Christmas!

Here are some pictures from Christmas! Hope your holidays are merry and bright!

Speaking of bright...Here's a picture of our house after the big snowstorm the weekend before Christmas:

Glowing under the snow!

Rachael checking out the Christmas tree

Christmas Eve in the play fort (hmmm...looks like a prison!) that Grandma and Grandpa got her

Rach with momma on Christmas Eve

Playing on her new car from Auntie Shannon

Rachael's FIRST Christmas, 2006

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving (a week late...). Here are a few Thanksgiving pics, including one (snif snif) of Rachael's FIRST Thanksgiving last year! Our plush turkey was bigger than she was last year! OK, enough with the nostalgia....

Rachael had her very own spot at the table at her Grandma's this year and ate turkey (and everything else!) with us. I know I am enjoying not having to pack food for her everytime we go out now--being able to give her "real" food is very convenient!

Hope everyone enjoyed their holiday!

Rachael and daddy, 2007

Rachael and the turkey, 2006

Rachael and Grandma, 2007

Let's Hear Those Sleigh Bells....

Major ordeal: we went and had family photos taken last weekend. There is nothing easy or convenient about trying to keep your toddler looking nice in her Christmas finery while waiting for your turn (the turn that was scheduled to be over an hour ago, but the family in front of you needed 20 minutes to get their 3-year old to smile so... It's awesome).

Don't mind my sarcasm. It really was quite an ordeal, but it was worth it. :)

Rachael did well in spite of the wait, and with the help of Pooh Bear and a very patient, baby-friendly photographer, we ended up with several nice photos. Here are a few!

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Enjoying Fall

There won't be too many more nice days outside so Rachael's been trying to get outside to play as much as she can! She was especially intrigued by the huge leaf pile that her daddy and grandpa made in her front lawn. She couldn't help but explore.... ;-)
Is there a baby in that leaf pile somewhere??

Baby Shower

Last Saturday was our friend Audrey's baby shower. She's expecting a little boy in January; I am so excited for her! :-) Anyway, Her shower was fun and she got lots of great baby loot! Congrats Andy and Audrey! Can't wait to meet your lil' one!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! Rachael had fun trick-or-treating at a few of our neighbors' houses on Wednesday. She was dressed up as a monkey and I have to say--the tail on the costume was by far the best part.

Now that we're going through Rachael's second round of holidays, I find myself in a reflective mood--she was so little at this time last year! And now, she can run up and down our driveway (and the stairs). To capture my sappy, nostalgic mood, I've included a pic of Rachael's first Halloween too. :-)

Making her way down the street!
(Halloween 2006)

Smaller than a pumpkin!
(Halloween 2006)

Off to the Pumpkin Patch

OK, so by pumpkin patch I mean the pumpkin/Christmas tree emporium down on the corner. I know, I know....that's cheating, but in our defense, we did attempt to take Rachael pumpkin-picking at an honest-to-God pumpkin patch. We went two weeks ago....drove like 45 minutes to a farm in the middle of nowhere, only to find that there was a huge line of other families already there, waiting for the tractor to pick them up and take them and their screaming, bored children to a far away field to find their magic pumpkin... Yeah....

It took David and I about three minutes to figure out that this was a bad idea. Rachael was in NO way going to tolerate this. This was also about the same time that Rachael was bored enough to sit down in the gravel-covered waiting area and try to eat the dusty rocks. So, we packed up and drove 45 minutes back home. Pumpkinless.

Our experience at the local pumpkin joint was so much nicer. After a tolerable five-minute drive, Rachael got out and toddled around rows and rows of pre-picked squash. She totally dug it--no waiting, just that immediate satisfaction that toddlers demand. We picked out two pumpkins and a pretty white mum for our front porch and headed home. Total time: under 30 minutes.

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So anyway, while this was not the pumpkin-acquiring method of our forefathers, it worked for us! The trick-or-treaters won't care that we didn't snip our squash off the vines ourselves. ;)

Keeping It All in Perspective

How can you possibly have a bad day when your little girl walks by with this written across her cute little tushie? ;-)

Have a good day!

Happy Birthday Rachael!

Rachael turned one year old on September 20...so we celebrated with a big 'ol party last weekend. Rachael handled the full house pretty well, and even took two long naps. My brother and sister-in-law came into town for the party, which was awesome--Rachael loves them and we were so happy to have them home!

Thanks to everyone who came over on Saturday to celebrate with us! Special thanks to our friend Kim, who made the cool banner shown above. :-) Here are a few pics from the party:

Mom, dad, and the birthday girl

Aunt Jen and Rach

The cupcake tower

Birthday girl on the move!

Opening presents with mom

Wearing her birthday cupcake! This was a sight to be seen--just glad we did it outside!

Shameless Photo Post

It's gotten chilly this week, so we had to start pulling out the fall attire. It doesn't seem right to already be wearing coats in the morning, but we definitely need them! What's neat, actually, is that the coat Kim and Mike bought Rachael for Christmas last year fits her perfectly right now, and it's a fall/early winter coat! Couldn't ask for better timing!

Anyway, while my brother was in town last week, he picked up a few Halloween things for Rachael to wear--including a SUPER cool monkey Halloween costume! He made me promise to post photos of her wearing her new duds; afater all, few things are cuter than babies in boot cut pants. Ha ha... Rachael says thanks for the festive outfit, Uncle Jim, and I promise to tolerate my monkey suit! ;-)

"OK, now you can get me out of this."

"Am I supposed to be able to see in this thing??"

Getting Ready for the Big Day

Rachael is almost a whole year old! Her Uncle Jim and Aunt Jen sent her this nifty crown to wear on the big day, so we've been practicing with it...she actually will keep it on for minutes at a time now before ripping it off her head. I thought it best to try and capture a few shots of her wearing it, since she might decide on the day of her party that birthday crown is NOT going to happen. ;-)

Rachael Enjoys Another Summer Day

Another Summer day and Rachael tells us that she wants to go outside and walk! She walked back and forth between the neighbors' houses and our house. She's great with the walking, but still working on the steering. Apparently her cart is designed to go offroading. She can walk twice as far with her cart as she could just a week or two ago.

She tells us that all the toddlers are wearing cool sunglasses these days, and that she simply MUST have a pair. We snapped this picture right before she took them off. She averaged about five seconds before they needed to be investigated. We tried this about 8 times before we decided that maybe sunglasses are more fun than functional.

After exhausting herself with walking and abandoning her ride, Rachael decide to continue with her botany. She found a nice shady spot and resumed her investigations. Every leaf and blade of grass within reach needed careful study. We are working on conveying to her that research does not involve putting everything in her mouth, but that seems to be a losing battle. :)

Hanging Out

This is neat: while we were at our friend Shannon's graduation party (CONGRATS AGAIN, DR. SHANNON!!), Rachael decided to be a baby botanist: nothing green was safe from being plucked and examined. She was very determined to go off on her own (with mom and dad still in sight, of course) and study the grass, flowers, shrubs, and bugs in Shannon and Tony's backyard. Pretty cool. We did make sure she didn't "examine" any of Shannon's flowers too carefully.... ;-)

While we were walking along the sidewalk last night she kept stopping to point at bugs, pick up twigs...as you can guess we didn't get too far on our walk!

So, she's becoming a big girl, but she's definitely still my sweet little baby.

Lil' Fan

Had to post this picture that our friend Tracy took last month....she had Paws, the Tiger's mascot, at her son's birthday party. Paws was so great with Rachael--she was on the fence about approaching a 6-ft tall tiger, so Paws gave her a wiffle ball as a peace offering. It worked. :-)

Racho the Walker

She's not quite steady enough to break into a run yet....but it's true: Rachael walks. She prefers to crawl when she has a certain destination in mind (hey--it's just faster at this point!) but when she wants to show off or is in no hurry, she's becoming a pretty independent walker.

We were not really prepared for this walking business yet, so I'm slowly getting used to the increase in bumps and bruises. She hasn't nailed down the proper way to fall yet, so many of her walks still end up with her falling forward into furniture, toys, etc. Bruise central. I want to wrap her in bubble wrap until she's off the walking learning curve. :-)

Here are some action shots!

So this is what feet are REALLY for, eh?

Here I come!!

Hug from Daddy after the return trip

Racho the Swimmer

Sunday we took Rachael to the pool at our community rec center. I wasn't sure how she'd take the noise, spashing kids, etc...David and I kinda prepared ourselves for what might have been a quick exit. But Rachael, with the help of one of her squishy bath toys, totally loved being in the pool! Below are some pictures of us introducing her to the water, but after that we took her further into the pool where she spashed and giggled. She slept just about 13 hours that night. :) We wore her out!

Look! My feet still touch the bottom!

Floating with mom...it's easy to be brave while chewing on my squishy sun.

Pets are kids, too

We have three cats, and if there's one thing you learn as a pet owner, it's this: pets are your kids too. Nothing makes this more clear than when your furry kids are sick. Frankie, our Siamese, has been sick for the past few weeks and it's heartbreaking. Like a baby, she can't tell me where it hurts, or what's really wrong--so her vet and I keep trying to figure it out without her help. She's going back to the vet tomorrow and hopefully this time we'll find the right cure for her. Until then, she's a prisoner in our half-bath; she's been having accidents so the bathroom is really the only place for her right now.

Frankie is very special to me. My "first born," Frankie was a stray cat who found me while I was living in a big apartment complex about seven years ago. She was around nine months old then, and I remember being astounded that someone would abandon such a beautiful cat. She has amazing blue eyes--I've never seen a cat with eyes like that. Anyway, I adopted her and she has been my most fierce ally ever since (just ask anyone who's ever gotten the evil eye from Frankie...).

Sigh.

On a lighter note, Rachael and I have been keeping ourselves busy this weekend. I took Friday off so Rachael and I did what you'd expect of girls with time on their hands: we went shoe shopping. :) It's so cool to see her taking in what's going on around her; however, I suspect the ladies at the shoe store were less than thrilled to see how driven Rach was to grab at every display we walked by. She seems to understand that Frankie is sick, too--she keeps crawling over to the bathroom door where Frankie is and just sits at the door and babbles. She doesn't bang on the door or try to open it (like she does with all other doors these days...). Yes, I know Rachael probably has no idea, but it's nice to think that she's trying to make Frankie more comfortable during her sentence in the half-bath.

Here are a few sassy pics from this weekend. She's starting to get the hang of this sippy-cup thing, but at this point she still thinks it's more fun to just chew on the handles.

Summer Fun

Rachael been enjoying her summer so far. She has been discovering freshly-cut grass, fresh air, and that screen doors are a lot more interesting than regular doors. She's been watching the local wildlife, as well as daddy mowing the lawn.

Rachael is doing so well at day care that she is moving to the next room at an earlier than usual age. She has been making regular visits to the Toddler room and each time did well. She tells us that she is no longer a "baby" and wants to hang out with the older kids. She has been much more social with the older kids than the younger ones in the Infant room. She starts on Monday and assures us that she simply must have a new wardrobe for her new class.

Rachael's Day at the Salon

Today we took Rachael to the salon to have her hair cut. Yes, she's only 10 months old, but this girl has more hair than most two or three year olds. I have been trimming her bangs out of her eyes since she was about five months old, but it was getting pretty easy to detect the "mom cut" with as much hair as she has. So, we were off to see the professionals.

Rachael did GREAT at the salon, no fussing...but enough wiggling around to make it a little challenging for Karen, the hair stylist, to work her magic. Rachael has nice EVEN bangs now (no more "mom" bangs) and even some layers. Yes, layers at 10 months. No highlights or manicures until she can pay for them herself, though! ;-)

Have a good weekend!