Rease's job

Rease's job at our house it to empty the silverware tray. She is a great helper around the kitchen and loves that this is her job.

She does a great job and actually gets them all in the right spot.

Thanks Rease!

Chocolate Pudding - Rhen

Why is it that there are so many pictures of Rhen making a mess while eating? Maybe because this is how she looks at least 3-5 times a day.

Cute, but oh what a mess this girl can make!

Tree pics

Josh's parents have a great tree in their front yard that all the kids love to climb - including my girls. Last time we were there Rease asked us to put her in the tree so we stuck Rhen up there with her.

Rhen didn't quite know how to hold herself up so she just kept squishing into Rease.

Then we jumped in the picture just to share the moment with the girls.

Bear Lake 2010

We spent the weekend in Bear Lake with our good friend Greg and his family. It is so beautiful there and we had such a nice, relaxing weekend together. The lake is gorgeous and we wanted to grab a quick picture of it while we were there.

So we've been to Greg's cabin 4 or 5 times now and have always talked about driving up to Bloomington, Idaho and hiking to Bloomington Lake and spending the day there. We have actually tried a couple of times and for some reason or another the road to the lake has been closed and we have never been able to get inside the gate. This year we really wanted to try again and made it part of our weekend plans. The forecast called for rain in the afternoon so we headed out early Saturday morning. The drive up is about an hour but the whole way is beautiful and we enjoyed hanging out with just us.
When we got there, Josh loaded Rhen into the backpack...

And then loaded Rease onto his shoulders. (I wasn't much help as the pregnant tag-along.) The hike up to the lake is only about 20 minutes but as you can see it is AMAZING! The weather was perfect and the scenery is breathtaking.

We got to this little lake and I thought we were there - I soon found out that this is just a stopping point and the real Bloomington Lake is even better.

I love the mountains surrounding us.

This is our group that went; Greg, Morgan, Afton, Miles (Greg's nieces and nephew), Josh, Rease, Rhen, Brenda and John (Greg's parents) We had a great group.

As soon as we found the lake, we parked ourselves under this big tree to eat our lunches.

This is the last picture of us at the lake - I'll tell you why. As soon as Greg and Josh got their shirts off and jumped into the lake and we were got ready to pull our lunches out, we looked around and noticed that dark clouds had suddenly gathered. Seriously a minute after we noticed the clouds, it started to rain and then thunder and lightning. I guess it came on so fast because we were in the mountains, but whatever it was, it took us all a little by surprise. We gathered under the tree for about 30 seconds and then realized that wasn't such a good idea with the lightning and all. So after being at the lake for a total of 5 minutes, we made our way back to the cars. It was no quick trip back to the car with 5 little kids and the rain and hail coming down harder and harder. Josh loaded both girls back onto his back and headed out singing as they went. I think I heard "You are my Sunshine" and "I see the moon" but I'm sure there were plenty more along the trail. Good, they were set. The 3 others kids, on the other hand, did not think the rainstorm was so much fun and were doing the opposite of singing. So I grabbed Miles, Greg had Afton and Morgan and we made our way out as quickly as possible.

It took us a little longer than we hoped with the rain making things slippery but we finally made it back to our warm, dry cars.

This is how the girls looked after our adventure. We stripped them down to their suits and cranked up the heaters.

Even though we didn't get to spend much time at the lake, I'm sure this is one trip we will not forget.

Later that night, we went to Garden City for dinner and raspberry shakes.

Josh entertained the kids while we waited for our table.

And the kids found other ways to have fun while we waited for our shakes.

We had such a great and memorable trip thanks to Greg and his family. Thanks for inviting us along for the weekend!

Party of Five

This is our little family of four. Our girls are so sweet and so different in every way but boy do we love them. Could we possibly make room for one more?

We are quickly becoming a...

Party of Five!

Yes it's true - we are adding one more to the family and couldn't be more excited. Sister #1 loves that mommy has a baby in her tummy and Sister #2 is learning to say "baby." They will be the best big sisters.

Something even more fun - Josh will no longer be the only male in the house. As soon as the ultrasound tech said "it's a boy" Josh did a fist pump and said, "Finally!" We have a sweet boy on the way!
Best of all, baby is healthy and that's what makes mom happy!
Good luck on your journey litle one!

Snickerdoodles - Rease

Rease LOVES to help mommy in the kitchen. When we make snickerdoodles, her job is to roll the dough in the cinnamon and sugar and put them on the pan. She is such a good helper and does a great job.

I have to help her rearrange them just a little bit before we cook them. (I think this might make one big cookie instead of a bunch of small ones.)

Sneaking a taste to make sure they are edible.

Thanks Rease for all your help!

Deer Creek - Rease and Rhen

We had the most beautiful day on the lake. Josh, dad, Hayley and Caleb got up bright and early (6:30 am!) and headed to Deer Creek for a few hours on the boat. The girls and I met them there an hour or so later and had a fabulous day. It was the most perfect water for the 4 hours that we were there and everyone got their share of skiing, wakeboarding, kneeboarding, tubing and whatever else we wanted.

The girls love going on the boat. Rhen jumped in with uncle Caleb and then Rease had to have her turn.

The water is definitely warmer now that it's the end of the season, but not by any means like bathwater. I warmed Rhen up after she got out of the water and enjoyed a few snuggle moments with her - they are very few and far between.

Playing it cool in Aunt Hayley's glasses.Rease decided she wanted a chance to "ski." So when she was in the water with Uncle Caleb we threw the rope out to them and dragged her in.

After she said, "Mommy did you see me skiing?"

This is the very important job that the girls have on the boat - holding the flag. Rhen can't hold it for very long so Rease helps her out.

I didn't get any pictures of anyone actually skiing or wakeboarding - don't ask me why. But we had such a great day on the lake with the most perfect water!

Visitors - Rease and Rhen

My good friend Andrea who lives in Hawaii was in Utah visiting for a couple of weeks. We got together one afternoon that she was here and it was so fun to see her and her girls and catch up! Our girls are almost the same ages so they had fun playing together. Unfortunately I didn't get too many pics but did snap this one of Rhen and Brinley and a group shot before they left.

I'm not sure what the girls are looking at but it must have been interesting because all 4 pairs of eyes are somewhere besides at the camera!

Thanks for visiting with us!

Chow time - Rhen

So Rhen is at the age that she will not eat unless she can do it by herself. So we have been trying to let her eat on her own and let me just say, it is not a pretty sight in the end. But hey she's learning. Enjoy...

It's obvious she loves to eat!

Scary day in Draper

I don't know how many of you heard of the drive by shooting in Draper a couple of weeks ago but Josh and I had a personal encounter with the shooting and I wanted to tell our story.

Thursday July 29, 2010

9:05 pm

I was standing in our bedroom next to the bed folding some clothes. Josh had just gotten out of the shower and was walking out of the bathroom just behind me when we heard a loud pop/crack in our room. I jumped at the sound and asked Josh "what the heck was that?" He walked over to the window and looked out through the blinds and saw our neighbors sitting outside and said "I think it's just the neighbors doing fireworks." I said to him, "That was not fireworks and there is a hole in our blinds!" He turned to see the hole in the blinds and then back to me and saw a hole in the wall just about a foot and a half away from where I was standing. He immediately yelled at me to get down and stay away from the windows. We realized then that it was a bullet that had come through our window and into our wall. I of course was scared that if we got shot at once, then there could be more shots coming and thought of the girls in the bedroom just below us sleeping right by their window. As Josh ran to get the phone to call 911 I went downstairs and got Rease and Rhen out of bed and away from the window. I took Rhen into the storage room and laid her down in the pack and play and brought Rease upstairs with me where I could watch her. I sat her on the floor in the kitchen with her coloring book and crayons to color and stay safe. (Cute story really quick. Rease was watching police officers come in and out of the house and finally said to me, without looking up from her coloring book, "Mommy there are a lot of fire fighters in our house!") There were no more shots luckily and Josh and I tried to sort things out. After that it was a whirlwind of police officers, detectives and neighbors coming in an out of our house trying to figure out what had happened. The first round of police officers came and got the story and then were off trying to find who had shot and where it had come from. I called my dad and asked if he would come take the girls to sleep at their house. He rushed over and was so glad we were safe and then took the girls with him so I didn't have to worry about them being safe. Another officer and detective came not too long after and we filed our report and talked for an hour or so about what had happened. Soon after the news cameras showed up as well and got our story. All I could say was thank goodness we were safe and the girls were okay. I didn't care about anything else.

This is where the bullet came through the blinds...

The broken window...
And the bullet lodged in our wall by the bed.

After getting our story the police office dug the bullet out of the wall. This shows how close it hit next to our bed. I kept thinking that if I would have been in bed, or leaning over to get the pillows off the bed or anything else a foot closer than where I was, I would have been hit. It really didn't scare me until we slept in our bed the next night and we could see how close a call it really was.

This is the bullet they dug out. They ended up finding the bullet shells about a half mile away on Highland Drive and figured out that it was a random drive by shooting and just happened to hit our house. The crazy thing is, if you stand on Highland Drive where they supposedly shot from you can barely see our house and window. It was just a very close call that ended good for everyone cause no one was hurt. Another house just up the road a mile or two was hit as well but they weren't home at the time luckily.

Since then, Josh and I have thought a lot about how precious life is and how quickly things can change. We really think about what we're saying when we ask for protection each day in our prayers and realize that we are being protected. Above all, we are reminded how important each day is and are even more grateful for the days, weeks and months we have to spend with our girls and the people we love most.