Bloggin help..

So I need a lesson in blogging 101. I had two windows open working on posts while uploading pictures thinking I would save myself some time and when I actually posted I wanted the "Watch out Cheetah Girls" post to FOLLOW the "Are you ready for some FOOTBALL" post. I have looked to try and find a way to move my posts around but not successfully. Does anyone have an idea on how this can be done.... Fellow bloggers... your help would be much appreciated!

Are you Ready for some FOOTBALL......

Today was Mick's first official tackle football game. How fun was that.... The final score... 6-0 in favor of the..... LEHI PIONEERS!!!! YAY!! It was tons of fun. A little hot.. but fun nonetheless. I didn't get a ton of photos cuz I had ALL the kids and ok... I forgot!!! I should quit using the 6 kid thing as an excuse!!!

Mick playing Safety! He had Grandma Vic, Grandma and Grandpa Lovell (all the way from IDAHO) and Grandpa Pete there to watch. Thanks for the support!

Mays playing in the water! He has learned how to turn the water on outside. I know this is awful but I don't mind... as long as I know where he is... He can honestly spend an hour outside as long as he has the hose and the water is running.

Updated picture of Murphy. They grow so big at this age that I thought I would post a picture since he wasn't in any of the Disney pics. He is an awesome baby (even if he still isn't sleeping well).

My mom and dad made a quick drive up today to buy my dad some boots at Sportsmans. That was lots of fun for us to get to see them for a minute. They had dinner with us and then headed home! Thanks for the visit.

Last but not least..... After the football game Mick had about an 1 1/2 hour break before he headed off to baseball practice. After practice he and most of the team went over to the pool until closing time. They had soooo much fun. Immediately following they all came downstairs with my washrags hanging from both sides of their shorts. They are hilarious.

Please notice the different poses. Bub hiking his shorts up.... Colby posing like a girl.... Tanner being goofy along with Mick and Kelton. I love these boys and I love the friendships that Mick has made with them!

Photo Shoot....

Watch out Cheetah Girls.....

Okay, I got the biggest kick out of this slide show. I finally went and bought a new battery charger and batteries so the camera is up and running!!! YAY!!! Well... Macee had a friend over after school yesterday. For those of you who have daughters you know that the new Cheetah Girls has been on the Disney Channel all weekend. Macee and Emilee were soooo excited.

Well I took some pictures today (Saturday) and was getting ready to do my post about the weekend when... I saw like 60 other photos (seriously I deleted 3/4 of them). I questioned Macee and Maddog about them because they know they aren't suppose to play with my camera. Macee said that her and Emilee wanted to dress up and do a "photo shoot" to send to Disney so they could be on the next Cheetah girls. I had seen them dress up in a couple of Macee's last year dance costumes and do makeovers but didn't know there was a photo shoot going on!!!

I laughed so hard at some of these pictures. So.... here is a slide show of a few of my favorites. She is such a dork... but I LOVE HER!!!

Thought for the Day... or the Week... or for the Rest of My Life

I know... impressive... 2 posts in 1 day... kind of.. it's 1:45 am so I guess that isn't correct. Anyway, I felt the need to make this post. I have been doing a little blog stocking and feeling like shedding a thousand tears so I have been checking out Baby Mac's angel friends. I am the stupidest (not a word right?) person... I know... why do I feel the need to cry right?

But there have been 2 things that have hit me BIG time today. First of all, there was a mother that lost her 4 year old in a car accident. It wasn't a bad accident and the other 2 passengers were totally fine. You can get the "whole" story here.... http://isabelle-broadhead.memory-of.com/legacy.aspx. Long story made short... She had her 4 year old in a booster seat rather than a harness child seat and the adult lap belt is what caused the death. I had read another friends blog today about a family member of her's that was "just" taking her kids to school when she got hit by another vehicle which killed her and a son (who was thrown from a car). I cannot tell you how many times I have thrown my little boys in the car in a hurry because the kids were a few minutes late for school. It was just so amazing to me to read both of these incidents in one day. I KNOW that I will take the extra minute to buckle my precious cargo from now on!


Secondly.... Baby Camille. This little one was a 14 month old that fell into the family hot tub and drowned (I know... why do I read this). This is a quote from her mother a couple weeks after her death. I LOVED IT!!!

"So I guess my message for the day is -- Love your little ones--even the ones that drive you crazy. If you could see them the way God sees them -- you would be astounded at their glory."

So today I have made a promise to myself and my family to take a deep breath and cherish and have patience and love and make the time.... No matter how fast life is spinning...

Happy First Week of School!!!

So I am a few days late but here is a couple pics of the kids on the first day. I didn't have the battery power to take the time to do anything cute because I think I left my battery charger in California and we were very creative in trying to get these 2 pics!! Boy how the years have changed. A few years ago I would spend so much time on Macee's hair and make the kids change a few times for the first day of school but.... they have really gotten easy. Macee prefers a single ponytail (had to fight her to wear her hair down) and Mick would go in his Nike athletic shorts every day!

I have come to the conclusion that it's ok!!! If you can believe it.... I didn't even go school clothes shopping this year. I went through closets about a month ago trying to get rid of stuff to sell the house and realized at the time that neither of them needed anything (except to donate 1/2 their attire). They could have cared less so... the back to school transition was very easy for us.

It's a little tradition for me to pick up the kids on the first day of school and take them for a drink (to Sonic happy hour of course) and talk about their day. They both LOVED their teachers. Mick got Miss Waite who we have known because she is in our Ward. I was thrilled and he thinks she is the coolest. Macee got a new teacher, Miss Knudsen, who is just a young thing. I swear she looks 18! But she is cute and I know Mace will do really well with her. They both had friends in their class so they are super excited for the year to start.

The little boys will start preschool in a couple weeks.....

The Happiest Place on Earth

We're Baaaack!!!!

Well, we made it home!!! I have had mixed feelings about our vacation because I got home and was sooooo exhausted from chasing crying kids and dealing with the sickness on vacation that I was thinking it just wasn't a ton of fun!!! After going through all the pics and seeing the happy smiles on the kids faces I have changed my tune!!

We flew in on Saturday and went straight to the Yankees game. It was an awesome game until the 8th when the Angels scored 8!! I did put a slide show of the ball game down below. Beware - for those of you who may not be fanatics, it will be boring. Mick was the photographer and my memory card was full (250) after the first half hour at which time I had to hurry and clean it off!!! He's hilarious. He was in heaven watching his team play for real!!! Notice how they all have their cute Yankee shirts on... well... you will notice that in some of the pics Maddog goes Red. Yes, my mom decided rather than get him a birthday present she would get him something at the game. He chose and Angels shirt and Hat. We confused a lot of folks!!!

On Sunday, Mick and dad returned to watch the Yankees loose again. Mom and I took the rest of the kids to Knottsberry Farm. We had a good time. It is more of a place for older kids because they have several awesome roller coasters. We actually took a break around 4 and went and got dad, Eric and Mick and brought them back. Mick and Macee were the best of friends and jumped on and off rides!

Monday we all, excluding Eric, went to Disneyland. We had a good time. We started out the morning having breakfast with the characters. I thought this would be a good way to break Mays in.... Wrong... he was not a fan of the characters. Didn't mind them until they got close. Mays and Gwire started getting really restless and tired around lunch time but we kept going. Around 3 Gwire said he was sick. I felt his forehead and he was burning up! So I took them to First Aid at the park and they gave them some Tylenol. I took the kids back to the hotel and my Mom, Dad, Macee and Mick stayed until later.

The next 3 days were Disney, Disney, Disney. Macee felt horrible (high fever) the last day (Thursday) so we came home and called it good early that day. It was fun but I would definately have left Mays home had I known that he would hate the characters, hate the rides, and hate the people. The only rides that he liked were Buzz and the carousel. He was even scared of Nemo!!!

Thanks mom and dad for coming along. You were a bunch of help and the kids enjoyed spending time with you. Thanks to those who helped with Murphy. We missed him a ton!!! We are home and school starts tomorrow. I can't believe summer is over already. School.... here we come!!!

Knottsberry Farm

Go Yankees!!!

Airplane/Airport Pics

Vacation and Blogging

So.... does it mean you are super addicted when you are blogging while on vaca? Nope... it means that I am sitting in our hotel room with two sleeping little boys that have fevers over 100!!! Yup - it is our 3rd day in town and Mays and Migs are down and out!!! My mom and dad have Mick and Macee over in Disneyland and Eric and Maddog went to Target to get some Tylenol! Darnit.... Pretty bad when you are in the InstaCare at Disneyland. Aside from today we have had a good time. The game was awesome on Saturday until the 8th.... Arod is ginormous and he and Jeter are even better looking for real!!!!

Eric had a good time at camp and starting tomorrow he will officially be on vacation. My 3 oldest have been pretty concerned about Matthew (aka Bub). He had a little accident today and ended up in the hospital for a bit. That's all the older kids can talk about.... Maddog keeps asking me over and over what happened, Macee just seems concerned.... and Mick just wants to make sure he will be good to go for the game on Saturday.... No... Mick has been way worried but I thought it was hilarious after telling him about it that that was his first questions. Unfortunately it will probably be a bit for football since he got some pretty good stitches but we are just glad he is ok!!! We are thinkin of ya Bub!!!!

I think they have shown the house a couple times so we are hoping it's sold when we get back!!! We are having a good time with my mom and dad up here. He and Mick did the game yesterday alone... the Yankees lost 4-3 in the bottom of the 9th. I thought Mick was going to cry. My mom and I took the kids to Knottsberry Farm for the day. They had a ball!!!

Okay - I am going to take this opportunity to go lay down and take a nap with my boys.

We are going....

For those of you who have asked I thought I would share what we are doing for vacation. We will be doing a little bit of this....

And we will be doing a little bit of this....

vs.

I swore we wouldn't go this year but could harldy pass the chance of seeing the Yankees in town. The main reason we are going is because Eric was invited to work at a prospect camp in Anaheim so why not take the whole fam. I am sure he loves that idea! My mom and dad are coming down Sat - Tues. My dad will be going to his first major league baseball game. He loves Major League Baseball. I grew up watching it in my house. I can't believe this will actually be the first time he is there. I am so excited!!!!

I talk Eric into going every year because I watch the schedule very closely and when Willie (Texas Rangers) or Jared (use to be Reds) were in town I would so non-shallantly say, "hey let's go watch so and so in Anaheim." Willie and Rachel - you will be greatly missed this year! Maybe you should just bring the crew down anyway!

The whole fam, including Eric will go to Saturdays game. Eric has camp all day Sun and Mon and so just Mick and dad will be going to the Yankee game on Sunday! I figure my mom and I can do the beach or even just lay around the hotel all day. We will all do Disneyland, except Eric on Monday and then Mom and Dad will go home.

The Madsen family will spend the next 3 days (literally, I am a Disneyland Nazi!!!) in the parks and we will return Friday! I can't wait. I LOVE this place!!!

I am so ready for VACATION!!!

Wow has this week been insanely crazy!!! The house is actually officially listed. They will show it all week next week while we are out of town which makes my life extremely easy!!! You don't know how happy I will be to step on that plane Saturday morning!!! My sleeping hours the entire week have been about 2 - 5 (this morning prob 3 - 5). I have actually come to a conclusion about this house stuff.... Why the heck do I live the way I do with all the clutter? My house looks so much better with half my **** in storage. Seriously... I can't believe how much crap we have. I have made a commitment to not let it get this way in the new house. We will see how long that lasts. Here are a few of my fav pics over the past week....

Macee did a photo shoot of Murphy on the couch! I thought this was a cute, chubby picture of my "not so little" man!!!

Update on the house... We have windows. We have plumbing, heating and air and electrical done!!! It is getting exciting....This is my beautiful niece Kaijsa and Murphy. She is in Utah for a few more days but we said goodbye to her Sunday. I love her so stinkin much!!! I miss her so bad. She came and stayed a few days with me last week and helped SOOOO much with the kids. She is amazing with little kids. I have tried to tell her I would finish my basement and she could have her own room downstairs if she would come back. Darn you girl... I love and miss you all the time!! But... I am extremely glad and proud to see how much you have grown and how happy you are in Texas.I guess this goes along with having boys. Eric came and got me early this morning and had me take a pic. He has spent alot of time with his hand down the diaper. What a dork!!! Don't you love the princess pillow!!!Mick is playing his first year of if tackle football. We love it because he plays for a good friend of ours that teaches the boys so much but let me be honest with you... as a mother I am scared to death for my little guy. He has no fear... but I on the other hand... Oh well, it will be so exciting and fun! Mays looked much cuter in his pads so we took the pic of him. Even though he didn't like it!

Over the weekend we....

Just a few pics from the weekend. I seriously have to many pictures. I wanted to try and avoid all the slideshows but have to darn many pics!!! After the parade on Saturday morning the whole fam went up to the marina at Joes Valley and had lunch. It was beautiful... I so miss that place!!! Later that night my brother Clint did a great fireworks display and guess what my Maddog did.... picked up a scorching hot sparkler and burned his fingers. I had taken him in the house to run his hand under cold water when they brought McGwire in crying for the same kid. I guess we are not so smart at the Madsen home!!! Thank goodness for the expertise of my sisters husband, uncle Chris. Both he and my sister are EMT's and it is so nice to have them in the fam for little things like this! Thanks a bunch guys!!

Cleveland Pics

Hogle Zoo 2008

So we don't go often but we try to get to the Zoo once a year. Thanks to my good, long-time friend, Danyale, we went one night last week. She got us in for free because she is a member and we had so much fun! Thank you so much Danyale! It was good to hang out and let the kids run around. We were seriously the only ones there because it was limited to the "gold members" (or whatever)! Funny story though - it was Hawaiian night and they had several different things for the kids to do.... well.. all the kids were getting a tattoo so I got this frog tattoo on my ankle. I woke up the next morning at 5 am and had to go down to the Price office for work. At around noon one of the girls in my office said, "Jessica, can I ask you a question..." "Did you really get a tattoo." I could have died. I was wearing a skirt so you could plainly see my tat!!! I got a good laugh out of that one!!!

Fun at the Zoo

Helllllloooooo....

Okay, A few posts for you... Sorry.... I am usually such a dedicated blogger and I can't find enough hours in the day!!! We have been having so much fun lately and I wish I could go into greater detail about the following few posts but it's 1:30 am and I should go to bed!!! The house is soooo close to being ready. We are putting it on the market this week (for real) and they will be showing it while we are on vacation next week!!!! YAY!!! Everyone wish us luck!

Family Reunion

Callister Anti-Reunion 2008

This reunion was also the same weekend as the Tournament so we did alot of driving from Lehi to Park City to Syracuse. It was well worth it. As you can see from the pics everyone had a ball. It was so great to have Traci and her boys down for the week! Wish I had more time to go into detail but it was a great time had by all!!!

We are the Champions....

Over the 24th of July weekend, the Lehi Tigers won the RMSB Tournament of Champions! Congrats boys... it was a great season! I seriously love every one of these boys and their parents. Can't wait for FALL!!!

Tournament of Champions

The Verdict is in....

I am officially crazy. It is 2:45 am and I just finished packing for our weekend trip to Cleveland. I have to work in the Price office tomorrow and then Chloe is getting blessed on Sunday! I knew I needed to do Maddogs birthday post today because if not, it would get put off (like the last 2 weekends) and I couldn't do that to my 5 year old!

Because we are leaving tomorrow we did a little celebrating today! We woke up early and went to breakfast with one of Maddux's best buddies, Wacky! We ate at IHOP! Maddux ordered a cheeseburger (at 8 am). I thought he was crazy and when we all got our nummy food he changed his mind and ordered a short stack. We then went and bought him a new bike for his birthday! We ended the evening with a trip to the zoo (pictures to come soon).

I honestly love the heck out of this boy! He has grown so much over the past year. I mean seriously, I think about 5 shoe sizes!! Our home would not be complete without Maddog!!! We love you so much buddy! Happy Birthday!

Happy 5th Birthday Maddog!!!