Happy Birthday, Sam! :-)

Wow! I can't believe my baby is THREE years old! This is Sam about an hour after he was born.

February 22, 2007

1st Birthday

February 22, 2008

I don't think he cared too much for everyone singing to him. :-)

2 years old!

February 22, 2009

And here's our birthday boy this year. In this picture he's telling us how old he is. ;-) Holding up ten fingers while announcing, "I'm three!"

February 22, 2010

This is Why I L-O-V-E Seattle!

The weather the past week was fantastic and we took advantage of the sunny afternoons and went to the park. We live in a beautiful part of the country and when the sun shines the mountains come out and it's simply magnificent. This is one of the many reasons why I love Seattle because even in February there is the possibility of a day like this...or in our case this year...a week like this! :-)

It has been a good week for our family. Evan has been busy with the written portion of his PhD general exam this month and he took the oral portion of the general exam on Friday (2/19). He found out he passed both the written and oral portions of the exam. Yipppeeee!!!! :-) This is a HUGE milestone and we're so so so so excited and happy for him! The past month has been a little stressful for our family, but especially for Evan. He has been busy beyond belief and gone from the early morning until sometimes late at night. We're so happy he's past this milestone and moved onto the next. Yesterday morning we had breakfast together as a family and Sam said the prayer. He told Heavenly Father, "thank you that Daddy's here and Mommy's here and I'm here and Lauren's here and that we're all here..." I had to laugh because I felt the same way! It was so GREAT to be there all together!

Anyway, here are some pics from our week in the sun! :-)

This is what Sam calls the "beach park". It's only a few minutes from our house and overlooks Puget Sound.

There are stairs that connect the park to an upper and lower parking lot. Lauren LOVES the stairs and I have a hard time keeping her away from them.

One of the great things about the "beach park" is the beach and an abundant supply of rocks to be played with and thrown in the water!

Fishin' for Cars

This is what my kitchen floor looks like for most of the day. I can't tell you how many times I step on a car on any given day and then scream something along these lines:  "Ow, ow, darn-it, dang-it, OWWW!"

As you can imagine a lot of these cars end up under the fridge and stove, so every night before Sam goes to bed we fish them out. It's now part of our bed time routine.

Lauren even gets in on the action too. This morning I caught her putting the cars under the fridge. Sigh.

Yesterday a wonderful thing happened. My friend gave us an ice cream bucket so Sam could put all his cars in the bucket and carry them around. I thought it was a GREAT IDEA! Thanks, Melinda!! Anyway, my floor isn't exactly what you'd call tidy during the day, but thanks to the ice cream bucket it's mostly cleared of the cars and I'm not tempted to curse nearly as often because I'm not stepping on a car every few minutes! :-)

Thoughts...

Okay, so I have a few thoughts to share...

My husband has been gone a lot lately (PhD General Exam, church responsibilities, other school responsibilities). I miss him. My kids have been sick which means we've been home a lot which also means I'm going a little stir CRAZY! I am SO ready for their noses to stop running, but I think we have a few more days of isolation. Sigh. I know....complain, complain, complain. Thankfully, a few things happened today that helped put things in perspective for me. My good friend had a baby today (yeah!) which is a very happy thing and I'm so excited to meet the little guy and hold him, but I'm so glad it's HER who had a baby and NOT ME . I also just read another article about all the sadness and destruction in Haiti and it just breaks my heart, which made me go here and donate some $ to the cause. I wish I could do more, but I don't know what else to do to help. Anyway, today I'm grateful it's not MY time to be having another baby AND I'm grateful I don't live in Haiti. I don't have anything at all to complain about. I am blessed. I am blessed. I am blessed!

One more thing...I've been reading this series of books. I've thoroughly enjoyed them and I have the first four books if anyone is interested in borrowing them. Let me know.

Funny Kids

I just love his smile in this picture.

I love this picture because of the story behind it...We went on a walk around Greenlake and Sam had to take his dog and ended up "walking" the dog through some puddles and mud. Well, Sam insisted that we bring the dog home and give him a bath. What could I do? I had to oblige...

Two words best describe this photo...Potty Training :-)

Lauren's first attempt at eating yogurt...ALL-BY-HERSELF!

Love the pink rain coat.

Lauren loves shoes. She'll grab any shoe...Sam's, Evan's, mine or her own and come to you saying, "tshoo, tshoo, tschoo..." She wants to wear them all. It's very cute.

These next two are just all cuteness. Love them.

Three cheers for the new camera!! :-) :-) :-)

We're Back...

We spent the holidays in Springfield, MO with Evan's parents and siblings. It was so nice to be with family and be on vacation! As usual my favorite thing about being on vacation is having Evan around 24/7. Not only is it nice to have an extra set of hands to change diapers, wipe noses, give baths, etc., but it's just nice to have him around. I'm a better person when he's by my side. I'm sure of it. :-)

I also saw my cousin (mom's side of the family) Nicole who I haven't seen in years. It was SO FUN to see her and her husband Dave. She lives in Tulsa, OK but her husband's family is from Springfield so they were there for Christmas. It made me miss my mom (what doesn't make me miss her?!?). I wanted to call her and tell her I had spent the morning with Nicole. She would have been happy.

Anyway, here are a few more pics from our trip to Missouri...

Santa gave Grandma and Grandpa Thacker this GREAT house/tent/tunnel thing for their grandkids to play in. It was a big hit with the grand kids and made for some cute pictures too.

Evan's family lived in Rogers, AR for seven years when Evan was younger. I think he was in the 8th grade when they left Arkansas and moved to Seattle. Anyway, Evan wanted to take a day trip to Rogers (only 2 hours south of Springfield) to visit their old stomping grounds and I happily obliged. Evan's sister, Shelley and her family joined us for the trip. It was a good day. Here are some pics to prove it. :-)

Evan and Shelley in front of the house they used to live in.

Our family on the banks of Lake Atlanta, a lake Evan's family used to take Sunday walks around.

This Evan in front of the church building they attended when he was younger. He said it is double the size it was when they lived there. Same location, just bigger.

We had a GREAT time hanging out and playing games with Evan's family. The kids thoroughly enjoyed playing with their cousins, especially Sam.

Here are all the cousins together...so cute!

We visited the Bass Pro Shop in Springfield. It was awesome. I wish I had some better pictures of all the different animals and things they had to look at, but I don't...I do have a few pictures of Sam and the girls (Kenzie and Katie Grace) looking at the wild boars.

We played lots of games. Sequence was a favorite for the adults and the kids!

Just a cute picture of Lauren in the bath tub.

We made cookies and decorated them. The kids had a great time.

Cute picture of Sam with his cousin, Kenzie.

The kiddos exploring the yard...

We spent the afternoon/evening at Silver Dollar City, an amusement part near Branson, MO. They had a few rides to ride, even in the cold. This is us on the train. Sam thought the train was pretty cool.

Loving Sam's outfit. It kept him especially warm. :-)

Well, it was a GREAT vacation. Now that we're back in the swing of things here at home I find myself wishing we were still there. Gratefully, there's always another vacation sometime down the road.

My Greatest Blessing

December 17, 2005

Happy Anniversary to us! :-)