lots of firsts!

a few weeks ago madeleine had a whole week of firsts!

her first plane ride and trip to california!!

i was a nervous wreck thinking that she was going to be the baby of my nightmares screaming and crying on the plane... after all the complaining about screaming kids on my flights i thought karma was going to get the best of me!

she was the best!! not a peep the whole time.  she loved just being held and taking her bottle and napping.

we arrived to california late friday night, but her aunties and cousins were waiting up for her!

big fans!

proud uncle to 3 nieces!  one day he'll get a nephew.  luckily he is great at taking care of girlies.

on saturday the boys (minus tyler) got up at 3:30am to go fishing.  luckily all of them love fishing, so they thought it was a great idea!  i would have passed.  the girls got to sleep in a little bit.

here maddie is all ready to celebrate easter weekend!

while we were waiting for the boys to get back from fishing we got to visit with great grandma mary.  maddie loved meeting her!  we were glad we got to visit with her so much.

addie wanted to put the bunny ears on maddie... she wasn't too sure about them.

the boys got back from a successful (well they caught like 10 goldfish) deep sea fishing endeavor.  the girls were a little surprised by their outfit choices.

the spoils!  gross.

after they got back we thought it would be a great idea to walk to dairy queen for a treat to kill time while tyler was at his baseball game.  (4 mile walk turned out not to be the best idea!!)

here the girls are in great outfits.  we all had to promise not to change clothes, but just put on sneaks.  so tacky.

close up!

tyler got ready to go to his game with his #1 fan.

the rest of us enjoyed a little sunshine before starting on our walk!

we took an interesting route... first we stopped by alyse's house to say hi, she wasn't home... so we went to the church to see if she was there and to stop by the primary easter party.  the girls weren't too interested in it with the promise of ice-cream right around the corner (well, if the corner was a mile a away)

we made it!

but the DQ was not still doing their BOGO deal on blizzards, much to everyone's dismay.

baby's 1st DQ (just kidding) but we did have to take her pants off to let her legs cool down.  sunshine is not something she is used to!

the walk back home was interesting to say the least!  maddie would not stop screaming--not sure why, we even stopped so i could nurse her, but nothing was working.  david 1 ran home with amber pushing the double stroller with the girls so he could get the car to come back and pick us up.

maddie wasn't going to stop screaming so we just decided to keep walking.  alyse saw us and said she had just dropped amber off and that amber was on her way to pick us up.  we met up with amber about 2 blocks from home. lol.  laura, david2 and i just took turns bouncing her as we walked.

then we all met up at the house and got ready to go to dinner to celebrate david's match into his anesthesia program.

jeanne and larry stopped by with some presents for maddie.

a crazy zebra blanket that she will love playing on.

and a beautifully embroidered blanket that has her name and birthdate on it.  it will match perfectly with her crib bedding.

so glad we got to see them!

here we are at fish company.  maddie's 1st nice restaurant (she did great, well, as long as she was having a bottle or being held).  hard life.

love birds.

addie got all the seafood she could handle.

amber got to hang out with her best friend.

tyler loving it!

happy family!

this girl ordered 2 different kinds of soup for dinner!  lol.

after dinner it was time to get all the food ready for easter lunch/ maddie's blessing luncheon, but it was also time to dye eggs!

so fun!

maddie slept through most of it.  amber was really the baby whisperer.

happy easter!!

on easter sunday we blessed madeleine in my mom's ward in california.  all of her cousins were able to be there as well as all of her aunts and all but one of her uncles.  it was a great day!

these are some blessing pictures that we took on her actual blessing day

and the next few are ones that i took when we got back to wisconsin.  her dress was perfect!  laura and i had some sort of creative meltdown and it took us all night to make this headband!  i love it, it's perfect.

i had to take pictures of her little slippers since it was such a crazy story to get them!  i had to order 3 different pairs. (one we thought would be too big, the next, the coloring was wrong and then they sent another pair that was too small).  turns out that the first pair was perfect!

back to the blessing day!

david had already changed into his traveling clothes by this point.  he had to head straight to LAX to get back to wisconsin for work on Monday morning.

hansen girls

so glad we got a 4 generation picture!  (but did grandma really wear pants to church?!)

the hansens!

the nielsens! (so glad everyone could come for this!!)

the party was crazy!  kids running everywhere, super loud and fun.  i don't think my mom's house has been so nuts since we were little kids.

great grandma mazie

nielsens

more nielsens... i think maddie looks like geoff's boys sometimes (big eyes)

david and his siblings

aunt jenna and cousin drew

grandma and her girlies!  so many trips to bibbity bobbity boutique in her future!

cousins in matching easter dresses

this one is my favorite!

snuggles with auntie andie

baby's 1st food trucks!

waffles de liege was the bomb!  definitely not helping me lose the baby weight... worth it!

yum!

tyler spending time with the girls!  if he instagrammed this picture he would get so many likes #girlsloveguyswithbabies

after all of the crazy fun it was time to head back to wisconsin.  again i was so worried that maddie would freak out on the plane, especially since i was traveling alone!  she was the best.  there were like 10 other little kids on the plane and she was the quietest out of all of them.

such a fun trip!  we can't wait for some of her cousins to come visit in a few weeks and then we will be back in california for a nice long vacation!