All Dressed up and No Place to Go

If you can believe, this little girl is one month old. I really can't. To celebrate, I got her all dressed up and ready for church in this darling little dress, but instead of wearing it to church, she only wore it to a much-needed four-hour nap at home (she'd had a really rough morning with NO naps, so when she finally crashed, I told myself I'd just bring her to church once she woke up. But she never woke up. And since Josh and Will were already at church, I had a glorious afternoon, far more restorative than church--shhh, don't tell my bishop I said that).

After church, Will, Lucy and I had a little photo shoot to commemorate her first month of life. Will took several of these photos and didn't do a bad job, I'd say. We love you, Lucy, even if you are a tad high maintenance at this early stage of your life. We can't imagine life without you!

Look at her cross-eyed look!

The Night I Cried Myself to Sleep. . .

. . .was the night my mom/Grammy left us. Really. I cried myself to sleep, for so many reasons. I cried because when Grammy was here:

• Will had a constant playmate, coloring (and coloring and coloring), playing with play-do, driving cars, reading books, etc., etc., etc. Will loves him his Grammy and could NOT understand why she had to go home.


• I got to sleep in until 8 every morning, knowing that Will was taken care of. I cried a lot for the loss of this one.


• We had a home cooked meal every night that I had nothing to do with. And I never even washed a dish.


• We ate lots of yummy homemade baked goods (Will told me after Grammy left that Grammy is the best cookie maker ever.)


• Will got to and from preschool without any assistance from me.


• She cleaned my house. Twice. And it needed it.


• I had a constant friend and companion. I cried the most at the loss of this one.

We love you, Grammy. We miss you. We really, really want you to come back. And soon. Thanks for making the long trek out to see us and help us.

Now, here is the only picture I took of Grammy and my kids, but it had to make it on the blog):

And Even More Lucy

Another friend took some pictures of our little Lucy. They turned out darling. My friend, April, has a photography business and she is very talented. If you live in the area and are looking for some fantastic pictures, look her up.

Here's the link to the photos of our Lucy Lu: http://www.aprilnewmanphoto.com/?p=370

Thanks, April!

Halloween 3-Year-Old Style

In order to truly appreciate Halloween, I think you must be three. In my opinion, this holiday was made for three-year-olds. So, without further ado, here's how to have the perfect Halloween, three-year-old style. (And yes, below you will find picture overload. I did pare it down. A little).

1. Have a lazy mother who once again failed to get you a Halloween costume (can we blame baby Lucy just a little??). Have a wonderfully talented friend and neighbor who once again let you raid her homemade Halloween costume collection and pick out your favorite one: a dinsadour costume, of course (that's how he says it: dinsadour).

2. Wear that dinsadour costume everywhere for two weeks straight: to bed, riding your bike, to music class, to Panera for dinner. If your mom or dad tells you that you cannot wear that dinsadour costume to church and/or school, break down in absolute hysteria.

3. Attend your preschool's Halloween party and parade with all your school friends (especially Olivia--the little Snow White to the right of Will. He loves Olivia and she loves him. Olivia told her mom that she wants to "bury" (aka marry) Will).

4. Insist you hold your baby sister in her Halloween outfit. (Or insist you hold your baby sister in any outfit. At any time).

5. Carve a "scary jack-o-lantern" with your headless horseman father and your grammy. Love every second of it, especially the lighting of the jack-o-lantern at night. (And, of course, it's all done while wearing your dinsadour costume).

6. Attend the ward party, where you participate with your whole heart and soul in every game, in order to win the coveted prize: candy, candy, candy. In fact, insist you play every game twice so that you can receive more candy. (Note: my favorite game is pictured directly below. Will had to crawl through the streamers without knocking them down to get to the pumpkin filled with candy. Never have I seen a child take on a task so seriously. He was not messing around).

7. Go trick-or-treating for the first time in your neighborhood. Run with gusto and much excitement to every door (really, I want that image to stay in my mind forever--Will running gleefully from door to door, dinosaur tail wagging, pumpking pail glowing in the dark night. It will make me smile for years to come). Once you've hit about 15 houses, tell your dada, "It's past my bedtime. Let's go home."

Trick-or-treating at our house with Grammy passing out candy.

After running so fast and furiously from house to house, Will would run up to the house, ring the doorbell, then sit down and wait, then say, "I just need to rest a minute." It was too cute.

Happy Halloween to all. May you ever experience and enjoy it through the eyes of a three-year-old.

More Lucy

Just in case you needed a little more Lucy in your life, here's some more photos of our little peanut. My friend Janet came and took some pictures and did a great job, especially considering Lucy was less than cooperative. Thanks, Janet! Now for your viewing pleasure:

P.S. Amy and Kasey, like all of Lucy's outfits? Whatever would we do without Bean's and Sarah's clothes?

Introducing...

Lucille Grace Madsen

It's official. I won the coin toss, so Lucille Grace it is. (We really did flip a coin. And I did legitimately win, though Josh claims, "We all knew you would get your way anyway." I should say so. I gave her life without an epidural so my vote counts at least 10% more. And yes, don't you worry. I will be using that without-an-epidural card as long as I so shall please).
We love her. Her brother clearly loves her (seriously loves her. He tells everyone, "Come see my baby sister! She came out!").
And we even love her when she looks like this:

Pictures of Baby Lucy: My Gift to You

Welcome to the world, little baby Lucy. You may still be officially nameless (will it be Lucille or Lucy?) and you may have come into this world far too fast and furiously (barely made it to the hospital) and you may look a little bit like a boy (she is a twin of Will when he was brand new) but one thing is for sure: you are adorable and loved to pieces. Grandmas, grandpas, aunts, uncles and cousins have been begging for photos, so enjoy these photos of baby Lucy with limited commentary (my brother Jon says he never reads the words any way--he calls my blog too wordy). I'll post more details later.

First picture ever. Birth date: Wednesday, October 12, 3:15 a.m. Born at 39 weeks 6 days. One day early. I really thought she was never going to come.
Weight: 8 lbs. 4 oz. Height: 21 inches. Healthy and happy, with a cone head just like her brother Will. Can you believe I gave birth to this big baby SANS drugs? I think I should get some sort of award. Especially since I am the world's #1 advocate of modern medicine (a.k.a. epidurals).

Hospital attire: cap and swaddling blanket.

You can't really tell from the photo, but she has the cutest strawberry blond hair. Whenever Will was at the hospital, all the nurses would comment on our redheaded children.

Will's first time meeting baby Lucy. I'd say he likes her. I think the jury's still out as to whether or not he wants to keep her. And I'm pretty sure his favorite part of the hospital was the moving beds. He would not stop playing with those beds, making them go up and down. I think that is one of my favorite parts of the hospital, too. That and the nurses call button attached to the beds. I want one of those at my house.

Will and his little sister, Lucy.

Getting ready to take off. We kind of left the hospital in a mad rush because I was getting a roommate and wanted no part of that, so as my gift to that new mom, we left that night so she could have a solo room. I'd been there two full days and one night anyway. Plus, the beauty of the nursery in the middle of the night was dead to me since every time I called the nursery to come and take the baby back THEY NEVER CAME. So, baby girl bunked with me all night anyway.

Oh yes, I was there too. Once we got her in some pink, she looked more feminine. We realized as we were leaving the hospital that we never took any pictures of me. Luckily, we snapped a few photos at the end. It's a good thing since I'd say I was a pretty integral part of this whole process.

Isn't she a doll?

All ready for the car ride home.

Once home, Will insisted both he and she get their nigh-nighs and have them downstairs. He's usually not allowed to have his nigh-nigh downstairs, so I'm sure this was all a ploy to get his nigh nigh, but it was still cute.

Trying to give her a kiss.

Sorry baby girl, but I'm afraid this is a portent of things to come--getting harassed by your much bigger big brother.

We love you, little Lucy (or little Lucille?). We are thrilled you are finally here!