Winter Wonderland

Madison's new favorite activity is playing in the snow; she can't get enough of it!

Little Snow Bunny!

She was finally old enough to decorate the tree; she LOVED every minute of it!
She was such a great little helper!

She took decorating very seriously as you can see below!

We went even more child proof this year and invested in some shatter proof bulbs...

they've been worth every penny!

BYU 26 Utah 23!

OK so this picture was taken at a different game but I just had to give my friends who are U fans one more little shout of victory! :)

In all honestly, I used to be a Utah fan until I went to school there...should have gone to BYU.

Maddy happily jumping on the bed after BYU won...

(or just happy I'm letting her jump on the bed).

Halloween '09

This year is SO much fun with every Holiday as Madison is finally old enough to appreciate them!!! She was so cute! One of the 1st homes we went trick-or-treating to, (thank goodness it was my friend Susan), as soon as the door opened Madison walked right in and made herself at home. I guess if we're knocking on the door, we do usually go in as she hadn't quite grasped the concept of trick-or-treating yet. We couldn't stop laughing. Susan was so funny, she said "Hey, come on in, watch the game with us!"

After a few homes she had it down and picked up her pace to where she was practically running to each house. Another one of our neighbors has two small dogs that were in costume. When they came to the door with candy, Madison picked up one of the dogs, started to walk away and said "Thank you!" We were all laughing so hard, we said "Wow, this is the best house yet, you guys give away puppies!" What a crack-up! After a bit of trick-or-treating we went to Dan & Elise's for a fabulous Halloween party. What a fun year, we can't wait for Christmas!

Action shot:

All candied out!

Outing With the Parents

Rowland & I have rediscovered the Symphony lately; we absolutely love it and have been several times this year.

We went with Clay & Diane a couple times to some of Clay's favorites.

My Mom & Step-dad also went out with us another time. We ate at the Japanese Sushi Bar, Ichibans (or as Rowland likes to tease me and call it "itchy buns").

Then we went to Temple Square and saw an Art Exhibit at the Conference Center.

How fun to spend time with our parents!

Maddie learning to use chopsticks.

It's crazy to think I was already eating with chopsticks at her age as a child in Japan.

Here we are at Abravanel Hall after the Symphony.

I always hoped to marry someone who appreciated the Arts, I'm so glad Rowland loves that stuff.

We love going to plays, concerts, art exhibits, etc. I'm so glad we can appreciate those things together!

My little rocker!

OMGosh! My little Rocker headbanging to Metallica?! :)

Maddy's New Trick

Maddy just randomly started crossing her eyes and is so proud of her new trick!

She loves doing it to make us laugh and thinks it's hysterical.

It reminds of me of when I was little and would do anything to get a laugh out of my older sisters.

Trip to the Zoo

Now is the best time to go to the Zoo! There are so many new babies; a baby giraffe, baby tigers and the cutest little baby elephant!

I'm not a big Hogle Zoo fan but it's definitely worth going just to see all the new babies!

Madison LOVED the Zoo this year! She went nuts over every animal and didn't want to leave each exhibit.

She was furious that the Zoo Keeper wouldn't let her feed the Giraffe.

I think her favorite animals are monkeys but every time we asked her which her favorite was, she would list several. She must be an animal lover like her Dad!

Taking an emergency Ice Cream break.

This was the cutest little baby Elephant ever!!!

He was only a month old and was SO adorable to watch--what a sweetie!

Madison's favorite part was the Carousel.

Our Summer At A Glance & Camping in the Snow!

We had a pretty busy Summer with my Daycare and decided not to take any trips this year.

We hope to go to Disneyland next year when Madison is 3 and at least old enough to really appreciate it.

We still had some fun; lots of playdates, camping, parties and fun at the park.

Madison discovered that she loves watermelon.

And sidewalk chalk which (as you can see) leaves lovely little foot prints all over the freshly mopped hardwood floor.

Here she is running right in the middle of a football game at the park because she wanted to play "ball!" Which happened on more than one occasion.

We went camping.

Maddy thought roasting marshmellows was the coolest thing ever.

Here she is diligently reading the scriptures...(or just trying to tear out pages).

We had Madison's 2nd b-day party that just about everyone came to including my Dad who flew in from Oregon.


This year she happily got the hang of the whole opening gifts thing (as you can see below).

Our 2nd celebration with my sister Jennifer & her kids who couldn't make it to the party.

More camping. At one point Madison sat in a camping chair with a huge smile looking around and said: "I'm happy!" It was the cutest thing ever! After that, I decided we definitely need to go camping as often as possible!

We got snowed on and stayed...since we're hard core (or a little crazy) like that :).

It was still a blast!

Here's part of our camping group huddled by the fire.

Maddy jammin' in the truck as we waited out the worst of the storm.