hello from the MADSENS

hi how is everyone? Life here in Heber City is grand!!! We are in the process of a huge cement project on our drive way and side yard that I hope will be finished sometime next week. I will post pictures when they get it done. Robbie is going Salmon fishing next Friday all the way to Washington State with a couple buddies for 8 days he is so excited he can barley stand himself. I am going to NC on the 19th for a couple weeks to visit the fam there too. We are only going to see each other 11 days in September WOW....The dogs are great Maggie is finally starting to mellow a bit and Gracie is as neurotic as ever, Tristin started middle school 6th grade.....She loves it and is doing well. What weekend in October are we doing the sisters weekend? Who is coming? I have to run, love to all!!!
Karyn

Anybody interested?

We have a nice big solid wood desk that we want to get rid of. It was a hand-me-down to us from Franklin Covey who was getting rid of a bunch of office furniture. It used to be my computer desk, but when we moved, it was too big to fit through the basement door. It's been sitting in our garage for the last year. It's got some sort of white wash to it. It measures about 4 feet deep by about 6 feet long. And has 6 drawers. One of the drawers holds legal size hanging files. It's a great desk, we just can't get it in, so don't need it anymore. We'd love to be able to give it to someone in the family if you need it. Otherwise we'll just DI it. Let me know if you are interested.
Susan

FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN!

Today was Aiden's first day of Kindergarten! Last night, the principal had a little party called "The night before kindergarten" where all the new kindergarteners got to go to the school in their pajamas to listen to a story and eat cookies and milk. So, we took a picture of Aiden and Emma on the doorstep in their pajamas before we left. The other pictures are from this morning. When I picked him up after school today and asked him to tell me about kindergarten he just said: "It's great." I did hear from another girl in the neighborhood who is also in his class, that they made a giant gingerbread man, but when they went back to the cafeteria to get him out of the oven, they found out that he had run away! Aiden says he thinks they'll find him tomorrow. What fun it is to be a Mom and watch your kids grow up and do all these fun things for the first time.

Home Sweet Home

Hi everyone!  Jen and I haven't posted anything lately, so I thought I would catch you all up on what's been going on.  We recently moved back into my mom and dad's house to save some money for my future entrance into law school.  It's a little weird not having our own place like we have for almost six years, but we really appreciate my parents' (and Clayton & Makell's) willingness to open their home to us.  I think we have all done pretty well adjusting to the new lifestyle.

Jen's birthday was on the 6th, so on her birthday weekend she and I went to Park City to relax and have some time together.  As her present, I got her a massage, facial and pedicure at the Pappion Spa located in one of the hotels at The Canyons.  We also went out to eat a lot, of course.  Jen and her sister Wendy also did some clothes shopping at the outlets at Kimball Junction.  It was definitely what the doctor ordered.

Yesterday we had a yard sale at my parents' house.  Mom and Mariah both threw in some things, and it turned out to be a great success.  Total combined revenue for the day was a little over $400 - not bad considering that none of us had ever done one before.  School started back up for both Jen and I this week, so we plan on being extremely busy for the next few months, but who isn't, right?

We hope this post finds you all doing well and that you have enjoyed your summer.

Gabrielle's Birthday

Fun-filled graduation weekend

Jordan and I had a fabulous weekend this past week - my family & Robert and Melody came out to Utah for my graduation. It was so good to see everyone :). Each semester BYU has University commencement on a Thursday, followed by individual college commencements on Friday. So it's a busy two days. My college's was at 8 a.m. (a little to early for me, considering we had to leave Murray at 6 to be there by 7 so I could line up and everything). Aside from the early hours, our weekend was fabulous. It definitely feels good to be done with school :). We were tour guides for my grandparents, who hadn't been to Utah since the 1950s. They loved the mountains, Temple Square, touring the U and BYU and Sundance. Now that graduation and finals (for Jordan) are behind us, Jordan has two weeks off until school starts up again, and he is enjoying his two-week break by getting started on law school applications, which can be turned in as early as October.

Thank you, Janet, Scott, Hannah & Ava for surprising me with the fun door sign and decorations!

7 weeks and counting!

I realized our most recent post is two pages back and decided it was time for an update from us. Things are still going great! There's only about 7 weeks left before our little one joins us, we are very excited! We're just trying to prepare the best we can; getting a room ready and taking classes at the hospital. We can't wait to meet our little person.
Brian continues to enjoy his job doing engineering analysis for a small company near by. He had his 25Th birthday this month. I had surprise party for him with some of our friends. I can't believe we're both 1/4 of a century old!
His training keeps him busy a couple nights a week- running, swimming, cycling. He recently did a 100 mile mountain bike ride from Flagstaff to the Grand Canyon and back. He did really great overall but had some trouble the last 15 miles or so due to fatigue. He really loves to get out there and test his endurance and abilities. Brian will be doing the Arizona Ironman again in April 2008, training for that starts in January.
Brian's grandfather, Bill Rosner, passed away in July. He would have been 82 this year in October. Brian flew to Indiana to attend the funeral services and was a pallbearer. It's funny how funerals always kind of end up being a good time... you get to see people you haven't in a while and you share an emotional connection with them. Everything seems easier that way, when there's other people there with you. He said it was very nice to see all that side of his family again.
Brian is currently serving in our ward's Elders Quorum presidency. He's had that calling for the past couple years with 2 different presidents. He enjoys it overall, it gets him out of his comfort zone every once in a while which is good for anyone!
As for me I quit my job at the end of April and have very much been enjoying my time at home. I was also recently released from my church calling as Young Women's President. There's really only about 6 Young Women in our ward. I have very much enjoyed attending Relief Society again, it's been almost 4 years. I am now mostly just trying to stay cool and make it through the summer!
Sara gave me a sweet little orange kitten for my birthday. We named her Polly and that now puts the cat count to 3 in our house. Polly is very much a kitten and has rocked our world, especially for the other cats! She's a crazy little thing, you never know what she'll do next.
It's been so great reading about what every one's up to on the blog. I hope everyone will keep posting! See ya, love ya, The Roz's

There's no place like home...

We have just returned from a lovely vacation in Portland, but it's always nice to come back home....especially after a 14 hour drive with the kiddos. Oregon is a beautiful state, and Portland in particular has some really interesting people and places in it. One of which is a donut shop called Voo Doo Donuts. They are famous for very creative donuts....the "voo doo" donut is a jelly donut in the shape of a man that comes with a pretzel stabbed through the middle. The maple donut with bacon on top was absolutely delicious, but we all voted the 'tang' (yes, the drink the astronauts took to the moon) donut best.

We also went to a cajun macaroni restaurant. It was SO GOOD. and the fun part was that they made fancy tinfoil sculptures with your leftovers. Aiden's meal got made into this HUGE sword. It didn't quite fit in the car.

A lot of the trip revolved around food because...well look at us! It's no secret that we like to eat, but Bub's brother Chris that we went to visit, is in culinary school there. however, there were other things involved in the vacation too. We did some site seeing, including the Multnomah falls, a fish hatchery with 12 foot sturgeon in it, the Tillamook cheese factory, the Oregon aquarium, and we even drove to the coast for a few days. We stayed in a "yurt" at a campground across from Beverly beach and enjoyed shopping at the waterfront of Newport. We also visited Yaquina Head lighthouse. the trip itself was fun, but Emma's expression says it all about the drive there and back. Hope all the rest of you are doing well!

Karden is Home!!!

Hello All! As Sue wrote before Karden is now home! He still has be on oxygen and monitors but he is doing well. Colin and I are busy adjusting to having a baby home, but we are doing great too. It's nice finally hold him when ever we want. Thank you to every body for there prayers we really appreciate it. I've posted some pictures of him so you can all see how cute he is. Other than having the baby come home, all is about the same. Colin is still testing soil for the commuter rail, and I'm still interpreting for the state. Thanks again for every thing, we love you guys!

Colin, Robin, and Karden

What is there to do in Portland?

So, we're leaving on Saturday to visit Bub's brother Chris who is attending culinary school at Le Cordon Bleu Institute in Portland, Oregon. He is studying to be a pastry chef, and I SO hope he has homework while we're there. We will be there a week. Has anybody else ever been there? Does anybody have suggestions on fun stuff to do, or neat things to see?
Susan

Hola Family

Hi Everybody

It's so fun to go on the Meeks Messenger and see everyone's postings. And it was especially wonderful to get one from Pam! Thanks, Pam. Please keep us updated on all your happenings.

I've been so busy this summer that I don't know if I'm coming or going. We spent last Saturday in Boise waterskiing with Robert's sister and her family. We had a blast. I tried the new thing called wake surfing. I couldn't get up so I invented wake body surfing. They have a miniature surf board and you use a rope to pull your self up. Then you find the wake, let go of the rope and surf right behind the boat. You're so close to the boat that you can talk to the people in the boat and Robert's sister said that one guy they surfed with stepped of the surf board right onto the deck of the boat when he was done. Well, in a couple of weeks we're going to Shasta for a week. I'll master it then and send you a picture, I hope.

I hope we see some more pictures of Karden! And thank you, everyone for your pictures and postings. Keep them coming!!

Baby Karden comes home!

Colin called me last night to let me know that baby Karden gets to come home sometime over the weekend! Yahoo! congratulations! We're all glad that he's doing so well. Just to warn you all though, he won't be able to have visitors for quite a while. The immune system on those little ones is still pretty fragile. ( I know I should let Colin post this news, but I think they are a little preoccupied right now.) Best of Luck Colin & Robin!

FUN REUNION

I must have done this wrong last time I tried, so here goes...again. We really enjoyed the family reunion. Thanks to Iris for putting it together. My folks (Jerry & Ruth) had a wonderful time. They've been recovering ever since, but are so glad they made the trip. It was good to see all of you. Besides our usual callings and responsibilities, we are planning a 65th Wedding Anniversary Open House for the folks at the end of Aug. Melia, Rick & Tami and their families enjoyed the dinner, program and fireworks. A special thanks to all those who participated in the program. We expect the rest of you to perform at the next one! Thanks for putting this together, Melody. Pam

A quick update from J&J

Thanks for putting up pictures! It's so fun to see what's going on in everyone's lives :).

Jordan and I are busy and hot. Utah is so warm in August, and I know it's only going to get warmer! I am all done with classes as of two weeks ago and am enjoying life with no studying or classes. It's a nice break! I am working as a PR coordinator at Penna Powers Brian Haynes (ppbh.com) in Salt Lake and LOVE it! Jordan is taking some classes over summer, and will be done with BYU in Provo in December. He is such a trooper right now to be commuting, but he says it isn't that bad, since he goes against the flow of traffic. We are looking forward to seeing my family and Robert and Melody in mid-August for my graduation and my brother's baby blessing. Not much else is going on in our lives right now - just having lots of fun with friends and such. Sorry this is so brief - we'll post again soon!

Here is a picture from the Putnam family reunion in St. George in June....

Good Parking Spots!

Hello all! After seeing Mariah's cute pictures, I thought it might be fun to put up some pictures of my own. They are Aiden's school picture for preschool this year, his T-ball picture....(t-ball which turned out to be not such a good idea after all...) Bub graduating with his masters degree in Mental Health Counseling (how long has our family needed a therapist in it?!!!) and Emma. Her hair is finally long enough to put in teeny tiny little pig tails. Of course, she pulls them right out, but her therapists have been wanting her to reach her arms up to do things- so the effort isn't totally wasted. We ordered a wheelchair for her yesterday. She is still doing well with her efforts to learn to walk, and her therapists have every confidence that she will succeed one day. But she'll keep growing and it will be harder to carry her around, or keep her in the stroller. Also, one of the therapies that she gets goes through the school system and they only go till kids turn 3. After that she has to go to a special needs preschool. The wheelchair will help support her to sit up for longer periods of time like that since her upper body strength is lacking. We'll soon also be getting a "gait trainer" which is a fancy walker. Something tells me our multi-level house won't work for much longer, but on the bright side, I'll be getting some good parking spots!

Hello from the Bartletts

Hi everyone,

Not to many new things going on here to report. For those of you who don't know our newest addition to our family Roman arrived on April 29th. He is already three months old and getting bigger all the time. Boston is going to be three in September but has an attitude of a twenty year old. Time goes by to fast. She adores her baby brother and loves giving him hugs an kisses. She also loves to feed him and help me out in other ways. Sometimes she can be a little to helpful. Everyday they are both learning new things.

Enrique started a new job the week after Roman was born which has been a big blessing to our family since it has allowed me to stay at home with our children. Things have been going well and they really appreciate his hard work and he enjoys working there.

Congratualtions to Robin and Collin on ther new baby. I hope that everything is going wel and please let me know if there is anything I can do to help out. I am sorry that we weren't able to make it to your shower I had really wanted to come and see everyone again. I didn't get the invitation until the Thurday night before and already had plans.

Also congrats to Allyson and Brian on there coming arrival. It is so exciting. The ultrasound pictures were adorable. We hope that everything goes well for the rest of your pregnancy and for the delivery. Hopefully it won't be as "exciting" as Romans delivery.

Hope everyone is doing well. Lots of love, Mariah