I can do it myself...

Rease is becoming a very independant young lady. She likes to pick out her own clothes and get dressed herself. Once in a while I step in and help her make a decision that looks right but most days this is what we get...

The collared shirt on backwards and tucked in with gray stretch pants hiked up. I can't argue with this one.

Haircuts

I've been really hoping that my girls would decide to get their hair cut for a long time now. It is so hard to take care of with it being so long and straggly and both of them are constantly fighting me when it's time to brush hair in the mornings. But I wanted them to make the decision about their own hair and though I wanted to take the scissors to it while they were sleeping many times, I held on until they both decided they wanted to cut their hair. So just before Christmas they both came to me and said, "we want to get our haircut mommy!" Gladly. Here are our before and afters:

Rhen in all her cuteness. Her hair is thinner than Rease's so wasn't quite as hard to keep up with. The problem with Rhen is that she gets food, syrup, yogurt, suckers or whatever else is around in her hair. So there is always a sticky, yucky mess to comb out. I was happy to get that all under control with a nice haircut.

Plus it was time to even it all up and get it to one length.Rhen chose the stylish pink car to sit in while getting her hair done.

Aww - the wonderful after "do"

Super cute hair girlfriend!

Rease was very excited about getting her hair cut. She obviously had much more to lose than Rhen, but she was ready for it.

Look at that crazy long hair!

When we got to the shop we asked about donating Rease's hair and if she had enough to do it. Turns out you need 10 inches or more and Rease had plenty to spare even after they took the ten inches.

10 inches was just above those cute little braids.

Holding up her hair that she was about to donate. She was very proud that some special girl would get her hair and be able to use it. She thought that was pretty cool.

After. What a change!

With her hair cut I think she looks much older. It is a darling haircut for her!

It was a day of change at our house but it's a nice change! You two girls look so cute with your new haircuts!

Live Nativity

Last night Caleb, Hayley and I took the kids to the Live Nativity in Alpine. It was a very cold night but we had a great time and the kids loved seeing the story of Baby Jesus in real life.

I have to admit, I wasn't really prepared for the cold. Luckily Caleb grabbed hats for the kids at the last second so they could stay warm. And yes, Liev has a pink and brown hat on - it didn't seem to bother him! Hayley and I left straight from work and I still had my scrubs on. I found out they are not the warmest set of clothes that I have. By the end of the night I was pretty much frozen.

We rode in a horse trailer to get up to the nativity. The kids thought that was very fun.

Baby Liev was the warmest one of the bunch. He was wrapped in this blanket and held the whole time. Best seat in the house buddy!

There were real camels and they were very cool to see. We also saw sheep, donkeys, swans and goats. Roman soldiers were keeping the peace.

But what we really wanted to see was Baby Jesus. He was in this stable with the big star pointing the way.

Overall it was a great night and a fun experience for the kids. Next year - dress warmer!

Sleepy

Yesterday we were at Costco and Liev was obviously super tired.

Out. Just like that.

O Christmas Tree

For the last couple of years we have had a real Christmas tree. It's actually been fun to go pick out a tree every year (just at a tree lot, nothing fancy) and the kids have fun choosing their favorite. We went the day after Thanksgiving this year to the lot just in Draper. It had a good selection of trees to choose from (though we did find out it was a little expensive!)

Rhen chose this big, round tree as her favorite one.
Rease like this skinny one.

Liev was just happy to be there with dad.

We settled on a tall skinny tree this year and the tree man went to work getting it all trimmed and ready for us.

We got it home and it was the perfect height for the front room - just about 2 inches from the ceiling. This is the finished product after the girls helped us decorate!

Merry Christmas to all!

Letters to Santa

The girls wrote letters to Santa this year with help from Aunt Hayley.

Rhen asked for a new baby doll.

And Rease wrote this all herself - see if you can understand what she asked for.

(A dress up box)

We mailed them off to the North Pole so we'll see if Santa thinks the girls have been nice or naughty this year!

Stuck in her nose

I have been picking up a few days of work at the office lately and my mother-in-law has been so great to help us out with the kids when I work. One day I got a call from her around lunchtime and she said she had been through a little incident with Rhen. They were in the car after picking Rease up from school and Jeanie heard from the backseat "Grammie I can't get this little thingy out of my nose." Turns out Rhen has stuck a tiny marble up her nose and it was stuck. So I called Josh and he was able to leave work for a short break and take Rhen to the pediatrician while the other kids napped at home with Grammie.

This is Rhen at the doctor's office - she wasn't in pain but she did keep sneezing a lot.

The Dr. on call was really great with her and was able to get the ball out without too much hassle. The first time he tried, he made her sneeze and then she cried a little bit. So Josh and the nurse helped hold her while Dr. Marriott poked it out.

After it was all over. Happy to be done with that!

I talked to Rhen on the phone after they left the Dr. and asked her how it went. She said, "Mommy the Dr. just popped it right out!" She was glad to have it over and I think she learned her lesson about putting things in her nose!

Sound asleep

I checked on Liev one night after he had been asleep for a while. I found him all relaxed in his crib.

Cute little feet on my cute little man!

The Flu Bug

My kids all got sick this week. Josh was in Chicage for a long trip and me and the kids were staying at mom's house one night. Rease woke up around midnight and threw up. She threw up every half hour for the next six hours. Poor girl. By the end, she had nothing left in her stomach but couldn't stop herself from throwing up. She kept crying and saying "mommy it just hurts to throw up!" The next day, I kept her on water and gatorade only and that seemed to be okay on her stomach. I told her she had a "flu bug" and I was hopeful that it didn't last too long. It didn't. 24 hours later she was back to normal.

I took this picture of her the night she was sick. I made a bed in the bathroom for her so she wouldn't throw up on the carpet and so she was close to the toilet.

I was hoping that the other kids didn't get it, but Wednesday night Rhen woke up in the middle of the night with the same thing - throwing up every half hour. Unfortunately it was the day before Thanksgiving and we were supposed to be going to Preston with Josh's family for the day. We ended up staying home so we didn't pass the flu along to all the other kids. Rhen told me one time after she threw up, "mommy, the flu bug hurts!"

I made her a bed in our bathroom that night so she could be close to the toilet.
Liev didn't get by without his share of the flu. Saturday night we were leaving mom and dad's house after making candy all day and found out the Liev had thrown up in the crib and it was all over him. We gave him a quick bath and then headed home. One more throw up in the car and a couple times at home for him. So again, we made a bed in our bathroom for him to sleep in so we could hear him. Luckily with all 3 kids it was a 24 hour flu and didn't last any longer than that. But it was a crazy week of the flu at our house!

New car seats

We just recently rearranged the kids in the car and got Rhen a new car seat. Both girls now sit in the back seat together and it is very fun for them. Rease is a good helper with Rhen's seatbelt so mommy doesn't have to crawl back there to put it on her. Liev was outgrowing his carrier so that's what prompted the change. He moved up to Rhen's old carseat while she got a new booster seat. Liev is backward facing and loves it because he can see the girls and all their shenanigans.

Our family is growing up!

Candy Day

This year we moved our candy making day to mom's new house since there is much more room there than our tiny house has. So the Saturday after Thanksgiving we unloaded all our supplies and got to work. Here is a before picture of our candy making supplies. We made 8 batches of caramel before so it was all ready to go for turtles and pretzels. Grammie and Rease making peanut butter cups. Grandma Wisniewski was the hardest worker of the night. She worked with us the whole time up until the very end (which ended up being about midnight.)

The girls were very helpful and wanted to be a part of the day.

I wish we had an after picture because we made so much candy this year! We used 65 lbs of chocolate and made turtles, caramel/chocolate covered pretzels, peanut butter cups, peanut clusters, toffee and oreo cookies. We made up 85 different plates to give out to neighbors and friends - it was a very successful day!