Beck

I love this picture of Beck!  He is such a fun, happy boy and this just captures his personality!

Liev's preschool pictures

Liev has loved being in preschool this year and has had such a great year with Miss Melanie!  We just got his school pictures back - he looks so cute and grown up!

And this is his class.  Somehow they had a class of all boys this year!  So fun!

The trampoline

"Yah mom we took all the toys out of the toy room and dumped them on the trampoline.  So what?"

"Ok mom you made us clean up the toys, now we put bucketfuls of dirt all over.  Is that bad?"

Volleyball

Rease just finished her 2nd season of volleyball.  She has loved playing and is getting more confident every day.  I keep telling her that after I have the baby I will take her over to the church and practice with her.  She really wants to get her serve down.  For now though she is doing great and having a ball!

Baby Desh update

Well we all know that I have big babies.  Dr. Twelves has been keeping track of Baby Desh for a couple months now because he has that kidney thing she wants the keep an eye on.  Well, on top of that she is also now keeping track of how big he is.  I had an ultrasound done again today and she said that he is measuring right about 38 weeks - 3 weeks ahead of what I am right now!  She talked to me a lot about the chance that I may have to deliver him c-section.  She said the problem with having a big baby is not usually that the head doesn't come out, it's the shoulders that are the problem.  And she said at that point in the delivery if the shoulders get stuck then it's really a scary situation.  So she wants to avoid that if possible.  She wants to do another ultrasound in 2 weeks and remeasure him and talk more about the delivery then.  I really really do not want to have a c-section!  On my 6th and last baby that is the last thing I want to happen.  Dang.  She also told me that for the next 2 weeks until I see her again then I need to go on a diabetic diet - no sugar, desserts, soda, etc.  What!!! That's about the worst thing to spring on a pregnant woman.  Plus my birthday is coming up and I really really want to have some birthday cake!  We'll have to see what I can do about that.  Until then, I guess we just wait and see how big this baby gets before I deliver!  

Here are a couple cute pics of Baby Desh I got today.  You can totally see his chubby cheeks already!

Coloring

My kids are totally into drawing and coloring.  I love that they can spend hours at our table with their crayon sets.  Liev has gotten so good with his letters too and loves to write everyone's names on his pictures.  

 Beck has even gotten into it and likes to see what shapes his markers can make on the paper!

Mother's Day

 One of the best things about being a mother is getting homemade cards/pictures/notes from my kids.  This Mother's Day was pretty great because I got lots of homemade things from all my kids.  I am feeling pretty pregnant and tired these days so I got to relax all day and got so many nice cards and pictures to look at.  I love all my kids and my husband so much!  

We also celebrated the May birthdays today while everyone was over and since it is my birthday month I got to choose the cake.  I chose a vanilla bean cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory.  So yummy!  And might I say I am looking pretty hugely pregnant!  One month to go!

Thanks so much for making this Mother's Day wonderful!

Just watching the game

This is a very typical evening around our house these days.  We love watching the Warriors play and since it's the playoff there have been lots of games on lately.  It's my favorite pregnant pastime and the whole family has gotten into the games.  It's been so fun!  I love this pic of Josh and Beck just watching the game.  What a cute duo!

Potty break...

Someone please tell me that this is what your little boys do?  It can't just be my kids!?!

Hangin with Dad

Josh and the girls had a day out together today - they were getting prepped for Mother's Day tomorrow and had to get some secret things done.  Of course, it's all fun and games when they're with dad!

Headband

The funny thing about this is I think she's really asleep!

Rhen's Field Trip

I was able to go with Rhen on her field trip to the Aquarium this week.  We had a great time and it was my first visit to the aquarium so it was super fun.  I had 5 cute kiddos in my group and we loved seeing all the different fish and animals there.  After the aquarium we stopped at the park and had lunch before we went back to the school.  I am so glad Rhen invited me to come with her!

Climbing

This may not look like anything but an ordinary tree - but if you look close you can see one of my children in that tree.  I was at the park waiting for Rhen to get done with soccer practice and didn't notice that Liev had started to climb up the tree.  Before I knew it he was calling to me from the top!  He is such a climber and has no fear at all!

Lincoln Logs

Betsy and her kids came to stay over last night and the kids all the such a good time together.  These 4 built this huge lincoln log house and were so happy with their creation!

Skip-Bo

I recently taught the kids how to play Skip-Bo.  This is Keen's version of the game.  

Liev's Bike

Liev just recently learned how to ride his bike and he is so good!  He has loved riding around the neighborhood and I'm sure he can't wait for a summer full of bike riding!

Packing boxes

We've been doing lots of packing at my mom's house lately.  I can't really do much moving since I'm sooo pregnant but I figure I can help pack.  So I take the kids over and they all help too.  I found Rhen and Beck playing in these boxes and thought it was so cute!

The boys' towers

Our boys are boys through and through.  Love to climb, hit, jump, kick and build anything.  I snapped some pictures of a couple of their creations lately.

The boys love to play games.  We played a game of Quirkle together then decided to use the pieces to build a cool tower.  They are so proud of their building!

They helped me clean out the storage room.  I had them take all the diapers out and we are moving them upstairs to the baby room.  As they carried each of the packages out they stacked them into this huge tower.  They are such funny boys!

Moving

I love this picture of our girls!  My parents are in the process of moving and Rease and Rhen have been over there quite a bit to help them back up boxes.  My dad sent me this picture today and said that they had been working so hard!  I love them so much.

Synergize!

One of the requirements for the Brilliant Bobcat for Rease is to make a poster about one of the 7 habits and teach it to a group.  Rease chose Synergize and made this darling poster about it and taught our family.  She did a great job on it!

Big Brain Loft

Josh has been wanting to do something with the loft upstairs and has talked to the girls about turning it into a study/reading area.  He wants to call it the Big Brain Loft.  They loved the idea and the three of them started coming up with ideas for it.  Josh made these two huge bulletin boards to hang up a world map and a US map.  He wants to mark the places we've been or read about or places we want to go.  These maps are the perfect way to do that.  I also found this huge chair and we loved the idea of having all the kids sit around the outside of it while we read at night.  So this is the final product of the Big Brain Loft!  It turned out great and I look forward to many things learned up here!

Ski Helmets

It's the end of the ski season and a perfect time to buy new equipment for the boys who will start lessons next year.  We found these awesome helmets and goggles for both of them and they were so so excited!

Look out everyone!  These two are going to tear up the mountain!

Trip to Reno

We decided that we wanted to take one more trip to Reno to see Josh's parents before I get too pregnant to travel and before the busy summer approaches.  So we packed into the van and headed out to see them.  The kids were super excited for a road trip in the new van and we were all excited to see Grammie and Papa again!  

We left Friday and it took us a while to actually get on the road.  And once we finally did, it was time to stop for dinner.  So we made it all the way to Magna and then stopped at Taco Bell to eat.  Everyone's in their PJs ready to sleep as soon as it gets dark.  At least that's what mom and dad are hoping for!  

We got to our hotel late Friday night and carried all the sleeping kids in and crashed ourselves.   After a long late drive we were happy to have a bed to sleep in! Saturday morning we got up and picked up Elder and Sister Beutler and took a drive to Lake Tahoe.  It was a beautiful drive even though it was overcast and sprinkling a little bit.  We found a picnic spot near the lake and had lunch.  

The kids had a great time climbing on the rocks and pretending they were flying!

They sure love their grandpa and grandma and we were so excited to be with them again!

After the lake we headed back to the hotel for swimming and nap time.  Later that night we met up with our good friend Anita and had pizza at this yummy pizza place.

We were all crowded into one hotel room so the kids were stowed away wherever we could find a place.  Luckily there was a fold out couch so the boys slept on that while the girls slept on the floor.  They wanted to jump in bed with dad before they went to their own corners to sleep!

Sunday we went to church before we headed back home.  It was so fun to see Elder and Sister Beutler doing their work and loving the people that they serve.  We had such a fun time being with them!

Knighting Ceremony

I am so proud of Rease and how hard she has worked at her math this year.  She is part of the math fact ninja group and also was able to be a part of the "Knighting Ceremony" that recognizes those that have passed off all their math facts.  There were only a handful in the whole 3rd grade that were part of this and that have passed off their multiplication facts.  And there were very few that have passed off both multiplication and division and Rease was one of those very few!  She really has a mind for math and it seems to come pretty quickly for her, but she has really worked hard too!  This was a fun ceremony for her to be a part of and have the rest of the school there to cheer them on!  Way to go Rease!

Rhen's family book

Rhen loves to draw and color and made this darling book about our family at school.  I love it!