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.

This Week in Review

So my weekly catch-up....not sure where to even begin. These past two weeks have been so busy! It all started with a trip to the zoo. We bought a season pass which means I will milk it as much as possible. The kids absolutely loved it! We didn't wear ourselves out and try to make it to every exhibit because I know we will be back plenty of times these next few months. Some of the kids favorites: elephants, lions, gazelles, tigers. And Blake's least favorite: gorillas. He was so scared! He didn't realize that there was a thick glass between him and the monkeys...and of course, Kylie had no fear at all. Below are a few pictures from our day.

On Friday Aaron and I headed to Belterra (the casino boat) for a little getaway for our anniversary. It was so nice but I missed my kiddos. We had an amazing dinner at Jeff Ruby's and spent some time at the blackjack table. On Saturday we went to see Hangover 2 and went to see a Red's game. It was so hot but so much fun.

Just to reminisce, here is a picture of our wedding party from our wedding day.

Last week went by pretty fast because of class and everyone in our house had the case of the stomach bug. It was AWFUL. Kylie started it and Blake ended it. Thank goodness it is now gone from the house and I hope it never finds its way back here. Luckily Grammy and Grandpa came to visit and help take care of us.

Oh and good news: Only two more classes left for me this summer!

Have a great week!

A wedding, a baby, and elephants...Oh My!

It feels like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders. You know that lump in your throat....yea, mine is finally gone now that my class is over. I can just scream with joy right now :)

So for my catch-up from this past week and a half (be aware this is a long post with lots of pictures):

This past weekend Aaron's cousin got married so we traveled to West Virginia for the big celebration. Blake was a ring bearer, but unfortunately didn't walk down the aisle. Oh well, maybe next time? It was so good to see family we don't get to see too often. The kids didn't sleep too good because they thought it was play time. I slept in a bed with Blake and I still have bruises on my arms and ribs from him rolling around in bed. Overall, it was a good weekend and I think the kids had a blast at the reception. Here are a few pictures and of course an awesome 'must see' video of the kids dancing at the reception. You must watch it! Blake gets his dancing skills from his daddy :)

Kids Dancing...Priceless! from Kaelin Thacker on Vimeo.

 This past week there were terrible storms that ripped through this area and hit pretty hard in Alabama. I can't image if a tornado took out my entire town, or even a larger city like Louisville. The kids were pretty mesmerized by the rain and wind one evening and I captured a picture of them yelling at the door.

Here is a picture I captured on my way home from work one day. The sky was amazing!

Also, one of my best friends had her precious baby boy this week! I was so excited to get her text that Jax entered this world weighing a whopping 9lbs, 11.3 ozs! I am so happy for Jasper and Amanda!

Aaron picked up the kids and when I got home, I walked into this:

It was pretty funny because they were having a blast. I am pretty crazy about keeping my house clean but I rolled around in it with them for a little bit. They were loving it!

We celebrated Easter a little early this year since we were out of town for Easter Sunday. The Easter Bunny brought the kids a Beta fish and they love him! They have named him Nemo :)

Tonight we went to the circus which came to our little town. I was so excited for Blake to see all of the animals. We spent $60 for about an hour of entertainment. Amazing. At least the kids got to see elephants. The look on their faces when they first saw them was priceless.

And lastly, I started the Jillian Michaels 'Shred' program (I have linked to Amazon but I know Target has it too and it's only $9) and I LOVE it. I really don't have a lot of time to work out and I really don't like to just run on the treadmill. So I thought I would give it a try and I am really glad that I did. I love that it's only 20 mins (with about 5 mins of warm-up and cool down). It's really hard but I definitely recommend if you don't have a lot of time but want to do something. I can already tell a difference with just doing it 4 times already!

I hope everyone has a great weekend! I know I will since I will NOT be studying at all!

Catch-Up, 2 Great Weekends

I have a lot of catching up to do! It has been a busy two weeks and I am typing this as we are driving back from a weekend in Gatlinburg. It was a nice relaxing weekend away with some great friends who we haven’t seen in awhile.


Last weekend wasn’t too busy. I got to meet two of my best friends for brunch on Sunday then we went to Churchill Downs with my family.

This was our awesome view from our indoor box.

Kristin, Me and Mom

This weekend we both took off on Friday and dropped the kids off a daycare and headed to meet some friends at a cabin in Gatlinburg. We had a nice relaxing weekend and did a lot of catching up and a little shopping. Here is the one and only picture I took in Gatlinburg before my camera died. We took a group picture which someone else had so I will add later.

This was the view from on deck at the cabin.

Here are some other pictures that were on my camera of the kiddos that I took last Thursday, just out of the bath.

This week is going to be short and sweet. I have to work on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, but luckily since I have an awesome boss, I am working from home on Wednesday. Wednesday we are getting DirectTV installed and also Blake has his fall party at school and I am going. I am really excited because I haven’t gotten to see him really interact with the other kids in his class. My sister will also be there since my niece is in his class.

Everyone is off on Thursday and I am also off on Friday. The kids will be staying with their grandparents in Kentucky so it will be the perfect opportunity for me to put up all of the Christmas decorations and maybe do a little work on my paper for school. It should be a great week!

I hope everyone has a good week! I know I will!

 
 
 
 
 

Shop Til You Drop!

This past weekend, me, my mom, my sister, my mom's best friend Tina, and her daughters Candie and Nicole went on our annual shopping trip. This was our 7th year doing this! I think that is pretty amazing. Our usual places are Nashville, Jeffersonville/Dayton (Ohio), and Mall of America. This year we visited Jeffersonville/Dayton to help their economy :) Trust me at least I did. I got most of my Christmas shopping done! We also got to visit my brother Jonathan who is attending the University of Dayton Law School. It was great to eat dinner with him and his girlfriend, Laura.

The outlet shopping up there is AMAZING! It is about 1 hour north of Cincinnati so if you have the opportunity, you must visit it!

This is a picture of all of us as we were getting ready to leave. The car is packed full, even with the topper!

I had a great time and I can't wait for our trip next year, no matter where we go!

Our Travels

Please excuse my absence, Aaron and I have been traveling the world! Well at least the East coast :)

This is your warning, this post will be long with many pictures :)

We (Aaron and I) left early Saturday morning on August 14th and headed to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It took us a little over 10 hours to get there and we were very happen to arrive. Neither of us had been to Philly before, so we wanted to include this stop in our travels to NYC.

Our hotel was fabulous and what made it even better, we had a handicap room so there was extra room!

When we walk into the hotel to check-in, this is the first thing I see. Yes, it is a girl's dream! However I didn't buy anything (at least this time!).

We met up with one of my friends from high school, Bethany, and had an awesome Philly Cheese Steak and some drinks. The next day, we did all of the things tourists would do in Philly - the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, a boat tour, and much walking. I have never been a real 'history buff', but seeing everything about our nation's history really intrigued me. Here are a few pics of day:

I have to include this picture of Kylie when we were Skyping the second night in Philly. So Cute!

On Monday morning, we headed to New York City and started our week-long adventure. It was a great week and Aaron and I had a wonderful time. Our camera started getting an error on the way into NY so we only had a back-up (my mom's small camera) for a day after that since we didn't have a charger. We took many pictures with our phones so they aren't the best :( Oh well! We will have to go back! Here are the pictures from our adventures:

This was our room. Very small and cozy!

Saw this show and it was amazing

Had a couple of these

Went to a game here (and these were our seats - AWESOME!)

Picture of Aaron's cousin Susan and us at the game

Saw this lovely lady

Went to see the Cake Boss, but only got a picture since there was a two hour wait to get in :(

Had a couple of slices of this

Got a picture of Aaron next to NYSE

Went to see the place where two building once stood. It was really sad :(

View from the top of the Empire State Building

Times Square view at night....it was so crowded, bright, crazy at 11pm at night!

We had a fabulous time and I would definitely go again. However I am SO happy to be home with my babies. I missed them so much! I am NOT looking forward to work tomorrow nor am I excited about my first class for the semester which also happens to be tomorrow. Oh well!

I hope everyone has a wonderful week!!