Unbroken

I just finished reading Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand and it is definitely one of the best books I've ever read.  It is very well-written and tells the incredible story of Louie Zamperini and all he went through during WWII- he joined the air force, was shipwrecked on a raft for 47 days, then held in a Japanese POW camp for the rest of the war.  It is amazing and humbling to think of what so many have done for our country.  At times I was cringing and almost in tears as I read about the terrible suffering in the POW camps.  I'm grateful we have a day set aside to remember those who have sacrificed for our country.  We are very lucky to live in this free land.

I'm an aunt!!

Last night little Kirra was born to Trevor and Kristen.  This morning we got to skype with them; she is absolutely, perfectly darling!  Jillian looooooved her cousin and kept laughing and smiling and growling at her (that's how we say I love you around here.)  We know these two will be best friends and cause lots of trouble together.

This was a great way to kick off Birthday Week:
May 23- Kirra's birthday
May 25- my sister Katie's birthday
May 27- my almost brother-in-law Neal's birthday
May 28- my brother Tyler's birthday

Too bad we're not going to be with any of these people to celebrate with them.  Maybe we'll just have to make and eat our own cake!

Yum Yum

Last week at Jillian's 6 month checkup we discussed her sleeping (or non-sleeping) problems.  The doctor said that maybe she was waking up so much because she really was hungry.  She said to feed her as much as we can during the day, including 2 meals of solid foods.  It's only been a few days but Jilly is already sleeping better.  Life is looking a lot rosier around here.  But, along with sleeping more, we're also taking a lot more baths.  Here's why:



We both end up covered in food by the end of the meal.  Thankfully, it's applesauce in the video.  But when it's green beans- sick.  And, I have no clue where she learned those weird noises because I'm pretty sure I don't sound like that when I eat.  We definitely have a wild child on our hands.

facelift

So my blog has needed some re-vamping for like, um, forever.  Luckily Bryan has some mad code-writing skills and was able to help me get a little blog facelift.  Since we aren't just Bryan and Rachel anymore, I needed a name change.  We could be Bryan, Rachel, and Jillian, but then what would we do as more kids came?  Bryan, Rachel, Jillian, Bryan Jr, Hezekiah, Hermione, Shaniqua, Zuzu, and Miguel would just be way too long.  Since my blog is a smorgasbord of my adorable daughter, crafty projects, our adventures, books I'm reading, recipes, and our celebrity look-alikes I decided Rachel's Ramblings was appropriate.  So, welcome to my new old blog.

Training

Bryan, who is completely crazy, is doing the Tough Mudder race in Tahoe in September.  He's been training and decided it was a good time to start Jilly on an exercise routine.

Push-ups

Crunches

I'm going to have to kick it up a notch to keep up with these two!

Family Photo

On Mother's Day we took a family photo that I loved and wanted to frame.  The only problem was that Bryan's eyes were closed.  He has lately been playing with photo editing so I asked him if he could switch out his eyes.  He fixed his eyes and gave himself a shave- I thought it looked great.  Then I noticed that heinous scar on my wrist and asked him to get rid of it.  Again, he worked his magic and showed me the improvements.  I looked closely at the picture and then yelled, "Hey, you made yourself tanner! No fair, I want to be tan too!"  So he obliged and brought me back a final version.  What do you think?

Before:

After:

 

I don't really feel bad about it because this is what we'll look like in a couple months- we're just giving ourselves a head start!

happy half birthday

As you may have noticed, I can't pass up any excuse for a party and Jillian's half birthday was definitely celebration-worthy.  Luckily, I have a husband and friends who humored me and were willing to have a little half birthday celebration for Jilly.

Jillian wore her most festive party bow for the occasion and I got out our birthday banner.  After the picture was taken Bryan covered half the letters in birthday to make it a half birthday.  Thus our sign read "Happy Brty."  I made the colorburst cupcakes from ourbestbites.com (anyone else feel like they're friends with Kate and Sara?) and attempted to make their perfect cupcake frosting but it was an epic fail (completely delicious but completely the wrong texture.)  We decided to give Jilly a cupcake and see what she did with it.  We kept her paci in so she wouldn't eat it but it turns out the precaution was unnecessary- she wouldn't even touch the cupcake!  Apparently her sweet tooth is still developing.