*BONUS POST* Top 10 Events of 2010

This year will definitely (hopefully!) rank as one of busiest, craziest, and most life-changing for our family. Seriously, could we have packed anything else into it?  Okay, yes we could have - but I'm sure glad we didn't.

This being New Year's Eve and all I thought I'd list our family's top ten events of 2010.  Why?  Well, there's something about the end of the year that makes us all so reminiscent of our lives.  We feel a need to reflect on our life events and ponder the lessons we learned.  What could we have done differently?  Could we have done better?  Why?

Or maybe it's just 9:30pm on New Year's Eve, the kids are in bed, it's only reruns on TV, and once again I am a Computer Gaming Widow for the evening and I'm bored.

Either way, here we go:

The Madsen's Top Ten Events of 2010

(in timeline order)

10. New Chapel Groundbreaking.  It's still pretty exciting to have a new chapel being built for us, and so close to our home.  In the grand scheme of things, driving 20 minutes to church (each way) isn't really that big of a deal.  But having one only five minutes away will definitely be so much nicer!  We're still praying that it'll ready by the beginning of May.

9. Ten Year Anniversary Cruise.  When I was in labor with Cole I tried to think of happy, peaceful things to get through the contractions.  You know - 'go to your happy place', like mountain meadows and playing with your kids and such. What a bunch of baloney; it totally didn't work.  The contractions still hurt like a motha.  But after having been on a wonderful week-long cruise with Lance, I'm pretty sure my happy place would now be any part of that trip and that thinking of it would totally stop me from feeling any sort of contraction.  Not really - give me the frickin' epidural.  But the trip was still awesome.

8. Cole Gets Tubed.  After approximately 73 ear infections poor Cole finally got tubes in his ears.  He's suffered from nary an ear infection since.  I adore modern medicine.

7. House for Sale!  We put our house up for sale.  We got asking price in exactly 2 weeks.  (A miracle in that housing market!) Then the house we had planned on buying became unavailable.  We were basically, technically, if not literally, homeless for about a month.  It was stressful and uncomfortable and I never want to go through anything like that again.  I hated it and I am pretty sure I'm suffering PTSD from the whole drama of it all. *shudder*

6. We Got Our House!  So, things could have ended very, very differently.  But they didn't.  We ended up getting the house we had wanted the entire time.  It was, and I don't say this lightly at all, a true miracle.  I still get goosebumps when I think about it.  The whole thing was one of the hardest episodes of my life, but I'm grateful I experienced it.  And survived.

7. Roper Family Reunion!  Two days after we moved we headed out to UT for a visit and the Roper Reunion.  After all of the hullabaloo with the move and such, it was nice to just get away for a couple of weeks.  Well, really, it was kind of stressful to leave an unpacked house, but it's quite surprising how much stress you can tuck away for later when you get to go visit your favorite people.  We even got some pretty good family pictures taken, despite Josh's best efforts to thwart them.

6. And Baby Makes Six.  So we got back from UT on a Friday.  On Saturday I realized I was pregnant.  By Monday I was puking.  This made the job of unpacking and organizing the new house slow and painful, to say the least.  I didn't get much done, but I still had my sense of humor.

5. First Day of Preschool.  I'm not one of those moms who expects their child to read and write and come up with a coherent solution for the current health care crisis after their first year in preschool.  No, I'm just happy if they learn to share and cut and paste and not behave like the wild little rhesus monkeys that they naturally are.  Preschool = socialization.  And Josh (I love you so) desperately needed this.  We had a bit of a rough start, but he's now a preschool pro.  I love preschool.

4. An Evening With Bill Cosby.  Okay, this might not seem that momentous, at least compared with the rest of the year.  But it was a truly calm and fun evening - something that Lance and I both desperately needed after all of the excitement of the summer.  Plus, I had always wanted to see Bill Cosby live.  Cross that off the ol' bucket list.

3. First Lost Tooth!  This, too, might not seem like that big of a deal.  But to Spencer it really was.  And that's good enough for me.

2. It's A Girl!  You might not think that finding out we're having a girl should be considered an 'event'.  To you I would say: Take your stinky Y chromosome and get outta here before I... *ahem*  To a mother of three boys, or to any mother/daughter out there, This Is An Event.  Hallelujah and amen.

1. A Very Madsen Thanksgiving.  We don't get to see Lance's parents as often as we would like.  So this year we were really excited when they came out for a week for Thanksgiving.  It was a great trip, and we hope the boys didn't scare them away from coming back again!

Happy New Year!

We spent the evening celebrating with our good friends the Souths.  (They are our official Holiday Buddies.)  We made lots of appetizers, ate lots of appetizers, and played Wii Party.  Well, the kiddos played Wii.  We were only allowed to play every so often, like when a child decided they needed to eat another cupcake or something.

As per usual, I didn't get too many pictures.  I was too busy stuffing myself full of appetizers.  Mmmm... But I did get this shot of the Roast Beef Crostini I made. 

I kinda lost count of how many I actually ate during the evening.  Is that a bad thing?  (Answer: Not on New Year's Eve and certainly not when you're pregnant.)

And here's the carnage after most of the food was eaten:

Man, I love our basement kitchen.  Seriously, LOVE it.  It makes entertaining so nice and easy.  Oh - and notice the new microwave?  Santa gave it to me for Christmas.  He's a pretty generous guy.

Here's a Wii action shot of Ashton and Spencer.

By the end of the evening they were fighting just like brothers.  That's how you know they're good friends.

And here's Dom and Cole playing with the Geo Trax.  I like it when Dom comes over because it means the Geo Trax actually get some play time - Spencer and Josh rarely play with them.  But Cole seemed pretty interested, so maybe it's not quite time to get rid of them.

Action shot of Lance doing exactly what we had been yelling at the boys about all evening:

 "QUIT SWINGING THAT WII REMOTE!!"  Where in the world did the boys learn to do that?  Hmmm...

We counted down from 10 around 7:45pm, welcoming in the New Year and making good use of the noise makers Grandpa ElRay and Grandma Susie had sent us.  This means, as far as the Madsen household is concerned, it's officially 2011.

Happy New Year!! 

Self-portrait Day: Because I Keep Forgetting To Do This On Tuesdays

So here we are at week 24.  As you can see, I'm already poking out quite a bit.  Apparently my babies tend to grow horizontally away from me.  Many people, most of them complete strangers, like to point this out.  They also like to point out the fact that my tummy looks much larger than it should, at least in their opinion.  Did I mention these are people I don't know? 

This is what I would like to do in response.

But I don't.  (Because a wise boy I knew in high school once gave me this sage advice: "Don't stick it out unless you're gonna use it."  Can any FHS alumni out there name that boy?  Because I'm sure I'm not the only one he gave that advice to.)  (FYI, this is the same boy who got lost at a Boy Scout camp and had to be rescued, got run over by his brother, and made a giant pyramid out of school desks at the elementary school down the street, so it's not like I ever took his advice all that seriously...)

Anywho.

Today I took the boys to the Children's Museum.  It was madness.  Every family in Indiana was there.  Okay, I exaggerate - every family in Indiana and Illinois.  It was crowded.

But we still enjoyed ourselves.  Especially Josh, who just luuurrrvved the dinosaur exhibit this time.  He used to be scared of it, what with the pretend thunderstorm and dinosaur growls and huge, menacing dino skeletons and what-not.  But he's recently become a huge fan of the show "Dinosaur Train" on PBS, and has become a bit of a dinosaur buff. (Perhaps we have a budding paleontologist on our hands!)  His favorites dinos are pteradons and T-Rexes, both of which were found at the museum.  (Much to my relief!)

Please note the infamous Boxing Dinosaur shirt he is wearing.  It is now beloved, but is now also getting to be a little snug.  Dang.  Guess I should start looking for more dinosaur shirts.

The boys loved digging for dinosaur fossils.  It was quite exciting to wear goggles and use brushes!

Well, not for Cole.  He did NOT want the goggles, as you can see.

We also got to go to a planetarium show, which Spencer and Josh loved.  Spencer especially - he's been talking about it all evening and showing off the star map he got.  (Perhaps we have a budding astronomer on our hands!) 

I would have enjoyed the show more, but I was too busy wrangling a certain toddler who was hungry and tired and only happy when the planetarium show had moving scenes.  (Perhaps we have a budding little punk on our hands...)

Cole vs. Spaghetti O's

Who won?

Certainly not the Momma who had to clean him up.

(Cole's face still has a faint orange tint.  Good thing Spaghetti O's are a very rare treat around here.)

Christmas 2010

The boys have now reached an age where they can set their internal wake-up-before-dawn-on-Christmas-morning clocks.  It wasn't that bad - 6am - but Lance and I had really hoped they would have waited until at least 7am.  (No such luck for the next 10+ years, I'm sure.)

In my groggy state I didn't get too many pictures, either.  Just know that a grand time was had by all.

This year I scaled back on the number of gifts the boys got, and you know what?  They didn't even notice and were perfectly happy.  There was no gift overload, which we've experienced in years past.  It was nice.

Spencer played Santa's Helper and passed out the gifts.

Santa brought Josh a McDonald's play kit.  The child was thrilled and actually said "This is exactly what I wanted!" even though he had never mentioned it in his life. 

I just hope we're not getting him prepared for a lifelong career. :)

Here are Josh and Spencer first thing - they were so excited about what Santa had brought them!

Cole got a sweet racecar spinny race track thing from Santa.  He loved it - but so did Josh and Spencer.  I had to keep telling them to let Cole play with his own gift!

Cole loves dogs - LUVS dogs.  If we pass one on the street we absolutely must stop to pet it.  He loves getting doggy kisses and petting them.  Too bad Spencer is allergic.  (Okay, not really... I really don't think I could handle taking care of a dog right now.  But the point is moot, so whatever.)  Anywho, he loves doggies, so Lance and I gave him a little stuffed dog that barks.

He LUVS it.  The doggy never fails to bring a smile to his face.  It's his new nap and bedtime snuggly companion.  Don't you just love it when you can give your child the perfect gift?

Don't you love the sippy cup in his mouth?

The reaction in this video?  Completely spontaneous.  It's moments like this that totally make all the shopping and saving and wrapping and organizing and getting up before dawn worth it.

One last thing - Santa even left a little gift for our new baby.  You can never have too many bibs, right?

P.S. Despite his sincere Christmas wishes (again and again and again...), Spencer has yet to mention not getting a Nintendo DS even once.  Sweet.

A very merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve 2010

Our traditional Christmas Eve began with our traditional Christmas Evening dinner.  I used to make fancy main dishes, exotic even.  Until I realized that I was really only cooking for Lance and myself when I did that since the boys wouldn't eat it.  Not that I have a problem doing that - in fact, I pretty much do that every night of the week.  But I've decided to show a little Christmas spirit and make things I know the boys like: ham, homemade rolls, cheesy potatoes with bacon, salad, and Sprite with cranberry juice ice cubes.  (Okay, the salad was just for me.)

Spencer and Josh were over-the-top excited.  They knew that not only would dinner be yummy, but that the festivities would begin after dinner.  Cole was just happy to be eating - that boy loves ham!

Dinner always includes some very serious conversations.  Such as: do you like ham or not?  Does Santa like ham?  And how much ham can you put into your mouth at one time?

Also, what should we name this new baby?  (My favorite is the expression of disgust Spencer gives Josh about half way through.)

And finally, the very important topic of what you think Santa will bring you tonight.  (Poor Spencer seriously has his heart set on a Nintendo DS.  I almost wish we had bought one for him.)  (Almost, but not quite. They're pricey!)

After dinner we let the boys open their new pajamas.  What cracks me up is that we do this every year, and every year Spencer is sorely disappointed that all he got was pajamas.  It's hard to be Spencer, in case you haven't noticed.  The boys also got a few Christmas books that we read at bedtime.

We quickly changed into our jammies, took a few self-timed photos, and then got on to the reason we were all there: Christmas Bingo!

Christmas bingo is serious business in our house. (At least to the boys.)  There are prizes to be won and excitement to be had.  I get to be the bingo caller, mainly because I'm pretty good at making sure everyone gets a chance to win a prize. *wink*wink*

Cole is not quite ready for Christmas Bingo - but he was ready to run around and wreak havoc.  (He's turned into something of a little punk normal toddler lately.)

He personally put an end to the last game by steam rolling it.  Literally.

Josh shows off one of his bingo spoils.

Daddy threatens Spencer to stay away from the giant pen he won.  (Not really - but isn't that what it looks like?)

Spencer breaks out the little basketball game he won.

Cole has a few more tantrums... because that's all he got out of bingo.

I thought it would be nice to get a few pictures of the boys in front of the tree.  How foolish I am.  These are the best I could get.

I have no idea why, but Josh has suddenly become a big fan of the "point while taking a picture" pose.

More pointing.

Even more pointing...

And now pointing and strangling he little brother...

At least I was able to get a decent shot of Lance and Cole.  Well... of Lance...

After a wild bedtime the boys are finally nestled, all snug in their beds.  (While visions of Nintendo DS's dance in their heads...)  Lance and I get to stay up and wait for Santa and The Tooth Fairy to come. (They might need some help.)  I'm watching "It's A Wonderful Life", kind of missing my family, and getting kick-boxed from the inside out.

It's been a good evening.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Merry Christmas From the Madsens!

Here it is - our traditional Christmas Eve Pajama Family Picture.

Mommy: just about 6 months pregnant, Joshie: 4 years old, Cole: 18 months old, Spencer: 7 years old, Daddy: not pregnant

(For past pictures see here, here, and here.)

Santa Claus VS. The Tooth Fairy

In a fair fight who would win: Santa Claus or The Tooth Fairy?

We might find out tonight, because they're both visiting the Madsen home.

Good heavens - three missing teeth in a row on the bottom.  We're gonna have to put that boy on a liquid diet soon if he doesn't start growing some teeth instead of just losing them!