Christmas 2007: Year of the Monkey

Sock Monkeys and Monkey related stuff was the gift to get this year!

The girls got monkey blankets, sock monkeys, sock monkey slippers, sock monkey pajamas, boxes of Kleenex with monkeys, Rachel got Curious George panties, and a barrel of monkeys!

The Christmas Boots

Rachel received these cowboy boots for Christmas this year. You can't tell by the picture, but they are fushia in color.

They are very special cowboy boots. They were passed on to her by her sweet cousin McKenzie, who came up with the idea to pass her boots on to Rachel all on her own, and even wrapped them herself.

Rachel is very honored to have received such a special gift and says she's gonna wear them to school!

Christmas Day

Christmas Day started off in a way that was totally unexpected. Due to the horribly strong winds in the night, power lines snapped and we were without power from 1:00am until 11:30. It was weird to be without power for so long and we really had to be flexible. Rachel didn't understand why the lights wouldn't come on when she went in to use the bathroom. LOL. We made it through, it's definitely a Christmas for the memory books.

Our morning started off with doing our stockings in the living room, by candlelight. While it was after 7:00, it was still pretty gloomy in the house so I tried to provide some light by opening the blinds wide open and lighting candles. Thank goodness for flash on cameras!Moving into the family room, the girls opened thier presents from us, as well as out of state family. The girls get three presents from us, after all, Jesus only received three presents. Rachel got a Dorothy dress and ruby red slippers, a Little People Campset, and Mega Builders, foam and fun stuff to build things with.
Papa Steve joined us for a few hours this morning. Here Rachel offers him a helping hand to open his Christmas present cause she hasn't quite opened enough of her own. LOL. We were soon joined by Gramma, Papa, Uncle Bart, Uncle Robbie, Auntie, and of course the cousins, Haylee and McKenzie for the opening of even more presents!Finally, the power came back on and we were able to continue with our Christmas dinner preparations and hooking up the Wii to play. Rachel and Hannah got a combined Christmas gift from Gramma and Papa of a TV/DVD player so that was hooked up and enjoyed as well. And later in the early evening, we played Hannah's new game, High School Musical Sing It! on the play station, Rachel loved the microphone!We had a wonderful day, and Rachel loved having her cousins to play with all day long. And now comes the task of finding places for all the presents from the last two days.

Christmas Eve 2007

Rachel is at such a fun age this Christmas. She's mesmerized by the lights and glitz and of course all the presents. Tonight, we spent Christmas Eve at my Grandmother's house for the traditional dinner and gift exchange. She had so much fun ripping through all that paper and pulling tissue out of bags.After dinner and the gift exchange, Uncle Robbie and Auntie lead the family in Christmas carols. At the end, all three of the preschool girls got up and did one of their preschool songs and it was oh so cute! Children in a large family like ours make for special moments for all.Rachel was still wired when we got in the car, and it was close to 11:00. However, it wasn't long before sitting still in her car seat put her to sleep. Tomorrow will be another fun day for her and I can't wait to watch her

Christmas Party

Today was a fun filled day for Rachel at preschool. First off, they decorated their ice cream cone Christmas trees. This is always a fun and yummy activity for the preschoolers. As you walked into the room, you could easily get a sugar high from the smell of the frosting.The fun festivities continued as they came back from playing outside to party time! They had star shaped cheese sandwiches and sliced carrots with Ranch dressing. And sugar cookies to frost and decorate with sprinkles, which was a huge hit with all the kids.With one of her teachers, receiving Christmas hugs after having given her teacher her present, hand soaps from Bath and Body Works!Last month, at Rachel's parent teacher conference, it was stated that Rachel specifically plays with the same friend day in and day out. Here they are together. Aren't they cute??Rachel had such a fun morning. She got to bring home all of her Christmas crafts she's done the last month and we've proudly taped them to the sliding glass door with the rest of the school made crafts. She even opened her own present that was suppose to be for us. I don't think she fully understands whats to come in the coming days, but she's excited nonetheless, that or on a sugar high. :)

Christmas Craft

Hannah loves to do crafts and I think that love and enjoyment is rubbing off on Rachel. Either that, or it's all the fun crafts they do at preschool! This evening, following dinner, I broke out a Christmas ornament craft for the girls to do. They both had so much fun.

Preschool Christmas Performance

Is there really anything more cute this time of year than a preschool program??

Today was the Christmas program at Rachel's preschool. They've been practicing since Thanksgiving ended, and their big day has finally arrived. This year, not only were the children accompanied by the preschool secretary on the piano, there were three dads who accompanied on guitar, and one of those dads was my brother. This years performance was a special one for our family because three of the four grandchildren were performing! It's the first and the last time this will happen because next year McKenzie will be in Kindergarten. There was quite an audience just for the three of them...Gramma, Me, Daddy, Auntie, Great Grandma Dahl, Great Aunt Sandy, and Auntie's Mom.All three of the girls did such a great job at singing and doing the hand motions and keeping us entertained! Unlike Hannah at this age, Rachel actually sang some of the time and she did the hand motions, which I didn't even know she knew! About 3/4 of the way through the program, the teachers passed out jingle bells and the kids sang a couple songs related to bells, the boy standing behind Rachel full on clocked her in the head with his strand of bells. LOL.It was a great performance and all the children were so cute and dressed festive. It was a nice beginning to the holiday weekend before us.

Watching ...

As Mommy makes take home treats
for her preschool Christmas party on Thursday.

Christmas Tour of Our Home

As a participant in Boomama's 2007 Christmas Tour of Homes, come, take a Christmas Tour of Our House.

A Quick Trip

With Christmas less than two weeks away, and our Disneyland passes approaching holiday season blackout dates, Rachel and I made a quick trip today to Disneyland. I needed to experience my favorite time of the year at The Merriest Place on Earth, just once more.

We were on our way as soon as dropped Hannah off at school. And because this going to be such a short trip, we did without the stroller!! It was just me, Rachel, and the backpack on my back. It was great!

Taking time to say Merry Christmas to Minnie,
all decked out in her holiday best.Normally, Rachel CAN NOT stand to have her hair down, but today, she left it down. It gives her a different look, that's for sure. We don't do "the Santa thing" in our home. So to my children, seeing Santa Claus is just like seeing any other character at Disneyland. Today the line was short to see Santa, and since he is so recognizable to Rachel for some reason, we stopped in to say 'Hi" and take a picture. Our time at Disneyland was short today, as we were back in time to get Hannah from school. But we had a good morning and enjoyed all the decorations and festiveness of the park.

Preschool Pictures

Rachel had pictures taken the beginning of November at school. I've been waiting and waiting for them to come in as I wanted to put school pics of the girls in some out-of-state family Christmas cards. I was at the preschool today helping out and was so excited to see that the pictures had come in. I pleaded with one of Rachel's teacher to let me have them today instead of making me wait until tomorrow. LOL.

As I took the pictures out of the package, my eyes welled with tears. I was very pleased and no doubt will have to purchase the entire package.

Rachel's pictures turned out absolutely beautiful!!!! All three poses were perfect. Her smile was perfect. The capturing of her personality was perfect. From looking at these pictures, if you didn't know her history, there is no way you'd ever know she had had a cleft lip at birth.

But then, I'm a little bias, I'll let you be the judge....

A Party and a Sleepover

Yesterday was McKenzie's birthday party, but more importantly what followed the birthday party was an evening of fun and a sleepover with the cousins. Here, Rachel longs for the party to be over and everyone to leave so the 'real' fun can begin. LOL.

Officially a Big Girl Bed

Towards the end of last week, we thought we'd give it a try and take off the bed rail on Rachel's bed. She generally sleeps in the same position all night long and never have we ever found her up against the bed rail or the wall, she's pretty much a middle of the bed sleeper, so we thought we'd try taking the bed rail off...and she's doing just fine! Makes it a whole lot better to get in and out of her bed to snuggle on now.

Prayers for Adalynn

A while back, I introduced Adalynn. She was born with the same cleft as Rachel was. She had her lip repaired in September, and Monday she has surgery to have her palate repaired as well as tubes placed in her ears. Her surgery is scheduled for 8:00, that's 5:00 California time!Today, I am asking all of the prayer warriors who've prayed for Rachel through her surgeries and recoveries, to add Adalynn and her Mommy (Shannon) and her Daddy (John) to your prayer lists. I know they would appreciate and be blessed by the extra prayers.

A Fun Time at the Park

This afternoon, Haylee and McKenzie came home with us after preschool. However, instead of coming home, we grabbed a $5 pizza and went to the park! It was a beautiful day and I thought we'd take advantage of it before the 'big storm' hits late tonight.

The girls played and played and had so much fun. Gramma even stopped by to say 'hello' to three of her granddaughters. We stayed at the park until it was time to load everyone back into their car seats and go get Hannah from school. The girls stayed with us for the remainder of the afternoon and into the evening, having so much fun. Not too much time will lapse between seeing the cousins and having even more fun, as it's McKenzie's birthday this weekend and she's having a party. And then following the party, Rachel and Hannah will spend the remainder of the day and have a sleepover while we go to a church Christmas party. They are so excited!

Rachel and the Black Sweater

I finished my errands early this morning and pulled into the parking lot of the preschool. I sat in the car looking over the playground for Rachel as this was her time to be outside playing. I didn't see her for the longest time, and then all of a sudden, there she was, wearing 'the black sweater'.

Somehow, over the last few weeks, Rachel has become attached to this particular black sweater that sits in the lost and found. I saw her wearing this sweater when I helped with the Thanksgiving Feast. And then last week, the sweater was in her cubby. I laid it atop the cubbies and then one of her teachers approached me about the sweater. I explained the sweater didn't belong to Rachel. And they thought for sure it was seeing how attached she is to this thing and how she is always wearing it.

Perhaps I need to find her a black sweater for Christmas??