Madison's Birthday- part 2

Okay, let's get back to it. Yes, I know it's February and Madison has been 7 for a good 3 months but I WILL get caught up with this thing!

We headed to Utah for Thanksgiving and the BYU vs. Ut football game. We arrived on Thanksgiving for a yummy feast with family and to announce that we were expecting our sweet baby. It is always so fun to figure out how to surprise our parents with the good news. Ronnie's mom is especially fun to tell that she will have another grandchild. So we made sure that she was the one who figured it out first. We brought our jar or gratefulness that we had been keeping the whole month of November. We filled it with notes of paper stating one different thing we were each grateful for each day of the month. We read them off to our family and then at the end had Bex take one to Grandma that read, "I am grateful to be a big brother". Screams and smiles filled the room and the joy was spread about.

The next day we celebrated Maddie's birthday in style. Ronnie planned a fun filled day with friends, family, Jump-on-it, the Polar Express, and the BYU basket ball game of course! Madison always loves celebrating her birthday with her family and is lucky to be spoiled by each and every one of them.

I FINALLY got to meet this little one... Product of Tyler and Linda, two of the most wonderful friends you could ever ask for. They worked hard to bring this sweet little girl to earth and I think it was all worth it. She is amazing!

This happens a lot when we get together.

Madison with her requested Butterfly cake. Not my best work but she loved it so that is all that matters.
Jump-on-it is a family favorite! I wasn't doing a whole lot of jumping in my pregnant state but when this baby comes out, you better believe I will return for more back flip contests with Bethie! I also found out that I am NOT a good action shot photographer. So you get the two moments where the kids were still.

That evening we went up to Heber to ride the Polar Express. Bex loved the idea of getting to ride a big train, sing songs, read books, and chat with our family.

However, the minute they announced that Santa was on his way and would be handing out bells to all the children, he climbed up in my lap and wouldn't budge. It was really quite sad, he kept looking over his shoulder to see if that scary man had arrived in our car.

Madison loved every second of it. Especially because she got to sit all by herself with her Uncle Doug. He was so sweet to sit by her when he had his own family there who would have loved the same privilege. She told Santa that she wanted Candy Canes. Yes, this girl is so easy to please. Last year she told Santa she wanted warm socks (she was super cold at the time). He finally got it out of her that she wanted a Razor too. I don't think Santa knew that was a type of scooter because he looked really confused!

After our ride to the North Pole, we returned to Heber and got back in our cars to head to the BYU basketball game. We met up with more friends and family and enjoyed a great game! Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Chapman for a wonderful Thanksgiving and to Ronnie for planning a great birthday celebration. We had a BLAST!