Happy 7th Birthday, Caitlin and Courtney

Caitlin and Courtney were so excited for their birthday because Grandma Margaret, Grandpa Dennis and Great-Grandma Black came to visit and were with us to celebrate.  In the morning, they opened their present from Grandma and Grandpa.  Later that day, they went to an Easter Egg Hunt.  They had a great time even though it was raining.  We also watched two sessions of General Conference. That evening, we sang Happy Birthday, opened their presents and they blew out their candles.  Caitlin wanted purple cupcakes and Courtney wanted yellow cupcakes.  Yum!  It was a great day! 



Pinewood Derby

With Grandma Madsen's death and the birth of our twin babies, Spencer's Pinewood Derby car was forgotten until a couple of days before the event.  Spencer and Paul finished it at the very last minute with the help of a friend from our ward, Jim Varley, and his power tools.  Spencer dubbed the car, "The Golden Bullet."  It came in 3rd place!  Spencer was very proud of his car and loves his trophy!

Gettysburg Trip with Dad

Paul and Spencer went to Gettysburg with some people from his school including his best friend Eric.  We took a bus.  We went on a tour of the battlefields.   It was a rainy day but they learned a lot and had a great time with each other.

Schoolhouse Rock!

Rachel performed in her school musical, "School House Rock."  The play was entertaining and educational.  We loved watching Rachel dance and sing!  She did a great job!

Science Fair Madness

February was science fair month at our house.

Rachel did a project looking at the effect of soda on eggshells as a surrogate for teeth because eggshells consist of the same material as teeth. It was a great project and took first place at her regional science fair. She will go on to compete in the state competition.

Of course, all the kids wanted to participate in the elementary school science fair this year. I told Paul if they signed up, he would be in charge of helping them because I have my hands full with the babies. He agreed. It was quite a big job to help kids with three projects at the same time.

Spencer's project focused on propulsion.  It was a complicated project and required lots of persistence in order to make it work.  He demonstrated propulsion on a balloon-propelled airplane connected to a fishing line.  They tried different types of airplanes and different things to connect it to the fishing line.  After several failures, they were able to get the airplane to propel all the way across the yard.  In addition, they built a raingutter in order to do the same thing with a balloon-propelled boat.  Ultimately, they were successful.  Paul and Spencer had a great time working together.

Caitlin learned about the solar system and made a model of our solar system. 

Courtney observed ice cream melting in order to determine which ice cream melted faster.  She discovered that orange sherbet melted the slowest while chocolate melted the fastest.

 

Welcome to our new babies, Jacob and Joshua Madsen!

We have welcomed two new little boys into our family.  As we drove into the hospital parking lot the day of the delivery, the song "It is the end of the world as we know it" came on and I thought it was so apropos!  Our newest additions were born on January 26, 2012 at 1:36 pm and 1:40 pm.  Jacob Thomas Madsen (baby A) was born first and weighed 6 lbs. 8 oz. and was 18 1/2 inches.  Joshua Mark Madsen (baby B) was born second and weighed in at 6 lbs. 11 oz. and was 19 1/2 inches.  It was an uncomplicated delivery.  When I got to the hospital I was already dilated 6 cm so they immediately gave me my epidural and the rest was very easy.  Aside from throwing up a few times, I felt better than I had in months, having been in agonizing pain and unable to sit or lie down comfortably since November because Josh was so high in my belly.  I thought it was ironic that I felt so good while being in labor.  When it came time to push, my doctor had three patients ready for delivery at 10 cm so he held me off since my labor would take longer because of twins (or so he thought).  Finally, they were ready for us.  Once in the operating room, they prepped me for a C-section (just in case) and I began pushing.  It didn't take long for Jacob to come out and Josh followed four minutes later.  The babies were both healthy and perfect.  All in all, it was a wonderful day.  The anaesthesiologist resident told me it was the first vaginal delivery of both twins he had ever seen and the attending anaesthesiologist told me she had only seen two vaginal twin deliveries in her entire career.  I didn't realize it was so unusual but I have had two successful vaginal twin deliveries so I feel blessed because that makes recovery so much easier.

We brought our new babies home a couple of days later and now I am the human milking machine.  I spend my days and nights nursing, nursing, diaper changing, nursing and more nursing.  I am exhausted but doing okay.  Paul seems more tired than I am.  All the older kids are helpful and love holding the babies.  We're so happy to have our new boys in the family.  They are so adorable.  We love watching their every expression, even when they are sleeping. 

Joshua

Joshua's feet (long and narrow like Paul's)



More Joshua



Jacob

Jacob has the hair

Jacob has my wide feet

Jacob

More Jacob

Here are the boys at the hospital (Jacob on left, Joshua on right)

Sooooo pregnant

I have never been in so much pain during pregnancy.  It's constant and almost unbearable but I figure I probably only have a few more days until these babies are born!  I can't wait to have them out of my stomach! 

I usually don't take any pictures of myself when I'm pregnant but Rachel did it for me.  You have to admit, I'm enormous!