A fun comparison

When we got the studio pictures back and I saw this one of Madisyn, it reminded me so much of Sydney. Sydney is my twin sister's daughter (Jessica's daughter). Syd is now 5 years old, but this picture of her was taken when she was 13 months old. Maybe it's because the pose is almost exactly the same and the girls are both in similar outfits, but I thought Maddie looked so much like Syd! Seeing the pictures next to each other there is obvious differences (Syd has teeth, Maddie doesn't; their hair is a little different; etc), but I think it's so funny how the pictures ended up looking so similar!

Fall & Madisyn's 1 yr photos

We got the kids' pictures back from JCPenny today. We got some fall and Halloween pictures of Parker & Madisyn and then Madisyn's 1 year photos. We took a little cake with us for Madisyn's 1 yr pictures, and then let her dive into it. It was pretty fun!

Tagged

Tagged by Danielle

On this tag, you give five answers to each of the questions and pass it on. To pass it on, name the people on your blog and then leave them a comment notifying them on their blog.

Ten years ago I was:

1. A senior in high school. Man I’m so old!! (Picture-my 18th bday, Nov. 24, 1998)
2. Thought I would be an Occupational Therapist.
3. A band geek in H.S. and I still had bangs-ugh. I was really good at the flute back then! (picture-me and two of my best friends from H.S., Meghan & Jen)

4. Paying .99 per gallon for gas (I looked it up-it’s true!), watching videos (not DVDs), buying rolls of film for my camera and getting them developed, barely knew what the Internet was and hardly ever used it (how could we live without it now?), didn't know anyone who owned a cell phone, and didn't care how much food cost or how much electricity I was using.
5. Wasn’t interested in politics at all and now I’m scared for our country and for my kids’ future!


Five things on my to-do list today:
1. Bathe the kids (pictures: Parker at 12 mo, and Maddie at 7 mo)2. Shower (I know it's on my list everyday, but sometimes that is quite a challenge!)
3. Take Parker to the library and run a few errands
4. Tackle more laundry (ugh, it's never ending!!)
5. Figure out bills (the worst of them all!)


Five snacks I enjoy: (I don't really snack, but here are some treats I enjoy)
1. Ice cream, especially Dairy Queen!!
2. Caramel popcorn (homemade of course)
3. Cinnamon rolls (again, homemade of course)
4. Peanut butter cookies
5. Chocolate covered pretzels


Five things I would do if I were a millionaire:
1. Hire someone else to do my bills and not worry about them at all!!!
2. Buy decorations for my house. I LOVE Halloween (and Thanksgiving, and Christmas…), and yet we don’t have any Halloween decorations :-(. I really wish I could go and buy a whole house full of decorations!
3. Have my kids’ pictures taken every month (professionally). If you haven’t been able to tell, I love pictures. I love getting pictures from other people and seeing where they’ve been and what they’re doing and their cute families and their fun hobbies, etc, and I love sharing pictures too. I especially love professional pictures. They just end up so cute every time. So I would love to get my kids’ pictures taken a lot more than I have. We get the kids’ pictures back from JCPenny tomorrow and I’m so excited!!
4. Buy an automatic garage door opener. We’ve been parking our car in the garage, but we have to get out every time, disconnect our keys from the key still in the ignition, and open our garage door. Oh how the littlest things make life so much easier!
5. Travel. I would love to be able to travel to see my family and friends whenever I wanted to. I would also love to see so much more of the world! There are so many exotic, beautiful places that I would have so much fun seeing. Of course I would bring my family with me, or else it still wouldn’t be worth it.


Five places I have lived:
1. Idaho Falls, ID (and Rexburg too)
2. South Park, PA
3. Las Vegas, NV
4. Ogden and Roy, UT
5. Portland, OR


Five jobs I have had:
1. Cashier at Old Country Buffet (as well as a few other jobs there too)
2. Sales Associate at Fashion Bug
3. Account Sales Associate for Dollar Bank
4. Bank Teller at Bank of Pittsburgh
5. 3rd Grade Teacher in Roy, UT


Five people I tag:
1. Marian
2. Leah
3. Sarah
4. Kristie
5. Paige
You guys will all be really fun to hear about so I hope you get time to put it on your blogs!

A few events

Sunday we had beautiful fall weather, so we took the opportunity to walk down by the falls. It was really nice there and I love how the leaves are all changing color. We took two pieces of bread for Parker to feed the ducks, which he loved of course. Whenever some of the ducks would suddenly take off, Parker would think it was so funny and would start laughing. It was cute because the ducks/geese were fighting over the bread and Parker kept telling them, "Don't fight, duckies. Be nice!" Madisyn was old enough this time to be really interested in the ducks and she kept pointing at them and making her own "duck" noise.

Classic family picture by the falls

Another family pictures (although Maddie is in the middle of making her duck noise, so she kind of looks funny)

Intrigued by the ducks

Feeding the ducks

Maddie and Daddy watching the ducks

Me and the kids

My beautiful girl

My crazy little boy

The Idaho Falls Temple (like how Ben caught the bird in the picture too?)

So the other day we got a pretty good scare. Ben has been working for an organic fertilizer company here in I.F. He drives a huge machine called a Scarub. On Saturday it caught on fire while he was driving it. He would not have noticed the fire since it was behind & below him (he sits up 15 feet off the ground) and the machine is really loud, but he had just turned the Scarub so that the wind blew the smoke in his direction. He got out to see what it was, and the Scarub's batteries were on fire. He searched for a fire extinguisher and got in the cab to look for one when there was a loud BOOM. Afraid that the thing was going to blow (since it has two gas tanks that hold 100 gallons of diesel fuel), he jumped the 15 feet off the Scarub. Just after he had jumped off and was running towards our car to see if we had a fire extinguisher, there was another explosion. In a matter of just 45 seconds, the Scarub was engulfed in flames. I keep trying not to think about what could have or almost happened, and how blessed we are that he had just turned a corner (instead of the wind blowing the smoke away from Ben), but it sure does make me think of how lucky we were! We went out later that night and took some pictures of Ben's "near death" experience (I know, I'm a little dramatic!).

Ben standing by the Scarub. The cab is at the top in the middle.

Closeup (from the ground) of the cab

The inside of the cab

This is a picture of what used to be a tool box with a whole bunch of tools inside. The tools completely melted down to nothing (except the end of the shovel) because of how hot the fire got.

On another note, Madisyn had her 12mo checkup on Monday. She unfortunately has an ear infection, but is otherwise healthy. She had to have blood drawn from her arm, which was so HORRIBLE! They couldn't get into her vein so they were digging around for a whole minute and I felt so bad and so helpless!! She already has quite a bruise there. :-( Then on top of that (and on top of the ear infection) she had to have four shots! So the poor girl got beat up and I felt so bad for her, but at least she won't remember it. She is 17 lbs 7 oz (4th percentile) and 27.75 inches long (13th percentile). She is the same weight that Parker was at that age, but he was almost 2 inches taller. We are still waiting for any teeth, but I think she's finally getting close. She isn't walking or standing on her own, but again, that will come at her own time. We are just glad our girl is healthy and (usually) very happy!!

Maddie's party

We finally had our birthday party for Maddie on Thursday. Like I had said before, we had to post-pone it twice because I had the flu (yuck!). But we finally had it. We had some of our neighbors and family over, and even though it was a bit crowded, it was fun. I made her a cake (since I've been dying to make another fun cake), and we had ice cream and then opened presents. Here's a few pictures from her party.

Maddie with her cake

Parker & cousin Kenya helping Maddie open her presents

Madisyn with her first Cabbage Patch doll from our neighbors

Maddie's cake

Madisyn's birthday

Yesterday was Maddie's 1st birthday. I can't believe my little baby is no longer a baby!!! Although we weren't going to have her party until today, we still had a little family party where she got to dive into some cake. She loves cake, although she still eats it quite daintily. Here are a few pictures of her on her big day!!

Big girl Maddie!

No, she's still not standing on her own (she can, but she won't). She loves to climb up on something, turn around and put her bum on it, and stand there and "dance."

Mmm, cake!

Parker helping Maddie eat the cake

Maddie feeding Ben some cake

Yeah! Maddie can drink whole milk now! She would never drink formula & I still nurse her some, but I am SOOO excited that she can and does drink whole milk! (Parker never would, and still won't!) On another side note, we are still waiting for her to get her first tooth!!

P.S. We didn't end up having Maddie's birthday party today because I was sick all night and most of the day (yuck!). So we've post-poned it until Thursday night. I'll put pictures on here from the party after we have it.

Fall Fling

Yesterday we had a "Fall Fling" at my Aunt's house. We played a few fun, fallish games with the kids, had a chili cook-off, made funnel cakes and ginger bread, and just had fun with the family all together. Since it snowed (yes snow!!) about half of the day, we had to move everything inside. We set up a cute picture area in my uncle's shop, and took fun pictures there. Parker & Maddie weren't that cooperative (maybe since we had just gone the day before and had professional pictures done), but we got a few good pictures.

Parker & Maddie together

(Yes, he has a juice smile on his face. I took this one after all the others, which was after dinner, since he hadn't cooperated earlier.)

Big girl Maddie, about to turn 1!

Happy girl!

And this is what we woke up to this morning. Except I took this picture after church, and some snow was already melted (as you can see). Even though I couldn't believe we have snow already (none of it stuck yesterday), it was beautiful!