We've got self-confidence!

We often change the words to songs to fit the situation we are in. One of our favorites is "If you're happy and you know it." There are just so many possibilities with that one. Ryan found some great words for it this morning. After he had finished coming his hair, he came in dancing and singing, "I am handsome and I know it!" I laughed and he got embarrassed before he could continue.

More Josh.

It has been several weeks since I blogged about Josh. I was going to keep you updated about our life 10 years ago. Life got away from me and now it is October all of a sudden. Even as I sit here I don't know exactly what I'm going to write about. Should I tell you about more of our dates? Should I recount our engagement? Well, I think I just came up with something.

Our first date was on July 20, 1999. Our second date was not until August 5. We had a lovely time hiking at Silver Lake. He took forever holding my hand that night, but I thought it was cute how nervous he was. We then went out to dinner at Macaroni Grill and then to Leatherby's. I didn't even tell him how much I loved ice cream or Leatherby's! And then he revealed to me that he makes his own milkshakes just like my dad! I knew he was the one for me. (That's just a little bit of a joke. I didn't base our entire future on whether or not he could make a good milkshake. There were many other things I liked about him.) By our 4th date, we pretty much knew that we were going to be together. (He even kissed me that night!) On August 16 I started teaching school in Provo. It was my first year teaching and I was nervous, busy, excited, busy, tired, busy, etc. Josh was worried that I would be too busy for him. He expressed to me how much he wanted to continue dating me and how he hoped that my teaching wouldn't take away from that. I was a little overwhelmed with school and now the thought of having a boyfriend was more than I could handle at the time. I got over it, though. I survived the first day of school, which made it much more plausible that I could survive school and a boyfriend. On Thursday August 19, I took the day off because of Megan's wedding. After the ceremony I was driving back to the luncheon with my mom and dad. My dad asked me what I thought of the ceremony and I told him how wonderful I thought it was. Then he asked, "Do you want one of those?" And I replied, simply, "yes." So Mom asked, "Is Josh coming to the luncheon?" I had not invited him. We were serious, but inviting him to a family wedding when we had only been dating a couple of weeks seemed a little fast. But my mom's question made me think that it's really not that fast and I didn't care anyway. I wanted him with me. So I called him up and he met me at the church for the luncheon. He stayed with us the rest of the day and all through the reception. I knew I was going to marry him by that point. The next day most of my family headed out to California for my sister's reception there. Josh and I were supposed to go to his work party, but it was raining so we stayed home to watch a movie. That was the night that we decided to get married. Not wanting to waste any time, I immediately got out the calendar and we set a date. Since my family was in California it was hard for me to get in touch with them. I finally contacted my mom while they were setting up for the reception. I told her to get used to it because there was another one on the way. They were not at all surprised, but maybe a little tired after having just finished a wedding. Josh and I got married 4 1/2 months later. We had a total of 9 dates before getting engaged. We were "official" the beginning of September when he gave me a ring at Silver Lake. I love you, Josh!

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.