Blessings

What a great, blessing-filled Thanksgiving weekend!

Here are some of my blessings in life.

A loving family (both sides!) who drove up from Utah to spend the holiday with us.


A hardworking brother on a mission.

A delicious feast.

Rocking normal jeans and being pleasantly surprised by the size.

Our new smartphones so I can read scriptures while nursing Rachel.


A beautiful baby girl.


A husband who is great and a also worthy priesthood holder.


Once again, family. :)

Make Way for Ducklings: Flaunting My Fella

A blogger I read challenged her readers to "flaunt" our spouses in response to an online forum that made fun of husbands. I love my Andrew and I want to flaunt him and the delightful person he is.

We were returning from the grocery store and passing the duck pond. Andrew made a few duck calls. And some ducks started to follow us.



Andrew continued to call the ducks and more came out of the water and started to follow us. It was almost terrifying. There were about 30 ducks following us.



A few more duck calls and the ducks still in the water swam alongside him.



These ducks would have followed Andrew (their king, apparently) home and into a cooking pot. Good thing he doesn't really like duck. And good thing that they got confused when we passed an old man smoking and his grandson so the ducks stopped following us.

My fella is great because he carries the baby, the groceries, isn't afraid to be himself by calling ducks in as if he were hunting when we live in a place where people love their pets and animals more than other people, and making us all laugh.

A Clear Day

A clear day in Washington is usually dominated by this beautiful and famous volcano, Mt. Rainier. (depending on the direction you are looking--you may see Mt. Baker to the north)

It really is amazing.

Grandmothers

Lucky Rachel got two weeks of Grandmother Love, and she was smothered in it.


Meeting Grandma! Here she is two days old and we just picked up my mom from the airport. They even coordinated their outfits!


Snuggling with Grandma and wearing awesome bell bottoms.


Grandma, Mom, and Baby


Meeting Oma! This is right after we picked up Andrew's mom from the airport.


And Oma promptly snuggled with Rachel until they both fell asleep. Both were too spoiled.

Even though we live far away from family, I'm really grateful that our moms could come visit and help us out. It made me sad that we live so far away. At the same time, it is great that we can do Skype so Rachel can see her grandparents, and so that they can see her.

This Girl Does Have Her Priorities Straight

After I fed Rachel today, she was so alert, so I talked to her about fun things we could do.

"In a few years, we will go to Disneyland," I said.

She looked at me with bright eyes. Very attentive. She looked excited for the happiest place on earth.

"We will go with Grandma and Grandpa, and probably with Oma and Opa."

More attentive eyes.

"We will go on the Carousel and you will get sick and throw up on Dad. And then we will go on Peter Pan."

This place just sounded better and better to her.

"And we will get a hotel with a pool," I concluded.

She blinked a few times and opened her mouth wide (in a yawn). But it totally looked like she was so excited about the hotel with the pool that she was shouting, "OH MY GOSH!!! YES!!!"

Kind of like that meme where Michael Phelps and the other guy are like, "MOM BROUGHT NUTELLA!"

So this girl knows that Disneyland and a hotel with a pool are in her future. What a lucky girl.

Welcome Baby!

We are so happy! Our little girl Rachel was born on October 30. She is a tiny tiny thing. She was 5 lbs. 14 oz. and 18 inches long. Enjoy some pictures to begin with.


Welcoming my little girl.


The proud papa.


Changing a poopy diaper.


Our happy family in the hospital.


She has great brown hair and is so precious.


Rachel is such a beautiful girl.


We are so excited to go home!


Rachel was Minnie Mouse for Halloween. Her costume is WAY too big--literally mini mouse!


Those mouse ears may be the death of her, so I sat next to her and made sure it didn't eat her head in the car.


Rachel and Mom


Dad just loves his little girl.


That's my pretty girl.

We are so happy and are really grateful that everything went smoothly with her birth. My mom is here now and it is so fun to have some Grandma time with her. Of course, there will be more soon!