Ballet, Temple, Party... Oh My!

So, for my birthday Tim surprised me with tickets to the Nutcracker! (I know, I have the best husband!!!) Since my birthday is in December, and I love the ballet (really I love any type of dance) my Mom would take me to see it. I guess I mentioned this tradition to Tim and he ran with it. I loved every second of the ballet! The music, the costumes, the dancing and of course the company ;) It was a great birthday!

Then on Saturday morning we went to the temple and took Lacey with us. Tim and I worked shifts of babysitting. While I was in the temple Tim watched her then visa versa. I love the temple and I'm glad we went.

And Lacey, well, Lacey loves the temple grass!

That night we had our Ward/Church Christmas Party and Santa stopped by! They say a picture is worth 1,000 words...

Christmastime with Lacey

So, I decided to share some holiday cheer...

with pictures of Lacey!

This picture was taken underneath the Christmas tree. She loves to eat the needles! I have to watch her like a hawk. I don't think eating enough needles to furnish an entire tree is healthy, right?

Tim was decorating the tree and I turned my back for a second and turned back to see this! Maybe she was just trying to help Daddy decorate :)

Here she having fun with my Christmas ribbon. Too cute!

Clearly, Lacey doesn't want to wait til Christmas morning to open presents. She gets that from me... I always thought it was too long to wait also!MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Tag... I'm it!

First off, I know that I'm suppose to list 6 quirks that I have and I'm sure I have way more than 6, but I can only think of 2. I'm sorry Jac, I just can't think of anymore, but when I do I'll be sure to post them!

1. I LOVE cereal (this love affair served me well on my mission) ! Among my favorite kinds is Lucky Charms or the Target brand Marshmallow Mateys. Anyway, I always eat the oat pieces first and save all of the marshmallows to eat last. Then I get 2 or 3 spoonfuls of marshmallow goodness! Mmmmmmm!

2. When I fall asleep I will always rub my feet on something, whether it be the blanket, the mattress or my other foot. Weird I know.

I'll have to ask Tim what quirks he's noticed, but that's all for now :)

Funny Daddy!

Okay, so before you watch the videos, let me set them up. First off, you can see our newly painted family room. But the subject of the videos is clearly not the walls. Last night Lacey was standing on the couch and watching Tim cook dinner, then he went behind the wall of the hallway and came running out toward Lacey flailing his arms everywhere and she thought it was the funniest thing ever. And to be honest with you... so did I! The first video was recorded by Tim as he ran towards her. The second was by me so you can actually see her face. Anyway... Enjoy!!!

I know it's still November, but...

I'm so excited for Christmastime! It is without a doubt my favorite time of year, hence my blog decor ;) Tim had the opportunity to play for a local Toys for Tots benefit for the third year in a row. He loves to play guitar and loves Christmas music, so he was as happy as can be playing with three other musicians from our stake.

I love going with him because I love to hear Tim play... and because they have really good BBQ ;) Lacey had a good time with Santa. Well, mostly with his beard. Lately, she's had a fascination with hair. In the picture you can see Lacey's little hand reaching for Santa's beard with a smile on her face and longing in her eyes and Santa pulling it away from her. It was so funny to watch. Mrs. Claus thought is was funny too!

It was fun to spend time with friends and their babies. Angel is holding all three babies.

From left to right Anastasia (6 months),

Lacey (8 1/2 months), Nathan (11 1/2 months)

Eventually, Lacey got sleepy. And yes, that is a nearly finished plate of desserts on the table... I need the extra calories...I'm a nursing mother!

And last but not least, here's our little family... aren't we cute?!?!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

From our lil' pumpkin to yours...

Happy Halloween!!!

Get ready for a couple costume changes. The above outfit is what Lacey wore throughout the month of October. Then on October 31st, a.k.a. Halloween Day, she wore this...
I know what you're thinking, "Rachel, you dressed her all in fleece! You live in Florida!" But in my defense, she was so cute! (And everyone at the store agreed with me.)

Halloween night our ward had a Trunk O' Treat and so our whole family got in on it! I was a witch (no smart comments please), Tim was very original...he was a construction worker... I know, it was a stretch. And Lacey was the most adorable fairy you have ever seen!!!

When I went to feed Lacey in the mother's room, I managed to get some pictures of her in her costume. One of the picture was taken before I fed her and the other was after.

Can you tell which is which?

I guess a fairy's gotta eat!

And here is my favorite picture of all...

Lots of firsts!

So, Lacey has had a few firsts lately. I found her first tooth on Tuesday the 14th. She bit my finger and it hurt more than normal, so I looked in her mouth and there it was... a teeny tiny tooth! I was so excited! I tried to get a picture of it. You can see it if you click on the picture and look closely.

Then on Saturday the 18th we were visiting my family in Jacksonville to go to a convention and I was looking at jewelry and then I hear "Da da da da..." I started flipping out! It was so sweet! You have to watch the video!



We also finally planted our orange tree last night. It was a bit rainy, so I put a hoodie and socks on Lacey so we could go watch Tim plant the tree. While I was holding her she was just very curious. Studying Tim's every move. When he was finished he took her and had her stand next to the tree. She loved that! I know the picture is kinda blurry but trust me there was huge smiles and some giggling when her feet hit the ground!

Yes... another birthday!

(At our wedding. Honestly, how sweet is this picture!?!)

Well, today is my youngest sister's birthday. My little Danielle is turning 9! AHHHHHHH! How can that be! She was just born yesterday!

OK, not yesterday, and I'm so grateful for that because she helps me out so much with Lacey. She is very patient with all of her crying. And she can put her to sleep better than I can! Our family would be incomplete without her. So, we just wanted to tell her that we love her and Happy Birthday!

Birthdays, Birthdays Everywhere!

So, you guessed it... another birthday. Today is Sarah's (my second little sister) birthday!

(This is my favorite picture of her. It was at our wedding.)

I just wanted to wish her a Happy 14th Birthday and say thanks in advance for loaning us your room and for babysitting Lacey on Saturday ;)

We love you Sarah!

Happy, Happy Birthday Timmy Dear!

Well, September happens to be a very birthday filled month. But today is the birthday of the love of my life... my hubby! I am the luckiest woman in the world to have him as my eternal companion. He is so many things to me, my mess cleaner-upper, the person who gets me water whenever I'm thirsty (which is often), my best friend, and an amazing father. Which reminds me... Lacey wanted to tell you something...

There is so much more that he is to me, but there's not enough time to list it all, after all, I have a birthday dinner to make ;)

Happy Birthday Tim

I love you!!!

Tribute to Mom!

Today is my wonderful mother's birthday! And I just wanted to say thank you, thank you

*for having me... I now know how painful and difficult it is (and you did it without an epidural)

*for serving a mission and telling me all your mission stories

*for knowing the answer to every pregnancy/labor and delivery/pediatric question I have

*for being an on-hand, in-home nanny whenever I need you

*for teaching me by word and deed what a mother is suppose to be

I really am so grateful to have you as my mother. I love you!

Happy Birthday Mom!!!

Big, Big Tree

What can I say... we always come to the rescue!

Well, Tropical Storm Fay left a big present for Tim's parents... a tree in their backyard fell down. We went over to help cut it into pieces. And Tim was so excited. He LOVES to use his chainsaw! When we pulled up in the driveway he said, "I love the sound of chainsaws in the morning." And he really does! Aunt Pat and Uncle Scott, their son Dan and son-in-law Joe and Tim's brother, Jared all came to help as well. So here are some pictures of the fallen tree and everyone chopping it up.

Lacey was too cute. See for yourself...

You name it...it's in here!

So, the following post will be the largest one I've ever written. Why? Because I haven't had any time to post anything we've been so busy. You might want to sit back and relax, it could take a while to read this post. But this is what we did the past couple of weeks. Enjoy!

Aug 2 2008: Closed on our new house...YEAH!

Aug 12 2008: Drove to Miami for my Uncle Rick's Funeral

Aug 14-15 2008: Tim's brother Ryan and his girlfriend Erin came to visit

Aug 16 2008: My brother David returned from serving the Lord
in the South Africa Durban Mission!

Aug 16 2008: My brother Aaron opened his mission call...

Utah Provo Mission... Spanish speaking!

What a great end to a very busy couple of weeks!

Oh, and Feliz Cumpleaños Bub! We love you!

Rain is falling all around... even at Disney!

This week I stole two of my sisters to help me pack. As most of you know we are buying a house and we were suppose to close on July 31st at 10:00... today. Well, we got a call yesterday at 6:00ish that said the closing was being postponed. Sad day! Needless to say we were very upset. So to take our minds off the bad news, we called Jared, Tim's brother. No, not just to chat. He works at Disney World and got us tickets! So instead of closing we all went to Disney!

Thanks Jared!!! We love you!!!


We went to Disney's Hollywood Studios first and rode Rockin' Roller Coaster and won cool Mickey Ears! Danielle, my 9 year old sister, rode it for the first time and loved, loved, loved it!!! Then Tim and I did the baby swap thing and he rode it, and of course Sarah and Danielle rode with him. We got Fast Passes for the new Toy Story Mania ride. So with those in hand we decided to quickly go to Disney's Animal Kingdom ride Everest and return.
Well, we had good intentions, but neglected to factor in the inevitable Florida afternoon downpour! While I was feeding Lacey, Tim and the girls rode Everest. Once the ride was over they met me at the "Baby Care Center", which, can I just say I didn't know about before, but am extremely thankful for now! It was nice to have a air conditioned place with separate rooms designed for nursing mothers. Sorry for going off on that, but really, I am so grateful!!! Anyway, after we met back up, we continued with our plans to return to Hollywood Studios. We didn't get very far before the rain got very, very hard. So, we thought we could wait it out in a cave. We waited for about 30 minutes with no sign of stopping. By this time we were starving and wet. So, our stomachs got the best of us and we darted through the typhoon to the tram to get to our car. We thought we were wet before, after the exit to the car, we would have been dryer if we'd have jumped in a pool! We decided to just go to McDonald's and go home.

At least we weren't thinking about the closing!