The Boys

Our boys are crazy.  And with another boy on the way, I know it's only going to get more wild around our house.  We love it though and don't mind the chaos most of the time!

Josh had the kids the other night while I went to a play.  I set out pjs for all the kids just to make it easier on him.  When they woke up in the morning, I noticed that the right pjs didn't get put on the right kid.  Not sure how Josh didn't notice, but somehow Liev ended up with Keen's jammies on.  18 month size on a 3 year old?  Whatever works I guess.

 Keen came across Josh's glasses yesterday.  He was so proud that he could put them on all himself.  I just love this kid.

Reading Time

Rease has become an excellent reader and loves it.  Part of her homework is that she has to read 15 minutes a day.  Even if this weren't homework, I'm sure she would do it anyway.  She takes time to read with Rhen when Rhen has a book from school.  And today I found her sitting with Keen and each of them reading a book.  Such a cute older sister!  I love these kids of mine!

Rease's report card

We had parent teacher conference and got Rease's report card this week.  She is such a good student and has really liked school this year.  Her teacher said she is doing "excellent."  She is in a group called "School of Rock" for math and reading.  It's an advanced learning group that is chosen by the teacher to participate in.  She says that it is hard but I'm so glad she is able to do it and be pushed to learn more.  We love our Rease and are so proud of her and her good grades!

Springtime?

It may not officially be spring yet, but the weather has been nice enough lately that we've been able to spend some time outside.  Hooray!

Caleb took the boys to feed the ducks.

 We pulled the bikes out of the garage and the kids had a blast riding around our cul-de-sac.

 We went to the park just down at the end of our street.  We went just as Rease was getting out of school and met her there on her way home.  Keen especially loved the slide and went over and over.  

We love this warm weather!

Sushi

Josh and I love sushi.  It is our favorite treat when we want to go out to dinner.  Lately the girls have been interested in having sushi with us.  They have tried the samples they have at costco or the grocery store and said they like it.  So we decided to take them on a movie and sushi date with us.  We ordered some pretty simple rolls for them to try.  In the end, Josh and I ate most of them and the girls decided they didn't like sushi instead.  Oh well.  It was worth a shot!

Ultrasound pics

We had our 20 week ultrasound for Baby #5 today!  It was so fun to see our little guy!  The ultrasound tech was really great and said that everything is looking good and normal with baby.  We are always glad to hear that the baby is healthy and growing.  We feel lucky to have this special  little guy coming to our home! 

Sleepy

Josh gets up at 4:30 to leave for the gym and then to work.  He snapped this picture one morning when he was about to leave.  I guess Liev got out of his bed and didn't make it farther than the stairs before he fell back asleep.  I love that his Lightning McQueen is right by his side - like always!  What a sweet, sleepy boy!

18 months

Keen is 18 months old now.  Guess what that means?  Nursery time!  And some peace and quiet for mom and dad during church!  It also means that my baby is no longer a baby.  I can't get over this kid and how much I love him.  He is such a big part of our family and adds some spunk and craziness to our days.  

My favorite things about Keen at 18 months:

1) He has started saying a few words.  Mama, dada, thank-you (tay-too), please (meese), uh-oh, sucker (cuck-cuck), baby and binkie are the main ones.

2) He is such a big kid for his age.  You'll see in his stats coming up what I mean.  But what's crazy is that he is only 4 lbs lighter than Liev is.  I took both of them in to the Dr. for their check-ups on the same day and was amazed to see that Liev weighs 34 lbs and Keen is 30 lbs.  He is a solid kid.

3) Although he is into everything and crazy most of the time, I love that about him.  He keeps me busy and I am always trying to keep track of him.  Most of the time I can find him in the pantry hunting around for food.  We love a little craziness around here!

Stats from Dr. Erickson:

Height: 34.65 inches - 96%

Weight: 30 lbs - 90%

Head: 19.3 inches - 81%

Dinosaur Museum

We got a pass to Thanksgiving Point this year and the kids have loved going to the dinosaur museum.  There are a lot of things that are too old for them to understand but also lots of things that are perfect for their ages.  Rease has been off track so this has been a perfect way to spend some long days.  I'm sure we'll spend a lot of time here in the coming months!

Liev's 3rd Birthday

Liev is 3!  I can't believe it!

We had a construction birthday party for him and had such a fun time.  He picked out a tractor cake for me to make, so I built everything else around that.  

 Construction hats for the little guests.

 All the party food.

 We had mostly family over but a few close friends too.  It was a great group and we had a really fun time with everyone there.

 After dinner, the kids played a game of pinning a picture of Liev on the tractor.  It was simple and fun.

 Present time.

 The cake.  It took quite a bit of time to make, but wasn't too hard.  And Liev was really happy with how it turned out.  I guess it looked enough like a tractor to him.

 Such a cute birthday boy!

 We had a really fun party with lots of food and mostly lots a friends around to celebrate.  

Liev is my boy.  I love this kid so much!  

My favorite things about Liev at age 3:

1) He is a jabber box these days.  Once Liev started to talk, there was no stopping him.  He blabs my ear off all day and I love it!  He also loves to sing.  When it is bedtime we always sing the same songs before he goes to sleep.  I sing "You are my sunshine" to him and he sings "Jingle Bells" and "The Moon Song" back to me.  It's our little ritual and we love that time together.

2) Liev loves green.  If you can't tell by all the green at his party and his green outfit.  He wants everything to be green; the cup he drinks out of, the plate and fork at dinner, his green shoes are his favorite, green underwear is a must, anything as long as it is green.  

3) Liev is all boy.  He loves cars, trucks, rocks, dirt, climbing, jumping, making a mess, peeing outside, riding his scooter, teasing his sisters, and all other things that are boy.  But at the end of the day, he is not too cool to give me a kiss and hug and say, "I wuv you mom."  Wuv you too buddy.

3 year old stats from Dr. Erickson:

Height: 38.7 inches - 78%

Weight: 34.17 lbs - 74%

BMI: 16 - 51%

So happy you are 3 Liev!

Liev's seat

This is Liev's favorite seat while watching a movie.  He's such a funny kid and I'm not sure why he started doing this, but this is always his choice seat.  And of course, the movie of the month is on - Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2.   Also his choice if he ever has one.   

The end of a long week

Josh had a long work trip this week and the kids and I survived without him here...barely.  This is what happened on the last day of a long week without our dad.  

I was dishing out dinner to the kids and Liev spilled his glass of milk.  At just the moment I was cleaning up his spilled milk on one side of the kitchen, Rhen dropped the whole gallon of milk that she was carrying on the other side of the kitchen...and of course it broke and went everywhere.  I had to send the kids out of the room so I didn't lose it.  

 After dinner I put Liev and Keen into the shower before bedtime.  Literally a minute after I walked out of the bathroom, Liev yelled to me that Keen had pooped.  Sure enough.

We need our daddy to come home.  Mommy needs a break.

Best of Friends

Rease and Rhen are the best of friends.  Of course, like all friends, they have their moments of arguing.  But overall they love playing together and just being sisters.  Sometimes when we stay at Grammies house they sleep in the same bed and I've found them linked even in sleep multiple times.  Such cute little sisters.  I hope they stay close friends forever!

Chasing after the ball

I took the kids to classic fun center this week and we had a blast.  I didn't get any pictures except this crazy one of Keen.  Rease and I were playing a game of ski ball and Keen just stood and watched us roll the balls.  Then when we were done, we turned around to play another game and this is how I found Keen a minute later.  I'm sure he was just trying to find the balls that he knew had gone up into these holes.  He was just following them but for some reason couldn't find any of them.  He is such a funny kid.  

Keen's haircut

Keen's hair has become unruly.  Unless I gel it and do something with it first thing in the morning, it is a scraggly mess.  It's time for a haircut, don't you agree?

 I love his hair because of the curl in it but this haircut is long overdue.  We headed to Cookie Cutters and it took a sucker, a movie and a car in hand to get Keen to forget that someone was bothering his hair.  He did good after we finally got all the distractions going.

 The final product.  One handsome devil.  

 And look!  Still some curl left!

Another tooth for Rease

Rease lost another tooth and this time she is especially proud because she pulled it out all on her own.  No help from Papa needed!  This makes 5 teeth so far.  Man, she is growing up!

The things we do...

My kids are funny.   They all have their own personality and do their own thing.  

Rhen for example, doesn't really care which way she puts on clothes or shoes.  Most days her underwear is on backwards or inside out, lots of times her shoes are on the wrong feet, and days like today her pants are just this way.  I'm not sure that many people could even put jeans on backward if they wanted to - not to mention that it seems like it would be uncomfortable.  Who knows.  But Rhen didn't seem to mind.  In fact, when I told her that her pants were on backwards she said, "It doesn't matter mom."  I guess as long as she doesn't care, I don't care.

 If you could be around my Keen for an hour you'd realize that he cannot stay out of trouble.  He is constantly into something, climbing up on tables, making a mess or trying to find something to eat.  He is a go-er.  Anyway, I guess he decided that he is big enough to play with the Leap Pads at Grammies house because he got into the bag and got it all out himself.  He even got the earphones on - crazy kid.  My life right now is spent chasing him around and cleaning up his messes.  Good thing he is darn cute.

 Rease is a gamer.  I'm not sure where she gets that from.  She always wants to be playing something and lately our favorite games to play are Spot It, War and Monopoly Deal.  She loves that she can play "grown up games."  And she is actually quite good at them all.  She has beaten me numerous times at Monopoly Deal and that's for real.  I wasn't even trying to let her win!  

 Keen again.  See what I mean?  He is a trouble maker!  But don't you just love those chubby buns!

Party of Five

Actually make that 7 counting Josh and I - we're part of the party too right?  We found out last night that baby #5 is another boy!  Wahoo!  Rease and Rhen were slightly disappointed that they aren't getting another sister - Rhen even said, "mom why do you keep having boy babies?"  But we couldn't be happier about having another crazy boy join the group.  

 July 13 - sounds like a great time of year right?  Can't wait for this day to roll around!