It has been awhile

So, the huge garage sale was lame and I got a whopping total of five items. One of those was a high chair for my parents, one was a pack-n-play for Matt's parent's house (they are moving down this month) and the other three items were for us. One was a cute dress from Baby Gap with apples on it. Another was a very small toy that would be good to put in her diaper bag. The last toy is the one in this picture below, which I really like except there is no on/off switch. It is great for her to sit with and has lots of things to do.

At church, we are having our annual Global Outreach Celebration, which is where a bunch of missionaries come in from all over the world and talk about what is going on. That is always a busy week for us because our Sunday school class is assigned a missionary and we do things with them throughout the week. Tonight we are having a bonfire and just hanging out. No, it is not bonfire weather at all, but if we waited for that, it might come around in February. Ugh.

Rachel and I are going to Orlando with Katie tomorrow. We are leaving her two girls with her husband and we are hitting the outlet malls since we didn't find anything good at the garage sales. There is also a big consignment store convention thing that we are looking into this weekend. Matt will be driving over after work and all 7 of us (8 if you count their unborn baby) will hang out and possibly make it to Downtown Disney this time around. If you recall and probably don't, last time we tried this, I got puked on, we all got rained on, and the guys went out and had fun while Katie and I ate Oreos and watched a chic flic. I have to get ready for school now, which is halfway over already, so enjoy the pictures!

If you just want a good laugh...not a good picture, but funny.Okay, take two on that pose

We signed up for the Dolly Parton Imagination Library when she was first born. There are only two requirements and they send you a children's book for free every month until they are 5 years old. This is one of them.

She got a teething biscuit for the first time a few days ago and devoured it. This was after her nursing and eating solids. It was no wonder she was hungry the next feeding time.My stickly little mess to clean up.

Rachel now finds her reflection somewhat entertaining.

Rachel's thoughts: "I am so stinkin cute! I could totally be a baby model! Why haven't I gotten my pictures professionally taken yet?"

New Stuff!

Not a whole lot that is new since the last post. Cousins Hannah and Kate are currently sick and I am just waiting for Rachel to show the symptoms since they are around each other a lot and play with the same toys. For now though, she is perfectly normal. She got baby yogurt today and really liked it. A few days ago, I tried giving her the dissolvable puffs and when I put them in her mouth, she looked at me like I was nuts. I don't think she is a fan yet, but this girl loves to eat, so I expect her to like them soon enough. On Wednesday, I got a new haircut and color. Yes, me, miss cheapo paid someone to color my hair. I know, I will have to pay her again in a few months to touch it up, but I love it! I couldn't get any good pictures of it since Matt is never home and Rachel hasn't quite figured out how to work the camera yet. It is short. The front is just under my chin and then it gets shorter as it goes back. She put caramel colored highlites in. Nothing too flashy because we all know I am not flashy. It is really easy to style and no more ponytails for me! Speaking of flashy, here are some pictures of Rachel flashing you a pretty smile!

She has gotten really good at sitting as long as there is a toy to entertain her. The leap frog table was loaned to me and Rachel really likes it. Once she gets into the standing phase, there are legs I can snap on. She is such a big girl!

Can you see her teeth?! There are two in the middle. Doesn't seem to bother her a bit.

Rachel finally realized that she could sit up and lean forward a little in her high chair and she could then reach the spinning part of the toy. This also poses a small problem when she decides to lurch forward while I am feeding her. She has been hit in between the eyes, up the nose, and on the cheek.

I have mentioned how much she loves her sippy cup. Isn't this such a great shot? I didn't pose the cup so you could see her name. It just worked out that way. If I put it on the high chair, she can usually get it to her mouth all by herself. Most of the time she does it one-handed too. She likes water a lot.

What a Big Girl!

Where has the week gone? My last post was about gardening and Matt and I are still admiring the new plants. They look great! Now, some of my other periwinkle that I trimmed are dead. I don't know if they are diseased or I cut them too short or what the deal is, but I am just rooting some clippings and will replace them. Rachel has changed a lot in the past few weeks. I didn't really notice it while she was going through this change, but looking back on it, my Mom and I can really see the difference. She is just talking all the time, happy as can be, sitting up really well unsupported and just seems so much more grown up (as much as she could be). Yesterday, she got a total of maybe 2 hours of naptime and was pretty happy the whole day. I couldn't believe it. She is a pro at rolling over from tummy to back, but not yet doing the other way. I still work on it with her and the only help she needs is getting her leg up and over just a little. Otherwise, she can immediately do the rest. I think she is just being lazy. Aunt Lauren said she can do it 95% of the way. I think that is good enough! She has been getting really heavy in that carseat of hers. Toting it around it a back breaker and I have been thinking about putting her in the big girl carseat soon. I kept asking myself what is stopping me and then I realized how would I go grocery shopping because I didn't think she could sit well enough to ride in the front. Well, after sit and playing for minutes by herself yesterday, I thought she might be ready for her first trip in the Publix shopping cart. I was so excited because normally she takes up all of the room in the cart, not my food. Publix is nice because they have the sanitizing wipes that you can wipe off everything first. So, as a good mommy, I did that and then put Rachel in. She sat so well and loved the view. She didn't have any problems staying upright or falling to the side. She like to chew on my purse strap and then found the metal bar in front of her. Good thing I had wiped it off. She got bored with it pretty quick though. I made her some more baby food this week: green beans and peas. The beans came out more like a relish consistency which she really didn't care for much, but the peas, she loved. I have lots of bananas that were given to me, so I need to mash and freeze them before they go bad. She also went to the doctor today for her 6 month checkup. Her are her stats:

Weight: 17 lbs, 4 oz (75th percentile)
Height: 27.25 inches (90th percentile)
Head Circumference: 16.75 inches

She gained one ounce under two pounds and grew 2.5 inches. She must have had some crazy growth spurt. However, I have never known when she goes through them, so who knows when it happened. She also got three shots and of course, she cried, but as soon as she got picked up, her whine turned to her little form of babbling. She went down for a nap right when we got home and it currently sleeping very soundly. The doctor said I can start giving her yogurt and pretty much anything except the normal off limits foods. I just have to make sure they are mushy and can dissolve easily. So, Cheerios, puffs, and yogurt, here we come!!

You might wonder what Rachel is doing in the picture. This is our family room that we don't use much. Baby Einstein is playing on the TV, but she is more interested in her foot. Side note: she got her foot in her mouth for the first time this week!

But now she realized she can do both!

Well, one of them looks like they got a good night's sleep. The other one's eyes look a little rough (maybe like they are getting closer to 30).

Ahhh, that is better. Daddy and Rachel hanging out before church.

If anyone cares about what Matt and I have been up to recently, the answer is a lot, but nothing really interesting. I picked up another tutoring job, but haven't started yet. I am not sure if it will be a weekly thing or just on an as needed basis. We are almost at the midterm for HCC and I am look forward to winter break (almost a month long). We had a friend return home from overseas and a few people from our Sunday School class went boating and jet skiing on Saturday. We headed down around 3:30 (so after the heat of the day) and just laid on the boat for hours. It was great! A nice breeze, no bugs, and just a lot of laughter! Lauren was so nice and watched Rachel for us. Matt picked up another remodeling job this week and will be working on it during his non-Verizon hours for a few weeks. Hopefully it won't take too long and we will get him back quickly. Matt and I stopped going to the class Growing Kids God's Way that we were doing up at church. Rachel is too young to apply the information. So, I decided to go to a different class. Guess who is leading the class? Dave Ramsey. Well not in person, but we watch videos of his speaking events and last week's was great! I love this guy! I plan on going to that each week now, whether Matt goes or not. I have some friends who help lead it so at least I know a few people. This has turned really long, so I will stop.

I love gardening

The weather has been awesome in Florida and finally starting to cool down a little bit. This week, during Rachel's first nap, I decided to get some stuff done on the outside of the house. The back porch was a huge, cluttered mess so I cleaned it off on Tuesday. I wish I had a before and after picture. Unfortunately, the back porch is still ugly and in desparate need of repair, but is now clutter free. On Wednesday, I mowed the lawn. On Thursday, I worked in the backyard pulling weeds and picking up trash. Now these weeds are not just flower bed weeds, they are weeds that are like a carpet in parts of our lawn that are in the shade. They come from the neighbor's yard and are awful. We now have bare spots in our yard, but I am hoping the grass will grow in those spots. On Friday, I moved to the front yard and trimmed my periwinkle, swept the porch and walkway, and pulled out my hibiscus that were in front of our house. I planted them when we first moved in about 3.5 years ago and they did well at first, giving me pretty flowers. Two died during the winter and the others never flowered again. They grow just fine, but I wanted more than green plants. I have been wanting to pull them out, but just didn't know what to put in that would give me color, but would do okay in the shade. I love to garden and look at plants and wander around the nursery, so I went last night to get some ideas. Matt, Rachel, and I loaded up in the truck this morning and picked up my plants and mulch. Matt helped me plant while Rachel napped and I am so pleased with the results that I wanted to show everyone. I hope they look this good in a few weeks/months. But first, a picture of Rachel to appease you.

She has started making so much noise this week. She is constantly squealing, cooing, oohing, and aahing. It is really funny.

The front of our house. It is hard to see my new plants so I have some closeups next.

The tree is a purple princess glory tree and most of the time I see them as bushes. I really like it a lot and it has pretty purple flowers. No buds yet, but I am still hoping.

This is the left side of the garden. The first plant is the red sister ti plant and I love these for shady areas. They have more pink than red leaves and basically require nothing.

This is a stromanthe. I love the colors, especially the pink.

Behind the tree was looking a little bare and I have always really liked the oyster plant. I thought they would add a splash a color and fill in some space.

This is a veragated ginger and smells really good. Not too strong, but when I was planting it, I could smell it.

This is a mammie croton. I have the petra croton in a few other places in my yard. I used to not really care for this variety, but I wanted something different and these have grown on me over time.

Matt has done a little more work in the kitchen as far as finishing touches. He put trim on the corners of the island and at the bottom.