for them. I am so lucky to have someone who wants to be so involved in their lives and wants to always do what is best for them. Thank you for being the husband and daddy you are today and I can't wait to see you with the kids as they get older when they able to understand how lucky they are to have you as a dad. Love you!

Roger (Father-in-Law):
I have you to thank first for Aaron being such an amazing father. Thank you for being the father you were and are to him and an awesome grandpa to our kids. You have always been so generous and kind to me and over the past 8+ years I have known you. Thank you for being the dad and grandpa that you are. We love you and hope you have a great father's day (even though you cooked the bacon and sausage this morning).

 

Papa Clay:
Happy Father's Day! I am so fortunate to have you in my life, let alone my own grandfather. Thank you for always being a loving and supportive papa. I love you!

Happy Father's Day to all of the other men in my life you are fathers and all of the future fathers.