I'm Busy!!

Here's what I have been up to:

http://photographybynicolemadsen.blogspot.com/

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!

Mine.

I mean, I know they're MINE and all, but I'm pretty sure that even if they WEREN'T, I would still think they were pretty darn adorable.

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!!

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 Madsen Family Invades Newport Beach or Family Vacation 2009

Ahh, the fun of a family vacation!! We all descended upon Newport Beach, and Newport Beach survived. Good times. We had a lovely stay at the Marriott Newport Coast Resort (highly recommended!) and the eight day getaway was over all too quickly.


Some of the Madsen boys, playing in the waves. We went to the beach for 6 days in a row, and it NEVER got old. Never.



This is one of my favortie shots. Dylan pondering the waves. Deep thoughts, I'm sure.



Matt's brothers, Rick and Josh. Still competitive after all these years!



My little family. I like this shot! Check out my spectacular tan. I swear it makes me look 10 pounds thinner. I fell off the 'no tan from anything but a bottle' wagon in a big way. The tanning gods welcomed me back with open arms. Welcome home, Nicole the mighty sun worshipper...welcome home. Ahh, it felt good to be back.



The whole crew! Believe me, it was NO small feat getting everyone together and (mostly) smiling for this picture. Whew! Pretty cute bunch, eh?

Etsy Find: Roadside Photographs

Maybe I am a little late, but I've just discovered Etsy lately, and I am LOVIN' it. My latest favorite are the Roadside photographs by photographer Jen Zahigian. They are nostalgic and fun. I think I might have to buy one! (Click on her name above to check it out.)

Some of my favs:

If I Didn't Love Her, I'd Definitely Hate Her

My friend Rebecca and I embarked upon a journey this weekend. Pregnancy photos. I thought it would be fun to take them, and she just so happens to be really beautiful, really photogenic and really pregnant. Check, check, check. (I looked like a cow when I was pregnant. Seriously. I mean it.) I also managed to take a few cute pictures of her adorable family along the way.

Do you think I should ASK her, before I splash her lovely, smooth pregnant belly all over the internet??

Nah. I'm sure she'll forgive me if everyone makes really nice, sincere comments :)


(See? I told you she was beautiful :)

Happiness Is...

A great big push on the swing from Dad,

(Matt and Dylan at the park in Kanab)

Having a Grami who lets you wear her great big sunglasses,

(Cousins Loie and Chloe at Grami's on Easter)

Showing off a great pair of Sketchers,

(niece Mia on the Crosby swing in Kanab - again, being pushed by Matt!)

A good project,

(Zack - excavating a dinosaur!)

And the feel of the sun on your face.

(Zack with Aunt Savannah and Aunt Emily at the Sand Dunes in Kanab)

Happy Friday! (It's already Friday...in my head :)

Who IS That Masked Man?

I love this boy.

Fun Foto Friday

Look out, world. They're armed...and they're related.

Anybody else getting a Lord of the Flies vibe here?

Who Needs a Daughter When I Have Such Cute Nieces?

I have LOTS of nieces - here are a few pics of just two of them. I had a fun photos shoot with Mia and Kelly while I was in Utah over spring break. They were both good sports!

We were taking pictures at the Heritage House in Kanab. Mia decided that she wanted a flower, and when she saw this tulip she yanked it right out of the ground! (Forgive us, Heritage House people.) She wanted it in EVERY picture.

This picture of Mia just makes me giggle. She is SO funny!

I like the above shot of Kelly. It looks very natural. Notice her eyes - one blue and one brown! She's an original!

Such a pretty girl! She looks waaaaay too grown up in this shot...

Sweet Baby Taylor

Love this girl.

Graduation and Braggin' a Little About My Sister

This is my younger sister Ali. Ali just graduated from Dixie State College, and is moving on to USU for her Bachelors in Elementary Education. She is amazing. Beautiful, smart, talented and funny. And I love her.

Ali is coming here tomorrow to spend a week with us. When we go places together, I am sure people think she's my daughter. After all, I am 19 years older than her. I was actually attending Dixie when she was born. I am old enough to be her (young) mom.

If she were a rotten kid, people thinking she was mine might bother me.

But since she's pretty great, I'm totally OK with that.

Just Like Poppi

We've got a lot of very cute Madsen cowboys running around in this family.
Madsen cousins L to R: Dallin, Dylan, Kade and Keenan
(Yes, mine is the cowboy in SHORTS. We haven't perfected the look quite yet. But he IS wearing boots. And a hat. Occasionally, he also wears a CAPE. And I love it.)

Where in the world do they GET this cowboy-thing, you might wonder?

Cause their Poppi is a cowboy. And they all worship him. From the top of his cowboy hat, right down to the tips of his boots.

I'm Domestic.

That's right, I made it myself. Three batches so far.

Fear me, if you dare.

How to Make Your Pictures BIGGER on Blogger

I have had a few comments with people asking how I got my pictures to be so big on Blogger without having to use an outside source like Photobucket. Rather than answer one by one, I thought I would just post it here. First off, enormous thanks to super-duper cousin Kathi for helping me get it right. I would link you up to her fantastic blog, but alas, it is private. I can tell you, you are really missing out. She is awesome. Her recipes are yummy. Her photos are gorgeous. (Kathi! Pleeeeeease de-privatize your blog! Share the love!)

Alrighty - here we go. It's really quite simple once you know how to do it.

1. Upload your pictures to your post as you normally do.

2. You will notice there is a tab that says Edit Html on the right top corner of where you create a post. Click on that.

3. Now - each picture will have some jibberish that looks something like this:

="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5305402070850316562" style="WIDTH: 267px; CURSOR: pointer; HEIGHT: 400px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuAspr0TWV5d9lu6ZSenTfICyRzUyhKaXTRGmxNbA-Aa2zHBcb3CELb45td9cueUk5HfrrfEk3kLTt3dLXt2Rb7L8K4CqN82Dc7gn1v6ugInKbKKvxpCGJlgTrqkBsRDpqCAbsucu8Nq8/s400/DSC02880.JPG" border="0" />

You will basically double the size of your picture. Look for the section that says WIDTH, change it to 532px. Change the HEIGHT to 800px. After that, look for where it says s400, and change it to s800. I have highlighted these sections in red. (You may need to fiddle with the numbers a bit, but I have found that if I just double the original numbers, it works out just fine.)

4. Go back to compose and check to see how your picture looks. It will be quite big! If it is too big, then you can change the size right there in compose simply by clicking and dragging, and you will not lose any quality in the picture. Easy.

You will need to do this for every picture. You might need to widen your blog layout if you want really big pictures. Also an Html thing.

Enjoy your gigantic photos! Let me know if you try it, and if it works for you!

Brynley Sue

It's good to have friends with daughters! With all the beautiful trees in bloom right now, I couldn't resist snatching Brynley and taking pictures of her. Such a beauty!

Lots more to do - I am still editing.

Which one is YOUR favorite?