Finishing up 2009!

Well 2009 has come and gone...which means once again I fell behind on my posting (as my mother has been pointing out!!) The holidays were a very busy time for our household...so I am going to give the readers digest version combined with a lot of pictures and videos.


November we had a great surprise when my best friend since Jr High came to visit. Lindsey and Thatcher De Marr came out to visit us for a week before Lindsey started her new job. It was so great to see her and to finally get to kiss her chubby baby! Thatcher was born March 30th so he is a few weeks older then Thayne...but they had a blast playing together! At the time Thayne didn't sit up on his own so he kept looking at Thatcher trying to figure out how to be like him. I am really thankful to have such a great friend in Lindsey, and even tho we have lived so far apart for too long our lives continue to run parallel (its really freaky sometimes!). I have missed them so much since they left but we hope to head out to Phoenix either this Spring/Summer!



Thanksgiving was low key this year, which was a change of pace for our family. Pop came down and enjoyed Thayne's first Turkey dinner with us all. I cooked all the traditional stuff-Turkey, potatoes, stuffing (Brian is addicted to the new andoulle cornbread stuffing we did last year!) and of course my Grandma Eakins's rolls and pies! We had a great feast and really enjoyed Thayne's first holiday. Before Pop left we were able to go and pick out Thayne's first Christmas tree...which we know now is too early to buy a tree but live and learn!



Christmas brought with it a lot of activities...first we had our Country Club Santa brunch on Dec 13th. Brian was kind enough to share his birthday with Santa, and Thayne was a hit at the club all dressed up as Santa! My grandma bought him a Santa suit and he loves to wear it-get a camera out and he turns into a total "ham". Later the following week we had our company Christmas party at our house and Thayne was able to dress in his Christmas best to hang out with his buddy Isa. We all had a good time and was able to celebrate yet another successful year. Below are some pictures of the Santa pictures we had taken while Thatcher and Lindsey were in town at the mall (poor Thatcher), the Santa brunch, and the Christmas party! Thayne also took a trip out to UT with Brian to see Grandma Cindy. While out there grandma and Aunt Boo dressed him up in his snow suit to go see the Elves at Gardner Village...I am not sure who had more fun!!!



Christmas Eve and Christmas morning were a lot of fun! This year we decided not to travel and enjoy the holidays at home; it was different and a lot less quite compared to what we are use to but we had a good time. Christmas Eve was the traditional opening of the Christmas Eve PJ's...I think Thayne was more interested in the paper, bows, and tissue paper. Christmas morning was really low key, we had breakfast and then watched Thayne open his presents. He took to opening his presents better then I thought he would, and he really liked all his new toys!



video

From Thayne videos

New Years Eve was a great time! Ashley flew in for a week and my Dad and his crew drove down to help us ring in the New Year! Thayne got to open more presents from his Grandpa Rich and Grandma Corinne, and Brian got to eat beer battered halibut! We decided to have a party at the house since we didnt have a sitter so the girls got all dressed up! I will add more pictures from our Christmas with the Eakins when I get them uploaded....but here is the NYE we all took! Thayne didnt make it to midnight...but that was ok bc the rest of us almost missed it too!



Well that about wraps it up for 2009! Stay tuned for more pictures, updates, and videos from 2010. Thayne has been growing like a weed and has all sort of tricks...he crawls, stands up, and thanks to his Aunt Boo blows raspberries!!! I will have some more videos of Thayne up shortly. We hope everyone had a great holiday and we wish you all a Happy New Year!

Trick or Treat!!!

Halloween was really fun this year! We first took Thayne to the Country Club for their Halloween party...they had hay rides, pumpkin carving and a Halloween buffet. Obviously Thayne just watched and was admired by all the older women there bc of his cute monkey costume...but next year he will be running around with all the other kids! Halloween afternoon Brian and I decided to take some time for ourselves and head down to hop on the Rich N Bennett Halloween Bar Crawl! For those of you who are familiar with Rich N Bennett festivities this is a great event...and one that we could not miss. So we threw together last min costumes and reverted back to our kid-less days for a few hours. When we got home we put Thayne in his monkey costume and Tonka in his pumpkin costume and headed to the neighborhood parade. It was a lot of fun and then it rained! We spent the last few hours of Halloween passing out candy and meeting our neighbors. Here are a few pictures of the Halloween week!

Catching up...

I am a little behind which is obvious so I will do my best to catch everyone up on The Boyle household.

I am not sure where October went, but I do know we had a lot of fun! Ashley and Matt came to visit the last part of the month to hang out with Thayne, show Matt what Carolina was all about, and to go to the Carolina Balloon Festival. If any of you are in the area next October you must join us for this great event. Statesville, NC is about 1 hour away and every year they host a hot air balloon festival. They launch about 50 or so balloons, have a wine tasting event and the traditional festival food (fried anything...really they had fried butter...no joke). The wines are not that great considering most are from the NC region and we dont grow the best grapes in our climate...but it is still fun! Thayne was not really sure what was going on but he was a really good kid. That same weekend we had our wonderful and talented wedding photographers (www.geneho.com) meet us up in Lake Junaluska, NC to take family photos. The weather turned out perfect and we got some really neat shots with all the fall leaves in the background. I should have the link to the pictures soon so I will be sure to share them all with you as soon as I can.



Labor Day (I said I was behind!) we spent it with my Dad and Corinne in Lexington, KY. They had a fish fry party where Dad cooked up some of the Halibut he caught this summer in Alaska, and then we headed down to the lake for ribs with a few of their friends. I tried to wake board which was a bad idea, but I got a good rib recipe out of the trip so it was not a total loss. Dad has recently taken on a new job which will be moving him to Greeneville, SC in the next year...that is only 1 hr away from us so that is very exciting news!




Thayne was given the green light to try solid foods earlier last month so I began making my own baby food. It has been a great experience so far, however I am slowly realizing how much this kid eats and may not be able to keep up with demand! I am 3 for 3 right now on foods...he loves pears, avocados, and sweet potatoes (I am not sure there is anything he wont eat). Making the food is really easy-I pretty much steam or bake his food, throw it in a food processor and puree it, and then put it into ice cube trays to freeze. The ice cube holes make 1 oz food cubes so they are really easy to measure...and the food keeps really well. I have found a few good websites that have given me recipes (www.wholesomebabyfood.com)and the Petite Elephant blog that is on my list to the right side of this page. I am not sure what my next experiment will be but we have been taking it slow since he will only be 6 months Nov 22nd. Below is the video from the very first time we fed him pears...he was so funny and Brian couldn't get over how his feet almost touched the foot rest on the high chair! (click on video to watch)

From Exported Videos

The new thing in our house the last few weeks has been Tonka! Thayne has started to realize that he has a puppy, and that this puppy is fuzzy and sometimes very funny. The two of them are so cute some times...they just look at each other, Thayne will sometimes scream at Tonka to get his attention, and other times Tonka just licks Thayne till I get grossed out. I have been trying to catch them on video playing together bc it is so funny. Thayne wants to be right next to Tonka all the time and he has been giggling the last few days when Tonka gets in his face. I was able to get a little of them on video tonight so I will post that below (yes Mom, I washed Thayne's hands after Tonka licked them before he put them back in his mouth.) Tonka is very smart tho bc he sits just out of reach from Thayne, I am thankful to have a patient dog. We will see how things go once Thayne is mobile...I have been trying to warn Tonka but I am not sure either of us understand what we are in for! (click on video to watch).

From Exported Videos

Brian and I have been busy with work and being parents. Brian has been traveling almost every weekend for work, which gets a little old but is a necessity at the moment for our business. I have decided that I would have never made it as a single parent (correction...my kids would never have made it with me as a single parent). I am able to take a few days this month to head to SLC to see family, and then Brian will be heading back to SLC for work in Dec and Thayne is going with him to see Grandma/Grandpa DeHart again. We have decided to stay home for the holidays this year which will be new to all of us including Tonka who has spent all of his Christmas's in the kennel. Pop is coming to join us for Thanksgiving this year, which is also when I am having Thayne's 6 mo pictures taken as well as a Boyle Men generation photo (Sean we will photo shop you in!). I have once again decided to coach soccer, but this time it is just for a short indoor season. A few of my girls from last year were interested in playing indoor again for the Winter and I decided to put a team together. We have our first game this weekend (Nov 7th) and play through the end of January. Indoor is a lot of fun and we have a great group of girls...it will be weird to coach and not be pregnant!

Well other then cheering for the Phillies to win the World Series, and cursing the Eagles & Packers almost every Sunday that is pretty much all that is going on in our lives up to this point. We hope everyone else is doing well...I hope to post more often but as we head into the Holiday madness I am not making any promises.

What are you feeding that kid??!!???

That seems to be the question I get when I tell people that my 4 month old son is 17 lbs!!! Yes, that is right 17 lbs and 27 inches long according to his Dr. Apt this past Wednesday. The Doctor says he looks great and very healthy (duh?) and that we have the "go ahead" to start solid foods. I am going to start the adventure of making my own baby food this weekend, and Saturday morning we are going to see how Mr Thayne likes pears! I am sure he will gobble them up like everything else so I will make sure to video tape the event and post it as soon as possible. Thayne is also starting to cut teeth which seems to make him sleep a lot and scream at the top of his lungs for hours at a time. I feel so bad bc there is not much I can do for him so we both just hope this passes very soon!

The picture below is our 4 month old in the 12 month PJ's that Grandma DeHart bought him while she was out on her visit. We thought for sure we got them big enough...but...apparently they are just the right size. He is sooo cute in them and looks so grown up it makes me and Brian laugh. Enjoy!

Four Months Old

Our little boy will be four months old on Tuesday the 22nd, and that makes me a little sad. I am amazed at how much he has changed in the last four months, not to mention how big he is! No matter how hard things get Thayne always seems to melt my heart with a smirk or giggle...it has been so fun watching him explore the world. Brian and I are in awe each day watching him roll over, sit up, reach for his toys, and chatter chatter chatter! Every day brings a new surprise, lately it has been in the mornings because we never know how we will find him-sideways, on his belly, under his blanket!!! Thayne has also started to notice that he lives with an 80lb bulldog which has been really funny. Tonka will walk by and Thayne will follow him around, he has even started to reach out and pet him. Tonka tolerates it very well, part of me thinks Tonka cant wait until Thayne is big enough to play with him! For the most part we have a perfect baby; he sleeps all through the night and much to his mother's delight follows his schedule to a "T". Recently he has decided he wants to do away with one of his feedings so we have progressed to a more normal feedings schedule (breakfast, lunch, snack, dinner, etc). We get compliments on how happy Thayne is all the time, but Brian and I have decided that since Thayne is such a good kid that it means the next one is going to be hell on wheels! We go to the Dr. on Tuesday for his four month check up so I will post an update with his weight-I am betting we are close to 20lb (seriously this kid likes to eat). I wont be surprised if the Pediatrician starts him on solid foods because I dont see this liquid diet sustaining him much longer-which means I get to start making all his food which I am really excited about tackling! I have put together some of my favorite pictures that were taken recently to share with everyone-Thayne has such character and it shows on all his faces...so we hope you enjoy them and get a little laugh out of them as well!

Family Photos

We had our first family photos taken when Thayne was 5 weeks old...he was such a trooper because it was a very hot day in the park. Fall pictures are going to follow soon so I will post those as soon as they are done.

Gene Ho Photography

Nadean was able to produce wonderful pictures again for our family back in May (obviously before Thayne was born). I am a little behind in getting this posted but I wanted to make sure we shared them all with you. For those of you who do not know Nadean-she was our wedding photographer and has since become a great and wonderful friend. Brian and I have adopted her as our official life photographer because she seems to capture the most amazing photos...so any one in need of photos any where in the World (seriously she goes anyway!) let me know I will loan her out!!!