Fourth of July weekend

First of all, we hope everyone had a great Fourth of July. We sure did, and the kids had a lot of fun too. Here's some of the stuff we did over the weekend.

We went to the parade in the morning. We all had red, white, and blue on, although you can't really tell from this picture.

Parker had a lot of fun, and got lots of candy. He liked the horses the best.

There wasn't much for Maddie, but she had fun just being with the family :-)

Just a picture of Maddie and I with the trick bike riders in the back.

Then later that day we went to a barbeque at Aunt Joann's and then went to the fireworks down on the river. Maddie was interested in the fireworks for the first few minutes, but then went back to playing around.

Parker, on the other hand, did not like the noise at all. He sat like this (with Dad's hat over his face) for the first 10 minutes.

Then he was okay watching them, as long as Dad covered his ears.

After a while, Maddie layed down and watched the fireworks like this. Cute, eh?

This is the "after" picture: both kids fell asleep on the way home, and slept in the strollers while we did our own fireworks at Aunt Joann's house.

The next day we went to a near-by lake and had fun in the sun.

Parker didn't go in the water too much, but had lots of fun in the sand.

Maddie liked playing with toys at the water's edge and splashing around. She loves the water!

Here's Parker and Maddie playing together.

After a while, Parker decided to smear wet sand all over his face and body. What possessed him to do that, I have no idea. But it was kind of funny looking.

Maddie having more fun.

TJ found a fish in the water and caught it. Parker thought it was quite amazing, since he's never seen one that big and that upclose. Of course he didn't know that the fish was half dead (which is how TJ caught it), but what he doesn't know won't hurt him, right?

Maddie all done at the beach, read to go back to the car.

We hope you all had a great Fourth of July weekend too!!

Finally!!

So Madisyn is now 8 1/2 mo old (9 months old on the 13th), and she was still not crawling/skooching/army crawling...nothing. She's just been so content just to sit there and watch everything and has had no inclination to move. Now Parker on the other hand, started to skooch when he was 5 1/2 mo old, started crawling and pulling himself up to a stand at 7 mo old, and started cruising around the furniture at 8 1/2 mo old. So I've been thinking to myself for a while, "Come on girl, you have got to get moving!" Well, she finally has. Hallelujah! She just up and started it about two days ago, much to my surprise and absolute excitement. So here's a video of her new accomplishment.

Our visit to the falls

This last Monday night we went down to the river for the first time since we've been here. It was a gorgious night that was perfect for walking. Parker had so much fun! Madisyn liked it too of course, but Parker loved running from rock to rock, and from one duck to the next. A man that was there with some bread gave some to Parker for him to feed the ducks too.

Feeding the ducks

Parker giving Maddie a kiss-so sweet!

Maddie having fun in the stroller

Daddy and Parker exploring on some of the rocks

Our family in front of the Idaho Falls

Now and Then

Ben and I were married in the Idaho Falls Temple 3 1/2 years ago. It's crazy to think of how much has changed in just those 3 1/2 short years, and man did we both look so young! Can you believe parents let me teach their kids when I looked like a 16 or 18 year old?! We had our engagement pictures taken down by the falls, and we had our family's picture taken there when Parker was just a baby. So I decided to show a timeline of pictures taken in almost the same spot on the falls.

11/2004: Engagement picture (Ben 26 and Nic 24)

7/2006: Ben (28), Parker (5 1/2 mo), and Nic (25)

6/2008: Ben (30), Parker (28 mo), Madisyn (8 mo), and Nic(27)

One more picture of our family in 2006

And our family now

Family Reunion

About a week and a half ago, we had a big Haroldsen Reunion here in Idaho Falls. We were celebrating not only Father's Day on the 15th, but my Grandpa's 80th birthday, my parents' anniversary, and my brother's anniversary. We haven't had a Haroldsen reunion in a long time, so it was great to have one. My Grandpa has 7 kids (plus their spouses), 44 grandkids, and 18 great grandkids (4 more on the way) on just his side of the family (his wife, Elaine, has an even bigger family!). Most of us were able to be there (some in and out at various times), and we all had lots of fun out at Grandpa's house.

During the reunion, we had a big birthday party for Grandpa, a big cookout one night, a big potluck another night, crafts and games, and a trip to the nuclear sight where Grandpa helped make history. We also had a Talent Show for Grandpa and I was amazed by how much talent my family had!! We got some of the grandkids to go up and sing the ABC Song, and then Parker decided he wanted to sing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" too. It was very cute and I was surprised by how bold Parker was. He usually shys away from crowds, but I guess he wanted to do it because he saw everyone else doing it. In the picture is Emily (Jen's almost 4-yr-old), Sydney (Jess' 4-yr-old), Parker, Mikey (Jen's 4-yr-old), Riley (Lisa's 4-yr-old), Lisa, and Austin (her 1-yr-old).


It was so great to have the reunion because all of my immediate family came out for it. All of us sisters were able to be together last summer with our kids, but none of our husbands and Joe and Mary weren't there. So Mom and Dad got to have all 5 of their kids, all the spouses, and all 9 grandkids (two more coming soon) together. One of the nights of the reunion, we were able to have everyone over for dinner to celebrate some birthdays. Even though we have a three bedroom apartment, it was quite the scene to fit 12 adults and 9 kids all into our house for dinner. But the kids had a lot of fun playing together, and it was great. We also went and got a family picture of all of us, which was quite adventuresome as well. The 4 four-year-olds (Sydney, Riley, Mikey, & Emily) and Madisyn did quite well, but the 2 two-year-olds (Parker and Natalie, especially Parker!) and the 2 one-year-olds (Austin & Lincoln) were quite the challenge. The pictures haven't come back yet, but I have a snap shot or two that Dad took while we were there.

After the pictures were taken, we let all of the kids (besides Madisyn) have suckers. Everyone is there except Lincoln (13mo). In the picture: Austin (14 mo), Madisyn (8mo), Parker (26mo), Natalie (25mo), Michael (4), Sydney (4), Emily (almost 4), & Riley (4)

Sydney, Parker, & Riley waiting for the professional pictures to be taken

Richie, my sister Lisa, Riley, and Austin outside the photo studio

I was really glad that although Jen and her family and Lisa & her family couldn't stay very long, Mom & Dad and Jess and her family got to stay for a whole week after the reunion. Jess, Renn, Syd, & Lincoln even got to stay at our house for a few of the days. So the kids got to play a lot, and Syd and Parker especially had a lot of fun together.

Sydney in her ballerina outfit dancing


Madisyn and Lincoln playing together


Uncle Joe and Madisyn

BYUI Visit

We've been here for two weeks now, so we thought it was about time to go visit the old college town, Rexburg. We went up on Saturday and walked around campus with the kids, and went to the new temple there as well. Then we visited Mill Hollow for old time's sake (a frozen yogurt shop we used to go to all the time), and headed home. For all us alumni of Ricks/BYUI, I'll tell you we were amazed by how much has changed and is changing! The last time we were there at school was 4 years ago. They had had the Hinckley building for about a year, and the rebuilt Spori building for about a year as well. Now they have a whole new addition to the Snow building, beautiful landscaping all around the Spori, a new children's center (for Children's Ed classes) by the Clark, new computer lab where the Testing Center used to be, and the New Thomas E. Ricks building. Then they are adding an addition onto the Manwaring Center, and building something huge where the old practice fields used to be. It was crazy how much construction work there was!

Our family outside the Spori

Maddie and Parker in the gardens

Parker, Ben, and Maddie in the gardens

In the gardens, Hinckley building in the back

The new Rexburg Temple

Hmm, what does printer ink taste like?

After church last week, we got home, I got Maddie's dress off, and had Ben watch Madisyn while I got Parker some lunch. Course he was trying to fix our printer so maybe I shouldn't have asked him to watch her. Well, she got a hold of a picture that we had printed, and went to town with it. When I came in after fixing lunch, she had blue printer ink all over her face, tongue, hands, onesie (thank heavens I had already taken off her pretty dress!), and tights. I thought for sure she would be stained for days, but it surprisingly came right off. I don't know if you can see the blue very well in the pictures, but here's a few.