Grandpa

Grandpa Madsen - you will be missed. We love you very much and are happy you are out of pain.

EVAN LEE MADSEN
Evan Lee Madsen 1933 ~ 2010 Our beloved husband, father, grandfather, great-grandfather, brother, uncle and friend, Evan Lee Madsen passed away in the early morning hours of Feb. 18, 2010 due to complications from an infection. Evan was born September 7, 1933, to Harold J. and Helen Sanders Madsen at the family home in Salt Lake City, Utah. He graduated from Jordan High School and later graduated from printing school at Utah Technical College. He served in the United States Army from 1954 to 1956 and later worked at Hill Air Force Base for 16 years. He served as a carpenter and general contractor for much of his life. He was sealed to his sweetheart Amelia Darlene Smith Graves in the Salt Lake City Temple. They have six children: Michelin, Laurie, Melanie, Darrel, Kenneth and Tamyra. Evan and Darlene shared the privilege of serving an LDS mission to Nigeria from 1984 to 1986 and grew to love the people of that country. Evan cherished his family, friends, community, nation and church. He served as a high priest group leader, high councilor, a temple ordinance worker in the Manti Temple and was an exemplary home teacher. Evan enjoyed participating in theatrical productions and was an accomplished narrator and speaker. He will be remembered as for his love to make his grandchildren and great-grandchildren laugh as he made rhymes with everything they said. He is survived by his wife, Darlene; his children: Michelin (Tim) York, Laurie Madsen, Melanie (Ron) Stoker, Darrel (Mary Ann) Madsen, Kenneth (Amanda) Madsen, Tamyra (Ron) Doty; 28 grandchildren, 27 great-grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren expected to be born this year. A viewing will be held from 5 to 7 pm, Sunday, February 21, 2010, at the LDS Kanosh Ward, 25 S. Main Street, Kanosh, UT 84637. Family and friends may visit prior to the funeral services on Monday, February 22, 2010, from 10:30 to 11:45 am with the funeral being held at 12 noon. Interment will be held at the Kanosh City Cemetery with military honors immediately after the funeral services. In lieu of flowers, donations to the LDS Church Perpetual Education Fund would be appreciated.

Too cute

Lucas saw me looking at picture on that camera and kept saying "smile" and holding a pose. Lucas has NEVER held a pose before, in fact it is hard enough getting him to be in front of the camera rather than behind it playing with it. So, I couldn't resist, here is my little man. I love him so much!

My New Sanctuary :)

Well I am doing my catch up in blogging, there are a few post below if you are interested, nothing too grand so don't worry. :) This post is a special one for me though. Matt and I have been married for four years, during that time we have been using Matt's mothers beautiful bedroom set. It is really pretty, but it is old. And it isn't our style, I always tell Matt that is is an 'antique' style - beautiful, but it doesn't fit our personalities, or our home (well honestly, nothing matches our home, with an apartment made of cinder block walls and tile carpet, and being less than 700 sq. feet good luck decorating!). Anyway, we decided to spoil ourselves! We bought a new bedroom set!!! We have looked online for awhile, but were too hesitant to order it online, so last Saturday, we went to look. Well really I went to look Matt was home doing homework. I found one that I loved, and though it was more than we were planning on spending, I negotiated the price, and the guy added an extra night stand and brought the price down! So, I called Matt, and we agreed to get it!! We got a headboard, footboard, bed rails, dresser with a mirror, and two nightstands! It was just delivered yesterday, and now I don't want to leave my room! It is so pretty! Here are some pictures, but ignore the clutter on top, we are still trying to put things back where they go. For four days we had everything out of our room. We had to empty our old drawer so we could get rid of that, and we had to live with our clothes piled all over the house. It drove me crazy! But it was worth it!

crafts

So I have done a few crafts lately that I am quite of! I love to do crafts, but am not very good at them, and I can never come up with ideas on my own. This first one, I got the idea from a blog that a friend told me about, http://makeitandloveit.blogspot.com/ This lady has some really cute ideas!! Take a look, you will end up spending a few hours there, I did. :) Anyway, on her blog, she made an art board thing, to hang her kids wet paint pictures. I loved it! My fridge can only hold so many things, so I decided to make one. I went to DI, and bought an old cork board for $.75. Then I bought some cute fabric for $1.00 and some black ribbon for $2.00. I already had the mod podge, and everything else. So here is the before:

And the after:


We have it right above our dinner table, and Lucas loves to look at his projects while he eats. I did change some things, the other lady had jumbo clothes pins to hold the pictures, I didn't want to buy them so I used small paper clips. I actually like it this way better. I think it looks cuter the other way, but this way I can put tons of pictures up!
My other project I have been working on is hair bows. Since we are having a little girl I wanted to make something for her, but it needed to be easy. So, I found a website with instructions on how to make hair bows! I made the head bands out of little girl tights, and then took silk flowers and took them apart to remove all plastic, and glued them back together again, with a cute little rhinestone in the middle. I glued that to an alligator clip that I covered with ribbon. They turned out SO cute! I have only done 3, but they are cute! I can't wait to finish them! Here are a few pictures of one of them. Yes, it is on a soup bowl, but thats because I don't have a head to put it on yet. :)



And just a quick note: I am now 28 weeks along in the pregnancy, only 12 more weeks! It is so weird, this pregnancy has flown by. Well it didn't at first, not with being so sick, but it is flying by now. It is weird to think that in just 3 months, I will have two kids!! How crazy is that?! Anyway, here is a picture of me at 24 weeks pregnant.

Catch-up

Wow. I am kind of behind in my blogging. I haven't missed anything really major, but a few smaller things. I was looking at pictures on the camera, and realized I have a few things to blog about. I am just going to go in order: so, first, a while back our family went to the Aerospace Museum with Matt's brothers and their families. It was a lot of fun, and really interesting! Lucas LOVED it! Every time a plane or helicopter flies by, he has to point it out to us. Sometimes, he will find ones that Matt and I can't see. The kid loves planes - maybe he will be a pilot. Luke's cousin James brought his brand new "Tickle Me Elmo" and right away Lucas stole it from him. Even though Luke had one at home, he wanted this one. Luckily James was too little to really notice that he got mugged. Lucas kept Elmo the rest of the time, if he wasn't carrying it, we had to push Elmo in the stroller. And Lucas wanted to make sure that Elmo got to see the planes too, so Lucas kept pointing to them saying, "See it". I didn't get too many pictures, our camera died, but I got a few cute ones. They had little planes that the kids could sit in and 'ride', once we saw those it was over. Lucas LOVED it, but he had to get out to share with the other kids. After that, he was not interested in anything else. They also had this fun ejection seat that you could sit in, Lucas really liked that one as well. If you haven't been, I would recommend it. It is fun, really interesting, and best of all, it is free!

Happy Anniversary to us!

Our anniversary was on Feb. 3rd. I cannot believe we have been married for four years! Four years sounds like a long time, but it sure didn't feel very long! When I think about all we have done during the last four years, I realize just how much of an adventure marriage is. And I love it! We have had our hard times, we have had fun times, we both have learned and grown so much. I wouldn't change anything about the last four years. I married my best friend. When we were first married I was madly in love with Matt, but I don't think I was able to call him my best friend. Now, after everything we have done together and been through together, he has really become my best friend. He is the man I think about everyday, all day. Matt is such a kind, considerate, and loving person. Although he doesn't like to show it, Matt really is just a teddy bear. He takes such great care of me, and loves me no matter what. I love you Matt! And I am so excited to see what the next four years will bring. Happy Anniversary!


On our anniversary, we didn't get to see eachother more than one hour that day. Lucas is teething (his two-year old molars) so he was a nightmare. And I am just an emotional wreck lately. My Grandpa has been in the hospital for a few weeks now, and has had several close calls. That day, was the closest one yet. Matt was at school when I got the phone call about my grandpa. He is at the hospital in Orem, so I packed up Lucas and me, and prayed that I would find someone to help me babysit before I get there (children are not allowed in the hospital). Luckily my sister in law said they could. So as I was about to get on the freeway, I got a call that he went into a 4-5 hour surgery. The doctors didn't think he would make it though. So I had to turn around, and break it to Lucas that he doesn't get to see his cousin. I was so upset, I didn't know if I was going to be able to say my good bye. And I had a total break down. I couldn't stop crying, I had to pull over since I couldn't even drive. Finally I was able to make it home, and to make Lucas happier I promised him he could play outside. So, I purposely avoided all of my friends who were outside. Then one came up to me, and asked how I was doing. I lost it. I could barely talk. As others saw me crying they came to help. I complained about the day I was having with Lucas, and everything with my grandpa, and then I announced that it was my anniversary. One friend ran inside and brought out a huge chocolate bar for me (she knows me well). And later that night, I had food dropped off so I could make a nice dinner for me and Matt, and another friend brought over dinner with the works. She bought a rose, sparking cider, and came over and set up my table all fancy. And she made us an amazing dish. After my friends took care of me, the day turned around. Matt and I had a wonderful late dinner together, until Lucas decided he didn't want to sleep anymore, and stayed up until 11:00. And then woke up again at 2:30 and stayed up for two hours. Needless to say, he was a major grump the next day, as was I. Although the actual day of our anniversary was a terrible day, we celebrated the next weekend by going to Tucanos and going to see "The Blindside." Matt was in heaven at dinner. He had a huge smile with every bite he took. It was like a kid in a candy store! We had a great evening, and thank you to Matt's sister Kaitlyn for babysitting for us! We owe you!

Tantrums, melt-downs, freak-outs....

Before you read on, I want to say something: I have been thinking lately about how I don't write in my journal anymore. I don't enjoy writing, it hurts my hands, and I don't feel like I have enough time. I am so far behind, that the idea of writing, it just appalling to me. I would love to use my scrapbook as my journal, but I have similar issues there. I don't have time or space to do it. And again, I am so far behind that I fear that I will forget these things before I get a chance to scrapbook them. So, this blog is my only form of a journal. I feel like journals are so important. My mother kept a regular journal all her life and I am so grateful for that. Since she died before I could really know her, her journals are the only way for me to 'get inside her head'. I love them! But since it is not a talent of mine, I have decided this blog is my journal. One day, I am going to make one of those 'blog/photo books'. That way my kids and my grandkids will still have a 'journal' that I have kept. My point is, from now on, my posts will not only be about our family, and our kids, but it will also be a lot of my thoughts and feelings. Don't ever feel pressured to read it, it is mainly for me. But of course, I will never put anything on here that I do not want people to read. With that being said, lets get started:

By reading the title of this post, you are probably thinking this is about my "terrible two-year old". Well you are wrong. Yes it is a result of a total freak out that Lucas had (this was way beyond tantrum), but this post is about me. Tonight, Lucas freaked out. He was so tired (due to skipping his nap), and overwhelmed by all of the family members at our family dinner, and he had just had enough. I have no words to describe the way he acted except 'psycho'. Needless to say, I started thinking about why he acts that way (only sometimes), but where does he get it from? I realized....he gets it from ME!! Granted he is a two year old, so it is his age as well. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized I still struggle with it! I have a few stories that will explain it:

First let me preface this, most of my 'freak-outs' were a result of my sister who is 3 years older than me. It is strange to say that since my sister has always been my best friend. We are three years about, and shared a room our entire lives. When one of us would come home from college, we still shared our room, clear until we got married (we had a double wedding). My sister always took care of me, she is the most motherly woman I know. But for some reason, I reacted to her in very disturbing ways. One time, she was babysitting me (I think I was about 9-10 years old). I was playing in my front yard with some friends, and she came to tell me it was time to come in. I don't remember being mad at her before this, so I have no explanation for the way I acted. But I snapped. I picked up a shovel that was sitting next to me, and began chasing her around the yard....and I caught up with her. I think she still has the scar on her ankle.

One Sunday, we were going to church, I was 12 years old. I was having a bad day (bad hair day, bad clothes day) and I was just in a bad mood. As we got to church my jumper/dress started to rip. So my sweet sister decided to help me in the bathroom. I was crying and upset, not with her though. But I yelled at her for something, and she called me stupid (or something equivalent to that) and started to walk away. I grabbed her arm and dug my nails into her skin, and said "Don't call me stupid" and she pulled her arm away, and my nails were so deep into her skin that I left four deep scratches all along her arm. After wards I looked at my nails, and sure enough, there were strings of skin under each of my nails. Again, she still has scars on her arm.

This one happened on too many occasions to count. My sister would make me mad over something, usually something small like she didn't clean her half of the room. But I would always get mad at her, and I would try to 'control' my anger. (I use the word "control" lightly) Instead of attacking her, I would attack the blinds in our room. I would grab handfuls of the blinds, and pull them, tear them, bend them, whatever I could do to them, I did. Eventually my parents discovered the 'white-trash' fix-up job we did (on several occasions) and we had to get new blinds, that I destroyed later in a similar situation.

There are many more situations like these, one that involves throwing wee-waffle toys at her face, leaving her with a very fat lip. Many that involve punching and kicking her.

There was one time when I think I was about 5-6 years old. This one is with a different sister, who wasn't so quick to forgive. She was helping me bathe, and accidentally got shampoo in my eyes. I had been fighting her in the bath most of the time, so there was water everywhere. I shoved her as hard as I could, and she fell back sliding her left hand under the door. The edge of the door cut her pretty bad, and yes, she still has the scar. She was pretty self-conscience about it (and I don't blame her) since her left hand would be the hand in all her bridal pictures.

I don't know what my problem was. And in fact, what my problem is! Last night, I was so hungry (like I always am being pregnant), and I couldn't find anything that sounded good. So I was just going to starve. Matt grabbed himself some fruit snacks, and I saw it and it sounds so good. So I asked him to get me one. Now this is one of the biggest problems in our marriage (I know a lame problem, but it is true). He gets frustrated with me, because he says I wait until he is standing up, and then I ask him for things. Like I just sit there, waiting for him to get up so I don't have to. So when I asked for the fruit snacks, he did his "I am kind of annoyed" laugh, and got me some. But to make a point to him, I threw the fruit snacks at his face. They landed on the floor and I didn't touch them, just to show him, I didn't want them anymore. I think Lucas picked up the fruit snacks after he woke up.

Now I feel like I have matured, and calmed down since those really wild days. Now when I am frustrated, I either keep it in, or I talk to Matt about it until we figure it out. But what the heck was I thinking back then?! I really have no idea of where to begin to figure it out. I was just an angry child I guess. And I have to say, my sister is a sweetheart. Right after I would attack, I would realize what I had done, and would just start bawling. Emily would almost always forget her pain, and would come comfort me!! And she would help me to "cover up" the evidence so my parents wouldn't find out. I don't know why she continued to be not only my sister, but my best friend.

Well, please do not judge me by this post, like I said, most of these stories were a long time ago. I am MUCH more mellow and calm now. :)