Boating with the young men

Josh and Jared Brown took the young men up to the lake for one last boating trip of the year.  They had a great day on the lake and the boys had some great tubing wars! 

Lost a tooth!

Rhen lost her front tooth just a few days after school started.  She is so diligent on wiggling her teeth as soon as they get loose.  She couldn't wait to show her friends at school.

Then literally a couple days later, she wiggled out the other one!  This one had a full on root left on it.  She is crazy!  Love this toothless grin!  It might be a while before the new ones grow in so this will be our Rhen for a while.

First day of school - Rhen

Rhen is in 1st grade this year and is so excited to be going to school all day long!  She can't wait to eat lunch with all the kids.  She has Mrs. Wooley for a teacher.

 She came home with these cute 1st day of school projects.  So excited for her!

First day of school - Rease

We are super excited this year that our school has switched to a traditional schedule!  We got to start school after a long fun summer and the girls were so excited to be back and see their friends!  Rease is in 3rd grade and has Miss Buker for a teacher.

She got this in the mail before school started and Miss Buker welcomed her to her class!

Good luck in 3rd grade Rease!

Keen turns 3!

We celebrated Keen's birthday in stages this year.  We had a really busy week the week of his birthday but I wanted him to feel special for his big day.  So he woke up to cupcakes and presents on his birthday day.  He was so excited to be able to eat cupcakes for breakfast!

  A few presents from mom...

 He was so excited about this turtle jacket!  He loves TMNT and especially the orange one (Michelangelo.)

Rhen wrote this cute note for him too!

  A couple days later Grammie came by with her present for him and we had turtle cupcakes.

 And a turtle cake.

 Grammie always has awesome presents!

 Time to blow out the candles and eat the cake!

Wow! I can't believe Keen is 3!

Here are my favorite things about my 3 year old:

1) Keen is a huge kid.  He is just about as tall as Liev and I'm pretty sure he weighs more than him.  They wear the same size clothes and shoes.  Best of all, those 2 are the best pals!  They play together all day long and love to run, climb, jump, fight and cause trouble.  It's so fun to see their little friendship.  Keen is as solid as Liev is skinny.  Keen has thick curly hair and Liev's hair is stick straight.  Keen's hair is super blonde especially in the summer and Liev has pretty dark blonde hard.  But as opposite as they are, they sure love each other!

2) Keen is a very organized kid.  He likes things a certain way and has to do things the same way every time.  He loves to put things in small compartments and organize them.  When he plays outside in the dirt, he has certain cups that he fills up first, then dumps the dirt into different cups and so on.  If I ever try and drive a different way to wherever it is we are going, he always reminds me "that's not the right way."  He is a smart kid!  I love watching him play and think.

3) Keen will snuggle and cuddle with me whenever I ask.  He willingly gives me kisses and hugs.  I love that he is still young enough to love his mama!  He is a sweet boy and I don't want that to ever go away!

3 year old stats from Dr. Erickson:

Weight: 39.9 lbs - 97%

Height: 40.16 inches - 96%

We love you Mr. Keen!

Basketball Picture

My kids come with me on Monday and Friday mornings while I play basketball at the church.  We've been doing it for a few years now so they are all used to it.  Rhen drew this picture of me playing and she even made it so I was on the winning team!  So cute!

Liev's finger

Liev and Keen were playing downstairs and I heard Liev start crying and running up the stairs.  I could tell by his cry that it was a hurt cry and not a tattling cry.  When he got up here he said he had cut his finger on "the white thing."  Turns out they had been playing with a tape measure and he was holding on to it when Keen let his end got and it started to wind up.  Ewww.  It made me hurt to just hear about it.  I wasn't sure if it needed stitches or not so I just cleaned it and wrapped it up tight in a bandaid until it stopped bleeding.  It seemed like it would be ok so we left the band-aid on and left it at that.  Liev was really tough through it all and was happy that the band-aid made it feel "all better."

Facetime with Grammie and Papa Beutler

We have a weekly facetime call with Grammie and Papa on their mission.  This Sunday morning the kids all gathered on the chair to be able to see them.  Isn't this a funny picture of them all crammed together?  It has been so fun to hear all about the mission stories and hear their testimonies - such a great example to our kids.  We love you Grammie and Papa!

Stake Dance

Josh and I volunteered to be chaperones for the Stake Dance this weekend.  He challenged all his Teachers to be there and got a bunch of the young women to commit as well.  It turned out to be a great night and we had so much fun with these boys!  All of them together before the dance looking so handsome!

Sundance Summer Theatre

One of the rewards for reaching our goal at the office was a trip to the Sundance Summer Theatre with the employees and spouses.  And since I've been working this summer filling in for 2 different maternity leaves (Kilee and Kari) I got to be a part of it!  We had the BBQ dinner before and saw the Wizard of Oz.  It was a perfect night and the play was so fun!  They did a really great job with it!  It was such a fun thing to do together as an office and fun to have our husbands with us.  Thanks Dad and Dr. V!

Hives

Rease broke out in hives this week.  It was pretty crazy and came on all of a sudden.  She was so itchy and uncomfortable.  We took her to the instacare and the doctor said they don't really know what causes hives but that it would last 7-10 days.  Poor girl.  Lots of Benadryl and rest!