Charlie's Blessing Day

A Month with Charlie

Welp, we survived one month as a family of four!  Believe us, it wasn't without its challenges.  Having a crying child who doesn't communicate with you is exhausting...plus we have a newborn!  Okay okay, we should cut Olivia some slack - she loves Charlie dearly, but our house has had a lot more drama lately than we need.  We all cope with new situations differently...?  But we all love having Charlie in our family.

Charlie loooooves him some sleep.  He still wakes up in the night to eat, but is getting better at going longer stretches (and his mother thanks him!).

He is starting to get some delicious baby rolls!

We are starting to venture out of the house a little bit more, and Charlie is a very good sport.  Here he is going on his first walk :)

He has even gone to the park a few times.

Picnic time!

When he is awake, he tolerates tummy time...

...and patiently watches Olivia play, counting down the days til he can join her!

We have had lots of talks with Olivia about how she can't leave little toys like Legos out once Charlie starts moving.  She like to remind/lecture us on the topic, too.

Charlie officially turned one month old on August 25th!  

We always called this set of clothes his  "old man" outfit.  Charlie decided to take it to a whole new retirement level by adding socks and sandals to the ensemble.

What a handsome devil!

The day before he turned one month old, our friend Joanna came over and took newborn photos.  Charlie was such a patient little guy, and we love how sweet he (and Olivia) looks in them!

Charlie is 3 weeks old!

Meet Charlie.

Charles Jay Thacker joined our family July 25th at 6:31am.  Our little boy was not so little - he weighed 8 pounds 5 ounces!  Despite his larger than expected size, labor and delivery went very smooth for Becky and she is recovering well.

Later that day, Olivia came to the hospital to meet Charlie.  She was pretty excited and loved holding her new baby brother!

Olivia enjoyed decorating everyone with her "Big Sister" stickers

Getting ready to go home!

Charlie has been a very good boy since coming home.  His favorite pastime is sleeping.  He finds it quite a chore to open his eyes...perhaps it's the extra chubby cheeks?

Oh!  There they are!

Olivia has been adjusting to life with a baby in the house.  She is pretty good at washing her hands before touching him (after we ask her 5 times) and likes to help Charlie with his pacifier (by shoving it in his mouth when he is sleeping and perfectly content).  She still loves to hold him, especially so she can lay her head on his face.

We all love our sweet Charlie and are SO happy to have him in our family!

Life as a Family of Three

Life has been pretty good to us the past few months, and it's about to get a lot more exciting!  Our baby is due in just two weeks!  Did we ever mention the gender?

It's a boy!  You may find this picture funny, but it was a reality for quite a while.  Olivia was NOT happy when we told her the baby was a boy - she would argue with us about it and say very passionately, "No boys!"  When other people asked her if the baby was a boy or girl, she would always say a girl.  But she has warmed up to the idea and now talks about "baby brother" and how he is coming soon.  A couple weeks ago we went to a sibling preparation class at the hospital, where Olivia learned all about how to help change diapers and hold the baby.  She did great!

She loved touching and stroking the baby mannequin's face 

Ok, now we're going to rewind and document the last few months:

At the end of March, Nick's sister Megan came to stay with us during her "funemployment" period.  

It was great having her here and we were able to do lots of cool things with her.  First, we all celebrated Easter together.

Ward Easter brunch/egg hunt

Happy Easter morning!

One day we splurged and went on the Warner Brothers Studio Tour.  It was really cool to see the back lot and all the sound stages.  While we were there, we were told they were filming for the new episodes of  Gilmore Girls!  Unfortunately they completely blocked off the area where they were filming, so we weren't able to catch a glimpse of Stars Hollow or any cast members...it was still a good day though.

We also took a trip up to San Jose at the beginning of April to visit Nick (and Megan's) family.  

Becoming a mini-golf pro

Park time with Uncle Josh

Sliding with Josh, Megan, and Rich

Merry-go-round!

And of course, no visit to southern California is complete without a trip to Disneyland :)

Megan was able to find a good job working as a dietitian in Utah around the middle of April - we were so happy for her, but sad to see her go (especially Olivia).  Before she left, she was kind enough to watch Olivia for us while we escaped down to Huntington Beach for a couple days to celebrate our fifth wedding anniversary.

May 3rd = the best day ever!  Meaning it was Becky's 26th birthday.

Olivia and Nick pumping some iron together

"Oh hi".

At the beginning of June we went to the Hollywood Bowl to see The Little Mermaid live in concert!  The LA Philharmonic played all the film's music as the movie played along on large screens, and then celebrities came out to sing the songs.  It was amazing and we would love to go back and see another concert at the Hollywood Bowl soon!

Tituss Burgess singing as Sebastian

Sara Bareilles as Ariel, and Rebel Wilson as Ursula

Becky's mom came to visit in the middle of June for about a week.  We took her to Zuma Beach and had a wonderful time.

Later that week Becky's dad was able to drive over from Arizona to visit us for a couple days as well.  The main reason for their visit was on June 11th Olivia had her first dance recital!  We (mainly Becky) were a little unsure about how Olivia would do...but when it was her class's turn she went right up on stage and did the whole dance!  We were so proud!

4th of July at the beach

Froyo to stay cool in the summer heat!

Studious Olivia

We just has a lovely visit from Becky's sister Kathryn and her sweet family.  We spend majority of our time at the beach with them and had a blast.  Olivia loved all the cousin play time!

Logan, Calvin, and Olivia

 And here we are, perhaps our last family picture with just the three of us.  We're ready for you to come join us, baby boy!