Rachel loves to walk

More catching up to do!  Rachel had her first birthday on October 15, and I'm just now getting around to blogging about it.  My parents came to visit for her birthday and it was really nice to have them here.  Rachel had a lot of fun opening presents (she's a pro- we're not going to be able to put any under our Christmas tree).  She got some fun toys that still entertain her a month later.  She also got a cute dress from Grandma Sha-sha and Grandpa Bruce.  I made her a cake based on the book The Very Hungry Caterpillar and I thought it was delicious.  Rachel seemed to as well.  She ate all of her piece and then part of Eden's as well.  We wanted to take my parents somewhere fun while they were here so that evening we went to the Tournament of Kings at the Excalibur.  It was a lot of fun and I was surprised how much Rachel liked it.  She clapped her hands and squealed and really had a good time.  Apparently she has a thing for jousting, or maybe she just liked having a meal where she wasn't the only one eating with her fingers.  Who knows.  I know she won't remember her first birthday, but she sure had a lot of fun. 

I couldn't get a very good picture of the cake.  That's what I get for putting foil under it... All that matters is that it was good.

 De-licious!

 What I wouldn't give for those eyelashes!

I can't believe how fast this girl is growing up!  She loves to read books and tease her sister.  She's definitely not the talker that Eden was at this age, but she has a few words she says, when she feels like it.  She likes to say BOO to people when they walk in the room and she likes to say Meow when I ask her what a cat says.  She can also say duck, dog, cat and quack (although they all sound about the same).  She's a very happy baby and we love having her in our family!

The day after her birthday she started taking some tentative steps around the house and would stand herself up in the middle of the room instead of pulling herself up to something.  We thought she would start walking right away, but she didn't get the hang of it for a couple more weeks and would only take a couple steps at a time.  On Halloween night she finally started walking a little more and once she figured out how to keep her balance, she was unstoppable.  Now she walks everywhere (or runs, if she can) and it is a lot of fun to watch her toddle around.  She always has a big grin on her face and I can tell she is so proud of herself.  This video was taken about a week ago.  I think she's gotten faster since then!



October Update

So, it's been a little while (once again) since our last update.  Here's what we've been up to:
Rachel turned 11 months old way back a month ago and is growing and changing like crazy.  She's the busiest baby I know and she keeps us constantly going (and laughing).  She's not big into talking yet, but she does like to tell people, "Boo" and she likes to say "Tiger". 

Eden turned 5 years old on September 16 and for her birthday she wanted to go to the Rainforest Cafe and the M&M store downtown on the strip.  She had a lot of fun at both places.  I can't believe how big she is getting.  She's a really good reader and is having a lot of fun in kindergarten, making new friends and doing new things.  She's still tall for her age (her pediatrician said she is the height of the average 7 year old) and she is the youngest and the tallest kid in her class.  Her teacher is really impressed with a smart girl she is, especially for being so young.

We've had a few days of hard rain here (which was really nice) and Eden fully took advantage of it.  These pictures were taken outside our house.  She went out to see how hold the water was and ended up totally soaking herself, pouring little buckets of water over her head.  We should have just had her put her bathing suit on.

Andy promised to take Eden hiking in Red Rock Canyon for a date and they did that earlier this week.  The weather was really nice and they had a lot of fun.  Eden is a good hiker and she kept up with Andy really well.  They had a lot of other people tell them on the hike that they were surprised at how well she was doing. 

The little girls and I took a quick trip to Utah at the end of September when Andy was working to see my family for a few days.  It was a nice little getaway from the heat (still in the high 90's at the end of September) and we had a lot of fun.  I just forgot to take any pictures...
Andy's having a lot of fun a work.  He really enjoys it and comes home with some interesting stories pretty much every day.  I stay home with the kiddos and have been devoting a lot of energy to my latest project which should be finished sometime in April:

The Eden Post

Eden has grown up so much in the past couple months. She started Kindergarten today and we were so proud of her. She was nervous to go, but she got to meet her teacher and see her classroom last Friday so she knew a little better what to expect. We found out yesterday that one of the girls in her primary class would also be in her school class and I think she was excited for that. Andy had the morning off of work so we all got to take her to school and pick her up. Despite being nervous, she lined up with her class and smiled and waved to us as she walked in.  After school, she was all smiles and she told us she couldn't wait to go back again tomorrow!

Silly Girl!

Lining up with the rest of Mrs. Peacock's class.

A special after school treat for making through the first day of school.

I'm still trying to figure out how Eden grew up so fast.  How did she go from this:

to this:

and how long is going to be before she can legally drive one of these?

The Rachel Post

I've been a little behind in blogging about the girls and I need to get these posted before I forget.  Rachel turned 9 months in July while we were in Utah.  She changed so much during the 5 weeks we were in Utah and learned so many new things.  She learned to feed herself (finally!) which made things a lot easier for me because I could give her some cheerios and she would eat them herself, instead of sitting with her mouth open waiting for me to give them to her like a baby bird.  She also learned to push herself into the sitting position when she was laying down and she started to army crawl to toys she wanted.  She also learned to say 'dog', 'cat' and 'bubble bath' (crazy, but so cute).  She also started doing a fake cough to get attention.  She's such a cutie!


A couple weeks ago she turned 10 months and she's still learning and growing so fast.  She's a super fast army crawler now and she loves to crawl toward things she knows she's not supposed to have and wait for someone to chase her down.  She is getting good at pulling herself up on her knees and I know it won't be too much longer before she pulls herself to standing.  She has learned to say 'duck' (which sounds a lot like 'dog' and 'cat') but I can't ger her to say it very often.  She's very vocal, but most of what she says is not English.  She seems to have no interest at all at saying 'mama' although 'dada' is a common phrase.  She's really good at pattycake and dancing when she hears music.  Over the past month or so she has also completely rejected baby food.  She will only eat food she sees us eating (and she isn't fooled by us pretending to eat baby food) so she's turned into a regular little kid, eating mac and cheese, chicken nuggets, cheese sticks, yogurt, and Mexican food (it's a favorite of hers- even if it is a little spicy).  Eating with the big people has helped her chunk up again a little- for a while she turned into quite the skinny gal.
She's also sleeping through the night (usually about 12 hours straight) with a long nap or two during the day. She loves watching Eden and following her around. Eden has even taught her how to do a really girlie shreik (which I'm sure our neighbors love to hear). We love having our Rachel around. She keeps me busy every day but I enjoy it.

Getting her to hold still for pictures is getting tricky.  Actually, getting her to hold still ever is a little tricky.

This is Eden's astronaut helmut she wore in her empty box rocket.  We couldn't resist putting it on Rachel.

I'm a little bit obsessed with Rachel's eyelashes.  They are so long, but so light that I can only see them when the light is shining on them.  I had to snap this picture one day while I was feeding her lunch.  The next two pictures just make me laugh.  I love this girl and her cheeks.

Settling In

We're currently living in a townhouse we are renting until we have found the perfect house to buy.  It's a nice place, although it is a little smaller than our house in Omaha so I don't have room for all our stuff (some of my fabric is sitting in a storage unit wondering why I don't love it anymore). Hopefully within a year we'll be in our own place once again.
We've really enjoyed Las Vegas so far. It is hot, but doesn't seem as sweltering as we thought it would, even with the temperature up above 110 for a few days. I think the dryness has made all the difference. It was so humid in Omaha that this doesn't seem so bad. We had some time before Andy started working to do a little exploring and getting to know our new city. We took a drive to the temple (on the complete opposite side of the city from us) and visited Red Rock Canyon, which is gorgeous (although I don't recommend visiting it in the middle of the day in August). We've had a chance to visit the strip and show Eden the fountain at the Bellagio and "the castle" (Excalibur). She also wanted to visit the 'Pawn Stars' store (yes, she's seen Pawn Stars. Is that bad?) and so we took a trip there.  She also wanted to see the Pirate show at Treasure Island so we went to that for part of our family night last week (and the show is not that great, so don't feel like you're missing anything!).
Andy is really enjoying working again, and I can tell he's going to come home with some quite... interesting...stories- the benefits of working in the ER just a couple blocks off the strip!
I think we're settling in quite nicely. I've located the closest Target, Costco, library and quilt store so I'm pretty much set! We've found our ward and I think we'll really like it. Eden already volunteered to give a talk in Primary and she did that today. We've been swimming just about every day since we moved in. It's a great way to wind down in the evening and Eden is getting braver and better in the water each day. Life is going pretty great for us right now!

 Eden loved the giant gila monster at Red Rock Canyon.

 Rachel was not so impressed.

 Red Rock Canyon was beautiful. These pictures don't do it justice.  Eden had a ton of fun and has asked to go back pretty much every day since we went.

 If you look really closely, you can see Las Vegas in the background.

 Eden loves to pose.

 Swimmin'

Pirate Show at Treasure Island.  After this, we went to the Mirage to watch the volcano.  Eden didn't like the volcano because it shot out a lot of hot fire, but the Japanese tourists next to us abolutely loved Rachel.  They just couldn't resist her white-blonde hair and big blue eyes.  She's going to end up in more than one Japanese photo album.

Back in the game

Well, we're finally back in the blogging world and I have a ton of catching up to do.  I'm going to have to break this up into a few posts!  To keep you in the loop- Andy finished residency on June 23 and we packed up and left Omaha on June 25.  The next 5 weeks were filled with lots of fun and craziness (and a whole lot of miles on our car!).  We headed to Salt Lake to spend some time with Andy's family (but not before a detour to Las Vegas to find a suitable place to live).  Then we headed up to my parent's home in Tremonton.  Then we went back to Salt Lake, then up to Bear Lake, then back to SL, back to Tremonton, back to SL, back to Las Vegas.  Whew.  Needless to say, we were more than ready to be out of the car and in our own beds by the time we moved in!  Here are a few of my favorite pictures from our extended vacation:

 Ben being a good uncle and carrying sleepy Rachel around Las Vegas for us.

 Fourth of July concert and fireworks.  I love my girlies!

 Eden had so much fun playing at Bear Lake with her cousins- well, most of the time anyway!

 Rachel also loved Bear Lake!

 We went boating on the lake and Eden was brave enough to try tubing for the first time.

 We also went camping on Hyrum Lake with my family and Eden loved playing with her other cousins (which I didn't get any pictures of) and playing in the lake.  She's quite the little fish!

 This is the beautiful view from our campsite in Hyrum.  I don't entirely dislike camping if this is what I get to see when I wake up in the morning.  Plus I got to be with my whole entire family, which doesn't happen very often and it was great!

More pictures to come....

House hunting in Las Vegas

Hello all.  I know that it has been over three years since I (Andy) have posted something on this blog, but I felt that it was time that I contribute again.  I finally finished residency last week.  My parents came out for graduation and while they were there, they were nice enough to help us pack the house and drive all of our stuff half way across the country.  We took all of our stuff to Las Vegas.  Jill and I then spent a couple of days looking for a place to live there.  Here are a couple of pictures of places that we looked at:

(Too french)

(Too many naked women statues)

(Too many rats in the dungeons)

Since none of those places actually worked out, we'll have to keep looking...  Eden is very excited about having a pool since it is hot in Las Vegas.  So we had to make sure that we found a good pool for us.  Rachel also seemed to like the pool option.

We are also looking forward to getting to know our new neighbors!  I can't wait until they bring over some house warming gifts!!

We will also need to furnish our place, so we went out to try and find some cool stuff for us.  We had seen that this place had a lot of cool things!!

We had a lot of fun and are now back in Utah for a vacation before I start my job.  We are very excited to get back down to Las Vegas though and see what all the desert has in store for us!!!