madeleine

she made it! almost a week late, but it happened.

madeleine leigh was born really early on february 22nd.  my doctor was aiming for midnight (well, after 4 or 5 other goal times--baby just did not want to be born!) since david had to leave for work around 4am... she was born at 12:22am while a nice snow storm was brewing outside.

honestly, i don't really remember much about her birth, i was on major drugs that didn't want to wear off, it was super late and i had been at the hospital in labor for like 16 hours or so.

it was really dark in our room and dad was in charge of the pictures, so there aren't many.

fresh baby!

here she is just a few hours old.

we had a lot of  quiet cozy time after she was born--dad was at work and my mom was on her way, so it was just us!

my mom came from CA to see her 3rd grand-daughter!

madeleine loved her instantly.  napped like a pro with grandma holding her all night.

here she is with dad getting ready to come home.  i was so sick of being in the hospital we left when she was 1 day old.

grandma brings the best presents!!  what girl doesn't need a hello kitty bigger than she is?

so tired and puffy from being on an IV for 20 hours.  my nose looks crazy!

she was so little!  7lbs 6oz and only 19in

first car ride

proud parents

cheetah girl!  first minutes home and already modeling.

grandma's current favorite (until august when her next granddaughter will be born)

her sweet cousin kourty sent her this little elephant that she loves!

a little less puff

hansen girls

more posts to come, but it is way challenging to blog with a baby!

christmas in... march?

it's never too late to post christmas pictures, right??

well, let's start off with our christmas tree in wisconsin.  i'm actually surprised i decorated this much--i was so tired and huge... getting the christmas lights wrapped around the tree was not easy!

i figured i might as well pull out all of our nice ornaments since it will be a few years before we can decorate a tree with breakables down low.

this is the ornament david picked this year... it's a knight--he's starting his knight/castle/wizard collection.

i picked the carousel ornament because it was baby-ish and girly.

david was on vacation for the month of december, and by vacation--i mean, the most stressed out you can be, traveling across the country interviewing for residencies and i basically told my work that i was taking a long christmas vacay whether they liked it or not.  so we were able to spend almost 2 weeks in california for christmas.

it was a small crowd this year... 2 siblings were at their in-laws for the holidays.

here is a gem... tyler was getting ready for church and apparently showing me some of his sweet moves that he uses to get all the hotties at the youth dances.

the following obligatory christmas portraits...(i want to apologize for only bringing a purple dress--it was all that fit, and mom making everyone else find something purple to wear... she is definitely a repeat offender when it comes to impromptu family pics)

mom and tyler

mom's favorite kids

me and tyler

missing our other girlies...

i was so uncomfortable with this picture... i have no idea how people take those weird maternity portraits...

this is the best picture of grandma on christmas morning... let's just say things got ugly after she finished helping tyler wrap some presents (non-stop barf through all of christmas dinner... everyone was nervous.  let's just say, grandma had plenty of left-overs)

don't worry, she wasn't sick the whole week.  we got plenty of card time in with her.  play 9 is seriously the best game--so glad grandma is a card shark.  she also gave us her last set of cards.  #sorrynotsorry

david just enjoying the christmas morning atmosphere.

saddest staircase picture in 27 years of christmases.

these boys love home alone-- i thought they would like these shirts... they did.

you might be thinking, why are the girls pajamas so big??  well, macy's only had size large and we were desperate on christmas eve.

tyler got some real grade A christmas gifts this year.  weights?

a face ice-mask?

7 giants world championship sweatshirts?  you know... in case they never win again.

me with a cute pink lamb christmas ornament... the start to a ridiculous collection of baby ornaments.

amber ruined all of her christmas surprises.  who knew mom was so good a pinterest?

david holding a sweet dress amber got for the baby.

the best present under the tree!!  tyler was really bitter that he and tubman were bumped from the family christmas card--so he made mom a phone case covered in them!

my mom spent the last month scouring ebay for a beary merry christmas advent calendar to make for david since that is the one his mom had in their house.  we spent the rest of the week collecting beads and trims and ordering light packs to make this thing as sparkly as possible.  hopefully i will post a picture of the completed project next christmas.  (which is 9 months away--yikes!)

merry christmas tubs!

i made some giant sticky buns... some people blame grandma's illness on these--but i swear they were FDA approved and delish!

mom sometimes forgets that she buys presents and then she finds them later... like this nutcracker.  we also know that there is a delux sound of music dvd pack in andie's wedding shrine room that no one got... maybe next year!

grandma got sick mid-dinner prep, so the appetizers were a little lacking this year.  we decided the artichokes were safe because the water was boiling when we got there.  we were not sure about the chicken chilli dip and she made so much!! kind of felt bad--but like, you have to draw the line somewhere.

chicken chilli dip... mae mae was not phased.

i could also make a whole blog-post of people trying to stop me from taking their pictures...

bubba claus was not camera shy!

mom and aunt carma's giftcard game is getting more ridiculous every year!  we all love it!

we basically spent the rest of christmas and the day after christmas setting up carma and mom's worst christmas gift they could give grandma ever!!

who thought an ipad, a wireless printer and wireless keyboard were great ideas?

the girls, plus a dog (i'm not sure if this is the dog mae had to leave early to go walk...)

the whole gang

andie came the next day--but i have no more pictures... i must have been too tired.

thanksgiving in ut

this year we spent thanksgiving in utah!  it was so fun and as always, i'm still exhausted.  david and i landed a late thirty wednesday night and andie, brenty and ambie were sweethearts and picked us up some cafe rio to eat on the way to springville.  things i've learned:  old cafe rio is just as gross as you think, it's really hard to eat in the middle seat of a dark car and it definitely makes your car stinky when you have to run to walmart at midnight for ruby red squirt (david) and last minute thanksgiving groceries.

anyways, we finally got to andie and brent's little place for our sleepover.  thanks for giving up your bed!  i was up for hours and finally decided that 9am was late enough to let everyone else sleep in.  brent was giving me dagger eyes (i guess he's not a fan of cheetah pajamas?)  we went to cracker barrel for a real thanksgiving breakfast.  brent didn't want to eat anything since we were having dinner like 12 hours later... surprise surprise--he ordered like 4 breakfasts.  things we learned: never get the grits at cracker barrel.

so gross... but hey, who's going to judge you at cracker barrel?

so what if i wanted pie for breakfast? i'm not sure how the waitress talked me in to ordering an entire pie.  i didn't hate it.

then everyone got dressed, packed up lots of groceries and headed to the cabin in sundance.  we took some portraits while andie was slaving away on some delish side-dishes.  (so proud!  she's become so domestic)

ambie 

brent's new linked-in profile pic

this guy was loving the lighter

so were the rest of the boyz

tyler and mom finally made it after brent drove down to meet mom at the base of the mountain and have her follow him back.  despite the tricky parking situation the cabin was awesome and everyone loved it!

we get it... you're tall.

see?

back to the kitchen for salad assembly, sweet potato casserole that no one could get enough of and some ill-fated green bean bundles.

okay, so the recipe was from ourbestbites... i didn't think that 15-20 minutes in the oven would be enough to crisp up that bacon... luckily roxanne had a griddler andie could use to finish them off.

semi-homemade... when's cocktail time?

addie cakes looking adorable at the kids table.  she made her own place setting with her picture on it so no one could take her seat.  the food was great, everyone had lots of fun.  i can't believe i didn't get any pics.  i think gary took a cute one of steph, laura and i but i doubt that's ever making the internet!

after pie with the whole brassfield clan (or everyone that made it to utah for the holiday) we headed back to the cabin for games and fun!  we found a gas station that was open late on thanksgiving and stocked up on candies, sodas and water--the essentials.  i have no idea how the 14 year old girl cashier got stuck with that shift, but we were grateful they were open.

tyler showing off the welcome basket

ambie and tyler playing some concentration games

laura and korty playing a memory game

okay, this picture needs some explanation... so we were teaching tyler how to play texas hold'em and he was doing pretty well... until he decided to go all-in on this hand.  poor kid thought he won with a double straight!  hahaha!  we had to explain to him that a double straight is only a cribbage hand and doesn't fly in actual poker.  we all re-divvied up our make-shift chips (starbursts and altoids) and played forever!

the next morning was rough!

we all felt like this

we decided we would avoid the really crazy black friday shoppers by going over to the riverwoods for a little kneaders breakfast and shopping.

kneaders cuties

after breakfast and some shopping we went over to the surf place to get some blue bell icecream, watch the boys do the ropes course and play some arcade games.

peppermint... yum-o

the boys had a lot of fun on the ropes course, it was really high.  everyone was so proud, especially addie who kept yelling, "dad, i'm proud of you!"

tyler was a little shaky, but loved it.

dorks

there was a little shop that had gingerbread houses and so we made amber pose by the soel house

and addie and korty posed by one of the more colorful ones

what could you want after icecream?  candy!!

and learning how to share a big bubble gum

we couldn't get enough surf time!

i'm not sure who held the basketball record?  i'm pretty sure it was david 1.

another scoop to go

tyler always gets a waffle cone!

these girls have the best dad who picked out all the best prizes for them!!  no wonder they were so proud.

then it was time for lunch at cafe rio... no one needed it, but what else do you do for fun?!

then we all headed back to the cabin for some games with the girls and a new game that laura picked up while we were shopping.

addie learned how to play go fish and grandma and addie totally won!

the new game was way intense!  you had to move fast!  lots of fun, i can't remember what it was called.

since we were in the mountains a few of us took a nature hike to check out the wild turkeys that were all over the property.

addie was a little scared of the turkeys, grandma had to hold onto her shoulder and take a pic at the same time... talented!

they also found the only patch of snow around... hahaha!

that tired most of us out... it was time for naps.

or family portraits

much better than the ones in front of the cabin

claimed he wasn't asleep!

let's face it... thanksgiving is less about thanksgiving than it is about amber's birthday.  mom had the birthday picture duties and this was the best that we got:

like, you get it though.

only family picture we got:

mom, you could totally use this for your christmas card!

the next morning was spencer and rebecca's wedding in idaho.  i wish i could have gone, but i my feet and ankles were so swollen i didn't think i would be able to handle the drive.  no one wanted to get fully dressed at 5:30am so there were some quick changes in the car.

waiting for the couple to come out of the temple/ hitting on the single ladiez

mom and carol being cute

the preshanselhelms back together again!

the wedding favors were playing cards!! love it!

i spent the day doing a little laundry, black friday shopping online and keeping my feet elevated.  nikki and her family came up to the cabin to visit and got to go on a hike with david.  after they left david and i went down to the foundry grill for lunch and a little walk around the property.  afterwards we headed up to salt lake city to meet up with jan and her girls, uncle greg and co and jenna for a little shopping at the city center.  we mostly checked out iphone baby monitors and ipad cases.  cami showed us all of her windows and displays at nordstrom.  i have never seen so many people at a mall... like, i know the fountain was designed by the same guy that did the bellagio one... but like, i don't get it!

mom and the kids met us in salt lake on their way back from idaho falls.  since mom is always making everyone else's dreams come true, we threw her a bone and headed to temple square to see the temple lights.  it must have been opening night because it was packed!  the lights are so beautiful... i forgot how fun it is.

these guys really hate pictures

after the temple lights and stop at nordstrom for some make-up essentials we headed back to sundance and to bed.  it was finally our last day in utah and we enjoyed the always fabulous sundance brunch.

these guys found some snow!

there was nothing else to do for the next 6 hours while we waited for our flights... so we headed over to riverwoods to enjoy a completely empty shopping center.

we talked mom into watching the last twilight movie with us, i'm 100% sure she hated it... it was the opposite of a rom-com.  we had time to kill inside the theatre so we made everyone take pictures with the advertisements.

i bet david is going to be sad he wouldn't take this one...

tyler nailed it.

after the movie we headed over to amber's apartment and watched some really weird reality show about black friday for an hour or so, said our goodbyes and headed to the airport.  we turned in the rental and headed to cafe rio for one last salad... (i'm pretty sure i got my fill, i know my mom did (she hates rio and loves chipotle).  tyler and david could not get enough queso.

that was our trip!  we landed at 2am monday morning and grabbed a cab and nap and then it was back to work for me.

monday was miserable, but i'll recover.  can't wait until christmas!!