Ok, so I haven't been that good at keeping the blog updated. I can only aspire to be my friend Katie that seems to get photos of her little Lucas on there every day. The Madsen's have been quite busy this summer. We have made it to a couple of Cub's games even taking Jacob and Olivia to their first Cubbie game. They had fun for the most part, we wisely left at the 7th inning stretch to hit the zoo which was even more fun. We have spent most of the summer so far going to the Coralville pool and hanging out with out friends Amy and Ella. Josh and I have gotten a lot of our projects around the house done like painting the shed, getting rid of the "dog pee carpet" in the back yard, and staining the deck. We finally broke down and bought a 50" flat screen TV so movie nights have been more plentiful at our house. The kids love Spongebob and iCarly on the big screen too.

Its hard to believe that Olivia starts kindergarten in 5 weeks. She has her back pack and most of her school supplies and continually is "arranging" them in her backpack's many pockets. I reminded her the other day that there is a long time before school starts and she calmly told me "Mom, Im just really excited is that OK?". It takes me back, Im sure we all remember getting those new supplies and the excitement of heading to school. Man I will miss having her home during the day. Josh and I wanted to do something special with her before school so we decided to take her to Adventureland or Six Flags for the day and leave Jacob at home but she is not having that and wants Jacob to come since its her day. I could have only hoped for her to love him so much! Olivia is going for her first summertime "week at grandma's" on July 30th. She will spend 5 days in Fort Dodge. She can hardly wait. I wonder if grandma knows that they will either be swimming, fishing or playing during all waking hours as Olivia has a lot planned!

Jacob is as busy as ever at 2 1/2. He continually cracks us up with the things he says. He is really a good boy but very busy. He wants to know what everything is, what everything says, and what everything does. He is good at mischief and frequently when I go in his room after he is asleep he has 3 books, his toy lawn mower, the magna doodle and 10 stuffed animals in his bed. He was in gymnastics in the spring and was not really in to paying attention just wanted to jump on and in everything. He loves to go on bike rides and will go off and leave you behind without a second thought. He has been starting potty-training and is sometimes interested and sometimes not. He loves all things "cubbies" and all things associated with Olivia. He loves, loves, loves to swim and will stay at the pool all day. His best attribute I think is the kid never throws a fit when we have to leave somewhere, he just says OK and starts to tell everyone and everything goodbye, its too funny.

Josh and I have stayed busy with home projects and are really looking forward to a winter ski trim this year. We are staying in Keystone for a week again this year and going the same time as the ski group from Iowa City we went with last year. We are going to go with Josh's parents this year and take the kids. Olivia will go to ski school, Jacob may too, we will see. Ill post some recent pics of the clan. Hope you are all doing well.