Camping

Rease and Rhen went camping with Grammie, Aunt Hayley and family and Uncle Justin and his family.  They went to Fairview and had a great time!  Uncle Justin taught them to shoot a bow and everything.  It looks like a lot of fun and a beautiful spot!

Hotel Park City

Josh had a conference in Park City and his company provided rooms for those that were attending.  Josh got one and asked if we wanted to come up and stay with him.  The girls were gone camping with Grammie and Papa so I took the boys up with me.  We stayed in one of the cottages along the golf course and had a great time.  The boys and I got up there before Josh was done with his conference for the day so we played outside and in the hot tub until he got back.  It was such a fun room and place to stay.  Really relaxing and nice to get away - even if it is just to Park City.  I did have the route to the hospital all mapped out on my phone just in case something happened.  I'm always really nervous to venture too far from home when it gets this late in the pregnancy.  But luckily nothing happened and baby Beck is still inside cookin!  Thanks to True North Logic for the room and letting us get away!

Great Brain Report

Rease had a Great Brain Report to do for school.  She could choose any topic she wanted and prepare a report to give aloud to the class.  It was to be a 5 minute oral report and then be able to answer any questions the other kids had after.  She was also supposed to prepare a poster to go along with the report.  She was super excited to do it and chose to do it on her favorite subject: Penguins.  She we went to the library and rented a bunch of books on penguins and got to work writing her report.  I helped her a little bit but mostly she did all the work.  She wrote everything down and then practiced a bunch of times for the family before she had to present to the class.  She did such a great job and I'm really proud of her and all the hard work she put in to make this report great.

This is the poster she made.  So cute and fun!

 Rease has had a great year in 1st grade.  This was a fun way to end the year!

Father's Day

 Josh was on a camping trip to Havasupai and didn't get home until really late the night before Father's Day.  The kids had drawn these pictures and written down all they love about their dad and laid them out for him to see when he got home.  We sure do love our dad and we're so glad he made it back home safe and sound.  We are lucky to have Josh - he is a great dad, husband and friend and we couldn't survive without him!  Thanks for being so great and Happy Father's Day!

Rease made this one at school for her dad.  Such a cute picture!

Soccer 2014

Rease and Rhen both played soccer again this year.  They had a lot of fun and loved having kids from the ward on their teams.  Unfortunately they were on separate teams so we had to have 2 different games every Saturday, but it ended up being ok.  Rease was on the bright pink team and loved being the goalie whenever she could.  Her team actually was really good and had some boys on the team that obviously knew what they were doing.  I think they won every game this season.  

 Rhen's team on the other hand was not so good.  All the kids were pretty young and didn't really know much about soccer.  But she really had fun and especially loved getting a treat after each game.  The very last game of the season she did score a goal which was super exciting!  It was one of the few goals scored all year long so she was stoked!

The 2 soccer stars.  Rhen kept saying that they won their last game and that's why they got the trophy.  She said, "The other team scored more goals than we did but we still won cause we got a trophy!"  I don't think she realized that every team got trophies - and I didn't tell her that either.  Let her believe they won!  

Love these 2 girls!

Keener

Keen is such a crazy, funny kid!  Don't you just love this blonde messy hair and the pink sunglasses?  Love this boy!

The girls' sale

Rease and Rhen decided one day that they wanted to set up a stand and have a sale.  We were at Grammie's house and decided it would be a good day to do it.  So we set up a table and they got everything all ready.  Rease provided nail polishing services for sale and Rhen was selling her pictures that she drew.  It was so cute and they were very dedicated to the sale.  They sat out there for at least 2 hours trying to get people to stop.  They did have a few customers (including Hayley, Grammie and me) and this cute girl stopped and was so happy to have her nails painted and get a cute picture from Rhen.  I love their creativity!

Rease turns 7!

I can't believe our Rease turned 7!  But it happened and we love her!  She requested a penguin cake this year - I couldn't find a cute penguin cake to make so I opted for penguin cupcakes instead.  She was really excited when she saw them all made up.  We had just a family party this year so everyone came over for cake and ice cream to celebrate our sweet girl!

 I love this picture of all the kids lined up eating their cake.

Rease got a lot of fun gifts but she was really excited about this watch.  She has been asking for a watch now that she knows how to tell time.   

 We snapped a quick family picture before the party ended.  I am getting pretty hugely pregnant so this is a rare photo of me with my big belly.  I love all these sweet kids of ours!

 And especially today we are so excited to celebrate Rease and her 7th birthday!

Some of my favorite things about Rease are:

1) She loves school and loves to learn.  Rease has done so great in 1st grade this year and has become a fantastic reader!  She loves to read at night before she goes to bed and her favorite series right now is the Junie B Jones series of books.  She is also in a group at school called School of Rock.  It's a group of kids chosen by the teachers to be in advanced learning group.  There is a group for reading and one for math and she was chosen for both.  She goes for an hour each day during the regular school class and has really done well with both.  She is starting to love doing math along with reading which is awesome!  We are so proud of the good student that she is!

2) Rease is a big help to me.  I always say that I got the perfect child to be my oldest because she is so helpful!  Especially right now with the new baby on the way, I have learned to rely on her a lot.  She is so helpful with the boys and plays great with Rhen.  She just takes charge of things when I need a break and I'm really grateful to have her!  She can't wait until the baby is born so she can help out with him too.  She will be a great mom someday!

3) Rease loves to have fun.  No matter what it is, as long as something fun is going on Rease is all for it.  Almost every night before she goes to bed she asks, "what's going on that's fun tomorrow?"  I guess we've raised her to always expect something to be going on - we do like to have fun!  She loves to snow ski, swim, ride her bike, play with friends and is really looking forward to learning to water ski this year. 

4) Rease is very sweet and has developed a wonderful testimony.  She is always eager to give the lesson in FHE, talk to her friends about the church or bear her testimony in sacrament meeting.  She is a great example to all of us about sharing the gospel and letting her light shine. 

We love you 7 year old!  Have a great year!

Stats from Dr. Erickson

Height: 51.69 inches - 95%

Weight: 65.26 lbs - 92%

BMI: 17.2 - 81%

The Yard

It's yard time at our house!  We have been so excited talking about the yard and what we want to do with it.  I know I'm just excited to have somewhere for the kids to go and play and have fun.  Josh is very ambitious and said he wanted to do the yard himself instead of hiring it out.  So we put our minds together to figure out what type of yard we wanted to have.  Ultimately we decided it's a place for the kids so we wanted to make it fun and kid friendly.  A trampoline is a must.  Josh really wants a sand box.  There's a garden plot in the plans.  And I think I've talked Josh into letting me plant some fruit trees!  The kids have also been super excited and Rease even mapped it all out for us.  According to her, this is how our back yard will turn out!

First things first, we had to take out the ugly, dead pine trees that were in the backyard.  We had someone pull them out for us and then we chopped up the limbs and trunks to keep for firewood.  The kids were very helpful.  This is how our yard looks without the trees.  I'm amazed how much bigger it looks!

We also did a little work on the front flower beds and planted some bushes.  

We got a load of dark mulch to put in the beds and it made such a big difference.  It turned out great with some help from Liev and Keen.

Josh and our neighbor McKay took a few days off work to get some of the major stuff done.  They worked so hard!  We rented a little skid loader and Josh got to work leveling out the yard.  He was in heaven driving the tractor around and the kids all wanted a turn with him.  

Next came sprinklers.  Josh and McKay rented a trencher (which I mistakingly called a trench maker and got made fun of for weeks after.)  Anyway, the trencher made perfect trenches for the sprinkler lines and made Josh's work much easier so he didn't have to dig them all by hand.  Grammie and Papa Beutler came and helped us with the sprinkler lines and the work went pretty fast.

Next piece of equipment we rented was a backhoe to dig our trampoline hole.  We had equipment coming and going like crazy from our place.  Anyway, Josh really had fun digging this hole and the kids were dying over how big the hole ended up being.  Some fine tuning with the shovel and the trampoline hole was ready for a trampoline!

Josh was pretty insistent that we do the trampoline right from the beginning and get quality products.  So we got our trampoline from Regal and the ring from Rocky Mountain Trampoline Rings.  Josh was happy with both of them and I'm just happy that he's happy!  He and McKay got to work putting it all together and made it look super easy. 

Next we bought a couple loads of topsoil before the grass could be laid down.  This big dump truck came and dumped it for us (and caused a little grief with our backyard neighbor) and Josh and McKay set to work leveling it all out.

The day our grass came was a happy day for all of us!  I'm stoked to have grass and the kids had a blast playing on the stacked up sod.  Hooray we are almost there!

We had a bunch of people come help us lay down the sod and it went so fast!  Before I knew it, the job was done.  I sat this part out since I'm hugely pregnant and can't bend over very easily.  Everyone did a great job and it looks so great!

We made the kids wait 3 weeks before we put the trampoline top on.  Josh really wanted the grass to be solid before everyone walked on it.  I'm glad he did, because it all looks and feels great now!  I also talked Josh into buying a playset and we spent 12 hours (yes 12!) putting it together.  The kids LOVE it!  So after lots of hard work and planning, this is how our front and back yards turned out.

I'm so glad Josh decided he could do this on his own.  He saved us so much money!  I admit, I doubted him at first.  But he came through and the yards turned out awesome and so fun for the kids!  

Shaving

Liev has seen Josh shave many times in the shower.  Today he decided to give it a try himself.  When he got out of the shower he told me that his lip hurt and said he had an owie on it.  The funny thing is, the cut is teeny but it would not stop bleeding.  It just kept welling up like this.  He looked so funny with this little red spot perfectly centered on his lip.  I guess that'll teach him!

Reader's Theatre

Rease was selected as one of the six students from her class to be in the Reader's Theatre.  The parents were invited to come watch.  It was really cute and fun to see her up there reading her parts.  Such a great reader and student Rease is!

Candid Shots

Don't you love it when your kids get ahold of your phone and take a millions pictures?  Love it.