You are in the same boat with EVERYONE ELSE! My beautiful cards are complete- the pics are actually in the house- the envelopes are all addressed- so you may ask why they never made it from my bedroom?
Well, we are blaming it on the printer. I spent an evening writing a letter, and then Kent spent an evening re-writing our letter just to have our printer break and we never got it fixed to print. Thus- no cards.
The bright side?
Next year's cards are up and ready- and hopefully a new printer will be gracing our desk soon!
So for those of you that felt like something was missing in your celebration this year, here is our christmas letter- complete with post christmas commentary found in RED.
Merry Christmas everyone! Hope your holidays have been filled with joy. We are grateful to have such great family and friends such as you. This year was memory-filled as our family continues to grow.
Ollie is 2 and going on 8 in his eyes! He loves to pretend to boss around his brothers, play with Hot Wheels and construction toys, and say whatever his brothers tell him to say. One of his recent favorite phrases to say whenever he is asked to do something is, “Kayh! whatEVah”- spoken phonetically. He has also mastered the art of plugging his hears when he doesn’t want to hear what we have to tell him. We think he aspires to be a sanitation engineer because he loves everything that has to do with garbage. He is happy as a clam as long as mom is in arms reach. He has taken to fixing things with dad when he or his brothers break something- he loves being a "worker guy." Santa brought him a big boy bed and he loves it- even that inch long gash from falling out of it!
Emitt turned 4 this year. He started preschool and is working hard on writing his name and rhyming. He loves riding his scooter (and not letting Ollie ride his), Halloween, and anything Cat in the Hat. He also believes he is a great impressionist and has started quoting movies. He has mastered the art of turning a knock-knock joke into a 2-part why did the chicken… type joke. (eg. "Knock Knock? Who's there? An elephant. Elephant who? Why did the elephant cross the road?...) If the two parts ever coincide, we might be tempted to pursue a stand-up-comic career.
He decided to add a new christmas eve tradition to our family- spending the day in the ER. More on that story later, but lets just say a lot of blood, a major course of sedatives and a healthy amount of stitches were involved.
Tyse just turned 7. He started first grade at a new school this year as part of the school district’s accelerated learning program. He really loves math and spelling and has also developed an affinity for drawing. He seems to have inherited an interesting Mortensen trait . . . he LOVES to watch the weather! He had yet another big year of sports- soccer 3 days a week, is about to earn his green belt in Karate (check) , played his first season of indoor soccer, has just started his 2nd season of Junior Jazz basketball, and can’t wait for nice weather so he can play golf and mountain bike (just got one for his birthday). With all these activities he has also really started to EAT!
Kent is in his 4th year of work at Okland Construction. He completed his first project as the manager on a chapel in Colorado Springs, CO before trying his hand at estimating and bidding. His first bid win came on a chapel in Austin, TX and hopefully there will be many more in the future. He found out after Christmas that he has been given the management position on that texas job! Hooray! He is also serving as the Young Men’s president in our ward and he really enjoys working with the boys. In his spare time he learned how to change transmission fluid on the cars AND on the washing machine (who knew?), he worked hard on our family and ward gardens this summer and finally finished our little side yard by laying a stone paver patio and building two more planter boxes in the side yard out of the un-HOA-approved one from our front yard (Yes, the HOA made us tear it out). He also took a long weekend trip and successfully climbed Mt. Whitney (the highest peak in lower 48). He is also an assistant coach on Tyse’s soccer team and continues to be reminded about how hard it is to be employed as a manual laborer for his wife!
I continue to try to control the chaos (as well as any women can with 4 active boys). My health has finally taken a turn for the better this fall after a rocky winter and spring. Spoke too soon! Med change to come and hopefully I will be back on track in a month or so. I serve as the Compassionate Service Leader in our ward which has welcomed 20 babies since I was called in mid-July. I have started crafting quite a bit and have sold my handmade crafts at a couple craft fairs with good success – much thanks to Kent for his grunt work! I also have recovered enough energy to play volleyball a couple days a week and in doing so quickly realized how much I have missed being in the gym. I continue to cook – well, mostly bake – as much as our bodies can tolerate and was able to take a lot of the produce from our garden and get it canned. Other than that, keeping everyone clean, dressed, and fed is a more than a full time job!
We sincerely hope this season finds everyone happy and healthy and that we can remember the blessings that come to us through the wonders of the Christmas season.
With Love,
The Madsen’s
Well, we are blaming it on the printer. I spent an evening writing a letter, and then Kent spent an evening re-writing our letter just to have our printer break and we never got it fixed to print. Thus- no cards.
The bright side?
Next year's cards are up and ready- and hopefully a new printer will be gracing our desk soon!
So for those of you that felt like something was missing in your celebration this year, here is our christmas letter- complete with post christmas commentary found in RED.
Merry Christmas everyone! Hope your holidays have been filled with joy. We are grateful to have such great family and friends such as you. This year was memory-filled as our family continues to grow.
Ollie is 2 and going on 8 in his eyes! He loves to pretend to boss around his brothers, play with Hot Wheels and construction toys, and say whatever his brothers tell him to say. One of his recent favorite phrases to say whenever he is asked to do something is, “Kayh! whatEVah”- spoken phonetically. He has also mastered the art of plugging his hears when he doesn’t want to hear what we have to tell him. We think he aspires to be a sanitation engineer because he loves everything that has to do with garbage. He is happy as a clam as long as mom is in arms reach. He has taken to fixing things with dad when he or his brothers break something- he loves being a "worker guy." Santa brought him a big boy bed and he loves it- even that inch long gash from falling out of it!
Emitt turned 4 this year. He started preschool and is working hard on writing his name and rhyming. He loves riding his scooter (and not letting Ollie ride his), Halloween, and anything Cat in the Hat. He also believes he is a great impressionist and has started quoting movies. He has mastered the art of turning a knock-knock joke into a 2-part why did the chicken… type joke. (eg. "Knock Knock? Who's there? An elephant. Elephant who? Why did the elephant cross the road?...) If the two parts ever coincide, we might be tempted to pursue a stand-up-comic career.
He decided to add a new christmas eve tradition to our family- spending the day in the ER. More on that story later, but lets just say a lot of blood, a major course of sedatives and a healthy amount of stitches were involved.
Tyse just turned 7. He started first grade at a new school this year as part of the school district’s accelerated learning program. He really loves math and spelling and has also developed an affinity for drawing. He seems to have inherited an interesting Mortensen trait . . . he LOVES to watch the weather! He had yet another big year of sports- soccer 3 days a week, is about to earn his green belt in Karate (check) , played his first season of indoor soccer, has just started his 2nd season of Junior Jazz basketball, and can’t wait for nice weather so he can play golf and mountain bike (just got one for his birthday). With all these activities he has also really started to EAT!
Kent is in his 4th year of work at Okland Construction. He completed his first project as the manager on a chapel in Colorado Springs, CO before trying his hand at estimating and bidding. His first bid win came on a chapel in Austin, TX and hopefully there will be many more in the future. He found out after Christmas that he has been given the management position on that texas job! Hooray! He is also serving as the Young Men’s president in our ward and he really enjoys working with the boys. In his spare time he learned how to change transmission fluid on the cars AND on the washing machine (who knew?), he worked hard on our family and ward gardens this summer and finally finished our little side yard by laying a stone paver patio and building two more planter boxes in the side yard out of the un-HOA-approved one from our front yard (Yes, the HOA made us tear it out). He also took a long weekend trip and successfully climbed Mt. Whitney (the highest peak in lower 48). He is also an assistant coach on Tyse’s soccer team and continues to be reminded about how hard it is to be employed as a manual laborer for his wife!
I continue to try to control the chaos (as well as any women can with 4 active boys). My health has finally taken a turn for the better this fall after a rocky winter and spring. Spoke too soon! Med change to come and hopefully I will be back on track in a month or so. I serve as the Compassionate Service Leader in our ward which has welcomed 20 babies since I was called in mid-July. I have started crafting quite a bit and have sold my handmade crafts at a couple craft fairs with good success – much thanks to Kent for his grunt work! I also have recovered enough energy to play volleyball a couple days a week and in doing so quickly realized how much I have missed being in the gym. I continue to cook – well, mostly bake – as much as our bodies can tolerate and was able to take a lot of the produce from our garden and get it canned. Other than that, keeping everyone clean, dressed, and fed is a more than a full time job!
We sincerely hope this season finds everyone happy and healthy and that we can remember the blessings that come to us through the wonders of the Christmas season.
With Love,
The Madsen’s
This is him with his best buddy, GianLuca, who was a dragon-something? They sure loved kindergarten, but they were ready to move on to 1st grade!
The rest of the team was staying together for this year as well, and so the coach said, "We'll see everyone back next year except Tyse." He totally panicked and thought he was never going to play soccer again- it was a really sad moment for him! Not to worry- there was plenty of soccer to play!
About a week later he played in a 3v3 soccer tournament with some boys that share his passion for soccer and they did pretty well. They played 4 games in one day- the first 95 degree day of the year- and they were the youngest team there. They ended up in 3rd place out of 5 teams after losing in a shootout to an 8 year old girls team.
This month we were also able to keep Mallory for a few days while her mom attended a conference. She and Ollie had a great time together.
Our last snowstorm of the year came at the end of may and it was so awesome! The boys were ecstatic to build a snowman and I love that my boys were still totally happy for snow- even in may!
The boys and our neighbor built a one armed snowman. It was very cool. Ha ha.
Check out those sweet buzz cuts!
The boys were great slave labor and had a great time being pushed around in the wheelbarrow. 
We were also able to go to Discovery Gateway with our good friends, The Keenan's and the Maggiora's. Unfortunately both families have since moved away. Miss you guys! I am just going to add a bunch of pics from that trip with no extra commentary from me.
I loved walking into the room and seeing this- Ollie is buttoning dad's sunday shirt while dad buttons Ollie's. This is Ollie to a T- much older than his 2 years give him. 
I turned 31! I had picked the cake I wanted about a month prior, so part of my present was being given the time to bake it! I discovered the cookbook section of the library one day and I have been wanting to learn to make artisan breads. Unfortunately I didn't find any cookbooks that only had breads in it- but I did find the Martha Stewart cookbook that I call "The Baking Bible." I borrowed it because it had a chapter on breads- but it also had a chapter on about every other pastry and bakery item. Somehow I never got around to making any bread, but I sure tried a lot of cookies, pies, tarts, and cakes....hmmm. Anyway, I made this mint chocolate ganache cake for my birthday. I ran out of time when making my ganache so it ended up a bit runny, but it sure tasted good! We also got to go to Zupa's for dinner (my family friendly fave) and spend the evening together.
This is one of my favorite pictures from the month. Tyse has started to like to read to Ollie. They have such a great time together! They are very similar to eachother and sometimes they struggle, but I think for the most part they are understanding kindred spirits. Not many would understand their drive and need for achievement. Certainly not Emitt.
Our first stop was at Navajo Bridge. This place is so cool! 
The boys had a great time running across the bridge and a couple California Condors came out and were flying just about 15 feet over our heads as we hung out. Those birds are HUGE-and UGLY! There were a couple hispanic grandmas on the bridge that kept begging me to carry Ollie because they thought the birds were going to come swoop him off the bridge and eat him. The boys also loved climbing on the rocks and figuring out what they looked like. This one they called Dino skull...
