Rhen has started wanted to do everything herself - put shoes on, get dressed, brush teeth, etc. She has recently started putting her own hats and gloves on as well and her hats usuallly end up covering not only her head but most of her face as well. The funny thing is that she puts in on and then leaves it that way and just keeps her head up so she can see out of the little slit that isn't covering her eyes.

She can ride her bike this way...

Put make-up on...

And ride bikes some more.

Who really needs to see where they are going anyway?

Locked in

We got Josh some new luggage for his birthday since he will be traveling a lot with his work. Not only did he like his present, the girls loved it too. I wasn't paying attention to what they were doing and then Rease called to me and said, "look mom we fit!" Perfect fit for the two of them!

Then Rhen thought she was funny and locked Rease inside...

If you could see Rease's face you'd be able to tell that she didn't think that was so funny.

These two girls are so fun!

Binky?

Now that we have a baby coming to our house, the girls have been finding lots of new "toys" to play with. I walked into the room and found Rhen like this...

She thought it was so fun to suck on this binky the rest of the afternoon. The funny thing is, she never used a binky (she sucks her thumb instead) but still knew just what to do with it. We are all getting ready for baby!

The girls

I love these little chicks of mine!

Rhenner

I don't really know what to say...

She's one of a kind.

Christmas 2010

We spent Christmas with Josh's parents this year. We had the traditional Christmas Eve festivities which I always love. French dip sandwiches and caroling are always on the list of things we do on Christmas Eve.

We all wear Santa hats to go caroling - Rease modeled her hat for us.
Both the girls were excited to go sing to neighbors and friends. We had a few practice rounds before we left and I think we sound pretty good if I do say so myself! We went to about 5 different places and saw some old friends and family members that we don't get to see too often. It was so fun to visit with them and share the Christmas spirit!

After caroling comes new jammies. The girls had matching ones this year and wanted a picture of their jammies in front of the tree. They were ready to get to bed so that Santa could come!

Christmas morning is always crazy with presents, stockings and candy everywhere. Crazy enough that I didn't get very many pictures of the girls opening gifts. But I did get a picture of Rease with a couple of her favorites.

Barbie and her car.

And Rapunzel and the prince. She has been asking for this since we saw the movie so luckily Santa came through this year!

Rhen got these little trains in her stocking. She doesn't look like she's happy but believe me, she is!

Overall we had a great Christmas. In the middle of all our crazy schedules this holiday season it was so nice to spend time with family and celebrate (and relax) for a few days together!

Temple Square Lights

We try to make it downtown at least once during the holiday to see the lights and watch the nativity. We also have made it a tradition to ride Trax up and back - it's fun for the kids and we beat the holiday traffic! This year was hard for us to find a spare minute to get up there but we finally made it a few days before Christmas. We left just as I got off work and headed north. Rhen and Rease loved the ride up.

Once we got there we checked the Trax schedule to see how much time we had. It ended up that the next train was leaving in 40 minutes and then the next one wasn't for another hour. We decided the quicker the better since it was cold and we forgot the stroller. So we headed straight for the nativity. Of course we had to get a picture with the temple and lights in the background first.

After the nativity we had a few minutes to walk around the temple and see all the lights.

The girls kept oohing and ahhing at all the different colors of lights. And they thought this big Christmas tree of lights was pretty cool.

We made it back to the train with just a couple minutes to spare. It was a quick trip up and back but we saw all we wanted to see and didn't get too cold while we were at it! We love this part of the Christmas season!

Christmas presents from Grammie and Papa

This year was Beutler year for Christmas so Grammie and Papa and Uncle Garrett brought our presents to us a few days before. Rease and Rhen were so excited to open their presents - especially because it wasn't even Christmas morning yet!

Rease opening her huge present...
Ta-daa! A bike!

Bikes for both girls - boy were they excited!

And since it's obviously too cold outside for the girls to take the bikes outside, I've been letting them ride them in the house on our wood floors. They love it and it keeps them entertained while we wait for summer to come!

Life at the Beutler House

So where has the time gone? I realized that it has been far too long since I have posted anything and tried to think back on what has taken up our time lately. This is literally the first time in a month and a half that I have had a chance to sit and relax and think about putting something on the blog. So I will try and catch you up on our life and happenings.

First of all, since it is Christmas time, all my spare moments have been taken up making our family book. It takes me about 2 weeks to get everything from the blog into the book and formatted just the way I want. So since our Puerto Rico trip, that's what I've been doing and I finally got it done, ordered and on the way as Christmas gifts for our parents. It is one of my favorite things to make because as I look back on the past year of our life, I can't believe how much has gone on and how much the kids have grown. It's so fun for me to put it together.

Secondly, Josh started a new job this month! After 13 months of looking, interviewing and looking some more, we finally found a job that fits perfectly for our family. The company is in Midvale (so we don't have to move!) and Josh is very excited about the opportunity and the company. Most of all, he is so glad to be back to work. What a crazy year we have had with him being home with the kids and at the same time looking for a job - not an easy task. But we feel very blessed to have found this and most of all grateful for the years worth of moments that will make us always remember this time of our lives. The crazy thing about Josh taking this job now is that this happens to be the only time this whole year that I have had steady work. I have been temping all over northern Utah for the past 11 months and just happened to have 2 girls ask me to work while they are on maternity leave in December and January. So all of a sudden, I am working 4 days a week and no longer having to temp - which is awesome! So Josh started his job December 1st which was also the same time I started working the maternity leaves. We talked about it and thought long and hard about how to work it out with the kids. We always said that once Josh starts working then I would be home. But with the commitments I had made to these 2 offices, we felt like we needed to stick with it for the next 2 months and then I would be able to officially be home again full time. So thanks to our wonderful moms (Grammies), neighbors, friends, cousins and whoever else is willing to watch our kids, we have both been able to work and still have our kids taken care of during the week. Let me say that it has been exhausting. Getting the kids up and ready to be dropped off wherever they are going for the day before 7:00 when I have to leave for work, has been quite an adventure. Luckily they are always happy to be going somewhere new and playing with new kids everyday - they think it's a party! Once again, we feel like we are very blessed to have such great people around us who are willing to help us out! Our girls are amazing too and we love having a few hours to hang out at night once we are home from work.

Also a quick update on baby Liev. My official due date is February 16th - just less than 8 weeks away. I have been feeling good and have had enough energy to work full time which has been a blessing for us - this baby has made it easy on me! So I saw Dr. Smith on Wednesday for my 32 week appt. Everything is looking good and I am measuring big as I always do. He did an ultrasound this time to double check everything and said that he is averaging about 33 1/2 weeks with all his measurements. We are happy to be having a healthy boy - no need to worry about small kids in this house! I asked him if we could be induced again this time around and he said, "Yep, lets set the date!" So he pulled out his calendar and said that he can cheat by up to a week if we would like (of course we would like!) So I happily agreed and we set my induction date for Wednesday February 9th! Wahoo! Best news ever - a whole week early! So now we are on the official countdown and I really need to start getting ready for this baby. I told Josh that I feel like I haven't done anything for this boy yet - no clothes, no bedding, no nothing yet. The only thing I have been doing is stocking up on diapers and formula. Thanks to coupons and good sales, I have been able to get both for next to nothing. I feel good that we are taken care of in this department at least!

Anyway, life is good and busy this time of year. The girls are excited for Christmas to be here and hoping that Santa will find them at Grammie Beutler's house this year! Hope all is well with everyone and that this season is bringing happiness and joy to you all!

Puerto Rico - Day 8: Leaving Beautiful PR

Saturday morning we woke up to a rain - I guess they were right about the tropical storm and it rained most of the morning. We were lucky that we had a week of perfect weather and it only started to really storm on the day that we left. We spent most of the morning just packing up and cleaning the house. Mom and dad left early in one van to take Grandma and Grandpa Iverson to the airport. So the 7 of us kids squeezed all our luggage into the other van and had a full load for the drive to the airport. It actually worked out okay because we had all just brought carry-on luggage (so we didn't have to pay extra) so the suitcases fit fine in the back of our van.

We got a few pictures of the house before we left.

Justin was making fun of us girls during the week because he says we always "cheese" for every picture. So I gave him my best frown and asked if that's how he wanted us to look for the pictures. Hayley was in love with the gates on the driveways and windows on all the houses around. She got a bunch of pictures of some of her favorites. They actually were really cool and fun looking.

And we loved all the colorful houses in our neighborhood.

This was the road our house was on - Calle 2. We were cracking up at Caleb because everytime he'd get out of the van or come outside from the house, his glasses fogged up. On our way out of town, Josh was nice enough to stop and let Hayley and I get a picture of our favorite trees. These "flat trees" as we called them were along one of the roads that led to our house - so we passed them at least 25 times during the week. We thought they were awesome cause they were flat tops.

This is the map that our car used for the week. We were not fortunate enough to have a GPS in our car, but we managed just fine with our little map.

We loved these flags along one of the bridges headed to the airport. Every other one was an American flag and then a Puerto Rican flag.

We stopped at a gas station to fill up on our way to the airport. Garrett ran inside and grabbed a few treats to share with everyone. He says these little hippos were one of his favorite snacks on the mission. He bought some for everyone and we snacked on them while we were waiting for the plane.

Dad was acting very excited to try his treat. In reality they are really delicious!

Garrett also tried to get us to taste this drink "Malta." I smelled it and decided that I was not even going to taste it. I don't think anyone else did either.

It was bittersweet as we were boarding the plane to leave beautiful PR behind. We had a fantastic trip and loved all the moments and memories we made. But one the other hand, we were headed home to see our girls - and that made me more excited than anything!

Thanks to Garrett for serving a great mission and allowing us to share in his home of the past 2 years. And thanks to the family for a great time and great memories that will last forever!

And that's our trip, in a nutshell!