8 years of marriage!

Dan & I had our 8 year anniversary on Tuesday. In typical Rachel fashion I didn't look into getting a babysitter until that day, only to find out that this ward has mutual on Tuesdays so nobody was available. So I decided to make the most of the situation, and go out twice - once with the family, once on our own!

Tuesday Dan came home from work with these beautiful roses! Once again, please excuse my terrible camera phone. I was even going to use the real camera to take the picture, but couldn't find it. Anyhow, I think Dan has brought me flowers like 6 or 7 times in the entire time I've known him, so this was a very happy surprise! And I didn't even need to suggest it like I usually do!

After I oohed and ahhed over my flowers, we hopped in the car and went to Boppin' Bo's Malt Shop & Grill. It's owned by some members of our ward, so I thought it would be nice to support them. The burgers and fries were pretty tasty, my blackberry shake was delicious, but the best thing of all was...(drum roll please)...they had FRY SAUCE!!! Of all the things about Utah that I miss, I think the only thing I miss more than fry sauce is my best friend Gayelinn. Seriously.

When I called on Tuesday and found out it was mutual, I got someone for Thursday instead. It was only the 2nd time we've been out without kids since moving here in March, and the first time we hired someone from the ward (the other time was a work party and one of Dan's coworkers' sisters watched the kids). I don't know what I was so nervous about, because it went great! Katy has said "Randa (her name is Miranda but Katy can't quite say it) so nice." about 5 different times this morning. She keeps telling me about the things she did, like "Randa change my diaper. Randa so nice." And - get this - she emptied the dishwasher and loaded it again! I don't even do that all that often! We will definitely be using her again!

So Dan & I had been thinking we would go out for a nice dinner, but decided on finally seeing Harry Potter instead. Dan had gone down to Eugene for the day and expected to be home early. He got stuck in some nasty traffic, though, so we ended up really pressed for time. So we got Jack in the Box and hid it in my purse to eat during the movie! It was fun!

So all in all we had a really nice anniversary celebration (spread out over a couple days!)! It wasn't the romantic dinner that I originally thought we'd have, but it was more fun anyways. I sure love you, my Danny Love!

Dan & the Dog

Doesn't that sound like the title of a children's book or something? Anyhow, Dan has a funny relationship with Molly. He frequently (and by that I mean several times a day, even on days he's at work most of the day) tells her he hates her, wants her to die, etc. Lovely. I don't know why he's so cranky. Maybe he has grown-up colic.

These pictures were taken the day we got back from our 6 day trip to my parents' house. Think he missed her? He let her sit on the couch with him! She was even snoring at one point! I thought it looked sweet, so I grabbed the camera.

And...suddenly, it was not as sweet...

Yes, Honey, you're hilarious
Haha, I caught you really smiling!
Dan wanted me to blog these pictures, clearly anxious to show everyone just how nice a face he can pull. I told him I would post them next day, so as not to take attention away from Katy's big girl bed post. I forgot. So here they are!

the Big Girl bed!

Our crib doesn't fit through a doorway without being taken apart, and it's a huge pain. So I was thinking that since we'll be moving in about a month, it would be a perfect time to move Katy into a big girl bed so we don't have the set the crib up again. I was debating the pros and cons of a toddler bed vs. a twin bed, and asked for advice on Facebook. Low and behold, a friend of mine (Rachel T., I was Rachel S.) from waaaay back (we had our first class together when I was in second grade and she was in first) had a toddler bed that she had been trying to get rid of! The main con with getting a toddler bed was having to buy a frame that won't be used for long, so getting a free one sure made that decision easy!

Another lucky coincidence - I was at my parents' house, only 20 minutes away from where the other Rachel now lives! So Katy and I left the boys with Grandma to make sure we could fit it in the car, and went to pick it up and play for a few minutes. Katy was so excited! On the way home we went shopping, and got back in the car three different times. Each time she happily said something about her "new big girl bed!" I'd been planning on waiting until we move to the house to have her sleep in a big girl bed, but she was just so excited! I just couldn't make her wait!

My dad helped me take it apart last night (or, rather, I watched while he did it...) so it would fit in the car with all our stuff, and I put it back together as soon as we got home today. I started to get nervous about how she would deal with the transition, if she'd get out of bed to play or want to get in her crib or fall out of bed or something. But I put her to bed tonight with no problem! So far, so good!

At this point she still just has her crib sheets and blankey. I'm working on a comforter, but it'll be a few days. And at some point we'll have to buy pink sheets. Seriously, I know we caused some of her love of pink, but there is no way we could have influenced her this much. The girl is obsessed with all things pink!

And of course we need a close-up of the sweet little princess. So precious and nice.


Here's hoping she doesn't get out of bed too early!

Stop, Thief!

(Please excuse the bad quality picture. It's just so much easier to take a picture with my cell phone and email it to myself than to use the real camera and have to upload it! And I don't know what's wrong with her face either...)

See this nightgown? Katy likes it. A lot. Katy likes it SO MUCH, in fact, that yesterday she ran out of the store with it before I paid for it! Literally ran away with it. Grandma ran after her. I sure wish I'd been video taping that! Don't feel picked on, Mom, it would be equally hilarious no matter who was chasing her!

On a clearly unrelated topic, don't take a 2 year old to the mall without a stroller. You might find that they wiggle so much when you hold them that you forget why you're holding them and put them down. Then they shoplift.

Little Fingers

What is it like to be so little that Lego guy helmets fit on your fingers?

And no, I didn't bother doing her hair yet today, why do you ask?

2 1/2 hours is SO much better than 13!

The kids, dog, and I drove up to Grandma & Grandpa's house today. They're actually in Utah until tomorrow, which is really really sad to these little guys (Ryan got really teary this morning and told me he was sad he didn't get to hug them today). But it's still a super great place to be!
I convinced Molly to sit behind me for most of the time (When she sits in the front she often pushes me into neutral. Not really safe...). And she calmed down and took a nap for a while. But as soon as we got off the freeway she was very alert and interested in what was going on outside!

The kids were much more mellow. Ryan isn't asleep, just wiggly. David sure looks tired. And Katy took a bit of a nap, after much whining (what 2 year old doesn't want a chocolate graham cracker or fruit snacks?). We made it in 5 minutes shy of 2 1/2 hours, from 10:17 to 12:42. Not too bad!

Here is one of the reasons I was so excited to get here! YUM! We filled a cereal bowl in a few minutes, and there are still so very many out there! Which is good, because the bowl wasn't quite full anymore by the time we made it inside...

We stopped by the blueberry bush. My little Katy is a funny girl - she doesn't like fruit. She'll occasionally eat a little bit of watermelon, apples, bananas or grapes. But not always (I'd say about a quarter to a third of the times I offer them), and very rarely anything else. She likes to come around with me and pick berries, though. She just won't eat them most of the time.

Today, though, she decided the blueberries were worthy of a taste. Yum!

Then we stopped by the largest zinnia I've ever seen. Katy kept trying to smile for the picture, but would go back to looking at the flowers and talking about it by the time I got my cell phone to take a picture. And notice in her other hand are some other "pwetty fwowers" - dandelions. :)

This will soon be our house!!!

So we made an offer on this house yesterday. They countered with a split the difference (we offered $20K less than asking, they countered with $10K less) and not leaving their washer, dryer, and fridge. So we decided to counter with close to that price ($400 less overall, but reallocating some of the closing costs coverage to lower purchase price), leaving the stuff. They're going to take it! I guess it's not totally official yet, but our agent, Aaron, brought the paperwork to us at the boys' t-ball game to sign, so it must be pretty darn close!

I think it's really nice looking from the front. Just a pretty normal, cute house. The front garden needs some work (it looks worse than in the picture), but I'd probably be disappointed if it didn't!

The kitchen needs some updating. We definitely want to replace the flooring and stove, and at some point the sink and counter tops. But the cupboards looks fine, and there's a pantry on the back wall. And the corner cupboard on the peninsula side has a door on the outside. That's really nice, I hate having to practically get in the cupboard to get to the back.
We'll be replacing the carpet right away, and doing some painting, too. Really, you thought orange was the best color for your little girl's room? That just isn't going to work!
And here is one of the best features of the house - an awesome giant bonus room! Somewhere for the kids to go and have all their toys! After 5 months in an apartment where their toys are in their bedrooms, I am so ready to have a play room!
The lot size is .14, and I was pleasantly surprised by how much bigger it is than our .12 in Utah. Molly will love it!


So, we'll have a lot to work on to make it really pretty on the inside, but I think it'll be a great fit for us. It's 2341 square feet, which is quite a big bigger than anything else we'd seen in our price range. Assuming everything goes according to plan (i.e. the inspector doesn't find something horribly wrong...), I think we'll be happy there for a long time.

Now I'll have a pack again. Blah.

Corn Dog to the Rescue!

We're having a hard day over here. Katy & Ryan were both being awake before 7. Katy's sleeping has been all weird lately, missing her nap about 5 days in a row for various different reasons, then usually sleeping in until 8:30 or so. She finally got her nap yesterday, so decided she was ready to be up early today. And that didn't do anyone any good. She and I are both pretty cranky. She kept following me around the house to whine at me. It was great. Finally she just started crying and kept going, with every single thing making her cry harder (like telling her it was lunch time). So I just got her food ready, and held her on my lap while she started picking at it. After a few minutes of nibbling on crackers, she was feeling much better, and started chowing down on a corn dog.
She still has sad eyes (and I look so tired!), but she started feeling much, much better! I guess she just needed some protein. She's in bed now, hopefully taking a wonderful nap that will return her to my sweet little Kathryn.