Wagon

Here is the wagon we bought her for her birthday. She loves it and pushed it around the house and had others pull her around the house in it. We took her outside around the neighborhood for a ride but she preferred to get out of the wagon and push Grandpa Hobbs and the wagon all the way back home. I was impressed with how long she went without asking for a ride.

Scott showing her to give her teddy bear a ride in the wagon.


Teddy Bear and Rachel taking a ride inside the house in the wagon.

Okay my turn to take the teddy bear for a spin.

Just chilling in my new wagon with my new sunglasses on upside down(still trying to help her figure that one out), my teddy bear who's along for a ride and trying on my new overalls and realizing they fit me right now.


So I totally have to say I love this picture. We found this hat up in the closet. After five toddler showers I have know idea who gave us this hat but it is so totally adorable. I put it on her head and was like man she sure does look cute. So of course I had to take a picture. This was just before we headed out the door to take her for the first wagon ride outside. She is trying to smile and I love that her fingers really aren't in the gloves. I tried but she preferred not to have them all the way up into the fingers.

Blocks with Grandpa

So Rachel got blocks at Christmas time and everyday she plays with these blocks. She has gotten better and will actually let you get a pretty big tower built before she knocks them over. She got my dad (her Grandpa Hobbs) to play with her. It was so funny because he tried so hard to make something but she wouldn't let him get very far. She wasn't patient enough this day to wait for him to build anything. It was so funny to see the frustration in both of them. I finally told my dad just build it as high as you can as fast as you can so she can knock it down. She would laugh of course every time she knocked it down.

Trying to build a tower

Rachel actually helping this time build the tower by putting a few blocks on the top.

Look Who's 2!!

Okay so beware there are going to be lots and lots of pictures for this post. So this is just fair warning ahead of time. :-)

So it's really crazy to think that we have a two year old. Its definitely bittersweet. We love Rachel so much and are so grateful for the wonderful foster family she had before we got her. Rachel's birthday is February 13th. Since that was a Sunday and we wanted to have as many family members as possible over for her party we decided to do her birthday party on Saturday February 12th. It turned out to be a gorgeous day outside which was good since we bought her a swing set. We started the day gathered together to watch a DVD that my friend made of the toddler shower we had the week before with all my SLP friends. I love the DVD so much. Martha was able to capture Rachel's personality in it so well. Then we started the opening of the presents.
This is some of the people sitting around watching the DVD of Rachel. I love this picture though because Rachel is smiling at her foster sister Jamie. She was so happy to see Jamie and give her hugs. Rachel's great grandmother is sitting on the left side by the couch and her aunt Kaylene is the one on the couch.


These are Rachel's foster parents. Linda and Stan. They love her so much and took such great care of her for us. We love still having them in our lives.


Rachel's first present was from our friends the Nelson's. They gave her dress up stuff. She had a crown, necklaces, bracelets, rings, and a tutu. She loved them and put all of it on at one time and wore it all around while opening all the presents.

Still putting on all her dress up clothes.

She got her first piggy bank from Grandma & Grandpa Hobbs. She liked shaking it and hearing the coins rattle inside.

This was from the Peterson's. They saw my post about her taking the keys off the laptop and thought she should have her own laptop. She wanted it open right then and there but we couldn't get it out of the box. They totally adult proof these boxes also.


Open up one of the presents we gave her. She still didn't really like unwrapping presents. She prefers the bags with tissue that she can just toss out of the bag and then dump the bag.


Her life jacket so that we can go swimming this summer in the neighborhood pool. I think our association fees just might get used this year. We missed getting some pictures of her other presents but she got a wagon from us, a camping chair and trike from Grandma and Grandpa Pooh, Tyson & Tia, and Amber & Wayne's family. She also got a sleeping bag and overall's from Jamie & Keith's Family.

The birthday Cake. It was so delicious. It was white cake with raspberry filling.
As you can see further on Rachel liked the cake.

Attempting to blow out the candles. She didn't quite get that though. We will work on that for next year.

Getting her a piece of cake and ice cream.

Enjoying her cake.

Yep I prefer my hands.

She decided that her bracelet would make for a good spoon so she has ice cream all over it and she's scooping it into her mouth. She had it all over her face. I love to get pictures of how the big people utensils are just a little to big for her mouth but she won't eat with anything else. So I guess she will just have food all over her face. Oh well.

So her final gift that we gave to her was a playground set. We decided that we wanted to have it in our yard instead of having to go down to the club house to play. She loved it. This is her smile when she first saw it. She was so happy. We let her play out on it for about two hours. She wasn't about to come in so I had to go out and pick her up to come in and finally take a nap. She was not a happy camper.
This is the first time she went down the slide. She went right off the edge and landed on her bum. We were expecting her to cry but she just got back up, laughed and headed back up to the top of the slide again. She loves it.

Here is the picture of the whole set. She is swinging with her great grandpa who we call Bop. It was so cute I wish I had gotten video of this. She was actually saying "Wee" every time she went forward and backward. So totally cute. I don't know how long he did this with her but it was awhile.

Bath Time

So we have started this little tradition with Rachel. She loves water and so we let her play in the bathtub until her lips usually turn blue because the water has gone cold. Well Rachel's aunt Jamie gave us bath colors and so here is the picture of her bath water. Everyday we ask her what color water she wants and almost everyday it's "Purple". So here is our little "Fish" in her purple water.

Room Decorations

Mom and Dad finally got the pictures up on the walls in my bedroom. I have to say hello to all of the characters every time I go into my room. I also must say good night to them all before I go to sleep.

Pink Cowgirl Boots

Here are the long awaited pictures of my cowgirl boots that Moms Friend Kristin bought for me.



I love to wear them and can even put them on the right feet by myself, sometimes!

I love to hear the noise they make on the hardwood floor in the kitchen as I run. That is why all the pictures are in the kitchen.