Christmas!

The requisite family photo.

Merry Christmas!

A fun Christmas Eve activity - making cookies with our friends the Tippets and the Jasinskis.

All the kids trying to cut cookies at the same time!

Loved this picture.

The whole crew.

L-R: Alex, Rachael, Benson, Blake, Tyler, Clark, Henry and Sam

Tracking Santa on NORAD's Santa Tracker.

Christmas Eve! Reindeer chow: check.  Cookies for Santa: check.  Diet Coke for Santa: check.  Christmas letter to Santa: check.  Picture for Santa: check. New pajamas: check.

Ready for bed!

Christmas morning!

Rachael had been asking for a set of princess dolls since November.  However, when we went to see Santa, she instead asked for a Barbie. Santa weighed his options and decided to bring the dolls.  When Rachael saw them on Christmas morning, she said, "I knew Santa would know what I meant!"

Whew, good work Santa.

New tradition this year:

Star Wars pancakes

Special thanks to Aunt Lynne for the awesome new pancake molds.

(see Williams-Sonoma to see what the molds look like!)

... the rest of December.

Our friends Jessie & Josh got married on December 18.  They invited us to attend the wedding in the temple so we headed out to Louisville.  Although we didn't actually get to see the sealing (we volunteered to watch all the kids so others could go), it was still a worthwhile trip: Ryan ran into an old mission companion, George Baker, from the California Anaheim Mission.  They had a great time catching up!

Rachael got to hang out with her good friend Aiden.  (I would like to point out that Aiden is about 9 months older and six INCHES taller!)  Aiden also lost both her front teeth just in time for the wedding. 

As a wedding gift, I made the wedding cake.  It was my first four-tiered cake and it was kind of fun to do something completely outside my usual box.  Most exciting part: driving a 24 inch dowel straight down the middle after the cake was assembled.  Scariest part: driving the fully assembled and decorated cake to the church.

One of my favorite pictures: Rachael dancing with Bishop Burke.  So cute!  (It's a shame I snapped the picture right when their hands are in front of his face.  But she looks enthralled!)

After the wedding we were in full Christmas preparation mode.  We made cookies and candy - these are the infamous "belly button cookies," Rachael named them last year because she thinks they look like belly buttons.

We went to see Southern Lights again, one of my favorite Kentucky Christmas traditions. It was really beautiful this year covered in a couple inches of snow.  Rachael's favorite part is still riding the little train, even when it's only 30 degrees out! She also got to see Santa while we were there.  At first she was too bashful to get up and tell him what she wanted, but eventually she boldly headed up and told St Nick she wanted a Barbie.  Again. 

A letter from Santa!!  She was so excited to get mail - not only addressed to her, but also from Santa Claus.  

We are so excited for Christmas!

Flashback Christmas Eve

2005

Taste testing Santa's cookies

2006

We had a turkey dinner

(not pictured, the aforementioned turkey)

 2007

Grandpa reading "'Twas the Night Before Christmas"

(on of my favorite Christmas pictures ever)

 2008

Cookies and Diet Coke - now we're learning!

2009

Cookies, Diet Coke, and a picture!

Can't wait for Christmas this year!

Flashback Friday

December 2009

Best friends

December 2010

Still friends!

December so far...

... we trimmed the tree.  It was great fun. 

... we went to the Richmond Parade.  We had a great time, even though it was only 25 degrees.  Ryan's favorite part: Uncle Eddie from Christmas Vacation.  Rachael favorite: I think she got more candy at the parade than she did at Halloween.

... snow! We don't usually get this much snow (three inches) this early in the season here.  And it's still on the ground.  Rachael had a snowball fight with Trace and Andrew.  I'm pretty sure they let her win.

... learning to roller skate.  Rachael was invited to a birthday party for a school friend at a roller rink.  It was the perfect time to learn - enough kids to want to do what everyone else is doing, but just a few so it wasn't crowded.  She did a great job and wants to go again.  And she wants to learn to ice skate now, too.

... Rapunzel! We saw the movie Tangled in November with my sister and two of her daughters.  Rachael has been saving her allowance for awhile now for a Rapunzel doll, and they came on sale on the Disney website for $10, so I bought it for her and she paid me with all her allowance.  She was so excited to get to buy something herself, with her own money that she saved.

... sick again.  Three weeks after an ear infection in one ear, she got one in the other.  Cue another round of antibiotics.  One morning the power went out and the temperature in the house dropped to 65 degrees.  I built a fire in the fireplace and Rachael curled up on the sofa and went to sleep. She's feeling much better now - finally.

... and Alex's birthday! I can't believe he's four years old - we have been at every birthday celebration since he was born.  It's been so fun to have him as a neighbor and a friend.

We have more fun activities planned, including Southern Lights and building a gingerbread house.  And Jessie & Josh's wedding!

Flashback Friday

December 2007

Uncle Declan's sledding hill

Perfectly posed by Declan and Sam the dog

Flashback Friday

Richmond Christmas Parade 2008

Richmond Christmas Parade 2009

A Spoonful of Sugar

Last week Rachael came home from school nearly in tears because her ear hurt.  Like any responsible parent, we were off to the doctor, who of course took one look and announced it was an ear infection.  He prescribed a 10 day course of amoxicillin.

Rachael gave it one taste and decided it was the most awful stuff in the world.  Taking a page from Mary Poppins, I offered her a small treat if she would take her medicine.  Although it's still nasty stuff, she has taken the medicine mostly without complaint for the last 10 days because she knew there would be a reward.  This is - thankfully - the last dose.

And the pink cheeks? Hives.  Again.  From who knows what. She is covered from head to toe, but at least they aren't in her ears this time.

Marshmallows!

We had our first wood fire in the fireplace a couple of days ago.  To celebrate the occasion we broke out the marshmallows and roasted a few.  It was a fitting send-off for what used to be the tree in the front yard.

Thanksgiving

Ah, the food.  Roasted garlic mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, aspragus (which Anika pronounces asper-aggus), homemade applesauce, homemade cranberry sauce, rolls, stuffing, and of course the turkey.  And the rainbow jello! $3 worth of jello and 12 hours of work, but the kids loved it.  Even Kira had to have some to check it out.  Here she is contemplating the feast before us (and because you can't see her in the picture from the dinner table):

And don't forget the pies!

Apple cranberry and pumpkin.  You can't tell from the picture, but that pumpkin pie magically refills itself when you eat it all.  Just leave and go to the movies for a few hours, and POOF, a new pie appears.  This is really handy because Ryan and I can put away an entire pumpkin pie by ourselves.  And I'm pretty sure we did. 

Thanks to my sister and her family for letting us crash their Thanksgiving! It was amazing!

Today is the day.

Five years, nine months and about four days ago we brought home our little bundle of joy from the hospital.

Tiny, precious, beautiful. Perfect.  And the start of diapers, bottles and pacifiers.

At age one, we kicked the bottle and traded up to sippy cups. The transition took a little work but we got there in just a few weeks.

At age two, just before she graduated to the "big girl" bed, we kicked the pacifier.  Cold turkey.

Now, at age five and a half, we are finally saying goodbye to diapers.  Declaring victory over changing any more wet pants.  It has taken week, months, actually years longer than I thought it would.  But we are there!

(We are far from completely accident-free, but that will have to another milestone for another year.)

Today is the day we are DIAPER FREE!

Learning to Read

Last night Rachael read me a book before she went to bed.  She's getting pretty good at sounding out words and learning lots of new sight words.   This is the book she read, called "How Many Fish."

Culture

We are fortunate to live near Eastern Kentucky University, which has a great music program.  In fact, the cello professor and the double reeds professor both live in our ward.  

A few days ago Elizabeth, who plays the oboe, gave a concert with her trio, Dolce Veloce, on campus.  I took advantage of the opportunity to take Rachael to her first every classical music concert.  (Ryan had planned to attend with us, but instead he spent the weekend with a wicked sinus infection).

She loved it! Elizabeth took time in between each piece to introduce the next one (which isn't typical for classical music but is probably typical for Elizabeth) and it was really interesting and fun.  Most of the pieces weren't too long for a five year old and she really enjoyed seeing the oboe, flute and piano together.

Thanks for a great concert Elizabeth!

Flashback Friday

May 2007

One of the first trips we took to the park.

(We went again today - these 74 degree days in the middle of November are glorious.  She doesn't even need me lurking around to make sure she doesn't fall down or try something dangerous.  Bittersweet.)

Flashback Friday

Cabelas, Kansas City, Kansas

February 2005

Rachael is approximately 5 days old

Cabelas, Kansas City, Kansas

October 2010

Rachael is approximately 5 1/2 years old

We stopped here on our way home from Colorado
in part to take this picture!

Halloween Fun

We started our Halloween weekend by carving pumpkins. After extensive research - meaning years of carving pumpkins - we have decided two days before Halloween is the ideal time to carve them.  Rachael picked Dora to match her costume, I went with Maleficent (since I am always a witch) and Ryan chose Darth Maul.

Not too shabby!

Here she is all dressed up and ready to go! I bought the shoes earlier this summer for $3 but they are still a size too big.  We bought the yellow socks, then I bought some yellow lace and stitched it on for the ruffle.  I made the orange shorts myself, the T-shirt was $3 at Hobby Lobby and I got the backpack on Amazon.

Rachael had a Halloween party at school on Friday.  This is a picture of her playing "Musical Chairs." She and the little girl on the same chair with her were the last two finishers in her group, and sat down together at the exact same time when the music stopped.  They had to play that last round again, and Rachael won!

Here she is estimating how many candy corns are in the container. She guessed 106; there were 207.  Oh well, I guess you can't win them all.

Friday was also the Trunk or Treat activity.  Many thanks to the Richmond ward for inviting everyone in Berea!   There were so many people they had to add a couple of extra tables.  The kids all had a great time.  This is Rachael with her friend Aiden  - they went around together.

Our trick-or-treating group! L-R: Stevie & Kindra Fulks, Josh Rayburn, Jessie Boardman, and Ryan.  Rachael and Aiden in front.  (Jessie is Aiden's mom and Josh is her fiance).
Long story short: Kindra wanted to take Aiden trick-or-treating, so I invited them all over plus Bishop Christensen and Louan for dinner and trick-or-treating.  It was so much fun! If you want to see some pictures of them out you can read Jessie's blog about Halloween.  The whole gang pictured above went out together, and Bishop, Louan and I passed out candy at home.  Thanks everyone for a fun Halloween weekend!