1st Day of School

Look at that Beautiful, NO braces, Smile!

First Day of School...Bitter sweet.  I wish every morning for the next 9 months to go as nicely!  Scriptures at 5:50, make lunches at 6:10, drive 2 minutes to high school (that's right, 2 minutes!) for A-hour at 6:20, then home to make pancakes, bacon, (toast for the one that hates pancakes), and orange juice, oh yeah, no cold cereal here! (well, ok, for the one that was up at 5!)  Watch 2 kids play a board game (with NO arguing) since they were so excited they were ready for school 40 minutes before the bus!  Then walked 5th grader to bus stop- seriously 5th grade???  Now home in a very quiet house waiting for 3 year old to WAKE UP!!  COME ON! - she never slept past 7 ALL SUMMER LONG, now it is after 8:30 and STILL SLEEPING!!!  I don't know if I am mad at her or happy it is still peaceful?  Good 1st day!

Fave Color Green

I LOVE SUMMER!

Today is the last day of school for all my kids _ YAY!  I LOVE SUMMER.  Though this summer is a little bitter sweet.  We have some great trips planned...camping, Utah, LA, San Diego beach...  but we are also moving somewhere in there as well.  I am sad.  So I am not going to talk about it yet.  Right now it is YAY for SUMMER time!  Swimming every day, friends over late at night, no schedule, popsicles, movies during the day!  Play, play, play!  Can't wait!

Chicken Pox Girl!

Isn't she just the cutest thing you ever saw?!  I just love those eyes, wild hair,  and sweet dimples!

She didn't want me to take pictures of her "yucky owies".  Oh that hair!

She didn't actually get them too bad, but that big one right there really hurts!

Everytime her head started to itch and I caught her scratching she would say, "I'm not scratching, I am just fixing my hair!"  Like that ever really happens :)

Ok, no more pictures of the POX!  Oh, but look at that one right in the center of your right hand.  Weird!

So sorry you have to experience this pain and misery, baby.  But trust me, you will be glad you did at three and not at thirty!  Love ya.

Oh, btw, thanks McGhan's for sharing!  I am glad I only had one to go through, and not 4 at the same time.   :)

Disneyland Birthday

Rachel and I have birthdays three days apart.  This year she is a decade old!  Wow!  So we had to do something special.  I planned a surprise trip for just her and I to go to Disneyland for 3 days.  She got to fly for the first time (and get braggin' rights for being the first Lewis child to fly).  I thought she would be super excited but when we got the airport and told her, she almost threw up because she was so nervous.  She did great though and had fun, too.  This is us outside of LA waiting for our shuttle.

This is Rachel's favorite ride in all of Disneyland - mine too I think.  The first day was insane crazy lines, but we finally made it to the front!  Rachel got to wear a button saying "It's my Birthday" and everyone we passed said "happy birthday" to her for three days.  It was great!

R is for RIGHT ON! or RACHEL! or RIDE!  She wanted to sit inside the top but I am too whimpy to get her up there!  

Besides the California Screamin' roller coaster I love this one the best - the Mali-boomer. That gut in your throat feeling of being rubber-banded into the air then dropped again - ahh!  My feet are the ones on the left side group last one on the right.  I couldn't get Rachel to go on it.  I tried to tell her it was just like the Jelly Fish ride that she loved so much!  She didn't buy it.  Smart girl!

I don't remember what ride we are on in this picture, but you can see we are having a great time!

This turned out to be the ride Rachel loved the most in California Adventures.  Mulholland Madness roller coaster.  It was the only ride that was fast enough but not too scary and she could cut in line as a single rider.  She road it 10 times in about 2 hours while I rested my aching feet on the bench out front.  She had so much fun, I couldn't move on to something else.  

Finally we had to go though.  As we were walking through the park for at least the 10th time that day, (I tried to teach how to map the park and hit rides as we come to them, but she would have nothing of that we ride at her wimsy and too bad if we were just there an hour ago, we are going back!)  we ran into the Toy Story green army men and she got to play the tambourine with their cadence.  It was super cool. I got it on video too, but not sure how to put it on here, so you just get the still pic.

I am so lucky to have such a beautiful daughter.  And to share a birthday month with her too.  I had a great time getting to know her,  her quirks, her laugh, all of her.  She is so special to me.  I hope she cherishes our three days together as much as I am already.  Love you Rachel.  Happy Decade birthday!

The Leg Song

So, all day today Tera kept saying she wanted me to sing "the leg song".  I sang "Child's Prayer", "Popcorn",  "Head, Shoulder, Knees and Toes", "Happy Family", and none of them were right.  I gave up and she took a nap.  Tonight for FHE she got to pick the opening song.  She asked for the leg song again and so I finally said, "I don't know that song, so you will have to sing it for me if you want me to sing it".  So she starts to sing and says,  "the leg song, you know... and so my knees are great!"  to the tune of "I Am a Child of God".  I busted up laughing and she got embarrassed, but we sang the 2nd verse to I am a Child of God and she was happy as a three year old thinking the word NEEDS is KNEES!  Love that sweet thing!  And will be calling that verse the Leg song from now on!