Purple People Eater

Well....she doesn't eat people, but she is definitely all in purple today! I know she looks ridiculous, but it is cold in Florida today and I thought the purple pants looked like the warmest thing in her drawer. We hardly have anything with purple on it as far as shirts go, so I just decided that all purple it was. Except none of the purples are the same shade, but who cares.

Who knew vacuuming could be so much fun! Actually, I do not mind vacuuming at all, it is the mopping part I dislike.

On another exciting note: We found out last night that Josh and Erica were in the hospital for high blood pressure and she was having contractions. We were with Adam and Jill and had already changed our mind about seeing a move at 10pm. (I know, what were we thinking) and headed to Steak N Shake to eat some milkshakes instead. We got the call from Josh and headed over to the hospital to hang out for an hour or so. Matt left his cell phone in the waiting area so when he went to get it this morning, she had just had the baby and they were cleaning little Easton up. We are visiting them later this evening and I can't wait! He was 9 lbs, 6 oz. Whew, good job Erica! I saw one picture of him and he looked beautiful. They might have pictures up on the blog, which is linked to mine called "Growing Paynes."

Beep Beep!

Rachel loves this chair. It is a borrowed toy, but loved. We finally got some warm weather on Monday and I put Rachel in this outfit. We bought it last May and I got a 12 month size thinking it would fit her in April and May. Well, who knew that she would just be a big baby. I squeezed her into the hoochie shorts and too tight shirt, but she looked so stinkin cute. She is getting to be such a big girl.

Since she is able to get anywhere, she does like to go to the wall of toys and of course, mess them all up. She loves to look out the window and pat the sill.

No comments on the ponytail. Katie watched Rachel overnight on Sunday and did her hair that morning. She was tired of it hanging in her face. I just left it.

This is her new Fisher Price Laugh and Learn Learning Farm. I got a great deal on it because Toys R Us left out a sale sign one day too long and had to honor it. I got this toy and a lawn mower for $48. Not on sale, I would have paid around $110. Yea for sales!

The lawn mower, but she is still too uncoordinated to play with it. The handle is not sturdy, so it is not good for learning. I put it away and will pull it out once she can walk well.

The house is still in progress next door. The drywall people did a great job, I think it is all painted (minus some touch ups and baseboards). The tiling is in progress and the terrazo floors got cleaned and sealed yesterday. Some carpet will be going in soon in one room. I am working out in the yard when I get a chance, but it is a disaster. I have been pulling vines off a chain link fence for 3 days now and have only got about 30 feet done. I would rather be outside then stuck in the house doing work though. I also got to blow the leaves off the roof on Sunday. That was fun and I felt like one job got done completely in about one hour. Our renter moves in on March 10th, so we have much to do in little time. I am giving my midterm on Tuesday, so that means we are halfway through the semster. I cannot believe it. Spring break is at the end of March (which is late) but that is just closer to the end and my long summer break and a few vacations! Rachel did not nap this morning and I think I will go get her out of bed now.

We've Got a Mover

Rachel started crawling yesterday. She wasn't all over the place, but I think that will only take a few days for her to figure out that she can go anywhere now. In this video, Matt was enticing her with his shoelace.

Rachel has graduated!

This little girl has gotten sick. Not as bad as Hannah and Kate, but the nasty cough and green snotty nose. She is still happy and of course, does not want to cuddle at all unless she is drinking her bottle. I took her to the doctor this morning and she said her lungs sound clear. She wrote me a prescription for an antibiotic that I could fill if her snot stays green for 5 days. So, we will see if she needs her first dose of medicine or not. This keeps me out of the gym unless I can find someone to watch her. Lauren got her yesterday morning so I could volunteer for preschool ministry at church that we were both supposed to be at. I got a friend to help me and it was a pretty easy morning with 6 two year olds. Rachel is still not crawling, but she does try to crawl over your legs if they are in the way and is playing on her knees more. She still loves standing by her swing and can now play with the toy I keep in it. She has figured out where to push to make the music turn on.

This is her Valentine's Day outfit from my Mom. It is so cute and slightly tight, espeically around her diaper and thighs. Hopefully we can get a few more wears out of it before we pack it away.

Who loves hugs? I do!
She also enjoys emptying out her toy basket and playing with it. So, I decided to put her in it.

Playing on her laptop.

She has graduated from her infant carrier to a big girl carseat! The infant carrier was sooooo heavy and she was at its limits with height and close to with weight. It only goes up to 30 inches and 22 pounds. She was 29 inches 5 weeks ago, so I am pretty sure she is at least 30 now. She was 21 pounds 10.4 oz at the doctors this morning. I love the pattern for the carseat cover and I think it actually takes up less room than the other one. We couldn't recline our seats but maybe an inch and there looks like there will be a little more room. Either way, the corolla has little room to offer regardless.

We visited Matt at the State Fair on Saturday and Sunday. Jill went with me and we got in for free because Matt was given two sponsor passes to use for the entire fair. That was the first time I had really gone and had a good time. It was a little chilly, but Rachel was a champ and we saw some baby goats, pigs, cows and other stuff. I did not eat any fair food, but it all smelled really good. If I had to eat one thing, I kind of wanted to try the fried oreo. The fair is ending today, so Matt should hopefully not have to work as much until the Strawberry festival. On a great note...after getting our tax return back and his next paycheck, we should have our 3-6 months emergency fund complete! If you have read any Dave Ramsey, you will know what I am talking about. The house is coming along next door. The drywall people have been working the past two days and I don't know if they are done or not. We do have our first renter, but it will not be anything long term. It is family and he is just staying there while he looks for a house to buy. But, no complaints because it will pay the mortgage on the house and then some for a few months.

Rachel Has Learned A Lot!

This past week, Rachel has changed so much. I am really seeing the big girl in her, well as much as a big girl as she can be at 10 months. She did turn 10 months on Saturday, which was an interesting day altogether. Lauren and I had our second garage sale and it was great! With both sales combinen, I made about $90 and got rid of so much crap. Yea! Besides, I enjoyed hanging out with other women on those Saturdays. We managed to watch all three girls by ourselves and have the garage sale at the same time. That was not an easy task because we were pretty busy for 4 hours straight as far as people go.

Rachel learned how to clap, but she doesn't do it at the appropriate time yet. You usually have to show her how to clap and then she will do it afterwards. She seems very proud of herself, but has trouble remembering how to do it or is just being lazy. She can also wave somewhat too. On Sunday, I found her standing in her crib. I was shocked and slightly nervous because we still hadn't lowered her crib from when she was a newborn. There was no reason because she couldn't move. Matt and DJ lowered it that day. She has become quite capable of getting around, but not in the typical crawling mode. She rolls and really trys to crawl. She will go from sitting to the crawling position. I have seen her sit and then go into the crawling position, then sit and then to crawling position. By doing this, she slowly makes her way forward, which is more than she can do on her belly. Who knows if she will ever do a normal crawl. She is pulling up more, but still has some problems. She can getting into a sitting position from laying on the floor. Needless to say, she is all over the place and enjoys moving around in her crib much more than sleeping for her naps. AHHHH... I can hear her right now making noise. Because of this, she is always getting limbs stuck in the crib slats. I am almost tempted to put the bumper pads back on. I had been having her sleep in the pack n play so she can't get stuck. I hope she gets over this soon. She is pretty much on complete whole milk bottles. I know most people don't switch until a year, but I have made up my mind on this and have slowly introduced the whole milk in and she is doing great with it. Last night, she had an entire whole milk bottle and did fine. I have about 10 oz of breastmilk left that I will keep mixing in, but after that, we are on normal cow's milk. I am giving her vitamins and making sure she is still eating foods with iron and fat in it. This little girl ate a Nutri Grain bar, 5 bits of pancake and about 4-5 oz of oatmeal and applesauce mixed for breakfast one morning along with 6 oz of milk. She has an appetite. I hope she has her Daddy's metabolism later in life.

I made Rachel and I pancakes one morning. Hers had banana in it and mind had chocolate chips. How fitting! So, in this picture, she is eating her banana pancake.

Where is Rachel in this picture? One of two places: either I put her to bed and this is the aftermath of her playtime or she managed to get herself over by Matt's dresser, which is off to the left in the picture.

She enjoys brushing her teeth. I brush for about 30-45 seconds and then let her chew on the toothbrush. She really enjoys trying to suck the fruity toothpaste off the second I put the toothbrush in her mouth.

The blur she is holding is the toothpaste tube.

So Happy!

Why am I so happy? Because Katie and Josiah had their baby and now I have a snuggly little newborn to hold and love on! Sure, there have been plenty of new babies around, but none that I will get to see at least once a week and whose parents will let me hold her for an hour while she sleeps. I know that will stop soon too, but for now I am going to spoil sweet Lydia. I know you are dying to see a picture of her, and I have plenty, but I am only going to post one. Katie will post some soon enough along with the story of her arrival. It is funny how I don't even remember holding Rachel when she was just born, but I guess that was because I had just pushed her out and I was more relieved and exhausted than in the mood to hold her. She was probably only an hour old in this picture. She had no diaper on and her little butt was so squishy, come to think of it, she is kind of squishy in general. (I mean that in a good way)

On a not-so-exciting note, it took me about 3 hours total to grade my tests from Thursday. I just finished them up Tuesday morning. Ugh. I have been sleeping terrible again. I thought that since I was off the steriod from last week that I would be sleeping better, but that only lasted one night. Matt continues to work on the house next door and has gotten a few rooms painted. Lauren and I had our garage sale this past Saturday and didn't sell enough stuff. While we made some money and did get rid of many things, it didn't look like much because we started out with just so much junk. So, we will be doing another sale at Lauren's house this Saturday. Jill and I took a class at the gym last night called Body Combat. It was new to me and we felt so stupid the whole time. It has some tae kwon do moves in it and other stuff like that. I was always off beat and worked harder at not peeing on myself because of all the jumping/bouncing than on the actual moves. I wish my bladder was as strong as it was before I had Rachel. Speaking of Rachel, she is still not crawling, but has pulled up on me a few times. She is really trying, but still mostly does her Rocky move (picture below). That move has to be harder than crawling, so I don't get it.

I didn't even have to pose her.

I don't know what happened to this girl's hair, but thought it was worthy of a picture or two.

One last thing: Happy Birthday Dad! We love you!