Utah visit

We just got back yesterday from a fun visit to Utah to visit Jacob's family. We had lots of fun and Rachel was having a blast with so much attention from the grandparents and aunts and uncles. Here are a few pictures of the fun:

Here's Rachel with Grandma's glasses. She would only wear them for a few seconds, but she sure loved licking them and banging them around.

Rachel with Pooh bear.

Rachel with Aunt Lisa.

Rachel hanging out with Grandpa.

Rachel started doing these funny raspberries where she puts her tongue on the right side of her mouth. It's really funny. Click on the picture to see her tongue more clearly.

And here is a funny video of Rachel--she loved the cats there (though they didn't particularly love her) and got so excited when she saw them. She would get a little mad if we didn't get her close enough to "pet" them, but mostly was just so excited to see these strange creatures moving around.

Gross!

Rachel had her 6 month check up today and she is a healthy, happy girl. 16 1/2 pounds and 26 1/2 inches. She also got her shots while we were there. Shortly after we got home I noticed she was sucking on something--I thought it was just her thumb, but then I realized it was one of her bandaids. Sick! Then just a little while ago she did it again--she managed to get another bandaid off and start sucking on it. Just one more bandaid to go.... I suppose I'll go take it off her leg before she tries to do it herself.

Cinnamon bears

I love cinnamon bears. So Jacob got me some for Mother's Day. And I had left over Hershey's kisses from the Hershey's roses the Beehives made for the women in our ward. Those bags sitting next to each other brought back memories of tasty chocolate covered cinnamon bears I would occasionally indulge in when I passed through the BYU bookstore. So I decided to make my own. I melted a kiss for 30 seconds in the microwave, then smeared it on the bear and stuck it in the fridge to harden up a little and I got a delicious treat. Mmmmmm.

Here's Rachel before eating....

And after...

If you look under her left eye it looks like she has a bug bite or something. That happens almost every time she eats. The first time it happened I thought it was an allergic reaction, but within a minute or two it was gone. I think it's because she gets so eager to eat the next bite and gets mad if it's not there when she's ready for it, that her blood pressure rises a little and that spot shows up, and her scalp gets a little splotchy.

And here's Rachel talking to her toys. She was in the middle of giving them a lecture: "Ba blah aboo ba la..."

Haircut

So, here's a picture of me with my haircut. I actually got the top cut a little shorter after this was taken because it kept getting in my eyes, but it still looks mostly the same. And is now a lot easier to deal with--about 30 seconds and it's done.

And here's Rachel and Jake having a little daddy-daughter fun.

Next week we're heading up to Provo so Rachel can hang out with her other grandparents and aunts and uncles. Hopefully it's not too cold--she doesn't really have any warm clothes, since she doesn't need them here in Arizona. Anyway, if any of you Utahans would like to swing by to visit, we'd love to see you. Email me or give me a call.

Laughing baby

Here's Rachel having lots of fun. And you'll notice how dextrous she is-with just a second of proximity on my part she is able to grab a handful of hair. Which is why I got my hair cut yesterday. Pictures to follow later...

Green beans

Today Rachel had a new experience: tasting green beans. And apparently they're not her favorite food. I got a video of it, and actually it was a kind of long video, so I used some video editor we have to cut it down a little, but it's still kind of long. Sorry. But I had fun doing the transitioning between cuts.
So at the beginning you can see her eating her green beans, taking her sweet time before going back for another bite. Usually she gets the food, swallows, and opens her mouth for another bite right away (like she does at the end when she's eating bananas), but with the green beans she's not quite sure she wants to get another bite, so she talks to the ceiling fan, and anything else that will listen to her before she decides to try again and see if green beans still taste gross. It made me laugh. Enjoy.

Bread making

We got a Bosch mixer a few months ago with part of our tax refund and I've been trying to perfect my whole wheat bread making ever since. Unfortunately most of the time they've turned out to be bricks unless I use half wheat, half white flour. So after another failed attempt this week I emailed Jake's mom for some advice and her recipe. Then on Thursday I tried it out. I let the dough rise while we went swimming, and this is what I came back to find:

I saw this as a good sign since the yeast was obviously working pretty hard to get the dough to rise that much. So I put the dough in the bread pans, and let them rise, then stuck them in the oven to cook.

And viola, 30 minutes later this is what we had:

Tasty bread that wasn't as dense as a brick.

And of course, a posting wouldn't be complete without a cute picture or video of Rachel. So here's Rachel having lots of fun in her jumper. (Don't worry, Wendi--this time we left her arms attached.)