Fun in the Rhine Household

Well, since our last post, we have done quite a bit. We have spent quite a few nights at my parent's house. Matt went on a man date with my brother Michael and Josiah. Apparently, they might have broken a few things at the batting cages and driving range. Rachel and I just hung out with Grandma and Grandpa. We had lunch with our new senior pastor and his wife and son. Rachel was loved by them both and she christened them with spit up. How nice of her! Katie called me up on Monday morning and asked if we wanted to go to Busch Gardens with her, Esther, and Hannah. Since I needed some exercise and fun, we got ready quickly and headed out to sweat to our heart's content. It was hot and we spent most of the time in the shade. We saw a cute show and Esther and Hannah rode a few kiddie rides. We had a good day! Yesterday, one of my friends from youth group came over and we caught up for a few hours. Rachel was very nice to her and didn't spit up on her directly. She made it without wet spots on her shirt or pants. Matt did some work in the kitchen. He has been very productive in that department and their are just a few minor things that need to be done. He pulled up a few loose floor tiles and put some new ones down. But here is the good part: he started putting up the backsplash! Yea, no more ugly green and white horribly textured wall. It looks wonderful, even without grout and the tile spacers still in. I have a few pictures of that. I am still tutoring one girl and will probably start back up with a few other people in the coming weeks. On top of that, I need to start planning for my class that I will be teaching. My first class is on Tuesday and I am really looking forward to it! We have birthday parties and get togethers coming up that just makes for a busy month. But, if we just start around the house and did nothing, we would get bored. Rachel is just wonderful! What can I say, she is the best. She has pretty much dropped her 4th nap and is up from about 5:30 to 7:30. However, she is not content to just play. She wants to be held and interact with us. This doesn't work out so well because it is dinner time and I am usually cooking it and then we want to eat. I don't want to be holding her while doing either of these things, so I am in a little predicament. Maybe we just need to start eating earlier or she can just sit in the other room and cry. Hhhmmm... That is all for now.

In case you have never seen our old kitchen, here it is.

The counters were not normally this messy, but we were in the process of tearing some stuff up.

Matt and DJ had just started putting up the backsplash.

For those of you who are really observant, the post that is in the right side of the picture above is now stained to match the cabinets. Before, it was just natural maple, but Matt finally doctored up some stain and stained the post, some shelves he made, and some trim. It looks so nice!

This is the long wall in our kitchen, so he got the majority of it done! Yea! I am now thinking that I may not like the green anymore. My friend has a really nice blue in her kitchen and I think they have the same color cabinets. I might be painting sometime soon. We will see.

Grandma Rhine got her this dress. It is so cute. This is just before church on Sunday.

Rachel really likes to play with toys and is much more coordinated with her hands.