Rhen

Hi everyone! I've been up to so many new things I thought I'd give you an update.

Mommy lets me sleep without being wrapped up now. I love it cause I can sleep however I want. I usually have my left thumb in my mouth and my right arm is free to go wherever it wants...

I also started rolling over. I can go from my tummy to my back or from my back to my tummy - which is what I did today and mommy took pictures. This is how I started...

and then I ended up like this in no time at all! I am starting to get some teeth. It feels better when I am sucking on my hands so I do that all day long. Mommy says I drool a lot now, but that's okay.

I sure love being 4 months old. There's so many new thing going on!

Family Pics

My mom's cute neighbor Kim took some family pictures of us last week. She is so talented and we had so much fun with her. (She is also doing Hayley's wedding pictures and has done a fabulous job so far.)

Here are a few of our favs...

4 months

Rhen had her 4 month appt today with Dr. Erickson. Here are her stats

Weight: 14 lbs - 56%

Height: 26.38 in - 98%

Head: 16.7 in - 82%

Dr. Erickson said that Rhen is healthy and right on track with her stats - she is very tall and skinny though. He also said that she is in the top 3% of her age group as far as sleeping goes - she is sleeping 11 hours at night. Yay for sleep!

He told us to start her on baby food and we took his advice and tried it as soon as we got home. Of course she didn't quite know what to do with it, but she did pretty good considering it was her first try.

We love her - messy face and all!

Potty Training

So I have finally gotten onboard with the potty training business. I took Rease to buy some new panties and she started wearing them right away. She is really great about going on her toilet as long as I remind her that it's time to go - she hasn't quite figured out that she needs to tell me if she needs to go. So we usually have about one accident a day - which I figure is pretty normal. I asked her to show me her panties so I could get a picture and this is what I got from her...

I love those cheeks hanging out!

So yesterday was a Sunday of more than one accident. We got to church and I took her out about halfway through sacrament meeting to take her pottie. She went like a good girl and went back in and sat down with Josh and Rhen. A few minutes later I had to take Rhen out cause she was crying. As I was standing in the hall, here comes Josh and Rease. Josh had a look on his face like "you will not believe what happened." I said to him "did she pee?" He said "not pee." Poop! In her panties! In church! And we sit in the second row from the front! Oh man - what a day. So I took her in the bathroom and changed her (luckily I had an extra pair of panties and an extra skirt just in case.) I immediately threw her panties in the garbage and she cried - "wash panties, wash panties." Not this time Rease.

Later we went to our friend's, the Winns, house for dinner and she was standing on the chair next to me while I was eating. All of a sudden she looks over at me and said "mommy peed." I look down and there is a tiny puddle underneath her. Rease! So I took her down from the chair and was taking her panties and skirt off again to change her when out from her panties comes a little terd and plops onto their wood floor. What? Poop in her panties again! So for the second time that day her panties went in the garbage and she cried "wash panties." I took extra care to clean their chair and floor where Rease had soiled and apologized up and down. Of course they were so nice about it and said they didn't mind. Yeah. Anyway...

Does this potty training get easier? I'm ready for an accident free day!

4th of July

Happy 4th everyone! We spent the weekend in Delta again this year - so fun! I don't have pictures of this but we actually started the weekend off playing in an all-night volleyball tournament - Justin, Steph, Caleb and I along with our friends Misha and Kurt. We went into the tournament with very low expectations of ourselves, but actually we took third overall. We roughed a late night rainstorm and got done playing about 1:30. We had a blast!

Saturday morning we got up and went to the city breakfast at the park and then headed to the parade. We love the parade because it is so small town - tons of candy and popsicles, fire engines and derby cars.

Rease and Rhen dressed in their flag outfits...

Grandma Losee and Josh enjoying the small bit of shade...

Then it was off to the races for the candy...

Rease figured out that if she turned on the charm then she got lots of candy thrown her way. She started this little wave to all the floats and cars...and it worked!

Look at the handfuls of candy she got - way too much for a two year old.

Caleb was holding her bag of candy and she'd empty her handfuls every few minutes.

She looks a little disappointed with the pennies - "what? no more candy?"

She started dancing in the middle of the street - I guess she liked the parade!

Demolition Derby

Best part of the day for sure! It was a great derby this year and even though it looks cloudy and dark, it didn't actually start raining until the last car stopped - then it really started coming down.

Rease loves watching the cars and for days after the derby kept saying to us "cars crashing." Yeah that's right Rease, the cars were crashing.

We had such a fun time and loved staying with Grandma Losee. It's so nice to have a place to stay whenever we go to Delta.

Rease's Treasure Chest

So you may think this looks like an ordinary lunch pail - something that may simply hold a sandwich and juicebox. Well I can assure you that this is much more than a simple lunchbox - this is a treasure chest that holds Rease's most prized possessions. Without this bucket, I would have found myself in a bind many times trying to entertain Rease when I just don't have enough hands to do everything at once. This has been a lifesaver more than a few times. Let's take a look inside...

Once you open this magical bucket you can see just how roomy it is - able to hold many different toys at once... The Littlest Pet Shop collection...

Shamu the Whale x2...

A miniature bottle of Tabasco sauce (random? yes.)...

Barrell of monkeys - but they're really bunnies...

Picnic basket - just in case we need to stop off for lunch...

Bouncy balls...

Baby and her bottle...

Cute turtles that grandma and papa brought back from their cruise...

The Wall-E characters...

And of course the cars.

This bucket of Rease's is actually amazing for a few reasons...

1. It can hold an endless amount of toys.

2. It keeps Rease entertained for hours.

3. We take it everywhere with us and it is enjoyed by everyone - I catch Josh and Greg playing with the toys while we are at breakfast together. Not just for kids.

4. It's a perfect size to squeeze into the diaper bag along with the rest of the junk I carry around in that bag everyday. If it weren't for the bucket, there's no way I would carry around all those toys loose in the bag.

The magic bucket is actually on it's last leg. One of the latches broke off last week and we are in a desperate search for a new one. Until then - hold on little guy. We love you!