Sport

Sport is such a little man now.  He runs around, climbs on everything, screams all the time and yells my name for everything.  Such a pleasure!

Sport standing in the movies.

Sport climbed onto the computer desk by himself one day and started ordering things off Ebay.

Sport at the park.

Sport at the park.

Sport in the sand.

Sport "Alfalfa" in the bath.

Sport right before his first haircut.

Sport right after the haircut.

Halloween

We had a great Halloween this year. You always know Halloween is a success when you have candy left over two weeks later.


Dash dressed up as Spiderman. Here is he ready to go to the ward trunk-or-treat and then a party.
The boys all dressed up and ready to go.
Cinderella and all her little messy makers at the ward trunk-or-treat.
A geek and the cool kids playing angry birds at the Farella's Halloween party
Bobbing for apples. Gross.
Sport and Daddy.

Mr. Incredible takes a swing at Cinderalla.

Spiderman takes a swing at the party pinata.

We finally got around to carving pumpkins Sunday night.  The boys wouldn't touch guts.

Sport was actually shoveling things back into the pumpkin.

The boys and their pumpkins.

Halloween night.

Big Business and a Little Charity

The day Grandpa and Grandma left the weather was beautiful. So nice in fact, that Dash decided to do a lemonade stand. He made his lemonade out of Crystal Light, wrote the price ($5/cup) on a piece of paper he taped to a table and hauled it all out to the front yard and set up shop by the road. Colt was his first customer. Since Dash refused to give a family discount, I printed a five dollar bill off the computer and gave it to Colt as his method of payment. Dash was happy to have a customer, but he wasn't satisfied. He invited me to step right up, if I had $5. Colt and I went back in the house and I watched Dash from the window. After a while I started to feel sorry for the little guy. He wasn't giving up and he looked so hopeful every time a car went by. About an hour later, I finally convinced him to shut up shop, but just as we started packing up, the husband of one of my friends stopped by and insisted on buying a cup. We had to pick the plastic cups up out of the dirt in order to pour him a cup of now very warm fake juice. Dash was rewarded for his efforts with $2. Then before we were able to get everything back in the house, another customer stopped by and "bought/donated" $3 worth of juice. Dash was so super proud of himself, he even decided to lower the price to a dollar for next time since "it seems like people mostly have one monies".

Grandma and Grandpa Clayson Visit!

Grandma and Grandpa Clayson came over for a visit on October 25th.  After much anticipation, they arrived in time for Sport's birthday dinner and cake.

The next day, we decided to brave the chilly weather and head out Devil's Tower.



Overlooking the valley at Devil's Tower



Dash loved climbing the rocks and dead trees.

Colt really wanted to do everything Dash did, but he was a litle more cautious.

Grandpa carried Sport around in the backpack all weekend.  He even climbed the rocks with the rest of the crew.

Grandma and Grandpa with the kids.

Sport looking at the prairie dogs.

Dash taking pictures of the prairie dogs.

Thursday morning was even colder than the day before, but we bundled up and headed out for Mount Rushmore.

Grandma and Grandpa with the kids at Mount Rushmore.

Walking the Mount Rushmore trails.

On the Mount Rushmore walk.

The boys took almost as many pictures as I did.

Mount Rushmore

After Mount Rushmore, we were delusional enough to think that we could have a picnic at Sylvan Lake in Custer State Park.  The scenery was pretty, but the weather was awful.  We ate fast and got back into the car with the heater full blast.

Shivering at Sylvan Lake

After our picnic we took the Spearfish Canyon over to the sanctuary to meet Brandan.

Grandpa and Sport at Roughlock Falls.

Grandma at Roughlock Falls.

The boys found trees to climb everywhere we went. Here they are climbing at the top of the falls.

We beat Brandan to Spearfish so we stopped by the fish hatchery.

Looking at the lions.

Looking at the buffalo.

Looking at Hercules.

Grandpa and Grandma posing with Hercules.

We had a really great time playing with Grandpa and Grandma and we were sad to see them go, but now the kids are already getting excited to see all their family at Christmas.

Birthday Season

October is a busy birthday month at the Madsen house.  It is a particularly good thing that Colt's birthday comes first because he has been counting down the days since Dash's birthday in July and when it was Daddy's birthday before his...let's just say his birthday has been a long time coming.

The kids spent most of October 20th throwing leaves every which direction and then the Bensen's came over that night for noodles, Colt's request.  Colt finally got to open presents, he had been waiting ALL day, and eat cake, he had been waiting for that ALL month.

Colt opening his birthday presents.  He got books and stickers, footballs and a soccer ball.

Colt trying to blow out the candles on his soccer ball cake.  He got a little nervous about the fire and wouldn't give the candles his full effort.

Five days after Colt's birthday is Sport's birthday.  This first birthday was even more exciting because Grandma and Grandpa Clayson arrived for a visit in time for birthday dinner.

Sport's first birthday cake was a football.  He wasn't at all nervous about the fire and was more interested in touching it than blowing it out.

Homecoming Week

This week was the Upton High School Homecoming.  Brandan likes to really get into these things, so he dressed up everyday.

Brandan dressed up like Mr. Incredible for the Disney Day at school.

On Friday, Brandan drove a tractor in the Homecoming Parade.  The boys were thoroughly impressed and more than a little jealous of, in fact down right mad at, the high school students.

Brandan driving the tractor for the Senior float.

To end the week, Brandan did the announcing for the football game.  Since it was a pretty cold night, the boys and I spent most of our time in the box as well.

It wasn't all play this week though.  On Saturday we went to Spearfish to pick up the rest of the wood for the fence.  Yes, it still isn't finished.  Yes, it has been a while.  Yes, we are one of those kind of people.

Dash and Colt helped stack the wood for the fence.  Sport supervised from his lion/trike.

A Day in the Life...

Typical Day At The Madsen House:

3:00 am - Colt wakes up and screams for someone to come "'nuggle" him.
6:00 am - Sport wakes up for a morning snack.
6:45 am - Dash wakes up for the day.
6:50 am - Brandan leaves for work.
7:30 am - Sport wakes up for the day.
9:00 am - Colt wakes up for the day.
9:10 am - 1st breakfast
9:25 am - Dash and Colt get out every car they own, about 213, and put in Disney's Cars movie.  They act out the entire movie using their cars and rewinding to watch their favorite parts more than once.
9:30, 10:00, 10:30 am - Dash and Colt yell at Sport for touching their cars.
10:30 am - 2nd breakfast
11:00 am - I attempt to accomplish something way too complicated for my household situation and skill level, like can peaches.  I spill water, drop fruit, turn down multiple offers of help from the boys, and eventually start a small stove fire.
11:30 am -  I stop everything I am doing to help the boys find "costumes" so they can look like various superheros. We print off Superman, Batman, and Spiderman logos, make different colored capes out of everything from towels to big T-shirts, use a lot of tape, and get out the winter boots.  I will do this several more times today.
12:00 pm - The lunch bells rings and Colt runs into the kitchen in a panic. "Oh no! It's lunchtime and we have to eat right now!"
12:30 pm - Dash and Colt get out the cars I just put away and categorize them according to color.  Then they line up the different colors across from each other and play car football.  They yell "hut" and the cars crash into each other, unless one of the cars manages to break through and make a run for it at which point all the other cars make chase until one of them catches the runner and tackles it.
1:00, 1:20, 1:40, 2:00, 2:20 pm - I go outside to water the grass seeds that we are really hoping will come up despite the near freezing temperatures.
2:30 pm - Sport wakes up from his nap.  He walks straight into the laundry room, gets a pair of silky garmets out of a dirty clothes basket, puts them over his head and walks around the room periodically running into furniture.
3:00 pm - The boys find a chocolate chocolate chip muffin mix and decide they can follow the picture directions on the back to make their own muffins.
3:02 pm - An egg is dropped on the floor.  Dash and Colt both claim innocence.  Sport walks through the yolk still wearing a garmet over his face.
3:25 pm - Brandan comes home from school to change for football practice.  Dash and Colt run to Brandan to give hugs.
3:26 pm - Sport finally makes it over to Brandan even though he started running at 3:25.  He still has a garmet over his head.
4:30 pm - The boys and I head out for a walk to get the mail and then meet Brandan after practice. The post office is less than .5 mile away, but it will take us nearly 20 minutes to get there because Dash and Colt have to race every car that passes. This entails them standing on the sidewalk in a 3 point stance waiting for a car to pass and then taking off at full speed right as the car comes up level with them.  They have yet to win, but they aren't discouraged.
5:15 pm - We meet Brandan at the practice field and all three boys high five the junior high football players as they head for the lockers.
5:30 pm - Back at the Junior High, the boys find the janitor that keeps tootsie rolls in her pocket.
6:00 pm - Home for dinner.
6:10 pm - Colt does something ridiculous that makes Dash laugh hard enough to choke. 
6:11 pm - Sport throws food on the ground.
6:12 pm - Colt tries to be serious which makes Brandan and I laugh and then he yells, "I NOT FUNNY!"
6:30 pm - Dash finds a football and asks his dad to play catch.  Soon a full scale football game is taking place in the living room. I'm not allowed to play.
7:00 pm - The three boys take a bath and compete to see who can splash the most water on the floor. Everybody wins.
7:45 pm - Scriptures, wrestling match, song, ball game, story, prayer, cups of milk, kisses and bedtime.
8:00 pm - Bathroom trip and then back to bed.
10:00 pm - Brandan and I fall asleep reading scriptures.


And in our free time:

Brandan made this sign for the Animal Sanctuary Family Day.

Sanctuary Sign

Sanctuary Sign

The boys all ready for church.  Dash told Brandan, "You look as good as me today."