Christmas and other things

Christmas was really fun this year. Having a three year old makes it more magical than it usually is. And Reed really enjoyed opening presents (and was surprisingly good at it). As usual, we spent Christmas day at Mike's parents' house and had a lot of fun.

Rachel drinking some sparkling cider (which we call "Skumps") on Christmas eve. She LOVED it.

Christmas day! No presents had been opened yet, so Reed wasn't sure what was going on.

Now it's exciting.

Rachel had a pretty good time opening presents. Although, for some reason, last year and this year, she's been really grumpy on Christmas morning. I don't know why.

Reed got really good at unwrapping, as long as we got him started.

Mike got me a 2 pound box of chocolates. Yum.

Mindy got this really neat book for Rachel - it has a recorder in it so Rachel can listen to Mindy read the story to her. So sweet.

 Okay, now we're on to non-Christmas random photos. This is a cute Hawaiin dress that Rachel got from her Granny and Grandpa who live in Hawaii (Mindy's parents).

I just love this face. :)

Reed likes to brush his teeth.

I thought this was cute. Rachel's puppy, complete with necklace, having a tea party with his friend the tiger. :)

We got a new car! It's a Honda Odyssey minivan. We love it. Me especially, which is good, since I'll be the one mostly driving it. It's used, but in really good shape. I'm already loving all the extra room. And the automatic doors. I told Rachel I can open the doors with a magic button. She was impressed. 

Rachel went to the dentist a couple days ago. She does surprisingly well at the dentist. Except for x-rays. But we take her to a pediatric dentist, and they're really good with kids. 

She got to wear cool sunglasses and listen to the movie playing on the ceiling while getting worked on.

Making her teeth sparkly. And no cavities!

Okay, so I have to tell a story about this frog.  This is a tiny rubber frog that Rachel got from the gumball machine at the dentist's office. She loves it. This morning she was asking where it was and was really sad when we told her we didn't know. She was genuinely sad. So Mike suggested that we say a prayer and ask Heavenly Father to help us find it. We knelt down and prayed and then Mike and I helped her look. I went upstairs and suddenly remembered that she had put it on the floor next to her bed the night before. I took it down to her and she was so happy that Heavenly Father answered her prayer. She and Mike said a thank-you prayer.

It might have been a silly little thing to us, but to Rachel it was important. I know that the things that are important to us are important to Heavenly Father, because He loves us. And so he cares, even about tiny rubber frogs.