The Cute and Not So Cute

We are having a lot of fun with Rachel. She is such a pleasant baby. My favorite time with her is when she falls asleep right after eating. She does so many facial expressions during her REM cycle. We captured a video of some of her "angel whispers" and I really can't wait until she smiles for real when she is awake.

I also learned the hard way to keep her bum covered when changing her. Last week I had just started changing her diaper when she shot a torpedo of poop out. She has pretty good range, as some of it landed 4 feet away. I have learned not only to keep her covered, but also not to put anything "downstream" from the changing table. As you can see, I had to wash everything on the carseat. You think I would be frustrated with the mess, but I couldn't stop laughing for at least 10 minutes. I still think it's hilarious. Anyway here's a little video and picture to enjoy!

A Quick Update...

So we brought Rachel home on Monday. She's doing fabulous! Here's a few more pictures for you all to enjoy:

Going home outfit

In the car seat, bundled up against the Cleveland chill.

After her first bath a home.

Brushing her hair. What do you think? Should we do a faux-hawk?

Mindy will give a full update and relate all the details (well, maybe not ALL of them) when she gets a moment.

It lives

I did not want to post anything after the announcement of Rachel because I thought my silly post would be just well....silly. But I think enough time has passed and let you all see that tradition still lives in our house and the vacuum tree is still around.

It is not the best quality photo but what fun we had decorating the vacuum. Does everyone know why we decorate our vacuum? A quick history: during our first year of marriage Christmas was coming and I went outside to ask Rob what we were going to do about a tree. He told me about how in the MTC (missionary training center) he and his companion decorated the Church's vacuum because they did not have anything else. So, it was decided that Rob and I would do the same that year and we wrapped lights around our tree (the same one we have today) and for that month we avoided vacuuming. :) Every year since we have pulled out the vacuum and held a place for the vacuum tree. I think it is fun. We have made decorations for it, Willy's favorite was the family photo one. The only thing different is that instead of no vacuuming we just unplug the lights and vacuum the house with a decorated vacuum. The boys love it.

Welcome Rachel! A Little Preview...

Rachel's finally here! 8lbs 1 oz, 21 1/2 inches long!

We have a winner!

Remember this....

We were able to attend an assembly today at Heartland were Caleb was honored and was able to receive this....

He received a very cool medal, a certificate and some other coupons to do fun stuff. I guess now his project goes on to another level of Reflections and I do not know what after that. We are just so proud of Caleb. He was so surprised when they called his name and as we were leaving school today everyone was saying goodbye to him and good job. How fun for him!

Tis the season

We are geared up for Christmas! I love looking forward to everything and planning it all. And having kids just makes it more fun because you kind of get to plan even more things just for them. Yesterday (the 1st) we got things going by decorating the tree, doing a gingerbread house, and dancing around to fun Christmas music. At times our attitudes were not so festive; like the time when Caleb did not want to do his homework or the time when Willy was getting into everything in the kitchen and I was in the middle of dinner. Those were not such fun moments, but the rest of the day was good. Just a few photos of our preparations:

This is our version of an advent calendar. I got some of the activity ideas from different people and the conjured up some of my own. The boys helped me color the little pictures and then I finished it off. Tonight we will be drinking hot chocolate and reading a Christmas story. It turned out pretty cute.

This is the tree before the decorations and music. Peter was so excited to be able to play with his Bambi in the tree. The vacuum tree is not up yet but it will be soon. :)

And Willy's favorite activity of the day...eating the candy from the gingerbread house. He started off being satisfied with just the graham crackers, then he moved on to a small dab of frosting on the graham cracker. But once he got a taste of those white chocolate chips there was no turning back. Caleb was less interested in the candy because he was gooping up the house with frosting but Peter and Will could not wait to get another piece.