Thatcher Update

Todd took Thatcher to the cardiologist today and we are happy to say that he fine. He does have a murmur, but it is a slight one. They did an ultrasound and found out that one of his valves lets through a little more blood then normal and that is where the murmur comes from. The doctor said he was fine and this isn't a serious problem at all. We are so grateful for all your thoughts and prayers. Obviously we are very relived!

LOST

So I am addicted to Lost. I have heard about this show for about three years now, and never understood what the BIG hype about it was all about! I would catch an episode here and there, but never understood what the heck was going on, so I got bored and changed the channel. Well, my friends over here have the first two seasons on DVD and lets just say I have wasted a many hour in the last week watching season 1. I love it. It is awesome. SOOOOO addicting though, so beware!

Dr. Appointment...

At our routine well visits today for the boys we were informed that Thatcher has a heart murmur. We have an great Doctor (thank heavens for good Doctors and modern medicine!) who talked to me all about it and told me that there really shouldn't be anything to worry about, but he wanted me to get it checked out because it did sound a little "harsh". He said probably the worst that could happen is Thatcher might not be able to ever sky dive or scuba dive and he might have to avoid some adventurous rides at Disney Land. He also said that he might have to have antibiotics before any major surgery or dental work. We have an appointment next Friday with a pediatric cardiologist and we will know more then about Thatcher's condition. As a nervous mother I would ask you our friends and family to please keep our little Thatcher in your prayers. We will also be fasting for him this Sunday and if you would like to join with us we would appreciate it. I know deep down and have been reassured by a calming spirit that Thatcher will be okay. He is too strong and too stubborn to have anything serious happen to him. Plus, I know he is going to be a great missionary some day, but of course I am nervous.

On a more positive note Thatcher and Taggart are growing healthy (another thing Dr. Hickie said is that Thatcher is thriving and growing so well that usually if there is a serious heart defect this wouldn't happen). Thatcher is now 36 lbs and 3 and 1/2 feet tall and in the 97% for weight and height. They said Thatcher looks and acts more like a three year old then a 2 year old. Taggy is 24 lbs and 30 inches and is in the 94% for weight and height. The nurses asked me today if their Daddy is really tall and I said it depends on what you classify as REALLY. :) Dr. Hickie said he thinks both boys will be over 6 feet tall. We will see...

Kewpie Doll

My Mom has been telling me for a while that Taggy looks like a "Kewpie Doll", I never knew what she was talking about and she explained to me that it was a little baby doll that was popular back when she was a little girl. Well this weekend we were at Lowes and a lady stopped me and told me that Taggy looks like a Kewpie Doll! I just had to look up what they were talking about. It is such a interesting history of this Kewpie Doll and after seeing the pictures I would have to agree that Taggy does look like a cute little Kewpie Doll!

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day! We had a great time yesterday celebrating Todd. Thatcher and Taggart just love their Daddy and so do I! He is a great father and such a good example for our boys! We had a Fathers Day breakfast and Todd got a couple presents. Thatcher helped me wrap his presents, and one of them was a new pair of Sunday Shoes. When Todd reached for that present Thatcher said, "Daddy's shoes in there!". We had a nice day and a yummy dinner with Todd's favorite, steak and funeral potatoes.




As you can see Thatcher couldn't wait for Todd to start eating!

Rock a bye Baby....

On Saturday I threw a baby shower for my good friend Suzanne Hill. We moved down here the same time as them last year and Todd and her husband Jared work together...AND they are our neighbors! She is due with her first little boy in July! We are so excited for them!


This is my 2nd attempt at a diaper cake. It is a little different then the other one I made, but I think it turned out cute!


If you look behind Suzanne you can see a chocolate fountain! I finally broke down and bought one! I love them!

We have a crawler!

Well we can officially say that Taggy has reached a great milestone! He is crawling! He has been very mobile for a while now with his rolling. He could roll anywhere he wanted to go, but now he has moved to his hands and knees. He also can push himself up from his hands and knees to sitting position and loves to play with his toys sitting up now! He has also started to try to pull himself up on furniture! He babbles and babbles all day long and when he isn't babbling he is blowing raspberries. Taggy is our laid back little guy, he is ALWAYS happy, unless he is hungry, tired, or has a dirty diaper. He is such a cutie!

Thatcher is talking away. I can now have a real conversation with him and reason with him, it is so fun! He has become a BIG help with Taggy. I will ask him to go give Taggy the binkie or a toy and he will do it. The other day when we were in the van going up to the camp ground we were driving through some beautiful scenery with big rocks. I turned around and asked Thatcher, "hey Thatcher, what is Taggy doing". He looked over at him and said, "Oh, he's just looking at the rocks". We busted up laughing, it was so funny. Thatcher also loves to help! If he is in a really grumpy mood, I will ask him to hold something for me, carry something, or throw something away and he will get happy! It is great. The other day we were in the store and he was starting to throw a little fit so I asked him to hold Mommy's keys for her and he was so excited! When I come home from running and take off my shoes he asks me, "mommy's shoe's away?" and then he puts them in my closet! He also loves to help me wash dishes and wipe off the counters. I now just need to teach him how to clean toilets and fold laundry! Thatcher also goes around telling everyone he is superman and jumps really high (as high as a 2 year old can jump!).

After Baths

Peek-a-boo!




Here is Taggy with his curly curly hair! It was bound to happen, his mommy and daddy have curly hair. I love it!





Thatcher and Taggart are already best buddies. They play with each other and tease each other. They also wrestle...it is a boy thing I guess!










Don't worry Taggy, what goes around comes around. He isn't going to be that much bigger than to you for long.

One of the boys favorite things to do is to play with the curtains. Taggy especaily loves it.








After all of this wrestling and playing around Thatcher and Daddy are tuckered out!

Camping

When I was a 15 year old Mia Maid and I was trying to certify to be a CIT councilor for girls camp I was sent on a 15 mile canoe trip. It was challenging. When I was 18 I went on a Llama trek through the grand Teton mountains for a week. It was tough. In actuality they were cake walks compared to camping over night with two little kids. In preparation for our camping trip with Todd's family in August we took a little "test drive" if you will of camping with the boys. It was exhausting. The good thing is we now know what we need to do, get, and prepare for, for our trip in August. Over all though it was a good memory and all joking aside even though camping with two little kids isn't high on my list of favorite things to do, we had a good time. Thatcher loved roasting marshmallows and sleeping in the tent. Todd and Thatcher went fishing the next day and Thatcher loved it. After they got back from fishing Thatcher had about enough with this camping thing and kept saying, "car seat, home, go in the car, car seat home". It was pretty funny.


Thanks to all my years at girls camp and my fall semester on "The Program" I don't need to rely on my Eagle Scout husband to make a fire! That is right, this fire was ALL me!


Thatcher and our tent. Thatcher wasn't used to the ground being so uneven so needless to say he has a few mementos on his legs of our camping trip.

Oh what do you do in the Summer TIme?

When Tucson is really HOT? You go to the mall where it is nice and cool!! The tradition for me to go to the Park Place Mall with Thatcher started last summer when we first moved here and we were living in a hotel and it was HOT! We would go to the mall, walk around, and let Thatcher play in the little kiddie area. Back then he could barely keep his balance and couldn't play on the toys. Now he is running and climbing. Here we are with Teresa and Lacey and Sara, Kyra and Kyle at the mall wearing the kids out and enjoying lunch!


Kyra, Lacey and Thatcher enjoying the rides at the mall.


Thatcher and Lacey. They are great buddies.


Look at this big boy! He can sit up all by himself now!


Thatcher posing for the camera, he is such a nut!

Rachael's Randoms

I think I will start a tradition where every week I post some of my random thoughts...lets call it Rachael's Random's.

This week we have started potty training Thatcher. It is not fun. But we are trying to make it as fun as possible for little Thatch. Let's just say my couch, futon, and carpet might never be the same. I guess we will have to do the same thing we did after we potty trained Rorey, get the carpets cleaned. Yuck. I guess we won't go anywhere for a couple weeks as he gets used to this new part of his life. Poor thing.

I am still pretty excited about our van. I even volunteered to go make a quick trip to the grocery store last night for Dog Food and Diapers (something I usually get Todd to do on his way home from work!) just so I could drive the van. Like "la melenzana" (our Saturn that I named) we are looking for a name for our van. I usually call over sized things, "the beast" ie: the HUGE umbrella that I used on the mission that my companion and I could easily fit under, and our double stroller; so that one is taken. Any suggestions will be considered. When I am not suggesting to take rides or quick trips in the van I have been guilty of just looking out the garage door at it. Pathetic? Maybe. But I guess it is really true that you appreciate something so much more when you have had to wait for it for a long time. Basically, in a nut shell...I heart our new van.

We are also doing our backyard right now which is really fun. Todd has been working hard on the flagstone and sometimes after we put the kids to bed at night I go outside and sit in the rocker and read to him while he works. We are currently reading together 'The Children Of The Promise' series by Dean Hughes. I read the whole series before my mission and I knew that Todd would love them. We are already hooked. I really love Tucson and the summer nights. It will be so fun to have our backyard done with some greenery, a garden, and a patio to enjoy. We have pretty much settled on getting this patio furniture. I love it. We are going to wait until the yard is done and have it be the last thing we get.

A friend of mine talked today and decided to change play group from a formal group setting to a Pool Day every Tuesday at the pool in our community. Everyone will bring a sack lunch for them and their own kids and we will swim and play and eat. Fun! We also talked about starting Joy School in the Fall for our kids! I can't believe Thatcher will be old enough for Joy School!

I stole these pictures from my Parents Blog because I just HAD to have them on mine! These are some shots my parents got with their camera that I thought were too cute!


"Hola!" This was at my parents ward Cinco de Mayo party. Why they had a Cinco de Mayo party in Rhode Island we will never know...


I can't get enough of this squishy face!


Grandpa and Thatcher at the Beach. Thatcher didn't know what to do seeing all that water!


"Weeeeee!"


Blue Eyes!

Our new Van

Well as you can tell I am pretty excited about our new van! We got such a great deal on it, and for the first time since we have been married we have two cars! We had out grown our little Saturn and so it was time for a bigger car. It will be really nice for our family vacations that we are going on this summer to Bear Lake and Zions.

YUMMY!

Taggy has been making the funniest faces lately while he is eating breakfast, I just had to catch them on video! I love it when he crinkles up his nose and makes this cute little face! (Don't mind Thatcher whimpering in the back ground, he was VERY tired and grumpy when I was taking this video!)

Backyard Resort

Todd has been busy over the last month as we have starting making our backyard resort! While I was in Rhode Island Todd built the retaining wall at the back of our yard which looks beautiful! Now he is currently working on extending our patio with flagstone. He is doing such a good job and we are lucky enough to have great friends and neighbors who are helping him when they can. They have a deal that since we are all working on our own backyards now, everyone will help out with every one's yards. We are really excited to get our backyard done and have some grass and plants back there. It will be nice to be able to enjoy the great summer nights and the rest of the year outside.