Happy Grandpa!

This Saturday, October 25th is my dad's birthday. Last Sunday we took pictures of the kids and got Sam on video saying, "Happy Grandpa!"...His way of saying, "Happy Birthday Grandpa!"

Family

What would we do without our families?!? I'm not sure what Evan and I would have done without Jill (Evan's mom) this past year. She has come to our rescue on numerous occasions. She stayed with Sam the whole week I was in the hospital. She and Sam came to visit us every day. She has been a HUGE blessing and we are very grateful for her help! She's coming back this afternoon and is going to stay for another week...We are blessed to have Grandma Thacker so close! :-)

My dad took three days off of work to come and help us out. It was so great to have him here. I think we both missed my mom and could feel her close. He drove home yesterday afternoon and I cried buckets when he left. Sam loved having Grandpa around. All day long I'd hear Sam calling, "Gampa!"..."Gampa!" I'm so thankful for my dad. He is so generous and kind to our family.

Sam at the Zoo

I took Sam to the Woodland Park Zoo on Saturday. I think he was hungry for attention from Dad and a special outing after being away from us most of the week after Lauren was born. I snapped a couple good photos of him checking out the animals.

More of Lauren

Here are a few more pictures taken during the first few days after Lauren was born - some while still in the hospital, some after coming home. --Evan

She's starting to open her eyes more now.

Grandma Thacker brought Sam to the hospital every day while JaNeece and Lauren were there.

Lauren ready to come home - teeny tiny in her car seat.

First Thacker Family portrait with all four of us.

Lauren gets pretty wide-awake sometimes, like in these photos below.

Lauren JaNet Thacker, born 22 Sept 2008

Our baby girl arrived today at 1 pm by c-section at the University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle. Seven pounds even and 21 inches long. Her name is Lauren JaNet Thacker. Everything went smoothly - Lauren and JaNeece are both doing well. Here are a few pictures. More to come. We love our new little girl! ---Evan

JaNeece's first glimpse of Lauren.

Evan, Lauren, and JaNeece, still in operating room.

Lauren was sleepy and cute.

Lauren's first bath sure woke her up!

JaNeece was happy and cute.

Evan was happy, too.

First diaper.

Lauren has dark brown hair.

What a beautiful baby!

Grandma Thacker visited with Sam.

Sam was curious about Lauren's toes.

Sam is a big brother now!

Ouch!%*@!

Saturday morning (September 13th), on our way out the door, Sam was running and tripped and fell HARD into the corner of a wall. He hit it so hard that it split his forehead open. Blood was gushing...I was panicking...and he was screaming. Luckily Evan was here and was able to remain calm. We got him reasonably cleaned up and went straight to the ER. The gaping wound on his forehead was a good indication that stitches were in order. The doctors were great and with a little numbing medication and sedatives for Sam, they were able to get him stitched up in a relatively short amount of time. He's fine and his wound is healing up quite well. We joke that we'll either dress him up as Frankenstein or Harry Potter for Haloween this year. We'll see...

Sam has developed a love for shoes. He is constantly trying to wear mine and Evan's shoes. With a lot of concentration and patience on his part, he can even put on a particular pair of his own shoes all by himself. It takes him ten minutes, but he does it...it's quite impressive! :-)

One year...

Well, it's been a little over a year since my mom passed away. It doesn't seem like it's been that long. I still miss her like crazy. There are times I wish so badly she could see Sam toddling around and witness some of the super cute things he says/does. She'd love it. I also wish she was around so I could talk to her about having another baby. I'm starting to have little panic moments every now and then...only 4 more weeks! CRAZY!!! Anyway, we all (including my sister and her family) spent the weekend with my dad, so he wasn't alone for the one year anniversary of her death. Here are some pictures from our weekend in Spokane...

We all visited hmy mom's grave Sunday morning (August 10th) before going to church.

Malachi LOVES cars and Grandpa let him drive the riding lawn mower. Malachi was in heaven. This was definitely a Grandma thing to do...She used to let Ammon ride with her on the riding lawn mower.

We went and had professional pictures taken at JCPenney of the four boys. They all looked rather dapper in their matching shirts. :-)

It was HOT in Spokane, so the boys broke out the slip n' slide and had a GREAT time! :-)