Leftovers from June 2016

5k around Green Lake with the ward. Steph and I pushed Adele in the stroller.

Adele and Liam love each other, even though he's Jude's age.

We found a little hike/nature walk in the University District. This is our weeny version of adventuring in nature with the kids. (Note the flip-flops.)

My baby friend Sloan at church.

We enjoyed the sunshine. Adele would take walks with Teague and Matt to the gas station down the street for cold drinks, during construction breaks. (Note Teague lunching in the background.)

Below, you can see some progress on the house. We replaced the top two windows, added thick trim, chose paint colors, and finally built a fence in the front yard.

 

Adele likes playing with the hose and Mom's make up, and stealing my sun-bathing set up.

Matt got his tonsils out, and recovery was much easier than expected. Of a similar magnitude, Adele had her first dentist appointment.

This is from Jude's T-ball practice. Adele found a drainage grate, so here she is checking it out, just laying in the middle of the road, stopping traffic. I like to think she was looking for other Ninja Turtles. Josh usually spent Jude's practices finishing his homework.

Nothing like leftover pie in place of birthday cake.

Matt's birthday above. Matt's handsomeness below.

May 2016

I'm sitting here cracking my knuckles and REALLY gearing up for some good quality catch up....but I'm just not sure I'm going to do 2016 justice. It was a heck of a year, and now that I am at ten months behind on documenting, I know some important details will be lost, and I'm sorry. Here I go anyway!

Matt got this crazy idea to make his own pastrami, which involves a brine in the fridge for two weeks, and a small fortune in spices. It was absolutely delicious, and we'll do it again. P.S. Seeing Adele's sippy cup in the background makes me realize how long ago this was.

We happened to get our butts in gear and do a little bit of landscaping on Mother's Day. Matt pulled out some enormous spruce trees on either side of the front yard and I brought home lots of flowers and shrubbery. It was a beautiful sunshiney day with my hands in the dirt, and I finally had something to make me smile upon coming home to my old ugly house, and I remember this feeling like the best Mother's Day ever!

More inside renovations. Everything is taped so we could spray the trim a glossy white, but in retrospect, with all the taping work and all the splatter of a sprayer, I would rather just paint it by hand next time.

Uncle Teague was our construction guru, and at times, our kid entertainer. You can obviously see why they're drawn to him here.

 Steph took Adele with her on a long weekend to Redding, and she got to spend some quality time with cousin Elsie, who was also visiting Grandma.

Matt took the boys to their first Mariners game.

There was lots of batting practice with wiffle balls in the backyard. Both boys are very good batters, and have a lots of room to improve in the catching and throwing categories.

Here is a look at our back porch, after moving that window over a few inches. It still looks this bad, ten months later. Sorry neighbors, we'll get there!

We got warm enough weather for the beach! Aunt Stephanie and some friends met us there.

"I'm swimming! I'm swimming!"

I got the KonMari fever and purged a bunch of clothes. Something about living in a construction zone makes you want to throw EVERYTHING away.

Adele loves when she's big enough to fit into Jude's old super-cool clothes, like this Turtle jacket.

She is also a major cheese-lover.

Our view from the park is pretty awesome. Our cousin Nicholi was here visiting, and this was a good place for all the Seattle cousins to congregate. These kids are crazy about each other.

Adele started experimenting with big girl underwear. She wasn't actually potty-trained until the fall, but she showed interest early.

Jude got slurpees with his friend James after preschool once and it made his entire month!

Matt went to his five year MBA reunion in Chicago and saw our dear old Smith friends. I wish I could have gone with him.

Adele started to display even more of an affinity for dancing and gymnastics. She watches shows in positions like this a lot.

My calendar is her favorite thing to scribble on. Not very convenient for me.

Josh started cub scouts a little early because I am one of the wolf den leaders. This was a hike we took to the secret beach, about half a mile from the church.

Matt took this picture. I don't think he realizes that ice cream on the kitchen floor is a common ritual between my children and me.

Sometimes we make cakes and decorate them with candy because it's too rainy to play outside.

We also paint when it rains, and we've ruined enough clothes to know that the best way to paint is naked.

We visited the Williams family when they were in town, and got to meet Natalie's precious baby.

Adele has the sweetest face when she sits still to watch a show. I take too many pictures of her this way.

She is the willing subject of most of my photography practice.

Lastly, my favorite picture of the month. Instagram caption: "We all do it."

Utah Spring Break

For Spring Break, I found out most of my family would be in Utah. So I loaded up my kids and made the 14 hour drive. It was ridiculously long. We stopped at a hotel in Twin Falls, ID on the way because I'm a wuss. But we got to swim late at night, and the boys loved hotel breakfast the next morning.

Adele loved spending the week with her twin cousin Elsie.

We stayed at Aunt Melissa's house in Lehi. The weather was beautiful.

My littlest sister Julia took us to her dorm at BYU and we ate at the new Canon Center. It has changed so much in the last decade.

"Free" donuts and anything else you want for breakfast. These kids were very happy.

Then we drove to Daybreak to visit my twin cousin Oakley and her kids and play at the park. And I took a lot of photos.

Matt joined us for the weekend. We went to the airport one afternoon to meet up with a friend from Brazil. Matt met Irminia on his mission in 2003. She was small enough to fit in his backpack then. We have proof!

We saw our favorite Palmers who live in Provo now, but got no picture! Just this of Adele and Ezra sharing a romantic moment.

We drove to Springville to see Matt's sister Stephanie and her cute family. 

And they came up to Lehi one day to see us again.

Back to Daybreak to see Oakley again, this time with Matt. Josh and Welles were really sweet together.

The rest of the weekend we spent with my family. Julia and Steven were out of class, and Steph and my dad flew in. Ironically, everyone was together at Melissa and Mike's house except Melissa and Mike, who left on a trip to Hawaii. At least we got to keep Elsie. There was a lot of braiding and nail polish.

Big hair bows and cleaning supplies. Such little domestics!

Yoga and climbing with Steven was super fun, per usual. I was really proud of the boys for being brave. No ropes at this gym.

Last but not least, a scrubby picture of 4/5 of the Madsen kids. I'm glad we made the trip. And very glad Matt drove with us on the way home.