Swimming Lessons

Our good friend Brysan Hammer is a lifeguard at the rec center here in Herriman.  He decided that he would teach swimming lessons for the kids in the neighborhood and use a private pool that is in a neighbor's backyard.  It worked out perfect for us!

Liev just recently had his tubes taken out so he really hasn't had a lot of experience in the water.  I was so happy to have him take lessons from someone he knows!  He did so good and I am mostly just happy that he is no longer scared of the water!

 Rhen did really great too and learned to float on her back all by herself and has started to really do well with her swimming strokes.  The hard part for her is trying to keep her face in the water while swimming with her arms and kicking her feet.  But she really got good at it by the end of the two weeks.

 Rease did great!  She is a pretty great swimmer now and loved learning the backstroke.  I'm feeling more and more comfortable letting these girls swim on their own now but it is always nice to have lessons to keep their skills refreshed!  

Thanks Brysan and the Hammer boys for being such great teachers!

3 weeks of Beck

I LOVE having a newborn.  Beck is the sweetest thing and brings the best feeling into our house.  I can't get enough of this little guy - and I can't seem to stop taking pictures of him either! Here are a few from his first 3 weeks!

 Bathtime in the kitchen sink - nothing better!

 I love this little hint of a smile while he's sleeping.

 And an actual real smile!  2 1/2 weeks old and already wants us to know he's happy!

 I love these of Beck and Josh - so sweet!  My kids love their dad and Beck is no exception!

 Getting kisses from big bro.

We all love having Beck around and love seeing him grow up in front of our eyes!

Little Devils

Liev, Keen and Canyon always seem to find their way into a mess when they are together.  I'm sure it's a combination of the fact that they are all boys and they are 2 and 3 years old.  Together they sure can do some damage.  Just a few of the moments of destruction we've caught on camera the past month.  

After realizing that they boys were being too quiet upstairs, we found them in the girls nail polish.  Don't you love how they all look so innocent?  And so cute showing us their handy work!

 One day at Grammie's they found a box of sugar packets.  I'm not sure why they thought it would be fun, but they took every one of them out and threw them all over.  We made them clean all the packets up themselves.

 Hayley and I were busy with the 4 babies upstairs and didn't realized that the boys had gone down to her apartment.  Not until we were getting all the kids in the car to leave did we find the mess that they had made.  They had taken everything off the bottom shelf of her pantry (including her glass jars that held sugar and flour) and thrown it all on the floor.  There was glass, flour, sugar, cans and noodles all over the floor.  When we were telling mom about it, the first thing she said was "well I hope they got spanked!"  They did.

 Another time they found a bin of hard candies that Grammie had and spilled them all over.

 Then put them in the trampoline so they could jump with them.

 This time they got into the basketball game the Papa put up in the basement - and then broke it.

And another time spilled a whole bag of bird seed in Grammies garage.  You can see how well they are doing cleaning it up.  

Seriously these three boys are devils.  I don't know how they can find so much trouble to get into, but they always seem to manage it.  When will they grow out of this stage?  Hopefully soon!

Boating

We love going to the lake as a family.  The kids have a blast playing on the beach and we all love being on the boat.  Rease has learned how to knee board and this year we bought a pair of beginner skis for our kids to start learning on.  Rease can get up all on her own and go for a few hundred yards before she falls.  We always love this family activity!

 Lots of times we take other people with us.  Our good friends, the Hammers, have been out a few times this year.

 All the kids loaded onto the tube.  You can tell that a few were not too thrilled with the idea.

And sometime they get tuckered out by the end of the day!

Our after-the-lake lunch usually ends up being In-N-Out.  What a fun summer we have had on the lake!

Just the boys

One day in the middle of this hot July we've had, the boys were all at Grammie's house. She pulled out the mini pool and the boys stripped down to jump in.  We were all laughing at them with the bare bums and tan lines.  These will be great blackmail pictures for when they're older!

Crazy Hair Rhen

Rhen wakes up with some wild hair-dos most days.  This particular day she has crazy hair and a bad attitude.  Both of those together make her look AWESOME!

Planes the Movie

We didn't have a lot of plans for the 24th of July and Josh had to work a little bit since it isn't technically a holiday for him, so we decided to take the kids to see Planes.  They love going to the movie theatre and it was a really fun cute movie to see on this special day!  Plus it's always great to have Aunt Hayley, Uncle Caleb and Canyon around!

Rhen loses a tooth!

Rhen has had a wiggly tooth for a few weeks now.  She has been wiggling on it pretty good.  Tonight they kids were watching a movie and all of a sudden Rhen says, "My tooth!  Look my tooth came out!"  Such a proud moment for our 5 year old!

2 Weeks

2 weeks old already!  Here's Beck all ready to see the doc - cute and chubby as can be.  He doesn't know what's about to happen, but he's getting circumcised in about 1 minute from now.  Poor dude.  Anyway, we love this little guy.  He's sweet and easy going and chubby.  What could be better?

2 weeks stats:

Weight: 9.77 lbs - 79%

Height: 22.05 inches - 91%

Head: 15 inches - 74%

He's a sneaker

Keen LOVES to eat.  His favorite thing to do is sneak into the pantry and find anything that is at eye level for him to eat.  Mostly it's cereal or crackers but sometimes it's more messy like this brown sugar. But doesn't he look so proud of his mess?

 What a boy!

Sweet Rhen

Rhen loves her new baby brother.  She is constantly asking to help feed him, change his diaper or just hold and snuggle him.  She has been so sweet and I love having a helper!

 This is a picture she drew of our family after Beck came home.  So cute!

The Fort

Aunt Hayley is pretty great.  Do you remember having a favorite aunt or uncle growing up?  Well I know my kids think she is their favorite!  Shhh.  Don't tell anyone :)

She was super helpful when I had Beck and took the kids while I was in the hospital.  Our boys are pretty crazy together but they love playing and having fun together! 

She decided to help them make a fort big enough that they could sleep in it.  So fun!  By boys could not stop talking about it.

It basically took up the whole room and was attached to the pillars, the couches and anything else she could use to tie down the edges.  It looked pretty sweet!

 Such fun these boys have together!

Thanks to aunt Hayley for being so great!