Boating

We love going to the lake as a family.  The kids have a blast playing on the beach and we all love being on the boat.  Rease has learned how to knee board and this year we bought a pair of beginner skis for our kids to start learning on.  Rease can get up all on her own and go for a few hundred yards before she falls.  We always love this family activity!

 Lots of times we take other people with us.  Our good friends, the Hammers, have been out a few times this year.

 All the kids loaded onto the tube.  You can tell that a few were not too thrilled with the idea.

And sometime they get tuckered out by the end of the day!

Our after-the-lake lunch usually ends up being In-N-Out.  What a fun summer we have had on the lake!

Just the boys

One day in the middle of this hot July we've had, the boys were all at Grammie's house. She pulled out the mini pool and the boys stripped down to jump in.  We were all laughing at them with the bare bums and tan lines.  These will be great blackmail pictures for when they're older!

Crazy Hair Rhen

Rhen wakes up with some wild hair-dos most days.  This particular day she has crazy hair and a bad attitude.  Both of those together make her look AWESOME!

Planes the Movie

We didn't have a lot of plans for the 24th of July and Josh had to work a little bit since it isn't technically a holiday for him, so we decided to take the kids to see Planes.  They love going to the movie theatre and it was a really fun cute movie to see on this special day!  Plus it's always great to have Aunt Hayley, Uncle Caleb and Canyon around!

Rhen loses a tooth!

Rhen has had a wiggly tooth for a few weeks now.  She has been wiggling on it pretty good.  Tonight they kids were watching a movie and all of a sudden Rhen says, "My tooth!  Look my tooth came out!"  Such a proud moment for our 5 year old!

2 Weeks

2 weeks old already!  Here's Beck all ready to see the doc - cute and chubby as can be.  He doesn't know what's about to happen, but he's getting circumcised in about 1 minute from now.  Poor dude.  Anyway, we love this little guy.  He's sweet and easy going and chubby.  What could be better?

2 weeks stats:

Weight: 9.77 lbs - 79%

Height: 22.05 inches - 91%

Head: 15 inches - 74%

He's a sneaker

Keen LOVES to eat.  His favorite thing to do is sneak into the pantry and find anything that is at eye level for him to eat.  Mostly it's cereal or crackers but sometimes it's more messy like this brown sugar. But doesn't he look so proud of his mess?

 What a boy!

Sweet Rhen

Rhen loves her new baby brother.  She is constantly asking to help feed him, change his diaper or just hold and snuggle him.  She has been so sweet and I love having a helper!

 This is a picture she drew of our family after Beck came home.  So cute!

The Fort

Aunt Hayley is pretty great.  Do you remember having a favorite aunt or uncle growing up?  Well I know my kids think she is their favorite!  Shhh.  Don't tell anyone :)

She was super helpful when I had Beck and took the kids while I was in the hospital.  Our boys are pretty crazy together but they love playing and having fun together! 

She decided to help them make a fort big enough that they could sleep in it.  So fun!  By boys could not stop talking about it.

It basically took up the whole room and was attached to the pillars, the couches and anything else she could use to tie down the edges.  It looked pretty sweet!

 Such fun these boys have together!

Thanks to aunt Hayley for being so great!

Our 3 boys

Liev and Keen have loved having Baby Beck home.  I constantly see them hovering over Beck and talking to him, kissing him and asking to have a turn to hold him.  It's so sweet and fun to see these boys love their new brother.  I have a feeling we are in for some crazy times ahead with these 3.  For now - we love that they love each other!

Our hospital stay

I love the stay at the hospital after having a baby.  It's so nice to get taken care of and be able to relax before heading back home to the madness.  Plus spending time with our newborn is always so sweet and wonderful.  Here are some pics of our stay at the hospital with Beck.

This were taken just about an hour after he was born.  Such a sweet little guy and he was wide awake for us for the first 2 hours or so.  We loved seeing his eyes and trying to figure out which kid he looked like most - we decided it's Keen.

And then he fell into a peaceful sleep.  We couldn't get enough cuddling in!

First bath.  He was not too happy to be plunged back into water - even if it was warm.

But now looks all clean and handsome.

Josh brought the rest of the gang the next day to meet their new little bro.  The girls of course were in love with him and were so sweet.  Liev took his turn holding him too, but after about 10 seconds said he was done.  Keen on the other hand, didn't really want much to do with him.  He looked at him laying in the bed, but did not want to hold him at all.  Hopefully this older brother will settle into his role of not being the youngest anymore!  

Overall, it was really fun for the kids to see and hang out with Beck, but I was exhausted after they left. It was a little bit of craziness!

We had our special dinner the second night and it was actually really tasty.

Dad loves getting his snuggle time in.  He is such a sweet dad and loves this new little guy.

Making funny faces.

Then before we knew it, it was time to pack up and go home.  I'm always ready to go home when the time comes even though I've been taken care of and pampered in the hospital.  Dad and Beck before we packed him in the car seat.

My sweet little boy.  Can't wait to have him home!

Josh's work sent this cookie bouquet for us.  So nice!  And a delicious treat!

Welcome home Baby Beck and hang on tight for the ride!

Beck Isaac Beutler

Well baby day finally arrived July 7, 2014.  The whole pregnancy, I never expected to make it this far - 39 weeks.  But I made it and survived!  I was scheduled to go in to Jordan Valley Hospital at 7:00 am that Monday morning.  We dropped our kids off at the Hammers house (love those guys so much!) Sunday night for them to sleep over and spend the next day with them.  Monday morning I woke up bright and early to get ready to go.  I was in the shower by 5:00 am and couldn't wait to get the show on the road!  At 5:10 the hospital called and said that they couldn't get me in right away and asked me to call back at 10:00 and see if they had room to take me.  Talk about disappointment!  So I finished getting ready and Josh and I went to breakfast at Village Inn to kill time.  I was a little worried that I would get pushed off all day and not actually end up going in at all.  We stopped at my mom's house while we waited and I took a nap to kill more time.  I finally called at 9:30 and they said they could get me in at 10:00 if I could be there by then.  Wohoo!  Off we went to have baby #5! 

I was in good spirits knowing that Baby Beck was going to be born soon!  One last look at my belly before I changed into the sweet hospital gowns that would be mine for the next few days.  

Yep there I am in all my glory!

And Josh tested out the recliners.  They are never big enough for this guy!

We had a great nurse that got me all hooked up and ready to go.  I asked for my epidural right away, knowing that as soon as I was in labor or my water broke it would all go very quickly.  Even so, it took a couple of hours for everything to get done.  Finally around 1:00 I had my epidural, my IV, pitocin working and the waiting and counting contractions game started.  My mom and sister came and hung out with us at the hospital too which was great.  We chatted here and there but mostly I was just uncomfortable waiting for it all to happen.  I get this thing with my epidurals once in a while where I feel like I can't breathe.  They say it's semi-normal for your chest to feel numb too and feel like you can't take a deep breath even though you really can.  It happened when I had Keen and it happened again with Beck.  It is awful to feel like no air is coming in with the breaths.  It's like you're passing out even though you're breathing.  So I worked through that.  Then I didn't get full relief from my epidural so every contraction I felt a ton of pressure and could feel the baby moving farther and farther down.  I told the nurse that I was hurting and she said that the anesthesiologist has just gone into a c-section surgery and wouldn't be out for an hour.  No luck getting anything stronger.  Boo.  So around 3:00 I told the nurse that I felt like the baby was really close because the pain and pressure I was feeling was really really strong.  She checked me and sure enough I was at a 9 - almost ready to push.  She called Dr. Twelves to head on over and the delivery and nursery nurses came in to get everything all prepped.  Between then and the time that Dr. Twelves came in I was just trying to breathe and make it through the contractions.  I've delivered a baby without an epidural before so I know how much pain there really can be during labor - this wasn't at all like that.  It was bearable pain, but still enough to make my eyes fill with tears every time.  Dr. Twelves came in about 3:25 and, bless the nurses, everything was ready to go.  She got her gloves and lab coat on and I started to push.  I pushed for 2 contractions and Baby Beck was born!  I remember thinking earlier that morning that maybe this baby wouldn't be as big as my other ones.  Maybe that's why he didn't come on his own - that he was just smaller and needed a little help getting here.  But as soon as I started pushing (and could feel a lot of what was happening) I changed my mind about that and knew that he was a big baby.  Sure enough.  9 lbs 1 oz and 20 1/2 inches long!  He has long legs and arms and broad shoulders.  Dr. Twelves had to help with delivering the shoulders because they got stuck on the way out.  She said to me that she is glad I got induced a week early or we would have had a 10 lb. baby.  Thanks goodness!  Overall things went great and most of all we are so grateful to have our sweet Beck here safe and sound!  

As soon as Beck was born and they handed him to me, Josh and I both said how much he looks like Keen.  Their baby pictures are so similar and they are both such big boys with big hands and feet and chubby cheeks.  We'll see what look he ends up having, but he definitely fits in with his brothers and sisters!

Beck Isaac Beutler

Born 7.7.14

3:32 pm

9 lbs. 1 oz.

20 1/2 inches

Love this boy so much!

4th of July 2014

This year we stuck around here for the 4th of July.  We hadn't made any concrete plans because we weren't sure the baby would even wait this long to come.  So finally the night before we decided that he probably was going to wait for at least one more day and made plans to go to the neighborhood parade and breakfast at Grammie and Papa's.  The kids were really excited because they got to ride their bikes in the parade.  

 Grammie helped them get their bikes all decorated and they looked super cute!  Grammie and Papa were on a tandem bike and lead the parade.   The kids had a great time zooming up the street on their bikes.  After the parade, we stuck around at the park for a while and had breakfast and a short program with some patriotic songs.  

After that we took the little kids back to the house for naptime and dad took the girls out on the lake for a canoe ride.  We have been talking about doing that ever since mom and dad moved to Daybreak but never have done it.  It looked really fun and dad said they all had a great time.

 After naps we went to the Herriman splash park to get out of the heat.  This splash park is really great and I love it because I don't have to worry about the kids.  They just play in the water and keep cool and it's fun for everyone!

 We ended the day with a bbq and fireworks at our house.  We had some friends and neighbors join us that night and it was fun to just sit and enjoy the fireworks and celebrate!  

 Happy 4th of July!  Now we can have a baby!

Rease 3rd term report card

Rease is such a good student and has loved her year as a 1st grader.  Her teacher Mrs. Spain has been really fun and helpful to Rease.  She recommended Rease to be one of two students from her class to be in an advanced learning group for math and reading this year.  She has done so well and is a great reader and has really learned a lot in math.  We are proud of our girl!

38 weeks

Well I thought I'd give an update on the pregnancy that seems to have flown by.  I was looking back at the pictures from the last few months and realized I don't have very many of my pregnant belly.  So here it is in all it's glory!  My 38 week baby belly.  I have been expecting something to happen for the past week or so but until this point I've barely had any contractions.  Finally last night I started to notice that the baby is dropping and has settled right on my bladder - wonderful.   So all the times I got up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom were pretty painful because of all the baby pressure on it.  This morning I went to see my doctor and she said I'm dilated to a 4 and 80% effaced so that's something.  I guess it could be any day now!  I am scheduled Monday to be induced so at the very most I have just 5 days left.  Hopefully it happens today though...

 All these crazy kids of ours are so excited for Baby Beck to come.  The girls are excited to help change diapers and rock the baby to sleep and the boys can't wait for another renegade to join their crew.  They are a disaster themselves, I can't imagine how it will be with one more added to the group.  Bring it on!