Halloween 2011 Festivities

Halloween festivities this year started out with our annual Pumpkin Carving at Family Night at Mat's Dad's home. This year my sister came along and enjoyed the fun with us.

Mat is trying to help Madison put pieces of a potato head in a pumpkin to make a face, but Madison mostly just wanted to take the pieces out.

My sister and I carving our little pumpkins. I ended up carving a ghost and my sister carved a bunch of stars. I did not get any pictures of our pumpkins finished though. I also ended up carving Mat's and just did a simple jack-o-lantern face.

A group shot of the fam and some friends carving away.

Our ward had a Halloween carnival a few days before Halloween and here is a picture of Madison there. Madison just ran around the whole time and for a while she was just dancing to the music (from the cake walk booth). It was so funny and really cute.

Halloween this year turned out to be really nice weather which made it so nice especially since it was Madison's first trick-or-treating experience.

Our little Sunflower.

We went and visited my sister at her work and then visited Mat and his work. After Mat got done with work then we also visited our parents so they could see Madison all dressed up. It was busy, but we had a great time.

Madison didn't really get the whole trick-or-treating thing, but just stood on the the porches of people's homes trying to put the candy in and out of her little pumpkin container.

We had a great Halloween and Madison made a really adorable sunflower.

Fall Photo's & More

Life is busy and I seem to not blog that much anymore, but here are some pictures from the last two months of us and our little bugaboo Madison. Madison is so full of life and so exploratory. Madison is so very active and keeps us on our toes. Madison is so sweet though and is so good at giving us hugs and kisses which makes it all worth it.

These next few pictures are Madison's 15 month pictures. 

My oldest brother and wife had their fourth child on the 10th of September. They named her Margaret.

I think I am already her favorite Auntie :)

Proud parents and sister (one of them) of Margaret.

Here are some family pictures of us that we took a little bit ago. Madison was not really cooperating for us, but I think that is typical of a child her age. Madison is still adorable even if she won't smile for the camera.

It was windy when we took the pictures

Madison loved when we let her put her feet in the water.

We took a few of just Mat and I and I felt like we were taking engagement pictures or something.

Our cute little stinker.

These photo of us turned out pretty well and Madison is kind of smiling.

Daddy playing around with Madison after all the photo's were finally taken.

Madison's awesome hairdo.

Madison with straight hair. Her eyes are so beautiful and blue.

Madison with curly hair.

In the beginning of October our niece got baptized. Here is Sydney on her baptism day. We are so proud of her for making the decision to be baptized and become a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Madison running around the gym after the baptism. She is hard to keep still.

Here is my sister comparing Madison and Jensen. They are almost the same size. Madison is about 8 months older.

Just a random cute picture of Madison.

Madison is growing up way too fast.

We took some family pictures with Mat's Dad and Step-Mom side of the fam up in Layton a few weekends ago. Here is a shot that we just took of Madison.

Sweet picture of the took of them even though no smile from Madison.

I love that Madison's cute little hand is on top of mine.

Lake Powell

We took a vacation with some of Mat's fam to Lake Powell at the end of August, beginning of September. We stayed on a house boat for a week and we took our little bugaboo with us and it was quite an adventure. This was my first time and obviously Madison's first time there as well. Mat use to go with his family at least once a year all growing up and stopped just before we got married. So Mat really enjoyed getting back there. Lake Powell is one of Mat's favorite places on Earth. I have to say that Lake Powell is a very beautiful place. The first day was a little stressful with Madison, but we made it through and the rest of the trip got better. Here are a few pictures from the trip:

The one and only time Madison actually wore an approved US Coast Guard life jacket. Madison hated wearing it every second. The other days we just had her in a swimsuit that had floating devices in it.

At Lake Powell Madison loved to play in the sand. Kaimen, Aiden, Mat, and Madison having fun in the water

Just enjoying some food.

Madison and her daddy.

So cute.

Sometimes she liked being in her little tube and other times Madison disliked it.

Madison having fun on the knee board.

Madison was fascinated with the ducks in the water at the marina and I thought this was a cute picture of Mat and Madison together.

Here is the view of them from the front looking at the ducks.

Enjoying the wind in her face.

Mat wake-boarding.

Mat trying to do some trick on the wake board.

A family shot, but couldn't get Madison to look.

Mat and Madison floating in the water.

These pictures are so high and it is amazing some people a long time ago were able to put them on the walls.

We hiked up to some ancient ruins. They were short people that's for sure.

Madison was being really cute with her Great Grandpa (Mat was trying to take the picture without disturbing them).

We only had one of Madison's book go over board, but Mat was able to quickly get it out of the water. So no major catastrophe's which was nice. I tried wake boarding for the first time and got up on my second try. It was pretty fun trying it out. We enjoyed all the good food, the warm sun, and the beautiful surroundings of Lake Powell.