Poor Child...

I had to share the latest thing that Troy said that had us laughing out loud! We had some friends stop by last night to visit and on their way out, Garrett told Troy that he liked his new snow boots. Troy proudly said, "Yep, the mailman gave them to me." I never thought about it but I think he really thinks that all the crap I by online are just boxes that the nice mailman, Tom, gives to us! I know a lot of boxes come our way, but it's just a trade off of having a happy wife live in a small town with NO SHOPPING! Thank goodness for the internet!

Cool Dudes

These 99 cent goggles from Target have gotten more laughs and play than most of the other toys in our house! Everyone loves them, especially the neighbor kids...they are always fighting over them!

Happy Birthday, Colt!

Every one year old needs a little greasy McDonalds, right?


Before

After

Time has a serious way of messing with your head! It feels like just yesterday, I hawled butt to the hospital in Provo just in time to deliver my little precious Colty! But it feels like 5 years ago that I spent a week in the hospital with him when he was 2 weeks old while he had RSV. I still can't figure that one out! Colt had his 1st birthday on Thursday! We had a great day of playing, having lunch at McDonalds & getting lots of phone calls of well wishes! We had Hawaiian Haystacks for dinner (our new favorite...no one can believe I just discovered them!) and chocolate cupcakes for desert.

Troy got to help me decorate the cupcakes after lunch. After we were all done, I went to change Colt's diaper and this is what I returned to. I swear, never fail this kid has to get in trouble!

And to anyone who thinks this is gross...wait till you see Jack lick the snot off of Colt's nose...yes, he really does do that....

Before

After

I love Jack for so many reasons, but the #1 reason is how he picks up after my kids! I used to sweep several times a day and now, MAYBE twice a month! It's a beautiful thing!

Welcome to the world of WebCams!

Just like his mommy, eating his breakfast at the computer while he checks his email :)


Part of our Christmas present from my parents was a really nice WebCam...with the intentions of all getting online on Sunday nights and talking together as a family. We have all been playing with them and Troy was THRILLED to wake up one morning with a special email message from Papa. He watched it over and over and over and over again...he figured out all by himself how to make Papa take up the whole screen and clicked the mouse each time to start the message over. Throughout the day, I could here him saying the message while he was playing, I think he had it memorized! We made a video for Papa but I haven't figured out how to email it to him!

Guitar Hero!

We were introduced to the video game, "Guitar Hero" on New Years Eve (See Mark & Cass' blog post from that night!) and that's all we want to do now! We are not into video games AT ALL but we are tempted to fork over the money for an Xbox 360 just for this game! So Kevin made our own guitar out of some foam things Troy got for Christmas! Everytime Troy sees anything that has to do with a guitar, he says, "Look Mom! Guitar Hero!" We are addicted....if you see our cars at Chet & Jill's, you know why were are there!

New Family Picture

We got some new family pictures taken last weekend and I wanted to share my favorite one! My new favorite quote is, "Too much of a good thing is a good thing." That's how I feel about my little family! I am the luckiest wife & mommy in the whole world!

Our Cute, Little Snowman!

Is that not the cutest little boy and snowman that you've ever seen! Sorry, I am a little biased! Troy and Colt got a snowman kit from our friends the Butterfields and Troy couldn't wait to get his "Frosty Kit" out this weekend! All of the pieces are made out of wood so we can reuse it for every snoman! The hat and scarf are felt. We have had a TON of snow these over the last 48 hours....over a foot at our house. It's so beautiful and is very much needed around here! Kev has been plowing on our 4 wheeler day and night...what a smart purchase that was last winter!

So...I ran over my dog :(

We have had a very emotional week! And it's all my fault :( I ran over our dog, Jack, on my way to pick up Troy from school. Jack usually follows me there and back when I drive up the street to pick him up but this time, he must have gotten lost under my tire somewhere! I ran the poor thing over and when I realized it, he had fallen over in the snow had blood pouring out of his mouth and other disgusting things going on that I will not share :( I was sure that I had killed my little guy. But after lots of tears and a trip to the weird vet in town (another story in its self) Jack is alive and is our miracle dog! He had a punctured diaphram and it was small enough to heal on it's own. His back left leg is pretty banged up and skinned up but he is moving around just fine! He is definetly calmer these days and is cuddling a lot more...must need some extra love! We are so glad our little buddy, Jack, will continue to roam our culd-a-sac...just a little more supervised now!

Christmas 2007

Santa made a hawl this year...not knowing it! Santa needs to slow down for next year and not get started so early :) Colt's favorite gift from Santa! Now he needs to learn to walk before my surgery in February!

Troy with his loot!

Christmas hooded towels from Nana in Houma!

Christmas jammies with little pugs on them! I couldn't resist!

I have to catch up with all of my friends that are on the ball and already have their Christmas pictures posted! We had a great Christmas here at home! It was so fun to kinda do our own thing even though we spent some time on Christmas Day with Kevin's family. When Troy came out and saw what Santa brought, he kept saying over and over, "Oh my GOSH! You gotta be KIDDING me!" You have to hear it in his voice to get the full effect! The most memorable part of Christmas Day was Troy singing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus all on his own.
He is such a special kid!

Trip to New Mexico!

Having fun in the hotel room-we had adjoining rooms which meant lots of fun for the boys!

The reason for the trip, to cheer on #36! Uncle Brett!

Saying our goodbyes :( We will miss you, Cookie & Papa! Thank you for a great weekend!

Old Town

Charming Papa's camera like always!

At the Natural History & Museum of Art-it had an amazing dinosaur exibit that we all loved!

The weekend before Christmas, we were able to meet my parents in Alburqurque (Brett has lived there for 2 years and I still can't spell it right!) Brett and the New Mexico Lobos had a bowl game on Saturday and we went to cheer them on. We met my parents there on Thursday night and left on Sunday. We had a great weekend! We got to go walk around Old Town, visit the dinosaur exibit at the museum, eat out at lots of fun restaurants (Troy even ate alligator!) and of course did some shopping. My mom and I left with some really fun slippers that looked like cowboy boots! The highlight of the trip was watching Brett's game! He had an amazing game...5 solo tackles, 3 for loss of yards & 2 sacks! He got the Defense player MVP award and got to make a speech down on the feild in front of the whole stadium! Kev & Troy rushed the field and were down there next to him the whole time. It brought everyone to tears! He is such a hard worker and no one deserves to have more success than Brett. And I can brag a little more and say that Brett & Jenna are expecting a little baby this summer! We are all thrilled! Troy is crossing his fingers for a little boy to hang out on the farm with!

TAGGED!

I got tagged by my sister!

(If you haven’t been tagged yet and you have a blog, copy and paste my answers into a post, erase my answers and put your own and then post it on your blog. This is fun!

Five Things I was doing 10 years ago:
1. I was a sophmore in high school in Carrollton, Texas
2. Best friends with Nicky Hendershot who ended up getting pregnant the next year.
3. Just got my drivers lisence and was driving the red Ford Taurus around
4. Had the biggest crushes on several guys in my Coppell Ward. #1 being Jarren Taylor!
5. Even though I was just "officially" starting to date, I had already had 2 serious boyfriends, one of them was definetly my "first" young love.

Five Things I was doing 5 years ago:
1. Had been married for 6 weeks!
2. About to spend my first Christmas away from home.
3. Working as a nanny for Stephen R. Covey's grandchildren.
4. Living in the smallest apartment in Provo, Utah and paying $700 a month in rent!
5. A junior at BYU studying Advertising

Five Things I was doing 1 year ago:
1. 7 months pregnant with Colt
2. In OKC with my family celebrating Christmas
3. Had recently quit working for DCWV (horray)
4. Had recently been released from being a Cub Scout Leader (horray!)
5. Chasing a 2 year old Troy around Walmart on a regular basis!

Things on my to-do list today:
1. Laundry for trip to New Mexico
2. Packing for trip to New Mexico
3. Lunch with girlfriends at McDonalds playgound
4. Drop treats off to visiting teaching ladies
5. Pick up my site to store order from Walmart (a bedside table for our almost done guestroom)

Five Snacks I enjoy:
1. Lofthouse frosted sugar cookies
2. Almonds
3. Popcorn
4. Cherry Ice Cups from Schwans
5. Diet Coke

Things I would do if I were a Billionaire:
1. Have Barbie clean my house twice a week
2. Buy a big piece of property with horses and pay someone else to take care of them.
3. Go on vacation with my family every month
4. Buy a timeshare at a Disneyland resort
5. Build a big, beautiful house with a pool

Three of my bad habits:
1. Being impatient
2. Spending too much time on the internet poking around and shopping
3. Not keeping up with my housework

Five places I have lived:
1. Ephraim, UT
2. Coralville, IA
3. Provo, UT
4. Carrollton, TX
5. Coppell, TX

Five Jobs I’ve had:
1. Retail sales at The Buckle
2. EFY Counselor (best job ever!)
3. Bank Teller
4. Nanny
5. Waitress

5 Things people probably don’t know about me:
1. The only way I can swim is doggy pattle.
2. I hold my nose every time I walk down the bread asile at Walmart, it is disgusting and makes me sick!
3. I really don't like my calling, being a Nursery Leader.
4. I have no plans to have more than 3 children.
5. As soon as I have those 3 children, I am definetly getting a boob job by Dr. Crofts in Orem.

Contest Winner!

Back in July I won a contest that I submitted among Stampin' Up! Demonstrators and I won! I won 3 free stamp sets out of the catalog and got my project and picture in a magazine that is mailed to demonstrators all around the world. It was a big accomplishment for me! I love scrapbooking and stamping and selling Stampin' Up! products has turned my passion into a small business. If anyone is interested in starting up scrapbooking of stamping, just call me and I will get you converted! It's so fun!

The Erins

Danny (3), Rachel (1), Troy (3) & Colt (10 mo)

Last week we go the chance to see one of my best friends in the WORLD!!! Erin and her little famiy live in Switzerland so we are lucky to see them once or twice a year when they come to the states to see family. I live an hour from her sisters house so that is usually where we just hang out and let the kids play. Erin and I met in 2002 in a sign language class at UVSC. We just happened to sit by each other and really hit it off. It turned out we lived in apartment complexes that were right next to each other so we'd get together to study and watch "Real World Las Vegas" :) Usually in my friendships, my friends and I share differences that I respect and really enjoy, but with Erin it's different. In my eyes, we are literally the same person! We have the same likes in food (buttermilk pie from Maglebys Fresh!), clothes, TV shows, views of parenting, marriage, family issues...we just seem to think alike. We got married at the same time, had each of our kids at the same time...We have a very special relationship. She was the first person I called when my water broke and I was on my way to the hospital with Colt because it was the middle of the night and I knew she's be awake half way across the globe! I can't wait to hopefully go see them in Switzerland before they move back. I love you Erin!!!

Surgery Update...

Well as a lot of you know, I went and saw the back surgeon yesterday to go over the results of my MRI. I had to wait 4 months to even get into him so I was very anxious to see what he had to say. I went in thinking in my head that I would do ANYTHING to avoid having this surgery, even if it meant that I couldn't be pregnant again. When Dr. Reichman saw my xrays, he could see exactly what was wrong...a disc has slipped and has hit 2 different nerves causing pain on both sides of my back and down my legs. He said it wasn't a matter of IF I needed to have the surgery, it was WHEN I needed to have it. I would keep having the pain until it was bad enough to do the surgery. So basically after 6 years of this pain, I have accepted the fact that I need to just do it. The chances of having a full recovery are 90% and since I am so young and have a otherwise healthy spine, my chances look really good for that. So on February 18th (2 days after we get home from our Mexican cruise!) I will go under the knife! I am terrified! I have a friend who had the exact same surgery a year ago so she has helped answer a lot of questions. (The worst answer being that I will have a 10 inch scar on my lower back! Yuck!) Basically, I am looking at 3 days in the hospital, 2 weeks of total bedrest and 1 month of not doing any lifting, especially lifting my kids. The total recovery time is 6 months which means I can be pregnant 6 months after the surgery. (A big concern of mine also) This will be the hardest thing I have ever gone though! What mom feels good about taking a month of from being a mom??? I know that I will be well taken care of by Kev, my mom and other family and amazing friends. So now I have 2 months to get LOTS of stuff off my to do list around the house!

A Future Chef???

Just a typical Wednesday morning at the Madsen house...no preschool to get ready for so we are pretty lazy! Troy wanted to make his own soup....so he came up with scrambled eggs, fruit punch gaterade and one marshmellow. He wouldn't eat it though, thank goodness! I asked if he wanted to be a chef when he grew up and he said, "No, I still want to be an astronaunt." We got a new Usbourne book recently called, "On the Moon" and now he is obsessed with space & astronaunts. I love my little OCD boy :)

Limbo Baby!

I still can't figure out how Colt got under this chair without getting on his tummy! Since he has started crawling, he is entertained a lot easier! I love how he flashes his shinny 2 teeth. Troy loves to help me brush them! Don't look at my floors, they are disgusting.

Luckily, Barbie comes tomorrow :)

Snow!

Just has to share some pictures of our beautiful snow! I make Troy play in the front yard so our backyard will stay nice and pretty :) I love white snow but hate brown & yellow snow (thanks to Jack) so you can guess why I didn't take any pictures of the ugly snow in the front!

Two of a Kind!

So one day, Troy decided that the laundry basket was a boat and that Jack and Colt needed to ride with him. It was a heck of a time trying to get everyone in the boat and looking in the camera! We make our own fun at our house!