An Amazing Leader

We found out that our dear prophet Gordon B. Hincley passed away yesterday. What an amazing prophet and leader that lived in our time. I know that he is a true prophet of God. Now he can be reunited with his wife. He will truly be missed.

Fun Pics

Madeline was playing with her toys this morning and she came out and had some of her princesses in her shoes on top of a shape sorter wooden box. She said that her princesses were riding in the boats (her shoes were the boats). The rest of the princesses are in the wooden box.

Our little flower.

Madeline lined up her care bears so they were holding hands.

Is Christmas over yet?

Whenever we get into the car to go somewhere, Madeline asks to listen to Christmas songs. We put a Christmas CD in our car to listen to during the holidays and that is all she wants to listen to. So we are still listening to Christmas music.

Madeline and I were driving in the car today and she said, "Mommy, where does baby Jesus live?" and I said, "In heaven with Heavenly Father." She said, "oh, wow."

Sprinkler Park

This last week we went to a play group at the Sprinkler Park near the Plantation Elementary School. This has been one of my favorite parks in Florida. It has a FREE sprinkler park where the kids can get wet and have fun. Then they can go play on the slides and the swings after they dry off. We've had a lot of fun memories here.



Madeline's trying to drink the water.

The kids loved splashing in the big puddle.


Madeline and Ashton playing peek-a-boo (I love this picture)

Queen of the Park

Princess Facts

Today Madeline came up to me and said, "Mommy Princesses don't need wands, only Fairy Godmothers and Fairies need wands." One too many princess movies? I think so.

MIAMI METRO ZOO

We recently went to the Miami Metro Zoo. We have a pass which is nice because we can spend as much or as little time there as we want. We like to rent the bikes because we can see the whole zoo in a couple of hours and we don't have to worry about putting Maddy back in the stroller everytime we want to see the animals (she can see the animals from the bike because it is higher up). Madeline's favorite animal at the zoo were the kangaroos and they were so cute. My favorite was the Koala bear. We went to one of the shows that the zoo had and Madeline got to touch a huge snake. She thought that was pretty cool.

Here we are riding in style.


Our favorite: feeding the giraffes.


This baby giraffe was so funny to watch. It was trying to get a drink of water and had to spread its front feet way apart to get a drink. We got a kick out of watching this baby giraffe trying to get some water.

Maddy and the Elephants.

Maddy and Andrew with the Koalas.

Andrew is getting eaten by the Hippo.

Maddy liked to "slide" down the Elephants.

OCD or CDO?

Madeline is so funny. Lately i've been taking pictures and video of the funny things she does. She is a very organized person. She likes to line things up and will spend a lot of time doing it (we have an inside joke in our family that if someone is so obsessive compulsive then even the words have to be alphabetized, CDO instead of OCD). Here are a couple of pictures to show what I mean.
All her care bears and trains lined up.

She lined up her pull-ups in piles of two.

Lining up puzzle pieces.

Is this OCD or what?

This one is my favorite. Maddy lined her princesses in a circle because "they are at the ball in the castle."

Family Outing

One of our favorite things to do as a family is go to the library to feed the ducks and turtles. When we start throwing bread into the pond, all the ducks come rushing over and we can see all the turtles heads poping up from the water to come and eat. It is so cute. Madeline loves to feed the turtles and ducks.

That is one hungry turtle!

SHARK VALLEY

Over the Christmas break, we went biking in Shark Valley (the Everglades) with the Richtsteig family. We biked to the tower and back which is 14 miles. We saw a lot of alligators. We also saw a lot of baby gators. Some of the alligators were on the trails and we had to bike around them. We went on a cloudy day which is good because there is a greater chance of seeing more alligators. On the way back from the tower, Andrew had Madeline and Kacen in the carrier. He was swerving back and forth and the left tire of the carrier came loose. So we had to fix that and while the tire was being fixed the kids were playing with Andrew's bike and his chain came loose. That had to be fixed as well. But other that than we were safe and no gators attacked us.


Here we are close to a gator.

Madeline and Kacen having fun.

Madeline's not afraid of getting close to the gators.

These next two pictures were taken from one of the side trails that we walked along. The limestone that we were standing on was depostied beneath the ocean as it covered the Floride Peninsula over 100,000 years ago. The porous limestone acts like a sponge, allowing water to flow beneath the Everglades to meet the needs of the entire south Florida ecosystem.

CHRISTMAS DAY

This year we did not go to Utah for Christmas. We spent a nice and relaxing Christmas in Florida. Christmas eve day, we took Madeline to a matinee movie: "Alvin and the Chipmunks". This was the second movie she has seen in the theater since she was born. She really liked the chipmunks; her favorite was Simon. My favorite was Theodore (he is sooo cute). That was a fun tradition. For Christmas eve night, we went to the Fairhurst's for dinner, white elephant exchange, and games. We had a great Christmas eve. Then we had to hurry home so Santa Claus could come to our house.

We slept in a little on Christmas Day. We made Madeline eat breakfast before opening any presents. Then we read the story of Christ's birth from the scriptures and discussed with Madeline why we celebrate Christmas. Finally, we got to open presents. Madeline got a dollhouse and lots of princess stuff. Andrew got guitar hero III, transformer risk, and lots of clothes. Staci got tickets to Wicked (in March), an iPod, and an apron (I haven't worn one since I was a child--imagine that). We also got lots of games and movies. We had a great day.

Madeline's Dollhouse.
Princesses and dolls. Our little Tinkerbell. Princess Memory.

Magic Kingdom

We were able to take Madeline to Disney World over Christmas break. This was her first time at Disney World and she loved it. Her favorite were the Princesses. We waited in line for fourty minutes to see the Princesses but it was worth it. Madeline got to see Belle, Sleeping Beauty, and Cinderella. She was in heaven. We really enjoyed the firework show and the parades. We spent the whole day at Magic Kingdom and still didn't see the whole park. The park was all dressed up for Christmas and it was a magical time to visit. We had a lot of fun.

ICE ICE BABY

We went to Gaylord Palms convention center in Orlando and went to the ICE! exhibit. This holiday attraction is hand-carved from nearly two million pounds of ice and is cooled to a chilly nine degrees. Luckily, they provided oversized winter coats for us to wear. The exhibit included a walk-through igloo, a huge gingerbread candy house, meticulously hand-carved from enormous blocks of colored ice. My favorite was a life-size Nativity carved completely of crystal-clear ice. It was one of the most breathtaking depictions of the birth of Christ. Madeline's favorite were the ice slides.

After the ICE! exhibit, we got free hot chocolate (very much needed) and saw Luninescense-A Christmas Fantasy. It was a live stage show that featured holiday characters and seasonal music. We really enjoyed it. Madeline's favorite were the "princess" dancers. Andrew's favorite part was the aerial drum solo from 20 feet in the air. My favorite part was the hot chocolate.

Andrew's tongue is stuck!

The life size Nativity Scene.

Madeline's favorite: the slide.

We made it to the North Pole!

Our family was established November 3rd, 1999. We were married in the Mount Timpanogos Temple in American Fork, Utah. Nine months after we were married, we moved to Portland, Oregon. Andrew graduated from Portland State University with a Bachelor degree in General Science. Staci graduated from Oregon Health and Science University with a Bachelor degree in Dental Hygiene. On October 7th, 2004, we were blessed with a beautiful baby girl named Madeline. We currently live in South Florida where Andrew is finishing his last year of dental school at Nova Southeastern University. We have enjoyed living in Florida and are looking forward to graduating and moving on with our lives.