Bell Canyon

Last night for Family Night we decided to take a hike up Bell Canyon. We have been wanting to do it for a long time and finally decided we needed to get it done before the weather turns to not so nice. It was a perfect night for a hike. I had Liev in his little pouch, Rhen was on Josh's back in the carrier and Rease was on her own as a lone hiker. Uncle Greg and Jax came with us and he was a big help to Rease. (She did great on her own, but on the way back we were glad Greg could help out.)

Rhen was in the best seat by far. She had fun just looking around and didn't have to spend any energy to get to where we were going.

Rease and Greg were a good pair - they led us the whole way up.

We wanted to show the kids the trees that are starting to turn colors. We found this amazing red tree and had to grab a picture. Rease loved the leaves and thought they looked more pink than red.

The hike up to the lake took us about 30 minutes but it is a pretty good hike uphill. We were happy to make it to the lake. It was beautiful!

I love Rease's red cheeks - she did so great and made it all on her own!

The girls promptly started to play in the water. (I didn't get any pictures but they also found some ducks and threw their whole dinner to them. "These ducks are so hungry" they kept saying. )

Eating some dinner before it disappeared to the ducks.

We had such a fun time and the setting was perfect. Great family night activity!

Rhen's Burn

Last week Rhen burned her little hand on the iron. Poor girl. I felt so bad for her - she didn't know what to do but just cry and let me hold her. I wasn't sure how bad the burn was until the next day when I took off her bandaid and saw this blister.

Since then I have been really diligent about keeping it clean, putting neosporin and a new bandaid on it and wrapping it in an ace bandage for extra protection.

Rhen was very excited about her "special bandaid." She has been so good about keeping it on too.

I should get an after picture because now almost a week later it looks awesome and the blister is almost completely gone. Sweet little thing has been so good about helping mom take care of her burn.

Playing in the DVDs

I came home one Saturday after one of my long runs and found out that the girls had been busy making a masterpiece in the basement. A DVD grid!

They were very proud of their handywork.

Showing the now almost empty DVD shelves.
This prompted a project of going through the DVDs and finding out which were in the wrong cases (many of them) and which were lost (a few of our favorites - Star Trek, Enchanted) and which ones just needed to be thrown out due to scratches, breaks, etc. We now have organized, marked DVDs thanks to Rease and Rhen's masterpiece!

First Day of Preschool

Sweet Rease started preschool this week. She has been talking about school for months and her day finally arrived. I have to admit that I cried a little bit when I dropped her off - I can't hardly believe she's old enough for this! Good luck at school Rease!

Cheerios

We were at Chic-Fil-A one afternoon with Josh and fed Liev some cheerios. Most of them ended up on the floor, some in his mouth and he was saving just one for later... Yummy!

Joseph

I took Rease on a mommy-daughter date to see one of my favorite plays - Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the Hale Center Theatre. She loved it and we had a fun time just the two of us.

How do you eat your apples?

This is total Rhen. Doesn't eat the crust on her sandwiches and apparantly won't eat the peels of her apples.

Smart girl - she eats only the good part!

Mouthful?

We love the suckers from the Pizza Factory - these delicious kind that you see stuck in Rhen's mouth. Rhen apparantly wanted to try two kinds at once - she had a mouthful.

Swimming Lessons

This summer we put Rease in swimming lessons. She was so excited to learn how to swim without her lifejacket. She did two sessions of lessons this year and did an awesome job. She had only one other girl in her class so they got a lot of one on one time with their instructor.

Looking good in that suit girlfriend!

Candid Shots

Rease got ahold of the camera without me knowing and took some pictures of us in the car. I didn't see them until later but this is her view from the backseat of the van...

And smiling because she's so cute! (even with that boogery nose!)

Discovery Gateway

My friend Andrea came to town from Hawaii and we got together at the Discovery Gateway and let the kids play while we had some time to catch up. We only get to see each other once a year when she is here seeing her family, so it's always fun to get together!

Rease and Rhen likes these little puzzle things.

We took a minute and went outside to see the helicopter.

Rease did not want to be taking this picture, she just wanted to go back to the helicopter and play in it. She loved sitting inside and pretending to drive.

And being a passenger.

We played for a long time by the water. Of course, my kids are always wanting to play in the water no matter where it is.

Baby Liev spent the day in the carseat. There were bubbles floating around and one landed on his hand. He couldn't figure out how to get it but also couldn't keep his eyes off it.

Rease loves playing house, so this little house was perfect for her and her imagination.

And Rhen would not let these flowers go.

This is our best attempt at a picture with everyone. Liev and Andrea's baby Madison are not in the picture, but it was hard enough getting these girls to stop playing for a minute to snap a picture.

Anyway, it was a fun day together and also nice to be with old friends!

Josh Groban

My birthday present this year was tickets to see Josh Groban! For those of you who know me know that Josh Groban is one of my Hollywood crushes - mainly because his voice is amazing and I can listen to him all day long. My Josh knows this about me and knew that a perfect gift for me would be tickets to his concert and a great dinner before. So Saturday night we got a sitter and headed to one of our favorite restaurants, the Five Alls, before the concert. It was delicious as always and when we were leaving I wanted to get a picture of us in front of the restaurant. I was trying to get the sign in the picture with us but kept cutting it off just a little bit...

I took this picture and said, "Oh good I got it." Josh looked then and said, "No you didn't! Did you not notice that half my face it cut out of the picture?" I guess I didn't notice that honey, I was too busy looking at the sign!

So he took the camera and with his slightly longer arms he was able to get everything in the picture - including both of us!
The concert was, can I say, amazing! Josh Groban was a great entertainer. We were sitting straight on with the stage about 15 rows up. The cool thing was there was a smaller stage in the middle of the floor that was really close to us and he did a lot from that small stage.

We had a great night!

Together with my Josh and my Hollywood Josh - what could be better?