Have You Ever Been So Tired...

... that you fell asleep while sitting on the slide

after stealing one of your mommy's only ripe tomatoes and gobbling it all up like the little piggy that you are?

Cole has.

p.s.  I promise, this totally happened.  I watched him for several minutes through the kitchen window while his head kept nodding up and down and he kept almost falling off the slide. It was HILARIOUS.

Dog Driver

This afternoon the kiddos and I were running errands.  At one point we were stopped at a light behind a red minivan that, at first glance, looked like a rather large German Shepherd was driving.

You heard me.

It took me a second to realize that the dog was in the captain's chair just behind the driver.  He was big enough that it really did look like he was driving  He even had a seat belt on!

I quickly called this to Josh's attention, only I kinda sorta left out the part that the dog wasn't really driving.  Josh was completely impressed.  We spent the next several minutes talking about what it would be like to have a dog drive a car.  Would he drive straight or crash?  (Probably crash.)  Where would he drive to?  (McDonald's, of course!)  Would he go pick up other doggy buddies?  (Yes.)

By the end of the conversation I'm pretty sure Josh was convinced that dog was really and truly driving the car.  I purposely didn't pass the van so that he wouldn't find out the truth.

I am an awesome mom. ;)

Eleven Years

Great Caesar's ghost!  It's been eleven years!

 

This means I have spent one third of my life married.

 

While taking those pictures I had wonderful dreams of our future together.  None of those dreams included living in Indiana with four wild children, a home that never seems to be clean, and a red minivan.

Reality is way better than dreams.

I love you, Lance!

First Day of Second Grade

Here's Spencer on his first day of second grade!  Despite his protests, I think he was pretty ready to go back to school.  Summer vacation is great, but even playing computer, playing outside with your friends, and fighting with your younger brothers all day can get a little old.

I usually try to get Spencer to dress a little nicely on the first day (have him wear a polo shirt at least), but he found this Lego Harry Potter shirt at Wal-Mart and fell in love.  I'm also not a huge fan of cartoons on t-shirts, but it was on clearance for only $3 - can't beat that.  So I let him wear it, because some battles just aren't worth fighting.

This year Spencer is in an accelerated class that includes 2nd and 3rd graders.  There are only 8 second graders in the class, which I believe is somewhere around 20-24 students.  We met his teacher, Ms. Wilson, last night and Spencer seemed to like her.  I've heard nothing but good things about her, so fingers crossed.  I think this class will be good for Spencer, since he was often bored in school last year.  Perhaps he won't get into trouble so much for talking.

Yeah, right.  This is Spencer.  My big, smart, something-always-on-his-mind-and-he's-gonna-tell-you-about-it second grader!

First Annual Madsen Family Back-To-School Night

Lance and I have decided to start a new back-to-school tradition in our family.  I had actually wanted to do this for a few years now, but certain brand new babies (Cole) and morning sickness (Tess) prevented this.  This year our baby was only relatively new and I have no morning sickness (nor any reason to have it!), so there was nothing to stop me.

Anywho, the special back-to-school evening included dinner and a special Family Home Evening lesson where we introduced our new family theme for the 2011/2012 school year.

The actual dinner itself was special only in that I made something I knew the boys would eat and not complain (much) about.  (Spaghetti and meatballs, in case you're wondering.)  I decided to decorate a bit to make it more festive and important. 

First up, a cute and simple pencil bouquet.  Well, I thought it was cute.  Josh thought is was weird and ugly, which he made sure I knew.  Punk kid.  (Too bad, Josh - the pencil bouquet will be back next year!)

I also did some cute pennant banners.  It was really hard to get a picture of it because of the window.  Oh well... trust me, it looked cute.  The boys loved it!

 

We ate dinner and then Lance gave a really good lesson about how fear and doubt and things like that can sometimes stop us from doing tasks that we could really do if we just tried.  He tied balloons to the boys to represent that fear, doubt, etc.

The boys, of course, loved it.

Then he had the boys try to put their shoes on with all of the balloons in the way.  It was a bit tricky, of course.

Then Lance talked D&C 18:10, "Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God."  He taught the boys that Heavenly Father loves us very, very much, and that he is willing to help us do anything we need, such as school work, household chores, learning a new instrument, etc.  If we try our best, Heavenly Father will help us get rid of the fear and doubt that is stopping us.  Then Lance popped the balloons, showing that without those hindrances the boys could easily tie their shoes. (Or anything else they put their mind to!)

Cole thought the balloon popping was hysterical!

Tess did not.

Then we introduced our theme for the year:

We get a lot of "I can'ts" around this house.  Much of the time the boys really mean "I don't want to" when they say it, but often they just really think they can't do something and are just too afraid to try.  Hopefully this motto will help get rid of some of that fear, or at least give them the courage to try.  A copy of this now hangs up on a wall in our home, where everyone can see it and be reminded of it. 

Overall, I think the night went really well.  I think Spencer and Josh caught the idea of the lesson and understand the message we were trying to convey.  Do I expect smooth sailing for the year?  No way.  I'm pretty sure Lance and I will be referring to the sign above frequently during the year as we hear the usual "I can'ts" when the boys are given jobs to do.  But hopefully it will help ease some of the usual school year drama when it comes to homework and projects and such.  (Well, for me at least.  I hate homework and school projects - they are hard things for me!)

Lessons In Futility

I tried to get a picture of Tess smiling in her church dress.  No dice.

But I did get one of her trying to flash us.

 

 

I also tried to get some of all the kiddos in their Sunday best.  No dice.

We had stuffed chicks in front of faces.

And spiky-haired toddlers trying to escape.

This is a pretty good shot of Josh.  But not of Tess.

Spencer LOVES babies.  Especially Tess.

Well, at least three of the four are smiling!

Newest Harry Potter Fan

Lance and I are totally romantic when it comes to anniversaries.  And by romantic I mean lazy.

I love that about us.

Since our anniversary is this Tuesday, which is also the first day of school, we decided to celebrate by hiring a sitter for the boys and going out to dinner and a movie last night.  We were the only people on earth who still hadn't seen the last Harry Potter film, so of course that's what we chose to see.

Side note: I had a goal to see every single Harry Potter movie in the movie theater.  This might not seem like such a big deal, but we very rarely go to movies at the theater and all of my babies saw fit to come at very inconvenient Potter times.  I'm happy to report that my goal was completed last night!  It's good to have goals.  Even goofy ones.

Tess came along with us since she's still too little to stay with a sitter.  Plus, she doesn't even like Lance that much right now, who knows how she'd react to a stranger.  So Lance got to go out with two beautiful ladies!

I was a bit nervous about how Tess would behave during the movie.  I'm sure the other people in the theater were nervous, too.  (We got quite a few "Aw man!  I can't believe someone brought a baby!" looks.) 

I shouldn't have worried.  Apart from a couple of times where I didn't get the bottle fast enough to her mouth, Tess was really good!  Apparently, Tess is a huge Harry Potter fan.  Seriously, that baby watched a good 3/4's of the film!  If I turned her away from the screen she let her displeasure be known.  Eventually she fell asleep, and then was quite upset that she missed the end of the movie.  (Or maybe because I woke her up getting her into her car seat.  One of the two.)  And who can blame her?  It was a pretty awesome movie.

Here are a few shots I got tonight of our newest Harry Potter fan.  She's cast a spell on me with her cuteness.  (Is that lame?  I don't care.  There's something unbelievably adorable about a baby grabbing her feet!)