Holidays 2009

This holiday season has been so wonderful. It started with Thanksgiving. We were able to go to Provo to visit Will and Julie and family. It was the first time that Julie hosted Thanksgiving and she was so excited. She made incredible stuffing and cranberry bread pudding. My niece Terra also was able to join us for the day. The next night we were able to go to temple square in Salt Lake City to see the temple lights. It was so fun to take Rachel. We were also able to go to a winter wonderland and decorate ginger bread cookies and have hot chocolate. It was so fun.

This Christmas has also been so fun. Having a four year old in the house makes the magic of Christmas come alive again. Rachel was so fun and excited. We also have had all of the kids (with the exception of Will and Julie) home this Christmas. It has been so fun. We went to zoo lights, have had a lot of meals together, been in Church together, had Christmas morning together, etc. It is has been fun and I have enjoyed it immensely.

I'll post some pictures soon ..... stay tuned.

Rachel

For the last year, Rachel has talked about marrying a little boy who used to be in her preschool class named Keller. Rachel has the whole wedding planned -- including what candy, cookies, cakes, and healthy food will be served and who gets to wear gloves and who doesn't. She can honestly talk about this with us for an hour when we go on walks or drive in the car. While Keller is a real boy, he is also an imaginary friend for Rachel. We constantly hear about Keller's heroics. He teaches Rachel everything. He saves her from all the conflicts that she gets into on the playground with her friends and classmates. This is despite the fact that the real boy named Keller is mostly oblivious to Rachel in real life. Like most males, Keller has no idea about the planning and plotting Rachel is doing.

Last week when we were leaving preschool, we ran into Keller in the hallway. In order to prove to Rachel's brothers and sisters that he is a real boy, I took a picture of Keller and Rachel together. Here is the result.

Halloween Weekend

Halloween 2009 was fun for the following reasons:

1) It was Wyatt's 1st Halloween. He is such a cute little baby. He is already getting so big! It is hard to believe that he was born 8 weeks ago. I love to see how happy he makes Mary and Jason. He is such a sweet baby and it will be fun to watch him grow up.

2) We got to meet Cassandra. John and Cassandra came down from Idaho for the weekend. They are a lot of fun to have around.

3) Rachel. Rachel is now a four year old. Therefore, she is really getting into Halloween and other activities. She went as Mulan. She convinced Dennis to go as a Hun (unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of Dennis' in his full get up) and me to go as Mulan's grandma.

4) Friends. We had a Halloween party. It fun to have friends and neighbors to come over. Even though our house was crowded, cup cakes were spilled on the floor (Rachel), and the noise level goes up a lot with several 4 and 5 year olds around, it was wonderful. It was so fun.

A Fun Time in Sunny Weather

Dennis had a business trip to Arizona. So Rachel and I decided to tag along. We had a great time playing while Dennis was working away. Luckily, Dennis was able to sneak away a few times to spend some times with us (swimming, hiking, going out for Japenese food, etc.).

One of my dear friends lives in Phoenix and also has a daughter only 2 days younger than Rachel. Therefore, Rachel and I were able to spend a lot of time with Jodi and Ryan. It was so fun to have some Girl Friend time. I have to say that this was probably one of the most relaxing get aways that I have had in a long time. I laughed and smiled the whole time I was there -- it was great.

Rachel turned out to be quite the little hiker. I took her up the trail for Squaw Peak (it is now called the Phoenix Mountains Preserve -- but it will always be Squaw Peak to me). She did great on the trail (even though she caught a cold while we were in Phoenix). The next day we took Dennis to the trail before we had to catch our airplane to come home. We left 80 degree Phoenix weather to come home to snow on the ground in Denver (but it is still home and we love it here).

October 12, 2009 -- A Fun Day

Rachel and I (Melodie) had a wonderful day today. We went ice skating. This was Rachel's second time ice skating (she went once last year). I was amazed at how well she did. Last year she fell a couple of times and that was it .... she didn't want to keep trying. This year, she fell and just kept getting back up and would try again. It also helped that when we first got there, we had the rink totally to ourselves for about 15 minutes. Then a nice young woman, named Heather, showed up. She was a really good skater and has given skate lessons to toddlers and preschoolers in the past. After watching my attempts to teach Rachel, Heather came over to give us some pointers. Rachel loved the attention. She also watched Heather jump and decided that she should try too (jumping is Rachel's favorite thing to do). Well we just had great time and I was so proud of Rachel.