Science Fair

4th graders get to participate in the Science Fair at school and Rease has been working hard for the past couple of months getting her project ready.  Her teacher Mrs. Willson is amazing and has had these kids do their project 100% on their own.  She didn't want them to bring it home at all but has given them time in class to study, write and complete their whole project by themselves.  I am so impressed with that and the chance she has given the kids to do something all alone without parents help.  Rease LOVED working on her project and was so proud to say it was her own. 

Today they had the science fair for all of us to walk around and see the presentations that the kids have created.  Part of their grade is their appearance and how professional they look.  Rease really wanted to look nice so she wore her favorite dress and asked if I would do her hair in a bun.  I even let her sneak on some lipstick!  She looked adorable and very professional.  

Rease's project was on the weather.  I love that she chose this because she, of all my kids, is obsessed with the weather.  I think it's mainly because she wants to know when the snow is coming so she can have a good ski day.  Whatever it is, she checks the weather every single morning along with the lunch choices at school.  She is a creature of habit!  Her weather project turned out awesome!  I was so impressed by her clay sculptures and the different things she used to show all the parts of the weather.  Such a fun day for her to show what she has been working so hard on!

 Rease got top scores from her teacher in all areas!  What a great accomplishment!

And I wanted to include all her research cause I think it's pretty great.  

Bathtime

My kids take showers.  From the day they come home from the hospital, we stick them in the shower with us because it's quick and easy.  But once in a while, the bathtub gets used and when it does - boy is that a treat!  Desh couldn't get enough of this water and splashing around.

Eating is good...

If you can't tell by the size of those cheeks, Baby Desh loves to eat.  He has started munching on any type of snack or food I'll give him - and also can't get enough of his bottle.  Cute little guy.  All that food has done him good!

Bathing

I can't get enough of this boy.  Especially since he can still bathe in the kitchen sink!  Love those chubby cheeks and round belly.  Those are things I will will when he grows up!

Rhen's Baptism

Rhen has been counting down the days to her baptism for months.  She has been so excited to learn all about baptism and think about the decision that she is making.  She is such a sweet, thoughtful girl and I could tell that she took this decision very seriously.  Her day finally arrived and it was a wonderful day.  It was a drizzly, rainy morning but she didn't mind and was so excited to get to the church for her big day.  I love this picture of her and her dad in their whites all ready for the special ordinance.  

 The program was really sweet and I was happy to be able to introduce Rhen and talk a little bit about her.  Rhen is one of the sweetest girls I know and very tender hearted.  She really looks up to her sister Rease and they have a great friendship and bond.  I am so happy she has a good example in her older sister.

After the baptism while we were waiting for the program to end, everyone had a chance to write a little note to Rhen.  I loved reading through these and hearing all the testimonies from loved ones.  I hope Rhen can read through these often and feel the strength from these thoughts.

 Some of the important people that were there for Rhen today.  I know she felt very special and loved.  I also know that she felt the spirit - she told me all about it and how good she felt today.

 We are sure proud of Rhen and her decision to be baptized.  We love her so much!

Potty Trained

I love getting to the end of a long task and saying, "It's done!" That's how I feel every time we are done potty training one of the kids.  Mr. Becks turn.  I bought him a tiny little urinal that hangs on the wall that I thought would make it easier for him to learn.  Let me give you a glimpse at our week of potty training...

He's so cute trying to get in the right position to get the pee out.  Bent knees first...

 Hands on hips might help...

 Different toilet maybe?

 And the lunge technique is what finally worked!  

 I guess that means he's happy he gets to wear underwear now?

 Ok that's more like it!  Yippee!  We are all potty trained!

The best part is - Beck says "Boomsmack!" everytime he shows someone his pee in the toilet.  Not sure where that came from but he says it loud and proud.  Boomsmack! 

Crazy Kids

Our kids can get a little crazy sometimes.  Keen walks around with the sorting hat on, Liev pretends to be a shepherd and Rease wears a purse like a goatee.  They are constantly keeping their imaginations alive!

My boys' rainbow pictures

My boys love to color and are always making pictures for me.  They are so sweet.  Today they each drew me a picture of a rainbow.  I love how they tried to draw the exact same thing but yet they turned out cutely different!

Baby Desh

This cute boy is 10 months old!  We love him so much and can't get enough kisses to go around.  Every person in this family thinks that he is the best thing around.  We are having so much fun with him and soaking up every ounce of babiness that is left.  I'm afraid he's going to be the spoiled youngest child - how do you avoid that?  A few months ago Josh started singing to him everytime he was brought into a room and somehow that stuck.  Now whenever Desh wakes up, comes into a room, goes to bed or even random times throughout the day, we all have to sing the "Baby Desh" song.  He totally knows what it is and bounces to the beat when he hears it.  He's going to grow up knowing that everyone bursts into song when he walks through the door.  What have we done?  Love him anyway!

Riding in the cart

Isn't riding in the grocery cart fun?  I love that Desh rides in here now like one of the big kids!  Next time I'll choose a different color than pink for my boys to ride in.

3 boys in a tub

We were visiting Grammie and Papa Beutler and decided to stick the boys in the tub before bed.  They thought it was the best thing ever to be able to "swim" together!

Temple

I've had a goal this year to visit a different temple each month.  Josh has been very supportive of my bouncing around from one temple to the next.  This month we went to the Brigham City temple which was my very first time ever going.  It is a beautiful small temple and a gorgeous day to go.  Thanks to Josh for taking me and making my day awesome!

Sick

The only good thing about having a sick baby is the snuggle time you get in.  Poor little guy can't get rid of his cough and runny nose.  I love when he finally falls asleep and just wants to cuddle up by me.  Hoping this goes away soon though!

Keen's St. Patrick's Day Rainbow

Keen made this cute St. Patrick's Day rainbow at school this week.  He has really learned to love coloring and drawing and is getting pretty good at staying in the lines.

Rhen's Report Card

Rhen's teacher this year is Mrs. Ricks and she always tells me how much she loves having Rhen in her class.  We met for parent teacher conference this week and she had nothing but good things to say about Rhen and how she's doing in school.  She has really learned to love math this year and is in a group called "Sunshine Math" which teaches advanced math.  She also loves to draw and has really worked hard on her handwriting.  Way to be a great student Rhen!

Rease Report Card

We met with Rease's teacher Mrs. Willson and got a great report card from her.  Rease has always loved school and especially loves it this year because Mrs. Willson has been so amazing and fun.  She said Rease is a joy to teach and have in her class.  I believe it!  She also gave us a few things that they have been working on in class.  They have done a lot of creative writing and opinion writing, worked hard on their science project and Rease has done lots of Reflex Math.  So proud of our Rease and her good grades!

Liev's Report Card

Liev has really been working hard this year in Kindergarten.  We had Parent Teacher Conference with Miss Buker this week and she said he has made a lot of progress this year.  She shared with us some of the work they have been doing in class and it was so fun to see how far he has come in just one school  year.  What a smart boy we have!

BYU Basketball

We try to make it to at least a couple BYU basketball games each season.  This year we haven't been to too many but we did get tickets to one of the tournament games.  It's always great to be in the arena and cheer on our team - even if we lose.  It's a great atmosphere to be in and we always have a great time!

Handsome

This handsome boy is all ready for church.  Love him in his white shirt and tie!

Captain America

Beck loves his Captain America shirt and had to show us how he could pose just like him!

Wrestling

I still haven't figured out boys.  Josh says that the things they do are completely normal so I'm just going to trust him on that one.  Whatever it is, my boys are always piling on top of each other and wrestling their little hearts out.  I guess that's ok.

Wrong Pants

I don't know how this isn't noticeably uncomfortable as they're going on, but somehow Beck managed to squeeze into Baby Desh's pants today.  Whoops.

Happy 8th Birthday Rhen!

Our Rhenner girl turned 8 this year and she requested a Harry Potter birthday party.  I was secretly excited about this because, first of all, I love Harry Potter.  Secondly, I was in the mood for a good party!  So we got some ideas together and started planning.  It turned out to be awesome and the kids had a great time!  Welcome to Hogwarts!

 As the kids were arriving, we had them stop at Ollivanders wand shop to pick up their wand.  Josh made a great Ollivander and the kids loved that the wand actually picked the wizard.  (And yes I made the wands!  Long chop sticks, hot glue and toll paint.  It was super fun to make different designs on each of the wands.)

 These wizards with their wands can't wait for the others to get to the party!

Once every wizard had a wand, it was time to be sorted into their houses.  The sorting hat did a fantastic job getting each wizard to the perfect house for them.  (I made the sorting hat by glueing a santa hat to a cowbay hat and painting it brown.  With a little stuffing inside and some thread to keep it pulled down on one side it turned out to be a great little sorting hat.  Josh also helped me rig up the baby monitor in this room while he was in the other room.  The kids were all impressed that the sorting hat actually talked out of nowhere and told them which house they were in.  It was really great!)

All our cute wizards with wands and robes ready for their day at Hogwarts...

 And I couldn't find a cuter wizard than this little one!

 After everyone was sorted into houses and ready to go they each received a report card that had to be filled out by the end of the day.  They were to master 5 different classes and get their report card marked off by each of the teachers.  Off they went to class!

 Severus Snape (my dad) taught the Potions class.  Each wizard was given their own cauldron and a specific recipe to follow to make their potion work.  This class was a favorite!

 Professor Flitwik (my sister Hayley) taught the charms class and helped each wizard master the art of not only saying the charms correctly but also teaching them proper technique with their wands.  She was by far the best teacher at the school!

 Professor Flume (my friend Melissa) taught the Dueling class.  These wizards became experts at dueling with straws and paper darts!

 And Professor Sprout (my mom) taught the Defense Against the Dark Arts class and helped each wizard make something scary turn out to be funny.  They decorated scary pictures with funny costumes.  They had a blast making these crazy pictures!

The last thing each one had to do was visit the Owl Post and post a message for the birthday girl.  Cute Rhen got lots of great birthday wishes from her fellow wizards!

All the wizards had a great day at school and had lots of fun learning!  They earned tokens from each class they passed and were able to visit HoneyDukes after to buy some treats.

 Hogwarts class of 2017!

 After school was over, we gathered everyone in the Great Hall for cake and ice cream.  This was one of my favorite parts.  To see all these cuties gathered at the big table eating and singing to the birthday girl!  We had such a fun Harry Potter day and I think all the kids loved it!

 Our birthday wizard.  We love her so much!

My favorite things about Rhen at age 8:

1)Rhen is about as tenderhearted as anyone could be.  She loves to make people happy, hates hurting anyones feelings and just wants to be good.  She thinks of others constantly and makes me happy by always wanting to help out whenever she can.

2) Rhen has her own sense of style.  She loves to wear stretch pants and tennis shoes.  Doesn't mind if she has a striped shirt on with plaid pants.  And doesn't care that most of the time her outfits don't come close to matching.  She wears what is comfy.  She doesn't very often wear jeans cause they aren't as comfortable and doesn't have a problem if there are holes in the knees of her pants.  I love this about her so much!  She is her own self!

3) Rhen is a hoot.  She loves to laugh and make people laugh with her.  She is always teasing her brothers and sister and loves to jump out and scare people.  Lately she has learned to "Bowling Ball" anyone going up the stairs in front of her.  We love having this girl in our life!  She keeps us all happy!

Happy Birthday Rhenner girl!

8 year old stats from Dr. Erickson:

Height: 54.49 inches - 96%

Weight: 60.6 pounds - 65%