Goodbye summer

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:

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  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!

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  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

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  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!"

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  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

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  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

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...

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.