Sunday, May 23, 2010

New blogger in town...

Well, Adam has gone and done it. He's joined the blogging community. However, he won't be giving you all the of the exciting details from his day to day life with family and friends(he leaves that narrative to me, no matter how skewed my perspective may be!)...his blogging will mainly contain all the action and suspense that makes up his life as a stone mason.

I ventured away from blogger and tried out Wordpress. It took a little time to figure out the new layout. Hopefully that doesn't make me a traitor, but I thought it looked a little bit more professional for a business blog. Anyway, he is all set up and ready for some new followers, so head on over to MadisonStoneWorks.com and check it out. You don't even have to have a gmail account to leave a comment, so please let us know that you stopped by!

blog-logo1.jpg picture by joiester

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

NINE

My baby is 9 months old,
but most people who ask are pretty shocked that he is that young.
He is a solid kid and definitely living up to his gladiator name Maximus.
I'm not sure what he weighs exactly,
but I'm sure it's up above 30 lbs.
He already wears size 3T, yep T for Toddler.
When he stands on my lap he's about a head taller than me.
Luckily, his coordination hasn't caught up with his size quite yet.
He isn't crawling, but he scoots around like a madman
and is now working on getting up on his knees...
it's all a matter of time before I will be making sure everything is either
3 feet off the floor or locked away.

max9-3.jpg picture by joiester

He is already showing signs of a quirky personality. Whenever he is eating he has to be distracted in order to get through the entire meal. This means he either has to fidget with something in his hands(which I prefer not to compete with him putting toys in his mouth while I'm trying to shovel food in there) or he must watch two specific music videos on YouTube. We've run the gammit of musical genres from Country to Sesame street, but there are only two songs that will hold his attention while I feed him: Michael Buble Haven't Met You Yet and Train Hey Soul Sister. It is a strange phenomenon, but hey, whatever works to get the food down!

He is very impressed by most things he sees, even if he has seen them 10 times before. I guess I would be too if I had only been in the world for 9 months. He lets us know just how impressed he is by saying WOW! OOOOOoooOOO! & WHOAA! It is so fun rediscovering the world with him.

I am always trying to take his picture and he just won't have it.
Most of the time the photos look like this:

Mom, why are you making me sit on a board full of slivers and insist that I keep looking up into the bright sun when all I want to do is put those ants and rocks in my mouth?!
max9-2.jpg picture by joiester

The only way I can get his attention is to sing the primary song Once there was a snowman like a crazywoman and attempt to focus my camera between tall, tall, tall and small, small, small.

If I work hard enough, he will reward me with a gem like this:
max9-1.jpg picture by joiester

Oh, how I love this boy!



Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Timeline...

It brings back so many memories to go back over the past 6 years I've known Adam and 4 years we have been married TODAY!


I came home from my mission in 2004 and decided to go to the college formerly known as UVSC.
My first Sunday in church Adam was giving a talk. I had no idea who he was, but he told the ward how much he loved us and that he wished he could put all of us into "one beautiful woman". I decided I needed to get to know the funny guy a little better.

We were just friends for that first year, although I did have secret crush on him. Then by some strange twist of fate there happened to be an opening for a summer job in the same place he worked and he recommended me for the position. It was the most fun I've ever had in one summer.
ann1.jpg picture by joiester


During that time of working together, Adam asked me on our first official date. I had to give him a hard time about it because it went like this..."Hey Joie, wanna be a girlscout and go to a concert with me?" I said, "Sure, let me know how much it is and I will pay you back." The next time we dropped some of the high school kids off somewhere in the van, he pulls over and says to me very intensely, "When I asked you to go to the concert with me, I meant for it to be a date!" I'm glad he cleared that up. :)

Since we were supervising a bunch of high school students through the summer, we decided to keep the dating thing undercover. There's nothing worse than being 25 and getting teased by a bunch of 16-year-olds...
ann2.jpg picture by joiester


I always knew that Adam was the one for me and once the summer was over things started getting a lot more serious. Adam was a bit more nervous about the "M" word. After some soul searching on his part he decided that it was worth the risk and we were engaged in November of 2005.
ann3.jpg picture by joiester


Adam and I were married and sealed May 12, 2006.
We both continued going to school and having so much fun together.
ann4.jpg picture by joiester


This is us enjoying a cruise in front of our seaside mansion in Washington State near Astoria. Haha! I wish. We were just there checking out a lighthouse that Adam was thinking about working on in '07
ann5.jpg picture by joiester


We continued living in Orem and graduated with some of the first diplomas from the new UVU in May 2008
ann6.jpg picture by joiester


In the fall of 2008 Adam accepted a position with a commercial construction firm, so we loaded up the truck and moved to the San Francisco bay area.
ann7.jpg picture by joiester

While we were there Adam and I turned 29 and our family expanded by one very large baby!
ann8.jpg picture by joiester


Maximus Riley Madison was born August 18, 2009. He added a dimension to our relationship that we never imagined possible. We have both created things as individuals, but having created a life I have seen my marriage as God sees it and all the divine potential it holds.
ann9.jpg picture by joiester

The is a skeleton of the last few years. They have not been all rosy, but I would not trade them for anything. We can't wait to add a little sister to the mix and see how everything gets stirred up even more. Mostly though, I am thankful for the regular days of dinner and diapers, Adam's clothes covered in mud from a hard day of masonry, and a happy baby just playing on the floor.

Monday, May 3, 2010

150 days of photos

What's the point of a blog without some shameless self-promotion?

If you haven't been over to my photo blog, you should check it out.


facebook-logo.jpg picture by joiester

It's being updated daily, while this poor blog is lucky to see some action once a month.