January Accomplishments

This month we have a new imaginary friend.  His name is Texas.

Most of her stuffed animals have names now instead of just being named dog, caterpillar etc. 

In Montessori:  Was the line leader, calendar keeper, Meteorologist, substitute

This month she has started to give us thumbs up when she likes something.

At Texas Roadhouse for dinner with Bonnie.  We had just finished eating and just as the waiter came back to see if we needed boxes Rachel yelled at the top of her lungs she needed to go to the bathroom.  Yeah besides the waiter the rest of the restaurant heard it also.  I was embarrassed but the waiter was pretty good natured about it.  He just laughed and said, "I think she needs to go?"

Conversation with Scott as he was getting her up one morning:
Scott:  Rachel it's time to get up
Rachel:  Dad leave me alone I'm not a morning person.

Discovery Center Montessori Field Trip January

This month's field trip was to the Discovery Center.  I had never been there.  So it was good to go see what it is all about.  They always gather together at the beginning of their field trips to sing their hello song.  This is them all singing.

 Rachel being the most animated of the group during the song.

 1st thing she did was this balance beam.  We didn't last long here.

 This was definitely the favorite thing to do here at the discovery center for her.  We did this several times and she wasn't happy if she had to wait for someone else to have a turn.

Look how high I can go all by myself.

 One of the scientists did a science show for us.  It was lots of fun.  Rachel listened pretty intensely for her. We are learning about liquid nitrogen and how it reacts in different situations.

 She put 10 blown up balloons into this cooler of liquid nitrogen. Yes all 10 went into this cooler

 They came out looking like this.  After they warmed up out of the cooler they filled back up to the regular size.  The molecules go back to their normal size.

This was fun for me mostly.  We made this arch out of blocks and it actually stood up by itself.  It was awesome and everyone left it up the whole time we were there.  As you can see in the back there were lots and lots of different experiments we were able to do.  We stayed for about two hours and then Rachel and I went out for lunch.  It's kind of a tradition now that whenever there is a field trip we go to lunch.

Let it Go Song

Rachel loves to watch the Let It Go Song from Frozen on You Tube and she especially loves it now on the big screen.  I ended up recording her singing it and doing all the actions.  It's very good for being 5 years old.
Let It Go - Frozen

New TV

So our friend Drummer decided that she wasn't going to have her super bowl party that she normally has.  So Scott decided he wanted a new TV.  Well we went in search of a new one.  He of course wanted an 80 inch and I saw the price and said, "No Way."  The 70 inch was about a thousand bucks cheaper.  So we started researching and found one at Sam's Club that came in a package deal for the same price it was here at Walmart without the package that went with it.  This is our brand new TV.  It's totally awesome.

 This is the picture I sent to Scott while at work so he could hurry home after work.

 He got home and we put the TV up on the wall.  It's awesome and so huge.

Preschool Presentation

At Montessori this month they are learning about their family heritage.  Rachel had her presentation today.  She did a really good job. (It's also PJ Day at school that's why she is in her PJ's).

 Just before school we got a picture of her posing in her PJ's that she decided to wear for the day.

 Rachel was the calendar keeper this week at school.  That meant that she got to put up the date and then go over the days of the week.  She also got to tell all the different special dates for the week.

 Mrs. Lawson had to help her a little bit with the special dates.

 For her presentation she talked about the Schaffer family.  We showed the Schaffer Coats of arm, the flag, and a map of Germany.  This is what her presentation said:

My family came from Germany.  My family name Schaffer is German for shepherd.   The coat of arms from the German Schaffer’s has a sheep on it.  The flag of Germany has three equal bands of colors that are the national colors of Germany: black, red, and gold.  My great, great, great, great grandpa Henry Schaffer came across to America as a boy with his parents who settled in Minnesota. 

 I only did queing of words and she was able to do the sentences by herself.

She did really great.

Adenoids Removal Surgery

Today was the day we have been waiting months for.  Rachel's been talking through her nose and clearing it after every few words.  It was so crazy.  We had talked to her pediatrician about it and they decided that since it was starting to affect her speech we should go see the ENT.  So there are only two in Boise.  The one is so busy that it would take months to get in to see her and I really hadn't heard anything great about her.  So I went to the other one.  His name was Dr. Robison.  I had read his profile online but thought nothing of it.  When he walked into the room to see Rachel I was like oh my heck I know you.  He looked at me and I reminded him we went to High School together.  I told him my name and he was like oh yeah that's right.  He then told me his twin brother is here in Boise being a Pediatric Orthopedic.  Doesn't surprise me that they are both doctors.  He looked at Rachel and listened to her talk and said that the adenoids should come out but that the tonsils don't need to since she has never had any sore throats.  We had to be at the hospital by 5:45.  We had let Rachel watch the tour of how surgery day was going to go and so she was pretty excited.  While I was checking her in Scott and her read books.

 This was the waiting room where we hung out for about ten minutes.

 Excited to read books.

 Not happy to get a picture but waiting.

 In her gown and hanging out in a really cool bed.

 The new stuffed animal that she got for having surgery.  She named it Pickles.

 Photo op with Mom.

 Photo Op with Dad

 The mask she got to decorate with stickers and put strawberry smell in it.  She also liked the hair net.  This was just before they rolled her away to get the adenoids out.  They told us she could either still be groggy when she comes out of surgery or she could be ticked off.  We weren't sure which one she would be.  We left and headed to the cafeteria to eat.  They had told us to go get it and come back but we were like we can eat in 15 minutes.  We were just eating the last couple of bites when we got paged back to the waiting room.  So we hurried back and they put us in a room to see the doctor.  He said everything was routine and she should get better quickly.  They then took us back to recovery and she was already awake.  How do you think our spitfire woke up?  Yep that's right she was ticked and unconsoled.  She was trying to get the IV out of her arm.  So Scott and I were tag teaming her with the nurse to get her to forget about it being in her arm.  We had to get her to drink some apple juice before we could get the IV out. 

 I didn't get a picture of when we 1st got into the room but after we finally got the IV out she calmed down just a little bit.  She was watching the Ipad and the TV at the same time in this shot.  She couldn't decide what she wanted.  She did start in on her oxygen meter next.  They were like okay you can go home.  I asked if we could stay until we get her calmed down.  They said yeah stay as long as you want.  She had remembered from the movie that there was supposed to be a play room.  Well the play room was in Pre-Op not Post-Op so she was ticked that she hadn't played in the play room.  She wanted to play in the play room and just kept crying over and over I want to play in the play room.  I did get her to finally cuddle with me and she fell asleep for about twenty minutes.  We then headed home and the whole way down to the car she was whining, "I want to go to the play room".  I thought she would go to sleep once we put her in the car but she didn't.  She was pretty subdued.  We stopped at clinic so I could get the attendance logs that I needed and then headed home.  She was awake most of the day.  Finally around 2:00 she asked me if I would cuddle with her.  I said as soon as I'm done talking to grandma Hobbs.  Next thing I knew she was on the couch out cold.  It was funny how quickly it finally happened.  It was a good thing because she was still pretty agitated at that point.

This is how you look when you wake up from a nap and you get a really cool present from you Grandma and Grandpa Schaffer.  She named this dog, Rue Dog.

Late Christmas Present

So my mom had ordered this for Rachel's Christmas but it didn't show up on time.  So she gave it to her at New Years Eve. 

Yep matching PJ's for Rachel and her doll but she decided to put it on her dog Rosie. What can I say but that it didn't surprise she came down with one of the dogs dressed in a dress.

New Years Eve

Well Scott had New Years Day off and since it was in the middle of the week we didn't want to go anywhere to far away.  So we decided to go to Paul's house for his New Years Eve Party.  We got there around dinner time since I picked Scott up from work and we headed to Twin Falls.  They already had food out and eating.  We ended up putting together our food and getting it cooked.  We brought the stuff to make bacon wrapped little smokies, Italian creme soda's and crap dip with crackers.  Of course we had so much food that we stuffed ourselves silly.  Paul did a great job with things for us to do.  Every hour we popped a balloon and it told us what we would do to pass the time.  The 1st game for everyone was musical chairs.  I laughed because I was like yeah right it will be good for the kids but oh my gosh doing it as an adult was so much funner.  This is what it looked like.

 Kids doing it first.  Poor Rachel and U'ilani were the first ones out almost every round.  They never had a chance.

 Rachel getting the going around in a circle.  Her problem was she had to climb up onto the chairs instead of fall like everyone else.

 Still in for another round.

 We did a round with just Rachel, Trenton and U'ilani and this was the last song.  Rachel tried her might to push him off but his mom had to help him off the chair so Rachel could win.  She was so excited.

This was called reversed musical chairs.  There was only one chair and they all had to fit on it.  So funny watching them try to get everyone on it.

It was then the adults turn to try.  We had to pull out all the wooden chairs so that they would take the weight of all of us.  I about died when my mom got into the circle with us.  I said are you really going to do this.  She was like yeah sure.  So the music went and we all started going around and when it stopped my mom just walked herself right into the kitchen.  Oh we laughed so hard about it.  She said, "I'm not stupid I just wanted to see what you all would say."  Oh we had lots to say that's for sure.  As it got down to Paul, Damian and myself I thought for sure that I could take them but I was wrong.  One good hip bump and I was flung across the room.  

Some of the other games were: you had to tell 2 truths and 1 lie then the group had to pick out the lie.  Our favorite game though that we played over and over even into another hour was where you put your name in the bowl and then you draw a name out of the bowl and then it was boys against girls and you had to try to get four players on your team up to the front four chairs.  By the time we got to round 3 it was hard to remember what everyone's name was because you were calling them by the name they were in the last game.  It was fun fun fun though and even Scott thought it was going to be boring but got really into it.  The night was just a lot of fun.  At one point though Rachel and U'ilani were nowhere to be found.  I went in search for them and they were in one of the bedrooms playing butt naked.  We were like what are you doing?  They said playing like it was no big deal.  Needless to say we got them dressed and told them to keep their clothes on. 

 Family Picture

 Rachel with her sparkling grape juice

Couples picture

 Ashley and her friend getting ready to pop the balloon for the New Year!

 Let the celebrating begin.

 Silly string war along with the noise makers.

 Scott drinking his juice

 Rachel and myself.

And this is what the messed looked like afterwards.  

We helped clean up the food and then headed to the hotel.  We shared a room with mom and dad so that we had a place to stay.  Rachel wasn't happy to not be sleeping next to me but we put my dad in the recliner so my mom and I slept in one bed and Rachel and Scott slept in the other.  Rachel wouldn't go to sleep.  She of course took a nap on the way to the hotel so she was ready to go for round two.  Finally around 2:30 she fell asleep.  We got up the next day and went down for breakfast.  It was a pretty good breakfast.  Rachel and I then headed to the pool while my dad went to the hot tub to heat his shoulder.  We stayed in for about an hour and then went back to the room to get cleaned up, check out and head back to Paul's.  We decided to eat lunch there since there was so much food still leftover.  After visiting some more we finally headed home.  It was a lot of fun.