First few weeks of June. BUSY!! :)

Here are some pics of the last few weeks. I can't believe that June is almost over. It seems that we have so much going on in June, so it flies by super fast. :) Ben has been teaching summer school, and has just started his summer this past Wednesday. :) He is already bored and ready to go back to work! ha! I keep telling him that he needs to rest and relax, but it's not in him. ;) I can relax at anytime. :)

June 1st, my dad's b-day. We baked him a cake and sang "Happy Birthday to you" and enjoyed the cake. :) Here is a pic of Rachel and Papa. :)
On our 8 year anniversary we weren't able to really celebrate because Rachel and I were feeling under the weather. Something blew in and both of us had bad allergies. Here she is lying down watching TV. She never wants to just lie down, a few minutes later she was asleep. Poor baby!
Feeling better and playing with anything she can find. :) She loves to make believe with any thing she has in her presence. :) In the picture she has a baby comb. ;)

On June 9th, we were invited to my good friend's End Of The Year Brunch. Ms. Dotty has had us over for the past 5 years or so. Rachel just loved it. As soon as she saw the ladies from school their, she jumped up and danced and said, "Let's have a party!" (Anytime she sees a group of people together, she wants to have a party!- Is she my daughter or what!?) Paz (Aunt), Sandi, Elo (Mom), and I at Ms. Dotty's house. :) We all have worked at Carson Elementary at one time (Paz is still there.) :)
The next 3 days, Rachel had Veggie Camp at our church. She just loved it! The theme was the Veggie Tales Pirates. She kept saying she was a SUPER HERO! The teacher told me that when they were telling each student that they were a super hero, she just got all excited and cheered!!! She knows she's a hero for GOD! :) It was so much fun! I am so happy that she enjoys her bible class and teachers and friends. We are extremely blessed to be a part of this wonderful church.

We've only gone swimming 2 times this year. It's just been hard to get out to the pool. (Yes, we've been that busy!) Anyhow, this was the second time that we visited our pool.
We went to eat at Ben's favorite Mexican restaurant called Emmy's. He's brainwashed Rachel to love it too, so I am outnumbered when we are deciding where to go eat. ;) Here she was waiting patiently for her food. She played "Shapes" with Daddy. She made a rectangle by herself. Daddy the math and science teacher just loves to teach her these important things! ;)

Well, I'll post more pics soon.

Some tidbits about Rachel. She loves to talk! Augh. I remember saying, I wonder when she'll start really talking. Well, it seems over night she's just talking away. She asks me in the car, what are you talking about, even when I am driving silently. She really just wants to know what I'm thinking. ;)
She wants to know everything. She has to know what's going on in our day so that she can be ready for it.
She loves to eat. Her favorite foods are chicken nuggets, mommy's chicken w/ pasta and alfredo sauce, turkey, pb&j sandwiches, chips, fries, fruits (fluits- as she calls them), mixed veggies, yogurt, goldfish, bananas (she liked them very much when she was younger then when through a phase of not wanting them at all, now she's back to loving them), cereal (any kind that we buy), warm milk first thing in the morning, juice, water (in a special cup), pizza, bean and cheese tacos, pancakes...
She's a good eater, but she seems to be going through a phase where she'll eat certain things one day and the next, she'll gag when eating the same food. I know she'll come back to liking it, so I don't eliminate them from her diet.

Rachel has a temper and shows it more now. She seems to be going through another one of her defiant stages. She's had to be in time out a few more times and has gotten spanked too. I know that people have told me that the 3's are a bit more challenging than the 2's, so I'm ready (with God's help mostly). ;) I know that she is one very special girl and I love her so much. I've gotten to learn so much about her little personality now that she talks more. It's fun to hear about what she's thinking. She really pays attention to many things, even when I don't think she's listening. I need to write down the things that she says more because they blow me away. Well, I have to go, we're heading out. I'll blog more later. :)

Just getting to Memorial Day weekend

I didn't get to post the pics that I took over the Memorial Day weekend. It was a nice relaxing weekend spent with Ben & Rachel. That was the first weekend in a LONG time that we had just to ourselves. Ben actually didn't have anything planned for school, so it was NICE! :) We were able to go to North Star Mall, which I've not been in a LONG time. I believe it was Rachel's first time there. She had a blast walking to different kids stores (Disney in particular). She kept asking to buy one thing for "one dollar". I told her that we were at the Disney store, not the Dollar Tree. ;) My poor girl, she's like her mommy. We love the dollar stores. ;)

She loved the fountain in the mall. She threw a few pennies in. It was so great to see her eyes all excited about doing that. I just love to see her excitement in life for the littlest things. I love being a momma! :)

Some tidbits about our girl:

Rachel is really into talking right now. She wants to talk to everyone! We go to the store and she strikes up a converstation with the cashiers, or ppl around her. She wants to tell everyone that her birthday is coming up and she's going to be "flee" (three). ;) She is so excited that she's going to have a birthday party. She keeps talking about seeing her cousins and playing with them at her party. She loves talking on the phone (really it's her hand-she's got a great imagination). The other day, she said she was going to call the store (Target) to see if they have giftcards for Papa (on Father's Day). She was in her carseat while we were filling the car with gas and she acted like she was talking to the person for quite awhile. She was laughing like the person was making her laugh and she kept saying, "that was funny, hahahahah!". I was listening and giggling as I listened in the front seat. :)

She loves to count backwards right now. She will either count down from 3-2-1- blast off. Or she does the 5 little monkeys. :) She uses her fingers to remind her what comes next. She holds up 5 fingers, then puts another one down to say 4, and then 3 and so on. :) She cracks me up.

Happy 8th Anniversary Baby!

I love you Ben!

(I know i used this same pic last year, I need to scan more wedding pics soon!)

Wonderful husband, best friend, love of my life, and FANTASTIC father.

Wii are doing fine! ;)

So in late April, Ben bought us a Wii! ;) I mentioned that I wanted to see how the Wii Fit would be when it came out. He took it as, I wanted a Wii. He looked into it and found that the games are fun (and the one that helped make the decision to buy it was there will be a Star Wars Lightsaber game coming out in the future)! ;)

I dont' have a pic of me using it yet, but I'll get one soon! :)

Ben- ready to play tennis.

Ben- serving for his tennis match. Rachel "playing" with her contorller.

Kelly & Tara have still been joining me on Monday evenings for dinner. Here they were trying out the baseball game. ;)

***BTW- We still don't have the Wii Fit. Ben's been looking for it to get me for my b-day, but it's all out of stock! ;)

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Now that my work (tutoring position) has come to a close, I am going to be a better blogger! I have continued to check all of my favorite blogs and I totally miss sharing what's been going on in our lives. :)

Here are some pics that I took of Rachel in April. :) She is getting so big and talking so much!!!Oh yeah, that's what I look like now! ;) Just kidding. It's been awhile. :)