Ultrasound!!

Today we had our ultrasound!!  It was so exciting!  For me anyway.  We took all the kids with us so they could see too and they all mostly acted bored.  I was trying to point things out and explain what we were looking at, but I don't think anyone really got it until we saw the little profile and Nicholas yelled out, "mom, I see a skeleton!"  I was just thankful he could recognize and get excited about anything at the doctor's office besides the play room.  Anyway, here is the perfect profile of our little peanut, gender unknown until he/she makes his/her appearance in December!!

Hike

As of late, Ben works all morning and afternoon on Saturdays but has evenings off.  Since he's been working so much overtime lately, we feel like we haven't seen him all week.  So tonight we were feeling especially excited that he would have tonight off and, needing a free family activity to do, decided to hike up to Battlecreek Falls.  It was a lot further than we had anticipated, but we all made it and had a lot of fun!  Please note that while we still can't plug our camera into the computer to download pictures and there is no SD card slot, all the good pictures are still on our camera, but I was able to catch a few blurry pictures with my phone.  A few blurry memories are better than no clear ones, right?  After the hike, since the kids were so good, and Daniel and Nicholas got along so well, we decided to take the kids to Macey's for ice cream cones.

Madelynn hadn't had a nap all day so she fell asleep on the way up.  She had to wake up to go hike, but was surprisingly happy about it. 

Ben carried Madelynn on his shoulders most of he way.  Alex kept pretty close to Ben.

Pointing to the water under the bridge we just crossed

Stuck!

So I realized I take a lot of pictures of Madelynn lately.  Probably because she stays in the cool air conditioned house with her hot pregnant mother while the boys play outside in the heat.  A good mom would go out and take pictures of them riding bikes and stuff, but do you think I could catch them right now?  In the heat?  :)  Anyway, today I walked into the living room to find that Madelynn had found a bottle of Bacos that Daniel had hid in the couch cushions.  A: Daniel often hides food around the house that he knows he's not supposed to eat in hopes that one day while my back is turned, he will remember that it's there and can eat it.  B: Bacos are one of his favorite things to eat that he's not supposed to eat.  Anyway, Madelynn found this bottle and reached in to get some, but once her hand was full of Bacos, she couldn't get her hand out to eat them.  It was hilarious!

Grabbing a big old handful of Bacos

"Hmmm... my hand won't come out!"

Braids

Katie and Natasha babysat the kids for our date the other night and apparently Katie braided Madelynn's hair while we were gone and it was really cute.  I never got to see it so Katie braided her hair again tonight while we were at a BBQ at Grandma and Grandpa Larsen's house.  No, I didn't get any pictures of anything else, I'm working on getting better at stuff like that, but I got a picture of the braids.

It's funny that they are so tiny!  Also, they are lopsided because of a "haircut" the two younger boys gave her just before she turned one which left the one side longer than the other.

Squaw Peak

Ben and I got to go on a date tonight!!  Not wanting to spend any money because we are saving it up, we headed up to Squaw Peak for a couple of hours.  It was so pretty up there and so nice to have some time alone together.  We never get that anymore with his work schedules and needing babysitters in a pinch.  We stayed up long enough to see the sunset, then we headed home, but not before we spent $5 and got some 1/2 pound burritos at Del Taco for dinner.  Yummy!!  $5 won't make or break us just this once, right?

Ben watching the sunset

My phone takes really great pictures for being a phone, right?  The sunset was so pretty!!

New Hair Style

So I've never tried hair styles on Madelynn except her classic pigtails (which I love!) so today I got brave and tried one pigtail on top of her head, like I see so many people doing on their little girls.  I decided it looks pretty cute, but not as cute and two pigtails.  Oh well, at least we know her hair is getting long enough that we can do other things with it.

Kira says one pigtail makes her look more like Cindy Lou Who than she did before. 

Ward Pool Party

Tonight was our ward picnic/pool party.  Ben was able to get work off so we could as a family.  I was so excited!  The second we showed up at the picnic, the kids scrambled and were off to the playground, never to be seen again until the outdoor pool opened.  Ben and I both got two plates of food each, hoping the kids would come pick at something between playing and playing, but Madelynn was our only taker so Ben and I both got two plates of food and had fun conversation with ward members.  Then we got to go play in the pool.  Actually, by "we" I mean everyone else.  Madelynn would get in for a few minutes and then want to get out of the pool and cuddle in a towel.  This happened all night so I didn't get in the pool because I didn't want to be wet and cold while I was trying to warm her up in a towel.  But don't worry, I had mosquitoes a plenty to keep me company on the deck while waiting for Madelynn to come find me again and again.

Daniel

Madelynn and Ben swimming to the wall

Madelynn floating on her back

Don't ask me where the pictures of the other boys are, there are none.  Once they opened up the pool gates, they were gone and I don't think I saw them more than once until it was time to go.  Oh well, just as long as they had fun, right?

Stadium of Fire!!

After swimming with the kids this afternoon, long story short, I ended up going to the Stadium of Fire with Shirley tonight!!  We got to see David Archuletta and Brad Paisley, both of whom I love!  I had the best time!!

This is me and David (he's on the stage somewhere).  I couldn't get any closer than this.  I would have taken a picture of me with Brad, but my camera was almost dead and I was saving the battery to take a video of him singing "Ticks" which sadly, he didn't sing. 

Swimming!!

Today we decided to try and beat the heat and go swimming at the Legacy center.  The boys loved it!  Swimming ended up lasting about 6 hours, if you can believe it.  During all this, Madelynn alternated between nap, snacks, loving the water, hating the water, and cuddling in a towel with me on the deck.  I really need to get the kids swimming more, on the few occasions when we go, it ends up being a lot of fun!  While the four of us were at the pool, Ben and Daniel were in Dallas, Texas with his sister Emily because they are blessing their new baby Sydney this weekend.

Madelynn while sleeping in the stroller after hating the Lazy River the first time.

Alex

Nicholas

Madelynn after hating the Lazy River the second time.

Swimming Pool?

Today Nichols decided he needed a water slide and pool to play in.  I came out to the front yard to find he has improvised.  Once Madelynn saw, she jumped right in while in her onsie. 

In case you can't tell, it's a Rubbermaid container with a little slide in it.  We do have a small kiddie pool for them to play in, but for some reason this was better.  At least they had fun and stayed cool!