Wiiiiii! (amongst other things)

My cousin Esther just recently got a Wii with their tax returns. We've been over a couple of times to play, and the kids love it (well, the older kids of course-meaning us!!). They have the "Outdoor Adventures" games, and that's been the best to play because Parker and even Madisyn can do it. There's a mat that plugs into the Wii and you can run and jump on it and it does your movements on the screen. So you race each other, have jumping competitions, go kayaking, race on mine carts, rollerblade, etc. I only had our camera the first time we went over and the kids have actually gotten a lot better at it, but here's some videos of Parker and Madisyn both "running" on the Wii. Maddie is absolute hilarious to watch because she can do it so good now (like I said the video is from about 3 weeks ago, so it's kind of old). She really has no idea what she's doing and she doesn't even know it's connected to what's happening on the screen, but she has seen us do it enough that now she gets on the mat and runs like crazy on it. We did a running race between her Parker when they were both on it together just a few days ago, and she actually beat Parker by a lot!! Parker mostly likes to just jump on it, so he doesn't do the running part that great. Kenya, Esther's 4 1/2 year old, is helping Maddie on the first video, and on the second Parker is playing under my character (so see if you think it looks like me or not).

Parker has recently become obsessed with puzzles. For a family activity that we had at my Aunt's house a couple of weeks ago, she gave us some puzzles to do. Since Parker is just barely three I didn't think he could do them at all, but he completely surprised us and was totally interested in them (he's only done 12 piece puzzles before). He became so obsessed with doing them that he would wake up and immediately ask to do the puzzles. He has now done the two 54 piece puzzles that we have so many times that he's bored with them. So now I have to go and find him some new ones to do.

This next video is just a funny one of Madisyn. Parker, Maddie, and I went up to Rexburg (1/2 hour north where Ben is taking some college classes) with Ben the other day to get us out of the house and to see my old campus again. While Ben was meeting with some group members, I took the kids to a burger place to play inside their play area and to get a little bit of food. Well Madisyn just LOVED their fry sauce. In fact, she loved it so much that she eventually ended up try to drink it. It didn't work that great so she had to resort to sticking her fingers in it and licking them. So here's a video of her and Parker eating at the burger place.

Spring!! (for a few days at least)

Last week/weekend we had several days that were absolutely gorgious. It was SOOO nice to be able to take the kids out to enjoy the sunshine and they loved it. A couple of the days we only needed light jackets, and a couple of them we didn't need any jackets on at all! Man it was so nice. So the kids had fun on their riding toys, playing on the swings and slide out back, and playing in the rocks (which Parker likes to play with just like a sand box). It was beautiful all the way through Saturday, but come Sunday morning it was a whole different story. We had rain Sunday morning, then hail, then SNOW. Later on it turned back to rain again and it's been cold and gloomy since. :-( Hopefully it will warm up again so we can enjoy the outdoors again! Here's some fun pictures of the kids playing outside.

Maddie looked so funny trying to ride this big toy, but she loved it! I think she was actually on this one the most.

Visiting Jess

We are back from sunny, warm Tucson to the cold, windy, winter here in Idaho. Man we miss the beautiful weather so much! We had such a great time with Jess and her kids that we could have easily stayed for another two weeks (although we missed Ben a lot while we were there). We had a lot of crazy things going on while we were there, but the kids had so much fun together and Jess and I loved being together again. I have a ton of pictures, so I'll do several posts of them all. This first group is random pictures of the kids just having fun.

We attempted to get a picture of all the kids together, and this is the best we got. Parker (3), Madisyn (16mo), Sydney (5), Clark (7mo), & Lincoln (22mo)

Maddie found a hat of Jessica's and wore it around all over the place.

Maddie showing some sass

Clark is such a happy baby! What a cutie!!

Lovin the baby food!

One of the times the kids were eating, Madisyn decided to give herself a yogurt facial. It was everywhere by the time she was finished, in her eyelashes, up her nose, and all through her hair.

Fun outside

Jess took three of the kids on a walk one day on her skateboard (Syd got tired and hopped on the stroller after a while). Great way to combine the two don't you think?

Maddie wearing her shades


Madisyn & Sydney playing on Jessica's skateboard

Planes, Planes, and more Planes

Since Arizona is really dry (go figure, it's a desert!), the Air Force stores all of their extra planes at the Air Force Base where Jess lives. They would use these if they were needed for a bigger war. We drove by where they store them and there are just fields and fields and fields of planes. There are all different kinds: small one-man planes, bombers, helicopters, etc. There were planes as far as your eyes could see. It was amazing! I snapped some pictures of them, but I wish I could have gotten better ones that would really show what we saw. But here are a few.

This is actually the type of plane that Renn (Jessica's husband) works on in Kuwait. He is an electrical engineer, and this is a cargo-type plane from what I understand. Renn's division does all the electrical side of warfare, stuff like jamming radar and other things like that.

Then there is a mini museum-type area where they have a older planes on display. So I took Parker & Sydney there one day to see the planes up close. Syd had seen them before of course, and Parker was thoroughly amazed, especially since he could touch these ones.

C-130A Hercules cargo plane

H-3 Helicopter, aka: "Jolly Green Giant" (for real!)

Monument commemorating those who flew against North Vietnam

Park time & Joe and Mary's visit

Since it was such gorgeous weather (80's) we took the kids to a couple of different parks while we were there. It was so nice to be able to spend time outside having fun without having to bundle up!

My brother, Joe, and his wife, Mary, live a few hours south of Jess so they were able to come up and visit for a day. The kids loved chasing Uncle Joe around and I think they were glad to have a man in the house, even if it was just for a little bit. I'm pretty sure they were all missing their Daddies very much. That night we took the kids to In-N-Out Burgers which was a nice treat.

Joe with Maddie and Parker

Mary, Maddie, & Parker

Syd, Joe, Jess, & Lincoln

Jess let loose and let Clark have his first french fry. Yum!

Just a few more...

K, This is the last of my pictures (I told you I had a ton!). I got a few pictures of the kids in their cute church clothes, so here they are.

Syd and brother Clark

Me and the kids (the sun was very bright)


My mom loves little sailor outfits, so she always finds cute ones to send us. So here's Maddie in her sailor outfit from Grandma Haroldsen

So I'll tell about a few of our misadventures that we had amidst the fun. To start out, Maddie got an ear infection the day after I booked our tickets, just a week before we flew. So we got her on antibiotics, but went back the day before we left and found out that it had not only not cleared up, but now she had a double ear infection! We had to get her on new antibiotics, drug her up for the flight, and hope for the best. She actually did quite well on the plane and didn't seem bothered by her ears at all (thank heavens!!). Then I ended up forgetting her new antibiotics in Utah, had to have the doctor fax down another prescription, and paid $135 for her new one. Oy!! She also started getting her molars while we were there, which I would never have thought to looke for except I just happened to glance in her mouth at the right moment. She only has two of her top teeth and three of her bottom, so her molars are totally unexpected. It made her not the happiest of kids while we were there, but we managed.

Then I got a real good cold (which I hardly ever get sick, so good timing!) the day before we left as well and I ended up getting a double inner ear infection a few days later. So I was naseous, sick (vomiting), and miserable for a good day or so. My doctor had to fax in yet another prescription for us down there (good thing he knows us so well!) and we had to pay out of pocket again. Although the pain and the sickness finally passed, my ears are still completely plugged up. I went to our doctor on Monday when we had gotten back, and I still have fluid stuck in both ears. They did a test on my eardrums, and my left eardrum isn't moving at all (which explains why I can't hear!) and my right one is moving just a little. All they can do is give me a decongestant and antihistimane and hope it will help open my ear passageways. If not, it could be 3-6 MONTHS before they would try something further. Great, huh? Let's hope I'm not deaf for that long! Other than that, as you can see from the pictures we had an awesome time. Parker really misses Sydney, and keeps asking about going back to her house. It is so sad to try to explain why we won't see them for a long time. :-( Luckily Jess and the kids have something to look forward to: Renn comes home from Kuwait in a week! Yeah! We miss you, Jess, Syd, Linc, & Clark so much!!