Cute Pictures

I know that the best part of blogs are the pictures! As Madden is the best looking of the fam, he is the star of our picture show today. Below are pictures of feeding ducks, Madden feeding himself applesauce (he loved making a mess!), Madden with a huge goose-egg (and no I do not drop him on his head, that would be Matt), and Madden just being the cute rascal that he is!

New Year's Resolution (belated)

I think I’m really getting the hang of this blogging thing. I always make promises to be better, but we all know those promises don’t come with a lot of follow-through. Instead of a promise, I am making a resolution to blog at least once a week. With the school craziness and everything, I often have trouble sleeping. So, instead of watching lame TV shows online I am going to try to blog instead. We’ll see if this resolution goes the way of most of my past New Year’s resolutions—basically lasting as long it takes me to forget (1 week). My other delayed New Year’s resolution is to exercise three times a week. I thought I would scale down my ambition from five days a week to three days a week. I need to be better at making achievable goals! So far, I am on day one of three for exercising. Wahoo!!

My last resolution for the year is to be nice to myself. I have had this internal struggle forever between my desire to be a good “housewife” and the desire to pursue my education and career. In my LDS world these two don’t really go together, yet I feel that I am doing what I am supposed to be doing. I am an in-betweener. I am not one who wants to ditch the idea of being a mother and homemaker, and I also don’t want to leave behind my goals for school and work. My executive decision is that I do not need to feel ashamed for either desire. I love being a mother (minus a few details—runny noses, diaper duty, and temper tantrums). I also love learning and working. So, there we are!

Enough about me. . . Let’s talk about my adorable boy. Yes, he is thirteen, almost fourteen months, and basically full of craziness and fun! He has discovered that his nostril is the perfect size for his index finger (what a child prodigy!). In my efforts to steer him from the disgustingness of nose picking, I taught him how to say and point to his nose. About fifty percent of the time his finger ends up in his nostril, but I believe we are making good headway. His other tricks lately are to spit out all food items except for bread and water, run around like a Wildman and purposely face-plant on our futon mattress/bed (we are remodeling), and shake his head “no” at every possible question he is asked. As my sister Erin said, what a charmer!

A quick update on my hubby—doing great, was just released as scoutmaster and moved up to Varsity coach. He is pleased about this, because he can now be involved in activities with a higher level of danger and injury potential. Yay! He is working, working, and working. Keeping busy with his commute and our ever-expanding home remodel project.