Office summer party

Every summer we have an office retreat as a staff. Part one of that is spending a day reviewing goals, training, role playing and of course just spending good quality time as a staff. We did that at dad and mom's cabin this year and had a successful and fun day.

Part two of the retreat is a day on the lake - so fun! This year dad had his boat, Pat brought her boat and Kilee borrowed her parents jetskis. We were set for a day of fun on the water.

Rhen helping Papa drive the boat.

Rease snuck rides on the jetskis with whoever would take her. Aunt Hayley...

And daddy both took her on rides and I'm sure she roped a few more people into it as well. She kept saying she wanted to ride on the "tiny boat."

Enjoying the big boat.

Kilee, Beckem, Rease and I took a leisurely ride on the tube. I made dad promise that he would not go fast - mainly because of the kids, but also because I have visions of crazy tube rides as a kid and, though they were fun when I was 15, I just don't like that stuff anymore. He was very nice and we had a good, fun ride just us 4.

It also happened to be dad's birthday so Pat made this delicious German Chocolate Cake which is his favorite and we celebrated!

The girls were tuckered out by the end of the day - can you tell?

Thanks to dad for being a great dad and papa and also an amazing boss!

Sleepover with the Cousins

We had the pleasure of having Betsy, Trav and the kids stay over at our house. Rease loves having friends come play and especially loves having the cousins over. She acts like she is one of the kids now that she is 3 and follows them around just like a little sister would. They are so great to play with her and include her in all they do and Rease had a great time with them.

That night Josh suggested having the kids sleep out on the deck. It was a perfect night and they were all super excited to sleep outside together.

This is the next morning - everyone had gone and Rease slept on.

Thanks to the cousins for coming to play with us!

Diaper wedgie - Rease

Just after Rease's birthday she decided that she was a big girl and didn't need to sleep with pull-ups at night anymore. She really didn't need one - it had been at least a month or two since she woke up with a wet diaper. So we said Okay and she has been diaper free since. Aunt Hayley and Uncle Caleb took this picture one of the last times she wore a pull-up for her nap and thought it was hilarious that she managed to get a wedgie in her diaper. That's Rease - she always has a wedgie, so why not in her diaper?

Potatoes?

I was making baked potatoes today and washed a couple and got distracted and left them sitting on the counter for a minute. When I came back to the kitchen I could not find the potatoes - I could have sworn I washed them. Finally Rease turned to me and said, "mommy are you looking for those potatoes?" and pointed to Rhen. Yep those are the ones. I guess I left them on Rhen's high chair without knowing it.

Raw potatoes? Delicious!

Rease 3 year stats

Stats from Dr. Erickson

Weight: 38.8 lbs - 96%

Height: 39.53 in - 94%

BMI: 17.5 - 78%

Rhen at 15 months

Stats from Dr. Erickson

Weight: 23.59 lbs - 61%

Height: 32.48 in - 95%

Head: 18.6 in - 84%

3 Years Old!

Our Rease turned 3 on June 6! I can't hardly believe we have a 3 year old in the house but oh boy is it fun! Josh and I were actually out of town on her actual birthday so we celebrated a couple of days later when we got back. The funny thing is, Rease knows her birthday is June 6th and has been telling everyone for months that she is turning 3 on June 6th. When it came time for her birthday, we actually fibbed a little bit and told her June 6th was on Wednesday (which is the day we were having her party) instead of Sunday (which was her actual birthday.) No need to confuse the poor girl. She was at Grammie's nursery on her birthday and kept telling them "my birthday is on June 6th." I think they were a little confused because it was June 6th and they couldn't figure out why she thought June 6th was another day. Oh well, it was all figured out in her mind!

On the morning that we celebrated her birthday, I left for work before the girls were awake. I got a phone call a little bit later from Rease and she said, "mommy, you forgot to say goodbye to me on my birthday!" Oh sweet pea - how could I forget that?

The one thing Rease requested for her birthday was a blue cake with blue candles. Who knows why she chose blue, but her wish was my command. This is the cake I ended up making - nothing amazing but she was happy with it. She kept saying "mommy you are doing such a great job with my cake!" If the birthday girl is happy, I'm happy!

I don't know if any 3 year old should have this many presents! I love this look!
Uncle Justin taught her how to show that she is 3.

I bought her new "silky jammies" as she calls them. She was pretty excited about them.

Make a wish!

She blew them out in one try! (Although if you look close you can see that Josh helped!)

This is the best we got from our many attempts at a family picture.

Rease is such a sweet sweet 3 year old. She told everyone after the party "this is the best birthday party I have had!" Love her!

One of my favorite things Rease has been doing lately is asking me to lay in her bed with her at night when I put her down. She'll say "mommy just lay with me in my bed for just a minute." So I crawl into her tiny bed and we talk and laugh and sing songs. Sometimes I think, "should I be making a habit of this? She will expect me to do every night if I start." Well this is one tradition I could do every day of her life! I love those small sweet moments together just talking and making memories. And even though I say I could do that with her every day of her life, I know there will come a time that she will not want me to crawl in bed with her. So I'm taking advantage of it and bonding with my 3 year old whenever I can!

The night before her birthday I sat down with Rease and told her about the day she was born. My mom does this with us every year and I always love hearing my own story - so I figured I would start that with Rease. I couldn't help but get teary-eyed when I was telling her how she came into the world. What a long day that was for us but oh how lucky we were to finally have our sweet Rease in our lives. I'm not sure she will ever understand how much she means to us and how much we love that girl, but here's to Rease, our 3 year old sweetheart!

Not your normal Jeans

I bought a package of "jean" diapers for Rhen to try them out. At first I thought they might be a little weird looking but actually they are really really cute.

San Diego 2010

We took our annual trip to San Diego for the Mud Run last weekend. This year we left the kids home with Grammie and Papa (thank you so much!) and just Josh, Greg and I enjoyed a great relaxing weekend. We didn't do much besides eat, sleep, read and lay by the pool - sounds like a perfect vacation right?

One of the main things we did was eat lots of really good food. We got a recommendation for a place called the Hash House and we were not disappointed!

Look at this plate of food! Yes that is for one person! It was the most delicious breakfast food I have ever had. Josh and I shared the egg's benedict and Greg tried the pancake. Fabulous!

Then the main event of the trip - Mud Run 2010. Greg didn't run this year so he was our official camera guy.

Of course we had our kilts on...

Right at the beginning of the course they hose all of us down with fire hoses.

Josh crawling through the mud pits.

I think I was supposed to be on my stomach but I cheated and did hands and knees instead.

Some of our group after we finished.

Josh trained really hard this year and had a goal to finish under 1 hour. He ended up finishing at 1:05 (which is amazing!) and I finished in 1:18. We felt good about our run.

Whenever we are in San Diego we eat at our favorite fish place called Fish House Vera Cruz. They have the most amazing sea food and we always like trying something new.

Before we left we walked along the beach and shopped, ate and rode the roller-coaster!

Greg wanted to eat this whole ice cream cone!

Love the beach!

We had a great and very relaxing trip this year. Thanks to Grammie and Papa for helping us out with that! And thanks to Greg for a good time and great laughs!

Real Salt Lake

Mom and dad have a package of tickets to Real Salt Lake - so a few weekends ago dad was out of town and mom invited us to go with her.

It was such a fun game and Rease loved it. It was a little sunny for the first part of the game so Rease swiped Josh's glasses.
All us girls enjoying the game.

Rease liked the game and especially liked playing on the handrails.

It was a perfect night for a game and Real won 3-1! Thanks for the tickets mom!