Fashion

I love having a little girl that I can dress up.  

 

Her clothes are cheaper than mine.  She can pull off any style.  

 

She doesn't have to worry about whether it is slimming or not.  There's no hour long dressing room sessions.  

 

I can buy her just about anything off of the rack.  

 I wish that I could be this fashionable myself.

Helping Around The House

My first household job was to unload the clean silverware from the dishwasher.  I was probably only 3 or 4 and I took my responsibility very seriously.  In fact, I would get very upset if I found out that someone had unloaded the silverware without me.  I grew out of that.  Now I'll accept any help with the dishes that is offered.

Doug's first chore that he remembers was turning on and off the sprinklers.  He was responsible for making sure that all of the lawn got watered.  Brown spots were to be watered by hand.  Beyond that he loved the vacuum as a child and was always happy to help with that task.

Rachel loves to help unload the dishwasher.  It is not assigned to her...yet.  But she absolutely loves to be involved.  Every time she hands a dish to her dad she says, "thank you."  It's really too bad that the video camera didn't pick it up.  I hope her interest in helping lasts a lifetime.

What was your first chore?  What chores do you ask your kids to do?  What ages?

 

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ovu47CMZZI

Christmas Dress

I cannot remember my first Christmas dress.  But, I remember loving the special dresses we got each year.  It is so much fun perpetuating this tradition with Rachel.


This year her Christmas dress came with a matching dress for her doll.


 

This dress holds another distinction.  She was wearing it the first time she really admired herself in the mirror.  She was all dressed, ready for church.  I looked down to see her twirling and smiling at her reflection in the oven.  The moment was priceless.




I look forward to many more of these priceless Christmas moments, Christmas dresses, and Christmas smiles.

Thanksgiving 2010

We love the holidays.  It's the one time a year that Doug and I will get to see most of our families.  Thanksgiving was our opportunity to spend time with the Goodwin clan.  We went down to Provo the night before Thanksgiving so that we could partake of all of the next day's activities.

Unfortunately for us, Rachel was unnerved by sleeping in different surroundings.  It turned a girl who sleeps like a champion into a screaming banshee.  Doug and I took turns rocking her, singing to her and holding her in bed.  Many prayers were said.  Then a blessing.  She was asleep 15 minutes later at 11:30pm.  She slept quietly until 4:30am and began to cry again.  Doug heroicly wrestled with her in our bed for another 3 hours until he gave up and got up. She did surprisingly well the next day for getting only a small amount of sleep.  She took a small catnap in her daddy's arms but otherwise there was no napping either.

Rachel loved playing with her cousins.






Doug brought his slot car racing set to play with the kids.  Rachel loved that too.


 

 

Zoe accosted her favorite "cousin" McKenzie.


Doug and Dad worked on the setup crew along with many others.




Greg serenaded us with some beautiful Christmas music.


Laura carried the brunt of the work and slaved cooking dinner most of the day.  Mom had hurt herself earlier that week and was in some of the worst pain of her life.  For those who know Charlotte, that is saying something.  My only contribution to the food was a favorite from my family...cheese ball.  It was a big hit with McKenzie and Alexandria too.


We feasted.  We talked.  We loved being home with the family.  But, as with all good things, it had to come to an end.  Everybody scattered to their respective homes and lives.

Dancing Ponies

It's official.  Rachel is growing up way too fast.  Her hair fits into a back ponytail.  I know.  Hairstyles don't make the girl.  But, for some reason, she looks way older to me with her hair all pulled back.








That same day I caught some great footage of her dancing.  She kills me.

Oh Christmas Tree...

Putting up the Christmas tree was so much more fun with Rachel in the house.  I imagine it just gets more fun from here.

She used some of the decorations as personal accessories.


Unfortunately I did not take a picture of the tree when we were finished.


Every year we plan on buying new ornaments for the family.  When the kids move out they will have a bunch of ornaments that have great meaning to them.  This is Rachel's ornament for this year.  It represents her 2nd Christmas on earth.


Rachel was awestruck by the tree and loved looking at the ornaments.  I spent a lot of December reminding her that she "musn't touch" the tree or the ornaments.  She was drawn to them like a moth to a flame.  One day Doug pointed to the tree and asked Rachel, "what's that?"  She replied verbally and with sign, "No.  [pause] No, no, no, no, no."  Most of the time she just called it the "kiskis tee."

I was grateful that there were only a few ornament casualties this year.  Rachel pulled a couple of glass baubles off of my parent's tree and tried banging them on the round mental staircase.  Breakage was inevitable.  Mom was very gracious about it.  And we all agree that she handled all the temptation very well for her age.

Rachel's First Caroling

Once upon a time I kept up with my blog.  It was a simpler time.  Now I'm so far behind, and feel like there is so much to tell, that I can't do it justice.  It's a new year and I haven't even written about Thanksgiving yet.

Some of you have expressed disappointment that there hasn't been much new here.  So, in an effort to catch up, I'm just going to share our adventures in bite size pieces.

Last December, we were invited to participate in a caroling party.  We enjoyed the camaraderie of friends as we made homemade doughnuts.  Then we walked around the neighborhood delivering the goodies and singing Christmas carols.  We had a lot of fun and felt honored to be included.  This was Rachel's first caroling experience.  She liked watching the other kids and playing with new toys at the hosts' house.  We were surprised that she was still having fun at the end of the evening.  I love her cute little red nose that matches her antlers.