Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Happy New Year!


Happy New Year everyone!  We have had a crazy 2008 with the addition of our daughter Ava, a new house and Air Force assignment.  I hope 2009 is less eventful :)!  We are doing okay here, minus being sick over the holidays.  Here are a few photos of the girls.  Hope you all have a healthy and happy new year!



Swimming lessons with the sister!  They love the indoor pool!!!  It has been a great activity this winter!







Saturday, December 13, 2008

Christmas Tree

I was pretty nervous about putting up a Christmas tree with my busy little Ava running around.  Of course, I had to put up a tree, it wouldn't be Christmas without one!  Ava is learning so fast, I knew it would be painful for the first few days and after that the novelty would wear off.  I was right, she immediately went over and starting pulling the ornaments off.  She climbed up in the chair next to the tree and tried to get some off of the tree a little higher.  After we "discussed" the tree, she gets it now and just likes to look and touch the lower ornaments.  She still takes them off, but is pretty gentle with them.   Here are a few photos of Ava exploring the decorations.  My camera is terrible, so the quality of the photos is not the greatest.



Saturday, December 6, 2008

Children's Christmas Party and Ava's New Love


We had the Operations Group Children's Christmas Party today at the Base Chapel.  I was in charge of the cookie decorating table for our squadron.  Since Scott is gone, I had our baby sitter come with us to watch Ava so I could man the cookie table.  The party was a lot of fun and Emma and Ava thoroughly enjoyed themselves from 8:30 this morning until 1:30 this afternoon!  Santa arrived in a Humvee and Ava's eyes were about to pop out of her head.  This was her first Santa sighting and she was totally hooked from the start.  She was kicking and pushing to make her way to his lap.  Once she was there, she was batting her eyes and smiling away.  She was telling him all about it--whatever it is???  She got very upset when other kids would sit in his lap.  By the end of the party, she and Santa were very good friends.  

Emma enjoyed the treats, crafts, and face painting.  She mostly enjoyed getting to run around with all the other kids her age.  She informed me that the guy in the suit was not the real Santa, so she didn't plan on sitting in his lap.  She did pose for a picture though.














Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Thanksgiving 2008



First cousins Emma, Bella, Braden, and Ava Thatcher.


Having fun in the basement dancing with Uncle Mike, Scott's oldest brother.


Playing on the blow-up mattress with Bella and Emma.


Playing Monopoly with Aunt Traci, Bella, Emma, and Grams.


Thanksgiving lunch at the Country Club.  We had our own private room because our party was so large!  

Daddy's Departure

Well, Scotty left for the desert on November 24th and we miss him so much already.  Emma took his departure especially hard, as we knew she would.  Luckily Scott's family came for Thanksgiving, so it was a welcomed distraction for her.  Scott is safely settled in to his deployed location and has jumped right into his job there.  He will be home sometime around the first part of February if things go as planned over there.  Here are a few photos of Scott and his girls and of us having breakfast the day he left.







Thursday, November 6, 2008

First Hair Cut and Other News


Okay, I had to trick Ava into getting her picture made!  She was brushing her teeth and I snapped a few shots of the hair cut we got last week.  She hated the little smock they made her wear and didn't mind the hair cut part at all.  She is a little freaked out by anything too tight or high on her neck.  She was working on a "mullet", so I wanted to get her hair started towards a little bob.  She still has such baby-fine hair, so she's got a few years before she has a pony tail like big Sis Emma.  One of our neighbors recommended the salon because they cater to kids.  They were awesome to Ava and Emma!

In other news, Ava started a new school this week.  She has lost interest in napping for the most part, so I checked to see if they had an opening in their afternoon program and someone had cancelled the same day I called!!!  This is a part time program for 2-year olds, MWF, from 12:15 to 3:15.  I immediately put her on the waiting list when we moved to Wichita and new that we probably wouldn't get in until she was 3.  They have a super program and it is very hard to get in without waiting for a while.  I am so excited to have some consistency and structure for Ava--she needs it!  She is so active and ready to learn and play.  This will be wonderful for her.  She is on a "probation" period to see if the school is a match for her personality.  She even had to have an evaluation before they would let her attend.  Of course, she is the smallest one in the class, but the teacher said she is holding her own with the bigger 2-year olds.  There are only 10 kids in the class to 2 teachers--love that!  She has only attended the program for 2 days and she has already fallen off of the toddler slide face-first and now has a swollen lip with a big scrape :(.  It will not be the last boo boo, but she looks extra pitiful this time, so mommy feels really sorry for her!

 We don't have any Halloween photos to share because it was too chaotic that day with everything going on and Mommy forgot to take photos--I know, how could I be so selfish?  Ava wouldn't wear her USA Cheerleader outfit.  We tried it on, but it immediately came off.  Emma went as Hanna Montana and looked adorable.

Scott is getting ready to deploy again for 3 months.  We are not happy about him missing Ava's first Christmas with us, but it's what he does and we are proud of him for that.  Unfortunately, we have only been together as a family for about 3 months out of this year.  The year before that we were only together about 2  months of the time.  Ava is becoming a little more attached to him these days and now he's going to leave again.  Emma will take this deployment the hardest for sure.  She is a daddy's girl, 100%.  Mommy is no fun these days and seems to crack the whip more that anything else.  E-Dog (Scott's name for Emma) looks forward to Daddy coming home from work and snuggling with him before she falls asleep.  Hard times ahead for the Thatcher girls without our man!  Luckily, we will have Scott's family to be with for Thanksgiving and my family to be with at Christmas, so the girls will have some folks to take their focus off of daddy's absence.  







Thursday, October 30, 2008

Mo! Do Not Take My Picture!

Okay, so Ava is very against any photo taking right now.  Any time I get the camera out and point it towards her, she says, "MO" and runs away or hides her face.  She sometimes gets "No" out, but most of the time it comes out as "Mo".  What a character she is!







Friday, October 24, 2008

Friday!

Emma dressed up for her school's mis-match day.

Ava stole mommy's work out hat!


New bean bags from Meme!

Emma's friend Erin joined in the fun this afternoon.



Saturday, October 18, 2008

More of the Pumpkin Patch






Pumpkin Patch





Just Some Photos

Ava in my vest.  She loves putting on big jackets, but hates wearing her own.

Ava enjoying sitting with Big Sis!  Grams and Papa hanging out on the couch!  They came to stay with us for about a week and we had a blast!  Thanks Grams and Papa for all the help and great company.

Bath Time Fun!

Look at my BUBBLES!

I just wanted to post a photo from our Gotcha Day over six months ago.  Ava has changed a lot since that first day.  Here she was very shut down and didn't show any emotion.  Now, you definitely know how she's feeling--she doesn't hold anything back.  What an amazing little girl.  We are seeing her change on a daily basis!