My New Work Blog

Just thought you might want to know....part of my work description for DCWV is maintaining a design blog with their different products. It has been a lot of fun so far making all of the projects. I would love it if you would go to the blog and click on "Follow" under "Our Fans" tab. Bookmark the blog and you can see everything that I am working on for work. By becoming a follower you become eligible for the free giveaways as well!! Thanks!

www.dcwvinc.blogspot.com

Grace

Most of you know that I am a huge Philosophy fan. One of the things that I love is how they write little inspirational thoughts on the outside of the bottles of their product. This is one of the bottles in my collection that I look at every morning in the shower...because what else is there to do while you wait for your 3 minute conditioner? I have read this quote everyday for the last 2 months. And I just love it.

It reads: "How you climb up the mountain is just as important as how you get down the mountain. and, so it is with life, which for many of us becomes one big gigantic test followed by one big gigantic lesson. in the end, it all comes down to one word. grace. it's how you accept winning and losing, good luck and bad luck, the darkness and the light."

I have had a hard time these last few months mourning the loss of a best friend. I have learned that friends sometime go different directions and that is just a part of life. I sincerely hope that the pain and hurt that I feel from the way I have been treated is released someday. Because it is a burden and I don't want it weighting me down. But until time passes and hard feeling die down, it will just take all of the strength that I have to try and act with grace. Which is what I know I need to do.

Hello 2010!!!

It's a new year and a new start! Funny how we think we have to wait until a date to make changes in our life. But it works so I guess that's good :) Before I share some of my goals for the year, let's recap a few of my highlights of 2009:

Getting our pug, Jack, back.

Kevin going back to school.

My parents moving to Utah.

Finally getting my Annie Madsen, even though she's my niece :)

Getting my first Mac.

Learning how to make perfect rolls.

Singing in the ward choir with my sweet friend, Amberly.

Eating at The Melting Pot after years and years of anticipation.

A new calling in Primary which I absolutely adore.

Losing 15 pounds without giving up my Diet Coke.

New Moon girls weekend with my girlfriends.

Weekend in Vidor to say goodbye to my PawPaw.

Attending my first CF Fundraiser which has opened my eyes to work that needs to be done.

Learning how to digital scrapbook with Photoshop CS4

I'm sure there are more since I have been so blessed this year. I have a husband that I hold on a pedestal, mischievous yet perfect boys, a loyal family and friends which the word "friend" doesn't do justice. I am blessed. I am happy.

On my to do list for the year:

Read "Jesus The Christ" on my new Kindle :)

Get out of debt and pay cash for everything. (all of my CC's are in the freezer and all but 1 are paid off)

Complete Project Life as my gift to my children and grandchildren.

Go to "The Lion King" Broadway show in SLC. (anyone want to go with me in Aug. so I don't have to drag Kev?)

Lose 5 more pounds

I don't want to commit to too much so I don't set myself up for failure. But I know I can do this and that my life will be happier as I complete each one of my goals. I have so many people around me that I love and I wish each one of you a Happy New Year! May this be the year that you make yourself into the person you have always wanted to be!!!

A Big Day in the Madsen Kitchen

I consider myself to be a pretty good cook. I love to try new recipes and am always looking for new things to feed my family. You would think that a good cook could bake a simple batch of rolls, right? Well I sure did. But for 7 years, I have struggled with dozens and dozens and DOZENS of roll recipes, never finding the perfect one. Most were too yeasty. Some would never rise. I tried people's "No Fail" recipes, and guess what. I would fail!!! So imagine the day in my kitchen when I finally mastered a homemade batch of rolls! It was a huge deal! (Don't worry, I made a batch the following day to make sure it wasn't a fluke that I made yummy rolls!) I found the recipe on allrecipes.com (fav) and I love how the recipe uses your bread machine to do the dough. I have a cheap old Sunbeam breadmaker from Walmart and it works perfectly on the "Dough" setting. So....I challenge all of my girls who think they can't make a.ma.zing rolls. If you don't have a bread machine, simple let rise, punch down, let rise and shape, rise. Like a typical bread recipe. Good luck! I hope your results are as delicious as mine!!!

A.ma.zing Rolls

1/2 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)

1/2 cup warm milk

1 egg

1/3 cup butter, softened

1/3 cup white sugar

1 teaspoon salt

3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast

1/4 cup butter, softened

Directions

1. Place water, milk, egg, 1/3 cup butter, sugar, salt, flour and yeast in the pan of the bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Select Dough/Knead and First Rise Cycle; press Start.

2. When cycle finishes, turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Divide dough in half. Roll each half into a 12 inch circle, spread 1/4 cup softened butter over entire round. Cut each circle into 8 wedges. Roll wedges starting at wide end; roll gently but tightly. Place point side down on ungreased cookie sheet. Cover with clean kitchen towel and put in a warm place, let rise 1 hour. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).

Bake in preheated oven for 10 to 15 minutes, until golden.

Merry Christmas from the Madsens!

I just mailed out all 75 of my Christmas cards this year. What a relief. Instead of including a Chrismtas letter, I noted our blog address so everyone I love can keep up with us all through the year! So here is my Christmas letter for 2009!

Kevin: has had a busy, busy year full of fun and not so fun things! Starting with the fun....he played in his recreation softball team this summer and has continued this winter with the basketball team. He gets to play with 2 of his brothers so he has a lot of fun. He has been hunting A TON this year and is grateful there are no babies in our home which allows him to play and hunt a lot more than he has in the past! His pride and joy, the Elk, is on our living room wall. That's all to say about that since I had absolutely no say in the decision. :) He went back to school this fall and got all A's! Only a few more semester to finally have his bachelors degree in Business Finance. Kev is a primary teacher now which is a welcome change from the 4 years in Young Mens. And we are VERY grateful that after the many layoffs in the bank, he still has a job. Even if it is no fun being a banker right now, we get 2 paychecks a month and for that, we are very lucky.

Erin: has continued with her many, many jobs which include mommy, wifey, scrapbook designer, housekeeper, chauffeur and referee to name a few. She works 25-30 hours a week for DCWV and is very blessed to have a job she loves, the chance to travel a handful of times throughout the year, the ability to work from home the rest of the time all while being able to help support the family. She loves teaching the 5 year olds (including Troy) in Primary and singing in the Ward Choir. She loves having her Mommy and Daddy in Utah now and is always finding excuses to need to go and stay for the weekends. When she is not working or "mothering", you will find her crafting of some sort, with her amazing circle of girlfriends, texting, watching the endless DVR playlist or on her beloved MacBook Pro shopping or"facebooking".

Troy (5): has mastered Preschool after his 3rd year. He loves to read to his little brother and sound out words. He is always playing with his friends and is so lucky to have darling little kids his age in the neighborhood. Troy likes being the boss and loves to be independent. His mommy will often climb out of bed to find apple juice and cereal poured and 2 little boys eating breakfast. He loves doing things by himself. He loves going to the movie theatre and having "movie night" on Friday nights with the neighbors. He is a happy, healthy, social kiddo!

Colt (almost 3): does not want to be called "Colty" anymore because he "is big now." Sad. The baby is growing up! Colt basically likes to do anything that Troy likes to do. "Monkey see, Monkey do" is quoted throughout the day. Everything has to be equal and the same between the two brothers. Colt loves to watch "Caillou" and "Blues Clues". He loves to read books and sing songs. He loves going to nursery and playing with Jack. We say that Jack is Colt's dog because they just seem to have a bond. He would rather be next to me in the office or kitchen than playing with his brother. He just likes to see what's going on and being a part of everything. He is such a sweet little boy.

Never Say Never!!!

Well everyone knows that I have been a huge scrapbooker for the past 13 years since I was 15 years old. I love touching paper and pictures in my hand. I love going to the store and buying fun supplies. I am so blessed to be able to scrapbook for my job for the last 6 years. Everyone has always asked if I would ever get into digital scrapbooking and my answer had alwasy been "No way." Well never say never! The last 6 weeks I have been in an intense online training class learning Photoshop CS4 which is a complicated, mind turning program that is the most professional editing system on the market. (If you are interested, a great alternative in complexity and price is Photoshop Elements 8) I have learned sooooo many cool things and am shocked at how much I really enjoy digital scrapbooking. There is nothing cooler than laying in bed, watching reality TV, and scrapbooking on your laptop. I thought I would miss "touching" my supplies and having them in my hand. Nope. I feel completely creative and inspired simply by looking at files on my hard drive. I feel like I can express more of my personality in a digital page because I have so much more to work with besides paper, ribbon and brads. The possibilities are simply endless. And come on, I LOVE not having a mess to clean up when I am done with my project! I can't say that I will clean out my scrap room anytime soon because there will always be a use and love for that in my life but for now, I'm going digital! Here are some of my layouts at I completed in my training that I thought I would share!

A Crazy Madsen Halloween

We had a great Halloween, as always! Halloween is my favorite holiday with the Madsen's because we go all out! It's so fun to get everyone all dressed up and have dinner, games and lots of laughs. Here is the costume lineup:

Kelby & Tracy- Ninja & Tooth Fairy

Grandma & Grandpa Mower- Never figured out what they were :)

Paul, Renee & Amberie- Joker, and 70's couple (I was so impressed that Paul did his costume all by himself! He was so freaky!)

Brett, Jenna & Maddox- Mermaid, Football player & turtle

And we were a Greek God & Goddess with our little skeletons :)

Before the party, we went trick or treating in our neighborhood. It's always a blast and it is so fun to see all of your friends all dressed up. We have the perfect neighborhood for Halloween!

Colt & his BFF, Tyler Norris. How lucky to be best friends with your next door neighbor?!

Troy-Boy

The neighbors who went around the neighborhood together.

Troy's Pumpkin Patche

Earlier in the spring, I decided to plant some pumpkins and gourds on the side of our house. And since I had never done this before, I planted to packs of seeds thinking we'd get a few pumpkins. Well, the patch took over the side of the yard and needless to say, we had plenty of pumpkins! Troy kept begging all summer to do a lemonade stand (which I didn't want to bother doing) so I told him all summer he could have a pumpkin stand. The day was finally here and we had a successful sale! Troy made $60 which went in his savings account. He was so excited!

Love his handwriting, his envelope to hold his millions

And since I was in charge, everything had to be labeled and organized :)

Neighbor kids wanting to help...Troy told him from the start that he was not paying them to help him! LOL!

September Catch-Up

I don't know where the month of September went! I have been so busy I don't think I have had time to catch up with any of my "fun" stuff, including my blog. Here is what we have been up to.

I have 2 boys in school! And one of them is my Big Boy :) Kevin has 8 classes left to get his Bachelors degree in Business Management and we have always put it off for one reason or another. We finally decided to put it a priority and he is in night school. It's been an easy transition since the little boys are old enough not to drive me TOO crazy by myself two nights a week. I am so proud of Kev for doing something for himself and finishing a goal that he has had for a looong time. He is doing the Utah State University extension here in Ephraim which he does all of his classes by satellite. Troy is in preschool for a THIRD year (love those summer birthdays) and Colt just wants to wear his backpack everywhere he goes :)

Troy is my big 5 year old! We decided to hold him back a year since so he will be the oldest in his class. It was a hard decision since now almost all of his friends are in school and he's at home. But we are trying to make lots of new friends with the boys that he will be in school with by having lots of play dates. His favorite time of the day is by far 3pm when the neighbors all get home from school. We have 10 kids between the 3 houses at the end of our culda-sac. They all have a blast together. Of course, Colt had to be in the pics too.

We are loving my parents being here even more after the big remodel is done. It was a crappy summer having workers there allllll the time but it was worth it. All that is left is painting/carpeting my parents bedroom but Mom hasn't decided what to do yet so it's on hold. The house looks amazing and I am so glad it's done before all of the holidays! Colt loves helping Cookie cook in her new kitchen. My mom is so patient with the boys, its so fun seeing the three of them get so close now that they are here. Here they are making a fresh peach cobbler.

Last but not least, we have had a fun soccer season. Actually I hate soccer with a passion and couldn't help but giggle when Troy said he didn't like soccer and I had to drag him to his games. We are a baseball/football family and the only reason I put him in soccer was to get him running and getting some exercise. We had a cute team but I am happy to say there will be no more soccer for Troy :) Bring on the coach-pitch baseball next spring!

Must Try Recipe!

I don't know about you but I am ALWAYS trying new recipes...looking for that ONE that can be written in pen in my favorite recipes book. Well, I have found one. And those who I have already shared the recipe with feel the same! "It's a keeper" as we say in our house...opposed to "It's a chucker". This pasta dish has an amazing flavor, the marinade is the key ingredient...you have to try it!!! Let me know what you think!

GARLIC CHICKEN FARFALLE

16 oz. Farfalle (bowtie) pasta

1 c. half and half

3-4 chicken breasts (boneless, skinless)

2 to 3 cloves garlic, crushed

2 teaspoons pepper

1/2 c. butter

1 lb. bacon, crumbled**

1/2 c. shredded Parmesan cheese

1 (12 oz) Lawrys Baja Chipotle with lime juice marinade.

**I like to cook bacon in the oven (400 degrees). Way less messy. And it's crispy every time. Time varies, so you just have to watch it. I think it's usually around 23-27 minutes. Allow to cool and then crumble.

[ directions ]

Crock pot chicken and 1/2 bottle of marinade on low for 6 hours. Pull marinated chicken out of the juices, allow to cool a little bit, and shred (I pull it apart). Set this aside. About a half-hour before serving, boil the pasta. In a small saucepan, melt butter, add garlic, half & half, pepper, and parmesan cheese. Whisk together on low heat for 3-4 minutes. In a large bowl, pour over cooked, drained pasta, add chicken & bacon and stir through. Sprinkle a little bit more shredded parmesan cheese on top.

Life is a....

Well yours may not be, but I definitely feel like mine is one right now. The last month has been in itself, a lot of ups and downs for me. For a lot of reasons, reasons I am not going to get into, I just never know what is going to hit me next. Don't get me wrong, I am SO BLESSED and the trials that I have right now are still very minor compared to what other people are going through right now. I just sometimes wonder when life can be "normal" again for me and especially for my friend, Amberly, who is having some health concerns. Can't we go back to the beginning of the summer when all we were worried about was which day to go to the pool and planning play dates and library story hour? Why do we have to deal with "real life adult problems". We are too young for this crap. I am too young to have "bumps" in my marriage and she is too young to have scary, scary health problems. All I know is that my faith will get me through anything life gives me. Thats all I can hang on to. And I feel much better when I am taking care of those around me. So everyone, when I demand to take your kids or to bring you dinner for some reason, just let me. It's more for me than it is for you. I love all ya'll :)

Addicted to.....

Fabric Flower Broaches.....can't you tell? (see below)

Another reason why I don't need anymore kids...can you imagine this girl with her own girl???? Ahhh, my hubby would be robbing banks probably :) Can't wait to wear these on my jackets this fall, my JCrew Jackie O Sweaters & maybe even on my hats :) We'll see how adventurous I get :)

Going to add a clip also to the backs. I cut the flowers with my Sizzix Big Shot (favorite crafting tool ever simple because of all of the materials it will cut.) Love them!

Cousins Camp

It is so much fun having my Mommy and Daddy living so close! I just can't believe it still! My mom has been planning on doing "Cousins Camp" when the grandkids turned 5 for as long as I can remember. This was our first year and she did it with my Aunt Barbara and my cousin Emily's 2 boys, Hayden and Tyson. These 3 boys are just best little buddies. I love it. The 2 brave grandmas headed up to Oakley, UT to my aunts cabin for 3 days of Bug fun :) Bugs were the theme this year and they had a blast as you can tell with all of the crafts. The grandmas went above and beyond. Their highlight was heading to Park City for a day (since they forgot the fishing poles) and doing the Alpine Slide and the grandmas both did the zip line down the mountain. How cool are these grandmas?? :) Love you, Cookie!

Happy 5th Birthday, Troy!

Guess who wanted a Halloween dress up Birthday party in August? You guessed it. My child :) We had a fun birthday party with 10 of his best friends. We have to limit the number these days cause the kid just has WAY too many friends, never a bad thing except when it comes to birthday party invitations. I can't believe I have been a mommy for 5 years, some days it feels like 50! But I wouldn't trade my little skeletons for anything. Happy Birthday, Troy Boy!

The Creepy Crew

Oh why oh why, face in the cake....

The Butterfly Project

I love when we can use our crafting skills towards a good cause. The Butterfly Project is a cause that brings tears to my eyes. The Holocaust Museum of Houston is collecting 1.5 million handmade butterflies to represent each of the 1,500,000 innocent children who were killed during the Holocaust. I think the display will be a beautiful & powerful tribute to those little ones who never had a chance to grow up. If you are interested in contributing to this display, please note the butterflies:

- should not be larger than 8x10

- should be 2D in any medium (fun foam, cardstock, etc)

- should not have glitter (you know how messy that is!)

- should not have food products (cereal, marshmallows, candy, etc)

Please contact me if you have made some butterflies & would like to send them with mine. I will be mailing a box on September 16th. This could be a great project for you & your kids on a rainy day this summer.If you want to learn more about the Holocaust Museum, check out http://www.hmh.org/. There is a beautiful poem on the website called The Butterfly written by Pavel Friedman who died in Aushchwitz in 1944.

For detailed submission instructions see: http://www.hmh.org/minisite/butterfly/index.html

Lucky Girl

I am heading into my busy, crazy time of year for work! I have 3 trips in the next 3 months for DCWV. Next week I will be heading to Orlando for 6 days:

Mid August I will be in Scottsdale, AZ for 4 days by MYSELF!!!!

And in September I make my annual 4 day trip to Mall of America in Minneapolis, MN:

I feel so blessed to have a job that I love and even more blessed to have a job that lets us travel in style. Always the best restaurants and hotels, and they always pick up the massive bill. And a big "thank you" in advance to my wonderful parents and friends who are helping me with the boys. Man, I am a LUCKY GIRL!!!

My Little Cowboys

If you ask Troy what he did at the Rodeo, this is his response..."I rode a sheep, I got a trophy, I caught a pig." and he says it in the most monotone voice ever! If only every rodeo were this eventful for the Madsen family! We went to the Mt. Pleasant Rodeo on July 3rd and had a blast. Troy participated in the Muttin' Bustin' and held on tight to his sheep! We were all impressed at how long he held on. He got "4th Place" and got a trophy. (A family friend had it made for him. Troy was impressed that it had "Troy Boy engraved in it") Then at the last minute my mom paid to have him do the Greased Pig Race. It was so funny to see all of these little kids chase a tiny pig! Troy jumped on it a couple times before actually catching him. It was so exciting! I am hoping that Troy is Kev's little sports boy and that Colt will maybe be my little cowboy. We will see!

Cowboy Troy

Cowboy Colt

A perfect night for a rodeo

Checking out the competition

High fiving Daddy

Running after the greased pig

Caught it

Now what?

My cute boys

Cousin Caden Willardson

The rodeo clown flirting with Stacey...I have never laughed so hard in my life. She was so embarrassed it was hilarious!