I wanna be like...

...my brother because he gets to take baths in a big tub with lots of cool toys!

...other big babies that can crawl and get around on their own!

...my mom because she has a twin sister and that would be so much fun!! (Madisyn,5 mo, with her cousin, Hailey who is 3 weeks younger)

...my mom, because she's just so cool and pretty with all that makeup on! (just kidding of course!)

Play time!

Just a couple of pictures of the kids 'playing' at different times.

Madisyn, 4mo old

Parker wearing one of Ben's hats

Parker playing with play dough. He loves to use the little scissors, and I'm always surprised that he can use them right, considering he just turned two. But he does, and he loves it!

Madisyn fits so perfectly inside Parker's wagon, and it works so good for her to play in. So here's one of thw times she was in there playing, and just fell right asleep!

Here's a video of Madisyn laughing-so cute!

This is Parker, rockin out as he plays the piano. Maybe he'll be like Ben?

Swimming

We took Parker swimming on Saturday, which was lots of fun. We haven't taken Parker swimming since last summer (of course), so we decided to go to an indoor pool here just for fun. He totally hated it at first and didn't want to go in. He just kept saying "All done! All done!" But we slowly got him in (very slowly), and then he saw the water slide and wanted to go on that. After he went on it, he was totally relaxed and loved the water. He went crazy and had a blast! We'll take him again in a couple of weeks so that he rememebers how much he likes it, then we'll be ready for some fun in the summer!

Parker (and Ben) swimming

Look-I'm swimming!

Wa-hoo! We're going on the slide!

Video of Parker & Ben going down the slide

Coming off of the water slide

Parker's new wagon

We found Parker this cute little plastic wagon the other day, and he really likes it. He loves taking all things for a ride, like his doggie "Snuggles," his teddy bears, his milk, etc. So Ben, who loves to do funny and crazy things, decided t prop up Maddy in it and let him take her for a ride. It was so cute and made us all laugh to see Parker come on up with Maddy in the wagon. I think she liked it too!

Parker taking Maddy for a ride in his new wagon

Maddy in the wagon

Okay, so I've decided that our camera really just stinks. So here's yet another dark video, but again cute. It's Parker with his little cute bundle in his wagon.

Maddy chillin' in the wagon.

Maddy was so tired from playing, that she fell fast asleep and I just thought it was so cute!

Grandma Haroldsen is visiting!

So my Mom decided (spur of the moment) to come out and visit us and help out. She got here almost a week ago (last Saturday), and will be here until this next Friday (the 22nd). We love her being here! Parker and Maddy are both having fun with her. Here's a couple of pics of her with the kids.

Parker and Grandma

Grandma and Maddy

Nic, Maddy, and Grandma

Maddy in her cute outfit from "Aunt" Meghan Matthis

Maddy scooting forward!

Maddy growling, the new thing she absolutely LOVES to do (especially in the middle of church throughout the entire meeting!)

Couple of videos

Just thought I'd put a few videos on.

This first one is Madisyn doing her new "trick" with her mouth.

This next one is me getting Parker to chat. This was when he was sick and he'd lost his voice, but he's got it back pretty good in the video (I don't know if you can tell, but it's a little higher and squeakier than usual).

This next one is when cousin Clara was reading Parker one of his favorite books, "Five Silly Monkeys." He of course knows the book quite well, and this is him saying "No more monkeys jumping on the bed." It was so cute!

Pyloric Stenosis & Bronchitis

So this last week has been very eventful-in the not-so-much-fun way. :-( First off, they thought Madisyn might have Pyloric Stenosis. Pyloric stenosis is when they pylorus muscle (located between the stomach and the intestines) grows to thick and too big, so no food goes through. It all comes up. Since she'd be spitting up excessively for the last week and hasn't gained weight as she should, they thought it might be this. The only way to correct this is with surgery. That would mean that both of our kids would have had abdominal surgery already, Parker when he was 17 mo, and Madisyn at 3 1/2 mo. What is it with our kids?! So we put Madisyn on Pedialyte for 24 hours (that was fun), and then took her in for an ultrasound. She did so good during the ultrasound (considering she was starving-we had to not feed her for over 5 hours), and she layed there so cute and perfect. Thank heavens the ultrasound came back negataive! So now they're trying to rule out other things (we're trying medicine for acid reflux now) and we're trying a different feeding schedule too. Hopefully this will be the solution and we won't have to keep trying other things.

The day after the ultrasound, Parker came down with Bronchitis. He has been absolutely MISERABLE, with a fever of 105 at times. He bursts into tears or wimpers and cries everytime he coughs, and it's the saddest thing ever! He's lost his voice and he can barely cry because of his voice. He is starting to slowly get it back though and his fever is finally gone.

We hope everyone else is doing better than us :-), and we're just all praying that Madisyn doesn't get it too!