Rachel Turns 1

I could write pages about this girl and how complacent she's been in a million different situations. The Lord blessed us with this little girl and her mellow demeanor knowing that we were going to be busy for the first part of her life. I was pregnant with her when I was called to be the YW president. She came on her first camp out before she had hit the one month mark. At 5 months I left her with David for 3.5 days while I went to girls camp and pumped like crazy. I came back home nursed her once and she never skipped a beat. Every Sunday for the first year of her life she's been passed around from good friends and all the young women in the ward. She's been to countless mutuals, ward councils, school lunches and school parties and through it all she has a smile on her face. The big kids love to carry her around, tickle her. play with her and she laughs or crawls away from them as fast as she can. She is just the best. 

I took these pictures outside because she loves to be outside, not walking has not deterred her from the backyard. Whenever the backdoor is open she crawls outside as fast as she can. She plays in the grass, under the tramp or on the plastic playset. 

She LOVED her birthday cake.

She hangs with the big kids and refuses to be left out of fun things. On movie night she'll steal their popcorn when they go to the bathroom and climb up and watch the movie. She's hilarious.

She is a content little baby but she loves her Momma. She loves to snuggle and lay her head on my shoulder when I hold her even when she's not tired. If you can't tell she is LOVED. Happy Birthday Rachel Grace!

The South Texas Maze

On military weekend we drove an hour southwest of San Antonio to the South Texas Maze. It was enormous in true Texas style. It was 90 degrees and sunny all day and were sweating most of the time but the kids had a blast.

. Instead of a map they had certain checkpoints in the maze where if you answered your questions it would tell you the correct way based on your answer. They had options like history, movie trivia etc. We chose the "Bible" one for the kids. It was impressive they knew all the answers like "Which prophet got swallowed by a big fish?" and "Who defeated Goliath?" I do love Texas...

There were hay bales to jump (and pose) on.

The popper jumpy thing. It was really cool.

One more in the maze.

"Mom,  Mom, Mom take a picture when I'm in mid air okay?" then he landed harder than he expected looked up at me and asked me if I got the picture as he limped toward me. I wish I had it on video.

Rachel is so darn compliant. We drag her everywhere and she is just happy to be here. I was trying to hard to get a picture of her first little pony tail when...

Scotty fell off the picnic table we were sitting at face first into the dirt. I looked at the sweet young woman sitting next to me asked if she would hold Rachel and scooped up Scotty. It was a nasty fall and he had a scab across his nose for a week. I would say it's a parenting fail but he probably still would have done it if I was watching...

And he's darling and recovered quickly.

And there is the whole fam bam on the giant rocking chair. On the way home we were all starving so we decided to stop at In n Out. It is a rare occasion on other than long road trips we bring all the kids inside a fast food place that doesn't have a playplace. We usually bring the food home or feed them in the car but David and I decided to brave it and we all went in. And guess what? The kids were so well behaved (note famished) that they gobbled up food and didn't make us look like complete vagabonds with their dusty clothes and messy hair. We were so grateful walking out of the restaurant that night... it's the simple things in life.