The Ogden's

September was kind of a weird month with lots of ups and downs, from the weather to our health.

In August, I had taken Makadie into the doctor's office to get a shot she would have normally gotten at her 18 month appointment, but that was when she had croup, so I had to bring her in when she was better. I had noticed a couple of little red spots on her legs and arms and thought that they might just be an allergic reaction to something she ate or maybe chicken pox. I mentioned it to the nurse and asked what she thought and she said to just watch it for a few days and if they didn't go away or they multiplied, that it could be chicken pox. I was a little skeptical since she'd had the chicken pox vaccine, but kept an eye on the spots.

At the beginning of September, I had determined that she did indeed have chicken pox. The spots appeared only on her arms, legs and a few on her torso and back and they'd scab over after a couple of days. It really wasn't too bad and I didn't even taken any pictures of it (looking back I totally should have as proof she got them). Turns out that about 1 in 10 kids who have had the chicken pox vaccine will still get chicken pox. Go figure, right? It makes a good story though!

After Makadie got over her chicken pox, she got a cold, which she then gave to me. The gift that keeps on giving! Being pregnant, I couldn't really take much of anything to help me get better faster, which was totally lame, but I guess that's just how it goes.

There is a little store in American Fork called Little Adventures and they sell good quality, inexpensive kids dress up clothes for boys and girls. I had heard about a sale that was going on from one of my friends, so I decided to make a trip up to AF. I was able to find some really cute princess dresses for just $10 each, plus Makadie's Halloween costume and a girl superhero cape set. I was probably more excited about them than Makadie was! The dresses were a little big for her, so I saved them for gifts for Christmas and her birthday a few months later. When we got home, I put the superhero cape and belt on her and gave her the shield and told her she was Super Kadie. She thought it was so much fun to run around with the cape flying behind her! It's moments like that that make being a parent so worth it.

Getting the princess dresses and other things made me realize that I didn't really have any toys for Makadie that encouraged pretend play. So I decided to get her a little princess tea set that she could play with. When we opened it up, I showed her how to set up the plates, cups and spoons and then pretended to pour something into each of the cups from the teapot. I stirred it up and then took a sip and made up something that was inside like, blueberries or strawberry yogurt. She got the biggest smile on her face and then took a sip and said "mmmm!" So. Dang. Cute. The tea set is still one of her favorite toys to play with even now.

Ever since I have known Covey, he has always had a thing with making drinks. I call him "The Drink Man" because he loves making drinks for parties, getting flavored drinks at restaurants and pretty much anything that goes with getting to drink yummy drinks. I joke around with him that if he wasn't LDS that he would be a drinker and he's like, "yeah, probably". haha Anyways, he seems to have passed his love of drinks on to Makadie. We don't really let her have much of anything to drink besides water and milk and we'll give her watered down juice or a tiny sip of soda once in a blue moon, but whenever Covey makes a slush or a smoothie, she gets to have some. It's a little thing that they share and it is so cute to watch them share the slush or smoothie and see Makadie get a huge grin on her face after her first taste.

I've mentioned before how Makadie loves my sister's little baby boy, Jackson, but she just seems to like him more and more as time goes on. Dani has told me that while Jackson is a pretty happy and smiley baby, he gets an especially big smile on his face when he sees Makadie. She loves to hold him and will go and sit on the couch and hold her arms out for him. Granted, it doesn't usually last for very long before she's done holding him and tries to push him off her lap, but at least she wants to interact with him, right? Another thing that is so cute about the two of them is that even though Kadie knows Jackson's name, she calls him "Buddy" as a nickname. She asks me all the time, "Where Buddy go?" I love it. Here's to hoping she loves baby brother as much as she loves her cousin!

We celebrated Covey's 30th birthday in September. He was a little bummed about turning 30 because he feels like 30 is old and he doesn't feel old. His birthday was on a Thursday and he had school that night so we went over to the duck pond that's across from his work and fed the ducks, but I planned a little surprise party for him for the following night. I made him a delicious lemon cake with a crumb topping and raspberries on top. It was one of those desserts that even if you hate anything lemon, you were still going to love this cake. Yeah. It was that good. It was fun because people just started showing up at our house around the same time and that's when I said, "Surprise!" Covey doesn't really like to draw attention to himself, but he does like seeing his friends so I figured he'd forgive me. :)

The next day, we went to Tucano's for lunch as a birthday meal for both of us, since my birthday was the following week, and stuffed ourselves. It was a beautiful day and so we wandered around The Riverwoods and looked in some of the shops.

My birthday consisted of Covey letting me sleep in because it was a Sunday and we didn't have church until 11. It was so nice to sleep in but I guess Makadie missed me because she came into our room and gave me a big hug and said "wake up!" as she hit me in the face with a birthday balloon. In some ways, I like having my birthday on a Sunday because then it is a bit more low key, but the other part of me really likes my birthday and I want to go out and celebrate it. That is one way that Covey and I are different--I love my birthday and he acts like it doesn't exist. Either way, my birthday was nice, even though I sure don't feel 28 years old...

And here are some more pictures from the month. Of course.

Sidewalk chalk with Daddy

This is pretty much how most of the pictures I try to take with Kadie turn out...

I found this cute elephant at the store and Kadie wouldn't put it down, even to eat her beloved string cheese.

My baby looks so big and grown up in this picture

It was drizzling outside and Covey was out doing something in the yard. Makadie begged to go out with him so I put her rain coat on and let her run around to her heart's content.

My little model

Sitting outside on the front porch during a thunderstorm. Makadie was not amused.

Sharing a super soft blanket with cousin Presley

Wow, I seriously hate how much I forget about what happened not very long ago! Granted, I am pregnant and that contributes to my brain function, but still. Either way, I think it's important to write all this stuff down so here it is, if only for my own record. :)

Even though I was still feeling nauseous a lot of the time, I tried to go out and do things with Makadie on better days so we weren't always staying at home. One day, I decided to take her to the mall. It was really hot outside so I didn't want to go to a park, but I thought the little play area at the Provo Towne Center Mall would be a good place for Makadie to play. Plus it was in a mostly contained area. Score! So we went to the mall and I brought Makadie's little monkey backpack, which is basically a cute leash for crazy runaway children like mine. I did get a couple of funny looks from people, but most people actually smiled and thought it was cute. I have to say though, that every time I put it on her I think of the "Modern Family" episode where the family all goes to Disney Land and everyone is giving Cam and Mitchell a bad time about using one on their daughter, but they do it anyway because she always runs away. (p.s. Modern Family is hilarious!) We played in the play area for a while, then went up by the food court where the little rides are that you have to pay for. I didn't want to pay for a ride, nor did I have any change on me, but Makadie didn't seem to mind and was happy to just climb on each of the rides. I tried not to think about all the germs she was getting on her hands and consoled myself by taking her into the bathroom to wash her hands after we were done. After playing, I was getting hungry and I knew Makadie was getting tired and hungry so we went and got an Orange Julius drink to share. She loved it (who doesn't like those?) and I loved watching her enjoy it. I love my sweet girl!

Earlier in the summer, a few people from my high school ballroom team had talked about wanting to get together and see each other since some of them hadn't made it to their 10 year reunion. After some back and forth, we decided to try and put together a ballroom reunion of sorts for those who were on the team during the 2002-2003 school year. We held it at a church in Pleasant Grove and there were about 10 or so people from the team, plus some spouses, who were able to make it. We watched our old ballroom highlight video and a couple of our performances that one of the girls had on DVD that she had converted from a VHS (eek!) and laughed at how weird we were and how young we looked. It sure didn't feel like it had been 10 years before, but there's nothing like high school videos to age you! It was so fun to see everyone and catch up with each other.

As part of our Pass of All Passes, we can go to the Tracy Aviary in SLC for only $1. I hadn't been since I was really little, like elementary school age, and I thought Makadie might like to see all the birds they have there. I called up my friend Lindsay, who also had a pass, and we planned a day to go with our girls. It was a little bit of a drive, about 40-45 minutes total, so the girls were anxious to get out of their carseats. When we finally got in, it was like a blast from the past! A lot of things had been changed, but a few things were the exact same as they had been when I went there as a kid. We all had fun looking at the different birds and enjoying the nice weather. One thing that kept making me laugh was that according to Makadie all the birds were one of three things: a duck, a rooster or an owl.

She was really excited about all the ducks

The big guy in the middle there was playing King of the Rock

Sharing snacks

Makadie kept pulling herself as close as she could to the birds

About half way through the month, we went out to Las Vegas to visit Covey's sister, Tiffany, and her family. They've lived out there for about 8 years or so and we've visited them a handful of times in the last 6 years. I was a little worried about how Makadie would do on the drive down there since that is the furthest we've driven all at once with her. She actually did pretty well all things considered. We stopped in St. George for some dinner and to stretch our legs and then finished out the drive. All together I think it took us about 6.5 hours, including our stop. The last time we had driven down to St. George, we had had some problems with our car, but this time it was smooth sailing. Having a better car makes a huge difference when you're driving long distances, especially with kids!

When we got to Las Vegas, we had just enough time to visit and eat some food before we had to put Makadie down for the night. With the time change, that meant putting her down at about 6:45, which was kind of weird, but since we were only going to be there for a few days, we didn't want to mess around with her sleep schedule. They had recently moved into a new house and they had a spare bedroom and bathroom we were able to use while there. (Their last house was a little small to accommodate many visitors, so this was awesome and very much appreciated.)

The next few days we just relaxed for the most part. One of the evenings, we were able to go to my friend Lisa's wedding reception/open house since her husband is from LV. She had gotten married in CA (where she's from) so we hadn't been able to attend although we had been invited. It was fun to see her and her parents. (Lisa's older sister, Kristen, is one of my best friends and I am friends with her family.) Another day we went to the huge Bass Pro Shop they have there and saw the big fish tank and taxidermy animals they have, then we went to The Cheesecake Factory, which is a tradition of ours. We also experienced an embarrassed parent moment while there when Makadie knocked a plate off the table and it broke. (The first of many such moments I'm sure...) Another fun thing we did was play in the pool. A lot of people in LV have pools because it is so dang hot there in the summer and they were no exception. Makadie loved it! She also loved playing with her cousins. Mark and Tiffany have four kids (2 boys, 2 girls) and they all loved playing with Kadie too. She ran around with them and they played with her a lot of the time, which gave Covey and I the chance to relax on our mini-vacation. The morning we were going to be leaving, we went to my nephew's swim meet. He is really good and usually wins so it was fun to see him and support him in that. The time to leave came much too soon and we were sad to say good-bye, but we generally see them a couple times a year so we knew it wouldn't be too long before we say each other again.

All the nieces and nephews love Uncle Covey

Brielle loved playing with Makadie and was very watchful over her. It was really sweet.

Towards the end of the month, I took Makadie to Farm Country at Thanksgiving Point. They were doing a promotion on every Tuesday of the month in August where you could get in for $2. Makadie was young enough that I only had to pay for myself, which made the whole outing pretty inexpensive. I met up with my friend Lindsay and her friend Amber and her kids. There were a lot of animals there and Makadie liked seeing them in real life (for the most part). Some of the bigger animals, like the cows and horses, she wasn't so sure about. She could identify them easily enough, but if we got too close for her comfort, she would try to climb out of my arms and get away. One cow mooed right at her when we were only about 5 feet away and she was definitely not a fan. (It's times like that when you feel a little bit horrible to laugh at your child, but can't help it because their reaction was just so priceless...) As we were getting ready to leave, it started sprinkling and by the time I got Kadie back to our car, she was all but falling asleep in the stroller (never happens) and after about a minute in the car, she was a goner. I call the day a success!

She liked pushing the stroller around more than she liked sitting in it. Of course.

As far as Makadie goes, she has shown a great love of music and dancing. (That's my girl!) Covey and I have sung songs to her since she was born, always at naptime, and any other time we are trying to distract her. :) As a result, she knows quite a few songs and even the actions to go along with them, such as "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and "Popcorn Popping". She's gotten to the point where she will request songs verbally and/or using the actions of the song. It's pretty cute. She also likes to dance around a lot and spins in circles until she falls over or runs into something. In the car, she'll say "dance" and then proceed to bob her head to the music and kick her legs. It makes me happy. :)

Another things she likes are bubble baths. (Who doesn't?) There was a time when every time she took a bath, she requested bubbles. She'd put them on her head, try to eat them and just splash around until they were gone and the water was cold and I had to add more warm water before I could actually give her a real bath.

Lastly, she went into nursery! This is a happy and very looked-forward to day for parents when they can actually get something out of the meetings they attend rather than just catching snippets of the lesson (or nothing at all) while they try to keep their child from bothering everyone in the room. Makadie is a very curious and friendly little girl so she was always trying to get into other people's bags and play with their stuff. It drove us bonkers! But the day we took her into nursery for the first time, she walked right in and started playing with the toys and didn't even look back! She seriously loves nursery and knows she gets to go after sacrament meeting. Sometimes Covey and I will peek at her through the little window in the door and watch her to see what she's doing and how she's interacting with the toys and other kids and it's just so dang cute! I love my girl.

As for Covey and I, Covey started his first semester of his MBA at UVU. This was a serious adjustment for us because it meant he was going to be gone an additional 2 nights a week, totaling 3 nights gone per week including his YM calling. I was not excited to be by myself with Makadie for so long, but we had discussed the time commitment before he even applied for the program so I knew what was coming. At first, it was really difficult because, as I'm sure many moms do, I was used to handing Makadie off to Covey and being able to take a little break when he got home from work so I could get dinner ready and just breathe for two seconds. It was hard for Makadie too because she was used to seeing Covey more often and she'd ask "daddy go?" and I'd have to try to explain that to a 19 month old. Yeesh... But as time went on, we all got into more of a rhythm and it's not quite as hard now.

Here are some additional photos from the month: