Hidden Treasures

Every day after the girls' naps, I let them ride their bikes for a little while upstairs. Since we have wood floors it works out good for them to ride around and entertain themselves for a little while. This will be much more fun for all of us when the weather turns warmer and we can take it outside, but for now it works.

So the girls love to have their little toys, treats and drinks with them on their bikes - Rease has a basket on the front of her bike and Rhen's bike seat opens up to hold her treasures.

Her favorite things to store inside her bike lately are the dishwasher tablets. They are just under the sink and at a perfect level for her to grab them at will and hide them in her bike. I'll be feeding Liev (so I'm obviously tied up and she knows that) and she'll ride over to me and say "look what I have in my bike mommy." I automatically tell her to go put them back. She gives me a look, slams the bike seat shut, jumps on her bike and rides away saying, "goodbye mommy!"

She knows she's in trouble but also knows I can't do anything about it while I'm taking care of Liev.

I can't resist this look though - she's so sneaky, but cute.

"I'm all naked"

I'm not sure if all kids go through this phase, but so far both my girls have. We call it the "I'm all naked" phase. Rhen has started taking her pants and diaper off and letting me know that she's "all naked." I'm not sure how to get her past this but so far nothing I do makes a difference. I put the diaper on and a second later it's off again. Maybe it's pull-up time. We might try that.

Anyway, Rhen is also pretty obsessed with playing with water. She can barely reach the faucet now (standing on her tip-toes) so I constantly find her at the sink. When I ask her to turn the water off she says "just a second. I'm washing my hands." So I caught this moment on camera the other day, her two obsessions at once - "all naked" and playing in the water.

She also rocks in the rocking chair while "all naked."

And eats breakfast the same way.

Maybe she just likes a little air on those cheeks. Whatever it is, she sure finds many moments that she wants to be "all naked."

Tea Party

My girls love tea parties. Rhen just got a tea set for her birthday and we have at least one tea party a day.

Rease usually pours...

And rhen drinks out of the cream pot.

As you can see, it doesn't always stay in the cup - Rhen's shirt is usually soaked by the end. We've learned to stick with water in the teapot.

Rhen's legs

So these are Rhen's legs - skinny little things with knobby knees. The other thing about Rhen's legs is that they are always dotted with bruises.

Her shins and knees usually have some new bruise or bump along with old ones that haven't quite faded away. I would say Rhen is as clumsy as any other 2 year old, but what she also has that adds to the bruise count is no fear. She jumps from anything, climbs on everything and falls of whatever she is on without worrying about whether she will get hurt or not. And she usually doesn't get hurt too often, but is onto the next thing before worrying about it. Thus the bruises.

Love her and her dotted legs!

Haircuts - part 2

Rease was next on the list for haircuts. She has gone almost 4 years without having her hair cut - and that's how she wanted it. After seeing "Tangled" 6 months ago, she was convinced that her hair was going to be as long as Rapunzel's and wouldn't even let me talk about cutting her hair. As you can see, it definitely needed at least a trim. So after talking about it for a few weeks, I finally convinced her that we wouldn't "cut" her hair, we would just get a "trim." So off we went to get her hair cut.

We went to "Cookie Cutters" to have it done. It's a darling place and they were all super nice. The girl had Rease pick out a movie and a seat she wanted to sit in. Of all the seats to choose from - princess car, fire truck, etc - Rease chose to sit in the airplane and watch Cinderella.

After the "trim" they did her hair up in a cute "princess bun" and sprayed it with sparkle hairspray.

Rease loved it.

This is how it looks down - the ends look so much better (makes mom happy) and it is still long (makes Rease happy.)

Overall a good week of haircuts for us.

Haircuts - part 1

This week was haircut week in our house. It started with our buddy boy. It's funny because my girls have never had haircuts - not even a trim - and Liev, at only 6 weeks is getting his first. He was born with a good head of dark hair. All my kids lose the hair they're born with though within a couple months and are bald until the new blonde hair grows in. Liev started to lose his hair just like the girls did, but he only lost it from the top of his head. He started to look like a little old bald man...

Not super attractive. So we decided to shave it all off and let it start over. Josh got his little nose hair trimmers and away we went.

Liev was really calm during the whole thing. We were left with this little pile of hair.

And this cute little bald baby.

Josh says he looks "tough" with his new 'do. I think he looks cute!

Mountain West Conference Tournament

This year has been such a fun year to watch BYU basketball what with all the Jimmermania and all. I wasn't able to go to any games during the season so at the last minute we decided it would be fun to go to the Mountain West Conference Tournament in Las Vegas. Josh is such a sweet husband and knew I really wanted to go - so he offered to stay with the kids while I took the weekend away and had some fun. Thanks hun!

Dad, Mom, Uncle Mike, Garrett, Colby, Dirty and I jumped in the van Friday morning and headed down. We had tickets for Friday night and Saturday afternoon so we could watch BYU play and then whoever played after them. It was such a fun weekend to just watch a lot of basketball and have fun in the warm weather!

We got to the Thomas and Mack Center an hour or so before the game and watched the teams warm up. The only camera I had was a dinky disposable camera so sorry for the terrible pics. But we were just happy to be there and cheer for our team!

BYU won on Friday night so they were in the championship game on Saturday afternoon against San Diego State. Our seats happened to be right in the middle of the SDSU student section. We were not excited to be sitting by them since they aren't exactly the nicest fans around. So after a lot of searching and asking, we finally found some fans that were leaving just before the men's championship game started and were willing to give us their seats. They just happened to be the family members of the Utah Women's head basketball coach (who had just won the women's championship game right before) and had front row seats - hence we had front row seats for the championship game! We felt lucky to have found those nice Utah fans that were nice enough to let us use their seats! Plus we got to watch Jimmer up close! BYU ended up losing the game against SDSU but we had a fun weekend anyway! This was the temperature in the car just as we were pulling into Las Vegas. It was so nice!

Go BYU!

Rhen's 2!

I can't hardly believe that Rhen is 2 - but it's true! I always try and talk to my kids about their "birth"day on their birthdays. As I was remembering Rhen's birth the one thing that came to mind is that she was by far my easiest to give birth to. I was induced with her and within a couple hours and a couple pushes, she was here. Easy breezy. That might be one of the only times I can say "easy breezy" and "Rhen" in the same sentence. She is my crazy mama and keeps me hoppin all day long but boy does this mama love her. My favorite things about Rhen at age 2.

1) She talks like a mad woman. She can carry on a conversation with me now and put sentences together like she really knows what she's talking about. She's always imitating what she hears anyone say and constantly tells me "I be right back" and heads off to her next adventure. The other day I was in the middle of making dinner and put a movie on to keep her distracted until I had a minute. She looked at me and said, "mommy dinner smells delicious." I had to laugh. Rhen also knows the ABCs, can count to 20 and sings any song you ask her to sing. My favorite songs to hear her sing are "chicken lips" and "sunshine."

2) She is tall, skinny, pale and white-haired. Those are the best words I can use to describe her looks. She is my darling girl.

3) Rhen has no fear. She is not scared to climb on or jump off of anything. She always has bruises on her shins and arms from falling or bumping into things. I can usually find her on top of a table, inside the dog kennel, underneath her bed or sitting in the bathroom sink - just a few of the many spots that she plays in to entertain herself. It's not uncommon to hear a cry or whimper coming from wherever she is at because she fell and "bonked." She really is crazy.

4) She is her own soul. I feel like I have figured my other daughter out and found a way to get her to do what I ask. But Rhen...no I haven't figured that out yet. Timeouts don't affect her, spankings make her laugh and if I ask her if she wants to go to her room, she happily says "yes" and heads downstairs. She is also a pro at turning her back and ignoring me. I could say her name over and over and be just inches from her and she would still not flinch an inch. Now that's a talent. I'm working on my discipline skills, but they still need a lot of work when it comes to Rhen. I'll get there someday! But she has a sweet side too. She won't let anyone leave the house without giving them a kiss and a hug - and yes those two things always go together. No kiss without a hug as well and vice versa. Same thing when I put her to bed - the last thing I hear before I'm about to leave the room is "kiss and hug, kiss and hug!" Okay you sweet crazy thing!

Rhen adds her own special flavor to our family and we love her for it!

So onto Rhen's actual birthday. We had some friends and family over for cake and ice cream that night. I was busy getting dinner ready and straightening up the house when Rease called up from downstairs, "Mommy Rhen spilled the sprinkles." I wasn't sure which sprinkles she was talking about but imagined that they would be the worst kind to spill all over - especially 15 minutes before everyone would be at our house. That's just Rhen's way of doing things. This is what I found when I got there.

Yes, the tiny, sugary, blue kind of sprinkles that grind themselves into the couch and stain clothes, mouths and fingers. Those are the sprinkles that Rhen happened to spill all over and then play with before I could get to her. Now we have an awesome blue spot on the couch that hasn't quite been removed yet. Thanks Rhen.

Rhen wasn't quite sure what to think of all the attention she was getting and all the gifts that were waiting for her.

But when we started singing "Happy Birthday" to her she was all smiles!

And she blew the candles out one by one.

Our cute friend Shea was there and Liev was getting a lot of love from her!

Rhen had a fun time opening her presents. After she opened each gift and saw that they were still in a box or package of some kind she would say, "let's open it." She wanted to open and play with everything that very second.

And Rease couldn't resist the urge to help her out with the wrapping paper.

This was her favorite gift of all. She is obsessed with "makeup" and sweet Shea somehow knew that. She got Rhen these Princess makeups and Rhen was in heaven. She carries them with her wherever she goes.

Rhen's 2 year stats:

Weight: 28.22 lbs - 70%

Height: 35.63 inches - 90%

Happy Birthday 2 year old Rhen!

Liev's Blessing Day

We blessed Liev Sunday March 6, 2011.

Josh gave him a beautiful blessing and we were so happy to have our friends and family there for this special day.

Our family of five.

We love our sweet girls but Liev adds a little something extra to our family and we are so glad he's here.