Christmas 2011

New happenings in the Thatcher family:

Rachel America is definitely living up to her middle name, our little firework.  She has so much energy, spunk, and love.  She is quite the little talker.  We decided to make a list of her first words like we did with Anne and realized that she can say over 20 words.  Some cool ones include "please, thank you, amen, and temple" some not cool ones include "NO!!!!! poopoo and ahhhhh!!!" She is also our little climber and has managed to climb on top of the kitchen table, the top of the toilet, and the top of the piano, all within the blink of an eye.  She loves playing with her big sister and is constantly giving her hugs and kisses, or just hanging on the back of her shirt following her around.  She loves to snuggle with us and watch her favorite movie Winnie the Pooh or read a thousand stories (her favorite being Old McDonald).  We love our little Rachel.

Anne Ellyn is using her imagination more and more all the time.  She loves to play dress up in her princess dress with her fairy wand in hand and dance around the front room.  One of her new milestones is that she stayed the entire time in nursery....the very last time she'll be in nursery.  I can't believe she is going to be a sunbeam! She is more comfortable with other adults and never cries when Sheri or Alexis watches her and Rachel.  That's a pretty big deal for our little Anne.  She is also starting to play more and more with other kids like you'll see below.  I think a big part of that has to do with her little sis.  At the playground she'll follow Rachel around and venture off with her.  I think they are going to make a great team.

Mom and Dad are doing great, not much has changed.  We had a great Christmas with the girls.  It was wonderful watching them get excited about Santa and start to learn about "Jesus' Birthday" as Anne would call it.  Zac has been enjoying his job and has been working out almost every day at 6:30 before work.  I have just been busy finishing Christmas projects and working on the new kickboxing routine for the stake aerobics in January.  I've also had fun reading some interesting books with our book club including the Hunger Games, The Help, and And Then There Were None.  

Kickboxing has been a regular part of our daily routine these days as I am getting ready to teach stake aerobics in January.  The girls love dancing around and even do some of the routines with me.  They both loves to stretch which is what Rachel is doing here.

Having a pretend "picnic" in the girls' room.

Anne and I had a fun Mommy/Daughter date.  I know you're not going to believe this but is was at a Princess Festival.  Anne got to dress up in her princess dress and I even put on a skirt too.  We had a lot of fun and Anne talked about it for days. I love Anne's smile in this picture.

I forgot to take a picture of this earlier when we actually made it but this is Anne's fall creation with some leaves we found on one our walks.

The girls loved our tree.

Yummy pumpkin bisque.  Definitely not like the one at Chef's table or even Zupas.  We'll try again, but it was very yummy.

We brought Shizzy in to give her a bath which was awesome.  She loved the bath and loved playing catch with the girls in the front room almost as much as the girls did.  She is a purely outside dog so I was nervous she would have an accident but she did great, no accidents. Yay!

This picture looks worse than it actually is.  Shizzie was actually just licking her hand but it looks like she's going to bite it off.  She would never do that, she's a big softie.  Rachel is actually laughing in this picture.

We made yummy gingerbread houses with our friends.  Anne likes to eat it but is concerned that her candy house is falling apart.

We had fun watching our friends Carlie and Robbie's kids while they went out for their anniversary.  The girls had a blast with Timothy and Spencer and it was nice to have some boyish influences in our house :)

So cute.

Yes that is Rachel tangled in the Christmas tree lights.  She actually did really well with the tree and was very soft with all the ornaments.   She just really liked the lights.

Such love.

Christmas Eve morning.  Yep that's when our dishwasher decided to flood out onto the kitchen floor.  Luckily I happen to know this hot repairman that can fix anything and it is as good as new.

Yay for candycanes.

The girls Christmas Eve.

Christmas Morning

Rachel was all about the stocking candy.

Anne absolutely loves her Thomas Train and takes it with her everywhere she goes.

I was able to finish some last minute sewing projects including a scripture bag for Anne's first day in Primary.

And matching cooking aprons for the girls.

On our way to church.  What better way to celebrate the birth of our Savior.

Our girls were absolutely spoiled by their relatives.  Thank you to all for your generosity and love for our family.  We love and miss you all.

Our cute little pixie.

One of Anne's favorite presents.  Random, but we can see why she likes it.  She's actually been in one.

Our little Christmas angel.

Our little ham, she does this every time we tell her to smile for the camera.

For Christmas dinner I made my Mom's sweet and sour chicken. Yum yum.

Daddy's big Christmas present.

Mom's new Christmas present!! Yay!!

Rachel's favorite cozy spot.  I think I need to clean out the closet.

Every day at about 5:00 pm Anne and Daddy have about a twenty minute conversation on the phone on his way home.