New House and New...

A lot happens around here in between posts! We bought a house and moved in around the end of June! Yes, that makes move #3 in 6 months. I am sooo done with moving. We love the space and the house is in a deep cul de sac, which is great for the kids to ride their bikes and trikes. Below is a pic of the house when we put the bid on it in March.

This is a pic I took a week or so ago- there is a huge glare, but I haven't had the energy to take anymore. Why? Oh because I'm expecting baby #3! I am 11 weeks along and we are extremely excited. It has been tricky feeling perpetually nauseous and moving into a new house, but I managed. I'm grateful that we'll welcome baby #3 into a nice big house rather than crammed into a small rental.

The kids love the space in the house (mostly because we don't have enough furniture to fill it- thank you to years of living in apartments :) And they love to get messy in the backyard.



And unpacking is fun for them. They love making mounds of paper to jump in.

We are very grateful for this house and looking forward to making it our own!

Nauvoo Family Reunion

My wonderful family is getting bigger and we live all over the country. So we got together for a family shin dig over Memorial Weekend in Nauvoo, IL. We had planned this trip months before we knew our family was moving to IL, so we got lucky with the shortest distance to travel. We loved the trip and can't wait until the next time when we can get together and see each other's crazy kids.

The oldest of the 10 cousins is sweet Aly who just turned 6.

Who knew rope making demos could be so entertaining?

Little girl cousins watching a candle making demo. So cute! And yes, the girls all wore pink John Deere shirts and the guys wore green John Deere shirts.

Grant and Aly as mini pioneers. They loved it!

Grant loved the children's play area!

A little healthy competition.

I met my newest little nephew - my sister Kristen's baby boy - Everett.

And I got to meet my brother Jeff's little boy - Kai!

Little Madelynn liked the costume long enough to take this picture.

Madelynn at 18 months

Madelynn is now a nursery kid. We are really happy when our kids reach the 18 month marker because then it means the end of roaming the halls for the last 2 hours of church. We are also really happy because Madelynn is LOVING nursery. She loves playing with her little friends and singing songs. So everyone is happy! Maddie had her 18 month check up and was a champ. She got two shots and didn't cry at all. I was really shocked because she can be quite sensitive to pain, but she did great! Her weight is in the 50th percentile at 23.5 lbs and her height is around the 70th percentile- I think around 33 inches.

Something I think is really funny about Maddie is that she loves her crib! She loves to sleep in her crib and loves to play in her crib. Sometimes she will ask to get into her crib just to play and will stay in there playing happily for about 20 minutes. She also loves books. Often we will realize she is missing in the house and look around and find her in a room just looking at different books.

She also loves her Grant. She likes to copy him (for better or worse) and likes to "mommy" him. Often she'll wag her finger at him and say "no, no, no". Grant does have to be careful because if she gets mad at him she will try to bite him. If he is fast enough to get away then she will try to bite the carpet or the closest door handle.

Maddie's favorite things are her pink blanket (aka snuggly buggly), baby dolls, sweeping the floor, pushing strollers, swinging, going down slides, having her hands traced, and snuggling with mama.


Maddie's favorite foods: ravioli, macaroni and cheese, oranges, and anything with sugar.


Maddie's favorite words: Mama, Dada, more, no, cheese, toes, teeth, night night, goose. (She is trying new words all the time and has about 30 + words that we can understand.)

Creative Cuties

I love my kids! I love to watch the little wheels in their heads turn and I enjoy watching them discover new things. Grant loves to paint and color. He actually has turned out some pretty interesting paintings. He is serious when he paints too- he doesn't like to be bothered.

Little Madelynn has turned into quite the little monkey. She will climb on anything she can reach, which has made dinner time, snack time, coloring time, and anytime kind of tricky. I'm always afraid to leave the room for more than 10 seconds because I'm afraid she'll fall off the table or chairs- but I guess that's life. She will be 18 months on April 30th so she will join the nursery gang, which Chris is really looking forward to. Since I have a primary calling in church he has to take her for the last two hours.

If she sees anyone with food (regardless if she's full of not) she will open her mouth and say "AHHHH"


Both of the kids love to wear tupperware hats. Heck I would too, but my head is too big.

I caught her on the table and so she happily performed for the camera.

We went to the Museum of Science and Industry with our friend Stephanie and her two kids. It was a lot of fun! Grant LOVED the farming section so much that he kept cutting in line to sit inside the tractor.

Madelynn loves to put things on her hands: sockes, shoes, chicken nuggets etc.- you know, the norm.

Notice the one little bite out of each nugget. I caught her with the nuggets on her fingers and making them dance while she sang.