My little girl is 7....8....no 9 Months!

Time sure has flown by. I feel so awful not posting for the past 3 months it feels like. And now that its the break I should have time right? Yeah...no. I could make time yes, but Mady is so cute I'd pick her over blogging any day. Not to mention cleaning, cooking, wrapping presents....awww I love it. Now on to Mady.

Mady is 9 months (in a week or so). I can't believe how fast my little girl is growing up. It seems like she learns a new thing everyday! She now weights 18 lbs. and I'm not sure about her height. I'll get that later. Some things she can say or do:
♥ She can say "Dada"
♥ She can say "Momma", but she mostly calls me "Mom"
♥ She knows how to sign food
♥ She knows what "all done", "juice" and "more" means (still working on signing)
♥ When I ask if she wants something she usually responds by panting like a dog.
♥ She can wave
♥ She can say "Hi"
♥ She can stand by herself
♥ Her two favorite games are peek-a-boo and chase (or crawling around after her)
♥ There have also been times when she will copy me and Ray when we sing to her. She will sing on key. I still have yet to get it on video, but I'm determined.
And she can dance! Check out this cute video:

Yes, adorable isn't it! A mini Shikira if you ask me.

Mady's toys don't really interest her anymore. Which is such a bummer cause it means I have to watch her constantly, as she finds new things around the house that come to her attention. Such as:

LaundryMy Pantry

My Computer

X-Box controllers
Anything on the floor - like this oreo (don't ask me where she got it, ask her Dad)
Tampons - I don't know how she got them out of the bathroom

And Toilet Paper

Quite the funny little girl, but man can she make the BIGGEST messes. She has also developed quite a love for herself. She loves seeing herself or anybody in the mirror. She always has to wave and say hi when she sees herself in the mirror. So after she kept dirtying our TV with her drool, we got out this mirror and put it in the front room for her to play with (since she always has to be in the same room we are). She loves it. Mady is getting to such a fun stage where she is learning so much. It also reminds us to be careful what we say or do around her so as to not pick up bad habits. Mady was never a real big cuddler, which makes me sad because I always want to cuddle her. But she is starting to just enjoy laying on us - which I guess I can settle for.Mady still loves her baths, and on occasion I'll reward her with a balloon to play with. She still has yet to pop one. And I think that when that happens, her fascination for balloons with vanish and she will become like me - hating the sound of popping balloons. It is like fingernails on a chalkboard for me.
This break has gone by so fast. I can't believe its almost Christmas! It saddens me to think that in a short time I will be back to studying and homework and classes and I won't be able to spend as much time with me sweet little daughter. I can't wait for the day that I will not have to choose homework over this cute face!

My Late Halloween Post

Now that schools over, I finally have some time to myself to blog again! It has been quite a while I know. So I will probably try to catch up by doing A LOT of posts - for my sake - since this will someday become a book.

I decided to start with Halloween. Since I think my last post was just before or something like that. Halloween this year was different but still fun. We didn't go to Ephraim like we usually do, we just stayed in Cedar City. I had plans for Mady and me to be fairies and then Ray be our Peter Pan, but I couldn't find anything green for Ray to wear. Not to mention that if I did he would even cooperate with me. So the day of Halloween, we made plans with our neighbors, the Batty's, and decided to go trick or treating to a few houses and then eat dinner and do a movie. I got Mady in her cute outfit:Pardon the bad quality of the picture - its from my phone. After Mady was all cute, I started on my fairy costume. I had Katie Batty to do my hair (she is an amazing cosmetologist!) seeing how I'm scared of the curling iron but wanted my hair curly. She did an amazing job...but of course I ruined it by trying to spray my hair pink. It looked awful. But I didn't want to ask her to do it again. So just ignore the hair. So I must dote on my husband. I wanted to make sugar cookies and decorate them all cute. I had already made some cupcakes that turned out pretty good. (Sorry I did take pictures but I can't find them) I had done a few cookies but then wanted to get myself ready so Ray did the rest. Look at what an amazing job he did!He definitely gets the best husband award. My favorite was the witch he made. Can you see her? Anyways so the whole day I was telling Ray to find a costume - "Go to D.I. or something." "Ray, you are going to dress up" "Ray! Go find a costume!" As he was finding a costume the Batty's came over with their little girl, Lilly, dressed up as a pumpkin. So cute. And we had to take pictures of our two little girls. Here's one where both of them are looking at the camera:And in this one, Lilly is smiling - a little so I had to put it up. Neither Katie or T.J. were dressed up so we found them so costumes as well. We had them dressed up as a Japanese couple complete with a happy coat and kimono. Sad to say, I didn't get a picture of them. I don't know what I was thinking. So right before we were heading out the door to go trick-or-treating, Ray comes out in his costume. I guess he was going for the rocker, he had his hair in a mo-hawk and he had a Dream Theater shirt on. I tried to get him to be more convincing and got him some black fingernail polish, eye liner, and some skinny jeans. But he wouldn't let me do anything but the eye liner. And even that took quite some convincing. At last we were ready to go! Here's our ...... weird pictures:
The weather was so cold so we ended up just going to 5 or 6 houses. Mady was so cute. She would grab a piece of candy from the bowl the neighbors had and then put it in her bucket. I should of videoed it. Oh well. Our last stop was at my friends house. (Who wasn't home! ;) haha) but I wanted at least some pictures of Mady in action...if you can call it action. How cute is she!? Such a doll. After we headed home to eat some yummy soup and home made soup bowls. Then we sat down and watched Two Weeks Notice (I know, very halloween-ish eh?) And then headed to bed. It was a good Halloween. Definitely one to remember. Oh and next year, I totally going to make these! Aren't they cute! Got the idea from this girl. Happy Late ......VERY Late Halloween!

Welcome! One and All

Yes, I know it has been over a months since I said I was going private, yes it took me about 3 hours to set it up when I should have been studying for my test, yes Mady is over 7 months and I have not blogged about it, yes I know you have missed me, and yes my house is a mess, my husband is sick, my child is whining, my homework is sitting next to me making me feel guilty, while I am here blogging. So this will be quite short.

I only have one month left of school, its actually bittersweet. I'm looking forward for a break. But then that means all the more studying for me. So if I don't post till ...... December 10th you'll know why.

Anyways I'm glad to have you guys with us! Thanks for reading and I will blog when I have the change - which means possibly Thanksgiving break. Who knows we have finals after that so I don't know....Thanks again!

It's Time to Go Private

I've been meaning to do this for awhile and one of my friends just reminded me by going private on her blog. So here's what I want you to do: just leave a comment with your name and email address - I don't care if we're close friends, family, someone I went to school with, or a friend of a friend. Just add your information and I"ll be sure to add you. Thanks!

My Miracle Child

Last Sunday was Stake Conference for us and it was amazing! The speakers they had gave such great talks and the Spirit was so strong during the meeting. One talk stood out to me and the Spirit touched me so strongly; testifying that what was being said was meant for me. The talk was given by Brother Rasban. He spoke of his grandson who was born a few months ago. He was diagnosed with a chromosomal defect while in the womb. Although the doctors gave Brother Rasban's daughter the choice to terminate the pregnancy, she kept the baby. The grandson was born 8 weeks early and was immediately put in Primary Children's Hospital; where he still is now in the extensive care facility. It is a miracle that he is still alive and doing well; progressing as each day passes.Not many people know of our similar story of Mady when she was still in the womb. This talk reignited the love and gratitude I have for my little girl and to the Lord. She is a choice daughter of God whom He entrusted to me on this earth to help her remember who she is and why she is here. I can't even begin to tell of how grateful I am to have a fully healthy child who is well and alive today.
When pregnant, each expectant mother must have a radiology ultrasound between 18-22 weeks to make sure the baby is growing well and has no abnormalities or complications. I had no reason to suspect that my little girl was anything but healthy. I remember going in on a Thursday. After seeing my sweet little baby the doctor said that if anything is wrong we will receive a call in a couple of days, if not then everything is fine. He reassured us that we would most likely not be receiving a call.It was a Tuesday morning around 8:00 when I received the call. One of the nurses called and said that they got the test results back and that there were somethings that could be potential problematic, but nothing too serious. That I shouldn't worry. And that I needed to make an appointment with the St. George fetal specialist sometime soon. When I tried to ask what the "not too serious" things were, she said that she wasn't sure but not to worry.

After I hung up, I just stood there trying to grasp everything that had just been said. Ray was at school so I couldn't tell him about the phone call until he got home. For the first little bit, I tried to not think about it. I mean the nurse did say everything would be fine. Then after awhile, my mind started wandering.....why would they send me to a "Fetal Specialist" if is wasn't too serious? So after thinking the worst (can you blame me?) I called up the office and demanded to talk to my doctor. Of course he was busy and I was put on with a nurse. She wasn't that helpful. All she told me was that my baby's skin was very thick on the back part of the neck. When I asked what that means and why it would matter, she said she didn't know. So I told her to put me through to someone who would know. But that didn't help the situation (she must have already been in a bad mood) so I was left without an explanation. At least I had something. So I went straight to Google. I'm sure you can only imagine what I found. A LOT of information on down syndrome. It was about this time that my doctor called me back. He then explained to me why I needed to see the specialist. In the test results, the radiologist found that on the back of my baby's neck the skin was very thick. He explained that this was a indicator of down syndrome. He also said that she has a potential cleft lip, which is another sign. He said my chances where 1 out of 1000 or more that my baby would be down syndrome. So it was pretty low chance. He made me feel a little bit better when I heard all the statistics. When I hung up, I felt much better. Ray and I talked about it that night and didn't think much about it.

The next day I received another phone call from the doctor. He said that they had found more abnormalities. He explained that the skin on her neck was A LOT thicker than they thought. The cleft lip became more of a possibility than before. He then went on to tell me that my chances of my baby being down syndrome had dropped. It was now 1 out of 200. In short, he pretty much said to plan on having a down syndrome baby. This was the day I lost it. I felt awful. Ray had always talked about the Lord giving him a down syndrome baby as one of the trials he would face in life. It now seemed all too real. Needless to say I did not go to school that day. I sat at home crying, trying to come face to face with the reality of what the sweet little baby growing inside me would have to endure in this world. All I could think about was my sweet little girl being laughed at and made fun of. Other kids not knowing why she was different. I immediatly felt the pain she would endure for the rest of her life. I wanted to protect her and shelter her from the onslaught of this ugly world. But I knew that I would fail. I prayed harder than I ever remember doing before. Asking the Lord to help me be the mother I need to be for her. I asked for strength and to help me prepare for what was to come. After awhile God answered my prayers. I felt an overwhelming peace. From then on I knew that everything would be ok. And that I need not to worry. My mother had always taught me that down syndrome kids were so very special. They had already earned their place in the Celestial Kingdom that God made it so they were not susceptible to the world to make sure they would make it back home to Him. Knowing this made me feel even more special - that the Lord would trust me with one of His most valiant children. That I would be the one to raise her and teach her the things the Lord would want me to. All the unsettling thoughts drifted away and was replaced with an overwhelming desire to succeed in the task to come. The following week Ray and I headed down to St. George for our appointment with the Fetal Specialist. I was nervous, but the underlying peace was with me always. Ray and I held our breathes as the specialist was doing the ultrasound, waiting to hear the confirmation of our daughter's diagnosis. After a few moments (seemed like years for all I know), Ray asked the doctor about the skin on her neck. He laughed and said those doctors had it all wrong. The skin on her neck is completely normal. Then he turned serious. What I am now concerned about is the assists in her brain. He said some other things, but the assists where all my brain would comprehend. I tuned back in when he said that my daughter's condition was more serious than we had expected. He said that what we were looking at was the possibility that my little baby had Trisomy 13. Don't worry I didn't know what it was either. Down Syndrome is also known as Trisomy 21. It is when one has 47 chromosomes instead of 46. Trisomy 13 is a lot worse. It is when one has an extra chromosome in all the cells. You can go here for more information. When my heart sank the lowest was when the specialist said that most babies that are diagnosed with Trisomy 13 either die in the womb or live for only a couple of days. The doctor had me take an amniotic test (I didn't want to do the more risky test in poking the actual sack - even though this test would tell us for sure if the baby had Trisomy 13 or not). He then asked if I would do an abortion or not. I think I actually glared at him. He said it really nicely but I could not even begin to think of killing something so precious. It made me sick. We made another appointment in 3 weeks and left. Despite everything we had learned, I felt more peace than ever.

After talking with my mom about everything, I felt even more peace. That right now my baby was alive. She could still hear Ray and I. And we could still talk to her. The short time I had left with my little girl was so precious. Each kick and movement meant so much more to me than before. This was our time together. And I relished in that thought. Although I knew it would be so hard to face what was to come, I knew that the Lord was watching out for us and not matter what happened, there will always be a reason. My dreams became consumed of my little girl. It was hard to wake up and find her not in my arms when I knew she was there just a second ago smiling up at me. Sooner than we knew, the day of our appointment had arrived. I had accepted what was to come and knew that no matter what we found out today, I would be ready. Little did I know what that all entitled. When the doctor came in to do the ultrasound, he was astounded by what he found. All the assists were gone. There was no cleft lip, she had grown substantially, there were no holes in the head or other abnormalities that were there last time. He looked at us and said "Well, I do believe you have received a miracle. Your child will be as healthy as any of us." For a moment I just sat there. Did he just say what I think he said? I will get to hold and see my child? I will get to see her smile, crawl, walk? I will get to play with my daughter? See her grow up before my eyes? How can this be? Well my friends. It was a miracle. There is nothing else to it. My little Madelynn Shay Martel was born as healthy as ever on March 26, 2010 weighing 6 lbs. and 13 oz. We are so blessed to have her in our lives. I can't begin to say how grateful we are to have her with us today. She is so full of life, love, and the Spirit. God does allow miracles to happen. I see it every day in my own life. His tender mercies are all around us. Just like in 1st Nephi Chapter 1:

"....the tender mercies of the Lord are over all those whom
he hath chosen, because of their faith, to make them
mighty even unto the power of deliverance."

The Lord’s mercies are over his chosen sons and daughters. I found it interesting that in this verse there is no promise here saying if you do this then you will receive this. It is a declaration, if you will, saying that we were already chosen before we came here. Each and every one of us has a purpose that the Lord wants us to fulfill. Of course, we have our free agency and can choose for ourselves how we want to live. But the Lord will show mercy unto the chosen. Now before I go on, I want to say that I in no way feel like one of the Lord’s “chosen” that I am better than the next person. But when I was at the lowest point in my life, I felt those tender mercies. I saw them happen in my life. I literally can look back and see that the Lord bent down and picked up the pieces my life had become. He sent my beloved husband to help show me the way. He sent His angels to help guide me in the direction I needed to go. Even though I slipped up many a time, He was still there, guiding me, leading me back home. I feel that even though I had forgotten who I was, that I had followed the wrong path; the Lord knew my heart. He knew that what I wanted the most was to come back to Him. And I believe that it was because of His tender mercies, I am who I am today. He delivered me out of Satan’s grasp and into His loving arms. Even though, it has been hard to forget and feel truly forgiven of the things I have done, I am not sorry to have experienced it. I believe it was something I needed to experience in order to live the rest of my life how I should, and remember the things that are important to me. So that I may be able to teach my children and raise them in a way that they will not question if there is a Heavenly Father who loves them and who wants them to return to him. I love my little girl so much and I am so so very grateful to be chosen as her mother. I am so grateful that I will see her grow to be a strong beautiful and faithful girl. I am proud to be her mother. I love you Madelynn.

Mady is 6 Months

Ok so I have put this off for so long because I wanted to go in for Mady's six month check up so I could get her weight and height. She was six months last weekend. Can you believe that I've had this little girl for half a year!? Yeah I'm still trying to grasp that. I forgot Mady's weight and height the past few month so here they are:

4 Months

Weight: 10.15 lbs. (33%)
Height : 23" (54%)

5 Months

Weight: 13.11 lbs. (28%)
Height: 24" (43%)

6 Months

Weight: 15.4 lbs (29%)
Height: 25" (22%)

So I'm guessing she got some Japanese genes on Ray's side of the family looking at her height. She is gaining some weight though - its probably the baby food we're feeding her. She's growing so fast. I can't believe it. Especially when I see newborns. I'm like how in the world did Mady get this big. Ray says things like, "How did this girl fit inside you? There's just no way now." Thank goodness. Can you believe those people who pop out 10-14 lbs. babies?? That's a miracle inside a miracle.

And my goodness does she love love love her baby food! I was a little worried because she didn't like her rice that much - even when I put some taste in it, like apple juice. Her face was pretty funny though - "What are you feeding me? This takes awful!"


This is her first time eating rice :
So after a week of rice, we tried some baby food. We started her on vegetables first so she would like them and hopefully eat them when she was older. I'll probably give her some fruit when she's about 8 months. She is also noticing that whatever me and Ray put in our mouths is food. And she'll immediately reach for it. So being the strict mother I am, I'll let her suck on things. She really likes tomatoes. Weird eh? I only just started liking tomatoes just last year. But I decided that I'm going to make her eat things that I absolutely despise. Like PB&J's for example, or tuna, chili, or that ooui don poop noodle stuff that Ray's parents make or mo chi. And all that other Japanese stuff.

Anyways on to what this girl can do! Mady has been on such a good schedule....well before we went to St. George with Ray's family that is. She takes two naps - a morning and then an afternoon. She then will go to sleep at 7:00 and sleep until 2-3 in the morning. Ray and I have become a good team when this happens. He'll get the bottle ready while I change her diaper. She then goes back to sleep until 7-8. Awww its sooo nice. I don't get to see Ray that much due to school and his job. So when he comes home at night we get some alone time to talk or have a little date (watching hulu in bed or doing homework together). I love it.

Mady now has two teeth! About two weeks ago she got a low grade fever and was a bit fussy. So I could only guess that it was a tooth coming in. But I have heard that it can take quite a while. So I was prepared for a fussy baby for quite sometime. But sweet Mady was only ornery for two days and then she was a complete angel. So I forgot about it until just a week ago when my mother-in-law, Barb, felt two teeth. Not just one but two! Now, I can't help but think more are coming, as she is becoming fussy again. But maybe teeth hurt while there still coming through?

Mady is such a happy smiley baby. Its quite easy to tell when she's feeling under the weather. She's made it quite easy to wake up in the middle of the night to go get her, or in the morning, or when she wakes up from her naps. You can hear her goo-ing to herself. And when you walk in to go get her, when she sees you, she becomes ecstatic. She starts grinning and kicking her legs and flapping her arms. How could you be mad at a face like that!? Oh, I love it.

So me and Mady play this fun game. I growl at her and try to scare her. She used to get scared (like in this video) and then when she saw that it was me, she'd laugh. But now she just growls back. Its pretty cute. I'll try and catch her growling on video on of these times.


Mady is definitely my child. She loves her baths! When we let her, she will play in her tub for 30 min or more. The longest was an hour (my baths usually last 1-3 hours). I love this video and how Mady splashes in the tub. She used to just like to lick the tub water from her hands and sometimes put her face in it. But now she's learning that she can have fun by splashing. She's so funny.

Mady is also attempting to crawl. She gets so frustrated with herself when she can't get to something. So she'll get into the crawling position and just stay there, trying to decide how to get to her toy or whatever. So after a couple of minutes, she'll just fall onto her belly and then cry till we come get her (since she still hasn't mastered the rolling technique). Since this video, she now has learned to go from her stomach back into a sitting position. She is learning so fast! I just don't know if I'm ready for her to be mobile just yet....


In the past little bit we have had some crazy adventures. Our first one was going to Ephraim to help my family out with a HUMONGOUS yard sale. My little brother Aaron did his eagle project, but in order to raise money to pay for it, he decided to do a yard sale. Over 30 families donated to the cause......which was all very generous yes, but it made for a TON of work for us. Not to mention how much junk we had to go through. I wish I had gotten a picture of all the clothes I had to go through. The grossest part though, was that some of the boxes of clothes had rat poop, bugs, and old food in with them. Yep, I pretty much felt like I had rabies. I think I took like 5 showers a day. Thank goodness for soap. In the end we did earn over $200 (which was what Aaron needed to pay for the project), but we still ended up with A LOT of stuff. I'm still not quite sure what my mom did with it all. D.I. or garbage I'm guessing. It was nice to be home, even though we worked the whole time. Just being with my family was a nice change from the school life. My family was so happy Mady was there. She was fought over quite a bit. I also got this really cute video of Mady playing the piano. I only wish I could have found the camera sooner to get her singing and playing. But this is still pretty cute.

Our next big adventure involved going down to St. George with Ray's family conference weekend. Ray's dad Joe, runs in the marathon each year. This was his 19th year! Crazy eh?? It has become a tradition in the family that they rent one hotel room for the whole family and go shopping and whatnot. Well even though the family has added 4 people, we're still just in one hotel room. The nice thing about the room is that it does have 3 queen size beds....but it still puts people on the floor. So as you can guess I was a little hesitant to go. Especially with Mady. Since Mady goes to bed at seven, I knew there was no way to keep 10+ people quiet with her sleeping. So in the end we compromised. I made everyone go to bed at 9:00 sharp. Yes, so what if I was a little drastic? For all you mother's out there, you know why its so important you keep your child on the same schedule. Mady was quite ornery, but at least she wasn't unbearable. Needless to say, the siblings got quite frustrated with my strict bedtime and with her naps schedule (during her naps I wouldn't let anyone in the room). But none of them have kids, so I they don't really understand the importance. But I have decided that next year, Ray and I will not being sleeping there with the family. Mady is off her schedule ever since we came back. She now wakes up every 4 hours. (I have a newborn again! ARGH) Maybe the parents will get another hotel room because of how big our family is. But then again Ethan will be on his mission and Jemma and Jacob may be in Japan. I will be sad when Ethan leaves. When he gets back, Mady will be 3! So weird. Oh I'm getting sad, I'm done talking about this.

So despite everyone being mad at me, it was quite fun. On Saturday, we always get up early to go watch Joe finish the race. He did really good - just over 3 hours. Here's a picture of Joe running to the finish line.This is Joe with Mady after the race. And no that's not all his sweat, is just the water he ran through at the end. So while Joe goes and does all his after the race stuff, the rest of us go shopping. They had some great sales going on at Oshkosh and Mady needed some winter clothes. Barb also got Mady some cute books that she is just going to love. After we're done shopping we head back to the hotel, eat some lunch and then go swimming. So we took Mady swimming for the first time. This is her cute swimming suit I got her for .50 cents at a yard sale. (Note: I don't really like little girls wearing bikini's, but I didn't want to pay $20 to get a nice one so I ended up finding this. So it will have to do until I find another more modest one)Mady loved the water. She loved kicking her legs. But Mady liked the hottub best (just like her Mom). When the bubbles were on, I would set her on the edge right above one spot where there bubbles would splash onto her legs. She's never had a problem with hot water. Even when she was little, if her bath was warm she would scream. That's my girl! :)

It was nice to come home, but we loved seeing the parents and spending time with them. Here's eveyone in the room minus Naketa (Joey's wife) and her friend Jessica and then Joe is taking the picture. (Barb, Jacob, Joey, Jemma - behind Joey, Shay, Ethan, Mady, and Ray)

And here's a cute picture of Barb and Mady - so precious!
So Mady already has a boyfriend! Start 'em young haha. This is her and her boy-toy. Mady loves her stroller rides. She won't fall asleep though. She'll just be amazed by everything around her. Here's Ray ready to go on a run with her:

Do you like her cute tiger outfit? I thought it was so adorable I just had to get it. And for only a dollar? I think so. Here's some better pictures of it - it reminds me of the book Where the Wild Things Are:So with all the yard sales I hit, I had to take pictures to show off her cute outfits. Here's some pictures of her cute outfits.


Here's some other random pictures of my little girl:

She's almost tall enough to reach the floor - she really likes her walker.
This is when we were at the doctors office. She thought the wheel was so much fun to play with.Mady always had a hard time being in her carseat when we would go to the store. She loves looking around and her carseat constricted her movement and looking. So now I just put her in the shopping cart, which she absolutely loves. These two pictures crack me up everytime. This first one is Mady's face half of the time.
This second one is just hilarious. Ray was quick enough to get it on camera. Haha
So one day Ray and I were cleaning the kitchen and Mady woke up before we were done. So Ray got her and put her in the other room. After about 5 minutes of not hearing anything. I went in to see what she was doing. And this is what I found. Doesn't it remind you of a fat guy lounging? One morning Mady and I woke up to hot air balloons. Mady was so amazed by them. I can't even begin to tell how much of a help Ray is. He always seems to know when I need it the most. Whether is because of homework or because I want to clean or anything. He takes Mady and goes and plays with her or puts her down for a nap. One day I had my study group over and Mady needed to take a nap. Ray took her from me and went to go put her down. I hadn't heard anything for about a half hour so I went to go check what was going on and this is what I found. Cute I know. Mady has brought so much joy into our lives. I thank the Lord everyday for trusting us with such a sweet spirit. I love you Mady!!