3 months left

 It's true. We're counting down the months until nursery time. Rainey is so much fun, but we're wandering the halls of church these days. We can no longer sit up front with the family--it's near the doors for us. However, she's moving to one nap, which starts in the middle of church, so nursery might not even help us. =) 

She says new words everyday, car trips aren't as painful, and she's improved on her already fabulous dance moves. Here are some great moments over the past months.

While she's still obsessed with all types of balls and her blankie ("bay-bee"), she's added swings, raisins, grapes ("tah-pees"), and these fabulous pink boots to the list. She insisted on putting them over her jammies:

We tried a new hairdo, but I'm not sure her hair is ready for that. Her hair is struggling.

I forgot to mention that her other favorite is yogurt. She calls it "yo" and it's always whispered for some reason. Here I put the empty container on her tray to show her it was all gone, and she picked it right up and went to town---Grandpa Peterson style.

Per the request of some family members, here's some more video of Rainey. She's still working on being able to say "Grandma." 

More winter

The January to April stretch is long and a bit rough. We're lucky we get to visit cousins often, and we do have some things to look forward to... Today wasn't too warm, but at least we didn't have a ton of snow on the ground. So we bundled up and made the most of outside. Rainey was in heaven as she got to walk around and explore. We did some swinging, but I had to stop well before she was done because I started to feel sick. I'm getting old.

Here she is pointing to her hood (so I will say "hood") and holding her pine cone.

Just after Kevin's tonsillectomy, Darren and Ivey saved us with their Vitamix--they lent it to us while Kevin was recovering and we loved it! We made some amazing soups and such. They spent a fun afternoon with us and Rainey was lucky enough to get a bath with her cousin, Annie. She was so excited to have someone in the tub with her. She gets just as excited if one of her cousins sits in the back seat with her. When she's excited, she shows us with her whole body. 

Another day inside, about to play the beloved piano.

Thanks for the dress, Grandma Raynie. She's a little tired after church with no nap yet.

Rainey has started to repeat most of our words--it is so fun. Her vocabulary is exploding. She has yet to master "please," so you'll hear what she does instead. It's much more preferable to her intense and sometimes whiny grunts/noises for things. And she now points to her mouth if she wants to know what she's eating, as you will see. We love this stage.

Christmas and then some

We spent Christmas in California with the Mitchells. While it was a bit cold for that area, we still had a wonderful time with everyone. We had all the great food from In 'N Out to Yogurtland, and we played games, had backyard campfire. We loved it all.

Christmas morning:

Playing with one present--it didn't last long:

Picking limes with Papa. She loved this, and it was one of the first and few sunny days:

She LOVES this swing:

Thanks to Lorayne, we got to make these as one of our gifts. I'm not crafty, and yet, mine turned out ok. It's in our kitchen now:

Once we got back to Utah, we got to spend close to a week with my out-of-town siblings, which was so much fun. We did paintballing and fondue and got to see our niece and nephew baptized. Another wonderful week. It was tough to get back to reality.

Back at home in the crib she likes to bite with her new, beloved cow from her aunt and uncle:

On Thursday, she had to have her tear duct probed. Knowing she was going completely under made me a bit nervous, but she did really well and her eye looks great. Here she is just before the procedure. All of us were very tired since we had to be there at 6am. The blanket got to go with her when the anesthesiologist took her from our arms to go into the O.R.

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.