The DeWaal Family

August

2012-01-09T20:03:00.000-08:00

Well I am getting a little more caught up.... now onto August!! :)

Here are some of the highlights of the month...

LAGOON!...The kids' first time. It's been years since Nick or I have been to Lagoon, but we got to go this summer for way cheap for E-bay's Lagoon Day. Madison LOVED all the rides and talked about it for weeks after and wants to go back.

Whale Ride

Mommy and Maddie gettin wet on the Oddysea

Flying Aces with Dad... I was surprised she liked this one :)

Puff the Dragon Rollercoaster with Papa

Jayden's 1st ride! We all went on the train ride to see the animals. Looks like Madison thinks this is a roller coaster or something! :) (My dad and sister came with us to Lagoon)

Me and Jen

Someone loves her "Pops"

Now this is the ride I am most nervous about and was most nervous letting a 2 year old on. I hate these sky coasters, especially when they stop abruptly and it swings you back and forth! Ahh, didn't feel comfortable at all having my little girl on this (and the giant ferris wheel! ugh), but it took us to the other end quickly so oh well. :)

Nick, my dad and Jenessa took Madison on the log ride. Didn't know if she would like this "big kid" ride either, but she actually did. She's one fearless toddler.
We had a lot of fun, even though it was a very hot summer day. Jayden did good for a 3 month old at a theme park all day.

We now have a NIECE!!...
Aleah Marie Hale was born on August 30th!

Madison's 1st real haircut!...She got it trimmed a little last summer but this was the first time we took her to a salon. She didn't know what to expect and I thought she'd be kind of nervous, but we took her to Cookie Cutters so now she thinks getting a haircut is as much fun as going to the playground! She got to choose which fun "car" chair to sit in. They had a little slide there, and then she got a sucker and balloon after. Why can't my hair appointments be that fun??

Birthday parties!... The summer always seems to be full of fun parties. Here we went to her friend Aspen's b-day party. Our friends finally moved back to Utah after being away at dental school for 4 years and it's good to have them back. They sure know how to throw a party cuz I think this was the coolest little birthday party I've been to!

The kids eating at their fun little table.

Madison had the exact same swimsuit on as the party girl! So cute! :)

The ice cream man came and every kid got an ice cream of their choice! How cool is that?! :)

Best surprise ever for a 2 year old!

Look at that sweet face!

CONCERTS!... We haven't gone to as many concerts lately as Nick wishes we could, but we had this one planned for awhile so it was one of my first night outs away from Jayden. We saw John Butler Trio at Kingsbury Hall, with Danielle, Jenessa, Erik, Paddy and Kenny. Fun concert... oh and we were front row... :)

They're so talented

The girls

The boys

Oakcrest Nativity... My mom has an area calling on the Oakcrest (girl's camp) Board. One of the nights they did a live nativity, and they needed someone with a newborn baby boy to play Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus. We didn't have to do any acting or anything, just had to sit in the stable they made as the campers all walked by and were singing Christmas songs. They had made "gifts" to give to baby Jesus in their groups so all the girls came up and put the gifts in front of "baby Jesus." Everyone was bawling. The spirit was so strong and it was such a special experience. So glad we got to be apart of it. :)

The leaders were dressed up as shepherds and angels and they even had real animals.

My mom was one of the angels :)

Shwimmin!...Our little girl is a fish! Loves the water. Here we are with Uncle Paddy at the Daybreak pool.

Cool dude in his shades!

Jayden takes after his sister and loves to suck his fingers. When he's tired or hungry he will grab a blanket or burp cloth, cuddle it to his face and suck his thumb. Precious :)

Birthdays!.... Went out to eat for Paddy's birthday... they made him sit on a saddle and sang Happy Birthday to him! haha Don't think he will be eating at Texas Roadhouse for his b-day again! :)

After taking a picture of Oupie with Jayden on his lap, Maddie said, "Mom, take a picture of me and minnie," and hurried and placed minnie on her lap just like Jayden. She is definitely not camera shy. :)

Random cute pictures...

Auntie Dani

Jayden 3 months old

This cracked me up... Jayden was doing tummy time and his big sister went and got all her "guys" (stuffed animals, dolls and toys) and put them on their tummy's by him too! hehe she lined them all up by herself... funny girl!

Jayden's 1st time in his bumbo! (2 and 1/2 months old)

Silly girl

Helpin Dad peel some corn on the cob

July Festivities

2011-12-12T12:33:00.000-08:00

Ahh it's almost 2012 and I still have a few 'summer' posts in my draft box that I started doing in October!! So before it really is a new year I better get these old posts out of the way. haha

So here are some of the fun activities we did in JULY!!.... (Sorry this is such old news!!)

4th of JULY and RIVERTON DAYS... We went to Riverton Days for our first time a few days before the 4th. It was really fun. They had long parade and carnival. Madison rode her first rides (besides the carousel at the mall).

Taylor and Shauna joined us

Maddie and I kept entertained while waiting for the parade to start by taking crazy pictures of ourselves!

Maddie's 1st real ride! She was all excited then when it went high up in the air and started going around she looked terrified. I was worried because the "seat belts" at the fair aren't exactly the safest, so i didn't know if she would try to get out. But we noticed she was saying something as she went around and around. Afterward we asked her if she liked it and what she was saying. She said she had fun and that she was singing "Zippidy Do dah!" haha (She watches a Disney sing-a-longs movie at Grandma's house and one of the songs is Zippidy Do dah, where all the characters are riding rollercoasters and different rides... so she sang this song on every ride she went on and apparently loved them all, even though she was totally straight faced so you couldn't tell haha)

I don't know why but the carousel is still her fav!

Jayden enjoying the carnival... :)

BOATING!.... We went boating twice this summer with my family. Jayden hung out at the beach and Maddie had fun splashing around in the water and watching people wake board. The first time that she saw someone fall she was so worried and confused. It took her a few times of seeing people fall to realize that it was ok, they weren't hurt and they weren't lost, we were turning the boat around to get them! :) She cheered us all on after that.

Taylor with his sweet jumps :)

Beautiful sunset that my sister captured on her camera...

BOWLING!... We went bowling for my brother Taylor's birthday, and also as a last family hang out before they moved to Arizona. Maddie has been once, over a year ago, so this was fun for her to actually be able to try it (basically just rolling the ball down the ramp...) :) and watch other people do it. Our family is so big we have to get 3 lanes! I am horrible but we have a good time.

Doin the 'strike' pose with Uncle Erik

So out of nowhere Maddie kept doing this pose all night with her hands on her hips...literally at least 10 different times! haha What a sassy little girl! :)

GIRL'S NIGHT!!.. Well it has been quite some time since all the girls got together so it was good to do a little something before Shauna moved. Here are all the sisters (my mom's takin the pic) eating ice cream at TCBY.

RAIL TRAIL BIKE RIDE...Nick's parent's ward does an annual bike ride every fall. I stayed home with the babe this time and Nick took Maddie again. It's like a 7 mile bike ride through the mountains then they end with a big feast at a pavilion.

HIKING....We didn't hike as much as we've done the last 2 summers, but we did manage to do a few small hikes up Bells Canyon and Cecret Lake. Here we are up at Bells Reservoir with our friends Kyle and Whitney. (We had someone stop us and ask if our 2 different babies were twins...) :)

ReAL GAME... Paddy took us to the ReAL Game... Jayden's 1st sporting event (6 weeks old) It was a little loud for him but he did pretty good.

BIRTHDAY PARTIES!... Both cousin's birthday parties were in July so we celebrated at their house.

Maddie loves her cousins!

Nathan's 2nd birthday

The kids love making home made snow cones and their resulting blue tongues!

Dave making giant bubbles

Soda Row... Hanging out with the Whippermans at an outdoor concert in Soda Row (Daybreak). The kids played in the water fountain, ate gelato, fed ducks, played on the playground and danced together to the music. What a life!

(Maddie and Ez dancin)

(Ez didn't have a swimsuit so he just ran around in his diaper!) :)

Goodbye summer

2011-10-04T13:22:00.000-07:00

Well I can't believe summer is already over, and fall is starting to set in. :( This summer seemed to fly by... probably because we had a baby at the beginning of summer, and of course that kept us pretty busy! But new baby and all, we have surprisingly still gone and done a ton this summer!

This is kind of old news but I better start at the beginning of summer, so here are some of June's festivities (me and the babe were still recovering at home, so these are mostly Maddie and Daddy events) :)

SUMMER FUN IN JUNE:

Madison went to the zoo for her 2nd time! Oumie & Deeds were nice enough to come and get Madison so I could have some down time at home to recover from my c-section, and only have to take care of one other body :) Very much needed! Uncle Erik also took Madison out- to Discover Gateway that she LOVES, but no pictures of that :)

She was not a fan of the gorilla... a fake forced smile here!

The Rec Center! We bought passes to the new Herriman Rec Center a few months ago. Madison loves to swim and go down the little waterslides so Daddy takes her there often

The lazy river

Bounce house & horse back riding!! We went to a neighborhood summer party up by Nick's parent's house. They had yummy desserts, face painting, a bounce house and even horse back riding for the kids! So fun! Bounce houses and trampolines = Maddie's new summer favorites! She LOVES to jump and go forever if we let her!

She held very still for her first face painting and got the little yellow flower she wanted

Madison loves animals, especially horses. She used to see them frequently because one of my patient's had some and she would usually come with me on visits. She got to pet them and feed them. I thought she'd be a little nervous to actually get on one though, but nope, she loved it! It was a big horse but it didn't even faze her. She got to ride all by herself around in a circle a few times.

More horses! Auntie Deeds was horse-sitting for a week, so we went up to "help!"

Trampolines! Here she is with her buddy Ezra at his birthday party!

On Grandma & Papa's trampoline with her cousin

Playin the piano with Danielle

New bike! We bought her a bike for her birthday. It wasn't really a surprise cuz we had to take her with us to try them out! Here she is riding around Walmart :)

Helpin Dad wash the car! Madison loves to be a helper! I should definitely take advantage of this stage where my daughter loves to clean! :)

Grandma came over many, many times to help out and play with Madison while I was with my new baby! Madison loved having visitors almost daily! Here they are painting...

Well I sure was happy when Madison discovered this new activity to keep her busy while I was busy with Jayden.... hanging up hangers and clothes, taking them all down, putting them back up....over and over and over! We added all of her clothes to Jayden's clothes in his closet and it would entertain her for long periods of time each day, for at least a month. Too bad it doesn't as much anymore! :)

Baby Blessing

2011-09-09T12:57:00.000-07:00

Jayden's special day!

Jayden Nicholas DeWaal was blessed by his father on August 7, 2011.
We had all the fam come over after, and as always, we took LOTS of pictures!

These are some of my fav! :)

Here's my handsome man!

So the 2 things Nick was dreading would happen that day was 1) Jayden would be screaming during the blessing, and 2) Jayden would have a blow out. Well one did happen and one didn't.

Nick was trying to get Jayden to sleep beforehand, with no luck. Then he spit the pacifier out on the floor right as he was about to bless him. So he got a little worried but luckily Jayden was quiet and content during the blessing.

As far as the other thing though, this was probably the worst blow out yet... and wouldn't you know it, right as we were walking out the door (15 minutes before Sacrament meeting!) Jayden hadn't pooped for like 5 days (probably more information than anyone wants to know...) :) so I was totally expecting it to come and to come bad. We even waited until the last minute to put Jayden in the only white outfit we had for him. And as soon as we did and put him in his carseat, that's when it all came out! What a little stinker! So I was frantically running around trying to find anything kind of white that kind of fit him, while Nick was cleaning him up, which took like 10 minutes. I had bought a blessing outfit for him but I didn't try it on him until that morning... oh and there was no way he was wearing that! I would put him in black before I let him out the door in that thing! He looked ridiculous...like a clown/pope :) Luckily I had just bought a white polo for him for family pictures the week before. So that's what he had on until the blow out. Weird that he didn't have any plain white onesies that fit him at the time- they were all either too small or too big. Finally I found a 9 month white onesie that said 'I Love Mommy' across the top :) He was 11 weeks at the time but he is very long and that was the best I could do! Gotta love the unexpected with babies and kids right?! :) Well, besides that minor setback, it turned out to be a great day!!

With a wiggly toddler and baby, it's almost impossible to get a good shot of all 4 us :)

The proud big sister...

The whole fam dam... all the DeWaals and Tondevolds...

Maddie absolutely adores her baby brother!

I thought this looked like a wedding announcement photo :)

Nathan is in his own little world playin in the dirt...

Wedding announcement #2

Maddie loves to fly with her Uncle Dave

The Hales, which are now a family of 5! (Yes, my sister is pregnant here... 9 months pregnant actually... wish I was that little when I was about to pop!) :)

Oumie & Oupie

The grandparents

Grandma & Papa

Taylor & Shauna- they moved to Arizona the week after. We miss you guys!

So probably my favorite picture of the day!!

Nick and his baby... Erik and his baby! (Yes, I'm talking about that green bottle!) :)

Oh Erik!!

Me and my girl!

One year older and wiser too...

2011-08-04T11:41:00.000-07:00

June 18th- Madison turns 2!!

Here are some pictures from her birthday party...

Here she is trying to sneek a treat bag before it even started...typical :)

I never thought I'd have a kid who liked Barney...or loved Barney I should say... but yes, that would be my child! :) It all started from me showing her a few YouTube clips of different songs, from Barney, Sesame Street, nursery rhymes or just whatever. Barney was the favorite and ever since then she's been hooked! She's never seen it on TV (i don't even know if it's still on anymore..?) but we got a few sing-a-long Barney videos from the library that she's obsessed with. It actually is really good and teaches a lot of good things, so if there's something she's going to want to watch over and over, I'm definitely ok with it being Barney! :) We ended up buying 2 Barney DVDs for her birthday so we wouldn't have to go to the library every other week! :) So thus the Barney cake!! She was very excited!
My 2nd time actually making and decorating a cake. Nick and I both did it together and we're pretty proud of our creation! :)

I guess I wasn't really paying attention but I'm not sure if someone promped her to eat it like this or if she just did it herself...? :) Cute picture though!

Cousins!

The highlight of her birthday party= jumping on the trampoline.

Maddie had gone to her friend Ezra's b-day party a week or so before and there was a trampoline at his party. She hadn't been on one since last summer, so it took her a few minutes to remember what to do and warm up, but then she loved it! So after that I guess that's what she thought was at every birthday party because she kept asking me about it. All she wanted was cupcakes and a trampoline and she'd be happy. Luckily Grandma and Papa were already right about to buy one for their backyard (which is where we had the party), so they got it set up just in time! She's quite the little jumper, she could probably go for hours if we didn't stop her! :) That's now the first thing she wants to do every time she goes over to Grandma and Papa's house. Dad taught her how to do "bum drops" so that's her new thing to do over and over on the tramp :)

Splashin in the water with her buddy Ez

The adults gotta play some games too :)

Some of the guests...

Uncle Paddy

She tried to open all the presents at once but was too distracted by all the people and fun things to do (aka trampoline) :) sooo she ended up opening the rest later that night in her PJs after almost everyone else left :)

We got her a little bike...now she can join in with all the other neighborhood kids and not have to borrow theirs :)

Opening up some of Grandma's presents...Maddie is still a huge book lover.

Fun day. This year was a lot more fun because she actually gets the concept of it being her birthday. We had gone to a few different family and friend's b-day parties over the last few months and would tell her that hers was coming up soon. On our way home from her friend Ezra's party, a week or so before hers, we got into the car and she said with a little sigh "now it be my birthday party!" haha Maddie knows she's two now and will tell anyone who asks. Ever since then she's also been on this kick of asking everyone else how old they are. "Dad, how old is you?" Then she'll repeat the number, "twenty and nine." She's remembered a few people's ages and even told us how old her teddy bear Sam was, "twenty and five"... kinda funny.

Photoshoot

2011-07-03T10:06:00.000-07:00

So we went and got Jayden's newborn pictures taken a few weeks ago. These were taken when he was 3 weeks old and he'll be 6 weeks tomorrow. We went to the same lady that took Madison's newborn pictures (www.wendyandersonphotography.blogspot.com), and she was nice enough to get some updated ones of her and our family. Trying to get a newborn and a toddler to cooperate for a photoshoot was exhausting to say the least but after almost 2 hours there were bound to be some keepers :) Here are some of our favorites...

I love this one :)

I was hoping to get some cute sleeping pictures, but just like Maddie, he was wide awake the whole photoshoot! :) oh well, good thing he has adorable eyes :)

My handsome man

Precious

Madison- almost 2 years old

What a babe :)

She loves to do those cheesey smiles :)

Update

2011-06-29T19:09:00.001-07:00

So Madison had her 2 year checkup last week and here are her stats:

Weight: 25.79 lbs (38%), Height: 35.25 inches (84%), Head: 19.3 inches (86%)

These are Jayden's stats from his 2 week appointment (yes, I realize this was awhile ago...) :)

Weight: 8 lbs 5 oz (43%), height: 20.87 inches long (58%- so I guess they were a little off when they measured him when he was born because he was supposedly 21 inches and I'm pretty sure he didn't shrink!), Head: 14.4 inches (38%).

Now he is almost 6 weeks and is starting to sleep a little more through the night. We have had quite a few nights in a row with him sleeping over 5 hours straight. Then he usually nurses and goes right back down to sleep, so it's not too bad, but I definitely can't wait til "sleeping through the night" equals 8-12 hours in a row!! That will be a blessed day indeed! :) Anyways, Jayden has been "talking" (cooing) since he was a few weeks old, but just infrequently. Now he is starting to talk a lot more, which is really fun. He has been less fussy since we got him some new medication for his reflux and since I tried eliminating a few things from my diet that might be upsetting him (dairy mainly- no fun). He loves to stare at ceiling fans for long periods (which is nice because it buys me some time while he's distracted) :) And he doesn't seem to be bothered at all by his "annoying" sister :)... ya know, she is always talking very loudly right at his face, touching him, kissing him, trying to cover him with blankets (including his face), and jumping around right by him. Good ol' Big Sister! :)

Funny moments with a toddler

2011-06-29T16:29:00.000-07:00

Madison just turned 2 a few days ago! She was so brave at her 2 yr visit to the doctor. Here are her current stats...She continues to remain long and lean weighing 25.79 lbs (38%), 35.25 inches tall (84%- don't know where she gets her height from) and head is 19.3 inches (86%- no one really cares about that one tho :).
So my daughter is at the age where she is talking (and singing!) all the time! She has a huge vocabulary and can carry on a conversation with people in full long sentences. She sometimes seems like a mini adult by the way she talks so clearly and annunciates everything so well. It cracks me up the way her little mind works and I try to jot down some of the funny things she says.

Ever since Jayden's been born, she's seemed to get the concept more that she used to be a little baby as well. Now that he is using all of her old things- car seat, swing, baby toys etc. So she's been on this kick lately about referring to things "when she was a little baby." So I was pumping the other day and she says (word for word)..."When Maddie was a little baby, Maddie usually nurse with this" (the pump) and "Maddie usually have this milk like Jayden." (and yes, she usually refers to herself in 3rd person most of the time). :) haha So speaking of the word "usually"- that is her new word she seems to use for everything; it's pretty funny. Like we'll be driving in the car and she'll spot a random playground and she'll say, "Maddie usually go on that playground." Hmmm ok sure... I just smile and nod. :) Then yesterday when she woke up from her nap I had put some earrings in, which she noticed right away. She said, "Mom has earrings... I LIKE them" (high pitched voice)... "When Maddie gets older, Maddie usually get earrings in." It made me laugh... I'm sure I've said something to her before about how she can get her ears pierced when she's older, but I'm sure it's been months or longer. I don't know how she remembers little things people say from forever ago but she does.

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Madison is a little too good of a helper with her baby brother. She's constantly wanting to be around him, even when he's sleeping (which mom is not a big fan of- with 2 kids to juggle now, I am all for the sleeping baby, but she always tries to bug him and wake him! haha) She will also for some reason always say that he's crying even when he's not :) He'll make a little squeak and she'll get this concerned look and say, "he's kwyyy-ing!" She likes having a buddy in the back seat of the car now, and the whole car ride she'll be constantly keeping us updated on what he's doing. It's pretty funny. Sometimes it will be the exact opposite- she will tell us his eyes are open when they're really closed, or that "he's awake now" when he's really sleeping, and stuff like that (ya know, for like everything- if he yawns, sneezes, opens/closes eyes, is sleeping or awake, is crying, is happy etc, she will tell us!) She frequently says "He's looking out the window now... at the TREES!" (high pitched, very excited voice) :) Yesterday he was fussy when we first got in the car but then he calmed down. I asked Madison how he was doing back there, to which she quickly replied, "He's good. He stopped crying." I said, "Oh good, thank you for letting me know because i can't see him from up here." Then she said, "I can see him though." haha Yep you can! It's funny how kids pick up on phrasing that people use frequently, like using the word 'though' at the end of a sentence. And the "he's good" phrase she uses a lot for him and herself cuz we'll check her diaper or something and if it doesn't need to be changed I guess we usually say "ok, you're good." So now when I check her diaper, or dirty hands or stuffy nose, she will automatically say it first, "I'm good!" cuz she doesn't want her diaper changed, hands washed etc. There are many more examples I could probably think of of where something we tend to say backfires because she'll use it on us now. You just gotta laugh about it. :)

But anyways, she is like a little mommy herself. She seems to copy everything that I do to Jayden to her baby dolls or stuffed animals. Her very favorite right now is a bear stuffed animal that she is "borrowing" from Grandma. His name is Sam and she uses things of Jayden's for him...his blankets, burp clothes, his medicine bottles and dropper- because she sees me give Jayden medicine. She also has a pacifier just for Sam and for some reason says he's nursing when she puts the pacifier to his mouth :) Then of course she tries to burp him and swaddle him in blankets and stuff. Pretty much every morning when I go get her out of her crib she says this (really fast)... "Mom, get Sam out. He's sad. Mom, burp him." Then a week ago Maddie got on the couch with one of her bears, grabbed my boppy, put it around her and said, "Look Mom I'm nursing!" ahahaha So funny! I knew that would be coming one of these days! :)
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Probably the funniest thing she has been doing lately is abbreviating everything!!! It is hilarious! She started doing it around the beginning of May. It started with her talking about her blanky... she'd shorten it sometimes and say, "Where's my 'blank'?" Then she is obsessed with our neighbor's cat named Nobbie, and she'd talk about him and sometimes call him "Nobbs" out of nowhere. We laughed so maybe that's why she decided she'd abbreviate everything. She gets this little smirk when she does it because she knows she's being funny. It's very clever that she can figure out how to abbreviate any word she hears (usually easier if it's 2 or more syllables- otherwise she just adds an S to it). I will have to post a video of it because we've taped her doing it a few times. It's the funniest thing, I love it! Here are some examples of some words she abbreviates a lot...

Blanky- "Blank", baby- "babes", Mickey mouse- "Micks", Mini- "Mins", Tigger- "tiggs", Barney- "Barnes", brother- "broths", sister- "sist", bandaid- "bands", bingo- "Bings", strawberries- "strawbs", yogurt- "yogs", restaurant- "rest", carpet- "carps", garbage- "garbs", counter- "counts", kitchen- "kitch", medicine- "meds", laundry- "launds", diaper- "dipes", water and watermelon- "wads", potty- "pots", bathroom- "baths", bedroom- "beds", shower- "showes", mailmen- "mails", stroller- "strolls", nursery- "nurse", cupcake- "cups", pancakes- "pans", teddy bear- "tedds", picnic- "picks", marshmallows- "marsh", binky- "binks", pacifier- "pass", chocolate- "chocs", soccer- "socks", camera- "cams", pictures- "pics", laptop- "laps", popsicle- "pops", sucker- "sucks", hellicopter- "hells" :), cookie- "cooks", table- "tabes", toaster- "toasts", finger- "fings", movie- "moves", video- "vids", tunnel- "tuns", playdoh- "playds"

PEOPLE....mom- "moms", dad- "dads", Jayden- "Jaydes", Maddie- "Mads", Grandma- "Grams", Papa- "Pops", Chelsea- "Chels", Dave- "Daves", Josh- "Josht", Nathan- "Naths", Taylor- "Tays", Shauna- "shauns", Erik- "Errs", Dani- "Dans", Jenessa- "Jens" or "Jeness", Oumie- "oums", Oupie- "Oups", Paddy- "Pads" (sure he loves that one.. :) ), Deeds- "Dees" or "Dee dee", Chiquita (dog)- "Cheeks", Bella (dog)- "Bells", Crystal (dog)- "Cryst", Nobbie (cat)- "Nobbs", Mimi (cat)- "Meems", her favorite neighbor friends (she will name the whole family)...Hannah- "Hans", Megan-"Megs", Jordan- "jords", Melissa-"Meliss", Jon-"Jons" or "Johnny", Tiffany- "Tift", Steward- "Stews", Thatcher- "Fatch", Jack- "Jacks", Lincoln- "Links",

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So yesterday her Grandma and aunt took her to the zoo. I didn't go but it's like I didn't miss a thing because she tells me all about things and explains them in detail. She brought it up today during dinner and randomly said these sentences all on her own... (Luckily I had a pen and paper handy so I could write it all down word for word as Nick and I were laughing about it) :)

"I don't like the dinosaurs at the zoo. Sprayed water in my face. Those dinosaurs were 'scare-red'!" (meaning to say 'scary' I'm guessing).

"I didn't pet the animals. I didn't pet the dinosaurs."

"What about the zoo, Dad?" (high pitched voice like we do to her to ask her questions) :)"What about it? What about it, Dad??" "Like the zoo. Dad, you like the zoo?"

"I was sad at the gorilla." I asked why, then she said, "It was scare-red! I was scare-red to him!"

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Another funny moment the other day was when I had to call the pediatrician and I told Maddie to be quiet while I was on the phone. She had come with me to my 37 wk OB checkup at the hospital so she got to meet my doctor, Dr. Irion. She still remembers him over a month and a half later because when I told her I was calling the doctor, she looked at me and said this back, "Be quiet to doctor when Mom talks to Irion"... "Where'd Irion go??" (concerned face) "At da hostibull!" haha It cracked me up!

Well as you can see I have one smarty little girl that constantly cracks me up! It makes my days interesting to say the least! Sorry for the lengthy post but this is the extent of my journaling these days and it's gotta go somewhere... so there will be more to come... :)

Our newest addition!

2011-06-06T12:39:00.000-07:00

Jayden Nicholas is finally here! He is now 2 weeks old. Was born May 23rd at 5:36 pm.

7 lbs 9 oz and 21 inches long.

We found out at my 39 week appt that this little baby was breech too so it was another c-section for me unfortunately. We had a little scare at first when Jayden came out not breathing and without a heartbeat for a few minutes. Had to go to the NICU for a few hours the first night, then he couldn't keep his blood sugar and temperature up for the first few days but luckily we got to keep him with us. Then he's been good since, so we feel very blessed to have this beautiful healthy little baby (even though he gave us a little scare at first!) We love him! :)

My cute kids! (still not used to saying kidS!) :)

Madison LOVES being a big sister!!

The new family of FOUR!!

I love how small and cuddly he is!

A few pictures since we've been home from the hospital...

He loves to lay on his side...it calms him right down

Awww! She just loves this little guy!

After the first bath at home (which he is still not a big fan of yet!)

Down South

2011-05-18T14:45:00.000-07:00

In February and March we did some road trips down to St. George and Vegas. St George was with my family and Vegas was with Nick's family. My daughter isn't the best little traveler ever but we had a great time and did some fun things.

Madison and I tagged along with Nick and my dad at the driving range. She was a good little helper and kept handing them golf balls and tees. Nick gave her her first golf lessons and couldn't have been more proud. :)

Maddie got to try lots of new sports in St. George. Here she is trying to play tennis :)

My sister Jenessa lives down there for school, and took her niece to a big duck pond, playground, pet store and animal shelter to walk some dogs. Madison loved it

Vegas/ Summerlin

Madison learned to say that Oumie's "far away house" was in "Vegas baby" :) It was cute

MGM

GOING PRIVATE

2011-04-27T19:44:00.000-07:00

Hello friends and family! Well I have been wanting to go private for over a year now and think I am finally going to do it. Due to the lack of free time I will soon have with another baby due any day now, I have pretty much given up on the idea of scrapbooking that I once loved and had some free time to do (years ago...) :). Sooo, from now on my blog is as scrapbookish as I'm gonna get and I will probably be adding some more detailed and personal stuff. Thus the need to go private. We'll see how it goes though because I haven't been too great at keeping my blog very current these days... a post every 2 or 3 months is about what I've done. Buuuut... my plan is to start blogging more in attempt to make this somewhat of a scrapbook/journal type thing, which will mostly be for me rather than the public, but hey, I would love to invite anyone who cares to see what we're up to every now and then! :) So please leave me your email address and I will add you to the list!! Thanks! Also, if any of you have gone private in the last little while (which it seems like many of you have), please add me to your list if you haven't already! brianadewaal1@gmail.com.

Thank you!!!

20 month videos

2011-03-12T19:43:00.000-08:00

Well it's been a little while since I've done a post on my little girl so here is an update on my Madison...!! She is such a fun, energetic girl and amazes me everyday. I can't believe how grown up she is already at just over 20 months. She is crazy good talker for her age... I used to keep track of all the words she could say independently and it was over 400 around 18 months, so I obviously don't write them all down now! She picks up multiple new words each day and can copy any word and usually say it very clearly. I didn't realize I'd have a little parrot already, so you really gotta watch what you say cuz next thing you know she is saying it! :) But she talks in consistent 2-6 word sentences. And she has an amazing memory too, and will talk about things in detail she did yesterday, days ago, weeks and even months ago!

Madison knows most all of the basic colors- green, blue, red, white, black, orange, yellow and sometimes pink, gray and brown. Every once in awhile she might get some mixed up but for the most part she definitely knows her colors well and likes to label objects with their color.

Madison has been in nursery for a few months and absolutely loves it. I'm grateful that I don't have to drag her there each week and that she looks forward to it. She talks about it almost daily and lists the kids in her class and what they do... "nursery...bubbles, snacks...play toys... nursery...kids, friends...sing songs..." etc etc We have missed a few times fo baby blessings, just Sacrament meeting when out of town etc and she is so sad. :( It's pretty cute!

Anyways, here are a few fun videos of Madison. She absolutely loves to sing (and dance) and has the cutest little voice. She can sing like 5 songs perfectly by herself and lots more with a few prompts. My little super baby can sing the ABCs and count to 10! Funny that all of these videos are in the car, but I guess that's the only time she's still enough for me to get it all on tape! :)

Counting to 10! (minus number 5... she always misses that one) :)

(Feb 25th)

This has been her favorite song for the last 2 months... and she sings it literally like 10 plus times a day!!! ha I Love You song (aka Barney song) :)

(Feb 20th)

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Winter days

2011-02-15T12:01:00.000-08:00

Some of the fun things we have done so far this winter... took Madison for her first time sledding and skiing, and went to the temple square lights...

Here is Nick taking Madison on the bunny hill at Alta. They went on like 8 runs. She loved it and kept saying, "More!"...that is until Nick pointed out a little girl not too much older than her who was on her own skis... after that she wasn't as excited about being in the backpack and kept saying, "Self!" cuz she wanted to be on her own skis all by herself like that little girl! It was pretty cute! Guess next season we will be investing in a mini pair of skis and they can have lots of father-daughter dates on the slopes... :)

Thanksgiving Day

Temple Square Lights

Madison's 1st time sledding- New Year's Day

Auntie Dani

She loved it of course and would say WEEE!!

Jen & Shauna

Papa

My brother Taylor and his wife Shauna pushing Maddie down on her own (she was not a big fan of that... liked it much better when she was riding with someone...can't blame her)

My siblings Danielle, Jenessa & Erik doin a train

Nick trying to "snowboard" on the sled

Christmas catch-up

2011-02-01T10:59:00.000-08:00

So it has been quite awhile since I last blogged and I have so many things I wanna post but I thought I better get the Christmas one out of the way first because I'm sure we are all so over it by now! :)

This holiday has been a fun one for us, and as always we were very spoiled (especially the one and only grand-daughter!) Madison had a lot more fun this year and was very into all the lights and fun things surrounding Christmas. Every morning she would go into the living room and want me to turn on the Christmas tree lights, and every night she would ask to turn on the lights outside. Whenever we'd be driving somewhere at night and she'd see a house with Christmas lights on, she would pretty much spaz out! It was cute how much she loved them! She'd say, "lights...pitty!" Oh and reindeer ("reineer") lights was a whole nother story... she was obsessed with anyone who had reindeer lights in their front yard (our neighbors across the street, in-laws etc) and would always want to go outside and see them, even in the day when they weren't turned on! She actually still asks about it now when we go in our front yard, even though it's been well over a month since they've been gone.

Another one of Maddie's holiday favorites was her first advent calendar. She knew the routine every day after breakfast and would go find her calendar, take it by the tree and want to open a door for her treat! Then she'd try to open another one, and another one... haha We thought she'd be devastated when Christmas Eve came and she ate her last chocolate on the calendar.... we were thinking we've have to do this all year because she expected it everyday but luckily she has now forgotten about it, and I'm sure she'll be just as excited when next year comes around.

Maddie got very good at pointing out Santa on all sorts of decorations, in the stores, at people's houses etc. Then she finally got to meet Santa at our ward Christmas party, where he gave her a candy cane. And yes, she still talks about this one too! Whenever I go to exercise class at our church, she will point to the stage where Santa was (back at the beginning of December) and say, "Santa... treat...Santa goes!" I can't believe how good her memory is because it's been 2 months and she still talks about him all the time! haha

Maddie of course got more into the presents this year too now that she's older. Last year she had fun ripping the wrapping paper apart but this year she knew what "pezents" were and was very excited to get some new things. A couple of her favorites were a new baby (she LOVES her babies and is such a cute little mommy... she's definitely ready to be a big sister in a few months, she will be great!), a little stroller for her babies, a kitchen set with tons of food and a shopping cart, and a little tent/tunnel to play in. Of course she was spoiled with clothes and stuffed animals and lots of other toys too! Lucky little girl!

Well here are a few pictures we took when we were at my family's house on Christmas Eve and Nick's family's house on Christmas Day...

Here are the 3 grand-kids on my side, all in their Christmas jammies Christmas Eve

My loving little girl! She loves to hug and cuddle her cousins, and well, pretty much any little kid or baby!

The boys thought they were pretty cool in their new matching Mnt Dew pants!

Christmas Day at the DeWaals... gotta wear some fun holiday glasses :)

Meeting Santa!
(oh and every time Madison sees this vest she's wearing here she will also say, "Santa!...treat!")

Yes we are!!!

2010-11-15T09:33:00.000-08:00

For those of you who don't already know, we are going to have another baby!!! Madison is going to be a big sister, yay!! We are so excited to welcome

baby #2 May 2011!!

We have known for almost 2 months now but I haven't gotten around to updating my blog!! :) I am just over 12 weeks and we got to hear the baby's heart beat at our dr. appt last week! So fun!

Taylor & Shauna's wedding

2010-10-25T21:02:00.000-07:00

About time there was another wedding in the family.... :) My brother Taylor got married August 5th and here are "just a few" of the thousands of pictures that were taken that day! :) haha But we are all so excited for Shauna to be a part of our family! She is the cutest girl ever and we all just absolutely LOVE her!!!

At the Temple...

The happy new couple!

Look at that figure!... doesn't she look beautiful in that dress!?

Jen and the nephews

Cousins!

Love that girl!! :)

All the bridesmaids and groomsmen

(guess Nick didn't get the memo about wearing yellow...!) hehe

The Tondevold fam

Taylor & Shauna's nieces and nephews

"The Kids"

Aww

Our family

My attempted model shot :)

Mommy and daughter

Oh how I love this precious little girl!! :)

This is pretty normal for us.... :)

THE RECEPTION....

My sweet grandparents

Hello??

WEDDING DINNER at Tuscanos the night before....

T&S

First time at Tuscanos... so good!

The girls

Yep, that's us!

So cool!

Auntie Lorri and Nathan

Maddie loves to wear mommy's jewelry... such a girl!

Happy Happy Birthday Madison Dear!

2010-09-15T21:35:00.000-07:00

So I know I am like 3 months late on this post, but hey, better late than never right?! Madison turned 1 year old on June 18th and of course we had to throw her a bigger party than we've ever thrown for either of us!!!?! It's tradition though! I think you gotta make a big deal on the 1st birthday, but no, I probably won't go this all out next time cuz it was a lot of work!! (Oh and did I mention we hosted this party exactly 2 weeks after we moved in to our new house??!!... I don't recommend this to anyone! :) No, actually it wasn't too bad. We got enough stuff unpacked and the house in decent shape by then (oh and that reminds me, I need to post some house pics soon...)

But anywayyzzz........... Back to birthday...

We went with a FISH theme because Madison loves animals and just happened to be really into fish at the time (it used to change every few weeks which animal she'd be obsessed with and she did go through a fish loving stage) :) So ya, we did like EVERYTHING in fish! haha Little paper fish hanging from the ceiling, fish bowls with real fish in them at each table, lots of different fishy plates and bowls, fish ballons, had Finding Nemo playing in the background, fish cake of course, some little fish decorated rice krispie treats, some edible fish bowls (blue jello w/ gummy fish swimming around), gold fish crackers, swedish fish... oh and Maddie even just happened to have a little skirt and onesie with fish on them!! (I promise I already had this prior to picking the theme!!) :) So maybe I went a little overboard, but hey, I know people who've done even more than this so I feel completely justified! :) So here are some highlights of Maddie's big day...

The Food...

We had a BBQ lunch and tons of other food!

The cake....

I made her a mini version of a fish cake. She was a little shy about digging in at first, but soon got the hang of it. Yum yum! :)

(Love these close up pics... Thanks Chels!)

The people...

It was a party! We had lots of family and friends come celebrate with us! Thank you to all who came!!

oh and Nick and I made an appearance... :)

Trying to steal a birthday kiss from her boyfriend Ezra!! haha

The Presents...
She was one spoiled little girl!... And these aren't even all the presents! Thank you SOO much everyone!

Maddie still loves books

Our cute friend Whitney hand made these bows

What a fun and memorable day =)

South Carolina

2010-08-31T22:05:00.000-07:00

At the beginning of summer we went on a vacation to South Carolina with Nick's fam. It was our first time there and we absolutely loved it! Madison had a lot of firsts that trip... first time in an airplane, first time at the beach, first time swimming in the ocean, first bike ride etc etc! It was so beautiful there and we had a ton of fun! We took so many pictures, so it was hard to narrow them down, so a pre-warning to all... this is a VERY LONG POST!!! :)

We stayed in Hilton Head island, and this is the beach outside our hotel....

Lovin the sand!

We took Maddie to a petting zoo in Sea Pines (part of Hilton Head Island). She loved all the animals!

Dad caught a lizard for his little girl :)

Madison's 1st bike ride! We rented beach cruisers for the week and went almost daily. She loved it!

We went on a super long bike ride (like 2 1/2 hours!) so this is what Maddie looked like towards the end! haha Poor girl doesn't look at all comfortable! :)

The early morning beach ride was the best!

The plantation in Charleston where part of the movie 'The Notebook' was filmed...

Loved the trees there...

This mansion was Ali's parents home in the movie. Kinda cool I thought :)

Well, we were in Charleston so I had to take a picture with a Charleston Chew! :) yum yum
Some cute beach pics... as you can tell she was fascinated by the sand (and waves)

We suffered through a timeshare presentation :) and as a result got to go on a free sunset dinner cruise around Hilton Head island. It was pretty cool. Me and Deeds

Some pretty scenery from the boat...

We saw a bunch of dolphins from the boat!

HAHA surprise! :)

View of the harbor as we were pulling in...

Tybee Island, Georgia

Tybee Island pier

More pics from Tybee Island... such a pretty place!

Saw lots of gators that trip and Madison learned how to sign and later say 'alligator'

Savannah, GA

Took a trolley tour around downtown Savannah

1 year!!

2010-07-20T20:48:00.001-07:00

Well it has been a fast and crazy past couple months and I can't believe I have a little toddler now! That is right, Madison turned 1 last month! I feel like I have SOO much to blog about, so expect a lot of catch ups in the next few weeks!

The main thing that has kept us busy the last few months has been MOVING!! After many long months of looking for houses and waiting on short sales, we finally heard back on a house we really liked and we closed on it the end of April. We were busy the next month and a half painting and doing some projects in the house so that we wouldn't have to do much when we moved in. Like most of you, packing and moving and unpacking is not my favorite thing to do... haha but it has consumed most of my time over the last few months (thus the no blogging or looking at anyone else's blogs!) But we have finally settled down a bit and hopefully I will have some more time to post because I have lots to post about and hope you don't get sick of me!

So I will shortly be posting some vacation pics, house pics and some new pics of Maddie, since she has changed quite a bit from my last post...

A little update on my girlie... Like I said she is now 13 months old. At her year appt she weighed 19.29 lbs (20%), was 30.31 inches long (80%) with a head circumference of 17.9 inches (62%). Madison is finally walking like a champ! She started taking steps on her own around 11 months and now finds great satisfaction in being able to walk around everywhere without help. Madison continues to amaze me by how quickly she learns. She started signing at 5 1/2 months and said her 1st word at 7 1/2 months... and I just counted them up today, but now at 13 months she knows

53 signs and 107 words!!!!!

No joke! She has such an eagerness to communicate and learn! She watches and listens carefully so now we have to be careful what we say and teach her because she picks things up so fast (for instance, the word NO!... haha... wish she hadn't learned that word yet but oh well, guess it woulda happened sooner or later... :) haha But really, every stage gets more and more fun and i absolutely love being a mom!! :)

Here are a few recent random pictures of my little (or, not so little anymore) :( girl...

I LOVE this picture of Maddie and Daddy!! Look at that adorable profile! :)

The little climber...

Her new thing is coloring! She'll see markers or crayons and yell "La-lure, la-lure!!" (color) If there's a pen or pencil laying around, she'll grab it and pretend to draw. She loves it :)

Aquarium

2010-05-01T20:58:00.000-07:00

Nick and I decided to buy season passes to the Living Planet Aquarium right after they got the penguins. We've gone twice and both times it was so packed! But we still had a good time and Maddie loved all the fish and other moving creatures. Here are a bunch of pictures we took of our trip to the aquarium...

The penguins were sooo cute!

Maddie clapping for herself in the canoe!

The first time she went with mommy and daddy and the second time we went with Grandma, her two aunties and 2 cousins...

Maddie and Auntie Dani

She pointed to everything! Here are just 4 pictures of probably 20 or more of her pointing to all the cool stuff at the aquarium

The girls and the kids

Trying to get one kid and 2 babies to sit still for a picture is pretty much impossible. This is the stillest picture we got...

It lasted like 1 second and then Maddie was on the move...

She's smiling so I guess she thought it was pretty funny to crawl away from the picture taking

Like I said there's no way to get 3 kids to all smile at the same time in a picture... at least not in my experience! Look at the cousins... they all have different funny faces!

Grandma and her cute grandkids!

Nathan's got a straight face in both of the pictures and Josh and Maddie are apparently making some kind of noise... :)

At least Auntie Dani's looking at the camera :)

Fun activities..

2010-04-09T11:18:00.000-07:00

Well I'm so glad the weather is getting warmer and I can take my daughter out to see and do more things! We've done some fun new things this past month, and I get just as excited as Madison when she explores and sees new things.

She absolutely loves animals (what kid doesn't I guess?), especially horses (she has a favorite stuffed horse named Trotter). My sister-in-law was house sitting for some people that had 2 horses, so we went out there twice to show her and I think she really liked them!

Feeding the horses

One of the first things she wants to do when she wakes up in the mornings or from naps is go see her rocking horse or her stuffed animals. She will point to them and do her famous "oooooh" mouth...it's so cute!

**More animals!

We went to a play group at Gardner Village a few weeks ago. It was such a nice day and there were ducks and birds everywhere... Madison loved it! She is getting so good at finding birds in the sky and pointing to them and doing the sign for bird. She is so observant!

Look how close this goose let us get

Our friends Whitney and Ezra

**We started baby aquatics a few weeks ago. It's an 11 week parent-tot class. Madison LOVES baths so I figured she'd have fun swimming too! She has done really good so far, except when she gets dunked and especially when the instructor does it! Poor thing, but she is catching on and I'm sure it won't bother her after another few times. She goes with little Ezra, who has taken the course already and he is a pro! They have lots of fun together!

Working on her floating

She's a little fish! She will be all ready once summer comes!

**Madison's first time at the playground! She loved the slide and swings as you can tell!

**My sister and I have started doing a monthly play date with the kids (I'm sure we'd do it more often if we lived closer!) We switch off houses and this time we were up at her house in Farmington. They have some cool walking trails nearby so this is us on a walk...

**The annual Spring Gruv up at the Canyons.

We went up this year with Nick's brother, Patrick, and my sister, Danielle. They have free concerts and pond skimming (which we missed). People go crazy and come dressed in all sorts of weird outfits. The best part is probably the people-watching... it's very entertaining! haha

On the gondala

9 months old

2010-04-03T20:27:00.000-07:00

Well Madison is now just over 9 months old and I thought I would give a quick update about her... She weighs 18.17 lbs (38%), is 28.74 inches long (87%), with a head circumference of 17.7 inches (79%)... (So basically she is long and skinny with a big head!) :)

I don't think it will be much longer before Madison is walking on her own...she is so close! She has started cruising, pulls up on almost everything and is very good at it. She has pretty good balance for a baby and can stand alone for a few seconds. She has climbed up our stairs a few times (with me standing right behind her of course) and is a pro at it already. Madison started officially crawling just before turning 9 months. She had been rocking back and forth on her hands and knees for almost 2 months, and was somewhat mobile since she could move her legs and lunge forward. But now that she has the crawling thing down, nothing can stop her! :) She is a very active and busy little girl, with tons of energy! She is a lot of fun!

She loves to clap for herself, and she can do high-fives and play patty cake! We are still teaching her baby signs but these days she seems more interested in saying the words most of the time. She tries to copy words we say but also says quite a few on her own. My favorite word she says is "hair" (which sounds just like the word by the way)... oh and momma and dadda too of course! :)

Here are a few recent pictures of our adorable little girl...

Crawling pics

Holidays

2010-03-18T21:35:00.001-07:00

Valentine's Day!

St. Patty's Day!

Girls are the best!

2010-02-08T14:05:00.000-08:00

I can't even tell you how much I love my little girl! She has such a big personality and every stage gets more and more fun! Her laughs crack me up and she is constantly babbling away! You can definitely tell she's a girly girl by her high pitched voice!

Madison did her first baby sign when she was about 5 months old and now she has 5 signs- nurse, light, fan, duck and frog. Plus she waves hello really good. Yesterday (and a bunch since) when she saw her toy duck she did the sign and then said "duhh" at the same time. So I guess that's her first word?? (Sad that it's not mommy or daddy! haha) :) Then I've noticed her specifically say multiple times "duhh" when she's seen a dog and picture of daddy! So she's finally making the connection from objects to signs and words... It's really fun to see her start to understand the world around her and try to communicate. I will have to post a video or two if I ever figure out how to do it!!

But anyways, being a mom is the best!! :) Here are some pictures of my beautiful little girl...

7 months and standin up (holding onto furniture or people that is)

Precious little face here! She LOVES to suck her 2 middle fingers!!

Madison got her 1st tooth at 6 1/2 months and now she has 5!!

She got those beautiful blue eyes from her daddy!

She loves her new ball popper that Grandma & Papa gave her for Christmas

Madison LOVES to brush her teeth!! (weird I know...) She's always been fascinated by watching mommy brush her teeth but she has SO much fun doing it herself!! I have to use every muscle I have just to pull the toothbrush away from her! :)

Madison now eats lots of different fruits and veges, and little puffs. Again, her favorite part is probably holding the spoon herself at the end and chopping on it!

Ok so I'm guessing she doesn't like peach jello by the look on her face! But she does like to play with it and make a mess! :)

Clawing cousin Nathan's face! Poor little guy!

Christmas and stuff...

2010-01-29T20:34:00.000-08:00

So I know everyone is probably so over Christmas by now, but I haven't blogged for months so I'm gonna do a Christmas post anyway! :)

Family of three!

The DeWaal girls....

Christmas Eve at the in-laws

It's been 4 years since my whole family was together at Christmas, so it was nice to have everyone together again!

Christmas dinners are the best!

Here it is!! Nick has been looking for a B is for Bob girl onesie for over a year and after much searching, Paddy finally found a cute one and gave it to Maddie for Christmas! It made Nick's day! :)

Maddie loved ripping the wrapping paper off her presents, and, what all babies do next... putting it in her mouth!! Yum!?

Christmas morning with my baby girl

The little jumping beans

***Some fun things we've done lately....

Went snowboarding finally! It's been 2 years so it was nice to go again, even though it was night skiing and FREEZING! Good powder though.

We went with my dad, Jenessa and Taylor

*Madison's first Jazz game (and like the best game of the year- against the Suns last week)

* ....More basketball!

Utah game

A forward from the Runnin Utes!

*One of Nick's favorite things to do... go to concerts!

Vegas and New York City

2009-11-30T12:46:00.000-08:00

**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!

2009-11-17T13:56:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-01T13:45:00.001-08:00

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

2009-10-18T15:02:00.000-07:00

Goodbye summer! :(

2009-10-06T09:57:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-01T09:02:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-26T11:06:00.000-07:00

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! :)

One crazy family!

2009-09-10T12:06:00.000-07:00

THE GIRLS....

We were trying so hard to keep a straight face for this next picture, but it didn't work very well!! Haha We couldn't stop laughing!

(Trying to stop myself from smiling. I guess I thought if I held my cheeks together, that would help! :) )

Gotta have a butt shot! :)

Ok now a few serious ones...

THE BOYS....

(minus one brother who will be home from his mission in 6 weeks!)

Muscles!???!

They had to copy us with a butt shot... not as cute as ours though! :)

The pyramid. Yes, Josh is holding all 4 of these men up...poor kid! :)

Papa and Josh

(I really like this picture)

Um those would be my parents!

Love it!

K let me explain. Kind of an inside joke but for those of you who have been to Sea World you might know what I'm talkin about. So they have this Shamu show that is just a little bit cheesy :) and they do this little Shamu chant with their hands like this and talk about how you just need to "believe!" Well we all made fun of it and joked about buying the whale tail necklaces to remind us to believe! So then Taylor, Danielle and Jenessa went back a few weeks ago and told us we needed to wear black and white next time we were all together but wouldn't tell us why. Next thing you know we are all wearing these awesome whale tails and taking pictures! It was great! Don't worry Taylor, the necklace is not in the garbage and I'm definitely a believer now! :)

"Shamu! Shamu! Shamu! "

Our cute little family!

Love this picture!

First time laying on grass... don't think she really liked it!

Maddie looks like she's pictured out!

Chelsea and her darling new baby. Love the overalls!

Now some without the whale tails... (even though they were the best part!) :)

Summa fun!

2009-09-01T17:57:00.000-07:00

Well I apologize to those of you who have facebook too because I've been posting practically all the same pictures lately! :) But here are some pictures from boating again last week and some hikes we've done...

Here is our little cutie all ready for some fun in the sun! (Nick thinks she looks like she's going on a safari or something with her hat, but I think it's adorable!)

First time out this year. Barely 2 months after a c-section... that's ok, right?!! :)

We love to hike and started doing them weekly again this year. Here are 2 of our favorite (and pretty easy) hikes- Bells Canyon and Cecret Lake.

We saw 3 moose up at Cecret Lake!... see one of them in the background??!

Ok this is how we really feel about being that close to 2 giant moose!! :)

The 3rd moose.... no, it's not a horse! :)

Risking our lives for a simple picture! :)

Madison all bundled up for our evening hike!

Just taggin along! :)

Bells Canyon

Beautiful sunset from the top!

Ya, we're cool! :)

Visitor from the islands

2009-08-15T18:24:00.001-07:00

Nick's brother Paddy flew in from Hawaii for a week to meet his new niece! We had a busy week and did lots of fun things while he was here- celebrated his birthday, went to Park City, had Madison's baby blessing, him and Nick went to 2 concerts, took official family pictures for the first time (last time was 12 years ago or something...?), went to the annual white trash BBQ with their friends (no pictures unfortunately- we didn't dress up this year!), played ultimate frisbee and went boating with my family, and lots more!

The yummy Famous Dave's for his b-day, one of my favorite places!

Where's Deeds??!! Ha Ha.... Hmm I'm wondering if this was planned??! :)

Albion Basin

We snapped a few of our own pictures after the family ones were done. We picked a bad day to do them... it was SO cold and windy and rained on us a little. Madison was a really good sport considering it was maybe 60 degrees and she was wearing a little sundress! What happened to summer??!! :( Please come back!

We seemed to pick all the wrong days for our outdoor activities because the day we went boating was I think a record low for August! It was between like 56 and 67 degrees while we were out on the lake! The water was warmer than the air! Between wakeboarding everyone was wearing hoodies and bundling up, but they still had a good time!

Nick wakeboarding

A little ulitmate frisbee! I miss playing... I need to get back into shape! :)

Everyone hot and sweaty after (except the 2 new moms who are still lookin good!) :)

Taking some pics of ourselves while we wait! :)

Birth and blessing

2009-08-11T20:52:00.000-07:00

Madison got blessed by her dad at church on Sunday. What a neat first experience! Here are some pictures we took after...

This dress has been around since the 1940's. Nick's mom and older siblings were all christened in this dress, then Deeds was blessed in it as well, so it is pretty special.

My fam

Nick's fam

The whole crew (even Paddy flew in town for the week)

Ya... Dave snuck a piucture of the 2 sisters nursing together! Hahaha How cute!!?

Everyone out for a Sunday nap.... musta been a real fun party!!! :)

My mom and her newest grandson Nathan

My parents

Nick's parents

The newest cousins- Madison and Nathan

I'm a little overdue but I had to announce the birth of my newest little nephew Nathan James Hale. Now I have 2! He was born July 22nd, 10 days early. He looks just like Josh did when he was born... what a cutie!

Here are the cousins again. They will be best buddies!

Josh loves being a big brother

Now my parents are proud grandparents of 3! Went from 1 to 3 in just over a month!