High Five

Today we get to celebrate Rachel's 5th birthday! Rachel is so much fun to have in our family. She makes us laugh and smile quite a bit. And she's very sweet and gentle at times as well. Rachel was definitely meant to be a big sister. She takes very good care of Audrey and takes being a big sister very seriously. Rachel is 40 1/2 inches tall and weighs 29.5 pounds. Currently she wants to be a cowgirl dentist, which means she wants to fix people's teeth with boots on. You can tell she's a Texan at heart! :)

Rachel has really taken off with reading. We are close to being completed with her reading lessons. As long as she's patient and tries, she can sound out most words. She loves being able to read and spell words. Her favorite word to tell you how to spell is S-T-O-P. Rachel is very excited for kindergarten to start. It's a good thing we'll have the pool to distract her this summer, otherwise I don't think she'd be able to survive until August...

It seems like our little 5 year-old is finally weaning herself from a nap. I know, we can't complain. There are days that she will still take a nap, but most days she prefers to hang out with mom. Rachel loves to help in the kitchen, fold clothes, make her bed, wash dishes, dust, and vacuum. I just hope her enthusiasm continues through the years...

Rachel is a movie junkie. If I would let her, she'd watch movies all day long. She does love to have friends over and it also makes her day to get to go over to a friend's house. Like most kids, she loves riding her bike and going to the park. Audrey and her love turning music on and dancing away.

The birthday girl only has a few requests to make her day special. She wants to wear a new dress she got from Papa and Grandma Michaelson (she opened her presents from them on Friday with Papa). Rachel wants to go to Olive Garden and have some mac 'n cheese - it's her favorite. She also wants her daddy to blow up her new swimming pool so she can go swimming on her birthday. Rachel's not a huge fan of cake, so she gets to go pick out an ice cream cake which she is very excited about. Hopefully we will be able to make her day special!

We feel so blessed to have Rachel in our family. She definitely makes life sweet!