Weekend with the Christenots

This past Sunday, we had the privilege of having some family friends come and stay at our house. The Christenots are in Spencer's parent's ward back home in California and Spencer has known them since he was a kid. They are now serving a mission in the Norfolk, VA area, assigned to Military Relations. We were excited to hear that they were making a trip our way to come to the temple, so we quickly invited them to stay with us. What a FUN visit we had! We were able to do some site seeing with them on Monday- we went to the National Mall and the Museum of Natural History (for my first time)! Later that evening, we all went to the temple to see the lights.




Madi was especially fond of George! Once she found out he had a shirt pocket full of pens and other fun things to pull out and play with (just like her Grandpa Al), she had a friend! In the mornings, she would climb up on his lap and they would read story book after story book! We were sad to see them go yesterday afternoon, but we look forward to more future visits...and Spencer is really excited to go visit them in Norfolk so he can go fishing with George (who happens to be the best fly fisherman you will probably ever meet!). Thanks to the Christenot's for the great visit!

Happy HALF Birthday Madilyn!

WOW! What a month!! This past month has definitely been a hard one. Madi's now in the thick of toddlerhood and full of her own opinions! Up until a month ago, I just thought we'd been blessed with an easy child. Well, we've now been introduced to a whole other side of sweet little Madi! A side including temper tantrums and a whole lot of ATTITUDE! Boy has she got some major mood swings! One moment she'll be super happy, laughing, and very playful. Then the next minute she's freaking out with uncontrollable crying. At first I thought it was just me, and my lack of energy and feeling too nauseous to deal with all of it. But then even Spencer started asking about "how many kids I really want!"

On another note, we took Madi in for her 18 month check-up on Friday, only to learn that she has her first ear infection. So maybe that has something do with with all the crankiness this month. The doctor prescribed Amoxicillin which she's been on for three days and will continue to take for another 7. Hopefully it'll give us our happy child back!


A few things about Madi now that she's a whole year and a half old:

1) She's not a big eater. In fact, she's quite the picky eater, which also adds to making our life difficult. I find myself bringing her dinner into the bathroom during tub time because I know it's her "happy time" and I can trick her into eating there. Other times it's while watching a movie. Anything to help distract her from knowing that she's taking nutrients into her body!

2) While she's not much of an eater, she does LOVE blueberry pancakes! They are definitely her favorite thing for breakfast. She can actually eat two pancakes in one sitting! Gotta love the nice blueberry face afterwards!


3) Favorite treat is now fruit snacks. I try bribing her to eat "regular food" by offering half a fruit snack after each bite. It usually just leaves her hysterical wanting more "fru snack"!

4) We actually had a binky breakthrough this month! Madi is now old enough to reason with and she finally understands the concept of leaving her binky in bed when she gets up in the morning and after naps. Before we take her out of her crib, we'll ask her to hand over her binky or to throw it into the crib. 90% of the time she's good about giving it up (the other 10% has seemed to be this week since she's not been feeling well and she's been trying to milk it for all it's worth)! However, then there's those emotional times during the day when she'll stand by her crib and beg to get in just so she can suck on her precious binky! Oh the joys!

5) Bath time is definitely a favorite time of the day. So much in fact that sometimes when she's freaking out, I'll suggest a bath just so that she'll calm down. Then I end up sitting in there for an hour because she refuses to get out!

6) Yes, she's become quite the opinionated little girl! Even bedtime has become an ordeal because of all her book preferences. She seriously has 10 favorite books that she HAS to read every night. Sometimes she wants to read them two or three times! This can be VERY exhausting! Most nights I have to say, "Only 2 more books!" so that she knows our reading is coming to an end. I have to admit though, it's hard not to be proud as a parent when one of those 10 books requested every night is "Mormon" (The Illustrated first Book of Mormon stories that my parents gave Madi at Thanksgiving).

7) Thankfully she's still a great sleeper!

8) A new found interest this month is drawing pictures. It started during finals week when she'd wander into her daddy's office, returning to me with a colorful picture in hand and a HUGE smile on her face. It's been cute watching how excited she gets to show me her pictures and see my proud reaction. I'm hoping she'll take after Spencer with his artistic talents.

Here's just a few samples of her work. In this picture Madi is carefully explaining all of the details of her drawing to me.

9) Another fun thing this month is that she's now started taking our hand and leading us somewhere when she wants us to do something. For example, she'll come to the computer, grab my hand, say "draw", then pull me over to her easel. It's pretty hard to decline the invitation!

10) And last but not least (have to end on a good note- sorry if this post has seemed a little negative), my favorite phrase of hers this month is definitely "Cuse you" and "Cuse me". And I'm proud to report that she uses the phrases correctly! For example when Spencer or I burp and/or do anything else of an inappropriate nature, Madi is right there to say, "Cuse you!" However, when it's her doing the burping or farting, she's also quick to say, "Cuse me." I love it!

While Spencer has commented that he thinks we have our work cut out for us, I try to reassure him that it is truly the age. Everyone I've talked to says that 16-18 months until 2 years old is a VERY tough age. I hope all of you with kids this age agree with me. Otherwise, we're in trouble!

Merry Christmas

2008 marks our first Christmas away from family. Aside from missing all our family and feeling disappointed that we wouldn't be seeing any of our friends in California, this Christmas was actually a lot of fun! It was surprisingly fun being alone and starting our own family traditions. On Christmas Eve we followed the Rudd family tradition of eating a finger food dinner and watching Christmas movies. Our dinner consisted of salami, cheese, crackers, a veggi tray, lots of treats, and a side of buffalo wings for Spencer's need for more meat. After dinner and attempting to watch "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" (Madi lost interest after 5 minutes), we headed upstairs and Spencer read the Christmas Story from Luke 2. While it's Rudd and Jenkins tradition to act it out, I didn't feel up to battling with Madi about getting into costume. So we ditched the costume idea and just read the story. Madi was in bed at 6pm, giving Spencer and I a nice Christmas Eve evening together.

Christmas morning I was up first (as always). I snuck down to get a few pictures before Madi and Spencer got up.



Spencer cooked us up a delicious breakfast of his mom's famous Christmas breakfast-biscuits topped with this egg-sausage-cheese casserole. It was super good!

We quasi-followed the Jenkins' family present opening tradition. Had we followed the rules completely, our day would have looked like this: Everyone must be awake before opening stockings. After stocking opening, cook and eat breakfast. Clean up from breakfast. Start cooking lunch/dinner. Hang out and find something fun to do to keep your mind off all the presents still sitting under the tree unopened. Eat dinner. Clean up from dinner. Then, after every dish is cleaned and put away, everyone gathers around the tree and we open up one present at a time. Usually, presents are not done being opened until somewhere around 8pm Christmas night!! Spencer insists that this tradition will be implemented in its entirety once Madi is old enough to understand. He feels that it instills patience into young children (and impatient adults like me) and more importantly, spreads the fun of Christmas to the very end! I like the idea of not opening up presents until later in the day, but I'm more for doing it a little earlier in the afternoon. So, as I said, we quasi-followed the Jenkins' family tradition. Instead of waiting until after dinner, we started after Madi woke up from her nap and finished up around 2:30pm.

Madi had a great time with all of her new toys and gifts! She quickly became acquainted with Lion. Once she found that he was friendly, she let him give her a smooch!







She even got to have TWO baths just because it was Christmas! She loves her new Elmo bubble bath and Ernie boat toy.


We ended the evening with our own Christmas dinner tradition of soup in bread bowls. Spencer decided to experiment with what soup would be Christmas night worthy, and boy did he do a great job at his first attempt! He made a sausage and bay scallop chowder. I must say that I was a bit hesitant when I heard he'd be using scallops (not much of a seafood fan). However it ended up being surprising delicious (another meal well made by Spencer Jenkins)! Thanks babe for being such a great cook!

Oh, and I also just realized that we didn't get any pictures of Spencer or I from Christmas. How sad! I gotta work at being better about documenting the whole family!

Temple Lights

My one regret last year was never making it over to the temple during the Christmas season to see the lights and attend one of the free nightly concerts. We flew out to California as soon as Spencer was finished with his finals and never made our way over there. So this year it was a top priority! I got to go early this season with the Young Women in our ward. Since then I've been dying to go back with Madi and Spencer. Being cooped up in the house all week with a cranky, sick, 18 month old has made this week not much of an enjoyable one. So, I definitely needed this! Luckily, Madi was happy during our entire outing (sadly it was the only 2 1/2 hours of the day that she was happy)!


It really was a magical night. The lights were AMAZING! The concert was AWESOME! We got to see Jenny Oaks Baker- a renowned Violinist and Church Member from Virginia. She and her group were phenomenal! At the end she brought out three of her little girls to play a song with her. The oldest (probably 7 or 8) played the violin, the middle was on the piano, and the youngest (maybe 3 or 4 years old) played the cello. AMAZING!! Spencer and I really want Madi to play the violin so we're glad she enjoyed the performance!

Christmas Sunday

I LOVE the Sunday before Christmas! I love everything about it- the music, the lessons, and especially little girls Christmas dresses! I've been looking forward to this Sunday for quite awhile. I was excited to hear the choir sing (which sadly I haven't been able to be a part of- due to frustrations with having one car and it being during Madi's nap time). I was excited to hear our good friends narrate the program (Way to go Stacie and Scott! Spencer said it was AWESOME:). I was excited for our combined YW's lesson. And of course I was excited to dress Madi in her adorable Christmas dress (I even bought sparkly red shoes to go with it)! I think this year was even more special because it's the first time that Spencer and I were actually in our own ward for Christmas Sunday. Every year before this we'd already be back in California by now.

Well, to preface all this, I must back up to last night. We went to a friend's birthday party at 7pm (yes, already past bedtime- but we knew we wouldn't be out long). We left the birthday party early to go watch the BYU Bowl game (no comment on the game). We layed Madi down at our friend's house as soon as we got there. So she got a good couple of hours of sleep before we moved her at midnight to head home. Of course she wasn't happy about being awaken from such a sound sleep, but she was happy to be back in her own bed 20 minutes later. With getting broken sleep, we knew Madi would be up early the next morning. Sure enough I hear her crying at 5am. I figured I'd give her her binky and she'd go right back to sleep. However, as soon as I walked into her room, the smell of vomit almost made me gag! I quickly called for Spencer to come help. Madi was laying there on her side crying, with throw-up all over her pajamas, her fitted sheet and blanket (luckily it was only in one small area). Spencer quickly picked her up, carried her into the bathroom, and immediately stuck her into the bathtub. Yep, this left me with the fun job of stripping the bed, and rinsing out her sheet and blankets before throwing them into the wash. Everything was back to order by 6am and I put Madi back to bed. She got another 2 1/2 hours of sleep before waking up for the day at 8:30am. She was happy and seemed to be doing so much better. I fed her dry toast for breakfast with water and applesauce. Then at 10:30am she went down for her regular Sunday morning nap. I was excited because I thought this meant that for sure I'd be able to go to Sacrament meeting. I had no problem bringing Madi if she just sat on my lap. Then we'd leave right after- so not to spread anything. I really didn't want to miss the Christmas Program! So I showered, dressed, and got everything ready to go to church. Unfortunately, Madi was still sleeping when Spencer was ready to leave, and I did not want to wake her. So since Spencer had teaching responsibilities, I stayed home and let Madi get her sleep! What a bummer!! While I hear I missed a GREAT program, all I can say about today is how thankful I am for bathtubs and washing machines!! Hope the rest of you had a wonderful Christmas Sunday!

We ARE loved!!!

Today was a GREAT day!!! While I was stuck at the home the ENTIRE day- with Spencer off taking his last final, Madi and I were surprised with not one, but TWO big packages that arrived this afternoon!! What a FUN surprise! It seriously made my day! Thank you Aunt Fay, Uncle Bob, Grandma, Mom, Dad, and Jocelyn! Madi and I took the honors of carefully opening each box (first making sure that the presents were wrapped). Then Madi helped me place each present under the tree. We only had one present under there before, so this definitely got me a little more excited for Christmas! Now with Spencer finally done with his finals, the family time can officially begin! YEAH!!!

Win a Baby Sling!

As my final attempt at winning a new baby sling, I am doing this post to let you all know about a company called Mod Mum. This company is giving away baby slings for FREE!!! Ya, that's right- totally free! Throughout December, Mod Mum is giving away 3 baby slings a week to moms in need! I figure I'm definitely a "mom in need", so I've entered the contest! Wish me luck! I'd LOVE to be the owner of one of their slings! Everyone I know that uses slings loves them, so I've decided that with baby #2 it's definitely something I want to use.

I've included the directions below of what you can do if you're interested in entering this contest! Check out this website for more details. All of their slings are absolutely ADORABLE, making it almost impossible to choose a favorite. While I would love to own any of them, I narrowed my favorites down to: the lily, olivia, and emily (which my friend Lacey is actually modeling in the picture- GO LACEY!)

There are different ways to enter, so choose one or increase your chances by doing them all:

1. Write about the contest in your blog telling us which sling you love the most and include a link to Mod Mum. Then send us an email at contest@modmum.com with the link to your post to receive one entry.

2. Add Mod Mum to your Twitter and “tweet” about the giveaway. Then send us an email at contest@modmum.com with your Twitter name to receive one entry.

3. Add our button with link to our site to your side bar. Then send us an email at contest@modmum.com with a link to your blog to receive one entry.

4. Email three friends about the contest and copy us on the email at contest@modmum.com to receive an entry.

Winners will be announced weekly! Good Luck!

BIG SISTER!!

Well, it's official- in just a few short months (7 to be exact), Madi will be taking on BIG sister duties!! I know it's still pretty early on in my pregnancy to be announcing, but it's going to be quite hard to hide my growing belly any longer. Boy does it seem to grow faster the second time around!! Two weeks ago we went in for my first ultrasound. The baby was 1.59 cm long and had a nice, loud heartbeat. Crazy that such a little thing can have such a strong heartbeat!

Madi's doing surprisingly well with understanding there is a baby in mama's tummy. The first time I told her she looked down my shirt to try and find it. Now she just points to my belly and says "baby tummy" and then gives my stomach a kiss.

As for Spencer and I, we're both thrilled about welcoming another child into our home. We'd been having a hard time with Madi being an only child, all the attention being on her, and having no one for her to play with. We don't care if it's a boy or girl, but I have a feeling it's going to be another girl. Seems like that would be easier with space and such. Plus, starting our third year of law school, we're not going to have a lot of extra money to buy a bunch of boy stuff. Having two girls back to back, and born in the same season seems easier! But then having a boy might help to even out all the DRAMA around here!

As for me, I'm just hoping that the nausea and extreme exhaustion end soon. Looking back at when I was pregnant with Madi, all I can remember is how much I enjoyed being pregnant. I forgot all about those mornings I'd be teaching math and feel like I was going to throw-up (thankfully I never did- but the feeling was always there)! It was only a first trimester thing, so I'm hoping to get some energy back in the next couple of weeks as I enter the second trimester!

"It surely does SUCK!"

So, if any of you know Spencer, he is really intrigued by random gadgets that make life simpler-you know the stuff that aires on infomercials at 2 a.m. Although he often criticizes such silly gadgets for their impracticalities, he occasionally finds something special...something that he claims will change his life forever. Take for instance the Flowbee. For those of you who don't know about the Flowbee, you are really missing out! Spencer was introduced to the Flowbee back in high school from his good friend Kirk. The Flowbee is one of those "As Seen On TV" items that most people think is a joke. No my friends, this thing is legit! Here's how it works: Hook the vacuum up to the flowbee. Turn vacuum on. Turn Flowbee on. Suck'n'cut! That all there is to it! Spencer has been cutting his locks with the Flowbee for over 10 years now!

This guy, the official Flowbee spokesman/model obviously digs it!:

And apparently, so does his mom!

*note: Contrary to official Flowbee recommendations, Spencer does not recommend this product to women.

Over the years, Spencer's dad, brother-in-law, and uncle have all made the Flowbee a part of their lives. As silly as the Flowbee sounds, sometimes there is a treasure to be found on those 2 a.m. infomercials. This takes me to Spencer's newest find. So, the other day our toaster oven died :( and we cannot live without a toaster! Spencer began looking for toasters online and came across something very interesting: the "Back to Basics TEM500 Egg-and-Muffin 2-Slice Toaster and Egg Poacher"


After doing careful research, Spencer announced that he had found "the next Flowbee"! So, I'm sure you guys are just aching to find out what exactly this thing does. Basically, this device simultaneously toasts, poaches an egg, and warms pre-cooked meat...and it works so everything is done at exactly the same moment!! Don't ask me how it does it, it just does!! The real deal breaker is that this isn't just for breakfast sandwich people, but it also can work as a basic toaster.

Product Tested...


And Approved!!


According to Spencer, our lives will never be the same!!

One Two buckle my SHOE!

While my mom was here, she taught Madi to complete this rhyme:

One, two, buckle my- "SHOE"
Three, four, shut the- "DOOR"
Five, six, pick up- "STICKS"
Seven, eight, lay them- "STRAIGHT"

With an alternate ending of:
Nine, ten, a big fat- "TUMMY!"

Madi got most of it down while Gram was here. Then finally, this past week, Madi's been saying the entire thing. However, Madi's very camera shy and NEVER does it when I get the camera out (believe me, I've attempted several times)! Also, as I've mentioned before, the audio is messed up on our camera so you can usually barely hear her when she's talking. At least tonight she yelled a little. Sorry mom, this is the best I've got so far. Know that she does say it now though! Thanks for being such a good teacher!!



On another note, (since my videos are finally able to upload- I've had some trouble the past couple of days), I thought I'd post Madi saying some of her letters. She now knows (can recognize them from a group) the letters B, O, M, and most recently U.

FINALS WEEK!

Spencer takes his first final tomorrow morning. Then he has three more next week, finishing on the 19th! Can I just say how much I LOVE finals week!! These are always my two favorite weeks of the entire semester and here's why . . .

#1 Spencer studies at home, so we get to see him throughout the day when he takes his various breaks.
#2 No driving to the metro every morning at 8:30am!!
#3 Help with Madi in the morning.
#4 Time for yummy breakfasts together as a family EVERY morning.
#5 Lunch together
#6 He comes out to the car to greet us after we've been out running errands.
#7 He always needs a longer break in the evening which gives us time to hang out- even played a little rumi last night!
#8 Laying on our bed, in the middle of the day, in PJ's quizzing him on terms.
#9 Having lots of treats on hand- something Spencer insists helps him study better!
#10 Having someone in the other room to talk to when I just need a little adult interaction!

Good Luck on your finals babe!! You'll do great!

It's beginning to look a LOT like Christmas!

Nothing gets me more into the Spirit of Christmas than getting out the holiday decorations, setting up the tree, and blasting Christmas music. This weekend was a good one because we did just that. Our tree is up, we had our first snow (it didn't "stick" around for long though), and we even got to see Santa Claus!! It's been a GREAT weekend!

Spencer with his great pick. Quite the beauty!! Madi and I were little to no help- we stayed inside Home Depot to keep warm. I'm not doing so well with the cold weather this year!



Saturday night was the Ward Christmas party. I made sure Madi got a late nap so that she'd be happy. Worked like a charm! She was quite the social butterfly all night (a side we've never seen before)! She didn't want to sit with Spencer and I. Instead she walked around visiting with all the other kids. I was sure she'd freak out when Santa arrived though. To my surprise she started clapping and yelled, "SanTa!" Then we waited in line for 45 minutes to sit on his lap. Madi again surprised us with NOT crying when placed on his lap. No, she wouldn't look at him, nor would she smile, but she sat on his lap and we got a picture, and that's all that matters!!


Here's to the holiday season!!