Hawk Hoedown

Butterfield Canyon had a Hawk Hoedown to celebrate something they had all earned at school.  The kids were really excited to go so we took our friends Izzy and JT with us.  It ended up being kind of a flop of a party, but the kids were excited to go and dress up like "cowboys."  And we got this cute picture of them before we left.  We love our school and feel like the kids have great teachers this year.

Rease

This is kind of a random picture of Rease that I took for no particular reason.  And I'm not sure what is up with this smile of hers.  But I just wanted you all to see how big my girl is getting!  7 years old and in second grade - it hardly seems real that I have a girl that big!  She is so darling and has been so fun lately.  She really loves to help me with Beck and is always offering to change his diaper or his clothes.  She is a great oldest sister and I love having her as my daughter!

Beck's diaper

Well we pulled out the old plastic diapers that Grammie gave us a few years ago.  She had some saved in her storage from when we were kids and finally divided them up and gave them to all of us to use.  They are old, plastic and gender specific but they still work.  I only had one package of size 2s to use up so I decided to use them with Beck.  They are girl diapers with pink roses and balloons.  He doesn't care.  He's confident enough in his manhood to be able to handle it.

The Hopkinson Kids

Just an update on my sister and her cute kids!  The triplets are 8 months old now and getting so big and cute.  They can hold their own bottles now so it makes eating time much easier!  Norah is a chunk and Pippa is just a tiny little thing.  Millie just hangs out in the middle of the two of them.  But they are all doing so good and we love having them around!

 Canyon is best buds with my boys.  They play together almost every day and it is super fun for them.  And as you can see, they get into their fair share of mischief.  Liev is constantly taking his clothes off and today Canyon decided to follow suit.  They are crazy fun kids!

Ninjas

Liev and Keen have recently become interested in swords, knives and ninjas.  They always stick things in their pockets or in their pants and pretend that they are "ninjas with swords."  I thought this was hilarious.  Liev got the plunger from our vitamix and used it as his "sword."  This is the only place he could put it that it would stay.  Josh could not stop laughing when he took these pictures.

 And this day the boys decided to use real knives to play ninjas.  They got into my canning stuff and borrowed these knives to play with. Josh was watching the kids while I worked this day and these are the pictures he sent me.  Nice.  

Crazy Hair

Keen has some crazy hair.  It's really cute sometimes because it's thick and curly.  But lots of times it's just a mess because I don't do anything with it.  Most days when he wakes up it looks something like this.  It's pretty wild bedhead!

Museum of Natural Curiosity

We have loved having our pass to Thanksgiving Point this year.  The new children's museum is super fun with lots of things to do for the kids.  We have been a few times and this time we took Hayley and her kids with us.  We had a blast and there is even stuff for the triplets to do while the other kids play.  Such a fun spot and a good break for the kids!

Painted faces

These two boys are pretty cute I admit.  But they are pretty sneaky too.  I know I am in trouble when it gets really quiet in the house.  That means trouble.

 This week it was the stamp pads.  

I could just spank their bums.  What little devils!

2 Months!

Hi guys!  I'm two months old today!  If you can't tell, I've been growing the past couple months - especially my head.  I'm very sweet though and for some reason mom always wants to kiss me.  I get a little tired of her kisses sometimes, but I guess she just loves me or something.  I smile a lot now - that seems to make the grown-ups happy.  They're always talking to me in this weird baby voice and when I smile at them, they just keep doing it.  It must be some sort of game grown-ups like to play.  Kinda weird.  I love being the baby of the family cause everyone takes care of me.  My brothers love me and my sisters always want to hold me.  That makes me feel good.  I sleep all night which makes me and mom happy.  Overall, life is pretty sweet.  I get held, fed and changed all day long.  Basically I get anything I want.  That's what I get for being so cute I guess. 

Dr. Erickson says I'm pretty awesome too.  Here are my stats:

Weight: 13.34 lbs - 83%

Height: 24.02 inches - 83%

Head: 16.4 inches - 84%

School Pictures

The girls came home with their school pictures today.  I almost started to cry when I saw them because they look so grown up!  I can't believe I have a 5 and 7 year old.  These two girls of ours are so sweet and are doing so good in school.  We are so proud of our beautiful girls!

Tummy Time

We've been working on tummy time with Beck.  He doesn't love it but he is getting pretty good at it.  He has such a large noggin that I think it's hard for him to hold it up.  He's getting some good neck strength though and does pretty good for a little guy!

Scones and Pickleball

We have a really fun neighborhood and there are lots of activities that go on throughout the year.  We decided to add to the activities and throw a pickleball tournament along with scones on Labor Day morning.  Andy helped us make these cute invitations to deliver to the neighborhood. 

 Another family helped us with the scones and we had a really great turnout!  It was perfect weather.  The scones were delicious.  And the company was amazing!

Josh has been wanting to get into pickleball  all summer  He decided it was time so he ordered a net and paddles online and painted a court on the street right in front of our house.  It turned out perfect!  So many people were really excited about the tournament.  We made it so that the teams had to be boy/girl teams.  The prize was a bottle of homemade pickles and the "pickle platter" which will be passed from winner to winner each year.  The "dream team" which was Karson and Savannah won the tournament this year.  It was such a fun day and so great to have the neighborhood all get together!

Cousin time

We love that our kids get to see their cousins so often.  It is so fun for them to all get together and play.  Today I had all the boys in our car and took them all home to play together.  Such a fun little group of boys and I know we have lots of years of fun ahead of us!

More Beck

More pictures of our little guy who just keeps growing up!  And a few things he's doing right now at 1 1/2 months old.

Beck loves being swaddled in his miracle blanket.  He started sleeping through the night at 5 weeks!  He's my earliest to do that - bless him!

Unfortunately Beck doesn't like his binkie.  I keep trying to give it to him but he's never interested.

Beck loves to eat.  He's eating 6 oz now and just drinks his bottle dry every time.

He is a smiler!  Loves making people happy with his darling grin!

He is seriously such a chill and sweet baby.  Loves to just hang out with whoever is holding him.  

We cannot get enough of this boy!

Rhen's 1st day of school

Rhen started a week later than Rease because they did Kindergarten assessment tests the first week.  She could not wait until it was her turn to go to school.  We also met her teacher at back to school night and she had each of the students make an owl that told about themselves and bring to school to be hung up in the classroom.  Rhen's turned out super cute.

 She is all ready to go!

 She insisted that she wanted to ride her bike to school like the other kids but told me I could meet her at the school to take pictures of her first day.  So I sent her and Rease on their way and I drove the other kids in the van.

 I could tell she was a little nervous but she was also really excited.

 Two of her little neighbor friends are also in her class so that makes it fun!

 This is where the kids all line up when the bell rings.  Mrs. Richardson came out and had all the kids blow their parents a kiss and then they marched into the school.  Such a big girl!

She said she had a great first day of school.  This is the picture she drew of herself on her first day of school.  She is getting so grown up!  Happy Kindergarten Rhen!

1st day of school

The girls have been super excited to start school.  We are on D track again this year so we got to start later than the other kids.  It has actually been perfect since Beck was just born to have a little extra time before this kids went back to school.  But it's time and the girls are really excited about their teachers.  Rease is in Mr. Woolf's class and he seems like he will be really fun.  We went to "Back to School Night" a few days ago and she got to meet him and see the classroom.  Mr. Woolf sent each of his students this letter before school started and welcomed them into the "Spy Academy."  Rease is so excited to see what that's all about!

Ready to head to school on her first day.

All the kids wishing Rease luck on her first day of school!

Good luck Rease!  We know you will love 2nd grade!

Keen and Caleb celebrate!

Keen has a special birthday becuase he shares it with Uncle Caleb!  Even though we had a party for Keen, we also got to celebrate with the family for Caleb and Keen together!  Uncle Caleb chose a delicious cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory.

 And he even let Keen blow out the candles!

 We love to play games when we get together with the family.  This time the kids decided they would give Ladder Ball a go.  They were all so cute trying to get the balls to land on the the ladder. 

Happy Birthday Uncle Caleb and Keen!

Photo strips

My cousin Andrew got married and these cute photo strips were part of the reception.  I think technically we were all supposed to have just one set of pictures, but as you can see my girls couldn't get enough!  I think it is a darling idea and such fun pictures!

Keen turns 2!

Our baby Keen turned 2!  Technically he's not the baby anymore since Beck has arrived but he was my baby for almost 2 years so sometimes I still think of him that way.  Keen LOVES Despicable Me so we decided to throw him a minion birthday party this year.  Just family and close friends came but we had fun and he was super excited about his cake and cupcakes!  We love this boy of ours!

 There's something special about my boys and the bond that a mama has with her sons.  Keen is awesome and I love this little man!

My favorite things about Keen at age 2:

1) Keen has become very clingy to me the last few weeks.  Sounds like it would be a nightmare but actually I love feeling loved as a mom!  I didn't think that he would have a hard time adjusting to the new baby around because he loves to play with the other kids and most of the time just didn't care what I was doing.  But he really has had to adjust to life with a new baby.  He whines and cries a lot and always wants to be with me - especially when I'm holding or feeding Beck.  Poor guy doesn't know what to do now that he's not the baby!  Anyway, whining and crying aside - I love that he loves being with me!  

2) Keen has some pretty dominant features on the appearance side of things.  He has the roundest, chubbiest cheeks (that I love to kiss!), super blonde hair, big eyes and a big wide mouth.  Overall, I think we are in for it when he gets older and the ladies start to notice him.  Josh calls him the "Lady Killer."

3) Keen is a super fun and happy boy.  He loves to play with his brother and sisters and wants to be one of the big kids.  He follows Liev around all day long and they love playing together with their cars, bikes or whatever they can find.  He has a great smile and contagious laugh that makes me happy.  I love this boy!

2 year old stats from Dr. Erickson:

Weight: 31.86 lbs - 88%

Height: 37.01 inches - 97%

Head: 20 inches - 92%

Happy Birthday 2 year old boy!