Boxen

The other day Rachel and I went to Hurricane to visit Jacob's parents. It had been a while since we had been out there last (too long if you ask me :), and it took Rachel a minute to warm up to her grandparents. It was fun, we went out to lunch with them and then we went and saw Rachel's Uncle Josh dance at an assembly at school, which was really awesome by the way. Then we went back to the house and hung out with Grandma. Here are a few pictures of Rachel's adventures at Grandma and Grandpa Bulloch's house.

For some reason when she first felt this material she made the funniest "sicked out" faces. I'm not sure why she didn't like it at first, but the faces she made were awesome!

Rachel cracks me up with how much she likes to play with and eat paper. I let her play with it because she loves it so much, but I have to watch her really close because she is tricky and gets big pieces in her mouth. She will just sit and chew on them.

Wouldn't you just love to get a package on your doorstep with this cute baby in it?

I am the Biggest Loser!

So at the beginning of January Jacob and I started in a Biggest Loser competition that my sister was hosting. It has been a lot of fun and really good for both of us. For the first time in my life I payed attention to what I was eating. I counted calories for the first time ever and was totally shocked at the amount of calories that were in some of the things I was consuming. I started exercising more consistently than I ever had before. Tuesday was our last day of our contest and I won. I was totally shocked! I lost the highest percentage out of anyone doing the contest. I started out doing the Biggest Loser with my family not really hoping to win, but just hoping to get the motivation I needed to lose some weight and be more healthy, and it totally worked. It was fun because we had to get on and blog every week about how we had done the previous week and we could see how the other people in the competition were doing as well. Since we started our Biggest Loser competition I have lost 33 pounds, and since I had Rachel in November I have lost a total of 51 pounds. During this competition I lost 15.3 percent of my total body weight. I still have a ways to go, but I am feeling really good about what I have accomplished so far. Something I liked about this contest is that there were two parts. We had one winner who lost the highest percentage of weight, and the other winner was the one who made the most healthy choices. We had certain things we could do to earn points everyday and whoever had the most points at the end was the other winner. I think it was trying to get the certain points that helped me the most in losing the weight. The points were things like eating 5 fruits and vegetables a day and drinking 8 8 oz glasses of water a day and exercising for 30 minutes and other things like that that helped me make better decisions throughout my day. I'm hoping we will start another biggest loser competition soon because of how motivating it was to have to post how we did every week. Maybe if my sister doesn't start another one soon, I'll start one of my own! I just wanted to post and share my current successes with everyone!

Flying

I really couldn't ask for a more perfect little model to let me practice taking pictures! Sure she is wiggly and most of my pictures are either blurry or have a vital part of her missing for the picture (like her head), but she is just so cute, I just can't help taking lots and lots of pictures of her. I took these pictures last time we went to go see Jacob. We were both tired of being on the plane and she was excited to get off my lap and finally play! Isn't she just the most beautiful baby? (I'm not biased at all :p)

I think this second picture is probably my favorite. She is just so sweet and happy and I love the cute look on her face and her sparkely eyes!

We are actually leaving to go see Jacob again tomorrow, and even though the last flight went okay, I'm still nervous about flying again. I think that is just something I am always going to be nervous about. I decided I don't like flying because it is so stressful! It totally stresses me out going through the airport and making sure I get every where on time and trying to pack my luggage and my baby and my diaper bag and her car seat. I don't know why it stresses me out so much, but I just dread that part! It is totally worth it to go see Jacob though. I'm way excited, I am going to be there for a week and a half this time instead of just for the weekend! I miss that boy of mine so much and it is going to be so nice to get to see him for that long! I'll be so glad when his training is over and we can just live together as a family again!

Mud Pies

So the other day, my sister Caralee came over to hang out and we were going outside and saw that the sprinklers had been on. The sprinklers were pretty close to my mom's flower bed so they got some of the dirt pretty wet. My nephew Brock saw the puddles on the dirt and started splashing in them turning them to mud. We tried to get Sydney to put her feet in to like Brock but she wouldn't take off her shoes to do it. Caralee took Rachel over and let her feel the mud between her toes and Rachel loved it! She started lifting up her feet to splash in it like she does in the bathtub.

She was getting it all up her legs anyway so I told Caralee to take her dress off and just let her sit in it. You would have thought I had given Rachel her first taste of chocolate or something! She absolutely loved playing in the mud! It was so cute to see her experience the texture of mud and to see how much she enjoyed it!

It started out as this. . .

. . . and quickly went to this.

She kept trying to eat it! Doesn't she have just the cutest little face?

Here she is getting cleaned off a little before taking her in the house. She didn't like that part as much. The hose water was a little cold!

Over all I think it was a fun experience! Definitely one we will have to repeat since she liked it so much!

Sucker

Rachel is having so much fun here with her grandparents. Almost as much fun as they are having with her! Rachel loves to eat and I'm okay with letting her at least try *almost* anything. The other day my dad gave her a chocolate donut to eat and she totally loved it! It was so cute! Well another day, my mom decided to let her have a sucker. Here is what she thought of that.

First she had to smell it. Nope it doesn't go in that hole little one!

Then she had to study it.

Next she decided to taste it. Oops, wrong end little one!

But in short, she loved it!

"Don't even think about taking my sucker Grandma!"

Now it may sound like I only feed her junk food, but she actually eats lots of other things that are good for her too. I feed her green beans and bell peppers and squash not to mention all sorts of fruit! This girl just loves her food!

6 Months Old

Wow! I can hardly believe it, but my little Rachel girl is 6 months old today! I can't believe she has been with me for half a year! Double that and she will be one! That seems so crazy to me! I just love being a mom! This little girl makes me so happy and definitely keeps me busy. She rules the roost around here and she knows it! She has got me (and Grandma, and Grandpa, and Uncle Jeremy) wrapped around her finger!

Some things about Rachel at 6 months old.

She has moved twice.

She has flown in an airplane.

She weighs 21.4 pounds.

She wears size 5 diapers.

She skipped the 12 months size of clothes and is now in size 18 months.

She loves to go out side and she especially loves to go for walks.

She loves men. She lights up when either her Uncle Jeremy or her Grandpa walk into the room.

She is sitting up all by herself.

She rolls over and over and over and is really quite mobile that way. She can get to where she needs to by rolling.

She loves to make eye contact with anyone, and gets frustrated if there is someone in the room that hasn't made eye contact with her yet.

She loves playing with toys.

She loves her Mommy and likes to play with me more than she likes playing with toys.

She loves to nurse, and knows exactly where to go to get it! I can't tell you how many times she has pulled down my shirt and sucked on the skin she finds there when she is wanting to nurse! Also she will rub her face in my chest and lick me trying to get me to feed her.

She loves to eat and gets jealous when everyone else is eating and not sharing.

She loves to drink water. She grabs for my cups all of the time and she also loves to drink out of her own sippy cup.

She misses her daddy and had so much fun seeing him when we went to visit!

She is still noisy in church, but she is a lot better than she used to be. I can sit through most of the meetings and only have to take her out once or twice.

Rachel grabs everything.

She loves to pull my hair. Recently I have taken to pulling my hair back all of the time because she pulls it so much, but Rachel has figured out where my hair is anyway. She will reach around my head just to find my hair so she can pull it.

She doesn't sleep through the night anymore. I'm trying to get her to sleep in her crib, but we are still having struggles with that. I'm not sure I'm brave enough to let her cry it out at night, so for now I still have to nurse her to get her to fall asleep.

She still loves to take baths and just recently has started preferring to get to sit up in the bathtub to just laying down.

She has started saying mama. Only when she is fussy though and even then it isn't all of the time, but I just love to hear her say it.

That is a pretty long list, and really I could go on and on and on when it comes to my baby (and often times I do!). I just love this little baby girl of mine!

Happy Yellow Friday Day!

Still has the touch!

So last week when we went to visit Jacob, the first time Rachel saw her daddy she got scared and bawled. It definitely didn't take her long to warm up to him though, and before long he was able to get her laughing again. I think it is so funny that she will only laugh for certain people and I'm so glad her daddy is one of them. She hardly ever laughs for me, although on Sunday night she gave me quite a few little laughs. She is such a cute funny girl. The times when she will laugh are so rare that I feel like I need to record them as proof that she does indeed laugh, so once again here is a little video of my little Rachel girl laughing.

Roll Anyone?

I know I talk about Rachel eating food quite often, but she is just so funny about it. A little while ago I had a roll, and before I could even take a bite out of it, Rachel was whining and reaching for it. I gave it to her thinking that all she would be able to do is just suck on it and drool on it a little bit. Boy was I wrong! I didn't know one roll could make such a mess. She was so excited about that roll, but there were crumbs everywhere! I took a picture at the very end but when I went to put in on here I couldn't find it so you'll just have to imagine what a mess it made! She is just so funny!

Mirror, Mirror, on the wall. . .

Rachel loves to look at the baby in the mirror, and it makes me so happy! She will grin and grin and grin whenever she catches a glimpse of herself in the mirror. I think it is so cute! I think it is pretty funny too though because I know she doesn't recognize that it is her she is looking at, but she doesn't grin at other babies as much as she grins at herself in the mirror.

It was really cute when she first saw herself in this little toy mirror, she kissing the baby in the mirror! I didn't get any pictures of her kissing herself but I really wish I had!

When we were in Texas, the room we stayed in had mirrors on the closet doors. I let Rachel get close enough to touch if she wanted to and she did! She thought it was great fun to get to be so close to the baby in the mirror.

Rachel was funny because she kept trying to touch the baby in the mirrors face, but every time she went to touch her face, the other baby's hand came up to block her! She got kind of frustrated about that after a while! :p

It kind of reminds me of Anne of Green Gables how Anne had a "window friend" named Katie. Well my child has a mirror friend. I wonder what her name is. :)

Relay for Life

The Relay for Life was a couple of weeks ago and I'm finally now getting to posting a few pictures from it. I love the Relay for Life. There are quite a few people in my family who have had or who have cancer so our family has been involved with it for a lot of years. Last year was my first year not attending the Relay since we started doing it. We were living in California and couldn't come back for it. This year I didn't get to stay for nearly as long as I would have liked. Usually I go and stay all night long and spend a good part of the night walking and supporting my family members, but this year it kind of snuck up on me and I couldn't stay all night because I needed to take Rachel home and put her to bed. The part I did get to stay for was a lot of fun though! My brother and I went out and got sushi and it was so good that I couldn't stop thinking about it. I had to go out and get some the next night too! It was way fun! The Relay for Life is ALWAYS fun! I didn't get many pictures, but here are the few I got.

This is a picture of all of the cancer survivors in purple and their caregivers in white making the survivors lap. Can I tell you I just love the Relay for Life?

Here is a picture of my Mom's Dad. My favorite Grandpa Doodle starting on the survivors lap. My grandpa is so awesome, he makes everyone feel like they are loved and like they are the most important person. He makes us feel loved because he truly does love everyone.

Here is a picture of Uncle Danton and Aunt Susan doing the survivors lap!

Rachel was so funny at the Relay. She looks kinda grumpy and tired in this picture and in truth she was pretty grumpy and tired most of the day, except for when we were at the Relay. She was loving being outside in the stroller. It was a super windy day and most people were cold, but Rachel would smile and get excited when the wind would blow in her face. Also there were some loud speakers on one side of the track playing music. It was so loud that when you walk past them you have to stop talking because you can't hear anything except the music. It was so funny, because whenever we would walk past the speakers Rachel would laugh! She is a funny baby. Most babies hate the wind and loud noises, but apparently she likes them! Silly girl!

Here is a picture of Grandma and Grandpa Murphy on the Survivors lap. We love you!

Here is a picture of my cute Aunt Susan! She and her family do so much every year getting everything organized for the Relay for Life! Thanks for all you do Aunt Susan!

I didn't get a very good picture of this, but after the survivors lap all of the survivors let go of their balloons at the same time. I love seeing all of the balloons going up into the atmosphere!

Rachel's cousin Kayla was having so much fun playing with her! It was so cute! Kayla was actually getting Rachel to laugh!