More proof Madison is getting BIG!

Everyday I wake up and am amazed at just how much my baby has grown. She is a little girl with a little opinion about everything now. I LOVE it! Here's a little bit about her.

Let's face it, Madison's hair was so bad and so uneven. Some pieces were getting really long, but she was so in need of a cut. So I had my sister in law Kamela trim it up for us.

She did such a good job. It looks so cute and so healthy. It automatically made her look older too. But it looks so much better.

Here's a front view. She's showing her flower...that's the only way I could get her to look at the camera. Look how blonde her hair looks by the way. That's from being outside so much this summer.

Madison has also graduated from the highchair. She started to climb out and stand on the tray so I thought ya know we should probably put that away. She now has her own table and chair...since she can't reach my table and chairs. She loves to eat at it and asks for it all the time.

And I couldn't not post this picture. We may have cut her hair, but it's still a mess every morning...beautiful isn't she?

Sand Hollow Lake Day

In July we had our annual Paxton family lake trip and Madison was in heaven! She loves the water and she could not believe how much water there was in one place. She also loved to play in the mud. I'm getting a lot better at letting her make messes, but I'm not going to lie it took forever to get that mud out of her hair. She also went for a ride on Clint and Emma's boat for the first time and really liked that too. It was a fun day!

26 weeks (at the time)

Here's my big self at 26 weeks. I'm actually 27 weeks now, but I don't want to take another picture so there ya go.

Kennedie is sitting sooo low in my belly. Madison wasn't this low and I can tell a huge difference. She moves like crazy...but only at night time. I try to get her to move during the day, but it's like she knows when I lay down in bed and she wakes up and wants to play. No one has been able to feel her move except Alan for this very reason. I'd be lying though if I told you I didn't enjoy feeling her move. I seriously cannot wait for her to get here...well I can wait like 13 more weeks, but you know what I mean.

A couple weeks ago I had a kidney infection as well. Seriously. It started out as just a bladder infection, but it moved to my kidneys and if any of you have experienced kidney pain you know how fun it is. My mom and I and Madison were up north when it struck and the pain got so bad that I ended up having my mom take me to the ER up in Salt Lake...at 2:00 in the morning. Poor Madison, she was such a trooper. I got there and they sent me straight up to Labor and Delivery because of the baby (she was fine by the way) and made me sit there in pain for like 2 hours. Long story short, after being in horrible endless pain for like 12 hours they finally gave me a Lortab and some antibiotics to get it cleared up. It was a fun weekend. The Lortabs took the pain away, but they made me sick too. Anyway, it cleared up...or so I thought. I went to my doctors appointment last week and he said it looks like the infection is coming back. He gave me a stronger antibiotic...and $70 later...seriously...I haven't had any pain come back, which is good. Anyway, that's how the pregnancies going right now. Can't wait for this little girl to get here!

I love you Uncle Harley

"It's only when we truly know and understand that we have a limited time on earth--and that we have no way of knowing when our time is up--that we will begin to live each day to the fullest, as if it was the only one we had." -Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

This past Tuesday my mom's brother, Harley Ray Adams, was in an ATV accident and returned to live with our Heavenly Father. Uncle Harley was, and still is, an amazing husband, father, grandpa, brother, and uncle. He was the life of any party and he will truly, truly be missed.

We all grieve in different ways. Some people get angry, some get quiet, some want to be around people, some want to be left alone. Some people blame God, and some turn toward Him. I deal with it by writing. I wouldn't normally do this publicly, but I need my family and friends to know the testimony I have of eternal life...so here goes.

I can't tell you why my uncle was taken from the earth so suddenly and unexpectedly. I won't tell you that I'm completely at peace with it. I don't know why things like this happen. But I do know that our Father in Heaven knows. I know without a shadow of a doubt that He has a hand in our lives. He loves us; that I know for sure.

I also am so grateful to have the knowledge that I have of the Gospel. It helps me at times like this to know that we have a Savior who has suffered for us and knows what we are going through. And because of our Savior, Jesus Christ, if we live the way we are supposed to, someday, we will be with our loved ones again. I know that this is true, and this experience has only strengthened that knowledge.

Please pray for my family. Pray for my mom and her siblings. Pray for my cousins and their husbands and children. And pray for my aunt. Pray that they will have peace and comfort and understanding. And please know that I love you.

Jubilee of Trees...yes in July :)

So for those of you who don't know, with the help of my mom and sister, I'm decorating a tree this year for the Jubilee of Trees. (If you don't know what the Jubilee is click the link to learn more.) Alan's bank decided to sponsor a tree and he asked if I would design it. Not knowing at the time that I would be delivering a child at about the time it needs to be done I gladly accepted this challenge thinking it would be a fun project. I think it will be a fun project...as long as I get it done before I'm 8-9 months pregnant...so I'm working up some ideas right now. One of my ideas contains this...

the top of a can of soda.

Here's how it looks still connected to the can of soda...I need a lot of these. I don't have a certain number that I need...just hundreds to thousands. So here is my plea: If anyone has family, friends, neighbors, long distant cousins or anyone else who would be willing to save bottle tops for me I would be very appreciative. If you're willing to do it let me know and once a week or so I'll get with you to pick them up from you. I know it's a super odd request, but what I'm doing really is going to be neat.

The theme we've chosen for the tree is Coca Cola. So if anyone has any ideas on where I can get some really cool Coca Cola decorations/props/anything Coca Cola for a reasonable price please let me know.

Interesting Words

Lately Madison has been doing something funny with words. She's been putting two and three words together now for a while, but now it's like she's getting lazy and combining them. For example: whenever Madison see's a car or truck she just calls it a car. The other day Alan was describing the difference between a car and truck...it must be really difficult to tell the difference because she has just resorted to calling them all carcks. Carck: The combination of a car and a truck. The other word she says all the time is eedles...what does this mean...it means she would like to eat noodles. The funniest thing is that yesterday she had her cousin Garrett calling noodles eedles as well. She is quite the funny little thing, we'll see what else she comes up with.

Big Changes!

In the last couple weeks we have made some changes at our house.

The first big change is that we are now the proud new owners of a 2006 Toyota Sienna. We've been thinking about getting a van for awhile. I test drove the Sienna a couple months ago and fell in love with it so I knew that's the kind of car I wanted to go with. We weren't thinking we would get one until like next spring, but got a great deal and couldn't pass it up.

The next change is...the potty! Madison has shown some interest in the potty and when she poops in her diaper she tells me that she's gone potty so I thought I would ease her into potty training. I'm not going to push her into anything right now...I'll wait until after the baby comes and she's adjusted to that before I'll throw potty training on top of her too.

It's more of a toy to her than anything right now. She loves to sit on it and I'm way too nervous to let her do it without a diaper. We'll get there, but for now she's enjoying it.

This is the first picture I've gotten of her smiling at the camera in I don't know how long so I had to post it. Don't mind her crazy hair. :)

And the last change seriously brings me to tears. Madison has advanced from the crib to a toddler bed. She's done really well with it. She loves bed time and nap time so she just goes and climbs in her bed and goes to sleep. She doesn't get out of bed until I go in and get her up, but I'm sure that will change when she realizes that she actually CAN get up on her own.

She looks so big in her bed and it makes me sad. She's growing up too fast.