Sock Monkey!

"Sock Monkey...That Funky Monkey!"

For some reason those words make Rachel

laugh and dance

with Sock Monkey

whenever I sing them.

This is no ordinary Sock Monkey...

I actually played with him at my

Grandparent's house

when I was a little girl!

He is one Special little Sock Monkey, that's for sure!

The following pictures do bring to mind

one question though...

"Exactly whose Sock Monkey is he now?"

Wordless Wednesday...

Spaghetti & Meatballs

"Sprinkle" Cheese

and

Very 1st Lollipop!

Life Is Good!

Rachel's 1st Easter Egg Hunt!

Well, I had planned to have a little Easter Egg Hunt for Rachel when she awoke from her nap on Sunday. It was raining outside and I thought it might be fun to let her find some eggs with a jellybean hidden inside. She ended up taking a longer nap than I expected and I actually fell asleep on the sofa! I never got to hiding the eggs for her. I felt kind of badly about it. Today started out as a most beautiful day...the sun was shining, just a cool breeze and I decided to hide her eggs outside and let her have a "real" little egg hunt:). I ran out and hid them while she was eating her fruit at lunchtime, then we got our coats and shoes on and headed outdoors! I thought I was going to have to model the behavior and "show" her what to do. Nope! I gave her the little bunny basket and told her we were going to look for eggs. (I kind of hid some in plain sight:)) She stood there and looked around, saw the one in the planter by the porch, went over, put her basket down and grabbed the egg...opened it and out fell two jellybeans! She then scooped them up off the cement (Momma cringe) and popped them into her mouth. Then she looked around for more! Once she had taken out her prize she put the opened egg back into the planter, so I did have to keep reminding her to put the eggs into her basket. It was SO much fun watching her hunt for the eggs! I had no idea:). It was just the two of us out there traipsing around the front yard. I kept alternating between my digital camera and video camera as I tried to capture all the fun. It was hard to do sometimes as she had me laughing so hard! Not all of the eggs had something in them as I did not want her to have that much candy at one time, and it was especially funny hearing her "grouch" about it when she opened an empty one! She was so not happy that the Easter Bunny did not fill ALL of her eggs!

Hmmm...where to start!?

Bitty Baby is starting to go more and more places with us!

She "helped" Rachel find the eggs today... All done!
Looking for more jelly beans...
Found one!

If I cannot get her to smile I start singing an old 80's tune she heard in the car a couple of weeks ago and loved. It is called "The Rain" and has a catchy beat (and tune!). It has been working great for awhile, but you can see here that she is pressing her lips together and trying VERY hard NOT to smile. I was cracking up!
She lasted for a few moments then...

this happened! Hmmm...is it the song or my singing?!

Back in the house!

Heading over to read one of her new books from the Easter Bunny!

Snack/Treat!

This is Rachel's first "Peep" experience.

As much as she loves sugar...she was not a big fan of the Peeps! The video is great as Sheena actually came over and stole one from Rachel! So then I had a sticky Peep on the floor and one on the table. Neither liked them much.

Look who's wearing the bunny ears!

Rachel put them on Gymbo and thought this was quite the hilarious accomplishment.

Another fun, exhausting day! My house is a mess, I have laundry piled pretty high...some clean and needing put away and some still dirty. I still haven't called my Mom back:(...hoping to talk to my sister too. I am almost finished with the Thank You's for Rachel's birthday presents. I need to clean and pack for our next move (more about that another time) and my "to do" list is overwhelming me big time...but I recently came across this on a site I was reading on and it is so true...

Cleaning and scrubbing can wait 'til tomorrow

For babies grow up, we've learned to our sorrow.

So quiet down, cobwebs. Dust, go to sleep.

I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep.

~ Author Unknown

I had one of my "precious moments" before coming in to finish this post. I went in to check on Rachel and she felt kind of cool to me. It is darling how she curls up in fetal position to sleep with her Boppy Pillow. She just tucks herself right into the middle circle of it. I covered her then laid my hand on her to feel her breathing...she turned slightly and stretched and yawned and looked up at me then closed her eyes and went right back to sleep with my hand over hers. Tears sprang to my eyes...such sweet, breathtakingly beautfiul moments I will cherish forever. I just stood there and tried to capture the moment with a mental snapshot. How is it she can look like such the little girl running around now, but when she is sleeping in her crib she looks so tiny and such like a little baby?

Easter Sunday!

I really struggled with whether or not to post again so soon as I do not want to push the Easter Dress pictures down the page:). I keep looking at them trying to decide if I have a favorite. But since I have so many more photos to share...must move on! We had a quiet dinner at home on Easter Sunday with just the four of us...our little family. Frank was heading back out of town for work in the afternoon, so I had to get things moving along rather quickly. We had just gotten back from a spur of the moment trip to Eugene, OR for 3 days and I had nothing set up for the holiday. Frank decided to let me have the house to myself for a few hours on Sunday and took Rachel with him to run a bunch of errands. It was great! I decorated, did baskets, set the table, cooked dinner and dessert, and even lightly cleaned for things to be presentable for our little celebration. Awesome:).

Our table! I kept it very simple this year. A big thank you to Rachel's Grandma Fran for the bunnies in the background.

She loves them and they made it more festive:)...

Rachel's new placesetting...
Easter Goodies...

When they got home I had the strawberry dessert in the fridge, the ham was in the oven and the salad, asparagus and potatoes were all ready! I ran up to do my hair and look more "human"...and we were ready! We ate dinner and while I was cleaning up Frank ran up to pack! Rachel stayed in her high chair and just chatted with me. Then it was time to color our eggs! Fun...well...kind of...I never seem to get the best coloring kit. I followed the directions and wanted to do the marbled ones. That meant dissolving tablets in vinegar, then adding water then adding vegetable oil! Seriously, vegetable oil? Will things ever feel not greasy again?!

Rachel really got into the egg coloring this year!

Mugging for the camera...

without actually looking at me!

There's a smile!

Yep, had to taste! Only did it once though:)...

Um, this is non-toxic, right?!

After the egg coloring we had dessert!

Unfortunately it kind of bombed:)...that always seems to happen when I cut a recipe in half.

It tasted delicious but did not look quite like it should have...the jello did not set up properly.

Mugging!

I think she likes it!

The face she made when she must have bitten into a tart strawberry was priceless though.

I so wish I would have gotten a picture of that!

Our finished eggs...

Happy Easter!

We hope everyone has a lovely Easter Sunday!

I am a little behind this year and just mailed out our Easter cards...today!!! (I am getting worse instead of better as Rachel gets older) Here is a peek at some of the beautiful shots Amanda took last Friday. I took Rachel in for her 2nd Birthday Photo Shoot. It was funny as it started out being only two outfits...her birthday dress with and without the party hat and the tutu outfit I had made for her. Then I remembered that last year I had some photos taken with the #1 and she was wearing adorable pink overalls. So I decided to put her in overalls for some pictures with the #2. Then...she received an incredibly beautiful purple dress for her birthday from her Grandma & Grandpa! I couldn't have been more excited! My Mom did not know it, but I had decided back in January that I wanted Rachel to wear purple this Easter. I had been browsing all the stores and also the internet for the perfect purple Easter dress. I cannot even describe how I felt when I opened the box of birthday gifts from them and right on top was this amazing purple dress. Neither Mom nor I had mentioned anything to each other. It was the best surprise. In my totally unbiased opinion:)...Rachel looked like a little doll in it! It suits her so perfectly and she was just a vision of loveliness:)...Of course, that is coming from her Mommy. I must admit, though, that every time I look at the pictures...uploading to computer then to Costco to make the cards, then writing out the cards, stuffing the envelopes, uploading to FB, and finally this blog post the song "Isn't She Lovely" keeps playing in my head:)...yep, I love her...big time...

So back to my "story"...what began as two outfits for pictures soon became four! Then I had the birthday hat like I mentioned and she wanted to take her Bitty Baby doll! Oh, and we took Gymbo, of course:). So...about 130 pictures later which became over 300 with borders, enhancements and collages...here we are. Oh, and I almost forgot! I had to take her back in again on Monday! Two of the original backgrounds Amanda used on Friday just did not look good when we viewed the photos after the shoot. Plus Rachel was about done by the time we got to the #2/overall shots...and who could blame her? It was a long day! The photo parts went quickly , but Amanda was working by herself and had to keep running out to answer the phone, take care of customers at the desk etc...All I kept thinking was "She is only two and you are SO losing her with all these interruptions!" I was getting very nervous. I love getting great pictures but when Rachel is "done" that is it. It is never my goal to upset or "torture" her with picture-taking. So, on Monday we went back in and reshot the tutu pics and did several more overall photos on the better background. The best thing...Frank was working from home and was able to come get her after her photos were taken. That left Amanda and me to have some FUN checking out all the photos. We work well together adding borders, enhancements and creating collages! It was an exhausting two days, but everyone knows how much I love pictures and it was so worth it to me:).

Oh, and I can't believe I let this happen, but we did not get to see the Easter Bunny! Actually we saw the bunny a bunch of times, but I did not take Rachel up for pictures. The few times we were at the mall I either did not have her dress with me or did not want to make her sit for even more pictures at the time. I actually planned to take her when we were down in Oregon but I totally forgot! Oh, well...I felt bad but her Daddy came up with a great idea! She received a box of Easter presents from her Grandma Fran the other day. In the box were 2 bunnies who are about Rachel's height. She loves them! I stood them on the floor and she just kind of stared at them then said "Hiiii...iiii!" and went over and gave each one a big hug! Frank thought it might be cute to photograph her with them. I love it...the dress from Grandma & Grandpa...and the bunnies from Grandma Fran...what sweet, special photos those will be!

Bunny Hugs!

This was the bunny in her Easter Basket last year.

Just one more story! We saw the Easter Bunny at three different malls during the past two weeks! Yes, kind of foolish that I did not get her picture taken with at least one of them, I know. We saw him at the mall where her Gymboree classes are first. I parked the stroller right by where he sat and thought I'd let her just check it out. (Trying to prepare her for photos as I still remember her terrible fear of Santa this past December!) She looked at him then started saying "Hop, hop, hop, hop!" I said, "Yes! It's a bunny." and we talked about him, getting pictures etc... He looked over and waved and Rachel just kind of showed her "shy" side to him. People do not think she has a shy side, but it really does emerge at times. We ended up being in another mall for some reason a few days later and then found ourselves at the third mall twice for her portraits last week. I guess she was feeling less shy the second, third and fourth times as she kept waving to him! It was so funny...the second time we saw him. she waved to him with the little fingers curling down over the hand wave and he did the same, then he started doing the "parade" type wave and she immediately started copying him. It was cute how his shoulders bounced up and down as he laughed. Then Rachel started blowing him kisses! That made him laugh even more! She had everyone "awwww-ing" her actions. That's my girl!