My Birthday Boy is Seven Years Old!

On Wednesday, we had a house full of girls. My children love to play with Katherine's kids. It's so nice because her two girls play with my two girls and her boy plays with my boy. The girls love to paint!!!

October 28th was also Spencer's 7th birthday!

Spencer loved his gifts from Grandma and Grandpa!

His wish will surely come true.

And, of course, he got just what he wanted--Lego Indiana Jones. He has never seen the movie but knows all about it and has been asking for Indiana Jones legos for a while.

I had fun making this cake! Spencer added the Lego guy for fun. I managed to make and serve it without eating one bite or taking one lick of frosting. The kids thought it was delicious!

Autumn in all its finery

The view of Blue Mountain from our backyard. Isn't it gorgeous this time of year?

A colorful view from our backyard

Ah, Autumn! Don't you love the glow of the leaves when the sun hits them just right?

There's the people I love!

I got my hair chopped last weekend. Rachel decided she needed to take a picture of me with my short hair.

Courtney

Rachel

Caitlin

Spencer

I love this tree in our backyard. It's right below the deck so I love to capture the kids with it in the background in the midst of its fall splendor.

A trip to the fire station

Autumn is a stunning cascade of colors in Pennsylvania. This is the tree we parked under during our fire station visit. Gold, yellow, brown, sienna, scarlet, and even pink leaves dot the landscape. Everywhere we go, I am constantly saying, "Look at those trees. Aren't they beautiful?"

I took Caitlin and Courtney to the fire station the other day.

Courtney was a little scared of the fireman in his fire suit and refused to sit in the truck.

Caitlin, on the other hand, loved sitting in the big ladder truck and thought the fireman was cool. One of the firemen dressed in his gear and got up close and personal with the kids so they could tap his helmet and give him five. The goal was to teach the kids that they should go with a fireman if he comes to rescue them. Unfortunately, being so close to the fireman frightened Courtney and she became very clingy after that. Caitlin thought he was awesome and high fived him and patted his helmet.

Three twins

The three twins: Courtney, Rachel and Caitlin

It's hard for me to blog lately. I feel guilty doing it. . . like I should be doing something else so I don't blog. . . which is good because then my house gets vacuumed, the hardwood floor gets mopped, the toilets cleaned, etc. but I'm sad when I look at my blog because I've missed writing about so many sweet (and some not so sweet) moments that I've already forgotten because I haven't kept up with it. Plus I'm having problems with the computer. Everytime I try to add a picture to the blog, the computer freezes and I have to restart it. Can I just mention that I have a love-hate relationship with this computer. When it's working right, it's wonderful but so much of my time lately is spent rebooting the darn thing that it's just not worth it! Anyway, here's today's sweet moment:

This morning, Courtney asked, "Am I a big girl?" I said, "Well, Rachel's the big girl in the family so I still think of you as my little girl." She replied, "But I want Rachel to be little girl, too." I answered, "Why? What do you mean?" And she said, "I want her to be a little girl twin like me." I said, "But Caitlin's your twin." Courtney answered, "I want to have three twins: Caitlin, Rachel and me." I thought it was such a sweet conversation. I'm glad she loves her sisters.

Another funny from Spencer

Paul was recounting his experience as a cook at a restaurant during high school and described a cow hanging in the cooler and explained how they ground their own hamburger. My grossed-out son said, "Dad, I don't want to be a cooker if I work in a restaurant. I want to be a waitress." We had to laugh. I'm sure it was a proud moment for Paul. Hee hee!

Madsen Update

It's been a little while since I've posted. Here are a few family highlights:

• Last weekend, Paul and I went to a very nice restaurant and to a movie, Love Happens. We liked it a lot and had a romantic evening together. I love dating my husband. He's the best!
• Rachel was elected to be the student council rep for her class. In a mad frenzy the day before the election, she made a cute sign from my scrapbooking materials and took a last-minute trip to the store to buy candy bars and put labels on them that said, "Vote for Rachel." Apparently, her work was worth the effort. I was worried that the chocolate wouldn't be enough because her competition was making brownies. But what was I worried about? Rachel prevailed with plain old Hershey bars. She did tell me that her sign was the best one.
• Rachel got her bottom braces this week so now she has a full mouth of silver. That day we spent a lot of time in waiting rooms because she also had to go to the doctor for a bad case of cellulitis on her leg that appeared out of nowhere. Thanks to some seriously large antibiotic pills, she's on the mend (we hope.)
• Speaking of waiting rooms, Spencer stayed home from school yesterday and we went to the doctor to get a prescription for his strep throat. The entire week, I was looking forward to my 2 1/2 hours during pre-school to get a much-needed haircut but that idea went out the window once again. Maybe next week. Hopefully, no one else in the family will catch strep. Keep your fingers crossed and we'll keep our hands washed.
• Today was our Relief Society's Super Saturday. Somehow I missed signing up to make anything and didn't even realize it was this week. But thanks to having a friend in the know, I found out about it and was able to sand and paint a wooden nativity set designed for the kids to play with all Christmas season. As I am seriously lacking in painting and crafting skills, it was a struggle but I completed it and the kids love it. I had a few mishaps (like ruined pants) along the way because I didn't want to wait for the paint to dry and rushed through the entire process but I think I was the first one to finish.
• Why was I in such a hurry to finish painting the nativity set you ask? Because I promised Rachel that I'd go to her soccer game. It was a tough game. The teams were evenly matched but the other team eked out a win at 1-0. Bummer. Rachel had some great shots on goal but their goalie was unbelievable and somehow managed to stop everything that came her way. Paul went to Spencer's game and sadly, they lost as well today. It was not the best soccer day of our lives. Oh well. . . there's always the next game.
• Rachel and I went on a quick quest to purchase Halloween costumes for the kids today. Thankfully, our mission was successful. We will have three darling ladybugs and Boba Fett to protect them.

Rachel looks all gussied up in cowgirl attire in preparation for her

western-themed reward luncheon at school on Friday.

Rachel and her friend Lauren make themselves beautiful in Rachel's room.

Our Family drawn by Courtney.

These flowers are blooming in our yard--yes in October! Caitlin looks good with them!

Courtney's already learning to accessorize!

Spencer's missing from these photos but he has been a little bit too sick to pose for me!

My twin girls

Caitlin

Courtney

I think my girls are so beautiful! They have heaven's light in their eyes.