Tyse-isms

I love how kids come up with their little sayings (not that we are any different). Tyse has definitely learned the value of the spoken word and uses it to his full advantage and 90% of the time I love it! (10% of the time I end up somewhat horrified!) Now that I have you wondering, here are his latest phrases:

1. He loves to say "what's the difference?" he just hasn't yet gotten the idea of it. He says it to me often, sometimes out of the blue and I am supposed to know exactly to what he is referring and come up with the brilliantly correct answer. This is often when that horrific 10 percent makes a showing. He doesn't like that I don't read minds well. Anyway, the other day he says to me (good luck keeping up), "What's the difference with skin? The difference is that our skin looks like this (pointing) and other peoples skin is brown or really white. It's just different. That's the difference."

2. He has the most wonderful primary teacher. She does a great job and he learns a lot from her. In class they have been talking about President Monson and his counselors, whom he refers to as "president monson's presidents". Anyway, he asked me if I knew who president monson's presidents were one day and I actually understood and tried to explain that they are called counselors. He said, "Never mind mom with the right word. What matters is that we know who they are. I know. They are President Eyring and president Orkdoof." I love how he says that!

3. He has started soccer practice and loves every minute. He thinks he needs to practice non stop, and I had to hide his jersey and shin guards so they make it through the next week until his first game. One night he was out playing with Kent and Kent told him it was time to come in for bed. Tyse says, "But Dad, my coach saysbthat we need tom practice a lot! if I go to bed, I can't practice and then I won't win." Sheesh. But if I was concerned about him being a bit timid on the field, it was solved after the second practice when the coach said to me, "Man, Tyse has a lot of aggression!" I am hoping he meant that he is aggressive. I know you are all thinking, Tyse? Timid? no way. But it was a bit of a concern.... for a second or two. Anyway, That's all I can think of right now, but I know there was more to share, so I may have a part 2 later...

The Madsens and the Olympics

Our regular life has been overtaken by the olympics. OUr entire family is into it- except maybe Ollie. He will happily even watch the boring stuff.

Anyway, tyse is enthralled. it was only the second day of the olympics and he had already decided he wanted to work really hard to go to the olympics someday in swimming, volleyball, rowing, white water kayaking, and water polo. Then came his frustration... through tears he came up to me and said, "Mom, there are just too many choices." Yup. That produced tears.

To get a good idea of what it is like to watch sports with him, check out the following video of him watching Wimbledon last month....

Tyse's favorite events to watch have been as follows:

1. Water Polo. Except he called it water soccer for the first week or so. It was the only way I knew to explain it to him- and it would be one of the only events that I really don't have much of a clue about

2. Volleyball. He comes by it rightly and he loves to yell "pass, set, KABOOM!" at the TV. HE likes #8 on the mens indoor team- Purdy. He also likes Millar and Lambourne, of course, since they are ex-cougars. His only beef? That there are 3 different ways to score a volleyball game- the beach style (best of 3 to 21), the international indoor style (best of 5 to 25), and the college and high school style (best of 5 to 30). How is a 4 year old supposed to keep up

3. White Water Kayaking. He loved our little "rafting" trip down the St. Mary's in canada, so he figures he is a seasoned vet. He loves to watch and say "it's a green gate! Go through!" or "it's a red gate! Turn around ! Go backward! Come on!"

4. He loves the hoop and rope events from the rhythmic gymnastics. He loves how high they throw things and how they can catch it all tricky like. He also thought it VERY COOL that one of the girls rolled the hula hoop from one arm, around her head, and then down the other.

5. He loves the birds nest. DOesn't care what happens there- just thinks it looks cool and has a great name!

Emitt loves the volleyball and diving. He calls volleyball "boom" and is glued to it. He likes to climb into my lap and I try to explain what is happening and teach him the right terms and how to cheer appropriately. He is completely mesmorized!

His other favorite is diving. When the competitors get up onto the platform, he watches the tv and yells "oming...oming...oming" (coming) louder and louder until the dive begins, and then throws his head to the side and very smoothly says "aaaash" (splash) when they enter the water. It is really hillarious. I will try to get a video of it.

Kent and I are just sleep deprived. Here it is, 12:40 am, and i am up watching the bronze medal volleyball match between Cuba and China. THis has been going on for 2 weeks now! I can't wait to get a little sleep!

It has been so fun to watch. I can't wait for vancouver already!

Our future rock stars

Tyse is really into music. He cares who is on the radio, learns the words to almost anything, and knows who sings what with who and for what....

anyway, one of his favorites is Steve Miller Band. He has really been brushing up on his air guitar skills, and thanks to the seatbelt from his booster, he almost has it figured out. Notice that his left hand is busy playing the correct chords. Later this day, Emitt sang along to his first radio song- and it was Swingtown, by none other than SMB. His tastes have shifted lately, however to Jazz. He loves to listen to this cd called "The Great Ladies Sing Gershwin" with Ella Fitzgerald, etc. He is a bit quirky! Enjoy the show!

Ed Rothe Memorial Fund

I was lucky enough to grow up in the same town as my mom's brother and his family. I have a cousin the same age as I am from that family and we spent a lot of time together with sleepovers and family trips, etc. I love spending time with the Rothe family and love them dearly. My uncle, Ed, passed away in March in the second inning of a softball tournament he was playing in from a pulmonary embolism- basically similar to a heart attack. He played short stop for the Denver area Senior Softball League. Who knew there was such a thing?
Anyway, after his untimely and shocking death, his family, along with 2 pastors out of St. George, put together a memorial fund in his name to raise money to provide as many senior teams as possible with a defibrilator- hopefully to prevent this from happening to anyone else. By the first of July they had raised enough money to present a defibrilator to his team. The team just happened to be playing a tournament in Salt Lake that weekend and the sponsors wanted a family member to be there for the presentation. Ed's wife was not available for the weekend, so she asked my mom to go in her place. I went along too, mostly to take pictures and get out of the house.
It was a really neat thing to be a part of in his memory and it was nice to meet his teammates and hear how much they liked playing with and being around Ed. After his death, they laid his jersey and glove in his position (short stop) for the first inning of each game, during which no opposing team would hit there, and they also kept his name in the batting lineup and took an automatic out each time it would have been his turn to bat.
It is so nice to hear stories like this when it seems our world is turning more and more into a competitive dog-eat-dog kind of place. Even our recreation often gets out of hand and taken to the extreme. As if our family isn't competitive enough! I hope that I can help Tyse (and the other kids) learn that PEOPLE, respect and the love of the game are far more important than any tournament, trophy, or medal ever will be.

Colby's birthday

No, we don't have yet another boy at our house (yet!) Colby is a friend's little boy that turned 2 in July and I just haven't posted these fun pics yet. After the formal festivities, Shay's dad let us come to his house and play in the kiddie pool, the hot tub, and bbq. The kids have so much fun together! I feel so blessed to have friends that have kids the same ages as mine. Except poor Ollie. No one else was ready to take the plunge with the little ones only 9 months- I can't imagine why! I can't wait until we can move into our ideal compound style housing with those we love!

Look at how cute girls are. I don't have any of my own, so I just pretend maybe these are mine!

The slide into the pool was such a hit- the kids had a great time sliding down! Samantha was a little daredevil! For her usually cautious self, it was fun to see her almost as crazy as the ones that live at my house! Tyse thought that maybe Emitt needed a little help going down the slide. I'm sure!Scout was so cute in the pool- completely content just to be in her own little anti-slide world and go crazy! Here are the group of 2 year olds minus Amy. The birthday boy is in the middle.

My boys didn't want to stop!

They wouldn't get out even when Emitt was practically in convulsions! I wish we had video of him shaking and the sound effect that goes along with it. If he could put on some fat maybe he would be able to go swimming in July without worrying about hypothermia!
The bbq was delicious and Shay and Dave braved the swimming pool with all the kids. The end of the night was filled with fireworks from Lagoon. It was quite a show and kept going and going... thanks for the party, Shay, and the hospitality, Scott!

Mommy Tag

Tyse got tagged by Wyatt

Mommy tag

This is Tyse answering questions about Mom.

1.What is something Mommy always says? I love you
2. What makes Mommy happy? Holding Ollie
3. What makes Mommy sad? When Me and Daddy go somewhere
4. How does your Mom make you laugh? tickle me
5. What was your Mom like as a child? silly
6. How old is your Mom? 29
7. How tall is your Mom? pretty tall!
8. What is your Mom's favorite thing to do? Wash the dishes
9. What does Mom do when your not around? CLean the dishes
10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for? It will be for shayla. (what is famous?)
11. What is your Mom really good at? Are you good at cartwheels, mom? You ARE good at washing dishes.
12. What is your Mom not good at? Flying
13. What does Mom do for her job? Watch us
14. What is Mom's favorite food? Noodles
15. What makes you proud of your Mom? when she tickles me
16. If your Mom were a carton character who would she be? wonder red
17. What do you and your Mom do together? play baseball
18. How are you and your Mom the same? we like going swimming
19. How are you and your Mom different? Mom likes zucchini- yuk!
20. How do you know your Mom loves you? she cleans up my toys


Tyse tags-
Conner, Hailey, Samantha, Carson, and Blakeslie

Topping off the Temple

SO hopefully I will become a little better at blogging, but I am having computer woes, so we will see...
Anyway, about a month ago, we were able to participate in the topping off of the temple. They lifted the HUGE steeple onto the building first ( it was estimated to weigh just over 17,000 lbs and ended up actually weighing over 30,000), which was a little stressful because they were a little nervous that the crane wouldn't hold it after all. I guess the superintendent hadn't slept in about a week because he was worried. It was really neat to see it go up and be a little nervous until it was secured. We headed over at about 7:30 in the morning and set up camp looking like this...
a bunch of the families of the workers were there and so I had some company, which turned out really well when by 10:00 they still hadn't finished securing the tower into place. By the time they finally started lifting the tower, most of the workers had come over to sit with their families and watch (pray). Unfortunately, Kent was no where to be found. I was watching out for him when I saw this...

You may have to enlarge it to figure out why I posted this picture... there is a tall man with a cream, black, and red shirt that is standing on the left corner with a white hard hat on. Yup- that is why Kent hadn't come to watch... he wanted a closer look and decided he should help bolt down the tower. I know it doesn't look that huge from the picture, but he is just standing on steel beams about 200 feet in the air with no harness or safety on at all. All of a sudden I recognized that shirt and then I was REALLY nervous! Kent thought it was so cool to be up and part of that, and he has a rip in his jeans to remember it by.
It took another 2 hours to finally get moroni ready to fly. By that time there were people everywhere outside the gates and the news helicopter was flying around. It was really exciting. I took a really cool video of it happening, but I didn't know you can't rotate video from our camera so it is worthless. Plus it took forever. Sorry not to share. but we got some great pictures...up he goes....

and here he is! It was an amazing feeling and even got a little more emotional about it than I thought I would. What a great experience!
Some of the funny things about the thing...

I was amazed at how detailed moroni is for being 200 feet in the air... His hair is perfect! He even has dimples on his cheeks from where he is blowing his horn. Tyse and Emitt know that his name is moroni, but I don't know how to explain much more about his role on top of the temple than that.
Kent took a picture of his fist next to Moronis to try to get a scale type shot. It turned out that it just looks like they are bumpin knuckles. I guess Moroni is now our buddy.

Imagine driving down the freeway one day and passing this....
This is how they brought Moroni to the jobsite. I don't know what I expected, but I didn't expect to see him tied down to any old flatbed being towed behind a joe schmoe truck. Just a 12 foot moroni. Crusin down the freeway. Hmmm.