Becca's Birthday Party

Rachel went to her first birthday party for a friend on January 28th.  She was so excited.

Becca's mom went above and beyond.  She had super cute decorations.


Rachel hijacked the flowers and carried them around for quite a while.


We enjoyed creative Dr. Seuss themed party food.



I especially loved the green eggs and ham.  Yummm.


They played Dr. Seuss games like "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish."


Every time a kid caught a fish they got a tootsie roll.  Rachel looked like she had been given gold.


Then she gobbled her candy up.  Sometimes I think she is afraid it will disappear. 


They played Fox in [crazy] Sox.  How many socks can you put on in a minute?

Then came the relay race.



Rachel didn't quite understand the game.  But she was very attentive to the instructions. 


They were supposed to balance the little fish on their noses and run back and forth.  The part Rachel didn't understand was that she was supposed to pass the fish to another person.


The kids tried to balance Dr. Seuss books on their heads.


They tried to pin the star on the Sneetch.


Rachel refused to be blindfolded so hers was placed exactly center.
 

Here are some of the other cute friends.
 
 


Rachel was proud of her present to Becca.  I think she had hoped it would really be hers.  Giving gifts is a hard concept for an almost 3 year old.


Happy Birthday Becca!

Car Work

Doug is amazing with computers, cars, cleaning, music, laundry, baking, candy making, and so many other things.  Today, I am grateful to have a husband that can work miracles with cars. We would love to sell off our vehicular trouble makers.  We'd love to own a brand new Acadia with a full warranty.  Someday we will have to figure out how to pay for a newer car.  But, for now, Doug continually works on and encourages our cars to keep going.


It always looks so scary to me.  He takes all of these parts out and manages to put them together again in a giant real world puzzle.


This cool bowl is magnetized so it sticks to the car and he doesn't lose all the little pieces into the engine.


Thank you Doug for all your time, energy, pain, frustration, skin, sweat and fatigue keeping Homer and Pedro on the road.  I love you.



Doug will have to put a comment in telling you all what he did to make sure I had safe car to drive while he was in Delaware.

Spaghetti

I had to do the traditional spaghetti dinner photo session with Joseph.


He loved it.  Of course.  I mean, was there any doubt?


This ginormous strawberry stunned him for a second.


But he didn't waste any time devouring it.


He certainly wasn't timid about getting dirty.

 
 

His awesome feast was followed by one of his favorite activities.  A bath.


No childhood, it seems, is complete without a picture bathing in the kitchen sink.

February 25, 2012

February 12th

We started off the morning by going to Stake Conference. 


Doesn't Rachel look sweet?


She LOVES her ruby slippers.



After church Doug got to work making shells and white cheddar while I changed everybody into play clothes.  Rachel is the queen of "sneak attack" hugs.  It looks like she got one in return.


Rachel's first true love...her daddy.


Hi Mom!



Rachel really wanted to play ring around the rosie with Joseph.  Doug was kind enough to help her make that happen.




Rachel loves to help let Zoe out to potty and then let her back in again.  "Zoe!  In the house!"


"Is there a bee on me?"


"Good girl."


This was my lunch.  Chicken salad.  I have eaten more salads in the last 2 months (since I joined Weight Watchers) than I have in the entire decade previous.  I'm learning to enjoy them.  Plus, I am happy that my kids are seeing them eaten.


Everybody got to take an after lunch nap.  Poor Rachel had a rough time waking up.
 

She bounced back pretty quickly.  I keep this trampoline in the library.  I'm supposed to jump for a minute every time I go to sit down at my computer.  Some days I am more diligent than others. Rachel uses it the most.
 

Joe is always looking for something to put in his mouth.  Today it was Marge Simpson.
 

Rachel likes to spin in my office chair.  She is a girl after my own heart.
 

These two squeezed in some playtime before bed.
 

Rachel's First Snowman

Rachel received a snowman kit as one of her Christmas presents.  Every time it snowed she would beg to build a snowman.  There just wasn't enough snow.  But on March 2nd Rachel's dream came true.  Her daddy helped her build her very first snowman.


"Once there was a snowman, snowman, snowman..."


Boy was Rachel sad when "in the sun it melted."  I hope she takes comfort in knowing that there will be many snowmen to come.

The Binky Fairy

Rachel has been a fantastic sleeper.  Part of that is due to her love of the binky.  She was only allowed a binky during naps and bed time.  She was so happy to have her binky that she would just lay there in the dark, sucking away.  I've been hesitant to take the binky away.  It's selfish really.  I just wanted her to continue to love going to bed so it would be easier for me.  But all good  things must come to an end.  At almost 3 years old I thought Rachel would do better giving her binky away then just having it disappear in the middle of the night.  So we decorated a special box.  I even let her use a sticker with blinking lights so that the binky fairy could find her box in the dark.


Then we gathered up all of her binkies.  Rachel studied each one and hesitantly put them in the box.


"Oh look!  This one was my favorite.  Ahhh, the memories."
 

Next comes the lid.


Look at that face.  You can see the determination and the sorrow.  She was giving away some of her prized possessions in hopes of a prize even greater.


While Rachel slept the Binky Fairy came and took the binkies.  Big kids, like Rachel, give their pacifiers to the Binky Fairy to take to new babies.  The Binky Fairy rewards them for their generosity.  These magic balloons lasted for more than 2 weeks before they deflated and sunk to the floor.  Rachel had been eying the music box for a long time.  It seemed a fitting gift from a fairy.



Rachel was pleased with herself the next morning.  She had slept all night without her binky.  Now she had some fun spoils for her good deed.  She gobbled up the m&ms in one sitting and played the music box until Mom and Dad thought they would cry.


What a wonderful girl.  We are so proud of her.