Mother's Day

I completely forgot that Mother's Day happened in our home.
We got back from Disneyland at like 10 pm on Saturday so we decided to let the girls sleep in on Sunday. I went to sacrament meeting by myself (The girls didn't wake up until 9:45!!) and actually had a wonderful experience. When I got home everything was put away from the trip, the girls were dressed complete with hair, breakfast was waiting for me, and there was a sign on the door! I felt so special. Ethan literally had no time to do anything and still did something! What an amazing man.  I love being a mother and am so grateful that I get to take care of these two. I'm also grateful that I get to do this with Ethan. He is such an amazing man and father.

Madison's heart exam

At Madison's well check up in April Uncle Rick found a heart murmur that he wanted us to check out. I'm a worrier by nature. Everyday Ethan leaves for work I am convinced that it will be the last time I see him. Its a serious problem that I am trying to overcome. That being said, when Uncle Rick told me that Madison had a heart murmur,  I wasn't worried. I felt so calm about everything
.
On May 19th Madison and I went to go visit Dr Hoffman, the pediatric cardiologist, and spent three hours doing all sorts of tests and exams.
Madison was a champion. Two nurses came in to get her vitals, one nurse came in to get her heart scanned which required connecting 13 wires across Madison's chest,  then the Dr came in to evaluate and listen, and then a 4th nurse came in to take us to a dark room where he did about 45 minutes of ultra sounds on Madison's heart. Madison had to be asleep or still for most of these tests and luckily she was. She was such a good girl.
My favorite part about the whole experience was how every new nurse that came in was like "Oh my! You have the cutest chubbiest baby!" It lightened the mood

After all the exams we learned that Madison did have a heart murmur but the type that she will grow out of when she gets older. 60% of all babies have a heart murmur. Some grow out of them, some never grow out of them but are perfectly fine, some never grow out of them and need some sort of minor assistance later in life, and very few heart murmurs actually need surgery.
The reason Madison had a heart murmur was this: Her heart is so tiny and has to work extra hard to pump the blood through like all baby hearts. As the heart is beating the extra beats in her tiny chest, sometimes extra blood gets pushed in and out. Because there isn't very much room for the extra blood, blood gets sloshed around causing heart murmurs. As babies grow and their chest expands, their hearts slow down and the extra blood stops hitting the walls of their chest. Talk to your doctor, but this was my understanding of Madison's heart murmur.

All in all, it ended up just being a false alarm, but I am so grateful for modern technology that allows us to be cautious instead of sorry. If something was actually wrong, it comforts me to know that there are a lot of people, tools, and procedures that could help.

Spokane Trip

We got back from Disneyland late May 9th, drove up to Bountiful on May 10th, and left for Spokane on May 12th. It was crazy but the girls did amazing!

Spokane was so much fun because it was the opposite of Disneyland in every way. It was so relaxing. We went to Riverfront Park (where Kelsey rode the carousel 9 times in a row!!!), went to Fiesta, Ethan and I went to the temple, we walked along the Spokane River, ate a Subway, played a million games, helped my dad in the yard, jumped on the tramp, and visited into the hours of the night. It was great. I don't know when we will get to Spokane next because of my parents mission plans, so I'm really glad that we were able to make the trip up there before work.

If we go into a new state, I make our family take a family picture in that state for a map that I am making. This is literally the best we could do for Montana!

 

Within 10 minutes of getting to Spokane, Kelsey had found the basement, made a stack of books, and was reading them. I love her passion for reading. It is the cutest thing I have ever seen

 Foursquare and garden fun

 Walking the river

 

 Subway

 Temple trip: first time back since we've been married

 Playing with Grandma Elson

Riverfront Park

 Playing on the trampoline

 While we were in Spokane my parents gave Kelsey her birthday present which was this costume: "A dancing dress" as Kelsey calls it. I don't think she has taken it off.

 

You can't tell but she is bowing after playing and singing with my mom to jingle Bells

I have a few favorite memories for this specific trip
1. Getting my mom to stop making dinner and come play four square with us.
2. The HOURS of dancing did while Grandma Elson played the piano
3. The HOURS Kelsey spent down in the basement reading and playing
4. The HOURS Kelsey spent on the trampoline with Papa

Two Kelsey quotes that I loved were these
"Cereal in your yogurt? One at a time Grandma"
" Grandma's house is so beautiful. It has stairs, pictures, and windows!"

Kelsey had so much fun in Spokane. She followed my parents everywhere. Since it was new place to her memory she wanted to touch and see everything. She would talk and talk and talk.  I loved growing up there so it was special for me to see Kelsey enjoy it too.

Madison's Smiles

Lets take a break from catch up and talk about one of my favorite subjects. Madison!!! This week Madison hits the 4 month mark and my goodness has time flown by.

Madison is cuddly and squishy and we all fight over who gets to hold her which is fine by her because if Madi could be held her whole life, she would be. She LOVES to be held.
Madi can hold up her head when we hold her, hates tummy time, loves to hold her toes, loves Kelsey, sleeps on her side, sleeps like a champion, only really naps in her car seat,  sucks her thumb, and LOVES to smile. Its hard to get Madi to laugh, but she will smile at anything. She has the warmest smile.

 My favorite time of the day is when the girls wake up. Kelsey loves to rush into Madison's room and says, "Good morning sweetie." As she's saying that Madison wiggles and squirms until she can see Kelsey and then gives her the biggest smile. They love each other so much.
It is such a joy to watch these two girls interact with each other. They love to be together. Kelsey only gets into trouble because she loves Madison TOO much. Its so awesome having two kids.

 

 Currently we call Madison the following names:
Madison, Madi, Madi Rue, and Rooster. We call her rooster more than anything, but Kelsey always introduces Madison like so, "this is my baby sister. I call her Madi. "
Today Kelsey said, "Mom, I'm going to call Madi pancake okay." Basically the nicknames will never stop coming.