Madsen family

Minute To Win It - Take 2

2012-01-29T21:39:00.000-08:00

And for your veiwing enjoyment.....

Minute To Win It got a bit crazy afterward.

....my mom is still finding marshmallows downstairs.

Alexander's Minute To Win It

2012-01-29T21:15:00.000-08:00

My mom worked hard on this and it was so much fun. The day after Christmas we had a Minute To Win It party. Rule #1, everyone had to wear a Christmas hat. (as the games got a bit more intense the hats started to come off... they were getting in the way) Everyone took a turn, the kids wanted a turn on every game, Perry loved helping whoever was playing any game, the girls are a lot better at the games than the boys, and it was a lot of fun.

the list of games to pick from

Perry LOVED these red noses - - Heather and Chase: Kissmas Ornament - - Peyton: Christmas Cookie

Coby and Dad: Ornament Balance (Heather and I went next and beat them)

Coby and me: Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer (stick the red nose to the vaseline on your nose)

Winner!!!

Mom: Merry Fishmas (probably the hardest game)

Coby and Jeff: Kissmas Ornament (Coby picked me as his partner, but we all voted it would be funnier if he picked Jeff. ...and it was)

Heather: Oh Christmas Tree

Chase: Christmas Sucks - - Nut Stacker

Chase and Jeff: Christmas Cookie (it starts on your forehead, you have to scrunch your face to get it into your mouth)

THANKS MOM!!! This was fun!!!

Perry was so funny. She did not want to take that nose off when she went to bed, but she couldn't breath out her nose with it on. It took about 20 minutes before she finally took it off. My mom couldn't stop cracking up during story time before bed with that blinking red nose.

Christmas Day

2012-01-25T12:13:00.000-08:00

Christmas was wonderful... no really, best Christmas ever. We slept at my parent's house so we could get up with the kids and do the whole Christmas morning thing. Heather's kids didn't wake everyone up til like 8 or 8:30. I remember as a kid getting impatient at 6 in the morning!

Perry opened her first gift which was all she wanted. Little plastic animals. She was set for the day and would have been happy with just that. Chase and Peyt ripped through all their gifts in about 10 minutes and no one had any idea what they got. None of us adults had to move at all since they brought everyone their gifts after they were done. It was crazy Christmas chaos which is the best way to do it. We were all super blessed with lots of gifts and had lots of fun things to play with.

Left pic: Heather was wrapping presents at her house and Peyt got worried that she didn't have anything for mom and dad. She ran in the pantry, told Heather not to look, wrapped her gifts and brought them to AZ. Jeff got olives, Heather got pineapple, and Peyton was very proud she got her parents a gift. It was really cute.

Every year we/my parents make a big breakfast Christmas morning. Fresh squeezed orange juice, ham, hash browns, pastries, donuts, eggs... it's delicious!

When we were little my dad always had to shower before we could open presents. Torture to little kids. -Grandpa doesn't make the grandkids wait...

Christmas night we went to celebrate with Coby's family. I didn't take a single picture. We had dinner, exchanged gifts, his little sister Bree called (she is on her mission in California)... it was SO good to talk to her. It's always a party with Coby's family.

Christmas Eve

2012-01-24T22:13:00.000-08:00

Heather's family came down for Christmas this year (whoo hoo!!!) which was a big deal since they usually come after Christmas and Christmas morning is so much more fun with little kids around.

Christmas Eve we had dinner with our family, Grandma and Grandpa Alexander, the Barratts, and Uncle Mark, followed by a little program. It's always fun to get together with everyone.

My cousin's daughter Elle LOVES Chase. She followed him around, had him carry her everywhere, and sat on his lap during the program. It was so cute.

Then of course we opened up our Christmas pj's. Coby was thrilled. proof:

--Glad Heather took lots of pics so I can post more about the

holidays because sometimes I didn't take any!!!

The Melting Pot

2012-01-24T21:30:00.000-08:00

A couple weeks ago I saw people putting on their blogs "I can't believe it's January and I'm just now posting about Christmas." Well I'm still going to post about Christmas. Let's be honest, my Christmas decorations are still up, I love the holiday, and apparently this is how I'm going to drag it out as long as possible. So let's back up to mid December shall we?

My amazing friend gave us a gift card to the Melting Pot a couple months ago. We had never been, but have heard such fun things about it and were excited to go. We were told that everyone dresses up to go; it's a fancy restaurant and most guys wear slacks and ties. Well I love dressing up, it's fun; Coby... not so much... at all. He did it though, just because I said that you had to at this restaurant. We walked in and the first 4 groups or so we see are in T-shirts and jeans. You better believe I got the look. He looked good and it was our first time getting fancy to go eat so it was worth it.

The food was SO good, especially the meat. Coby wished the entire meal was the meat it was that good and tender. There was 4 courses, and it is all fondu. You cook it all. It was a fun experience and are so thankful for that gift card. One of the best things of the night was that we had a whole little back section of the restaurant to ourselves pretty much so it felt like we were alone. Loved the whole night.

My Christmas Wish List---

2011-12-09T08:00:00.000-08:00

1. iphone 4s in white - Thank you Santa! 2. you need to accessorize. Here are my top 3 and I can't choose: teal blue, dots, stripes 3. Some new perscription glasses by Bonlook 4. red lipstick - I need to pick out the shade still, but this one looks pretty: MAC -Ruby Woo 5. Brown boots- I have small calves and it makes boot shopping the pits. I love these however they are sold out everywhere! -Type Z Huff Boot 6. A baby!!! Normal Christmas request. It worked in Miracle on 34th Street! Anyone know of any? Pass our name along and spread the word!!!

7. Also I forgot to add, I won a picture of Christ a while ago. I want to get it framed.

What should be on Coby's list? He says, "money for my shoulder surgery" and won't tell me anything else. So... what should I get him?

I LOVE CHRISTMAS!

2011-12-08T17:24:00.000-08:00

This is by far my most favorite time of the year. I love everything about Christmas time... the smells, the lights, the weather, getting to dress in layers, snuggling up in quilts, family visits, music, traditions, Christmas movies... I have many, hot chocolate, celebrating the savior... seriously, ALL OF IT! I am a huge fan of the magic of Christmas and seeing kids light up about it all. It is my favorite!

Thymes Frasier Fir Diffuser - Smells just like a Christmas tree. Love it!

cinnamon sticks and spices on the stove

MOVIE NIGHT!!

2011-12-08T14:26:00.000-08:00

Last weekend Coby and I went with the Hyatt's for a fun movie night. We had found free tickets to the new Studio Movie Grill that just opened in Scottsdale and they were expiring. It is one of those theaters where you sit in big comfy chairs and can order food throughout the movie. It was so fun.

The boys were talking about movies at work and Jacob said, "I don't care what we see, but no twilight!" We were planning to see Tower Heist, but it was sold out when we got there and no other movie was showing for over an hour except twilight. Sunny and Jacob had to get their babysitter home by a certain time so Twilight it was... and guess what.... the boys didn't think it was half bad.

We ordered dinner, Coby thought the free re-fills throughout the whole movie was the best thing ever; all you had to do was push a button on your seat and they brought it right out. About mid way through the movie we ordered desert... chocolate cake and ice cream mid movie... I thought that was the best thing ever.

Loved it! We had so much fun and are ready to do it again!

Utah Trip- Pumpkin Patch

2011-12-08T14:04:00.000-08:00

The first week of October we went up to Utah for a weekend for little Crew's blessing and Chase's baptism. Pretty cool that they got to do it on the same day.

Before we went it had been about 95-100 degrees in AZ and the day we left it was supposed to be in the 70's. Well that means that UT was in the 40's and right when we went back home it went back up to the upper 90's. We know how to miss all the good weather. We even drove through a nice blizzard on the way up. There was a whole lot of fertility stuff mixed in the past 2 months, but we'll keep that as a separate post.

My sister has the best pumpkin patch ever down the street from her house. SO MANY PUMPKINS! I think we left with 3-4 wheelbarrows full. (plus they are pretty cheap too!)

Utah Randoms

2011-12-08T13:59:00.001-08:00

On Chase's birthday we went out to his soccer game. It was freezing!!! Peyton sat on my lap the first half and it wasn't so bad... the 2nd half she ditched to go sit in the car and it was so much colder! Chase scored a few goals... nice little birthday gift

During the game, Coby's youngest brother Jaron called us because he was opening his mission call. He got called to the Chile, Osorno mission and leaves January 4th. We couldn't be happier for him

Some randoms: Perry's nursery teacher loves Halloween and made these haunted houses out of cardboard for all the kids, and they got to put stickers all over them. How cute are they??

The morning of Chase's birthday, Peyton was climbing on the counter to get Perry a sticker for her potty chart and whacked her chin on the granite splitting it open. Heather and Grandpa got to take her to the hospital for stitches... not a fun way to start off our trip.

The Canyon

2011-12-08T13:00:00.000-08:00

Our last day we drove up to the Canyon to see the colors on the trees. We missed most of the leaves since it had been cold, but had lots of fun skipping rocks in the stream. Perry threw every rock with a "hi-ya!" Jeff balanced a rock one of the rocks in the middle of the stream and it was a contest to see who could knock the little rock off first. I love it up there!

This little man stayed bundled up, but was happy and content to be watching everyone.

Til next time Utah!

September=Softball Fail

2011-11-10T22:31:00.000-08:00

I figure the only way I'm going to get back into this is to go one step at a time. I hate that! I hate getting so behind that you are too overwhelmed to blog anything because you know how long it will take to catch up. Is it really that big of a deal to cause stress? No sir, but you know it's bad when your husband keeps telling you that you really need to get the blog updated.

Ok, September. Coby was playing softball (his family's city softball league), was trying to impress me with his skills by diving for a ball (ok, so maybe not exactly that), hit the ground wrong, his elbow caught and threw his shoulder out of joint. He is screaming on the ground while his dad tries to put his shoulder back in place (after seeing my dad do it before to Coby's little brother).

Poor guy.

(side note: I was on lots of meds for fertility and had acquired the ability to cry at anything. I acted like his shoulder was no big deal and that he was fine... truth was I was trying to hold back bawling on the bleachers)

Little Rockie was kind enough to let sweaty Uncle Coby use her blanket as a sling since we didn't have anything else.

We went to Urgent Care that night to make sure it was back in place. They didn't have anyone who could do an x-ray and said to come back in the morning. In the morning we went to a different urgent care and the dr said, "you're lucky you got me and not some PA. Chances are you will get an x-ray and 50% of the time the person won't know how to read it. We are told to get as much money out of you as possible so then we could draw your blood for no reason too, but I'd suggest just going to the hospital and not wasting your time here." Awesome. Luckily Coby's brother Jaron has had every injury in the book and has had knee and shoulder surgery so we knew who to go to to get some help in the mean time. He let us use a very nice sling and his ice machine that he had from his knee surgery. We just rigged it for Coby's shoulder.

So we waited until we got approved for an MRI (a few weeks later), and found out that the ligament that keeps his shoulder in is torn 85% of the way, his socket is bruised and the bone is chipped. Surgery is a must. Problem is that Coby switched jobs, and our new insurance hasn't kicked in yet so come December we will be getting that scheduled.

Coby was so upset that he was out for the season that he would get grumpy and trash talk the other team... more than usual. Injuries are not fun!

Starting at the beginning...

2011-09-19T14:15:00.000-07:00

So now that I said I would go into this and write all about it I have NO idea where to start. The beginning would be an obvious place, but I still find myself saying I need to just start writing, then I end up starig at the computer forever and don't write a thing.

It's a scary thing to write. It is not something I want to take over my blog or be the main topic, however, this has been what our life has revolved around for quite awhile. It has kind of become our way of life, and we are ok with that. Also as a side note with all of these posts... Once you go through fertility stuff, all the lingo becomes completely normal. Talking about cycles, eggs, sperm, triggers, shots, meds, ovulating... all becomes the norm. Everyone knows everything about your body and it isn't really all a secret anymore. haha So this might get a little blunt and open, but I'll try not to get too much into it.

If you feel the time is right to start a family, it doesn't matter how long you have been trying... that realization each month that "nope... didn't work" is so hard. I think everyone thinks it won't happen to them, and it will come easy. I thought that. Then each month the "nope" was so frustrating. The desires to build your family are pure, why is it not happening for us? I remember at about the 6 month mark (of trying) going in for my yearly OB appointment and asking her what she thought about why we were having a hard time and the nurse said, "At your age... it usually takes a long time"... then she walked out. That bugged me for so long! At my age?! I was 25 at the time! That was supposed to be prime age! It is hard seeing babies all around you, people who don't want to get pregnant are getting pregnant, and sometimes it just feels lonely.

We had been trying to get pregnant about 9 months when I just felt like something was off and really wanted to go see a fertility Dr. It was a gut feeling. I knew that it could take years for healthy people to conceive with no reasoning behind it. Knowing what I know now about all the science that it takes to get pregnant, I am amazed how common pregnancy is at all! It is truly a miracle for everything to align and to get a healthy pregnancy. However, badly as I wanted answers, Coby wasn't ready. I knew it wasn't something we could do until we were both on board. More months went by... and it was hard. Personally for me, it was that I felt like we were at a stand still. I just wanted answers, I wanted to be proactive in the process and not just waiting around, but I knew I had to be patient; we both needed to be ready for the next step, but that gut feeling was constantly there.

After about 16 months of trying, Coby could tell how hard it was for me and he said that we were going to see a fertility Dr. It was an anniversary gift to each other (we are so dang romantic!) I don't think I would ever be ready for what we would find out, but I was thrilled to be moving in the right direction. I had a few friends recommend a particular fertility Dr. I didn't know anywhere else to go, I didn't know steps to finding the right Dr. for us so we jumped in with both feet with this Dr. We were told it sometimes took a couple months to get in for a first appointment. I called and left messages with no call backs. Now that Coby was with me and we were both wanting answers, I wanted in ASAP, I wanted the next step to look forward to. Something that helped me so much during this whole thing is the "next" appointment. Whatever it may be, I had a next step to look forward to, there was another thing to try. After 3 days I got a call back from the office. She said she had just gotten off a phone call with a patient who couldn't make her appointment and asked if I wanted it. It was 4 days away! I jumped on that so fast when I knew their usual waiting list. She told me that it would probably just be a consultation because you have to be on a certain day in your cycle to do anything other than that for starters. As luck would have it, I would be on the exact day that I needed to be to start right then and there. We got Coby's first test done so that the Dr. would have his results at the consult appointment. Everything was working out so well I was sure this is what we needed to be doing and timing was perfect we were going to have success fast.

I guess I should say that this all happened in the first week of March. This is awhile ago, and for all we've done since it seems like a REALLY long time ago. Ok, so appointment time came and I was NERVOUS! Didn't know what to expect, didn't know what I would have to do, didn't know what I'd hear results wise or what we would be getting into and Coby couldn't get off work to come with me. Cue my frantic text to Chelsee for some comforting words. Instead of just words she said, "let me get a babysitter and I'll come with you." I am going to be doing a whole separate post on having support systems through all of this, but let me tell you... this girl was a lifesaver (and still is). I got so much information at that appointment that I didn't remember any of my questions I had before, I didn't remember half the stuff the Dr. told me, but Chelsee knew. She sat by me asking the right questions, reminding me what he was telling me (probably in easier terms), and kept reassuring me that we were making progress and this was all good as I sat with a blank stare trying to comprehend it all. I got blood work done, ultra sound done, all on the first day since I was on that exact day in my cycle. Long story short, we learned we have a less than 3% chance to ever conceive on our own. That is not very high. I don't think it sank in for a long time since I had so many other things going through my head. I left that appointment with a long list of meds to take and shots and everything to get ready for an IUI (artificial insemination) in just a short couple weeks. I also had another appointment set up for that same week to do a HSG procedure. That is where they still dye up your tubes to see if they are clogged or all clear. I think the news that we will probably never conceive on our own didn't hit me too hard because I was still so thrilled to be moving forward and getting answers. I finally felt like that gut feeling of needing to see a Dr was justified. Coby on the other hand took it very hard. I don't think he was himself for a week. It isn't easy to hear, and it is still hard to comprehend.

waiting to do our first IUI. I was so nervous I felt sick. This is me not excited... I have a hard time with unfamiliar things.

Coby totally relaxed... me trying to distract myself with games. Nervous mess.

We did our first IUI and needless to say it didn't work. Actually we got the results on the morning of my birthday. Worst birthday gift ever!!! Since then we have done it 2 more times, 2 more failed attempts, switched Dr's, done more tests, TONS of shots, 2 months of hormone balancing to prep for IVF (invetro fertilization). I will go into more about each step. There is lots to tell.

Trigger shot: makes you ovulate 36-39 hrs after shot. You do the IUI at hour 38

This is where I say that I was TERRIFIED of needles. I hate needles, didn't like them and took a picture of my trigger shot because I thought it would be my one and only since of course the first time would work for us.... wait til you see my most recent pics. NEEDLE CITY!

We have had time now to let it sink in and we are ok with how our story has played out. We have accepted it and are determined to do everything we can do to get our babies here. Doesn't matter how it happens, we just know that we need to try everything. Infertility does get easier if you do everything you can do. We feel ok about it. We have found blessings in it. We have been lucky to only grow SO SO much closer together through the process. I don't remember a day where infertility put any sort of wedge between us in our marriage which is incredibly lucky. Not many couples can say that. We have learned to get through hard things together, how each person acts and needs to deal with hard things, and how to be there for each other.

Here are my first 2 cents of advice. Don't label yourself with infertility until you get diagnosed with it. It will only add stress and strain to what is an already frustrating thing. I have heard many women who have said, "we have been trying to conceive for a few months now. Infertility is so hard!" Yes it is hard, but don't put that on your shoulders unless something is wrong. The word itself does add a bit of pain to what is already hard. Second, if you think something is wrong, go see a fertility specialist. Do not waste your time at your OB. They can't do much to help besides give you clomid (which isn't healthy) and you just won't get very many answers. You will get so much more out of seeing a trained Dr. who know's how how check for anything and everything. (ok, off soap box... please don't be offended)

so that was kind of a lot for a first post. to be cont.....

Such a hard journey...

2011-09-05T11:17:00.000-07:00

I wrote this post last week on my photo blog to talk about an experience I had with my friend/more like a sister.

Please read it first

There are some other things from this experience that I wanted to write down on this blog that I do not want to forget. This is such a special memory for me that I don't think I could ever forget. We were in the last room at the very end of the hallway. Away from all of the other crying babies and happy families. When I walked in, at first it everyone looked well; smiling, laughing, asked me how I was doing. It was like this for quite a bit of the time. We had a great 10-15 minutes then the reality would set in and it would be a devastating sadness for another 5 minutes. The cycle went on.

Chelsee is such an incredible singer. Her friend Kristen was in the room too. Kristen and Chelsee have their own singing group called Kindred, and they sing the most beautiful duets. Every once in a while, Chelsee would start to panic and wouldn't be able to breath very well. For her the only way to calm down was to sing. Hearing Kristen and Chels sing these beautiful songs in harmony was so calming. It was the best part of this whole hard night that this family had to go through. One of my favorite parts was when Chels asked Kristen to sing "Better Than A Hallelujah" by Amy Grant. Personally, the Kristen Sanders version is much better than the Amy Grant version. This song was so powerful and took a whole 5 seconds before I had tears pouring down my face. There was such a sweet spirit in that room and it was calm.

I don't want to forget Chelsee's sweet mom and how she would always say the right thing to help her. She was so strong and so calm. I think she kept everyone calm that night.

I don't want to forget how Chels sang "You Are My Sunshine" as she rocked her baby boy in her arms or how Ben kissed his little boy on the head.

It was a powerful night. The spirit was there and it has been amazing watching Chelsee come out of this trial. She has a little boy that will always be watching over her.

***I mentioned it in the post on the other blog, but I haven't really talked about it much here. I will now be posting about our journey (I hate to use that word. I feel like that's the only word the Bachelor and Bachelorette's use on the show, but I can't come up with anything else at the moment) with infertility in the mix of our fun and happy life. I have read a blog for a while about infertility and it helps knowing you aren't the only one out there going through this and there are people that know how you feel. I am now linked to that blog for others to come here and not feel alone. They can read on here and relate to some of the gut wrenching feelings you go through. It has taken me awhile to want to post anything, but when it was brought up to post for this blog, it felt right. The good, the bad, the ugly... and I'll try not to offend too many people while I'm at it. haha***

200 200 200!!!

2011-09-04T00:07:00.000-07:00

Do you remember what we did for post 100?!?! (it seriously took me 2.5 years to post another 100??? That's really sad) I didn't realize this post would be number 200 until I was about to post about something else. As soon as I told Coby he said, "no, absolutley not!" Poor guy. So we got our brainstorming on and came up with... not a whole lot.

Coby's first idea: Let's drive 200 miles with no intention of going somewhere particular and see where we end up. I was in! I thought it was a great idea. However, since Coby is taking the GRE in less than 1 month and is currently with his head in the books, he said we couldn't go until October.

A few of our other ideas: make Coby eat 200 M&M's, raise $200 for charity (Coby's idea... when I asked him how we would do that in a day he didn't have an answer), watch Coby do 200 push-ups (do you see how I blog, come up with the ideas and make Coby do it), write 200 super exciting facts about us, Coby suggested we snuggle for 200 minutes, buy 200 lottery tickets (with what $$?? He says we could make money... not likely).... As you can see, we aren't doing so great. Nothing like the great idea our friend Alicia came up with last time.

So until Alicia gets back from her fabulous romantic 7th Anniversary getaway and gives us some ideas or until one of you suggest something great... this is all we got for Mr. 200!

(if anything this post was good to enjoy Coby putting on 100 items of clothing again)

How Much Longer Until Fall???

2011-08-31T23:40:00.000-07:00

Craving, Wishing, Hoping for, Dreaming of...

Pumpkin Nutella Bread

Honey Crisp Apples- with a dash of cinammon

Open Windows

Snuggling in blankets

How much longer???

Presenting...

2011-08-26T08:10:00.000-07:00

Mr. Coby Madsen ladies and Gents.

He is available for dance lessons or parties, although he is expensive.

BUT... for a small fee, you too could learn these moves.

Ok so we did sparklers one night and Coby got really into it. Then he started singing and dancing and of course the kids thought it was so cool so they were trying to copy everything he was doing. We were up on this grassy area above the beach. By the end of sparklers we had a nice little group that all stopped to watch Coby move it.

That man is great for entertainment!!!

Vacation Video Take 1

2011-08-25T22:51:00.000-07:00

I was going to wait and post this tomorrow, but why not now??? I'll save the other as a special treat for tomorrow. Don't forget to scroll down... there are mucho pictures to go through.

This video thing has now become an expected thing from family. They like it and the nieces and nephews have watched all others (maybe not the ones of Coby and his brother getting shot with paintball guns by their wives) about 500 times so I guess it's worth it.

Without further ado:

P.S. There have been a lot of people looking at this blog. Who are you?? I would love to know.

The rest of Cali...

2011-08-25T13:23:00.000-07:00

I miss this place already. It's a home away from home kind of feeling. I love it.

Can this little babe get any cuter? These were taken during the 10% of the trip that he actually had his eyes open.

The day before we left we hit up some surf shops that were having good sales. Good Sales as in Coby bought a $175 wet suit that actually fit him (shocker!!) for $21.

Someone on the Right of the picture apparently put her neon glasses back and went for boring without me knowing. Party Pooper!

Right before we left, Coby and I made one last stop at Balboa for a sweet treat at Tutti Fruitti. It's a self serve place. Get whatever you want. I went for the frozen yogurt, he went for the shaved ice.

I'm already telling myself... 11 more months, only 11 more months. We miss the beach!!! Now bring on December and the cold air, cozy nights, the holiday smells, and Christmas lights! I just drove home from work and put my ipod on shuffle. 90% of the songs it played were Christmas.... it knows.

Good Ol' Balboa Island

2011-08-25T13:17:00.000-07:00

Another one of those yearly sometimes more than yearly traditions is Balboa Island. LOVE IT!!! The shops, walking beach-side and over a bridge looking at sailboats, the ferry and rides, and the Dad's Balboa Bars. Delicious, and a bummer I couldn't have any this year; a bite here and there was fine though.

This picture has nothing to do with Balboa Island. It's actually from our hotel, but it's pretty and still beachy and has a golf course that Coby dreams about golfing on one day.

The classic "everyone take a bite" picture

FERRY RIDE!!! Cute cute picture. Just picture me and Coby in there somewhere.

Since we weren't in the picture above, Heather took some of us. Then she kept clicking and telling us to work it. So we worked it until she was laughing so hard that the pictures came out blurry and Coby got crazier until I couldn't stop laughing either. No we were not the only people on this boat.

Island time!!! Ferry rides and merry-go-round galore! Once again, Coby and mom are the non-dizzy people so they get to ride the merry-go-round til their hearts content or until the ride closes.

Beach and Mom's Birthday

2011-08-24T16:35:00.001-07:00

While we were at the beach mom celebrated her _ _ th birthday! I'll give you a hint, she doesn't look her age at all, so you can guess and we'll go from there.

We celebrated by going to the beach and then going out to dinner. It was relaxing and fun. Time spent with family is the best!

This was her reaction when I said "Hey Mom, It's your birthday!"

Yes, I realize out of all the kids, the majority of the pictures are of Perry, but Chase and Peyton spent 99% of their time jumping waves and Crew spent 99.9% of his time sleeping like above.

Monkey in the middle became a game favorite on the beach this year. Yeah, just try and get that over Coby's head and make it to the next person. Advantage=Coby

Please notice Perry and her "papers"on the left. These papers went with us EVERYWHERE!!! It is my mom's birthday card from my uncle which she loved because it had a girl with a glitter swim suit and a beach ball. Perfect gift for Perry. Her other paper is a brochure from the hotel room. It's a map of the hotel. Priceless to her.

Also, how else do you celebrate a birthday other than a red dripping Popsicle? Delicious! And she was willing to share with anyone who wanted to get dripped on too.

HOPE YOU HAD A GREAT BIRTHDAY MOM!!!

FARMER'S MARKET

2011-08-21T21:14:00.000-07:00

One of my absolute favorite parts of the week. I love the farmer's market. We get tons of fruits and vegetables for the whole week and they are SO good. This is always a must for us.

Story that goes with the first picture... I got ready for the beach one morning, my mom came out in a similar suit. She said I had to change because we were too close to matching. So after teasing her a bit that I wouldn't change, I said she either had to take a picture with me or she needed to change. She agreed to the picture and I put on a red suit.

CALIFORNIA 2011!

2011-08-21T20:54:00.001-07:00

Time to get started on these posts... and there will be a lot! I took a ton of pictures this year. If you keep coming back, there are videos after all the pics! You just have to wait! (the last video is a doozy so stay posted)

There are two times a year that I am constantly looking forward to. Once one is done, then I look forward to the next. Our family trip to California is one of them, the holidays, specifically the month of December, is the other. I have never not spent a week there during the year. Everything is familiar, we have are traditions, the smells are always the same... I love it. It's like my bi-annual therapy.

The first few days we were there, my cousins were there too. We went to the beach and relaxed. It was fun to see everyone (but we still were missing quite a few).

my mom with my cousin's kids

baby Emma

cousins: Coby, Elise, Zoe, Jack, Brittany, Tanner, and Johnny

The first day there the waves were HUGE. Coby got crushed quite a few times

The sidelines: Mom, Dad, Uncle Jeff, Johnny, Christian, Kara, Baby Elle, Zoe

Coby, Johnny, Elise, Brittany, Tanner

Madsen Family Weekend

2011-07-28T11:00:00.000-07:00

This year, instead of going to Knoll Lake as a family, we went to a cabin up in Strawberry. It was so much easier with all the babies and was lots of fun. We went up on Friday afternoon and stayed for a couple days. There was lots of games, food, ping pong tournaments, softball, and just visiting. The weather was so nice and it was great to get away with everyone and just have fun.

There were two swings in the yard, and if there would have been more I don't think the kids would have ever gotten off of them. There was a constant line of who was next to swing.

-Britnee and Brayden-

Mr. Kyle

Coby and Landon

Kyle and Rockie - One month apart

Brayden playing on Coby

We took a "short" drive down to Fossil Creek. It wasn't too long, but the road was really rough so it did take awhile. The scenery was gorgeous, and the water was so nice. We had a fun time we just didn't bring lunch and weren't too prepared to be gone for very long.

Britnee and Beckie - the first ones in.

Rindy and Rockie - Testing out the water. It was kind of chilly.

Landon swimming to Uncle Trent

Gina and Brandt with Brayden

Coby and Jaron doing flips off a cliff

I'm in a picture as proof I was there!

It was lots of fun until we were ready to leave. Everyone was starving, the kids were tired, and we still had the drive ahead of us. We went to leave and there was a major traffic jam. After sitting for about 5 minutes and no one knowing what to do or how to fix it, all the Madsen boys got out and figured out a plan to get everyone unstuck. There were cars parked on the side of the road, cars were trying to come in, cars were trying to get out... it was a mess. It took about 10 minutes to back up and get everything situated, but it was worth it.

Everyone hanging out and playing a little softball.

Tangi and her boyfriend Tyler

There was a tractor in the back of the yard that the kids were obsessed with, especially Landon and Aubree. I think on Saturday they were in that tractor for 99% of the day. It was quite the entertainment for the kids.

Brayden, Britnee, Aubree -- Landon "King of the Tractor"

Brian and Beckie also brought up a Teryx, a UTV. Coby and I took it out for a little exploring before we headed home. It was a little warm that day, but it was lots of fun.

Grandpa found a tarantula and killed it, but then all the kids wanted to hold it. Disgusting. Tori loved it. Every time someone else held it she wanted it back. The picture on the right is a little blurry because she wanted to give it to me and I wanted to get away. No thank you.

Tori with her pet

David -- Aubree and Grandpa

We had so much fun everyone! We missed Bree who is on her mission in California (almost 8 months down). Can't wait for next year!

THE BIG 3-0!!!

2011-07-27T11:00:00.000-07:00

Is this not the cutest little kid you've ever seen???

This guy turned 30 on July 16th!

I had Coby's brothers distract him by taking him golfing all day on his birthday (yeah, in the crazy July heat... for hours and hours!) I couldn't believe they actually chose golfing to do. I thought for sure they'd go to the lake or something. While he was gone, I was busy getting everything ready for his surprise party; which was actually a surprise!

It was mainly just family and one of Coby's good friends who is pretty much like family. We had lots of food and went swimming at my parent's house. His sister who lives in Tuscon was even able to make it. We had lots of fun and I hope he had a great birthday to celebrate the start of a new decade!

Coby with Brayden (Brother Brandt's son)

Victoria (Sister Rainy's daughter)

Britnee (Brother Brian's daughter)

Brandt and Landon

Nate with Aubree -- David and Victoria

Coby's friend Danny Deets and the Deets fam

--So so glad you guys were able to make it down. We love you guys--

Britnee and Brian

Rindy and Rockie (Sorry, no pics of Trent)

Tangi and Gina playing with Britnee, Brayden and Tori

Beckie with Britnee, Aubree and Tori

The girls splashin' like crazy!

This cake was AMAZING! It was so good! If you like chocolate cake and oreos... yum! I found the recipe HERE. Thanks Tiff and mom for the help!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LOVE!

Here is to hoping year 30 will bring lots of changes and lots of fun!

Love you!!!

NEW CAR

2011-07-26T12:30:00.000-07:00

Coby has been driving a car that has been passed down through 5 people. The origional owner, my dad, sister, brother-in-law, then Coby. It has about 250,000 miles on it, and just hasn't been cutting it lately. We knew we'd be getting something soon, but after I got stuck on the side of the road in 115 degree heat and it took a few phone calls before I found someone to come get me... it was time. Plus, Coby now gets to drive a car that has some decent air conditioning (even though we just paid to get his totally replaced last summer, it still wasn't very cold).

After quite a bit of research and test driving we had 2 that we were picking between. I think we liked the look of the other a bit better, but this will save us money in the long run which ended up being the deciding factor. (lets just say that after we bought the car, but my mom hadn't come back with it yet... we pulled into a parking lot and the car we didn't get was sitting there and Coby made us have a moment of silence for it. hahal) We found a great deal on a car in Utah and my mom happened to be up there helping my sister since she just had her baby. My brother-in-law and my mom went and drove it, got it checked out, and helped us out a ton so we could get our car. My mom was able to save us a trip and drove it down for us too. We love it and are so glad we got it. It really is a great car and we will definitely have lots of fun with it.

Thanks again Jeff and mom for all your help with getting the car!!!

2010 Honda CRV

Since it's been really dusty I haven't gotten it washed yet, so I stole a pic off the internet.

Add a roof rack and it's the same car.

I guess it rained a lot in Utah and the car got pretty dirty while it was there so as a gift the Jeppsen family made their mark. The handprints didn't last through the drive down, but my sister sent me these pictures. Even Crew put his handprint on... and Petyon went a little crazy putting hers around the whole car.

Crew Scott Jeppsen

2011-07-25T17:00:00.000-07:00

Introducing Crew Scott Jeppsen

July 7, 2011

7lbs 3oz

19 in. long

My sister had her sweet baby boy 3 weeks early. He is adorable. I can't wait to meet him in a couple weeks at California. I haven't been able to go up and see him so my sister has been posting on her blog like crazy to fill my picture need. I will be snuggling this little man for a week straight soon.

AZ Thunderstorms

2011-07-25T11:00:00.000-07:00

This was a fun night a couple weeks ago. Arizona has some amazing thunderstorms, but I don't think we have had a good one in a long time; one where it's so loud it shakes the walls. This was one of those. So we got In N Out and sat on our patio and watched the lightning and listened to the rain and thunder. It was great!

4th of July

2011-07-24T20:23:00.001-07:00

We went up to my grandparent's cabin for the 4th. The weather was perfect. It is normally a little warm in July, but it was overcast with a little rain here and there. Gorgeous.

We were just up there for a day, but it was so nice to get out of the heat. We just relaxed and had fun with some cousins, relaxed in the hammock, fed the squirrels, and had a great dinner. We have always had squirrels that will come really close to us at the cabin. When we were little they would take peanuts out of our hands.

Right after these pictures were taken (not everyone had even got their food yet) it started raining pretty good. So we got all of the tables under the patio and as we took the last chair under, it stopped.

My family isn't very tall. I'm actually pretty tall compared to a lot of my family. So it's kind of funny to have Coby standing normal in a picture with us. We took the one below just to show a comparison. Yes, Coby is extra tall, but it's kind of funny to see.

Then we finished off the night with some card games and we headed home. It was a great 4th spending time with family and celebrating the freedom we have in our country.

The Jeppsen's came to visit!!!

2011-06-23T17:06:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I just want to blog about everything we have going on in our little family just to have something to blog about and to lay it all out there. But for now we will keep doing our daily routines and wait for the fun people to come visit so I can blog about them.

My sister and her family came down to visit a week and a half ago. They spent 99% of their time in the pool trying to thaw out from the long Utah weather.

This guy has discovered the fun of knowing how to swim and the freedom you have with it. He was doing cannon balls into the deep end and was either jumping off something, under the water, or on Coby's back pretending to ride a "whale." (Coby started the whale term because of how he was doing jumps and Chase had to hold on... not because of his size... thought I'd clarify)

This girl is getting better at swimming. She kept hiding under the water so I couldn't get her picture. They literally would have stayed in that pool all day everyday if someone didn't make them get out.

Chase and Peyt thought it was fun to have Coby do cannon balls into the water, then they would ride out the waves he made.

P.S. Peyton thinks "everyone is awesome!!!!!!"
Hilarious story: Peyton said the dinner prayer one night After the usual "we're thankful for our food, please bless it, we're grateful for our family"... it was followed by "please help us to get to heaven some day, and please help us to recycle and not waste anything." Honest and straight from her heart, but so random.

This little gal is so much fun, always making everyone laugh, and still has the prettiest red hair and big blue eyes.

She knows exactly what to wear while swimming. Keep it simple. She would never wear a swimsuit, but never forgot her "glasses."

And she became attached to Coby at the hip. She has joined the other two in the "Coby is the Coolest Club"

This little one will stay in there for one more month before he comes and joins the craziness. Can't wait to meet you at the beach in August buddy! (Heather don't get mad, I cropped in really close, just for you)

See you guys soon with an extra addition to the family!

Memorial Day

2011-06-03T17:38:00.001-07:00

Hope everyone had a great Memorial Day. We went to the Diamondbacks game with my parents where they won by 11. It was a GREAT game. Too bad they haven't had that great of a game since.

HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY!

May 28th

2011-06-03T17:34:00.000-07:00

I started babysitting Riley when she was 4 and I was 12. On May28th we all went to dinner for Riley's 18th birthday! So weird! She is graduating this week and will be going to NAU in the fall for their pre-nursing program. So excited for them to be moving back here in a month after more than a few years away. HAPPY BIRTHDAY RI!

April Birthdays

2011-04-09T22:14:00.000-07:00

We had a little birthday dinner for all of us April birthdays. Mine is the 1st, Jeff's is the 3rd, Peyton's is the 11th.

How can I be 26 already??

Sea World in action

2011-04-09T19:50:00.000-07:00

...the rest of California

2011-04-09T14:51:00.000-07:00

Before driving home we all stopped at the temple across the street from our hotel. Peyton thought it was looked like a castle.

Mr Chase. Love him.

Coby and I drove over to see the beach before we left. How can you go all the way to California and not feel the sand in your toes?

There was about 20 surfers out riding these HUGE waves. Like 10-12 ft it looked like. They were big.

Then we drove home. 4 more months til our beach trip. 4 more months. The count down begins.

Sea World

2011-04-09T14:22:00.001-07:00

My parents, Tiffany, and the Jeppsens went to California a couple days before us for Lego Land and having some fun. Coby somehow magically got a day off work (crazy luck) so we headed out for a 36 hr trip 'o' fun.

We went to Sea World and had a great day. It was chilly in the morning, then got really hot during the first show, and cooled back down an hour later and was overcast and perfect the rest of the day. We perfectly picked the days where it was 100+ degrees at home to get out of the state.

Perry loved the Sea Lions and Peyton was brave enough to feed them the little dead fish. Heather told her if she bought them she wasn't going to touch them so Peyt couldn't back out. She didn't. I will put a video up later but it was hilarious.
She loved it and was so proud. Can you tell?

This was hilarious. First off, my dad's family has dizziness problems... all of us got the lovely gene and can't go on spinning rides. So mom and Coby are the winners for all rides that spin. Peyton loved this ride, but was screaming SO loud the whole time which just made it more fun.
Then they hopped on the elmo flying ride. Peyton rode with a stranger since she needed an adult and the lady in front was going by herself. Perry rode with Jeff and Chase who is now tall enough to ride on his own went solo when he could.
This play place was HUGE!!! Put about 20 McDonalds play places together and it might be like this one. Do you see Coby and Jeff playing on it?? Yes, they were having a great time.

These Lion Fish were my favorites.

THANKS FOR THE FUN DAY EVERYONE!

The Jeppsens came to visit!

2011-04-09T13:53:00.000-07:00

3 weeks ago my sister and her family came to visit. WAHOO!!! We don't get to see them and their cute kids enough. Now they are back in the snow.

We did a lot while they were here. Unfortunately, this was one of their longest visits and Coby got to see them less than he ever has. He has been so busy with school, work, tests, studying, scouts... Also unfortunately every time I went over there the first thing all 3 kids would ask, "where's Coby?" "why's Coby at school?" "Is Coby on his way?" "When is Coby getting here?" Apparently Coby will always be more goofy and fun than the rest of us. Oh well, I agree.

Here are just a few of the things we did while they were here:

Rockin' R Ranch. I haven't been since I was a kid, but my sister's friend from high school works there so we went to catch up and see the show. His whole family runs the place, but he is the drummer in the show.

Looking for gold.

Little Miss Peyton was a pro on the little lassos. She had those things going good! Then Perry decided to give it a try.

My dad was a pro at the big lasso. Who knew?! He roped that hay bull every time.

When we checked in, the lady asked Heather for a name of someone who would do the mini lassos on stage. Well the go to person to volunteer is Coby and he wasn't there. So Jeff was next on the list although Heather never told him until his name was called. Pretty funny.

We had a lemonade stand! My mom still had people telling her to let them know when we were having another Lemonade stand since it was so tasty last time. My sister makes some delicious fresh squeezed lemons straight from my parent's tree.

Perry found her best play house in the dogs kennel. She didn't want to come out. (easy to please)

I came over one day and the kids wanted to show me the fairy house they made with Grandma. They used everything from Grandma's yard and made this cute little house. Fun right?!

Here is the fairy in her little skirt and hat.
Her house had a little bark chair and bark table. Cute and creative! That would be my mom.

Inspiration

2011-03-19T11:10:00.000-07:00

I have been reading this woman's blog for about a year and a half. She one of those bloggers where after reading awhile you start to refer to them as your friend when in reality she has no clue who you are or that you are reading her blog... but we are friends on facebook so that totally makes it count right?!

When I started reading, she was pregnant with baby number 2. As I was reading a few more months it was time for number 2 to come. This lady was prepared for the birth of this baby. Had champagne glasses with Nella's name on them to make a toast with anyone that came to see her in the hospital and had little handmade gifts to give as thank yous for your visit. She had bought herself a special nightgown for the night she gave birth, made her first born a special crown so she felt special welcoming in her little sister... PREPARED! It didn't go quite as planned, but that is where you should start reading.

What I love about this blog is that she is real. The good the bad, the hard, sad, happy... all of it there. Not to mention she is a super skilled writer and makes everything sound poetic and like a storybook. (she got that from her dad. He wrote a post once and oh my was it good. P.S. His comments show up under the name "Poppa" and if you get really into it you should search for his. He writes the sweetest things on every post.)

I've been meaning to share her blog for awhile because when I see that she has posted it is like a deep breath of fresh air; you know you are going to get a little umph behind your step when you read her words for the day. I love it.

start reading here about Nella's birth story

Here is Kelle's blog

Now go be inspired

Indulge

2011-03-04T14:03:00.000-08:00

Coby came home last night and said, "hmmm did you have strawberries with chocolate?"

Yes I did, and they were delicious... but I was really stumped how he knew.

I forgot to clean up the evidence.

...and I licked the bowl clean too.

Happy Happy Anniversary!

2011-03-02T12:16:00.000-08:00

Today we celebrate 4 years! For the past month we have been asking each other "can you believe it's already been 4 years?!?" How did that fly by so fast? But when we think of all we've been through it's been a trip. We have been through lots of tears and heartache, so many laughs, successes, struggles, and fears. Many movie nights, card games, late nights just lounging together. Fights, compromises, and learning to work as a team. There's been a little bit of anger and frustration, but more love than you could ever imagine.

Today I found 4 roses in my office with a very sweet card. Can't wait to see what this year brings hun. I have a feeling it's going to be one of the best. Let's knock this year out of the park. Love you Coby Lynn!

Banished

2011-03-01T21:49:00.000-08:00

Who remembers this post??? When I went to a midnight movie with Coby's sisters and when I got home, I was locked out!

Well it happened again. I was working at JCrew til midnight last week and when I got home at about 12:30 in the morning, I was LOCKED OUT... and I was MAD! Forget about the neighbors, I pounded on the door, threw rocks at our bedroom window (one I seriously thought cracked the window so I stopped), called his phone about 20 times...

I got back in the car and went to my parent's house (who were out of town. Coby had borrowed the key to their house that day so he had it. Good thing for garage code openers or I would have been out of luck). I think steam was literally coming out of my nose and ears I was a little upset.

So... just in case he goes to lock it again...

**POST EDIT**: I do have a house key, but we have the regular lock and a dead bolt lock. I can unlock the regular one, but no one from the outside can undo the dead bolt.

**On a happier more loving note-- Tomorrow (in about 1 hour) is our 4 year anniversary!!! FOUR YEARS!!! Time sure does fly.**

Valentines Day

2011-03-01T21:42:00.000-08:00

Valentines day was super low key. Coby didn't get home from school until 8:00 at night and I didn't feel like going out that late when he still had homework. So we ordered out. We put in an order at Pei Wei, and the wait time was an HOUR... for TAKE OUT! Crazy!

We celebrated on Friday by going out to Cheesecake Factory. It has been a tradition to go for every Valentines Day. We brought desert home and Coby got about 1.5 bites, maybe 2... I ate the rest. Chocolate Cake - - please and thank you!

*On our balcony after one of the rain storms*

Christmas Gifts

2011-01-26T16:34:00.000-08:00

Here are a couple gifts we got for Christmas.

I asked for the 50mm 1.4 lens. It's a good lens. A dream lens would be the 50mm 1.2. It doesn't seem like much of a difference, but there is and that 1.2 lens is solid! I didn't even think it was possible to get the 1.2 so I just thought lets get the 1.4 and I'll work up to the 1.2.

Christmas morning I opened up my lens and was super excited. It took me about 2 seconds to read the box and I was SHOCKED! Can't wait to use that 1.2 on a little newborn session. This thing is amazing for portraits and details.

Apparently Coby and I had a similar thought process for each other for Christmas, and apparently that's that we both need to work out more. I got a bosu ball which I'm really excited about and I got Coby the 5 and 8 pound weights. Start small. Ok ok they are mine.

This isn't actually from Christmas, but I did get it a little after Christmas. I won this in a contest with my photo website company. I've actually won quite a few things over the years. They're contests are fun, silly, and come with great prizes. It's definitely a fun toy to have and it will help with client meetings too.

What was your favorite Christmas gift??

Goofy Golfing

2011-01-26T01:58:00.001-08:00

One day while they were all here we went goofy golfing. I love goofy golfing. We had a lot of fun.

Perry lasted for hole 1. Then she just did her thing....

...which mainly included running everywhere and becoming a moving obstacle that you had to get around. Totally makes it more fun.

Chase and Peyt were speedy and were always a hole (or two) ahead of us.

Peyton has a wicked swing... watch out.

I HATE this hole! It took everyone forever (minus Coby and Jeff). I think the majority of us just threw the dang ball.

No the ball is not going into the doorway, it is coming back; Coby got ANOTHER hole in one.... typical.

WE MISS YOU GUYS!!!!!

Karaoke for FHE

2011-01-26T01:38:00.001-08:00

Peyton got a Karaoke machine for Christmas and we got her a bunch of CD's to sing along to so we had a Karaoke night. It was a little rough, but Perry didn't want to stop. I think we listened to Happy Birthday 20 times. They are hilarious

Peyton and her pup Snow have great fashion sense, don't you think?

Christmas take 2!

2011-01-26T01:20:00.000-08:00

My sister and her family came in town January 1st and we had all our gifts for them so we had our own little Christmas when they got here.

Chase got a super cool tennis racket his own size. We got a lot of good use out of that while they were here.

Dad just got back from a camping trip and was sporting some awesome camo and neon orange.

Mom got a purple light saber just like the one Chase got for his birthday.

Perry wanted nothing to do with the presents at first, just wanted to sit in a chair and rock her doll. Then she got a crazy energy rush and was diving over people to rip open some presents.

If you have little kids and love books, Perry's FAVORITE is the pout pout fish.

Heather had a very exciting announcement! #4 is due in July! Congrats Heather, we are super excited for you and I can't wait to hog that baby at the beach!!!

After presents someone delivered cupcakes to my mom's house. Perfect timing. Can you see Perry licking her lips? She loves frosting, hates the cake.

NEW YEARS EVE! Goodbye 2010!

2011-01-26T00:53:00.001-08:00

We spent New Years Eve at Coby's parent's. Never a dull moment over there; perfect to celebrate a new year. We played a bunch of card games trying to stay awake, then did some fireworks before the kids went to bed, and got so into the games that we played until 2 in the morning.

Everyone standing around some worm looking firework. It was kind of weird.

Uncle Jaron helping David light his first firework. It was nothing big, but David felt pretty cool. Good job bud!

Coby LOVES this little girl. If she's near, he's probably with her.

Aren't these mega long sparklers cool!?! Thanks Brian for getting these for us!
Hope everyone had a safe and Happy New Year. Be good to us 2011!

Christmas 2010

2011-01-25T23:58:00.001-08:00

Coby woke me up Christmas morning at about 7:30 yelling "It's Christmas!!!" It took him a little while to get me up, but when I went out this was waiting for us.

He had already been to the gas station to get some donuts and got hot chocolate ready before he woke me up. Someone was a little excited and it was a fun treat to wake up to!

We had a great Christmas and got WAY too spoiled. After we did our own little Christmas together, we spent the morning at my parent's and with Coby's family in the afternoon.

Picking out the Perfect Tree

2011-01-25T23:48:00.000-08:00

I LOVE picking out Christmas trees. My dream is to cut down our own one year; Coby thinks it's silly but I think he'll break down so I stop talking about it. After all, he is now on board with my "needing a real Christmas tree" thing. Half the fun of having a real tree is scouring the tree lots for the perfect one for you. I found one that was great, but then Coby found our perfect tree in the back corner with the top still tied up. (He does get into it now)

And yes, I know it is January 26th, but to be honest, we just took our tree out 2 days ago. We try to hang on for a long time.

Two of these are my parent's trees. No we do not get 3.

Coby decorating the tree. He is better at it than me!

Provo Tabernacle

2010-12-23T08:06:00.001-08:00

Read this article HERE. Hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas

Fam Christmas Card: 2010

2010-12-17T03:39:00.001-08:00

Did you see this??? I LOVE IT!

Shake up Christmas

2010-12-14T12:34:00.000-08:00

My FAVORITE commercial right now. I love it, it makes me happy, and it makes me "shake it up". It has also been added to my ipod as of yesterday since I couldn't get the song out of my head.

Sister Bree Madsen

2010-12-11T15:26:00.000-08:00

Coby's youngest sister left on her mission on Tuesday. She is going to serve in the Carlsbad, California mission. Bree and I are really close friends and it was exciting seeing her get ready for this. She is going to do such a great job. We already miss her, but we know she will have such great experiences and learn so much. We love you Bree. Have fun and work hard!

P.S. Everyone thinks Coby's whole family is tall.... nope, just him!

Octo-"beard"-fest

2010-11-06T02:31:00.000-07:00

Coby and his brothers thought it would be cool to grow their beards out for all of October and call it Octo-beard-fest. Coby and Trent are the only ones who lasted without shaving though. I think the fun part for Coby was shaving it into whatever he wanted in steps. I'm just glad he didn't stop at the mustache and then leave it. He was actually really sad once it was gone. I was kind of glad.

STAR WARS

2010-10-10T19:17:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Chase had his 7 yr old birthday party. The cool thing right now with him is Star Wars... EVERYTHING Star Wars. So of course he got one awesome Star Wars party.

Last year when we went to Disneyland, we watched the Jedi Training a couple times. My sister thought it would be cool to do Jedi Training at his party. All of the kids were presented with their Padewon robes at the beginning (all sewn by Chase's Grandma Jeppsen). Jeff studied up on the Jedi Training on youtube and he was the Master Jedi who taught the kids a routine. Then Darth Vader showed up and each kid had to fight Darth Vader using the routine they learned to get their Jedi training certificate. Cool right??

They also played pin the light saber on the poster, pod races, and take down the Death Star (pinata). It was one cool party!!!

Peyton was so cute in her Princess Leia costume. Don't you love the wig? We took a Dorthy wig and just sewed up the braids into buns.

Perry was supposed to be Yoda, but wouldn't put on the costume. Their little cousin worked perfect for little Yoda though.

The kids had Pizza with "Yoda Soda"

The Cake:

Happy Birthday Jedi Chase!!!

May the force be with you...

Pumpkin Patch

2010-10-10T19:07:00.000-07:00

I'm up here in Utah for a few things. The weather is gorgeous! I can't wait for Arizona to cool down some more.

Yesterday we went to Peyton's soccer game and then to the pumpkin patch next to their neighborhood. Their pumpkin patch is huge compared to anything in Arizona. And some of them you can cut off the vine. We filled up a few wheelbarrows and might even go back. We may not have any room for our suitcases to come home. They also have a small corn maze for kids and about 15 old tractors that they can climb on and play with. Lots of fun!!!

Target Practice

2010-09-19T16:19:00.000-07:00

More from Knoll Lake. I think it all started when Rindy asked Trent if she could shoot him with a paintball gun. Then it turned in to a manly "have your wife shoot you with a paintball gun and see how you handle it" kind of a thing. So they geared up by wearing a paintball mask and putting a metal dinner plate down the front of their pants and then it was on.

From the sidelines... it was hilarious. Here is Trent's:

Of course Coby had to be "tougher" by doing it with his shirt off. I had never shot a paintball gun in my life. Coby claims he only wanted me to shoot him once, but he clearly says in the video "ROUND 2" (I have proof). #3 was just to make sure he never asks me to do it again. Enjoy:

Knoll Lake Part 2

2010-09-09T12:22:00.000-07:00

Here is a video of our fun weekend.

There will be a couple other videos of something I opted to not put in this one. The boys thought it would be an awesome game to get shot by a paintball gun by their wives. Dumbest game ever (but the videos are pretty funny)

KNOLL LAKE 2010

2010-09-08T21:24:00.000-07:00

Every year Coby's family goes camping up at Knoll Lake. We camp in a pretty secluded area, and it's nice to just be with family and have a fun weekend. With this family there is never a dull moment, and there is always a game of some kind going on. Lots of crawdad fishing, dutch oven cooking, fires, cards, canoeing, and more.... Here are some pictures from our weekend. Brian, Beckie, and Nate... we missed you guys and are bummed you couldn't make it.

Prepare for picture OVERLOAD!

Brave Rindy. There was no way I was touching one of those things.

These two guys got way into catching crawdads. They were on the hunt.

This little guy can make the funniest faces. Seriously cracks me up.

If you end up like this....

...you end up in here.

Apparently Jaron is a master fire breathing champion.

We did the glow sticks in the dark thing again. We did a few of boys vs. girls. The boys pretty much creamed us. They were good.

I think this is dad, Coby, and Brandt.

dad, me, and Coby

This was the boys: Trent, Coby, Jaron, Dad, and Brandt. They did Cowboys and Indians, but Coby's cowboy must have stolen a bow and arrow or he forgot his gun somewhere.

We all had a great time and can't wait to go back!

Nie Nie

2010-08-20T01:45:00.001-07:00

Not going to lie... it's pretty cool to see your name on a blog like that. Check it out:

Nie Nie

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!

2010-08-10T22:36:00.001-07:00

Sunday was my mom's birthday. We got together for dinner, cake, and games. She told us how she was talking to Peyton and Chase and they asked her how old she was. When she told them Peyton replied, "WHAT THE HECK?!?!" haha The more birthdays the merrier. Hope you had a good day mom!

My dad is such a really good cook, but he got distracted and he burnt the potatoes. Coby was the only one who still thought they were great.

LAKE TRIP

2010-08-10T22:28:00.001-07:00

I can't figure out why my writing is underlined!

On Saturday we went to the lake with Coby's family. We got there super early and my first run

on the wakeboard was in the rain. It was such a nice cloudy day and we had a lot of fun. By the time the sun was out, we had been there for so long we were all ready to leave.

Thanks for the fun time everyone!!!

CALI 2010 part2

2010-07-30T13:52:00.000-07:00

I've been wanting to try this for awhile and I love it!!! I'm so glad I took some videos to remember some funny moments. Here is just a glimpse into our trip. Miss you guys!

CALI TRIP 2010!!!!

2010-07-30T12:59:00.000-07:00

We all just got back from our annual trip to California. Again, it was SO much fun. I look forward to this trip all year and I'm already counting down til next year. It was very cloudy and overcast this year, but to me it was great! I love cloudy, gloomy weather. It was gorgeous and perfect temperatures. Couldn't be better.

The first day of the trip I did get sick and was in bed for the day and missed the beach, but I sucked it up for the rest of the week. There was no way I was missing out.

No cousins our Aunts and Uncles came this year for the first time, but I think we had a pretty fun relaxing trip. We missed you guys!!! We did all of our usual activities (minus my mom's famous pirate treasure hunt... just wait til next year), and had a great time.

*Coby sitting under the umbrella after he got burnt the first day. He wasn't getting any more sun he said. ---- Peyton got turned into a mermaid*

*I miss this toothy grin. She is so much fun (and she knows it too)*

*TRADITION!!! I should post the picture of Heather and Tiffany eating a Balboa bar when they were like 5 and 6. We made many stops to get the best Balboa bars this week! Gotta love them!*

*Another FAV! Gina's pizza! We got pizza one night and ate it on the grass on a hill over-looking the beach. It is so good. Put that on your "to-do" list if you are going near Newport or Laguna*

*Perry doesn't really like to go by men. It's pretty funny. But she did decide that my dad was hilarious on the LAST day of the week.*

*My parent's fav! I am allergic to fish so I can't eat here, but my parent's and brother-in-law LOVE IT! So need a good fish joint? The crab-cooker is great!*

*I stayed a couple extra days for photo shoots and one day my mom and I drove to the Orange Antique square. It is a neighborhood with tons and tons of antique stores. It was pretty fun to walk around and see all the great things there were. I've never been there before so it was neat to try something new.*

*I didn't get any pictures of Coby and me. I think my sister took one on the beach, but other than that, nothing. So we took this in the back seat on the way to take Coby to the airport. Something is better than nothing right?*

*I'm already missing this place. The cool weather, breeze, the smells, the beach, and all the memories that we've had over all the years. Until next year... I can't wait!!!

"The Violet-ter the better"

2010-07-24T10:17:00.000-07:00

My FAVORITE nail polish ever! They discontinued it after it was out for about a month! But it is perfect for the beach.

I got sick the first week here, but it's still been fun. More to come from the beach soon!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY COBY

2010-07-16T10:22:00.001-07:00

Sorry today is 116 degrees outside and you have to work til late. BUMMER!!! How about you take next week off and we drive to Cali tomorrow? Deal? Deal!

More fun to come!

UTAH!!!

2010-07-16T00:26:00.000-07:00

I know, finally a real post. And yes Bree, I'm making sure this gets done since you bet me that I wouldn't do it. haha

I had some photo shoots in Utah the first week of July and didn't want to drive the there by myself so my sister-in-law Bree and I made a trip of it. Thanks Bree for singing with me for 10 hrs straight! I couldn't have done it without you. Thanks for helping with the kids and for putting up with me for a week. I had fun.

On the way up I stopped at the Cameron Trading Post (we've stopped there so much since I was a kid) and we had to get some yummy fried bread with powdered sugar and honey.

Right as I took this picture Bree laughed and powdered sugar went all over us.

July 3rd:

My Uncle owns Alexander's Print Advantage (for anyone needing awesome printing services), and he has a balloon that flies in the Provo Balloon Fest every year. They are always the first balloon up and flying.

We got up bright and early and went on Saturday and it was a little too windy for the balloons to fly. So we waited. They didn't fly Friday and have never not flown 2 days in a row (ever) so we crossed our fingers. After getting the balloon standing and taking it back down a few times, they finally flew. After 1 short flight it was too windy and they were done for the day.

(More to come from Monday's Balloon Fest)

Getting the Balloon up again:

We went back to my sister's house and hung out until it was time for Stadium of Fire on Saturday night with Carrie Underwood!

She is amazing! The concert was so good! The fireworks were good too except for one that shot right at the crowd and lit someone's program on fire. Other than that, it was so much fun. We went with my cousin Diana and my sister.

Our seats were on the complete opposite side of the arena, but I still think the pictures turned out pretty cool.

4th of July:

The kids made some super cool festive 4th glasses and Bree made hers. We are stylin'.

I hung out at my sister's neighbors for a bit while they did fireworks in the street and you could see some going off in the distance too, but that was it for the 4th fireworks.

July 5th:

BALLOON FEST: TAKE 2!

We were doing Heather's family pics that night so she didn't want to get her kids up at 5 to go, so Bree and I headed down to Provo to go fly. It was great weather and all the balloons were up and going. Bree and I got to fly twice. Thank you Uncle Jeff for taking us ballooning, for breakfast, and for our tshirts (he makes new ones every year. We all have a collection). We had lots of fun and really appreciated it!

The balloon goes up first with the flag hanging down for the Pledge of Allegiance. Ronald McDonald got that ride.

July 7th:

We were going to come home on Thursday, so on Wednesday my sister took me and Bree to the Alpine slide for a day of FUN! We got all day passes to slide and coaster til our hearts content. So we get there and wait in line for about 45 min with the kids and then they say that it's broken and won't be fixed til close. We didn't want to waste the tickets so we decided to stay one more day and try the next day.

This picture is in the car on the way home. I love this baby girl. We're buddies.

July 8th:

We get up and head to the slides. (Perry stays with a babysitter so we can all go). We get there, get in line for the coaster again. We're almost to the front and then we hear thunder and cue sprinkles. They had to shut it down because if there is a lightening strike, they can't let people on for 30 min. Just our luck.

We didn't want to lose our spot in line so while everyone went down to wait in the building, Bree, Peyton, and I were troopers and hung out in the sprinkles. Sprinkles then turned to rain, then down pour, then hail....... we had no jackets. It was great.

Me and Peyt in Sprinkles

Heather and kids in Sprinkles

After down pour and hail when Heather and Chase came to meet us at the top again. One of the workers gave poor Peyton a rain jacket since she was freezing, but didn't want to get out of line so she turned it into a tent and then had a fun fort to play in.

1.5 hours later, everything was up and running. The sun was out and we were the only ones in line! We had lots of fun the rest of the day.

Here's what the coaster looks like. You go through all the trees; it's pretty cool.

Bree and I drove home the next day and had rain the whole way down. If it wasn't pouring on us we could see sheets of rain on the sides of us. Once we got to Phx, there was a full rainbow that was really bright. We couldn't get the whole rainbow in and we took the picture while driving, but it was really pretty.

Thanks Heather for letting us stay with you and for all you did for us. Thanks again Bree for going! It was a fun weekend.

Next up: CALIFORNIA!!!

Photography

2010-06-07T15:49:00.000-07:00

Ok I know posts have gotten really lame lately. I need to just start posting a few things we do now and then. But for now...

I am going to be doing shoots in UT and CA this summer. For details go to the Photo Blog. Also, mini sessions are available upon request.

...til next time!

Dad's Bobblehead

2010-04-07T16:56:00.000-07:00

My dad's client at work this week made him into a bobblehead. I think it's HILARIOUS! It looks like him, but I think it looks a lot like my dad's brother which is funny. He was so excited to give it to my dad. My dad has this picture that he has in all his magazine advertisements and stuff where he is wearing a pink tie and blue shirt. The guy matched it exactly. I love it!

Here's a regular picture of my dad:

Here is him as a bobblehead:

March through April

2010-04-07T16:45:00.000-07:00

Ok, a little catch up...

The dentist wasn't bad. I'm just a chicken. I found an amazing dentist who numbed me good and I didn't feel a thing. If you are looking for a dentist? Let me know. Give him my name and you get $50 credit off your appointment! As for Coby and the dentist, well lets just say he learned his lesson to not wait over 6 years for the next appointment. And when I saw the cost I said, "HAPPY BIRTHDAY AND MERRY CHRISTMAS... for the next two years" But we are glad that we finally got that checked off our list at least for 6 months.

March 2nd we celebrated our 3rd anniversary! Time flies, but it feels like we have been together for so long. We were pretty busy for our anniversary, but it was still good. I got fillings in my teeth and Coby had to write a 17 pg paper!

Background to this next part, the Bachelor finale was on the night before our anniversary and I think they played "On the Wings of Love" about 50 times. So it was stuck in my head pretty good.

Coby and I were able to go to dinner, but we had to do it quick cause of homework. I couldn't get the song out of my head so I would serenade him over and over. The problem is I don't know the words, just part of the chorus. So he texted my sister-in-law and told her to entertain me. So on our anniversary I went to see New Moon at the dollar theaters with Beckie, and it was packed!!! It was fun and I was glad someone wanted to hang out with me! Besides work and school that is it for March.

I turned 25 on April 1st (not a joke)! I had a great day. First off, it is SO wierd to be 25, but I think 26 sounds so much older than 25. I still have a year for that.

I went to lunch with my girlfriend Chelsee Hunt. We have the same birthday and have celebrated it together since we were 9. It was great just to relax and have lunch outside but it was a little chilly. I don't remember it EVER being 65 and windy on my birthday before. It was great! Then I went shopping with my sister and had fun roaming the mall. Coby was able to get off work early and we all went to dinner. It was a great day!

dreading... REALLY dreading...

2010-02-28T16:57:00.000-08:00

I am going to the dentist tomorrow and I DONT WANT TO GO!!! Who says you have to be tough and happy about it once you grow up?!? Here's the problem... I haven't been in YEARS! Yeah, that was my mistake, oops. Coby goes in 2 weeks and he hasn't been in YEARS and YEARS!!! We realize we have made a bad habit out of this, but now that we have some pretty good insurance, we decided we needed to get this painful experience over with.

Can you tell I'm not being very positive about this whole thing? Totally dreading tomorrow afternoon. Ok, pout over.

2010-02-22T00:49:00.001-08:00

Im writing this post mainly because I'm so tired of looking at those darn pictures every time I pull up my blog. Nothing here is new, nothing to report. We don't have children and we're kind of boring so I have a hard time thinking of things I want to blog about. I love the girls who find the small beauty in each day and write some wonderful post about it. I'm not so good at that.

Coby is busy with full time school, full time work. We don't see each other. Sundays were our days, but now that tests are coming up, it's off to church then off to school for more studying. He's doing such a great job and I'm proud of all the work he's putting in, but for the next little while I may need to take a snap shot of each of us and just photoshop them together.

I'm loving all the shoots I'm doing. Anyone have some crazy fun ideas for some future shoots? Let me know! I love it when I have ideas up my sleeve then get the clients that want to do something out of the norm.

On another note, my mom told me she wanted to do a garage sale so I cleaned out all of our cupboards (that made a WAY bigger mess than I was prepared for), and bagged up a LOT of stuff to get rid of. It took a long long time, but it feels good to de-clutter and reorganize. Our home is finally getting cleaned back up.

I've been itching to do some really cute crafts lately... but I have no ideas. Any suggestions? Everything I come up with is for children... and well I don't know what I would do with it at the moment.

Ok, here is my random update. Told you, nothing exciting. We are just busy and doin' our thing!

Pictures!

2009-12-03T19:52:00.000-08:00

I had a photo shoot up north last weekend and so Coby and I got ours done too. I have done stuff with Annie Worsley a few times and we always have fun with pictures. She's going to do some second shooting for me this winter break when she's back in town. It will be fun! Anyway, here's some pictures I have worked with so far.

To see the pictures I did for them

check them out HERE.

New Moon

2009-12-03T19:36:00.000-08:00

Ok, so this is late. Last year for twilight, I went with my sister in-laws to the midnight showing. This year we kept up the tradition and saw New Moon at midnight. I never really saw midnight showings until Bree got me going. I've gone with her to a couple Harry Potters as well as this saga. As for the movie, I really liked it. I try and stay open minded and realize they can't put everything that's in the books in the movies. Also, I think so much of the book is in their thoughts and that is really hard to make into something visual.

Here's a few of us that went. Everyone else bolted home before a picture.

So some of us made T-shirts.

I am totally half and half with which team I'm on. I love them both for totally different reasons. (And I'm talking about the characters in the book) So many people pick going by looks of the actors... eh.

Bree is obsessed with Harry Potter and Twilight so when I saw this quote online, I knew it was going on her shirt. Hilarious.

Tangi... well, read the shirt.

Anyway, after the movie I came home, went upstairs and was LOCKED OUT!!! Coby accidentally (I'm hoping) dead bolted me out!!! I was banging on the door of our apartment, but it was echoing really loud and I didn't want to wake anyone else up. I called and texted about 20 times, threw rocks at the bedroom window, banged on the door some more, and finally went to sit in my car. I had NO gas and am really scared to go to the gas station at night by myself so I couldn't drive anywhere. Called Coby some more. Finally around 3:30 I decided that it was only a couple hours until Coby had to leave for work so I tried to get some sleep. It was really cold that night and my feet were freezing. I found a little red blanket in the back from a little kid's photo shoot I had just did. I think I slept about 20 minutes... cars are not comfortable, especially little ones. I started to get worried when Coby was supposed to be leaving for work and he was nowhere in sight. Then 6 comes around, 6:30, 7, 7:30 (he's supposed to be AT WORK at 6:30). Then I start to think of anything and everything that could have happened for him to not be leaving. So I go upstairs and start banging on the door. Finally he answers, I start crying because I'm cold, tired, and thought something happened to him. The first thing he says is, "why are you outside".

Anyway, he turned his phone off the night before on accident so that's why he didn't get my calls, texts, and why he didn't wake up to an alarm. My next midnight showing better end a little differently. Oh and he didn't get in trouble at work because as soon as he told them the story they were all laughing too hard to be mad. Yeah....... soooo funny.

Pickles the Puppy

2009-11-09T23:13:00.000-08:00

Sorry I'm slow Peyton!!! Here is Grandpa's new puppy!

My dad got a new puppy and Peyton (little animal lover) has been dying to see pictures. Puppy doesn't have a name yet, but I was talking to Peyton on the phone and she told me that it "HAS to be Pickles the Puppy. Her whole name will be Pickles the Puppy, but we'll just call her Pickles."

I think it's a great name Peyton, and even though Grandma is stickin to her guns that it won't be, Uncle Coby and I are stickin with Pickles!

So meet Pickles:

Pickles has ears that could make her fly

She likes to attack Lucy

(Lucy gets really sick of it after awhile)

She was shaking her head side to side to the beat of Coby's music on his phone. It was hilarious.

She also likes to play with sticks.

I'm learning not to bite so you can come play with me Peyton!!!

Halloween

2009-11-09T23:09:00.002-08:00

For Halloween we hung out with two other couples. We went to Ben and Chelsee Hunt's home and met their friends. The guys watched Ghostbusters and the girls made treats: caramel covered apples and chocolate covered strawberries... yum! It took us about 3 batches of chocolate to get it right, but when we did they were good. Then we had a bonfire out front and roasted marshmallows, and ended with a card game. It was super fun to just hang out and visit.

Disneyland Pictures

2009-11-09T23:09:00.001-08:00

Coming soon... promise

Utah

2009-10-28T01:38:00.000-07:00

The first week of October I went to Utah to visit my sister who had also gotten me a weekend of photo shoots. She's always advertising for me on her blog and telling her friends. It's great! Plus the weather was so nice. Actually, I'm used to sweating and being so hot on my shoots, that when it was 40 degrees and rainy for my first shoot, my fingers were so cold it was hard to switch my camera settings. I wasn't quite prepared with gloves or anything.

All of these pictures are copyrighted for the safety of my sister's family, but they are too cute not to share. Do not copy, print or use these in any way.

I got to go to my niece and nephew's soccer games which were SO much fun. I took Peyton's team soccer pictures too. I never realized how entertaining little kids' soccer games could be. If someone tripped it was kind of like a snowball effect until everyone was piled up on each other. Chase did really well at his game and is getting better and better. I can't believe he didn't want warmer clothes on since the game was at 8 in the morning and it was in the 40's. So cold.

Peyton is really good. She weaves in and out and is right up there in the action. She's not afraid to get kicked in the shins or taken down. And I love that her tongue hangs out in concentration the entire time. They had a bag of sliced oranges during her break and I think she ate 3/4 of the bag by herself too. She's too funny.

Then there is cute little Perry all bundled up in the cold weather. She did really well.

While I was there we also went to the pumpkin patch. We brought TONS back to Arizona because they are so cheap there. This was only about a block from my sister's house. Can you believe how many pumpkins there were?! It blows our pumpkin patch's out of the water!

Perry was so amazed by the pumpkins and wanted to grab them all!

It was so much fun to spend some time up there and the weather was gorgeous.

Go to my photo blog to see a lot of my Utah shoots

After I was there for the week I drove with their family to California to go to Disneyland. We haven't been as a family since I was in elementary school and California Adventure hadn't even started to be built. It was a so much fun. More to come....

Baby Brayden

2009-10-28T01:26:00.001-07:00

Then when I got back, Coby's oldest brother Brandt and his wife Gina had their 2nd little baby boy on September 21st.

Washington

2009-10-28T00:53:00.000-07:00

It's been awhile. I've been swamped with pictures which is a great thing and I've very grateful for it, but I've really slacked with updating things we've been up to.

In September I was able to go up to Spokane, Washington and visit my relatives. I went to do my cousin's senior pictures and just visit with family. I was in the Hill Cumorah Pageant with the Holbrooks for 2 years and got really close with them. It was an experience that would bring anyone closer together and it stinks that I don't get to see them too much.

To see some of the pictures I did while I was there go:

Here for the Seniors

Here for some of the family

Also while I was in Washington, Coby started his new job here at Phoenix Children's Hospital. I think he likes it pretty good. I know it took some getting used to to see sick children all the time. He works as a transporter. He cleans up surgical rooms after surgeries, transports patients from surgery to recovery or wherever they need to go, and he makes IV kits and such. I think he really likes being in the medical atmosphere. He likes talking to doctors and nurses about which routes are good to take and tips here and there. It is a great "foot in the door" type of job, and we're really grateful that he got it.

Back to Washington... Spokane is GORGEOUS! One thing I love about it is you can live in the country and by 5 min from the city. So different than Arizona where you have to drive for hours to see the country. Plus it was good to spend some time with my cousin John and his wife Rachel before they spend a year in Rwanda, and my cousin Colin who leaves next month on his mission.

The weather was perfect. It was in the high 70's most of the time and was wonderful compared to Az. We did 3 days of pictures and if I wasn't doing that, I was just hanging out. Here is their amazing backyard.

In the water there were tons of little frogs. I HATE frogs. Just ask Coby. Good thing none of them jumped at me.

See how many you can see in this picture:

When I was really young (like 5-ish maybe) we went to visit the Holbrooks when they lived on the East coast.

We went to Vermont together and remember from pictures how fun it was. One thing that I remember most was the Vermontster.

We were talking about that trip on my last night, and my Aunt said, "well let's go get one." I had NO idea you could get one anywhere!

I thought it was just a Vermont thing... but it's a Ben and Jerry's thing. Rachel (John's wife) is from England, and I LOVE her. It was so great

getting to know her better. It was so fun to see her reaction to crazy Americans and things they go to eat. She thought it was great! We got

to be great friends and am so glad John found her. Anyway, we went to the mall and got our treat.

A Ben and Jerry's Vermonster:

20 scoops of ice cream of your choice in a bucket

5 chocolate chip cookies

4 bananas

1 giant brownie

10 little cups of whatever toppings you want

a tub of hot fudge

and a can of whipped cream

You can change yours however you want. I suggest less cookies, less bananas, more little toppings. We took it home to eat with everyone.

My Aunt and Uncle are representatives for the singles ward up there and they always have a bunch of the young single adults at their house.

Anyway, I had one of the boys take pictures with my camera. I think they all thought we were crazy with how excited we all were to eat

this huge bucket of ice cream.

The goods:

I LOVE my Aunt's face in this one. Isn't she great!?

It did get a little messy

All the boys only had a couple bites. The girls kept going, then me and Rach finished it off leaving behind the only healthy thing... the bananas.

The next morning was my last day. Before my flight my Aunt Michelle and Colin drove me around to see more of Spokane. We drove for about 10

minutes and saw this gorgeous country side. I just took these from the car as we were driving by. We were trying to get in as much

as we could before my flight. They drove me by the Spokane temple which is so pretty.

Then they drove me to Coeur Dalene, Idaho which was only a 20 minute drive. It was STUNNING. We went and got hamburgers ate them

on the beach. We spent a little too long there and had to speed to the airport and I was almost late, but it was so pretty. I want to go back

there very soon. Summer time in Coeur Dalene is honestly gorgeous.

I had a great time Holbrooks! THANK YOU SO MUCH! Can't wait to come up again soon!

Baby Britnee is here!

2009-09-11T10:55:00.000-07:00

Coby's brother Brian and his wife Beckie had their baby last Saturday night. She came with LOTS of hair and she is so cute. Here are a couple pictures I did of her.

Go here to see lots more. Congrats Brian and Beckie.