Rachel vs. Ben

Anyone who knows our little Rachel knows that she is one funny girl. You never know what she is going to say, do, or sing next, but there is never a dull moment with her around. One of her favorite things to do lately is....argue with her dad. It's hilarious! Sometimes when the screen saver on our computer comes on she will say "Moon!" And Ben will say "Earth!" And they will go back and forth saying moon or earth. Or...they fight about numbers. She will have a number tile that is the number seven and insist it is a one. Ben will correct her, but she is relentless.

The other day we had another funny moment between Rachel and Ben. We were getting the kids ready for bed and Ben started tickling Rachel. Finally Rachel got away and said, "No Ben. NO!" He looked at her and said, "Hey, my name is Daddy". Rachel got a huge smile on her face, pointed to herself, and said, "Mine's Rachel!"

These two crack me up!

Betcha Thought I'd Never Update!

I thought I would never blog again. Not because I turned anti-blogging. I simply got lazy. All these cute, fun things have happened and yet I have not blogged about anything. I must be some kind of technological failure. Nevertheless, I have decided to repent and post some long over due pictures of the cutest kids on the planet. I will just put some recent pictures scattered throughout so if the picture doesn't coincide with something I wrote, just smile and nod.


The kids are growing like weeds and we are having new adventures everyday. Like the day we thought Rachel wandered alone outside and we could not find her for like 5 minutes. Then Ben went inside and found her hiding behind the couch sucking on her flouride free toothpaste. She wasn't answering our screams because she was trying to hide the fact that she was eating something she shouldn't.



Rachel is a very girly girl. She loves playing with her baby doll and doll house. She cuddles her baby and doesn't leave home without it. Brandon is quite another story. If he gets his hands on the doll, his favorite game is seeing how far he can throw it.


I know most people blogged about their July 4th adventures on July 5th...but here we are today. Hey it's still July at least right?? We went down to my parents' house and celebrated with everyone. Rachel and Brandon loved seeing their little cousin Hyrum again. We really live too far apart!


Rachel and Hyrum loved the swimming pool. It was really warm. They would jump in when no one was looking and just lay there contentedly. They didn't even have swim diapers on!



Brandon on the other hand would just dip his fingers in the water and that is as far as he would go!

The kids hated the parade. I thought they would love getting showered with candy, but the darn firetrucks were so loud at the beginning. The kids were clutching our legs and screaming. It was sad and amusing all at once. The library passed out free kids books. Rachel happened to be the lucky recipient of a free book and it just so happened to be one of her favorites. We were pretty happy.


See the lack of smiling and Brandon clutching my leg? This went on the whole time! Oh and if you look at me, you can see Baby #3 poking out a little.


We also made a couple of visits to Arctic Circle. Oh how I have missed those fries, sandwiches, and swirl cones. If any one reading this lives near an Arctic, appreciate it while it lasts!


Rachel was so tired of traveling by the end of the week...can you tell?

I hope I update more often in the future. But as you know, I'm lazy. And busy. So we will see what happens!

The Time Has Come...

...to officially announce what a lot of you caught on to in our last post.

WE'RE HAVING A BABY!!!

We are so excited to announce that another little Pinglet will be gracing the world with its presence. I waited to post the official news until I went to the doctor this week so I could post the evidence.



Things are going fairly well so far. I have been extremely tired (but hey with two toddlers who wouldn't be?) I get nauseated a lot in the late afternoon which makes dinner preparation really awkward. And, I have to lay off chocolate because it is already giving me massive heartburn. Sad day!

We were so excited to see our little blob of a baby on the ultrasound yesterday. The doctor said the baby has a good strong heartbeat. I'll just take his word for it. As you can see, the picture is not very detailed!

Our due date is more like a range than an actual day. Ben and I calculated February 4, 2010, the nurse said February 2, and the ultrasound said February 3...so the doctor just said to plan on something close to those dates and we'll see what happens.

If we had to choose right now we think the baby is a girl. I have been right each time so far so we will let you know the official verdict in October/November.

Well there you have it. Most of you already knew this news before I posted it but now you can consider it officially official!

New house pictures

Due to popular demand, we present a few photos of our new home! We love it! There's so much more room, and we love having a yard. It sits on a half circle in a nice neighborhood.

The backyard has a lot of room. We've been struggling trying to get the grass green again, and have been mostly successful. There's just a strip along the back fence we just can't get to go green. We got a sprinkler today though and hope we'll be able to revive it.

We got a mower today! Ben is pretty excited. He was talking to our neighbors who are moving out, and offered to buy their mower, and they said sure. What a relief! Ben has been shopping garage sales for a few weeks now but hasn't been able to find anything, so this is a wonderful blessing. They were throwing out a bunch of stuff, so we got it free.. We now have lawn chairs, hoses, and shelves in the garage.

Finally we can show off our piano instead of hiding it in the dining room! Rachel and Brandon now sleep in the same room. They've done pretty well so far, although there are times it gets frustrating when they both cry at night.

This is an extra room for now, but that will change come February 4, 2010.

Well there you have it. And no, I didn't show my room on purpose because it's a mess. Maybe I'll post it later, and maybe I won't. We're grateful for our new home and look forward to what the future holds!

Goodbye My Love

I know it is absolutely shocking to see me updating the blog, but hey I've had my reasons for being so slow.

Reason 1: LIFE HAS BEEN CRAZY
Reason 2: We moved
Reason 3: Because of the move we were without the internet for several days
Reason 4: I usually don't have time to myself to do these things anymore!

But now that the excuses are behind us, we can move forward. We moved into our house this weekend and are loving it. There will be pictures soon...once the boxes are unpacked and pictures are on the walls! So stay tuned. In the middle of acquiring this new home, we have had to say goodbye to a good friend. Allow me the opportunity to pay tribute to my beloved and faithful servant Colbie.



Colbie joined our family in September 2008. We were looking for a second car since Ben works in Spokane. (For those of you who know our long history with cars, please stop laughing). On with the story. As I sat behind the wheel of this 2007 Chevy Cobalt, a heavenly choir started singing. Colbie was small and sleek and smelled oh so good. I loved him. However, economic times being as they are, the time came to part ways. Ben found a minivan through his work that we were able to pay cash for thus reducing our debt load. It was a bittersweet day. So consider this my Ode to a Cobalt. Colbie, you will forever hold a soft spot in my heart. I have never loved a car to the extent that I love you. No other car could weather the storms of winter the way you did. You have proven to me that you are one of a kind. I will always love you.

December 2008-actual picture of our parking lot.

To change the lyrics to an old Chicago song:

"If you see me driving by, and the tears are in my eyes, drive away, Colbie, drive away.
And if we meet on the street someday and I don't know what to say, drive away, Colbie, drive away.
Don't look at me. I don't want you to see me this way".

New Love

For our anniversary this year, Ben and I decided to go on a long overdue shopping spree for ourselves. Kohl's was having a great sale so we decided to buy some new summer clothes. While we were shopping, we happened to pass the bed/bath section of the store. Suddenly as I looked to the side, something glorious and beautiful caught my eye. I saw a red and tan shower curtain that attracted me like a magnet. That's right, I fell in love with a shower curtain. Ben laughed as I gazed at it ever so fondly. Despite this instant infatuation with an inanimate object, my tight-wad, cheap skate, penny-pinching side overruled, and I walked away from the curtain of my dreams.

As we made our purchases, we learned that we had spent enough to earn some Kohl's cash on our next purchase. We went home and thought about what we might buy with our "free money". I slyly suggested that we shouldn't buy any more clothes so that we could get some home decor this time. The next time we went to Kohl's, I knew what I was after. We walked in, and there was my shower curtain waiting for me. It was so beautiful! So even though Ben thought it was hysterical/crazy that I wanted a shower curtain for my anniversary, we bought it. We also picked up some matching towels "for display only" in the bathroom. Somehow the look didn't seem complete when we got it home, so we went back and purchased a small fake plant and a beautiful picture. Now our unsightly, uninteresting, boring bathroom has become the one room in the house that always makes me smile when I walk in. I know this post makes me sound completely crazy, but we are all crazy in our own ways! So here is a picture of the new bathroom decor. I hope you like it as much as I do or I will start to think I really am crazy!

Princess Rachel turns TWO!!!

Can it be that my little Princess is two years old? I can't believe how fast time has gone by! Rachel is the cutest, smartest, sweetest little girl I have ever known. And I'm not just saying that because I'm highly biased! It's really true! Rachel loves books and singing songs with me. Her favorite thing to do is COLOR! The only problem is she likes to draw on walls, couch covers, herself....so we have to use crayons under direct supervision. Here are some quotable quotes by Rachel:

"Bwannan Peenal...what doing?"
"Its a Pwincess!"
"I hurt" (She loves showing me pretend ow-ies that I can kiss better).

We had a party for Rachel with Ben's family and she had a blast. We are kicking ourselves for not charging the battery in our camcorder because she was hilarious. She ooohed and ahhed over every present and got excited about everything. Even clothes. She pulled out her new clothes and screamed "SHIRT!" and "PATS!!" (Yes, pats not pants, I'm trying to write it as she says it).


She thought playing "heavy heavy hangover" was hilarious!

Daddy gave Rachel a pearl necklace and bracelet, but she was sad because she wanted a bracelet for both arms. Such a girl.

It was a great day. She loved her cake that her Grandma decorated. I baked it and Grandma did the hard work! It works for me! The only bad part of cake time was Rachel got a little close to the candles and almost caught her hair on fire...almost.

(Looks like someone stole some frosting from the upper right area of the cake)


I wanted to do a photo spread of Rachel then and now, but it appears our external hard drive that holds all our old pictures is a little sick. Hopefully we can fix it and get our old pictures back!!! Anyway, HAPPY BIRTHDAY RACHEL!!! We love you!