Vegas and New York City

**Over Thanksgiving weekend we went down to Vegas with Nick's family. Here is us at a big buffet on Thanksgiving Day! Yummy!

Flowers in November!

The giant aquarium at Cesar's Palace. Maddie loved looking at the fish!

It actually got pretty cold there. Someone said it was the coldest Thanksgiving they'd had in like 5 years! So we had to bundle Madison up!

Her 2nd time hanging out with Uncle Paddy!

Our late night Taco Bell run!! :)

The red rocks just a few minutes from my in-laws new condo...

**Nick went to New York City for the Veteran's Day Parade for work a few weeks ago. It was Nick's first time there and he managed to squeeze in some site seeing, Jazz vs Knicks game, and broadway play in between working. Here are some pictures from his trip...

The bands getting ready for the parade

Of course he had to take these 2 pictures for you know who!! :)

**And as always I need to throw in some random pictures of my favorite girl in the world!!! :)

Maddie's first time trying rice cereal. Mmmm!

This is her new thing... she only sucks on her two middle fingers for some reason. I've never seen another baby do that. It's so funny! (She even had to do it between spoonfuls of rice cereal- with spoon in hand and all!) So cute!

What a happy, smiley little girl we have!

On her tippy-toes! Maybe she will be a ballerina! :)

Dancin!

I love these little Chuck Taylors that her Auntie Deeds gave her! Babies are so cute in shoes, even though they're impossible to put on and keep on!!! :)

Bubbles!

He's home!

My brother returned home 2 weeks ago after serving a mission in Vina del Mar, Chile. It's so nice to finally have the whole family together again after 3 long years! (Except for the fact that all 4 of the boys now speak Spanish so they joke around a lot and can tell secrets in Spanish and the rest of us don't know what they're talking about!!) :)

Elder Tondevold's first time meeting his niece!

Waiting around at the airport and taking some pictures...

October festivities

Some pictures of what we've done this month....

HAPPY HALLOWEEN everyone!!!

(Madison sitting up by herself at 4 months!!!!)

*First time playing in the leaves! She didn't know what to think at first but when she moved around and heard the crunching noise she got all excited!

A beautiful autumn day!

Wondering what all this stuff is...??

*Maddie's first snowfall!! She didn't know what to think about that either... she just stared mezmorized. It was pretty cute!

*This year's Black-out game against Wyoming (we won by the way...) Go Utes!!

*My 25th birthday party!!

Nick took me out in the day then we had both our families over for that night for a little dinner, dessert and pumpkin carving. It was a fun day! Thanks babe! :)

Nick made these cool Halloween cupcakes

Nick carved a pirate pumpkin (thus the face)

The whole gang (minus 2 boys)

*Halloween party at our friend's Kyle & Whitney's

Maddie was a lion and we were the safari people (No I am not a gardener :) )


Our friends Jenny & Jesse

Me, Whitney and the babies...

Maddie and Ezra holding hands... so cute! :)

*Some pictures from my nephew's baby blessing a few weeks ago...

What a little doll!

She loves her daddy!

She tries to grab everything in site now!

*Nick and the boys went down to St. George for the weekend for a little end of the season golf and wakeboarding

Sand Hollow

While the boys were out of town we had our own little girls weekend at my parents house!

Out for lunch with the girls (and the two little boys tagged along :) )

*Just some random cute pictures of Madison the last few weeks...

Classic! :)

First time sitting up unsupported (4 months old)

First time in her jumper!

I just can't get enough of those gorgeous blue eyes!

Giggles

Goodbye summer! :(

With Nick and I both graduated now, there wasn't an official "end" to our summer this year with school starting back up. But when it snowed here in the valley last week, I thought, ok I guess this means our warm weather is officially gone and the cold is here to stay! It was a little bit depressing. I hate winter because I hate being cold! We didn't go on the usual vacation (or 2 or 3 or 4!) this summer with the new baby and all, but we still did a lot and had a lot of fun! Here are some pictures of a few other things we did this summer that I haven't posted yet...

*We went on a lot of hikes (with Nick carrying the baby every time! Thanks babe!) :)

This one is us at the top of Donut Falls (sorry, a little dark to see)

Saw another moose... 4th one in a week!

(in case you can't tell, it's the moose's eyes glowing in the dark!)

The little trooper

Keepin it gangsta! (Her beanie kept falling down)

*We hiked up to Mary's Lake with our friends Kyle, Whitney and baby Ezra, and had a picnic lunch at the top with our Subways.

*Maddie had fun hangin out with the cousins!

Nathan and Madison are about 5 weeks apart.

*I finally convinced Nick (or bribed him, I can't remember!! :) ) to come rollerblading with me! He agreed, but only in the parkway where we couldn't be seen! Ha Ha It was fun and it's something outdoorsy we could do with Madison in the stroller so I figured why not?! I know he loved it, don't let him tell you otherwise! :) Here is us just being dorks!...

See Nick, rollerblading totally beats longboarding!! :) Hehe

*I was so excited when I found this little outfit off of my sister's Hawaiin Build-A-Bear to dress Madison in for the ward luau! She looked so cute!

Aloha!!

*Nick is opposite of me when it comes to seasons. He loves it when the weather starts getting cooler because he says that means one thing... football season is here!! We got Utah season tickets for the 5th year in a row and have brought Madison to the first 2 games and took advantage while the weather was still nice. She did surprisingly well and wasn't bothered by all the loud cheering. She enjoyed looking around at everything and even slept through some of it. (How does that work??)

Utes youngest cheerleader!

I loved the face so much I had to do a close up!....Precious!

She got sick of cheering so she thought she'd just eat the pom pom instead! Much better! :)

(Notice the red football burp cloth that Maire made especially for game days!)

Tailgating party

Goodbye Summer... Hello Fall!

3 down, 10 to go

Last general conference Nick and I made a goal to go to all the temples in Utah in the next year and a half. We are trying to branch out of the usual Jordan River and have gone to the 2 newest ones, Draper and Oquirrh Mountain Temples, since. They are beautiful! We've gone to 3 or 4 of the other ones in Utah but not recently, so we've got a little over a year to get to the other 10! Might be a little tricky getting to the farther ones having a baby now, but we will definitely try! I feel so blessed to have so many temples nearby and am grateful to have the opportunity to go often. Looking forward to another session of conference this weekend. :)

3 months old

Madison turned 3 months last week! I can't believe how fast time is going and how big she is getting (about 13 lbs!) :) She is such a sweet girl. She loves being around people and is very social. She is always smiling and overall just a very happy and content baby! We love her to pieces! I thought I would do a post about her, what she likes and what she is doing now...

Like I said, she is very smiley and photogenic! :) (Though she might turn blind in a few years from constantly seeing a bright red flash in her face! HaHa)

Madison loves to sit up. It's so funny because even if you sit her up on the couch or in her carseat or something, she will still raise her neck up a few inches like she's trying to sit all the way up! She just wants to be a big girl and doesn't want anything behind her head helping her! That is why bumbos are so great! We just bought one about 2 weeks ago and I wish we woulda got it sooner because she does so good in it- she can sit straight up without anything behind her head so it's perfect for her!

Happy girl in her new bumbo!

Madison also loves to stand. She likes to pull up from laying to a standing and sitting position. She has really strong legs and has been able to bear weight on them since she was just a few weeks old! She can stand up by herself already if she is leaning or holding onto something or someone, it's crazy! When she is held up onto someone's shoulders she'll kick her legs until we put our hands or arms under her feet so she can stand on them! She just doesn't like them dangling, it's pretty funny! :)

At first Madison wasn't a big fan of tummy time. She used to not last longer than a few seconds without squirming and fussing, but she seems to like it now. She holds her head up 90 degrees and can raise up on her chest a little. She rolled over from her back to stomach when she was only 16 days old, followed by her stomach to back about a week later! She's hasn't rolled over too much lately but she definitely knows how.

She loves being read to everyday and gets very into books. She pays attention to all the pictures and squeals when she likes a page. :)

She loves to play and be entertained! She likes little finger puppets and loves to "fly!"

She loves to suck on her fingers... actually, her whole fist! She thinks she can fit both of them in her mouth for some reason and gags herself daily!! :) Poor thing!

She loves looking at herself in the mirror! She gets so excited and gets the biggest smile on her face when she sees herself! Guess she thinks she is a pretty darn cute baby! :) (You can't tell very well, but the picture on the right is of us looking into a mirror and her cracking up- that's why it's kind of blurry...)




















I had to add these pics because she is so cute when she sleeps! She loves to take naps with her daddy! She is a very good sleeper at night, but when it comes to daytime she is wide awake! Um what's a nap???!! We sure don't know! :) Guess she just doesn't want to miss out on anything!

And just some random cute ones! :)