• We still don’t have a name for the newest addition to our family…I’m beginning to worry about that.  This child is slightly neglected with our attention focused on other things.  I have yet to take a belly shot, I don’t think I’ve journaled at all about her, and she’s still no name baby girl around our house.  I feel badly, and she’ll be here in just 7 short weeks (give or take, hopefully take…)  But after this post I will be blogging on Blog, Jr. about her, so not all is lost.
• No trips or very exciting things have happened to us since our June (Oregon) and July (Chicago) trips.  Just getting ready for baby, welcoming a new niece to our extended family, trying to stay cool and making sure Maddy enjoys her time in the spotlight before she’s no longer the only child.  Yikes…mother of two…I must admit I do have moments of panic from time to time…I know it can be done, I’m just nervous for the learning curve.
• This past weekend we purchased a treadmill and disposed of a rattlesnake.  All in an Arizona afternoon…  Haha…okay I’ll elaborate...
  
  So Dan went to take the trashcan to the curb for pick up when he noticed something on our doorstep.  Thinking it was a lizard he approached it only to realize it was a snake, coiled up next to our front door mat.  Fortunately for him he had exited the house through the garage or he would have likely stepped on it, or right in striking distance of the slithery thing.  He told me about it and I rolled myself out of bed (I have to roll myself out of many places these days) to check things out, and take pictures to document the adventure.  Sure enough, it was a rattlesnake.  Granted it was a young one, maybe 14 inches long, but creepy nonetheless with its slithery tongue and rattling tail.  Not to mention after some research we think it was a Mohave rattlesnake, which is apparently a lot more poisonous than your standard western rattlesnake.  Double yikes!
  
  With shovel in hand Dan attempted to scoop it up into a bucket.  Not wanting to kill the thing…who can kill something that has real body mass to it?  Gross!  He tried to be gentle, but it soon was in attack mode, striking at the shovel, and began to escape into the rocks.  Letting it get away was NOT an option, so Dan got a little more aggressive with it and eventually got it in the bucket.  Soon enough some neighbors came out to see what exactly we were doing; they were from Michigan and had a camera ready to document their close encounter with real Arizona wildlife.  Then we walked it behind our street of houses where a large empty desert land area remains undeveloped and Dan got down in the ravine/wash area and let it loose under a bush.  All is well now, but we definitely keep our eyes more open even walking in our own yard.
• Back to the treadmill... So I'm excited for this new purchase and hope to really dedicate myself to it once the baby comes.  I have all the motivation right now, I just hope it stays through the exhaustion of having a newborn in the house.  Wish me luck!
• Our next big purchases will be a recliner (since we have no comfortable nursing seating anywhere in the house right now) and a double stroller....oh boy!
  

We had a lot of fun on our visit to Chicago to see The Spriks (my sis and hubby) and the highlight was meeting baby Connor for the first time!  A quick recap, my sis delivered Connor 13 weeks early.  Born with the expected slew of complications and a 4 month stay in the NICU, Connor was finally released to go home where he belonged.  (you can read more about this miracle boy here.)

He seems like such a happy, smiley, healthy little boy, it's hard to believe what a rough start at life he had.  The future is still unknown for him, developmentally, but in my opinion he seems quite perfect and I loved snuggling with him and hearing him learn to laugh and talk and watch Maddy fall in love with her little cousin.  My sis wrote up a blog about our visit, complete with pics so check that out here.

And here are my highlights, based on the pics anyway...

These two were so cute together.  Maddy really was always giving him hugs and kisses, but the camera was never ready in time to really capture it!  There are more cute ones on Aimee's blog post I referenced to above.

We went to a local zoo.  Both Maddy and Connor were asleep for the first half of the wandering, but eventually woke up and had fun!

For our 4th of July festivities Dan and I took Maddy to the Eyes to the Skies festival.  They had a carnival area, a couple bands playing, various food and crafty type booths, and of course, the hot air balloons.  Apparently they take off at one time, then land, and then do a simultaneously light up in the evening.  That's what we went to see, and even though the intense flames scared Maddy at first, she loved seeing this giant bunny and the fireworks later on that night.

Someone gave Maddy these bunny ears and she looked so darn cute.  She still wears them at random wandering the house and making her bunny face.  It seems like she'll forget she has them on sometimes and just be sitting and playing with blocks or whatever.  It's so funny. 
Looking at this picture she totally looks like she is either a private school student or works at Target. ha!  Well she had to wear red for the 4th, and the khakis are the only long pants we packed that fit her without sliding off her bum and getting stepped on.

We all made a trip downtown to the Shedd Aquarium that Maddy seemed to enjoy, except for the part about not being allowed to run free.

Dan and I had been there when we visited Chicago a couple of years ago and were excited to show Maddy the "fishies."  Here she is making her fishy face!

Our fam of 3.5 outside the Shedd.  Not even like 3 feet to Dan's left where other people were trying to take pictures, these little birds would come up out of the bushes over the ledge and peck at anyone's head within range.  It wasn't just one guy, or one time, it was EVERY person that stood there with multiple pecks for as long as they were dumb enough to stay put.  It was actually quite humorous to watch.  We found a safe spot further away with a nice view of the Sears Tower in the background... :)

After the Aquarium we walked further downtown to the Taste of Chicago.  It was yum, but the kids had had enough so we were only there long enough to sample some grub, although that's basically all you really go there for. 

There was a lot more we did while visiting...for example, Dan spent some time alone downtown during the day before meeting up with Brian for a Cubs game.  Meanwhile Aimee and I and the kiddos went outlet mall shopping.  We ate at some yummy places, spent quality time outside in the awesome weather, took the cousins to their first photo shoot, and other things, but mostly it was just nice to be with family and have time with the newest addition to the extended Rogers' family.

Thanks for the great time guys!  Looking forward to your visit in December!