Thank you, Kathi!

Just wanted to thank my sweet friend Kathi for making me my blog header! Didn't it turn out so cute! I love it! She is my talented digi-scrapper friend...her scrapbooks are soooo amazing, and they probably cost a TON less than mine :) Thanks again, girl!

Gotta love a sale!

Just had to share Stampin' Up's big sale that starts tomorrow!

CLICK HERE to see a list of the sale bundles!

20-50% bundles of product that they put together, it's like Christmas to me! So if you need supplies for Christmas gifts, neighbor gifts, cards or tags, just pop on over to my website tomorrow and you can shop straight from there. Everything can be shipped right to you if you order through my website. Find the perfect present for all the stampers and
paper crafters in your life-or just stock up for yourself!!!

Supplies are limited- so if there is something you would like to purchase, go to my website and click "shop now" at the top right hand side of that website or email me and I can place it for you.

This is a pretty amazing sale!

Have fun looking and Happy Thanksgiving!

Click below to shop!

erinmadsen.stampinup.net

6 Movie Tickets: $36

6 Diet Cokes, Popcorns & assorted chocolate in the theatre: $30

Assorted snacks, books, magazines, Diet Cokes, hot chocolates and hand warmers for the long wait: $20

Waiting in line for 9 1/2 hours to have the best seats in the theatre and being among the first girls in town to see "Twilight" at Midnight on 11/21: PRICELESS

Thanks for a memorable day, girls! Some moments are not appropriate to post on my blog but I will treasure them forever!!! Oh and I have to say we look way cuter than the girl sitting in front of us. Looks like she needs a nap to me!

What I am lovin' :)

Not much going on in the Madsen household so I just wanted to share a few of my favorite things that I got to experience this week! Thank you everyone for helping me celebrate my birthday also. I have so many friends and family that I love so much and I felt very loved in return on my special day. I was definitely spoiled!

I got the chance to eat in Provo this week (what a treat!) and I picked Mimi's Cafe. An all-time favorite. I have lots of good memories of meals that I have had there in addition to the best food ever. I had the best meal of French Onion Soup, Buttermilk Spice Muffin & Balsamic Chicken & Pistachio Salad. Yum, yum, yum. Oh and a Diet Coke of course. I even came home and found the recipe online for the muffins that taste the exact same!
My friend Amberly had an Scentsy party this week and I popped in to get some holiday scents. I am in love with their "Scent of the Month" Cinnamon Cider. It is a must for the holidays, along with Spiced Orange Harvest. I will never burn a candle as long as I live! Oh and I won the raffle which was even better!

I finished up my Christmas shopping this week and got to go to Build A Bear to make a dog for Colt. I also got him a cute blue umbrella stroller to push around. Blue strollers are hard to come by so I had to jump on that one. I have built 6 bears in my lifetime and I love it every time I go in there. I am such a sucker for that place. I told a friend that I don't need to have a girl, I will just go to build a bear and dress up a bear all girly. I don't know if she agreed with me. (wink, wink)



K, anyone who watches this show knows what I am so happy about. Denny!!! I am still a little lost about what is happening with Izzy right now but I love to see those two together. They never got to have a real romance so I happy to see it, even if she is losing her mind!

I have rediscovered Kiddie Kones this week. For $1.75, I can get an XL Diet Coke with extra ice, and 3 kiddie kones. Who could pass up that every afternoon at about 3pm? Not me and my boys!

I hope each of you had a good week! Now tell me what you are lovin' right now!

The Best Weekend Ever!

It was our 6 year wedding anniversary yesterday and Kev surprised us and took us for a weekend in Park City! We stayed in the most amazing condo at Deer Valley which during the on-season, is rented out for $1000 a night. It was that amazing! (He got it from one of his customers and we only had to pay the $60 cleaning fee!) It was 2 bedrooms & 3 bathrooms, 3 indoor Jacuzzi tubs, a huge hot tub on our balcony, plasma TVs everywhere and a gorgeous kitchen. I loved everything about it! Kev dropped me off at the spa for 2 hours where I was treated to a mani & pedi, the best of my life actually. And other than that and hitting the outlets, we had a wonderful weekend of relaxing and enjoying our little family. Who knew you could have such a fun anniversary get-a-way with your kids :) They were angels, something that hardly ever happens! Thank you for everything, Kevy, it really was a weekend to remember!

We had a blast at our annual Madsen Family Halloween Party. It is so fun for everyone to get dressed up, even grandparents & great grandparents! Kev went as a rocker, I went as a "leopard girl" as Troy would say, and the boys were bats. Brett, Jenna & Maddox went as a Mexican Family with stuff from their trip to Mexico! Even Maddox had a poncho. I kissed his little face so much I got makeup all over him! It's so fun having babies in the family, and not having them be your own is even better!

Dear Diary...

I can't believe I haven't posted in 2 weeks! Yikes! I haven't really taken pictures lately so there are no pictures to add. But this is what we have been up to in the last 2 weeks...

I have been super busy working, especially for DCWV. My time with them is usually pretty up and down with how much time it takes being on the design team, but for the next few months, I will be super busy getting ready for our next show in Anehiem in January. I am looking forward to hitting Disney a few nights with friends without kids!

-I have been in "Hunters Safety" class to get my hunting license. It has been really interesting and I have learned a ton. I am planning on camping with Kev with the kids on the deer hunts from now on so we can make it a family affair. We have been looking for pink guns for me too :) Oh, and I am really good at shooting too :)

-My parents were in town last week for meetings. They are moving to Salt Lake (Cottonwood Heights) as soon as they can sell their house in OKC. We are sooo excited! It will be a dream come true when they are finally here. We are already talking about getting BYU season tickets all together since Provo will be 1/2 way for both of us :)

Bronco is driving me up the walls. We have had several "false alarms" with people finding Jack. Who knew there were so many pugs in my little town! Bronco is "not Jack" and it's been hard having a puppy again. Hopefully he will calm down sooner rather than later!

-Even though my life has been pretty boring lately, my friends have had exciting things happen. I never thought I would have so much joy and love for my friends and their big events. My good friend, Candice, adopted a new baby girl this week. I already love Sophie and I haven't even met her yet! My friend Sam is finally pregnant after trying for a long time. Know how that feels! And my friend Jill is having her third little girl after waiting for a long time. We are all so blessed and I feel so blessed to be a part of my friends lives.

Well that's about it. I should have started this post "Dear Diary". Oh, maybe I will!
Love you all!

Hunting for a Pumpkin!

We had so much fun on Saturday at the Red Barn in Santiquin. We went with our neighbors the Norris', and had a blast, even though it was snowing on us! We got to go on a tractor ride out to a big pumpkin patch and pick out our pumpkins. Then we went back to the barn and had homemade vanilla cake donuts that we SO GOOD and a big ol' Diet Coke...it sounded much better than Hot Cider or Hot Chocolate :) I just noticed how "country" our boys look in all of their camo! I tell my friends that have girls, "Camo is my pink". I love it, even if I look like a hick!

Bronco Madsen

Well, only one thing could heal my broken heart...a new puggy! Jack never came home, so by a small miracle, we got our perfect little puppy within hours of looking for one on ksl.com. He is 4 months old and his previous owners worked all day and couldn't give him the life he needed. It just totally worked out so within 2 hours of talking with the family, we had Bronco! Kev thinks he named him after the Denver Broncos & I think I named him after Bronco Mendenhall. It's a win-win situation! Bronco is so much fun and has the cutest personality. He is snuggled under my arm right now as I type. We still hope with all of our hearts that Jack comes home and meets his new little buddy!

Chore Charts

Just wanted to show these darling chore charts that I got for the kids. Colt doesn't need his yet but I had to make sure they would have matching ones on the fridge :) I ordered them from Just For Me Stationary and I love them! I should have put "Feed the dog" instead of "Feed Jack"...oh well. So far, Troy loves doing his chores and if he does all of them all week, he gets $1 at the end of the week! He thinks that is awesome! Whatever works!

Jack, Come Home!

Well I have had a depressing couple of days. Our sweet little Jack ran away with a neighbor dog yesterday morning, and he has yet to return home. Our neighbor's dog came home about 6 hours later but Jack was no where to be seen. The boys and I spent the day hanging flyers all over town and watching out the window, waiting for him to come home. And Troy has said MANY prayers too. The neighborhood kids are all teaming up and looking for him so they can split the $100 reward money, but every hour that goes by I am thinking that he might not come home. Hopefully my next post will be a little more upbeat. Jack is my first dog so I was hoping I would have him a lot longer than 18 months.

Hummm.....

Based on Saturday's forcast...would you take your family to see the Cougars play?? We already have tickets and I REALLY want to go (Kev will go no matter what) but for some reason, this may not be a fun game with 2 little boys, frozen fingers and wet clothes. What do you think???

30 Hours of Fun!

My little crew just got home from a short & sweet road trip! We headed up to Logan to watch the BYU/Utah State football game with one of Kev's cousins & his wife who have awesome season tickets. We got up there at about 4pm (after a quick "run in" to Tai Pan Trading) and dropped the kids off at Matt & Angie's house for their two kids to babysit the boys. We headed over to the game and realized we had awesome seats but we were surrounded by Aggie fans! Kev had enough nerve to be quiet and not scream for the Cougars, I on the other hand had no class and was ridiculously loud :) Would you expect anything else from me?? :) Angie and I had a fun time chatting and eating kettle corn while I was secretly starring at head coach Bronco Mendenhall the whole time. I just think he is so dang cute. Notice the pic? I forgot my camera so there are no pictures of our fun weekend! But some of the highlights of the weekend were:

-visiting Grandma Kay even though the boys broke her glass candy dish that sits on her coffee table...:(

-getting to shop at Hobby Lobby. My favorite store in Oklahoma City..now there is one in Logan!

(oh and Troy broke a Christmas ornament in that store...notice a trend with my boys??)

-Troy doing the impersonation of "Charlie Bit Me" from YouTube all the way home in the car. Kev and I have never laughed so hard!

-getting 32 mpg in my Accord :)

-all 4 of us dancing to my Pete Yorn CD, Colt dancing with his little pointer fingers in the air!

-eating at Cracker Barrel (yummy Coca Cola Chocolate Cake!)

-having many Sonic Diet Cokes

-running into 2 friends at the Provo Mall (Shawn & Ashley Aime & Angie T.)

-Troy spelling out the letters on my Sam's Club card...he knew every one and it made me cry! He is getting so smart!

-playing Rock Band with Matt & Angie after the game.

It was a great weekend, I wish I would have remembered my camera! Oh well, instead we will just look at the pictures of Cutie Pie Bronco :)

Lake Hill

Madison, Jake & Tyler Norris & my boys

We are so spoiled being able to hop on our 4-wheeler and be in our mountians in less than 5 minutes. I was being pretty sponatneous (not a usual thing for me) and asked Kev if he wanted to go on the mountain for dinner that night when he was home for his lunch break. I knew I didn't really have to ask to know what he would say. I made tin foil dinners and had everything all ready. Then I decided it would be more fun to have friends with us, so then I drug our neighbors the Norris' up with us. We have the best neighbors! The kids had a ball and there were lots of laughs. It was absolutely gorgeous with the leaves changing colors. The moms took the kids on a hike around the pond while the guys got the fire ready. Colt was obsessed with the ducks and kept trying to get in the pond to get them! Then we ate yummy food and ended it with smores & roasted Starbursts. Yum! What a fun night! We need to do it more often!

Soccer!

Well, after tonight, soccer will officially be over! It has gone so fast! Troy had a rough time getting into it at the begining but now, he is so sad for it to be ending. He loves running around and loves even more, playing out with all of his friends. He is usually the one goofing around. He doesn't like to kick people so he usually isn't right in the middle of the pack. But he loves being gollie and LOVES the treats at the end of the game. I remember that being the ONLY reason I joined soccer when I was 4...only lasted 1 year though!

Meet Gertie :)

Kev & his brothers: Brett & Brian. Aren't they all so handsome!? The boys, not Gertie.

Kev & Jared Anderson...the man who saved the day :)

Yuck. Kev said he sat on him and blood poured out of his mouth. Ugh.

Well the day was finally here, and it was actually pretty exciting on my part too! Kev has been waiting to shoot this elk for about 5 months since he found out he got this tag, which apparently is a very special tag that not a lot people get. Everyone was excited to go with him hunting this year! Kev and his brothers were on the mountain for a week without having any luck getting one. Then our friend, Jared, told me that he could lead him right to one. So I said, "Where were you a week ago, Jared!" Long story short, Kev got his elk and we are all happy. It is a 6x6 (the points on his horns) and is huge in my opinion. I guess I think he is huge cause I have no idea how he is going to fit on our wall in our living room. Yes, I finally gave in. I was SO against it for so long but Kev finally came with the argument that my hobby is scrapbooking and I have my own room for it. And his hobby is hunting and all he wants is one elk on the wall. What could I say? He spoils me in every way so I had to honor his one little request....on 2 conditions of course. #1. I got to name him....a girl name. Meet Gertrude. #2. I get to dress him up for each holiday....he can wear goggles in the summer, a Santa hat at Christmas...etc. I thought my mom would appreciate that one :) I am just glad this hunt is over. Congrats, Kev!

Kiddie Kandids Pics

Am I the only mother who has bad experiences getting professional pictures taken? I swear, I must just have bad luck. These pictures turned out pretty dang good considering the kind of day we had. It was a very busy day at Kiddie Kandids in Provo. The lady in front of me had 4 little girls who would not cooperate and she left the studio bawling without buying any pictures. So I guess my experience could have been worse! I just looked at the lady next to me and said, "That's why you don't have 4 kids." and she full heartily agreed with her 2 little kids next to her! I am so bad! Back to the day...Kev was on day 8 of STILL hunting for his elk (he finally got the one he has been waiting for tonight, a post will be coming on that.) So I decided to take the kids to Provo to do pictures to pass the day away. We always have to get pictures in their Halloween costumes and I am very proud of myself that we have the costumes and pictures are done way before the end of September! Troy wanted to be a bat and I looked all over online to find a "cute" bat....and finally found one on Old Navy. This will probably be the last year I can get away with matching Halloween costumes :( I love dressing up my pretend twins :)

The not-so-highlights of the day included:

-chewing out the Kiddie Kandids girl for deleting my favorite picture of Colt without asking me. Agh, I am still ticked! He is just NOT photogenic (unlike his brother) so I was completely bummed I lost the adorable pic of Colt with his blankie :(

-chasing the kids ALL over the studio since their playroom was EMPTY! They were tired of the toys getting stolen so they emptied the thing out. Seriously? In a child photography studio there was NO PLAY AREA?! What dummies!

-locking my keys in the car and the police havinh to come save me (first time EVER doing this!)

-having to pull over on the freeway TWICE for Troy having to go pottie. When he has to go, he HAS TO GO I have learned!

All in all, it was a good day with some good pics. The prints I got are a lot better than these...since they did all the retouching, cropping & coloring. Oh, and I did apologize to the poor photographer for yelling at her after I was happy with how they turned out overall.

Enjoy the pics!