Rachel's 3rd Birthday

Today is big girl's 3rd birthday and I am completely filled with emotion about it. Gratitude for how blessed I've been to be her Mama, pride for who she has become, excitement for all that lies ahead, and even a little sadness at it having gone so quickly. Even after three years, it's still so hard for me to wrap my mind and memory around how it all happened.

I looked at Rach today. I mean really looked at her. Sometimes in the rush of the day when everything's a mess and we're running late and the table still has breakfast all over it I forget to look at her and see her for who she really is. She is growing into a little lady. She is beautiful and deeply kind. She loves her home and our family and her "yitta boy" Alden more than anything. Oh how good it is to be a mother. Especially her mother.

(with most of her birthday loot, since two of the things we ordered for her got here during Joy School today)

(eating her birthday dinner, sans one hair bow--"hot dogs cooked over a fire on a stick, with root beer please"--Rachie request)

A birthday letter for my girl.

My dear Rachie Nicole,

I am so proud of you always, but want you to know it especially on your big day. Later on in your life you probably won't remember anything about your life up until this, your third year. But I will. And I hope when you read my letters to you, you can see what I see in you, even when you doubt yourself.

You are good. You are so kind. You are truly funny. You have the gift of empathy and compassion for others. In your completely genuine eyes, you see all people as simply people, no matter their faults or mistakes or differences. You are a friend to all you meet, and when you say, "It's nice to meet you!", I really think you mean it. You are honest and quick to give compliments to others. You are incredibly polite and are always saying please and thank you.

You were brought home to a little tiny garage apartment with nothing but a tupperware bin of clothes and a portable crib, and yet you filled that home with love beyond anything I ever imagined and helped me grow into myself. I've learned more, loved more, and lived more since you were born, and I'm so grateful to be your mother. You are a blessing to your Daddy, me, your "yitta boy" Alden, your grandmas and grandpas, your many aunts and uncles, your little cousin, and all your many friends.

I love you so much my girl.

Your Mama

One Last Long (And Wonderful) Vacation Part 1

Jason and I have been students for our entire 4 years of marriage. One really great thing about being a student is that you get regular, long breaks between certain semesters. At William and Mary, it gets even better since you get about three weeks off in a row at Christmastime (Jason got 4 off this time because he finished his finals early). Coming up on our last semester of school, we had one last long break before we embark on this new journey called "The Real World." We thought we'd take advantage, so we bought tickets to Arizona to visit our families in Tucson and Phoenix.

We spent the first week or so in Tucson with my parents and brothers and sister, and the next in Phoenix with Jason's mom and siblings. The whole trip was a blast and the kids did great. Due to not having hardly ANY pictures from our trip to Tucson I will have to save my family for the next post. My mom is a professional photographer (check out her website here...I created the logo and my kids are on her opening page) and takes great candid shots of my kids and the whole family, so I just let her do her thing and end up with much better pictures of all the fun when I get them from her (they're in the mail).

To record the rest of the trip, here we go.

So we left on the 17th, early in the AM. The kids were huge troopers.

No big incidents to really report, especially since the last time I took the kids on the plane I looked like I got in a food fight when I met my parents in the airport, and cried several times just simply because the babies were so bored/tired/livid with me. Keep in mind that I braved a full scale across the country trip BY MYSELF with 2 children under 3.

During this trip we did in fact see Jake Pavelka (ABC's the Bachelor, fame obsessed jerk of a star) in the Atlanta airport train car. We are certain it was him, plus he is a pilot for Southwest I think. I was kind of sad that the first "famous" (or "infamous") person I ever was to come across was him. He was a lot smaller and less good-looking than he was on TV.

Anyways, we made it to Phoenix where my parents picked us up. I'll post about our week there later.

But we will continue with the rest of the trip, starting with the day after Christmas when we came up to Jason's mom's house in Gilbert. We walked in and were greeted by several of Jason's siblings and Jason's mom, and we all got to meet baby Noah for the first time. He is 5 months old and our very first nephew. The day was spent opening Christmas presents, eating a Christmas dinner, and just catching up. The rest of the week, we went on many walks to the park around the corner (it was beautiful weather the whole time--60's and 70's, breezy), watched lots of movies, played with toys, fed uncle Davy's dog Moose lots of treats (Moose is aptly named, as he is a huge great dane/german shepherd mix), played games, fed the ducks, and did puzzles. We also went to the movies and saw "The Muppets," which Rachie loved and Alden loved 1/2 of. Movies and 16 month olds aren't best friends.

(Feeding ducks at the riparian preserve)

(Almost 3!)

(With Grandma Howell, eating birthday cake)

(Skateboarding with Uncle Seth)

(Feeding baby Noah with Uncle Davy)

Over the weekend we celebrated New Years Eve by lighting sparklers and throwing poppers all over the driveway with the kids (it was just our family and Elizabeth since everyone else was off partying) and then falling asleep early. I have a habit of doing this...New Years just isn't the same when you know your kid is going to wake up ready for the day at 5 am because of the time difference. Later that week we had quite the dance off in the dark, complete with glow sticks and taped with a video camera. We split into teams of girls vs. boys, and the boys danced to "YMCA" while the girls did "Firework." It's a good thing it was all in the dark, or it would have been terribly embarrassing. The same night we celebrated Rachie's birthday (a week from that date) with a purple cake, and ate way too many hot wings after the kids went to bed. I had a blast being with all my in-law adult siblings. It's so much fun when you're all grown up and can stay up forever laughing and telling stories. I have been adopted into a truly hilarious and awesome family. I love love love being a Howell.

(Married 4 years!)

One special day was Wednesday the 28th; Jason and I celebrated our 4th anniversary. We got to have an overnight date to celebrate down in Tucson, but we still wanted to have the evening out so Elizabeth took care of the kids for us and we went off to visit the Mesa temple, where we were married. My cousin was going through the temple for the first time, so we joined in the session. It was great to see everyone and sit with my Grandma and my Aunt Pennie for a bit inside. After the temple we went to Fuddruckers. It was a fun night, and really nice to be in the place where we were sealed forever. I can't describe how happy it makes me to be sealed to my man. More info here and here on temples.

(Wedding day December 28, 2007)

Anyways, more to come on the trip with my family, but I think that catches the blog up on at least that part of the trip.

Holiday Recap

It's already been over a month since I last posted, and there are so many events to record for the month of December. I'll take it in a few posts to catch up, since I want to write it all down for the books.

First off was Thanksgiving. We have been blessed to be a part of a great group of friends here in Williamsburg. Most of us do not have family nearby, so we all kind of band together for many holidays and make them special in our own way. For the past two years we've used the church cultural hall to gather. This year we shared Thanksgiving with the Wilkersons, the Taylors, the Devereauxs, and another couple (who I can't remember their names anymore since I only met them that one day...oops). Everyone brought food and we set up tables and chairs, brought the kids' booster seats and high chairs, and afterwards the kids played with the nursery toys and the boys threw a football around while us girls talked. It was relaxing and wonderful. Afterwards we all helped clean up the food, put everything away, and vacuumed the church, and all went home to already clean houses and only a few dishes to be done. All in all, wonderful! Here are a few pictures from the event:

Rachie eating her meal

Rachel with her friends Luke (L) and Caleb (R)

Alden eating some sweet potatoes (he also really loved the turkey, surprisingly, because he comes from a family who likes ham for Thanksgiving!)

The next day we went to Mill Farm to cut down our Christmas tree. This is the third year in a row we've done this, and we've really enjoyed this tradition. The kids get to run around in the farm and pick a Christmas tree, and then we haul it home on top of our car and decorate it that night. This has been great for us the past few years since we have absolutely no storage space for a fake Christmas tree, although it is somewhat more expensive since I think we've spent about $30 every year on a tree. Some may think that silly, but this has always been pretty much the only Christmas decoration in our house. The kids love putting the ornaments on it, and I love the smell of pine and the lights at night. Next year we'll probably have a fake tree since we'll have room to store it, but we'll always look back (at least Jase and I will, since we'll remember it) on the few years we got to spend traipsing through the Christmas tree farm.

At the farm

The house after decorating

The next week (December 3rd) we held our 3rd annual Ugly Sweater Party (sorry, very unfortunately no pictures). The day of, our kids ended up with fevers and were feeling pretty bad, so we called our friends to let them know. We held the party since most everything was already done by the time they were sick, and most of our friends attended anyways. We had a nice time. The real fun actually began about 20 minutes after the last guest left. Jase and I were shuttling toys from the living room to the kids room to prep for bedtime when we heard very scary screaming coming from Alden in the other room. We ran in to find Alden screaming and blood coming very quickly from his right ear. Turns out Rachel put the handle of a paintbrush into Alden's ear canal. We knew it was really serious, and after some brief panicking, we all jumped in the car (me still in Jason's slippers and my ugly sweater, which really is hideous, although at the time I thought nothing of it) and raced to the ER. Alden screamed all the way and soaked through nearly two paper towels. I don't think I've been more scared as a mother. I had no idea what damage had been done, and he seemed really hurt. I was crying, Rachel was crying, Alden was screaming, and Jase was just driving, but was very very scared too. Anyways, things calmed down once we reached the ER and Alden seemed to relax a bit out of his car seat. I pretty much carried him around for two hours while we waited to be seen by a doctor. It could have been worse. He did pretty well letting me walk him around and going through every last thing in the diaper bag. When the doctor finally came, he took a look and basically confirmed that the ear drum was definitely ruptured, but he couldn't tell how bad it was due to so much debris in his ear canal (dried blood, etc.). He gave us some great pain meds for Alden, antibiotics so it wouldn't get too infected (although turns out it already was, that was the cause for the earlier fever in the day), and instructions to see an ENT as soon as possible.

Anyways, we saw the ENT (a wonderful doctor) and his regular pediatrician (whom I love) the next week and were given more antibiotics in the form of oral and ear drops (Alden now knows the words "ear drops" very well, and doesn't really like them) as well as several other medications to help calm the swelling. The ENT doctor concluded that most of his eardrum is completely gone. He couldn't tell us much more than that until the swelling goes down and the infection goes away, so we have appointments this month (January) to determine how well he hears and the next steps (possible surgery--depending on further damage we might find beyond his ear drum, or quite possibly the ear drum will just grow back given time--up to a year--on it's own). The next few weeks after the ER drama we were pretty sick with colds, sinus infections, ear infections, prep for Christmas and our trip to Arizona, and keeping Alden comfortable.

We also had our 1st Joy School Christmas party. The kids made cookies for the dessert, we had soups and salads and rolls for dinner, and then the kids put on a little Christmas program. The program consisted of songs and a little 5 minute nativity play. Some things went better than others, but I can tell you, I sure was proud of my little girl when she played her part in the play. None of the kids actually practiced verbal parts, but were supposed to act out their parts. When it came to Rachel's two moving parts, she cut in to the narrator and actually said her part, almost perfectly. She must have just heard it a few times during practice and thought she was supposed to say it. Anyways, she played the part of the angel, and what she said to Mary was, "Do not be afraid. You will have a baby boy. You will call his name Jesus." Later she said to the shepherd, "Do not be afraid. Follow the star to Bethlehem. There you will find a baby, wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger." She said it all so reverently and quietly I just couldn't help but get a little choked up, partly from the shock of seeing such a little person do such a grown up thing. It sure made me proud though, and once again, I felt really really blessed to be her Mama. Many of her talents just came with her. Things like speaking in front of others and performing the way she did, I know she did not learn from me. That is all her own. So many things she does I am so often reminded are just from her very nature. The way she is so intuitively sensitive to how other people are feeling around her, the way she naturally wants to comfort and help and take care of people. She even recently told her Aunt Ondalynn on our vacation, "That's me. I just, you know, take care of people. Animals, Alden, baby Noah, my friends. I just like to take care of people." No kidding she said it just like that. I'm grateful for a girl who just naturally thinks of others. Without further ado, a few pics of my little angel...


And what would a post be without a little mischief? While packing for our Arizona trip in the bedroom, Jase and I realized things were too quiet (we thought the kids had been playing with toys in the living room). We went out to investigate and found this.


Alden got into the baking supplies (yes he was most definitely the instigator) and I think Rachel thought, well...what an opportunity! Flour was everywhere. Although I realized how much work it would be to clean up such a mess...kids are kids. Wouldn't this be fun if you were a kid? So we took pictures and took baths and vacuumed up flour. Oh well.

And that about wraps things up for our pre-trip fun during the months of November and December. More posts to come about fun with our families.