The things we do...

My kids are funny.   They all have their own personality and do their own thing.  

Rhen for example, doesn't really care which way she puts on clothes or shoes.  Most days her underwear is on backwards or inside out, lots of times her shoes are on the wrong feet, and days like today her pants are just this way.  I'm not sure that many people could even put jeans on backward if they wanted to - not to mention that it seems like it would be uncomfortable.  Who knows.  But Rhen didn't seem to mind.  In fact, when I told her that her pants were on backwards she said, "It doesn't matter mom."  I guess as long as she doesn't care, I don't care.

 If you could be around my Keen for an hour you'd realize that he cannot stay out of trouble.  He is constantly into something, climbing up on tables, making a mess or trying to find something to eat.  He is a go-er.  Anyway, I guess he decided that he is big enough to play with the Leap Pads at Grammies house because he got into the bag and got it all out himself.  He even got the earphones on - crazy kid.  My life right now is spent chasing him around and cleaning up his messes.  Good thing he is darn cute.

 Rease is a gamer.  I'm not sure where she gets that from.  She always wants to be playing something and lately our favorite games to play are Spot It, War and Monopoly Deal.  She loves that she can play "grown up games."  And she is actually quite good at them all.  She has beaten me numerous times at Monopoly Deal and that's for real.  I wasn't even trying to let her win!  

 Keen again.  See what I mean?  He is a trouble maker!  But don't you just love those chubby buns!

Party of Five

Actually make that 7 counting Josh and I - we're part of the party too right?  We found out last night that baby #5 is another boy!  Wahoo!  Rease and Rhen were slightly disappointed that they aren't getting another sister - Rhen even said, "mom why do you keep having boy babies?"  But we couldn't be happier about having another crazy boy join the group.  

 July 13 - sounds like a great time of year right?  Can't wait for this day to roll around!

The Hopkinson Triplets are here!

My sister Hayley had her triplets this week!  She was 35 weeks and one of the babies was measuring a little small than the others.  So her doctor told her it was time.  He scheduled her to be induced the next day January 8.  She didn't make it that far though.  She ended up going into labor that night and had the babies at 10:15 pm on January 7.  

Millie Mae 4 lbs. 11 oz.

 Norah Jean 5 lbs.

 Pippa Gayle 4 lbs. 2 oz.

So glad these little darlings made it safe and sound!  They are all doing great.  Norah and Millie were both on c-pap machines to help with their lungs and breathing, but overall they are amazing.

Skiing

Josh took the girls up skiing for their first time and they were more than excited.  He put them in a ski school class while he skied on his own.  But he said he ended up watching their class more than he actually skied - he loved to see how they were doing during the day.  This is them all dressed up and ready to hit the mountain.

 Rhen and her teacher.  She said she did really good even though she was one of the youngest ones in the class.

 Rhen had a lot of fun in the morning but decided that she didn't want to go back after lunch.  She was tired and I could tell she needed a break.  So I took her home and she napped the rest of the afternoon.  I'm happy she did a half a day though and didn't get burned out - she is already excited to go again!

 Rease stayed the whole day and was amazing.  Josh said he watched her the last half of her afternoon class and she was doing really great.  Then after class was over Josh took her and she went on a couple runs before the day was out.  She can stop on her own and seemed really comfortable with all that she learned during the day.  What a girl!  She is already planning another trip with dad!

Good job you two girls!  

Chubby boy

This chubby kid of mine is the best!  I can't get enough of his big cheeks and pudgy legs.  This boy LOVES to eat and will eat all day long if I let him.  But I think the thing he loves most of all is his sippy cup full of milk.  I'm constantly refilling it and he carries it around wherever he goes.  Love this boy!

Popcorn Mess

Sometimes I let the kids have popcorn and treats when it's a movie night.  This particular night, I let them eat it in the family room while watching their movie.  What a mess that turned out to be!  But they look so happy making a mess, don't they?  Crazy kids!

2014 Calendar - Made by Rease

Rease made this adorable 2014 calendar at school.  It was my Christmas present and I LOVE it!  I'm hanging it up for all to see because I think she did a great job on it.  So cute and creative!

Fun with the cousins

We all had such a fun week with the family here and the kids especially loved playing with their cousins!  

 One of the days during the break, the men took all the kids to the church to play while the girls got to stay home and work on some craft projects.  We had a great time and it looks like the kids had fun too away from their mommies!  They took over the wiggle bikes and those always make for some good fun!

 Looks like even the dads joined in on the fun!

We decided to try and get family pictures while everyone was together.  It was a little crazy with all the young kids, but actually we got a few that turned out good.  

Justin's Family

 The Beutler Family

 Chad's Family

 Hopkinson Family - with triplets coming soon!

 And Garrett the single one...

Grammie and Papa with all the grandkids.  11 grandkids ages 6 and under.  It's craziness sometimes!

The Losee siblings.

 The whole family.  Such a great week together! 

Christmas Bingo

Christmas Bingo is one of our favorite family traditions.  We start out with the kids bingo which they think is pretty great.  (The markers for the cards were m&ms and I think a lot of those got eaten during the game.)  The kids had fun trying to get bingo and Grammie had a present for each of them when they did win.  (Don't tell them, but we rigged it so that there was only one winning card in the group.  We rotated that card every game so that each kid ended up winning once.  Shh...they'll never know!)

 After the kids went to bed, it was adult bingo time.  This is the loot that we were after.  There were over 60 gift bags and probably about 20 giftcards and money boxes hanging on the money tree too.  It is intense!  Bingos come quickly and then you have to spin the wheel to see what you do with the gift you choose.  Options are: gift up for grabs, keep gift, spin again and no gift.   Those no gift rolls are the worst!  I got 2 no gifts right in a row and it was painful!  But in the end, it's all fun and games and we had a great time!  Lots of laughs and a few little heated moments of stress, but everyone ended up with great gifts.  

Thanks to mom and dad for making this such a fun tradition!

Christmas Day 2013

Christmas morning this year was super fun.  Our kids are getting old enough to be really excited about Santa, presents and everything magical that comes with waking up on Christmas morning.  

 We got to bed pretty late on Christmas Eve so Josh and I actually had to wake our kids up at 7:00 am on Christmas morning.  They were excited to hear that Santa had made it to our house.  

All lined up at the top of the stairs and waiting to come down.

 One at a time - oldest to youngest - they came down.

 Then it was a frenzy of presents, wrapping paper, toys, bows, candy and fun!  Josh and I really made an effort this year to cut back and get the kids each a couple of nice presents that we thought they would really like.  It turned out being a great day and the kids had fun seeing what Santa and mom and dad had brought them.  Rease ended up with Heely's, Rhen got a large jewelry box filled with necklaces, bracelets, rings and such, Liev got a basketball hoop and Keen got a plastic rocking horse.  They all seemed so excited!  

Merry Christmas!