Sleepy Baby

This picture of Beck sleeping is hilarious because of his arms - how does he even do that while he's dead asleep?  

Hiking the Y

I have never hiked the Y!  I don't know how I have escaped it all these years, but somehow I haven't made it up that mountain.  Josh and I figured it was about time that we tried it and took all the kids along with us.  Since we were at the cabin for the weekend it was a perfect opportunity for us.  The kids were a little less than excited, mainly because they weren't sure what to expect.  I'll have to admit that I didn't really know what we were getting ourselves into either! 

Josh had Beck in the backpack and I had Desh in the baby carrier.   The rest of the kids were on their own.  So the hike is actually just a series of switchbacks that keeps going for what seems like miles and miles and is fairly steep.  We made it to the first switchback and everyone needed a break including mom.  Slowly but surely we made it up and up and up and the kids kept trucking along.  There was a fair amount of whining and complaining but actually all the kids did pretty amazing.  

 When we were pretty close to the top we found a creepy friend on the trail.  I actually almost stepped on it because it blends in so well.  We stopped and took pictures and videos of this big tarantula making its way across the trail and into the trees.  

After about an hour and a half of hiking, we finally did make it to the Y!  We took our time once we got up there and relaxed for a while.  It was a beautiful view down to the valley!  And the hike down was much easier and faster.  The kids basically ran down to the car.  

I'm not sure how soon we'll go back and hike this trail.  It may be one of those "Once you've done it,  you don't need to do it again" hikes.  I'd say we won't be back soon.  But we're glad we did it and the I'm proud of the kids for making it all the way to the top!

Leaf fight

We stayed up at the cabin this weekend and the highlight of the trip was the huge leaf fight the kids (and Josh) got in!

Roller Skating

The kids are out of school for fall break so we took a trip to Classic Skating today.  They had such a fun time roller skating and riding wiggle bikes!  

Sitting and Smiling

This cutie loves to smile and laugh and just be happy!

Nursery Rhyme Day

Liev had a nursery rhyme presentation he had to prepare for his kindergarten class.  He picked out a nursery rhyme and worked on memorizing it to present to his class.  The rhyme he decided on was "Where has my little dog gone?"  He had it perfectly memorized and when it came time to present he nailed it!  He spoke loud and clear and did such a great job!  

Craft Day

We had a craft day at Melissa's this week and the kids had such a fun time painting and coloring together!  And of course Keen found the chocolate and that's what he spent most of his time on!

Grocery shopping

This is how we roll at the grocery store...

Keen's artwork

Keen does the cutest art projects in his preschool class.  He has loved going to school and is doing so well!

Big Black Monster

Rhen has been working a lot on spelling, punctuation and capitalization in english this year.  This is a cute story she made up and worked on her english skills.  I love it!

Lost a tooth

Rease has started losing more teeth again.  She took a little break from having loose teeth but now has lost 2 more in the past month.  This one was a big one!

Bumbo

We've been putting Desh in his bumbo so he can start learning to sit up - he loves being able to look around and see what's going on.  And can't stop smiling while he's at it!

Lincoln Log House

Josh and the kids got out the lincoln logs today and decided to make the tallest house they could imagine.  They used all the big logs that we had to make this huge house.  They were very proud of their work!

Fall leaves pictures

Liev came home with this cute booklet he made about the fall leaves.  He is getting so good at drawing and writing his letters!

Canning

Canning season has come and gone already and I got a few things bottled this year.  I have quite a bit still in my storage so I didn't have to do everything this year, but I did get the few main things bottled.  We used our last jar of pickles just as the cucumbers were ready for pickling.  I got two bushels of cucumbers from a small farmers market and they were the best!  Perfect size for pickles.  I bottled about 35 jars and I'm sure we'll go through them this year.

We went and picked plums as a family one night and the kids had a blast.  I was going to make plum jam but we ended up eating a ton of them and I gave some away and didn't end up making it.  But we still had fun picking together!

And Beck kept Desh company while we were busy getting our baskets full.

I ended up picking at TON of grapes this year and made so many beautiful looking bottles of grape juice.  This is our favorite thing and we enjoy it all year long.

 And of course I bottled some tomatoes.  Beck was my tomato helper this year and loved being able to be in charge of something.  His job was to pick out the good tomatoes and wash them.  He took his job very seriously and was awesome!

So our storage room is full again!  

Motorcycle hands

Desh is such a funny little guy and has been figuring out his hands and feet lately.  He'll hold his arms up like this for minutes at a time and I think it's hilarious.  It looks like he's been riding a motorcycle for too long!

4 months

Baby Desh is 4 months old!  What?!?  We sure love our smiley, happy baby.  Oh how he has made our life better!  He is the chubbiest thing with rolls all over the place.  I can't stop kissing his cheeks.  And the kids can't get enough of him.  He has completed our family more than I ever imagined.  We love him so so much!

4 months stats from Dr. Erickson:

Weight: 15.94 lbs - 72%

Height: 25.98 inches - 85%

Head: 17.1 inches - 82%

Ice Cream Bowls

One of the many memories that I have of my grandma and grandpa Losee's house as a kid involves these same little ice cream bowls.  I don't know how many times I sat at their kitchen table with ice cream in these beauties.  I asked Grandma not too long ago if I could someday have these bowls and she said I could just take them now.  She hasn't been doing well and said she doesn't have any need for them anymore.  So we took them and I love seeing my kids using the same bowls I did as a kid!  A perfect memory to pass along to them!

Uncle Greg

Uncle Greg has been a part of our lives for as long as the kids can remember.  We met him before we had Rease and have been close ever since.  Our kids love him like he is a true member of the family.  He is moving to Seattle soon and we are so so sad to see him go =(  He came to church with us this week and we snagged this picture of him and the kids before.  Such a great picture of them all.  We love you Uncle Greg!

Grand Piano

My parents recently moved and their new house is quite a bit smaller than their big house they had.  They got rid of a lot of their furniture and one thing they weren't going to take to the new house is their grand piano.  This is the same piano that I grew up playing on and they recently had it refinished.  It is so beautiful now and I was so sad that they were going to get rid of it.  So after lots of talking and convincing both Josh and my parents, we were able to take it as part of my inheritance.  I am so so excited about it!  And I know my kids will love growing up playing on this beautiful piano! 

Tummy Time

It's not his favorite thing to do but he's getting pretty good at his tummy time!  He's holding up that big noggin pretty good.

Big Cottonwood Half Marathon

 Since Josh didn't get to run his half marathon earlier this year, I talked him into training for one more and running it with me.  So we've been training for the Big Cottonwood half the past couple months.  It has been really fun to train together even though we don't get to actually run together very often.  Most of the time we run one right after the other just to make it easy switching off with the kids.  But no matter what, we are both happy to be in shape enough to run a half marathon together!  

This is the morning of the race at about 4:00 am.  Don't we look rested and ready to run!

 We got on the bus around 5 am and were at the starting line for about an hour before the race started.  It was really really cold up the canyon and even though these little emergency blankets don't look like much, they were actually really helpful keeping us warm before the race started.  We actually knew quite a few people that were running the same race and met up with them at the starting line.  This is Josh's cousin Kristina.  She was running with her husband and we ended up finishing right about the same time as they did.

And a bunch of our neighbors ran it too!  We trained a little bit with Stephanie Flint and her sister Becky on the left.  And Aubrey and Sim Aguirre on the right have run a bunch of races together so we are glad we could get a picture with everyone!  It was really fun to see so many people we knew!

 Josh and I made a pact that we would stay together the whole race.  I'm sure there were plenty of times that he could have gone faster than I did, but he stayed true to his promise and we crossed the finish line together at 2:02.  

The course down the canyon was beautiful and such a fun, downhill run.  I was so happy with our time and with the fact that we got to do it together!  This is a moment that I won't forget!

Keen's first day of preschool

Keen had to wait patiently for his first day of school.  He saw Rease, Rhen and Liev all start school and still had to wait a couple weeks before preschool started.  But when it finally did, he was ready!  All I have to say is "Kinder Cottage, are you ready for Keen?"

Pickleball Tournament

Labor Day is here and that means scones and pickleball!  We love doing this and it is so fun to have the neighborhood come together for the morning.

Greg was our official photographer for the day and I'm so glad he was there to get a few pictures.

We had a bunch of teams again this year and added another net.  The adults played on two nets and we had about 30 teams.

And on the 3rd net we let the kids have their own tournament.  I put Rease in charge of running the kids tournament and she did amazing!  Very organized and they had so much fun being able to do their own thing.

The games were close but in the end dad and Taysan had the winning team and got the pickle platter.  We had a great time as a neighborhood!

Rhen's Rule Book

Rhen came home from her first week of school with the cute school rule book!