Christmas Day

Christmas morning. All the kids had matching pj's and aunt Hayley looks like she didn't get enough sleep.

Mom made us a delicious pancake breakfast to start the morning off right. And dad whipped up some smoothies.

Then the line-up on the stairs. Nolan and Rease are so ready to see if Santa found them at Grammie's house...

It looks like he did!

The highlight of the day for Rease - Princesses galore! She became a princess herself with her new dress and crown. She still wears it almost everyday.

And this car was a hit with all the kids. We stuck the babies in together and look how cute they are!

Nolan and Rhen managed to open one of the ornaments that had these little blue specks inside. They were everywhere and even after a few hours there were still a few of them lingering about...

That night we gathered all our talents together and had a family talent show. Britt and Chad were in charge and the rules were that everyone had to participate and there would be no complaining. We managed to scrape together a few hidden talents.

Chad and Britt did a magic trick

Nolan named all the twelve apostles

Justin showed us some new guns

Steph displayed some of her paintings

Josh and I did a Christmas rap

Rhen showed her "waving" and "saying no" tricks

Rease did somersaults and monkey jumps

Hayley and Caleb played a duet

Mom opened the time capsule from 5 years ago

Dad played the "whistle game"

It was such a fun event and I am amazed at how talented our family - I had no idea!

After the talent show we started our 1st annual Christmas Bingo. The kids played one round and then went to bed.

Then it was time for the adults to have some fun! Mom had about 50 presents and 20 gift cards/cash on the money tree with the biggest prize a $100 bill. We played bingo for about 2-3 hours and all ended up with some really fun (and funny) things. Caleb came away the big winner with the $100 and a $20 bill along with a bunch of other cool gifts. Chad and Britt ended up with a cute pink purse that for some reason Chad didn't seem to happy about having! After all the presents were gone we were given 8 minutes of "bartering" and then the gifts were final. That was the best part of all! Josh and I , after the bartering was done ended up with some great things and some cash and gift cards to go along with it. What a fun holiday tradition! We had such a fabulous Christmas and didn't want it to end. But eventually Chad, Britt and the boys had to go home and we all had to go back to normal life. Thanks for such a great holiday everyone!

Christmas Eve

Well, I know it's very late in January and I am just getting these pics up from Christmas - better late than never!

We had such a fun Christmas with the family this year. Chad, Britt and the boys were here for a week and Great-Grandma Losee spent a few days with us also. Mom and dad had a houseful of people all week but it was great to spend time with everyone.

Christmas Eve morning we all headed down to the Bishop's Storehouse and volunteered for a couple of hours. Some of us were up front helping people check out and load their groceries, some were in the back stocking and some (Josh and Caleb) got stuck cleaning the windows and shelves. It was a wonderful way to start out our Christmas celebration.

That night we got together at mom's house and had our traditional Christmas Eve. Rease and Rhen had new Christmas dresses that were so cute.
Our dinner - Hayley insisted on using the nice Christmas dishes and it looked great!

Aunt Britt read stories to the kids while we waited for dinner and the activities to start.

Grandma got out these cute reindeer headbands for all of us to wear and jingle bells to jingle as we sang Christmas songs. Rhen kept trying to figure out what was on her head.

Next the nativity scene - as Josh mentioned Mary and Joseph rode the donkey into Bethlehem which actually turned out the be a leopard instead of a donkey - who knew?

We opened gifts from our grandparents that night - all us girls got kitchen utensils from Grandma Wisniewski.

We ended the night quietly as the kids went to bed and we prepared for Christmas Day. We also snuck it quite a bit of the Wii in our spare time!

Christmas Eve Traditions

Christmas Eve was truely and experience to behold.

We started off with the traditional dinner and then went into the program where we reenact the Luke Chapter 2.

Rather than stick with the script, we unintentionally twisted the story a bit. In our version Joseph (Nolan) AND Mary (Rease) rode into Bethlehem. Not only that its also a known fact that Joseph and Mary road into Bethlehem on a leopard (Uncle Justin). I guess in Jesus' time leopards weren't considered an endangered species.



After the spiritual side of the night we had a great time running through our repetuar of Christmas songs. Of course, you can just sing Christmas songs without wearing something to make you look goofy. Thank goodness our girls look cute and neither Nat or I got any pictures taken of us.

The night wasn't as intense as Rease is making it out to be.

Here's all the Grandkids Nolan, Wyatt, Rease and Rehn enjoying the sound (and the taste) of the jingle bells durring the songs. Don't ask me why Rease is licking them.

"Fish Bank"

On we go to some pre-Christmas activities...

Rather than buy a bunch of toys that would lay around for me to step on resulting in me potentially swearing like a sailor. We got Rease a fish tank (or as Rease calls it "fish bank") the week before Christmas with plans to head to the pet store and select fish the day after Christmas. As you can see Rease is very excited even though there were no fish in the tank for days.

When we did actually go get the fish, Rease was very excited to help pick them out and carry them home. She named the fish: Daddy fish, mommy fish, Reaser fish and Rhener fish - original. Later we ended up getting an algae eater which she promptly named "Smoochy fish."

Within a week of getting the fish one of them died and was replaced by a Dalmation fish that Rease named "Jasper." And also the frog the mom handed down to us jumped into the filter and committed suicide, resulting in a very dirty tank when the frog guts were sprayed all over. Overall a good experience so far with a few bumps in the road.

Not your ordinary wardrobe...

Hello everyone... yes we are still alive and kicking just a little behind in almost everything. Not to mention blogging. Never fear, here comes some catch up.

We start with a little fashion show by Rhener. Granted she can't choose here clothes or the way she wears them but she still doesn't mind showing off.

Actually this is what happens when dad, flustered by a long day of poop, boogers, screaming, and making owies heal instantly with a simple band-aide, forgets that the shirt is a onesy until after the pants are on but doesn't have the strength to redo things in the right order.

Yes, it is sad but true.

Rhen's toes

We just got Rhen some new pajamas and got them a little big so she can wear them for a while. Today as she was crawling around and climbing up on everything possible, Rease looked at me very panicky and said, "Mommy Rhenner's toes!"

I can see why Rease would be worried.

9 months

9 month stats

Height: 28.98 in. - 91%

Weight: 18.52 lbs - 44%

Head: 17.7 in. - 79%

Dr. Erikson said that she is a beanpole - tall and skinny just like her dad. But she's healthy and growing up and that's what we like to hear.

If Rease had her way, she would wear this dress everyday. I limit it to once a week but sometimes she finds it and puts it on herself. With the upside down coat and boots it makes quite an outfit.

Josh listened to Bob Marley in the car one day and now Rease always asks for "Bosh Marley" and dances whenever she hears it.

I love the fingertip dancing!

Guess Who I Am...

Hey everyone! This is Rease. I've got some new moves to show you but you're going to have to apply a little imagination if you're going to guess who I am.

Ready?

It may look like I'm just messing around instead of eating my eggs but this is actually serious.

Any guesses yet?

Okay, here is the climax.

A perfect imitation of my favorite sea creature and the only thing I watch on YouTube...

SHAMU!!

Thanks for watching.

Stuffy Nose?

Josh showed me these pictures he took of Rease one morning after she sneezed.

Yuck! Of course he would take a picture of this moment.

New seats

Rhen outgrew her old carseat so we switched her over early to the forward facing kind. We gave her Rease's old seat...

And got Rease a new booster seat.
I think they both like being able to see out.

And they're always playing and laughing together.

What good sisters and friends they are!

New Moon Premier

We are Twilight freaks and were lucky enough to be invited to a premier showing of New Moon the day before it opened. Mom and I stood in line for our seats for about 4 hours (yes we were first in line.) Hayley and Karen joined us for the last hour of waiting. We loved the movie and had such a great time - even the waiting was fun!

Thanksgiving

We had Thanksgiving at our house this year with Josh's family. We had such great food and a nice relaxing day with family.

In the true spirit of Thanksgiving, Josh had all of us around the table say what we are thankful for. My thoughts on what I am thankful for this season:

1) A wonderful family. We were so glad to have our house full of loved ones on Thanksgiving Day.

2) The gospel of Jesus Christ and the Plan of Salvation. What a blessing to know that I will live with my husband, kids and family forever.

3) Josh, Rease and Rhen. I don't know what I ever did without them.

4) Education. We have had to rely on my education this past little bit while Josh is finishing up his. I am grateful daily that we have this to fall back on in times of need.

5) Our home. We have been in our house 5 years and are so glad we decided to settle here for our first years of marriage.

6) Our jobs. Just in general I am grateful to be able to work.

7) Health. Thankfully we haven't had any major health problems between Josh and I and the kids. We feel very blessed about that.

We had a great day of Thanksgiving!