Texas Adventures

We then spent the last two weeks of our vacation in Texas. We were able to enjoy some warm weather and see a lot of my family as well. The first week we were there we were able to spend time with Paul, Cristy, Aaron, Ashlyn, Jeff, Ken, and Jenny. The weather was absolutely perfect the first week and we enjoyed lots of outside time. We went on walks every day and played a ton outside. The second week we were there we spent some good quality time with Grandma and Grandpa. We got to enjoy some Texas downpours the second week, so we were indoors a bit more that week. Once again some firsts were experienced. Ice cream cones were often consumed, if not once, possibly twice a day. Aaron and Rachel became fast friends. He was so cute with her! :) Ashlyn and Rachel were friends on occasion. A lot of the time they would both want the same toy, but overall they did really well. We attempted to take some pictures of the kids in their Sunday best. Of course I was feeding Audrey and Rachel was being uncooperative! :) But the kids sure did look cute at church on Sunday. The kids also spent a lot of time being read to. If one of them picked out a book everyone else wanted to join in. We got lots of pictures of the kids on Ken's, Jeff's, or Grandpa's lap. Absolutely precious! Rachel really got into soccer while we were there. Here she is playing away and having fun. And here she is quenching her thirst! Rachel became quite addicted to soda while on this trip. First it started off with Sprite, then Dr. Pepper (caffeine free), and finally Root Beer. We had to get so we would limit her to one soda a day! Soda usually isn't an option in our house, so Rachel took full advantage of her grandparents having it readily available. We celebrated St. Patrick's Day in Texas. Grandma made her famous green, shamrock-shaped pancakes. I guess I need to start practicing, so I'm ready for next year. Lots of time was spent outside enjoying the nice weather. The kids loved playing with Grandpa. They would race him...Take pictures with him...And help him build his burn pile up and then watch it burn.Rachel supervised as Grandpa planted his vegetable garden.There were lots of tractor (really lawn mower) rides to be had. And even precious kisses as the sun was setting (thanks Jenny!). We can't forget Rachel's first boat ride on Grandpa's boat. She was a bit worried at first, but once they got going she enjoyed herself.

One morning Grandpa even caught a fish and Rachel was even brave enough to touch it.
Jenny was kind enough to take some family pictures of us outdoors. Even though we were smaller in numbers this time it was just as difficult to get everyone happy. Oh well, I guess pictures are meant to show life as it is! :)

Rachel had so much fun at the park one morning. Andy and her passed a ball back and forth through this tunnel for quite awhile. Rachel played Candyland for the first time and really enjoyed it.

Audrey was able to spend some good quality time with her Grandpa as well as he would walk the floors with her before bed time. This happened often up in Utah as well with Grandpa Smith, we just never got pictures of it.

Audrey discovered her feet and did a complete roll for the first time while we were in Texas.

Audrey loves her floor time, especially when Grandma would let her play with her hands.

Bath time at Grandma's - always a blast. The grandchildren all have special towels that Grandma has made for them.
We experienced Wii for the first time on this trip. Andy played a little up in Utah and then we played a bit more in Texas. Rachel even got into. She enjoyed playing some tennis and bowling. There were definitely moments of frustration, but every once in awhile she got lucky. I think she even beat Andy at bowling once. :)My mom was kind enough to sew up the waistbands of some capris I had bought for Rachel. Well, after she heard us talking about sewing her pants up she became quite interested. So, one day she discovered grandma's sewing closet and went to town sewing Mommy and Daddy shirts.

Once again the two weeks went by too quickly. We had such a good time in Texas as well. It was so nice to see everything so green and the wildflowers. The humidity was even nice! :) We had a relaxing time making wonderful memories. We were definitely spoiled and can't wait until we get to see our families again! :)

Utah Adventures

The first two weeks of our vacation were spent in Utah. This vacation seemed to be full of firsts for us. Audrey's first time on an airplane and being in the U.S. Audrey was able to meet all her grandpas, grandmas, aunts, uncles, and cousins for the first time. Rachel had her first professional haircut and dentist visit. The haircut process was horrible, but the visit to the dentist office went great. Go figure! Here are many other firsts that I actually got pictures of: Audrey meeting her great-grandparents.

Rachel's first time playing arcade games. She had a blast one afternoon with her cousins!Audrey's first little playmate, her cousin Chase. Chase is 2 1/2 months older than Audrey. They had fun checking each other out. Sometimes they were really sweet with each other and other times they weren't so sweet! :) Rachel had so much fun playing with her cousins. Here they are having fun with a bubble maker! :)This is actually Rachel's second visit to Wheeler Farm. It was a bit chilly, but we decided to go one morning with grandma, grandpa, Julie, and Presley. After about 20 minutes Rachel declared, "I'm done with the farm". She had seen what she wanted to see and was anxious to get back to all the fun toys at grandma's. This was Rachel's and Audrey's first visit to Temple Square. These are some pictures outside the Salt Lake Temple, where Andy and I were married. We walked around, took some pictures, and enjoyed the visitors center as well. We were able to go inside the Draper Temple a few days later. When we told Rachel we were going to the temple, she quickly asked, "Who am I going to marry?" What a cutie! I quickly explained to her that we were just visiting the temple and that she didn't have to worry about getting married until she was at least 20! :) One evening when we were over at the King's house Brinley pulled out her old ballet outfits. Rachel had fun dressing up and both of the girls looked so pretty. We stayed at the King's pretty late that night. Rachel took a bath with her cousins and then borrowed Isaac's Buzz Lightyear pajamas. And before we knew it she was asleep on her Aunt Julie.
The next morning we woke up to quite a bit of snow. So, Rachel built her first snowman with her daddy. Yes, that's Rachel in her PJ top. We left her coat at the King's the night before. We had to take advantage of the snow before it melted, so Rachel went outside bundled up in layers.

Audrey had her first experience with family pictures. It was crazy trying to keep all the little ones happy and smiling. Andy's cousin, Robyn, did a great job working with all of us to get some pictures taken.

Here's Rachel with Issac, Brinley, and Presley. We went to a place called Jumpin Jacks and the kids had fun playing. It took the whole time we were there to convince Rachel to go down the big slide. She went down with Andy quite a bit and by the end she was going down the huge slide by herself. Grandma Smith wanted to let all the cousins celebrate Easter together. So, Rachel experienced her first big Easter egg hunt. She had a blast looking for eggs and we are still all enjoying the candy that she got. Rachel and Audrey received cute matching PJs. Rachel wore her PJs the whole time we were in Texas because they were perfect for Texas weather.
We went downtown to the Salt Lake Children's Museum. We were able to meet up with some of my roommates from college. Between the 3 of us there were 5 girls 2 years old and under. It was fun to catch up with Holly and Shauni.
The last night we were in Utah we did some indoor miniature golfing. Rachel had never golfed before and she really enjoyed it until the end. She didn't like the fact that her ball wouldn't come back. I think several family members let her hit their golf balls in as well.
We had such a good time in Utah. Andy was able to go skiing one day with Nate and Ken. We were able to have lunch with some good friends, the Caldwells, one day. They use to live out here in Holland and I miss Amy! :) We were able to do tons of shopping and stock up on our favorite things. I believe the girls came out ahead. We brought back at least twice as many clothes for them as we took. We had fun playing games, eating good food, and just visiting with family. The two weeks we had in Utah flew by so quickly.

Where did March go?

Well, we are back from our trip to the U.S. It was so much fun to see lots of family and a few friends. We kept busy and the month slipped by too quickly. We were spoiled a ton and enjoyed ourselves so much. Lots of family members sacrificed vacation time and the cost of traveling to spend time with us. We are definitely grateful that we got to see and spend time with so many that we love. Rachel did great flying and Audrey struggled, but we all survived. We are still recovering from jet lag. Last night was our best night yet. Each night gets better and better, so I'm hoping tonight we'll be back to normal. I have lots of pictures to go through and post. So, hopefully in the next couple of days I'll be able to do that. Here's one picture of Rachel checking out our airplane in the Amsterdam airport right before we got on board.

3 Months Old

Audrey is growing, growing, and growing. I don't have her 3 month stats because we aren't going in for her 3-month check-up until March 30th. I'm sure she's grown quite a bit. She's not much of a sleeper during the day. The longest nap she'll take during the day is one hour. She sleeps decently most nights. There are some nights she likes to get up every 3-4 hours. I guess she's still trying to figure everything out. Audrey's a smiley baby. Just within the past week she's figured out how to roll from her back to her tummy. She gets quite frustrated once she lands on her tummy. The other night I thought she was going to do a complete roll, but she got frustrated and just wanted some help. Audrey has also learned how to growl. She really enjoys being on the floor and playing with toys. She's trying to figure out how to hold on to toys for longer than 5 seconds. We can't believe she's already 3 months old - time flies when you're having fun!

Eight Hours

The past two nights Audrey has slept eight hours straight. It's been heavenly! I am cautiously optimistic that she is going to sleep through the night much sooner than her older sister. I consider sleeping through the night when they'll sleep a 10-11 hour stretch. Rachel didn't do that until she was 8 months old. I'm hoping that Miss Audrey will be there by 6 months - if not sooner! :)

In other news, Audrey has discovered her hands and feet. She can sit in her bouncy chair and entertain herself for quite awhile. It's fun to watch her move her hands and feet around and just stare at them in wonder. The other day she even accidentally grabbed one of her feet. I love watching Audrey as she discovers her world.

Computer Hog

Rachel has mastered the mouse, so the computer is taken up by her quite often. She loves to go to fisherprice.com and play the toddler games. Some of her favorites are click 'n color, who's at the door, snap 'n style, matching game, and animal sounds. On Saturday Andy got on the computer with Rachel and she enjoyed playing some of the games on kids.nationalgeographic.com. It's amazing to me that she can control the mouse. I guess it goes to show that this generation is definitely different from ours. I remember when the mouse first came into existence. It will be interesting to see how much technology changes in Rachel's lifetime.

Ladies in Red

Roomies

We finally bit the bullet and put the girls in the same room. The first month Audrey was in our room, then she was out in the hallway for a month, and now she's settled in to sharing a room with Rachel. We were a bit nervous about Audrey waking Rachel up, but so far it has gone quite well. We are amazed at what Rachel can sleep through. The one drawback is if Audrey wakes up around 6 AM it always seems to wake Rachel up as well and then Rachel's up for the day. Audrey will eat and go back to sleep until 9 AM, but not Rachel. Oh well, such is life! I guess I can't complain too loudly since Rachel will still take an afternoon nap. Audrey and Rachel will get to be roomies while we are out here in Holland. Then once we return home there's space for them to spread out, but my guess is by then they'll want to stay roomies.