Happy Birthday!!

Last Sunday, the 23rd, was Madeleine's 2nd birthday! It was such a fun and crazy day. Madeleine went to sleep the night before all excited about her birthday because we told her people were going to come over and bring her presents. The excitement just grew from there. She woke up bouncing off the walls exclaiming, "Happy to Madeleine!" and clapping her hands and dancing around. Unfortunately she had to wait until that evening for anything real exciting. I think it was more unfortunate for us because we had to deal with an ecstatic two-year-old through church, which is during her nap time, and then try and keep our tired, overly excited girl happy until people came.


But once our families arrived, we had a lot of fun. She did great blowing out her candles and tore through all of her gifts. What a great birthday it was and a fantastic warm-up for all the Christmas presents to come.


By the way, the only part of her cake she ate was the 2 made of sprinkles and the frosting under it. A much cleaner birthday than last year.

Six Truths or Habits

Amy tagged me to do this and here it finally is.

1. I have never pierced my ears and have never really had the desire to. I’m not much of a jewelry person and most the time just wear my wedding ring.

2. I really don’t like shopping (I‘m remembering as I shop for Christmas presents). My mom used to hate taking me shopping because I could never make a decision of what to get. I haven’t really changed. It also takes too much time and I only like to buy things on sale. For that reason I don’t buy much because the things I finally decide I like I don’t want to pay full price for. And then I don’t shop often enough to find those things on sale. If I just had a personal shopper who could find what I want for a price I want to pay, my house would be decorated and I might have some updated clothes.

3. When I get candy, especially holiday candy, it takes me months to finish it and I usually save the best pieces for last. I often have to hide my candy to keep others from eating it because I haven‘t forgotten about it, I just don‘t want to eat it right off. I have had candy last me a year many times, and really it’s not as good when it’s a year old. You would think I would learn to just eat it when I get it. Oh well.

4. I've had my toenails painted almost everyday since high school (so over eight years). I went a couple days without them painted, but my stained toenails weren't very pretty. So I think I’ll keep painting them. It’s a good thing I really like it.

5. Every morning I have cereal for breakfast. I love it! I like big breakfasts like pancakes or waffles, but I like them for dinner rather than breakfast. It’s just too much cooking and to much food for the morning.

6. Someday I want to write and illustrate a children’s book. I’m not the best artist, but I think it would be fun.

Now I'm going to tag Haley, Gina, Heather and we'll see if Matt will do it.

Tori's Blessing II

You're all right! Tori is the beautiful baby on top. I guess they look different enough. But I found another picture that looks even more like the one of Madeleine! I really do wonder how much they will look alike as Tori gets older. And although the two look a lot alike, they have such different personalities. Madeleine was always going and moving and so alert. Tori likes to just hang out and sleep. She also likes to cuddle so much more than Madeleine ever did. Tori is also very sensitive. When Madeleine is crying Tori will often join in with a very sad sounding cry. It's so cute! She also complains more about being cold and alone and dirty and really anything else there is to complain about. Hopefully the very different personalities will allow them to be the best of friends as they get older.

Tori's Blessing

This last weekend we blessed Tori. It's always so fun to have a chance to celebrate the birth of these little babies. Matt did a great job with the blessing and we enjoyed our time with our families. Tori wore the same dress Madeleine was blessed in which was a dress that my mom and I made. She looked beautiful! Now we've been saying from the beginning that Tori looks a lot like Madeleine did as a baby. Well, we have more pictures to prove it. Take a look. Can you tell who is who? I'll let you guess and then in a few days I'll post the answer and more pictures from the blessing. Good luck!

First Smiles

This is probably one of my favorite moments with a new baby, the first smile. You pull funny faces, make strange noises, and talk a lot of nonsense hoping that one day all this work will produce a smile from the little blob of a baby. It's so rewarding when it finally happens. Tori started smiling a few weeks ago and this picture is of that first smile. It has since developed into a full body smile. Her tongue sticks out and her legs and arms curl up and it's a flirty smile that says, "Man, I'm cute!" Someday I'll capture that smile on camera. Until then, we'll just leave you with a baby fist bump and say catch ya later.

We have had a good year a lot to be thankful for. A new house, Matt’s stable job, a healthy new baby, our families, the gospel, and I could go on and on. We also, had a great Thanksgiving weekend. We spent a lot of time with family, eating, playing games, and just relaxing. Matt and I also participated on the traditional wishing on the wishbone. Except, the strangest thing happened. Neither of us got the bigger half! Crazy! I don’t think I have ever heard of this happening. So what does it mean? Neither of us get our wish, we both get our wish, or do we have seven years of bad luck now. Well, I just hope that my wish comes true because it was a good one.

Victory!!

So this last weekend was a good one for Utah State Aggie fans. Our football team won their first game of the season!! (Making our record 1-10, but whose paying attention to that?) Matt enjoyed listening to the win on the radio since the game was played in New Mexico. The weekend before that we did head up to Logan for the final home game of the season. It was a really bad game, but the weather was beautiful, the stadium was full (of Boise fans), and we had a good time with Matt's family. It was also Tori's first Aggie game. And of course she slept through the entire game. Now we just get to wait until next year and hopefully our team can win a few more games.

Fall Frenzy

For the first time in her little, short life, Madeleine experienced the thrill of jumping in a big pile of leaves, and she loved it!! Grandma Draper would rake them up into a pile and then with a running start, Madeleine would jump right in. She also had some fun throwing the leaves at people, although her favorite person to throw leaves at was herself. Ahhhh, there is nothing like itchy, cold leaves making their way into any possible gap in your clothes. It was great fun and reminded me of the hours I used to spend jumping in the leaves every fall as a kid. We used to make a huge pile and then jump off our swing into it. We also used to hide in the pile and take turns bringing friends back to scare. I can't wait until we have big trees in our backyard so I can teach Madeleine all of these fun uses for a leaf pile. But that will be awhile. I guess we'll just have to use grandparents houses for now.

Pumpkin Masterpieces

Here they are! Our beautifully carved pumpkins! Matt ended up carving three of the pumpkins by the time I carved my one. I guess that's what happens when a perfectionist carves a highly detailed design. We let Madeleine experience the joy of digging out the guts of the pumpkin and she didn't seem to mind the wet slimey feel of the seeds. So Matt carved the Aggie "A" and the other two faces. Madeleine helped him carve the first face. I carved the Trick or Treat pumpkin and Tori's tiny pumpkin. It was fun to have so many pumpkins to carve this year and we think they turned out really well.

Pickin' Pumpkins

Now, I'm not a big fan of Halloween, but one of my absolute favorite traditions is getting pumpkins and carving them. For the last two years Matt and I have gone up to a pumpkin patch in Farmington to actually walk around their field and pick our perfect pumpkins. The pumpkins are more expensive this way, but it's much more fun than buying them from a bin at a grocery store. They also have a mini hay bale maze and spots for fun pictures and it's just great! This year we went for FHE a couple of days before Tori was born. Forgetting how quickly it gets dark, we were finding our pumpkins after the sun had already set. So, it was a short trip, but still fun and we found some great pumpkins.

Don't worry, Madeleine did enjoy herself. She hasn't quite figured out the smiling for the camera thing. She had a great time picking up any pumpkin she could and sticking it in our little cart. We finally had to just let her pick two of the many pumpkins she picked for herself and Tori. Matt found a big green one that has unfortunately turned more orange, and mine is just a perfect pumpkin shape. Although if we had more evening light, I would've found a big round one like my belly.

We had a great time this year. But I think we'll try to get there earlier in the day next year. Look forward to pictures of these lovely pumpkins carved.

The Girls

So now that we've been home a week with little Tori I think we'll keep her. She's such a good baby in so many ways. Once she figures out this nighttime thing, she'll be the perfect baby. Madeleine absolutely adores her. She often asks to hold her, which I don't think she understands yet that you actually have to hold on to her. Every time she sees her she says hi and wants to hug and kiss her, and my favorite, tickle her. Madeleine is so proud of her baby sister and has shown her serious side as she has taken on the big sister role. What sweet, cute girls we have!!!

It's Another Girl!

Here it is! Our first official photo of our Family of Four. Tori Mae Draper became an official member of our family on Wednesday, October 10th at 8:53 AM. Jenny is so happy to be done with being pregnant. Tori was five days overdue, and Jenny was really anxious to get that writhing mass out of her belly.

The vital stats that everyone always needs to know are that she weighed 7 lbs 14 oz and measured 19.5 inches. Madeleine, in contrast, weighed 7 lbs 1 oz and was 21 inches. So, they're pretty comparable. I think they look a lot alike as babies, but here are the pictures so you can determine for yourself.

Their respective bows give away who is who: Tori with the orange bow for her near-Halloween debut, and Madeleine's Christmas bow, since we came home from the hospital with her on December 25. Could you have told them apart without the bows?

For those of you who don't know, we decided to name her Tori after much deliberation. Jenny and I hemmed and hawed for several months about what to name her, with Tori always being in the running. Then, last Thursday we got the unexpected news that my Grandma Draper had passed away in her sleep, a month before her 85th birthday. Grandma Draper had always been a wonderful example and friend to us. For a year and a half after Jenny and I got married, Grams let us live in her basement off campus at USU, rent-free, while I wrapped up my Masters Degree. She was always so active, keeping the big old house and yard in good repair, tending to her large vegetable garden, and generally making us feel bad that we were being outpaced by an octogenarian. She was a magnificent example of service and work to us, and even before her passing, we thought we might name our baby after Grandma's father, Torrey Lynn Austin, in her honor. The sudden news last Thursday sealed the deal for us. Tori's middle name, Mae, is in honor of another great lady in our lives, my own mother, whose middle name is also Mae.

Finally, here are two more photos of Jenny and I mere minutes after Tori's grand entrance. You can tell in this picture that it's 9:00 AM from the clock on the wall, meaning she's just seven minutes old.

This picture of Jenny was taken nearly immediately after she had given birth. Two thoughts here: 1) Aren't epidurals magical?, and 2) Let's hope Tori winds up with Jenny's looks and not mine!

What a Zoo!

Nope, no baby yet, so we'll update the blog with something a little more pedestrian. So, last weekend we headed up to This is the Place State Park for the Step Out! Diabetes Walkathon. My parents, brothers, and daughter all accompanied me and were part of our team from my place of work. We thought it would be nice to raise some money for diabetes research, since several members of my immediate and extended family have suffered from the disease.

Jenny didn't make it with us, since she's nine months pregnant. We walked three miles from the park down and around to Hogle Zoo. Part of your entrance fee went to lunch and free admission to the zoo. We thought it would be a fun time to introduce Madeleine to the zoo and spend the afternoon there.

Well, we thought wrong. The weather decided that it would be a good day to turn rainy and cold. In fact, by the midafternoon, it got so cold that a minor blizzard erupted! Luckily, Jenny joined us at the zoo with warm coats and blankets, so we were able to survive. Most of us had walked three miles, so we were pretty warm from the physical exertion. But poor Madeleine was shivering in her little jacket. It's a good thing Jenny is on the ball and remembered Madeleine's coat and mittens.

We decided that since we didn't have to pay more to get in the zoo, and because it was so cold that it was completely uncrowded, we would stick out the inclement weather and see the animals. Most of the time we spent finding indoor exhibits, as seen on the right, where Madeleine pounds the glass in front of a creepy looking monkey. Hey, it's only Hogle Zoo, you don't expect world-class animals.

Fortunately, a lot of animals were fairly easy to see, so Madeleine enjoyed herself. She particularly liked making elephant noises at the pachyderms. Here we are at the elephant exhibit. It was a fun day, but not as much fun as it could have been if the weather would have cooperated. We'll have to go back another day when temperatures rise above 36 degrees.

"Maa do it"

In the last couple of weeks our sweet little compliant girl has turned into little miss independent. Her favorite saying is "Maa do it" and she uses this phrase for everything all day long! Putting on her shoes, getting in and out of the car, shutting doors, and so on. When she's really tired this even extends to tasks that are impossible for her, like getting completely dressed, combing her own hair and even helping to change her own diaper. Now, I know that independence is a good thing and that every kid goes through this. I guess I should just be happy that it's happening now so we have time to adjust and learn to deal with this new Madeleine phase before the baby comes. Also, it may come in handy when I have three of us to get ready before heading out the door. At least she can put on her own shoes. She's getting to be such a big girl and I'm going to miss all of the one on one time that we get together. She's become such a talker and gets so excited about the littlest things. Her biggest compliment lately is to say that something is nice. The way she says it cracks me up every time. What a cute girl even with this streak of independence.

Bard Party!

Jenny wants me to post something, since this is "our" blog, after all. So, here are a couple of photos from my company party that was held last Saturday at the Triple D Ranch in Herriman.

When we got there, almost everyone was sitting down to eat, so we took the opportunity to hit the kiddie area while it was mostly deserted. Madeleine is highly adventurous, but so much so that she doesn't realize she is two feet and 50 pounds smaller than most kids, and therefore tends to get banged around when she intrudes into big-kid play areas. So, it was nice to have the place mostly to ourselves to play.

Anyway, the picture on the right is the bottom half of a blow-up slide shaped like a shark. It was probably at least 30 feet tall, and you can see Madeleine emerging from the mouth and sharp teeth of the beast. Of course, she loved it, but couldn't get up the steep plastic sides without my help. So, I got to go down it a couple of times, too, which thankfully only resulted in a couple of mean wedgies and one plastic floor-burn.

After dinner, we went on the hay ride. Jenny was hoping that the ride would be bumpy enough to induce labor, but, alas, she wasn't that lucky. For the record, she is really anxious to be done with this pregnancy. Which means that I am also really anxious for her to be done, too.:)

Well, the ride was pretty unspectacular in itself. We saw cows and horses and deer at about 100 yards distance, which isn't really that exciting when you're that far away. The only really interesting wildlife we saw was as we were boarding the wagon. A little garter snake crossed our path, and Madeleine was enthralled with it. Meanwhile, other Moms and kids alike were scurrying away and commenting that they were glad to be up on the wagon instead of on the ground with the vile serpent. It's nice to have a little girl that isn't too squeamish and girly.

In the end, the story of the hay ride really just gives me an excuse to post this extremely cute picture of Madeleine, which is really the only reason people have blogs, anyway, right? So, here you go. Our friends Travis and Janae are becoming profession photographers these days, so maybe they can comment on the merits of our use (or lack thereof) of light and perspective. But this picture was taken by Jenny without even looking into the lens, so I'm pretty happy with our point and click technique.

So, people are sooo nice! Let me explain. We have realized that Madeleine has a love for cooking. Whenever I would make dinner, Madeleine would get out the plastic plates and cups and forks and start setting places for people to eat. She would have a place for me, for Matt, for grandma and grandpa, for her duck, for the water pitcher lid that happened to be a frog, for anyone she could think of. She would also get out my mixing bowls and start mixing her Legos or magnets and then dish them onto the plates. Also, everytime we check on her in nursery she is at the play kitchen and whenever we go to other peoples houses she goes right for a kitchen if they have one. So we've been thinking for awhile that we need to get her a kitchen for her birthday. It would be a perfect gift. Well, I had noticed that a neighbor had this little kitchen (the one on the right in the picture) outside of her house. It looked like it was going to be thrown away. Well I asked another neighbor what they know about it and the next thing you know this neighbor with the kitchen shows up with it and some play pots and pans and food. Madeleine loved it!! But it doesn't end there. About a week later this same neighbor stops Matt outside and shows him this way nicer kitchen that talkes and makes cooking noises. She said she got a different one (not necessarily better) and didn't have room for both. So now we have two kitchens all because a generous neighbor heard Madeleine loves kitchens and didn't have one. I still can't believe it. Madeleine has spent hours playing in her kitchen. Now all she needs is a table and chairs. I think that will be her birthday present now. What a lucky girl! Thankfully this neighbor is at least going to let us pay her back with some babysitting. I don't know if that is much of a fair trade, but I guess it's something.

Go Aggies!!

It's official, fall is on it's way and the Draper household is excited! This means celebrating a few birthdays, a baby finally coming, cooler temperatures and most importantly for Matt, football season. We went to our first Utah State football game Thursday. It is a yearly Draper tradition to buy season tickets to USU football (no matter how bad they are). But since we have a baby coming this may be the only game we make it to as a family.




As usual we went with Matt's family. You can see Clint and Ben or at least their white and blue hats to the left of us. And of course Madeleine loved being there with Grandma and Grandpa. Madeleine loved it from the moment we walked into the stadium. She clapped and cheered and danced. Much of the game she just kept saying "foot ball" and "go aggies". She even participated in the beloved Scotsman. I think she made her daddy proud. As for the Aggies, they lost yet again leaving us little hope for even a win this year. Maybe it's a good year to not have season tickets.

Summer Recap

So much for the idea that leaving the posting up to me would get it done. But, now that we have actually told a few people about our blog I guess I should actually do something about it. So here we go.

Since the last time we posted it was the beginning of summer, I figure now, the end of summer, would be a good time to give a little recap of what we've done. And really this won't be too long because most of our summer has been spent indoors with our wonderful central air. Pregnancy and 100 temps do not mix.

June we spent a bit of time camping. Madeleine loved being outdoors and getting dirty, but she did not like sleeping in a tent. After one night Matt said that was our last camping trip for the next 11 years. I guess by then he figures we'll be done having babies around and it might be enjoyable again. But don't worry Madeleine and I went camping soon after that with my family and she slept great! So I may be able to convince Matt to go again next year, maybe.

The rest of the summer we've just spent the time being with family and friends. So here's a photo run down of it all.

We discovered that Madeleine loves rain and thunder storms. She'll listen for the thunder and then ask for it again when it's done rumbling. One evening, as we were watching the storm from the shelter of out garage she just headed out into the rain on her own. She danced and splashed until she was soaked. Needless to say, she loved it!

We've also gone to quite a few Bees games this year. Madeleine has done really well. She loves the mascot Bee and often asks to see this picture. She'll also go around saying, "Yea Bee". Matt is also very proud of her catching skills. Notice she caught the ball on the tip of the glove.

Madeleine and I also got to visit with some of my HS/college friends Amy and Liz and their kids Ashlyn and Jack. The three are very close in age. We went and fed the ducks together although I think Madeleine ate more bread then she actually threw to the ducks.

The most recent fun we've had is going the the county fair. It has become a tradition to go with our friends Travis and Janae and this is our third year. Madeleine thought the animals there were great! She would find their eyes and ears and when it came to finding their noses she ended up sticking her figure up their noses and getting animal snot all over. Gross!! She also found a funny colored puddle to jump in. Ewwww!! Thank goodness Matt was the one to clean her up. Here she found a three horned sheep in the petting zoo. Any guesses what the third horn is for?

We also went to the demolition derby there. Although Madeleine wasn't sure of it, we thought it was great. Nothing like burning rubber, flaming cars, and revving engines to top of the night.

Well there you go. There's our summer. Hopefully we'll end it off with a little more fun.

Oops!

Still trying to get the hang of this . . . Here's that missing picture.

Back on Track

OK, so it's been WAY too long between posts. I think it's obvious that, like most things in our marriage, if anything is going to get done here, Jenny is going to have to make it happen. So I finally got around to showing her how to log on here and post things, and hopefully this will lead to a much busier posting schedule.

So, what shall we discuss today? We just got back from Yellowstone on Wednesday after 5 days there. It was nice to get away from work for a couple of days. Luckily we decided to "rough it" in a hotel room instead of trying to camp with a 17 month old child. We thought the hotel was worth it just for a dark, semi-quiet room with a playpen that Madeleine could sleep in. But we really thought it was worth it when it snowed on us on Monday night and most of the day Tuesday. The thermometer in our car told us it was 37 degrees outside when we got to Old Faithful on Tuesday! So we wound up hiking around the geysers in full winter coats trying to stay warm. We were actually grateful for the stinky, sulfide steam coming off the hot springs, because it was at least a little warm.

Anyway, the rest of the trip was really nice, and we saw a ton of wildlife. Madeleine did pretty well in the car for having to travel over 1,000 miles, all things considered. Here's a picture of her in the visitor's center near Yellowstone Lake. Cute, huh?

First Post

Dear anyone who cares to read this,

Just like with every major technological advance of the past decade or so, I'm several years late to the party. Heck, I'm still logging on to the Internet via dial-up, and I still don't own a cell phone! So, the fact that I've figured out how to have a website of my very own should really come as a shock. Anyway, we've created a page to try and share some of our family's highlights (and also give Jenny something to do in her spare time).

I'll end this first post with the latest family picture we have, which will hopefully be the first of several pictures to come.