Christmas Night

Christmas night we get together with the Madsen family.  I think we were all pretty excited to talk to Jaron who has been serving in Chile.  He has already been out 1 year... CRAZY!

We had a yummy dinner.  Exchanged gifts with our secret santas, and had lots of fun together.

This guy is doing SO SO well.  I've never met someone who has changed so much in their life and has become one of THE strongest people I know.  He is such an amazing example to all of us here at home and is doing so well on his mission.  He is a great leader, positive, and one of the funniest people.  I can't wait for him to be home.  Love him.

Jaron learned a song in Spanish about mothers.  He asked to sing it to his mom and even though none of us could understand it (except Coby), we were all in tears at the end.  He said some of the chorus was about your mom never giving up on you and always being there for you and being your best friend.  He is a great singer and it was really sweet to watch.

Bree helped B open little board books from Grandma and Grandpa.  He LOVES them.
He'll sit and let you read to him for quite awhile.

Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas!

Blessing Beckham Coby

Beckham Coby was given a name and a blessing today by his dad.  It was such a neat/surreal experience to have your own child get a blessing.  I'm so grateful that we are sealed together and are an eternal family.  I had a lot of family in town for my Grandpa's 88th birthday 2 days before too.  We are so grateful for all those who came and helped bless our little Beckham boy.  He did great and didn't make a peep (his favorite way to be calmed is to be held out and bounced... perfect).  I'm very grateful for a worthy husband who could bless our little boy.  Coby did a great job.

Everyone who was in the circle
Tom Barratt, Trent Madsen, Jeff Jeppsen, Coby, Lynn Madsen, Brandt Madsen, Scott Alexander, Brian Madsen

Madsen Family

Alexander Family

4 Generations

Happy 4th!

Our 4th was pretty low-key and fun.  It started off early with the Madsen's doing their annual Mesa city volleyball tournament.  We were short a few key players (Trent-work, Coby-injured list, Jaron-mission).  Everyone still had fun though and the weather was more than you could ask for in July in AZ.  It was 90 maybe, overcast, sprinkling, with a cool breeze.  It felt so nice.  It was killing Coby to not get out and play so he took on the coaching position.  I think he just needed to be involved somehow so it was all he could do.

Then we went home and made a few cakes and took some strawberry shortcake to my parent's house (I love that their house is ALWAYS festive and ready for holidays).  We went back to the Madsen's for dinner, some quick sparklers with the kids then hung out until it was time for fireworks.  Pretty chill way to spend a summer holiday.

So grateful for all those who have fought and serve for us to have our freedom.

Welcome Home Sister Madsen!!!

Coby's youngest sister Bree came home from her mission the same day as Coby's surgery (good planning right?).  After the surgery I took him to his parent's house (there was no way I was getting a 6'6" man who was dizzy and on lots of pain meds up 2 flights of apartment stairs).  The bishop's wife who lives a couple doors down said she'd check on him while we went to pick her up from the airport.  

She was scheduled to get in a bit early so we all hurried down there only to wait... forever!  She was supposed to be in at 1:45.  All the screens said she was here, but we never saw her come out.  So we waited.  And waited.  Waited some more.

Coby's dad told us how he missed one of his flights when he came home and didn't think to call his family, but we all knew that wasn't the case.  We stood here for over an hour.  ...waiting.

(Right pic: Sisters yes, twins no.  They are 14 months apart.  Now just try to guess which one is older.)

This was after running around and the excitement of the airport wore off.  The kids were so tired of waiting

Dad went down to see if she was at baggage claim and while he was gone Bree comes running up yelling "Surprise"!  The sign was down, no one was paying attention, not the greatest welcome home.  Another missionary she flew with was from Mexico and needed help to get to her connecting flight so she had gone to take her over to her other flight, then went down and got her luggage.  We had to call dad back up to come see her.  

We are so glad Bree is home and that she was able to serve the people in California.  WELCOME HOME BREE!!!

Mother's Day

Mother's Day was simple and fun this year. After church we went to my parent's to spend some time with my mom. We visited for a little bit, then we all took a nap. haha That's what mom wanted to do so we all joined in.

In the afternoon we went to Coby's brother's house. His 2 youngest siblings are serving missions and were calling home. We were able to Skype with Jaron in Chile. How cool is it that you can Skype with missionaries now?! It was so much fun! He is doing really well and it was fun to see him and the member's who were letting him use their computer. One of Coby's brothers was out of town so we had him on facetime in front of webcam so he and Jaron could talk. Crazy what you can do with technology now.

Not nearly everyone.  People were walking back and forth from the kitchen.

We talked with Bree a little later. I can't believe she will be home in about 1 month. So crazy! They are both doing well and are so grateful for their service. We are grateful for our moms and all the love and support they give us. I am fortunate to have an amazing mother-in-law too. Both of our moms are always there for us and would do anything for us. We are very lucky and grateful.

Christmas Morning

All right... time to explain our Christmas surprise. As far as fertility goes, I was needing a break and wasn't sure if I wanted to do IVF again soon. Coby was ready, I wanted to get adoption rolling, so we decided in January we would get both options going. We'd do IVF again while working on papers.

Christmas morning I decided to take a pregnancy test. I promised myself I would not take another one of those darn things ever again and if it wasn't a holiday I probably wouldn't have. I was late, but IVF can also mess up your cycle quite a bit so I didn't think anything of it. We had stayed the night at my parent's to wake up with everyone Christmas morning. Everyone was already downstairs waiting to do presents when I took the test. I think I was in shock and didn't believe it at all. I re-read the codes about 10 times to make sure I was reading it right, but at the same time thought I was making the whole thing up.

So I ran downstairs, wrapped it really quick, wrote on it that it was for Coby and for it to be the last gift opened, went by the family and stuck it in the back of the tree. (I always thought it was funny when people would wrap up the stick... but what else was I supposed to do in a couple minutes??) I didn't think about it much... I think I was in total denial. Once I gave the present to Coby, I started panicking that I read the code wrong and wrapped up a negative test for him. That would have been a mess.

I think Coby was in shock, some of us were crying, but most of us were worried to get too excited. I think we were wondering "How in could this happen when our odds are less than 3%???" My dad told me to take another test, my mom wanted to know how accurate they were, and Heather just kept saying "you don't get false positives, this is for real," and Coby and I kind of sat in shock. It took awhile to process it all, and Heather was working on how to announce it to friends, Coby's family, and planning the baby shower all within the hour. haha

We were trying to come up with fun ideas to tell Coby's family that night. We were all getting together for Christmas, his sister on a mission would be calling home, it was pretty good timing.

We thought we'd make them guess a little bit. We knew we'd be the last people they would be expecting, especially since a few other siblings were talking about trying soon. We put a clue on the table, but a lot of people said they didn't know if it was for them and they didn't want to ruin someone else's gift so they didn't check. Coby had his brother tell his mom to go check the clue, which had the bun inside the oven. First it got pinned on Brandt and Gina, then went through all the other couples, then went back to Brandt and Gina (who looked a little guilty about it)... then she looked at me and we both started crying. I was not very emotional about it unless someone else started crying. If that happened, I was a mess.

It was such a fun Christmas; our best Christmas ever!!! It was fun to talk to Bree and tell her over the phone instead of in a letter.

We were in shock, our Dr's were in shock... I think we needed to do all that we could, still have faith, and our prayers were answered with this sweet miracle. I guess in after all we could do, we just had to wait that "one more month."

-The next day Brandt and Gina came clean that they were expecting and didn't know what to say when everyone kept asking them from our note the night before. She is 6 weeks ahead of me and they are having a little girl. So exciting!

Elder Jaron Madsen

Coby's little brother left on his mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints on January 4, 2012. He will be serving a 2 year mission in Orsorno, Chile.

I love this guy so much; he is one of my best friends. I'm lucky to get along so well with Coby's family, and Jaron will be SO SO missed while he is gone. He has prepared so much for this mission and is going to do some amazing things. The night before he left he was set apart at his house and was given such a powerful blessing.




We have already gotten a few letters from him and he sounds amazing. His is focused on the work and we are so happy for him and excited for all the things he will experience over the next couple years. Get togethers aren't the same without him, we miss him a ton, but wouldn't want him to be anywhere else.