12 Months Old!!!

Okay, I know she is almost 13 months old...but thought I better share some of the things she is doing now!!

--Running: she really gets going now although she still stumbles and falls when she goes too fast!

--Talking: she is babling and holding conversations with herself, her stuffed animals, and other people!

--Reading: she requires that someone read books to her all the time now! =) Okay, maybe she doesn't require it because if you don't or can't read to her she will read it herself. She has a favorite, "Happy Baby Words" book that she has been known to look at for a 1/2 hour by herself! Yep...she likes her books! She goes on duck hunts too and will find every book she knows has a duck in it, find the duck, proclaim, "DUCK!" loudly, throw it down and find another! SILLY GIRL!

--Going on walks: Raychel and I go for walks down the sidewalk! She makes it about 2 blocks down the street before she gets tired! We even made it to the end of the block, over to the alley, and back up the alley to our house agian! She is happy if she is outside and moving!

--Stacking blocks: She started stacking blocks now. She stacked 3 of them before knocking them down!

--Helping me cook: She LOVES to watch and even more thrilled to dump stuff in to help me cook. I have to hold her when we make meals now and she seems so proud to eat anything she helped with! I can even sit her on the counter and she will watch, without grabbing everything!!!

--Eating big girl food! She has finished all her baby food and I do not dare buy anymore! She gave up on baby cereal too, so we are exploring a whole new world...breakfast food!!! She LOVES it! She also discovered she likes cooked broccoli and watermelon! Oh, we are also 100% off formula. She has been drinking milk for a couple weeks now. She LOVES it and drinks more milk then she ever did formula! Now, we have to figure out how to get her to drink it out of a sippy cup!

--Whining: Yep, that's right, I'm sharing something less positive!! However, she is a good listener. She used to bring a book to me and instantly whine to be picked up and when she found out Mom wouldn't pick her up if she did that she quickly stopped. Now I get a nice hands in the air and an UP MOM! She still whines while waiting for a bottle...we are working on that! =)

--Answers questions and talking appropriately: We ask, "How are you?" and she will reply, "Good!" or Do you want to do or eat _____?" and she says, "Yes!" When she sees someone she will say, "Hiiiii!"

We are having WAY TOO MUCH FUN this summer!!! I know it's only July 8th but before I know it, it will be Aug. 8th and I'll probably be dropping her off at day care and working at school by then!!! =( Hopefully many more fun days to come before that day arrives!!

4th of July Fun

On July 1st and 2nd we went to visit Great Grandma T in Horton, KS! Her birthday was July 1st! Raychel had fun running around her house, playing with the ducks by the lake, and eating pizza and cake with her cousins!

On July 3rd, Clay Center had their 4th of July celebration! We went down to check out some of the festivities. Unfortunately a storm stopped our fun and they continued their party on the 5th of July! Raychel sporting her cousin's hat!! =)

Mommy and Raychel at the 3rd of July-4th of July celebration!!! Maybe we are related! LOL

We headed to Wamego for 4th of July again this year! We had fun eating at Toto's Tacoz for lunch, touring the car show, and watching fireworks! OH and there was Nick's awesome smoked ribs and brisket for dinner! Raychel preferred the watermelon, but she did eat some brisket!

Before heading out for lunch Daddy and Raychel went for a ride on Nick's new lawn mower! Raychel thought it was prettty cool, just a little loud!

Here she is signing, EAT MOM!!! So, we ended our lawn mower expedition and headed for lunch!

This is the Deines family from 2008 and 2009 in front of the same vehicle at the Wamego Car Show! Daddy worked on this car and we are still waiting to find the owner! Maybe next year!!

Do you think she grew, just a little??? LOL Unfortunately Mom and Dad don't look much different!

Raychel at the car show, sporting her hat! Rain was threatening and it is hard to talk her into the hat when the sun is not out! So...it went by the wayside quickly!!

We got lost at the car show and found a playground instead! It was so cute, she ran up to back side of the General Store sign and bent down as if she was asking..."May I help you?" Of course, Mom didn't have her camera out that time. She wouldn't hang out on the other side of the counter again!

She walked through the tunnel going from Mommy to Crystal and back again!

I bet she will be jumping up there next year instead of waiting for Mommy to help her crawl up!

We left the playground when she grabbed a wasp. We are thinking that she got bit but not badly because there wasn't any swelling, her thumb was just a little bit red.and she wouldn't let me touch it. She just held onto her thumb! Poor little girl! She was brave though. She didn't cry, just shook her hand and got scooped up by Mommy! Gee....first she grabs the flames on her birthday candles, then she grabs the wasp that lands on the toy she was playing on...we really need to teach that girl what to touch and what to look at!!!

We went back to Nick and Crystal's house for a nap. She wasn't too interested in napping, but did snooze for about 45 minutes! She was up and running strong again and we left to see the parade (sorry, no pictures). She LOVED the parade! She liked the little cars and the horses, OH and the people giving out pretty red, silver, and blue necklaces! The parade was at 6:00, so she was getting hungry. She sat on my lap and munched on spaghetti noodles and ham during the parade, a little unique but defintely yummy for her! After the parade we ate OUR dinner! Nick smoked ribs and brisket, YUMMY!!! Raychel ate an entire bowl full of watermelon...more then I could eat! I think she likes watermelon!! =)

About 9:00 we decided we needed Ice Cream and headed into Manhattan! Raychel was still awake and playing happily!!! (SURPRISE!) We stopped at K-Mart and she ran all over the entire store....literally!!! There was no one there but us, so she didn't bother anyone! We hurried back for fireworks!!

She loved the fireworks, that or they scared her really badly!!! She had ear plugs in, thankfully, as we were pretty close to the action! She would start to turn around and hide, but then just HAD to watch that stuff in the sky! She made it 25 out of 30 minutes, enjoying the last half in Daddy's lap! Then, she popped up and climbed onto my nap and went to sleep! Yep...she slept through the Grand Finale!!! Silly girl!

She slept all the way home (even being moved in her car seat from one car to the other) and then went straight to bed here, sleeping for 10 hours!!! Mommy needed the sleep too, so I was thrilled!