Turkey Week in Redding

This Thanksgiving, our whole little family was able to fly to California for four great days with everyone together. Matt had to return to Chicago that Sunday for the last two weeks of school, but Josh and I got to stay in Redding until last Friday, when we met Matt in Arizona for the start of Christmas break. Our little man definitely enjoyed the west coast weather and all the room to run around and explore. He learned the names of all his family on the Madsen side, significantly improved his skateboarding skills, and got extremely dirty every day from playing outside. Such a BOY!

My dad had these "Madsen University" shirts made for us for Christmas.

This is pretty much what you'd see every time Steph got ahold of Josh. She smothered him with kisses at every chance!

We all wore our matching T-shirts for a big wiffleball game in our backyard against some family friends. Here I am obviously swinging a big fat strike.

My brother-in-law Mike got a great idea for a project that week -- build a tree house! It was a fun thing for the boys to work on together and it will be awesome for the grandkids someday. It's pretty high, so Josh is still a little small to enjoy it.

Of course I got a new puzzle for Christmas, this one of the Chicago skyline.

Making delicious dinner rolls from Ourbestbites.com.

The missionaries came over for a quick ping-pong tournament on Thanksgiving. My 11-year-old sister kicked my trash. It was painful.

That weekend, we all drove to Sacramento and Turlock for my cousin Nicholi's wedding. Such a cute couple! Ruby, his sweet little sister, had to squeeze into as many pics as possible to make them that much cuter.

The whole family together!

Back home, bonding with Uncle Steven in our driveway. (Hey Chicago friends - do you remember what sunshine looks like?)

A cookie, a skateboard, and a completely mismatched outfit...what more does a little boy need?

We "helped" my dad and brother put up Christmas lights and decorations outside. Really it was just an excuse to get up on the roof. (Which was awesome!)

The trampoline introduced an exciting new skill to Josh -- JUMPING! He really can't do it yet, but watching him try is absolutely hilarious! He slowly and carefully bends over, reaching his arms way back behind him, then swings them up over his head as fast as he can, all to lift only one leg off the ground and often fall over onto his cute little hiney. But then, of course, he chuckles and claps at a job well done because this series of actions completes a very successful jump, in his mind. Silly boy.

Mommy and Josh working side by side. I love this picture because it is completely candid. I spent a lot of time sitting by the fireplace at home 1) because it is so darn tootin' cold in my parents' house and 2) because I did a lot of knitting/crocheting to complete some Christmas gifts that were cheap enough to fit into our poor student budget. Little Josh would sometimes bring his "work" (in this case, my cell phone) up to the fireplace ledge and plop down right next to me when he wasn't getting enough attention.

My Daddy and me in our University of Chicago sweatshirts. He made sure everyone had the right U of C gear when he came out to visit in October. I'm pretty sure this completes his collection -- he must now a shirt from every single college in the country. You'd never be able to tell where he graduated from.

"These are not the droids you're looking for..." (I feel like I need to say that this little caption came from my dear husband. Apparently it's a quote from Star Wars, which I have never seen in its entirety and cannot/will not claim any connection to whatsoever. Just sayin.)

Have you ever seen a cuter, sweeter, more ghetto fabulous baller?

My mom took Josh across the street to look at our neighbor's horses. He really liked to see them from far away...but this was a little too close for his comfort.

Eating at Black Bear Diner, a family favorite since I worked there the summer after my freshman year.

I was sitting at the computer one day in my dad's home office, and after a few minutes I looked behind me to see my little BingBong like this. Maybe he was a bit tired and was looking for a nice cozy place to rest.

Snuggling with Grandma. You can just tell by her face how much she loves this. She's in heaven!

There must have been a silent rock star party in the back seat of the truck, because nobody knows how Josh's hair got like this.

I made Josh some ties while I had access to my mom's wealth of sewing supplies. (Pictures to come later.) He liked this one so much that he wouldn't take it off all night. Such a little dorky-lork.

This picture is a little out of order, but I had to have record of Josh being totally okay with chilling by himself out in the middle of our front property. No playmates or supervision needed. It's like Man versus Wild.

Just playing on my dad's tractor attachment. He LOVED all machinery at our house. Good thing we'd been studying his "Big Truck Book" before this trip.

So excited!! Here he is trying to climb the ladder to the new tree house.

And there's my handsome brother Steven painting the tree house.

Josh played in the Mule for a good hour that day, clicking and unclicking the seat belt, pretending to steer, and taking the key in and out. He called this one the "tractor," too.

Stopping on our way out to the tree house to dance to Steven's blaring music.

This is the beautiful site I woke up to every morning. This house really makes it hard to miss city life.

Julia was so nice to bathe with Josh in Grandma's big tub. It made bath time much more fun for everyone because Josh had a playmate and I didn't have to sit there the whole time to supervise. He really loves his Aunt "Joo-li".

Reading some new books with "Gampa." And shoo-ing me away for ruining an important male-bonding session.

Thanks for the great trip, family! We were happy to miss out on the first Chicago snow of the winter and spend some time at home. We love you and miss you already! xoxoxo

(Sorry for the poor quality of most of these pictures - they were taken on my cell phone, but I figured they were better than nothing.)

I know Halloween was forever ago...

...but here are the pictures so you know that we partied hard.

A week before Halloween, we did a little practice run with Josh's costume to make sure it fit and, more importantly, to show Grandma and Grandpa his ferocity while they were in town. Josh wasn't too crazy about the tiger get up. I'm thinking he wanted a more manly, realistic portrayal of the animal. One that matched the roar he'd been working on. Not some fuzzy-cutesy-stuffed-animal-looking thing that covered his head and made him all sweaty.

Still, once he realized his little costume scored him CANDY, he was a trooper. Here's a picture from the day before Halloween when they had trick-or-treating at the business school. LOVE all these costumes.

On Halloween morning, Mardee and I were in charge of a party for the Tot Lot kids (young children of U of C students who use the little indoor playroom in our building). It was a success! Kids + costumes + toys + sugar = unstoppable FUN! Here is "pumpkin walk" that lasted as long as the kids' attention spans...about five minutes.

A hungry little shark named Max circling the snack table.

We had a table where the kids could decorate a bag with stickers so they could put all their Halloween candy in it. We also set out a world map so people could mark their home countries. There are a LOT of international families here, so it was really cool to see where everyone came from.

And here's a cute little tiger pushing a chicken that wiggled out of her costume. Josh loves little Rozi.

Later that day, there was a trunk-or-treat at the church, followed by an awesome Halloween party that Carina headed up. There were contests for pumpkin carvings, costumes, and soups. There were also carnival games and a CRAZY number of people! It was definitely the place to be! By the way, I did dress up (sort of). I had a witch's hat that night, but it didn't want to stay on my head. And earlier that day, I cut out some triangles and a toothy grin and taped them on my stomach to look like a jack-o-lantern. Count it. It's the best I could do on such a busy day.

And just so I NEVER lose these pictures or allow this memory to leave my brain...

Here is what my dad did for Halloween.

Yeah. My dad is Batman. I'm pretty proud of him for dressing up at all.

He and his boss dressed up and drove around to the different pharmaceutical stores/offices they oversee and surprised their employees. I sooooooo wish I could have been there to make fun of him and to poke his inflated pectorals.

Guess who's absolutely DONE with her undergraduate degree???

THIS GIRL!!!!!

(Actually, both of these girls are finished, but today I'm specifically talking about me. This is a pic from 2004, the very beginning of my freshman year at BYU, with my awesome roommate Lindsey on our way to a Jock Rock party.)

Yes, it's true. I actually finished. A few minutes ago, I sent off my last lesson for my final class: a 43-page typed portfolio of various writing assignments. No, "43" is not a type-o. It was a beast!

Just so nobody wants to vomit in their mouth while they are reading, this isn't meant to be a brag post. I just get a lot of questions about when I'll FINALLY finish school and how many classes I have left...so here are your answers, people. NOW. ZERO. DONE. EL FIN. NO MAS!

How am I celebrating, you ask? I'm about to go take a nice nap while my baby is snoozing. I think I deserve it. Usually this time would be used to catch up on schoolwork. It's kind of a weird feeling not to have any assignments hanging over my head. Now it's just cleaning, cooking, taking care of Josh (and Matt), laundry, grocery shopping, and an endless list of random errands.

Ahhhh...THIS is the life I've been waiting for!!!

Lincoln Park Zoo

A few days ago, Matt and I realized that he had not taken a break from school to go somewhere fun in far too long. Josh and I have been enjoying this city without him, accompanied by the other husbandless business school wives and their adorable children. I know I haven't posted much, but that's because we've been SO busy going to fun places like the museums and the apple orchard. It's really not fair to our poor men, but it's much better than suffering along with them.

So yesterday, we drove to the Lincoln Park Zoo with some friends and family that randomly decided to join us. By the end of the day, I decided that Josh's version of Heaven will most definitely involve lots of caged animals that he can gawk at behind a safe, thick layer of glass. He was so happy to be there! So fascinated by every animal!

Here's a bunch of our crew. From left to right: Campbell, Mardee('s half face), Spencer, Brooklyn, Carson, Matt, Josh, and Cadence. You've got it made when the kids in your group can take up all the railing in front of an exhibit -- no one to ruin the view!

All of these kids are so curious and smart! So many questions! So many animals! So little time!

Don't worry...Josh isn't falling. Sometimes the excitement of seeing REALLY big cats just gets the best of him and he flips out a little. Let's just say I was really glad he didn't figure out how to squeeze through the bars of the protective fence.

Here are Matt and Josh staring down a ferocious-looking mini crocodile. The funny thing was there were monkeys playing right above his pond. Ya know the song about Mr. Crocodile snapping the monkeys out of the tree? Yeah, bad idea zookeepers.

Every time Campbell saw me taking pictures, she ran straight for the camera with a super cheesey grin on her face. I wish I had a picture of her expression, but her sweet little cheeks got so close to the camera that it couldn't focus right. Campbell is without a doubt one of the sweetest babies I have ever met. She loves hugs from everyone! Rarely does she see another baby and forget to attack them with a big bear hug.

I kind of feel like a broken record, but Chicago IS beautiful! I think it is particularly cool that the zoo is right up close to the city. And did I mention it is absolutely FREE? Can life get better? I submit that it cannot!

Those big apes were pretty entertaining to the little monkeys on our side of the glass.

What? I'm in a picture? Well there you go... proof that I was actually there. Usually I'm the one behind the camera, so it's nice to have a family shot once in a while.

Carina, Carson and Brooklyn...Too cute for words. We love this family!

It was such a treat to have the DADS with us that day. Are you confused that Matt is wearing shorts, a T-shirt, and flip-flops? That's because it was 68 DEGREES outside! Can you believe it?! We were expecting to be stuck inside in an ice storm at this point in the year. We're lovin' it!

The lions were totally awesome. There was this huge lioness that was just pacing back and forth on her rock while the male took a little nap. At one point, they started roaring really loud back and forth. Josh loved it! He got some good practice making animal sounds that day.

That was Matt's version of the Circle of Life at Pride Rock. I'm not sure how the lions felt about it because that was right before they started roaring at us.

And here is how our husbands spend quite a bit of time these days. Responding to emails, checking football scores, and texting each other about school on their fancy phones. Okay okay, in their defense, at this point they were actually just looking up directions to Flubba Dub Chub's (a hot dog restaurant) so they could feed their starving families, but I still thought it was a good representation of their "free time", with school always in the back of their minds.

And now for a slightly less cute (but still hilarious) picture of my baby...

Before you get grossed out, just think...how many kids do you know who can hold a snot bubble for a picture? Eh? That's talent.

About 3.5 seconds after this picture was taken, Josh's head collapsed onto his chest and he fell into a deep sleep coma. This fun day really tired him out. He even stayed asleep on me while we walked like five blocks to get food AND while we ordered at this little delicious shack of a restaurant. I really enjoyed it as I was reminded of the days when he would ONLY sleep on or next to me. I'm so glad he's old enough to enjoy the zoo now! Thanks for the fun day, friends!