Happy Birthday, Rachel!

My baby turned four. Yep, it happened. It seems like yesterday that she joined our little family. We certainly have celebrated the event thoroughly. It started with a family birthday party with others who had b-days in August and September. We went to my brother's house in Ogden and celebrated with cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents. Love it.

Rachel and Bailey are the only girls in the slew of grandkids/cousins that live here in Utah. They do pretty well keeping up with all the boys, but are also a bit spoiled with girly stuff.

Rach got some fun gifts, including a new princess hippity hop. She's been hopping on Matt's old one. It's a super groovy one that has two pointy handles (that kinda look like cow teats) and psychadellic swirls all over it. Heaven only knows how old it is - we bought it at the DI when Matt was 3. So, she's now the proud owner of a more sleek, more purple version.

The weekend before her big day, we met Nana and took her to Chuck E. Cheese's. I'm not really a big fan of places like that, because they are usually way overpriced, the food isn't so good, and they are just big hot beds of germs. Maybe it's that I'm going soft in my old age. Maybe it's the raging coupons Steve printed off the computer. Regardless, we went to visit the old mouse. (Not THE mouse. We wish). The C.E.C. that we visited is fairly new, and surprisingly bright and clean. The kids loved it.

The pizza was still a little overpriced, even with the coupon, but not bad. It was a great time, though, for the kids and it was wonderful to celebrate with Nana.


Rachel's actual birthday fell on Saturday the 12th. We had a little fairy party with her cousins and a few little girls from our neighborhood.

We transformed the little cuties into fairies with colored body glitter and wings. They decorated magic wands and went searching for fairy gold. We played games and decorated cupcakes.

The party was lots of fun. Steve had to go to work shortly after, so we spent the next few hours just hanging out and playing with Rachel's new toys. To top the afternoon off, we made a visit to Magical Moon - the toy store here in town. That store is absolute heaven for kids - and a nightmare for parents. It's a ton of super fun (and very expensive) toys in a relatively small area. In fairness, it's a wonderful store and the staff is fantastic. It's just darn near a miracle to get out of the store without someone crying - because they're not done looking at every single one the the kajillion toys in stock, because they didn't get to try the plasma car, because they want another free sample of fudge, because they didn't get to buy a special toy that costs more than a month's worth of electricity...

That night we had a movie night followed by the traditional snuggle where we recount the events of the day the birthday child was born.


Steve had the day off on Sunday so we had Rachel's big birthday dinner that night. The birthday gal or guy gets to choose the meal. Rachey chose Macaroni and Cheese so I made ham and cheese bowtie pasta (told her they were butterflies). I had wanted to make a fairy cake for Rachel, but after a few mishaps - including burned rubber stench that lingered for a day or so - I was feeling a bit frustrated and discouraged. I'm certainly no pro (I really needed Sarah Bailey!), but I can usually pump something decent out. Anyhow, I asked Rachel what she wanted and she told me a pink cake. Nice. That's what I'm talking about. (I threw on some new plastic fairy figures that go with her new Tinkerbell playhouse for good measure. I couldn't fail entirely.)

We had a great time celebrating this crazy gal making it to four years old!

We love this little girl! We waited almost five years for her and then spent the first year of her life walking the floor while she screamed with colic and horrible reflux, but she's worth all of the waiting and screaming. Rachel is intelligent,strong, funny,stubborn, intense, sweet, endearing, and nurturing. She loves to help and is the supreme snuggler. She is 100% her Daddy's princess. She keeps us laughing and constantly suprises us with her wit. Often as I check on her at night and watch her sleeping (pretty much the only time she holds still), I'm still amazed that she's mine. She is a blessing to us and I am so grateful to be her mother. We love her with all of our "hearts and souls." :) Happy Birthday, Rachel!

Fancy Nancy

Yesterday I came home from a PTA meeting and found this:





Quite enjoying the clashing T-shirt and dress combos on the girls, I asked Rachel why they were dressed up. She told me that they had been playing Fancy Nancy restaurant. They apparently began their luncheon upstairs in the girls' room with plastic food and dishes, then moved downstairs so they could eat "real" lunch in their fancy restaurant.

They did make a dish for me which tasted lovely, but I was very pitifully under-dressed.

Back to School

Last week. It happened. The inevitable. Matt went back to school. :) We love school, don't get me wrong. It's just a bitter-sweet time of year. We are sad that summer is over, but excited for the new adventures and friends that come with a new school year.
Matthew is in fifth grade this year. I'm not really sure how that happened, because it seems like it was just yesterday that he was four and dying to have his big birthday so he could go to school. (He turned 5 in January and was sorely disappointed that he didn't get to go to Kindergarten the next day.) But 5th grade it is. He's excited about his teacher and, overall, happy to be back. He's a great student and I'm certain it will be a super year!