Wow, so much has happened this summer! How about a quick update and a few pictures?

• Adam graduated in May from Indiana University
• We moved to Utah so Adam could be closer to his two startup businesses
• Let me clarify: we moved into the basement of the Marriott home
• Adam is crazy busy. Entrepreneurs don't have business hours.
• Laura had a baby on July 1st. Homebirth. Everything was great. Liv Lorraine is beautiful and so so happy. Our earliest smiler--week 1!--she continues to be extremely smiley.
• Jane started violin lessons again in August. She is reading and writing and, not surprisingly, sounding like she's at least 12. She even went to a middle school summer party. We found her roasting marshmallows with 13 year olds a couple houses down.
• Audrey is so tall! She is sharing shoes and clothes with Jane now. We've noticed that she gets along great with handsome little boys. She smiles at everything they do and I think it makes them feel good.
• Madelynn is...well...she may be destined to be a singer. She has an amazing set of lungs and she uses them all day. Definitely not a baby anymore. If you try to call her "sweetie" or "princess" or "muffin" she'll frown and correct you. "My name is not Sweetie. It's Maddie/Molly (depending on what she wants that day)."

Now how about a few pictures from the month of July?

Adam grew his beard for awhile and needed a photo with Will. 

Making cupcakes with Nana. They are basically her very dedicated fan club, following her around  ALL THE TIME.

Moments into the world. Midwife checking her head.

Can you tell that Jane loves being around cousins again?

I just love this picture of Audrey. Adam took them to a splash pad a couple days after Liv was born.

Fun-loving girl.

Liv Lorraine. 1 week.

Audrey and hair assessories

For awhile there Audrey wore a pink bow in her hair every day. Then she started putting 20 bows in every day ("to get the hair off her face"). Someone told me that she even went to church like that when I was out of town, which explains why others were telling me they could tell I hadn't gotten them dressed that day. Next, she went back to the single bow. A few weeks ago, after visiting the allergist, she picked these bunny ears as her "prize" and has been sporting them ever since. You may still be able to find them at target if you hurry...

Madelynns obsession

Boots. She loves her black rain boots. I think mostly because she can get them on all by herself but I think it goes a bit beyond that too. She loves them. Like some kids like to take their shoes off, Madelynn likes to put hers on. She wears them all day, with every outfit. Swimsuit with the boots. Pajamas with the boots. They go with everything.

Life since the first trimester

I won't complain as much here as I did in my journals, but I was horribly sick this time. Throwing up. Constantly on the verge of throwing up. Food in my mouth every 5 minutes to keep from throwing up. Lying down all but maybe 2-3 hours a day to keep from throwing up (yes, that is less complaining than you'll find in my journal).

Basically the girls ran around wild (sometimes with ikea utensil "guns" in their underwear--who needs boys?), watched tv at least half the day, and only got home cooked meals of ramen noodle soup. At least we could all laugh about the noodle beards they loved to make. So glad that phase is over!

It's a...

Girl!
Anybody checking me out on pinterest these days will notice I've suspected as much for awhile (4 beds in 1 room pinning like crazy). Well it's official! Well, it will REALLY be official sometime around June 27th, but I've seen enough girl ultrasounds by now to feel pretty confident that we have more pheromones coming our way. So exciting! I was not-so-secretly nervous about trying out a boy, so this falls nicely into my comfort zone. Yay!

Our girls were various princesses from our dress up box for trick or treating and for the ward Halloween party. (No pics). For Adam's school party for the kids, I didn't feel like buckling princess dresses and fairy wings into the carseats, so I made them put on Jane's shirts (I got a little crazy over plaid shirts for her this year) and tote some sticks around with some "dirt" on their faces. I actually liked it! But they had no idea what they were. I overheard Jane telling someone she was a "Bobo" and how it was a character on some cartoon she likes...I guess it might be a little young to have them beHOBOS.

Ah, young love.

Sarah is now Sarah Briggs!! Married to the fine Christian Briggs and what a beautiful day it was! Here is some proof:

Now I must confess.

I'm basically doing this post because I told my in-laws that I'd send pictures of our fun hats and the picnic we had and the wedding dress that my mom MADE TWO WEEKS BEFORE THE WEDDING. But I couldn't get the pictures through in a decent way in an email so I'm just directing them here. That is why this post will be less about the lovebirds and how lovely they were and more about the party planning. Sorry! I don't have time to be sentimental. I have to go to bed.

So.

Here's a shot of the back of the dress:

They had a reception that evening in Fresno. But we didn't make anything for that really. It was catered dessert at the Downtown Club which was a really fun location (I think our Christmas card picture will come from there). So on to the picnic the next day in Monterey!

The Bride and her new family:

Alternative guest sign in: Write your sentiments on a Jenga block!

(side note: See the lacey overlay on this table? That was the OLD wedding dress...We don't waste things in the Bennion house.)

They had His and Her lunchboxes. We put all the food together.

Favors. His favorite Sees candy (Almond bud) and Her favorite Sees candy (Milk Bordeaux).

Gentlemen were encouraged to wear a dapper hat.

All of the pennant banners were handmade using the scraps from the pillow material. They will be used for a quilt for Sarah and Christian.

Each blanket had a big pillow (handmade) with a love quote on the back, a bouquet of flowers, and a platter of fruit. I monogrammed the napkins for those with a "B."

Picnicing. We really felt like we were back in time--it was so beautiful and charming.

Jane, Audrey, and Porter helped Tanner put up the badminton net. Don't they look so cute in their little hats?

Do I dare admit that we played croquet with British accents?

This is from the luncheon the day before, but I think my face is pretty classic. Really good portrayal of my feelings. See if you can guess what happened (and happens about every 10 minutes with this girl):

Hehe. Messy Mollie.

Potty Trained!

I put on my facebook status awhile back that Audrey was well on her way to being potty trained and that it was going to be really easy. Well, even if she was going to be easy, I still had to put in more than an hour's worth of effort into the process, which I didn't end up feeling ready for until a couple weeks ago. I finally had a good few days to concentrate on her with no upcoming trips to make us regress, and voila! She was definitely potty trained in less than a day, like the fabulous book I used promised. I don't even have to remind her to go! It's amazing! There have been a few accidents, of course, but Audrey has got this under control. It probably helps that she's been known to keep her potty quite close....(Don't worry, it really was just this once that she had the seat on her head. We haven't let her continue this very sanitary fad.)

California Trip

While Adam was in Africa for 2 weeks, I decided the the girls and I needed to go somewhere too. We announced to my parents that we were coming for just over a week, ready or not! We got there just in time to "Get the Party Started!" (We had an average of 1 official party each day, so Jane got used to saying that.) Gammie had these awesome party hats that the girls loved wearing every day. Here is a sampling from the dozen she had:

Porter's birthday was the week before we got there, but my mom surprised us all with a party at Chuck E. Cheese's for him. We had a great time!

The next party was my for Austin's birthday. It was at this party that we caught Maddie and her cousin Logan being affectionate. Spin the baby bottle, anyone?

I didn't get any pictures of the Relief Society birthday party, the Tea party, the Park party, or the Monterey Bay Aquarium/bonfire party (that was a bonfire on the beach after the Aquarium visit; not a bonfire IN the Aquarium). But rest assured, all that partying was so fun. We LOVED every moment. Of course, Audrey had to recuperate with her daily lounge on the grass. She literally did this every day in the midst of all the kids running around. I don't know wear she learned to sunbathe! Usually she didn't lie on the sewer plate, but I think it added some warmth to her laying out that day. Ahhh, gotta love some California rays.

THANK YOU for letting us visit!!

We are still alive

Maybe some of you were wondering if we were still alive. We are. Here is a photo of the girls in February. (I have been really terrible about taking pictures so this is the most recent I have on this computer.) Everyone is growing up and constantly on the go.

I'm constantly on the go after these 3 and Adam. I'm taking ballet classes again about twice a week which is a shock to my body but makes me very happy.

Adam is constantly on the go with school, scouts and us. He just got back from 2 weeks in Africa consulting a small business there.

Jane is constantly impressing us with her sophisticated grasp on interpersonal relations.

Audrey is saying some "r" sounds!!

Madelynn loves being outside, we've discovered with the advent of spring, and would be happiest if we never had to go inside.

Hopefully I can start making more regular entries!

Pippi Longstocking, Ladybug Girl, Fancy Nancy

How obsessed do you think we are? Here are some clues:

• Audrey, whose previous longest word was probably "potty" was suddenly saying "pippilongstocking."
• I heard Jane talking to herself and the speech went, "I tell myself to go to bed. At first I say it quite nicely like 'Pippi, it's time for bed.' And if I don't listen I have to say it more firm. 'Pippi! Go to bed!' And if I still don't listen I give myself a spanking you see. So there." This is practically verbatim, for those of you who don't happen to know.
• We rented 4 Pippi movies (the Swedish versions with English dubbing) and watched the American one online. No telling how many viewings we have had in the past 3 weeks.
• There is constant playing of the Pippi game Don't Touch the Floor

I think it's fair to say we are fairly obsessed. It was a natural choice for Jane's costume this year.

Audrey wanted to be her as well, I think. But we grabbed some Fancy Nancy books and some Ladybug Girl books and she was satisfied that she was a lot like Ladybug Girls who, like Audrey, likes to feel the leaves falling on her head and likes to hang on things. When we are at the park,

Audrey loves to just hang at the top of the slides over and over; her feet tucked up to her rear. So I happily pointed out Ladybug Girl doing the same thing on a tree in the book.

Madelynn could care less about dressing up, but she made a cute Fancy Nancy. I have to admit I put very little effort into her costume, as is very apparent, but I think she'll agree with me someday that this was not an important year for her. She loved being at the ward party, though!

Halloween 2010

We are SO lucky to be near enough to the Mitchells still that we've already had 2 visits since moving down here. We went up to visit in September, and they came down for Halloween weekend. It is so great to see the cousins still bonding and knowing each other. After both visits, Jane has begged me to move back to Milwaukee. I attribute that to these guys.

Since it was Halloweeen weekend and they weren't getting here in time for our ward party, we had to plan one for ourselves.

We started by putting all our hands in a circle and broke with "Boo!" Team

spirit can apply to lots of things, right? Cupcake decorating was first on the list. Even Baby got some sugar.

The start of the sugar high

After doing Pippi hair 3 times, Jane and I decided to switch things up and be Cinderella. Doesn't my homemade ghost pinata look really good behind her? Yes, I'm asking for compliments.

We played "trick or treat" by pulling slips out of a hat and either getting a treat or doing a trick. Rubbing your belly and patting your head needs to be taught at a young age. Here are some awesome treats:

Even monsters can be cute

Freaky

The mummy roll. Jack was hilarious AND scary walking around like a mummy. I love the roll of paper in this picture.

After all the kids swatted at the ghost, we finally had a jedi who could do the job:

And now we are officially (especially me) in sugar comas.