Rhen's school projects

Rhen has been working hard in 4th grade and has done a few cool projects lately.  This drawing and essay about an octopus is so cute and well done.

And she made these sand art projects that are super cool!

And also passed off her math facts which is a great thing to accomplish already this year!  She is a hard worker and I'm so proud of what she does in class.

Potty Trained

What's this I see?  Desh going potty on the toilet?  And just like that...no more diapers for this boy.  It was literally that easy.  He told me that he needed to go poop one day so I took him to the toilet to try.  Sure enough, he pooped and never looked back.  I gave a big "whoop" of excitement and cancelled the amazon diaper subscription.  We are officially baby free at our house!!!  What is this freedom I'm feeling?

There was an old lady...

Liev made this cute book about the old lady that swallowed the teacher.  I love the writing and illustrations that he did - such a great project for this 2nd grader!

Temple baptisms

Now that Rease is a Beehive, she was able to get her temple recommend to do baptisms for the dead.  She could not wait for this day to come!  Josh and I took her today and Josh was able to baptize her while I watched from the side and handed out towels.  It was a really special experience to be there with her and watch her full of joy doing that work.  I loved every minute of being there with my oldest daughter!

Out to eat

It's not very often that we take the whole family out to a restaurant.  Simply because it is just pretty chaotic and not a very fun experience for everyone.  But the kids all earned a free meal at Texas Roadhouse from school so we decided to give it a try.  It actually turned out pretty great.  That little bucket full of peanuts kept the boys entertained for most of the night and we went early enough that it wasn't too crowded yet so our food came fast.  We all managed to sneak into this picture, even little Desh who's forehead is barely poking into the picture.  Love all these kiddos of ours!

Citrus Pear

Citrus Pear is our new favorite thing to do!  We gather up a group of ladies and go make freezer meals for a couple hours and have a blast doing it!  We usually end up doing a class about once a month so we can keep our freezers stocked and also so we have a night out as friends.  Love this idea and the yummy food that comes from it.

Bike Race

Rease and Rhen have been in a "tween" fitness class at the rec center and one of their favorite classes is the spin class.  Today there was a spin challenge and the goal was to get to 62 miles on the bike.  There was music and movies on the screen to watch and a handful of kids working hard to get to 62 miles.  I walked in towards the end and watched the girls finish up their last few miles.  Turns out that Rhen won the whole challenge!  And Rease came in 4th place!  I'm so proud of these girls and not just for winning, but for working hard for something that was really difficult.  Good work girls!

Welcome to Beehives!

With the new age change in the church, Rease got a 6 month head start to being a Beehive!  Her cute class came and "heart attacked" her before picking her up for the first activity of the year.  She is so excited to join the Young Women in our ward! I can't hardly believe she is old enough to be there, but she is.  It's going to be a great year for her with her awesome Beehive class.

Ski Season

It's officially here!  Brighton in the winter time is our place and we are so excited to start skiing again.  This year Rease and Rhen are taking "freestyle" lessons and Beck has joined the ranks and has his own set of lessons along with the others.  We are hoping for a great snow year and can't wait to see the skills that are learned on these mountains in the next handful of weeks!

Josh's 40th Birthday

My favorite person and partner for life just turned 40 which means a big celebration was on the agenda!  There is not a person on this planet that is more kind, generous, hard-working and thoughtful than this man and we all wanted to show him how much he means to us as a dad, friend, brother, son and husband.  We celebrated for a solid week and showered him with love, kisses, gifts and lots of carrot cake!!!  Mostly though, we just feel lucky to have Josh Beutler in our lives and know we are all better people because he loves us.  Happy Happy 40th Birthday Josh!  You are the man (of my dreams)!