Lots of Christmas pictures!

We had a wonderful Christmas with our family in Oklahoma. We spent Friday through Monday at my aunt and uncle's house in Ponca City and then on Christmas evening we went to Tulsa to be with Eric's family for a few days. Here are a few pictures from our time with my family:

Regan was very good at opening her presents, although she was more interested in eating the wrapping paper than playing with her new toys!

The Miss Priss look Last year after Christmas, I bought this onesie at Wal-Mart for $1.00 thinking our baby boy would look so cute in it. I think it still looked pretty cute, even if it was on a girl! What's funny is that Kyle got the exact same onesie as a hand-me-down, so the kids had matching outfits for Christmas Eve.
Here are the grandkids after church on Christmas Eve. Aubrey is next to Kyle and Kylie is next to Regan. How cute are they!?!
While we were there, Regan had her first taste of sweet potatos and applesauce. Seperately, not together. This is her adorable reaction to the applesauce. I think it was a little too tart for her taste. She loved the potatos, though!
The big girls thought it was so fun to watch her eat, and she sure hammed it up for them!
Here is a picture of how many gifts were there. It was crazy!!
And a group picture of everyone on Christmas Eve after our family candlelight service. There were 19 total and even though it was a full house and a late night, I can't think of anywhere else I would've wanted to be!

It's beginning to look alot like Christmas...

Tuesday evening we had a winter snow/ice storm. It rained all day Tuesday and got everything really wet and soaked, and then it froze and the rain turned to snow, so we ended up with snow on top of ice. Eric was just sure that he wouldn't have to go in for the 1/2 day of school yesterday, but of course they wouldn't call off the day that everyone has a party during class, right!?!

Anyway, here are some pictures of the park across the street. It's really scary looking with all the trees falling down and hanging so low. It looks like the Nightmare Before Christmas! This is a tree right in front of our house.
This is down the street. They've actually come by with caution tape and practically blocked off the whole park until the city can come through and clean it up, but who knows when that'll be!
And to the left of the house.
Since it was so cold, Regan and I stayed in all day and wrapped presents. I am unofficially the worst present wrapper ever known to man, and I loathe wrapping our presents, but it had to be done. Here's my little helper showing me how to do things right.
I've had this stinking wrapping paper since our first Christmas in Joplin and I'm tired of it, so I finally just gave a bunch of it to Regan hoping to use it all up. I didn't.
As we pause to reflect on a tiny baby, our Lord and Savior clothed in human skin, it is our prayer that each of us take the time to thank him for the sacrifice which brought him here in the first place. Jesus is certainly the reason for the season, but it is the power of the resurrection that gives us cause to celebrate! Merry Christmas!

Santa Clause is coming to town...

Well, I'm not sure if Clause is spelled with an 'e' or not, so for the sake of this blog, we're going to spell it with one.

Last night was the Randall High winter band concert and a special guest made an appearance! After shaking his groove thing on the podium (yes, it was embarassing!) he led the top band in a fun song of "sleigh ride". Regan thought it was fun to watch the jolly old man in red conduct the band. (For those of you interested, she did very well at the concert)

After the concert was over, we went backstage so Regan could have her picture taken with Santa Clause. I'm not sure why he isn't wearing his beard here.. the hair was itching his head so he took it off.She wasn't sure what to think of her dad. She didn't cry, but she sure was sucking on her pacifier pretty hard!
Today I had to go to the mall to pick up Regan's 6 month pictures at Sears. I put her in her Santa suit and we went and got her picture made with the "real" Santa Clause. This is a picture of that picture. I hope ya'll can see it good enough. She did so good and was fascinated with his beard! I love the way her ears stick out from her hat -- I think it makes her look like an elf!

Regan's week

Ladies and Gentleman, an incredibly exciting new experience in the Rath household has taken place. Introducing.... a baby who sleeps through the night!!! Yes, that's right. Regan has finally started to sleep through the night. Sure, we've had our glitches a couple of times, but we just let her cry it out and she's usually asleep again within a few minutes. She's even started to not cry when we lay her down for her nap. She had just woken up from her nap when I took this picture. She was having a spit-upish day, so I finally gave up on changing her clothes and just let her be naked with a diaper and socks on.
This was week 1 of Eric's two straight weeks of gigs. In order to feel somewhat close to him, I took Regan to the dress rehearsal of The Nutcracker on Thursday night. It was really good, despite our daughter making spitting sounds for the last half of it. I wanted a picture of her with a ballerina, and this was the only non-anorexic looking one I could find. I'm not even kidding. Sorry it's blurry, but I accidentally had the camera on the wrong setting. Grr.
Every day when Eric comes home from work, he takes Regan back to our bedroom with him while he changes clothes and that's his time to talk to her and mess around with her. I was lucky enough yesterday to take this picture and I think it is so precious! Regan likes it when we give her eskimo kisses, so that's what Eric was doing. She's so cute because she gets real still and has the sweetest look on her face. My heart gets all bubbly looking at the love on each of their faces.
Regan is about thisclose to crawling. She does what we call her sea lion crawl because she flops her legs behind her and pulls herself along with her hands. She's really starting to get where she wants to go, too. Yesterday when I was getting ready I put her in the middle of the living room with some toys and I heard her fussing and when I went in to check on her, she had gotten all the way to the hallway!
This is Regan checking Tooter out this morning. We're dog-sitting for the day while Granny and Papa went to Childress. Regan thinks Tooter is pretty interesting. She even let the dog lick her in the face! She loves to watch her tail wag but isn't too interested in touching her... yet.

Snow Day with Daddy!

Last Thursday when we woke up, there was 7.5 inches of snow! Because of all the snow, Eric didn't have to go to school, so we had a very fun day.

After breakfast Regan was sitting on the floor playing and Eric was working on his computer and he kept playing peek-a-boo with her. That's her favorite game to play ever. It was hilarious!


Eric likes to put Regan's binky in his mouth and then she leans over him and puts it in her mouth and pulls it out of his. She thinks it's so funny. She kept making Eric laugh and she was laying on his tummy and whenever he would laugh, she would bounce -- it was pretty funny to watch!


I wish every day could be a snow day with Daddy!