Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Of which I took NO pictures. I had the camera in my bag, but never took it out.
We were able to join with Bob's Uncle John and Aunt Linda's family.
We had a yummy dinner despite a few set backs! About a half hour before everyone was set to arrive, there was a car accident near by and they lost all the power. They didn't know when it would be back up, so we relocated to Chandler-Gilbert Community College here in town. Uncle John runs the cafeteria there, so he opened it up and finished cooking and we ate there.
It was fun to visit with them, even though we all live so close we haven't seen some of them in over a year.
The rest of the weekend was spend enjoying the weather, shopping and decorating of Christmas.

The Phantom of the Opera

This year as an early Christmas gift, we got Brandon(and us) tickets to see Phantom of the Opera at Gammage Theater.We were able to go with some great friends the Dearden's. It was such a great show. Brandon loved it!! He has been playing the music on the piano ever since it is wonderful!! Thank You to Cathy for watching the other 3 kids while we went out.
Note: That's a shadow behind Bob. His butt's not really that big.

Jack and the Beanstalk

Today we surprised the boys with a trip to Hale Theatre to see "Jack and the Beanstalk".

Bob and I have had season tickets going on 3 years and love it. We have taken Brandon every year with us to the summer musical and "A Christmas Carol", last year Zachary went at Christmas too. They both really enjoy being able to go.

Ethan has been asking more questions about the plays we go see, and asked why he didn't get to see "A Christmas Carol" with us. We were going to get him a ticket for this year, but decided to try it out with their children's show first.

When they left for the show they still didn't know where they were going. Brandon guessed an ASU game of some kind, or the Science Center. Ethan thought it was the zoo, and Zachary agreed with them. (Why they thought they would dress up for those events I don't know)

This weekend is also Gilbert Days, and the parade runs right down the street the theatre is on, so they were going to have to park a little ways away and walk over. This only added to the suspense.

But they all loved it!!! Now Ethan really wants to go with us to see "Christmas Carol", what have we started.

Huricane Rachel

Today Rachel has been in rare form! Here are some of the highlights that I managed to capture on film of her adventures today.(this is only a few)

Sitting in the toy box, OK until the toys started flying, and she tipped over hitting her head

Unloading a brand new Kleenex box in Mom's room, while mommy cleaned up the mess in the loft.

Climbing into the shelves in the loft and getting stuck!

Help Mom!

What I didn't catch on film today. Trying to put lotion on, falling partway down the stairs, taking her socks off repeatedly,trying to call someone on the phone, and pulling out all of the paper stored in the desk, and printer.

Good thing she is super cute!!!

1 year update

Rachel had her 1 year check up today.
Weight: 20lbs 9 oz.
Length: 30.75 inches
Head: 18.25 inches

She is doing great, and such a little charmer. But she HATES the scale at the DR. office. I don't know if it is the scale itself, or getting undressed, but she lets them know she is not happy. Then promptly stops when picked up.

Birthday Fun

Here are quite a few pictures from Rachel's big day. The boys had so much fun decorating. We might have went a little overboard on the pink.We had my aunt and the Spence family over for dinner and presents. It was a really nice evening. Rachel enjoyed opening her presents, and even shared pretty well, except for her baby.

We had fun decorating with pink!!!

Her cupcake birthday cake. We also had matching regular cupcakes.

Opening presents

playing with Kameha

Giving her new baby a kiss

Yummy cupcakes!!!

She didn't even get that messy

Playing with baby after everyone was gone.

Happy 1st Birthday

Happy Birthday sweet baby girl!!!!!

Halloween

We had a great Halloween. The day started great with Rachel sleeping in! We then went and got donuts for breakfast to surprise the boys when they got up.(Brandon slept really late and didn't get his picture taken)
We had a nice day at home getting a few things done, Rachel had great naps, and ran a few errands.
After dinner of a pumpkin shaped pizza, the kids got their costumes on. We had told Brandon that he was to old to go Trick or Treating this year. But when we decided to go with the Star Wars theme, and a friend had an awesome costume she had made for her husband, (Thanks Marie)we told him he could go and carry Rachel and her basket!
So this year we had Darth Vader (Zachary), Clone Trooper (Ethan), Princess Leia (Rachel) and Obi-Won Kenobi (Brandon).
They were quite a hit around the neighborhood. Rachel at first didn't want to keep her wig on, so to get pictures at home I gave her a sucker to play with. It still had the wrapper on it. And it worked to help get some pictures.
Well, they took off in a hurry as soon as pictures were done, and I forgot to get the sucker back. Good news, bad news. She kept the wig on once out the door, but got the wrapper off the sucker. By the time she got home she was covered in sticky drool. Her costume sleeves were stuck to her body!!! We had to literally peel her costume off her.
We now have more candy than we know what to do with, and some hyper kids. Glad it only comes once a year!!!

Cute Halloween Dress

Rachel

Kameha

Girls playing together

I have to add a post about the CUTEST Halloween dress that Rachel has. My talented friend Marie made this dress for Rachel. She wore it today and got so many compliments wherever we went.(I of course didn't take any pictures)
But a few weeks ago she wore it when she went to play with Kameha while I went to Ethan's class.
When Kameha saw Rachel wearing hers she wanted hers on too. So Marie got some fun pictures of them.(which I stole from her blog)
Thanks again Marie for helping her look so cute this month.