Rachel turns 1!

Rachel had her 1st birthday yesterday and boy was it a busy day. Be prepared for an onslaught of pictures. I have documented the entire day.

Rachel thought is was necessary to step on every present before she opened them. She needed to make sure they were weight tested before she decided if she wanted them.

Getting started.

Yay, shorts!

She got a Cabbage Patch Kid and wanted to give it lots of kisses. She still gives open-mouthed kisses. She absolutely loves her new baby!

You can see the slobber marks all over the CPK's face to prove it.

We headed off to Sea World for the day. It was Rachel's first trip there and she had a great time.

She loved the funny mirrors. She kept trying to kiss herself and who know how many other kids have also licked these mirrors. Yummy!

One of the penguins jumped out of the water. She was startled for just a second but thought it was so cool after.

Checking out the beluga whale and waving bye-bye to him.

She had a turkey sandwich for lunch and loved it.

Rachel was really interested in seeing the fish in the aquarium. Maybe she needs one for her room and daddy can clean the aquarium for her :)

By the time we went to watch Shamu, she was so tired but was so excited about it. She watched the entire show and stood on my lap and clapped most of the time.

Her papa on the other hand couldn't quite make it through the show.

As soon as we left the Shamu show, she was out cold for a bit.

After she woke up we headed to her Uncle Sam's work and did a birthday photo session that went something like this:

We went to Sammy's Woodfire Pizzeria and she had a cheese pizza for dinner.

All of the Hodgson family joined us for dinner...

...and dessert.

She really enjoyed her ice-cream sundae...

...but couldn't eat another bite!

After that we went back to Tim's parents house for their gifts to her.

Blowing out the candle.

Yay, I did it!

Opening gifts.

By the time we got done is was really late and she was sooooo tired, but still in good spirits.

Giving mama a hug at the end of the night.

She was such a good little girl. We all had such a wonderful day celebrating her first birthday with her. She is such a great little girl to be around and makes everybody so happy.

A few hours at the Wild Animal Park

Rachel and I met up with Marie and Emma at the Wild Animal Park today for a few hours. We were getting together to celebrate Rachel and my birthdays.

When we got there, Emma was fast asleep.

But not Rachel.

She had to take a nap before we went because she threw her first temper tantrum at home and was gruuuuumpy. When she woke up, she was in a good mood.

The Wild Animal Park was the most crowded I have seen in years. After running into some very annoying people, we made our way to the discovery center and found very few people there. So we spent most of our time there and let the girls run around and this is what we got up to...

Emma actually looks like she knows how to color.

And Rachel just wanted to eat the crayon.

One of the things Rachel enjoyed most was taking the magnets off of the wall.

After Rachel tried to put everything in her mouth, we sat down for an afternoon snack.

Marie had bought Rachel a cute butterfly cookie for her birthday and she really enjoyed it.

Emma is smiling at Rachel and Rachel is gobbling up her rice biscuit.

So, the best part of the day is when we took the girls on the carousel. Here they are getting bored waiting for it to start.

Once it started to go, they were both laughing. It was absolutely adorable.

They had such a good time. Thanks for a good afternoon girls. We enjoyed ourselves!

Easter at My Dad's House

We celebrated Easter at my dad's house today. His is having hip replacement surgery on Monday and won't be able to really get together after that for awhile.

Look how many eggs Rachel found (with the help of her Cousin Jaylin).

Nathan is attempting to juggle.

It was probably a really good thing that they were plastic eggs.

The boys were showing off their flipping skills.

Cousins Kyle, Nathan, Allison, Rachel, Jaylin

Hurricane Rachel

Nope, this is not Hurricane Rachel.

Tim's mom got such a peaceful shot of Rachel taking her nap yesterday that I couldn't resist posting it.

Nope, this is not Hurricane Rachel either.

This is a picture of our future Olympic medal winning hockey player...in her daddy's dreams.

Nope, this is still not Hurricane Rachel.

Although you can see the attitude starting to form.

Yeah, you finally made it to see Hurricane Rachel!

Tim gave her a bunch of puffs and melts this morning and left the room for a moment and when he came back, he found every single bit of food that he gave her on the floor. There must have been a hurricane that came in to the living room while he was gone because our perfect little Rachel would never throw her food all over the floor!