Maya Meets the Cooper Cousins

We made our annual trip to Southern Utah in August - it was an interesting trip...I'll do another post about my parent's house being destroyed by a flash flood soon (*heavy sigh*). Despite all the loss at my folk's home, we Cooper girls still manage to enjoy being together!

One of the perks of the week was for Dylan - ANOTHER birthday party! Hey, any excuse for cake is a good one. He was most excited about the gigantic 9 candle, but was a little disappointed when he discovered that it was not edible. Can't win 'em all, buddy.



Sammy loved playing with Maya, and as you can see, Maya loved spending time with Sammy! Doesn't she look like one of those little troll dolls here? You know, the kind that you spin and their hair sticks up? Ha! Crazy baby...



Zack and Ivy. Best cousin-buds from day 1. Still going strong.



Dylan and Sammy. They had a great time playing together!



Mia is happy to be playing with Maya, but Sadie seems less than thrilled...



This "who the heck are you" face is the look that Taylor gave me for about the first entire day I was there - then I finally got a smile out of her!



Saved the best for last. My sweet Grandpa, Dana Pratt - age 90...with his newest great-granddaughter Maya. This is the best photo I have EVER taken. Love them both to pieces!

Happy Birthday Dylan!

Hey, remember my OTHER kids not named Maya? Me too. Dylan turned the big 9 in August - and we had a pool party to celebrate his momentous arrival into the world. A good time was had by all.

Here is the D-man getting ready to blow out his candle on the cupcakes...


This is me, overacheiving again. Here are the cupcakes! For his POOL party. Get it? Get it?


Here are the goodies that all the party goers took home with them. A beach towel and a sucker with a thank you note from Dylan. Before you think I splurged too much, Old Navy had a wicked good sale on beach towels! I simply could NOT resist.


The gaggle of BOYS!! What a bunch! Dylan is the nutty one at the head of the table. (Like our new patio table? Me too!)

Here they all are by our pool - they somewhat willingly obliged me and got out of the pool for about 2 seconds so I could snap this shot. Ten boys in a pool is crazy!

Dylan had a great time - and I survived! That's the most a mother can really ask for, right?

As Soon As Summer is Over...

...and the kids are back in school, I'm comin' back, blog-world.

Fear me, if you dare.

Meanwhile, check out my cute baby girl! She is already 6 months old!

Oh, and I have two boys, too...remember them? I think they are around here SOMEWHERE...

Oh, Yes I Am!

Happy birthday to me.

Those Who Matter Most. Period.

Maya - 6 Weeks Old.

I know I am a slacker of a blogger lately, but can you blame me? I get to spend nearly ALL my time with this precious baby girl. She is an incredibly good baby. So very blessed! Her brothers love her too, the lucky little girl!

More Photos of Beautiful Maya

My friend Gwen took these photos of Maya for us - it was nice just being the mommy and not the photographer too! Simply beautiful. We are LOVING her! Thank you Gwen, for these precious memories!

She's HERE!

Say hello to our newest family member, Maya Angie Madsen. ( Angie is for my Grandmother, who passed away 7 years ago to the day that Maya came to our home.)


6 lbs. 11 oz, 20 1/2 inches, born Jan. 17, 2010 to a woman who has selflessly given her to us so she can become part of our eternal family.


Perfection. God's work at its finest. We love her already.

ThE HaPpIeSt PlAcE oN eArTh

Hooray for Disneyland! Matt and I decided to take the kiddos plus Zack's best bud Ryan to Disneyland last week for two days of memory-making. Mission accomplished.

Here they are, waiting in line to get into the park. They are a TAD bit excited, in case you can't tell. Even Matt!


All the boys, just after going on our first ride, Pirates of the Caribbean. I loved how they added Jack Sparrow to everything. He looked so real that it was slightly freaky.


Z and D at California Adventure near the enormous ferris wheel. I like this picture. Pure HAPPINESS.


Dylan was chosen for Jedi Training! Awesome! He was TOTALLY into it and VERY serious about learning all the moves and fighting Darth Maul. Such a cool show!

Graduate of the Jedi Academy. Happy.

Dylan, Zack and Ryan waiting in line to go on the Toy Story ride in California Adventure. It was WAY better than I expected! Loved it!

Dad and Dyl waiting in line for Grizzly Rapids. We got SOAKED.

Dylan saw this on the trash can and said to me, "Why does it say waste please? They want us to WASTE? You're not supposed to waste. Wasting is bad!"

Proof that I was there.

We survived!

Does This Make Me Famous By Association?

My sister (#34) is on the cover of the sports page in a newspaper in Utah.

You're jealous, I know.

(She CLEARLY got the tip.)

Basketball season begins! Go, Savannah!!

Perfect.

Dylan was baptized on Saturday. He was practically jumping out of his skin with excitement. All went just as planned.

It was pretty near perfect.

Dylan and his Dad in their whites...


Dylan and one of his Primary teachers. He loves her!


Z and D with Aunt Sarah, who made the trip for the baptism all the way from Las Vegas. We love you, Sarah!

Mantels, Musings, Marriage and a Marvelous New Ward

A post about this-n-that...

Up until a few weeks ago, we were members of the Dry Creek ward (of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints.) It was an unbelievably huge ward - I was the Primary President (the head kid-wrangler) and we had 180 kids in Primary. Huge! The powers that be created a new ward - the Shepherd ward. Now, I am not a member of this ward (I am now in the Orchard View ward due to boundary changes and our new house), but my good friend Monique just so happened to be made the RS President (the head lady-wrangler) of this new ward - lucky girl! So she asked me to take this ward photo.

Entitle this photo "new beginnings", or "how many Mormons can you fit in one picture in the blazing heat?"

(Yet another reason I love Photoshop - a young girl threw up just before this photo was taken. Right in front. Click - click - vomit gone!! Love it.)

My friend and co-worker Kelley is getting married in November. She had a Hawaiian themed bridal shower. I caught this picture. Happiness!

The obligatory first-day-of-school picture. This was not taken in front of our house. This was taken in front of some random person's house near the school when I realized I forgot to TAKE the obligatory first-day-of-school picture. My apologies to the random person whose license plate I now have on internet display because I am too lazy to blur it out. Is that illegal? Hmm...

Zack - 6th grade, Dylan - 2nd grade

Dylan started Cub Scouts! Salute!

And finally, here is how the mantel in my family room turned out. Cute, don't you think?

The Late, Great Home Improvement Post

I do believe this will officially be the longest photo-post ever in the history of Madsen Madness. I've been so very absent lately, I thought that the three of you who read my blog on a semi-regular basis might like to know what I've been up to...so here ya go. My new house, in all its glory.


Casa de Madsen! Though this house was not a foreclosure, it was a short sale, so it had been empty for about six months. A lot can decay in six months, let me tell ya. We've mowed the yard, but that's about it so far for work on the outside of the house. We need to trim up and yank out a few more bushes. It's on the very long to-do list.

Do you dig the old carpet and carpet padding on the front porch. We are classy people.

I have always wanted a yellow laundry room! We had a yellow laundry room when I was a kid in Moab, Utah. Hey siblings, do any of you remember that? It was HUGE! Mine is little, but it is lovely in all its antique yellow glory.



The pool. I could kick myself for not getting a 'before' picture of this. Let me paint a picture for you...it was green and mossy and at one time had a dead mouse floating in it. This is a BIG improvement.


This is the living room BEFORE we got a hold of it. I hired a guy to paint it and scrape and re-texture the popcorn/cottage cheese ceilings. It was SPONGE painted. Now, I think sponge painting definitely had its day, and I'm sorry if I offfend any sponge paint lovers out there, but it is just NOT my thing. The carpet was old and very stained and dirty.


The living room AFTER. Ta-da! Painted a lovely shade called 'cup of cocoa' and hardwood laminate floors installed by my darling Matt and our friends for LIFE, Kurt, Skyler and Anthony. I haven't done much decorating, but I love it already! It's a great room for voice lessons - nice acoustics!

This is still a work in progress - the baby room. For the baby we are patiently waiting to get. Lucky baby!!

Also a work in progress. The game room. This is one of the five bedrooms upstairs. We'll have a spare bed for visitors (hint hint!) and a TV with all the video game systems here. Otherwise known as boy heaven.

Yes, this is Dylan's room. It was ALREADY PAINTED PURPLE. He actually likes it! My friend Sue and I have grand plans to turn this into a black and white room. Most likely in the next month or so.

Zack's room! He loves this room, and I do too. The striping was quite time consuming, but totally worth it. The horizontal stripe goes all around the room and there are vertical stripes like these on each wall. So cool!

Where all the magic happens, baby. Sue and I painted this room as well. The entire room use to be that gold color you see on the top. I love how it looks with the bedding.

This is the BEFORE picture of the living room. Not bad. Just wanted to warm up the colors a little bit.

After! This is still a work in progress, but we love it so far. The color we used is called "whispering wheat." It makes me happy.

Here are the kitchen cabinets before we started painting the kitchen. Now, I know they weren't hideous or anything, but I really didn't like the kitchen much at all. Til we painted it...

Black!! And now I love it! It's very retro looking.

Here is our very high tech painting process. Spray paint, baby. We were high on paint fumes for days.

Fuel for painting. Sonic made a lot of money off me.

Here is the hutch that I bought off of Craigslist for $120.00. It had been quite neglected. Sue, Monique and I plopped it into the back yard in the old house and got to spraying it.

Here is what it looked like before. Not pretty.

Here is what it looks like now. Pretty! And great storage, too! We had planned on installing more cabinets here, which would have cost us about $800.00 to do ourselves. This cost us $120.00 and six cans of spray paint. Much better. We painted the wall red, too.

One of my favorite features. The lovely toilet seat in the downstairs half-bath. I bought a new one, and so far it is sitting there right next to this one, waiting for Matt to install it. I just can't bring myself to take this one off. For some reason it freaks me out. Dylan says he thinks the creatures on here just might be real. I think he might be right.

And there you have it! I have been a busy girl. More home improvement posts will be coming. Now I've gotta go paint something!