A glimpse of our amazing girl

While we were in Michigan, Matt's incredibly talented brother and sister-in-law asked if they could take some pictures of Rachel. Of course we said yes! So we spent about an hour with them and they managed to capture almost every side of Rachel's personality. I'll find a way to post more of them, but I wanted to share a few tonight. We are so in love with these pictures - I'm brainstorming ways to display all of them!

Santa and baby Jesus

There is so much to share about Christmas with Rachel this year, but one of the most special moments happened Christmas Eve. We were at my parents' house in IL and we had just sat out the plate of cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer. Rachel got in bed and picked up the baby Jesus from the nativity scene that my mom had placed beside her bed. She put it on the headboard and snuggled down to sleep. I asked her why she wanted baby Jesus to be on her bed while she slept and she said, "Because I want Santa to see Jesus and know Him!". My sweet, sweet girl. I have a picture of her sleeping with the baby Jesus above her, but I don't have it to post yet. I'll try soon.

Decorating the tree

We decorated the tree (finally!) on Sunday afternoon. Rachel LOVED it and did her best to fit all of our ornaments in a 2x2 foot area. I managed to put a few on, so I spread them out as much as I could. I had planned to rearrange the ones she put on to spread them out, but the more I look at the tree, I think it is just perfect as it is. Of course the highlight for Rachel was putting the star on the tree. She always goes on Daddy's shoulders for this! Oh, I'll include a picture of her doing the star last year, too. It is Rachel's favorite picture of herself!

Rachel decided it was her job to arrange the nativity set and she took her job very seriously. I love the Little Peoples set - it is just so cute.

After we decorated, we turned on the TV and found a Christmas episode of Little House on the Prairie. Rachel and I cuddled together and watched the end of the show. It made the afternoon complete for me!

The stomach bug that won't die!

Well, this has not been a good week for Rachel. She threw up Monday night and just felt yucky on Tuesday. We thought we were done with it until tonight. We all went to a Christmas party hosted by the woman who coordinates the 1st and 2nd grade Sunday School classes that Matt and I teach. I had to leave early to get to another party, so I left Matt and Rachel there to continue visiting and eating for a while. Well, right before they left, Rachel threw up ALL over the kitchen floor - the same kitchen where all of the food was set out. Appetizing, huh? We know how to say a very colorful "Thank You" to our hostesses! Thankfully, Matt and Rachel were the only guests there at that time. Rachel felt pretty good after the throwing up was done and asked Matt if they could still go to the gym like they had planned. Matt told her, "No, because you might throw up in childcare". Rachel replied, "It's okay, Daddy, they have bathrooms there!". Of course, they came straight home. Please pray that Rachel can be done with this quick AND that Matt and I don't get it!!!!!

Thanksgiving

We had a very different Thanksgiving this year - we were missing our favorite guy! Matt was able to spend Thanksgiving with his family due to the passing of his Grandpa Lenger. Rachel and I had a really great (and busy) day in SC! We had invitations from wonderful friends (thanks Lynn and Holly!) to join their dinners, but we decided to have lunch on our own at Fatz Cafe. It was a really great Thanksgiving dinner and it was fun seeing the different family groups out enjoying their meals. Rachel and I played games at the table while we waited for our food. All Rachel wanted to eat was "smashed" potatoes, so she got her own serving of those. She also ate a good amount of turkey and some pumpkin pie.


Mommy and Rachel!

Rachel enjoying her "smashed" potatoes!

After our lunch, we went and had dessert with our "SC family" - the Dowlings. They were gracious enough to invite us over even though they had out of town family visiting. The dessert was wonderful and Rachel enjoyed playing with the kids. Later that afternoon, Rachel and I went to a movie. It had been our plan to go to a movie even before Matt had to make his plans to fly to MI. So, we missed him but the movie was a fun addition to the day. We ended the day with an annual trip to Garden Ridge to see the Christmas decorations for sale. Rachel loved the reindeer that moved their heads the best! It was a busy day, but I was so blessed to be able to spend it with my sweet girl.

Remembering Great-Grandpa Lenger

Today Matt's grandpa died after suffering a stroke last Saturday. He was a wonderful man who loved God. It was so amazing to be able to share with Rachel about how he is now in heaven with Jesus. All afternoon she would ask, "How many minutes has Grandpa been in heaven now?" and I'd give her the number of hours he'd been gone. It has been wonderful to share with her about heaven and how Grandpa Lenger is now healthy and strong and with family that has already reached heaven. I'm thankful that God chose to give Matt a grandfather that loved Him and taught his family to love Him and to be ready to join Him someday. It is a legacy that will live on forever. We're also thankful that Matt could travel up to be with his family this Thanksgiving. We will miss him here, but we know his time in MI will be a blessing.

Dora video

Rachel got a surprise in the mail this week - a Dora video from her Grammy and Papa in Illinois. The unique thing about this video is that it stars Rachel! Yes, it is as goofy as you would imagine (sorry, Mom, but I know you agree!). It is basically Rachel's face added to a cartoon body. So the body moves, but Rachel's facial expression never changes. So we watched it today and Rachel laughed from the moment it started until it ended. Everytime Dora said Rachel's name or the goofy picture came up, she would laugh so hard she couldn't breathe! Very, very fun to watch Rachel watching the video!

Fun in the leaves

We had a big raking afternoon today and of course, Rachel loved jumping in the leaves!

Just because she's cute!

Friendly Competition

After school today, Rachel told me that two of her friends in her class were fighting over who gets to play the most with her. I asked if she told them that they shouldn't fight and she said, "No, I told them they should have a contest". Smart girl!

Rachel's Christmas Wish

I asked Rachel a few mornings ago what she wanted for Christmas and without skipping a beat, she said, "A basement". When I asked her why she wanted a basement, she replied - in a voice that clearly said I should have known the answer - "Because all of my friends have basements!". This really isn't true. Very few of her friends have basements. So I asked her which friends and she said, "Grandma Lenger, Grandma Debbie, Payton, Jordyn." So, that is what she wants! Grandparents, you might have to pool your money for this one - or bring your shovels!

Rachel's Ballet Mini-Show

On Tuesday, Rachel had her "recital" for her dance class. It was at the Y where she takes her class and parents were able to sit in the room and watch. She was adorable, of course! The lighting was pretty bad in the room and our camera didn't do well with it, so please excuse the poor quality of the pictures.

Star Wars

Rachel has become very, very interested in Star Wars. She saw it one night while flipping channels with Matt and was instantly mesmerized. So Matt rented Empire Strikes Back and we finished it up tonight. She saw the part where Luke Skywalker dreams about fighting Darth Vadar and we explained that it was just a dream and it wasn't really happening. Later in the movie when Luke starts a real fight with Vadar, Rachel sat up, put her finger in the air and said, "Now that is what I call NOT a dream!". The way she said it was hilarious - I have no idea where gets her words from. Oh, she also thinks Darth Vadar is "pretty".

Movie Night!

We had nothing planned for tonight, so we decided to do a movie night! We got in our jammies, camped out on the living room floor, ate popcorn and watched Sleeping Beauty. Rachel ran and hid during the scary parts and Matt pretended to be just as scared. She loved it! It was one of those perfect evenings.

I'll give you a hint . . .

Last night we went to the gym and Rachel went to childcare for a while. When Matt went to pick her up, the childcare worker was laughing and told him that after Rachel had gotten dropped off, the worker told her that she was sorry but that she had forgotten her name and asked Rachel what it was. Rachel said, "I'll give you a hint . . . it starts with an 'R'." Luckily, the worker guessed Rachel pretty quickly. Crazy girl!

Harvest Festival

This evening we went to a Harvest Festival at the church where Rachel goes to preschool. There were all kinds of games for the kids and a hayride. The best game was a gummy worm contest. The kids had to move gummy worms covered in chocolate syrup from one plate to another. We're very proud to say that our Rachel was the winner in the preschool division! :-) She still has chocolate up her nose!

Rachel and Ben

The day of Rachel's upper GI I took her to Chuck E. Cheese as a reward for doing the test. We asked our friends Kim and Ben to join us and Rachel and Ben had a great time! While we were there, the kids got their pictures done in a photo booth. We've decided they have to get married some day - if for nothing else than the extremely cute slideshow we could put together for them!

Trick or Treat!

We had a great time trick or treating tonight! Rachel loved it and couldn't wait to get started. She got so excited when we would see a house with a porch light on. At one house, after she got her candy, I stopped to talk with the neighbor for a few minutes. Rachel grabbed Matt's hand and started down the driveway. When they got to the street, she called back to me, "Come on, Mom! We don't have time to waste!". Hopefully, the neighbor didn't understand her! Her little hat kept falling off of her head until she got tired of it and I carried it, along with her stick horse and candy bag. Oh, about her candy bag . . . I realized this afternoon that Rachel's trick or treat bag was up in the attic with the other fall decorations that still aren't put up yet. I knew we wouldn't have time to bring it down, so we made a new one. I had a medium size paper sack with handles, so we covered each side with construction paper and on one side we glued a pumpkin that Rachel had already colored and on the other side we traced her feet with a white crayon and she colored them in with white to make ghosts. It turned out pretty cute and she was very proud of it. Back to trick or treating . . . the closer we would get to a house, the faster Rachel would start walking, until she was half running with her candy bag held open in front of her. She was just so excited! So now we have a ton of candy (good candy, unfortunately, that mommy and daddy like to eat). Thankfully, we have Matt's parents coming to visit this week and I'm sure they will help us get rid of some of it. Hope everyone had a great Halloween!

Our Halloween fun this week

We carved a pumpkin last weekend and Rachel was the one to draw on most of the face and she helped a little with doing the cutting. I bought a teeny tiny little pumpkin carving knife at Wal-mart and it worked great! Rachel doesn't like anything yucky on her hands, so I did most of the scooping of the insides. Here are some pictures of carving the pumpkin and one from today of Rachel with her pumpkin. Matt took the cool one of her looking through the pumpkin mouth. Pretty neat, huh? Every night, Rachel wants to play trick or treat so she pretends that she doesn't live at our house and makes me go in the house and she and Daddy come to the door and ring the doorbell. She's got it down for tomorrow night!

Trying this for the first time!

A wise friend tonight suggested using a blog to record my thoughts and memories of events to use for journaling in scrapbook pages - thanks, Lynn! So, I'm giving it a try. About a hundred times a day, Rachel says something really funny or sweet and I think, "Oh, I hope I never forget that!". And I usually do within a day or so. This blog will be one way that I record some of those great things that she says so that one day we can read them all and laugh. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy what we post!