Rachel's second haircut

Rachel's hair has grown pretty long, but it has gotten uneven in the back so we decided today was hair cut day! Actually, I should say it was the day I paid someone $20 to take five snips off of her hair. When we decide to do another haircut in two years, we'll definitely be Great Clips customers!

But Rachel loved the experience again and seeing her smile in the mirror as the lady fixed her hair was priceless. She really lit up! For my $20, they were kind enough to include a little french braid at the top of her hair. She's so proud of it that I think Mommy is going to have to start practicing and getting that french braid figured out. She kept talking about how soft her hair is now and asking if she looked pretty. That was an easy answer, of course! Before we cut her hair, Rachel has had a perfect corkscrew curl that hangs down the back. She was most concerned before the cut that she would lose her "special" curl. I told her that it would still be there (and prayed that it would be). It was and she was so happy! She really looks cute with her slightly shorter curls bouncing around. It was just one of those happy days for both of us! Oh, in this picture she is standing in the baby's room in front of the crib so that some of you can see the colors we are using in the room.

Rachel's Prayer

First of all, we have decided on the name Hannah for our new baby. Rachel loves it and calls the baby Hannah all the time now. The other night, Rachel prayed before our supper. She first thanked God for her friends and then said, "And God, thank you for You and Hannah because you are my best friends forever". So sweet!

Gymnastics!

Rachel started gymnastics last week. She's been asking for a while to do gymnastics and now that we are moved and settled in our new house, it was time! She loves the class and is very excited to be learning how to do a cartwheel. I snapped a few pictures of her first class and hopefully I can more later. Oh, and Rachel has suddenly developed a huge love for Nutmeg and insisted that I snap this picture of them. Nutmeg still basically ignores Rachel.

Our Lil' Sparkler!

First sparkler - kind of scared!

Rachel was more excited about Fourth of July than she was about Christmas! She woke me up early asking to put on her "July" outfit that Grammy had made her. So we got her all decked out early in the day. We spent most of the day at home and Rachel and Matt took a long hike in the woods behind our house. We headed out for a quick supper and found that most restaurants close on the 4th! Who knew? But we found some food (heaven forbid mommy cooks on a Saturday evening!) and then headed home. While we were waiting for it to get dark, we baked some very patriotic cupcakes and just finished them up as the fireworks started. We had decided to chance it and see if there would be fireworks in our neighborhood, instead of joining the crowds someplace else. We were lucky and had a great show! A couple of different neighbors very close to our house gave us a great fireworks display (seriously, how much money do these people spend on fireworks????). Rachel hopped on her scooter and we walked the "loop" that makes up our street. We would stop every few seconds to watch more fireworks and Rachel thought it was the best thing ever. She wheeled up the sidewalks yelling "Happy Fourth of July everybody!" and "Happy Birthday Country!". We had stopped on the way home earlier and picked up a couple of boxes of sparklers. I think this was Rachel's first sparkler experience! Her first sparkler was pretty scary for her, but she loved the second one and fourteen that followed. We did some of them before it got really dark and finished them up after the fireworks slowed down some. It was a late, late night, but Rachel loved every minute of it!

Our little chameleon

Yesterday Rachel asked me, "Mom, am I a chameleon?". I said, "I don't know - do you change colors?". She said, "No, Mom, a chameleon is a person who says funny things!". Yes, Rachel is definitely a chameleon!

3D ultrasound pictures!

This week we got to experience something that I never thought we would get to do - a 3D ultrasound! I always thought that would be the neatest thing, but thought they were too expensive. During our weekly ultrasound, the nurse clicked over from a regular ultrasound to a 3D ultrasound with a simple click of a button. I went from seeing a black and white "alien" baby face to seeing our littlest girl's actual face! It was amazing. Here are a few of the shots and she even has smiles in them! One of our friends, Kim, (who is our favorite photographer) has always laughed about the many different expressions Rachel has in pictures. Kim pointed out this week that this little baby is off to a great start with the multiple expressions! Of course, we are hoping for a few more 3D shots over the next few weeks. If we get them, we'll share them here!

Imaginary Friends

I had always hoped that one of my children would have an imaginary friend. Rachel has come through for me and it is just as much fun as I had imagined! It started around six months ago when "Bethie" came to stay at our house for a while. Bethie was all kinds of fun because she got into lots of trouble and did the things that Rachel knew better than to try herself. But Rachel thoroughly enjoyed telling us all about the naughty things Bethie did. After a while, Bethie seemed to quiet down and we didn't hear much from her. Well, recently two new friends joined us. First, there is "April", who is Rachel's cousin and the exact same age as Rachel. They have all kinds of fun and April seems to be pretty obedient. Rachel and April go to gymnastics class together and even did a hoola hoop class yesterday. Usually when I get Rachel dressed or out of the bath tub, I have to do the same for April. Thankfully, April wears imaginary clothes, so that is easy. Yesterday April was sick, so we had to take care of her and she couldn't go out and run errands with us. The other new friend is "Matthew the Tyrannosaurus". Matthew doesn't say too much usually, but he did get invited to the tea party the other day.

I'd love to post pictures for this entry, but those imaginary friends are really hard to catch on film!