And in the pink corner...

...we have Rachel Ryan Starr weighing in at 17 pounds, 5.5 ounces, and measuring 26.5 inches long! I took Rachel for her 6 month appointment Friday and was very pleasantly surprised at her weight gain and overall growth. She's a perfectly healthy baby, and was a charmer for the doctor. She, of course, got some shots, and that has had her out of sorts since then. But, we're managing and I think we're past the worst of it. Just about everywhere we go people make comments about how she looks big for her age or what a big girl she is (they don't say it mean, but she is a bigger girl), because we didn't get these comments with Ethan. But looking back at his 6 month stats this week, I was shocked to realize that he was this EXACT size at 6 months. Here's a little comparison:

Ethan at 6 months


Rachel at 6 months (we just moved her to the inflatable bath and she loves it)

Thursday evening we took advantage of my parents' neighbor's pool and took the kids swimming. Even though it was hot, we had a great time and Ethan even went under water a couple of times (this is the same kid who freaks out EVERY SINGLE NIGHT when we wash his hair...seriously...every night).

We spent last weekend with Clay's family and had a great time. We went to the Fort Worth Children's Museum Saturday afternoon (along with half of the metroplex) and saw the new Star Wars exhibit. It was much cooler than I thought it was going to be. We made dinner Saturday night and watched a movie, they all went to church with us Sunday morning, and then they all had to go home after lunch Sunday. Unfortunately, the batteries on our camera were dead and our charger broke, so I'm relying completely on Randi to send some pics. (R - no pressure there!)

Then Sunday night we had some of the youth group over to play Wii after church and had a great time. It's hilarious to me that we had a bunch of girls over and they all wanted to play video games.



And this morning I attempted to have the kids' picture made together for the first time. Let's just say it wasn't very successful. I thought I might have a little trouble getting Ethan to sit still, but he was perfect. Little Miss Rachel, however, had other things on her agenda this morning: crying, eating her dress, spitting up, crying some more, looking behind her, etc. Out of 73 pictures, I managed to find 1 (yes, one), that was good enough to buy...and it was only of Rachel. Sigh. We have another appointment to try again next week - maybe the afternoon will fare better. If I can get over to my mom's to use the scanner I'll post the one I chose. By the way, upon the recommendation of Nicole, I went to Portrait Innovations for the first time and LOVED it. There's no sitting fee, and I got a 10x13, 2 8x10s, 4 5x7s, 4 3.5x5s, and 4 sheets of wallets for a whopping $9.95. And they print them out right there so I don't have to go back and get them. Will definitely be going back there.

So there you go. I feel like we've done some other things, but it's all a blur at this point. And if I can manage it, I'll post my What is it? column tonight. I don't know if I can do two posts in one day!