Dear Santa . . .

Your Cookies are Made . . .Your Reindeer Food Is Made . . .. . . And We Have Been EXTRA GOOD!!

Please Come Visit Tonight!!!

Merry Christmas!!

Love,

Emma, Zachary, and Kye

Introducing Kye . . .

WARNING LONG POST!!

Kye is officially 2 weeks old today and it's hard to believe how FAST time flies. You think I would realize that since this is my 3rd, but it still seems to amaze me! He already doesn't scrunch his legs up ALL the time, we get a little more time to look at his deep blue eyes since they aren't always shut, he is constantly wrapped up in a blanket since it's been so cold (and I LOVE that part!!), he is STARTING to sort of fit into 0-3mo. clothes and out of newborn size, and he is finally catching onto nursing, although he is not a pro yet, he will be SOON!

I don't know why, but I like to read other peoples birth stories, so I am going to post a snopsis of what happened (mostly for my record!) . . .

I had started having contractions on Wed. Dec. 2nd and hoped that I would have the baby before his due date. Nope, that didn't happen. I had random contraction from that time forward, but nothing alarming enough to care about.

Sunday night I had regular contractions, but not extremely hard or close together. Somehow in the back of my head I knew I would have this baby in the next 24 hours, although I didn't say much cause I didn't want to CURSE myself!!

I woke up the next morning at 6:00am with frequent enough and hard enough contractions to konw this was the REAL deal. FINALLY!!! I stayed in bed while Alan got the kids stuff packed and took them to Grandma's.

He got home around 10:00am and by 11:00am we were checking into the hospital. After we checked in things went FAST and SMOOTHLY!! I was excited when it was time to push and it was 1:00pm!!

I did not get an epidural this time like I have with my other two kids. Why, you may ask? Well, many reasons:

1. Both times my epidural has never fully worked and I have been miserable because I was in pain and was not expecting to be in pain.

2. I have had severe back pain because of my epidural, so I figured it wasn't worth it if it wasn't going to work fully.

3. I wanted Alan to be more fully involved in my labor and not just sit in a chair and SLEEP!

Not having an epidural, for me, was a wonderful experience. I am not saying it wasn't painful, but looking back on it, it's just how I have always wanted things to happen . . . FAST, WITH Help, and a WONDERFUL RECOVERY!!!

Here is the picture right after we had our little GUY still in Labor and Delivery.

And YES, he was LITTLE!!!

Here's our WHOLE family together!!!
(I had come to the hospital with the knowlege that our kids would NOT be able to visit, but after being in recovery for only a few short hours and seeing and hearing MANY kids, I told my Mom to bring them. I was so excited and relieved that they got to come. I really enjoyed having them there, even if it was a short visit! I totally missed my kids, just like I knew I would!!!)


My Little Kye
Look at all that HAIR!!! Okay, it might not be A TON to other people, but BOTH my other babies have had NO HAIR! To me this was A LOT of hair!


Our LOVELY candle-light Dinner
It was nice to ENJOY this meal together. With Zachary we were in such a RUSH to go home, that this meal was RUSHED through, but still good!

FINALLY ready to go!

We had to stay in the hospital for 2 days because of minor things. Although I hate being in the hospital I tried to relax and just enjoy the quality time I was able to share with Kye and Alan. I have the sweetest husband who stayed with me for both days, although he didn't have comfortable sleeping arrangements! I LOVE HIM!!

Santa Came Early . . .

. . . to wish us a Merry Christmas! On Saturday our ward had a Christmas party with Santa visiting all the children. Emma knew baby Kye wasn't going to go to the party and was very concerned he wasn't going to sit on Santa's lap and tell him what he wanted. She asked Santa to come to our house and visit Kye, and she also told Santa that Kye would want something, but she just didn't know what would be best. She is such a thoughtful sister!! It's so fun to watch her hold him, love him, and play with him!!!

Emma asked for 3 things, cause she is 3! A computer (this is her 2nd year asking for this particular present, last year Santa thought she was a bit young for it!), a Barbie, and a make-up thing.

Zachary didn't really ask for anything, but Emma decided he would be happy to get a Ball, since he can say that word.

Hopefully our kids will be GOOD, so Santa will bring them what they have asked for!!!

Kye Craig Madsen

Born December 7th, @ 1:11pm. He was 7lbs. 5oz & 20in. long

We are so exstatic that our little bundle is HERE!!!

I went into full labor at 6:00am on Monday morning. Alan got our kids up and dressed and took them to Grandma Fergy's where they would be staying while we were in the hospital. I spent the morning in bed relaxing. Alan got home about 10:00am, stuffed things in my already packed bag, and we were off to the hospital. We got all checked in at 11:00am, and were anxious to be DONE!! Everything progressed fast and smoothly and by 1:11pm we had our little bundle filling our arms with so much JOY! We love our little Kye and are so grateful to be HOME, FINALLY! Both Kye and I are doing well and are anxious to sleep in our own beds and adjust to life with 3 KIDS under THREE!!

AHHH . . . It will be a little CRAZY at the Madsen Home, but full of LIFE and FUN!

(I will post more pics later, just wanted to give you a sneak peak!!)

Hockey, Hockey, Hockey

I am not sure how I missed this post because my kids were in LOVE with the whole experience! My older brother plays on a hockey league and I have always wanted to go and watch a game. The games are always at BIZARRE times so I haven't been able to. Finally there was a game at a descent hour on a descent day, so I packed my kids up and headed to the game. My wonderful parents were there too, so they helped me with my kids. For the most part they really enjoyed being there and watched the game. Zachary was totally content with holding Dave's spare hockey stick the ENTIRE time. Once Emma saw how much Zach loved holding the hockey stick she wanted to do it too. We had to share the one and only stick and that's where things got a little restless, but they really did do okay!!! Here are some fun pics from the game . . .
Uncle Davey with Emma and Zachary before his game began.

Mommy and Zachary
Like I said Zach was totally content and HAPPY as could be holding the hockey stick. He TRULY loved it!
After we went to this game Zach's new thing has been hockey. He holds a little toy hoe and hits at balls. Alan has even "shot" around with him in the garage with one of his old hockey sticks. Zach loves it and it's so cute to watch your little guy truely be interested in something. He is growing up right in front of my eyes!!

It's Go Time . . .

I LOVE that the countdown baby calendar on my sidebar tells me it's GO TIME! Like I already didn't know that! Too bad this baby doesn't think so!!! Hopefully sometime SOON it will be GO TIME!!!!

Christmas Time is HERE!!!!

As December is upon us, we have started our wonderful holiday season with HAPPY memories!The Friday after Thanksgiving is the annual day to set up our Christmas Decor. It was filled with LOTS of HELPING HANDS! We had fun decorating our tree together and as you can see both kids were REALLY into the whole experience! If our tree doesn't LOOSE its fascination factor SOON, we might be UNDECORATING it and TAKING IT DOWN!! I know bah-humbug, but I am tired of BROKEN ORNAMENTS and kids standing on CHAIRS to reach ANYTHING and EVERYTHING they want!! Here is Zachary helping with the decorating part. He loved that ball ornament in his hand and wouldn't let go of it. Needless to say that was broken ornament #1, no suprise!!!This is Emma in front of the finished product. She had fun decorating, but all the ornaments she hung had to be moved to the top half once curious brother and sister wouldn't leave them alone! I love my tree!On Sunday we decided we better go downtown to see the lights or we might not make it this year. We had a fun time as a family seeing the lights and part of my family joined us for the fun traditional outing.Our little family in front of a manager scene.

I guess we didn't place ourselves so you could see the scene very well, but OH WELL!
Emma LOVED the lights, but especially loved the Manger Scenes. After we were all done seeing the lights she asked if we could go back and see Baby Jesus again. Of course you can't turn that down, so we went back to the main manger scene and she sat on Alan's shoulders and listened to the WHOLE story being told. It was cute to watch how inthralled she was over it!Zachary liked the lights, but got tired of being in his stroller. My siblings tried numerous times to keep him entertained and then offered to take him out, but I wouldn't let him. Eventually Uncle Davey just took him out and Zach loved runnin' around.This year I decided that each day until Christmas our kids would get to open one present. I have TONS of books that I have collected and kept in boxes to give to them someday. I decided that we would have an Advent Book Countdown to Christmas this year. We have opened 2 books so far and both of my kids have LOVED it!

Here's Day 1

As you can see Emma LOVES books and Zachary didn't really understand what to do with the paper that was hiding his book.

Eventually his sister helped him open his book and they carried them around with them the rest of the day. I think I read each book at least 10 times, but it's been a fun time to share with them!!!

We are excited for our Christmas bundle to arrive and hope that it will be the NEXT thing we post about! Until then, MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Gobble, Gobble

Thanksgiving Day was spent with the Madsen Family this year. We had a wonderful time eating, visiting, playing games, and hanging around! We are so blessed to be close to family and be able to share wonderful holidays with them!! Here's a few highlights from the entire day!!Zachary and Emma enjoying their Thanksgiving Dinner.

Emma got to sit on a FLYING SAUCER to eat and loved it for a little while!

Here's the snooze fest that happens after the YUMMY meal.

All the grown men are REALLY asleep, but not the kids!!


The Grandkids got to enjoy some movies for their relaxation time.

When we got home that night I wanted a picutre of ME on Thanksgiving, so I made Alan take one with me. It's so nice to be able to come home and enjoy the last bit of the holiday with such an amazing Baba!!

We have been truely blessed this year although it has been a tough year! It's amazing how we are blest despite other obstacles we may face in life. We are looking forward to the wonderful blessing of bringing another child into our home VERY soon! We also look forward to the wonderful Christmas Season!!!

!!Girls Weekend!!

This is our second anual girls weekend trip down to St. George.

We had such a BLAST!

We spent one whole day in Vegas shopping, getting makeovers, and eating yummy food!

Here's the result of our shopping in Vegas!!
We spent the rest of the time in St. George shopping, eating, goofing around, going to the temple and enjoying life without kids!!!

It's ALWAYS so much fun to be with these girls!!! I was 37 weeks pregnant, but I knew I wouldn't miss this weekend for the WORLD!! It was well worth all the fun bonding and funny moments we had together, including getting locked out of the house and eating at the Cheesecake Factory in Vegas at 10:00pm!!

Oh the MEMORIES!!!!

So the Other Day - - -

I went to leave for the store and Emma came running in wondering if she could come. I reluctantly agreed to let her go and sent her off to find her shoes.In a matter of no time she came running back with shoes on and her hands full of ALL THIS claiming, "Okay, Let's GO!"

I just busted up laughing!

She could barely hold onto EVERYTHING that was in her hands!

I told her she could have her purse and EVERYTHING else must stay home, she was a bit saddened, but finally agreed to the conditions.

She LOVES to just collect stuff from EVERYWHERE and cart it around.

Gotta Love It!!!

(Look Closely I think you will be surprised what "Precious" things she really carts around!!)

Halloween Extravaganza!

I was so excited for Halloween this year, as ALWAYS! I love dressing kids up! It brought me great joy when my family thought of Hansel and Gretel for my kids to be. It was fun to put together and make their costumes and I think they turned out DARLING! Emma was excited to be Gretel the minute I told her that Gretel was a Princess and of course she added her own touch with a little "BLING"!Hansel and Gretel at the "Trunk or Treat"

They are so cute together, I LOVE this picture!!!

They BOTH loved the balloon creations that they got at the Halloween Extravaganza! Emma knew EXACTLY what she wanted when she got to the front of the line . . . a PINK SWORD! We got brother a BLUE SWORD and he was equally thrilled!

Look at that PRICELESS grin!

We all dressed up for this party. . . Can you tell what we were?

Well in case you can't - - -

Mommy is a Princess Spider, because everything needs to be a PRINCESS in our house!

Daddy is Dex, the phone book guy

Next year I have BIG plans and hope that I can make it all work out!!

This is HALLOWEEN

We had fun celebrating Halloween ALL DAY LONG! For Dinner we made mini pizzas that were a big hit with the kids. They enjoyed eating all the toppings for the pizzas and didn't really care to make their own pizzas. When they came out of the oven Emma didn't even want any of her "Delicious" pizzas, so she at Mom's that she made and I was lucky enough to get hers, YUMMY!

Here they are "Decorating/Eating" their pizzas!Trick or Treating was a BIG hit with both of the kids. Zachary had a TIGHT grip on his bag the whole time and was very upset once his bag got dumped into the "Sharing" pot. Emma loved saying "Trick or Treat", but would say it before they even knocked on the door, so no one ever heard.Zachary WOULD NOT stop digging through his bag long enough to even look up!Emma pulled this face with EVERY SINGLE piece of candy she pulled out of her bag as if she had NEVER seen candy before!I enjoyed reading a book and passing out candy, while the Trick or Treaters were out and about. After they came home we did go over to a neighbors for a short while for a little gathering, but our kids didn't last long because they were worn out and TIRED!This is ALL the candy dumped into the "SHARING" bowl!

I love teaching my children how sharing is IMPORTANT!

SPIDER Cookies!!!

The week of Halloween we did lots of HALLOWEENIE things. One of the favorites was making SPIDER cookies! I always enjoy making cookies with my kids!!They are always excited to lick the beater!

When I make pancake batter they BEG to lick the beater and just don't understand why it won't be GOOD!
Here's Zachary with his SPIDER cookie
He LOVED eating the spider legs!

Emma did a good job placing her legs on her spider JUST RIGHT!!
She ALSO loves POSING for the camera, as you can tell!

The Spider Cookies were a big hit at our house and will be a fun TRADITION to carry on every year! It's a good change from sugar cookies!

And would this post really be complete without this MESSY MUG?

I think not!!

Pumpkins . . .

As I thought about carving pumpkins with our kids this year I saw many people who let their kids paint their pumpkins and thought, "What a GREAT idea!" I really had good intentions to let them paint their pumpkins, but when it came time to actual do the project I did not have the energy for the MESS that would follow, so my children were allowed to COLOR their pumpkins. They thought it was great and the mess was what I could handle. Maybe next year the paints will come out, MAYBE!!Zachary LOVED to slide the crayons over to him, so that his sister would squeal with disgust because he wasn't sharing!!!Emma was quite the little artist, but was frustrated because the crayons really didn't show up on the pumpkin. As you will see later, she covinced her Dad to help her carve her pumpkin. . . I really don't ENJOY carving pumpkins, but think I should every year just for the fun of it. I have now decided that after 5 years of enduring the whole pumpkin carving scene I will RETIRE my skills and Alan will carve a pumpkin for ME and HIM!!Emma LOVED helping Daddy carve her pumpkin. She picked out the shapes for the face - - - Triangle Eyes, Circle nose, and a BIG HAPPY SMILE!
Alan whipped out the tools left and right to carve his pumpkin this year. Unfortunately I don't think we got a picture of the final result except on his phone. It was an AWESOME SCARY face!! Someone even asked if his pumpkin was Hitler and Alan was proud to agree it was!!! Our cute kids with their PUMPKINS!
I do love Halloween and this pumpkin carving scene is fun to attempt, ONCE A YEAR, but I just don't have the skills for it!
Needless to say, it will continue to be a fun tradition for years to come!!!!
Hey I can't be good at EVERYTHING!!! : )