The Phoenix Zoo

Pace and I took Sydney for the first time to the Zoo last Saturday, and then (because we have a year pass - best present I have ever received, thank you to my CHASE co-workers!) Ashleigh and Tracy and I went back on Veteren's Day! Here are a few of the things we saw and did...

I had to put a few video's on here:

"Tiger! Raaoooor! Meow!"

Sydney "Getting Her Wild On"
before the show starts...

We sat down early at the Wild Things Show, very front row.
The trainers asked me to be the "adult volunteer" and told me I would be feeding a baby bird.
PS - For those of you who read my previous post about athleticism, this proves my point - I really am not athletic. Ha! (3rd time's charm, though)...

"Open your eyes, Sydney, the bird's gone!"
It flew right over our heads... Hilarious! Freaked poor Sydney out.

Happy Halloween!

My sister Tracy & Sydney enjoying a Halloween treat

Tracy is staying with us for a while. It's nice having her here!

Here's our little pumpkin - in a tutu :)
Baby Roo is actually Luke, Sydney's first "boy-friend" (besides her cousins). :) Since they were barely crawling they'd both scream and play excitedly when they'd see each other. He's a doll!

Our friend Ronnie made this costume - we loved it!



I love this video! It's pretty dark, but Luke and Sydney are running around, Sydney's just laughing a ton, then she stops suddenly and points -

"SPONGEBOB!"

Part 1: DC, Harper's Ferry, & Phili

Our trip was great! Six days in the DC area:

THE CAR - Surprise!

A Pontiac Solstice - anyone seen Transformers?
Cassie's sweet "kick butt divorce car"

I certainly had fun driving this!
Thank you Cassie!

Their condo felt to me like a sweet Bed & Breakfast
(Fredrick, MD)

Our friends Cassie & John enjoying Sushi - YUM!

DC & Harper's Ferry

We ate at some of the best restaurants!
Jaleo, Spanish tapas - the most authentic Spanish food this side of the Atlantic!
And Zaytinya, Mediterranean food. Our FAVORITE.
Both resturants are ran by the same chef Jose Andres.

Check out his link: http://www.joseandres.com/index2.php

PHILADELPHIA

Part II: Gettysburg, PA

This was a perfect day!
A Sunday with amazing weather. We took the top down, and drove for 5 hours around this awesome historic battlefield.

Holy cow, this video took FOREVER to upload...

Pace was a great tour guide!
He prepared by having me watch parts of the movie Gettysburg with him - had me pay close attention to some of the story lines. It really helped me appreciate the monuments and sights we were seeing. Amazing.

I found my Camera - AGAIN

I thought I lost my camera, thankfully I learned I just had lost my mind (momentarily). I put it away, fearing I would loose it. I need a GPS tracker installed in that thing. Anyway, all is well. I'm just nuts....

1. What happened?
Softball game - Sydney cleaned off all the benches at Freestone Park with her new white polo shirt. Not so fun for Mom to try and get clean, however she loved it!

2. Eating with a FORK
She's insistent now that I let her feed herself. Often she'll hold the spoon/fork in one hand and eat with the other (I know you all feel my pain - she'll get the hang of it. Hopefully before my carpet gets ruined). The good news is my daughter loves squash. :)

3. Ash is going to play MOM
Pace and I leave for DC next week, alone... wish us luck. We're going to miss her, but we'll find a way to enjoy ourselves. :) Thanks Ash and Anthon for taking over for a few days! Sydney LOVES you guys!

4. Do tan lines on a 18 month old indicate bad parenting??
I don't think so...Top side, she is almost able to swim by herself! Aunt Ash is a GENIUS when it comes to swim lessons! She should offer lessons next year, if so... sign 'em up!

5. OB 1 Kenobi - Cracks me up... I love kids. :)

6. My favorite thing to do in the car - make her laugh!

RawlinsFam Beginnings...

Or, if you're a french Quebecuer, it's "bE-ginnings". (Ha! Melanie, that was for you. Love you! :) I got tagged by my friend/mission sister Nikki! Thank you! This is a fun one. :)

1. Where did you meet your husband? At Bishop Vance's house - our first activity in a newly divided single's ward. I call it fate. Pace, he liked my shoes. I later learned he IS a shoe horse. :)

2. What was the first thing you said to your husband? I think he spoke to me first, really. He and Gavin were sitting next to us (my sister and I - we were crying inside about having to leave our old ward...) They were sweet. Seriously, Pace told me he liked my shoes (they were pretty cool. Ha!).

3. Where was your first date? This is where the story gets interesting... An entire year later (after Bishop Vance and a counselor in our ward BOTH told Pace he should take me out, plus other people commenting on how we ought to get together...) we went out as a group of friends for New Year's Eve. (For more details on this read the "Wow Stories" post further down the blog.) Later in the evening we were at my house watching TV and... he kissed me. :) That counts as our first date. The next night we went to see the movie Spanglish (gay). But, I was struck, for SURE. Before New Year's Eve I had had enough time to see how great of a person he is, serving in the ward, being sweet to EVERYONE. He had started to notice me more too (in his own time)... And we HIT IT OFF. :)

4. Where was your first kiss? On the mouth. :) Just kidding, read above #3.

5. Did you have a long or short engagement/courtship? Short on both. Allow me to reiterate, we had had a year to get to know each other as friends/acquaintances... Once we actually started dating it took only 2 months to feel like we may be getting married (each has admitted to that), and just 3.5 months from the fist kiss to be engaged. We were married June 17th (do the math - that's 5.5 months from our first date). Exciting, perfect, and RIGHT. That's all I can say. Plus, a BLESSING!! With Pace I really feel like I won the lottery!

6.Where did you get engaged? On top of South Mountain - it's his "spiritual mountain". Very special. :) The little dork tricked me though. On our way there (it was his birthday - I had hoped he would propose that day, but...) he faked a phone call from his jeweler saying, "Oh, ok... So that one's been sold? Well, I'll have to bring her in again. I'll call you later." He just wanted it to be a surprise. I was happy when he pulled out the "birthday present" box hidden in his backpack and asked me to help him open it (a gift from his mom, supposedly). Cute. :)

7. How was the honeymoon? Fabulous! A 10 day cruise through the inside passage of Alaska. We played basketball at midnight with plenty of sunlight.. ate a ton. Hot tubbed on the deck. It was AWESOME!! Thanks, Kim and DeRay! (Pace's parents)

We were very rested once we got home - a blessing, too. My father died only 3 weeks after we were married. I came back to him in the ICU, unable to speak, move or do anything. A HARD time, but we got through it, along with my entire family. I know he's better now and I am grateful the Lord allowed him to live to see Ashleigh and I get married!

So... Let's hear some of your bE-ginnings. :) I tag Alishia, both Jamie's (if your name's Jamie, I tag you), Rachel, Keri, and Kimmie. I suppose, Kimmie, you won't mind filling this one out. :) Love ya!

Pretty Hair

Leftover hair-do's by Aunt Ash:
These are gorgeous hair-do's newly set, but hilarious misfits once pulled out. I couldn't resist... Is there anything else I do besides take pictures of my daughter?? Oh, yeah, scrapbooking. :)

The Front

The Back

The Classic Mullet

I call these:
"Millions of peaches, peaches for me...
What are you laughing at?"

Sniff, Sniff Pages

Will any of you admit to having seen The Princes Diaries 2: A Royal Engagement? :) Julie Andrews sings a song that (in my nuerotic/emotional state that day) made me cry! This is what the Disney Channel has done to me - other than every so often I find myself dancing to The Mickey Mouse Clubhouse theme song "Hot Dog". Hey, it's catchy! Anyway, about the song - I have been scrapbooking a lot, reflecting more.... This song in particular touched me, mostly because it reminds me of my little sister (double wedding). So tonight I added these phrases to my scrapbook on the Brides/Sisters page.
(Yes Ash, pure corn, but really, sniff sniff):

Dear little girl,

you are terribly blessed
But it's your heart of gold
I love the best
And that will be your crowning glory
your whole life through
It'll always be your crowning glory
The most glorious part of you

I hope everyone has a sister or someone who is also like this!
What a blessing they are!

Here you go - a look at a few of my completed pages...
Pace says it's lame to post them, but a couple people
have asked me to. So... Don't laugh :)

First Page Last Page

A little dark but I was very pleased with these - first pages I ever made!

That's all I'll put in here... I still have quite a bit of work to do.
Hope you're all having a great Friday!
Keep the touching moments flowing - Let's hear it for the Disney Channel!

Four hour nightmare

Scrapbooking isn't fun when you do it by yourself, I've discovered. Tonight I about had a meltdown. :) It's our wedding album - I finally started it a couple weeks ago, having never tried to scrapbook before, I quickly became addicted... Now I'm stuck.

In the infamous words of our three year old nephew,
"I can't know how!"

Ashleigh, come home soon - I need some help getting the creative juices flowing again... Any of you have scrapbooking parties? I'd love an invite. I'm totally open to having one here, too. Let me know!

To Grandma's house we go!

Grandma Mona's house in Show Low
Peter, Ashleigh, family doesn't it look great?
I love the new paint job!

Sydney loved playing around in nature...
she's always a fan of grass. :)

Grandma's cat "Jezebel" - hilarious, Mom calls her a tramp :)

Sydney received her first piano lesson
...more like she banged on it.
Hey, we all gotta start somewhere, right?

Here was our favorite part - Mountain rains...
Sydney had never been in the rain before!
She had a FABULOUS time getting SOAKED.

"Wow!"
Check out this video - I don't know who was more tickled pink
Sydney, or me and Grandma!

Drying off... Her face:
"I don't know what that was, but it was awesome."
Grandma Mona WE LOVE YOU!

Kimmie, we gotta get you and Clark up there!
Michale, you and the boys... let's go sometime too!!

Point and Click Miracles

I had to take some pictures while driving (literally) up north.
From on top of the Rim through Heber and on into Show Low
the scenery was such that (lucky for me) I could just point and click.
Even areas once damaged by forest fire now appear completely majestic.
What an escape
(for a couple hours - Sydney slept most of the way!)
Click on these - the views are heavenly.

Oceanside, CA

Little Vocabulary Building

I love the new words and sounds Sydney is learning... It brings a big smile to our faces to hear her first bits of verbal communication. Doesn't it just make you excited, this stage??! Here are a few little words she has picked up between Grandma Mona, Baby Signing time and Mom & Dad reading to her. They are:
1. Bird! She spotted pigeons in Cali and would say bird, run over, or just watch for them in the sky. This is one Grandma Mona helped her with while reading her a book before we left.
2. Beach! That was a fun one... I'm sure she was meaning bEAch... HA!
3. Whoosh! Again, a sound from one of her favorite stories, The Ugly Bug. She turns to that page and looks at me while making the sound. That and OOEEAAH! for the monkey :)
4. Dad! She has said it for a while, only now she has added the sign for Dad. It's especially hilarious because I'll prompt her to say Mom which I know very well she is extremely proficient in saying and signing... So I say Mom and she immediately sticks her thumb to her forehead and smiles, "Dad!". Cracks us up!
5. Lastly, our favorite! "Read da book!" Yes, my friends, in the wee hours of one California morning, she came to our bedside with her little book in hand, handed it to me and said in her little voice, "Read da book". Pace and I flipped. It was so SPECIAL!! It is so fun to watch them grow, isn't it!

I'm ready for the beach, Mom!

Sunday we leave for our annual Rawlins Family Oceanside Vacation. We are excited! No one moreso than Pace, except maybe myself. Something about the beach... refreshing, calming... a true vacation. LOVE IT!

Fetch, I Mean Catch