I fell...

We were taking cookies to some friends on Sunday night. Rease's job was to grab the plate of cookies and take them to the car. All of a sudden this is how she ended up. I asked her what happened and she said "I just fell with the cookies!"

She's funny because she always seems to be falling down. I think that she doesn't pay attention to what she's doing or where she's at. She is constantly running in and out of our room and will occasionally run right into the doorjam and fall flat on the floor. She's never hurt, just clumsy.

Sick Girl

Rhen was sick last week - poor sweet thing. We were at grandma's house one night while Josh was at school and she started throwing up and wouldn't stop. Even when there was nothing left to throw up she kept trying and a little bit of saliva would drip out. She was on pedialite for the next 3 days and just didn't feel good. All she wanted to do was drink and sleep. I could tell she wasn't well because as soon as she was done drinking she would pop her thumb in her mouth and snuggle up to anyone or anything - 2 things that are so unlike her. She is not and has never been much of a snuggler (I took advantage of these sick days and snuggled my heart out with her) and she never sucks on her thumb unless she is going to sleep. So she slept a lot for the next 3 days and worked the bug out of her. This is just how she looked while she was sick - not much energy and just wanted to sleep.

Shopping

Rease has become quite the shopper. Smiths has tiny carts that Rease loves shopping with and loves to fill it with all kinds of stuff. She looks so grown up...

She found this newspaper and promptly picked it up and put it in her cart. She looked at me and said "mommy look I got my coupons!" That was a proud moment for me - already a coupon shopper!

Josh went shopping with her last week and filled her cart up with her favorite yogurts. A nice lady came up to them and said that Rease looked like she was being such a good helper and deserved a dollar - then she handed both Rease and Rhen a dollar bill! How nice! She said she loves rewarding kids that are good helpers. Rease's shopping skills are already paying off!

Date night at the mall

Last weekend we decided to do something fun and cheap with the girls so we went to dinner with a giftcard we had and then took them to the mall to play at the playland. Rease begged us to let her ride in the car so we let Rhen get in with her. It was a little tricky to keep Rhen standing up because the car was rocking back and forth but they loved it.

And on our way out we had to ride the "horsies." Since our trip to Disneyland this fall, Rease always wants to ride the carousel whenever she sees one.

Overall we had a really fun, cheap night with our girls

First steps

For the past couple of weeks Rhen has taken a few steps on her own here and there. She can stand up all day long but when it comes to actually walking, she chickens out and flops to her hands and knees. Just yesterday though I saw her standing up against the chair and all of a sudden she turned around and walked away like it was no big deal. She took about 20 steps before she finally fell. Good for you girlfriend!

Makeup

Rease loves makeup - anything that goes on your lips or eyes is makeup to her. She gets my chapstick and carries it around with her wherever she goes. One day on the way home from the gym she pulled it out and started putting it on - and got a little carried away. Yes that's chapstick all over her face and hair.

Plastic bags

I took away a plastic bag from Rhen 3 different times before I finally followed her to find out where she was getting them from.

"I just got them from the drawer mom."

Waving

Rhen has started to wave and it is so cute because she waves backwards. I guess because she sees us waving to her she waves the same way she sees it.

Such a sweetheart!

Princess and the Frog

The weekend that the Princess and the Frog came out, Rease and I went on a mommy daughter date to see it. It was Rease's first time seeing a movie in the theatre and it was a little overwhelming at first but she loved it. And the movie is darling! We had a fun time hanging out together for a few hours!

Yurt

The week after Christmas dad took Josh, Hark, Justin and Steph up to a yurt that is owned by a patient of his just outside of Heber. It looks like they had a lot of fun.

There was lots of room for them to snowshoe and explore...

Josh is, of course, trying something dangerous. Does this tree look like it is supposed to be climbed with snowshoes on?

Playing games - where's Josh?

There he is - why am I surprised that he is snoozing by the fire?

They said they had a lot of fun and promised to take us with them next time!

Christmas Day

Christmas morning. All the kids had matching pj's and aunt Hayley looks like she didn't get enough sleep.

Mom made us a delicious pancake breakfast to start the morning off right. And dad whipped up some smoothies.

Then the line-up on the stairs. Nolan and Rease are so ready to see if Santa found them at Grammie's house...

It looks like he did!

The highlight of the day for Rease - Princesses galore! She became a princess herself with her new dress and crown. She still wears it almost everyday.

And this car was a hit with all the kids. We stuck the babies in together and look how cute they are!

Nolan and Rhen managed to open one of the ornaments that had these little blue specks inside. They were everywhere and even after a few hours there were still a few of them lingering about...

That night we gathered all our talents together and had a family talent show. Britt and Chad were in charge and the rules were that everyone had to participate and there would be no complaining. We managed to scrape together a few hidden talents.

Chad and Britt did a magic trick

Nolan named all the twelve apostles

Justin showed us some new guns

Steph displayed some of her paintings

Josh and I did a Christmas rap

Rhen showed her "waving" and "saying no" tricks

Rease did somersaults and monkey jumps

Hayley and Caleb played a duet

Mom opened the time capsule from 5 years ago

Dad played the "whistle game"

It was such a fun event and I am amazed at how talented our family - I had no idea!

After the talent show we started our 1st annual Christmas Bingo. The kids played one round and then went to bed.

Then it was time for the adults to have some fun! Mom had about 50 presents and 20 gift cards/cash on the money tree with the biggest prize a $100 bill. We played bingo for about 2-3 hours and all ended up with some really fun (and funny) things. Caleb came away the big winner with the $100 and a $20 bill along with a bunch of other cool gifts. Chad and Britt ended up with a cute pink purse that for some reason Chad didn't seem to happy about having! After all the presents were gone we were given 8 minutes of "bartering" and then the gifts were final. That was the best part of all! Josh and I , after the bartering was done ended up with some great things and some cash and gift cards to go along with it. What a fun holiday tradition! We had such a fabulous Christmas and didn't want it to end. But eventually Chad, Britt and the boys had to go home and we all had to go back to normal life. Thanks for such a great holiday everyone!

Christmas Eve

Well, I know it's very late in January and I am just getting these pics up from Christmas - better late than never!

We had such a fun Christmas with the family this year. Chad, Britt and the boys were here for a week and Great-Grandma Losee spent a few days with us also. Mom and dad had a houseful of people all week but it was great to spend time with everyone.

Christmas Eve morning we all headed down to the Bishop's Storehouse and volunteered for a couple of hours. Some of us were up front helping people check out and load their groceries, some were in the back stocking and some (Josh and Caleb) got stuck cleaning the windows and shelves. It was a wonderful way to start out our Christmas celebration.

That night we got together at mom's house and had our traditional Christmas Eve. Rease and Rhen had new Christmas dresses that were so cute.
Our dinner - Hayley insisted on using the nice Christmas dishes and it looked great!

Aunt Britt read stories to the kids while we waited for dinner and the activities to start.

Grandma got out these cute reindeer headbands for all of us to wear and jingle bells to jingle as we sang Christmas songs. Rhen kept trying to figure out what was on her head.

Next the nativity scene - as Josh mentioned Mary and Joseph rode the donkey into Bethlehem which actually turned out the be a leopard instead of a donkey - who knew?

We opened gifts from our grandparents that night - all us girls got kitchen utensils from Grandma Wisniewski.

We ended the night quietly as the kids went to bed and we prepared for Christmas Day. We also snuck it quite a bit of the Wii in our spare time!