Father's Day

Paul's first official Father's Day!!  

Well it was Father's Weekend, actually, because my family started it off on Saturday with some fishing at The Cove at Herriman Springs.  It was a great day for it and the area was beautiful.  

We started off with a little BBQ - dogs, pasta, lots and lots of veggies.  We were going to play some V-Ball and Spike Ball but we got carried away with the fishing...as evidenced below.

My dad with Asher:

Bronsynn hoping to lucky with the ducky: 

My mom - so willing to laugh at herself and never takes herself too seriously.  I love her!: 

Me and my baby boy - love him: 

The three of us getting ready for our fishing adventure: 

Grandma and Asher: 

I didn't get any fishing in between having fun shooting everyone and then trying to get my stubborn baby to sleep (he doesn't fall asleep easily unless at home and I didn't feel like subjecting all those innocent fishers to my baby's crying that surely wouldn't have stopped in such a scenario).  But I still had a great time even if I didn't catch one of those fugly catfish.   Yuck!!

Bronsynn has a few modeling bones in her.  She just sat on a rock and did her thing and I just shot away.  So fun!!

I have tonz more but this one was one of my favoritest because we had just heard another fisher cuss from across the pond:

The fish and the ducks were really fun to 'catch' ...ha ha ha:

These boys asked me to take their pictures after I took a really sick shot of a fish one of them caught.  I had so much fun and the boy in the red was super serious and was a great little 'subject'.  I have more on facebook, too.

I seriously have an amazing father.  My whole life he has worked hard, sacrificing so much for his family, always doing whatever it took to provide for us especially during the hard times during lay-offs.  I admire everything about him and have so many cherished memories, many of them from my 4-H and rodeo days where he spent all weekend towing me around to race.  He's an amazing man who does everything for his wife and kids!  Love him!":

And now I have another Father to celebrate on this day... my wonderful husband.  It has been such an amazing journey these past 8.5 years and most especially the last 10 months where we have watched our son and reveled in being his parents.  He is such a fun dad - Asher lights up when he comes home from work and loves to chase after him.  Watching Paul be a father is special to me and I love my boys more than I have words to express!

Father's Day morning, I made Paul a Spinach Quiche and laid out Asher's little project.  Paul has been working non-stop since the beginning of April (and that's not counting tax season since the beginning of January) and he has run himself into the ground.  He is such a hard-working man, too and I am so lucky to have him and I know our boy will come to know the same thing.  So we gave him a gift certificate for some R&R at Massage Envy.  

After church, Paul's family came over and we spent the night having another BBQ, watching Asher play in his pool, catching the NBA Finals, relaxing on the patio and enjoying rootbeer floats!  Such a wonderful day - I'm so glad to have been surrounded by family all weekend!

29 Years Young

On the 9th, my sweetie pie husband celebrated his 29th birthday!! 

Oh how I love this man.  He makes me smile, makes me laugh, reminds me everyday how lucky I am to have a husband as great as he.  Smart, intellectual, humorous, thoughtful and giving - he's the man I always wanted to marry - and looky! I did!!!

I spent Thursday at my parents house watching the nef and he helped me with a special project since I wouldn't have the time to do it after I got home and before Paul arrived.  We stopped by Walmart after picking him up from Preschool to grab a few necessary items and then we homeward bound where my little assistant Chef helped me do a trial chocolate sushi.  It went swimmingly and he was so excited that there would be a whole chocolate sushi roll for them to keep!  After the one was in the fridge I set to work to make one for Paul's birthday celebration.  

When I arrived home I set to work running about the house because there were many things I wanted to get done by the time he got home including most of the baking/cooking/cutting, decorations and spot cleaning.  I had to have a baby on my hip for most of that!   Since I was doing a night of sushi, I made a bunch of Birthday signs in Japanese, grabbed my paper lanterns, threw confetti all over the place and just had fun anticipating the night!

I placed signs on the exterior garage door, garage floor, my car, the interior garage door, the living room floor, and the kitchen table.  

And included a few priceless pics of my babies cute mug!:

When Paul walked through the door, Asher and I hid out of view until he walked to a certain point and then we (I) blew the noise maker and shouted 'Happy Birthday'!!!  He was pleasantly surprised - mission accomplished!!

Since there was no way I would be able to make all that sushi before Paul came home, part of the night was actually having him help me make his own birthday dinner - ha ha ....sucker!!  jk - I knew he would enjoy learning with me and so we had a fun night of it!   We made heart shaped, circle, triangle, and little square sushi rolls (all free of raw fish of course since we don't eat fish and certainly not raw fish!!)   We stuffed them with marinated chicken and vegetables.  I also had Asian sesame crackers, which Paul thought tasted like dirt (he wasn't far off) and several kinds of dips!

The chocolate sushi was my most favoritest thing! And the little square ones were the easiest to eat.  Now with a little bit of trial and error I will be able to do better with my sushi rice next time!

After that, Paul was presented with a piece of chocolate cheesecake - his favorite!!! 

And he opened up his present!! Which was a picture of the newest wedding ring that wasn't quiiiiiite done being made yet.  I swear if he loses this one, he's a dead man!!!  I bought him the ring that I was going to buy him in 2010, but was unsure if he would think it was as awesome as I did.  Good thing I didn't, although the other ring was still a very nice, awesome ring which someone probably is enjoying right now.  

And we enjoyed a night of hanging out and porking out and after the little one was asleep we enjoyed some time together: 

Love you, babe.

'Because I'm Going to be a Mommy'

I have the most amazing husband.

I've rarely seen him this past month, except on Sundays, because his work explodes during this time of year and the poor man is running on fumes. The past two weeks have been especially awful as he has had to work 16, 17, 20+ hours a day. Then he had to take a trip to Phoenix last weekend (more work), flew home on Monday, went straight to work, worked all day every day and ended on Friday afternoon after working nearly 45 hours straight.

I joked with him that he owed me a date - but I was also very serious since we needed some husband/wife time! So, Friday we went out to an early dinner and grubbed down at a pizza joint. Since it was so early, we were the only ones there! About half way through dinner, Paul grabbed his keys and said he'd be right back. He ran to his truck and back and when he sat down I asked him why he had to go to his truck. He said he forgot his wallet. I said "No you didn't". He told me, 'Yes, I did!' And I again I said, 'No, you didn't! He is so cute when he's been caught :) He pulled out a little wrapped box and put it on the table. I was so confused as to why he had gotten me a present. He surprises me randomly quite often so it's not NOT normal, but again I was confused and he told me: 'Because you're going to be a mommy.'

Okay.

I almost cried. In fact, they came..but I held it in! I did not lose it at a pizza factory! I love my man. Seriously.

As I opened it he explained that 'it' is meaningful and I can tell my own story with it.

It's a Trollbead bracelet. I had never heard of it before. You can pick your own beads and charms and so over the years, I can create my own bracelet for my most cherished memories. See? I told you this man is perfect!

Paul picked out this flower clasp to symbolize our marriage - the beginning of our family - because we went to Maui on our honeymoon:

And my first charm symbolizes our baby in the making - Asher - because of his name and because I am doing his room in dragons. This is the Lucky Dragon charm:

He told me all about it and how he'd come across it and later showed me the book with all the other beads and charms that I can add. I seriously love my bracelet. I can't help but smile every time I see it, which is all day, cuz I can't stop playing with it. I love how thoughtful and loving my husband is and I just love love love my life with him!

Bowling Madsen Style

Okay....more birthday shinanagins for my hubby!! But on the Madsen side, we were also celebrating this dude's 23rd birthday:

I still can't get over that Gaven, the baby of the family, is that old and is now married. It really sucks to get old. But at the same time, my family is having the best times ever together and we are loving it.

We went to Sandy All Star, where sadly my dad was missing and Morgan and Sam were sick. We ordered up three pizzas and drinks and had an uber good time.

My favorite little boys in the whole wide world:

Gaven and Bronsynn:

Bronsynn had spent the night at my house and we ended up making Snickerdoodles and Coconut Macaroons out of boredom. Since I hate sweets at the moment, I snuck a gallon size ziploc into the bowling alley to share amongst everyone. Since I'm pregnant, I didn't think it would hurt to pretend I'm a liiiiiitle bit further along:

Ashleeeeeeeyyyyyy!! There's my favorite pose just for you!!!

Xannie and Mannie - ha!!! I just made that up...that's gonna be their new nickname:

My hot hubby and I:

My cr-AAAAAA-zy mom and I:

Amber being a redneck:

Amber and I pretended that we were the paparazzi and sang Lady Gaga's 'Paparazzi' while we paparazzi'd:

Dallin being silly:

And Gaven, who is always being tricksy, managed this spare in a way only he could do!:

After the bowling was done and over with, we had to go to the arcade. It's Aiden's favorite thing to do and he'll ask you every two minutes if bowling is over yet so he can go to the arcade. All Star really upgraded their arcarde and while it is very expensive (certainly not Nickelcade) it is very fun. We found this awesome punching game and everyone took turns seeing how hard they can hit. The high score was around 9200 or so. Well we finally convinced Xannie to take a turn. You get two tries and on her second hit, she barely hit it so it didn't register. When she did it again, she took the new high score. None of us could believe it!! The guys and Amanda were doing everything to beat the high score and Xannie takes it with one tiny little punch!! Hilarious:

This is one of the attempts to take high score:



All the tickets won by the entire group went to Aiden and Dallin who felt like they hit the lottery and came away with six or seven gadgets each:

Since we were bowling the Saturday after both birthdays, it happened to fall on two other birthdays: Judd (Happy Birthday!!!) and my close friend, Rachelle. Rachelle had a party herself - at the bowling alley. So after my family all went their separate ways at about 9, we headed over to the other All Star Lanes and went bowling again. While the friends and company was VERY fun, I've learned that poor pregnant Maghann can't stay up that late anymore.