Jingle Bell Run

To celebrate the festive holiday season, we headed downtown today to participate in the Jingle Bell Run/Family Walk.  Our friends Kim and Sarah originally encouraged us to do the run.  Sarah is currently working in Brazil, but Kim still made it out for the run.

Rachel got dressed up for the occasion, although before the start of the race she was not too sure what she thought of it.

Rachel got to see Santa again so that helped the situation a bit.

Wes and Kim did the 5-mile run.  Rachel and I stuck with the 3-mile family walk.  Rachel thought it was the perfect time for a nap.

We saw Wes run by, looking pretty good for having run about 3 miles so far.

After the race, Rachel was very happy - we think she might like to do it again next year.

Seven Months

After all my posting last week, I was a bit slow getting things going this week. Rachel was seven months old as of last Sunday! The day coincided with St. Nicholas Day so we celebrated with some gifts for Rachel (and for us from my parents).

Rachel enjoyed opening her presents and her new book from Oma and Opa.  We also got to experience Rachel's first power outage as we were without lights for a little over an hour.  We played by the tree in candle light and Rachel did not mind it at all.

Rachel is practicing her crawling stance, although she is not quite to crawling.  She gets around just fine scooting.

Snow and Santa

December has officially arrived! On Friday, we had some snow fall in Houston. Rachel was not quite sure what to make of it and did not really appreciate the cold feeling on her face. There was not enough on the ground to play with, although Wes did make a tiny snowball for Rachel to feel. She wanted to eat it, of course.

On Saturday, we went to the Museum of Natural Science where they had brought in some snow for the kids to see (clearly not planning on there being actual snow the day before). Rachel was still a bit unsure about the frozen stuff around her.

The one thing she does know for sure is that if she can get something into her hand, she should try to eat it.

We finished up the visit to the museum with a little time with Santa. At first, Rachel was very uncertain about this guy. But, she warmed up to him when she realized that he didn't mind if she pulled his beard a bit.

Visiting Oma's School

Before we headed back home on Monday, we visited Oma's school and introduced Rachel to the teachers there.  She enjoyed meeting everyone and seeing all of the kids.

Richard's Wedding

We all had a wonderful time at Richard's wedding.  We started with a ceremony outside, officiated by my dad.  The weather warmed up a bit and it was really nice out.

Then, we took some pictures outside before heading in to the reception.

The reception area was already decked out for Christmas and it looked great.  There was yummy food and plenty of dancing.

Here is a picture of the groom's cake with Richard's "little men" on it.

Rachel got tired during the reception and rested for a while under the table.

At the end of the evening, we had fun with bubbles to see off Richard and Dana.

Rehearsal Lunch

On the Saturday after Thanksgiving, we had a rehearsal lunch before by brother Richard's wedding.  We had very tasty Mexican food and a good time with our family, Dana's family and the wedding party.

Rachel got to have her own place at the table.

Rachel got to spend time with Grandpa Steve and Sylvia and had some more good times with all of the Fergusons.

Rachel enjoyed spending time with her new aunt Dana and meeting Dana's family.

Rachel even comforted Dana when she started to feel a bit emotional.

Other than all of that, Rachel just relaxed in her car seat and took a nap.