quick trip to boise

we decided to go on a somewhat last-minute trip to boise last weekend. randy has to do 10 play-throughs of his recital for 10 different audiences before the actual recital, so we went up to boise and he got in 3 performances.

we were mostly there for the recitals, but we also managed to squeeze in a birthday celebration for randy and some time with cousins.

randy being a corn-ball while he blows out his candle.



madeleine and her great grandpa peck.



madeleine and her cousin lainey. they are only three months apart and madeleine loved having another baby around.





madeleine kept gently nudging lainey's head with her own as a little sign of affection. it was really sweet.



madeleine and lainey lining up to have calli read to them.

madeleine and matthew

audrey and her boys were over for a couple hours the other afternoon and i got some pictures of madeleine and matthew together (austin was sleeping).

this is my adorable nephew matthew. he seems to be a little wary of madeleine sometimes.

why is matthew wary of madeleine?



perhaps it is because she gets in his face and yells sometimes.



but mostly, i think it is because she tries to steal his toys and food.



we're working on appropriate sharing with madeleine, but she's not quite grasping the concepts yet.

happy birthday randy!

randy turns 25 today and boy am i glad he was born! what a great guy. he is such a perfect husband and i love him more than anyone else in the world. he is my favorite.

to celebrate, my parents took us out for sushi last night. it was delicious food and great company. who could ask for a better combination?

madeleine came along too. she didn't get any sushi, but she enjoyed the chopsticks and especially enjoyed the dessert, which we shared with her.

leftover pictures

these are some pictures that i have from the past couple weeks that you haven't seen yet. a few that i got from my mom's computer that were taken a little while ago, and some more recent ones...

too tired to stay awake.

i babysat a boy in our ward while his mom went to an appointment and madeleine loved having a friend to play with. she stole all of her toys back whenever he would pick one up, but he didn't seem to mind.

general conference

we just finished another wonderful general conference weekend up at my parent's house. sunday evening always comes too soon on these weekends and i can't believe that i'll have to wait another six months until the next general conference.

i really needed this weekend. i needed the time that i got with my family to just relax and spend some extra time with some of my favorite people. i needed the spiritual recharge. i needed the counsel and encouragement that i heard from our prophet and the twelve apostles, as well as other church leaders. there were wonderful messages of hope and comfort, as well as challenges to be better and to deepen my discipleship. most of all, i needed the reminder to refocus my thoughts on the savior more often and to remember his atonement in all aspects of my life.

on a less serious note, i needed to gain a few pounds eating ridiculously good food. all of our favorites were made and consumed and i don't regret eating anything.

madeleine had a great time this weekend as well. here were some of her favorite things from the weekend:

lots of time with cousins, austin and matthew, and following them everywhere they went.

enjoying the toys at grandma and pa'a's house, especially the blocks.

a little extra time with daddy.

plenty of attention from aunts and uncles.

and just hanging out.

madeleine figures out clapping

randy and i have both been trying to teach madeleine to clap for months now and she has basically let us know that she will clap when she feels like it. today, madeleine finally felt like clapping on her own. she's actually done a few random claps here and there before, but never consistent clapping. but today, i had billy joel on while i was making dinner and madeleine started clapping. it kind of reminded me of the movie, "the jerk," with steve martin, where he has no rhythm until he started listening to hokey music on the radio and was suddenly able to clap along. maybe all of that classical music just hasn't made madeleine feel like clapping.

the more likely explanation is that madeleine picked up clapping from a little boy in our ward that i was watching this morning while his mom went to an appointment. he was clapping a bunch and every time he did it, madeleine would just stare at him. who knows, maybe it had nothing to do with that. regardless, madeleine is now clapping and of course, i video taped it.

forgive the first video where i forgot that it was turned on its side for a few seconds. this is what reminded me of steve martin.

and here is another short clip of it up close:

baby shower

only one half of one of my legs is shaved.

madeleine's morning nap has been getting shorter and shorter, so unless i really hustle, i don't usually have time to exercise and shower during it. she generally wakes up right as i am trying to sneak into the bathroom (inconveniently located right next to her bedroom).

so, lately i have been baby proofing the bathroom (taking the toilet paper off of the roll and putting it on a high shelf and putting the trash can, plunger, and toilet scrubber out of reach), putting a few toys on the floor (this also means that i've been cleaning my bathroom floor a lot more often), and letting madeleine play in there while i take a quick shower, peeking out every minute or so to check on her. it's not the best way to shower, but it's been working (someone please tell me that i will someday regain some portion of my personal privacy).

well, this morning, i was in the middle of shaving my legs and noticed that i had a little visitor peeking into the shower with me. this was more difficult for madeleine to accomplish than you might initially think. because of how our (lousy) bathroom is situated, we have to have two shower curtains to prevent a flood every time we shower. they overlap considerably, and instead of going to one of the far edges of the curtains to peek in, madeleine had somehow parted the two curtains in the middle where they overlap and was hanging over the edge of the tub, getting wet. i wish i could have gotten a picture of this, but you realize the difficulties that such a picture would present.

i tried to set madeleine down on the floor again with her toys so that i could finish shaving, but she wouldn't have it. so instead, i called it quits, threw on a towel, and ran to get the camera. i caught her before she had entirely untangled herself from the curtains.