Christmas 2012

Christmas this year ended up being at our house.  It was really Beutler Family year but Josh's parents ended up going to Washington to spend the holiday with his sister.  So, since the Losee side was all with the in-laws, we decided to spend it at our house with just us and the kids - fun!  Then Caleb, Hayley and Canyon decided to join us since Caleb was "on call" at work and couldn't go to Idaho with his family.  And mom, dad and Garrett cancelled their trip to California to see mom's side of the family so they ended up at our house as well.  It ended up being a great group and we were excited to host!  I'm bummed I didn't get many pictures of Christmas Eve cause we had a great dinner and everything and everyone looked so pretty!  We followed a typical Beutler Family Christmas Eve with French Dip sandwiches and caroling to the neighbors.   It was great fun even though a couple in our group (Garrett, Caleb) complained a bit about the number of songs we had to sing at each house.  I told them they can make the rules when they host Christmas and we stuck with 3 carols at each house.  After caroling we headed back for the typical "Christmas Pageant" put on by ourselves.  I have to say, it's much more fun now that the little kids can be part of the pageant.  Rease was Mary (of course) with Garrett as Joseph and Papa as the donkey.  Rhen was the beautiful angel (with the bosch lid as her halo) and Liev was a shepard (Skippy Jon Jones as the sheep.)  Hayley and Canyon rounded off the group as Wise Men bringing Baby Jesus gifts (pears, a block and a spikey ball.)  Pajamas and a few more Christmas carols ended the night and the kids were off to bed to wait for Santa to come.

Lined up Christmas morning and ready to see if Santa and his reindeer really did come!

Looks like he made it!

We all had a great morning opening gifts and just hanging out together.  The kids couldn't wait to break open the newly opened gifts and play, play, play all day.  

We were lucky this year to get a winter storm on Christmas Eve that left lots of snow at our house.  So Christmas afternoon was a perfect time to get bundled up and sled down the hill.  We spend a couple hours outside and the kids had a blast!

It was a perfect ending to our fabulous Christmas at home!  Don't those red cheeks tell it all!

The Boys

I watched Canyon one day and had to go to the grocery store.  I couldn't figure out how to keep track of these 3 boys while I was there so this is what I came up with. 

Liev and Canyon had to squeeze both their legs into one leg hole each - but other than that they seemed fine.  They just had fun being together!

The Singing Tree

Grammie got this singing christmas tree this year and the kids are in love with it!  They gather around it and can't keep their eyes off it.  It is super cute to watch them. 

Nothing like the chipmunks singing "Christmas Christmas time is here!"

Christmas Card 2012

Welcome Baby Paisley

We have a new little baby niece in the family - Paisley Stephanie Losee!  She is the teeniest and sweetest thing and we are so glad she made it here safe and sound!  Congrats Justin and Steph!

Temple Square Lights

 We took a trip downtown to see the Christmas Lights at Temple Square.  It's one of my favorite things to do every Christmas and the kids had a great time.  As always, it was beautiful!

 The babies were all bundled up to keep warm. 

 Merry Christmas everyone!



Orange Smiley

Rease is the sweetest girl.  One day at lunch she tore apart her little orange and made this smiley face for me. 

So cute!

4 months

4 months old and guess what that means?  Solid foods for me.  Yep I may not look like I need more food but mom says it's time so I'm going with it.  I'm not sure what to think of it yet.  We'll see if there's anything that tastes better than this rice cereal.  I'll keep you posted.  For now, enjoy my stats:

Weight: 16.98 lbs - 85%

Length: 26.26 inches - 89%

Head: 17.1 inches - 80%

Amazing Race

This year Hayley and I had an idea to do something different for our office party.  We got dad's permission to put together an Amazing Race for the office employees and their spouses.  Dad gave us his full support (and his credit card) to put it together for everyone.  We set to work a few months early so that we could get every detail figured out.  We found a website that had the clue templates and the amazing race logo all made.  All we had to do was type in the clues and print them off.  It made it a lot easier than we hoped.  We assigned every team a team color and bought bandanas for each team member to wear.  We also made a bag for each team that had a map, race rules, and a disposable camera to use during the race.  One of the rules was that all the pictures on the camera had to be used before they finished the race - we wanted to have pictures of everyone during the race to see what went on.  All in all it was a lot of work, but it turned out great and so fun!  We had a fun time putting it together.  The night before the big day came and we were ready!

Everyone showed up at mom and dad's house at 8:00 am.  We had a quick breakfast and then got started.  We began with a trivia game that placed every team in order of when they would receive their next clue and leave the house.  The first team had 30 seconds head start then the next team would leave, etc.  The trivia game was fun - we gave each team a white board that they could write their answers on and then hold up.  The team closest to the answer got a point.  We had about 30 trivia questions and then had to do some tie-breaker questions at the end so that each team was placed in order when they would leave.

And then they were off!  It had just snowed about 6 inches the night before and that added to the intensity of the race.  We warned everyone to be careful and drive safely.

Rod and Bev were team Yellow.

Mom and Dad - Team Teal

Jason and Kari - Team Brown

Justin and Steph - Team White

Nate and Sarah - Team Royal

Austin and Kristina - Team Green

Lance and Terra - Team Red

Tyler and Kilee - Team Light Blue

Josh and Caleb - Team Gray.  We had them race together since Hayley and I couldn't race.  We promise, they knew nothing about the clues before the race!

Gayle and Amber - Team Pink.  Gayle's husband was working this day so she had her niece race with her.

Colt and Pat - Team Orange.  Pat's husband was out of town, so her son Colt raced with her.

Kyle and Shantel - Team Black

The last challenge was at the Daybreak Lake.  We had Garrett and Curtis stationed there to look over their challenge and give them a pass if they got it right.  Then they received their next clue.  It really started to snow again just as the teams were arriving at the Lake.  

The final Pit Stop was at back at mom and dad's house.  We marked when each team came in and placed them in order.  Then the teams each picked prizes according to their race time.  There were some great prizes including a 55" TV, $250 gift cards, spa treatments, a Cricut, dutch ovens, play tickets, etc.  Everyone ended up with a great prize and most of all I think everyone had a great time.  

Happy Amazing Race to everyone!  Hope you had a great time!

BYU Fan

Hi guys!  I'm cute.  I'm chubby.  And I'm a BYU Fan!

Sunglasses

Liev found a pair of the girls glasses today and decided that he was going to wear them the rest of the day.  He didn't take them off in the grocery store, at the dental office or in the car.  He was determined to keep the sun out of his eyes. 

 That's ok as long as you look this good doing it buddy!

What a mess!

Liev and Canyon are quite the pair.  They have fun playing together but they have also learned how to get into mischief together.  Their favorite mess to make is mixing the dog food and water.  The worst thing is that they are super silent so no one knows that a mess is being made until it's a big mess.  These are 2 crazy boys.



Party Time

Our little Rease is a party girl.  She is always talking about having friends over to play, planning a party for everyone or wondering what she can do that's fun.  She started telling me that she was going to plan a party for her friends and that she would plan the whole thing so I wouldn't have to worry about it.  I guess I didn't take her serious enough because before I knew it, she had handed out invitations to all her friends at school and a few friends in the neighborhood.  One of the boys in her class, Gavin, told his parents about Rease's party and that he needed to make sure and be there.  I got a call from his dad to find out if there was in fact a real party or if it was something Gavin had made up.  I let Rease go ahead with the plans for her party and we told Gavin and his dad that there was a real party.  Rease and Rhen were so excited to decorate, plan the games, set out snacks and get all the details figured out before the guests showed up. 

These are the party kids - Stella, Rease, Rhen and Gavin.  Rease had a great time planning her party and being in charge.  Next time: ask mom before planning a real party!

Cute Keen

Liev put these glasses on Keen one day.  He didn't quite know what to do with them on - just sat there and stared.  What a cute little man!

Liev

I love this boy of mine.  He doesn't have much to say, but boy is he sweet.  And he's a great eater.  Sometimes he leaves the evidence on his face, but that's okay.  I'll clean that off all day long if he'll just stay my little boy. 

Snow time

One day we were at Grammie Beutler's and the cousins were down.  It snowed quite a bit that day and the kids had a great time playing in the snow together.  Unfortunately I didn't have boots and gloves for Liev so he was stuck inside just looking. 

 He pulled the chair over to the window and he and Lella sat and watched the older kids playing.

 This is the finished snowman - carrot nose and all!



Sleeping

Keen fell asleep during tummy time.  Although he doesn't look super comfortable, he seemed to be.  He slept in this position for a while. 

Rease and Keen

Rease is a great big sister to Keen.  And a great helper to mom.  She always wants to hold Keen or  help change his diaper, she can wrap him up for bedtime, she plays with him when he's sad and most of all just loves to snuggle with him.  I know he feels the love from this sister of his!

The Bouncer

Keen graduated from the swing and is now onto bigger and better toys - The Bouncer.  Liev loved this when he was a baby and Keen seems to be enjoying it so far.  He loves that he can hold himself up nowdays. 

What a big boy!