Ray-Ray's Day

Rachel had a birthday; shout hooray! Today my sweet Ray-Ray turned three. I really can't believe it; I remember so clearly when Emma was three and it didn't seem like that long ago! I look at Rachel's long beautiful hair and how tall and strong she is getting. I watch her scribbles become real drawings of people and things she loves. I watch her use the bathroom and climb a ladder and get a drink and put her clothes away. She is growing up and becoming more and more independent. Thankfully, she is very attached to me still and loves to be with me (which I love!!!). So she is not running away from me too much yet. But still--three years old is a big birthday. She will be a Primary Sunbeam in a few short months!
Here are some pictures of Rachel through the years:

Brand-new baby

6 months old

1 year old

2 years old--amazing what just a year will do--she is a baby in these pictures!


Recent pics of an almost-three-year-old



A few cute facts about Rachel:

She LOVES yogurt and will sometimes eat it twice in one day.

She loves her baby doll April and takes great care of her. April is almost always tucked under Rachel's arm doing whatever Rachel is doing.

Rachel loves babies and points them out to me everywhere. She always asks me if she can "pet" them. Very cute.

She can be mischievous and even gets that mischievous look in her eyes when she is doing something she knows she shouldn't.

She really looks up to her big sister and loves to do whatever Emma is doing.

When Rachel is excited about something she is telling us she will jump as she talks. It's very funny.

She hates having her hair done.

She loves to play with other kids and really enjoys her little playgroup/preschool she attends once a week.

She is so easygoing and transitions very easily throughout the day. This is a blessing to me as her mother!

She loves to swing and go down the slide.

She always has to carry around at least two toys (and sometimes an armful) everywhere she goes. I have to tell her to put them down so she can eat, go to the bathroom, put on her pajamas, etc.

She can recognize about half of the alphabet letters.

She likes to annoy Luke by smothering him and when we tell her to stop she replies, "but I LOVE him!"

She has the most darling little voice with a hint of British accent. It's very charming. I wish I could just bottle it up and sell it. I think I would make a fortune!

Our family would not be the same without our sweet Rachel. She is such a ray of sunshine in our family and we all just love her to pieces! Her great big smile is the best!

Conference packet

I came across one of the best General Conference Activity packets for kids. It's got lots of reader and pre-reader activities, including several coloring pages.

Go to: ldsresources.net and click on October 2009 Conference Activity Packet. Then you can download and print it. Just thought I'd pass it along....

May everybody have a peaceful and relaxing Conference weekend and may everyone with children be able to listen and glean as much as possible (hopefully with the help of this packet!!). :)

First Word

Luke's first word is....

Hi!

It is adorable. It's even better when he waves AND says hi. So cute!

The Girls' New Room

I had a lot of fun doing this. The girls gave me input as to what they would like on the shelves--the dolls are from my childhood and the books are vintage from Ben's great-aunt's house. And of course we had to have a little beach display in light of our recent beach vacay! A very fun project! I just love being in there, even if it is a little tight (which is sort of a good thing because it makes us keep everything picked up a little better). Now Ben and I need to work on ours...it needs a lot of help.

New Table!!!

This is big news for me. If you have been to our house and seen our old-fashioned, yucky table with metal and gold and white, along with our ratty fabric covered chairs, you would be just as excited as I am about this new table! I love it! It matches our kitchen cabinets almost perfectly, is made of great-quality solid pine, is sturdy and beautiful all at the same time, and the best part: only cost us $240 (and that includes the six chairs)! We love KSL Classifieds!

See how cool-looking it is underneath? It is so sturdy!

Now, that I actually take pride in my kitchen table, it was time to add a centerpiece. Fall has arrived at our house!

Indexing

My stake has set a goal of indexing 300,000 names (I think?) by the end of this year. Indexing involves looking at old census records and transferring vital information from them into searchable indexes so that everyone can do family history a little bit easier. I signed up to start indexing a few years ago and did it pretty regularly until Luke was born (when life got busier!). But I have missed it. I recently picked it up again to help reach our stake's goal and I am LOVING it! It really is so addicting! I feel like I am contributing something, even if I'm not doing my own family history right now. And the best part? Doing it from the comfort of my own home, on my own time. You can do as much or as little as you want. If you haven't tried indexing yet, go for it! Visit familysearchindexing.org

My Little Scholar

I asked Emma on the first day of school a week and a half ago what she was most excited about and she enthusiastically replied, "Homework!" Alas, the long-awaited day for homework to be assigned has come: TODAY! She got her first week of homework pages today and wanted to do them all in one sitting. So she did. I love how she is leaning over her work so studiously.

I'm going to show her this post in ten years when she is bogged down with hours of homework each night and remind her how excited she was about getting homework. :)