Christmas and Birthday Parties

Making Gingerbread Houses at Nana and Papas...

 The houses were eaten within a week but they had lots of fun making and devouring them.

 Just needed to include a pic of Emma

 Clara with 3 Sock Puppets on at once :)

 Rachel, Clara and Brielle as Angels at Nana's Nativity

 Their cousin Paige as a wise man

 Rachel's Birthday!!  Yes its a snowman army.

 Blowing out the candles.

 A cute pic of all our girls. It was very windy the day we took our family photo. But they turned out beautifully. Thanks Mitch.

Emma!

Here she is: Baby Emma Kathryn Shepherd!

Rachel and Clara never seem to get enough turns holding her and kissing her.

Mom came just in time, the day we got out of the hospital. 

I went to the parade and the kiddie carnival with the two girls and nana and papa on the 24th and didn't feel like I was going to be in labor anytime soon.. but at 4:30 in the afternoon my water broke... and so later that night I was induced and Emma was born at 1:55am. We are both trying to catch up on sleep but are otherwise healthy and happy!

We're alive!

Here are some of the things we've been up to lately...

Clara at the zoo, just outside the new polar bear exhibit, we got to see him swimming!

Rachel at swimming lessons.  She is now a pro at blowing bubbles and is not a bit afraid of going off of the slide or diving board,(as long as someone is there to bring her back to the side). Thanks Miss Debbie!

 We got chickens! They are lots of fun and now that they are big they live outside and poop outside and will soon provide us with some healthy eggs.

Here the chicks are when they were small and Rachel... before she cut her own hair.

 Here is Rachel post haircut learning about nests... since it was spring.

This was the last time it rained, long long ago and the girls took turns with my polka dot umbrella and their mucking boots.

Here is Rachel with our teenage chicken 'Reba" and an older dress my mom gave us from when I was a girl.  Rachel loves it because it has a big duck on it. She looks just like farmer with her duck dress, mucking boots and chicken in hand. 

We did make it to fish lake at least once this year, thankfully before the whole state was on fire so we got to roast marshmellows and go fishing too...

 Rachel and Dad caught 2 rainbow trout. This was a great experience for Rachel. She watched dad take out the hook, gut it and cook it. She got the whole experience.

Preston and Rachel each with a rainbow trout at Fish Lake.