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! :-)

Doggies

Well, Sam's new favorite thing are doggies. Every animal...be it a bird, duck, cat or dog...is a doggie. He could easily say the word "doggie" 1000 times a day. I should take the time to count one day. I think you'd be shocked at how many times the word escapes his mouth. Anyway, his love affair with dogs is really quite cute. Below are some videos of Sam saying "doggie" and other pictures from the past little while.

Sam was sick one Sunday and he ONLY wanted his daddy. Evan couldn't hold Sam AND make dinner, so he put Sam in the back pack while he worked in the kitchen. Too cute and too funny...

This is one of my favorite pictures of Sam for sure...he's saying prayers with us. Every morning and evening we say family prayers. Sam's learned that he bows his head and folds his little hands during prayer time. Now, he doesn't do this for the entire prayer...only a few seconds and then he's distracted and up and about. But we're thrilled he's learned what to do when we say prayers! ;-) I happened to snap this picture during one of our family prayers. I know, I know...it's a bit sacreligious to be snapping photos while we pray, but I just HAD to get this on camera!

It's been way too long...

The main reason it's been way too long since I last posted an entry on our blog is because on April 15th I fell and ruptured my Achilles tendon. How it happened was a total fluke...I fell in a grocery store parking lot while lunging after Sam who was rolling away from me in a shopping cart. I guess you could say my efforts to save him were heroic, but when it comes down to the wire...it's just a HUGE dose of rotten luck! :-) I can kind of laugh about it now...now that it's mostly over, but at the time it was an enormous trial for me. I couldn't put any weight on my foot for six VERY LONG weeks and then had to wear the gigantic and annoying boot for another six VERY LONG weeks, but at least I could walk and didn't have to use the scooter (see picture below). :-)

The most difficult and humbling part of this whole experience was I couldn't take care of Sam. I was in a very bad spot...pregnant and gimpy. Thankfully, my wonderful mother in law (Jill) was able to come and be with us in the most crucial times and spent a good amount of time helping us out. My dad came to help out a few times when he could get off of work and I spent a week in Vancouver with my sister. We also live in an amazingly supportive ward. I was overwhelmed by the support and help that the Relief Society offered. I literally had 2 or 3 different ladies come and help me out each day family wasn't able to be here. It was great to get to know the ladies in my ward in this way. They are wonderful and I love them. I really feel I came to know Christ better through their service to me.

Anyway, I didn't take very many pictures while I was down and out...I think I had a small bout of depression. However, we did manage to get a few during this time and we were better at taking pictures towards the end of this whole ordeal. I'm much better now...still slow and pregnant, but definitely not as gimpy! :-)

This picture was taken about a week after I had surgery. Notice the enormous boot...there were definitely moments when I wanted to throw that thing out the window and kiss it a permanent goodbye! :-)

Instead of crutches I was able to rent one of these knee scooters. It was a HUGE blessing and allowed me to do a lot more for Sam than if I would have had only the crutches. I got pretty good with the scooter. By the end of the six weeks I could get up and down the stairs with it on my own and figured out how to get in and out of our apartment.

Sam learned to walk during the past few months...He was walking before I was!!! :-) It's amazing how quickly they progress. Now he's walking, practically running, everywhere and loving life. I think walking is his new favorite hobby!

Memorial Day weekend we took a trip to Cannon Beach with Alan and Jill (Evan's parents) and Brian. We had a great time and I even got to take a walk on the beach! I had given up the scooter at this point and was walking with just the boot. I was happy I got to be on the beach with Sam and Evan. Sam LOVED the beach...lots of wide open space to walk and run! :-)

Evan's brother, Brian, has been called to serve in the Georgia Atlanta North Mission. He reported to the MTC on June 18th. He spoke in church the weekend before and we went down to Portland to hear him speak. There were other members of the Hatch family (Jill's family) that were able to be there too. It was great to hear Brian speak. He will be a fantastic missionary! It was also nice to spend some time with family after church at Alan and Jill's.

Elder Thacker

What's a family gathering without a game of cards?! :-)

Enjoying the good weather...

Sam playing with Grandma...

On June 21st we flew to Washington, DC to spend a few days with Evan's cousins (Eric and Jenny Hatch). Shelley and Kimball were there too. Evan had a great time seeing the sights with Shelley and Kimball. Sam and I stayed home with Jenny and Isaac (their two year old little boy). Jenny is also pregnant and I just couldn't see my gimpy pregnant self walking around DC all day long, so we opted to hang out at home. We had a great time visiting with Eric and Jenny and spending time with Shelley and Kimball.

Isaac and Sam messing around....

After spending a few days in DC, we (Evan, me, Sam, Shelley and Kimball) drove to the Outer Banks in North Carolina for the Thacker family reunion. We had a GREAT time spending time with family, swimming in the pool, and playing at the beach. It was a blast! :-)