Revenge is Sweet

Danielle got lots of awesome birthday presents. She loves opening mail and packages and thinks they all have things for her. Since her birthday week included so many things for her she has wanted to open every package and envelope since then. She bought a dolly and a stroller for her dolly with her birthday money. All the presents she got were fantastic, and it was cute to see how excited she was for mail. Like me...

One of the best came with a card. The card read "don't let your parents tell you we didn't send this harmonica. Because we did." Enclosed was a set of Hello Kitty stickers in a card and a harmonica. The message went on to claim that my daughter would become the next Blues Traveler. At this point I realized maybe the present wasn't well intentioned. Maybe this was a mean and not thoughtful present. Blues Traveler? You might as well say the Mighty Mighty Bosstones or Hootie and the Blowfish. Who would wish that on a child? Barely two years old and already these people are trying to curse her.

Not that I don't appreciate harmonica skills. Maybe.

I put my faith in Danielle's short attention span and let her have the harmonica. Actually I gave it to her before I read the card. I know that's tacky, but I don't care. Danielle loves her harmonica. but not as much as the ponies that get to ride in her new dolly stroller. I figure I'm safe from the curse for now.

Of course I need some present ideas- we forgot their 4 and 6 year old's birthdays. I have no idea why I would hide such a beautiful present from Danielle, but now I feel like I have to come up with something just as good.

Here are some ideas I've come up with.

1. A child drum set.



2. The Munoz doll that is on clearance at Target that sings and dances. Danielle loves it.



3. An actual rabbit.



4. Or maybe a rooster.



5. Axis and Allies Board Game.



6. My favorite: The Easy Bake Oven.

What do you think?

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Danielle's Bedroom

Danielle's bedroom is super cute. I thought you might want to see it. We are updating the toy situation a little bit. Danielle likes to play with her toys when she

wakes up. Preferably naked. You can't see them really well but I made black out drapes for her window. It increased her sleeping time by at least 30 minutes each time she falls asleep, on average. Want to see the other wall? You have to come visit.

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Madsen Baby Number 2

Today we went in for an Ultrasound. The first thing the woman did? Ask me why my doctor dared to send me in when I am only 18 weeks and 2 days pregnant. I didn't really have an answer, so I was treated to the story of her divorce and labor. Maybe she didn't hate me by the end because she got all the pictures she needed. Once again as my mother predicted-
WE ARE HAVING A BOY. Why is my mom always right about these things? John and I have come up with our top names but we would love your suggestions. Last time we had a name picked out and embroidered on things then changed it when Danielle was born, so we won't make any premature commitments. At least not with expensive embroidery.

John's top 10 Names.

1. Duff Roger Madsen
2. Phineas Roger Madsen
3. Bertie Wooster Madsen
4. Nino L. Madsen
5. Judd Roger Madsen
6. D'Artagnan Roger Madsen
7. Atticus Erik Madsen
8. Murano Erik Madsen
9. Picard Erik Madsen
10. Ishtar Erik Madsen

Janae's top 10 Names.

1. Mark Sharp Madsen
2. Paul Ethan Madsen
3. Andrew J. Madsen
4. Michael Thomas Madsen
5. Ethan Mark Madsen
6. Stephen Daniel Madsen
7. Aaron Levin Madsen
8. Hunter John Madsen (we already have a fisher in our extended family)
9. Crosby Stills Madsen (Nash is already in the family too)
10. Jakob Daniel Madsen

Now you have a taste of what talking about names is like for us.

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Two!

We taught Danielle how to show how old she is now.
Danielle likes to share. She fed John some of her cupcake.

Here are some pictures of Danielle with her cupcake.

It wasn't until Tuesday that I realized I was totally wrong about the date and Danielle had celebrated her birthday early. How embarassing. Luckily we have more cupcakes.

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Happy Birthday Danielle

Danielle is two today. She is super happy that for her birthday she gets to eat all her Easter candy. Sara and Mark came over Saturday for an Easter egg hunt. Here is Eddie wearing some of his spoils. Today we found some of the eggs the kids missed. We were all too busy rolling on the floor bloated from chocolate to take too many photos. I really liked doing something with family for Easter. It's way more fun to have so many kids looking for eggs than just Danielle. Although Danielle does have a killer instinct. We had to remind her not to hunt for eggs from other people's baskets.
We aren't really having a party for Danielle and I think we will do the official celebration this weekend. Meanwhile, Danielle is busy watching a show her grandma gave her with her dolly that we got her for her birthday. She got to eat noodles and take a bath today, so she has never been happier. The Easter candy probably helps.

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Sunday Thoughts

Easter Sunday

Each Sunday I like to spend more than a little while dinking around and considering which high heeled shoes I should wear. Luckily today I had my outfit planned already. (the picture features the shoes I wore that I am happy to say I got for under 30 dollars- check out the link for the original price.) I think the prenatal samples from this week had some kind of vomit-inducer. Maybe they are designed to help you loose weight. When John came to wake me from my lucky nap I guess the bed looked really comfy so he climbed in with me. I was reminded of growing up as I threw on clothes and brushed my teeth. Danielle got to wear her super cute dress and new White hat. We forgot the hat and I was really upset. Can you really drive back to the house for a white hat when you live 30 minutes away from the church building? We didn't have an egg hunt in the morning- we decided to have the Easter egg hunt Saturday and try to focus on the religious part of Easter on Sunday (plus Saturday was the say Mark and Sara could come for the hunt). Of course I had a terrible time listening to our beautiful lesson and Danielle cried for the part of sacrament meeting where she wasn't trying to get her friend Miranda to stomp on the floor and scream. I was honestly happier with the stomping than the crying, but I don't think Miranda's parents feel the same way.
Also musical programs in sacrament meeting, yes or no?- discuss amongst yourselves. I vote no. Maybe it is that the songs aren't that pretty. I went to a musical program once at St. Paul's cathedral and it was fantastic. Why can't we have that music? Also growing up Brother Pond had a pretty amazing voice for the dramatic reading and it just isn't the same now. as in it wasn't good. If you just showed up and had an almost two hour meeting with lots of mediocre choir singing it wouldn't be so bad- but when you know what you are getting yourself in to it is discouraging. I thought about coming an hour late but they would have had me anyway- the singing was the second part of the really long meeting. At least Danielle looked cute in her dress.
I managed to stay through relief society. It is difficult to be in Sunday School with John in Primary because I have so many stupid comments and I don't get to say any of them without John or one of my sisters. I was trying to figure out how much the hand outs cost in Relief Society and Jayna helped me realize a cheaper way of making them. Can you ask the teacher how she made the hand outs? Can you then ask for specifics about which store she went to in order to determine the cost? I can imagine me going up and saying- hey nice lesson on Joseph Smith being a peacemaker- I was wondering if you made these handouts the expensive way I thought of or the cheap way Jayna thought of. Since it said on the handout "we mind our own business" I controlled my urge.

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Snickerdoodles.

I decided to make snickerdoodles the other day. I didn't have a recipe so I just used the first one that came up online.
I think next time I will call my mom. Not just to ask about why there was no salt in the recipe.

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So Cute. I had to buy it.

I got a cute little pig planter from fruitflypie. I like it because it's about 5 inches- the right size for herbs and it's cute enough to put in the kitchen. Plus it is a pig. That is awesome. They make little dishes and toothbrush holders and other cute pieces. Her picture is probably better than mine- but this is MY little pig. Also available in other colors!

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Smile for the Camera

Danielle is Super photogenic. When you tell her to smile for the camera- she has a special face. She doesn't quite look directly at the camera most of the time and her definition of a smile looks a little bit like a grimace.
You can't tell from these pictures but she has a special belt which is made out of a large shoelace tied in a double knot to help avoid too many naked baby incidences.Danielle does not believe that she will ever go potty in the big girl potty. She will tell you she doesn't want to. So we tie her pants on.
I noticed something today as I took these pictures. Last time we got her hair cut the girl told us that if we used detangler in the morning her hair would look good all day. So this photo was taken about twenty minutes after the detangler use. I think that hairdresser was right- don't you?

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