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!

Easter - finally!

I am way behind and I want to post cruise pictures, but Easter comes first. We had a great day with going to church, doing an Easter basket and egg hunt for Rachel in our yard and just enjoying the day together. Rachel went with us to the Good Friday service and took communion for the first time. She prayed the sweetest prayer during communion about Jesus dying for our sins. She then drank the juice and ate the cracker, got a big smile on her face, rubbed her tummy and said, "Yum!". We think she got the point of it, though! :-)

Pictures of our little baby!

We ended up with some unexpected ultrasound pictures today, which was a treat. As you can see, the baby is cute as can be! :-) The baby was moving all around and waving its arms and legs. It measured right on track for where it should be. The reason for the ultrasound was not so happy, though. It seems about two weeks ago I contracted Fifths Disease. This virus is harmless to everyone except babies still in the womb. A baby that is infected can develop anemia, which can lead to heart failure. This is a small percentage of infected babies, though. My OB referred me to a Maternal/Fetal Medicine doctor right away and I saw him this morning. Basically, from the time I was infected there is a 12 week time frame that the baby could become infected. Chances are great that the baby won't be infected, but they will still monitor the baby closely through ultrasounds starting at week 19 until the 12 week time frame is done. If the baby contracts the infection before 19 weeks, there is no treatment option. After 19 weeks, they can do blood transfusions which help to heal the baby. The doctor reassured me today that most of the time, the baby does not become infected and even if infection occurs that most babies are just fine. Of course, we would love your prayers right now. First, that the baby will be protected from infection and second, that if infection does occur that no damage will be done. And most of all, that we will be able to trust God for the health and safety of our littlest one. Thank you for your prayers and enjoy these pictures!