For Memorial Day weekend we were needing some sunshine a lot! Steve Madsen had just had surgery on his neck so he was asking that we travel to Redding to give him some much needed diversion. Also, my 5th child, Chris Etherington was moving from Redding the day after we got there and we had not yet seen his new baby, Ryan. We would only have 1 evening to spend with them before they moved, so we decided with all those reasons put together we would journey the 9 hour trek back to Redding. We had so much fun. The great part was that we didn't really do too much. The kids had a blast riding their "mule" and swimming and just being outside all day long...something they hadn't had in a long time. We just played games and visited and as always, ate real good. Here are just a few photos of our trip.

Maryn and Julia. They had a sleepover with Monica Dixon and Savannah Galloway too. It was all about the friends this trip.

Emmy got together with her best friend in the whole world...Annie Crawford and her sister Livvy. They played 2 days together, doing projects, swimming, playing dressup and putting on the play "Cinderella" for the moms.

Cinderella, the step-mother and a mean sister.

Best friends. They just hugged an laughed the whole time they were together.

Adyson got to spend an afternoon with Sydney Goold at Sydney's house. (so sad we didn't get a picture of them playing.)

Kaden could not keep his hands off of the 2 week old kittens that were born at the Madsens.

Emmy loved her time in the big, fun tub, all alone.

Kaden hugging Chris who's holding Ryan. It was great to see the little Etherington family.

Everyone had a chance holding little Ryan who is SO cute!

Jeff and Ryan.

Maryn with Ryan.

It's great to be 8 Adyson!

Adyson turned 8 on May 4th. Yippee! In our family 8 is such an important birthday that this day was quit a happy celebration. She knew she could ask for just about whatever she wanted and she would get it. But, how do you say no to her cuter than cute face and sweetest voice? We couldn't.

We had crepes for dessert...something that's replaced the traditional birthday cake in our family.

She got so many nice presents...clothes, shoes, a necklace, hot pad weaver loom, purse, scriptures with her name on it and a scripture purse, journal, wallet, and flip flops galore. She was a happy girl!

Ady's requested meal was homemade pizza and fruit salad inside a watermelon. That's a meal that's never been requested in our house before. We all had fun making it and eating it.
When I went outside to take some pictures of her she got the giggles so bad. Each time I would shoot the picture she would have a giggle rise in her throat and sneak out. At first it was frustrating because I was in search of the perfect birthday picture and she wasn't cooperating...but after looking at the pictures that resulted we had a good chuckle at how darn cute Ady is. These really capture her personality anyway.

Ady has been slow in losing her teeth, the all of a sudden she lost a bunch in a short amount of time, so she has all these crazy gaps in her mouth. Mrs. Gilstrap, her teacher calls her spaces parking garages.

Adyson is the peacemaker in the family. She's stuck at a hard position in the family, after Maryn and before Emmy...2 very dominate personalities. Ady handles this like a trooper, except when she's getting bullied from both ends then she knows how to stick up for herself. She usually is quiet and can keep herself occupied for hours being artsy...coloring, taping, cutting, writing. She can make anything with markers, paper, scissors and tape. She recently made a robot from a large moving box. She currently is writing a book about Jaguars. She loves to write people notes. She's a great reader. Before we moved to WA Ady was the smartest girl in her class according to Ms. Kaliterna. Now, she's working up to that spot as she is so conscientious about her homework. She's quite a perfectionist in her writing...erasing and rewriting a letter until it is just "so." (drives her parents crazy!)

Ady has the best little, strong body. She loves gymnastics and has only been taking for 18 months. In Redding she moved up 3 classes in 4 months and after her first class in WA she was asked to be on the pre-team. If we didn't have to drive 20 minutes we might consider it but the time commitment is huge. She is so strong...can do back flip overs under our kitchen counter...does the monkey bars at recess...can climb the doorways of our house. She is the fastest runner too. A year an a half ago Ady did soccer. She loved the practices but when she got out to the games she wasn't aggressive. We would yell for her to go after the ball but she would always respond, "but they had it first." She just didn't have the competitive edge for it! Needless to say she hasn't been signed up for any more sports. She is awesome at double dutch jump roping...where 2 large jump ropes are swinging in opposite directions. Watch out for Ady! She's determined to do anything that you say she can't do.

Ady is playing the piano so nicely. Our new teacher, Mr. Jackson is pushing her to move along, playing more challenging pieces. He thinks she has so much potential. She also might pass Maryn up in her note reading.

Ady is so gentle. Her favorite thing in the whole world is to be softly tickled on her back, neck, arms or face. She loves it at night when she's in bed but she will do anything for a tickle. Today I made some carrot juice from our juicer. I asked her if she wanted some and after making a face she said, "no way!" I told her that for every sip she had I would tickle her for that many minutes. Of course she was right over and gulped down 20 sips!!!! I guess I owe her now.

Ady is my best helper in the kitchen. She loves to cook and stir and measure.

I call Ady a fashion designer. She has to look just right when she gets dressed every day. According to her it has to feel good and look good. Even when we lay her clothes out at night for the next day she wakes up and isn't in the mood for what we already picked out. She rearranges, readjusts, takes off and puts on. It takes forever for Ady to get dressed in the morning. It drives me crazy! But, she always looks super cute and put together. She loves clothes and putting together new outfits from the clothes she has. She also must have her hair fixed when she leaves for school each morning.

Ady has the silliest fake laugh. She likes to make people smile. She is always so thoughtful of other people. One time when we went to a play in a large theater Ady couldn't see the stage in her seat. I told her to sit up on her legs to be taller. After sitting taller for a few seconds she went right back down on the seat again. I asked her what happened and she said, "the little boy behind me couldn't see when I was sitting up taller." So, she sacrificed her good view of the show so the little boy could see better. This is how she is...she is always thinking of others. She loves to pick flowers on her walk home from school to give to me.
She loves animals. She wants a puppy so bad. She digs for worms with the neighbor boys.

She is so tenderhearted and sensitive that she can't stand being yelled at or getting in trouble. Jeff and I have a hard time disciplining her because she gets so upset at being punished. We have (had) a rule that we don't do sleepovers anymore...well, Ady got a birthday party invitation last week for a sleepover party. She wanted to go so bad. She talked to me about it and then talked to Jeff, saying, in her highest, sweetest, softest voice, "but I've never had a sleepover. I've always wanted to have a sleepover. All my friends will be there and I don't have very many friends so I need to be good friends with the ones I have. Please, I will be so good and do all my jobs and practice the piano and be the best girl. Please can I have a sleepover? Please? Please?" Well, she went to the sleepover and had a great time! She has lots of friends, but she always needs encouraging to play with the friends that are her age. She is good at hanging out with Maryn or Emmy's friends and doing what they are doing because they are so socially dominant.

Ady is preparing to be baptized on July 5th. She's taking it seriously as she's had the discussions with the missionaries...reading her scriptures and writing in her journal. She just joined the Activity Day girls group and loves it...I love being her leader. :)
We sure love Adyson and are so glad she's in our family! She brings sunshine and sweetness. We love to call her Adyson, Ady, Ads, Ady Mae, Adyson Marie, Adilicious. I love you Ady!

talented genes

This week we have had our fill of programs, singing, dancing and shows. It must be the end of the school year with everything finishing up and performing all they know. It showed the talent that oozes from the family genes...acting, singing and dancing...one child in each event.

Emmy's preschool performed "The Wizard of Oz." They have practiced this since the beginning of the year and actually, for a preschool did a pretty darn good job.
Emmy was a flying monkey...

a poppy........



and a citizen of oz.

Adyson participated in the 2nd grade music concert. It was about space and blasting off and the planets and all that cute stuff. She stood front and center so we could see what a great singer and smiler she is!

Maryn spent the last few weeks being consumed with her dancing...dress rehearsals, photo sessions, tech rehearsals and a full day of performances. She really performed 4 times on Saturday, 11, 2, 5, 8:00. She had a blast but was so tired when she finally made it home at 11:00 that night after camping out at the auditorium for the day. We were able to watch her in 3 of the shows. (yes but we had to pay $80 worth of tickets too, not to mention the costume fees, flowers to present to her after the shows, professional pictures and DVD's of the shows. It could make a family broke). In doing all the shows she was able to watch all the dancers and realize that she only wants to dance MORE! She felt silly only taking 2 different classes when most girls her age are on the team or taking lots more classes. Yikes! She's a busy girl who likes so many things.

Her cute Hip Hop costume!

Maryn's lovely ballet performance.

So, that's a "take 5" until this week and next when we have more going on.

While you were out!

Ok then...Does anybody out there have the "master bedroom disorder" that we have? It's an illness that states when you clean your house, or when you have to pick up really fast, or when you have laundry or bags of stuff or extra things or just anything you don't know what to do with your illness drives you to creating piles on the floor of the master bedroom. Pretty soon your master bedroom is just the junk room with a bed in the middle of it where you try to sleep and relax and have quiet time and read and have some down time away from the other chaos of the house. Ha! With all the pressures of Jeff's job and the fact that we've never had a really nice bedroom, I decided to do a little surprise for him. I wanted to copy the TLC t.v. show, "While you were out" and redo our master bedroom while Jeff was gone to Florida for a week. So...I enlisted the help of Barbara Ewing, an interior designer who lots of the ladies in our ward have used. I told her of my vision for the room, the colors I wanted to use and what things we had to work with. She came a few weeks before the actual "work week" to get the overall plan for the room and to give me assignments...sand and paint the dresser, take back the side tables that were actually kitchen islands that we loved but actually were too huge for the room, get knobs, get a headboard and a bed frame and shop around for a few things I might like to add to the room to personalize it. So, true form to my style I didn't do anything until the actual "work week" because of a hectic life and not wanting to give anything away to Jeff at all. Because Heavenly Father knew I would be a crazy wreck that week he blessed me with a visit from Marianne and James and Spencer. They helped me SO much! I really could not have pulled this off with out them. It helps that James is strong, can put end tables together really well and loves to do returns to Costco. THANKS SO MUCH YOU GUYS!!!!!

Anywho...after frantic craziness for a couple of days it was finished. Jeff came home Saturday night at 10:00. He put his luggage at the bottom of the stairs and proceeded to dilly dally for a while. We were all trying to get him up to the bedroom. James asked to borrow a belt. The kids started to spill the beans by saying, "come look at your bedroom." F i n a l l y...we went up, he walked in and could not believe his eyes. This is what he saw... (I could kick myself for not taking before pictures because real appreciation comes from knowing how bad it looked before.)

Can you believe it?! We just love it! It is so warm and snuggly! It's so clean! It takes 10 minutes to make our bed with all those pillows and the throw but we don't even care because it looks and feels so great! The thing I am still amazed at is our bed used to be at the far wall, the bare one...when Barbara mentioned putting the bed in front of the window I couldn't picture it. I didn't want it to block out light. In addition to that she mentioned taking the fabric and putting across the whole wall. That seemed like a bit much to me. But when we started working and putting it up together I loved it! So, there you have it. There is a bare corner on the far wall that will be finished here in the next week... a little reading corner with some special pictures, a cozy chair and stuff. I'll post those pictures when we get them.