I'm A New Aunt!

On January 27th, my brother-in-law and sister-in-law welcomed their first baby boy into this world! John Vinton was a little early, actually 10 weeks early, but he was born breathing on his own weighing 3lbs, 4 ozs and was 15.5 inches long.

I'm sad that I haven't got to hold him yet but I know soon I will, and I can't wait!

Welcome to the World, Baby John!

Lessons Learned!

So this past Friday I wanted to be the 'fun' mommy and take the kids to Chick-Fil-A for dinner and and have a little fun in the play center. Aaron had to work late so I knew it was going to be an adventure doing it all by myself. I explained to them that if they ate all of their food, we would go and play. They were so excited so I thought dinner would go smooth because of their excitement.

The ordering and eating process wasn't too bad. They had a hard time staying seated in the booth but overall, they did good. We did have to take one trip to the bathroom for Kylie and of course I took Blake along and then took one last trip to the potty after they were done eating before we went to play.

When they saw the play center they were so excited! Blake went down the slide like 10 times in 10 minutes so I knew he loved it. Well on the 11th trip down the slip, he came out saying "mommy I peed". I proceeded to tell him that it was ok since he had a diaper on - until he turned around and the entire back of his pants were wet. OMG! I then realized that I didn't bring in his backpack because I thought he would be good to go with the diaper he had on. Little did I know at the time that someone at daycare somehow put his diaper on backwards. REALLY! It is harder to put a diaper on backwards than on the right way. So that is where the leakage came from.

So after I told Blake to get his shoes and jacket on so we could go to the car and change clothes, Kylie was at the top of the play center so I went over to tell her to come down the slide so we could go and change bubby's pants. She was hesitant and kind of distracted so I went back to Blake to help him put on his shoes and jacket. I then went back to Kylie who was in the same position that I left her in 2 minutes earlier and something wasn't right. I then realized she was holding on to the netting and grunting....YES - SHE WAS POOPING! Really?!?  I then proceeded to climb up the play center to get her and carry her down and she started crying because she pooped. She also didn't want to leave because she was having so much fun but I told her that we would come back (ok, a little white lie).

So finally Blake had his shoes on but refused to put his jacket on. I finally got Kylie's shoes and jacket on and I dragged two crying kids out of Chick-Fil-A by myself. I put them in their cars seats and we went straight home where they went straight in the tub.

I learned my lesson that night....ALWAYS make sure your child's diaper is on the correct way before going into a play center and ALWAYS put a pull-up on a child who is in the middle of potty training before entering the play center. LESSON LEARNED!

I did get a couple of pictures from my phone -

Catch-Up & Potty Training

I never know how long its been since I wrote my last blog post until I get on the computer to do my weekly upload of my One Frame a Day pictures and look at the date on this blog of my last update. I feel bad that I don't update this as often as I would like to and for anyone who reads this blog, I promise I will do better :) You can always review that blog (One Frame a Day) to see the daily (or almost daily) pictures of our life. The link can also be found on the left side of my blog.

Some of the happenings at the Thacker home in the past few weeks includes:

- Nana's birthday
- Grandmom's birthday
- School started back for me
- Potty training is in full force - at least for Kylie

Just to name a few. Potty training is the biggest thing in the house right now. Kylie is doing so good! Today she had big girl panties on all day with no accidents at all! Blake, on the other hand, doesn't care one bit. I have tried EVERYTHING and he doesn't care at all. Bribery does not work with him and potty training. If anyone had any suggestions at all, please email me or leave a comment! I am open for ANYTHING!

On a different note, this spring is going to be so busy. I am throwing a shower for my sister-in-law in February, a baby shower for one of my best friends in March, Spring class end in April, my brother graduates from Law School and Blake celebrates his 4th birthday (oh my!) in May. I love being busy but I cannot wait until the summer!

Here are a few pictures of the last few weeks. Most of them can be found on the other blog as well.

Kylie and Katie love to dress up together!

Kylie showing off her new growth chart 

2011 Recap & 2012 Goals

It has taken me more than a week to write this post. I kept thinking about the two women I lost in my life in 2011 and I couldn't think of anything else. This year has been one of the toughest years for our family. If you read my blog you could use it as a recap of our life, but here are a few of the happenings from this past year:

- Blake turned 3, Kylie turned 2 and Aaron and I both turned 30 (wow that sounds old).

- Blake started Pre-School which includes speech therapy sesssions. This has helped his speech SO  much this past year!

- Aaron completed his Master's in August and I completed 12 hours of my Master's throughout the year.

- Many of my friends welcomed babies in 2011 including Amanda, Sarah, Abby (twins), Megan, and Emily.

- Aaron's brother Nathan and his wife Emma broke the news that they were expecting in April 2012.

- In 2011 two amazing women from my life passed away which took a toll on our family. Aaron's mother passed away in August and my grandmother passed away in December.
Overall 2011 was hard on myself as well as many others in my family. I am hoping that 2012 will be a happy year and bring our family closer than we are today.


As for 2012, there are so many things that I am looking forward to in the new year. It it nice to be through the holidays and off to a new start. Below are some of the things I am looking forward in 2012 as well as some of my goals for the year:

- Becoming an Aunt again in April to baby boy Thacker! (son of Emma and Nathan).

- Finishing my Master's in August (only 9 more credit hours).

- Completing a few DIY projects around the house.

I am also looking forward to the weddings in 2012:
- My cousin Amy is getting married in July
- My good friend Lindsey is getting married in July

So many of my friends are having babies in 2012!
- Ashley (May), Jennifer (April), Katie (February), and all of my other friends who may not know yet :)

Goals for 2012:
- Find a 'home' church and start attending every week.

- Become a more bonded family - especially once I complete all of my classes and have more time to be at home every evening.

- And of course to lose weight before our family cruise in August.

I can't write a post without including one picture of the kiddos :) Took this during Saturday morning cartoons:

Happy New Year!

Elfie - 2011

This year our family got our very own Elf!  As the story goes, once the boy or girl elf arrives at your house, you must give him a name in order for him to get his magic. Well I left it up to the kids to name him and they went the original route and our Elf's name is Elfie!

For those of you who do not know the story behind the Elf on the Shelf, every night he flies back to the North Pole to report back to Santa on if the kids were good or bad that day. When he comes back to your house, he lands in a different spot. The game for the kids is to wake up and see who can spot Elfie first. The kids loved this part and Aaron and I loved the part that the kids understood that they had to be good because Elfie would tell Santa if they were naughty. Sometimes I wish Elfie would stay at our house year-round!

Below are the pictures I captured of Elfie this year. Some of them were pretty creative so I am sure next year it will be even better.

Enjoy!

Our Christmas - 2011 (part 2)

I knew Christmas day would be great this year. The kids are starting to understand a little more about Santa and what happens on Christmas morning. We talked Santa up to them before we went to see Santa a few weeks ago and they did so well with not being scared. I was really surprised, but very excited. I may have went a little overboard this year because I started shopping in October and by the time December came around, I has stashed away a lot of things that I had forgotten about.

To get ready for Santa, we made cookies the night before, sat them out for Santa, then sprinkled the reindeer food onto the lawn.

And then Christmas morning.....

I love Kylie's hair! They were both so surprised and excited when they walked out of their room! It was like I was a kid again!!

We also celebrated our Thacker Christmas at our house this year. I must have been so busy with the kids and their toys that I didn't get many pictures of all of us.

This Christmas was hard without Paula and I am kind of glad it is over. We had a great few days but just like every get together, there will always be a void.

We hope you and you families had a wonderful Christmas.

Our Christmas - 2011 (part 1)

We celebrated 4 Christmases this year like we usually do and luckily it wasn't all in one day :) The first Christmas was with the Hall side of the family. It was bitter sweet because my grandmother wasn't well enough to come to my Uncle's house for the celebration. I think everyone had a good time but there was a void with her not being there.

Our next Christmas was on Christmas Eve. We actually had 2 celebrations on this day so it was a long, fun day. We celebrated the Austin side of the family as well as Christmas with my parents and siblings.