Basketball

We are smack dab in the middle of basketball season. Brandon, Spencer, and Tyler are all playing city league. Wes is coaching Brandon's team. Spencer is also playing on an accelerated league. Wes is a co-coach.  To top it off, Wes got each of the boys tickets to a BYU basketball game so they could spend some one on one time with him. So basically between practices and games, the only days we have off are Sundays and Wednesdays. Wednesdays are scouts, so our life is pretty insane.

Most of my Saturday's are spent watching this:

I love watching my boys play, but this schedule is a little much for me. I forgot how much harder it is when you have to load a diaper bag, carry the carseat, and drag along a baby who on some days would rather be home taking a nap. Woowser!

Rachel 9 months old

Hard to believe that our baby girl is 9 months old. Her cute little personality is really starting to come out now. She is still such a happy baby. She adores her brothers and her daddy, and gets SO excited when they come home from school and work. She crawls at the speed of light (at least it seems like it.) We have to make sure we keep the basement, pantry, and bathroom doors closed or she heads right for the unexplored regions. She finds a way to make it through our barricade to the stairs, so I have to watch her like a hawk!

Here are a few photos from the past month:

Love this Christmas dress from our good friends the Daltons!

This rocking chair was mine when I was a little girl. So fun that I finally have a little girl to use it! This dress is from Grandma and Grandpa Cook. She looks so pretty in hot pink!

Tyler took these pictures of Rachel standing against the ledge in the family room.She pulls herself up to everything and everyone, and can cruise around the furniture.

 No idea why she is pulling this crazy face!

 She is a really good eater and likes just about anything we put in her mouth. Her favorites are bananas and crackers. Especially crackers! She also loves gnawing on celery, carrots, and apple slices. I tried to take this apple slice away from her because it was starting to fall apart and I didn't want her to choke.She had a ginormous fit! I should have taken a picture of that. ;)

 Just last week she cut her first tooth. Bottom left. The coloring in this photo is awful, but see that cute little tooth?

Check out the attitude!

We love you girlie!

Cute Cousins

We went up to my parents' house Christmas afternoon. While everyone was hanging out relaxing, Brandon headed downstairs to play around on the piano. His cousin Emily joined him and they started playing a duet of Pachelbel's Canon. So dang cute!

Maybe someday it will be Rachel sitting there. At least a mom can hope. :)

Another reader in the family

We have been blessed that our boys like reading.

Some more than others. ;)
Looks like Rachel is joining the ranks of the book lovers. I've been reading to her since she was tiny, and she has always enjoyed it. Grandma Knight got her some board books for Christmas, and she loves them! This one with animals is her favorite. She points to the animals and when I make the animal noises she just giggles. I can't wait to share all my favorite girly books with her when she gets older!

Picture Perfect? Not so much.

I always thought I would be one of those moms that gets lots of professional pictures taken. But I am actually totally and completely lame at it. The whole time we were waiting to adopt, I planned out all of the shots I wanted to have taken when we finally got our baby. Then we got our little Rachel and I totally dropped the ball.

No newborn studio portraits. 

No photos of the boys gazing down on her in a little basket. 

No photos of her with Wes and I. 

I am so lame!!

In December I realized we didn't even have a decent picture of all the boys with their new sister. I know. How can I even call myself a mother? Christmas day when we got home from church, I decided I was going to at least attempt to get a picture of everyone together. Holey hanna, I know why people call in the professionals! It took me 64 tries to get this shot, and it's not even all that great. Could not get one with everyone smiling naturally at the same time. But at least we have a photo. And man I love these kids of mine!! (Even if they fake smile for pictures.)

Christmas 2011

Blogger has been giving me fits, and I haven't been able to upload photos for over a month. Now they have changed their formatting, and I'm having a hard time placing photos where I want them. Arggg!

Now that it's been a month since Christmas, here are a few of the pictures that I took. My favorite is the picture of Justin after he opened his present. He was really excited to get Cars Operation!