Disneyland...Again

Rachel is officially part of the family now...she now has her very own annual pass for Disneyland/California Adventure! Three and under get in free at the parks, and while Rachel did turn three the end of August, and yes, we've gone twice since her birthday, I'm so used to my routine of entering the parks that I simply forgot I needed to get Rachel an annual pass. But today was the day she got her very own annual pass and boy was she excited and became pretty upset when we asked for it back to put away for safe keeping. So excited to have gotten a pass, she hugs Mommy very tightly. Once again, the parks weren't too crowded, which was really nice considering it was Saturday. We were able to get on a lot of favorite rides and even some 'good rides'. Here is a picture of two princesses and a goofball while we waited for the rest of our group to get off a 'good ride'.After spending some time where the 'real' magic is, we made our way over to California Adventure, stopping to take a picture in front of the giant candy corn in the place of the "A" in California. Notice Rachel is waving her pass with a huge smile on her face. We spent the remainder of our day at California Adventure, making a stop into the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail, a favorite of Rachel's. While she can't do some of things the older kids can do, she did go on the rope bridge and up and down the slide several times. Here she is crossing the bridge over the creek. Making our way over to Paradise Pier, Rachel walked hand in hand with Keith. Earlier in the day, Rachel was walking side by side with Amy, connected only by the bag of popcorn between them. Which was pretty funny. I missed that picture opportunity, but now Amy knows how to get to Rachel...with popcorn! LOL. We continued to take advantage of minimal wait times and eventually made our way out of the park. Rachel was asleep in her car seat before we even fully got out of the Disney parking area! Another end of a great day of adventures at Disneyland.

Things That Are Blue

Every month in preschool, there will be a new color of the month. During that month, there will be a special bulletin board featuring that color, as well as a bag to come home for Rachel to fill with things that are the color of the month.

This month's color is blue. She filled her bag full of blue things. Here she is taking things out one by one telling me what they are and did a really goo job at doing so!

California Adventure with Friends

Rachel had kind of a weird night last night, she complained her tummy hurt and then threw up an hour later. While she was totally fine this morning, the girls and I stayed home from church, just in case. But as the morning went on, last night had to be the result of something not agreeing with her and we went about our plans for the day.

Our plan for the remainder of the day consisted of going to California Adventure with some friends from church. They bought annual passes last weekend! We had so much fun today and we're really looking forward to many more trips together. It was another beautiful day to be outside and wait times for rides were minimal. Having other adults in our party meant that we could ride the 'good rides' and we did just that. Rachel interacting with 'PUSH' the talking and interactive trash can.

A Trip to Disneyland

Hannah got out of school at 11:15 this morning as her track is now off for the next four weeks. When we picked her up, Rachel and I were ready to head to Disneyland for the afternoon and evening. It's a beautiful time of the year for going to Disneyland, as today kicked off the Fall season and everything is decorated so pretty for Fall, mostly Halloween, but around here, we like the season of Fall better. We made it in time to catch the High School Musical 2 street parade which we enjoyed just as much as the first parade. This show gave plenty of more opportunity to get involved and Rachel was very much happy to participate. Here she is banging on the bucket to the song "Make this Work" from the hit movie. After the parade we hung out in Candy Corn Acres, something new this season to California Adventure. There was candy corn all over the place and the characters were all dressed up in their Fall attire. Of course we had to stop and say 'Hi' to Mickey, one of Rachel's favorites. We didn't do anything else in California Adventure, we headed over to Disneyland for the remainder of the afternoon and evening. We went back to the Woody's Halloween Roundup area and checked out all the pretty decorations. There was a cast member carving the face of the witch from Snow White onto the pumpkin, that was pretty cool! There were also coloring sheets and little pumpkins to draw faces on. The girls both loved that! We also enjoyed listening to the music and songs from the Cast Member playing his fiddle. Today we're trying to remember the words to the apple song he sang to the tune of 'itsy bitsy spider'. After spending some time at Woody's Roundup, we headed to see what the wait time was like for the Finding Nemo ride. It opened in June and every time we've been since, the lines have been over 2 hours long! And being the snobby annual passholder that I am, I don't stand in lines that long, we'll just come back another time to ride it. LOL. Today the sign said the wait was 60 minutes, we went ahead and got in line because I didn't think the line looked that long, and it wasn't!...It was 30 minutes from the time we stepped into line until we boarded the submarine. Rachel LOVES Finding Nemo, and enjoys the ride, all though at times it can be a little scary. It was a great day for going to Disneyland as there weren't huge crowds or long lines. We were able to get on some of our favorite rides and do things we've been looking forward to doing. The weather was beautiful and it was a nice day to be outside!We're looking forward to a couple more trips in the next couple weeks that Hannah is off.

An Afternoon with the Cousins

Aunt Kim, Ryan, and Abby are heading home to Oregon this weekend. They came over this afternoon to visit and to play one last time. Rachel, Ryan, and Abby played for a while and then we went to get Hannah from school. From there we went to the park to feed the ducks and to play on the playground. The kids had soooo much fun. And I'm sure we're going to be hearing for weeks when Ryan and Abby can come back over to play from Rachel. LOL.

Three kids IN the toybox means ALL the toys have been temporarily placed elsewhere.

An Evening Hike

This evening after dinner, we set out for a walk, a three mile walk, up a local mountain. It was a rather enjoyable walk and the girls did pretty good, although Rachel is still light enough to get a ride from time to time, but she did walk a bit. Once at the top, the sun was beginning to set and it made for some beautiful 'magic hour' pictures. Even got myself in this picture. LOL.

Let's Go to The Movies...

Today we went to Hollywood to The El Capitan to see The Jungle Book, which is currently at the theater in honor of it's 40th anniversary and soon release on DVD. We went with Aunt Kim, Ryan, and Abby, Gramie and her friend Vivian and her little girl. Rachel had lots of fun and sat pretty well through the movie.

First Preschool Cold

I knew it would happen, but I had no idea it would happen this soon. Rachel has a cold that I'm sure that was obtained at preschool this week. She woke up sounding stuffy but by breakfast she had a green runny nose. UGH!!! I've been staying on top of giving her something to dry it up and hopefully avoid it going to her ears or the cold getting any worse.

Slide Show of Pictures

A little over a month ago, I put together a slide show of pictures that showed Rachel's Journey from birth through all the transformations of her surgeries up until the present day. As new posts have been added to this blog, that slide show just kinda disappeared into the archives.

I've had a lot of people ask me where that slide show went, because they wanted to look at it again, or share with someone how good our Lord is.

I have added a special link to that slide show in the sidebar, the slideshow can now be found under "Rachel's Journey, Through Pictures".

1st Day of Preschool

Today was the BIG day...the day we've been talking up for months to get Rachel to potty train. LOL. I'm sure she thought the day would never come. LOL. Daddy and Mommy both took Rachel to school. She was so excited to be going and to see her cousins. She practically RAN to class, leaving us in the dust. Into her classroom, she went straight for the play dough. We watched for a few minutes and then called her over to say goodbye, she gave us a hug and went back to the play dough. No separation problems here. LOL.
I arrived to the school early after going to Curves and running some errands. I spotted Rachel in the playground and watched her bounce around. She eventually saw me sitting in the van and came to the fence and waved, she acted happy to see me. She then would climb up the ladder to the play structure and turn and wave again. She wasn't exactly happy to see me when I got to her class. She was mad I was there to take her home. It was really tough getting her to leave. I finally told her let's go look for Haylee and McKenzie and that worked. LOL. Here she is sitting and waiting for them to come out of their classrooms.She had a great 1st day and will probably be asking tomorrow if she gets to go to school again. LOL.

Fun with the Cousins

Steven's sister and kids arrived in town last night and Rachel and Hannah have been having a blast since they arrived. We arrived to Gramie's house this afternoon to find the kids playing on the slip n slide having so much fun. The rest of the day was spent visiting and playing and meeting Grandpa for dinner and then back to Gramie's for more visiting and playing. The kids all got along so well, there was no fighting or beating up on Rachel's half. LOL.

Rachel Visits Preschool

Last night was the parent orientation for Rachel's preschool. There was a meeting with the director of the school and then the parents got to go to their child's class and meet the teacher and hear their classroom rules, etc.

Today, we went back to the preschool and took Rachel to meet her teacher and see her classroom. She was so excited!!! She bounced from one thing to another and back and then went outside and then went to find her cousins and check out their classroom and back outside. She was all over that place!

Her cousins, Haylee and McKenzie are attending the same preschool and Rachel is sooo excited to be seeing her cousins two times a week at school. Hannah on the other hand, is jealous and wishes for the good ole days of preschool. LOL.

Rachel, a Bouncing Bunny, McKenzie, a Sunny Sunflower,
Haylee, a Pooh Bear, and Rebecca, a Sunny Sunflower. The cheering section for these four girls are going to be pretty big come the Halloween and Spring parades, and the big Christmas program.

This kitchen area was set up in a corner of her classroom. I have a feeling she'll be playing with her kitchen a lot more in the weeks to come. One of the many fun toys in Rachel's classroom.
Rachel taking a picture of Mommy takes LOTS of pictures! She climbed up the ladder over and over and over again and went down the slide over and over. Check out her hands! LOL. If she was tall enough for the roller coasters at Disneyland, I bet she's go on them...and love them! Gramma was just down the street at a doctors appointment and stopped by to see three of her four girlies and their classrooms. Rachel enjoyed having Gramma push her on the swing, and then pretty much left her in the dust to go play. LOL.
Three things about Rachel and preschool:

1) She's going to have no problem being left. Not that that was a concern of ours, but I was pretty much left in the dust today. As was anyone else who tried to communicate with her.

2) She's going to have SO MUCH FUN!

3) It's going to be interesting to see what changes we see in Rachel after a couple of weeks in preschool. We noticed changes in Hannah after the first week. I'm really looking forward to seeing how preschool influences her speech and how she progresses.

School officially starts on Tuesday. She'll then go on Tuesday and Thursdays from 9 -12pm, giving Mommy a nice little break a couple days a week! :) I can't wait!!! She can't wait!!!

Follow Up with The ENT

Rachel had a follow up appointment today with her ENT in regards to last week's hearing test. Because she failed the hearing test once again, and she's had two ear infections since we saw him 2 months ago, the doctor wants to go ahead put tubes in her ears. Because there is fluid in her ears, and possibly some hearing loss, we don't want to risk her speech regressing.

We already have a surgery date, Friday, October 5th. It's a simple procedure that takes about 5 minutes, therefore the surgery will be done on an outpatient basis, and as soon as she wakes from the anesthetic, she'll be able to go home and by the afternoon, it'll be a normal day, as though nothing ever took place that morning.

She's a Bouncing Bunny!

We received the letter from Rachel's preschool teacher over the weekend.

Rachel is officially a Bouncing Bunny!

There's a mistake on her letter saying school starts on Monday, she's supposed to start Tuesday. So I'll need to call tomorrow and make sure it was just a typo. At any rate, this Thursday evening, Mommy and Daddy will go to a parent orientation and then on Friday morning we can take Rachel to meet her teacher and see her classroom, etc.

She's been tearing her rings off of her preschool countdown and is very excited to see the chain getting smaller and smaller!

A Haircut, A Dip in the Pool, and Birthday Cake

Today was suppose to be party today, and thankfully, Rachel has not mentioned a single word about her Doodlebop party. She knew she was having a Doodlebops party and her cousins were coming over to play, but so far she hasn't asked about it. If she was any older, I don't think we could get away with not doing something special. LOL.

Our morning went as planned, taking both the girls to get haircuts by a friend who does hair out of her home. Rachel sat so well and cooperated. Because our plans had changed for the remainder of the day, Trudi invited us to come back with our swim suits to swim. And because it's been so hot this week and is forecasted to stay that way, we took her up on the offer. Rachel had sooo much fun playing in the pool with Tyler and Owen, two little kids close to her age. She did a good job at keeping her arm floaties on most of the time too. It was a fun and refreshing way to spend the mid day. After our time at the pool, we came home, took baths, washed hair, and lounged around watching movies for the rest of the afternoon, Rachel playing with some of her birthday presents in there as well. After dinner, we sang to Rachel, busted out the Doodlebop cake plates and had cake and ice cream!