i had some pictures of madison done by my friend leslie james she does an awesome job!! they turned out so cute!! here are a few

madison blessing

heres a pic of some of our closest friends!!! the jensens and the winwards

heres grandpa dee with madison, we gave her grandma donnas middle name "mae" man i sure miss grandma its the first baby blessing she has missed, but i know she was there

Even lacey and hayden came down from st george to be with us

here is my family pic!! (above)

it was great to have all of our family and close friends come. heres the ward family pic!

we decided that with madison we were going to bless her at macks park in smithfield with family and friends. i was a little nervous about it cause we had always done it at church, but it was beautiful. brady did such a good job he blessed her than she would have my grandma donnas patience and be good to her brothers. she is an awesome addition to this little family of ours

madisons blessing dress my dad and jackie got for her!!! i love girls it was sooo fun to pick this out for her!!!

my sisters and mom threw me an awesome shower cause i had no girl stuff! it was tons of fun... lacey and hayden even came up from st. george!! the only ones missing were my grandmas :(

well she is finally here, and she is beautiful.... we went in to the hospital june 28th at 7:30am and they started me on antibiotics and picotin... for some reason i wouldnt dilate more than a four and i had been on the picotin for eight hours... yuck yuck i started to cry when the nurse told me the only thing we could do was c-section or start the picotin over... i just wanted to be done... so we decided to unplug the drugs for fourty five minutes and start all over and see if that would help... i still wasnt moving along and april came up to the hospital to see what was going on i was sooooo bored and hadnt ate all day... she felt bad for me the nurse had just checked and i was still at a four so april volunteered to run to her house and get me her ipod so i could play some games..( i had been there so long that my cell phone had died) it was like 9:30pm and my mom called april told her no progress so she was on her way home to lewiston.. well april leaves and the nurse comes in and says something is happening with madisons heart beat and she needed to check again... the next thing i know she says "oh my, this baby is starting to come" we were totally shocked she told me "hold on and dont push im gonna call ur dr." all of a sudden i seriously needed to push and was freaking out i couldnt hold out till my dr got there.. ten min later dr craig comes running in and is sweating from the run... brady tries to call april but she doesnt awnser so he leaves her a message (come to find out she thinks we are kidding because we want her to hurry and bring the ipod) haha anway after about 7 min of pushing my little angel was born..... she weight 5lbs 5 oz and was perfect!!!!! And yes Brady she was a GIRL!!! i just wanna say thanks to everyone that came with gifts and who came to the shower!!!! and especially for all the yummy dinners!!

holy mother of pearl!! (quote from spongebob) austin is 8

i cant believe my little angel is eight... can he really be that old? austin is the most special talented boy ever... i cant imagine my life without him!!! he always tells me he loves me and he knows when im having a bad day and will do something special for me. he is awesome at school in his reading, he is reading at a fourth grade level which is awesome!!! i love u bud

this year he choose to have a party with some friends... they had tons of fun with the wii we had cake and ice cream played some games and they went crazy outside

easter and grandpa

on our way home from the zoo we stopped in wellsville at grandpas! april and grandpa had decorated grandma donnas grave for easter so we stopped and took pictures... grandmas new headstone should be comming soon.. im excited to see it! i love and miss you more than ever grandma!!!

we also stopped by grandpa reeses headstone and the boys wanted a pic with him! austin is very into the war and was excited to see his headstone

hogle zoo

once we finally got them out of the pool we headed to hogle zoo!! i forgot how pretty and fun it is.. the boys had a blast i had to sit and breathe for a minute and they were annoyed i needed a break haha thanks mom for knowing i needed a break and for giving the kids these fun memories!!! we love u

vacation with grandma

my mom took me and the boys on a super fun short vacation. we went to SL and stayed at a hotel, the kids swam the first night for about three hours and then when we woke up my mom let me sleep in and the kids swam for another two hours. im not sure what it is with kids and the pool but we had to drag them out to get ready to go to hogle zoo!

well most of u already know but on the 16th of feb we found out what the baby is gonna be!! i kept austin home out of school so he could come be we us... my sister april also came... on the way to the hospital we were makin bets on what it would be... me and brackin were a girl all the way and brady and austin were goin with a BOY... i did cheat a little cause i had an angel tell me what i was having even before i got pregnant.... for u to understand what im talkin about i have to start at the beginning... when my grandma died i was so upset and couldnt quit crying... the next day i was just thinking about how much i missed her and the strangest thing happened... i couldnt hear her like she was talking but she told me in my head i was pregnant... later that nite i told brady about what had happened and i was a little scared i had made it up... brady said he thought i was imagining it cause she had just died and i was so sad.... but at her viewing i was standing in line talking to people and i heard her again say "you are pregnant and it will be a girl" the first thing i thought was "im gonna name it after my grandma"......a week later i told my mom about her saying i was pregnant(not the girl part) while cutting her hair and i also said i had taken a test and it said NO... my mom told me maybe it ment i was going to get pregnant soon.... ill admit i was skeptical.. we dont have the easiest time getting pregnant and it usually involves going to the doctor and sometimes medicine.... i called my sister lacey and told her about grandma the pregnancy and the girl.... she said she believed me because she had her own experience with grandma after passing away... well the next weeks i started not feeling so good so i took some pregnancy tests, 2 to be exact which each said no.... but i had this feeling so i took another a week later and what do u know it said YES!!!!! i told brady and he made me buy another one because he said it was wrong cause it only cost me a dollar! (haha) well anyway the expensive one said the exact same thing YES!!!!

so when we went to the ultra sound i already had a feelin it was a girl..... april was funny and wanted the ultrasound guy to make 100 percent sure it wasnt a boy!!! i think she was supprised!!!!! i know brady was the look on his face was priceless!!! and ill admit i bawled like a baby!! i cant tell u how excited i am about a girl!@!! we had the boys trick there grandmas and tell them it was a boy... it was so funny how they tried to make me feel better by saying nice stuff like i make cute boys and one more will be so fun..... then when they found out it was a girl they were so excited.... i had brackin call lacey and tell her it was a boy... she was on speaker phone and i heard her say "how come ur mom diddnt call is she cryin to hard cause its a boy?" hahahahah

anyway to end it i would like to tell my grandma how much i love and miss her and i know she watches out for me and is my angel, im also so glad she is takin care of this little girl till she can come and be with us!!!!

christmas

geezzzz here it is march and im finally blogging about xmas!! oh well better late than never!! first we went to my moms and she cooked us our traditional breakfast... grandpa even came... the only sad part of the whole day was grandma wasnt with us, but i know she was watching....my mom gave the boys space suits.. which were a hit! and me and brady two hundred dollars in food supplies.... we are set!! then we went over to bradys moms and the boys got tons of toys... then we went and hung out at grandpas house for awhile... lacey had sent him the 12 days of christmas and the picture of him and the vodka was the last present.... he is the best grandpa and i always have a good laugh with him... i love u grandpa!!! as a funny joke he gave me some mouse killer (cant think of the name of the stupid stuff) weeks before i was complaining that we had mouses so he fixed the problem... it was so funny i started bawling... my cousin who hates olives got two canes of olives...... haha grandpa i love u

Brackin is big 4!!!

Brackins Big 4 Bday!!!

On Dec 23rd brackin had his 4th bday!!! i was kinda sad cause i had to work all day teaching at the beauty school and couldnt wait to get home and spend some time with him.... We had a party for him at 630 my mom and step dad came up and gave him a spongebob video and two really loud and annoying guns!!! (thanks mom) But he loved them.... Me and
Brady gave him some new snow pants brady told him that was all he got you should of seen his little face!!! About an hour later bradys parents and kristina came over... He got a motorcyle that plays music and moves, a new shirt and kristina gave him some books... We had cake and ice cream, blew out the candles and just had a good time..... i cant find my camera but will post pic soon!!! happy bday brackin i love u!!!

thanksgiving and the BIG news!!

The night before thanksgiving we have a tradition, grandma and grandpa stoddard take us out to eat with carl and the boys at golden corral... This year was alot harder with grandma not being gone very long.... Lacey and Hayden drove up from St. George so i decided that it was time to tell everyone our news... We have a new baby comming to join our family... For some reason i was so nervous and just wanted to hurry and tell and get it over with.... So as soon as everyone was sitting and about to eat i told them.... I was worried about how Austin was going to take it.... His response was not what i expected at all!!! He started to cry uncontrollably.... I thought it was cause he was mad he was going to have to share everything all over again... But once he calmed down and i asked why he was crying he said "U lied to me.. U kept a secret and we tell each other everything, NO SECRETs" i diddnt even know what to say to that.... Poor little guy.... We have moved past that now and hes very excited!!! My dad happened to be there also with his wife and her kids so we went over and told them also.... the next day (Thanksgiving) i told Brady he had to tell his family how ever he wanted.... u should of heard some of his ideas they were seriously funny!!! But as it turns out when we got to his house his sister handed us a paper and told us to write on it what we were thankful for..... So brady put the new baby.... Man he got off easy on that one... Everyone knew it was us, and thats how we told!!!

on the way to private

ive decided to go private!! i know i said this before and even tried it but that was when my grandma was alive and couldnt get the hang of signing on to look at our blog......... so if u wanna keep in touch leave me ur email

i have had so much fun this year canning with teresa!! we made apple cinnamon jelly last sat and if i must say so my self it is delicious!! i also made a ton of salsa with her and missy... then some rasp plum with a ton of plums my grandpa gave me... and another favorite apple carmel jelly!!! brady hates carmel so more for me haha

a tribute to grandma

so i havent blogged for a while...... i think if i dont do this i might just never blog again... for christmas every year all my grandpa ever wants is us to write down our happenings for that year... im not good at keepin a journal and usually i would sit down the night before christmas and try to remember what i had done the year before... but a couple of years ago i sat down and really thought about what grandpa wanted.... is it really such a hard thing for me to do??? he wants so little for christmas.... then someone told me about blogging and i decided it was a wonderful thing and at the end of the year i could print off everything ive done for the year.... it has worked out wonderful.

except last month i lost my grandma..... one of the hardest thing ive gone thru.... this is a very personal thing im blogging about but i feel as if i dont do it im doing a dis-service to my grandma and grandpa by not writtin about her....

on sept 4 2009 i had a cold and took some medicine , shut off my phone and went to sleep early. that sat i had to work at the beauty school and got up to my alarm at 7... when i turned on my phone i had a couple of messages from my sister april.... by the tone of her voice i knew something was wrong... i was afraid to call her because i had spoke to my grandma the day before and she had said grandpa had pneumonia.... i just knew it was something wrong with him..... when i got up the nerve to call april i was so not expecting her to tell me my grandma had died...... i dont remember much but crying and sayin i want her back..... brady must have heard and he came in and i tried to tell him but couldnt get it out.....ive told brady for years if i ever lost either my grandma of grandpa i diddnt think i could do it... our family on my moms side is very small i only have 2 cousins, but we are so close, NEVER has one of us got in a fight or said a unkind word to each other.... growing up in a divorced home when ever i went to grandmas i knew it was a safe place for me to be where i and my sisters were loved unconditionally.... my grandparents were married for 62 years and in all that time i dont think they ever fought... that kind of love is hard to find now days... i look up to them more than they will ever know....

when grandma died i wanted to be with my grandpa more than anything, but when we pulled up to her house i had a serious panic attack... i couldnt go in that house that my grandma was no longer in and i couldnt see the pain in grandpas eyes of being the one left behind... brady stayed in the car and helped me till i could get ahold of myself enough to go in...

the only good thing about this is that all of my sisters flew up and we got to do stuff together... i met my new niece(who is adorable)

the next few days were hell for me and our family..... cant even put into words the sadness i feel... i know shes in a better place and i will see her again, but i feel selfish and i want her back!!
my grandma is (i wont talk of her in the past tense cause she is still alive and with me in spirit) the most beautiful, kind, unselfish person i know i love her more than words can say and i cant wait to see her again
i love u grandma

we went to the nymans to watch the fireworks and had diner.... it was fun... brackin wanted his picture with his sparkler burning but three different times i snapped the pic just as his sparkler went out... he was so mad!!! then the next day we went to bear lake swimming... the kids love to swim just about anywhere.. we rented a boat and even austin tried to ski.... it was so cute he was scaired to let go of the tow rope cause he thought he would drowned so he got pulled around till they could stop the boat..... hopefully he will dare to try again well see!!!