Mall of America

While in Minneapolis we just had to take Rachel to the Mall of America, which of course meant a trip to the Nickelodeon Theme Park with in the mall. This was Rachel’s first experience with rides and she loved it. We started out slow with a Blues Clues ride that just went round and round. She smiled a lot...we then worked our way up to the Dora and Boots Ferris wheel - She smiled more with the height. She then got her first taste of a roller coaster, as it whipped her and her daddy around some "fast" turns she squealed with glee. But the absolute best was the one in the picture. I cannot remember the name, but she laughed so hard during the ride she could barely catch her breath. We were laughing just as hard. I must say - we were very proud of her for riding it by herself, she showed NO FEAR, just a little nervousness at first. I wish we could have gotten her on video, even the ride worker was laughing at her. It was awesome and told us that she has a real taste for excitement and maybe a little Dare Devil in her. Oh boy!

Ping Pong

Rachel has found a new game - Ping Pong! She truly takes after her daddy. While in Iowa/Minnesota visiting friends and family Rachel was able to test her athletic side and she loved it. She actually did quite well at hitting the ball - great hand-eye coordination. She laughed a lot, got frustrated a lot, but most of all had a ton of fun!

Reading

Every kid has their favorite book and one of Rachel's is Brown Bear, Brown Bear. It is a great beginning book, the repetitive pattern and colorful pictures make it very easy for memorization. We tried for weeks to catch Rachel reading the book. And finally Daddy caught her without her knowing as she read it to herself in her pink castle tent. The best part is that as she reads it, she takes a sneak peak to the next page so she knows what animal and color comes next. Our next mission is to catch her singing. We found that she has started to memorize songs from her favorite movies or from the radio. She can hear a song on the radio and name what movie it is from...sound familiar (just like mom). So Daddy put together a Mix CD of her favorite songs. Her favorite song to sing right now is "Part of Your World" from the movie The Little Mermaid. Stay tuned for a video once we can catch her!

Birthday Fun!

Rachel received a pink tricycle for her birthday from Mom and Dad. Though she was embarresed to ride it front of everyone, she would ride it up and down the alley for Mom and Dad. Once she was comfortable with that she was ready to show everyone her bike and let her cousin Anna ride it too! Notice she is wearing a nightgown - she got that from her cousins in Alabama! She loves her dresses and wanted to put it on immeadiately!

Happy Birthday Rachel!

Rachel celebrated her 3rd Birthday on August 16th! She had her cousins, Gran, Grandad, Abigail and Alan over for a party! It was a Mickey Mouse party and it sure was fun! She got lots of nice gifts and a lot of cake!

Princesses

Rachel is all about Cinderella right now...we watch the movie quite frequently and she brings me her Magna Doodle and asks me to draw the pumpkin. All her dress up shoes are now called Cinderella slippers. So to make it perfect Mimi bought her a Cinderella dress and a parasol for her birthday which is 2 weeks away still. But she just could not wait. Rachel wears it all the time, this is a great picture of her brushing her teeth just after her bath...what did she want to wear that day? Her Cinderella dress of course.

Just a few of her favorite things.....

She loves her dresses so much...every weekend she wants to wear her pink polka dot dress to church. Even though it fits her body, her legs have grown so much it is becoming too short to wear outside the house. She loves to put it on and wear all mommy's play jewelry or her crowns. That must by why we have so many pictures of her in that dress! - Funny Story - at daycare they let the kids put together a collage of their favorite foods, then asked them to choose their 3 favorites and put it up on the board. Kids were choosing pizza, cake, corn dogs all the things kids love! But not Rachel - she chose chicken, bisquits, and syrup....we laughed when we saw it becuase it is just so her to pick those things. She reminds me of Buddy the Elf.

Summer fun

In June Rachel and Mommy flew to Des Moines to visit Mimi and Boppa. We also got to visit with GiGi (Great Grandma Snow) which Rachel just loved. In the car on the way home from Gigi's house Rachel said "Gigi my friend." Rachel really liked the birds in their cages and the silk butterflies in Gigi's room. Of course the cookies from Gigi just sealed the deal as a great adventure. Rachel went shopping, went to the park a few times, watched movies, played dress up, and all sorts of fun things. The picture of is her taking it easy after sliding down the large tunnel slide at the park. Rachel did great on the airplane and talked about it all week. She really enjoyed "going in the sky and going fast."

The Zoo

Rachel really enjoyed the zoo. She liked the elephants and chimps the most. She made monkey sounds and beat her chest...it was funny, then topped it off by waiving and shouting "bye-bye monkey". She also enjoyed the carosel ride at the zoo. She has shown a real interest in horses lately...oh great!

The Zoo Part 2

Rachel also enjoyed Texas Town. We also visited the Texas exhibit and there was a Wells Fargo Stagecoach....so of course we had to get her picture.

Memorial Weekend

Rachel has a small sinus infection so we are not doing too much. Saturday we went to cousin Andrew's birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese. Rachel chattered all day about seeing Anna and Andrew, but once we got there she would not say a word and played the shy game the whole time. Then once we got in the car she said "Andrew where are you?" We just laughed. On Sunday we took it easy. Rachel wore her pretty pink polka dot dress to church, swam in her little pool and played with her new "pretend" make-up kit. On Monday we are going to the zoo in Ft. Worth, hopefully it is not too hot, but she loves to see the animals! - Have a great weekend!

Swimming

Well Summer is finally here and almost in full force so we broke down and bought a kiddie pool for Rachel! She loves it! She tried many times to get Sebastian to swim with her, but for some reason he just would not get in?? I could be that he hates water :-) So Daddy got in with her while mommy took pictures and video taped. Speaking of video...Rachel watched her 1year and 2year DVD's last night and just loved them. She wanted to watch them again this morning.

Pretty Dress

Rachel was shy, but she sure did enjoy wearing a new pretty summer dress. Her doll baby has on the exact same one.

At the Lake

Rachel and Daddy enjoyed some "together" time sitting on the porch watching the boats pass by Lake Whitney. We all enjoyed a warm day in the sun that weekend fishing. Mommy even caught a small perch and Rachel was not scared of it one bit. She even petted the fish.

Dress up and Obedience

Rachel loves to play dress up, she pulled out her entire trunk of play clothes and proceeded to put them all on at one time. Then she danced around. She then tried to dress Sebastian, but he would have no part in that. Rachel has started speaking in full sentances, and she likes to use the word "very" in everything. "Thank you very much" "I like bannanas very much." "Daddy's very funny"...and so on. But the best moment we had last week was caused by my own hands. Rachel is in her 2's which of course means she is testing everything we do an say. So we use the word "obedient" with her frequently. She understands the word and knows what it means. For example, if we ask her to pick up her toys, and she does not, we look at her eye to eye and say "Rachel be obedient." She then picks up her toys. She knows that "obedient" is the last time we will ask. So last Sunday daddy was putting her shoes on for church. Daddy said "let's go to church" Rachel loves going to church. But I was not ready, so Daddy then said "Rachel, tell mommy to get her shoes on too." Rachel then looked me with the straightest face and said "mommy, shoes on! Be obedient!" we just broke down in laughter. She is so much fun.

The ABC's

Rachel singing her ABC song!

The Lake and Learning

We spent Sunday out at the Lake by Grandpa Houghton's house. Rachel loved all the wildflowers. She has repeatedly asked to go swimming every weekend. It just is not warm enough yet, but we will have to get her a kiddy pool once it is. Her little mind continues to grow and learn. She can now sing her ABC's, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Itsy Bitsy Spider, Jesus Loves Me, and she is great at making up her own songs about Mommy and Daddy. She has been moved into the next class at her daycare and she really likes her new teacher Miss Janette. However Rachel calls her Nick, which should be Nette. She still gets to spend time with Miss Carrie and her Miss Mary, but in her new class they have no sippy cups and potty train. It is great to see her develop so quickly. Rachel loves to sit on the potty and say "I did it!" even though nothing happens. We are getting there....

(Always click on picture to see larger version)

Easter Saturday

Since the weather was predicted to be cold on Easter Sunday, we let Rachel have her Easter basket and egg hunt on Saturday. She really enjoyed it and loved the basket. It has become her new purse!

Happy Easter

Rachel in her blue dress.

Spring Is Here

We bought Rachel sidwalk chalk today and she loves it. She has spent a lot of time on the backyard patio just coloring and then running to tell Mommy and Daddy to come look. She has also tried to get Sebastian to look to no avail.