Rhen has started wanted to do everything herself - put shoes on, get dressed, brush teeth, etc. She has recently started putting her own hats and gloves on as well and her hats usuallly end up covering not only her head but most of her face as well. The funny thing is that she puts in on and then leaves it that way and just keeps her head up so she can see out of the little slit that isn't covering her eyes.

She can ride her bike this way...

Put make-up on...

And ride bikes some more.

Who really needs to see where they are going anyway?

Locked in

We got Josh some new luggage for his birthday since he will be traveling a lot with his work. Not only did he like his present, the girls loved it too. I wasn't paying attention to what they were doing and then Rease called to me and said, "look mom we fit!" Perfect fit for the two of them!

Then Rhen thought she was funny and locked Rease inside...

If you could see Rease's face you'd be able to tell that she didn't think that was so funny.

These two girls are so fun!

Binky?

Now that we have a baby coming to our house, the girls have been finding lots of new "toys" to play with. I walked into the room and found Rhen like this...

She thought it was so fun to suck on this binky the rest of the afternoon. The funny thing is, she never used a binky (she sucks her thumb instead) but still knew just what to do with it. We are all getting ready for baby!

The girls

I love these little chicks of mine!

Rhenner

I don't really know what to say...

She's one of a kind.

Christmas 2010

We spent Christmas with Josh's parents this year. We had the traditional Christmas Eve festivities which I always love. French dip sandwiches and caroling are always on the list of things we do on Christmas Eve.

We all wear Santa hats to go caroling - Rease modeled her hat for us.
Both the girls were excited to go sing to neighbors and friends. We had a few practice rounds before we left and I think we sound pretty good if I do say so myself! We went to about 5 different places and saw some old friends and family members that we don't get to see too often. It was so fun to visit with them and share the Christmas spirit!

After caroling comes new jammies. The girls had matching ones this year and wanted a picture of their jammies in front of the tree. They were ready to get to bed so that Santa could come!

Christmas morning is always crazy with presents, stockings and candy everywhere. Crazy enough that I didn't get very many pictures of the girls opening gifts. But I did get a picture of Rease with a couple of her favorites.

Barbie and her car.

And Rapunzel and the prince. She has been asking for this since we saw the movie so luckily Santa came through this year!

Rhen got these little trains in her stocking. She doesn't look like she's happy but believe me, she is!

Overall we had a great Christmas. In the middle of all our crazy schedules this holiday season it was so nice to spend time with family and celebrate (and relax) for a few days together!

Temple Square Lights

We try to make it downtown at least once during the holiday to see the lights and watch the nativity. We also have made it a tradition to ride Trax up and back - it's fun for the kids and we beat the holiday traffic! This year was hard for us to find a spare minute to get up there but we finally made it a few days before Christmas. We left just as I got off work and headed north. Rhen and Rease loved the ride up.

Once we got there we checked the Trax schedule to see how much time we had. It ended up that the next train was leaving in 40 minutes and then the next one wasn't for another hour. We decided the quicker the better since it was cold and we forgot the stroller. So we headed straight for the nativity. Of course we had to get a picture with the temple and lights in the background first.

After the nativity we had a few minutes to walk around the temple and see all the lights.

The girls kept oohing and ahhing at all the different colors of lights. And they thought this big Christmas tree of lights was pretty cool.

We made it back to the train with just a couple minutes to spare. It was a quick trip up and back but we saw all we wanted to see and didn't get too cold while we were at it! We love this part of the Christmas season!

Christmas presents from Grammie and Papa

This year was Beutler year for Christmas so Grammie and Papa and Uncle Garrett brought our presents to us a few days before. Rease and Rhen were so excited to open their presents - especially because it wasn't even Christmas morning yet!

Rease opening her huge present...
Ta-daa! A bike!

Bikes for both girls - boy were they excited!

And since it's obviously too cold outside for the girls to take the bikes outside, I've been letting them ride them in the house on our wood floors. They love it and it keeps them entertained while we wait for summer to come!