Swings

Just today when I took Rachel to the park, she decided that she was big enough to swing on the big kid swings. She thinks she is so big! I'm not sure how I feel about my little girl growing up. It is so fun to see her learning and growing and trying new things but it is so crazy because I know she will never be that little baby that she used to be again. She is growing so fast. I love my sweet little girl.
 

Skirts

A few months ago I had cut some material out to make a skirt for Rachel, but because of this that and the other thing I never got around to it. I was looking in my sewing closet a couple of weeks ago and found the material but also saw that because of how much she has grown it wouldn't work to make the skirt I was originally planning on. I decided to pull out my sewing machine and do a little experiment and make a different skirt for my little girl and I think it turned out pretty cute in spite of the fact that I had no idea what I was doing and had no pattern.

I even had enough material to make a little matching skirt for her baby doll which she loved!

 

 

 

Getting her to sit still long enough for a decent picture was another matter. I love my funny wild little girl.

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!