Happy Anniversary to Us!

I just want Rich to know on our special day, that I love him more than anything. Life has thrown us some interesting surprises, but look at how much we've grown together! Through thick and thin, we're better together, and I know we can handle anything. Two years ago today was the best day of my life. I love you babe!

Love, Rachel

In honor of our anniversary and expressing our love (or knowlege), I'm going to fill our this tag I got from Danny.

1- Where did you meet? A women's appreciation luncheon at the Orem institute, ditching my sociology class. He was honored to be my server.

2- How long did you date before you were married? 6 months, 3 dating, 3 engaged (I know, crazy!)

3- How long have you been married for? 2 years today!

4- What does he do that surprises you? He can be very romantic. Not that thats surprising...but you know, he does it in a surprising way...

5- What's your favorite feature about him? I love that he has squishy cheeks, lots of extra skin so I can squeeze them like he is five. I love the dimple resembling a crevice on the right side of his face. And I love his forearms and hands.

6- What's your favorite quality about him? He is really great with kids, especially our own. And he makes me laugh.

7- Does he have a nickname for you? What is it? Babe, Baby Doll, or Rach. And then every once in awhile he will come up with some crazy random name he says he is going to start calling me, but they never stick.

8- What's his favorite color? I ask him that every once in awhile, and he always says he doesn't know, he doesn't think he has one.

9- What's his favorite food? Hm...he loves cake and milk and cookies, he loves homemade bread (which I never make, i'm pretty much the worst), he loves the tortilla soup that I make, and he always seems to be craving stew (which we never have, again, I'm the worst)

10-What is his favorite sport? probably baseball, because thats what he plays the most, but it's hard to tell, he loves all sports, basketball, golf, rugby, frisbee, football...

11- Who said I love you first? He did

12- When and where was your fist kiss? About four days after our first date, in my apartment

13-What's your favorite thing to do as a couple? Pretty much anything, we just love to go on dates. Outdoor active things, making gingerbread houses, carving pumpkings...

14-Do you have kids? How many? yep! just one little guy

15- What's a hidden talent that he has? He has got some serious dance moves! He can even do the splits! Seriously, I tell him that with a little bit of training he could rock on 'So you think you can Dance'

16- How old is he? 24
17- What's his favorite type of music? Who knows, he likes everything. But I know he doesn't like twangy country. Who does?

18- What do you admire most about him? He is a Go-Getter. He can be very determined when he sets his mind to it. And he's very athletic, a talent I pray he passes on to our children because they wont get it from me.

19-What's his favorite past time? Anything outdoors. He loves to be active and outside.

20- Do you think he is going to read this? I sure hope so!

I LOVE YOU RICH!!!

These are my Boys!

Here is a tribute to the most important men in my life!I snagged this picture last night at about 1:30. He finally went to sleep! (But don't worry, he woke right back up)

Watch Him Grow!

I guess it might just be due to the fact that I'm with this little kid 24/7, but I can see him change every day! He is officially a month old now and the time has FLOWN by, it's a little bit frightening. He is actually smiling at me now and let me tell you, there is nothing in the world more rewarding than that. I live for it.
I've compiled this slide show of some pictures we took on two different days within the last week or so. The ones in the stylish hawaiian get-up are from today and the other ones are from a week ago. Be amazed as before your very eyes you watch this little man plump up and develop baby acne!

Trial Lake!

Every year my family goes on their annual camping trip up to Trial Lake in the high Uintahs. We were only able to go up for an afternoon this year what with the new bambino and all, but we had a blast! It was so good to get away, and so fun because my whole family was there! (besides Nate. He's a little tied up right now, but we missed him).
This lake is so beautiful, and so stock full of memories for me since we have been coming here for years and years. I know it's a huge pain for my mom to get this trip ready every year, but I just want her to know how much we appreciate it!



We started our outing with a short walk around the Lake. (Okay, we really only made it like a fourth of the way, if that, but give me a break I just had a baby!)

Noah had his first ride in his "snugglie" carrier (Thanks Grandma Poulsen!) and despite what his face may suggest in this picture, he loved it.After passing on the baby to the many eager hands, Rich and I went for a canoe ride. It was SO peaceful and beautiful, and the fish were jumping everywhere!In my younger years of camping I always kind of felt the pressure of having to fish because all of my brothers and sisters were always fishing, so I did it, but to be honest, I never really enjoyed it all that much. So once I decided that I really didn't care what everyone else was doing, I kind of gave up on fishing.

This year I decided to give it another try, and I loved it! It really is quite relaxing, even when you don't catch anything which I rarely do. Rich and I have decided that we want to get some fishing poles for ourselves.

I didn't expect to catch anything this time, but lo and behold on my second cast in I pulled out this little guy! And really, he was tiney enough that I didn't even feel him on my pole until I was dragging him through the mud and I noticed him flipping around on my hook. He's pretty cute isn't he!

While I was catching my fish Rich was patiently waiting for his turn to use the pole. My 4-year-old neice Sydney was kind enough to let him use her princess fishing pole from Walmart, accompanied by very detailed instructions on how to use it:)Rich also caught a little guppy! Although he wasn't quite as excited as I was about mine. He has higher expectations for himself. A little while later he actually caught a pretty decent sized one but our camera was out of batteries at that point...

The day was perfect! Finished off with a beautiful smokeless fire, roasted bread-sticks with honey butter, and my brother's playing their guitars while we all joined in. You just can't beat that:)

Where's Noah....Here he is!!!

I would like to begin this post with my sincere apologies. For those of you who know me or Rich at all, you are probably (hopefully) aware that we have had our baby a couple weeks ago! A beautiful baby boy whom we named Noah Brett Poulsen
I apologize that it has taken so long for us to put up any pictures (especially to those of our friends who have moved recently and are probably wondering if I am really 2 weeks overdue. Thank heavens that is not the case), I really don’t have a reasonable excuse for this other than I’m not really good at this blog thing yet, and I just couldn’t muster up the desire to figure it out, I’ve been a little preoccupied.
I’d also like to give a shout out to my little brother Nathan who has recently entered the MTC and will be serving in the Arcadia California mission. I want him to know that I’ll be blogging for him! (My mom prints out the recent blog posts of any of our family member and sends them to him each week so he’ll know how everyone is doing) I send a special apology for him although I know he has already seen pictures of our little boy. And I want him to know how proud of him Rich and I are. We love getting your emails each week and we love you!

This is Noah on his birthday (July 19th, wow how time flies!). He was a healthy 8 pounds 10 ounces, 20 inches long with a 38 centimeter head. Everything went great during the 12 hour labor. I was a much more emotional experience than I was prepared for, he is such a little miracle. We couldn’t be prouder parents!

Here he is waving hello to the world! It might not be evident in this picture, but he was born with very large hands and feet. He has since grown into them a little bit and then don't look so odd, but this kid is cut out for something great. Famous basketball player...cellist...

I believe this is him on his second day of life, or maybe his third, I'm not sure I just know we were still at the hospital. Isn't it amazing how much they can change in such a short amount of time! Look at how much his little birth-mark has faded!

He's giving a little wink, what a heartbreaker.

This is him on his original due date, the 24th. Looking even older! He was pretty much sleeping all the time at this point, but look at that double chin developing! I'm predicting he's gonna be a little chunk!

This is him a few days later, I'm not sure how many. He's probably about a week and a half old in this picture. Rich and I have decided that he definately has my mouth, those distinct curvy lips, I hope those work out for him...

There just simply isn't anything sweeter than a baby, and I have to say I think we've produced the cutest one (sorry to anyone who has ever had a baby, but we win). I could just watch him for hours, and I do. I just marvel as I watch him learn and take things in. I can't help but wonder what he's thinking and how his brain works. It's so fun to interact with him, I didn't think babies could really interact so young, but his little personality is very evident. He already has all these funny little quirks. Rich and I are so blessed, and I love being a mommy!