One year.

Sept. 2, 2008, 7:12 p.m.

9 lbs. 1 oz. 20 in.

Sophie Rae McFadden

Now 21 lbs. 11 oz. and 31 in.

Happy birthday, little Muffin! We love you. You are such a joy in our home. We couldn't ask for anything bettter.

Timpanogos Cave!

We went to Timpanogos Cave yesterday. It was a beautiful day for a hike.

We only took the older 3 kids. Sophie and Ryan stayed with Lisa. These three were real troopers. Anna needed shoulder rides for part of the way, but she walked the rest of the way herself. That's over 3 miles and almost 1100 feet climb in elevation! The cave was beautiful, of course, and Anna was giddy with excitement. Tyler, however, is a little afraid of heights and dark, so it wasn't the most enjoyable day he's had. He made it, though, so what more can we ask.

Every 10 steps or so Anna would say she needed to rest. Sometimes she would just sit down without telling us. On one bench she sat down and said, "Holy crap! I could just sit here all day!" I think most of it was just for drama sake, because she kept up her energy level throughout the whole thing.

Overall, I think I'm the one in the worst shape. I might need to go back in a couple of weeks after I've exercised more regularly just to prove to myself that I can do it without wearing so completely out.

Sometimes owning a home stinks.

Recently we have had what feels like our share of home improvement "emergencies." A couple of weeks ago Emma came upstairs saying the toilet had exploded. Indeed, it had. The pipes behind the toilet were broken and spraying water everywhere. We turned off the water and cleaned up the mess. A few nights later a horrible wind storm blew our fence down. It was already feeble, but couldn't it have stayed standing until tax refund season? Today as we were in the process of picking our bushels and bushels of apples and attempting to fix the fence, our front door was vandalized. We have windows on either side of the door, and one of the windows has been broken. We know who did it, and what happened, and while we can and will forgive them, it is still frustrating to have one more relatively large expense to deal with. Our house is falling apart around us. If only we could replace the whole fence, remodel the bathroom, and replace the front door/entry... But for now, we will just put on some bandaids and call it good.

Birthday pictures!

We went to Silver Lake for Josh's birthday. It was beautiful.
Josh got a hamburger cake for his birthday. The kids have been wanting me to try it for years.

Our cute new puppy, Snowball.

Anna with her puppy.

This is how Anna reacted when we told her we were taking Snowball home.

Anna and her mermaid cake. She said she wanted a MacGyver cake, but Ariel was a close second.

Ryan with the puppies on his birthday.

Sophie loves the puppies. This isn't Snowball. This is one of the others.

Anna with one of the bigger puppies.

Ryan catching the puppies.

Ryan's soccer ball cake. Mmmm.

And one of Josh and me at Mirror Lake, just for fun.

Birthdays!

I just realized how long it's been since I last posted. Boy, how time flies. Anyway, this week we've had fun with birthdays. Ryan's birthday was on Monday, Anna's is today and Josh's will be on Monday. Last Saturday we had a BBQ with Grandma and Pappa M. and then watched fireworks. On Monday we went to Spring City to celebrate Ryan's third birthday with Brynn's family. Granny and Grandpa came too. The kids had a blast playing with 12 puppies. Ryan loved his soccer ball cake and his new sleeping bag. On Saturday he was determined to stay 2 forever. By Monday he was pretty stoked about being 3. I'm glad he could come to terms with it. The trip to Spring City turned out to be a mistake however. Ryan fell asleep on the way home. He got a good, long nap, and when we got home at 10:00, he was wide awake and ready to go. He didn't go to sleep until 3:00. The next day he slept for 4 hours, which kept him awake until 1:00 that night. Luckily we've got him back on a schedule now. The other reason the trip was a mistake is that I couldn't take how cute Anna was when she asked for a puppy. I stayed strong that night and told her 'no' repeatedly. But she is so flippin' cute. And I couldn't think of anything else to get her for her birthday. So I talked to Josh, and he said, "Why not?" The week has been crazy enough that he didn't want to put much thought into it. So I called Brynn. Brynn came up today with the puppies, so we went to meet her at Granny's house. The kids had no idea what was coming. You should have seen Anna's face when we told her we were taking Snowball home. I actually did get a picture of it, but Josh took the camera with him for work purposes, so I don't have it with me to upload. But I will soon and then you can see how excited she was. And I haven't seen the kids since. They have been outside all afternoon playing with the dog. It will be okay, won't it? People have dogs all the time and survive it, don't they? It doesn't have to take over the house and yard, does it? I'm still not sure I want a dog. So, now we just have to make it through Josh's birthday on Monday, and then this birthday week will be over for this year. Sophie's birthday is next, in just a couple of weeks. I think I've had all the cake I can handle.

Just Stuff

There are a few things that I want to remember, so I thought I'd put it down here.
The other day Emma was eating some of her new favorite snack (garden vegetable cream cheese on Ritz) and as she stuffed a cracker into her mouth she said, "I'm obsessed with cream cheese!" Emma is very witty. She can come up with things on the spot that will make us laugh. She just asked how many Plutos we can fit in the Earth. Then she said, "We better ask Neil Armstrong about that."

As we were getting ready to go swimming, Josh was grabbing a bunch of stuff and naming everything he got. ("Let's get this towel, and this towel, and our passes...") Ryan looked at him and very seriously asked, "Do you need to hold me, too?" Then we set off for the pool. But we forgot something so we turned around and came back. As Josh was in the house, Ryan said, "Mom, did we go swimming?" He's funny.

Sophie crawls by scooting on her bum. She gets around pretty well and loves to make her way to the toyroom to play with the kids. She also pants like a dog whenever she sees an animal or hears the word 'dog.' The other day she misunderstood me and when I said "Dad," she panted like a dog.

Anna's birthday is coming up and she has promised that she will stop sucking her thumb when she's 5. She also is very excited to start school. We just got all her materials. She still runs wherever she goes, but she doesn't run into walls anymore. She is always entertaining us, but when it comes to specify, it's hard. She will often state something and then say, "right Mom?" For instance, "Monsters won't get us because they're not real. Right, Mom?"

Tyler spends much of his time imagining things for his next book or movie, asking questions about what is the hottest, what is the smallest, what is the ugliest, etc. and drawing pictures. He's very imaginative and creative. When he's not doing those things he's being a goofy boy. He likes to see how much goofiness he can get away with and I spend much of my time saying "Tyler" in a threatening tone. (Just thought I'd throw in a little Swifty.)

I wish I had a better memory, because there are so many things that the kids say and do that I forget within a day. Maybe these few little things will be enough to get me through when they are all grown.

Going on TEN!

(I was going to put a picture of us in 1999, but I didn't have one on this computer, and I was too lazy to get it from the other computer. So this is from 2008.)

Ten years ago today marks the anniversary of our first date. Since I'm feeling sentimental and long-winded, I decided to blog about it. I feel like giving a little history of my dating life just because it seems that it will help with the significance of what I went through with Josh. I didn't date in high school---at all. I went on my first date about a month after I graduated. Sometimes I missed it, but mostly I just liked being home or with my friends. When I went to BYU, I started dating a little more. My first year was mostly just hanging out with a bunch of my guy friends with a few dates thrown in. I dated more as the years went on, and I seemed to be the target for people anxious to pair up on blind dates. I hated blind dates. I got one who showed up wearing a disco wig. Did he really think that would make a good first impression? I got one who passed out if he studied too long. What a geek! (That was a little harsh. I'm sure he made someone very happy. He just wasn't for me.) Anyway, I learned to not trust people too much when it came to blind dates. Then came Lisa. She is quite insistent when she gets an idea. In December 1998, she set me up with a kid in her ward. He was pretty cute! The first blind date I'd had that I was actually attracted to the person! We had fun on our date, and even went out a second time. Nothing materialized, and I was okay with that because I knew he wasn't "my type." But I learned a valuable lesson from that experience. LISA CAN BE TRUSTED! (I trusted her in most things, of course, but had very little faith in anyone's ability to find a suitable blind date for me. This experience changed that.) So, then in March 1999, Lisa came to me and said, "I have someone I want to set you up with. He's really cool, but he's got a girlfriend. I'm waiting for him to break up with her, and then I'll give him your number." I said okay, because Lisa can be trusted. April came, and Lisa informed me that this guy had broken up with his girlfriend. "I'll give him some time to get over her, and then I'll give him your number," she said. Over the next few months I had to endure Lisa's endless questions of "Has he called yet?" to which I'd answer, "No." I was beginning to regret giving her permission to hand out my number. I WILL TELL YOU WHEN HE CALLS! In the meantime, I decided that I was tired of looking for the right guy to come along. I had a contract to intern at my favorite school in Provo, I was just a year away from graduating, I was making plans to go through the temple, I had plans. I was prepared to spend the next few years teaching school. I decided the Man Hunt could take a back seat. I was going to focus on me for a while. Then one Sunday afternoon in July, I got a phone call. I still remember the confused look on my dad's face as he handed me the phone and whispered, "It's a boy!" Yes, Josh had finally called. Not that I really had any expectations. After all, it's a blind date, right? I spoke to him for quite a while. With my plans for myself set in motion, I decided I didn't need to TRY to impress anyone. So, when he asked why I had moved back home, I told him that I was tired of roommates and ready to move on with my life. I thought that might sound a little forward, but hey, who cares? I was being honest. We made arrangements for our date that week. Josh invited Lisa and Brett to go with us as buffers. So, on July 20, 1999, Josh took me on our first date. We met at Lisa's house. I got there first, and I remember watching out the window as Josh and his brother and sister came walking up the street. (His brother and sister were babysitting Lisa's kids. They didn't just tag along to gawk.) I had to ask which of the boys was Josh. There was nervousness, just because it was a first, blind date. But I went in with no expectations. I was tired of having expectations and being disappointed. It was a concious decision to have no expectations. Still, he was pretty cute...

We decided to take my car, but Brett would drive, and Josh and I could sit in the back. We went to Applebee's for dinner. I told stories of my teaching adventures. I just remember that because I had a funny story of an escaped chicken at show-and-tell--all while I was being observed by my future employer. It still makes me laugh. I remember thinking that I liked that Josh seemed genuinely interested in what I was doing with my life. I also remember thinking that he had very skinny wrists. Then he signed his name to the receipt for dinner. Joshua Davis McFadden. I've always liked the name Joshua. But Davis is a family name for both of my parents. My brother's middle name is Davis. I have nephews with Davis for a middle name. I was planning on naming one of my own sons Davis (middle name). That's what got me thinking that I might start having expectations for this date.

We then ventured over to Mulligans to go miniature golfing. I was a little annoyed because it seemed so cliche for first dates. I hate cliche. But, whatever! No expectations, right? We had a blast! I'm horrible at miniature golf, so Josh kept fudging the score. Lisa and Brett kept letting themselves get ahead of us. (I wonder why they did that.) We got ice cream and went home. Once we got back to Lisa's house, the kids all came running out to greet us. Tyson and Megan visited with Brett and Lisa while Josh and I had the first-date-obligatory-I-had-fun-let's-do-this-again talk. I still didn't know whether that would happen. Then he gave me a quick hug. At the risk of sounding really dorky, I will continue. I had hugged other guys at the end of dates. I had hugged good friends. I had hugged guys I'd been attracted to. I'd felt the little butterflies of excitement when you get those kinds of hugs. This was nothing like that. There was a sudden rush of happiness, and I thought to myself, "I'm going to kiss him!" Now, having related my prior dating experience, you know that I had no experience in that area. I had even decided that I would rather not break someone's heart by kissing them and then telling them it's no good. So, for me to think that this is the guy I was going to kiss was a big deal. I took the kids into Lisa's house and waited for Tyson and Megan to finish talking to Lisa and Brett. This was really the only awkward part of the evening. Josh had said goodbye to me, but since everyone knew everyone (except me) they continued chatting. I figured the least I could do was go inside and wait. It made it less awkward for me to take the kids and pretend I was getting them to bed. I went home and haven't stopped smiling since. (That last part was really cheesy, but I was smiling remembering all the details of the night, so I thought I'd put it down.) Today we relived our date--without Lisa and Brett. They even played all 90s songs at Applebee's just to take us back...

Over the next few weeks I will relate other details of our dating time. (Don't worry. We didn't date too long, so it won't be that boring for you all.)