Boy or Girl???

Will the cake be pink or will it be blue??  That was the question on everyone's mind all day yesterday.  We could hardly make it until after dinner to find out.  Who knew it would be as exciting as Christmas!

It's a BOY!

 

More Cousin Fun

My brother and family came to town this past weekend.  We had a blast!

Matching shirts!  (Of course!  It's tradition)

 Fashion shows in fancy clothes are also a tradion

 We went to the Museum of Natural Curiosity again.  Our original plan was Cowabunga Bay, but the weather was not cooperating!  Low 70s and scattered rain.  But the museum was fun to go to with cousins!

 Ethan and Lucas were the stars of the show at Kidopolis

 And look…behold the floating head!

READY TO GET DIZZY???!?!?

They went off to Yellowstone without us for the week, but will be back for another weekend of fun starting on the 4th!  It turns out to be okay for us though, since we still have THREE MORE DAYS OF SCHOOL!  Can't wait for the school year to finally end!

Slip-n-slide turns Water slide

Slip-n-slides are just plain fun! Especially when Cooper is near the end swinging a baseball bat.  Gotta keep things exciting...

 But what is even better is when you enjoy popsicles during the break!  These two were quite the buddies!

But what is EVEN BETTER than that is when you turn the slip-in-slide into the best homemade water slide ever!  (and then have one more popsicle at the end for good measure).

Oh yes, and end the day with pizza! 

My Mother's Day

This Mother's Day, I was very spoiled with love and homemade gifts from these kiddos:

 If you know my kids, then you won't be surprised at the sheer volume of paper used in making me signs and cards and pictures for such a special day.  Here is the sign that Madeline made.  It spans the entire length of the bar in our kitchen:

 Ethan made this one for the fireplace:

 a picture from Madeline:

 And a card she made at school:

 and a poem from Ethan that kinda cracks me up:

 AND…they made these in primary too:

 (Madeline loves me because I color with her and am nice)

And Ethan made these at school and presented them too me at a Mom's and Muffins Morning

haha, I'm glad he mentioned love at least a little!

He also shared this poem:

AND, believe it or not, I also was spoiled with pancakes made from Todd, new gold bow earrings (LOVE!), and a Jamba Juice gift card I'll be able to enjoy all summer.  Plus I got my last two years of Blog Books printed and we had a wonderful time snuggling together reading memories.  Todd also made sure the house was clean and helped extra with the kids (which he's been doing every single day anyway!).

We enjoyed the evening with my parents and had a great dinner made mostly by my dad.

I have the best Mom in the world, and my kids seem to think I am the best Mom in the world too, so I guess it doesn't get much better than that.

Nothing is more fun than...

Feeding yourself yogurt!

Laughter of a Four Month Old

Todd said Cooper might need to work on his sense of humor, because he was laughing last night at all sorts of things that just weren't that funny!  But he sure thought they were, and we all enjoyed the fact that he did!

My Little Dancer (and my little giggler)

Madeline had her first dance recital on Monday night!

I snapped a few quick shots of her before we left because she was just too darn cute!

 It was like a little dream come true for me to watch her up there dancing.  I remember the thrill perfectly (like it yesterday and not 25 years ago!).  What fun!

 She danced one ballet number and one tap number.  She did great too!  I only wish I had been more prepared and given here a bouquet of flowers after.

The videos are darling, but not ready to post yet.  Plus with all the other girls in the videos, I might not post them here.  BUT THEY SURE WERE CUTE!  My friends took a lot of pictures during the recital too (while I was doing videos) so hopefully someday I'll get those too.

I don't want to leave you wanting though, so here is a cute video of Cooper:  :)

Surprise!

Last week, when I was sick, Ethan went outside to play with his friend.  A little while later he came in the house and requested that Todd come out and see something.  I took this video a couple days later, but it's the same thing Todd saw:

Ethan can ride his bike!!!!!  If you ask Ethan, he'll tell you that his friend taught him how to ride his bike.  But I give most of the credit to his razor scooter.  Seriously, if you want your child to learn how to ride a bike, buy them a scooter!

We were so proud of him.  Now we just need to buy him a bigger bike . . . that kid keeps growing like a weed!

Happy December!

Love, Madeline

Madeline's Baseball Twirls

My sister-in-law, Emily, commented in the last post that it looked like Madeline had a good swing!  So, I thought it might be fun to show you just how good she is.  She totally takes after her mom on this one (though I actually can hit the big plastic balls)!

More about Bikes

I just think it's fun how good she's doing when less than a week ago, she had never even sat on a bike before!  Not even a little tricycle or anything.  

And look at their reaction when the bumped into each other!  My favorite!



Ethan's Book

He came around the corner with a smile on his face as he announced, "I finished my book!"  I asked him which one he had done this time and his eyes twinkled, "I didn't do someone else's book.  I wrote my own."  And he did.  He didn't copy any ideas or text from any of his dinosaur books.  He came up with the whole thing himself.  And he kept the whole thing a secret until he had finished the whole thing!

It's pretty impressive.  And so, when he asked me if I could video him reading it and put it on my blog so that, "everyone in the world can see it", how could I say no?!  It's pretty long, about 3 minutes, and you can't see his pictures too well in the video, but Mamas can't resist.

Enjoy!

This post is brought to you by:

Our Puppet Theater

One of our favorite Christmas gifts this year, was a puppet theater.  My mom made the curtain and my parents filled a tote full of puppets for us.  We often take turns putting on puppet shows for each other.

 Ethan is better at hiding behind the curtain, but they both do a great job!  Notice the bell sewn on the curtain.  You can ring it when the show is about to begin!

We're still working on the actual material in the plays, but hey, this one is better than their first where they held their puppets up and said, "hi" and that was it.  :)

Now, we often enjoy a day at the theatre!

Our Sledding Adventure

Yesterday, to celebrate the new year, Todd decided our family needed to go on an adventure.  So after some major warm clothes preparations, hand warmers, and treats, we headed up to Tibble Fork in American Fork Canyon to brave the single digit weather for some sledding fun!

The kids rode down a few times on our laps

 and Todd got to go down bigger/longer hills alone too.

 It was SO COLD, but also SO BEAUTIFUL

 By the end, Maddie was too cold to smile.  It's a good thing Dad had prepared us well.  She was wearing four layers and had hand warmers tucked in her gloves.  I can't imagine how frozen she would have been had it been left up to only me to keep them warm!

 Madeline did have fun despite her face in the picture above though, just listen to her giggle as she goes down the hill:

And we all enjoyed hot chocolate and donuts once we finished sledding

 It turned out to be so much fun.  A totally wonderful family trip and a memorable way to start the new year!!

Sprinkler Slide

Ethan's new favorite way to cool off:

$9 sprinkler: totally worth it!

Twinkle Little Little Star

Today, my kids sang me a lovely after-lunch concert. Here is my favorite song:

Madeline always says, "Twinkle little little star . . ." Sometimes it even gets three "little"s.

A Song for You

Here's a little video of Madeline singing ABC's turned Baa Baa Black Sheep. You can almost understand what she's saying . . . I thought this clip was pretty cute and kinda funny too. I also like Ethan's giggle in the middle and his "help" to her at the end. Enjoy:

A Happy Miracle

Last month, there were a lot of things Madeline couldn't do. She couldn't sit herself up from either tummy or back, she couldn't pull herself up to standing, and she definitely couldn't cruise, stand, or walk. The doctors were just about to make me take her to get evaluated and put her in physical therapy. It was a little stressful to think about, but not anymore! It was like a light switched on in her head and now she can do all the things she couldn't! What a blessing! This is a HUGE accomplishment to have come so far in such a short amount of time. Take a look:

Madeline the Mover

Who needs crawling?

Not Madeline . . . she's perfecting a different art!

We've been having a lot of fun lately. In just the last two days, Madeline has discovered the pots and pans, tupperware drawer, and pulled numerous ornaments off the tree. I love it though, she is so cute! Go Madeline!

Madeline's Newest Trick

Short and sweet!

I could listen to it all day, even if it isn't "mama". :)