Thad Loves to Play!

So, the weather has been somewhat decent in Logan, but I haven't taken the opportunity to take Thad on a walk because he naps all through my lunchtime and then I can't leave the rest of the day and by 5:30pm it's too cold or I'm too lazy. So yesterday I was thinking and I thought about how most people can open their front or back door and they have a yard to enjoy when then weather is nice...well, this is as good as it's going to get for us:)

The balcony at the apartments is just going to have to do for now.

He just walked back and forth and loved being outside!

There was a lot of falling, but he's such a big boy and can stand up all by himself

Thad loved the camera!

We just left the front door open and he went in an out. How fun!

This was the day before when someone came to our door and we just left it open to play

He loves doing the new squint/smile face for the camera...what a ham!

We've recently discovered that he LOVES this giraffe blanket. We had it out the other day, I rolled it up and put it on the side of the couch and he kept hanging out in that little corner where I couldn't see him and when I went to see what he was doing, he was cuddling w/ this blanket...what a sweetie!

Things are great at the Monsen home! We still don't have a start date for Brian's job in CT, but we know it's in July for sure so we're still waiting for an exact day so we can make some more detailed plan. We're still quite a ways out, but it's just nice to know exactly what you're up to. 

Thad and I just love playing all day and lately I have enjoyed reading so much during his nap times (and sometimes not during that time). My sis-in-law Kelsie has lent me a lot of books and I have loved all of them. Some of them are: The Passion of Artemesia, The Red Tent, The Hunger Games, Catching Fire and I just bought The Maze Runner, so I have just had been filled w/ great stories. I've just got like 100 pages left in Catching Fire and I'm totally obsessed! I'm not even done and I can't wait for the third one! 

I have a random question for some moms: do any of your kids have night terrors? Thad woke up crying hysterically for the third time in his life last night and it's really scary because he is still sleeping and won't respond to anything. His eyes are mostly shut and he won't let us comfort him. He cried for about 4 minutes straight, which is a really long time when you don't know what's going on but he finally stopped, but was really touchy even after that. We tried shaking (not hard, just gently) him a little, putting cold water on his face, blowing in his face, turning on the lights but to no avail until he just finally came out of it. Has anyone dealt w/ this and have any suggestions? If yes, just let me know. 

Birthday Bashes

As you know, our little man just had his first birthday and we had loads of fun!
Brig and Leah came up and stayed overnight, so they were here in the morning and then I made Thad pancakes with carrots shredded into them, we played and got ready, Aunt Kelli came over and then I worked on his cake all day.

The Birthday Boy first thing in the morning:)

Leah wishing him happy birthday

Birthday Bath!

Aunt Kelli and Thad having a tickle fight!

Thad with his presents from mom and dad...we didn't wrap a single one. 

After playing at home all day we headed to Heidi and Jason's to have a party with close friends and fam in Logan. Heidi and Jason are so awesome for letting us party in their home. They are such good friends and Logan just wouldn't be the same without them. Heidi is in love with Thad too, so that helped her make her decision to let us have his party there too;-)

The sweet Madsens

The Wilsons...Kate isn't a ham at all;-)

Haley and Dan wishing they had their own child to show off...I guess beautiful Brielle will work for now:)

Bre-Bear (Brielle's mommy and daddy)

Aunt Kelli and Thaddy

PRESENTS!!

Sadie loves presents too...or just showing of for the camera.

The Monsens

The Birthday Table

The Cake that took all day to make (Thanks to Brig for helping with the fondant and a billion thanks to Kelsie for sending up her cake decorating kit that this would have been IMPOSSIBLE to do w/o!)

Thad's cake 

Thad while we were singing happy b-day to him.

Thad not caring one bit about touching (even though it kinda looks like he does) or feeding himself his cake. I shoved his hand in it and put some frosting on his face and he started crying. What fun...

So Thad's b-day was obviously a blast, but the fun didn't stop there. On Friday we went down to Salt Lake and had a party with the entire fam at my sister Haley's house. She has such a great party house, along with Heidi, and she was also so gracious to let us party there too.

Us in front of the sweet banner that we made with Haley's kids when they came up a couple weeks ago

The cute cake

Presents, presents everywhere!

3 beautiful ladies

Dad and Thad blowing out the candle (Thad cried the whole time we sang to him)

Ang and Vess...I'm so happy the could come! I went to Joey's (their dog's) first birthday party, so she knew I would hassle her if she didn't show up for this;-)

Em-dog, Brig and my cute prego sis-in-law, Jen...can't wait to see her little gal!

K-country...Kristen, Kayci, Kelli and Kelsie

Aunt Haley, Gma Teresa, Avie-sue and Gma Cindy

Uncle Todd and Aunt Kelsie (Don't worry, Thad is working on Aunt Kelsie to get him a friend down here;-)

Great Gma Mona and Gpa Ralph...oh, and Avery and Ty

The Cedar Trio minus Rachel...so it would be more like the Cedar quartet, but Cedar Trio sounds better and us 3 actually stuck it out the longest so I guess that's gotta count for something..right?!?

Ben, highly engaged in conversation with Emily about Glendale, aka the middle of nowhere.

As you can see, Thad is truly loved. We had a ton of fun this past weekend and want to thank all of our friends and family for your love and support. We don't know what we would do without you. Love you!!

Happy Birthday, Baby Boy!

Our little Thad turns 1 today and I can just hardly believe it. Time flies! Brian gets sad sometimes that he's getting so big, but I just think he gets more fun everyday. He is my pride and joy and I can't imagine my life without him. When I think back to when we were first married and I was so scared about having kids and wondered if I would ever really want them just to want them and not out of obligation, it makes me naseous. Life with out this boy just doesn't make sense.

 I know I've told several people this, but I always thought my wedding day was the best day of my life until I had Thad. Not that my wedding day wasn't amazing, but February 11, 2009 was the day it all came together; my eyes were open, my heart filled and understanding of our plan and purpose on this earth was made crystal clear. My testimony was strengthened, my love for Brian was the strongest I have ever felt, and raising this amazing little boy increases my love for Brian and Thad each day. God knows what he is doing and that day I just realized why the family unit is so important and I feel privileged to be able to raise one of God's children on earth.

Happy Birthday Mr. Thaddeus!
We love watching you grow.
We love you with all our hearts.
Love, Mom and Dad

P.S. Thad's pic is going to be on Good Things Utah at 10:00am of Channel 4 today. They usually do it towards the end of the show, so tune in if you want to see our cutie!

Fun-Filled Weekend!

So we had a fun, long weekend and it started off with Thad having a little birthday party with his friends that come to the Mother's institute class with us. We celebrated at Kate's house because her first birthday was the last week in January, so we just met in the middle.

Thad and Kate with their mommies and presents:-)

Thad loved his book from Miss Halley and we can't wait to do FHE with the new Nursery Manual that Kate gave him!

The book Hal gave us is so cute and it's life size faces for the kiddos!

Thad threw up at Kate's house cuz I gave him too much food, so he went home, and took a nap and was in a hilarious mood when he woke up. I love this kid sooooo much!

On Friday the fun continued when Haley and her kids came up to visit!!!!! We have talked about them coming up for a long time, but all the kids were finally not sick and we got to play all day. First, we went shopping, then frosted Valentine sugar cookies, made Valentine cards, made a cute banner for Thad's B-day, went to dinner at Wingers and then I convinced them to stay overnight and we watched The Proposal...how fun! We love the Doyle's and can't wait til they visit again.

The kiddles getting their frosting on!

They turned out B-E-A-Utiful! (Thanks for the cookies Teresa!)

What a beautiful mommy and daughter

On Saturday Heidi came over and we made awesome football sugar cookies for the Superbowl. I kinda can't believe that we didn't take a good pic of them cuz they were so cute. We did them blue and white for the Colts and yellow and black for the Saints. We had fun. Later Brian and I were able to go do a session while Heidi and Jason watched Thaddies for us, then we hung out while Brian did their taxes, went home cuz Thad had a blow out (he's had a few recently and I feel like I have a newborn again) and we ended the night with watching Lost....Oh my heck! We love that show!

Sunday came and we had a way fun party and Heidi's place with her cute neighbors and Kelli of course! We had Navajo Tacos and lots of treats and soda...Yummy!!!!!!

I'm sad we didn't get more pics of people at our party, but Thad loved playing on the soda!

Thad and Sadie are pretty much besties and we love to play with them so much! Sadie shows a lot of concern for Thad when he cries and we really appreciate her love:-) 

Thadspeak

Connecticut...Here we come!

So here's the scoop: We are moving to Connecticut in July!

We are so excited because Brian got a Postgraduate Technical Assistant position with the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB). Here's how it worked (I'm warning you now that there might be some bragging on my husband). Brian heard about this position in October from his amazing department head that has made a lot of this happen. Brian mentioned it to me and I just blew it off because I was ready to be done with school and move to SLC and be close to family for once in our lives. Little did I know. A little while later an important guy (I can't remember who he is) came to USU's campus to talk to some of the accounting students and talked about this internship and what a great opportunity it is and at that point Brian's mind was set and he knew it was something he wanted to do. Each university has the opportunity to nominate an accounting student for the position (not every school does, this was USU's first time), so his department head sent in the nomination. Brian made it through the resume screening and they called him in December to tell him they were going to fly him out to CT to interview for the position! He was so excited because it had been several weeks since he'd applied and we kinda lost hope that he was going to get an interview. So the FASB flew 12 candidates out to interview for 6 internship positions open in July. Brian flew out the second week of January and they told them the would for sure know either way by mid-February if they got the position...if any of you know Brian waiting is just not the easiest thing for him. He was very anxious this past week and I'm so glad they let us know sooner rather than later because this is kinda a big deal and it's great to know what our plan is this coming summer. Needless to say, I am so proud of him and he has worked very hard to get to this point. He is so smart and dedicated and I have a feeling that this is just the beginning of great things for him over the course of his career. So, we will stay in Logan until the end of June and head out at the beginning of July. It's a year internship so we will be back to SLC (for real this time) in July 2011 and Brian will then start with Deloitte in Sept or Oct. This is so perfect for our family because we love adventures and I have always wanted to take a big trip back east, so that means I have a whole year to go see everything I want! Woo hoo! If you want to come visit, don't hesitate cuz we would love it...we will only be an hour from Manhattan!!

This is the only picture Brian took on his trip out to CT. He was excited!