Busy weekend...

This weekend has already been super busy!!! Yesterday, Spencer and I made batches and batches of pumpkin chocolate chip cookies--some for us, some for friends, and the rest for a primary activity day I had this morning. Lemme just say--it's never fall until you've made a batch of pumpkin cookies. NOW the season feels right :) Last night we also bought "Wii Fit" for the Wii station. That thing is incredible and addicting--exercising has never been so much fun! Not only does it have activities/workouts for you to do, but it also measures your BMI and tracks your daily progress with balance, weight loss, etc. Reader's digest version?...It's motivated Spencer and I to become healther and more fit. We were up exercising until about midnight last night.

And when we woke up this morning...Spencer was back to exercising. :) As mentioned earlier, I had a primary activity day to go to today. I was released from being a teacher in the primary and then called to become the primary secretary. As sad as I was to leave the kids, I'm enjoying my new calling thus far. This morning the kids painted pumpkins (while we tried to keep the GYM from being painted) and they seemed to have a fun time. After the activity day, I came back and watched the BYU game with Spencer and little Maddie. Thank goodness they won, although it seemed like a struggle to even beat UNLV (which, lets be honest, aren't that great at football). Hopefully BYU gets back into shape and plays like the first couple of games they had this season. Otherwise, they're in trouble.

And tonight--watching scary movies at home--yes, I've been watching scary movies with Spencer. It's the LEAST I could do for him..I just hope i'm not up all night tonight waiting for Michael or scary demons to come and get me. Spencer really enjoys October because of all the Halloween movies that come on and although I don't enjoy them, I stay with him for moral support ;) It seems like i've been go, go, going all weekend, and i'm ready for a much needed break tomorrow. Thank goodness it's Sunday tomorrow. Happy Sabbath to all tomorrow! :)

Remembering Grandma Millett

Happy Birthday to our Grandma Millett!! We love her so much, and although she is no longer with us here on Earth, we still celebrate her life and the love she showed to all of her family & friends. Sadly, Madisen never got the chance to meet her great Grandma, but we will make sure to let Grams live on in our hearts so that Madisen will know and love her too. :)

Ah, Success...

It worked!!! :) Maddie went down at 9:30 as told, and she slept all the way until 6:30!! I was a little worried that her going to bed a bit earlier might throw off her nap schedule during the day, but she did just fine at all her naps! YAY!! Incredible--and tonight we did the same thing, so we're crossing our fingers for another good night (I'm always a little skeptical after just ONE night--once it's been three nights in a row, then I start to believe. lol). Now the only problem is--when i'm up for a whole hour once she's down, I freaking miss her!!! It's weird being up with her not with me, but at the same time the time I get to spend with Spencer is most welcome. I feel it's still important to strengthen the marriage relationship, even if we only get an hour a day alone together.

Thanks, Alicia, for the gift idea. It's always nice to find cute (but easy on the wallet) gift ideas. :) We'll definitely be taking some pictures and putting them in frames. Like you said, grandparents ALWAYS love pictures.

Just wanted to update everyone on our scheduling success!!! Sweet dreams...

Hoping this doesn't backfire...

So, we're trying something new tonight with Maddie's routine. Because I want to spend as much time with Maddie as possible, she has had a later schedule than most 4 month olds. We put her to bed around 10 normally--she'll sleep until 6a.m., we'll feed her, and then she'll go back down until around 8:30-9a.m. This has seemed to work out pretty well for us, but around 10p.m., I am SOOO tired that Spencer and I don't really get any quality time together or for ourselves. So tonight we're doing a trial schedule change. Instead of waiting until 10, we started the "going to bed" process at 9p.m. and she was in bed by 9:30p.m. This way, Spencer and I have a WHOLE hour before we hit the hay. haha. I'm just hoping our plan doesn't backfire by Maddie waking up at like 5a.m. since she's used to a 10-6 rather than a 9-6. We'll see i guess. I'll definitely be praying extra hard tonight. :)

And another week begins--Mondays are always a little slow for me at work. It just seems like the day creeps by so slowly. Things in the apartment business are starting to slow down (October and November are the slowest months of the year) which doesn't help either--when there's not much to do, the days seem longer. When I got home, Spencer and I made BBQ chicken "pita pizzas." We made real BBQ chicken pizza last night for our family dinner (everyone seemed to like it, even C.J. who is about as picky as I am), but we had so much shredded chicken and cheese left that we're trying to use it up. And Spencer's really into the series, "Heroes", so we watched that tonight too. I must say, it's really easy to get hooked to any show. I'm not the super hero type, but if I watch it, I wanna know what happens next.

My mom is coming to Provo in 10 days!!! :) We're super excited about her coming, and Maddie has mentioned to me on SEVERAL occassions (a little bit of an exaggeration) that we should do something special for her--so we're trying to come up with a cute gift that Maddie can give my mom--if you have any ideas, let me know! I'm definitely open to suggestions.

Anyhow, i'm definitely hoping for a good night--now it's time for a little cuddle time with Spencer. Ah, the sweet things in life! Goodnight to all!

Saturday Fun

So we went to Gardner's Village today and had a BLAST--so much so that I forgot to take pictures!! I'm so sorry!! But that place is ADORABLE. We got there around 11:00 and stayed until about 3p.m. They have an amazing restaurant there where we ate, and then shopped around the stores. While we were shopping we found the PERFECT costume for Maddie. We were thinking we'd make her a ladybug or bumble bee, but I melted when I saw the cutest Fairy costume. So, of course, we bought it. When we got home, we put her in it and holy cow--she looked precious! Can I say that I absolutely love being a mommy? That little girl makes me melt.

Later on, we had a "Girls Night In" at my place. My sisters-in-law, my sister in laws roommate, and my best friend Gloria came over and we loaded up on chick food (chips & dip, cookes, ice-cream, pizza, etc) and watched movies (Made of Honor & Bed of Roses). Let me tell you--I seriously under estimated how important girls nights are! It was a blast and I had so much fun hanging out with the girls. Maddie joined us for the first little bit, but when it was time for bed Daddy took her upstairs and put her to bed. Spencer was super sweet to give us girl time--he's really understanding about those things. He helped me put together all of the treats, etc. I'm super glad I married such a thoughtful guy! :) And even though Spencer referred to Gardner's Village as an "estrogen fest" (there were only a HANDFUL of guys, Spencer being one of them), he still came grinning and bearing it. What wife could ask for more?

It's super late now, and we're heading off to bed. We'll definitely be tired for church tomorrow!! Because I'm primary secretary, i'll probably be running around the building doing stuff tomorrow, so that'll keep me up. haha. Wishing all a restful night....

And thanks to all the girls that participated in this weeks Girls Night In. Maybe i'll make that a tradition and add more girls to the roster! :) Goodnight!

So this is a couple weeks old, but absolutely CUTE! Maddie is SUCH a talker and basically talks to anything that seems to have a face. The older she gets, the more she talks, and we love it. Maddie has this little flower wall hanging in her room and she will literally have conversations with it while i'm burping her at night and in the morning. She even tries to find it so they can finish the conversations they started. We'll have to make sure to get a clip of that for ya, but for now, this is Maddie talking with Mommy (please excuse the screeching and squealing coming from me..haha)




(Sorry it's a little blurry--i took this with my cell phone camera)

And here's one i took today--she was kind of distracted by my cell phone, so she didn't talk as much as she normally does--she normally squeals, screams and smiles while she's talking but the cell phone fascinated her. :)




(Extreme close-up as she's lying in my arms--I could only do so much with the camera angle!)

Friday is here at last....

Let me start out by saying how sad I am about BYU's loss against TCU!! It's not so much the loss that's frustrating but that we looked like a high school team doing it! Honestly--We WERE ranked #8 in the nation, but since we lost to a team ranked #24 we can kiss that goodbye. We'll be lucky if we're even ranked in the top #25 now. AND--i'm thinking Max Hall will no longer be a Heisman candidate considering how many interceptions, etc he threw last night. Too sad... Oh BYU--the qwest for perfection has been halted. It was painful to watch, but hopefully they learned a valuable lesson--do NOT let rankings, etc get to your head! You have to play every game as if it's your hardest.

You can tell that i'm pretty passionate about football. lol. It's almost embarrassing watching it with friends because I get so into it that i'm yelling and screaming at the t.v. I get that from my mom, I suppose. I remember watching sports with her and laughing when she'd yell at the t.v. And now i do it too! :) As if they can hear me!! At least "The Office" was on last night--i'm addicted to that show. It's hilarious! And Gloria--if you're reading this, we need to have another Office party soon! That was WAY fun! :) Tomorrow, our little family is planning on going to Gardner's Village in West Valley. My friend Jen Lu told me about it, and it sounds really fun. Basically it's a small little town that has been turned into shops, so every house is a store. They decorate really cute for the holidays, so apparently it looks like Harry Potter's "Diagon Alley" right now. We'll definitely post pictures for all to see. Anyhow, I'm on my lunch break right now and Maddie's waking up for feeding time--i'll update soon!

So today started off with a bang--well, actually screaming from Madisen. Maddie woke up at 3 a.m. for some unknown reason and cried for 45 minutes straight which NEVER happens. So, after she cried, I went in to rock her and console her. She fell asleep in my arms, so i tried to gently put her back into her crib--of course she woke up so I had to start the whole rocking/calming process over again. About 2 hours after she woke up, she was finally back to sleeping soundly. I am STUMPED--we thought maybe she's starting to teethe (she's been fussy about eating and sleeping a bit lately), so we bought her some baby orajel. If she wakes up again, we'll see if that helps. Needless to say, both Spencer and I were exhausted today. He had school and studying, and I had work--a BYU Landlord Conference, to be exact. Other than the confusing night, it's been a good day--once it was morning, I found Maddie cooing and smiling in bed when i went to get her up for the day. It's like nothing ever happened! lol. She was very good natured and well behaved all day and EVEN took good naps (which isn't surprising since she didn't sleep as much as she normally does).

My grandpa is back in town which is a a relief. He watches Maddie on Mondays and Wednesdays from 12-2p.m. because Spencer has a 3 hour lab, and I can't take my break until 2, so there's a gap there where we need someone. He's been up in Michigan and Ohio visiting my two sisters, so we're glad to have him back--it's stressful to have to figure out who'll be watching her from week to week, ya know? Anyhow, my mom will be coming into town in two weeks!!! :) We're super excited to have her and Maddie can't WAIT! My mom is already asking if she can be Maddie's pseudo mother for two weeks. :) It's nice to know that Mom loves her so much!

Tomorrow my boss is coming into town for his monthly visit. I'm prepared and ready for him to be here, but I always get a little nervous when he comes--he can be a little intimidating sometimes, so i'm always a little nervous. But since it's "National Boss Day" tomorrow, I bought him a small gift (a coffee mug filled with candy and a box of assorted chocolates wrapped in celophane and tied with a bow--and of course a card). Hopefully he appreciates the gesture. Afterall, he has been VERY good to me and my family. Anyhow, the weeks almost over, and i'm super excited about both the BYU game (BYU vs. TCU at 6p.m. on Versus!!) AND the Office that will be televised tomorrow!! :) Oh the simple joys of life... Hope to have a good night tonight...i'm crossing my fingers and praying for Maddie to have a calm night. Ciao

A Wonderful Weekend

What an eventful weekend!! Saturday was my birthday, and Spencer showered me with love and kindness. Maddie wakes up for a 6 a.m. feeding, and Spencer fed her that morning so that I could sleep in. Much to my surprise, Spencer did NOT come back to sleep after Maddie was down. Instead, he was busily working in the kitchen to prepare his birthday breakfast specialty, "Moco Loco". (It's a Hawaiian breakfast dish that he learned to make on his mission). At around 8:30a.m., Spencer and Maddie woke me up to sing happy birthday. While Spencer finished his breakfast preparations, Mommy and Maddie snuggled in bed!! :) That's the best way to wake up in the morning, let me tell you! We spent a low key morning at home until about 11:30 when we headed up to Salt Lake to visit the "Body World's" exhibition. It was AMAZING to see!! Although it was smaller than the normal one in Vegas, this exhibit had so many human preservations to look at. All in all, it reminded me how amazing the human body really is--and also--how there is NO way that we just appeared from a "big bang", etc. There is obviously a Master Crafter who made us because the body is too complex and intricate just to have happened. After spending the day in Salt Lake, we came back to Provo. Our good friends (Gloria and Kyle) watched Maddie for about an hour and a half while Spencer and I had our first date night since having our baby girl! We had a romantic dinner at P.F. Changs. :) It was a FABULOUS day, complete with MANY gifts. Spencer always makes sure to go out of his way to spoil me--I am soooo lucky to have him as mine! Thanks to all who called, emailed, came over, and sent gifts. My day was so special because of all the special people in my life! Here's a few shots of the day. Goodnight to all!

All my wonderful presents! :) SO excited about the piano!!

Close-up of smaller gifts

The loves of my life

Me and my precious Maddie

Precious!!!!!
All bundled up :)...it was in the mid-thirties this weekend!!

A Rewarding Life

So i haven't updated for a while, and i apologize to you all! Things have been wonderful for us. I've adjusted to working in the office again, and life is good! I was so afraid that Maddie wouldn't know me or prefer me, but my fears were quickly dismissed now that I see that she still loves and wants her mommy! :) And now I have lots to look forward to at 5p.m. Although I had my reservations about going back to work, it seems to be working out okay. We feel really blessed to have this job. Afterall, it's a WELL paying job, we get free rent on a 2 bed/2 bathroom townhome, and i receive health benefits as well. What more could we need?!? The Lord has surely blessed me and my family, and we're so grateful. I'm not gonna say that going back was easy, but after many prayers, fasts, and constant scripture study, I finally feel at peace with this decision. I feel that the Lord has put his "stamp of approval" on my life so far! :)

But I cannot say in words how much I love my Maddie girl! She is constantly learning and growing! Last night we went and met one of Maddie's new friends (my friend Janine had her baby), and i forgot how little they are when they first arrive!! Maddie was 7 pounds 11 ounces and now that she's four months old, she looked like a giant compared to that newborn!! But she's constantly becoming more social day by day. She coos, laughs, and her new favorite thing to do is RASPBERRIES!!! Oh--and she loves her hands! They are constantly entertaining her and she loves to suck on them! She loves to go on walks and is SOOO interested in trees! She never stops looking at them! It's fun to see her explore her new world, and her parents are trying their best to teach her too!

Spencer is doing super well in school! He's got a big load, but he's handling school and being a "stay-at-home" daddy well. Now that Maddie is better about her naps during the day, he's able to do all that he needs to do! He'll be applying for dental schools in the spring of '09, so we're looking forward to seeing where that'll lead us. It's really fun to watch him with his little girl! And what can i say?!? I enjoy seeing his soft side~he's so gentle and loving with her...he's definitely a GREAT father. VERY patient and VERY loving!

And tomorrow is my birthday!! :) Spencer got tickets to Body Worlds, which is basically a museum of preserved real bodies--it shows the muscular, skeletal, and other body systems. We've heard really good things about it, so we're excited to go!! It's only in Salt Lake for a short time, so we're making sure to see it before it leaves. Spencer has been very secretive about all the birthday presents, so I really have no idea what i'll be getting. And--I haven't searched for presents this year either. lol. That's probably because we're constantly busy, so i haven't even had time to search. Later tomorrow night, we'll have a date night, just Spencer and I. I'm really looking forward to that since he and I haven't been alone since Maddie was about two months old.

It seems that everything is coming together pretty perfectly, actually. We love life. Having a baby has really put life in perspective for us and has really given purpose to our lives. Now we're living for someone else which is VERY rewarding. I'll make sure to keep updates coming! But for now, i'm gonna enjoy my Friday night with my family!