4th of July

For the 4th of July my parents, Madi and I went to Tempe Town lake to watch the fireworks. The night before we went to Cave Creek and watched their little display of fireworks! haha. Madi thinks fireworks are the coolest thing and I love that she gets into it. 4th of July is my favorite holiday and its the one I struggle with the most when Jason is gone. I felt down the whole weekend but I try to be strong for Madi. Sometimes it sux to be strong but I know I have to be. I hate Madi seeing me sad but she also knows we both miss daddy so much.

This picture is us in the backseat on the way to the fireworks!

Gramma Papa and Madi at Tempe Town Lake

Madi and I at Tempe Town Lake. I am 28 weeks in this photo!

Sorry its sideways I didnt want to fix it after I already put it up. She is enjoying her popcorn waiting for the fireworks! Notice her sweat. I told her she got my sweat genes and she said yeah I have your sweaty genes.. haha

And about half way through the show we didnt hear her oooohs and awwws and this is what she was doin..

Hope everyone had a Happy 4th of July. I know next years will be better cuz Jason will be home!! One holiday down, a lot more to go!

Yankees, Dentist and Friends

For Fathers Day my sister and I pitched in and got my dad tickets to the Yankees game when they came in town to play the Diamondbacks. I knew I got the section by the Yankees bull pen but I didnt know that we could actually throw things at the players if we wanted to. Dad and I wanted to have a spitting contest of our cherry seeds but security was pretty tight!! haha. We got to rest our feet on the bull pen! It was way cool. I think some of my favorite memories are at baseball games with my dad. We used to go to Spring Trainings all the time. I will be here next year for it and I can't wait.

Me and my dad!

I finally made an appointment for Madi at the dentist. She was so excited to go and couldnt wait to get there. I have known her dentist ever since we moved to Arizona! He made her feel very comfortable. He asked me how I got such a calm kid cuz she just laid there and didnt move! So turned out she had 2 cavities so we had to go back the next week and get them filled. She got laughing gas. I was silently excited cuz she is a crazy kid anyways I couldnt wait to see her on Laughing gas. I was disappointed. She did get too funny.. haha

She has known these boys almost since the day she was born. The two next to her are Parker and Jacob and their little brother Cody. The twins and Madi are only 2 months apart. I have pictures of them from New Years Eve that first year they were born and we have got together with them every chance we get. They are at such a fun age now that they actually play together. Madi loves beating up on the boys. Shes not a flirt or anything. We had just got out of the pool here. Next time I will have to get pictures of them in the pool!

Talk about neglect

I know I havent done this since December. But a lot has been going on. Now that Jason is deployed I would like to have something he can look at besides facebook. We found out at the end of Jan that we are expecting baby number 2 in Sept. Today I am 26 weeks along and havent found out what we are having yet. Jason has started his third deployment to Afghanistan and I moved back to Arizona. I will keep this blog updated now. At least once a week if not more. I signed Madi up for swim lessons, ballet and hip hop dance classes and she starts preschool this year. I will have a lot to blog about! My goal is to keep her as busy as possible!

Madi on the airplane. Its a 2am flight and she stayed awake the first two hours lil stinker. She was quiet though and thats all I care about!


Mom and dad at our Marsden Family Reunion. First time mom had driven a 4 wheeler, Im so proud she didnt even crash! I wont talk about my dad and that dirt bike!!But you will notice that my dad is no longer driving the dirt bike hahha!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MADISON!!!

Oh My.... I CANNOT believe my baby is 4!!!! I don't know where the time has gone... If I have learned one thing in the last 4 years it is definatly to SLOW DOWN! I love playing with Madison. I love that I was blessed to watch over and protect her! She is my Angel. She is my rock. If I am having a bad day this girl is right there sitting in my lap rubbing my back saying its ok mama. I have got through so many hard times just by simply looking at her and realizing what a HUGE blessing I have in my life. She will make friends with anyone. We are at the checkout line and she is stricking up conversation with the people behind us. When we go to the gym that has a playground by it she is running to the first kids she sees and asks them if they want to play. I LOVE how outgoing and friendly she is. I had an cute lil old lady come up to me in the store a few weeks ago and said your lil girl just waved and smiled at me and it just made my day. She is the sunshine in my life and i am SO grateful that I have been trusted with her! I love you Madi!

I love the look on her face here. Cracks me up!!

This is on my top 5 of my favorite pictures of her!! So much personality!

Fun times at the Zoo!

She misses her dexter dog so much. She even got a stuffed animal that looks like him for her birthday! She LOVES it!!!

This was the sunday before Christmas. I love her confidence! She knows she is cute. SHe looks in the mirror and says why am i so freakin cute! Oh I love her!!!

HAPPY 4TH BIRTHDAY MY LIL LADY!!!!

Christmas from Grandma and Papa Lyon

We got our box from Grandma and Papa Lyon. Madi was so excited to open it she didnt want to wait for daddy to get home from work.. But she waited so patiently! Here is what we got!

Madi got these books. They are so cute. This girl absolutely LOVES to read!! I love her love for books. We go to the library and she could stay there all day looking at all the books there!
She loves this ornament.. I love watching her face when she opens presents... Her reaction is priceless!

This ornament is so freakin cool!! I LOVE LOVE LOVE it!!!

They got us a nativity set... I am so excited about his because we don't have one yet.. I have been meaning to get one but this is the first year we have decorated completely for Christmas.. But we all think this angel looks like Madi!! I love it!

Here she is in action!!!

Thank you Mom and Dad/Grama and Papa Duck! We love it! Its absolutely PERFECT!!!!

Our Winter Fun

I LOVE ALASKA!!! Being in Anchorage is A MILLION times better than Fairbanks. We can actually be outside and do stuff and not freeze to death in negative 50 below weather. We went to the Downtown Tree lighting ceremony. The first time we have ever gone to one of these. We didnt realize how far away we parked so we were glad it was decently warm outside!


Here we are waiting for the ceremony to start!

It got a little chilly standing there! Good thing Madi has an awesome jacket!

We went for a drive up the mountain. Why we didnt do this in our truck I DONT KNOW. But we took the car and drove as high as we could. We finally got to a point where the car was just rolling backwards so we decided to turn around before we went off the edge!!

It was so beautiful up there though!

We finally took Madi Ice Skating. This is her first time doing it. And this is her saying look mama i can do it all by myself..

She finally got brave enough to let go of the wall...

And then she got brave enough to let go of me!

She would fall down and say Im ok and get right back up!! She is one tough cookie! One time she fell and just laid there for about 2 minutes and finally said um mom i am cold...

Here she is doing it all by herself... Next time we will see if she can actually skate instead of walk!!

The next morning we went and had breakfast with Santa. This is one girl that has NEVER been afraid of talking to Santa and sitting on his lap. Well actually with anyone. She will go up to anyone anywhere and strike up a conversation...

THey had little crafts for all the kids to do!



Madi and Jason getting the tree stand ready for the tree. This is our 4th christmas together and the first time we have went and bought a tree and put it up! The first Christmas I was in Arizona getting ready to have Madison while Jason was deployed. The 2nd Christmas Jason had just got home from Deployment and we were going to TN for 2 weeks so we didn't get a tree. The third Christmas we were in Arizona with Jason home on leave from deployment and this year is our first year with no family around but our own! I am so excited that we get to be together this year because once again next year Jason will be gone....

Sad that this girl is 3 and its her firs tree! She did a great job in helping us pick it out. Also my sister Mandy made our stockings and tree skirt for Christmas a few years ago and this is the first year we get to use them!!

Its always been tradition in our family to have the kids put the start up on the tree. Here we are passing on the tradition!!

So festive!!

Home Made Rolls

K so this does not happen often. But I am so stinkin proud of myself this was TOTALLY worth a blog!!!! I will post more tomorrow about what we have been up to in November but for now this is what you get!!!

I MADE MY FIRST BATCH OF HOME MADE ROLLS!!!!! Man o man. This is the first year that me and Jason will be cooking our Thanksgiving dinner. The first and second year he was deployed and the third year we spent it with my Family in Arizona. So this is our 4th and here we are in Alaska finding ourselves cooking our first Tday dinner! I am kinda excited. We went shopping today to get all the stuff and I decided that I would make a batch of rolls today just in case they dont turn out. Not that I was doubting myself, but rolls are important at Thanksgiving dinner. So of course I took pics!!!!

Here is the mix before it rose.

Getting ready to make it in circles for rolls.
I realized that I dont have a rolling pin or a round cookie cutters. Guess its a good thing I had glasses to use!! Madi loves helping in the kitchen. I cut the circles and she folded them and put them in the pan...

Then added the butter

She watched these rolls in the oven

SO happy to be in the kitchen!

And here they are!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What we have been up to in October!!

Jason and I have started date nights every weekend. Its been nice to get out and do things together. Before a few weeks ago it had been WAAAAY too long since we had an actual date....

We made our pizzas. Madi has so much fun in the kitchen always!

I cannot remember a Halloween without having orange pumpkin shaped pancakes for breakfast! So tradition rolls on in this home!

I think this is why she likes to help in the kitchen! Makin cupcakes!

Madi being Madi. She loves this table we bought her. We have too much living room furniture that we dont have room for a table so we bought madi one instead!

Halloween! She is such a cute witch. I can say that Im the mom!!! She LOVES dressing up so halloween is a big friend of hers!

Yes she is a poser. On her own.

She is so silly. She cracks herself up which cracks me up!

I got real dressed up!!

We took her to a carnival they had on the Air Force Base here. She loved it.

Dont ask me what she is doing. I have no idea. She is playing! haha

She is such the lil artist when it comes to decorating. She did this on her own. I put the stuff down went and cooked in the kitchen and she said mom come look!