Madeline's Stories

Madeline loves reading to her babies. I just had to share, it really is too cute.

Happy Birthday to "Mishy"!!

That would be "Aunt Melissa" in regular talk, not toddler talk. My brother Jared gave me the best way to remember his wife's birthday and that is that it is on EARTH DAY! When I turned on the radio this morning, to NPR of course--I can't betray my nerdy talk radio--and they were talking about Earth Day, I scrambled to find the phone in my car careful not to swerve into oncoming traffic and called "Mishy". So Happy B-day once again! We love you!!

Happy Easter

We had a great easter sunday, as I hope all of you did. I finally finished Madeline's dress. It was super easy until I decided 1/2 way through to add a Tulle underskirt and a lining--this is so my way of sewing and it drives most people I know NUTS-- but the dress came out beautiful in the end. Of course I couldn't pass up letting Grandma "Mimi" buy Madeline the cutest pink accessories--a hat and a purse-- essentials for any respectable girls' easter debut!
I played "find the eggs" all week with Madeline to get her ready for the big day...she did smashing on Easter Morn when the pressure was on. And you should have seen her face when she discovered CANDY was in the eggs!!! There could not have been a happier child. We made sure to put a candy necklace on Grammy Helen's bunny so she got her portion of deserved attention as well! We were of course late to church (9 a.m.) but still had a great day at church and a delicious Easter dinner at my parents house (thanks mom!).

Adam's and Matthew's Winter Camp 2009

I haven't posted on the blog before, but I figured mine and Matthew's winter camp in the Grand Tetons would give me an impressive entrance.

About a month ago, Matthew, myself, and one friend of mine took off at about 5 in the morning to make up to the Grand Tetons National Park in Wyoming. We cross country skied in across a frozen lake and literally had to scale the side of the island. We set up camp right at the southern most point of the island so that when we woke up in the morning, the sun was casting a wicked light on the Grand Tetons themselves. At night it got anywhere from -10 to -20. But our many winter camp outings had us prepared. You'll also see that we took ice fishing gear with us, but sadly didn't catch a thing. During the days when the sun was out, it was beautiful and quite warm. At any rate, it was an awesome trip, and to all who didn't make it...Maybe next time dudes...

I should also add that my wonderful wife was extremely accommodating and had no problem with letting me take the weekend off to go camping and ice fishing in Wyoming. I invited her along, but for some odd reason she wasn't interested in sleeping in -20 degree weather...

Pictures

We're not great at taking pictures, which also leads to me being bad at posting pictures, but here's some "recent" ones. Madeline has become too cute for words. SHe is oozing with personality and we are in love with it. Not too much to say for now, except for I ran the Rex E. Lee run (no pics sorry) and ran a 5K in 28 minutes! So I'm pretty stoked. I haven't run since, but I did hike the Y with Madeline, so that's something. WE made it to the top! With me carrying her in my arms sleeping all the way down. Anyway, I'll post more later.

Cute!

I wanted to adorn this post with cute pics of Madeline cooking ( pretending to cook that is...) but I will have to wait until I take some for that. Madeline has discovered her love of cooking (or basically doing whatever I am doing), so I decided to make her this adorable vintage-inspired apron! So cute, right? but seriously, for the time it took to make this adorable apron, this kid better be turning out some gourmet meals!
Oh and a shout out to Lesley, who helped with everything but especially the binding! THanks!!!

Do cougars have the smartest kids?

New York Magazine
March 16, 2009
"Earlier this month, the journal PLoS Medicine analyzed data from a study of over 50,000 pregnant women and came to a simple but stunning conclusion: Older fathers have dumber kids. The more geriatric the dad, the dimmer the progeny, on measures including "thinking and reasoning, concentration, memory, understanding, speaking, and reading." (Luckily, geezer offspring had no problems with motor skills, making them ideal for wheeling around their elderly dads.)
It was another unsettling addition to the growing pile of evidence that men have their own biological clocks, with older fathers also producing higher rates of schizophrenia and autism. But what really caught my eye was the secondary finding, which was that older mothers were associated with smarter children. I quickly did the calculations and was pleased with my findings. The most intelligent children, I deduced, must be the outcome of 45-year-old career women inseminated by their 21-year-old personal trainers."
Being two years older than my husband, and pretty much almost 30, this article does give me some peace of mind.