Tag, I'm "It"?

So, Miss Ev Burns "tagged" me to share 5 things about myself that others might not know that are somewhat weird/interesting. So here goes.

1. I hate cheesecake! I don't know when and why this started. I can't remember ever liking cheesecake, really. I actually don't mind that jello cheesecake that comes in a box, but that really doesn't taste like cheesecake, does it. I guess it has something to do with cheese not belonging in desserts or that cheese should not be sweet. Every once in a while a try a taste of the evil cake just to see if I'm just being stubborn, but no, I even tried a taste of this turtle cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory last week, but ugh, nope, still don't like it. Go figure.

2. Don't tell Craig, but I absolutely love watching those stupid sports shows that show the best plays in sports or the best fights in sports, etc. I think they're titled The Best Da**(we'll keep this G rated for Madelyn's sake) plays, touchdowns, fights, etc. Anyway, I love to watch them. Craig caught me watching one the other day, but I just told him I had fallen asleep flipping channels--oh the lies I tell my husband. Now you may wonder why this needs to be kept a secret. First of all, I married into a family of absolute sports fans. If it has anything to do with sports--my in laws are all about it. Craig played 20 different sports in high school, his brother plays for the Bills, the grandkids are given their first sports lessons as soon as they can control their neck muscles. Don't get me wrong, I love sports as well--I was tomboy growing up, but I'm not this into sports. If I let Craig watch all the sports he wanted, I would never see my husband--my sisters in law can attest to this, so in true Chelsea fashion, I have limited Craig's sports viewing to 1 game per week, not including his brothers games, for the sake of his law career and our marriage. In fact, we're watching the Vegas Bowl as I write. So, if Craig knew that I liked that show, he might think I'm giving him the go-ahead to force me into watching more than our allotted 1 game per week.

3. My favorite holiday is definitely Independence Day. Forget Christmas, New Year's, Thanksgiving, Valentines' Day, Columbus Day, and yes, even my birthday, I love the 4th of July. I have great memories of the 4th all the way back to when I was little. I even remember when it snowed on the 4th, but I still had a great time. I remember watching Jackie Chan movies all day one year between the 4th festivities--who could ask for a more patriotic day? Now that I think of it, a few of my 4th's have been a bit crappy, but I always look forward to a better one the next year. Craig and I went all out this year and spent the 4th in Seward, Nebraska, the "4th of July capital of the US". Oh, it was fun! We walked through all the artsy stuff, we ate corn on the cob, we watched a brass band at the bandstand, we braved the 100 degree heat and 90% humidity for the parade (which was not the easiest thing being pregnant), we ate otter pops while we watched people ride the fun swirly rides that I had to sadly pass up this year, so I didn't scramble my baby, and we spent a much needed 2.5 hours watching "Transformers" in a nicely air conditioned old fashioned movie theater. We rode our bikes to the fireworks show, and were startled at the first huge boom of the fireworks as we laid on our backs in a park surrounded by families and a full orchestra playing fireworks music. Yeps, it was the perfect 4th, and I hope they continue through the years.

4. I loved being pregnant. I don't know if this is common, but I loved it. I was healthy, I could eat what I wanted within reason, of course, I had an excuse to gain some weight, and dang, I just looked good pregnant. I wasn't self conscious for the first time in my whole life. ...and I felt good once I got past the first trimester. I loved people asking when I was due. I loved that Craig made fun of my waddling when I thought I had a good strut going. I loved Maddie moving all about inside at 4:30 in the morning. ...and I seriously felt like I could have run throughout my whole pregnancy had it not gotten a bit awkward around the 6 month mark. In fact, about 5 days before Maddie was born, I was walking to my car from work and started to wonder if I was actually 9 months pregnant, because I just felt good! My sisters and I went shopping and did a good bit of walking the day I went to the hospital to have Maddie. Anyway, I'm sure I've thoroughly jinxed myself for all future pregnancies, but I miss my big belly. This flabby skin that used to be Maddie's house is just not doing it for me, but I sure do love the sweet little girl that came from that wonderful 9 months.

5. Finally, this may not come as a surprise to many, but I am horrible at gift giving. I get so nervous when birthdays and Christmas and any gift-giving occasion come, because I cannot for the life of me think of anything good to gift. I try to send cards to my good friends on their birthdays, but I have a stack of cards--yes all written and ready to send, but I just have not sent them, and by the time I get to sending them, it's a good week past their birthdays, and then I just feel dumb. I'm horrible, I didn't even get my sisters anything for their birthdays this year, because I just couldn't think of anything good enough to get for them. I'm not good at making things really, and I'm definitely not clever or imaginative when it comes to thinking of gifts to give. This confession is making me nervous as well, because now that I have acknowledged this weakness, I must try to strengthen it, and once again, we're back to where we started--I just plain stink. Don't even start with the thank you cards--to me, saying "thank you" on a small ugly card doesn't cut it when someone has been so genuinely nice to me. I'm so bad. We wrote all of our thank you cards from our wedding, and then just never sent them. Then a year and a half had gone by and we moved to Omaha, so I threw them out. Yups, I'm a weird one.

Well, that's about it. I now tag Emily Simmons and Roundy, Rebecca, Vicki, and Liz. Go for it!

The First 2 Weeks

Was I really that big?! So, here are some before and after pics. That was the fastest 20 pounds I've ever lost! I'm also including a picture of what I did on those days off work before Madelyn was born. Artwork was produced and protected by the sistas Natalie and Rachael...and Craig.

Madelyn is doing great at almost 2 weeks old already! She sleeps pretty well at night. She sqwaks a bit during the night but usually falls right back to sleep...knock on wood and we do have ourselves a 3:30 snack, which has not been too bad. Now that Craig has finished his finals, he has been a great dad. He is a master diaper changer! He's even getting really good at snapping all those wonderful tiny snaps on Madelyns sleepers. Speaking of clothes, sadly, Madelyn only fits into a few of her cute little clothes for now. Craig and I were expecting an 8 pounder with how tall Craig and I are, but we got ourselves a tiny long little creature who is as cute as a pill bug. However, we are confident she will quickly grow out of all of those cute little clothes because she is quite the voracious eater. She absolutely loves to pull her long crossed legs up to her tiny bum--she looks like a popple when she does this! We think she will probably be quite the piano player--she has the longest fingers any of us have ever seen! In fact, Grandma Linda laughed for about 10 minutes when she first saw Madelyn's fingers.

Madelyn has met 3 of her aunts and 1 uncle, who genuinely spoiled her on their trip to Omaha. Thank you thank you Matt, Alycia, Natalie, and Rachael!!! She has also had the opportunity to be continuously coddled by her sweet Grandma Linda who has spent the past week with us. We will miss Grandma Linda when she leaves tomorrow--how are we going to raise this poor little thing without my mom!?

Craig is determined that Madelyn knows who Chuck Norris is because she looks like a little kung foo fighter when we let her have her hands and feet free from mittens and sleeper gowns. She also has the best kung face with her big eyes wide open and her mouth shaped like an "o"

We're taking Madelyn on her first plane ride next weekend as we head out to Utah to show her off to all of her cute little cousins, aunts, uncles, g-rents, and all of her mom and dad's friends. Craig's parents graciously gave us plane tickets for Christmas so we could spend Christmas out in Utah as well as bless Madelyn with all of her family in attendance.

Our new Chambers

Hello all! Well, eventhough our last post was almost 4 months ago, a lot has happened, the most important being the arrival of our new little Madelyn. She is a sweet baby with lots of dark hair. She weighed in at 6 lb 12 oz and 20.25 inches long. She was born on Wednesday, December 5th at 7:36 am after only 5.5 hours of labor and 5 minutes of pushing--not too shabby, eh? She is definitely tiny, but we can already tell that she has inherited Chelsea's long legs. Here's one of our favorite pics so far. We'll post more later. Mom and Dad need some sleep!!!