Adam, Tonya, & Rachel

4 3/4 Months Old

It was another busy week of birthdays in the McDonald household. My birthday was on Thursday and we had a family birthday party for all the July/August birthdays in Cookeville over the weekend (which marked our third trip to Cookeville in 3 weeks!)...craziness! We are thankful to be staying home this weekend and we probably won't be back up there until Sept 19 for Laura's 1 year b-day party.

Here's me and Rachel on my birthday...did she pick that bib with the birthday cake on purpose?!?!? How thoughtful!

Family pic on my birthday...

Here's Nana and Rachel after Rachel had pooped out from all the partying:o) Nana came down and made salmon patties, mashed taters, fried okra, pinto beans, and cornbread to help celebrate mine and Adam's birthdays since his was last week. It was yummy! Then she also made a cherry pie for Adam and a frozen oreo dessert for me. Yes, we're spoiled...but I don't even like cherry pie and that's what Adam wanted for his dessert...so it was only fair that we had both our favorite desserts on our birthdays:o) Nana took care of Rachel for the night by giving her a bath and putting her to bed, so we actually got to watch a movie! We watched Bride Wars. It was cute, but definitely not one I would have paid to see in the theatres or purchase....but I'm cheap like that:o)

Isn't she just adorable when she first wakes up in the morning?!?!?!

Here's Nimbus just chillin' on the stairs...

Rachel FINALLY took the other pacifier this week. She's never been a huge fan of the paci, but when she did take it, she'd only take the Soothie one. We had a breakthrough this week and she started taking the Nuk kind....right after I finally broke down and bought a paci attacher for the Soothie one. It figures! Anyways, we hope she'll stick with the Nuk paci b/c she can keep it in her mouth easier than the other one and you don't have to put it back in every 3 seconds.

Here's Rachel just sittin' up in her boppy pillow. She really wants to sit up all the time now...but she just can't do it by herself yet...

Here's Rachel just playing...Aunt Christy cleaned out Cade and Laura's toys...so it was like Christmas for Rachel this week! Lots of new things to play with!

Adam had to help his dad with his computer this week. So, Rachel and I tagged along. Papa Charles sure enjoyed visiting with Rachel while they were working on the computer!

Ah, what we will do for a good deal! Here's the line to get in the consignment sale this past Friday night. We got some cute clothes, but looking back, I don't think it was worth it. Mimi came over to watch Rachel as we couldn't get in the sale until 8PM and her bedtime is 8:30...so there was hardly any way to take her with us. Anyways, we didn't get home until after 11PM becuase we stood in line to pay for an hour and half after we finished shopping. It was like the day after Thanksgiving!!! Madness!!!! And we didn't even get the jogging stroller we were hoping to find! They had some, but no swivel wheels on the front like we're wanting. We were also totally unprepared! Everyone in line kept walking up with clothes baskets...it made it easier to carry around all the things you wanted to purchase. We'll definitely be more prepared if we go back again.

Here's Laura trying to catch some bubbles at the family birthday party this past Saturday night. My camera had low batteries, so I didn't even get a good pic of Cade (the birthday boy!).

4 1/2 Months Old

This was a crazy busy week with Adam & Cade's birthdays. Rachel also started eating rice cereal this week (or at least attempting to eat it!)...I am still not sure after 7 days if we've had many successful swallows yet!...but she'll get there. It just takes a little time:o)

Here's Rachel playing on the quilt Christy's mom made for her...

Here's some pics of Adam showing off his b-day presents...Eric Clapton's Crossroads Guitar festival DVD...

and a body pillow...

Pa came to visit on Adam's b-day too and went to eat with us and Adam's family at The Hermitage Steakhouse...yummy!

Here's Rachel giving her lamb some love...this is still one of her favorites!

All smiles and giggles these days...

Rachel playing on her exersaucer...she still can't reach most of the toys with her pillow holding her up (we have to put the pillow in front of her still so she doesn't just fall over)...so she's still not enjoying it too much...but she's liking it more and more seems like...

Here's Rachel (our little flower child) as I tried to make a funny pic of her looking through her teething ring this week:o)

She is loving to suck on her fingers these days...even more than her paci! She's even put herself to sleep a couple of nights this week by using her fingers to pacify herself rather than me having to rock her in my arms until she's completely asleep. Hopefully this will continue to the point that I can put her to bed drowsy but not fully asleep every night!

Just a cute pic from the week...

Rachel has also found the little roll of fat right behind her hand. She has embarrassingly started giving herself arm hickies this week by sucking on it. We can't make her stop!

She went swimming again this week. She seemed to enjoy it a little more than before because she could sit up better in her Bumbo seat. However, I think she'll like it even more when she can sit up on her own down in the water...it will only be another month or so!

Alison came over and went with us to Members Only Night at the Zoo. Here's Rachel and Big Al before we left...

Here we are on the carousal at the zoo. It was free on Members Only Night!

We sat on the non-moving bench for the ride...but got a pic on one of the animals after it stopped!

Here's a pic of the clouded leopard that Adam took while we were listening to a zookeeper speech about them...

...and then there was Cade's 2nd Birthday Party. The theme was cows (his favorite) if you couldn't figure it out by looking at the pics. Christy went all out with the decorations, etc. We even had Purple Cow Juice, cow balloons, cow tattoos, cow cake, Christy's toenails were painted like cows....craziness! How creative! The party was a huge success and lots of fun! Way to go Christy!

Here's Rachel making the meanest face she could muster with her bad girl cow tattoo...

...and Laura with her cow stockings...and "cowgirl in charge" t-shirt...

...Nana and the girls....

Me and Christy with our famous tattoo pose:o)

Rachel with all her party favors from Cade's party this morning...

She loves this little rattler that came from the Cow pinata no less!

Rachel also helped me make cupcakes for Adam's b-day this week. Here she is helping me in the kitchen...

Family pic on Adam's b-day...

We had Richard over for dinner tonight to celebrate his b-day (which is the same day as mine). Here's Rich with the cool dessert I made...we had white chocolate and plain chocolate "cups" with ice cream scoops garnished with bananas, strawberries, and chocolate sauce...Alison helped make them pretty...

Close up of Rich's dessert...

4 1/4 Months

What a week of milestones for Rachel! She slept through the night 6 out of the last 7 nights! We have been so excited about it! Also, she rolled over from her back to her stomach for the first time this past Wednesday (it was the perfect birthday gift for her Nana!).

We had a busy weekend going to Cookeville to celebrate Nana's birthday! Adam and I got a much needed break as Nana watched Rachel all night Friday so we could go eat crablegs on the all-you-can-eat seafood buffet at Fall Creek Falls...then she watched her all day Saturday so we could go eat at a Cookeville favorite Mama Rosa's and watch the new Harry Potter movie. The movie was 3 hours long...but it was good!

We went to Donnie, Christy, Cade & Laura's for dinner and to celebrate Nana's birthday Saturday night. It was alot of fun! We had steaks and an awesome fruit pizza for dessert!

We rounded out the weekend by going to our friends' Adam & Julia's house for dinner on Sunday night. Brent, Rachel, and Lilli also joined us. We had a nice dinner and both little ones even let us finish with no crying! That was a small miracle in itself!

We'll be heading back up to Cookeville this Sunday for Cade's 2nd birthday! It's hard to believe he is already 2 years old! His grandma and grandpa had already mailed him his spring horse since they won't be able to come to the party. As you can see below, he absolutely loves it! Also, stay tuned next week for pics from Adam's birthday that's coming up tomorrow!

Here are some of the memorable pics from the week/weekend.

The birthday present Rachel made for Nana...