HaPpy HaLLowEen!

Started off the festivities with a visit to Mommy's work on Thursday to show off the cutest Tinkerbell Fairy!

Next came a visit to Daddy's work on Friday and her TV debut on the Halloween episode of Good Things Utah





It was so cool to see Madison and Nate on TV. Even if it was just for about 20 seconds. I still think she will think it's cool when she grows up and we tell her that the highlight of her life was at 4 months!

Next came Trick-or-Treating with the cousins at Josh and Denise's house. Madison didn't really go out with the older kiddos because it was raining and cold, but you bet we dressed her up, again! This was the third day putting her in that costume and I'm surprised there was any of it left. She mostly liked to try and eat it every time it was on her. Yum!



Cousin Daxton as a scary dragon


Cousin Bella as a beautiful Cinderella princess

And finally, we ended the holiday with Nate's Mother's Birthday/Halloween Party. Her birthday is on Halloween and this one was a big one! So big, that even Nate joined in the festivities and dressed up. He was a pirate to go along with Madison and my fairy costumes.
It was a fabulous holiday, but lasted a bit long with having stuff to do for 4 days in a row.
Here's to next year when Madison actually cares a little more about what's going on...





Hope you all enjoyed the holiday like we did!

BOO!

The best thing about having a child of your own is that you get to dress them up in whatever you want for the first few years!
I bought these Halloween jammies for Madison back in July and was so excited when it was October 1st and we could finally put them on her...
they are so cute! Look at the pumpkin bum!



She also has about 4 Halloween shirts I've been trying to rotate as much as possible this month to get as much use as I can out of them...
thanks to Grandma Sheryl, Auntie Mels & Sierra for getting her the cute Halloween shirts!
Can't wait until next week when it's time to put her in her adorable costume... So fun!




Happy Halloween!

3 Months

This little pumpkin is 3 months old and we are loving it! Life at 3 months is great and I can't even believe we got here so fast!



Last month we did Madison's baby blessing. She did a wonderful job of not crying, spitting up, or pooping in the middle of it. And Nate did an even better job giving the blessing. It was so weird to think that I was the mom in the audience watching my husband bless my baby. I thought only grown-ups did that?



When Madison was born we found out that she had a very small heart murmur. This was a small curveball thrown at us as new parents; tiny actually compared to what other parents visiting Primary Children's Medical Center have to endure. But we had a visit at that time with the cardiology department and they told us back then that it was so small and they hoped it would close up as her heart grew bigger. They told us to come back at 3 months and get another EKG to check it out.
This past Friday I took Madison to have her heart checked and guess what.... She's such a big girl who fixed her heart all by herself! Yep, that's right, her heart murmur is gone. The walls closed themselves as she and her muscles grew bigger. That means no more follow ups with the cardiology center.

Oh and at 3 months old she's 11.4 pounds and 24 1/2 inches long. I don't know percentages because it wasn't like a well-baby visit, but I'm pretty sure she's growing like she's supposed to.
Now if only she would do everything else she's supposed to like sleep through the night. She was sleeping about 7 hours at night when she was two months old, but lately she's forgotten how to do that and will only sleep about 5 1/2 to 6 hours at night. She goes to bed at 9:30 and wakes up at 3 or 3:30 every night and I don't know how to stop that habit. I'm sure I could do what other moms do and read "Babywise" or some other helpful book but I really feel like I have no time to sit and read a book now that I'm working 40 hours a week and trying desperately to spend all the other hours making sure this sweet girl knows I love her even though I can't spend all day with her anymore!



She sure is cute and I'm loving that she's smiling every day now. She even laughs occasionally....it's the best!
And yes, she loves to stand up on her sassy legs. She'll probably be walking before we know it!

Pipe Dreams: A Surfer's Journey

I came across Kelly Slater's autobiography, Pipe Dreams: A Surfer's Journey, a few weeks ago in the library and just had to read it. I love all sports so it shouldn't be surprising to you that I even used to watch surfing contests on t.v. back when they actually televised some of them. There was also a short-lived, reality-style show about some surfers living in a house together for the summer and I watched all 5 or 6 episodes. I still remember some of the big name surfers like Sunny Garcia, Andy Irons, Tom Curren, and of course Kelly Slater, who will go down as a surfing legend when he finally retires for good.

It was a great book. Kelly seems to have the stereotypical surfing attitude. He is totally laid-back, loves the earth and being outdoors, and wasn't interested in being in the spotlight but just doing something he has loved from a very early age. I enjoyed reading about his childhood and his rise to surfing god. I especially loved the parts about Jack Johnson since I'm a fan of his as well. There is also some stories about Eddie Vedder too who I didn't know was a friend of Kelly's and does some surfing himself. Who would have thought that the lead singer of Pearl Jam was into surfing? I loved reading about Kelly's thoughts on Pamela Anderson. Since we usually only hear about celebrity relationships from a third party magazine source, it was fun to hear firsthand his story of dating her. His stories about being part of the "Baywatch" cast are hilarious. Apparently he thought the show was as corny as everyone else.
Anyway, it was a pretty cool book and I happened to come across an article a couple of days ago that talks about Kelly and how he is probably the greatest athlete that no one has heard of. He has dominated his sport for the last 2o years, winning 9 world titles. You can read the whole article HERE

I thought I'd throw out another recommendation to anyone interested in a good autobiography. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Hate, Hate, Hate it!

This is the sad sight of Madison's legs on Wednesday. She had her two month check up and I hate it all. Hate having to see her get those shots when she doesn't know what's coming and crying her lungs out when she figures out what just poked her!
Hate that she's growing up way too fast and is no longer the tiny, little newborn she was two minutes ago before I turned around! (okay so that's a bit of an exaggeration, but mothers out there know exactly what I mean)

Just in case you care, she's now a whopping 10 lbs. 12 oz. (50th percentile for weight) 24.5 inches long (95th percentile for height). And according to her pediatrician, has a very nicely shaped round head. Growing like a champ!

I will say that 2 months is pretty great, though. She's sleeping 7-8 hours at night, on a pretty good feeding and napping schedule, and smiling a ton while she lays on her back and kicks & kicks those sassy legs of hers!


Loves hanging out with dad


And makes a super cute pirate, if I say so myself :)

"Open" by Andre Agassi

I have been reading every night while Mindy feeds Maddie. I have been wanting to read Andre Agassi's autobiography for a while now. Growing up in the 90s, I was a big fan of Agassi. He was the supposed rebel who took the tennis world by storm. He's still my favorite tennis player of all time. He just seemed to genuinely love playing and was the picture perfect display of sportmanship. A true class act. I finally picked up the book and read it. I enjoyed it a lot. It amazed me how much detail he remembered from all of his matches. He played for 20 years and recounted very specific details from his earliest matches in 1986 to his final match in 2006. He described how he felt emotionally and physically before and after each match and how those feelings effected him on and off the court. The most interesting thing was that he says numerous times during the book that he "hates tennis." At the beginning I could understand it because his father basically bullied him into playing tennis and treated him like a slave to make him a great player. I don't believe that he continued to hate tennis however because he wouldn't have continued playing for 20 years if he hated it so much. He has always had serious back problems and had to play through pain in almost every match. He had a great excuse to quit but I think he loved the game too much to walk away from it. Anyway, it's a great book and I had fun reading it. It was funny to hear how he met Brooke Shields and later married her and how he always secretly wanted to marry Steffi Graf and how that dream finally came true. You gotta be a sports fan, especially of tennis, to enjoy it though because the majority of it recounts his matches so it could be boring to someone who doesn't know the game of tennis. If you're a sports fan though, I encourage you to read it. It's a fun read for sure. It hilarious to hear him talk about Pete Sampras. He didn't like the guy at all and you would have never known it. I have a whole new opinion of Sampras. He always seemed to be a pretty good guy but according to the stories that Agassi tells, he was a total egotistical jerk. Just wanted to throw out a recommendation to all you leisure readers out there.

5 1/2 Hours

The other night we had quite the summer thunder storm up here on South Mountain. Looked kinda like this, only much closer.



Seriously, a couple of times the lightning struck so close it seemed like it hit the park across the street.

Anyway, the lightning was so close and the thunder was so loud that it was kinda scary. I'm not sure if Madison was affected by the bad weather but for some reason she began her night by crying at 8:30. She continued to cry through her nightly routine of a bath, lotion, fresh diaper, and jammies. She ate for as long as I could stand it (probably 45 minutes total) and then cried and cried after that for about 2 more hours until 11:30.
However, once she calmed down and Nate had her sleeping in her arms she was out. We were both watching the rain pour down and the lightning crash outside her windows while she just slept. Once she was really asleep at about midnight she didn't wake up again until 5:30! 5 1/2 hours of sleep was a break through! She's never slept that long before but I loved it!

But, I think she only slept because she wore herself out crying for so many hours before that. Because once she did wake up she only ate for 10 minutes and was out cold again. So I decided to go get the pump and have her meal ready for her when she decided to get up. While she was waiting for her meal I figured I'd just leave her where she was when I was feeding her and she loved it.
Here's the picture I decided to take of her sleeping next to her daddy at 6 a.m. while mommy pumped the milk.


She loves being in the big bed!

And here's the cutie today...she got all dressed up and put a bow in her hair to see daddy at work for a lunch date! We all thought she looked pretty snazzy!