Watch Out - Here Rachel Comes!

We had a great weekend in the Rhine household! Nothing special, except we all three went to church this Sunday. It has been a while since that happened. Matt wasn't too busy so we spent some time together and over at my parent's house. Rachel is a walking fool. The only thing left to master as far as walking goes is being able to stand up and not use something else for help. So, if she is in the middle of the room, she will crawl to something to stand and then walk from there. Many times, she has to take a few steps back to steady herself, but it is so cute! There is an action shot of her walking, but no video.

She also has figured out how to climb into this chair all by herself. She cannot get down though. There are two book we got in St. Louis and she absolutely loves them. She really likes the touch and feel books now.


She loves Hannah and Kate's kitchen, so I decided I would use all of her birthday gift cards to Toys R Us and buy her one. It took a little while to put together, but it is so cute. I need to get some play food, but that will be cheap.

We went swimming at the Lantz's house on Friday with Lauren and the girls. We had a good time, except Hannah did not want to be in the raft. She thought it would be more fun to tip herself over and drink water.


I have come across a new hobby for me: saving money by couponing! This was my latest trip to Publix. I spent $33.93 for all of this. Full price about $105. I saved 70% and I have been able to afford things that I never could have before (like Oreos), but that is coming up this week! Watch out Publix, here comes Sarah!

Our trip to St. Louis and other things BACKWARDS

I always forget to upload my pictures in reverse order, so here they are backwards. I don't know why it is typing in bold, but I cannot get it to stop either.

This is Rachel sleeping with her new/used pillow from Katie. She normally doesn't even sleep on it, so I thought this was cute. This girl slept so well on Monday. I think she was just catching up on sleep as we are all exhausted from our trip.

Playing with a box of diapers I bought. She thought is was fun to push it around and then try to crawl on top of it every now and then. It looks like some sort of balancing act.


She is also now able to climb on and get off her rocking horse herself. She likes it.
We had all three girls (left to right, Hannah, Rachel, Kate) at Suson park. That is where the next 10 or so pictures are from. It is a neat park with a lake to fish in, playgrounds, pavilions and farm animals.

Piglets are so cute.
Hannah and Kate were thrilled by the animals. Rachel didn't seem too interested yet.
One of the goats is sitting in the trough to eat.
Hank petting a miniature horse.
Sleepy Rachel at Lone Elk park.
One of the few elk we saw on this trip to Lone Elk Park. It is a free drive thru park where you can usually spot many elk, bison, deer, and turkey. It was a very rainy day though, so maybe they were hiding.
One of the many clydesdales we saw at Grant's Farm. This was a park we always went to as kids and had a great time. It is again FREE and has lots of animals, a nice tram ride, place to feed the goats, and elephant show, yummy brats to eat, and free beer (to those who like beer).

Hannah cracked up the whole time feeding this little goat.



Grant's farm has two African elephants, which really surprised me because most places have Asian elephants. These two have been there many years.

Lauren and Hannah. It was quite difficult to keep the girls still at the elephant show. For some reason, the monstrous elephant doing tricks was not interesting to them.
American Bald Eagle
Lauren and Kate on the tram ride.
Rachel eating goldfish on the tram ride. It was the only way to keep her happy sitting still for that long.
The next many pictures are from the St. Louis Zoo, which is also FREE and awesome!
Grizzly bear
penguin
The bird house has never interested me much before, but this time, I saw some really neat looking birds. I do not know their names.
Toucan


Kangaroos
I liked the ostrich running amongst the giraffes. At one point, it looked like it was trying to corral them all by the door.

Chimpanzee

Asian elephant

My favorite nieces!

I am enjoying not working, but decided to up my class load in the fall. I will be teaching three classes, still two nights a week. I will start around 2:45 and end at 9:20. So, long days, but Matt and I have some plans for the extra money. I also have a student who really wanted to me in my class, but it was the earlier one that I didn't have a sitter for Rachel. His mom offered to watch Rachel so I could teach and he could be in my class. They are a wonderful family that I have been tutoring the past two years. So, it worked out perfect. I will most likely not teach three classes for a while after the fall term.

Matt was lonely without me and Rachel. He spent the evenings away from home almost every night, hanging out with friends or family. We are looking forward to a family trip on Memorial Day weekend camping with the Lantz's and other friends.

Sesame Street Safari!

Lauren and I and all 3 girls went to Busch Gardens on Wednesday! We had a great time with no lines and no crowds. The girls were all really good and enjoying everything so much, especially the splash pad. Those pictures are on my phone, but it seems that since I don't have internet, I cannot get them off my phone. Everything has to cost extra...They played for about 30-40 minutes and loved it. Rachel kept crawling to each of the fountains and got sprayed up the nose a lot. Hannah played with this other girl just a little older than her, so we say she made a friend. Kate just wandered around, but was always cautious to look and make sure she could see us. They were so good. We walked to the other side of the park to see some animals, but by the time we got there, Lauren and I were the only ones awake. Go figure. It was so much fun!

Hannah and Lauren
Kate and Lauren
You can just barely see Kate's blue swim suit up in the air.
Waiting for Kate and Mom to finish the ride.
Lauren wanted to go all by herself!

Rachel and Mommy

Sarah and Rachel
Lauren and Kate
Hannah was upset that she was deemed the untrustworthy one by getting strapped in a stroller while Kate got to watch by the fence.
Rachel enjoying the simple trash in life!

Goodbye Nana! We will miss you, but you will be back soon enough.

I took Rachel back to the doctor on Tuesday for green snot issue. We got another shot (same one she got in the hospital) and was put on a Z-pack for kids. Thankfully it is only for five days, so her butt won't suffer too long. If this doesn't work, we have to see an ENT. It does seem to be getting better though, so we hope we won't have to see any more doctors for awhile. Rachel is doing awesome with walking. If it is within a few steps, she will just walk over to it. She has taken about 10 so far, but that is walking between two people. I expect within a few weeks, she will be walking everywhere. I bought her these cute little light-up sandals from Target that I cannot wait to get her in when she walks!

Matt is doing well and so am I. Rachel and I will be leaving tomorrow for St. Louis for a week, so you won't see anything sooner (not that I usually post more than once a week).

If you saw on Lauren's blog about her couponing excitement, you should really find a class and learn how to make the most of coupons in your area! I love it too! I went to Publix and spent $54 and $50 of that was a gift card for gas. I saved $75 and I am having Matt do his part while I am gone and clipping some coupons on things that I bought but know they will have a coupon for in this Sunday's paper. He can just take them back in the receipt and they will give the money for the coupon.