Oh the Adventures!

We have had an eventful last couple of weeks. Jake started school again and has a very tough load this semester. We are hardly ever going to see him, hence it's going to be a long semester. Once it's done though we'll have a new baby girl and he'll have three weeks off which will be really nice.
Also we went up to Montana for Labor Day weekend because my baby brother Chase just got home from his mission to South Korea. It's been two years and it was so wonderful to see him. That same weekend was my 10 year high school reunion (I can't believe it's already been 10 years!) It was fun to see people from high school, many of whom I haven't seen since high school.
Along with all of that adventure we have been working on potty training the last couple of weeks. It has been quite an experience. Actually Dalyn has done pretty well. He doesn't have very many accidents and he's very excited to wear his big boy underwear....it's just that he doesn't ever tell me when he has to go and he doesn't just voluntarily go on his own so I have to be on potty patrol all of the time and watch for the "potty dance" or other signs that he really needs to go. Thankfully he's good at holding it until we can get to the potty and I can make some kind of a bargain with him to get him to sit down and go. Our bargains range anywhere from getting to go outside to play with the kids to a dum dum sucker. I'm hoping that sometime soon he will decide to just go on his own. That will be a joyous occasion!

I think this is the first time Dal has actually posed for a picture. He was even saying "cheese" and everything. Maybe it was the standing on his Spider Man scooter that put him in the mood to get his picture taken or something. Who knows but it was fun to take pictures of him and have him looking at the camera instead of me chasing him around trying to get a shot of his face.

Dal got in his little sled with some stuffed animals and then wanted us to surround him with all of the others that he could see. Once he was all cuddled in, he wanted me to read them all a story. It was pretty cute.

The trying on costumes continued beyond the alligator costume and moved on to the Tigger costume. What a cute little Tigger eating breakfast! He also loved to bounce around like Tigger which was really cute as well.

My cute little brother Chase and I a couple days after he returned home from his mission. I just love that kid and it will be so fun to have him around and get to call him and hear about his fun BYU adventures.

More Summer Adventures

Dalyn and I took a little trip to see my good friend and cousin BreAnne (who I haven't seen for years) and her family. They were on their way to Montana so we met them on their way there so we could hang out for a couple of hours. It was so fun to get to see her, Britny, and Bre's 5 adorable kids. Dalyn loved playing with the kids.

Me, Dal, Holland, Logan, Anniston, Bre, Landon & Londyn
Britny & I

The other day Dal got out some Halloween costumes and enjoyed wearing around his alligator costume. I think we put it in and took it off about 5 times that day.

He even got into character with a mean alligator face :)

It was a little too quiet in our house the other day so I went to see what Dal was up to and discovered that he had done some pen and ink artwork on his chest and legs.

He was quite disappointed when I took the pen away and explained that we don't draw on ourselves. I got him some paper to draw on but obviously that wasn't near as fun.

I was putting in a load of laundry when I heard the water in the bathroom come on and heard Dalyn singing the ABC's while he washed his hands and feet. I was a little surprised to find that he had managed to climb up onto the counter, but not too much I guess because when it comes to playing with water Dalyn will find a way.

Running through the sprinklers is always fun

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!