Fashion Island is the coolest mall in America because you can go and spend a day with kids without spending a dime (except for the carousel):

Maddie was so happy that Alladin loved her hair and said he wants Jasmine to do her hair like that:

I took a picture of Lucy in the middle of the dark Alice in Wonderland ride to see if she was enjoying it. This was right when we turned the corner and the White Rabbit popped out. Obviously, she hated the ride.

Maddie's Uncle Brian and cousin Cole call her "Maddie Poppins", so of course we had to wait in line for a picture with them too. Mary Poppins was so in character and awesome. Slightly bossy, snotty, proper, and polite. Even I felt a little star struck!

I am slightly ashamed, which is why I wouldn't look at the camera, but I was SO FREAKING EXHAUSTED at the end of the Disney day that I kicked Maddie out of the stroller and made Josh push me to the front gates.   :o)    You can see how Maddie felt about that.

Parks at Newport are awesome because it isn't too hot and there is sand and they are right on the water. These kids had a blast. There is nothing more fun than playing with cousins at the beach.

Josh took Maddie boogie boarding, which she loved. Her new favorite song that Josh showed her later that day is "Surfer Girl" by Beach Boys.

I needed a nap so bad, so Josh offered to take Maddie golfing with him. Surprisingly, she loved it. Mostly because she got to ride around on the golf bag while Josh dragged it from hole to hole.

Then they came back and ate Claim Jumper for dinner. After a full day of super fun things with her dad, Maddie told me, "I just love my dad."     :o)

Mother's Day Hike

For our mother's day celebration on Saturday, we decided to make my mom breakfast and then take everyone up hiking at Red Rock before it is too hot. (Too late. It's now too hot.) Here is Grandma with three of her very jealous grandkids. They are all used to having their Grandma's full attention when they are with her, and are not fond of having to share her one little bit.

When you go hiking with little kids, there is a lot of hand holding,

dancing,

stopping to smell the flowers,

water breaks,

"ta-da!"s,

finding Grandma caves,

listening to VERY long enthusiastically told stories,

and carrying hot, tired kids the whole way back,

For those of you who drive through Vegas and don't see beauty, here are a few shots my brother-in-law took from the hike. I think it is beautiful.

And when you go with Josh, there has to be one of these shots:

You Know Summertime is Here When....

....Maddie gets to go on cool adventures with Grandma Karen & Aunt Juli in her motorhome and jeep. Here they are on the top of a mountain, followed by Maddie's drawing of the experience from her perspective. (Josh went too.) Obviously, she LOVES these adventures.

....pictures like these start coming from Josh's iPhone.

....Family reunions seem to be once a month. (We loved seeing Elena and Ruby again at the Tobler Reunion!)

....It's "bring your child to work day" again. Maddie LOVED it because they had all kinds of food and fun planned, and then she got to lay on the couch and watch a movie in Josh's office. She probably thinks being a lawyer is so much more fun than it really is.   :o)

....There are a bunch of shows that come into town for kids, like Elmo's Green Thumb. 

....It's Women Conference weekend at BYU with my mom and sisters.

....There are a bunch of college graduations - recently my brother in laws, Rod and Nate, and here is my baby brother, Kyle, with my sister Stacey, and dad and mom. (I hate when I am the only person in the picture that interprets "silly picture" to mean "ugly face.")

....Babies start popping out, like my cousin Allie Tingey. Maddie is so excited to practice being a big sister. In fact, she reads up on how babies are made and grow in the tummy almost daily. She rubs my tummy and talks to the baby already, so the next seven months are going to feel so long for her.

....Josh religiously plays raquetball with any person he can convince to play with him. He and my brother-in-law, Rod, take it very serious and are a perfect match. One or the other always wins with a 15-14 score.

....Maddie starts having end of the school year presentations. Here she is completely frozen during her "solo" part. I literally thought she stopped breathing. Poor little thing gets major stage fright.

....Josh and Maddie find indoor things to do for their daddy daughter dates. Bowling in princess dresses is a favorite.

....Maddie proudly graduates to the next level in her swim class.

And, yes, I am still (thankfully) pregnant and DEFINITELY showing. Here I am at seven weeks. SEVEN WEEKS! (I am now 8 1/2.) That isn't even two months yet. I am going to be massive again. Here I was the day I went into the hospital to have Evan over six years ago, and I have a feeling my stomach will look insane like that again this pregnancy.

A Happy Day

I am pregnant and due early December. I am a bit hesitant to announce it to the blog world already, but I thought I would let people know since the grapevine seems to be working very well today.     :o)     Besides, I am already huge and it is better than people thinking I have put on a lot of weight recently.

Obviously, Maddie is already calling it her baby sister, and Josh keeps talking about his baby boy. We'll see.....

Springtime again!

Maddie and I played hookie at school and went to see the Hannah Montana movie the day it came out. She loved it, and I didn't hate it as much as I expected.

There are hundreds of little caterpillar nests all around Red Rock, so Maddie and I keep going up to watch them grow, and eventually become cocoons and then butterflies.

We also got to go to my cousin, Kim Howey's, wedding at Red Rock. She looked lovely.

Karen & Juli Harris happen to be the best holiday tradition people I have ever met. They are wonderful at following through on the cheesy holiday traditions, like decorating egg cookies and painting eggs. They have totally rubbed off on me so every year, and every holiday, I try to keep it going for the next generation of Harris girls.

Maddie has been counting down the days to Easter for the last two weeks. She woke up early every morning, came into my room, and with huge eyes, would say, "three more days til Easter!" Of course, the day it was actually Easter, she slept in from partying too hard the night before, and Josh and I had time to shower and get dressed and then we eventually just woke her up. How sad is that!?

We feel kind of bad that she is the only kid, so I made Josh promise to act like a kid too to make it more exiting for her. Here they are racing down the stairs together arguing over who will find more eggs.

Every holiday, dads all across the world are stealing from their kid's stash....

And here are our Easter dresses for Church.

And Maddie got a new suitcase for Easter. I would say she was getting too big to share mine anymore, but as this picture shows, she is still pretty tiny.

Stop! Don't shoot!, and the ups and downs of motherhood.

Josh and I had a really awesome, once in a lifetime opportunity to go and tour the FBI training academy with a friend of ours. For fear of my life, and as not to paint a target on myself, I kept the pictures to a minimum and will keep my mouth shut about what I did and did not see. It was very, very cool, and it waged a debate between Josh and I about who would make a better agent (me, obviously). And it was a beautiful time in the area because of all the cherry blossom trees and the cherry blossom festival in DC. 

I'm sure any mother who reads this entry will agree that there are ups and downs to being a mother. Hugs, kisses, loves, watching them grow, firsts, and learning new things are all pluses. Barfing, poopy diapers, late nights, early mornings, spoon feeding, sick babies, tantrums, not so much....

Well, I recently had a day of high and low. First, Maddie had a dentist appointment. Once we were out in public I realized that my daughter was wearing red lipstick, a very short cheetah print dress, and pink cowboy boots. Embarrassing..... And then she had her check up and her dentist said she has great teeth, but that I need to be brushing them twice a day for her because she is too young to do it herself. I immediately planned to feed her dog biscuits that clean dog teeth. That is so lame to have to brush your kids teeth twice a day..... I left feeling like the worst mom ever. (Half because I don't brush her teeth twice a day, and half because I want to feed her dog biscuits.)

But luckily, later that day was her parent teacher conference, where she received raving remarks and scores. Top of the class in every subject, very sweet, great social skills, everyone loves her, best in show...... (Oh wait, I keep forgetting I'm talking about a kid, not a dog....), and her teachers said they know that it is because of our great parenting that we have such an amazing kid. Phew.... I was afraid they thought I was a crackhead for being late sometimes, letting Maddie dress and do her own hair (see above), and always seeming to forget something. 

Of course, just as I was feeling all cocky, I woke up the next day and realized I had forgotten to do laundry and didn't have any groceries because I had been out of town. So she had to wear the same undies and I had to pack a NutriGrain bar for her lunch. Crap. Back to square one.....

This is not an April Fools Joke...

Josh just sent me this picture from his iPhone with the title of "crap."

Luckily he knows someone at Ticketbusters.com.   :o)