First Birthday

I can't believe we made it. Rainey had her first birthday party with all the family in the area--It was so fun to be together. She loved everyone singing to her, but when we set the cupcake down in front of her, she gave the "all done" sign. Even after I gave her a taste of the frosting, she still signed "all done." I basically had to feed her the first bite of cupcake, but then she was sold.

Playing with her new toy and cousins.

First Steps

This is obviously a very exciting moment for just the parents, but we thought we'd share anyway. Her first steps were on November 21. She's getting more and more confident as she takes steps multiple times a day now without our encouragement. Love it.

October

We have had some crazy weeks with moving and all of my schoolwork. But my last paper of the semester is finished. I can take a deep breath now. I have 2 lovely group projects left, but I'm going to take a little break now. Sadly, it's snowing today. I love snow, but up until now , it has been PERFECT weather. Rainey and I have spent a lot of time outside on a blanket in our fabulous yard. 

Here she is eating lunch, and you can see mountains in the background. We love them. The tree is blocking the best part, but at least you get the idea.

Here she is with one of her favorite things: the rake. And I asked her: Where are your fingers?

She was pointing to the swings at this moment. I just wanted to show what she's doing the majority of the time: pointing to everything, either to hear the word again or learn a new word. She's currently obsessed with smoke detectors. She'll find one in every room and even in other people's houses. pretty funny.

This is new. She can now stand without any help, and she's so proud every time she does it.

This is to show you part of the house. She loves her feet, and yes, that's a Qtip. I'll spare you the story, but it was a battle I didn't want to fight at that time.

She loves the leaves, and let's just say one rake doesn't quite do the job. We underestimated the amount of leaves on our property. (That feels weird to say--"our property")

Love that face.

Had to document how she loves to hold your thumb, if you're reading to her, carrying her, feeding her a bottle. I love it!

We all got to go on a hike up Little Cottonwood Canyon. It was so fun, but we (the Mitchells) were very unprepared and froze.

She also loves the phone. She looks like such a big girl in her chair and with the phone.

HALLOWEEN:

The only time she wore the hat.

With the cute cousins. Notice: no hat. 


Trying for one more shot with the hat.

One word: sweet.

Teeth

We finally have multiple teeth. The first one that came in was the upper side tooth. You can barely see it in these 2 pictures.




Next was the opposite side. So she is truly Edward's baby (as my sister jokes). And Kev says then he must be Edward.




She's constantly feeling her teeth with her tongue, so it's sticking out of her mouth most of the time. She now has her two front teeth and two bottom teeth coming in.




And she spends most of her time standing or pulling herself up to standing.

Cousins!

We're having such a wonderful time in Utah--we still can't believe it's real. To get here, we stopped off in SoCal to visit Papa and Grandma Raynie.



Not long after we arrived in Utah to live, Rebecca had her twins! They are so precious and Rainey goes nuts every time she's around them. I don't have any current pictures of her with them because I have to watch her closely to make sure she doesn't squeeze their faces or give them some intense kisses. Here are the twins in the hospital with Grandma, Aunt Elise, and Tiffany, a friend.


One of the best things about being here in Utah is lots of time with cousins. A favorite past time is storing toys in her mouth.


Enjoying the last days of summer with the cousins outside.


Giving some serious kisses. She gives all of her cousins great loves.


Reading stories together.


She has lots of good help with eating, playing, dancing.


Playing babies, but I think she's the baby this time.


At the very end of the summer, I got to go on a Mitchell girls' weekend. Of course, I forgot my camera, so I don't have any pictures from our fabulous weekend, but I got to come home to this face. She and Kev survived and even had a good time.


We are still waiting on the final details of the closing on a house. So we're still living with my generous parents and really enjoying ourselves. Kevin is really enjoying his job, and I'm continuing with my classes (a bit brutal this semester), but all the cousins are within walking distance. Even though school has started, we still get to see them.

Summer

This summer, we traveled for six weeks and went to three different states.
We started our trip with a weekend in Chicago for my dearest friend's wedding. Sadly, I don't have any pictures of the bride and groom because I forgot my camera at the reception.

Here we are just before the ceremony. Rainey stayed with some cute babysitters so we could stay the whole time.


Here I am with another bridesmaid, sweet Ada, just after the cermony.

Next, we flew to SLC to be with my family before my younger brother's wedding.

Eating some toes with aunt Elise, who took such good care of her


The cousins were so sweet and attentive with Rainey.


Here we are at Ben's wedding. Once again, I don't have a picture of the bride and groom on their special day, but I have one of them when we were with them in SoCal.

And lastly, we flew to SoCal to be with Kevin's family for a few weeks.

Grandma Raynie, Papa, and Baby Rainey. She mastered eating solids in that chair.


Pool time with cousins


The newlyweds over for dinner and belated birthday celebration for Alex.


Sitting up with Aunt Lyndsay. She also learned that trick on this trip.


Beach time.

We loved our time with everyone and thought it would be a perfect way to finish our vacation before Kevin's job and life in the east. But in a week's time, Kev interviewed and we then moved to Utah for his job. So yes, we live in Utah. We can't believe it, but we feel so fortunate to be here near family and for Kevin to have such an exciting opportunity with this new job.

May

The month of May has been an exciting and busy one so far--no more school and work for the summer. We started it off with a fantastic visit from Clint and Diana. We toured Darden and the downtown Mall and played much Guitar Hero and Killer Bunnies. They were very patient with Rainey and her schedule and so we also had some good down time.


The Downtown Mall.


Guitar Hero action.


Good bonding time with Uncle Clint.

We then headed to Duck Beach with some friends from Darden and Charlottesville for a week. Rainey's schedule was very off, and so we were fighting her sleep the whole time and the weather wasn't great until the end. But we still got some time outside at the beach. We had a great time with everyone and the house was beautiful.





And then Kevin's parents came for his graduation and stayed the week after. We checked off a lot of things on our C'ville list and Rainey was such a trooper--she took a lot of her naps in my arms as we were on tours or walking around.


Graduation Day, before the main event on the lawn.


Papa and Grandma Rainey waiting for it to begin.


Kev after Darden graduation with his robes on.


Touring Darden grounds.


Lunch at Michie Tavern after Papa and Grandma Rainey toured Monticello.


In front of the Rotunda, after our tour of the main grounds.


The gardens of Monroe's home--Ash Lawn Highland


The crew in front of Madison's house. They're still in the restoration process.


Our hike to Humpback rocks in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Rainey had to cheer us on b/c it was a brutal incline to the top.


We made it and the view is awesome.


Well done, Papa. You did it!


Picking strawberries in Crozet. They are so d-lish.

Thank you for coming to visit us. We now need to go look for housing in DC before we're off on our summer travels. We've had a great time in C'ville. We'll miss it.