Wrestlemania

I beat my daddy up yesterday.Daddy thought he could take me... he didn't realize I had thighs of steel! STEEL I tell you! One swift kick to the face...
... you can't handle this!

Like a caged animal

Mommy and Daddy broke down and got me a cage. Mommy explained to me that it was important because it was going to keep me safe. If Mommy were to put me in the cage all day long that would be one story, but she likes to use it when she's making food, going potty, or putting laundry away. She feels she's entitled to lock me up for these reasons because she loves me. I'm not going to lie to you people... I kind of like the cage. :)

I feel better knowing that I can now watch "Jon and Kate plus 8" while eating my pink plastic bowl... and be safe from electrical outlets ALL AT THE SAME TIME PEOPLE!
Plus... I think it goes well with my outfit.

Pulling up

Time to lower the crib kids! Look what Mommy found the other day when I woke up from my nap:

I've since learned to pull up to my feet. Mommy and Daddy have yet to capture that bad boy on film.

I also enjoy pretending I'm a monster. My monster voice has gotten many a laugh. However, when Mommy pulls out the camera... I IMMEDIATELY switch back to my little sweet baby voice. They will never capture it... NEVER!

4 years

Happy Anniversary to my mommy and my daddy! Daddy asked me today if I got him a gift, but I first of all... can't go shopping by myself, second... have no idea what an anniversary is, and third... aren't THEY supposed to give ME all the gifts? Seriously people!

Angie was nice enough to offer to babysit me so Mommy and Daddy can have a nice dinner out. One where they don't have to speed eat in order to get me out of the restaurant before I have a melt down. They are very thankful!!!

(Rachel here... Bryan I love you so very much. Can you believe it?! We've been together for 7 years, married for 4, and now have a gorgeous baby. I'm so blessed to have you in my life. I know I can be a handful... trust me I know... but I'm all yours! Lots of kisses!!!!)

Watch out world!!!

And here, kids, is how you crawl...

Receipts

Daddy is such a number nerd (at least that's what Mommy says). He likes to collect all of the receipts, put them in date order, catalog their information on his nerdy little excel file, and then save them... for months... years even... ahhhh the life of an accountant. :) But I digress... so Daddy left his precious little receipts in his hat on the floor, and I found them. He had them in some CRAZY order, so I decided to help him out. :)This one goes before this one... I'll put this one next... I could be here ALL day!

Dubuque

There is cable car elevator in Dubuque, IA that Mommy and Daddy have been on many times. We thought this would be the perfect time to take me. I got to sit on Daddy's lap. I was extremely intrigued and wasn't quite sure what was going on. Here are a few more pictures from our Iowa adventures. Sadly we didn't take too many... I guess we were just super busy with other things. :)

Wild Turkey

What road trip would be complete without a visit to the local liquor distillery/brewery?

If you build it...

Mommy, Daddy, Uncle Aaron, and I just got back from a sweet little visit in Iowa. I was able to visit with my great gparents and my great aunt Kerry. We had a hoot! There was lots of pizza to be had and adventures to lead. Our first day there we ventured off to the set for the movie "The Field of Dreams". Now for those of you that don't know, Mommy was born about 30 minutes from Dyersville in Iowa, so she's been to the set about 545803458034 times. When Daddy came along, he felt he needed to visit it EACH AND EVERY time we were in Iowa. Mommy thinks this is ridiculous but goes along with it anyway. :) While Daddy and Aaron played around, I got a couple of pictures taken.

Father's Day

Mommy came back from Ocean City on Father's Day. I was so excited because that meant it was time to give Daddy all of the great gifts I had been working on.

Mommy helped me to make my own card, but all I really wanted to do was...

...put the new crayons in my mouth. They were tastey!

We wanted to start a little tradition for Daddy. Every year for Father's Day, we're going to make a print of my little feet to show how much I've grown every year. Mommy and I went shopping and picked up a blank pre-stretched piece of canvas and Mommy went to town. Eventually, she said, I'll be able to paint the whole thing myself, but she was nice enough to help me out this year. Of course she started with HOKIE colors to make an orange and maroon heart for me. She gladly handed it over to me and let me go at it.

She painted me all up... and here was our final product:

Daddy also got two books to read to me about daddies, and we made him a stepping stone for his vegetable garden with my handprint.
I love you very much Daddy. You're the best!

8 months old

Rachel here. Okay so I know she's practically 8 1/2 months now, but we've been UBER busy. There was Florida, and then I went to Ocean City for a girls' weekend, the very next day we traveled to Iowa to visit some of my family... like I said... UBER busy. We're back now though and ready to catch up on life.

So here is the latest on our Reesie Piecie. :) We took her in to the ped the Thursday before last because she was pulling on her ear an awful lot. I immediately though EAR INFECTION and needless to say did TONS of research. She had none of the other symptoms, so I let it go a few days. Reese just wouldn't let it go... a pull here, a tug there, she was even "earmuffing" herself. When we took her in she was diagnosed with a "I just discovered my ear" virus. BLAST! I was very thankful she was completely healthy, but a little perturbed because we just paid a buttload for the doc to tell us she pulled one over on us. So anyway... she was weighed, and the results... 20 lbs 6 oz. She's our little tub of sweetness. We measure her here at home, and she was 28 1/4 inches long. She's practically a 5 year old! :)

Reesie is also COMPLETELY mobile. She's crawling around like a superhero and sitting up on her own from her tummy. (I'll post a video when I get a good one.) It's crazy to see how much she's learning to do everyday!

NC ZOO

Mommy and Daddy took me to the zoo! When Mommy was a teacher, her 3rd graders' big field trip of the year was to the North Carolina Zoo. Her friend Amy is still a teacher and was kind enough to invite us to go with them. It was very nice for Mommy to just get to sit back and relax with me and Daddy and not have to worry about all those other children... something she thanks Daddy for just about every day. :) These are a few of my favorite pictures from the day.

Who wouldn't want to pretend to hatch from an egg... seriously kids?!

Riding a rhino... what I do every Monday.AND I flew a helicopter... it's just another day in the life of me. :)

OH YEAH... I forgot... there were some animals there too!

Fountains and Baskets

Daddy's training ended around lunchtime Thursday, so we were off once again. I have a tendency to turn into a pumpkin around 7ish, so we stopped our voyage home in Charleston, SC. We woke up early Friday morning and meandered around the town. Mommy fell in love. It was beautiful there... fountains, flowers, and mansions everywhere.Mommy made Daddy take his shoes off and take me into one of the fountains. I'm sure he has some foot eating disease now, but we got a cutie picture. :)Mommy will probably have that exact same foot eating disease herself, so all is well with the world again.
We made sure to go to the city market. Charleston's city market is known for their hand woven baskets. Mommy would have had to sell her kidney for one of those baskets, so she settled for a small wreath and two koozies... orange and maroon of course. :) We were definitely running low on funds, so the rest of the early afternoon was dedicated to taking pictures of the city and we were back in the mountains of Virginia just in time... I was bordering that whole pumpkin time. :)

The Ritz

Yes you read correctly... The Ritz. I mentioned before that we were in Orlando because Daddy was there for business. We realize that we are VERY lucky to be able to go to these with Daddy because it allows us to go on some otherwise unaffordable vacations. Mommy loves going to these with Daddy because she gets to bathe in all of the benefits. One such benefit... staying at the Ritz Carlton. :)

That my friends was the view from our hotel. AMAZING... need I say more?

Mommy made sure to take me to that amazing pool. It was my first time in a grownup pool. Nice and refreshing are the perfect words to explain that pool. Mommy didn't let me out of the little floaty though... she's such a scaredy cat. :)

I had another first here at the Ritz. My first big girl bath!!! Look how little I look in the GIANT tub!!! Mommy had to laugh.

Dolphins, Whales, and Beer... OH MY!!

It must be Sea World!!! The second day we were in Orlando was dedicated to Sea World. When Mommy told Daddy this was an Anheiser Busch park... his face lit up like a Christmas tree. :) We began our adventure visiting some dolphins.

Isn't the water BEAUTIFUL! It was nearly 100 degrees, so needless to say it would have been enjoyable to jump in with him. :)On our way to Daddy's favorite place... the hospitality room... we stumbled upon one of the Clydesdales. Isn't he gorgeous. Mommy liked the little flowers on his head. :)

Here I am taming baby Shamu. (Rachel here... is this picture not ADORABLE!!! She's at a fun little age and oh so smiley!!)

I'm not quite sure how Shamu is chillin' in the hot sun out of water, but I'm glad I got a picture with him. :)Daddy and I hit up the carousel next. It was super fun. This was the only ride I was allowed to ride on even though I'm practically tall enough for a couple of the kiddie rides. Something about me being an infant and all. Whatevs...

We were sure to see the famous Shamu show. I was extremely tired by this point, but was just able to hang in there! All in all... it was a jolly good show! (There were A LOT of British people there at Sea World... I may picked up a titch of their lingo.) :)

More Disney

Here are some pix from the famous Disney World Parade!

One of my favorites... MICKEY MOUSE!!!

The entire "Pooh" clan was there, but Mommy fancies Eeyore... he's so precious!

This is super fun, but where is my girl Cinderella????

There she is! I just love her. Mommy has worked so hard fighting the whole "Disney Princess" garbage, but I think I've gotten her to make one little exception... seeing as how Cinderella is her all time favorite too. :)
Mommy, Daddy, and I had such a GREAT time at Disney... we can't wait to go back!!

I've been tagged!

I've been tagged by Mere at "Life is Short of Sweet for Certain" to do my first meme! How exciting! The Rules: Write a blog entry with 10 weird, random, facts, habits or goals about yourself. However, I don't have 4 other people who even have a blog. :) So I will TAG... Allison from "Just Jack Spillman", Sarah from "The Traveling Duo", and Misty from "Our Life" and whoever wants to reply can. :)

Andddddddd.... GO!

1. I love to pop pimples. I don't know why. They could be my own, they could be Bryan's... I don't discriminate. For some odd reason I get some satisfaction out of doing it... sick I know.

2. I have an obsessive personality. I get it from my mother. When something... a habit/hobby/something tangible catches my eye, I must have it. I must have it everyday and lots of it. For a while it was books, then it was fabric, pint glasses, mugs... strange. Poor Bryan just goes along with it knowing that in a few short months I'll be on to something else, and we'll be having a yard sale to get rid of the crap I just collected. By the way... yard sale in July. :)

3. John and Kate Plus 8 is the one show I can't live without. At first I thought it was just a cute show, but now I find myself taking notes. I think I like her because sadly I see a lot of myself in her. I like to sit on my butt occasionally. I like to boss others around often. I like to "hit" my husband when I feel he deserves it. Those are all awful comparisons, but sadly true.

4. I let everything annoy me. A big one is people who drive wreckless (which in my eyes can simply mean not putting on your turn signal before you decide to cut in front of me... it doesn't matter how far from my car you actually are) offend me and make me want to pull my hair out. I usually scream that I have a baby in the car... which is not the best way to react I know... because afterall I do have a baby in the car. :)

5. I LOVE to put ketchup on EVERYTHING. Especially macaroni cheese and scrambled eggs. I'm not as bad as my brother, who really does put ketchup on EVERYTHING, but it is my favorite condiment.

6. Clowns TERRIFY me. When I was younger... like 4th grade... there was a pick up truck at my bus stop with a clown in the bed. It could have been fake, but we all swore it was real... and it moved. Then I saw the movie "IT" and wanted to die.

7. I know all of the words to the movie "Clueless".

8. In high school my girlfriends and I used to steal art supplies from Ms. Frost, our art teacher. One of our favorite items to steal... paint brushes. We would then use the paint brushes to high light our hair. There were 5 of us, and we all had blonde hair. We would go to the Wal-mart and buy ONE box of extra blonde hair dye and split it between us.

9. I can tie a cherry stem with my tongue.

10. I've been to the "Field of Dreams" more times than I dare to count.

Magic Kingdom

We're in Orlando! Daddy is here in Orlando for business, so of course Mommy and I joined him. Now ordinarily Mommy and Daddy would not take an almost 8 month old to Disney World, but we did happen to stumble upon the opportunity, so today we made the voyage. Mommy and Daddy couldn't get over at how different the entire experience was with a baby. Last time they were here was for their honeymoon... they rode rides... park hopped... not this time kids. I think I heard them say that they were having more fun this time around because of me! It's a totally different experience when you're waiting in line to get your picture taken with Winnie the Pooh as opposed to waiting in line for Splash Mountain. :) Here are some pix from our first day (these were pictures that the "characters" took in the park... Mommy has lots more of the parade and such but doesn't have her camera/pc cord with her, so you'll have to wait to see the rest until we get home)... tomorrow... we hit up Sea World. :)

Here we are in front of Cinderella's castle! :) You like my sexy ears don't cha?

I think I might just love my parents as much as they love me. :)

Our new best friends... Mickey and Minnie Mouse... they're hot.

We even got to meet Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and Belle. Cinderella was by far the BEST princess there. She happened to be in love with me as well. For a second Mommy thought she was going to kidnap me, but alas she was just giving me some sugar. :)