It's a GIRL!!!!

We are very excited to announce that we are having a little girl! We had our ultrasound on Monday and everything looked great! She was moving around a lot and is already so cute:) I have been feeling great too. I felt nauseas a lot the first couple of months, but after that I have felt really good and feel very blessed to not be one of those girls who is really sick and for a lot of the months of pregnancy. Kudos to those of you who experience that and still have more than one kid:)

When we went to the ultrasound Dalyn came with us and he was really funny. He told us that we were looking at the baby in mommy's tummy, not daddy's tummy or his tummy. He still thinks that his baby sister is in his tummy too though. (We went to the park today and he lifted up his shirt and pointed to his tummy and said "My baby sister's in here"-it was pretty funny) Also the whole time during the ultrasound he kept saying "Mommy, are you okay?" I guess he was pretty concerned seeing me lie there with someone probing my tummy with some weird little thing.

We got to see some of the ultrasound in 3-D so that was pretty cool. Here are a few pics...

So we will soon be experiencing the world of little girls. So if anyone has any good advice, recommendations, fun ideas, good places to find cute girls things, things that are fun to have for girls or anything of the sort, please let us know.

We love Summer!

We thought we'd share some of our recent adventures. Dalyn and I have been taking a parent/child swimming class together which has been really fun and he's been excited to go every day. I have started doing some water aerobics in an outdoor pool at night. (It's great looking up at the stars while getting in some good exercise.) I love it and it's an awesome workout. Jogging with my pregnant body just wasn't as fun anymore so I was in search of something new. I highly recommend it- especially the deep water aerobics. (sorry, no pics of that one:)

Another thing that Dalyn loves to do is help out in the kitchen. I got really ambitious about a week ago and decided to make caramel cinnamon roles ( I saw a picture of them in the cook book and had to have them...I soon realized that making them from scratch was a little too time consuming to meet my instant craving for them, but they did turn out really good when they were finally out of the oven and ready to eat. ) Dalyn was a great helper.

Drawing with sidewalk chalk is always fun. Here Jake and Dalyn are drawing some masterpieces together.

We went to the zoo again and this time got to have a presentation by one of the zoo keepers. He showed us a python (which Dalyn wasn't too fond of and I'm not fond of snakes either but still touched it so that Dalyn could see it was okay to touch the snake because the zookeeper had a good hold on it's head:) Maybe touching a snake isn't something you want to encourage your kid to do anyway :)

He also brought out a tortoise for us to see and Dalyn warmed up to that a lot faster than the snake. He loved it. The kids were talking to it and playing with it and running away from it while it was just mozying along. It was cute.

Another fun things was for the 24 th of July we got to go see my friend Coty and spend time with her little family. We went to their local parade and carnival and and the kids had a great time there and playing together. We also watched fireworks and did sparklers. It was just so fun to hang out with such a wonderful friend who I don't get to see as often as I'd like.

Dalyn got a flag at the parade and thought it was pretty cool

Coty's son Leif and Dalyn got to ride on the swings ride at the carnival

Going down the slide into the swimming pool in their underwear in Coty's backyard and having water gun fights with squirt bottles were highlight events for the kids:)

We can't believe how fast the summer is flying by. It's going way too fast, but we're trying to enjoy every last bit of it! :)

Summer Fun

We have had quite an eventful last few weeks. We first spent two weeks in Littleton enjoying time with my in-laws. While there Dalyn loved playing with so many cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents. We also decided to enjoy some of the FREE fun places to visit such as a really cool fountain park and the Littleton Historical Museum which featured some animals and such.

Annika, Dalyn & Haley

(While in Littleton Dalyn had his first sleepover party with his cousins
Haley, Jonathan, Michael & Emily)

Our day at the really cool fountain park

The Littleton Historical Museum

The Park Next to the Museum

Dalyn wowed us with his rock climbing skills.

He climbed up this steep rock climbing wall all by himself!

After our Colorado adventure we rested at home for a couple of days and then headed to my Mom's family reunion in Kamas, UT (near Park City). Jake's sister Sara joined us and it was really fun to have here there. It was great to see so much family that we haven't seen for a while. Dalyn loved being around so many people and playing with the other little kids. We ate great food, played games and even had motorcycle races.

The Benedict Reunion

They had little carnival games for the kids

And a big blow up jumper thing

Here are my cute grandparents

Dalyn and cousins got to ride in the back of this four-wheeler mini truck type thing

This is how we lined up for the motor cycle race. The course was in a field and some big hay bales marked the path.

Some of the star racers included my sister-in-law Sara (it was her first time on a motorcycle and she did awesome. She even raced twice!)

My mom (she was a little speed demon and had everybody scared wondering what this "older" lady was doing going so fast :) She beat everyone by a mile in her group.

And Me! (I rode a tiny little 50 and I took it easy...I wasn't trying to win the race or anything but I did manage to pass two people in the race and ended up taking third place in my group)

My dad was also a star racer but I didn't have my camera when the guys were racing. He did awesome, even when he had to ride the little 50 motorbike.

Good times!