Easter

Easter was pretty low key for in the Ratto household this year. There were fewer hopping rabbits than one might have hoped for and no hidden easter baskets nor that plastic green grass that you find around your house for the rest of the year. But we still managed to color eggs with our last minute dye kit (only 74 cents on sale!!) on Saturday in just enough time use them for deviled for dinner the next day . See the picture and try to guess which one is mine! to make it easier, if they look good then it probably is not mine. Sunday morning we let Rachel play with a couple of the eggs for a photo opp and she proceeded to smash them together till they broke so we had to quickly take them away. The good news is that we know that she has reached the caveman phase of development (eggs fill in for the rocks) so she is coming along nicely and is still cute. Just look at her; it doesn't get much cuter then that.

That evening we went over to the Stevenson's for dinner taking with us some deviled eggs (pretty tasty), our favorite salad (really tasty), and some of Michelle's soon-to-be award winning chocolate chip cheesecake (worth the extra inch on your waste line). They did the ham and rolls (both excellent) and it made for an enjoyable easter meal. Sara volunteered to be our photographer and snapped a couple pictures of us. We actually look pretty good so I think that Sara has some untapped potential in the world of photography.

Look! It's us! Cute Easter dress, beautiful wife, and the luckiest man in the world.

Smooch!

Vacation

Snuggling with Grandma Purple for a badly needed nap

I know Olivia's face doesn't show it, but she really did like hanging out with Rachel

What a team! Pull Rachel, pull!

Coloring time with Annabelle and Jen

Rachel and I just got back from a 2 week trip to Oregon and Washington. We had a lot of fun visiting our family. Matt held down the fort at home and worked hard while we were gone. Our first stop was Seattle, where Rachel woke up between 3:00 and 5:00 every morning because of the time change. Jen got up with her for the first 3 mornings and let me sleep in a bit. Rachel slowly adjusted to the new time zone, but the woke up before 6:00 am for the whole 2 weeks! Besides deciding to wake up crazy early, she was very well behaved. The plane trips actually went really smoothly. We had a bag stuffed full of toys and books and just kept rotating through them. I also sang a lot (as quietly as possible, of course!). Our Seattle visit was so fun and busy. My cousin Annabelle, age 4, loved playing with Rachel and making funny faces at her. It was great to have someone to entertain Rachel. She loved watching Annabelle and Lucas run around. Grandma Purple rocked her to sleep several times, which is quite a feat with Rachel. We also visited my mom's clinic (which Grandma and Jen will remember is right next to Ivar's :) and met her co-workers. And of course we visited a children's consignment store for some cute used clothes.
Portland was our next stop. We stayed with the Ratto's for a few days. Rachel's cousin Olivia loved giving Rachel kisses and handing her toys. They were so cute together! We got an ice cream bar at Costco and shared it between the 4 of us. Olivia was ready for the next bite right after she had her first and Rachel was determined to hold the stick herself. They looked like 2 baby birds. Matt's mom took the morning shift at her house so that I could catch up on sleep there.
Our final stop was the Taylor household. Rachel absolutely loved meeting their new puppy, Remy. Unfortunately he is still learning not to nip when saying hello, so their contact was pretty limited. They both really wanted to play with each other and we spent a lot of the time letting them look at each other from afar. I got a lot of help with Rachel there too, which was nice. I was also able to visit the class that my dad teaches at Lewis and Clark Law School, which was really interesting. My Grandma and Grandpa were also visiting from Utah, so we had a mini family reunion. I'm hoping my Oregon family forgives me for giving them a nasty stomach flu. I got a very short case of it and thought I wasn't contagious by the time I left Matt's house, but I think I was wrong... At least in most cases it only last 12 hours!
All in all in was a great trip. I was sad that Matt couldn't come. Our friends here took good care of him, but Rachel and I really missed him. So did the rest of our family. I guess someone has to bring in the big bucks!

Carbo loading

Matt and I were watching the food network last night (of course) and saw something we had never thought of before. Two women who participate in triathlons created a delicious chocolate chip cookie to carbo load with because they didn't like energy bars (and who can blame them?). Then they started their own bakery in New York. Now, it seems to me that there are some nutritional differences between energy bars and big, thick, gooey chocolate chip cookies, but no one can deny that the cookies would taste better! So we figured out that we just need to start doing triathlons. We already have the cookie making down and we already carbo load, so step 3 is doing something with all those carbs! Triathlons here we come!

Valentine's Day

I just had to post these cute pictures of Rachel on Valentine's Day. The dress and bib are from my Grandma and Grandpa who keep sending her lots of cute clothes! The button is her very first Valentine from my sister Jen. Now that we have a baby we hardly ever take pictures of anything but her, but since she's so cute who could blame us? For Valentine's day Matt made steak for dinner in his cast iron skillet that he got for Christmas. I got him his favorite Baklava from Harry and David's for dessert. Rachel goes to bed really early, which is inconvenient if we want to go out and do something, but works great if we don't want to have to wrestle with a baby during dinner.
Matt hid little notes all over the house for me to find. I made him a treasure hunt with a play station game as the prize (Matt's usual present). All in all it was a good holiday. I love my Valentines!

Give me liberty or give me sothing else!

In this case it was a trip to Richmond, VA with a couple of our friends from our church. We drove down on Saturday morning and went straight downtown so see the sites. After a quick visit to the visitor's center we proceeded to search every nook and cranny of downtown Richmond for a parking space. As it turns out 90% of the city is under construction but with the help of our maps we were finally able to track down a space and take to the streets. Here are some of the highlights of the trip.

Michelle and Rachel looking small in comparison to the capital building. Our hats of to T.J. for designing such a large building.

Rachel and I standing outside of "The Egyptian Building." New Ratto family claim to fame that we are the first Ratto to ever lay eyes of this exquisite edifice. Check it out next time you are in the area.

St. John's church were Patrick Henry gave his famous give me liberty or give me death speech.

Ah...yes, nothing like taking a rest on a stately park bench outside of the old white house of the confederacy. Jefferson Davis was not taking visitors.

Just look how happy Michelle is next to the grave of Edgar Allen Poe's mother.

Needless to say we did not pay to go into the church when we found out that if you come for a reenactment during the summer the whole thing is free. Plus any excuse to come mingle with some period characters is simply to much to pass up. We also resisted the urge to go to the Edgar Allen Poe museum though I think that I am starting to want to next time we go down.

We enjoyed a pretty relaxing trip for the rest of the weekend and it was nice to get out of out apartment for a while. Jenny Roane's grandmother kept us well fed and we enjoyed some shopping the next day. Some good clothes and toys for Rachel and discount prices (more on that a couple posts from now) and some dessert cups for Michelle since we have been lacking in inspiration to make desserts recently...or something like that.

Rachel is still cute and we are still alive so there are no complaints from me. Until next week.

Whac-a-mole and other stuff

We finally found a use for our whac-a-mole game that has been gathering dust in our closet since Christmas 2005. "It was a groggy morning for me," said Rachel's father, "when she woke up and I remembered it was my turn to take care of her, I though to myself, what in the world am I going to do with her. It was then that I turned to our game closet to find something that might occupy the young one so mom can sleep a little longer." Long story short, this sleep deprived father pulled down the brightly colored box, blew the dust off its surface, and stared back at the wacky moles decorating its cover. It was a huge hit, Rachel loved the lights, sounds, plastic mallets, and the non-stop action.

The week has otherwise been pretty normal. I am getting ready to start my new position at work with the security group and drove out to the office I will be working at to get a badge and some documentation to read to get up to speed with the current projects.

Other than that, we hung out with one of Michelle's roommates from BYU and we had a fun time making donuts with her. There is is nothing like a freshly cooked donut coated in powdered sugar and a little cinnamon. Afterwards we had a waffle party with our friends from the ward and enjoyed hanging out and playing games with them. Of course we had the best waffle toppings of all time, ice cream and fresh strawberries, there is not a more heavenly combination that you can pass for a meal than that.

Keep checking back with us. You never know when we might actually post something interesting.

6 months old!

Rachel turned 6 months on January 30th. We celebrated by letting her try a sippy cup for the first time. What an exciting birthday for her :) !! She loves drinking water from her sippy and chewing on the top of it. She's not picky about what she likes to chew on, though. She also really likes taking a little drink from my water glass if I'm holding her when I take a drink. Her arms start flapping like crazy when she sees me drinking.
This past weekend we had a lot of fun with some of our friends here. On Friday we went over to Sara and Brandon's and had a tasty dinner. We also tried out their new couches. Then Saturday we got our first paid babysitter and went to the temple and out to dinner. The babysitter, Emily, did a great job entertaining Rachel and then putting her to bed. She is the first person besides Matt and me that has put her to bed. It was a great evening. Then Sunday we watched the Super Bowl over at Sara and Brandon's. We ate a ton of food!