New Addition to the Family

That's right folks, we finally purchased a second car. I shouldn't say we, because Matt did all the research and shopping (thanks Matt!). It is a 2006 black Corolla, very small and cute (and manly, of course). We haven't taken a picture yet, but I'm sure you can all visualize it. I came home from my walk to the mall on Tuesday and was surprised to see our Taurus in the lot. "What is Matt doing home?" was the first thought that came to my mind. "Oh, wait, that's my car now!! Wahoo!!". Anyway, I'm feeling nearly drunk with freedom. The whole world is open to me now. Or at least all of the parks in the area :) Thank you, Matt, for being so supportive and letting us do this!
On an entirely unrelated note, here is a picture of Rachel in an outfit that my grandparents brought back from Switzerland for me when I was a baby nearly 25 years ago. I'm so glad my mom was good about saving stuff like this. Rachel was doing weird things with her mouth the whole time, this was the best of the bunch!

Valentine's Day and Weekends

I do still have one trip post to do, but I thought I would take a little break and blog about the past two weekends. We had a great Valentine's Day. We made and delivered cinnamon rolls to some friends in the morning. Then we went to the baptism of a man who has been investigating the church for at least 2 years. It was so exciting to see him finally baptized! Afterward we went to Red Robin (every other family with kids in the Fairfax area had the same idea) before dropping Rachel off at a friend's house. Then we went and did sealings at the temple. How romantic is that? We haven't done sealings in several years, so we thought it was about time. All in all it was a busy and really fun day. I love Valentine's day. I like just about any holiday, actually.

A "self-portrait" we took at Nate's wedding. We try these all the time and this is one of the few that actually turned out. Trust me, we usually look a lot worse.

Rachel's Valentine outfit that I am super obsessed with. I found it at Macy's on clearance and I love it!

Another cute Rachel outfit (think how much money we would have saved if we had a boy instead?) that Jen got her in Utah. I LOVE little girl dresses. Thanks Jen! She is smiling because she loves feeling the wind when we go outside. Don't worry, I put a coat on her after I took the picture.

Last weekend I took Rachel to the park and had one of those rare moments when I realized why it is so worth it being a mom. Rachel and I (and Matt, by association) had made it through a rough week, so it was great to escape to the park when the weather finally warmed up. It was a perfect day and unseasonably warm. I took this picture after we rounded the corner and Rachel first saw we were at the park. She was so happy! Don't you wish we could all become uncontrollably happy just from a trip to the park? Sadly, our sense of enthusiasm is one of the things we lose when we grow up :( Rachel isn't grown up yet, though, and she was giggling from all the excitement. We played for an hour or so and went home to a hot meal in the oven. Does it get any better than that?

And now, a drum roll please: My favorite picture from our trip to Utah. We're at Cafe Rio (my favorite restaurant ever) and Jen sweetly offered to share with Rachel since she did not appreciate my spicy sauce. I got to eat baby free for once!

I love these girls!

I'm trying to hurry!

There have been some complaints that I am blogging too slowly through our vacation pics. Well, there's only been one complaint, but since only about 5 people read this blog then 20% of the readers aren't satisfied. So I'm going to wrap up Portland and Seattle all in one blog, with lots of pics and very few words! Here goes:

Rachel had a lot of fun playing with my cousins. Emma in particular was very diligent about playing with her and keeping her safe on the stairs.

Rachel learned the word "pull" when my Dad taught her to play tug of war with Remi. I think Remi played easy on her, because she won occasionally.

Snow!

Rachel loved giving my very old doggy (14 years this month!) kisses. He was a little confused when she went for his face, so she quickly learned to kiss his side. Carmel tolerated that very patiently, considering that she did it about 50 times a day.
Someone gave these glasses to my mom as a joke and Rachel loved them.
My cousin Lucas, almost 3 years old. I got him that shirt for Christmas. :)

That was pretty fast, right? Now I only have the Utah portion to go and then I'm all caught up!

Home Sweet Home

We were in Portland for about a week, starting on the 26th of December. It's funny how each time we go back it feels a little bit less like home. To me at least, I shouldn't speak for Matt. I still love the Northwest and really enjoy visiting. We stayed with Matt's family first for a few days.
Rachel loves her uncle Justin! He is 17 and so cute with his little nieces. He was a good sport about letting Rachel kiss him repeatedly.


My niece Olivia (Matt's sister's baby) is not quite 2 and a half. She is really cute and has the funniest personality. She loves me (I'm not sure why, I only see her twice a year) and called me "Mishaw" for the first part of the visit. Whenever I would try and get her to say the L sound she would tell me, "Mishaw is a hard word to say". She had it figured out by the end of the trip. I could tell about a zillion cute stories about her, but I realize I only think they are cute since she is related to me. So I will spare you. Let me just say that I'm kind of excited for Rachel to get older. Toddlers say so many funny things. One last funny thing: She breaks into song at random times (and she's only 2!). My favorite example is when we were at the temple visitor's center in Salt Lake (much later in our trip) and she was walking beside me hold my hand. Out of nowhere she starting singing, "There's a little black snake, swimming in the water. A little black snake, doing what he outta..." Where did that come from?? Then after finishing that song she started in on the song the vultures sing in Jungle Book (her favorite movie): "We are friends, we are friends, etc." Ok, I'll stop telling stories now.
We played a lot of guitar hero. Rachel LOVES watching guitar hero and gets pretty frantic between songs (More, more!!). She and Olivia are observing guitar hero from the highly fought over "manager's chair".
What vacation would be complete without a trip to Ikea? Rachel was pretty sleepy by the end.

Christmas and a little bit of our trip

We've been on vacation for many weeks, so here is the first of several holiday posts:

Rachel in her pretty Christmas dress. It has a matching jacket, but we couldn't get a good picture of her with it on. Pictures are a lot harder when they can walk!

Her new ponies needed some kisses. We had a fun time opening presents this year since she actually got excited for her toys.

We left for Portland the day after Christmas. Matt's mom got Rachel and her cousin Olivia matching dresses. I love matching dresses (right Jen?)!! They looked super cute, even though they wouldn't sit still and look happy for a picture.

Thanksgiving and other happenings

I am really struggling with blogger. How do I write above this picture? It can't be that hard... Anyway, we had a great Thanksgiving with a lot of our friends. The Bodens came up from Blacksburg and stayed with us for 3 short days. It was so fun and reminded us of old times, even though both our families have changed a lot in the past year and a half. I didn't get a single picture of all of us :( We had Thanksgiving dinner over at the Johnson's house, a family in our ward. Some of our other friends in the ward were there too. We had a delicious dinner and a great time hanging out with everyone. When Bro. Johnson discovered that Rachel loves (is totally obsessed with, actually) blowing out candles, he sat at the table and lit a candle over and over again for her. They must have done it 30 times. The kitchen was pretty smokey by the end. I think Rachel is grateful for candles. (Thanks to Tony, our resident photographer, for the pictures).

Last Wednesday I got my wisdom teeth removed. Matt took great care of me and I'm recovering nicely. He got me these lovely roses the day after my surgery.

I'M FAT! My face swelled up pretty bad. This is my "angry face", which Matt thought was hilarious.

A great use of our frozen veggies.

Matt left this afternoon for a week of business training in Atlanta :( I'm already really lonely and he's only been gone 3 hours. I haven't been alone on a Sunday afternoon in a long time. Only 5 days until he gets back!!

Pics and Stuff

Michelle wanted me to post to the blog...

H-O-K-I-E-S Hokies!!

You have to train them when their young, I have already begun Rachel's training to the Maroon Side of the Grid Iron.


Look how cute she is in her little hat and mittens!


Just look at the boots...what would she do without an aunt that works at a shoe store.

...so I did.