Rachel's Acting Debut

The Sunday evening services at our church use media, music, and other fun things to help get the Pastor's message across. This weeks service was on the 9th commandment, Thou Shall Not Bear False Witness, aka lying.

Rachel was with Steven when the team did their videotaping for tonights service, which is how she came to be a part of the video that made her a "Superstar". LOL.

The premise for this video is that there was a crime committed, someone had tossed their gum on the ground which resulted in someone stepping in it. The skit starts with a lineup of possible suspects, each being interrogated as to their whereabouts on the night in question, the first video played shows the crime scene and it being processed, followed by more questioning and harrassment of the suspects. One suspect finally breaks down and exclaims "she cannot lie" and admits that Rachel was the one that did it! Thus this video is played and shows the actual crime footage. Followed by her police mug shot.

This video turned out awesome! And I'm glad Rachel was able to help the team. But the more and more I think about it, should I see Rachel toss gum, candy, or anything else to the ground, I'll know who taught her to do it! LOL.

Decorating for Christmas

Thanksgiving was only 3 days ago, but you wouldn't know it if you came to our house. All the Fall and Thanksgiving decorations have been taken down and packed away until next year, and it's officially the season of Christmas at our house! The tree is up, the stockings are hung, and the house is festive.

The official job of placing the star atop our Christmas tree has been passed on to Rachel this year. Hannah has simply gotten too big for the job. The girls decorating a mini tree
that sits on a table just outside their bedrooms. So far, Rachel's not touched the tree or the decorations too much, but she has discovered the simplicity of turning the Christmas tree lights on and is usually pretty pleased with herself for doing so.

Toddler Technology

We were at a friends house this evening for dinner and fellowship. How cute it was when Rachel and Jonathan found his older sisters Gameboys and they settled down on the couch to play. Oh the things toddlers can do these days...

This Thanksgiving...

I'm extremely thankful that Rachel is not recovering from surgery, nor is she in restraints, or forbidden to participate in Thanksgiving Dinner because she's recovering from her palate repair.

Here, the girls are smiling because they've just enjoyed chocolate donuts on this fine Thanksgiving morning!

Where's Rachel??

New Nemo Shirt

While we were in Lake Arrowhead this afternoon, browsing through the shops, I came across the cutest shirt. To say that Rachel loves the movie Finding Nemo is an understatement, so when I saw this shirt, and what it said, I knew I had to get it!!

Sunday Afternoon Roadtrip!

We went on a Roadtrip on this fine Sunday Afternoon. A roadtrip that combined our family with our friends, The W***** Family. Rachel was beyond excited when we piled into their car and headed up to the San Bernardino Mountains, with our destination being the Lake Arrowhead Village. There are all kinds of things to do...shop, eat, play. Rachel was especially excited about the carrousel. As mentioned in a prior post, she loves Merry Go Rounds and Carrousels, and this one located right on the shore of the lake was no different. She especially enjoyed this one because unlike the ones located at Disneyland, this carrousel actually had reins to "guide" your horse.The majority of the stores were already decorated for Christmas, the only evidence of it being Fall, was this lone scarecrow and adorable turkey. Our two families had a great afternoon, and needless to say, Rachel was disappointed when our time together came to an end.

Pretty in Pink

Disneyland with Uncle Bart and Peggy

Hannah was off from school today in recognition of the American holiday, Veteran's Day. What better way to spend a day off from school than heading to Disneyland. Today we met my Uncle Bart and his girlfriend Peggy. All three of us girls were really looking forward to today's trip. Rachel had such a great time today. Having extra hands and eyes with me, we went to Tom Sawyer's Island, where Rachel had a blast exploring the island and climbing the stairs, looking through the telescopes, and going across the rope bridges. She really warmed up to Uncle Bart and had a ton of fun letting him chase her around. Disneyland was extremly crowded this morning. So we headed across the way to California Adventure in hopes of it being less crowded. While it was less crowded, it was still extremely busy as well. I guess everyone had the same idea of spending their day off from work and school.

We spent quite a bit of time at the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail. A fun adventure trail consisting of hollow logs to climb through, slides, rope bridges, and lots of other fun things to do. Rachel had so much fun exploring and climbing. One of the things that really excites Rachel is simply the sight of the Merry Go Round in California Adventure or the Carrousel at Disneyland. She loves these rides and is so cute in her excitement. Very rarely are we ever able to ride it just once, because if you try to dismount her, she will protest, and it's not a pretty site. LOL. As always, we had a great day. Leaving, looking forward to our next trip, especially now that the official Christmas season has arrived at Disneyland. One of my favorite seasons at Disneyland.Disneyland's Christmas Tree for 2006.

A Year Ago Today

It is a year today that Rachel had her palate repair. A whole year. Where has the time gone??

It's hard to believe it's been a year, but at the same time it seems like much longer than a year ago. Rachel has changed so much the last year in her appearence, her speech, her attitude. Reading the archived posts of a year ago, I'm thankful we have all that behind us. Praise the Lord for all He has done with Rachel since then. The night following her palate repair, suffering from a complication of having her tongue swell up.
A year later, as cute as ever.

Speech Update

Rachel had speech today, not our normal speech day, but due to a scheduling conflict we met today instead of on Wednesday.

Rachel has really progressed the last couple of weeks with her speech. She talks all the time, and lately not just in jibber jabber, but in actual words you can understand. Leaving me questioning why it was we were going to speech once a week. So when Rachel's speech therapist called a few days ago to rescedule our appointment, I talked to her about the possibility of perhaps only meeting once every 3-4 weeks. And our therapist agreed.

So for now, Rachel will go every 3 weeks to speech therapy. I am so looking forward to not going every week!

"Like My New Teeth?"

Starting our morning off with some good laughs having had Rachel discovered these teeth in her bag from last night.