Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all our friends and family!

...btw, to listen to the card, turn off the standard music for the blog by scrolling to the bottom of the page and pressing pause on the player.

Boston

For Labor Day, we took the train to Boston. We headed out of the house at 6 to catch a 7 a.m. train. We went to the Boston Commons and the Public Gardens, a Duck tour, Fenway, Old State House, The Paul Revere home, Old Cemetaries, Long Warf and much more. We had a blast!

Apple picking

e

A few weeks ago we went with some friends to New Jersey to go apple picking. We had a great time finding apples, playing in the pumpkin patch and taking fun pictures. We had so much fun, Annie fell asleep on the way home!

Annie swinging

She loves to go to the park. Enjoy this short video.

What is new in the 212?

I haven't posted in a good 2 months, I feel like I should. We have been having so much fun lately! Annie LOVES the swing at the park, we go there quite often, I have no idea how we will survive the winter. Here are some snapshots of her.

Annie

We have had such a fun time with Annie! The last 8 weeks have been the hardest weeks of my life, but we have enjoyed this little bundle SO much! She is such a good baby. She either sleeps through the night or only wakes up once! While we were in Utah we got some really cute pictures of her. We love this little girl and are so glad that she is ours!

Annie Thornton Birth Announcement

 

Perfect Father's Day and Birthday

Our first full day back from the hospital was Father's Day and my
birthday. You guessed it, the big 27. Shannon made these pancakes just
to remind me :). What a perfect day! There couldn't be any better
gift for a birthday/fathers day combo than a new, beautiful daughter!

NYC BBQ Block Party (Madison Square Park)

Catching up on some posts. This is where Shannon and I were the weekend before Annie was born. It was a really good time and Shannon was an incredible sport to suggest and come along. The lines were long but overall it was worth it. It was a good time!

Sleeping Annie

Here is another picture of Annie. This girl is soooo adorable!

Presenting...Annie Thornton

Many of you have been asking when we're going to post pictures of Annie and this morning I received the request that broke the camel's back (and I had a spare moment with Annie and Shannon asleep).

Annie was born on Tuesday, June 16th, 2009, weighing 6 lbs and measuring 18.5".

Thank you all for your support and well wishes.

New York Hospital SWAG

Only in New York is the hospital SWAG from Chanel :)

Annie in Town (Shannon's Friend not the Baby)

Shannon's friend Annie came into town this week which was perfect timing. I worked late every night this week so Shannon enjoyed having a friend around. I did find time late Friday night to catch up with them outside Macys and I took a picture of the race car window display. Nice car!

CAIA Exam Level II

I passed!! I'll find out my exact score in about a week. It feels
good to be done with the CAIA program.

Yogurtland

Shannon got hooked on Yogurtland recently and of course is trying to suck me in too. Honestly though it's really good. If you ever go get the Dutch Chocolate of the Cookies and Creme. The toppings are irrelevant. Tell them Michael sent you (they'll look at you weird and make you pay full price) but I'll feel good that you took my advise.

Tavern on the Green

While my friend Stephen was in town we all went to Tavern on the Green. It's a good restaurant but what really makes the experience is that it overlooks Central Park. It was a lot of fun.

In the Heights

This is a really good Broadway show and we're soooo indebted to the
Sine's who helped us win the lottery. The show was really good and
Shannon and I had a really good time. If you understand Spanish I'm
sure it's even better. Like most Broadways there are one or two parts that could be left out but overall it was a very good show!

FHE - Rootbeer Floats at the Mansion

Wow the Mansion rocks! This place continues to be our favorite diner.
It's also a great place to get desert. ...and yes, it was as good as
it looks :)

Almost Spring

It is almost spring in New York. It's getting warmer and walks along
the East River are fun again. We took a walk in Carl Schurz park. It
was beautiful! I love this weather and the park is a great place to
enjoy it.

Good Thai Restaurant

If you're looking for a good Thai place I have to recommend Spice. The
prices were reasonable and the food was good. Thanks to the Yorks for
inviting us on Saturday night before Priesthood session!

New York Stroll

Shannon and I took a stroll around the city today. This picture was taken across the street from Madison Square Garden. Then I edited it with a new free app I got for my phone. It's a pretty cool app (as you can see the whole picture is black and white except for the Pepsi add in the middle).

Family Night Office Trivia

Nothing like Office trivia for family night. I'm proud to say that I won this evening, though generally Shannon has a way of pulling off the victory in this game. One of the many games that she's better at than me.

Finally!

I finally got the blog to a reasonable state! I spent like 5 hours trying to figure out how to properly use blogger! It took a while to figure out how to change the background color, add friend's blogs, change the font color in the picture and I feel like maybe it will motivate me to start blogging instead of always Michael! Yay it looks presentable! Lets hope that the blog invites I sent out work!

Week 26

This for those of you that have been asking to see a picture of me pregnant...and for those of you that didn't ask for one...Sorry!

Daffodils

I am so excited for spring to finally coming around. One of my favorite things about the spring are the flowers! They had some Daffodils at the corner store the other day and they were too pretty to pass by. We enjoyed them for a few days before they died. We can't wait until the flowers in the park start to bloom!

Dinner with Matt and Julee

I have been meaning to post this for quite some time now and lets be realistic, I don't really work so, I have no excuses! We met up with our friends, the Nieslen's, a few weeks ago for dinner at Olive Garden. We haven't seen them for about 4 months since they moved to New Jersey. It was so fun to catch up with them over dinner, and because you are at dinner with two pregnant women dessert is a must! We can't wait to see them again this Sunday and I look forward to her baby shower next Saturday! We are so excited to see what they have in a couple weeks!

Fun with the Yorks!

Lately we have been hanging out a lot with Yuhi and Shane York. Last Saturday we went to lunch at Dallas BBQ (I am craving it again...) and then we went and played in Central Park! We had a blast at Belvedere's Castle, walking around the lake and getting Starbucks! We couldn't ask for more fun friends!

Little Baby Thornton - Week 22

Wow. We are so excited to find out that we're having a girl!! Annie continues to grow and should be about 11 inches long and 1 pound. On another note, Week 22 holds a lot of changes for the mother. For all of you who are dying to know, and I know that's most of you, below is a list of things many women experience around Week 22. FYI - Shannon has not exhibited all of these, but has some:

• Thicker, more lustrous hair
• Increased body hair
• Faster-growing fingernails
• Skin changes
• Stretch marks
• Skin discolorations
• Larger feet

Wow, what women go through for their children!! Way to go babe and keep up the good work :)

IT'S A GIRL!

On Tuesday morning, Michael and I went to the hospital for the 20 week sonogram. The baby was all curled up and so it took about 45 minutes until they were able to tell us it was a girl. However, they were able to measure everything and get good pictures. We got to see her holding her hands, rubbing her eyes and( I am not gonna lie, it looked like she was picking her nose at one point). One of the coolest things was that after they measured all the bones they were able to calculate her weight! She only weighs 10 ounces right now, but will grow rapidly from now on. We are so excited to be having a little baby girl and can't wait until June!

Little Baby Thornton - Week 19

Well, the baby is about 6 inches now, from head to "rump." I'm also very happy that everything should now be proportionate, the ears to the head, the legs and arms to the body, etc. etc. Other than lots of growth, the baby is also starting to develop important areas of the brain, designating areas for sight, smell and sound.

It's so cool. Shannon is still growing, which is awesome. We're both really excited and having a countdown of sorts until we find out whether it's a boy or a girl (9 days from today!!!!!). We'll be sure to let you all know as soon as we find out whether we're having a Clarke Michael or Annie.

Hope you're all well. We love you!

We're Watching...

Do you sometimes feel like someone is watching you? Bauer does. And rightfully so. Here is a picture taken just moments earlier. We have such a weird dog!!

Little Baby Thornton - Week 18

It's been a couple weeks. I know I'm slacking, but rather than go back and hash out what has already happened, I'm going to just keep going forward. Shannon and I were out in Utah for a while, so I haven't posted in a while.

This week is week 18 and it's crazy to think that in two weeks we'll find out if we're going to have a girl or a boy. Shannon is hoping for a girl and I'm hoping for a boy. Either way someone should be happy :) jk, of course both of us are super excited regardless.

The baby is now about 5.5 inches head to rump and FINALLY its' ears are in place. Yes, we've been waiting how many weeks now!! jk. Shannon is going through a lot of changes. Besides being more hungry and having growing pains, she's starting to show, which she is really excited about. I guess it's a big day when people start realizing that you're definitely pregnant and haven't just let yourself go.

Hope you all are doing well.