Madalynn's first boating trip

Well, here is the start to my 4-day weekend. It was sooooo much fun to get out on the lake with my little family. We went with a group that just wanted to tube and play in the water so it was soooo relaxing. My kind of time.

Madalynn is so funny about water. It took a long time for her to like taking a bath and then even after she liked that sometimes it is just trauma screaming the whole time. Then when we bought her her first blow up pool, she was the same way. Well, boating for the first time was no different. She hated the life jacket which rubbed on her cute cheeks. She hated the water...definitely not a surprise...and she was a bit difficult. But she warmed up to the water a little bit and finally got herself in off the end of the boat.

Here are a few pictures of our trip to the lake. We went with my sister-in-law Megan, Jessica and some of Megan's family.

Here is Madalynn playing on the back of the boat. She did better with the floaty tube than with the life jacket. I finally got a good picture of Russ playing with Madalynn in the water.
Well I had to add a picture of Madalynn in the life vest. Oh my goodness. It was so funny and she hated it so much. She screamed for quite a while. It was cutting into her poor cheeks.
I finally got a good picture of Russ and Madalynn in the water.
We pushed Madalynn out on the tube and everyone played with her. It was fun to watch.
Megan and Jessica are having fun trying to entertain her.
I finally got Russ to take a picture of Madalynn and I. At this point she was pushing herself off the end of the boat to kick her feet in the water. It was fun.
Russ and I got on the tube with Madalynn. She liked it for a bit.

Once the tube got going, Madalynn decided to wave at Jessica taking pictures. That was really fun.

I went tubing with both Russ and Jessica. We didn't get a picture of Russ and I tubing, but we got a few with Jessica. She thought that I was really boring because I just wanting to stay right behind the boat and now be pulled to hard, but that it just my way. I have no upper body strength and can't hold on very long and just enjoy my feet dragging in the water. It was fun. Last time we went out on the lake I was two months pregnant and wasn't feeling well, so this was a fun trip to just sit and relax and take it easy.

Hope that you enjoyed. I will be trying to play blog catch up this weekend with the pictures from all our excitement in June.

Madalynn Year Old Pictures

So I decided that I needed to take some time and write about some past moments. There are just a few things that have happened this month that have been really fun. Madalynn turned ones years old. That was exceptionally fun. Hopefully I will post pictures of all her birthday fun the next week. So, I really wanted some fun year old pictures. Her 6-month pictures were in the fall leaves and I thought that it would be fun to get some in the blossoms.

Unfortunately for Madalynn we choose days that are really cold. Poor thing was not super happy. However, these are the pictures that we did get. The location for all pictures was the Mount Timpanogos Temple Grounds and American Heritage school grounds.

Hope you enjoy!

There is nothing more serene that looking at the House of God with the beauty of nature to enhance it.

Oh, she is too much fun!

Its been forever

Well, it has officially been forever since I have updated this blog. I am determined to do better. I am always better about my craft blog because I am just so excited about what I am working on. However, I am just as excited about my family and I need to keep track of what we are up to for myself. Well, to start I am going to post pictures of our latest Madalynn photos. Russ decided that it was time to take more pictures on the toy box, so I got her all dressed up and ready and this is what we got. Hope you enjoy.

Here she is running to Russ.
Here Russ is setting her on the toy box and she is jumping into his arms..before he finished counting to three.
She absolutely loves to read. I can't get enough of her talking and pointing to her book.
Ah...the half smile.
Well, we never quite got her happy smile, but she is still just too cute!

Having fun running at mommy.

Playing with her pillows and running around the room.

And we are all done. See you later :)

Our weeks full adventure's

Well, while the first half of every week is full of work and work and more work, every weekend holds new adventures in store. Starting Thur. until today, we had quite the rest of a week.

Madalynn attended her first birthday party today. The Dorton family lives in our building. I remember when we lived in our first place and Russ helped them with their closing walk through when they bought their home. Their little boy turned one and they threw him a birthday party at Thanksgiving Point. They did it at Farm Country where they have a petting and feeding farm, pony rides and horse draw rides. Here is little Andy with his birthday cake. He was not really interested in the cake, the presents or anything. It was fun though. Here is little Andy on his pony ride with his dad holding him. It was really cute.

Here is our neighbor Becky Fuller and her son Holland. Holland didn't like the pony ride tons and finally got himself off and by throwing his legs over the side toward his mom.
Here is Madalynn, watching....too young to ride. Maybe in a year or two. Poor thing spent most of the day in her car seat. I had to go teach my Thur students this morning and then she ran to this party and a baby shower....she was tired. She has been asleep tonight since 6, which means I should be getting to bed since she will be up in the middle of the night.
We went on the horse ride. That was fun. It is always nice to do something that is nice and slow on a day when you are running around like crazy. Things just move too fast in our lives. We watched the train go by on the tracks at a speed faster than we were moving... The trees are starting to change color and that was fun to watch. All in all, the party was fun.
After the party I headed to a baby shower for my friend Starla. I am very excited for her. This is her first baby. She is having a little boy and it is going to be fun. I got to see her and a couple other friends from high-school. It is so interesting to see friends of mine from that time period that who have kids in elementary school when I just started having my first. I guess that is like Parker and Tiff having Maya in school. Wow...I am getting old. I was going to take pictures and forgot, oh well. That is how it goes.

So last week, I had an hour and a half off work and so Russ took the jeep to hose down the engine and to get it slightly degreased so that it was not quite so dirty to work on. We just need a thousand hours to be able to work and play, be parents and work on our hobbies. Ugh...time just does not seem to work like that.
So, it is a dusk shot of our view off the front porch where we live right now. I love the view of the field. I will be very sad to leave this place.
So, one afternoon while Madalynn was fussing Russ and I went and sat on the front porch. Russ was responding to a text and I shot these pictures. I just thought that they were too cute not to post. I love the looks on her face. Ah.....

Thur we watched our neighbors girls for the night. They were a hoot. We took them to dinner and they sure have a lot of jokes to tell. Their banter to each other and everything around them is certainly funny. It is interesting when you are in that situation, the responsibilities that you remember to have. Working on homework with them and making sure that they got their reading done and reviewed their spelling reminded me of how it was to grow up and work on those things. It is a good reminder..
And of course as is common in our house these days, a movie night had to follow. I can't wait until next week when they get to spend one more night. I haven't laughed so much in a long time.
So, I love my husband and my daughter. It is husbands week and I have been putting together a post that hopefully I will put up tomorrow of all the amazing things that my husband does for me, but here he is in one of my favorite poses...holding our daughter. I just can't get enough of them together.
Here are just a few random pictures of Madalynn...I love the one with just her eyes. I know that it is a very weird picture, but I couldn't help posting it because of how expressive those eyes are.
She spends tons of time on her stomach these days..and loves it. On thur. afternoon Madalynn went in for her four month check up. Wow, she is so big. Her head is not in the 50th percentile any more...it is now in the 90th percentile. Ah, our little girl is one big and chubby girl. I love that she is that way. She is nice and healthy.
Well, after our very long day, here is my little girl. Poor thing spent most of the day in her car seat. Well, more tomorrow. Hope you enjoyed the pictures.