The Madsense

Silly Kids

2012-01-03T13:19:00.003-07:00

Here are just some cute pics of the kids I thought I'd share.

These were from their "Christmas Picture Photoshoot." They are in their Christmas outfits. ;o)

Here's all of us working on our gingerbread train.
We had a great Christmas and hope you all did too. We are excited for what the new year will bring. :o)

December Happenings

2011-12-22T17:35:00.007-07:00

We've been keeping busy with Jack home with us this month. Here's some random pictures of the kids being cute.
Mailee loves to dress up in mine and Jack's clothes. Here she is playing with Jaxon's nerf gun wearing Jack's hat and Bernice's shoes.
Jaxon has been keeping really busy with his Preschool and gymnastics class. Here are some shots of him in his tumbling class.
Here he is stretching.
On the balance beam.
And here's a video of him attempting a cartwheel. Just click on the picture to see the video.

Jaxon also had his Christmas concert this month too and it was so much fun watching him perform on stage. Jack was so awesome and drove straight through the night so he could make it back in time for Jaxon's concert...so needless to say, Jaxon was a pretty darn happy kid that night. :o)
And here's a video of Jaxon "acting" out Silent Night. It's pretty funny. :o) I love his movements...and how they are just a little bit off from everyone else. Just click on the picture to see it.

Thanksgiving!

2011-12-01T19:17:00.006-07:00

I was so lucky to have my sister and her family come to us for Thanksgiving. It gave me a chance to finally cook my very first turkey...which turned out wonderfully. I think brining is the secret to a yummy turkey. :o)

We had tons of good food, time with cousins, Black Friday shopping, Kirtland and just a good time all around. Here's some pics.

Aurelia and Jon busy in the kitchen.
Part of the spread...
Cousin time
And brother and sister time :o)
And Kirtland!
Mailee was so cute holding onto Z's hand while we were walking around.
Petting a real fur pelt.
Had to get E in the pic too. :o)
Mai girl being cute.
Actually, we took this when I had to take her outside and away from the tour cause she was being a little too enthusiastic about everything. :o)
Two-thirds of the Lau cousins. :o)
Baby E.
She and Mai played so well together. It was really cute to watch. They were good buddies the whole time they were together.
Jaxon and E were also pretty good buds...most of the time. :o)
The kids wanted to dress up the mom's as "wisemen."
Ahhh, we miss them already!

Halloween!

2011-11-03T19:24:00.003-06:00

We had a couple of Halloween/Fall celebrations last month. First, I got to go to a fun girls night out Halloween party put on by some awesome gals out here in Ohio. We ate some great food and went on a scavenger hunt, and we learned how to dance the actual thriller dance. :o)
Laura and I raided our kids' dress up box to find our costumes, and we surprisingly had very similar things.
So...needless to say, they were a little bit tight on us. :o)
Then Jaxon's preschool had a Fall festival and it was sooooo cute. They had a little photo booth for us to dress up and take pictures in, and so many fun activities for the kids. It was AWESOME!!
Here's one of the crafts Jaxon got to do.
Mailee got to participate too. They loved painting a pretty fall picture.
They had some fun treats for the kids too.
And lots of fun games.
The best part of the fall festival was the end when they brought in a Jungle guy with lots of cool animals. The kids absolutely loved it! Jaxon thought it was the absolute coolest thing when they all got to go up and hold the boa constrictor. I thought it was pretty cool too. :o)
Then we had our ward Halloween party. Jaxon helped me make these cupcakes for it.
Jaxon was a chef and Mailee was a cherry cupcake.
I was a little last minute trying to figure out my costume, so it was kind of goofy, but I tried to be Blueberry Muffin from Strawberry Shortcake. I couldn't believe my costume actually won a prize. I think it might of had something to do with the fact that I was one of like five adults that dressed up. :o)
Jaxon LOVED all the treats...especially the cupcakes. I love how the frosting gave him a goatee. It kind of went with his costume. :o)
All in all, it was a fun and eventful October!

Jaxon's First Day of School

2011-11-01T17:42:00.005-06:00

Jaxon started his actual VERY FIRST day of schoool in beginning of October... well preschool. I know I was more nervous about it then he was. :o) I stayed up late the night before picking out his outfit and laying it out. We started off his morning with a special breakfast per Jaxon's request...eggs and toast. He was so excited that I cut the toast into heart shapes.

Isn't he so handsome? :o) I can't believe how old he looks!
Of course Mailee wanted in on the action.
When I asked Jaxon how his first day went, he was so excited about everything he was able to do at school. He totally loved it and I was so glad.
But since we were in Utah for September, Jaxon started school a month after all the other kids in his class. So, needless to say, he was a little bit out of the routine. This became apparent when I asked him who his teacher was and what her name was. Jaxon said he wasn't sure at first, but then he looked at me and said, her name is "Sit Down."
Poor kid, he must have heard that a lot his first day from his teacher. :o)

September Catch Up

2011-10-15T21:12:00.002-06:00

We were so lucky to be able to spend the month of September in Utah and see so much of our family. It went by so much quicker than I thought it would and we didn't get in half as much as I had wanted to or even see all the people we wanted to see.
But we did get in some fun things. Memorial Day we went out boating with Jack's parents out at Willard Bay.
Jack's dad took us around the lake for a bit and I loved it! The kids....not so much. :o) I think they were a little bit worried about the choppy water and getting soaked. But we sure did enjoy our yummy picnic Char packed for us.
All in all it was a great day being able to spend the entire day all together as a family.
We also celebrated the Chinese Moon Festival...although a little late, but better late then never. I introduced the kids and Jack and Jack's parents to some really authentic Chinese food, though I can't say I was all that capable. Cooking the food was new to me too, so I was lucky everyone was so open to tasting it.
Dorothy and I also made a trip out to Gardner Village for the first time. It was super cute and they had all their Halloween...and even some Christmas things out and it was fun getting the kids all hyped up for the holidays.
And last but not least, we were just so excited for family and more family. So fun for the kids to play with their cousins.
Utah, we miss you already!

Oh Canada!

2011-09-28T22:27:00.004-06:00

We survived another cross country trip, this time minus Jack, but plus D! My little sister was such a great help in making the 15 hr drive with me and the kids and it was so nice to see my parents and my other little sister C and her cute little twins. I finally got to meet them!! It was nice to have Ez come back for a little part of it too. So, again, almost all the family were together...almost all....we really need to work on getting the whole gang together!! :o)

But here's some pics of our trip back in August.

Cousins.
Playing at the park.

Jaxon loved playing with the twins and holding the babies. He's such a sweet boy!!
Ahhhh, love my sisters!
Family
Me and my bro!
He's so good with all the kids. :o)
Me and the twins.
My nieces sporting some homemade crafty goodness I made them. :o)
Cami and Jaxon.
Oh I love my cute fam...Miss them all so much already!

Beach, Beach, Beach!-Cali part 2

2011-09-13T20:22:00.005-06:00

The end of July we were able to meet up with the Madsen side of the family for their yearly beach trip to San Elijo and had so much fun with lazy days at Moonlight beach.

I promise, my kids did enjoy the beach...though it's hard to tell from some of these pictures. :o)
Here's Jack reliving his younger days with Mailee. Jack has these same types of pictures of his dad throwing him up in the air too when he was younger.
This is how Jaxon spent most of his beach days....staring into a bucket of sand that had sand crabs hidden in it. He loved catching, watching the catching, and holding sand crabs. :o)
Mailee LOOOOVED the ocean. She is totally her daddy. Apparently Jack's mom would try and take Jack to the edge of the water and have a wave kind of knock him down to get him scared of the water when he was little so he wouldn't wander into it without parents knowing...well, we tried the same thing with Mailee and we got the same result as when Jack's parents did it to him....they just wanted more of the water!
Jack actually took Mailee out boogey boarding and she really enjoyed it.
Mailee also enjoyed wrestling with Grandpa and the other cousins.
While Jaxon enjoyed just sitting with Grandma. :o)
I looooved that the kids got to spend time with their cousins. Jaxon was finally at an age that he could actually play with the other cousins. :o)

Mailee showing off her new swimsuit.
Jaxon crawling through a sand tunnel that the older cousins had made.
Kids enjoying the beach. :o)
Oh how we miss the beach so much already!
It was so nice being with family and we had almost everyone there and we missed Nick and Crys' family sooooo much!! Can't wait until next year!

Cali, Cali Fun!--Part 1

2011-08-05T22:25:00.005-06:00

We are sad to be done with our month in California, and we are sad to be away from all the fun family and friends we got to hang with, and we are sad that we had to say good bye to Jack for another month...but while Jack is in Ohio, we are enjoying our stay with Utah family...and coming up soon, our Canadian family! :o) But in the meantime, here's some more memories captured of our fun time in Cali. We got to have some fun with Jack's cousins and extended family at Grandma Davis'.

Pool was too cold for me, but Jack and the kids couldn't resist the water and of course the diving board.

I can't believe I don't have pictures of the fun cousins we were hanging with!! But I promise, they were there. :o)
Tom let us play with one of his fun birthday party entertainment before the party started.
Thank you Tom! :o) Our kids...ok, and me too...had sooo much fun in the bounce house!
Sooooo much fun with Tew cousins!!
We got to stay in San Diego with Jack's wonderful sister and her family while Jack worked at Camp Pendleton and had sooooo much fun getting to know their family and having our kids play together. We miss them so much already!
While we were closer to the San Diego area, we visited Balboa Park.
So many beautiful buildings and architecture to see!
Kids loved the fish ponds with the lily pads.
Gardens were fun to see too.

And my favorite pic of the day at Balboa Park---Jack playing with the kids at the fountain.

July 1st and 4th

2011-07-14T13:17:00.003-06:00

So, with both a Canadian and Americans in our household, we usually celebrate both Canada Day and Independence day. I hadn't really planned anything for July 1st since we were away from home, but thanks to some awesome friends out here in Cali, we were still able to celebrate with a huge breakfast and bbq later that night. And of course, we had to get in some fireworks to celebrate too. :o)
Jack and Tyler showing us all how it's done.
The kids weren't actually that pleased with the fireworks and got pretty scared of the sparklers.
...that's why the sad faces...
We also went to the beach for the July holiday weekend. Unfortunately, it was a little bit colder right off the beach then we anticipated, so we didn't stay too long. But I'm glad we still got a beach trip in. :o)
Jack introduced Mailee to the ocean for the first time.
Jaxon loved playing in the sand.
And last but not least, we celebrated the fourth with family in Glendora. We went to a parade in the morning...but it was not as entertaining as we might have hoped, so we left pretty quick and went swimming for the rest of the day.
I can't believe we didn't get a family picture of all of us in our red, white, and blue.
We are so grateful to live in a free country and we had fun celebrating our independence!

Holy Moly Road Trip!!

2011-07-12T12:28:00.003-06:00

Well, we made it! All the way from Ohio to California, and we're all still intact, alive, and well. The kids did AMAZING and we were able to get to Utah in 2 days and spend some time with the Utah family for a couple days before heading out to California.
We got down to fun right away in Utah. It was so nice to have some of the nieces and nephews staying at grandma's with us so the kids got to play with their cousins. Ashley was such a good helper with all the kiddos.
Lincoln was showing Jaxon how to run through the sprinklers.
We all enjoyed some downtime outside in the sun.
Sometimes I just can't believe I get to be mom to these cute kiddos. I am so blessed!!
This next picture was thanks to Jaxon. :o)
Another day drive and we were in sunny California. We have been staying with Jack's fabulous aunt and uncle and are so grateful for them for putting up with our whole family. We've discovered that the kids are total fish in the water. Both of them are swimming all over the pool from deep end to shallow with nothing more then swim wings.

My kids have such crazy hair! Mailee especially since we spray her head with sunscreen since she's got so little hair.
Here's Jaxon's shark hair.
I love this action shot of Jaxon spraying Mailee!
We have been loving our time here in California and loving spending time with Jack's extended family. We'll have more pictures to post soon! :o)

Memphis Kiddie Park

2011-06-08T21:00:00.002-06:00

There is this really fun amusement park out here that has all these mini rides for kids. Even Mailee can go on them! We had some fun times enjoying the kids enjoying the rides. :o)
Jack and Jaxon on the roller coaster.
Jaxon didn't really like this ride...he wouldn't go on it again.
Jaxon and Mailee on the plane ride.
I know it really doesn't look it, but I promise, the kids did have a good time. :o)
Jaxon loved the car rides.
Finally, a smile on at least one of the kids.
One of the few rides an adult could fit on. :o) So, mom even got a ride with the kiddos.
And more rides...
We tried to get Mailee on the Merry Go Round, but she wouldn't have it...so, she hung out with Dad instead. :o)
And just cause we were sooooo excited to finally get some family time with Jack around, we didn't call it quits with just the park. We decided to head to a lake and spend some time swimming and playing in the sand too!
Yeah for some well needed family time and sunny weather!!

May Catch Up

2011-06-04T19:13:00.004-06:00

Well, the week before Memorial Day, we got HAIL in Cleveland!! It was crazy weather with tornado warnings and everything! There was some damage in cities pretty close to us, but thankfully all we got was the hail.
And with that craziness going on outside, we had to creative inside to have fun. Go figure the kids favorite toy for a while were our old diaper boxes. They both climbed in and pretended they were driving. They'd even push each other around in the boxes...and yes, even Mailee would give Jaxon a turn and pushed him around too.
We had to celebrate another holiday without Jack :o(. Memorial Day was not half as much fun without him...as you can see by the kid's faces. :o)
Jack has had a CRAZY BUSY work schedule this rotation working in the Trauma unit at Metro Hospital. He has scrubbed in on a lot of surgeries though and has gotten lots of practice doing sutures and I'm sure lots of other doctor-ly things that I don't know about. :o) But he sure has seen a lot of gun shot wounds. I get to hear some stories when he gets home from work. :o) We sure have missed him, but are so proud of all the hard work he's doing.

Rainy Days at Home...and more

2011-05-29T20:37:00.002-06:00

Well, we have gotten a LOT of rain out here in Ohio...CRAZY amounts...which means we've been spending a lot of time indoors. :o)
Here is Jaxon being a "caterpillar."
Mailee has been watching and learning from her mom. She randomly grabs rags off the table to "clean" the floor or whatever else she finds needs some cleaning.
We did have a couple of nice days in between all the rain and headed out to the zoo for one of those days.
They have a brand new elephant exhibit that is really impressive. It's HUGE and has a good number of elephants in it.
It was so nice to be out in some sunshine!
I sure hope we have more sunny days so we can finally go out and play some more.

Mr. and Mrs. Hansen

2011-05-14T21:27:00.004-06:00

I got to fly into SLC with Mailee to attend my baby sister's wedding. We were soooo excited for this day to finally come. Jack and I had met Don and Dorothy almost 7 years ago and so have had some time with them and love them both.
Best part was being able to spend some time with my parents and my siblings. My little sister Cami was unable to make it since she had just barely had twins. We missed her sooooo much!
Mailee with Daddy Lau.
Isn't her dress fabulous?? I LOVE it!
Dorothy and my mom.
All the girls!
All the boys!
Aurelia and I both flew in with just our little babies. We were lucky enough to find matching outfits that fit with D's wedding colors. It was fun to be all matching thanks to JCP.
Cutting the cake.
Mailee with the happy couple.
Family, family, family! LOVE IT!
Dorothy's wedding was just a day before my birthday, so it was fun to get to celebrate my big day with my family. That hasn't happened in I don't know how long.
Just a little brag note...I embellished the shirt I'm wearing!! :o) I got help from a fabulous tutorial from the Tea Rose Home blog.
After eating out with the Lau fam, my in-laws also helped me celebrate my birthday with another fabulous meal and Char surprised me with a scrumptious Pralines and Cream ice-cream cake....soooooooo good!!
She even put all 30 candles on the cake...it was a little bit of a fire hazard. ;o)
It was a whirlwind trip, but so nice to be with family. Miss you guys so much already!!

Belated Easter Post

2011-05-08T19:28:00.002-06:00

We were able to head to Philadelphia this year to have Easter with my big sister and her family. One lesson I learned on our car trip...don't give kiddos chocolate. :o) Mailee was quite the mess when I finally stopped for gas and got a good look at her.
Unfortunately, so was her carseat and car...since she had somehow gotten chocolate over every single part of her, including her feet, and then touched everything around her.
It was such a nice break to visit with my sister and her family. Big, HUGE thanks to A, her kids and husband for helping out with the kiddos for the time we were there and even doing some extra babysitting so we could do a little shopping, and giving me a break from cooking and cleaning. :o)
Here's our family Easter pic...sadly without Jack. :o( It was tough celebrating a big holiday without him and we missed him dearly.
Here's a picture of my big sis and her cute family.
Here's the cousins--minus Mailee (she was taking a nap) waiting for the egg hunt to start.
Jaxon with his eggs.
Mailee with her eggs.
A's hubby Jon made an AMAZING Easter feast for us and we were able to enjoy a wonderful Easter holiday with fun, family, and reflection on the great sacrifice of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Cleveland Museum of Natural History

2011-04-07T19:55:00.003-06:00

Cleveland has so many cool things to see and we are so lucky that there are also promos here and there to have free admission days to go check things out.
So, today we were able to experience the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. We had such a good time. They had so many animal exhibits, which was AWESOME for the kiddos. Better than the zoo even cause they kids could go right up to the animals and we could see each animal clearly in each exhibit...and they didn't move. :o)
Trying to get a picture of both kids looking.
Jaxon decided to help "make" Mailee look at the camera.
I loved this exhibit that had all these mini animals in it.
By far Jaxon's favorite part of the museum was the Dinosaurs exhibit.
Fun birds exhibit.
Dress up!!
Playing in the Discovery Center.
Just a little add on. Notice in these pics that Mailee has a PONYTAIL!! Finally, after 14 months, Mailee has enough hair for me to actually put it up...sort of. :o) I can't believe how much older it made her look though. My baby girl is growing up too fast!

My Super Star Kiddos

2011-04-06T17:55:00.003-06:00

So, we made some super hero capes today, and my kiddos turned into super stars. We had a lot of fun "flying" around our home.
Capes were soooo easy to make. Tutorial is from HERE.
Mailee tripped on her cape a little...so, she didn't quite love it as much as Jaxon loves his.
Jaxon on the other hand won't let me take his off. :o)

Some Catch Up

2011-04-02T20:48:00.004-06:00

Well, we did actually celebrate St. Patrick's Day in our household...which was a first for me. :o)...well, other than wearing green of course. But apparently out here in Cleveland, there is a large Irish community and there is even a big parade downtown and everything for St. Patrick's Day. We didn't brave that...but we did have some green pancakes for breakfast.
Jaxon's first comment about these pancakes was "Ewww mom, what's that?"
Fortunately, he warmed up to them pretty fast.
Mailee enjoyed hers...and I don't think she noticed the color difference. :o)
The other things that were keeping me busy during March was getting ready for this little kids resale that my friend and I decided to sell at.
I did some hair things and Laura did her jewelry.
Wasn't quite the right venue for it we discovered...but it was fun to try out something new. :o) I was so excited for it though that I came up with some aprons for us to wear. So, if anything, I at least got a super cute apron out of it that I will totally use.
Love, love, LOVE Hobby Lobby fabrics!! :o)
And here's a pic of Mailee modeling some of the fun hair pieces I made...which actually didn't sell AT ALL...not one. I was a teensy bit surprised at that...but what can I say, when you're getting cute clothes for your kids for $1 at these sales, hard to spend much more.
These next pics were taken by my very talented friend Amber. She is an awesome photographer and has some great pics on her website HERE.

Some Random pictures

2011-03-03T20:30:00.003-07:00

Just some pics of random happenings in our household. :o)
Kiddos are learning to love the piano early.
We've had a LOT of snow out here in Cleveland.
This started out as a fort...but Jack turned it into an igloo.
And I've found a new crafting experiment...hair pieces...I have to admit, they are a little over the top...but i LOVE them. :o) They are sooo girly!!
And Jaxon has started to copy every little thing we do and is always trying to be so helpful. He sees me feeding Mailee and wants to give it a go. He actually did not too bad. Love these sweet kiddos!

Birthdays!!

2011-02-14T09:21:00.004-07:00

So, it's so much fun to have Mailee and Jaxon's birthday a month apart. Unfortunately, we didn't do any big parties this year since both kids were a little under a weather during the weeks of their birthdays. :o(
But we did do some cupcakes and had some fun family time all together.
So fun to see how excited Mailee was for her birthday...didn't think she really knew what was going on...but she sure could tell we were all excited for her. :o)
Jaxon of course had to help Mailee out with her presents.
Mailee enjoying her cupcakes.
So sad you can see her little black eye in this picture from a bad fall she had in the bathtub. :o(
And here's Mailee's imitation of "Big Baby." :o)
Jaxon's birthday was so much fun since he had so much anticipation for his after we celebrated Mailee's. He was so much fun all day!
We let him open a gift in the morning...I don't think he could have held out all day long without one new gift to play with.
Thanks to Grandma Char for the fun a.m. present for Jaxon.
Our big THREE year old!!
Daddy and Mailee waiting for their cupcakes.
Getting ready to blow out his candles.
Enjoying more birthday cupcakes.
I can't believe my babies are growing so fast!!

More Random Utah Pics

2011-02-01T20:58:00.002-07:00

Sorry it's been FOREVER since the last post...and these pictures are a little outdated...so oldies, but still goodies. ;o)
We did family pics at Joseph Smith Memorial Building.
Having fun with Grandma and Grandpa.
Just plain having fun.
Christmas morning fun.
Kangaroo Jump House fun.
And we've converted our kids early to the joys of In-N-Out.
Thanks again to all our family for showing us such a great time in Utah. We miss you!!

Christmas Eve

2011-01-09T18:37:00.002-07:00

We had a great time with the Madsen side of the family on Christmas Eve. Dorothy and Don even stopped by for a little bit too, so I got a little bit of the Lau family too. :o)
We were so excited to spend time with so much of Jack's siblings and parents. It was awesome for the little kids to reunite with the cousins too.
We had so much good eats!!
Jaxon finally found a partner in crime. Him and Lucy were the silly ones at the little kids table. :o)
The older nieces and nephews performed a talent show and the younger kids watching all wanted to perform too...so Jaxon "played" the piano and the younger cousins sang the ABC's.
We were able to enjoy a nativity enacted by all the little kids. They were all so cute in their costumes. Mailee and Jaxon made for some very cute wisemen/shepherds.
And last but not least, the kids got to open their Christmas Eve presents from Grandma and Grandpa.
And then it was home to bed to wait for Christmas morning!

Family Time

2011-01-08T18:36:00.002-07:00

I got to head to Utah for Christmas a little early and let Jack study for tests and get a chance to hang out with my siblings in Provo before all the Christmas crazy began. :o)
Here's Mailee with her Uncle Ezzie. We got to hang out at Ezzie's apt and see his final project before he turned it in...which was very cool. He is such a talented animator/artist.
And lucky us, the day we all hung out was sushi special day at Demae, so we got to enjoy some good eats together.
Cami and Aurelia were totally missed. :o( Hopefully we'll be able to get all together sometime soon!

Winter in Cleveland

2011-01-08T18:22:00.004-07:00

We just got back from Utah and a fabulous Christmas, and I'll post all of that fun stuff soon. But just wanted to get some cute pictures of the kids up. :o) These were taken right before we left. This was Mailee's first time playing out in the snow...she didn't like it too much. She couldn't really walk in her boots and kept on face planting into the snow, poor girl. Jaxon of course loved it.

My Crazy Girl

2010-12-03T21:52:00.003-07:00

A couple of days ago, I turned around to see Mailee doing this...

And scary thing...she figured out how to push the button to make the quad go...so, imagine this little crazy daredevil coming right at ya!
I have to say I had such a great laugh from it...after I got over my shock and heart attack that she was going to kill herself.
She absolutely loves this...unfortunately she has to fight Jaxon for it. :o) But this has been one of our BEST deals ever from a kids resale. Fully functional for $7!
Here's some more shots of my crazy girl. She really is crazy...everytime she gets going on it, she gets so excited and then wants to climb on the quad like this...fortunately she hasn't figured out how to push the button while she is up on the seat like this.

Don't let your kids try this at home! :o) Mailee did this under strict supervision. ;o)

Some Fall Family Pics

2010-11-28T14:18:00.002-07:00

We were so lucky to have a friend take some fabulous fall pictures for us. Here's some of the shots.
Thanks to Mattie for sharing her talents!

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-30T19:09:00.004-06:00

Well, since Halloween is on a Sunday this year, we had all our Halloween festivities a little bit early. We went to a ward party on Friday night and had trunk or treating for the kids. Jack was at school all day and met up with us at the party, and since our costumes were a little last minute, we didn't have one for him. But I think Jaxon's and my costume turned out all right. :o)
Jaxon was going to be a monkey at first. We had borrowed a costume, but it was just a little bit short on Jaxon.
He still enjoyed trying it out though.
Jaxon helped me make some cookies for the ward party.
Some people were a little hesitant to eat it...I wonder why? They were yummy, I promise!
So, I had bought a Robin costume for Jaxon and had also bought a Batman costume for Jack on clearance last year. Well, we didn't end up having Jack try the costume on, and when I pulled it out this year, I tried it on and it was just a teensy bit big for me...so, no way would it have fit Jack. So, I went Project Runway on it and tried to "make it work." I totally cut up the Batman costume and used it to make a batgirl costume and the masks for both costumes.
Mailee had a fun first Halloween. People handed her candy as well when we were trunk or treating, and she definitely tried it out.
Trunk or treating.
Of course he was too excited for the candy to let me get a shot of his face. :o)
Happy Halloween!

Impromptu Beach Trip

2010-10-04T08:56:00.004-06:00

We had one final week of really nice weather at the end of September, so we packed up and left for "the beach"...meaning Lake Eerie...right after Jack got home from school one day. It was totally perfect weather and it wasn't crowded at all. We had a great time.
I love this shot. I managed to get Mailee looking at the camera and smile and get Jack and Jaxon playing in the water in the background! ;o)
Jaxon and Mailee just couldn't get enough of the sand.
This was right after Mailee face planted in the sand...after trying to eat it!

Tender Moment

2010-09-26T20:05:00.003-06:00

We had fast and testimony meeting today at church. We were sitting pretty close to the front and Jaxon saw his nursery teacher get up and bear her testimony and then saw a lot of children also get up and bear their testimonies. He then turned to us and said "I NEED to go up there!" Jack and I looked at each other and wondered whether we should have him go up to the pulpit. There have been little boys that have gotten up and just laughed or made funny noises in the microphone. But after several insistent "I NEED to go up there"s from Jaxon, Jack decided to take him up. Surprisingly, as soon as he got up to the microphone, he simply started talking. We couldn't hear everything he was saying, and Jack wasn't even prompting him to start off with. I did hear him say "momma and daddy" and he did close well, but it was the absolute sweetest moment today to see my boys up there bearing their testimonies. It helped strengthen my own testimony of the great blessing and power of families. Our children learn so much starting at such a young age, and we have such a great responsibility to teach them, and it was just a teensy nice pat on the back for us today to see how much Jaxon has learned. :o)

Squire's Castle

2010-09-25T20:44:00.003-06:00

We got to go to a fabulous birthday party for a friend and she had such a cute theme. She did a Knights and Dragons themed party for her 3 year old and even had it at a "castle" out here in one of the Ohio parks. They had inflatable swords and an egg hunt with mini dragons inside them. So much fun! Oh, and fun idea they had to actually get all the kids together for a picture...suckers! :o)
Playing in the castle.

Picture time!

Showing off his dragon!!

More Pics

2010-09-17T19:34:00.002-06:00

Just a couple more pictures to share. Mailee is crawling around all over the place and is pulling herself up on the couch and anything else she can. She loves to stand and she loves to play "chase" with Jaxon. She's pretty quick with the crawling and can kind of actually keep up with Jaxon. :o)
Here she is with a little lizard in her mouth. She's so funny, cause she LOVES Jaxon's toys. She loves his cars and his little animals.
And here's some pics of our last swim trip before it got too cold.

Wow, can't believe summer is already gone! We had a lot of fun and are going to miss those long, warm, lazy days. :o)

We're Still Alive!

2010-09-08T21:24:00.003-06:00

Well, I finally uploaded a bunch of pics from July and August, so without further ado, here's some eye candy! :o)
We've enjoyed some parks and lots of bubbles...basically anything that took us outside to enjoy the beautiful weather.

Mailee got her first "beach" experience...and didn't love it at first, but quickly warmed up to it.
Jack of course had to take a jump off the big dam they had at the lake that we were at.
And the kiddos were a little too busy playing to get a picture of them actually looking.
We've already had some cold days, so we did some inside activities involving markers...here's Jaxon showing off his handiwork.
And lastly, some pictures of the kids. Jaxon and Mailee have started playing more and more together and you can just see how much they love each other and enjoy being with each other. I love my kiddos so much! :o) Looking at these faces, it's hard not too, eh?
We're really going to try harder to update more often. But sorry for those who have been checking. :o)

Here's to Jack

2010-08-06T19:33:00.002-06:00

My husband is AMAZING!! Jack worked soooo hard and passed his huge ole board exams!!! We are oh so proud of him. He works soooo hard at school and then comes home and works some more to keep all of us happy at home. He's a wonderful husband and father and does so much with a witty sense of humor and keeps us all laughing. Thanks for being so amazing Jack! We love you!!

Some Utah Pics

2010-07-25T15:18:00.003-06:00

We had a FABULOUS time in Utah and it's been sad to say good bye to our family out there, but it's nice to be back home with Jack.

Here are some pics of some fun things we got to do.
We were lucky enough to have almost all the Lau siblings together. We missed you so much Cami!! Ezzie showed us around the animation buildings and we got to see some of his cool projects. Waaaay cool to see Ezzie in action. We also got to see Grandma Bastian and see some of the Bastian family.
I had the awesome opportunity to go to a temple session with my big sister who was also in UT visiting from PA.
Jaxon got to hang out with "the boys."
We got to go to Thanksgiving Point and see some fun animals.
It was so cute to see Jaxon with his cousin Lucy. They're barely a month apart and had very similar reactions to things. :o)
Jaxon got to ride on a horse and a pony. When asked which one he liked better, he said he liked the bigger horse more than the pony.
And of course we had some swimming time.
It was so much fun to introduce Mailee to so many of her aunts and cousins.
And best of all Jaxon and Mailee had soooooo much fun spending time with their Grandma Char.
Jaxon loved going on morning walks with Grandma Char and going to see the ducks and play on the tractor they would see along the way.
Char, thank you so much for taking such good care of us while we were in Utah!! We miss all of you soooooo much already.

Life with the Kiddos

2010-06-27T22:23:00.002-06:00

Some days are like this...
and other days are like this...

Good thing Mailee's finally learning to hold her own. :o)

Memorial Day recap

2010-06-16T15:36:00.002-06:00

I am soooo behind in the blogging world! It seems like all my posts are a couple months behind. Well, we got some cute pics from Memorial Day, so thought I'd get those up. :o)

We went to a cute parade and then to a ward barbeque for Memorial day and just enjoyed spending time together as a family.

Mailee was the star of the show though and had so many people commenting on how cute she is and we had complete strangers wanting to take her picture!...Kind of scary, but flattering at the same time.

And just a random pic of Jaxon who LOVES getting into Mailee's hairbows. I think he knows that it gets Mailee lots of attention and is hoping for some to come his way. :o)

Mar and Apr Recap

2010-05-08T12:16:00.003-06:00

Wow, I can't believe how time got away from us and I didn't even post about Jack's birthday and Easter!! So, yes, Jack's birthday was back in March...and we kind of celebrated it earlier in the month because I was so excited about his present, I couldn't wait to give it to him.

We got Jack a juicer for his birthday and WE LOVE IT!!! We've been juicing quite a bit and it's AMAZING how much better juice tastes FRESH! And you really just can't go wrong with that thing. We've put in a wide range of things, including veggies too, and we've loved every kind of juice we get!

Here's Jack opening his other presents and singing with his fruit pizza "cake". Only sad part was we celebrated with the juicer early, he got his other gifts the day before his birthday and we were running so late on the Sunday of his birthday that I actually forgot what day it was. But we made up for it with his fruit pizza a couple of days later. :o) So, Jack will probably say his "actual" birth day wasn't the best, we celebrated his birthday all month long...isn't that even better? :o)
And here's Jack and Jaxon with their "cheesy" smiles. I love my boys! :o)
Then for Easter, we were super lucky to have some girls in the ward plan a big, amazing egg hunt and dinner, so we really didn't have to do much for Jaxon to have a great Easter. :o)
The little kids were supposed to find eggs in a certain color so that eggs could be distributed evenly for all the kids...but Jaxon was just too excited and picked up whatever egg he could find.
It was pretty serious business for him. He was VERY focused on getting those eggs.
I don't know if you can tell from the picture, but the egg hunt was on a soccer field and during our picnic, there was a soccer game going on at the other side of the field. Jaxon is REALLY into balls and loves playing with them, and unfortunately, he decided he wanted the soccer ball from the game that was going on, so middle of the game, Jaxon ran onto the field and picked up the ball and started running. The little girls that were playing thought it was adorable...but the coaches weren't very happy with us. But it was pretty funny seeing Jaxon running with the soccer ball in the his hands with two teams of girls running after him to get the ball back. :o)
And last, but not least, we also went to the Lodi outlets a while back and they have this cute little train that runs through the whole shopping area, so Jaxon and I got to take a little train ride while we were out there. Jack was nice to let me go with Jaxon since he usually gets to go on rides and things with Jaxon and I take the pictures. :o)
And Jaxon was even lucky enough to see the Easter bunny while we were out there.

Fun with the Grandpas

2010-04-27T20:26:00.002-06:00

We were sooooo blessed to have my dad and Jack's dad stay with us over the weekend so they could be a part of Mailee's blessing. THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH dads for coming out to Ohio and spending some time with us. It was a whirlwind trip for them and we tried to cram in as much as we could in a short amount of time. We loved having you both and we already miss you!
We went to Jack's school and got the grand tour of OCPM.
We went to Kirtland.
It was nice having our dads here so we could get some pictures together with the family too. :o) This was Jack's first time out to Kirtland since we've been out here.
Kirtland Temple
Newel K. Whitney Store
Inside room where School of the Prophets met.
Out to dinner at yummy Texas Roadhouse.
Mailee's blessing day.
Mailee was such a little princess in her beautiful blessing dress! Thanks again Char for the gorgeous dress.

More Updates

2010-04-05T20:45:00.003-06:00

Ok, as promised, here are some more pictures and news. While it was a little colder we were trying to figure out things to do at home to keep Jaxon busy.
We did some "sensory" type activities.
Colored rice
Playdoh
Cooking
And guess what Jaxon's looking at outside our bedroom window here...
...Deer!
Can't believe this is the view of our "backyard." I love it! :o)
And Mailee is showing off lots of expressions.

And this one is my favorite!
Mailee's eyes are still blue and we can't wait to see what color they end up being. You can tell they're still pretty light in this pic.
We've been enjoying time outside lately since the weather has been REALLY nice...in the high 70s even...and Jaxon has been loving the swings at the park. We're having fun though and enjoying our time out here in Ohio. I love spending my time with these kiddos!

Quick Update

2010-04-04T21:29:00.002-06:00

It's so hard to get on the blog more often to update, so here's a bunch of just random updates and info on the fam...and of course some pictures too. :o)
Well, Mailee is just growing and growing. We went in for her two month appointment in February and she weighed in at 11 lbs 7 oz and was 22.5 inches long putting her in the 69th percentile for weight and 58th for height. She's smiling away and even trying to "talk" to us. She is a little bit of a diva and definitely knows when she's not being held and rocked and lets us know that she's not happy about it. :o)
Jaxon is also just growing and learning new words every day and surprises us everyday with what he knows. He has also started imitating us...especially when we're disciplining him. It's hard not to laugh out loud when he's mimicking the ends of your sentences and saying "ookaaaay" when we're done.
How can you not smile at this kid though, eh? He's such a cutie! He loves to "share" his toys with Mailee and ends up piling all his toys on her when we're not looking.
I have more pictures and news to post, but it's feeding time for Mailee, so more to come! :o)

More Fun Pictures

2010-03-17T14:32:00.002-06:00

What can I say, I'm just way too lucky to have friends that want to take pics of my cute babies! :o) These were taken by my friend Melissa and they were her first time taking pics! Didn't she do awesome??
I especially love the feet ones...have to have them for the future Podiatry office Jack will be in. :o)

Belated Birthday Post for Jaxon

2010-03-08T17:23:00.004-07:00

My little Jaxon turned TWO last month and I can't believe it's taking me until now to post about it. I'm finding it's a lot harder to get on the blog and update with two kids.
Anyhow, here are some fun pictures of Jaxon's big day. We had Jaxon open his presents in the morning so he could play with them during his big day.
It was so fun watching him rip all the wrapping paper off...we had to make due with the Christmas wrapping because I couldn't find the birthday wrapping. Since Christmas, he has definitely learned how to open presents. :o)
Thank you Grandma Char for his fun race track present. He LOVES it!
Then Jaxon and I made cupcakes and we all helped decorate them so he could blow out his candles.
I can't believe my baby is TWO!
I love this kid! He's such an amazing boy. He has learned so much in the past two years and has taught me more than I can imagine. His stats for his two year appointment: 75th percentile for height and 11th for weight at a wopping 25 lbs. :o) He's got most of his colors down, some of his alphabet and surprises me with the new words he knows everyday. Happy Birthday Jaxon!! We love you sooooo much!

Amazing Mailee Pics

2010-02-11T20:45:00.002-07:00

I have a wonderfully talented friend that took some pictures of Mailee last week. So, she's a month old in these pics, and Randee made her look sooooo gorgeous! I love these "teaser" pics that she posted on her blog and can't wait to see the rest of them! Thanks so much again Randee!!

Mailee's a Growing!

2010-02-06T22:39:00.003-07:00

Well, we had Mailee weighed earlier this week and she is growing so fast, I can't believe it! She's already 9 lbs. 5 oz. and in the 90th percentile for weight! She's still only 20 inches, which makes her just a little bit chubby, which I totally LOVE! I can't believe I have such a big baby with rolls and everything. It's too cute!
But wanted to get some pictures up of Mailee with her Grandma Char. We had Jack's mom come and help out with Jaxon the week after Mailee was born and all I can say is she is one AMAZING woman! It was soooo nice to have her help with Jaxon and Jaxon LOVED having his grandma to play with. Thank you, thank you, thank you Char for all your help. We miss you so much already!!
This is our first pic of our growing little family. I LOVE it! :o)

Science Museum

2010-01-31T21:38:00.002-07:00

On Martin Luther King day, the local Science Museum here in Cleveland had a free admission day, so I decided to take Jaxon and go check it out. There were a couple of exhibits that were for Jaxon's age, but a lot of them were for kids a little bit older. Also, because it was a free admission day, it was super crowded and Jaxon was a little bit nervous going up to some of the exhibits cause there were so many people around. We waited in line for about a half hour to get into the little play area for the younger kids and that was by far his favorite part. It was fun to go out for some Jaxon and mommy time and I was so amazed that I was able to even go do this a week after Mailee was born. :o)
This was a cool little exhibit showing a funnel cloud and how a tornado would work.
This was in the little kid area...Jaxon knew exactly what to do and put on once he got here. I think he totally looks like Jack in this picture. :o)
Just some more activities Jaxon got to enjoy.

Labor Details

2010-01-31T20:00:00.002-07:00

Well, here is the labor and delivery story that I know you've all been dying to hear...or read :o). First off, my labor and delivery experience this time around was quite a bit different from Jaxon. I had 4th degree tearing with Jaxon and even with that, the doctor still had to use forceps to pull Jaxon out. He was a BIG boy (8 lbs. 12 oz.) So, this time around, I was very concerned about having another big baby that I wouldn't be able to deliver "comfortably." My doctor was great and tried to do what she could to help me deliver a little earlier. We had a planned amniocentesis at 37 weeks to determine lung development, and if that had gone well, my dr. was going to induce me that week. Unfortunately, there wasn't a safe place to take a sample of amniotic fluid, so inducing early was out. The earliest the dr. was going to be able to induce was going to be 39 weeks and at the 37 week appointment, Mailee was already 7 lbs. 1 oz. And at that point, I hadn't had any major contractions and was only dilated about 1.5-2 cm.
The weekend before Mailee came, I started having several bad contractions that felt more like the "real" contractions, so I called my sister in Philadelphia and asked her to come. She was so amazing and left her family behind and came out the next day to come help...and good thing she did. She arrived on Sunday afternoon, and Sunday night/Monday morning at 2 a.m. my water broke. Since this did not happen with Jaxon, Jack and I were actually a little lost about what we were supposed to do. I even considered just going back to bed for a couple more hours. :o) We finally decided to go to the hospital, which was fortunately just up the street and took us less than 5 min. to get there, but by then, the really bad contractions had started and I was grateful we were so close. Since it was still only 2:30 a.m. we actually had to go in through the ER entrance. We got admitted right away and the dr. checked me and said I was in very "active" labor and that they needed to call my dr. right away or she might miss it entirely. I was at a 6 and 90% effaced. I got them to give me the epidural right away, and then we just waited and tried to rest until I was ready to push. I was ready before the doctor got there and had to try and just wait and not push until he showed up. Finally, at 6 a.m. the dr. strolled in and after 15 min. of pushing, Mailee was born! The epidural wasn't quite as strong as the one I had with Jaxon so the pushing was more painful than I remember, but hooooray, I actually got to push her out myself and only had 2nd degree tearing this time around!! I can't say enough how much of a difference that 2 degrees is. I was actually able to walk around and move around SOOOO much faster and easier than after Jaxon's delivery. I can actually sit without using a donut!! :o) That did not happen for MONTHS after Jaxon was born.
Anyhow, sorry for the huge long post, but just wanted to get it all down. It was wonderful to come home after 48 hours at the hospital, but it was EXTREMELY hard being away from Jaxon for that whole time. Because of the H1N1 virus going around, no kids were allowed into the maternity ward, so big shout out to Aurelia for being here and giving us the opportunity to just take off when we needed to head off to the hospital and being such a great help with Jaxon the first couple of days. Jaxon has LOVED having a baby sister and gets so excited and wants to hold her and share his cars with her. Unfortunately, that also means he wants to squeeze her tight to give her lots of "hugs" and that he will pile ALL of his cars on top of her to let her "play" with him. But it's been extremely sweet to see the love Jaxon already has for Mailee and I have high hopes that they will be good friends...once Mailee is a little older. :o)

Baby Mailee

2010-01-13T19:46:00.001-07:00

Announcing...

2010-01-12T06:56:00.001-07:00

Mailee Oi-Yan Madsen was born on Monday, January 11th at 6:20 a.m. She weighed in at 7 lbs 5 oz. and is 20 inches long. Mom and baby are doing great and expect to be home Wednesday. Pictures and labor story to come...:o)

Baby Update

2010-01-04T12:46:00.004-07:00

So, as you can all see, I'm mucho pregnant. My doctor had talked about inducing on Wednesday this week as long as the baby's lungs were fully developed...which we had hoped to check this morning through an amniocentesis. However, due to the placement of the placenta...it was a no go. So, no baby this week!! :o( :o( :o( :o( :o( :o(...can you tell I'm just a teeeensy bit disappointed????? Especially since we found out she is already at 7 lbs. 1 oz.
The earliest I'll get induced is the 15th, so until then, any and all advice about how to get me into labour would be greatly appreciated! :o)
On the bright side though, I've got to say I've embraced the pink (as you can tell by the blog :o) and have made several cute blankets that are VERY pink. Who knew I would get that far. :o)

Christmas in Utah

2010-01-03T17:02:00.002-07:00

We had a FABULOUS time in Utah and were soooo happy that we got to see both sides of the family over Christmas. Here's a bunch of pictures from our trip...most don't need any explanation other than we had a great time ! :o)
We got to Jack's parents' early enough for Jaxon to help decorate the tree with Grandma Char.
Hanging with Lau family.

Lights at Temple Square.
It was COLD that night and Jack was a good sport letting his wife drag him around in it. :o) Jaxon was too bundled up to give much voice to everything we saw...but I think he liked seeing all the fabulous lights...guess we'll never know. :o)
When we went to visit my sister, she was cat-sitting for a friend and Jaxon LOVED playing with the cat. He would chase it around and just basically bug the cat like crazy, but she didn't seem to mind too much.
Hanging with Uncle Ezzie.
Making a gingerbread house.

Jaxon actually did so well with this project. He put on a lot of the candy all my himself and surprisingly didn't eat as much of it as we thought he would. I love these kits that you can buy now with everything all included. Soooooo much easier than doing things from scratch. :o)Christmas Eve and Jaxon in his Christmas jams. I LOVE these jammies of his. My favorite are his little striped elf pants. He was up so late and just being so silly dancing around towards the end of the night. It was hilarious.
Girls opening our gift from Jack and Char...which I LOVED!!
Jack and some of his his bro-in-laws opening their present. They were all very happy with their Gerbers. :o)I was surprised Jaxon knew what to do with this toy of his cousin's. As soon as we got to Kim's he just picked up a ball and threw it through the hoop. Future NBA star in the making. :o)Christmas morning. Sooooo much fun watching Jaxon open his presents. Everything seems so much more special and exciting when viewed through the eyes of an almost 2 year old. :o)
Jack got a new iPod touch for Christmas and spent most of Christmas day playing with his new toy...while Jaxon and I watched on. :o) My parents were able to bring me some of my favorite foods from Canada and we opened some of it up on Christmas day. My ALL TIME FAVORITE snack are ketchup chips...and they HAVE to be Old Dutch. :o) Well, we were surprised to discover that Jaxon also loved them too. Unfortunately, he chowed through the bag as much as I did and the chips did not last that long. :o(Playing out in the snow.
We miss all our Utah family so much already. Thank you for such a good time!!

Merry, Merry Christmas

2009-12-27T22:09:00.001-07:00

And a Happy, Happy New Year!!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like...

2009-12-15T20:51:00.002-07:00

We actually decorated before Thanksgiving this year since we are headed to Utah for Christmas, I wanted a little bit of time to enjoy the decorations. These blocks were a fun Enrichment activity, and I've had them up for way too long. :o)
We actually don't have a lot of Christmas decorations since we're never actually around our own place for Christmas...but we have enough to fill up one room...so, I love being in our living room right now cause it's so Christmas-y!
I love that we actually have a fireplace to hang our stockings over this year! And I also loved that Jaxon was able to help out with some of the decorating and get excited about Christmas with us this year too. Jaxon got the honor of putting the star on our tree...with dad's help of course. :o)
Our tree is just a little one, but it's fun that we can actually fill it with the little amount of ornaments that we have...most of which are ones from when Jack and I were growing up. Ahhhh, such fun memories!
I hope you all are having fun enjoying your own Christmas decorations and the spirit of it all! :o)

Philadelphia Trip

2009-12-13T08:39:00.002-07:00

We went to visit my sister and her family in Philadelphia, PA last week to help Jack have a little more focused studying without us. :o)
Jaxon was AWESOME on the drive, and it only took us 7 hours to get there.
It was soooooo good to see Aurelia, Jon and the kids. The last time I saw them, I was in the hospital after appendix surgery and missing our family reunion. :o(
So, needless to say, this was a much needed visit.
Jaxon and Eli are only 6 months apart...and though you can't tell, Jaxon is the "older" one...even though all the kids were confused since Eli was the "bigger" one.
Here are all the kids-Eli, Zane, Zoe, and Jaxon.
These next set of pictures are hilarious. It's best to see them in progression as we tried to get a picture of Jaxon and Eli.
Jaxon screaming because he didn't want to sit still...Eli wondering what's wrong with him.
Jaxon about to deck Eli. Yep, Jaxon was definitely the big bully out of all the kids. *sigh* my son the bruiser.
Jaxon: Ok, fine, I guess I do like Eli.
I'm glad we did get ONE good picture of those two together at least. :o) Here's one of Aurelia with Jaxon. I can't believe this was the FIRST time that Jaxon and Aurelia had finally met!
And one of me and Eli...and same thing. The first time I've actually got to hold my little nephew.
Aurelia was awesome at showing me some sites and driving us to downtown Philly!!
We got to get some yummy dim sum!! I was sooooo stoked! It was really weird ordering in Chinese without my mom and dad there. Good for Aurelia for remembering the names of all the stuff we like. :o)
This was a pretty authentic Chinese restaurant and they had the tanks with the fish and other seafood swimming around so you could get it really fresh!
It was cool to visit a really big China town.
I don't really get that unless I go home to Calgary...which has been a little while.
Thank you Criders for showing us such a good time!! We miss you guys already. Everytime Jaxon sees these pictures, he just says Eli's name over and over. :o)

Thanksgiving

2009-12-10T12:55:00.002-07:00

Well, here's our Thanksgiving post...way late...but what the hey, might as well, eh? At least it's still before Christmas. :o)
We started off our morning a little grumpy cause Jaxon did this about an hour after we woke up.
Well, at least I know he LOVES the Christmas tree and all the decorations. He was trying reeeeeally hard to pull off some of those decorations.
We enjoyed a fabulous dinner with good friends, and another year has gone by and I still have yet to cook my own turkey. :o)
And that was not a complaint. :o)
We had a great thanksgiving, but of course missed our family, but we're so glad to have such great friends as ''stand-in family" while we're all away from home.
Oh, and just one last picture cause it was so cute what Jack did. I had a piano recital for my students the weekend before Thanksgiving and they all did so well, and I actually ended up playing a song for them at the end and Jack was so sweet and came to help watch Jaxon during the recital even though he was super busy with school and then topped it off by bringing me these gorgeous flowers.
Ahhhh, such a sweet husband. Definitely racked up some points for this! :o)

Jaxon's Great Escape

2009-12-03T09:04:00.002-07:00

This is for Jack...which I'm sure Jaxon takes after waaaay more than me. :o) Jaxon and I are actually visiting my older sister Aurelia and their family in Philadelphia this week and Jaxon was in time out in the pack-n-play upstairs. We were all downstairs and all of a sudden heard him running around.

Guess he's figured out how to escape time out...

Random Pics

2009-12-01T17:39:00.003-07:00

Well, I guess it's about time I posted an updated prego pic on here. Here's me at my baby shower with my good bud Laura who is due 3 weeks after me.

I think I'm at about 30 weeks here. Wow, it's getting close to the end. I'm proud to say I haven't gained quite as much weight with this pregnancy as I did with Jaxon...but who knows, I still have a month to go, so we'll see.

And here's a pic of Jaxon being Jaxon. He loves being like his daddy.

Isn't he cute? :o) Well, we have more pictures to post from Thanksgiving and what not, but I haven't gotten them uploaded yet, so I'll have more updates soon!

WICKED!!!

2009-11-20T18:28:00.003-07:00

I can't believe it's taken me THIS LONG to fiiiiinally get to see Wicked, but it was well worth the wait. It was AMAZING!!! I loved, loved, loved it!!! We got some discount tickets to go as a big group so a ton of the girls from the ward and some husbands all went on Wednesday.
A group of us started off our evening with dinner at IHOP.
Then we headed downtown to see the show.
The playhouse was really big and had great architecture, but the only complaint was that our seats were a little in the nosebleeds so the acoustics weren't fantastic up where we were seated. I kind of wish I had binoculars. During one of the scenes, one of the guys takes glasses off the main character, and I was like, "oh, she has glasses on??" It was hard to make out features, but the singers and dancers were so talented and expressive in their body movements that I felt like I didn't miss too much.
This is Karie, Mattie, and I just entering the playhouse.
Before the show started. I was soooo excited to see the show!
Some of the girls and I after the show. All I can say is WOW! It was so good. The leads had such amazing voices and the story was just sooooo fantastic!! I can't wait to go again! :o)

Our Swine Flu Experience

2009-11-17T20:00:00.003-07:00

Well, like I said in our last post, we've been out sick for a little bit and I just wanted to vent some of my thoughts and concerns about the whole H1N1 thing. Two weeks ago, Jaxon and I went to go get our vaccination shot to protect ourselves from the H1N1 virus. We were at the clinic about 15 minutes waiting and then getting our shot and we thought that would be it. We've never had a bad reaction to a flu shot and as far as I could tell, Jaxon and I were healthy before the shot.
Well, the day after the shot I started feeling a little off...started getting congested and got a pretty bad cough. The day after that, I was laid out, completely sick, couldn't even sit up in bed to even read a book, and ended up in bed pretty much 24-7 for the next 3 days with a fever, barely able to move, eat, drink, and wanted to curl up and DIE! The full symptoms thankfully only lasted for that long, but I've had left over stuff-congestion and cough still...2 weeks later.
So, biggest question for me...how did we get the swine flu?? Hard part is it seems the doctors can't even agree on what happened. Family doctor said my symptoms were only after effects from the shot and did not prescribe me ANYTHING and said to just wait it out. Both my OB and Jaxon's Pediatrician say we must have got it before or waiting to get the shot and said to get prescriptions ASAP and that we needed to have gotten medication within 48 hours of getting any flu symptoms!! My mistake was not talking to my OB first and waiting another week before I saw her and actually got some good meds to help out with some of my symptoms. I honestly just can't belive that we got the flu waiting to get the stupid shot to prevent it!!
Needless to say, I have my reservations now about any flu shot...however, I guess if my symptoms were only a "mild" case of what the swine flu could actually be like, then I guess I'm lucky that we got the shot, cause I can't even imagine a flu worse then what I got. Jaxon thankfully did not get as bad as I did and got his medication in time to help shorten the duration of the flu for him.
But all I can say is THANK GOODNESS FOR JACK!!! He was a LIFESAVER during those days I was out and took care of Jaxon ALL DAY LONG and did EVERYTHING, from meals and cleaning to just babying me and holding me when I was crying so bad cause I hurt all over.
Anyways, thank goodness it's over and we're all on the mend. But I just can't believe that this flu is out there and that prevalent that we could have gotten it so fast! So, be careful out there!!

Halloween

2009-11-09T21:14:00.005-07:00

So sorry this has been delayed. We have had a bad case of the flu in our household and it's been hard getting back up on our feet. Anyhow, this year we did some pumpkins...mine is the Frankenstein one and Jack's is the freehand one. :o)
Jaxon wasn't quite as interested in pumpkins this year, so we'll try him again next year.
We dressed up for our ward party. Jack and I were the couple from Juno (Juno and Bleeker).
Nobody really got what I was unless Jack was standing next to me. :o) Oh well, it was a pretty easy costume for us this year.
Jaxon got a little warm, so we didn't have him keep his costume on during the party. The night of the ward party was so warm we were a little disappointed that it wasn't actually Halloween because it would have been nice weather for the kids to go out and around.
For actual Halloween day, we went out to Broadview Heights to go trick or treating and it was COLD! Here's Jaxon in all his puppy dog glory before we headed out.
You can tell how excited Jaxon was to be in his costume. Which was so sad. He had been trying on the costume all week long and wouldn't take it off...and then the nights we actually wanted him to wear it...he didn't.
Good thing the costume was warm-er though. But still not quite warm enough. We had to keep Jaxon in a blanket the whole time we walked around.
He was so cute walking up to the door for candy though. He didn't really get the whole concept of trick or treating, but he would just say "treat" and didn't take the candy (no worries, Jack and I made sure he still got the candy in his little treat bag :o) and then he'd politely say "dank-you" and walk off.
It was fun having Jaxon actually be able to walk up to the door himself this year and get candy himself.

October Happenings

2009-10-21T12:59:00.002-06:00

Well, I mentioned a couple posts ago about Jaxon loading up his bed with toys when we leave him alone in his room for bedtime...and here's proof. :o)
I don't know how that kid fits in the bed too with all those toys on there.
Other October happenings of course included Canadian Thanksgiving! We love having an excuse to cook up good food and have a fabulous Thanksgiving feast, so that's just what we did with our fellow Canadian friends. :o)
I've also been getting to do so much more with Jaxon lately and I just can't believe what a big boy he is. He actually helps out with some cleaning and cooking things. He really enjoys helping me bake in the kitchen...which means I guess I better start baking a little more now. :o)
Jaxon helped me make some yummy banana bread muffins the other day.
And last, but not least, we got a chance to head to the zoo one last time before it got too cold and we got to check out the new Dinosaur park area they had set up. The dinosaurs were all electronically animated and moved around and made noises.
Can you see the little baby Stegosaurus in the leaves? :o)
We even got to ride on one. :o)
All in all, it was a wonderful day to go out and enjoy the little bit of sunshine we had in a break from the rain and yucky weather we've had the past little bit.

23 Weeks

2009-09-25T18:19:00.003-06:00

I thought it was about time for me to finally post a preggy pic :o) So, here I am in all my 23 week glory. I am feeling huge, but fine and healthy otherwise. :o) I feel very blessed to be able to still be out and about and doing everything I'm still doing.
I've been super "nesting" lately so been super busy trying to figure out a new decorating scheme for the kids room. I think I'll try to have Jaxon and the new baby share rooms if we can, so I'm trying to do up the room all run for both of them. I'll show some pics once I'm done.
Oh, and in other news, we've moved Jaxon into a toddler bed, thanks to our friends Dave and Melissa, who are lending us theirs. It's so fun to see Jaxon in it and he has been doing pretty well, only waking up once a night and coming to our room and scaring me in the middle of the night. :o)
Jaxon is such a funny kid though. As soon as I leave him for bed, he gets up and piles TONS and TONS of stuff on his bed. Toys, books, pillows...whatever he can get his hands on. When I go to check on him before I go to bed, it's hard to find him amidst all his stuff.
Oh, and just another random picture. Jaxon still has his shoe fetish and still loves pulling out all my shoes and trying them on and walking around the house in them. I was pretty impressed he was able to get around in these ones.
Even I have a hard time getting around in these high heels. :o)
Well, I think that's about it for us. We're doing well and just preparing and soooo excited for the new baby. We're having a REALLY hard time coming up with girls names that both Jack and I like, so suggestions are welcome. :o)

Mini Carnival

2009-09-25T17:52:00.003-06:00

We went out on a little family outing with our friends Laura, Randy, and Brogan the other weekend. There's a little "mini" carnival near us that has rides and things, but kind of miniature, so Jaxon and Brogan were just the right size for them...well, ok, maybe a little small, but we, the parents, thought it would be fun to see them in it. So, here are some pics of that day.
Enjoying the little boats...of course Jaxon's favorite part was the steering wheel.
Jaxon enjoying the carousel with dad.
Sorry for the blurry pic, but had to show Jaxon and Jack on the mini roller-coaster they had. I still can't believe we put Jaxon on it, and I think the verdict is that he's still a little small for it. He had a scared expression glued on his face the whole time, but when the ride ended, he clapped his hands...so, I think he was scared, but I think he still enjoyed it.
I think this was by far Jaxon's favorite ride. I just wish I could have fit in the car to go around with him. :o) It looked like a lot of fun.
All in all, it was a great day out with the family.

Potty Training News

2009-09-14T21:09:00.002-06:00

WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS LOTS OF POTTY TALK :o)
I don't know how or why I had in my mind that 18 months was the time to start potty training. I remember getting all geared up for it right before we left for Utah for summer break and we went and bought Jaxon a potty and I was going to get right to it as soon as we got home. But, well, the more I've been thinking about it, the more I feel like Jaxon may still be a little bit young...but surprise, surprise, Jaxon actually went no. 2 in his potty today. Now before we all start celebrating, I have to say, I kind of caught him with his pooping face and asked him if he wanted to go "poopy in the big boy potty" and I got him there fast enough that he got to "finish" in the potty. ;o) But still, I was pretty excited all the same!! :o)
While we were in Utah, I taught Jaxon to tell me if he was "poopy" when he pooped and he's been doing really well with that. He even tells me sometimes before he goes...but he's regressed a little with that unfortunately. But he did something funny the other day. I've been trying to teach Jaxon that "poopies" go in the toilet, so Jaxon went and threw his poopy diaper into the toilet! I guess I can't complain that he's getting it...a little bit, eh?
I'm sure we'll have lots more potty stories to tell in the near future. :o)

We Had Our Ultrasound Today...

2009-08-25T21:29:00.001-06:00

And we found out...

Final Utah Happenings

2009-08-24T20:29:00.004-06:00

Well, I am safely back in Ohio after a FABULOUS time in Utah. But as always, after a long time away from home, it's always good to be back. So, after I finally finish getting our new place set up, I'll post some pictures of our new and fabulous condo.
But back to some pictures. Just wanted to finish documenting our Utah fun.
First some fun pics of Jaxon's new past time. He loves trying on other people's shoes and had quite a few to choose from while we were gone.

These were by far my favorite ones. They are actually little "souvenir" wooden shoes from Holland and they fit Jaxon's feet just right. He would dance around and jump up and down in them and make lots of noise and look hilarious doing it. :o)
After Jack left, I got to spend some more time with my siblings and also catch up with some old friends.
Aurelia, you were sorely missed!
So much fun catching up with freshman roomies. :o)
Hanging with Jack's cuz Daisy...who is a model/famous actress now! :o) So, hard to look good next to her. ;o)
Congrats to Brad and Emily!
And yeah for being prego with friends! Nada's a little further along than I am...but look, you can definitely see the tummy, eh?
We did some more swimming and some more Cherry Hill too.
See, Jaxon's actually smiling here...he DOES like the water! :o)
Jaxon with his cousin Grace who was giving him fun rides around the pool. He loved it!
Coming off the "blue slides"at Cherry Hill...I "think"Jaxon liked it...hard to tell. :o)
And Jaxon's favorite part of Cherry Hill.
Ok, so this is getting a little long, so I'm just going to post some more pictures and be done. :o) But thank you, thank you, thank you for a wonderful vacation to all our Utah friends and family and we miss you all already!!
Jaxon finally put goggles on...and of course it wasn't in the pool. But he looked like a little super hero with them on running around at Cami's place.
More random Jaxon antics.
Jaxon's first carousel ride...he was a little nervous about it and held on for dear life as we went around.
At Gateway with Jaxon...who didn't like the water spouting thingy as much as I had hoped.
And just hanging out with Grandpa Jack.

As I can't hide it anymore...

2009-08-18T13:36:00.002-06:00

I guess I'm outed...as in my belly is way too out there to not say that I am now pregnant, so SURPRISE! We're expecting Baby #2 sometime in January!

More Utah and Jaxon's Change of Heart

2009-08-12T20:39:00.003-06:00

Just wanted to get some more pictures posted of our trip. First off, my mind was completely gone when I was packing for this trip. Must have been all the packing up for our move right before we left. Needless to say, I forgot a LOT of things.

So, this picture is of Jaxon in his cousin's sleeper...cause mom forgot to bring his. Unfortunately, his cousin is a girl...and quite a bit older...and if you look closely, it's got a little ballerina on them. We got a laugh out of it. :o)

Best news of all is that Jaxon has had a change of heart about the water. He's turned into this little fish. As soon as he gets his swim wings on, he's ready to jump in and he wants to just paddle his way around. I'm sooooo glad that he's started to enjoy the water more. It has made our activities out here much more enjoyable. :o)
We also got a big surprise when we got to Provo. My parents decided to surprise us and made a quick trip out to Utah to spend time with all of us. It was so much fun to see Jaxon playing with his gung-gung.
It was so nice to have my parents take us out to some "real" Chinese food. :o) We went to a little restaurant that my family went to way back when we first lived in Salt Lake City more than 20 years ago called Ho Ho Gourmet. They're one of the few restaurants in Utah that serve dim sum, one of our favorite Chinese meals.
Something we have discovered this trip is Jaxon's absolute LOVE for being behind the wheel of the car. We went into a little arcade room at Cherry Hill while we were there and Jaxon got to play on one of those racing games with the steering wheel and absolutely loved it. Since then, it's been hard to tear him away from any steering wheel he sees.
While we were in Salt Lake, we decided to visit the Church history museum.
We tried to get Jaxon to dress up and we finally forced him into a little robe, but he complained the whole time.
It was fun to spend time with so much family and see the church sites again too. We still got a little while here in Utah and we're making the most of it! :o)

Summer Vacation

2009-08-09T10:57:00.003-06:00

I know it's been a while since I last posted, and we've had so much going on that I don't even think I'll be able to keep up to date for a little bit. But for right now, just wanted to report a little on our trip to Utah...which Jaxon and I are still enjoying... and wanted to post some pics of our fun times so far. We're out here for another two weeks, so hopefully Jack doesn't get too lonely without us and I'm sure we'll have some more fun pictures to post soon.
Family tradition with Jack's family is Cherry Hill, so we did that quite soon once we got into town.
Jaxon actually did not like the water at all and was not a very happy camper at the water park. :o( We even tried him in just the backyard with sprinklers and slip n slide, but he still wasn't that into it. Good thing Jack is though. :o)

We went to a rodeo in Ogden to celebrate Pioneer Day and had a blast with Jack's family.
Jaxon loved seeing all the animals and getting up close and personal with the bulls and we loved watching the mutton, bronco, and bull riding, sky divers, extreme motorbikes, and the fireworks show to end it all.
One of our funnest days was actually without Jaxon. Jack's mom babysat Jaxon for us all day long so we could go out and enjoy ourselves. We had such a good time. Thanks sooooo much Char!!
This is us enjoying the beautiful weather at the Gateway.
Jaxon has loved getting to know his cousins better on both sides too. We have loved hanging with both the Madsen and the Lau side of the family.
Another favorite day was going to the aquarium with Char, Jaxon, and I. We got to see lot of cool fishes and a big octopus and we even got to touch sting rays. Jaxon liked the sharks the best I think.
Well, this is starting to get reeeeeally long, so I think I'll just wrap up for now. Jaxon has been his little self since being out here in Utah and has found lots to get into.
This is his "I got caught" face.
And this is him showing off. :o) Well, always entertaining to say the least. We are loving being with family here in Utah and having lots of fun, but we sure miss our Ohio peeps too. :o) We'll have more to post soon.

Fun Day at the Park

2009-07-11T21:12:00.002-06:00

These are just some pics of a fun day that we all had at the park a couple of weeks ago. We went out for some ice-cream and then just played at the park. Love it! :o)
And just to post some more pics. Jaxon has been so silly. He found our duster and likes to "ride" it around our apt.
I love this kid. He is a constant source of entertainment! :o)

Jaxon the Future Mistro

2009-07-01T15:44:00.003-06:00

Jaxon loves to play on the piano and crawls up onto the little bench to just sit and play everyday.
I can't wait until he's a little older to get him playing for real! :o)

Happy Canada Day!

2009-07-01T15:33:00.003-06:00

Yes, it took Canada Day to get me out of blogging hibernation. :o) Sorry for the long delay in posts. We've been busy trying to figure out our housing for next year and then packing up our place to get ready to move. But, well, we are still here and enjoying Ohio. Jack has been super busy with a short semester to get through. He's already doing finals next week and has been working very hard. Jaxon and I have been enjoying the good weather and just hanging out. Here are some pics of us at Stearns Farm which is just down the street from us.
It was cool to get really close to a lot of the animals.
This particular turkey did not really like visitors. If you look close, you can see how puffed up he is and he was squawking like crazy.
Jaxon has no fear though. He was sticking his fingers into all the animals faces.
I was lucky he didn't get bit. :o) Jaxon loved chasing the ducks.
This is the face he was making as he was chasing them. Some of my freshman roomies may remember this look. :o)
We sure had a lot of fun that day. But very sad that Jack had to miss it. :o(

More Fun

2009-06-02T20:14:00.003-06:00

Here are just some more things we did while Jack was on break. He has started back up again and looking at these pictures makes me miss the break we had with him even more, but he's already starting off the new term great getting an A on the first midterm he just took today. Yeeeah Jack!
We got to go swimming with some friends and I love these great shots with our camera.Jaxon didn't love the water at first, but I'm glad he warmed up to it.
I love my boys in their shades. They look so cute!!
We also got to go to a parade for Memorial Day. Jaxon's FIRST parade. I was sooo excited. Jaxon was sooo cute when they gave him a little American flag. He waved it like crazy!
Jaxon also got pretty excited when all the cop cars and fire trucks drove by. It was fun to get some candy too. :o)
He was a little distracted when the fire trucks came by...
Thanks for the fun time everyone!

Niagara Falls

2009-05-26T18:55:00.002-06:00

We had another fun couple of days during Jack's break and went to Niagara Falls with some of our good friends from Michigan. Thanks Rachel and Chris for such a fun time!
It was only a 4 hour drive to Niagara Falls from our place and Jaxon did pretty well in the car.
Our very first view of the falls.
Jaxon's first view of the Falls.
Exploring around Niagara Falls.
The area around the Falls (Clifton Hill) was kind of "Vegas" like to us, with lots of attractions, TONS of haunted houses and wax museums and lots of lights, food, and sounds. It was fun walking around.We got to do a couple of the Niagara Falls Experience type things too. Our favorite by far was the Maid of the Mist boat ride. In the picture below, you can see how close these boats get to the falls.Here's us getting ready to board the boat. I was impressed they even had little kid size rain ponchos for Jaxon.
Unfortunately, the rain ponchos didn't do much to keep the spray of the falls off of us and we ended up getting soaked. You can barely see Jack and Chris behind all the other tourists in the spray of the falls.But it was pretty cool to get so close to the falls.
We also did the Walk Behind the Falls.
All in all, it was a FABULOUS vacation. What a fun get away that really wasn't too far away. We got to enjoy some good food and great weather too. Sorry for all the pictures, but if you didn't get enough, we have more here. :o)

Zoo Day

2009-05-21T19:39:00.002-06:00

We've been having so much fun with Jack home during his break. Btw, wanted to say I am sooooo proud of Jack for being a great hard working student. He has worked SOOOO HARD this past year and has done well and gotten through it! Hooooray!
Anyhow, so we've been trying to cram as much into this week as possible. So more posts to come with more fun activities.
We started off the week at the Cleveland Zoo, which is free for us to go on Mondays all year round, which is TERRIFIC for us!
Here's a bunch of pictures from the FABULOUS day we had.
We had an early start and so did many other students! :o)
It was fun bumping into so many people we knew at the zoo.
First animal we got to see was the lion. It was so exciting to have Jaxon actually react to the animals we got to see. One of my personal favorites was the koalas. We got to see them so up close and they were soooo cute.
Jaxon's favorite was probably the monkeys. He would just laugh and laugh while they swung around and jumped around their cage.
The aquarium was also really neat and we got to see lots of cool fishes and of course some sharks.
The Australian part was fun too. Especially for Jack, who got to try out some kangaroo ears. :o)
We were a little too far away from the real ones to really interest Jaxon though.
There was also a "petting zoo" type area where you could get right up to the farm animals. Jaxon got to pet some of the animals and thought it was pretty cool.
Here are just some animal shots of some of the things we got to see.
All in all it was a fantastic day and I loved every minute of it.
It's such a fabulous experience experiencing all these new things with Jaxon. I LOVE IT!
Oh, and an update on camera situation in case you're all probably wondering how we have all these pictures. Well, knowing that we were going to have a whole week of fun and activity with Jack home, we just ended up buying a new one. And getting all these great shots was well worth it, eh? :o) And if you couldn't tell, we had a lot of fun trying out the new camera, so if any of you want to see even more of our fun zoo day, click here.

Sad Camera Story

2009-05-16T20:10:00.002-06:00

So Jack is finally done with finals--can we get a whoop, whoop!!--so we all decided to go to the park and enjoy the beautiful warm weather we've been having. It was soooo nice to have Jack around and Jaxon loved running around the park. We got some great shots on our camera and I was so excited to go home and try some more PW photoshop edits on them.
Well, we ended up going out to eat after the park and then out for ice-cream...the perfect ending to the perfect day...and when we got to the ice cream place and one of our friends pulled out her camera, my heart sunk as I all of a sudden realized I did not have our camera on me.
Jack says he thinks he saw a kid over by our things while we had been at the park, but needless to say, when we went back to the park to look for it, it was no where to be found. I am absolutely devastated! We had soooo many pictures on our 8GB card and I had foolishly not backed them up yet. I had planned on doing it as soon as we had gotten home. So, not the best way to start off our big break. Anyhow, just wanted to get this off my chest so I won't think about it anymore. It still kills me to think about what we've lost, so much more than just the camera...I had so many pictures that will never be seen. Thanks for listening. :o)

Photoshop Fun

2009-05-15T11:17:00.003-06:00

I've recently discovered the Pioneer Woman site and I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it! I found her Photoshop Elements tutorials on there this week and decided to give some things a try. Don't laugh at these pics, I will freely admit I am a BEGINNER at this stuff, but I am just so excited that there are actually things I CAN do in Photoshop Elements. I had been so used to working with actual Photoshop at work that I was really kind of thinking Elements would never really work for me, but thanks to pioneer woman, I am finally realizing the potential of elements. :o)
Anyhow, here are just some fun pics of Jaxon.
Oh, and as I mentioned in my last post, here are some fun projects I've been working on. I've been very inspired from great websites over the past little bit. Almost all of these ideas came from the Make it and Love it blog.
This is a cute grocery bag holder that I was able to get some super fun material for.
Then I got to do some fun girly things for some baby showers. Made me want a girl soooo bad! :o) This is a little giraffe lovey...which can also double as a llama. :o)
And I even got to do some cute headbands. Shhh, don't tell Jack, but I totally tried them on Jaxon. :o)
I also made a little CD cover case to go over the visor in the car and a car trash bag. So, needless to say, I've been keeping up with my sewing skills. It's been fun to have more time to do some projects here and there though.

Birthday Fun!

2009-05-06T15:32:00.003-06:00

Well, I turned the big 2-8 this past weekend and well, I don't feel any older. :o) We celebrated by going out to eat at Lonestar Steakhouse because we had a great coupon for a free birthday meal. It was yummy food and soooo nice to go out to eat.
Here are some pics from dinner. Jaxon was so excited to get out of the house and be with daddy for a bit. Jack's been super busy with finals so we haven't seen him as much as we'd like, but he's being a good student and we're so proud of his hard work.
Here, Jaxon grabbed one of the lemons from off the table...he was so excited he got it...and the fact that we didn't take it away from him. As good parents, we were willing to let Jaxon learn from his own mistakes...
Which happened when he stuck it in his mouth.
It was the perfect birthday present to go out to dinner.
I got some pretty fantastic presents this year from some amazing friends out here in Ohio. We have truly been soooo richly blessed to have met so many kind and wonderful people out here. Makes it just a little easier to be so far away from our families.
This gift was EXACTLY what I had wanted for a little bit now and I was sooooo excited to receive it.
It's been soooo helpful to have since I have started working on some more sewing projects lately...more pics in a later post to come...and I was quick to fill it up with my sewing essentials. I just LOVE this. Thanks again Melissa!!
Next came a pampering gift that was totally perfect for me--nail polish! Lindsey, you know me too well! :o) I love the bright, fun colors you chose. As soon as it gets warm, my feet are in sandals just about 100% of the time, so many of you know I ALWAYS have my toes painted in the summer time. :o)
This gift was a perfect addition to one of my end tables that was lacking a table topper and it's totally perfect for it. It's such a wonderful addition to our home. Thanks Laura!
On Sunday-day of birthday, Jack got up with Jaxon so I could sleep in and then made me a fabulous breakfast for lunch with all the works. It was sooooo yummy! Later that day, I got a surprise birthday "party" from Dave and Melissa. Dave made a scrumptious homemade, from scratch, chocolate cake and it was divine! I'm not usually a cake fan...but probably because all my cakes are from the box. It was such a treat to have a made from scratch cake and you could totally tell the difference. It was super yum!
Unfortunately 28 candles was too many for me to blow out and I didn't quite make it.
Thanks Char for the birthday card and gift...I'll let you know what I end up getting with it. And thank you, thank you, thank you to all for the well wishes. It was so nice to feel so special. Yeah for birthdays!!

Just Some Cute Pics

2009-04-15T20:04:00.004-06:00

These are just some cute pictures from our good friend Laura. She has a son that is just 3 weeks older than Jaxon and they are just such good friends. I love that they're so close in age and are so similar in so many things. Makes it so much fun to spend time all together. :o)
Here are the boys taking a wagon ride to a park.

And here are the boys at the park getting ready to go down the slide.

Some Catching Up

2009-04-15T09:18:00.012-06:00

It's been a while since our last post, so bear with me--this might be a long and random post. :o)
First off, we celebrated Jack's big 2-9 birthday on the 28th. Unfortunately, on his birthday weekend, our household was sick again. :oP Fortunately we ended up going out for lunch for his birthday before we all got sick...and picked up "our" birthday gifts for ourselves before we all got sick too.
But here's a pic of Jack on his birthday. We had a nice breakfast together...and of course he got what he wants the most as a gift-money.

Now please tell me there are people out there that agree with me that money is the most BORING gift to give your own spouse for their birthdays! For goodness sake, if they just want money, what's the difference from them just going to the ATM and getting out money, eh? And I have to say, men are a LOT harder to shop for then women.
Ok, done venting now. :o) And now here are some random pictures of Jaxon that make me laugh. He really likes having things over his head...well everything except for his actual hats! But he loves towels, and any type of material or item of clothing. Here he decided to put one of my shirts over his head...so I decided to help him out a little so it wouldn't fall off.

And last, but not least, we had a great Easter, but missed our families terribly. It was fun to do a little Easter egg hunt for Jaxon now that he's finally a little older and can get the gist of it. Here's a little video of him trying to find the eggs.

And here are some pics.

Here he was worried we were going to take away his eggs.

We had a wonderful Easter program in our ward and it was nice to have a bit of sunshine for Easter Sunday as well. Jaxon and I got to be twinners in pink for Sunday.

Hope everyone is doing well and hope everyone had a great Easter!

Fun at Parks

2009-03-23T11:31:00.003-06:00

The weather out here in Ohio has been going back and forth for the past little bit. We'll have some cold, cold days, and then really warm days. The warm days sure make us want to get outside and aching for spring. We can't wait until it gets permanently warmer.
Anyhow, on some of the cold days, Jack and I took Jaxon to the little play area at the mall to get out some pent up energy. :o)
Jaxon loves playing where all the big kids are and so he gets run over by some of them sometimes, but as Jack says, it's "toughening" him up to hold his own. ;o)
When we got the little bit of sunshine and warmer weather, I met up with some girls and we all took our kids to the park outside.
Jaxon is totally fascinated by the geese and the ducks that we saw in the pond behind him. Everytime he hears them from our apartment, he goes to the window and just stares out. Sometimes he can see some of them, but other times he can't, but either way, he still just likes to stare out the window to look for them. And Jaxon LOVES the swing. He complains when I need to take him out to give other kids a turn. But if he could, he'd stay the whole time in the swing...well, most of the time anyhow. :o) He still loves to explore and walk around of course and puts EVERYTHING in his mouth.
Jaxon has been a ball of energy these past couple of months and is constantly walking around the house discovering things and moving things around and picking things up and dropping them in some unknown place. I am loving being able to get outside more with him and just watching him take in everything around him. I love this kid, he's such a fun buddy to have around. :o)

Who Does Jaxon Look Like?

2009-03-18T21:18:00.001-06:00

Just confirming what everyone has told us when they see Jaxon. :o)

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Family pictures - Family history

Recent Projects

2009-03-16T14:38:00.002-06:00

I worked on a couple of crochet projects during the last two months...and no, these did not take two months to complete. :o) They were actually pretty quick 2 day or so projects.
The first one is this cute gray hat with a brim. I found the pattern online for free here.
I cheated a little with the brim and didn't do a double piece...but still turned out all right I think.
Next is this cute headband. I've been dying to make one since seeing all these cute little babies with such cute headbands at church.
It doesn't look quite as cute on me as it does on the babies...but definitely a cute fashion statement I think. At least it makes it so I don't have to do my hair. :o) Oh, and yep, this one was another free pattern found here. I just made up the flower myself.

Jaxon Did This All By Himself!

2009-03-09T17:48:00.004-06:00

Jaxon gave mommy a reeeally good laugh today with his antics. :o) Watch for his pose by the door. It's hilarious! Oh, and please excuse our messiness...it was laundry day. :o)

Sweeet-ness

2009-03-06T17:32:00.002-07:00

It's been SOOOO nice having Jack home for Spring break and we've been loving just relaxing and spending lots of time all together. We headed over to Mally's Chocolates a couple of days ago to take a tour of their chocolate factory and see all their sweets. The tour was actually a lot of fun and since we went during a week day, it was pretty empty and the workers enjoyed waving at us and having Jaxon smile at them. :o) We weren't allowed to take pictures of the tour, but we saw this sign at the end of the tour and Jack HAD to get a picture of it. We had a good laugh about it. :o)
Jaxon is just walking all over the place now and enjoyed walking around the bright pink candy room.We got some yummy sweets from there...which actually weren't chocolate. :o) But they had super yummy sour candies.
We also went to the West Side Market in Cleveland. It's an AWESOME farmer's market type place with lots of vendors with TONS of yummy fruits, vegetables, meats, and sweets. We got a couple of things we needed and on the way out, a really nice vendor offered me a bunch of starfruits for a dollar. When I agreed and he started bagging it, he wanted me to buy another dollars worth and so was just loading more fruit into the bag. I told him no thanks, but he insisted, and so in the end, I got a HUGE bag of starfruit for just a dollar. :o) It was great!!
Starfruit always reminds me of Hong Kong and of my parents, so I've been loving having so many to munch on.