Ready for Summer

Josh played drums (and vocals for one song!) at his office party this month. I have no idea how many people were there, but they planned for 500 and had to do a second run for food and drinks. So lets just say it was huge. And he totally rocked it. And I think he is a very sexy rock star.

Josh, Maddie and Angus had a daddy daughter puppy sleepover on the trampoline. Of course, right around 10:00 Josh carried Maddie inside and slept on his nice bed with feather pillows. When Maddie protested in the morning, Josh came up with a heroic story of how he and Angus saved her from the early morning sprinklers. It was adorable to hear her talk about all the stars and planets that they learned about while they were "camping." And it was adorable to hear him talk about how little by little she kept scooting closer to him until she fell asleep with her head on his shoulder. 

Maddie found lots and lots of starfish at the beach.

Josh and Maddie had to get their mandatory summer pedicure. They were gone for so long, I walked down to the salon to check in on them. Apparently, a pedicure turned into every single service that the salon provided. Josh said he couldn't completely understand them so he just kept saying yes. It was hilarious to walk in and see them both getting spoiled rotten.

Maddie and I finally got around to building her Barbie Malibu house that she got from Santa. Santa must have been feeling particularly lazy that night because he delivered it in a box.  :o)  But we had fun doing it, and Maddie took her sticker-putting-on duty VERY serious. You can tell when she is serious because the tongue comes out.

Angus....Angus....Angus.... He has had a rough month. Let's just say that he is lucky that he is adorable. Because he is very, very naughty. Everyone kept telling me he would calm down after he got neutered, but, alas, it is not meant to be. He is going to be our "bad kid," I'm sure of it. Not only did he get neutered, but he also jumped out of the window of a moving vehicle. He bounced a few times. Didn't move or breath for a few seconds. And then jumped up and started acting crazy again. Like I said, he will be the one that tries my patience!  :o)

I love this picture because it is exactly what a kid's life should be.

I also love this picture because you can see the bossiness just oozing out of her. It's not entirely her fault. It's in her genes. 

Girl cousins are the best. 

Apparently all of a sudden Maddie wants to skateboard. Where she came up with that idea, I have no idea. But I told her she will have to save up for it herself, hoping that she would lose interest and move on to a safer hobby. Nope. She has been going around the house doing chores to "help" and to make money. I woke up on Saturday morning and found her in the backyard with a bucket, dish soap, and my mop. She said she was washing dad's car for money. Poor Josh could barely see out of his grimy windows while he snuck away to get a REAL car wash. But I did end up paying her for that chore because she worked her butt off with that mop (which is now too gross to use on my kitchen floors).

Fluffy the turtle came out of hibernation a while ago. They are the best pets in the world because they sleep through the cold half of the year and survive completely off the grass in our backyard. The ONLY problem is trying to keep Angus (the dirty rebel) from eating the turtle poop.

Josh has been running a lot lately trying to prepare for half marathons and other crap that athletic people do for "fun." Maddie always asks if he "won the race" and Josh always tells her yes. Josh insists that it is a worthy lie because every kid thinks their dad is a superhero, and is the fastest and strongest and smartest guy in the whole world. Maddie drew this picture of him "winning" the race in San Francisco.

We got new goggles to be completely prepared for swimming season.

Maddie and I are in a "Mommy and Me Book Club." She already loves to read and is already ahead of her grade level, but I love the idea of sharing books with her. I always wanted to be the mom who reads the books that she is reading in class so that we can talk about them and our minds can grow together. Reading is the one talent/hobby/skill I have to give to my kids.  :o)   Of course, the first book was about picky eaters so we didn't exactly get into depth about life lessons, but we did get to try eating seaweed and tabasco sauce and other gross things.

Last, but certainly not least, Josh and I snuck off like a young and adventurous couple to check out one of our favorite bands. There's nothing much better than a Cranberries concert in Chicago in the middle of the week.

Heaven Help Us

There is a strong possibility that Josh and I will not survive the naming of this baby boy. He loves it, I hate it. I love it, he hates it. Somehow we both came out alive when we named Charlie.....but just barely.

Also, I started feeling the baby flopping around. It is a huge relief because as much as I don't want to think this way - I am always a little bit certain that he isn't going to be healthy and live. I know. I know. There are absolutely no signs of this. Everything is going great. It's just my post traumatic stress disorder.

Please feel free to leave baby boy names. I don't like weird spellings. Josh doesn't like anything. Those are the parameters.  :o)

The Madster Is All Grown Up

The Independent Madster flew alone up to Utah to be with her cousins for their spring break. She had a happy and big welcoming party waiting for her at the airport.

Her sister-cousin turned 7, so Maddie could NOT have missed this party or her life would surely have been over.

The fun never stops in Midway, Utah!

 Josh and I drove up on Friday to spend the weekend there too and to pick up our completely exhausted Maddie girl from her week of cousin fun. Angus came too, on his very first road trip. He gets an A+ for behavior, and a D- for being smelly. I can't even begin to count how many times I have done that trip and said, "I will never drive this again. I only fly."

Here is a picture of our Baby Boy at 11 weeks. I am now 13 weeks, which means I'm officially in my second trimester. Yeah for me! I love this picture because his forehead looks just like mine.  :o)

Maddie is so excited for her baby brother, she just can't stand it. She already talks to him in my tummy at least twice a day, and has already named him. Josh and I are wondering if we still have the naming rights or if Maddie just sort of took that responsibility away from us?  Anyway, when she prays or makes a wish, it is always, "Please let my baby brother grow up like me, and not die." If anything else, for the sake of my desperate-to-be-a-big-sister daughter, I really hope that is exactly what happens. She will be such a wonderful, helping big sister. Here, she is practicing with her new baby girl cousin.

I did it!!!

I bought a baby outfit at Target!!! Wow. That's a big step! How was I going to pass up this outfit? The frog's tongue is out just like Josh when he plays his drums.

See?   :o)

London & Scotland 2012

We decided to spend Spring Break this year in London and Scotland. London because I love it and Scotland because Maddie studied all about it last year in school. It was so much fun showing Maddie all around the city that Josh and I love. First thing we did was go on the London Eye.

And search for Peter Pan around Big Ben.

We then went to the Tower of London to explore.

Maddie loved the Crown Jewels....

....And hated the crows.

I love this city so much because I did a BYU study abroad program here in college. Maddie wanted to see where I used to live.

3rd floor window on the left, top bunk bed. It was the coolest thing I ever did.

Josh came over to visit me while I was studying there and that is where he proposed. It's so strange that 11 years later we went back with our daughter and took a picture at the very spot he got on his knee....

Because it is where he proposed, we named daughter Miss Madeline London Harris. She loves hearing the story about how she got her middle name because it is where her dad asked her mom to be his wife. :o)

Classic London photos

We got to see some theater shows while we were there. Maddie was VERY into the Lion King. She didn't seem to notice that we were in the second to last row because she had her trusty binoculars.

We also got to see Shrek.

Maddie rolled down the grassy hill at Kensington Palace. Just for fun.

When you travel with a kid, it changes your whole plan of how to tour a big city. I never would have known that the Princess Diana Memorial Children's Park in Hyde Park was so awesome. Can you find Maddie on this big ship?

We then went to Scotland. Maddie knew ALL about the bagpipes.

And I knew ALL about William Wallace.

When I went to Edinburgh all those years ago, the only thing I remembered about it was that it was FREEZING and WET. Well, it is still freezing and wet. So freezing, in fact, that Maddie cried. She learned her lesson that when Mom says to wear her big warm coat, she needs to listen to me instead of fight me. :o)

Then we went even further north, to where it is even colder and wetter, so we could try to find the Loch Ness Monster. We stayed in a castle lodge that didn't have heaters or hot water. I felt like I was camping, and we all know how I feel about camping. :o(

Maddie is absolutely terrified of Nessie.

When we were on the boat, she kept her eyes on the water the entire time. Bug eyed. She swears she saw Nessie not once, but two times!

On the insanely long plane ride home I asked her what her favorite things about London were. She said the Underground (subway system in London), which happens to be one of my favorite things too. She became an absolute pro at the end of the trip and could have gotten around perfectly fine without her mom and dad, I'm sure of it.

Good thing my mom taught me how to keep kids busy with lots of little things. If it had just been Josh and I, we would have slept on the trains and in the airplanes and at the airports. But Maddie was never tired. So we did lots of puzzles....

....And played never ending games of Uno....

....And sewed.

It sure was a great family vacation.

In like a lion....Out like a lamb....

Well, I guess there really is a baby in my stomach. He seems to be growing perfectly and everything looks good. That's what the doctor had to tell me three or four times. Because I didn't believe him and I kept waiting for the "But....." I think my fertility doctor was a little let down by my reaction. I basically sat and stared at him and blinked a few times. It has taken me 2 weeks to believe him, and now I can wear maternity clothes since I am not in denial anymore.

Maddie had a crazy hair day at school again, so we re-used a hairstyle we used years ago in preschool. It stood up all by itself and every person who saw the hairstyle that day was in awe. I didn't realize until later, when someone pointed it out to me, that it looks like a certain male body part. Crappy crap. Why didn't someone tell me that BEFORE I sent my sweet little girl out into the world looking like that?

Maddie and Josh hiked to the top of Lone Mountain on a Saturday while I took a nap. (I am CRAZY sleepy lately.) I don't know if you noticed that Maddie suddenly has bangs. She cut them herself, and I did my best to make them look decent. She said she just wanted to look like me, so I guess I can't be that mad.

I am so lucky I haven't hardly been nauseous at all. Just small waves of it. But my main complaints are insane sleepiness, insane starving feeling all the time no matter how much I eat, hot flashes from the hormone supplements, and an increased sense of smell. Suddenly this adorable little fluffy ball of cuteness smells disgusting. I smell him all the time no matter where we are.

On the plus side, he graduated from puppy training school and is now (mostly) potty trained. Yeah Angus!

Maddie has also been performing in acting classes. She was the lead in the last play that she was in, and I was so very proud of her. It's super weird to me how much she loves performing on stage. I have always hated it and would only do it when completely forced by my mom. Now I have a daughter that is always begging me to be in acting, singing, guitar and piano lessons. I'm very proud of how well she does, but I have to admit this was unexpected. Apparently I am now a "Stage Mom" and didn't even know it!

Yup. Definitely pregnant.

Well, I'm officially pregnant. Official enough that I am announcing it. Yesterday, we saw a little tiny heartbeat on our Zombie baby. I already knew for sure that I was pregnant, but I had to wait to confirm medically that there really is a little guy with a heartbeat in there.

I am incredibly, abnormally sleepy. I take two hour naps in the middle of the day without planning it. I just wake up with a pile of drool in my law books.

My stomach feels nauseous. But it's half "I'm about to throw up" and half "I am starving and need to eat everything right now."

My pants and skirts have gotten tighter despite my weight not going up much. I'm one of those cursed women who get big soon and then get massive at the end.

I cry a lot. I am emotional. Disney movies make me sob.

Yup. I'm pregnant. Oh boy. No matter how much I want a little guy and how hard I worked to get pregnant, I can still say that being pregnant sucks. Sucks really bad! I hate it. It's bittersweet. :o)