So Close, yet So Far...

Rachael is all girl. The house is covered in a plethora of pink. She wears pink dresses and pink shoes. She plays with pink dolls, in pink strollers. Her car seat (in Kristin's car) is pink. At any given time she is carrying a doll around the house, or dancing in her pink outfit. She is girl through and through.

I have been making progress. I have bought her some Star Wars figures and ships. This gives us something (non-pink) to play together. The other night, while Kristin was away, we were happily running around the house blasting those pesky battle droids. And Rachael was getting it as she flew her Ashoka action figure around the house in her purple Jedi Starfighter. After a few times around, blasting battle droids and repairing the ships, Rachael informed me that the ships had to land on the Stairs. Why? I asked. Because it is Ashoka's Nana's house, and she wants to give Ashoka and Obi Wan some Jedi Fruit Snacks was the reply.

So close, yet so far...

Sing a Song

Rachael's new favorite song is "Follow the Prophet," except that I don't think she has it quite right...

"Follow the Prophet,
Follow the Prophet,
Follow the Prophet,
It's a disaster."

I guess we need to work on that one.

Flashback Friday

Two years ago we took a trip out to California to visit Lorie's family and see the sights. After playing with Braden and baby RyRy, Rachael curled up on the sofa and fell asleep, right in the middle of the afternoon, with everyone still talking and visiting. She still sleeps with her little bum up in the air like that sometimes.

I can't believe it's been two years now since we have been to California! We won't make it out this year but hopefully we'll get it on the schedule for next year. We love to visit Lorie & Declan and the boys, and see the San Francisco area!

An Apple a Day

Today was Rachael's four year old checkup. (Yes, I know she's about six weeks past.) If you are into the statistics, she is 39 inches tall and weighs 33 pounds, which is something like 40th percentile for height and 30th for weight. Yay for even being on the growth chart still - she was 4 pounds 11 ounces when she was born, and for nine months made her own line below the 5th percentile on the chart.

This is also the age for lots of immunizations, like four. Ouch! She was a real trooper for the first one, but the tears started when the second needle was brought out, and continued until all for injections were finished. The nurse then promised a sticker and a token for the machine (for which you can "buy" a friendship bracelet or a bouncy ball) when she was feeling all better, and miraculously she was ready a moment later.

We're happy to know our little girl is healthy and growing. And we are ecstatic to know that there are no more immunizations until age 11.

Flashback Friday

You'll never guess what this house is if I don't tell the story. And no, we have never lived there.

15 years and one day ago Ryan and I took a trip out to Grand Junction, CO, just because we could. (It was a Saturday.) We drove aimlessly through a few neighborhoods, probably just to kill time, and we were picking out houses we liked. At the same time instant we both picked this house as a favorite. I took a picture to memorialize the moment.

And now for the rest of the story... we had been dating only four weeks when we took this day trip. When we got back to Ryan's apartment that night, he popped the question and we were married four months later.

Happy 15 years and one day of being engaged!

The Green Review

St Patrick's Day stared with Shamrock toast.
Lunch was a rather boring affair (ravioli) but we finished with a green sugar cookie.

Dinner was, of course, the main event. We had green pancakes, rainbow toast, and sausage. And green milk.
This toast was probably way more work than it was worth... next year I'll stick to shamrocks.

Happy St Patrick's Day!

Happy St Patricks's Day!
We're having green pancakes, green fruit, and green milk for dinner.
(I know, you're jealous, right?)

Flashback Friday... deja vu

Below is the picture I posted of the snow we had in March 2008 - enough to ski on.



And THIS is what we woke up to this morning...



... I can see now that it is futile to think that it doesn't snow in March here.

(But at least it all melted this afternoon.)

Happy Birthday Braden & Grandpa!

Yesterday was Rachael's cousin Braden's birthday - he's 4 - and today is Grandpa's birthday. Lorie and I had a "friendly" competition to see which baby would be born first four years ago. Rachael was due on March 4 and Braden a couple of days later, but Lorie was actually scheduled to leave her job before I left mine. (She was pregnant and wanted a couple of weeks at home before the baby was born, I was not pregnant and just waiting on our birthmother, so I decided to try to stay busy). Thanks to Rachael's great sense of urgency, not only did she arrive first (and three weeks early) but I got to quit my job first, too.

That first year was so fun to see how alike yet how different our babies were. In May 2005 we got together for the first time and took a few pictures. I was going to save this for Flashback Friday, but it's such a great picture and has both our birthday boys in it.

Happy Birthday Braden! Happy Birthday Grandpa! We love you both!

FHE

As part of Family Home Evening we discussed planting seeds in the garden. We asked Rachael how you plant seeds, and the conversation went something like this:

Mommy: How do you plant seeds?

Rachael: You plant them in the ground, with dirt, and then they need sun, water, air, and love.

Mommy: Love? How do you show them love?
(here I am expecting her to say give it a hug or something)

Rachael: We sing it a song.

Mommy: Oh really? What song?

She then proceeded to sing a soft little made-up song about loving plants. Daddy and I were nearly rolling over with the silent giggles.

For your personal enjoyment, the "How we plant seeds with love" song:

Rachael's first talk

Rachael gave her very first talk in Primary today. She came up with most of it herself. Since most of you missed it, here it is:

Heavenly Father gave us parents to love us and take care of us.

My daddy goes to work. Sometimes he goes to China. Daddy likes to work in the garden. He holds the priesthood.

My mommy goes to meetings and plays the organ. She plays with me. Mommy takes care of us when we are sick.

My mommy and daddy love me very much and I love them too. We were sealed together in the temple so we can be a forever family.

I know Heavenly Father wants us to be happy.

In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Flashback Friday

Last year on March 9th we had enough snow to ski on. Really. Ryan went down the hill in the backyard - twice. (He would have gone a few more times but we forgot to install a ski lift).

I am sincerely hoping we are finished with snow this year!

Pretty Please, Lorie?

A couple of days ago I bought birthday presents for my nephew and my father-in-law. Thanks to the wonders of Amazon.com, I am having them shipped directly to Lorie's house in California. But since giftwrap on Amazon is expensive and we are looking for ways to reduce spending, I asked Lorie if she would mind wrapping them. She's a wonderful sister-in-law and I have no doubt she would have done it just because she's a nice person, but Rachael and I made the following video just for a little extra incentive.

Thank you Lorie!!

Kid Fun

Today we made cupcake ice cream cones. We used tiny cones - they about the size of a quarter across - and filled them with cake batter, then baked them in the oven.

Yummy!



(I took about six pictures of Rachael... not one with her eyes open.)