Merry Christmas from the Madsens!

Christmas Photo Shoot

Poor Spencer. He's got a pretty nasty virus. For the past few days he's had a fever and chills and a nasty 10-pack-a-day cough. Couple that with a little pukiness and some viral-induced hives and he's pretty miserable.  He's kinda zoned out most of the time on Benadryl. And it's been like this for a good three days now - is this kid ever gonna get better? (I'm sure he's wondering the same thing.)

True story: yesterday I dropped $40 at CVS getting things like child ibuprofen, child Benadryl, cortisone anti-itch cream, calamine lotion, and cough drops. I should've picked up a big bottle of hand sanitizer as well for the rest of us.  Oh well, I will just have to be diligent in my hourly Lysoling of the entire house, trying to keep everyone else healthy.

So, since Lance had to teach a lesson today at church, I'm the one who gets to stay home with Typhoid Spencer. And since I wasn't rushing around getting ready this morning I was able to have a little Christmas photo shoot with Tess.  (Why not the boys?  Because they just don't care and/or are covered in hives.)

Tess is most definitely going through A Phase.  Sassy and tantrum-prone and impatient.  And she and Cole?  Bitter enemies most of the time, fighting like cats and dogs. Unless they're conspiring against me, in which case they're more like a couple of comic book villains. (Not very competent at their evil-doing, but enough to cause some trouble and get some attention.)

For example, yesterday morning she got upset that Cole had the hot chocolate mug that she wanted. So she flung her swiped her mug of hot chocolate across the table. That was the beginning of a morning full of time outs.

But she's also quite darling and cute. She can even be sweet when she wants.

Getting her to smile and look at the camera? Not so much. I would say "Cheese!" and she would reply with "POOP!" A lot of the pictures have her making a duck face.

She's very excited about being three. I wonder if she'll refuse to turn four like Cole did? (One can only hope, because that was a pretty entertaining phase.)

Tess also LOVES the tree. I am constantly having to tell her to leave it alone. This is why the bottom half is mostly decorated with shatter-proof ornaments.

The photo shoot ended as I suspected: with Tess in her pouting corner. She is the pouting queen, after all.

Pre-K Christmas Cuteness

Cole's pre-k teachers come up with some pretty great crafts. Here are my two favorites for Christmas.

True story: The Grinch signs were hung up on each child's cubbie. Super cute. Only Tess was honestly afraid of them! So for two weeks I had to distract her from the "scary hands".

True story: Is this not the cutest place for his elf? Cole is awesome. Hard work, but awesome.

Spencer's 11th Birthday

It's kinda hard to believe that my oldest child turned 11 yesterday.  Then again, it's not hard to believe at all, because he acts just like an 11 year old boy. (If you have or have ever lived with an 11 year old boy then you will understand...)

We started the day with snickerdoodle pancakes, complete with candle that confused the heck out of Tess. Since there was only one candle Spencer was turning one, right?

Then at lunch time I picked Spencer up and took him out to lunch! What a fun mom I am!  I have always resisted taking my kids out of school for any reason - I just have issues with it that are too long and boring to explain here. But my friends peer pressured me into it and I'm so glad they did. :) There's an awesome picture of him a lunch on Instagram, but I'm too lazy to get it off of my phone.

Anywho, the boy takes after me in that he loves sandwiches and s'mores. We had lunch at Subway and I made him a s'mores birthday cake.  Isn't it awesome? Chocolate layer cake with graham cracker crust on each layer, covered in chocolate ganache and topped with marshmallow frosting.  Pretty tasty. (And pretty to look at, if you ask me!)

I just love how festive our little nook looks for birthdays!

Poor Spencer hadn't been feeling all that great that afternoon, and by the evening he was feeling sick. But he powered through blowing out candles and opening presents, because that's what tough 11 year old boys do.

We got him Disney Infinity for his PC. He did not seem all that impressed even though he's the one who asked us to get it for him. (Good thing it was 50% off or I would have been more offended!)

And of course the obligatory Boy Scout manual and shirt - because he is now officially a BOY SCOUT!! (Yeah, he was snarkily posing with this gift.) ((Do you know what this means?! It means I have to sew patches on a scout shirt!!  Kill me now.)

He also got an XBox controller for his computer, which he really was excited about.

And a book from Grandpa Viggo and Grandma Joy. (They know he's an avid reader!)

And a cool scouting compass from Grandpa ElRay and Grandma Susie.

We let him play on computer - a rare treat on a weeknight - but he felt so sick he never even had any birthday cake! Poor child.

The evening ended with him crying in bed because he felt sick and had to go to bed early. I felt really bad. What an awful birthday! I don't think it's fair to have awful birthdays until at least your 20's. The poor child stayed home from school today with a fever and chills.

Hopefully Friday will make up for it - we'll go out to eat at the restaurant of his choice and then hit Monster Mini Golf.

When I took the above picture it reminded me of one we took almost eleven years ago:

I guess we started him young...

Spencer is a pretty amazing kid. He's figured this whole school thing out. He LOVES little kids and taking care of them. He knows a lot about computers, at least for an 11 year old. He's smart and silly, and is very obedient. (For the most part. But aren't we all?)  He LOVES computers and video games and talking smack while gaming online. He has zero body fat and a low tolerance for cold, but is always the first one to want to play out in the first snowfall of the year.  He's GREAT on long car trips and puts up with a lot from his younger siblings, generally even with patience! Spencer is super friendly, a true Midwesterner, which is funny because he's my only child who wasn't born in the Midwest! He looks like a Roper, talks like a Madsen PC Gamer, and stays up late reading (I couldn't tell you where he gets that from...) ((Yes I could.)) (((It's me.))) He loves nachos, root beer, pizza, any kind of meat with gravy, and occasionally even eats something green! He is a good friend and chooses his friends wisely.

In other words, he is the perfect son.

We sure are lucky to have Spencer in our family! I love you, Spence!

Christmas Has Begun

For some people Christmas doesn't truly begin until they've heard Handle's Messiah. For others it's reading the account of Christ's birth in Luke, or setting up the tree, or reading Dickens' A Christmas Carol. Caroling, seeing the lights, putting up the tree.

But for me? For me, Christmas doesn't truly begin until I've listened to this:

Thanks for making my childhood so awesome, Mom & Dad. :)

p.s. Lest you think I'm a horrible person, all of the above also play an important part in my Christmas. This one just holds an especially important part in my childhood heart.

Friday Night Lights

On Friday night we decided to try out a new Christmas activity: the Faith Baptist Living Nativity. They've been putting this on for years and lots of people had told us it was really worth seeing; I'm not quite sure why we waited so long.

So we got there a few minutes before they opened, which meant we had to wait a bit. In the cold.  I mean, it wasn't FREEZING, but it was pretty chilly. This made Cole angry. (Big Surprise.) ((Not a Surprise.))

Lance just loves activities like this: out in the cold, whiny kids, on a Friday night when he could be gaming...

So this nativity: it's not just a nativity.  There are something like 14 different scenes depicting different parts of the bible, starting with the fall of Adam and Eve and ending with the resurrection of Christ.  It's all done outside and all done with volunteers. Hundreds of volunteers. It was pretty impressive!

Here's Spencer in front of Moses and the burning bush. (The fire was in a fire pit decorated with metal leaves.)

As you walked along there was a short recording that told you about each scene and then would tell you when to move on.

There were even live animals involved!

They had a scene from Bethlehem with tons of little kids dressed up and walking around, acting as if they were in a marketplace. It was pretty cute and you could tell those kids were having a great time.

Cold Tess, however, was not having a great time. She was having a scowly time.

It took me a second glance to realize that the baby Jesus in this scene was made of rubber. It looked really realistic and I was starting to get nervous that he didn't have a hat on! Too realistic.  Creepy realistic.

Here's the Angel talking to the shepherds. I'm... not sure why his arms were stuck out like that.  I liked the cute sheep. The kids liked the smoke.

This was my favorite scene because CAMELS!! They're my favorite animal, in case you didn't know. Who knew I would ever see camels in Lafayette, Indiana?!

Look! This camel smiled for me. He knew I was a fan.

I tried to take a camel selfie, but it didn't work.  Lance to the rescue! (I feel like I look weird. And not just because I'm standing in front of a camel.)

This scene of Jesus calming the waters was pretty cool. I even took video of it.

Okay, I'm not gonna lie. Lazarus was a little weird. He looked like a mummy to me.

I didn't take any pictures from the crucifixion scene - it seemed wrong. (They used statues, in case you were wondering.) This guy was talking about... something... I don't know. By this point the kids were pretty cold and whiny and we just wanted to get done!

Annnnddd... then we saw disco Jesus.  I know, it's supposed to be Jesus resurrected.  But the lights kept flashing and there was lots of fog and it was a little weird. And Josh asked, rather loudly, "WHY DOES HE HAVE A GOLD CROWN?!?" And I had to explain that it was because Jesus is known as the King of Kings, and that was their way of representing that.  He started to ask about the lights and fog but I shushed him and distracted him with the thought of hot chocolate and cookies.

We went into their community center and enjoyed some very hot chocolate and cookies. There were lots of volunteers there to welcome you, chat, invite you to church, and make you feel rather uncomfortable sometimes. (What do you chat about when their main job is to get you to come to their church and you're not interested. And your kids are eating ssoooooo ssssslllloooowwww...)

In all, it was a pretty interesting experience. As we drove out of the parking lot I tried to talk to the kids about the differences between what we saw and what we believe.  There weren't many - we believe in the Bible and all that good stuff.  I pointed out that there were no references to the Book of Mormon, which the kids thought was weird. (I totally get it; when you're a kid, of course everyone believes the exact same things you do!) They all agreed that they would like to do it again next year and I think we probably will.  Even if it's not our church, all of us could do with a little more religion! :)

After the nativity we decided to hit our usual light show up in Battle Ground. (We were already halfway there, why not?) We waited and waited and finally got to see the show and Josh whined and Spencer was mean and Cole was impatient and Tess danced... so, pretty much like every other year.

We drove home, making sure we went up 9th Street because there's this rather large house that has a TON of lit-up decorations on the lawn and a Christmas tree in every window.  Impressive. (I couldn't get a picture of it, though. Dang.)

Once we were finally in our neighborhood we saw what is Tess and Cole's favorite Christmas display: the giant, lit-up PVC star.  "GIANT STAR!!! GIANT STAR!!! HAHAHAHHAAAAAHAHAA!!" This is what I hear for a good 5 minutes every time we drive by it.  Fun.

It was a really fun evening out with our family and I love that we do things like this.  I hope our kids grow up loving these traditions as much as I do.

COLIEHAPPYMOON

Cole likes to IM Lance at work through Steam. (I didn't even know he could type.) Cuteness ensues.

Apparently last week he updated Lance on the time - every minute. For several minutes.