Family Pictures

We haven't had a family picture since Beck was born so we decided to take a few.  These are our favorites of everyone.

Candy Day

Candy day is always a packed, busy day for us - but always fun too!  This year we had lots of help - Hayley and family, Justin and family, Garrett, Mom and Dad, Uncle Greg, Uncle Andy, The Hammers and Jeanie and Alma all came to help.  It was a long day that didn't end until almost midnight - but we got it all done and ended up with LOTS of homemade delicious candy!

Christmas Tree

We love finding the perfect Christmas Tree after Thanksgiving is over.  We don't do anything fancy like go chop it down ourselves, but we do have fun hunting through the tree lot for the perfect tree.  This is the one we picked.

And this is how it turned out decorated and lit up!

 We can't wait for Christmas at our house!

Thanksgiving Day 2014

We had Thanksgiving at my parents' house this year.  We decided that since there are so many little kids we would have the kids eat first on their own special table with their own special food.  Then we could eat in peace while they took a nap =)

It was a perfect plan.  The kids had yummy food: chicken nuggets, olives, grapes, pickles and salad.  They especially loved the olives.  And they had fun on their own table that was decorated just for them!

And we had a great time as adults enjoying our own dinner without the kids!  It was a win win for everyone!  The food was delicious (with gobs of leftovers surprise surprise) and we had a great group to hang out with! 

Rhen brought this home from school and I love that the thing she is most thankful for is her family!

And Rease made Thanksgiving decorations to hang around the house - aren't these the cutest thing you've ever seen?

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Beck's Rash

The night before Thanksgiving, Beck started getting a rash on his tummy and back.  He has been on antibiotics for an ear infection and I had a sneaky suspicion that the rash could be an indication of an allergy to the medication.  Sure enough he woke up Thanksgiving morning looking like this.  Poor guy looked terrible but didn't act like it bothered him much.  We took him to the instacare just to be sure that's what it was and the doctor said yes.  So Beck is allergic to amoxicillin - bummer!

Rhen and Jax

This is Rhen and her cute little friend Jaxton who lives across the street from us.  They are in the same class at school and love playing together.  I went to their Thanksgiving Feast at school and snapped this cute picture of these two little friends.

The train of chairs

Liev and Keen love putting all our stools in a line and playing "train" on them.  Mostly they just love to run and jump off the end of the train onto the couch.  These boys are so fun!

Rhen's artwork

Rhen loves to draw and color.  She has gotten especially good at making cards for people now that she can write.  She is the sweetest girl and always talks about how much she loves her family.  Love this girl of ours!

Big Brother

Liev is such a sweet boy and has been so great with Beck.  He asked me today if he could help feed him so I thought he could give it a try.  He did awesome and was so excited to be able to help!  What a good big brother!

Rhen's report card

Rhen's teacher says she is doing so well in school.  She is very social and gets along with everyone and works hard.  She has been working hard on learning to read and loves to learn new words.  We are so proud of Rhen and her hard work!

Rease's Report Card

Rease got such a good report card from her first term and Mr. Woolf says she is a great student.  He told us that she is excellent at reading but her real strength is math.  She is the top in her class at math.  So proud of this girl and how hard she works in school.

Tinfoil Dinners

Josh left on a scout camp tonight and I made him a tinfoil dinner before he left.  I figured we might as well have the same thing for dinner so I made a bunch of them for the kids and me.  We had a fun night "camping" inside the warm house!

Guys and Dolls

My cousin Lydia was the lead in the school play in Delta so we decided to go and watch her on opening night.  We don't make it to Delta too often so it was fun to go back and see my family and also take a tour of the new high school.  It is beautiful!

 And Lydia totally stole the show that night!  She was amazing and really cute!  We all had a fun time and the kids loved being part of the road trip!

Sleepy

I love this picture of Keen!  He fell asleep in the car and I pulled him out and set him on the counter to take his shoes off.  He literally fell asleep again sitting up!  What a cute sleepy boy!

Big Head

Josh and I have always joked that Beck has a huge head.  No joke about it though - and these pics prove it! 

Rolling Over

So Beck has been rolling onto his side and trying to get all the way over these last couple weeks.  I figured he would eventually roll all the way over but didn't know when.

This is the first time I found out that he could make it all the way.  Poor thing was asleep like this and I didn't notice until I went to get him up from his nap!  

 So I grabbed the camera and caught him in the act of rolling over.  Such a good big boy!

Tonsils

Yes I admit.  I have had my fair share of hospital stays this year.  This time it was by choice.  I've wanted to get my tonsils out for over 10 years.  Why put it off for so long you ask?  Well first I've heard that the surgery and recovery is awful.  So that's the main reason.  I've just been a big enough wuss all these years.  Second, I haven't been able to justify the cost of a surgery just for something that bothers me.  Third, honestly I've been trying to figure out what I can do with myself and the kids for the 2 weeks they say it takes to recover.  I can barely handle being in bed for 2 weeks but how to pawn my kids off for 2 weeks while I am in bed?  Now that's a lot to ask of someone or a few someones.  

Well, this year I finally figured out how to take care of all 3 of those reasons.  Having a baby and gallbladder surgery takes care of the money issue - I've met my out of pocket max for the year so having my tonsils out will cost me $0.  Okay.  Luckily I have lots of family and great friends who said they would be willing to help with the kids while I recover.  For two weeks?  Really?  We really do have some great people around us if they're willing to take 5 kids on for that long!  My mom, Josh's mom, Hayley, Melissa - just to name a few of the wonderful ladies who have offered to love and care for my kids!  And as for the pain part - I figured I would just have to drop the wussiness and get it over with.  That took a lot.  I went back and forth for weeks trying to decide.  Finally I just called and made the appointment.  After that I felt like there was no going back.  Don't get me wrong I was still really scared even the day of.  But I did it anyway.  This is me right before the surgery.  The smile?  Just a nervous smile.  

 And this is me just a short hour later.  I look like I might be about to die?  Well I felt like it too.  Everyone, including my doctor, warned me that the recovery is rough for adults.  I admit, the first couple of days I was doing ok.  My mom let me stay at her house while Josh was home with the kids for the weekend.  I had a nice place all to myself upstairs - the bed was all set up with a table and lamp next to it, tv, computer, jell-o, water, gatorade, extra blankets and pillows, you name it, my mom had it ready for me.  Even at 33 I'm not too old to be taken care of by my mom!  It was a perfect place to stay for those first few days.

 The kids were with Josh and came to visit me every day.  And the girls brought me little notes and pictures to let me know they love me.

 These sat on the table right by my bed and brightened my day!

 I came home Sunday night 3 days after my surgery.  The next few days I still had people helping out and taking my kids so that I could stay home and rest.  I have to say, I am so glad they did because starting on day 5 I started to feel worse.  My throat started to hurt much more than those first days, I started getting nauseated from all the medication I was taking, then throwing up made my throat hurt worse, then I didn't want to take my medication because it made me sick so then I was in more pain.  Vicious cycle.  I finally called the doctor and asked if all that is normal.  The nurse assured me that it is and that normally around day 5 or 6 is the worst for most people because the scabs that have formed start to slough off and the flesh is raw in the back of your throat.  Great.  It made sense but I felt like I wasn't warned properly for that.  Maybe I was.  Maybe I just pushed it aside.  Anyway, that's what I was dealing with.   

I found this list of things that Rease wanted to help out with while I was gone.  Isn't it cute that she is such a little me with list and all?  She is so sweet and always wants to help.  I will say, most of these things did get done and the house looked great when I got home.

So now here I am Day 8.  Still having a lot of pain but medication is still working.  I haven't been able to eat much of anything since last Wednesday.  Mostly Jell-o and yogurt.  Juice stings my throat and ice cream for some reason makes my stomach upset.  When I need something salty I drink chicken broth.  I have figured out what I need to have in my stomach when I take my pills so I don't get sick.  So I think I'm going to live.  It has been kind of awful.  And it has been hard feeling like I'm asking a lot of my family and friends to take my kids.  But they have been great and very willing.  I love them for that.  And as for Josh - my sweet husband who has to take on everything while I'm down.  All I can say is, he's the man.  He has stayed home from work when I need help, taken the kids wherever and whenever, taken care of meals, gotten the kids off to school, tried to keep the house clean as much as possible, and still tries to squeeze in his things that he needs to do.  He's the man.

BYU Football

We are so excited that BYU Football season is here!  I always dress the boys in their BYU shirts on game day and Liev is always excited when he sees that's what I chose for him to wear.  He says, "are we going to the BYU football game today?"  We have season tickets and the kids do love going to the games with us.  I'm not sure Keen would sit through a game yet - maybe next year buddy!

Chad came into town for the first home game and it was really fun to be back in Lavell Edwards Stadium for a game under the lights!  I love this time of year!

The last game of the season was a cold, rainy one.  But we decided to go anyway.  I took Liev and Josh stayed home with the other kids.  Liev was so excited to be able to go all by himself.  As we were walking over he loved being able to see the Y on the mountain and kept pointing it out to me.  And he learned the fight song and when to clap and when to cheer.  We had such a fun time together!

 Our group that day consisted of a bunch of little kids, so we didn't stay the whole game.  At halftime the score was 52-0 for us so when it started to rain during the break we decided that was our cue to go.  Such a fun day though!

Mr. Beck

Oh boy do we love our Beck. He is the sweetest, happiest, smiliest baby.  We can't get enough of his chubby cheeks and big head! He is doing so good at holding his head up and tummy time.  What a guy!  

And at 4 months old - Dr. Erickson says he's awesome too!  Here are his stats:

Weight: 16.87 lbs - 78%

Height: 26.38 inches - 87%

Head: 17.7 inches - 96%

Sleeping in the closet

For the past few weeks, Liev has been sneaking out of his room during naptime and hiding in the closet.  I've caught him a few times and snapped some pictures, but who know how many times he's done this and I never knew!  He could have spent his whole nap in the closet and I would have never known!  Sneaky little guy.

Keen's cars

Keen was so proud to show me all his cars lined up between the posts.  Don't you love that grin on his face?

Biking down the big hill

So our kids have been riding their wiggle bikes down "the big hill" by our house for a while now.  The next street over is on a big slope so the kids take their bikes up to the top and ride down.  I've never really watched them do it until today.  It looks so fun and they have the system down!

First they hike their bikes up the hill.  I'm not sure why but I always assumed they just rode their bikes up.  This is a much better system.  It's so cute to see them all in a row with their bikes in tow.

Once they get to the top they turn around and just come straight down.  Rhen and Liev are fearless!  They don't put the breaks on at all the whole way down.  Rease is a super scaredy cat and goes onto the grass to slow her down at least 2 or 3 times on the way down the hill.  And Keen - well he does pretty good for a 2 year old!

Josh was so impressed by how fun this looks that he walked up with them one time and rode down on one of the bikes.  He admitted that it was pretty fun but kind of scary to get going that fast.  We love that the kids love doing things outside!