Time to Brag about Rachel!

This post is all about Rachel. She had a birthday recently...11 years old. WOW! I still can't believe she is 11 years old! Where has all this time gone? She is such a beautiful young lady who is growing up so fast! She has developed many talents, and continues to find many talents. She is a talented violinist, a budding pianist, a very good volleyball player, a drama queen, a great student, a loyal and fun friend and an all around good person. Here are a mixture of pictures from her birthday and some of the other activities she has been involved in recently.

Our family birthday tradition is to fill our children's room with balloons after they fall asleep the night before their birthday, so they wake up to an instant party in their room! Here is Rachel with her balloons on her birthday!

Some of her presents....a cute t-shirt with the "peace" sign....her favorite!

A movie from her brother Daniel.

Drum roll please............FINALLY!!!! Rachel finally got her American Girl doll. She has been waiting and saving (half) for a long time! She was so excited to finally get her!

Look at that happy face! (Both of them! :) Don't they look alike? Happy Birthday my sweet Rachel!

Rachel had a fun "girlie" birthday party with eight of her friends. This is a picture of all of them crammed into our bathroom putting on the "mask" on their face. It was pretty funny to see them all in there. That's what the shine is on their faces. When it dried, they peeled it off.

While their faces were drying, they painted each others' fingernails. Rachel picked out a bunch of colors to choose from. They took this very seriously!

Here she is about to open one of her presents. Her friends were very generous, and there was such a variety of gifts!

Rachel and Alison.....her gift was a kit to make a memory stone. Very cool!

Rachel and Emma....Her gift was a kit to scrapbook a storybook. Very creative!

Rachel and Hannah....Club Penguin membership cards and a stuffed puffle! Fun!

Rachel and Madi....A movie gift card and some candy to eat at the movies! Yea!

Rachel and Abby....$$$$$!!! What 11 year old girl doesn't LOVE to spend money?!!!

Birthday cake time! Chocolate cake of course!!!

Here is the Oral Interpretation group from our school about to perform at the festival. The whole group memorizes a story together and perform it in unison with actions and expression. They did a great job!

Here is Rachel right after they performed.....the nervousness is replaced by relief!!

Here are some fun volleyball pictures. Rachel recently completed a six week training put on by the local high school. The girls were trained by the high school coach and the team. It was an excellent program of very intensive training.

They learned different serves, spikes and bumps, along with really working as a team and moving around the court.

Here is one of her spikes! She did a great job!

We are really proud of Rachel and all of her accomplishments! Way to go girl! We love you!