New Years Eve 2010!

Na'im (not sure if he can make it 'til midnight), Tanshea and Aiden..What time is it?

Amir and Mommie (Amir is thinking how much longer must I pose and miss all the fun I'm having playing)

Strike a pose. Micah what is wrong with your head? Andersen doing funny eyes in the background.

This is Anderesen at midnight, Hello 2010.

These two are very handsome boys Aiden age 2 and Dad...age...well, maybe he's a man now.

Kristen and Benjy along with that beautiful Aiden.



The Gang's all here...plus 2 more (nephews). It's the Madyun 11 tonight...hmmm I like the sound of that.

I am so cold, I can only think "this is why we stay inside the house in the winter." However, the kids had a great time and I am very happy we were able to do it....THIS ONCE :)

Oh to be 14 again. I wouldn't do it, but Marcus who is 14 opted to stay and hang with the fam instead of going to a dance.. Is he sweet or what..

Maxien ready to start the fun of the Celebrating the health and love we received in 2009 and welcome 2010.

Tyler loved the sledding and having his family around.

Micah all bundled up trying to stay warm. He was the 1st person to come in after Andersen and I did. He and cold weather don't agree...he gets frost bite in a pool.

Amir is always all smiles...wow, it's hard to believe he's only 7 sometimes.

Andersen age 3 and Mom. Our last picture before we went to defrost.

Can you believe most of the Madyun9 have been born in MN and the rest have been here so long it almost makes no sense to call anywhere else home. However, sledding and skiing we have never done.

Micah,Maxien,Devin and Tyler.

Andersen braving the cold as best he can. Thank goodness for me he was ready to leave after his 1st run down the hill. Amir is just getting ready to leave on a fresh run down the hill.

Well to ring in the New Year we were invited to a sledding party. I really wanted to sled down the hill, but by the time we got there it was too cold for even my camera. I think it actually yelled at me in Kodak language. Marcus,Morgan and Aiden stayed in the warm house while the rest of us braved the weather.

So, our sledding team consisted of.. Na'im, Tanshea, Morgan, Micah, Amir, Maxien Andersen and 2 cousins/nephews... Tyler and Devin. Lucky for me..Andersen was ready to leave after sledding down the hill only once. YAH!!! inside to eat we goooooo.. The rest stayed out to enjoy the snow and ice of it all.

This was one of the best New Years Parties I have been too. The Seamans threw this ball which included 4 or 5 other families. There was lots of game playing, dancing, eating, laughing, picture taking and merriment.

The kids played Wii and boy did they have fun with the dancing game. Some of us adults joined in that fun also. You should've seen the dance to the Eye of the Tiger.

Ten minutes from the New Year, we turned on the T.V. and counted down to 12 am Jan 01, 2010.

Happy New Year!

and of course

Mad Love, Til Later... The Madyun 9.

Actors you say!

Marcus,Micah, Amir and Na'im were in a Christmas play this year.. It was fabulous. All four of them did great. They spoke loud and clear, sang solos and knew their lines and lots of the other actors lines too. One of my favorite parts of the play was when one of the other child actors did not know her line and Micah stepped right in and saved the day....well, almost. After Micah started the line, the little girl remembered what the line was and started to say it also.. They kinda shared the line and then negotiated with eye contact and body positioning til the end... it was so cute..

They had a really good time with the play..I am really happy they had this experience.


Micah" I'll have my close-up now."

Amir "are you looking at me?"

Marcus" I'll be signing autographs after my closeup."

Til Later, Mad Love.

Christmas Tree Hunt!

The Madyun9 Christmas tree homecoming really has no tradition. So last year I decided our tradition was going to be cutting down our tree as a family. Well, due to not being able to find the tree in a timely manner last year, that did not happen. Sooo....this year the Madyun9 got up at 7am on Dec 6th in order to be one of the 1st families on the tree farm... The logic was activity would be far more enjoyable because we will be sure to get the best tree. After all, nobody else will be there..Plus we will be out of there in about 3omin-1hr tops and not have to endure a lot traffic and lines and cold and......... Yeahhhhh... RIGHT!

While we were the 2nd and 3rd cars on the lot (we drive 2 cars when we all travel together), we did not leave the farm til 3 1/2 hours later. I repeat, not 30 minutes...210 minutes....

We drove and drove and drove and drove around the tree farm. I guess we hoped that driving by the same set of trees a fourth time would make the trees look different....then we walked and walked and walked and walked figuring that our TREE was hidden somewhere among the trees, but it appeared that the Madyun tree was not going to be found easily. As the time ticked and family grew more and more tired and frozen...and watched the tree farm fill up with people who seemed to EASILY find and cut their tree and leave in 30 MIN!!!!, it started to appear as though we were going to end up in the parking lot of some random store waiting on some man to bring trees down a run way so that we could yay or nay to one.

I thought to myself, "What is this craziness?.... All the the trees that look good appear to be damaged because they were marked with these gloves on the top of them. I saw lots and lots of trees with gloves on them. Then I thought, how many gloves do people lose trying to buy a Christmas tree. I mean it's good that they are lost so the trees could be marked but what makes buying a Christmas tree so bad on glove retention. Through so random talk with a different family looking for trees, I found out that a glove on the tree meant that those trees have been spoken for by other families. Wait, we could've just brought a glove out there? I could've come out here by myself one day, put my glove there and then send Na'im and Marcus back out to cut the tree down?!?!....No wonder some of these families are cutting their tree down so fast. Knowing is half the battle. Well, by this time almost all the kids and Na'im had decided this tree hunting thing was not for them and they were heading back to the car to stay warm and wait for others of us to alert when this super special TREE HAS BEEN FOUND!!!

While tree hunting is not for the Madyun 9, I don't think. It was a time to remember.There was no fighting or screaming. You lose too much heat fighting and screaming. Ultimately, we did find our tree! Even though it was only about 2 inches taller than Marcus once it was decorated and in our living room and much smaller than last year, it was PERFECT!.

Micah is cold,but can not wait to find that tree... well, Micah gets cold quickly anyway...not enough meat on Teenie Meanie.

Morgan was full of smiles and could not wait to get out the car and start some true hunting.She also could not wait to get back in the car and do some true thawing.

I am not sure how Na'im and Aiden felt about this whole tree hunting thing.. I think Na'im just prays that I always know what I am doing..and trusts the ride (I think).

Aiden did not say this but I am sure he is trying to find a way out of this place.. "What are we doing here?".

Andersen and his Sister Morgan.. Happily hunting that tree.."We are going to find you tree".

Andersen and Morgan cold and ready to sit in the car....somebody else can find that tree.

Til Later, Mad Love!

Merry Christmas.

Christmas this year was amazing...as it was last year. We opened the stocking from Santa and took turns opening the rest of the gifts under the tree from Mom and Dad. However, before any of the gift giving started we talked about the reason for the season...Jesus Christ.

This Christmas there were clothes, DS's, Dolls, trains, a MP3 player and more...

Amir and his Connect 4 from Grandma.

Gift giving mayhem.

An Adrian Peterson football...with his new owner Amir. Did I ever mention that he really likes football.

Andersen and his DS.. This is something he wanted more then anything. Watching him open this gift made standing in the line to get it all the worth while. His brothers probably liked this gift more than anyone.

Aiden and his new phone. He's probably programming Santa on his speed dial.

Merry Christmas Madyun 9. I love you.

Til later, Mad Love.

Happy 9th Birthday Micah!

There is a very good explanation....

Micah is 9 today. Instead of a store bought cake, I came up with an idea of how to make the cake really special. Micah and I made his birthday cake from scratch out of a box,lol. I bought his favorite whipped frosting from the cake decorator so that we could frost it and really make the cake special. Add in a red can of decorating icing and it was on. This idea turned out to be an even better idea than I could have imagined.

1) it was less expensive than a regular cake

2) Micah really liked being able to decorate himself

3) With the frosting he liked, it actually tasted really good.

4). Being able to control the ingredients, I was able to give it a little extra umphhh.

5). Because it was smaller, we ate the entire cake in one day instead of having a huge piece left over.

Overall, we thought it turned out great and tasted even better..

Happy Birthday Tennie Mennie!

Til later, Mad love.

Gingerbread House!

Ok, well, first of all this is the first Gingerbread house we have ever done. Secondly, it is supposed to appeal to your sense of taste more than your other senses. Thirdly, I'm not sure if I used the best lens on my camera. Fourthly, I really encouraged all the kids to participate and they vary in their Gingerbread construction abilitiy. Fifthly, didn't a witch live in the one Hansel and Gretel adored so much....maybe there's some type of inverse beauty principle. Sixthly, due to current economic conditions I had to rely on limited resources for the construction of this home. Seventhly, I think this house is more environmentally friendly than your average Ginger break house ( I have not proof and no idea if this is remotely true, but it sounded like a cool thing to say). Okay,...one mistake I may have made on my own resulted from thinking we were supposed to put all the snow on the roof. I doubt that this is really a big issue, but once we were done with the roof there was none left for anything else....so that may have slighly influenced the outcome.


So brown house, brown house what do I see... I see a bunch of Madyuns staring at me...


Oh well, the kids had tons of fun and it was cool to have around throughout Christmas.

Eighthly, this picture doesn't show how really great the back porch of the house is (hopefully, nobody actually has a picture of the backporch).

Next year, our house is going to look like a Gingerbread Mansion. Yeah...Yeah...that's it...a Mansion!!!





Til Later, Mad Love.

Holiday Party!

This morning, bright and early, our family tumbled out of bed and toward the door to share in a Breakfast celebration of Christmas. As we ate and ate... talked and talked...laughed and sang, I was beaming in the bless that was that Morning.


Some of the things done this morning consisted of the Primary children singing which Andersen was initially not apart of due to his age. However, after he watched them sing the first song he could not take it anymore. He wanted in on all the fun. So, while looking over at me out of the corner of his eye (with that half-way, I'm up to something smile) he asked.."Can I stand with Micah and sing?" After being assured it was OK, he ran to his spot and started singing. The fact that he did not know any of the words (well he knew some...) and just moved his mouth did not seem to put a damper on his moment. At the end of every song there was applause...to which ya friend Andersen was more than happy to take a full bow to. Nobody else bowed, except Andersen. Each time there was clapping in appreciation of the great song that was sang (y the other children) Andersen took a deep bow and would raise his head with a big smile as if he was soaking in all the fame he was due...letting his fans know that they were welcome for being in his presence.....Boy was it funny.. that kid is something else..





How I missed out on the the blessed feeling I get when at church during the time when we were away....Funny how I did not recognize earlier what I was missing. The Holiday Breakfast celebration at church today was blissfully fulfilling for my soul. As, I watched my kids sing carols with the other children (or in the case of Andersen, lip sync) and eat, dance and be merry...I beamed from the inside out..the warmth of the morning..the blessings of the morning were all more than I could have wished for.


Being there with my family..... sharing in friendship and love with one and all at the event was almost overwhelming...It seems that each day I am reminded what a blessing it is to be a member of this church.


Til later, Mad love.