Christmas Fun

This year we spent Christmas at home in AZ. Seths Mom and her husband David came down from Idaho, along with his brother Garrison. We had such a fun time! We love you guys! Here is some of the fun stuff that we did together.

Unfortunately it was not our usual sunny AZ weather while they were here, but we still were able to enjoy being outside (when it wasn't raining!). We had a lot of fun playing at the park while Seth and David drove Seth's RC car around. Then we made our way over to Culvers for some frozen custard!

On Christmas Eve Seth had to work, so we met him for his lunch break at Tempe Town Lake to play catch and frisbee. Later that night we decided to build some graham cracker houses. It turned out to be harder then we thought! It was a lot of fun though! Madi had fun eating the candy off of my house while painting my arm with frosting. Can you guess who's is who's?

Getting ready to head to bed before Santa comes!

Madi opening her "orange" present from Santa. He also put an orange in her stocking just to be sure that he covered all his bases since when he asked her what she wanted for Christmas she said "orange". I tried and tried to get out of her weather she wanted "an orange" or an "orange toy" but we never got it figured out. She was so excited to see her orange present under the tree when she woke up. So, I guess that it was just fine.

David showing us "hes still got it" with his yo-yo that he got in his stocking.

Madi testing out her new toy food, she did this to almost every piece.

Grandma and Grandpa Judd Christmas morning

I had to put a picture in of Madi in her Christmas dress. She was happy, I promise.

I think that my favorite part about Christmas is spending time with family. It usually is family that we haven't seen in a while so it makes it exciting. I also loved getting to spend so much time with Seth since he had some unused vacation time to use before the years end. It has been a very fun Christmas. I feel so blessed to have such a wonderful family to spend it with.

First Santa Visit

We went to this outdoor mall last night with Aaron and Christen and their girls after eating at In N Out across the street. They had things decorated for Christmas and there was a line setup for a Santa Claus outside. So we got in line so Madi, Monroe and Patsy could see Santa. There were a couple small children around Madi's age that were in line before us and a couple of them started crying when they were put on Santa's lap. So we told Madi that Santa is "really nice and he's going to ask you what you want for Christmas" and she said "yes, Santa nice". And so it was her turn and we put Madi on his lap and Christen took a couple pictures. Madi was wearing a sweatshirt with a big pocket in front and pulled a little yellow flower from her pocket and she gave it to Santa (see pictures). I thought that was pretty cool. The Santa was an old guy with a "real" white beard and hearing aids and he looked like a really nice old man. It looked like he liked the little present she picked for him. She must've picked it earlier when she was playing in the gravel from one of those weed looking plants that does well in the desert. Anyway, Santa asked her what she wanted for Christmas and she said "an orange". Thought that was pretty funny, also reminded me of stories I've heard when kids would get oranges for Christmas because their families were so poor that's all they could afford. So that was kind of a cool experience. I really wasn't looking forward to the Santa thing because we had to stand in a line for a little bit , but thought it was well worth it after seeing how Madi reacted. She's really a good little girl. I feel lucky to have her.

Seth

Thanksgiving in Utah

We had such a fun time in Utah with everyone! It was so nice to have all of my family together. It has been a long time! I love my family so much. All of my brothers and their wifes are so much fun! I am so glad that we have such a great family that all gets along. I wish we all lived closer together, but I guess it makes it all that much more sweet when we do get together!




Madi playing with Aunt Sara in the grass

It was also really fun to watch Madi and her cousin Dylan play together. They were such good buddies! I am so glad that she had someone to fallow and run around with while we were there. Some how I managed to not get any pictures of the cousins together! I will need to do that for sure next time!

Stretching our legs on Rainbow bridge on our drive home!

Happy Birthday Madi

November 1st was Madi's 2nd birthday, and I am finally getting around to posting it. My Mom was here to celebrate with us, (Dad could come, he was needed last minute for Prop 8 efforts in California, which payed off YEAH) so we all went to the Phoenix Zoo. It was so much fun. Our favorite parts were the monkey village and the new water play area! In the monkey village you get to walk around in the monkey exhibit pretty much. The cutest little squirel monkeys running around and above you, jumping from tree to tree. It was great! And the water play area was a nice retreat from the warm weather. Madi would have stayed there all

day if we would have let her. Good thing we found it towards the end of our visit at the zoo because she wasn't to interested in anything that we went to see after that. It could have been because she was enjoying her first churro.......yumm.

After the zoo, Madi took a 3 hr nap! She ran almost the whole time at the zoo, so we weren't too surprised. So, that gave me plenty of time to make dinner and finish decorating her cake. We hung out and did the usually presents and birthday cake celebrations. It was such a fun day!

I may be a little biased but, she is the best little girl anyone could ever ask for! I am so grateful that I get to be her Mom! She makes me laugh everyday! She is so sweet and is so much fun to be around. I love watching her dance and sing when she doesn't think anyone is watching, especially if she is in front of a mirror (then she really hams it up). I love listening to her laugh the way she does when she is rough housing with her Dad on the couch. She is just perfect for me and Seth and we couldn't ask for anything more! We love you Madi Buns!!

Halloween Fun

I know I am late posting this, but I have been gone all week since Halloween. So, I just wanted to post a few pictures of what we did this year. We had our ward trunker treat first. We took our friends Rachel and Levi with us, they used to be in our ward so it was fun for them to see people they haven't seen in a while. And it was fun to see how many people didn't even know who Levi was because of his scary costume. Madi was a ballerina, Rachel and I were witches, Levi was goth and Seth was mullet man.

And that is not cheese from Owens hamburger on Madis face, although it did look very tasty. We had a good time with our ward friends. After that we headed over to some friends in our wards adult Halloween party that they had in their back yard. It was decorated so fun and they had all kinds of yummy finger foods. We decided to go last minute so we ended up bringing Madi with us. She loved it and didn't want to leave. They had a trampoline and she hasn't been on one of those since she has been so into jumping. So, she thought that was the coolest thing ever. She especially liked it when dad would hold her and jump high! (Not really, it just seemed high because he is so much higher off the ground.) On Halloween day, my Mom drove into town just in time to get to go to Seths work with us to go trick-or-treating at his office. It is really fun to see everyone with their kids at Seths work and get to hang out with all the nice people there for a little bit. I think it is a fun little tradition they have. And Seth loves any excuse to show off his little Madi to his friends at work!

Later that night we went out and watched Madi trick-or-treat around our neighborhood. It was fun to have my mom here with us! We wish that Dad, Austin and Sara could have made it out, but we still had fun.
Needless to say, Madi got some good use out of her Halloween costume this year. And I could never get enough of hearing her say "Turkey Beet". We had been practicing "trick-or-treat" all month and I would have to say that we got pretty close. And I don't think that I have ever heard "Mommy open it?" so many times in one day. Just about every time someone put something in her bag she would reach in and pull it out and ask me if she could have it right then. It is a hard concept for a 2 year old to understand "When we get home" I guess. What a fun day!

Mother Natures Farm

Last night for Family Night we decided to go check out the Mother Natures Farm right by our house. It turned out to be a lot of fun! We practically had the place to ourselves and it was about 86 degrees outside, so it was perfect. Seth and Madi had the whole bounce house to themselves. Madi thought that was the coolest thing ever! She had never been on one before. I had a lot of fun watching the two of them play. They had a really fun hay stack maze for the kids and Madi loved that as well. It is always so fun doing something with your little one for the first time. I was surprised that she got the concept right away and she led the way through the maze. We made it through with only a few suggestions from Seth. As soon as we got to the end she turned around and said "Again!" so we let her walk through a bit by herself. There was a lot to do and we had such a fun night! I love Family Night!

The tractor hayride

Feeding the baby farm animals

Searching for the perfect pumpkin (notice the baby snuck into the picture)

Decorating our pumpkins with stickers (Seths, Madis, Brits)