Rachel & Santa

I took Rachel to visit Santa at our church Christmas party, but Rachel did NOT like Santa. She sure enjoyed examining his beard, though.

Snow in Las Vegas!

Take a picture folks--it's not going to snow in Vegas like this again for another ten years!

Rachel wondering what in the world is going on, and where are all her rocks!

Our poor garden . . . guess I should have taken the weatherman seriously when he said it was going to snow and picked the last of the lettuce, peas, and beans.

Christmas time is here!

Rachel and Mommy decorating the tree.

Rachel tasting her new ornaments before hanging them on the tree.

New warm, cozy pjs for wintertime in Las Vegas. Every once in a while it does drop below freezing . . . for a few hours. =)

Thanksgiving Fun!!

Relaxing with Great-grandma Heaton. =)

Chowing down next to cousin Mary. More, more . . .(she does this constantly in sign language.)

Halloween

Aaron dressed up as Prince Charming for work. Some of his customers thought he was a bell hop.
Rachel getting ready to help Mommy pass out candy.

Rachel was the cutest bumblebee on the planet!

Rachel's Walking . . .

Carving Pumpkins

Aaron did the scary face, and mine's the dorky one. =)

Rachel's 1st Birthday!

Rachel enjoyed tasting her presents as much as she did opening them.

Rachel's eyes lit up when she tasted the frosting. She gave me a look that said, "You've been holding out on me!"

What a great gift for a 1 year old--My First BYU Book!

Aaron made and decorated the cake. In case you can't tell, it's frosted green for grass, blue for a pond, with a rubber ducky swimming in the pond. Rachel loves duckies--thus his inspiration.

Rachel loves sitting face forward in the car now. She gets to see all the action.

Disneyland

Aaron works for Wells Fargo, and this year, they had a recognition event at Disneyland for their Desert Mountain region. We spent Friday at the recognition events, and Saturday was party time in Disneyland!

Fun in Toontown!!

Rachel was busy most of the day looking at all the interesting characters walking around. Rachel was fascinated by Minnie & Mickey's noses.

New York City

For the second part of our trip, we took the train to NYC. Here we are in front of the Labor Day parade on the streets of Manhattan. The next day, Sunday, we went to the Manhattan 1st ward for church. Mitt Romney was there, too. His son is in that ward and was blessing his baby son that day.

Our carriage ride around Central Park

Lady Liberty from the window of our harbor cruise boat.

Manhattan skyline minus the twin towers. Our tour guide said the WTC was twice as high as these buildings here.

Rachel rode around Manhattan in this backpack. What a nice life! We had to walk . . .She's waiting to take the harbor cruise.

The New York Public Library. Look familiar? Ghostbusters, The Day After Tomorrow . . .etc. We also saw the Broadway show Wicked, which was incredible. Unfortunately, due to a downpour caused by Hurricane Hanna, we did not take any pictures.

Times Square

Washington, D.C.

We went to Washington, DC with my parents on a special trip. Rachel and Aaron are just chilling in the airport, ready to head to DC.

Washington Monument

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery. We saw the changing of the guard here as well.

Aaron at the Lincoln Memorial

The White House

This is THE plane Charles Lindbergh flew over the Atlantic in his historic flight. This is at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. I thought this was really cool. My favorite thing was seeing the actual Declaration of Independence and the Constitution at the National Archives. I didn't include a pictures though of the document, 'cause I thought that would be kind of dorky, since you can see a better picture online.

Mom and I in front of the capital building.

This is the hospital where I was born-George Washington University Hospital.

Baby Mozart

Rachel enjoys tinkling the ivories on our electric piano. She especially likes it when we change the the "instrument" to others like the harp or trumpet. She now likes to sing along when we sing (she's a little off pitch but it sure is cute!) and babbles things like "dadadada" and "juhjuhjuhjuh."

San Diego Fun

We went to San Diego last week with Aaron's family. We had fun in the car on the way up . . .

Coyote Cafe

A cannon in Old Town

Rachel and Aaron at the San Diego Temple

Rachel at the beach having fun playing (and eating) the sand

Midway aircraft carrier museum in San Diego Bay

At the Star Trek portaion of the aerospace museum in Balboa Park in the captain's chair

Fun at the hotel pool

Old Wells Fargo wagon

Microwave Explosion

This is the final resting place for Wendi's DI (Deseret Industries) special crockery vegetable cooker. Considering the fact that this dish was at least 10 years old when I bought it in college seven years ago, it had a good life. Unfortunately, we also had to throw away the corn, since the crockery fragments would have made it dangerously crunchy . . .

July Fourth Fun

For Independence Day, we had pancakes at JHOP (Jensen House of Pancakes) and then went swimming and had a barbeque at Aaron's brother Jeremy's house. Rachel wore a cute patriotic outfit for the day, and she looked even cuter swimming, but alas, Mommy forgot to bring the camera . . . .again.

Stand up for yourself . . .

Rachel now enjoys pulling herself up and climbing the stairs. Thus, we had to finally put up gates on the stairs. Rachel's also discovered that doorstops and dishwashers are fascinating. The doorstop makes a cool "twangy" noise when you hit it, and when the dishwasher is going, it makes all sorts of cool sounds. Oh, to be young again. =)

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all of you dads out there. You deserve it! Thanks for all you do for your families. We respect you, love you, and hope you know how much you are loved and appreciated!