Friday, July 29, 2011

4th of July

We had an awesome 4th of July weekend. Jacob had a 4 day weekend and we partied the whole time. We went and saw a movie and went out for ice cream and purple cookies. We went swimming and watched fireworks. We rented movies and went out to eat and pretty much just had a good time.




Here is the patriotic waffle that Jacob made me for breakfast. Isn't he so cute?






I always love the 4th of July. It truly is one of my favorite holidays of the year. I love the fireworks and the flags and I love the patriotism that it inspires. I feel so blessed to live in a country where we are free. Free to worship how we choose. Free to marry who we choose. Free to live where we want. Free to have as many kids as we want. Free to speak our minds. Free to travel where we want and just free to be ourselves. I am so grateful to the many many people who have sacrificed their time, their family, and even their lives to not only give us that freedom, but to maintain it. I am so grateful for all of those in the military now who work so hard to do so much for our country. I'm so proud of my husband who does what he does for our family and our country. I'm proud to be an American!

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Texas Fun

I am going to back post a little bit and share some of the pictures we took while we were partying with Jacob in Texas. We always have so much fun when we are together as a family. I can't wait until October when we can be together for good. It has been so hard being apart from him for so long. I won't write much more on this post, so just enjoy the picture overload.




Rachel once again kissing the baby in the mirror! I love it!























Wednesday, July 27, 2011

8 Months Old

Wow! Another month has flown by and my baby is now 8 months old! I love my cute little scootin', tootin', roly baby! She is so sweet and it is so fun to see her discover more and to see her personality develop more each day.
Some things about Rachel this month.
She has a tooth! I love to stick my finger in her mouth and feel that cute little tooth! It makes me so happy!
She is back to sleeping in my bed. With all of the traveling and the changes in schedules this month it has been hard her and she has refused to sleep in her crib ever since we got here to my sisters house.
She loves balls of any kind, big ones, small ones, some as big as your head. She loves balloons and any other ball type thing she can get her hands on.

She has been sick and teething so she has been super clingy which makes my arm tired because she has wanted me to hold her all of the time!

She loves it when her cousin/aunt Gracie sings to her. One day while Rachel was sick, she was crying and Gracie came in and started singing her a lullaby. Rachel immediately quieted down. Then when Gracie stopped, Rachel looked up at her and yelled as if to say, "Hey, keep going!" Gracie sang to her again and Rachel was happy.

She refuses to keep her headbands on her head which isn't too big of a problem except that with out headbands on she gets called a boy a lot! Not too long ago while I was with my sister in New York, I was playing with Benson and someone came up to me and asked me if Rachel and Benson were brothers. I try to dress Rachel in girly clothes, but apparently they aren't girly enough.
She can clap! Her claps are really big and wild, but she tries to catch my eye when she claps so I'll clap too and it makes her so happy. She looks so pleased with herself when she does that. She can also shake her head "no" and she is pretty pleased with herself about that too.

Her cousin Sammy is 4 and he loves to pat/rub her head and his baby brother Brigham's head. He told me that he likes to do it because their heads are so soft. He isn't always super gentle when he does it and it makes Rachel so mad when he does it. Especially when she is tired or not feeling good like she has been, but still he insists on doing it. It cracks me up every time!

She loves to grin at her mommy! If I've stepped out of the room for a minute, when I come back she always gets excited and gives me big smiles.

The last time I weighed her she weighed 23.3 pounds. She is a little chunk and I love it! I love all of the little rolls on her body! She is just so cute!

She flaps her arms whenever she gets excited. If she had wings instead of arms she would for sure take off!

She is getting better and better at feeding herself and sometimes won't take food that I offer her. But if I put it in front of her she will pick it up and eat it just fine.

She is tan! In fact, her little arms are tanner than mine are. She definitely gets that from me and not from her daddy.

She says "ma-ma," da-da," and "na-na." I know she knows that I am mama, and she did something the other day that made me suspect that she knows who her da-da is. I was talking on the phone to Jacob and Rachel was being kinda whiny because she didn't feel good so I put Jacob on speaker phone and told him to talk to Rachel. He started talking to her and Rachel got this really cute look on her face and as clear as can be said "da-da." It was so cute! It may have been a coincidence, but I'm choosing to believe that it wasn't.

She is a studier. She has to sit and study things before she can play. When we go outside or someplace new I can't even get her to look at me because she is too busy studying everything else.

She is such a good baby and I just love being her mom!

Sunday, July 24, 2011

Teething

So it has been a little while since I have blogged last. I've been traveling and I've had computer issues galore, but hopefully my computer will behave long enough for me to play a little catch up.

We have been having so much fun this month! We have gone to visit Jacob in Texas, and then to visit my sister Julie in Pennsylvania. Rachel got her first tooth last week and is working hard and getting another one. Poor baby girl, she is sick and teething both at the same time. Her first tooth definitely wasn't as painful coming in as this second one has been. For the first one, she was a little extra grumpy and she was up more during the night than
normal, but I didn't even realize she was teething until we felt the tooth. This second tooth is giving her more troubles though. She is refusing to eat or put anything in her mouth. She has been having high fevers and she won't let me put her down for anything. She looks up at me with eyes that look sad and miserable like she is just begging me to make her feel better and it just breaks my heart because there is nothing more I can do. I will be so glad when this tooth finally makes it through!

Julie and I took the kids for a walk to the park this afternoon and we put the babies in the swings and they loved it! I haven't been able to put Rachel down for that long and had her be happy for days it seems! I guess she was okay riding in the cart at the store the other day, but still it was nice to have a little break and it was nice to see a smile on her cute little face.
Brigham loved the swings too! He is such a cutie! I'm not sure why his picture showed up so little on here. I tried to fix it but I didn't know how.
Anyway, we've been super busy and we've been having tons of fun. I should hopefully start blogging about all of the fun stuff we've been doing soon. I hope everyone else is having as fun a summer as we are! :)

Friday, July 1, 2011

Tree climber

Maybe Rachel will be a professional tree climber instead of an artist. Or maybe she will draw in trees. Either way, she really liked the view from up that high!
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