Way too LONG!

Wow, it has been WAY TOO LONG since I posted last! Raychel and I had so much fun over the summer that I forgot to update along the way! This little girl continues to amaze me and brighten every moment of my day! She started back to day care this week and it has been quite traumatic for both of us...we peel her off of me, give her to day care, and Mommy and Raychel cry. Raychel cries most of the day but Mommy has to be a BIG girl and get all of her work done! I am hoping that this will stop soon....We are back 5 days tomorrow and seeing a few positives! I know she will get used to it, just hard to go through the process! BE STRONG RAYCHEL!!! One day Mommy knows that she will wish you still wanted me as badly as you do now...

What has Raychel been up too? Playing, reading books, saying new words, connecting animals and their sounds and saying those sounds, walking up to 6 blocks at a time, running, giggling, playing on the piano, stacking and nesting blocks, eating grapes-watermelon-green beans-peas-carrots-broccoli (just a few of her very favorite foods--gee, wish I could get her to eat something healthy!), switched to milk, left the bottle behind (July 20th), dressing up with necklaces, watching Barney, playing chase and peek-a-boo with Daddy, growing hair (little curls in the back too) and sleeping all night long.



Funnies and surprises:

Mommy was taking a nap one afternoon and Daddy and Raychel were doing laundry. She spied Mommy when they went to get hangers and the race was on....she would run to the door and Daddy would block her. She would laugh, run across the room and try again...eventually she decided she would sneak around through the kitchen to Mommy's door! Smart little girl...there is more then one way to beat Daddy! Her reward: Waking up Mommy!

I really did cut her hot dog up in little pieces! She grabbed the whole thing and took her own BIG GIRL bites! :P

One day at Grandma S's she got excited upon seeing a picture of all her cousins. She pointed to her only boy cousin and said, "Riley" just as clear as day! She REALLY likes Riley. She watched him show his pigs and cheered/clapped when he won Reserve in his class/breed! Then, she found a picture at our house and tried saying "Jackie" (his sister). I'm sure the rest are next! I think she loves all her cousins!

She waves and says HI to EVERYONE we see at EVERY store we go too! And she says it like she is SOOO EXCITED to see them! LOL Such a fun age!

She gives the BEST hugs and kisses. If she can't reach you to kiss you, she will blow one or make a kissing noise and lean towards you! She is very loving! So much so that one night when Mommy was sitting on the floor, leaning against the wall, she came running over and where I usually move my head back there was a wall...so she left a bruise on Mommy's cheek! Mommy cried...Raychel didn't! =)

Tonight, in the bathtub, she used her bath tub markers and wrote a letter J. I didn't think anything of it...its just a mark, right? Then, she says.... J!!! I wrote another J next to it...she looked at it and said...cat! (Our cat's name is JJ!) WHAAAATTTT?????? Was it an accident? I have no idea!

Pancakes are her favorite breakfast food. She held up the pancake the other day and said, "Good, Mom!" Then, stuffed a huge bite in her mouth and giggled!

Her animal book is her favorite book. She is learning the names, sounds, or signs for many of the animals. Earlier this month she lost her book for a few days (err, Mom ruined it and we had to buy a new one). We picked up a new one and she refused to let go of it, even fell asleep holding onto it on the way home!

Playing peek-a-boo and chase are her favorite activities. Daddy and Raychel play chase all over the house (especially around the doors of the kitchen and through the living room) and around the kitchen island. I HAVE to get them on video...hopefully soon! =)

Itsy-Bitsy-Spider is her favorite song. She CAN do all the actions, but rarely shows anyone but Mom. She will always do the "spider" part though and giggles when you sing it to her!

She learned how to push her wooden duck and musical push toy around the house. You would think that she is copying Mommy vacumming, but the reality is that she is TERRIFIED of the vacumm and Mommy does that when she goes to bed! =) She was VERY PROUD of herself for learning how to do that!

We were getting ready for bed one night and Raychel was busy with her visor. I asked her what was on her hat and she replied with, "MOO"! (Yes, it was a Cow visor!)

Raychel was standing in the bath tub one night....holding onto her hand I told her to sit down...about that time she wiped out and went down...laughing she said, "I DID!"

She received a dress as a late birthday present. I put it over her head and she pranced through the living room. Later I asked if she thought she was pretty in the dress, she looked down at it, back at me with a big smile, and said, "YES!"

As you can see she is a handful of FUN...a true JOY in our lives! =) We LOVE watching her grow up and never grow tired of sharing all of her developments!!

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!

Helping Daddy!

Saturday night she helped Daddy fix the lawnmower, well TRY to fix the lawnmower. We found out later that it is not fixable, so now it is for sale...but it is our friend's mower and they already got another one, so it is all good!
She grabbed two of Daddy's wrenches and tried to help him fix the mower! Then, she climbed up on the mower (Mommy put her on the seat). She thought that was GREAT!!!

She also enjoyed running around the yard and stepping UP and DOWN the single step along the sidewalk in the back yard! No, Mommy didn't know she was going down but we saw the whole thing! She slowly took one foot of and while it was falling down, she brought the other one with it...so it was almost like a jump off the step! She landed like it was NO BIG DEAL and continued walking to help Daddy! Going up, she holds onto the garage and simply steps up!

NEW TOYS!!!

Raychel got to try out two new toys! Daddy found a table and chairs on eBay for her birthday. We spent her birthday "cash" to purchase this new toy! Both the tables and chairs are adjustable and may fit her for at least 5 years!!!

This is her first touch of the "new thing" in her living room!

She gets to sit at the table....OH...COOL!

This is pretty awesome Mommy and Daddy!

No, its REALLY AWESOME...I LOVE IT!!! =)

Later, she colored a picture WHILE watching TV!! She is multi-tasking already! She scribbles on one side of the paper, flips it over and scribbles on the other side. This repeats until both sides are sufficiently scribbled upon!!! =)

Raychel also tried out her new pool! She thinks its pretty fun with all the toys attached to it!

Hi, Giraffe! (which she said while reading a book with a giraffe in it).

Checking out the toys on the pool!

I like to garden and swim at the same time!

RAYCHEL TV!!!

We got a new-to-us entertainment center, but it is sitting in the middle of our living room because Daddy's co-worker has a bigger one that would suit us better and he is looking for a smaller one, so will trade for our new one!

While it is sitting in our living room, Daddy found a new favorite TV show! It's RAYCHEL TV!!!!! He LOVES to watch RAYCHEL TV! She fits just perfectly, another cm taller and she would hit her head!!!!



She is crouching down, giving Mommy a silly smile!!


Now we watch RAYCHEL TV every night! Sorry, but it is only available in OUR living room! Currently, no cable networks have picked up the show...we are not sure why!!!

Playing Dress-Up

Raychel spied her Halloween costume while Mommy was putting away clothes today. She said, 'That-That-That"...in other words, Mommy...I want that, give it to me, put it on, and let me run around and play in it! =) Wheww...good thing I understand her so well! LOL

She kept reaching back for the wings....not quite understanding what they were!

See...I told you she LOVED drinking out of her new straw cup!

What are these things anyway???

She also enjoyed coloring in her new BARNEY coloring book, while dressed as a lady bug!! =)

Trying to Harvest with Grandpa

Today we went to "try" and harvest with Grandpa! Our day didn't go exactly as planned, but neither did Grandpas, Grandmas, Uncle Jays, or Daddy's day!!! WHAT, you are asking, happened???
Well...after nap time we headed to find Grandpa in the field. He was not moving.... :( The combine kept getting clogged and wouldn't feed the wheat through correctly. He made several calls and before we knew it Grandma, Mommy, and I were on our way to get parts for Grandpa. Uncle Jay and Daddy were heading to Abilene to help Grandpa put on the new parts! Around 10:00 that night, everyone got to go home and Grandpa tried to harvest again the next day!

Oh well...I thought it was pretty hot, pretty scary, and pretty BIG anyway!!! Maybe Mommy will take me back on another day to "try again"!

I learned how to drink out of a straw!

We have been trying for about a month to help Raychel learn how to drink out of a straw. So, Daddy comes home today, drinking a BIG cup of water, and gives it to a very interested Raychel. She sucks it right up and starts hauling it around the house, drinking it!

Daddy is proud of the fact that HE taught her how to drink from a straw. I say, if you think its that easy then I'll let you POTTY TRAIN TOO!!! =) LOL

She carries it around the house now! She is a hydrated little girl!!! =) WATER is YUMMY and it is EVEN BETTER out of a straw!!!

I GET TO RIDE GOING FORWARD!!!!

Daddy got her car seat turned around to face forward! This is Raychel discovering her new view! The first picture she is like...MOM...why is the camera here?!?!?!


THEN...she discovered there was something different!!! She threw her arms up and shrieked!!!
It may have been 100 degrees outside, but she was HAPPY-HAPPY-HAPPY!!!

Mommy turned around and snapped another picture from the front seat. Needless to say, she LOVES her new "view" of the world!!!