Birthday Girl

Rhen turned 10 today!!

I can't hardly believe she's in double digits and growing up as fast as she is! But here we are another year, another party and lots of friends and presents to celebrate with.  Rhen told me that all she wanted was an Oreo birthday with homemade Oreo cookies and Oreo ice cream cake.  That may be the easiest request for a birthday cake I've ever had from my kids!  And so delicious.  Rhen gathered a few of her favorite friends and had cake and cookies and presents before we headed to an escape room for the rest of the afternoon.  We had a blast - everyone working together to find clues, put together puzzles, figure out hints and laughing a lot to get ourselves out of the locked room.  We made it just in the nick of time!  It was a perfect 10 year old party and these 10 year olds did good!

My favorite things about Rhen at age 10:

1) Rhen is our string bean and just seems to keep getting taller and taller every day.  She loves to wear leggings and jeggings and would hardly ever be caught wearing a pair of jeans. She is the funnest, happiest and tallest girl in her class.

2) Rhen loves to crochet!  She learned the tricks of the trade from Aunt Hayley and hasn't stopped since.  She said that she is going to take over the stocking business for Hayley when she's done with it, so in the meantime is practicing as much as she can!

3) Rhen is the most honest person I know.  She can not tell a lie, even the very smallest of fibs, without feeling bad and spilling the whole story.  She wants to tell me all the details of her day and doesn't leave out the moments that she feels happy, sad, excited or even a little guilty for things that happened at school.  I love chatting with her and knowing that I'm the "the whole story."  That is a great quality to possess!  

10 year old stats from Dr. Erickson:

Height: 5'1" - 99%

Weight: 68 lbs. 13 oz. - 32%

Happy Birthday dearest Rhen!

Bowling

Josh has been out of town this week and me and the kids have been itching to get out of the house.  What better way to do that than with a good old game of bowling?! Beck and Desh loved being able to bowl a strike just by letting their ball roll down the ramp in a perfect straight line and the older kids tried to perfect their bowling technique.  In the end, we had a blast and captured a couple priceless moments on camera!

Rhen Parent Teacher Conference

Rhen's big accomplishment this term was her science project that she has been working so hard on and just presented to her class.  She did lots of research on The Water Cycle and spent lots of hours on her clay model and poster.  Her presentation to the class was spot on!  Love her and all her hard work this year!

Rease Parent Teacher Conference

As usual, we got a glowing report about Rease from Mrs. Keller.  She is doing so great in 6th grade this year and is well on her way to being ready for middle school next year.  One of my favorite things I got lately is this note from Rease that was passed on through one of the office ladies.  Melted my heart.  She is the best and most amazing oldest daughter.  

Keen Parent Teacher Conference

Mrs. Hoffer has nothing but good to say about Keen whenever we get to meet with her.  She tells us how helpful he is in class and how much he looks forward to class reading time each day when she reads to the students.  He has loved being in 1st grade and eating lunch is definitely the highlight of the school day!  We are so proud of Keen and his hard work!

Liev Parent Teacher Conference

Liev's teacher Mrs. Ashby always has good things to say about him.  He has made so much progress from the beginning of the year until now and will continue to do so I'm sure of that.  He loves to write and has amazing handwriting, does awesome on spelling tests and makes great art projects.  Keep up the good work Liev!

Early Riser

Josh and I get up early to go to the gym.  Once in a while we hear little footsteps as we're trying ever so quietly to get out the door.  This one is the main culprit.  Gosh I love him and his handsome dad!

Cabin Week

One of our favorite weeks of the whole year is here!  Cabin week at the ski cabin at Brighton.  It is seriously a dream to be able to stay here and ski in and out for 5 days with the kids.  We have a blast and look forward to it every year!  The hardest part is getting all our gear hauled from the van to the cabin, but we have lots of helpers and after a few trips we finally got settled in.

 We could not have picked a more perfect week with the weather this year.  We had lots of fresh powder every morning as it snowed almost every night we were there.  During the day we saw patches of blue sky but then patches of snow coming down.  It made for soft landings when we'd fall and beautiful clear skies when the sun came out!  I personally love having lots of soft new powder and this week was ideal for that.  

 We spent each morning skiing together and putting one of the kids in charge of each run and the rest of us would follow.  It made for some fun, adventurous runs and lots of trips to the terrain parks when the boys were in charge.  This year we brought walkie talkies with us and it was so fun to chat back and forth with everyone as we spread out over the mountain in the afternoons.  Each of us had a call sign and we used them all week to talk back and forth to each other.

Dad - Ski daddy

Mom - Scaredy Cat

Rease - Dog Jane

Rhen - Noodles

Liev - 

Keen - Micro

Beck - Slide Boy

Rease and Liev did not ever want to stop and after skiing all day, still were the last ones to come in after night skiing too!  Grammie and Papa joined us for a night and brought Desh with them to hang out with us for a little while.  He got to take a ride with Aunt Kristi on the snowboard and loved it!

 At the end of the week we gave out awards:

Dad - Bruiser award (running into Liev and taking him out at full speed)

Mom - Luckiest award (I sat in chair #1 on the chair lift)

Rease - Best call sign (Dog Jane)

Rhen - Dominance award (hiking up the mountain and skiing down in fresh powder)

Liev - Gentleman Award (helped mom navigate the trees without letting me get too far behind)

Keen - King of Splat award (wrecked in the same place twice on two different runs)

Beck - Most Unique Wreck award (ski and boot came off together)

Andy - Ramping Award (ramped all 3 jumps on My Oh My terrain park)

Kristi - Naturalist Award (Spotted a porcupine in the top of a tree)

That pretty much sums up how our week went.  Lots of adventures, a few cool wrecks, lots of improved skiing and lots and lots of memories that we will always remember!  We left the cabin with sore legs, grateful hearts and tired eyes.  Can't wait for next year!

Keen's art

 Keen makes the cutest pictures and loves to do it!  Pictures of an assortment of fruit, animals and this darling picture of his school are my favorites he's done lately.

Beck's Art

Beck loves to color and make his pictures very colorful!  This one is darling of his hand all striped and rainbowed!

The boys' job

I gave Beck and Desh the job of unloading all the protein shakes into the fridge outside.  They took their job very seriously and stacked them very neatly.  Now we are set for a while!

Sunrise

We have some of the most beautiful sunrises and sunsets where we live.  I snapped this photo yesterday as I was finishing my run and the sun was just peaking over the mountains.  And this one this morning with all the colors.  Gorgeous.

Liev's Baptism

Liev got baptized today and we couldn't be prouder of him and his decision.  He has been so thoughtful about his baptism for the past few months and asked lots of questions about it.  I know that he felt the importance of this decision and today was a wonderful day witnessing this special ordinance.  We were surrounded by so many members of both families and lots of wonderful friends that love Liev so much.  I hope he felt that love coming from all around him today and the love of his Heavenly Father as well.  

Liev has been saying that he wants to wear a suit when he gets baptized so we got him this black suit that makes him look oh so grown up (tear trickling down mom's face.)  He looks like a man all dressed and ready for this special day.

I feel so grateful to be Liev's mom and watch him grow up and make good decisions.  He's not perfect but he tries so hard to be good and has such a kind heart.  He is a friend to those around him and never says no when I need a hug from him.  I am so proud of this young man that is growing up before my eyes.  

Puerto Rico

Josh turned 40 and to celebrate we took a trip to Puerto Rico!  Sid and Dan and Dixie and Scott joined us for 5 days in the sun and we had such a fun time together.  We rented a house just on the border of the jungle and loved it.  The sounds of all the creatures at night were amazing and we felt like we were in a tropical rainforest!

One of the days we rode the ferry out to Culebra and spent the day at Flamenco Beach which in my opinion is one of the most beautiful beaches in the world!  We soaked in the sun and enjoyed being warm so much.  That night Josh and I stayed on the island and camped in our hammocks overnight.  The others headed back on the ferry and we met up with them the next morning.  We had such a fun night on the beach just relaxing and taking in the island life!  And you can't beat waking up to a sunrise on the beach.  

One of the days we hit a local spot where there is a natural water slide in the rocks.  It was the coolest sliding down the rocks and ending up in a pool of water!  And the best part is that not many people were there cause it's kind of a hidden gem.  We ate lots of good food and loved being with family.

We took a city tour one of the nights and though our tour guide was a little crazy and weird, we did have fun seeing Old San Juan at night!

One of my favorite things we did was take a snorkeling tour and we got to swim with the turtles!  Our guide was awesome and knew just the spots we could go to see lots of wildlife.  Plus she took some pretty great pictures!

We also drove a couple hours to the middle of the island to ride a huge zipline called The Monster.  We had heard of it before and I'm glad everyone was up for trying it!  The zipline is over a mile long and you basically ride face first down a huge canyon.  It was soooo awesome!

We did the bioluminescent bay one night, swam in the pool at our house, played lots of games, laughed a ton, listened to cool latin music and LOVED being there.  When it came time to leave, we didn't want to go back home to the snow and cold.  Such a fun way to celebrate 40 years of this man's life!  Love you Josh!

Choir Concert

Rease and Rhen have been going to school early on Wednesdays all year to be in the choir.  They have put in a lot of work and time and each of them had a speaking part that they have been working on.  Tonight was the choir concert and they all did such a good job!  The songs were so fun and energetic and the girls both nailed their parts.  So proud of them and their hard work that paid off tonight!  

Sledding

The most amazing thing happened today.  School got CANCELLED because of the snow!!!  I swear that hasn't happened in like 20 years!  The kids couldn't believe it and wanted to do something really fun.  So...we went sledding with Aunt Hayley and the cousins.  What better way to enjoy a snow storm than to go play in it?!  We went to a really big hill in Daybreak and just had a blast sledding and playing in the snow.  My kids could not get enough and didn't even mind hiking up the big hill just to sled down it.  There were some major crashes and white washes, but the snow was so powdery soft that it didn't stop anyone from doing it over and over.  It was the best day with awesome snow!

Liev turns 8!

Our oldest son is 8!  I'm not sure how he got so old so fast, but he is quite the boy and we loved celebrating his birthday with him!  He really wanted to go see the new LEGO movie for his party, so that's what we did.  We gathered a group of friends and off to the movie theater we went.  After lots of popcorn, treats and drinks they were settled in to watch the movie.  We had a blast at the theater and didn't even lose track of one of these 12 kids we had with us! After the movie, we went back to our house for cake, ice cream, pizza and presents.  This birthday boy is something special - we love him to pieces!

My favorite things about 8 year old Liev:

1) Liev is very kind and thoughtful, especially to me.  I love being his mom and love that way that he treats me and takes care of me.  He is always giving me a compliment on my outfit, my hair, my shoes or whatever he feels like looks good.  And he is very concerned that I am taken care of.  When we ski together, he is always the one who waits at the bottom of a turn for me to make sure I'm doing ok and that I catch up with the group.  He is my oldest son and takes that job very seriously.

2) Liev is super smart.  He had a rough start to 2nd grade with his eye injury, but he did amazing catching up on all the work he missed and staying right on level with his class.  He has passed off all his multiplication and division facts and reads like a champ.  He works hard in class and has the BEST handwriting I've seen on a kid his age - seriously so good! I can't wait to see the brains this kid is going to develop in the next few years!

3) Liev loves to do anything outside.  Loves riding his bike, jumping on the trampoline, snow skiing, hiking, running, boating, and anything else he can do that gets his energy out.  He is a bundle of fun and energy and is always up for something fun.  

8 year old stats from Dr. Erickson:
Height: 4'6" - 89%
Weight: 62 lbs. 10 oz. - 65%

Happiest Birthday to our Liev!

Keen's Rocks

Keen got a rock tumbler for Christmas and has been diligent about getting us to change the grit in the tumbler every week and counting down the days until his rocks are done.  The whole cycle takes 4 weeks to get completely done and the rocks turn out smooth and shiny and beautiful!

Rhen's Artwork

Rhen made this cool chalk art project at school this week!

And this weather/seasons art collage too.

Ski lessons

Snow skiing is our thing in the winter and we did lots of it this season.  Thanks to a bunch of snow that just kept falling and falling and some awesome ski instructors, our ski season has been a complete success!! Beck settled into the groove after his first lesson and loved his teacher Mia.  He caught the bug and now does not want to stop!  We spent every weekend at Brighton and lots of days and nights in between as well.  Some days, the snow was so good we couldn't resist just taking the day off from work and school and heading up the mountain to ski for the day.  And night skiing is always a hit with the kids so we try and get up there for some of those a few nights a season too.  All in all, we have had a blast together and the kids are getting SOOO good!  I love to see them zipping in and out of the trees, taking the jumps, speeding by me or waiting at the next turn to make sure I'm still coming.  I don't mind that I'm not near as good as my kids, I just love to see them love it and do so well at it!  It is a hoot to be up there together and we can't get enough.  Lessons are officially over, but there's lots of season left and still a ton of snow so we will be back soon! 

Big shirt

Desh put this sweatshirt on and thought he was hilarious walking around with long arms!