Stella's First Christmas

Christmas with a baby was absolutely perfect!  Stella got completely spoiled, but deserved every ounce of it.  Santa treated her very well, and I know it is because she was such a sweet, perfect girl this year!  I feel so blessed that our circumstances allowed us to provide her and our other family members with such a great Christmas this year.  I know she is too tiny to even know what went on this Christmas, or to even remember any of it, but it was still such a special time for our family.

Growing up, my family always got a gift on Christmas Eve until all of the kids in my family were grown, and it was always pajamas.  So we decided to continue that tradition with our new little family.  

 She quickly figured out how to unwrap gifts, and then instantly tried to eat all of the paper.

Seriously...is this not the cutest hat you have ever seen?  She only makes it cuter, too.

All ready for bed!

We then woke up the next morning to see that Santa had definitely made his way to our house!  All of my siblings and my grandma came over to my parents' house for breakfast and gifts.  

Stella's pile....can you say "spoiled"?  She got so many new toys, books, and clothes...everything an 11-month-old could ever need right?

We gave my parents this beautiful nativity that my mom has had her eye on.  I think it was a hit!

In my family, most of our Christmas gifts were based around one thing....we get to go on a trip to Hawaii in October!!  We could not be more excited.  Josh has never been to Hawaii, so I think he is thrilled!  We were all given some luggage, the girls were given a beach bag, and the boys were given a hat and a round of golf at one of the most beautiful golf courses while we are there.  Let the countdown begin! :)

We then hurried to get ready and head over to Josh's parents for lunch and more gifts.  It looks like Santa made it to the Madsen home as well!

The kids chipped in to get Scott a new golf bag...

And Kerri some new workout gear.  

All of the Madsen boys got embroidered cases for their guns.  Now Josh finally has a place to keep his gun at our house, instead of taking up space at his parents' house.  

Grandma and Grandpa gave Stella some adorable new clothes, a book, and toys.  This girl must be loved!

We then played some Christmas bingo.  I never won a single game!  But Josh won some hair gel - probably the best prize there was.

 We hope your Christmas was as wonderful as ours.  

Merry Christmas from the Madsen family!  

Holiday Happenings

December is always a wonderful month, but this year it was extra special because we had Stella with us for the first time!  We were able to enjoy a lot of fun holiday happenings that December brings.  We started off the month by seeing the lights at Thanksgiving Point.  Sadly, we didn't make it to Temple Square this year...every night that we had available seemed to be WAY too cold to go out.  But Thanksgiving Point is great because you get to stay in your car the whole time and just slowly drive through.  Stella was fascinated by all of the twinkling lights that surrounded us.

We had the annual Greenwell family Ornament Party on December 9th at my parents' house.  We always have soups and goodies, and then play the ornament exchange game (basically a white elephant exchange but with ornaments instead).  This is always a fun tradition, and we ended up with some good ones this year!

Stella especially loved playing in all of the tissue and wrapping paper.

 On the 16th, we made the trip down to Manti for the Cox family Christmas Party.  We enjoyed good food and good company, most of whom we don't get to see more than a couple of times each year.  We played and sang Christmas carols together (why I have no pictures of this moment, I have no idea!) and then played the favorite dart game.  We each took turns throwing darts at the balloons, all of which have a piece of paper with different amounts of money written on them, ranging anywhere from $1 to $50.  Josh and I together won a total of $7.  You could say we didn't come out on top this year ;)  But it was still very much worth the trip!  Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Cox for providing us with this fun tradition every year.  It is a favorite...and not only because of the money involved!

Later that week we headed to Heidi and Jason's house for a night of dinner, gingerbread house decorating, and games. We first started this tradition last year and it has been so fun!  Heidi and Jason are such wonderful hosts and are so gracious for providing dinner and gingerbread houses (or in our case, a train) for all of us.  

I loved every second of this Holiday Season.  The joy that it brings to everyone is always so uplifting and inspiring to me.  Plus, having a little one makes it that much more enjoyable.  I wish it could be Christmastime all the time!  I hope your holidays were as wonderful as ours.  Here's to next year!

And So It Begins!

I really didn't think Stella was ever going to crawl...I thought she would just skip it completely.  She would roll and scoot all over the place, and never showed any interest in crawling at all.  Then on Sunday the 2nd, she just started doing it out of the blue like she's been doing it all along!  (I apologize for the blurry photos...my camera doesn't have a very fast shutter speed, and she is constantly moving now!)

Now she is a crazy crawling maniac!  She is so busy...and gets into everything!  In the past week, she has gotten so good at crawling...she is a pro! And is getting VERY quick!

She is also obsessed with the tile and hardwood floors throughout the house... I think she likes the way it sounds when she slaps her hand on the hard floor over and over :)

Life has sure changed around here this past week!

Some of her first crawls...

Stella Meets Jolly Old St. Nick!

Stella got to meet Santa a few weeks ago.  

Let me just say...this photo shoot was HILARIOUS!  Josh got to dress up as Santa - they even stuffed his belly so he would look more like the real deal!  Stella thought it was so great!  

(Photos taken by Fotofly at Scheel's)

Then she sat on the "real" Santa's lap...and she wasn't too fond of him!

We are so glad we decided to have these photos done.  I hope they keep doing them in the future, because I'm thinking this is going to make a great tradition for years to come!

Nursery

This post is obviously long overdue, but I couldn't let any more time go by without posting pictures of this precious room.

We are so very lucky to have such wonderful people in our lives who contributed to this room.  Josh's parents purchased our crib, and my parents purchased our dresser.  The recliner is my dad's favorite chair that he is so kindly letting us borrow while we live here.  We just added the slipcover to make it match.  The nightstand was a $10 DI item that we refinished, and the shelves were from a craft store that we just spray painted.  I also painted the different frames throughout the room.  The owls were a fun project I did while I was pregnant.  They are covered with the same fabrics that are in all of the bedding pieces.  I made the rug - it turned out cute, but if I would have known it would take about 15 hours total to make, I probably would have just bought one.  However, it did keep me busy during downtime when we were waiting for miss Stella to get here.  Mostly though, we owe a lot of thanks to my mom.  She made all of the bedding, the pillow, the two quilts, and the runner on the dresser.  She put countless hours of work into this room, and even went through the pain and torture of creating her own pattern based on a pottery barn quilt (since we didn't want to spend that much money, and ours turned out much cuter.)

Before Stella was born and once this room was complete, Josh and I would often go sit in this room and imagine our new baby girl and the way our lives would change.  We didn't know it then, but we would soon be given this sweet angel who we love more than we ever could have dreamed.  

I love this room.  

But even more, I love the baby who sleeps in it.