Pics from the last few weeks!

On Monday, Tara, Kelly, and I got together to celebrate Tara's b-day and Kelly's great writeup from work (it's a great honor to receive one at her job). :) We went to the Scenic Loop Cafe (where Tara had her wedding reception). The atmosphere there is always so nice and serene. :) We had a great meal and ended the night with a huge dessert! :) It is always such a blessing to go out with my best girl friends in the world! :)
Tara and Kelly! :)
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Last weekend, we celebrated my cousin Michael's birthday. He and his sister and mom are in town visiting before school starts for them. We had a blast visiting with cousins that we don't see very often. Here Rachel is playing with Jordan (4 y.o.), who shared her toys so nicely with Rachel. :)

Michael, the b-day boy! :) He turned 17 this week! :)

Ben and Rachel playing around on the couch! :)

Catherine (Michael's sister) and Thalia (my cousin's daughter).

Matt and Jonah (my cousins)

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Rachel got a new princess "camera" a few weeks ago. Here she is taking a picture of me taking a picture of her! ;) The camera says, "You're as pretty as a princess!" and "Say cheese!" It's too funny when Rachel "takes a picture" of her Daddy and the tells him, "You're as beautiful as a princess Daddy!" ;)
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Rachel has been enjoying her cottage at Lala and Papa's house. Yaya even gave her a little bench to add to her cottage. It's her patio chair! :)
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A few weekends ago, we had our cousins over for a fun day of play and lunch. Desiree and I chatted while the kids played! :) They had so much fun! We missed Danielle's (the youngest) b-day party, so we were able to give her her present on that day! :)
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Last but not least, Rachel is OFFICIALLY POTTY-TRAINED!!!! Yes! Over the Christmas holidays, she decided that she was going to go poopie in the potty. Just over a year ago she started to pee pee in the potty and would be dry for the day. So we put her in underwear during the day, but at night, we'd put on a pull up.
Just a few month ago, she was terrified of pooping in the potty and would wait for the pull up and night time to go poopie. I think it helped to have her older cousin, Allison around to show her the ropes! :) She started going like if it was never a problem! ;) We are so proud of her. She no longer wants to wear pull ups at night and she has been like that for 3 whole weeks (with no accidents)! :) Thank you Lord for helping us with that stage in Rachel's life! :) I was going to post a pic of her on the potty, but i didn't want to offend anyone and it may just be TMI (too much information- in a picture format). :)