Happy Birthday Madelyn!!!

Today is Madelyn's 8th birthday! It's so incredibly hard to think of my little baby girl as being 8 years old. Another short 8 years & she'll be dating:( No boy will ever be good enough:)...seriously!!!

With each birthday, it's impossible not to think of the day they were born, right? Madelyn was 2 weeks early. She hadn't grown & so I was enduced at 5:00pm on December 27, 2000 & my sweet, little angel was born at 10:22pm. She waws 5 lbs 5 oz & was 19 inches long. She had huge, brown eyes & was so alert. She kept her eyes open much more than most babies do & she would turn to look at any & every sound she heard:) She was a very calm baby. Hardly ever cried & when she did, it was such a soft sound:) Her big, brown eyes got bigger, & when she smiled, her little dimples & wide grin would light up a room:) She had a very strong spirit about her.



She has had more than her share of struggles... from medical testing, to monthly appointments, semi-annual appointments, annual appointments, 10 surgeries, follow-ups, the list goes on. She has fought her way through & become even stronger along the way. I'm very proud of who she is & what she has accomplished already in her short life!!

Her day started out pretty simple...opening her presents from us. All she wanted was a Nintendo DS. At 8 years old I was asking for barbie dolls & things like that. Oh, how things have changed!! I'm pretty sure she liked it:) She was miss perma-smile for a while! For her party, she wanted to go sleding. She loves sleding. So that's what we did. We took a group of girls from her class & some cousins to a hill in Draper, right at the point of the mountain. We left our house...no wind at all, we get there & the wind at the point is so bad even the adults were having a hard time standing up:) The girls braved the weather for a while & then decided they were ready for hot chocolate. So we brought the girls back to the house & had cake & hot chocolate, opened presents, played the Wii & my neices, Cali & Taylor, came over to do the girls hair & paint their faces all cute:) I just have to say, these girls are incredible. They are so talented & sweet. They made Maddie's day when they said they'd come & do that for her:) Thank you again, girls!! After the party, Madelyn finally got to relax & play her DS. We got some pizza & watched the Jazz game (which she absolutely loves to do...her dad's got her trained). She got the gift she wanted, the party she wanted & time to hang out with the fam & watch a game with her dad!! She said her birthday was great:) As a mom, that's all I can ask for.

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ANGEL MADELYN!!!

My Little Reindeer!

Madelyn's school had their annual Jingle Jam last week. Each grade sings two Christmas songs for the parents. It's something Madelyn always looks forward to, she loves it. It's so cute to watch her as she walks into the gym. You can see her cute, big eyes searching the entire audience until she finds us. Then a huge grin spreads over her face & she waves excitedly:) She is almost always on the back row & always behind someone taller than her. It bugs me to death. You would think they could step back & make sure that all the kids could be seen. It wouldn't take long for them to even put the taller kids toward the back & make sure some of these tiny ones were towards the front. But they don't. So unfortunately, it's always hard to get a good angle of her entire face. But I did get one song at a pretty good angle. So here's a little video of one of the songs they sang..."The Reindeer Rock". Madelyn is in the back row, fourth one from the right! I'm probably a little bias, but I thinks she looks adorable:)

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My Little Reindeer!!

Happy Birthday Mom!!

Okay, so the one reason that I was hesitant to start acknowledging peoples birthday's was because I'm really bad at doing it on time. So all excuses aside...Mom, I'm sorry this is two days late:(

I don't even really know how to start when it comes to my mom! She says she has her faults (none of us are perfect), but I would trade her faults for my own any day. As far as the kind of mother she is, she is perfect. Other than the occasional smack on the butt (which we rightly deserved) I can't come up with one bad memory. I remember waking up to the smell of breakfast cooking, coming home from school to the smell of cookies, or cake, or some kind of snack for us, then shortly after that, the smell of a home-cooked dinner would sweep through the house (always done at 5:30 sharp, which was right when my dad was due to walk through the door). Not to mention the time inbetween all the cooking sitting at the table helping us with homework or sewing up our clothes or running us to piano lessons, football practice, cheer practice, church activities:) It didn't matter what we were ever in need of, she had it...from bandaids, to batteries, to medicine, to school supplies, to whatever food you could think of. If you could find it at a store, you could find it in some cupboard or closet at our house. She was organized. She had to be to raise NINE kids. Our house was always clean, laundry always done, everything had a place, even everyones homework:) She told me once that if she hadn't found a way to stay organized, things would have been chaos with all those kids running around:) But all that's just technical stuff! She was also always there to listen, always there to teach, to inspire, to comfort. She put everyones needs (& our wants) before her own. Her heart is capable of holding such an incredible amount of love. She taught us the principles of our gospel by example...she did everything she was asked without complaint, read scriptures daily, prayed daily, kept a journal daily, extended unconditional love to everyone she came in contact with, and so on...!! As I've gotten older & gotten to know her as a person & not just a mother, I see how incredible she is beyond her home. She is a spiritual giant in my world. She almost always has the answer to any problem (her own or someone elses) & if she doesn't, she'll find it:) That's just the way she is. Her love & concern for others drives her to go WAY out of her way to make everyone as happy as possible. She is the most unselfish person I have ever met:) She has a very strong conviction of who she is & what she wants out of life. She doesn't waiver or change that for anyone. She is an incredibly strong woman!

She is incredibly talented...beautiful singer, plays the piano very well, acts, dances & writes poetry! She loves chocolate - got that from her mother:), loves to read, loves music, the theatre, movies that make her laugh & her family!

I don't think that even sums up my mom, but it's a good start:) She's just too wonderful for words!

Happy Birthday, Mom! We Love You!!

Turkey + Pie + Family = Thanksgiving

I know, I know, it's almost a week later. Don't you hate when you keep thinking you'll get to it & before you know it, it's been a week...or more. It happens to me a lot:) So, I know that a lot of people get right into the holiday spirit after Halloween. Not me. I just can't get into it until Thanksgiving Day. It's always sort of been the kick-off to the holiday season for me! Our "kick-off" was great! It all got started with Madelyn's school party on Tuesday. Austin & Trey even got to participate & they absolutely loved it. After the party, they could hardly wait for Thanksgiving & then putting up the Christmas decorations, etc. They get so excited that even a day & a half seems like an eternity to them. Which makes it feel like an eternity to me:) Wednesday, James' mom, sister & I got together to make some pies. I've helped my mom makes pies, but have never done one completely on my own. It wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it would be. However, if I'd had to make somewhere inbetween 6 and 10+ pies in one day like my mom used to, I think I would have had as ever-so-slightly different perspective at the end of the day:) I guess it's a good thing I didn't try that on my first time or I would never bake pies again:) I was quite proud of myself, though. I made apple pie & I think it tasted just like my moms. Which would make it a success. We had a small problem with the oven timer which resulted in a little bit crispier crust rather than flaky, but I don't think anyone but me noticed...I hope! Thanksgiving Day was spent with James' family this year. It was very nice. The food was wonderful & it was a very relaxing, fun day. James' brother brought his Wii & we all played a few games. Everybody had a blast. My favorite part was knowing that James didn't have to go to work the next day. This is the first year since we've been married (maybe one other year towards the beginning) that he didn't have to work the following day:) Which meant he was more relaxed & enjoyed himself more...so I was more relaxed & enjoyed myself more...you see how that works?! He had the entire weekend off!! We hung out, got Christmas decorations put up, SLEPT IN...all of us...together!!! It was a great holiday weekend:)

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