The Wedding!!

On December 27th we flew into LA- just in time to join the craziness at the Jenkins' household. The day after we arrived Corinne and Morgan were married in the Los Angeles Temple. It was a wonderful wedding! Corinne was a beautiful bride! We are very excited to have Morgan join the family. Mom and Dad with the bride and groom
Corinne with her sibilings.
Corinne and Morgan with their 4 nieces and 3 nephews.
Even Madi had a great day!

Madilyn is LOVED!

We all had such a fun time being in Brentwood! Madilyn was especially loved and spoiled by everyone! Thanks Dad, Mom, Karlee, Clark, JoSue, and Roxy for the fun time!! We love you all!

Merry Christmas!

Madilyn had a wonderful first Christmas! She got lots of fun presents- even though she liked the wrapping paper better than what was unwrapped. I was especially excited to get a Kitchen Aid (thanks mom and dad) and Spencer was excited about seasons 1-3 of "The Office"!! We all had a nice relaxing day- hanging out, watching movies, playing games, and eating LOTS of yummy treats!

Madi was feeling very satisfied after her yummy Christmas dinner: oatmeal cereal, green beans, and peaches! YUMMMMMM! Look carefully and you can see Karlee in the back making her famous cinnamon rolls!!

Roxy surprised all of us with new pajama bottoms- thanks Rox!! Just a few pictures of us modeling our new PJ's! The boys really got into the photo shoot- this is just one of their 100 poses!

Fun at Gram and Papa's House!

Finally 3 days after arriving in California, Madi has adjusted to the time change and is back to her normal schedule. It was a crazy few days with lots of fussing and crying, but now she's VERY happy to be here and spend some time with her grandparents, aunts, and uncles! Since arriving on Monday we've done a whole lot of RELAXING!! Boy has it been nice! The weather's been great- a little windy, but definitely warmer than Maryland. Madi has been having lots of fun- going for walks, eating lot of yummy treats (well...just wishing she was big enough to eat all the goodies that are around), playing with lots of new toys, having fun with Kody, playing in the bathtub, hanging out in Half Moon Bay with her GREAT Grandma Jenkins, Aunt Fay and Uncle Bob, and just today going into the hot tub for the first time!! She's having such a fun time, I don't know if she's going to want to go home!

The week started out a little rough........but Madi adjusted in no time!
Madi and her buddy ready to go for a walk.
Madi digging into Gram's peanut butter balls! Yummmmmmmm!!Playing with Homer!

Having fun with Kody. Playing in the tub!
Madi LOVES her GREAT Grandma Jenkins! We had tons of fun in Half Moon Bay with Grandma, Aunt Fay and Uncle Bob!
Madi's first time in the hot tub! She had a fun time splashing around.

Flight to California

On December 17th Spencer, Madi, and I flew to California! We were super excited for the trip to spend Christmas with family and have a nice relaxing holiday vacation. Madi's first flight was when she was 5 weeks old and she did great!! But now at almost 6 months old we were a little nervous as to how she'd do. Well, let's just say it was a six hour hour flight and she slept only 1 hour of it!! Luckily the flight was not full. We actually had the whole back of the plane to ourselves. I think that was the only thing that helped Spencer and I survive. We arrived into SanFrancisco with splitting headaches and hungry stomaches! Here's Madi at the beginning of the flight- very excited to see her Gram and Papa. We weren't in picture taking mood the rest of the day.

Santa Claus came to Town!

We had our ward Christmas party last night. It was a pretty fun night with dinner, the nativity play, singing, and visiting. But what we were most excited for was the visit from Santa!! The tricky part was getting Madi to stay awake long enough to meet him. Her regular bedtime is at 6pm and with the party not even starting until 7pm, it was a stretch. She was a pretty good girl the whole night, but almost 2 hours later it was obvious that she was ready to go. We gave up waiting and got ready to head home, a little disappointed with Santa's delay. But just as we were about to walk out the door, Santa arrived!! So yes, Madi did get to meet Santa for her first time! She was a little too tired to enjoy it though.

LET it SNOW!!

We had our first snowfall on Wednesday!! It wasn't a little snowfall either! It snowed ALL day long! Madi loved it!
She was really itching to get outside and play in the snow!

Exersaucer

I recently made my first purchase off of Craig's list!! Boy was it a GREAT experience! I woke up thinking, man Madi really needs a new toy where she doesn't have to lay on her back....on the floor. SO, I got on Craig's List, typed in exersaucer (I've been wanting to get one for awhile now), and to my amasement saw postings in Rockville! I don't have a GPS (yet!) and so I am NOT willing to drive more than 10 miles to pick up a new toy. I emailed the people who after listing the price said OBO! Yes, I like making the "BEST" (or first) offer. An hour later I had Madi's new toy at home and put her in to try it out.
So what do you think Madi??Hmmmmmmmmm.....yes......this is actually pretty interesting!

Getting Tagged!

I was tagged awhile back (thanks Natalie), but truthfully I hadn't heard about the whole "tag" thing yet. So, being lazy, I opted out (sorry Natalie). I was recently tagged again by my sister Tisha, and I know she'll get on me until I do it. SO.... here are 6 things about me; probably not so interesting, but hopefully you'll learn something new.

1) I LOVE the sun!! I love being outside, but mostly on a warm sunny day. I love how the sun gives my body such a nice golden brown color. Yes, I LOVE being tan. Unfortunately, now that we again live in an area where we actually have seasons, I have to deal with being quite pasty for 5 months of the year! During all the other months I always find a way to get outside, roll up my sleeves and pant legs to get a little bit of color. When given the choice of eating lunch in the shade of a tree or in the direct sun- I always choose the sun. I'l usually stay in the sun until I've built up a pretty good sweat. Spencer knows that when going on vacations all I need is a pool (or beach) and the nice warm SUN!

2) I have MANY OCD tendancies! Two that really stick out are those of cleanliness and organization. Just to clarify, I don't love to clean- I just like things really clean! My cleanliness standard is usually quite different than other peoples. Back in the "roommate days" I would get after my roommate for never taking her turn to clean the bathroom. Her excuse was that it never got dirty enough to have to clean. My philosophy is that you shouldn't wait until something's dirty, but just always keep it clean. Spencer doesn't understand why we wash the dishes before putting them into the dishWASHER. I'm trying to get him to understand that the dishwasher doesn't wash the wishes, it just sanitizes them.....RIGHT??? I also have to things organized. For instance, when I get the mail I'll sort it out according to bills, letters, ads, and junk. Then I go through each stack seperately. It drives me crazy to have "stuff" just sitting on our table on counters- at least without some type of organization to it.

3) I live by schedules. Now, this doesn't mean that I always stick to my schedule, but I have to have some type of direction for each day as to the things I plan on accomplishing. The best part about shedules is getting to check something off after I've done it! It's such a great feeling! The past 5 years, as a teacher, I've had a plan book where I'd plan out the week, lessons, etc. Well...I still have a plan book. I have one for my daily events and tasks to get done, and I also have another one to record Madilyn's daily schedule. I record everything from naps, to her feeding schedule, to what we do during play time, and how many poops she had that day! It's probably a little excessive, but I just can't stop!

4) I CRAVE exercise! It was a habit that started back in high school when I'd go to the gym every morning at 5am! It kinda just stuck after that. Besides being a regular gym goer, I'm always find other ways to fit a little exercise in. When I sit down to watch a movie I always choose the floor so that I can do leg kicks during the movie. I have no problem parking at the back of a parking lot to get a longer walk into the store. Even when I was 9 months pregnant I'd choose to take the stairs at the doctor's office instead of the elevator.

5) I'm addicted to candy! It really is an addiction. I try to stop, but after evey meal I need some type of treat! Every night I tell Spencer that I don't want to eat any more sweets, however I've gotten him addicted as well. SO, it's like too addicts trying to help each other. Ya, it's not working too well!

6) Water- it's all I drink. I rarely, if ever, drink anything besides water. Anyone that knows me knows that I always have my water bottle with me. It's become like a comfort item for me. It goes everywhere with me. On many occasions I've even brought it into restaurants (mostly by habit), then I get embarrassed and so I set it in the corner next to me. I really don't know what I would do without my water bottle. I love bringing a diaper bag to church now so that I have a place to hide the water bottle. There have been times that I've forgotten my water bottle and I have driven back to the house to get it.

Well, that's 6! Hopefully you learned something new and interesting about me. If not, this can reconfirm your thoughts that yes, Anie has lots of weird obsessions!! I'm not sure who all has done the "tag" thing yet, but hopefully these individuals haven't done it yet: Melissa, Heather, Courtney, Lindsay Terry, Valerie Stolworthy, and Candace. I'll be checking your blogs, so make sure you do it!! :)

1 Down, 3 more to go!!!

Just wanted to keep you all updated oh how Spencer is doing. He's been busy studying for finals, and just today he got his score back for his first final. He passed with the highest score- 99.2 points out of 100 possible. He would NOT want me posting this, but how can I not be SO proud!! YEAH for Spencer and YEAH for being almost done! Only 12 more days until we fly home for the holidays!!!