October Photo-A-Day

And still do... 

A little lunch with Grandma Lor! (And Uncle Matthew)

Jenna learned to drive her new battery operated Lightning McQueen from Grandma Lor. Highlight: her patting the bumper and telling him good job. #sofun 

I'm totally a People.com addict. I'll admit it. 

Love her!

Friends that run the #stgmarathon 17 years in a row and get invited to go to St George's sister city in Japan and then invite me as their companion. (Worst sentence structure ever!) #cantwait #waytogoliisa #whatamigoingtoeat 

Love this app! Use it almost every night. 

"Better dead than red." -Frank Burns #ilovemash

LOVE!

One of our favorite things is the way Jenna sits with her feet crossed. #cuteness 

Kept Jenna entertained with a slideshow of Disneyland on our flight to San Diego. She was a dream.

Jenna's giving Casey a "Rapunzel" kiss good-bye. She cracks up. #loveher #kisses 

Didn't text much today so I had to draw from yesterday.

Been working on organizing all of my digital scrapbooking stuff. #overwhelmed #ocd

Had a good family day watching Weber get their first win of the season in a nail biter at Southern Utah. #letsgoweber

Nick & @liisafrei are making amazing progress getting Dutchmans and Cravings rebuilt! #digdeepfordutchmans

Beautiful sunset tonight. #nofilter 

Jenna seems to think winter has arrived. Poor girl has got a nasty cough and a bit of a fever so I think this is her solution. #loveher 

...these are my people... 

Lungs... Daddy's turn and then Jenna's turn. Just a common cold. Nothing in the lungs. Yeah!

Rear view love.

Big, bright, and full {just like my moon}. PS. It was all I could not to post a picture of my backside, of which I have several, but there are too many impressionable minds that follow whom I didn't want to scar for life. #yourewelcome 

Our beautiful snow queen. She curtsies every time anyone gives her candy. Totally her (I'm sure from Disney). It's hilarious! #loveher #halloween

When Grandma Lor Comes To Town

When Grandma Lor comes to town, there is a lot of eating out and presents and love. Jenna has her {and everyone else for that matter} wrapped around her little finger. 

We went shopping and picked out Jenna's halloween costume, she's going to be a snow queen. We tried the dress on so we could see if it fit. It's a tiny bit too long, but otherwise fits well. She would not let me take it off her. She kept twirling and spinning. She finally looks at me and says, "It's just so magical." Happiness abounds! 

Jenna the Snow Queen from Katie Madsen on Vimeo.

Grandma Lor bought Jenna a new Lightning McQueen battery operated four wheeler. Jenna LOVES it. Round and round she goes in our backyard in total heaven. 

Then Grandma Lor and Uncle Matthew to the splash pad. What a good time they had together! 

Swiss Days and Flood Aid

Yesterday was Santa Clara Swiss Days. We didn't make up for the 5k this year, but Casey and Jenna caught up with Matthew for the parade. From what I hear, Jenna was as big of a hit with the parade walkers as they were for her. No opportunity for candy passing out was missed. The lady sitting next to them finally asked to borrow Jenna so that her grandkids could get some candy also. Honestly though, if you were the one passing out the candy, wouldn't you want to give her all of your candy? Love her and her undeniable cuteness. 

 That night we all went to went to a Flood Aid concert to fundraise for the flood victims. It was actually a really fun night and Jenna was completely enthralled with the Disney characters there. It was completely surreal after the shear terror in her reactions at, you know, Disneyland. Maybe she just acclimated or something but she was practically molesting these faux characters. It was almost comical, but after a while we had to pry her hands off of them and distract her with bouncy houses and "trains". 

Our terror inducing moment came when the slide house that Jenna was in collapsed all of a sudden. It was unbelievable how quickly it was almost completely deflated. And the workers were all standing around, unsure of what to do. I started to climb into the castle, but the employee stopped me and climbed in herself. Jenna came out of unscathed, as if nothing had ever happened. So there were Casey and I standing by, attempting to restart our hearts, and to pretend as if nothing had happened either so as not traumatize her. 

Jenna's Dance Break

Jenna's "Dance Break" from Katie Madsen on Vimeo.

Poor Casey has a heck of a time getting the lawn mowed these days. If he is not being interrupted for what Jenna refers to as "dancing breaks", then she wants to be the one to mow the lawn. Of course all of this takes place with her princess dress on. It seems to be the quintessential fathers with daughters stuff. Love it! 

September Photo-A-Day

I was not great this month. Not really sure what was going on. My guess was that either too little or too much was going on and I just lost track...here are the ones I did manage to remember. 

Headed home after a great day in SLC! 

Cheers to you, Dad.

She's does feel so far away...and I miss her every day. 

No bills and a refund check for overpayment on medical bills (with a service date of May 2011?!) I'll take it!

She seriously brightens my everything! {even when she doesn't nap} 

Getting in the mood for tomorrow's adventure. We're a little worried about how many promises we've made to the kid! Oh, yeah we can ride the train, and see Pooh, and ride Dumbo, and the horsies aka the carousel. #hopealltheridesareopen #disneyland

I just spent the last 6 1/2 hours with dozens of volunteers, cleaning up the devastation at the convenience store and restaurant of our dear friends after a dike broke and flooded it. They came and kept coming, asking nothing in return. All the while Nick and @liisafrei, kept up their typical and legendary positive attitudes. They astound me! And as I lay here taking account of my day, I am overwhelmed at the love that was there this afternoon/evening. And grateful too for my neighbor for taking in my daughter so I could do my part, however small it may have been. My cup runneth over...

Spent another day digging out Dutchmans. There were a lot of volunteers. And I even ran into my brother in law for a bit! I love my community!!! 

Two of my all time favorite people. @mailemadsen reading to Jenna. My heart soared watching. 

Restarted my audio book at 4 am when I, of course, woke up again. FYI, Foxy Ladies, I've finished it, have you?! #bookclub

The damage to Cravings has forced us into cooking. Ugh!

Some of these are weird topics...here you go, my fridge. Plenty of dairy and soup. It's how we roll. 

Spent the afternoon transcribing Cravings' and Dutchmans recipes from underneath mud covered sheet protectors, wet paper, and bleeding ink. Between those factors and me not knowing how to read a recipe, it was a rough go for a bit. #digdeepfordutchmans 

My dinner tonight... #stillnotcooking

Sometimes I forget to post my photo a day or can't thing of anything to match the given topic. #stumped

Right now I'm staring up at our dirty, old fan and trying to decide if I can dissemble it enough to spray paint the brass portions oil rubbed bronze.