Rhen at 15 months

Stats from Dr. Erickson

Weight: 23.59 lbs - 61%

Height: 32.48 in - 95%

Head: 18.6 in - 84%

3 Years Old!

Our Rease turned 3 on June 6! I can't hardly believe we have a 3 year old in the house but oh boy is it fun! Josh and I were actually out of town on her actual birthday so we celebrated a couple of days later when we got back. The funny thing is, Rease knows her birthday is June 6th and has been telling everyone for months that she is turning 3 on June 6th. When it came time for her birthday, we actually fibbed a little bit and told her June 6th was on Wednesday (which is the day we were having her party) instead of Sunday (which was her actual birthday.) No need to confuse the poor girl. She was at Grammie's nursery on her birthday and kept telling them "my birthday is on June 6th." I think they were a little confused because it was June 6th and they couldn't figure out why she thought June 6th was another day. Oh well, it was all figured out in her mind!

On the morning that we celebrated her birthday, I left for work before the girls were awake. I got a phone call a little bit later from Rease and she said, "mommy, you forgot to say goodbye to me on my birthday!" Oh sweet pea - how could I forget that?

The one thing Rease requested for her birthday was a blue cake with blue candles. Who knows why she chose blue, but her wish was my command. This is the cake I ended up making - nothing amazing but she was happy with it. She kept saying "mommy you are doing such a great job with my cake!" If the birthday girl is happy, I'm happy!

I don't know if any 3 year old should have this many presents! I love this look!
Uncle Justin taught her how to show that she is 3.

I bought her new "silky jammies" as she calls them. She was pretty excited about them.

Make a wish!

She blew them out in one try! (Although if you look close you can see that Josh helped!)

This is the best we got from our many attempts at a family picture.

Rease is such a sweet sweet 3 year old. She told everyone after the party "this is the best birthday party I have had!" Love her!

One of my favorite things Rease has been doing lately is asking me to lay in her bed with her at night when I put her down. She'll say "mommy just lay with me in my bed for just a minute." So I crawl into her tiny bed and we talk and laugh and sing songs. Sometimes I think, "should I be making a habit of this? She will expect me to do every night if I start." Well this is one tradition I could do every day of her life! I love those small sweet moments together just talking and making memories. And even though I say I could do that with her every day of her life, I know there will come a time that she will not want me to crawl in bed with her. So I'm taking advantage of it and bonding with my 3 year old whenever I can!

The night before her birthday I sat down with Rease and told her about the day she was born. My mom does this with us every year and I always love hearing my own story - so I figured I would start that with Rease. I couldn't help but get teary-eyed when I was telling her how she came into the world. What a long day that was for us but oh how lucky we were to finally have our sweet Rease in our lives. I'm not sure she will ever understand how much she means to us and how much we love that girl, but here's to Rease, our 3 year old sweetheart!

Not your normal Jeans

I bought a package of "jean" diapers for Rhen to try them out. At first I thought they might be a little weird looking but actually they are really really cute.

San Diego 2010

We took our annual trip to San Diego for the Mud Run last weekend. This year we left the kids home with Grammie and Papa (thank you so much!) and just Josh, Greg and I enjoyed a great relaxing weekend. We didn't do much besides eat, sleep, read and lay by the pool - sounds like a perfect vacation right?

One of the main things we did was eat lots of really good food. We got a recommendation for a place called the Hash House and we were not disappointed!

Look at this plate of food! Yes that is for one person! It was the most delicious breakfast food I have ever had. Josh and I shared the egg's benedict and Greg tried the pancake. Fabulous!

Then the main event of the trip - Mud Run 2010. Greg didn't run this year so he was our official camera guy.

Of course we had our kilts on...

Right at the beginning of the course they hose all of us down with fire hoses.

Josh crawling through the mud pits.

I think I was supposed to be on my stomach but I cheated and did hands and knees instead.

Some of our group after we finished.

Josh trained really hard this year and had a goal to finish under 1 hour. He ended up finishing at 1:05 (which is amazing!) and I finished in 1:18. We felt good about our run.

Whenever we are in San Diego we eat at our favorite fish place called Fish House Vera Cruz. They have the most amazing sea food and we always like trying something new.

Before we left we walked along the beach and shopped, ate and rode the roller-coaster!

Greg wanted to eat this whole ice cream cone!

Love the beach!

We had a great and very relaxing trip this year. Thanks to Grammie and Papa for helping us out with that! And thanks to Greg for a good time and great laughs!

Real Salt Lake

Mom and dad have a package of tickets to Real Salt Lake - so a few weekends ago dad was out of town and mom invited us to go with her.

It was such a fun game and Rease loved it. It was a little sunny for the first part of the game so Rease swiped Josh's glasses.
All us girls enjoying the game.

Rease liked the game and especially liked playing on the handrails.

It was a perfect night for a game and Real won 3-1! Thanks for the tickets mom!

Sarah

We took the girls to the cemetary on Memorial Day to visit Sarah's grave. We try and go every year and this year Rease wanted to take her own flowers. So she picked all the beautiful dandelions from the cabin and took the whole bunch to put on the grave - it was very sweet.

We also took the time to talk to Rease about Sarah and how special she is to mommy - and also how special Rease is to be named after her. It's not real common knowledge but Rease is actually Sarah Rease and we named her after my sister that died at birth. I have always wanted to use Sarah as a name for one of my kids and when Rease was born we both felt like it just fit to use it with her. So she is my sweet special Sarah Rease and I am glad that I can remember my sister when I see my Reaser.

Swimming Days

These are my girls...ready to go swimming.

Aren't they sweet?

Teeth cleaning

Rease is a little bit of a scaredy-cat. Especially to any type of noise; thunder, loud movies, crackling of a campfire, loud cheering at a game, etc. So as she got closer to turning 3 I knew we somehow needed to get her to the dental office to get her teeth cleaned, but didn't know how to make her not scared of the noises. She has been to the office so many times that you would think she wouldn't be scared, but when it came time to actually having her own teeth worked on she would get freaked out. So a few weeks before her birthday I started talking to her about getting her teeth cleaned and how fun it is and how we will count her teeth, but then told her "but we can't do that until after you turn 3. You won't be big enough until you're 3." So all of a sudden she knew that she would be big enough and brave enough when she was 3 - it was like the magic age. So after that she was very excited about getting her teeth cleaned and didn't seem to mind the noises that comes along with it.

Right after her birthday Josh brought her in on a day that I was at the office. She was so excited and kept saying "I'm here to get my teeth cleaned!"

Luckily she has a mom for a hygienist and it makes it even more fun!
We turned on Little Mermaid and got to work.

She seriously did great. We tickled her teeth and counted each one of them.

Papa came in a declared "no cavities" so she got to hang her picture up along with the rest of the kids in the "No Cavity Club."

She went home with a toothbrush, a toy and a balloon.

She had a really fun time and wasn't scared one bit. Now everytime she comes to Papa's office she wants to get her teeth cleaned!

UV Marathon

Hayley and Caleb ran the Utah Valley Marathon this weekend. It ended up being a cold rainy day and not very good racing weather, but they both did great and the girls loved cheering them on! They ran right by the cabin and then continued on down the canyon and ended up at the Provo Towne Center.

As we were waiting at the finish line, Rease and Rhen found a puddle just big enough for the two of them to get soaked in.

They were a little cautious at first (because they knew mom would not allow it.)

Then realized they were having too much fun to care what mom thinks.

Anyway, congrats to Hayley and Caleb for running a good race!

Moment of quiet

I love this picture of Rhen. What is she thinking?

All I can imagine is that she is dreaming and wishing and loving this moment of quiet by herself.