Temple Trip

Easter weekend Jacob, Rachel, and I decided we were going to make the trip up to the Mesa Temple for the Easter pagent they have there every year. It was the same day as our ultrasound so we had to wait til that was over before we could start our trip so we didn't get there until right before the pagent and sat on the second to last row. Rachel and I couldn't see anything so Rachel ended up asleep on my lap and even though I couldn't see it, I could hear it and it was an amazing performance. I definitely want to make that a tradition for as long as we live here. We stayed that night at a hotel and went back to the temple the next day. While Jacob was inside I pretty much just followed Rachel around and snapped pictures. I had a blast just walking outside around the temple and looking at the grounds. The grounds are so pretty! I guess I was expecting more of a desert landscape or something.
 

It was so fun to just follow Rachel around and see what she would do. She loved running running running on the grass.
 

Most of the time shw was too distracted by being outside in a new place to look at me for a picture. Maybe 1 in every 10 that I took have her actually looking at the camera.

 

She loved looking at all of the pretty flowers. It was all I could do to keep her from picking them. I kept telling her not to touch, and she took that as her cue to pull them closer to her face so she could smell them.

 

 

Rachel was so funny when she found out that the grass was soft, not like our itchy pokey yellow grass at home. She kept having to lay down in the middle of walking on it and just rest on it.

And of course she had to stop and splash in every puddle that she found. She is definitly her mama's daughter.

 

 

 

 

We stopped in at the visitors center while we were waiting and Rachel did something that just made me giggle. There was a bronze statue of Jesus that was maybe about 3 or 4 feet high. When Rachel say it she ran up to it and said "Jesus!" Then she touched the feet and started saying, "Toes! Keekle, keekle, keekle!" Keekle=Tickle
I just couldn't help giggling. I'm sure Jesus has a sense of humor and was probably laughing too.

I had so much fun walking around the grounds with Rachel and stopping at the visitors center with her. I love the feeling at the temple. By the time our trip was over, Rachel was both signing and saying "temple." I wish it wasn't so far away, although I know I am lucky that it is only 2 hours away. So many people live much farther from the temple than we do.

Coloring

Rachel has recently discovered that she loves to color. Multiple times a day she takes me over to the cupboard I keep the crayons in and she signs color while saying either red or green.
 

If I am sitting by her and coloring with her she will literally sit and color for an hour or more at a time. 

 

 

I think it is super cute because I can ask her what she is coloring and she always has specific things in mind and she can tell me what she is drawing.

 

 

Want to see what she was coloring?


When I asked her what she drew in her picture she pointed in various places and said, "Star, happy baby, mama, dada."

 I love my little coloring girl.

Easter Egg Hunt

Okay, okay, I know Easter was a while ago, but I thought Rachel was so cute at her little Easter Egg hunt in our living room that I just had to post a few pictures.

 

Rachel was so cute. She would look around the room and when she saw an egg she would gasp and say "Eggy! Eggy!" I love that she calls eggs eggy. I think it is super cute!
 

Every time she picked up an egg she had to open it and see what was inside. We tried to get her to just put them in her bag and look later, but she had to open every single one. If it had something small in it she also had to eat it. This girl had way too much sugar that night, but she was happy and so were we. 

 

Here is a picture of her Easter bag. She colored it and picked out the stickers to put on it all by herself.  

 

 

 

 

 

This little Rachel girl makes me so happy!

Updates

My sisters have been asking for another pregnant picture, so here it is. This was me last Wednesday at 24 weeks.



My little Kent boy is getting big! At 24 weeks, my uterus is the size of a soccor ball and Kent weighs about 1.7 pounds and from crown to rump he is about 9 inches long. In some ways this pregnancy seems to be flying by (I'm 24 weeks already?) and in others it seems to be dragging (I'm only 24 weeks?) I officially grew out of one of my pairs of pre-pregnancy jeans this last week :( but actually I feel pretty good about being able to wear them for this long because with Rachel I grew out of my pre-pregnancy jeans by the time I was 14 weeks. Kent is getting wigglier and wigglier and I love it. Just last night he had the hiccups and it made me laugh because he had them for so long that he started getting really wiggly like he was trying to get rid of them or somthing.

Life has beeen fun and busy for us. My calling in the primary and Jacob's in scouts keeps us busy along with chasing my little Rachel-girl around all day. The last two weeks we have been potty training Rachel and let me tell you it has been an adventure. She has done really really well though. She averages about 1 accident a day, some days she has 2 and other days none, and I feel really good about her progress. The last two weeks at church she has stayed dry the entire 3 hours and has told us when she needed to go. She has even been telling me when we are at the park or the grocery store. I'm so proud of this little girl. I will be excited for when she can stay dry through naps and at night time too so we won't have to buy her pull-ups or diapers anymore.

We are hoping to make it home to Utah for Memorial Day weekend in a few weeks, but nothing is settled yet. Jacob has been busy at work with training and it all depends on if they will let him take a few days off or not. It would be really fun to get to go see family for a little while and to let them see how much our little Rachel girl has grown since we saw them last. She is getting so big and learning new things every day and she has the cutest little voice ever! I just love her to pieces and want my family to get to know her too.

Mud, Glorious Mud

Rachel loves to play outside. We spend a good portion of each day playing in our back yard. Something else Rachel loves is mud. I can't keep her away from it. I wouldn't mind if all she did was play in it, but unfortunately my funny little girl likes to eat it. She digs in the mud with her fingers and licks it like someone might lick frosting, and turns to me and with a muddy smile says, "Mmmmmmmmmmm!" and then goes back for more. I'm not really sure what to do about her eating mud and she doesn't seem to get a belly ache from it, so I don't worry about her too much, I just cringe and tell her to stop. Usually she just grins at me while eating more. Yuck!

 

 

"Uh, oh, I'm all messy!"
 

"Look, Mom, mud!" 

 

After she is done playing in the mud she is usually pretty good about going and washing her hands off in the bucket, so I guess that is the bright side. She gets messy, but she cleans herself off without much prodding.