Claire 7 Months Crawling!!!

Claire at 7 months is divine. She sits and plays with her toys but yet can't get anywhere yet. Love it. She is falling asleep by herself in her crib and sleeping through the night.

 This picture was taken just 2 weeks ago and man the changes in the past few weeks have been amazing. She crawled last night, crawled!!!! I will post a video. There was a small tear partly because my baby is not so baby anymore. Also because my life is over once the mobility starts things get crazy. She also started jabbering a lot more. First recognizable sound was dadadadadada. If no one is talking she just sits and talks in a cute sing song voice. Here is her crawling. She waited until the whole family was around. It was nightime so look past the outift and missing bow. I am glad that everyone especially Dave got to see this.

Boys Boys

Nearly every Saturday Ronan asks Dave to take just him out. One day the girls went to a girl sports day. Ronan and Dave spent the day together. They went climbing above Donner Lake.

They went further than we went with the baby in tow and were able to get to the old railroad shaft. Ronan said it was spooky.

A couple weeks ago Dave had some friends come stay for the weekend. They golfed and swam in the lake, watched movies and ate out. I am choosing to not blackmail these guys with the swimming photos that I have. But they better watch it because one wrong step and they are going up on Facebook.

Sunday Walk

One great thing about a Sunday walk around here is that you can go some amazing places. I grew up going on a hike up the canyon every Sunday. I would love to have my kids exerience the same thing.

This is a rocky crag above Donner Lake. Probably one of my favorite spots in Tahoe. 

Ronan heard water so we explored til we found this little mountain stream. 

 So the baby loves being in her carrier. You should have seen the jumbling around she got and she slept the whole time. We finished out hike and it was off to dinner at the Smiths. And it was yum. 

Echo Day and a cute baby

Another article Dave wrote for the blog at work

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I have some amazing kids. My oldest daughter Leah is 8 years old and has the wisdom and insight of someone way beyond her years. She's always picked up on things quickly and been keenly tuned into some of the bigger things that life throws at us. Since moving up here at the beginning of the summer we've been able to spend a lot of time outdoors as a family. When Northstar's Vail Resorts Echo Day was announced,  I asked if Leah wanted to join me

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as we cleaned up a part of Martis Creek that needed  some help. She said yes and when the day was upon  us we went out with smiles, rakes and gloves to help  do our part. It was a great chance for me to explain  why we give of our time to help people and places  that the earth needs our help. She totally got it. Ever since then Leah has been very aware of her surroundings. On a recent hike I noticed her picking up trash along the trail and putting it in her pocket. I told her I was proud of her and she said 'we all need to do our part.' She is a special type of kid. She is also now joining the "Eco" team at her school and continues  to remind us to recycle at home. I love that VR Echo  gave me an opportunity to teach and learn with my own  children. It made a difference in the work we did that  day and with a little 8 year old girl with big dreams and an even bigger heart. David Ratchford Director of Brand Marketing Northstar-at-Tahoe Resort

Elder Rothart one of the missionaries that served in our area. Just a couple days before he went home after his 2 year mission. We love having them over for dinner.

 A slightly abnormal picture of baby Claire without a bow.

Oh she is one sweet girl. We went to the doctor recently. She weighs 15 1/2 pounds and is in the 50% for height and 25% for weight. Actually she stayed exactly on the growth cart curve which I guess doesn't happen very often. Lately I decided to get her used to sleeping in her crib. Now I can just lay her down in the there and she goes right to sleep. She is such a happy mellow baby.

Alright to those of you who thought I would never blog again. I have updated 17 posts to be exact. And caught you up with a whole summer of adventures in the life of the Ratchfords. I promise to be better and not let it go so long next time. Please check back with us and I promise not to bore you with the same pictures for three months straight. And since I have to have things in order of when they actually happened for journalings sake. You will have to go back to the beginning of June to see all the new ones. I have no excuses except for....new baby....moving...baby who loves to be held....driving everywhere we go....alright I'll stop. No excuses from here on out.

11th Anniversary

On the 23rd Dave and I celebrated our 11th Anniversary. Can't believe the it has been that long. We are just realizing how old we are going to get quick. I told Dave this year. This is as good as it is going to get. I am starting to look old. But I can't think of anyone better to grow old with. We left the kids and went for a kayaking adventure at the lake. Then out to dinner.

The lake is so clear that you can see down for like a mile. It was pretty spooky because there are these huge rocks. A monster could be lurking beneath and you would never know it.

Leah's New Look

Revealing the new Leah. After complaining about headaches nearly every night. And telling us she had to rub her eyes 20 times a day because they were blurring. We decided to make an appointment with the eye doctor. She has a astigmatism and just a slight prescription to fix the blurriness. I think she looks darling and she loves having glasses.

And of course everyone had to try them on.

Family Photo Shoot

A big thanks to Emily Carmack for her photography skills. We love them. And you will have to wait for the family photo til we send out of Christmas cards. I know the anticipation is going to kill you.

Soccer Season

Soccer season is in full swing here. One thing I can say for Truckee is the weather is a lot better for sitting on the sidelines. 70 and breezy most days. The kids both have wonderful coaches. And it is a lot more busy. They play 2 games a week each. Every Monday the girls are both at the same time to it takes some juggling but they have made it to most of their games.  Also I have made a couple friends from all the time we spend on the sidelines.

Eva's cute team the Purple People Eaters. 

Leah's team is, The Girlfriends. I still chuckle every time Dave yells, "go girlfriends."

Ronan plays every Saturday along with 75 other 4 year olds. They go through a bunch of drills and then play little 4 on 4 games. He is much improved from last year when he wouldn't play at all. In fact he has scored at least a couple goals in each game. Last Saturday I took him and he scored 2 goals and he said is was boring and he wanted to score 5 like last game.

Ronan's First BMX Race

At North Star there was a free kids BMX race. Dave entered Ronan in and got all this free bike gear. He was so excited to be in a race. Dave said he was very serious about the whole thing. He was the only little kid to go over the ramps in the race. Then after the 2 laps of the race he kept going and did 4 laps. He took second place and got a real medal.

This is his buddy Ty who took second in his age group too.