Thornock.Org

The title pretty much sums up our past week. We went to a Durham Bulls game last week with some friends and participated in the Dollar Dog night. The hot dogs were nasty…not even worth the buck we spent on it. However, the french fries were awesome. We had a great time at the game and the Bulls won.


This huge shopping cart was a hit for Allie.

This past weekend was Allie’s friends birthday and she had a pool party. Allie was very excited to go swimming.

I think this picture is so cute. They look a lot alike, don’t they?

Here is Allie and her boyfriend. They held hands from the pool all the way to the picnic area. They are too cute together.

We said our goodbyes to our trusty old friend, Goldilocks (our gold Camry) and traded her in for a new friend, who is currently nameless. Here she is:

Feel free to suggest a name. She’s a 2002 Honda Odyssey and is decked with everything (leather, DVD player, VCR, CD, auto sliding doors, heated seats, etc.) Other than some minor dents, chips and normal wear, it’s in pretty good shape for a 6 year old minivan. I know what you’re probably thinking; “You don’t need a minivan with your small family and why they heck would you upgrade to a gas guzzling vehicle when gas prices are so high.” Well, our Camry was in desperate need of some major repairs. It has served us well but with over 160k on it, it was time to be traded in. We decided to go with a minivan since we will eventually need one. Plus we love the extra space. AND…now we have three extra seats so all you westerners can feel free to come visit us and we will chauffeur you around North Carolina.

Other than our big purchase, not too much is going on. As always, Jake is extremely busy; he’s working on three papers, not including his dissertation. The kids and I have had many play dates with friends this summer. It’s been scorching hot lately so we have been staying indoors. We got out early this morning and went to the playground where Allie played in the sand for a few hours. By 10am, I was ready to go home to our air conditioned apartment. Here are some pictures of the kiddos:

When Luke was born we wondered who he looked like. We assumed he would look exactly like Allie but he surprised us with his own unique look. He had a more pointy, upturned nose and heart shaped face, less round than Allie’s. Well, last night I was looking through Allie’s newborn pictures and found one of her smiling at 8 weeks. I pulled up Luke’s 6 week old picture and I was surprised at how similar they look. They aren’t identical but they are definitely siblings. Wouldn’t you agree?

(I blogged last night as well so check the previous post.)

Jake blessed Luke at church today. It was a very sweet blessing.

The family photo

Luke was excited for his big day.

The proud big sister.

A big thank you to Sarah Rogers for making such an adorable tuxedo. He looked so handsome and we got many compliments on it.

Once again, our life has been flipped upside down by adding a new member to the family. We are exhausted, which is why we haven’t been updating our blog. But things are going well and Luke is changing every day. He started smiling at me about a week and half ago. I should carry my camera with me at all times. Anyway, A LOT has happened but time and energy are not something we have an abundance of at the moment. So I’ll just list some of the events that have occurred and then tell you about our July 4th. After my mom and Dave left, Kathy came out to visit. She was here for a week and she helped a ton. We celebrated our 8th anniversary on the 23rd and then my birthday was on the 30th. And the most important event is, drum-roll…Jake passed his comprehensive exam and is officially a doctoral candidate. Woohoo!!

Our July 4th started early. Jake had to go to the church at 7am to make pancakes for the ward activity. Allie, Luke and I arrived at the church at 9am for breakfast and then all the kids paraded around the parking lot on their decorated bicycles. We then headed to a park to let Allie run around so we could get her nice and tired for a nap. Allie DID nap, which is a little 4th of July miracle. Then we got KFC and went to another park for dinner. We met up with some friends to go to the UNC stadium to watch the fire works. We should have checked the weather before doing so because after an hour of waiting around, a huge storm came. We didn’t get to see the fireworks. Bummer! Hopefully next year. The holidays always make us miss family even more. We had a great time though and hope you did as well.

Our little man is growing like a weed. At his 2 week appointment yesterday he was 8lbs 14 oz. Here are some recent pictures.

Sorry for the lack of pictures. It’s hard to find time to sit down and actually blog these days. Things are going great! Luke is a champ at eating and he has been such an easy baby so far. Grandma D is here helping and she has been amazing! She’s done all the cooking, cleaning, and has been keeping Allie happy. We feel blessed to have here to help, especially since Jake has gone back to school full time to study for comps. Here are a few pictures:

Jake studying for comps in the hospital.

Luke’s last day in the NICU.

Luke’s buckled in and ready to come home.

Allie’s first time holding Luke. She was so excited!

We will be welcoming our baby boy to the family this Friday, the 23rd, so my mom came out a little early and we’ve been having some fun. We dropped Allie off at a friends house and decided to pamper ourselves. We got pedicures. I felt bad for the person who had to do my feet since I’ve never had a pedicure in my life and rarely do anything to pamper my feet. Plus, I’m extremely swollen. But, I figured she has probably seen worse (hopefully mine weren’t the nastiest). It was very relaxing and the foot massage felt great! I got my toes painted pink and my mom got hers painted red. It was a wonderful hour and half of relaxation. I just hope my swelling goes down soon after this baby is born so I can show off my cute toes.

Stay tuned on Friday evening for pictures of our newest member of the family.

This year we decided to forgo an actual birthday party for Allie and planned a family trip to the NC Zoo. Unfortunately, it rained on Allie’s birthday so we went to the museum (her favorite place) instead. We played at the museum for a few hours then went to a mall that had a carousel, train and bounce house. She loved the carousel and bounce house. We ate out for lunch and then we went home and opened presents. She played with her new toys and after dinner we had a few close friends who live in our building join us for cake and ice cream.

I can’t believe our little girl is a big three year old now. As much as I love seeing her grow and learn new things, I hate that she is growing up so fast. Sometimes I wish time would just stand still until I’m ready to move on. She is such a joy and brings so much love and laughter into our home. We are so blessed to be her parents. She is going to be a great big sister and helper for mommy.

P.S. Happy Mother’s Day to all of you wonderful women!!!

Allie is into finding things that are silly and naming them so. For example, she looked at the fake ficus tree in our apartment and said, “Mom, there’s a tree in our house…that’s silly.” I thought, “how true that is!”

The other day we were eating breakfast and I asked Allie where the food goes after I swallow it. She said, “Baby Luke eats it.” There’s some truth to that too.

Allie looked at me yesterday and said, “Mom, you have a big tummy. Dad has a big tummy too. But I have a little tummy.”

While sitting on a pew at church, Allie lay her head on my stomach and felt Luke kick. She looked at my stomach, pointed to a spot (I was wearing a polka dot dress) and said, “Mom, baby Luke’s in this dot.”

These little sayings don’t look as funny written down but she’s always entertaining us with little comments like these out of the blue.