2nd Grade, First Smiles, WY

An awesome from the car shot of Dal's school :) He started 2nd grade just a couple days after we moved here. It was a little crazy getting him into a school. The school he is supposed to go to is full as are a couple of the other close ones. We luckily got him into a different close one that was able to squeeze him in. I guess the schools here are busting at the seams, especially with 2nd graders. They are going to be breaking ground on a couple new schools soon to try to keep up with the growth here and all the young families with children that keep moving to town. Our ward has a lot of young families which is kind of cool. And they just redid the boundaries and our ward building now has 4 wards in it! Crazy! They are hoping that a new meetinghouse will be in the plans here in the near future.

Our little 2nd grader. (Note: This isn't what he wore his first day of school. I actually did take the camera to take a nice picture of him in front of his school on the first day of school but we were running a little late because I had to feed Madelyn and we all wanted to go, so we didn't get a photo. So here one is. Better late than never :)

Dal has been known to bust out some poses for the camera. He called this his "action" shot.

This was his "silly" shot. Believe it or not Dal can be a pretty timid kid. His first week of school was really hard because he didn't know anybody and was really missing his friends back in Utah, especially his best friend Jett. I think he was feeling kind of lonely. He is such a good kid at school and he really likes his teacher so I think things will work out. He has started to get to know some kids which is good but being new and making new friends takes time. Not that I know from experience (well, not as a kid. As an adult I have plenty of experience at moving and being "new"). Jake has a lot of experience with moving as a kid though. He knows a little too well what its like. I, on the other hand, lived in the same house all of my growing up years and went to school with all of the same kids. By middle school I was ready to move so that I could meet some new people but it wasn't in the plans. I think that's why going to college was such a breath of fresh air.

And I'm not sure what this pose was but I thought I would include it for posterity's sake.

 

 

Our little cutie pie.

I love tiny little baby feet.

Madelyn has started smiling which is so fun

Love this sweet baby

A little peak outside our door. Almost every afternoon lately we have been having some cool thunder and lightning storms. We have had fun exploring some of the parks around here and getting to know our new town. At one park they have a cool rock and sagebrush frisbee golf course and we discovered that our kids love frisbee golf. Another park has some of tallest tunnel slides that I have ever seen on a park playground. The kids thought those were pretty cool. I also discovered a really cool running path very close to where we live. (It feels good to be able to run again!) I saw two rabbits and four deer while I was running on it. When I run, I run by the middle school football field, which is the nicest middle school football field that I have ever seen. It's made of really nice artificial turf and the track that goes around it is super nice too. I'll have to start taking my camera more places so I can capture the moments of our exploring. That's one of my favorite things about moving to a new place-exploring and getting to know all of the best things that our new place has to offer.

Madelyn 1 Month Old & Rock Springs

I can't believe she is already a month old. Time is going by fast. We are all enjoying our little Madelyn so much. I can't believe I only have one month left at home with her before I start work. That is going to be so hard for me to leave her every day. But hopefully my schedule will be flexible enough that I will still be able to see her a lot. And having a 5 minute commute is going to make a huge difference.

We are all moved to Rock Springs and getting settled in. It has been a crazy couple of weeks. Moving is always such a pain. We like our apartment a lot and we like the town so far. It definitely has that friendly small town vibe. Anytime we have gone to the store or anywhere there is always a stranger that talks to us, usually about Madelyn. This is a great sized town and we love that it only takes a few minutes to get anywhere we need to go.  We have gone on some walks and as we walk through the neighborhoods I can't believe how many trucks and camper trailers there are. It's like to truly be a Wyominger you have to own those two things :) We feel really good about being here and starting a new adventure here.

Madelyn's Blessing Day

We wanted to bless Madelyn before we moved so more family could be there, so she was only weeks old when we blessed her. We decided to do it after church in the Relief Society room and then have a luncheon afterwards at the covered pavilion outside the church. We couldn't believe how much family came to support us and little Madelyn. The Relief Society room was full! We felt very blessed and loved and were happy to have so many people share her special day with us.

Beautiful sisters. Madelyn was so quiet during her blessing and her blessing was really special. I felt the Spirit strong and Jake did too. The main thing that really stood out to us is that Jake felt very impressed to say that she came in this dispensation so that she could help build the kingdom of God and be a missionary. We feel like she is a very special daughter of God and we feel very blessed to have her in our family.

I love her little dainty pinky sticking out in this picture :)

I love her dress. My mother-in-law made it for Braelyn and we were excited to have Madelyn wear it too.

Grandma & Grandpa Hilton

Some daddy time

It was so great to have some of my favorite cousins there. Jeff & Camron Hill and their families came as well as my cousin Jenny and her family.

Both my mom's sisters came and it was fun to have them there

Collin & Tiffany and their fam were there too

I loved it that my Aunt Fern could come and my parents too of course

Landon and Braelyn. So cute!

Jake's cousin Kadee and her family came and it was fun to see them.

It was also special to have Jake's mom there "Grandma Harris" and her sister Aunty Angie.

Loved having a couple of my brothers there. They are so good at making great faces too :)

Jake's cousin Erika and her family were there and it was so great to see them

Welcome Madelyn Lily

I went into labor around 5:30 in the morning on Friday August 2nd. (Which was my graduation day for my Masters degree in Medical Dosimetry) My contractions started coming 10 minutes apart and they weren't painful so at first I thought they were braxton hicks but when they kept consistently coming and getting closer together I knew we were going to have a baby that day. So I got up and took a shower and did a little cleaning. (We knew Madelyn was going to come any day and we felt like I would have her early. My due date was August 8th. My plan was for that day to be my big cleaning day in preparation for her to come. So I was in a little panic to get more cleaning done before we went to the hospital :) It was funny because Jake woke up and asked what I was doing and I told him that we were going to have a baby today. That woke him up right away. I asked him if he could go vacuum downstairs and he didn't think our neighbors would appreciate us vacuuming that early in the morning. And he thought it was funny that I was more concerned about that than thinking about going to the hospital. We called my sister in law Tiffany (she was our on call person and she is so great :) and she came and stayed with the kids while we went to the hospital. When I got to the hospital they were really skeptical about me actually being in labor. I told them this was my third kid and I knew I was in labor but they made me wait an hour to prove I was progressing before they would admit me and if they didn't feel like I was progressing enough then they said they would send me home. I was thinking "Ya right, I'm not going home." So in that hour I had to wait my contractions started getting really painful and close together. I almost passed out and threw up from the pain so we called the nurse to come back and admit us. I told the nurse that even if she didn't think I was progressing enough I was not going home. She could see I was in a lot of pain so I was finally treated with a little respect and they rushed to get me admitted. I was dilated to a 6 once they got me in and luckily the anesthesiologist was able to come quickly and get me an epidural. Oh how I love epidurals. I told Jake "Epidurals are the best things ever!" :) Things kept progressing and I had her less than two hours later. Things went really smooth. I only had to push twice and she was here. I was so happy and relieved to have her here safe and sound.

My sister-in-law Catherine made this cute little announcement and the picture above. The way we chose her name was we just liked the name Madelyn and thought it would be a great fit for her and fit in with the unintended "lyn" theme going on with our kids names. The name Lily is a name that we really like and Dal really wanted that to be her first name, so we thought it would be a good middle name. It is also a family name because I have a great-grandma named Lilleth and Jake has a great-grandma named Lillian.

The kids were very excited to meet their new baby sister.

I just had to put this giant flower on her head to get a couple pictures.

Dal loves to have cuddle time with his baby sis

Braelyn loves to hold and help take care of Madelyn

Madelyn's first outing.

Summer Summer Summer Time

I guess it has been long enough that we should post another installment of pics and notes...


Dal's last day of school.

 While other kids screamed with elation, Dalyn was sad b/c he wouldn't get to see his best friend Jet D and talk about all things Skylanders!

Many mornings were spent playing the "Chase Game" before school. Parks (right), Dalyn, & Hunter would run around while B-rae chased them. Brae liked the attention & Dalyn and his friends seemed to be genuinely thrilled to play. It became quite the tradition as other kids from Dal's class would randomly come over and start running around for Braelyn to chase them too! A couple times B had 7 or 8 kids to chase. Of course by the end of the year Braelyn was a quasi-celebrity at Dal's school.

Oh how times are changing from this little tiker with his Lightning McQueen sandals and his Winnie the Pooh backpack to now going into 2nd grade! I can't believe it!!

(screen shot Wii Wheel of Fortune)

Summer time brings play time. What better way to take a break from studying than to play wheel of fortune?
I may have lost like $65k to 1k my first game with Jake but I came back to win the next couple of games - unfortunately we don't have a picture of my wins :) but I assure you they exist...and so does the Lochness monster for that matter!

We told Dalyn we were going to go to the store and let him pick out a bike. He hasn't had a bike yet (up until now he's had a scooter) and we didn't want him to get too old without learning how to ride/enjoying the experience while he's a youngin' :). To our surprise and slight dismay Dalyn told us he didn't want a bike but we were skeptical so we took him to the store anyways. We even had to promise we could return the bike back to the store if he didn't like it. One ride later he was the happiest boy alive cruising down the path in his super-fast blue racer!

Our trip to buy Dalyn his first bike took an unexpected turn when Braelyn fell in love with a pink & purple princess bike, complete with a bell, princess (heart-shaped) pedals, and a basket for baby.

Braelyn had a toddler bike that she still can fit into (barely) but we realized with Dal's new bike she'd never be able to keep up on her old one (ok, that and she wouldn't leave the store w/o the bike ) convinced us to go ahead and get her a new one :) (and b/c they were both on sale!)

Well, keep up she can! She's actually a bit faster than the Dalynator right now. We know this because Dal wanted to race their new bikes together and Braelyn won. Dal decided they needed to race again to remove the anomaly from his racing record only to be beat again :) So, until further notice Braelyn is the family speedster! Although I guess in thinking about Dal's long legs versus B's power thighs, we kind of knew Brae could hold her own, but we're still a little surprised at just how fast 4 yr old Brae-Rae is! We can now ride bikes to the school playground. It's been fun!

 We also did a little fishing.

Some of the fishing was from Nephi's boat at the Church History Museum :)

Sara & Dalyn checking out one of the games

You can also dance at the museum!

Good thing I always carry our pink Fiesta dresses in my purse - just in case!!

(Whew! Look at me go!!)

And they'll even let you make weird faces there too!

or relax by the reflection pool

  and temple

Sara was a good sport letting us drag her around the valley all day! We had probably done enough for one day but we decided to finish off the day hiking Ensign Peak overlooking Salt Lake City - which btw Jake now suggests you don't hike mountains after a long day on Fast Sunday after not eating or drinking all day, especially when it's almost 100 degrees out, & with little kids you'll have to carry part way  ... in fact he now recommends we don't hike at all while fasting, something about thirst or heat stroke, I forget, but I thought it was kind of fun! Of course, I was drinking plenty of water :)  I can't fast with a baby in my belly!

 

Dalyn & Braelyn just wanted shade after the long walk upwards.

And recently we did some other fun stuff... 4th of July weekend was a lot of fun! My parents came down & we went to the movies a couple of times - saw an IMAX showing of Man of Steel, had a VIP theater experience, went to Stadium of Fire (we have pictures & video but they weren't loading right so this was the only shot from S. of F. that showed up). Pretty amazing pic right!?! The lady in front of us has hair...and you can sort of tell there is a stage up there.

Slip slidin' away! 

A little summer water fun in Collin & Tiffany's backyard. The kids had a lot of fun getting wet!

And that's probably not all but I can only remember so much :) I am preggers after all & I have a huge comprehensive test tomorrow to finish off my Masters! Plus, I have to decide if I should go by Master Tashy or Mommy Masters. So there's a lot on my mind as you can see! :)