Happy 5th Birthday Maddy

Miss Madison turned 5! She was so excited, she had been counting down the days since she got a calender for Christmas. Trever taught her about birthday weeks, which meant a really long week of "but it's my birthday week" response to everything she was told to do. We had a great birthday party for her. Before I know it, I will be posting about her turning 6.

Decorating cookies.. not much else to do in February

Aunt Malinda makes the cutest cakes!

Party at school

Then on her actual birthday at school, they had a little birthday party for her. I was the helper mom for the day, I go about once a month its alot of fun. After presents from mom and dad, we went to cold stone for Ice Cream. Great end to a great birthday

Disneyland

We had a magical trip to Disneyland, it was so nice to get away and have a family vacation. We told Maddy 9 months ago we could to go Disneyland, so she had built this trip up for 9 long months. And it was everything we hoped for.

Friday- Trever was coming off a graveyard, the plan was to have me drive to Vegas.. That was the plan. We decided to rent a car, after a bit of a hassle with Enterprise we ended up with a Mazda 5 from Hertz. Worked out great, but put us about an hour behind. Trever ended up driving all the way to Vegas, and never slept the rest of the day… crazy boy. We stayed at Circus Circus, filthy place but perfect with the kids. Maddy had a grand time. The rides were very slow; she never had to wait in a line. Trever and I managed to not gamble even one dollar, such restraint we have.

Saturday- We started at the M&M store, wow that place is crazy. Who knew they made enough M&M stuff to fill 4 floors. We told Maddy she could pick one thing; she walked away with a package of regular M&M’s. At least she kept it cheap! Then we were going to head to Hoover dam since I have never been, Maddy and I take a helicopter ride. But it was raining way hard so we decided to go on the way home. The drive to Anaheim was pretty scary, so much rain. We saw 3 people that had hydroplaned off the road. After a 2 hour adventure through Barstow, we finally made it to our hotel. After checking in, we headed to the grocery store. Somewhere along this path I lost my wallet. Not fun to lose your debit card, credit card, ID and all your cash 2 days into your 10 day trip. And on a Saturday night, the bank would not be open for 2 more days! Luckily it all worked out.


Sunday- Our first day in Disneyland, we all had so much fun. There were really no lines, and the few times there was the parent swap and single rider sure came in handy. Maddy’s favorite ride so far-space mountain. She rode it 8 times by the time we went home.




Monday- We really should have done some more research before taking this adventure, but live and learn. We drove to LA, around Beverly Hills and into Hollywood. Hollywood is a filthy place; we didn’t stay long as I was frightened for my children. They had many characters following them around to get pictures taken for tips. We did go into Madame Tussauds wax museum, pretty cool. They look so real. Maddy made a wax hand of U (for Utes, she became a very dedicated fan on this trip, she would only go on red cars on the rids, only sit on red chairs and when we saw people in BYU clothes she would start yelling “GO UTES” to them), and Kennedy peed on Trever.

We then headed to Huntington Beach, which was a lot of fun. The weather was perfect. Kennedy was a little weary of the waves at first, but by the end of the day both girls were running in and out of the waves. I wish we could have spent several days at the beach.




Tuesday- 2cd day in Disneyland. We used our early morning so we got a lot of rides in quickly. It started raining by mid-afternoon so we got to ride a roller coaster 4 times right in a row. Even with rain jackets on we were soaked! The rain slowed so we went over to California Adventures for the first time, we rode Soaring first. What a neat ride, by the time Trever and I had both taken our turn riding it (lucky Maddy got to ride everything twice with only standing in line once) it was raining VERY hard so we headed back to the room. We played games with the girls in the room, and enjoyed our family time.
Maddy’s favorite ride today- Train roller coaster

While Maddy and I were riding Soaring it was getting pretty wet outside


Wednesday- This was our early toon town day, it was nice to get to spend some time with all the characters. Mickey doing his town meeting was very cute, and I love all of their houses. Since we really didn’t get to spend much time in California Adventure we spent the rest of the day there. Bugs life show was neat, the best part was at the end when the bugs go crawling under your butt.. Maddy flies off the bench and starts starring at the bench with the most bewildered look on her face. Trever and I could not stop laughing.

Maddy’s favorite ride today- She flipped from it being Hotel and Mulholland Madness(it will always be wild mouse to me)




Maddy’s favorite ride today- She flipped from it being Hotel and Mulholland Madness(it will always be wild mouse to me)
Thursday- We had planned on going to Lego land this day, but changed our minds. Since we had been on most the rides we spent the day going on all our favorites and said goodbye to Disneyland.

3rd time on this place house swing ride

After riding Space Mountain so many times, I think Trever was getting a little friendly with the camera.
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Disneyland is an exhausting place!

Friday- We drove into San Diego and went to Sea World. Very fascinating place, I wish I had several days to wonder around. Unfortunately the girls were not as interested. The Shamu show, touching/feeding the dolphins, and the play land were about all they liked.

As we headed to our hotel both girls feel asleep. Trever and I had wanted to eat at a fish house so we went to King fish house. It was perfect timing, both girls slept through the whole dinner and Trever and I got to enjoy a nice “Valentines day” dinner. Tall beer, lots of King crab legs(Trever got some fish jambalaya dish), sleeping children made for a great dinner with my hubby. We later went swimming at our hotel, even though the 65 degrees feels nice still a little cold to swim outside at night. We lasted about an hour before we were all froze, (the conspiracy theory guy I was stuck talking to didn’t help either) and ready for bed. We did get to watch the opening ceremonies for the Olympics.

Maddy took this picture on our way to Sea World. We stopped at San Clemente Beach.

Kennedy would get really worried when the dolphins would leave. They both got to touch a few dolphins.




Saturday- We drove to the Hoover Dam, we were going to take Maddy on a helicopter ride but by the time we got their reservations were full. Maddy and I walked along the Hoover Dam, she told me she wanted to slide down it but then decided it wasn’t a good idea because she wouldn’t have a way back up. She cracks me up. We had decided to stay in Downtown Vegas to show the girls the ceiling screen. That probably wasn’t the best idea, not the best place for kids. Trever and I don’t mind it when we go, but not so much with the kiddos. We were in bed by 9pm… IN VEGAS. And no gambling. We are going to Wendover next week to get our gambling fix. We were so ready to be home we woke up at 4am and drove home.

We had a really great time together. And the best part, Kennedy started talking. Actually putting several words together, it’s about dang time. Still hard to understand her, but at least she’s trying.

Not up to much

Maddy thought it would be nice to take a picture of Kennedy upset about nap time, what a good sister. We had been playing "summer", that's how boring things have been.
Its been a pretty boring January. I'm never a fan of January and February, one of the reasons I wanted to book our trip in February. The longest two months of the year, and they seem to last forever! Its even harder when you go to the store and they have all the swimming suits out, really we are at least 4-5 months from swimming!!

Trever has been on a run of graveyard shifts, I let the girls have sleepovers in my bed sometimes on weekends when hes on graves

Making daddy a pineapple pudding layered cake. Ok maybe I thought it sounded good. But I did buy Maddy a kids cookbook and we make something out of it almost daily. The other day was apple with peanut butter in the middle, pretty yummy. Yesterday Maddy made daddy "lucky party punch" she was so excited. Basically it was just a soda float, but she had alot of fun making it for him.

Last year during preschool I never really knew what to do with all Maddy's projects, I mean they really pile up. This year Mrs. Sweet gave us parents the idea of taking a monthly picture of everything and then only keeping the really important projects. What a great idea, so I have a folder I put her stuff in every day, then at the end of every month I take a picture of it all. When shes not home (because she throws NOTHING away), I toss most of it. Then at the end of the year I will make a folder with all the special projects I kept, and pictures of each month. Brilliant if you ask me

Who Me??

Today Ned was left alone for a few minutes and this was the result? The funniest part about it is when I said who did this and she tilts her head and shrugs her head with that look of " who me". Then she ran into Maddy's room to try and hide

Our new favorite family activity..... Mario Brothers on Wii. Its so much fun, Maddy loves watching us play and is so good at the mushroom match game. Even Ned enjoys sitting on my lap and watching. We beat the game, but now have to go back to get all the coins. Good Winter activity.

Bring on 2010

2009 was a great year, but I'm ready for 2010 and hoping it will be a great year. We brought in the new year with Kristin and Shawn and all the kiddos (including Tasha and Kylie). We all (even Shawn) danced all night, listened to great music and watched the countdown yelling 3 2 1! HAPPY NEW YEAR. Then it was straight to bed, Trever had to be up in 4 short hours to go to work. Maddy was having an emotional night, so she opted to go to bed before midnight.
Im hoping in 2010
* lose some weight.. don't I say this every year?? Maybe this will be the actual year it happens
*have a weekly meal plan done ahead of time. I have already started this and its going well. Its so much easier to know what will be for dinner, and have all the ingredients ready to go.
*Exercise at least 3-5 times a week. I did buy the elliptical so I will put it to use. Not only will this help with goal #1 but just help to be healthier.
*help Maddy with her chore chart. Shes really good about doing the chores, its me who slacks on keeping track
*read with Maddy 20 minutes EVERY night. I do this often, but we seem to be slipping away. She is reading so well, I need to keep working with her, specially while she still really enjoys learning. She wrote me a note at church on Xmas eve that said "mom I love you veri much Maddy" and didn't even ask how to spell anything. So cute

That's a good list for now, right?!?

Christmas 2009

WAKE UP SISTER!!!!
Christmas was everything we hoped for! I tried to keep the girls presents to a limit, and failed miserably, but they had so much fun opening them all. My mom, Barb, BJ, Ty and Sara, Indiana Bones came over for Christmas morning. When we went to wake Maddy up, being the happy morning person she is... yelled at us for being in there and didn't really care that Santa had come for the moment. Once we got her out of bed, she was way excited. Trever told her "all" her grandparents were there, and in a haze of sleepiness she said very sternly "NO dad not all my grandparents are here, Grandpa Ed is my Grandpa and he is not here". It was a sad moment, but nice to know she still thinks about him. Then the chaos began, presents everywhere! So many great presents, happiness and memories. I truly am thankful for my family, holidays really make me remember how great you all are. Maddy wanted to make Kenna a build a bear for a present, I let her do it all on her own. She put a message that was put in "Lilly's" hand that said " I love you Kennedy very much, I will take care of you every day, I love you Kennedy" I almost started crying when she made the message in build a bear.
Trever had to work tonight which really sucked. But hey I got caught up on this, so some good came out of it. Love my girls, Trev, friends, and my family.. today was great!
New Trike, it has blinkers that make the annoying noise normal ones do, a horn and even lights. Ned was thrilled with the trike.
Maddy was really excited about the scooter (and Hello kitty water cooler, gum ball machine, and shoes) Santa had left, shes just not a morning person. We had to talk her into getting out of bed at 7:15
Maddy made me this present all on her own and even wrapped it on her own. The wrapping was so cute, and the gift was a half colored hello kitty princess.
So many gifts to open
In daddy's pants
Everybody needs a 64 oz flask... right??
Stockings at my moms, Kenna is getting increasingly frustrated about something
The 3 of us at my moms
Grandma Mayne got Maddy a makeup kit, she loved it and played with it all afternoon. We all got our finger nails painted, including her.. she did her own :)

Christmas Parties

We had so many Christmas parties this year. Always staying busy. We started out with the Mortensen family party at the WV fitness center. It was a good time, same as always nothing much different. Maddy really liked her glow gift, as did mom and dad once we got playing with it :)
Maddy, Kenna, and Nya

The day I get them both looking at the camera will be a great day
Maddy's preschool had a performance, it was very cute. As they were getting ready the teacher started saying all eyes on me so we can start, and Maddy blurts out "Just start the music so we can sing" the crowd busted out laughing. Her teacher always tells me how much she loves Maddy and her cute personality.. I asked her after wards if she still thought she was cute... she still loves her! Wow could she be surrounded by more boys?? Back off!!

Awaiting Santa's arrival
Our friends the Silvers were kind enough to invite the kids to a Santa party they host. Its mostly all boys that Cody and Eric invite so Maddy had to adapt, she had a great time. Kennedy and Riley tortured all of them up to the time Santa arrived. All the kids were way excited. This was the second time Maddy has seen Santa, the first time at the mall she told him she wanted a "hello kitty gum ball machine" and this time she told him she wanted a jewelry box. Luckily I had both already, we had a happy girl on Christmas morning. This is when I realized Kennedy didn't want much to do with Santa. She would stand by him, but not sit on his lap. I think her little pig tails were in every bodies pictures because she wouldn't leave his side, but sitting on his lap was a NO.

We had our adult party at Mikes. I'm pretty sure not much needs to be said about the night, other then the electrical fire we had during our dance off. Nobody seemed to worried, we all just kept dancing.
I love this picute!
My moms family party was at my Uncle Phil s house. Santa and Mrs Claus visited this party. Maddy, Jack and Eli were very excited when they showed up, and really Kennedy was too. She just wasn't going to sit on his lap. Again, I think her head was in everybody else's picture.
cute family pic
Really?? Nobody could look at the camera? My mom with all her grand kids-Dylan@5 weeks old