Baby wipes are for play, right?

Madisyn has always had a knack of finding any wipes that I've accidentally left around the house. She finds them and then proceeds to throw all of the wipes all over the place until they are all gone. I learned quite fast to make sure I always put them up high once I'm done with them. Well today we were at my cousin Esther's house after church and she wandered upstairs to the kids' bedrooms. I went after her a few minutes later when she was a little too quiet, and this is what I found....

She had found a brand new container of 140 wipes, and had them almost all out by the time I found her. Man she is quick!

She was so proud of herself!

Here are some more fun pictures we took of Maddie. She was going to town with her spaghetti the other night (apparently she really likes spaghetti!) and she just couldn't get enough of it!

Feeding the ducks by the frozen river

Parker loves feeding the ducks down by the Snake River here in Idaho Falls. He asks for it all the time, and usually I have to say no because we don't have the car, or it's snowing/raining, or it's just too cold. On Saturday we decided to brave the cold and we took him to feed the ducks. It was about 28 degrees when we went (BRRR!), but he was so excited I just couldn't say no. We bundled up every inch of us that we could and took bread with us to feed the ducks. Madisyn really likes the ducks and is mesmerized by them when we go. We got a picture of the Idaho Falls Temple and falls when we went and it will show you just how cold it's been here.

The kids by the river

Even with the falls going the water still froze!

I have a few random pictures and video over the last two weeks that I've taken, so here they are.

This is another of Parker's birthday presents, this one from his Grandma & Grandpa Lewis. It's a cool treehouse with people and animals, and there's a lot of stuff he can do with it. He involves his new dinosaurs with it too, of course. He loves it!!

Madisyn loves trying to sit in anything that she can. In this picture she dumped out Parker's dinosaurs so she could sit in the container.

Parker has been obsessed with the movie "Cars" lately. If any of you are familiar with it, his favorite part is the tractor tipping scene where Lightning McQueen and Mater go tractor tipping together. Well Parker acts this scene out with all of his toys, over and over again. Here he is with some of the "tractors" tipped up.

Another thing that Madisyn Loves to do is find something to put over her head to "hide", and then usually she ends up walking around the house with it over her. I don't know how she manages not to run into things, but she doesn't. She loves hiding and us "finding" her. What a nut!

When we had a baby shower here a while ago, Parker had so much fun helping put up the balloons. He thought it was so cool that he could put the balloons up without tape and all by himself. It is so fun to see him figure out things!

Another favorite of Parkers is music. Mostly we listen to Disney songs. One of his favorite songs is the "Circle of Life," but only the first part of it. He loves to sing his own version of it. So I got him to do it on video.

Go Steelers!!

Since Pittsburgh is my hometown, I just have to say: GO STEELERS!!!

Parker's 3rd Birthday

Thursday was Parker's third birthday. We had a party for him here at our apartment and started with a pizza lunch, then let the kids play for a while, and had cake and ice cream. Parker was really excited for his birthday this year and couldn't wait for it to come. He helped pick out his birthday cake, helped put on the M&Ms, and taste-tested the frosting for me. :-) The party was a little chaotic with so many kids and adults crammed into our apartment, but Parker had a really good time and I'm just glad he had fun.

Here's some of the kids that we managed to squeeze in around our little four person table. We have a little kid table too where 5 others were sitting.

Another party shot

My little guy is already three! Happy Birthday Parker!

This is one of Parker's birthday presents-a really cool set of dinosaurs (his first set) from Grandma & Grandpa Haroldsen

Then yesterday (and today) it snowed all day. We've gotten at least 6 inches, which isn't a ton but is still quite a bit. I had to go to the store today and I almost got stuck on one of the side streets. Anyway. Parker has been waiting and waiting for some fresh snow so that we could go out and play and build a snowman (we haven't had new snow since right after Christmas I believe), so he was really excited to wake up to lots of snow. Since I had Taylor all day yesterday and Ben was at class, I traipsed out with all three kids. The girls don't have boots (I haven't been able to find some for Maddie that are small enough-size three), so I stayed in the parking lot with them while Parker played just off the lot in the lawn. It was actually the first time Madisyn has been out in the snow and she really liked it at first. Then she fell a few times (face planted it twice actually), and then she didn't like it as much. But it was still a lot of fun and I'm glad Parker got to get out finally. We also went out again today with Ben, but I didn't take pictures this time.

Parker and his friend Emily

Maddie ready for some action

Taylor (who is 16 mo) and Maddie (who is 15 mo)

Brother and sister together

Madisyn, Parker, & Taylor

And here's a video of Maddie in the snow

Catch up

I haven't posted anything for a long time-it's just been so crazy since we got back from Portland. Ben started taking classes back at BYUI to finish his business degree (it'll take him a little over 2 years to finish), I've been playing catchup on SOO many things, I've still been babysitting Taylor (the little girl who is Maddie's age), and we've had quite a few birthdays and showers and baby births that have happened as well. So I'll just tell about a few little things that have happened.

Before we left Portland, Ben & Parker went to a workshop for kids at Home Depot. They are free workshops that they have the first Saturday of every month, and the kids get to use tools to make stuff. Parker is getting old enough where he really likes that kind of thing, so he had a good time with Dad. They made book shelf ends that are helmets (they put stickers on them later too).

One of Parker's friends (our downstairs neighbor's little boy) turned two on the 12th. For his birthday we all went to a really fun place called "Blast Off." It has a huge area of tubes the kids climb through, ball pits, slides, climbing things, etc. One of the ball pits was a really deep one and we didn't know it when we put Maddie in, so she sunk in with the balls over her head. It was pretty funny how she slowly disappeared (which she didn't like of course). Parker really wants to go back, so we'll see if we have a chance to in the near future.

I didn't get very many pictures of Parker because he was running around way too fast, but I got some cute ones of Maddie. I love the squished nose!

Madisyn got her fourth tooth while we were in Portland, but it wasn't the one we expected. Instead of getting her other bottom tooth, she got the one next to the one she already had. So her smile is a little lopsided, but still super cute! (this isn't the best of pictures, but it shows her teeth really good)

My cousin, Esther (who I do all the cake decorating with) had her third child on New Years Eve. His name is Maxwell Thomas Haroldsen and he was 8 1/2ish pounds. What a cutie!

Then my good friend downstairs had her second child. Before she had her, we did a baby shower for her here at my apartment. I had fun making her a cute cake, and us girls had fun having a night out together.

She had her baby a week ago, and they named her Ayrdrie (air-dree) Jane Rideout, and she was SO tiny-5lbs 14oz and 20 inches long. I guess that's the size Parker was, but it looks so tiny from what I'm used to!

Quite a few times lately, Madisyn has woken up with the craziest bed head ever! So I've taken a few pictures of it just for fun. Here's a couple of them.

I didn't get the greatest of shots this time, but her hair was sticking straight out on one side.

This one is the best though!

It was Parker's third birthday today, so after I get pictures uploaded, I'll put those on as well. I can't believe my little guy is already THREE!

FINALLY!!!!

I started thinking a while ago, that Madisyn (who is now 14 1/2 months) was determined to get carried throughout her entire life. She was never going to walk. She has had the ability to for a long time, but just either didn't care to or didn't have enough confidence to. But she FINALLY decided to start walking! She walks pretty good and has good balance, but still walks without a lot of confidence. But she loves walking all over the place and I love it too! I took this video of her on New Year's Eve. She loves to say "cheeeessseeee" every time she sees a camera (which she does at the beginning), and still sometimes gets mad when she falls down (which she does at the end). What a silly girl!

Pump It Up!!

This last Saturday Ben's parents took all of us (kids and grandkids) to a place called "Pump It Up." It is a really fun kids play zone that is full of multiple inflatable play structures like slides, trampolines, and obstacle courses. We had a blast. Both the kids and the adults are allowed to play on the structures and since we had the place to ourselves, all of us adults (including Grandma & Grandpa) had a grand old time playing on all of the structures. We had races down the obstacle courses, piled as many kids on to one person for the slides, had basketball games, and gladiator/king of the hill type competitions. I think us adults had just as much fun as the kids did, if not more, and I think this will be a Christmas tradition from now on.

Parker going through the obstacle course

Going up the climbing wall in the obstacle course (which was actually the hardest part even for the adults)

On the obstacle course

Ben & his sister Heather racing

Maddie & Daddy (Maddie showing some attitude)

Coming down one of the slides: Maddie, Ben & Parker

Parker going down a slide

Maddie playing with some of the little toys they had for babies


Gladiator game: Ben vs. Paul (his brother)

Wahoo-go Ben!

Here's the grandkids (minus a few): Parker, Maddie, Tyler, Nathan, (Cole hiding in the back), Taya, Clara, Ashlyn, Chloe, Isaac, Gavin, & Porter

Then today we went to the OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science and Industry), and had fun there with the cousins as well. They had all kinds of fun science things that the kids could do, and Parker was actually old enough to do most of it (although not old enough to understand it of course).

Parker using stencils (although he was way more interested in the pencil sharpener that was right by the stencils)

Dinosaurs-Parker's favorite!

With the cousins-Chloe, Taya & Gavin

They had a really awesome kids area that had so many different things in it. Here's Parker playing with the cars and blocks area.

And here's Parker playing in the water area-also his favorite