Madelyn's Baby Blessing

Madelyn was blessed at 4 months old while my parents were in town.  Since they weren't there over a weekend, we had her blessed at our home on a Tuesday evening.  We all dressed up for the occasion.  A member of the Bishopbric joined us and Ryan gave a beautiful blessing for our beautifuly little lady.  We had a nice dessert afterwards and a few family pictures!!  A great, fun memory!

Thanksgiving 2011

My mom and dad joined us for Thanksgiving this year.  Our last as residents and our last in Arizona!!  We were thrilled to have them with us.  We started out by meeting my sister and parents in Phoenix where she participated in an IronMan.  She is amazing like that.  We stayed in a hotel and went swimming and out to dinner.  Everyone had a great time.  Unfortunately, my sister got sick during the race the following day and couldn't finish.  She was really sad.  This was her 3rd one and she had trained for over a year for it.  What a disappointment for her.  Of course we were proud no matter what.  She is a great inspiration. 

My parents met up at our house a few days later and we mostly hung out at the house, oooing and aaahing over Madelyn.  The kids loved having their grandparents in town.  I did get to go out and beat my dad in tennis, too.  That was fun.  We also went to Old Tucson Studios which is where we got most of the pictures taken.  The one thing I remember from going there was while we were watching the Gun Show, Joshua got bored, picked up a rock, and plopped it into a man's beer cup.  Embarassing, yeah.  Especially for Grandma and Grandpa as I was nursing Maddie during the show in the nearby restaurant and didn't witness the incident.

My mom got strep throat while she was here and she just didn't feel good the majority of the time.  We cooked a lot, but she didn't enjoy the dinner much and we spent Thanksgiving evening in CVS Pharmacy waiting for her meds. 

Dad and I watched Sarah's Key, which was terribly sad.  Boys liked Rio.  It was pretty cute.  We got slurpees before dinner and it ruined the kids' appetites.  Never again will we do that!  Ryan was post-call and pretty out of it during the dinner, too.  And...that was ourThanksgiving.  We were glad my parents came to join us, even though it was a bit disjointed.

We had also just found out that Ryan had lost a potential job in Layton with IASIS.  It was a blessing in disguise as we accepted a better job in a better place (Riverton with IHC) a few months later, but it was hard during this time nonetheless.  I would not want to live November over again!!

(Sick mom)

Here Maddie is watching Baby Einsteins with her brothers.

Madelyn at 5 months!!  When Moo-Moo was 5 months old, she was rolling all over the place!!  She has mastered the back to tummy roll and was very proud of herself.  I wish I had gotten a video of it, darn it.  Maddie loved her feet and hands and was always looking at and playing with them.  Especially her feet!!  They were always in her mouth.  Maddie started to turn towards us when we called her name.  Anything from Madelyn to Maddie to Moo.  Everything goes in the mouth from here on out!!! She was also rolling towards toys out of her reach.  Such a cutie!!  We started noticing at this time that she is quite quiet.  Although she still speaks up when needed, she is very content most of the time.  My love!!

A Fireman, Spider, and a Cute Lil' Pumpkin

We had a GREAT Halloween this year.  Our ward party was awesome!  Chile, cornbread, and homemade root beer.  There was a little bit of dancing, games for the kids, and of course, the Trunk-or-Treat!  The Binghampton Ward knows how to par-tay. 

On Halloween night, Ryan took the boys around our AWESOME neighborhood while Maddie Moo and I passed out candy.  The kids came home with WAY TOO MUCH, so I helped them eat it through the month of November.  It was a memorable Halloween. 

Josh dressed up like a fireman for school, too, with the book "The Fire Cat".  It was storybook dress-up.  He is the cutest little boy.  I love him. 

Pumpkin Patch

We took the family to the pumpkin patch before Halloween.  We had a lot of fun going on a hayride, picking our pumpkins, going through the "straw maze", going down slides, playing in the sandbox, petting the animals, and taking silly pictures.  I love going to pumpkin patches.  It is so much more fun than picking them out at the grocery store.  Such fun memories and beautiful pictures!!

Madelyn Alice - 4 months

Here's our sweet Maddie at 4 months.  She is such a peach.  This month her personality started to calm down.  She started to like car rides (which was a relief to all of us) and we started her on solids (rice cereal).  During this month, Maddie was gaining weight very slowly and was spitting up a lot. Her doctor thought this would help and it did!  She started gaining at the rate she was supposed to again.  Maddie was rolling over from tummy to back pretty regularly now and was starting to grab everything within her reach.  She could also lift up her head to a 90 degree angle and laugh!  What a sweet giggle she has.  She also loves to stand holding on to us.  We are so in love with her!

Stake BBQ

Nathan chose the star.  I didn't notice he had this booger hanging out of his nose until I got home and downloaded these pictures.  I'm sure the face painter was totally grossed out.  I would've been!!

This was a better choice than the last:Captain America mask.  Super cool, Josh!!

Our Stake BBQ was quite fun.  Playground, bounch castle, bouncy slide, face painting, and cotton-candy.  Along with a free dinner of tortillas, BBQ beef, and beans.  Yum.  They also had homemade root beer.  It was delicious.  Fun times!!

New Hair Bows

My sweetest best mom made Maddies some new hairbows (I think she gave us 8!)  They are so cute and I love them so much.  Here is Maddie with this cute green and yellow one which matches this dress perfectly.  Thanks again Mom!!