Real Monarchs

My little bro Garrett got signed with the Real Salt Lake B team, the Monarchs!  It is so fun and excited that he is playing on a professional team and that it is here in Utah!  Their first game was this weekend and we all went to support him.  He actually started and played most of the game too which was an extra bonus!  He played a great game and we look forward to the rest of the season to watch him play!

Easter 2015

We spent Easter at the cabin this year and had a fun time together with the fam!  Of course the highlight of the weekend is the easter egg hunt!  Fun for kids and adults alike!  

 We got home Saturday night and the easter bunny came and left easter baskets for the kids.  He's a tricky little bunny and hides them in secret places and attaches a string so the kids can follow their string to find their basket.  It's so fun for them!  Happy Easter!

Rhen's "Froot and Vethtbl Book"

Oh how I love this Rhen of mine!  She is the best!  She has learned to love drawing, coloring and writing.  She spends hours at the table working on a picture or making a book of some sort.  This is the latest one she did and I love it!  I love the creativity and also the time she put in to label each "froot" and "vethtbl" and wrote them just like they sound.  I love this age of thinking - it is so fun!

Visit from Aunt Dixie

Dixie came into town this weekend with her girls and they all stayed with us.  It was so so fun to have them!  One day we borrowed Hayley's bikes and bike trailers and took all the kids on a bike ride up to the fun park in Daybreak.  The bike ride was great except that Rease's bike chain broke on our way back.  She ended up having to ride on the bar of Gracie's bike with her.  It turned out fine but of course it was a little dramatic at the time!  Anyway, here we are with all our bikes.

We spent a good hour or two at this park.  It was a beautiful day and the kids had a blast playing in the water and on all the toys.  It was a perfect day!

 The main reason they came to town was so they could go to the women's session of general conference.  She was able to get tickets for all of us to go down to the conference center.  We met up with Stephanie Bryson a cousin on the Beutler side and had such a fun time being at the conference center together.

Stephanie is the producer for Studio 5 at KSL and took us to the studio for a private tour after conference.  It was so neat to be there and see it!  She even had them put up the green screen with the weather on it so we could pretend to be famous for a minute!  It was really great!  And as always super fun to have Dixie around.  Come visit again soon! 

Impetigo

Rhen woke up this morning with this crazy rash all over her face.  It was so interesting and splotchy in places.  She didn't feel like going to school like this and I agreed she probably shouldn't go.  So we got into the car and headed to the doctor.  Turned out to be impetigo and pretty contagious.  So she got her strict instructions to stay away from the other kids as much as possible and Dr. Erickson started her on an antibiotic.  She doesn't seem to be in much pain or discomfort but it looks pretty bad.  Poor thing!

Rease's Report Card

Rease LOVES 2nd grade and her teacher Mr. Woolf.  At parent teacher conference Mr. Woolf has such great things to say about Rease.  He said that she is a great reader and is reading at a level Q which means she's a mid 4th grade level.  He said he has even called on her to read to the class a few times.  Awesome!  He said as good as she is at reading though her real strength is math.  He said she has a mind for math and just gets it.  They are working on something called the 36 club.  It's a program to help all the kids pass off their addition and subtraction.  They have to pass each off in under 90 seconds to be able to move on to the next.  Once they have done that they do them together in under 3 minutes and that's called the Humdinger.  Rease has passed off her addition and is working on her subtraction.  I know she'll be able to do it!  He said that she is doing really well with story problems and is in an advanced math group.  We are so proud of this girl.  She really is a smarty pants!

Rhen's report card

Rhen has loved being in Kindergarten this year and has a really fun teacher, Mrs. Richardson.  We went to parent teacher conference and she said Rhen is doing a great job and is an excellent student.  She is really enjoying learning to read and we are so proud of her and all she is doing!  Keep it up Rhen!

Man Bun?

Keen's hair has become unruly.  It is so long and crazy these days.  Josh said he wants to grow it out long enough to do a man bun.  This is the best I could do and I'm not waiting any longer.  It's time for a hair cut!

St. Patrick's Day

Rhen is learning how to write and is doing so well!  I love how she writes things just the way they sound.  This is a cute little picture and story she wrote in class for St. Patrick's Day.  Love these Leprechauns!

Ready for Church

Here's Mr. Handsome all ready for church!

Field Trip with Rease

I got to go with Rease on her field trip to the natural curiosity museum.  We rode the bus together and then were there for about 2 hours.  I was in charge of 4 other girls and we had such a fun time together!  The museum is super fun and has a lot of things to do.  Then after the museum we stopped at a park and had a sack lunch.  It was such a fun day and I love spending time with my Rease!

Rhen's sixth birthday!

Our Rhenner girl is 6!  Her birthday falls pretty closely to Dr. Seuss's birthday so she decided she wanted a Dr. Seuss theme for her party this year.  She was really excited because it was her year for a "friend" birthday party.  So we got invitations out to her friends from school and the neighborhood and we gathered 25 kids into our house for her party!  It was a houseful but we had a blast!

Decorations and party food...

 Rhen's topsy turvy cake...

 And Cat-in-the-Hat cupcakes.

 We decided the best way to keep 25 kids occupied was to play a bunch of games.  One of the games we did was Dr. Seuss bingo.  They all had a ton of fun with this and there were cute little prizes for everyone when they got bingo.

 We also did a candy scavenger hunt and the kids had to follow clues to find their treasures.  It was a great game for them and they had fun running around our house and the yard.

 Present time is always the best and Rhen got so excited with her fun presents.

 Cake and Ice Cream time!

 This sweet girl is the best!

A few of my favorite things about Rhen at age 6:

1) Rhen is one of a kind.  She has long skinny legs and is such a cutie pie - and at the same time is as clumsy as anyone I know!  She always has a handful of bruises on one or both of her legs from who knows what.  She is constantly falling or tripping but it doesn't really seem to bother her.  She usually just jumps right up and continues on playing.  Her long arms and legs seem to have a mind of their own sometimes.  Josh has lovingly started calling them her "noodles" especially when she starts flailing them around.  When she gets mad or isn't happy with something I've asked her to do, she starts flipping her noodles around all over the place.  It's such a Rhen move that I can't even compare it to anything else.  It's just Rhen.

2) Rhen has a very tender heart.  She thinks of others and finds little ways to serve people whenever she has a chance.  Often times I'll find a note or picture she has drawn and left for me and it is the best thing!  She loves to take care of people, especially her dad who she loves so much!  She has been a great big sister to her brothers when she's home during the day with them.  Most days I can count on Rhen to help me out and play with the boys when I have other things to do.  She is such a loving person.

3) Rhen is a great student.  Her teacher Mrs. Richardson says she is doing awesome in school.  She has loved starting to learn to read and LOVES to color and draw.  She always wants to do her homework and keep learning.  I'm so proud of her!

We love our Rhen!

6 year old stats from Dr. Erickson:

Height: 49.41 inches - 97%

Weight: 49.6 lbs - 73%

BMI: 14.3 - 23%

Happy birthday girl!  We love you!

Cruise 2015

So we were lucky enough as an office to hit our goal last year and earned another cruise together!  We have been planning it for months and we can't wait!  We packed up and left our husbands and kids at home and this is our crew at the airport waiting to go to the Caribbean.

 We took the red eye flight to Ft. Lauderdale and got there the morning our ship was leaving.  We had most the day to just hang out so we checked onto the cruise ship as early as possible so we could start our vacation.  We ordered shirts as an office to wear and this was our motto for the year - "Work like a captain, play like a pirate."

 Our ship was the Liberty of the Seas and it was awesome.  Seriously so many fun things to do!

 We had a few hours before the ship left port so we explored the ship, enjoyed the view from our balcony in our rooms and waited to wave goodbye to land for a week.

 We had so much to do on our "at-sea" days but the thing we liked most was laying by the pool and taking in the sun.  

The ship also had a flo-rider on it and most of us tried it.  It is definitely harder than it looks.  We tried the boogie boarding style and also the surfing style.  Some caught on quicker than others, but it was for sure a workout.  But super fun!

 One of our stops got cancelled because of weather, but we did get to stop in Haiti for one of our days.  We were all so excited to be on land and be off the ship for a day.  And the island was beautiful!

 A group of us signed up to ride the zipline while we were there.  It was quite a sight to look at from the ground up but looked so so fun!  We got our gear on and were ready to go.

 We did a couple of short lines first to get the hang of it, then they shipped us up to the top of the mountain to zip all the way down across the ocean.  It was quite a sight!

 And it was a rush!!!!  The view from the top was amazing and even better on the way down!

 Our group that made it through!

 We also enjoyed some beach time on the island.  It was SO HOT!  Over 105 degrees the whole afternoon.  So we spent a lot of time cooling off in the water.  And in the shade!

We loved our time in Haiti!

 One of my favorite things about the cruise is the yummy food.  The dining room is so pretty and nice and I feel so special getting served every night.  And the food doesn't disappoint.  My favorite...Lobster  night.  We also loved the smoothies that we ordered whenever we could.  It was our treat for the week!

 Formal night is always fun too and everyone looked so great.  I love this pic of all the staff together!

 Dad and I are training for the Ogden Marathon so we got up early every morning and ran.  They had an outdoor track that ran all the way around the top of the ship so that was our place every morning.  It was so nice and refreshing to get out early and have the place to ourselves.

We also climbed the rock wall and it was really fun.  So many fun adventurous things to do on the ship!

 Always the best part is just hanging out together and goofing off just because we can!  I love all these gals!

 Thanks to dad and Dr. V for a great staff retreat and getaway!  We have such a great staff and as always  had a blast together!