In Tucson

Last Friday (a week and a half ago), I booked a flight for me and the kids to Tucson to visit my twin sister, Jessica, and her three kids. Jessica's husband is in the Air Force and has been in Kuwait since November, so we thought now would be a great time to visit them (and it's perfect weather right now!). So we are here for another week and a half and then I will have lots of pictures to share. In the meantime, we are having a blast with Jess and the kids and loving the warm awesome weather!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Just wanted to say Happy Valentine's Day from two of my littlest valentines. Love to all!

Happy Birthday Grammie Lewis!

Parker really wanted to sing to Grammie Lewis for her birthday, so I had him do it on video so she could see him (and Maddie) also. We wish we were there to celebrate with you Grammie! We love you!!

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