life made EZ

2011-12-15T13:20:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I was totally lame and did not get any Thanksgiving pictures. We had a marvelous meal made by my mother in law, Karen, and my sister in law, Abbey. After the food digested we were just hanging around and Abbey convinced Karen and I to go black Friday shopping at Walmart. I'd never been black friday shopping and thought it'd be hilarious to see the crazy people at Walmart. I expected people throwing some elbows or crazy fights over Elmo's... but nada. Everyone was nice and were chatting us up. It was so chill, we even bought some bananas for next mornings breakfast.

As soon as Thanksgiving ended we started Christmas baking. Maddy asks to make cookies everyday. She loves to mix, bake, sprinkle... she wants to do it all. We made practice 2D gingerbread houses before we upgraded to a 3D version. We are gearing up to make all sorts of goodies for her preschool teacher Ms. Janey, who she absolutely adores.

As the count down to Christmas continues, we gave into social pressure and got an Elf on the Shelf. Maddy named ours happy. Here he is one day perched on the gingerbread house Ethan and I tag teamed in our annual semi-competitive gingerbread house build off with our friends the Stangers. Maddy now loves elves and talks with Happy everyday. She found this hat amongst the decorations, put it on, and called herself Maddy the Elf.

Elliott is still our perfect little man. He's sweet, happy, cuddly, and sleeping better nowadays. He has become obsessed with our phones and if he sees them he will fight you until you give in and let him play. He's walking like a pro and fast as lightning.

Just when you think the holidays couldn't get any busier... Karen volunteered to host a fundraiser for a local politician with Ann Romney as a guest speaker. We baked, decorated, and prepped for hours. It paid off! Ann was great and we sure looked classy when ABC, CNN, FOX, and the Washington Post showed up. Ann shared stories about Mitt, they were funny, sweet, inspiring, and uplifting. I enjoyed the opportunity to see her speak and say hi. My father in law Mike did have to kick out one reporter who apparently is known to be disrespectful. He left without a scene, phew!

Most recently, Maddy had her preschool Christmas program. It was a perfect 15 minute presentation! Maddy did a wonderful job singing and staying in her spot. I was relieved Maddy was so well behaved. I posted videos of each of their songs... apparently the little girl next to her was having a bad night! Of course we had to get a pic with her favorite, best friend teacher, Ms. Janey.

BTW... disclaimer, we are going to send our christmas cards, I promise... we've had some delays with photos, but no worries you'll get a card with adorable kid pictures eventually.

Merry Christmas. We love you!

2011-11-08T09:04:00.000-08:00

This edition of life made EZ is brought to you by the letter S...

Smile... Maddy had her school pictures taken. Our little girl is so grown up and too darn cute. Preschool is awesome and Maddy comes home after every class with a new song to sing. They also had a pretty sweet halloween party. Maddy got a pumpkin bucket, toys, candy, and played fun games... she was a fan.

Splash... My kiddos are seriously water lovers. Their favorite part of the day may be night time baths, or morning showers, or washing hands, or even the toilet.

Sunny... We had some beautiful weather in October so we ventured out to Bloomsbury Farm twice! This place is seriously awesome, except the cost, that is definitely not awesome. Giant jumping pillow, pumpkin cannon, slides, animals, corn bin, hay ride... Elliott was not a fan of the train ride, he held on to me for dear life! Maddy still asks to go to the farm.

Shopping... So my mother in law, Karen, is amazing!!!! She took my sister in law, Abbey and I, to the Mall of America for 3 days of all things girlie. Shopping, restaurants, Footloose... it was great. Abbey convinced me to buy some skinny jeans/jeggings (on sale $15, woohooo) and I'm converted. I've bought 2 more pairs! Over the last year I've lost about 25 lbs and felt bummed because I didn't feel like it showed... Duh, I didn't buy new flattering clothes! So now I'm looking more stylish and feeling better about how I look... Thank you Abbey. Maybe now that I look presentable Ethan can take me on a date!!!

Skills... So my cake decorating skills continue to improve. I make a baby cake for a baby shower for a girl in my ward. It was a hit and made everyone giggle. There was enough cake to bring the head home to her family. Morbidly delicious! Abbey came over a couple weeks later and we make a golf themed cake for Taylor. I was a little worried because the cake seemed crumbly, but it turned out great and apparently super delicious!

Spooky... Halloween was great! We went down to Nauvoo with Ethan's family. Ethan and I finally got to enjoy the temple and then hit the town for their pumpkin walk. Maddy searched the streets for the smallest pumpkin, she's been obsessed with small pumpkins due to her fav book, the littlest pumpkin. Of course we had to stop and listen to the bands, Maddy likes to rock! It was a lot of fun.

Spooky continued... Our ward had a Halloween party. Maddy got her face painted and played games. Elliott endured wearing the costume another day. For the adults, we had a chili cook off, which I WON!!!! Oh and I had to throw in this pic of Maddy when she wore the giraffe costume!

Sweet... When Halloween night finally came, Maddy didn't even want to put her costume on. Then the trick or treaters started showing up. When Maddy saw what trick or treating was, she was begging to get going! Luckily is wasn't too cold outside and we all dolled up and started knocking doors. While out in the neighborhood we caught up with our cute little witch neighbor friend Charlie and trick or treated together. They had so much fun, it was great. When we finished, we checked out her haul and she was pleased! She loved it so much she will still wish me a happy Halloween and ask to go trick or treating.

Steps... So Elliott is really wanting to walk. He's just building up confidence. Slowly but surely he has gone from walking holding hands, walking from person to person, and now he walking to furniture and toys.

Sleep... So we've been a little sleep deprived here, thus my lack of posting. The last month Elliott has had really troubles sleeping and with diarrhea. We assumed it was teething, but after 3 weeks of diarrhea and no teeth I finally deduced that it was the milk we started feeding him. Apparently his guts are not a fan of whole milk. So we switched to Almond milk (which Maddy loves) and the diarrhea is gone and he slept through the night last night, therefore so did I! Hooray.

Three cheers for the letter S!

2011-10-08T17:51:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Elliott!

Our big, (24 lbs) little man turned one today. I can't believe it's already been a year! We had family and close family friends over to celebrate. Elliott felt a little overwhelmed and was not too into being sung to.

But as soon as he started munching on his own little train, he perked up. And BTW, yes I made that cake. It wasn't too difficult... just time consuming. I've discovered that I really enjoy decorating cakes! Taylor's birthday is coming up, so Abbey and I might just tag team a cake for him.

Back to the main event... Maddy refused cake... but ate all the fondant dots off of the cake. When the dots were gone, she started working on the boarder.

After cake, we enjoyed some play time...

Then we got to business. Elliott wasn't too into opening gifts, so Maddy decided to help. He got some really great toys that he will warm up to, if Maddy let's him play with any of them. He really loved a musical card my sister Dianna sent him. He would just keep opening and closing it laughing. Now I just need to figure out where to put all the new goodies!

Elliott is our sweet little boy. He is usually smiling, laughing, and playing. He loves playing outside, in the bathtub, with anything that has wheels, throwing balls and crawling after them, hanging upside down, and much to my chagrin playing in Lola's water bowl and the toilet bowl. He is very cautious when first trying something, but once he's figured it out that it's fun (stairs, opening cupboards, slides, swings, etc.) you can't stop him from playing. We expect him to be walking any day now... he took one step on his own today, but in his cautious manner bailed after the one step! I love his giggles, hugs, and all things that make him our Elliott!

2011-10-02T05:43:00.000-07:00

I love fall!! The trees are changing color, and we are enjoying the cool, crisp, sunny weather. Maddy continues to love preschool. We discovered the tears before preschool were due to the anticipation of the puppets Maddy's teacher uses in class. Apparently, Maddy is terrified of puppets. So her teacher got rid of the puppets and we talked with Maddy how the puppets are all gone. Now she jumps out of the car and practically sprints into school.

We had our first school field trip. It was to Allen's Apple Orchard. Maddy got to pick a fresh apple and eat it. She found the machines that wash and shine the apples pretty cool. The bees... not so much. It was interesting to see her listen, answer questions, and follow directions. If only she'd do that at home... ha!

We took our annual October trip to Bart's farm for pony rides and some pumpkin picking. Maddy, for the third year in a row, rode her favorite pony, Princess. She rode like a champ and even got compliments from the workers on how well she rode. She started talking about wanting a pony. We might be in trouble!

It was fun and difficult for Maddy and I to try to pick the perfect pumpkins. They were beautiful. Ethan enjoyed mocking me as I'd trade one pumpkin for another in and out of our wagon, commenting that they all looked the same. They did not look the same!!!! Maddy eventually found the smallest pumpkin on the farm in the gourd section. She hugs, kisses, and sleeps with her tiny pumpkin.

Poor Elliott is sick and didn't get a pony ride or enjoy the farm too much. I couldn't even get a pic of him smiling. So sad.

If you hadn't noticed, Elliott got his first hair cut. It's so adorable! And yes I put "product" in it and try to spike it up. Ethan says I need practice because apparently there is a wrong way to spike hair and I don't spike it right!

As I mentioned poor little Elliott is sick. Hopefully he can perk up for his 1st birthday on Saturday. Yeah, it's already been a year, I can't believe it! I had to include this pic of him in his sick, vegetative state, playing on my phone!

Expect some adorable birthday pictures of a hopefully healthy, smiling birthday boy soon!!!

2011-09-20T17:30:00.000-07:00

Yikes, where have I been!? Unfortunately, no where... I don't know what happened but I've neglected the blog. Sorry here's a brief catch up on our summer fun and fall beginnings ...

Maddy has finally warmed up to splash pads and Elliott is a big fan. I couldn't keep him away. BTW at the end of the video he was reaching up for me to come "save" him, he was getting sprayed really bad.

Parks and sandboxes are awesome! Elliott was a little nervous at first, now he swings, bounces, slides, climbs the stairs and anything he can get his hands on.

I went to the Ames Straw Poll and could only laugh at the craziness that the candidates shelled out cash for... Concerts, air conditioned tents, BBQ, inflatables, what a waste of money, ugh. I was glad Romney didn't waste money by putting on a big show there... he also didn't receive very many votes, I wonder why.

My children LOVE water, including the bathtub.

Maddy has started preschool and while drop offs are a little rough still, she's a fan. She even volunteered to be the first class leader! I am also a fan of having 2 days a week of 2 and 1/2 hours of free time!

Elliott has been a busy boy. He is lightning quick and gets into things in a blink of an eye. Toilets, dishwashers, trampolines, and don't leave a door open or he'll try to escape!

We went to a Hawkeye game with Taylor and Abbey, thanks to Karen's friend Nancy. They were amazing seats... unfortunately it was during a huge down pour. We literally had a 20 minute break during half time, enough to get our hopes up. When the rain started again and the game was delayed, we were out of there! So we waddled home soaked to our undies.

I turned 30. It wasn't too traumatizing... I really enjoyed my cake!

Ethan turned 31 and enjoyed some birthday cupcakes, Maddy however didn't enjoy us singing Happy Birthday.

So now you're caught up!

2011-07-20T11:59:00.000-07:00

I don't get it...

I talk with people about potty training and they say things like... oh I did it over the weekend, oh my child just knew, when he was ready he did it on his own and didn't even have an accident, well it took a week...

WHAT!? I don't get it. It has been a week and a half and we are still struggling. When we are home and maddy's naked... she's a potty rock star. I don't even have to ask, she just runs to the potty any time she needs to. However if she needs to pee at church, shopping, or at story time she doesn't ask to go and just has an accident. I don't get how people can just get it done in a weekend. We'll keep chugging along.

When she made it through the day with no accidents, she got a special prize. She calls her princess Maddy.

Maddy's new fun activity is covering herself with blankets and playing underneath them. She attempted to bring Elliott it in on the fun, but he wasn't a big fan of being covered by a blanket.

Maddy's new favorite show is Super Why (thank you Kendra, I remember you showing it to me in CO). When the super heroes save the day, they do the Hip Hip Hooray dance. Here's Maddy's interpretation of it...

Well, Elliott has been teething for about a month and it's driving us insane. He's got 3 teeth and it looks like more are coming. When drugged up on Tylenol, he is his normal happy self, but as soon as it wears off, watch out! I don't even want to talk about how horrible nights have been. I can't wait for these teeth to just bust through and give us all a break!

I couldn't pass up posting this pic. This kid is too cute! He likes to "help" with laundry. He can't resist toppling the laundry basket. Oh, side note, still no crawling... he's trying so hard!

I just love this picture. It describes Maddy and Elliott's relationship exactly.

2011-07-12T16:58:00.000-07:00

So after hearing many different methods for potty training, I think I've finally figured Maddy out. I tried letting her drink a ton and letting pee everywhere, but that totally traumatized her. Tried pull ups over underwear, but she didn't like them and if she had just a little pee, she couldn't feel it. So it took about 3 days and we've got a system. I carefully monitor her liquid intake, just at breakfast, snack, etc. Then about 40 min later we take a potty break. If no pee, we try again 15/20 min later. It's been pretty successful, only 1 accident today. She only wears pull ups (underwear helpers) if she naps or at night. I actually saw her squirming today and performing a brief potty dance and ran and made it to the potty. She rarely asks to take a potty break, but she is genuinely happy and excited every time she hears that tinkle! Fortunately, Maddy is well aware of her poops, and every poop has been a hit in the pot and she even asks for a potty break.

Other Maddy news, her artwork is progressing. She draws smiley faces on everything, snakes, vacuums, flowers, etc. She now is drawing noses and "bodies."

Also, she read a book to Elliott. I had to get a pic. Too adorable!

Elliott is a busy, growing boy! In the last week his two bottom teeth have broken through and his dreams of eating more table food is coming true! He is working hard at crawling. He won't sit very long, he'll quickly lean forward, hit all fours, and try to go. He's so close. He is also loving standing. Here's Maddy standing at 10 months and Elliott standing at 9 months. Geez, and we thought Maddy was tall!

Lastly, bath time has gotten out of control in our house. Maddy will say she's diving and just stick her head under the water. Occasionally she'll pull her head out coughing and choking, but she's getting a lot better at holding her breath. Unfortunately, Elliott is now trying the same thing. I just sit by the tub repeatedly pulling him up or trying to keep him from dunking himself. Bath time might just give me a nervous break down!

2011-07-07T18:43:00.000-07:00

So I thought I'd squeeze in one more optimistic blog entry before all that good cheer is gone. Why such a grim outlook? Potty training! It's been a huge struggle. The last few days Maddy has finally been sitting on the potty with the help of stickers, charts, prizes, and m&m motivators. We've been counting down her last few diapers, and tomorrow they will be all gone and it's underwear time. I've got her pumped and cheering... but once reality of soggy pants hits, she might be singing a different tune. I just gotta stay strong!

So back to happy thoughts...

4th of July was mostly great. We enjoyed a BBQ lunch with the Garbetts. It was delicious and fun to spend time with some family friends. Later we headed over to our friends the Hansen's for some more BBQ... again delicious. After eating we crossed the street to meet up with other families from our ward to celebrate our country by blowing up illegal fireworks! We were totally awful parents and kept our kids up until the show (9:30pm). Maddy did really great playing with the kids, chasing lighting bugs, and playing with sparklers. Elliott just hung out in a haze half awake, half asleep. Then once the fireworks started, they FREAKED!!!! Elliott was holding on for dear life while maddy curled up in fetal position in Ethan's lap saying, "Fireworks are scarey, I wanna go home." So we packed up and headed out. Geez, can't invite those dang Zmoos' anywhere!

In everyday going ons, Maddy loves "cooking" aka stirring things. Every day she asks to make cookies. So I give her a bowl of flour, water, and food coloring. She'll sit and stir and laugh.

Elliott has been spending quite a bit of time on the floor. He's trying to figure out crawling. He's getting close!!!

I call this series... ready, set, D'oh!

2011-07-03T16:11:00.000-07:00

I know if you read my blog you think we live in a land of rainbows, lollipops, unicorns, and candy. Most of the time my kiddos are adorable, as seen below....

I try to keep a positive outlook on life, although Ethan might not agree on that fact 100%. He sees me at my not so finest. So I'm going to be brave, like many of my friends who speak freely on their blogs, and I'm going to get these pestering thoughts out of my brain.

Recently I've been torturing myself with the question, why. Not why me, I try not to attend pity parties. More like, why did I do that or why I am I such an idiot. So here are my list of whys...

Why do I wait so long between loads of laundry and have to deal with doing 4 or 5 loads?

Why do I toss and turn at night, torturing myself with tedious thoughts, when I'm exhausted and need to sleep?

Why did I let myself get so fat?

Why am I so psycho about potty train and can't relax about it?

Why am I such a cruddy friend and never email/call the friends and family I love dearly?

Why do I neglect my scripture study?

Why have I reverted back to my shy high school self and find it hard to reach out and make friends here in Iowa?

Why can't I get my grocery bill down?

Why can I never tame my crazy hair?

Why, why, why... The whys continue. I hope I'm not the only crazy person, and that other people are haunted by all these why's in our lives. I'm trying to work on my whys, and be a better person. Live each day better than than the last, right. Let's carpe diem people!

2011-06-30T17:11:00.000-07:00

Can someone please tell my kids, especially Elliott, to slow down?! They are getting too big too fast.

In a week our little man will be 9 months. In the last couple weeks he's really grown. He's babbling up a storm, no mama's or dada's yet. He's been trying real hard to be mobile, trying to roll, scooting on his tummy backwards, occasionally up on his knees, and walking/cruising holding hands. We are also working on drinking from a sippy cup. A few more months and no more bottle (and no more formula, hallelujah) And finally, his first tooth (bottom, right) has broken through. During the teething he refused all baby food, which was a little stressful. What table foods do you feed a baby with no teeth!? One night he had eggs, toast, and a banana for dinner. Big boy!! He watches like a hawk when you eat and will even giggle... he wants real food so bad! I was naughty and gave him some guac today, no worries, it wasn't spicy.

Maddy is just huge, in opinion and size. She knows what she wants and she's not afraid to yell, cry and pitch a fit to get it. Yikes! We also made another one of our countless potty training attempts. Maddy kept asking to wear underwear, so I let her and told her she needed to use the potty. Of course she didn't and peed all over herself, which she was not a fan of. By about 3 in the afternoon she was bawling and saying no more potty, no underwear, I want to wear diapers. She no longer even asks to wear underwear anymore. I've royally screwed her up. Sigh.

I know this not the cutest most amazing pic, but something about it makes her look like such a kid now. My toddler is gone.

We continue to venture out of the house, even though it's getting hotter than Hades outside. There's even been heat advisories suggesting not to even go outside. They've even called the scouts back early from camp! And July is just starting!!! We took a trip to a splash pad. Elliott immediately was not a fan and opted to sit in the shade. Maddy, who doesn't like them either, kept cool by playing near the shooting water. The best part of the splash pad were the big kids who took turns sitting on the drains so that the water could make a little pool. Maddy was a fan of that.

Freedom festival

2011-06-25T15:11:00.000-07:00

> So the fourth of July festivities are beginning! We attended the parade downtown. To be honest it was a little lame and at times terrifying for Maddy. But we survived and escaped with candy, necklaces, and even some rubber duckies! More festivities to come!
>

2011-06-22T17:49:00.000-07:00

Happy Fathers Day! Ethan enjoyed a brief breakfast in bed, then we zipped off to stake conference. Elder Scott spoke, so there were tons of people there. He spoke about the importance of righteous families. We ended up watching him on TV in the primary room. It actually worked out well cause the kids we able to have space to roll around, eat, play, and not bother the entire chapel. We then had a fabulous dinner of steak, shrimp, ribs, and pie at Ethan's parents house. It was delicious. I'm so grateful for Ethan. He is an amazing father and husband, thank you for all you do!

Summer keeps flying by and we are sweating the days away. I am not looking forward to August! I try to spend as much time at parks as possible. One day we went to 3 parks. I know, ridiculous... no wonder I never get any house work done!

In some Elliott news... He can now hold his bottle on his own when laying down. We both think it's pretty awesome.

Keep enjoying your summers!!!

2011-06-15T12:33:00.000-07:00

Yes, I am updating my blog again. I know you can't believe it. Don't look out your window, pigs aren't flying...

I finally uploaded a ton of videos to you tube, so here they are for your viewing enjoyment.

2011-06-14T05:46:00.001-07:00

Testing
Liz

2011-06-13T18:26:00.001-07:00

Being the "super mom" that I am, I'm ignoring the dishes and disaster around me and I'm updating my blog. And not just because I talked with my mom today and semi guilted me into posting more pics of her grand babies.

As for me, life goes on. I'm in a constant state of trying to clean, cook, and keep my kids happy. None of which I feel successful at. What can you do but keep trying every day, right?! I was successful at fixing my flower garden. After being completely ignored last year, due to pregnancy, it was a wreck. So I dug up all 17 plants, rearranged, and replanted them. After some TLC they are now starting to bloom. Hooray!

Zmoos Chiropractic is keeping Eth very busy. Besides having a fancy laser, which is totally awesome, and attending seminars, the newest most exciting thing is they are now using iPads. He does all his "paper work" on it while conducting his exam. It is saving him tons of time and of course nothing beats just holding an iPad!!!

So we had a huge wind storm a couple days ago. I heard the wind picking up and me being a crazy person ran out side to try to save Maddy's 99 cent ball. That's when our kiddie pool flew off the deck and I saw our swing set being lifted off the ground. I called for Ethan (scaring the crap out of him) to come help. We literally caught the swing set in the the nick of time as we saw our neighbors shed explode. The next day we saw more carnage... destroyed trampolines, broken signs, and smashed trees. Maddy tried to climb into one of the broken trees and quickly turned around freaked out.

Elliott is growing too fast, and soon will be 8 months. His favorite things to do are splashing in the tub and jumping in his jumper. He actually scared me one day because he was jumping so crazy it made a loud noise and I though something broke. I'll post a video next blog entry. He'sgotten a lot better at chewing and swallowing and we are expanding what he's eating. Our little champ is now standing on his own and is starting to take steps while holding hands. I bet he's going to pull a Maddy and not crawl and go straight to walking.

Maddy continues to be our little drama queen, literally. She acts out scenes from her favorite movies. My personal fav is from Bugs Life. Where the little ants are putting on a play and they pretend to die. Maddy will say in a dramatic tone, "Die, Die" and then collapse on the ground. Videos to come... Since Maddy is such a big girl, she has now upgraded to a twin bed. She picked out the bedding and loves her bed. She's been sleeping better and I'll occasionally find her just sitting and cuddling in there. BTW that's our friends dog, Maddy is in love. Maddy has now stopped taking naps. I'm trying to adjust and I'm getting even less done around the house now. One perk is she is going to bed around 7:30 now!!! Sweet!

BTW... In attempts to be more tech savvy and current with my blog, I'm going to start mobile updating. So get ready for more (and shorter) updates!!!

2011-06-13T18:21:00.000-07:00

2011-06-13T18:17:00.001-07:00

Testing mobile posting

2011-06-01T06:09:00.000-07:00

So to catch up...

It seems spring and summer have been a little confused. Some days are beautiful and some are already hot and sticky! We are trying to enjoy the good weather as much as possible.

I just really like letting maddy go crazy outside and hope she exhausts herself, so that bed time is less of a battle. She loves her bathing suit. She begs to wear it and then looks at her reflection and talks about how much she loves it. Not a good sign for the upcoming teenage years. Since turning three Maddy as seriously kicked the crazy up a notch. Gotta love it when your kid is screaming in the middle of target... I'm trying not to go crazy, we'll see how long I hold up! Probably the hardest thing is now she refuses to go to nursery, which is weird because she used to love it! I bring her into primary and try to deal with it... Last sunday I had to do sharingtime, Maddy snuck up to the podium and started saying a prayer into the mic. The kids died laughing. It was cute, but my lesson was shot! There's still a sweet little girl in there who loves to paint, act out scenes from Tangled, draw letters, and wear dresses.

Elliott is as sweet as ever. Please never change! He sleeps great, rarely cries, and is full of smiles and laughter. All you want to do is squeeze and kiss him.

For Memorial Day weekend we went to Des Moines with Ethan's parents. After cleaning up Maddy puke in the rain (car sickness), things started getting better! It was great and went by too fast. We enjoyed the mall (Ethan enjoyed the apple store!), the science center, and the pool. While at the science center we got to see body worlds, so amazing. The human body really is a work of art!!! Maddy begged every day to go to the pool. She LOVES it. Unfortunately, she thinks she can swim (aka flailing) and has no fear. She'd just jump in even if you weren't there to catch her. Yikes!!! You'd think she'd learn after repeatedly choking on water, but no. All in all, the kiddos did really well. We packed as much in as we could, a few times Maddy and Elliott just literally passed out!

Our last stop was the Blank Park Zoo. It is the perfect zoo for kids. We fed animals, fish, went on a camel ride, train ride, and saw lots of animals. I think Maddys favorite was watching the otters swim. The animatronic dinosaurs, however, scared the crap out of her! It was a great morning filled with lots of fun, and only a couple Maddy meltdowns. It was a hot sticky day... so enjoy pictures of us red and sweaty!!!

After all that fun, we finally got home and enjoyed a memorial day burger, courtesy of Mc Donalds. What's more american than that?!

2011-05-08T12:13:00.000-07:00

It was a great week!

Thursday we took a trip to Pella for the Tulip Festival. We watched the parade, did kid crafts, and tried our best to keep Maddy from picking every tulip she saw. The day was beautiful and we got sprinkled on only once! Maddy and Elliott did really well and were exhausted by the time we were finished.

(sorry sideways)

Saturday was Maddy's birthday. I can't believe she is 3! The party was great. We painted, crafted, read a book, and ate cookies and cake. The party was ladybug themed which Maddy loved. I was completely crazy and made hats, decorations, pin the dot on the lady bug, banners, and a ladybug cake all for a one hour party! Ha! It was quite an emotional rollercoaster for Maddy. Happy to have candles, sad to blow them out... Happy to get a bike, sad when she couldn't pedal... etc. She got lots of great gifts. We gave her a ballerina tutu and as soon as she saw it she had to put it on. Thus the tutu on the trampoline and bike! We loved all 60 minutes and it was over too quick. It was really sad to take down all the decorations, thinking that Maddy was 3 and growing older by the minute. We love you Maddy!

And today is Mothers day! Happy Mothers Day!

2011-04-26T16:46:00.000-07:00

It's been busy here... Family reunion, sharing times, various family illnesses, a TB scare (no worries, false alarm), Easter dinner, 5 birthdays, Mothers day, and more. So this is a cop-out blog update. Here's a bunch of videos of our latest activities, reading, singing, rolling over, dancing and more.

2011-04-03T11:28:00.000-07:00

So Ethan came home from the office a few days ago and shared the following...

A new patient came in and while during his patient history talked about all the other chiropractors he had seen. He explained that while he had seen several doctors, there was only one from a long time ago that he liked and helped him the most. All he could remember about him was that he was a little guy with big hands and that he worked downtown on 2nd ave out of his house. Ethan inquired, if he meant a house on 4th ave near brown apartments. The patient then corrected himself and agreed with Ethan. Ethan then explained that that was his grandpa! They both laughed and got a kick out of it. Zmoos Chiropractic has come a long way.

Here's their new sign. Pretty nice upgrade, especially since Ethan's name is on it now. Hooray for job security, right!!!

On the home front Maddy's finally getting over being sick. I spent 3 nights sleeping on a mattress on the floor in her room. She was coughing so bad she'd wake up crying and in a panic. She need to drink a ton and therefore also need multiple diaper changes. She's finally slept through the night the last 2 nights and boy am I grateful! During Maddy's illness I also got sick and am currently on the mend as well. Ethan, who thought he escaped our plague just started coughing yesterday. For now Elliott (with practically no immune system, ha) is still healthy, knock on wood!

Other going ons...

Maddy is in a music class, which she LOVES. I, not being 2, felt it was kinda lame. The songs seemed weird and boring. Of course the class came with a book and cd which Maddy MUST listen to and read at all time (to my torture). I do have to admit, while I do not like the music, she is adorable when she sings it. She memorized the book and it's accompanying songs in the first week.

Maddy continues to be a smarty pants and picked up a few more things. She's actually known her address for a while. One day I made a crown for her and put her name on it. I pointed to each letter, said each one, and said M A D D Y, that spells Maddy. Right there she practiced, and in minutes learned to spell her name. She recognizes and spells it all the time now.

Such a quick learner... except for the potty. Sigh, don't get me started.

Elliott remains hungrier and happier than ever. In one day he'll eat 4 tubs of baby food (the larger size) and 6 or 7, 6oz bottles (up to 42oz a day!). Does that seem like a lot to anyone!? Seriously!

2011-03-23T17:02:00.000-07:00

The days are flying by and it is shocking to me how quickly our kiddos are growing. Maddy's 3rd birthday is around the corner and is enjoying having a little brother more and more. Elliott is as happy as ever tipping the scales at 19 pounds and has almost out grown his infant car seat. It's bitter sweet to say the least.

Elliott's favorite new toy is his jumper. He LOVES it. He laughs and jumps his heart out. I put it in the pantry so he can be entertained while I cook or do dishes. It actually works out great, because there's so much junk in my pantry he just jumps and stares at everything on the shelves.

Spring is officially here. We've had many rainy days, but the sun has made of few appearances. Of course we had to enjoy it! Elliott enjoyed the swing for the first time.

I tried to find some pics of Maddy and Elliott at the same age where they are in similar poses. I love to see how much alike they are.

2011-03-09T10:59:00.000-08:00

Life is still chugging along here. We've been battling cabin fever, but hope is on the horizon! We've had a few beautiful and warm days here and there... we can't wait to get out and play.

In the process of being house bound we've been trying to keep ourselves entertained. Painting, dancing, jumping, trampoline-ing, and rocking out. I think we're going to make it till spring!

Maddy and Elliott are building quite the interesting brother/sister bond. They smile and make each other laugh... but Maddy also drives him nuts!!! Maddy can be very rough with Elliott because she gets so excited to be with him. When we try to calm her down and pull her off of Elliott, she goes into what I call, holding in the crazies. Maddy will literally start shaking and bite her lip trying to contain all her Elliott excitement. Another Maddy development is she's been asking for new diapers, waking at night, and telling us she's peed. Of course she tells us after the fact and refuses to use the potty. But baby steps, right!?

We had a fun Valentines Day. Maddy got a Dora umbrella and could hardly contain her joy. She also enjoyed her first tea party with Grandma. After a few practices the was drinking from her tea cup and could almost pour herself her tea. She's been asking for tea parties ever since.

Elliott has been growing leaps and bounds. He's playing in his exersaucer, getting pretty good at sitting up, and loving solid food. His new favorite pass time is playing with his toes, apparently they are very exciting. He's still a perfect happy little man. Boy do we love him!

In other Zmoos news... Zmoos Chiropractic just got a K laser. And I have to admit its pretty awesome. I've had back pain ever since being preggers and now its gone! Lots of patients really like it and I think Ethan really likes the fact that he can say he has a laser Ha Ha.

Lastly, Grandma Zmoos just turned 80! Family flew in and we partied it up! We love you Grandma and look forward to the many more fun and happy years we get to share together!

2011-01-16T15:15:00.000-08:00

At 12:16 this morning I woke up feeling not so wonderful... This was actually a blessing in disguise. I stayed home from church and slept for over 3 hours and got some much needed R & R. And even better, Ethan's parents currently have Eth and the children over for dinner. So my rest continues. I'm finally feeling better, I've eaten 3 pieces of toast. Wow and I know, huge progress. Now with a quiet house, I can actually update my blog. So lets get going!

Time keeps flying by and the kiddos are keeping me in a constant state of exhaustion. Maddy continues to be 2 and having the expected daily melt downs, but is still a smarty pants, cutie pie most of the time. Elliott is growing at an amazing rate. He is 3 months and is sporting 6 month old clothing. He is a smiley, happy fellow who doesn't cry very often and is very patient.

Life has been fun and crazy we enjoyed a whole month of Christmas festivities!

Annual Ginger Bread Houses....

This year we did ginger bread houses with our friends the Stangers. We stayed pretty traditional, but Shawn made an impressive log cabin. Maddy attempted a house, but basically ate candy the whole time. The next day she was sick and had diarrhea, awesome!

Pre-Christmas with Mike and Karen...
We enjoyed a wonderful dinner and fun opening presents. The highlight of the evening was Maddy's trampoline.

Anniversary...
Ethan and I semi-celebrated our 7 year anniversary. Due to the chaos of Christmas and travel, we never went out to celebrate. We actually spent our anniversary night at a super 8 motel near the airport, in separate beds, each sleeping with a child, and enjoying a magical Mc Donalds dinner! Good thing we love each other and it didn't really matter. We'll have to make it up, good thing we got many more anniversaries ahead of us!

Christmas in New Jersey...
Christmas in NJ was wonderfully, crazy. We had 13 people crammed into my parents house. Ethan, Elliott, Maddy and I all shared the same room during most of the trip. It was great to be with family. The best part of the trip was the time Maddy got to share with her cousin Lucy. They got along great and had fun together. We would have gone out and played more, except Maddy gets really carsick. She puked 4 times on the way to my parents house from the airport. She arrived at my parents house in just a diaper. Poor girl. Thanks to Mom and Dad for dealing with our craziness!

Ethan went back to Iowa before me, so I flew back to IA with kiddos alone. It went really well. While going through security, the lady checking my ID asked if Maddy was four. When I told her Maddy was 2 and Elliott was 3 months, she replied, "Wow, you grow 'em big!" Ha Ha. We got delayed in Chicago (shocker, stupid Chicago) but fortunately that had a play place for children there and Maddy got to get out her wiggles.

Blessing...
After we got home we had Elliott's blessing. We just barely squeezed into his outfit!!! The blessing was wonderful. Elliott fussed and whined a little during the blessing but when it was all over smiled and giggled as Ethan sat back down with him.

Life is crazy. Life is good.

2010-10-17T09:18:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the world Elliott Ethan Zmoos!

Born October 8, 2010 at 3:56pm 7lbs 5.6oz 21in

I guess his birth story starts about 2 weeks before he was born... During those two weeks I had 4 nights of regular contractions. One night we even went to the hospital. We discovered that I was 3 1/2 cm dilated and 60% effaced and they stripped my membranes. Nothing changed, so they sent me home. After two days and absolutely no contractions, I went to my regular doctors appointment and I was 5 cm dilated and 80% effaced. Since I wasn't feeling contractions and was already at 5 cm, the doctor suggested we induce.

So the next morning we headed to the hospital. At 8:30 I was still 5 cm and 80% so they ruptured my membranes after 3 hours of little contractions still no change... so we started the dreaded pitocin! I handled it well for about an hour then at 6cm and 80%, called for the epidural. The contractions were pretty painful so I prayed that I could have a rest from the contractions so that I could stay still for the epidural. Thankfully I only had one during the whole procedure. Luckily I got the epidural just in time, right before it kicked in I had a contraction that made me unable to catch my breath, cry, and shake. Boy was I grateful for epidurals! 2 hours later I started feeling pressure, it was time... 10cm and fully effaced. Two contractions later Elliott was born. The experience was completely different from Maddy. With Maddy by the end I was exhausted in pain and could barely hold her. With Elliott I could actually feel him being born and was so happy to hold him and even breastfeed him in the first hour. It was amazing. All I could do was cry and say thank you.

I had to include this pic of Maddy with her baby brother! They are practically twins!

The next day Karen, Mike, and Maddy came for a visit. Boy oh boy does Maddy love baby brother Elliott.

Things have been great at home. My mom had flown out and is helping. Elliott is a wonderful, patient little guy. And thank goodness, a good nurser. I'm healing up pretty quick and feeling good. We even enjoyed the beautiful weather and went on a family walk.

Maddy absolutely loves Elliott. She wakes up asking for him, helps change his diaper, and likes to snuggle and pet him! We are so grateful for a our little family.

2010-09-25T18:25:00.000-07:00

Normally my blog is basically about Maddy, which is all most people care about. I know she's cute and funny. But I thought that I'd catch everyone up Eth and I as well. Not as interesting or adorable, but we do exist!

Me... So I'm still pregnant and have become a little paranoid/nutty. When Maddy was born my water broke and I was induced, so I never experienced a "normal" labor. So after a paranoid trip to the hospital, a day of contractions, and aching etc. I'm trying to figure out what's going on. I've calmed down, mostly. But I seriously think I might be driving Eth nuts. I've also started doing daycare for my friends, neighbor. His name is Ethan, which is weird. Especially when I talk about how Ethan drools or I changed Ethan's diaper. He is now officially called Little Ethan. Also, I've turned 29...not 30! I received a few you're old and 30 cards. I said I'd save them and read them next year. Ethan, thinking he was clever, put 2 packages of candles (48) on my cake. The flame was so bright the flash didn't go off, thus the burry-ness. I got all the candles but 3. I blame it on my pregnancy induced diminished lung capacity. Today I actually had my baby shower. It was very nice (Thank you Vicky). We had a delicious lunch, tasty cupcakes, games, and presents. It was so nice to have some girl time! Too bad we all forgot cameras and didn't take a single picture. HA HA! In other randomness, I also saw a pretty sunset, so I got my fancy camera and took some pics.

Random picture insert... Maddy and Ethan at the park discovering acorns.

Ethan... is absolutely amazing! Since I've been prego and tired he has picked up the slack. Thank you, sooooo much. After working hard all day he'll come home and take over Maddy duties so I can put up my swollen feet. I had a dream one night that he was Spiderman... so he's officially my super hero. Eth had his birthday too. Now he actually 30 and old! JK! Sadly, due to a totally lame wife, there was no big birthday celebration. Just birthday pie... but it was delicious! He's enjoyed his birthday gift... Halo. Which I give him no grief for playing since he helps me so much, he deserves some quality time blowing stuff up!

Random picture insert... Maddy at the library after story time and at the mall riding the carousel.

And lastly Maddy, she's doing great. Well, besides the fact that she's gotten some separation anxiety and will not go to bed unless one of us is in the room. We're working on it! It doesn't help that she's discovered how to open round door knobs now!! Anyway, since there's always tons to say about Maddy, I thought I condense it up for you. So Maddy's top ten new funny things...

10. When Maddy's mad/frustrated she says, "Da Da Da Da Da" then screams, so now I have a warning before she goes toddler crazy.

9. She likes to "read" her shirts. (Eth has taught her what her shirts say)

8. She impersonates Little Ethan and mimic what he says, the exact way he says it.

7. She'll pinch her nose and talk to you, then crack up.

6. Every morning she'll say, "Good Morning, Buenos Dias." (she has also learned the colors en espanol).

5. She is obsessed with babies. She tries to pet strangers babies and say, "Pretty Baby." And has baby dolls she must be able to find at all times. (sorry I couldn't fix the rotation on the pic)

4. She is in an "I like..." phase. She got new shoes and would say over and over she liked them. At a ward party she got cotton candy for the first time. The whole drive home she said, "I like cotton candy."

3. Every morning she talks loudly in her sleep before she wakes up. We can hear/understand it clearly from our room. This morning she was talking about her shoes.

2. On a lullaby cd there is an instrumental song that she every time she hears in she sings her own word saying "Jesus... Jeeeesus... Jesus..." over and over.

1. After baths and showers she will run to a mirror, while naked, and check out her butt. She'll dance and run infront of the mirror and look at her butt and laugh.

Oh Maddy, we love you! And we love you too friends and family. Hope all is well.

2010-08-22T11:50:00.000-07:00

This last week about 18 Zmoos' converged onto Honey Creek Resort at Lake Rathbun. It's a brand new State Park with cabins, boats, bike trails, and tons to do. So we made the 3 hour drive and joined the crew for some celebrating. Maddy did great in the car... although she didn't nap!

Probably the best thing at the Resort was the indoor water park. We spent LOTS of time there, thus the plethora of pictures. Maddy loved it! Even the older "kids" enjoyed it!!! We chilled in the lazy river, went to down water slides, played basketball... We've always know Maddy loved jumping/being thrown in the air, but we've discovered her inner cheerleader. When thrown in the air she kicks her legs straight out. Even the strangers at the pool were laughing at her moves!

We lucked out and on a "cooler" day we went to the Iowa State Fair. Once again I said I'd try something deep fried on a stick, but being tired, hot, and pregnant I opted out of eating hot food and stuck to cold lemonades and ice cream. Maddy got to play in the butterfly tent, see baby animals, and run over and over through the tunnel in the kids garden. By the end (AKA maybe 3 hours), Maddy and I were exhausted and we headed back to the cabin.

The guys went golfing a few times and one day they let me tag along. I enjoyed some peace and quiet... oh and I really enjoyed driving the golf cart and watching the guys searching through weeds for their balls and taking ample mulligans! With the way they play, I think I might join in next time! I did have to include the pic of Mike pulling crab grass off the course, a lawn must be weed free no matter where or when!

We also ventured out and went on bike rides. I, 8 months prego, went on 2 rides. Granted, I did have to walk the tops of 2 of the hills, but that's not bad right!?

One beautiful morning the boys went fishing and then we caught up with them to do some boating and tubing. It was great! Maddy was very nervous at first and freaked out when Eth went out on the tube... but after a while she loosened up and would say, "I like boating!" Dad rented a pontoon so we weren't exactly the fastest boat in the water, but just fast enough!

Maddy has really figured out this sharing thing. One night we were eating ice cream cones and Maddy came over and said, "Momma share." We'd take alternating licks... but when my cone was almost gone, she sat with Eth and said, "Daddy share." This kid might be a little too smart!

On our last night we had dinner at the resort. There was live music outside the restaurant and Maddy couldn't resist going out there and shaking it! Everyone would walk by a just smile and laugh at her. Several times she even got on the floor and kicked her legs in the air. Ha Ha. While Eth was rocking out with Maddy, I was put in charge of picking a dessert for us. Bad idea... I just had to get the cheesecake and the chocolate cake!

Other than bikes, boats, water parks, etc. We spent the rest of our time just goofing around.

I have a ton more pictures, so fam if you want more, just ask! Oh, and if you think, what's wrong with Liz's camera, she looks red in every picture... oh, it's not the camera I was just hot and pregnant! I was a little worried about being able to enjoy the reunion and all the outdoor activities, but it was great and I made it! Hooray for the Zmoos Family Reunion!

2010-08-13T11:47:00.000-07:00

So I thought I'd better do a post before we leave for the Zmoos Family Reunion. That way I don't have a write a ginormous post (well, more ginormous than usual) that you'll give up reading because you have a life and can't spend all day on the computer.

As you may know Maddy loves Dora and has picked up a little spanish. Here's her latest spanish achievements!

Maddy has really been into dancing and singing. She loves to sing her primary songs and dance to music. She's very opinionated as to what she will listen and dance to. She'll take my iphone and select specific songs and if a song comes on she doesn't like she says, "No, no music. Different music."

Well, we gave potty training another brief try... third times a charm right?! Nope! Before Maddy turned two, for a few weeks she'd ask to go potty and go. Then she lost interest. So the potty went up in the closet. Then a few months later, Maddy saw it and asked to go potty. Same deal, used it here and there then lost interest. So it's a few months later and Maddy's asked to use the potty again, but still could care less if she pees her pants. So it looks like we'll try again in a few months. Here's Maddy and her potty activities... reading and playing on my iphone.

Maddy is a girl in love with her puppy dog! She'll follow Lola around, hug her, tickle her, give her treats, etc. We had to stop her when she started saying, "Ride Lola!"

In attempts to keep Maddy entertained at Grandma Zmoos' house, we gave her a magnifying lense. She loved it! We had to take a pic, she was too cute. She'd look at toes through the magnifying glass and say, "Wow, big toes!"

So we lucked out and had some humidity free beautiful weather and took Maddy for free music in the park! In between chasing Maddy down when she'd run away, we rocked out to the music. She'd dance and shout, "Rock n' Roll! Dance Party!" She didn't quite understand the meat on a stick, she tried to lick it. And she even showed off that she can now close her eyes without using her fingers.

Ever since swimming lessons Maddy's been living it up in the bath. She lays on her back, tummy, kick, and blow bubbles. Here she is chill-laxing.

With the crazy summer heat and the thunderstorms, we've been trying to hit the parks, indoor play places, and we even tried painting. Maddy enjoyed painting until she realized she started getting messy. Her first master piece was a crocodile.

Lastly, Ethan's been dying to take Maddy fishing. While she liked fishing and touched the blue gill Eth caught, she was way more interested in throwing rocks in the pond. That was until she fell in... she did not like having a wet bottom! Oh and she's in love with her summer hat. She asks to wear it every day now.

2010-07-24T08:06:00.000-07:00

We did it.... we finally got Maddy "singing" on camera. She can sing/speak a lot of songs, but the funniest is one called ABCD Medley. It's just a medley of kid songs and in between each song is a "chorus" of "ba ba da daaa, ba ba da daaaa." So one day during a spaghetti dinner she broke out in song. We we laughing during the first take and messed her up... but luckily she did it again...

She didn't do the whole song this time, I just have to keep my camera handy!

It's turning out to be quite and Iowa summer. The days are either hot and humid or rainy. Maddy finding herself bored on a rainy day decided to cuddle up on the couch with my iphone and play. She can't use the potty, but she can navigate my phone to play her favorite songs, videos, and games. Hmmmmm....

Recently we also celebrated Kylea's birthday. Hooray! We were going to go to the water park, but since the stupid weather man said it was supposed to thunderstorm, we went to the Aquarium instead. It turned out to be a sunny hot day... Thanks a lot weather guy!

Anyway, we picnicked out side along the Mississipi River and strolled through the exhibits. Maddy loved it, she'd put her face right up to the glass. She got really excited about seeing a shark... she said, "Look at the shark... There it is... Big shark." Too cute.

Besides the aquariums we took Maddy to her first 3D movie. She really liked it until she got sick of sitting and wearing the glasses. She'd laugh and tried to reach out and grab the 3D fish. At one point she reached out so far she fell out of her chair!!! So hilarious! They also had a kids water exhibit which Maddy practically tried to climb into and a learning touch pond where Maddy touched a cray fish.

In the lizard room Maddy saw a Gila Monster and loved it. She'd gasp and say, "Look at the big lizard." When Eth took her in a observation dome to see other lizards she freaked. Maddy's not a fan of small spaces. But the highlight of the lizard room was the lizard cut outs. We all took turns taking pictures and Maddy would just laugh and run sticking her face in and out of the hole.

By the end, Maddy started to get a little nutty, mostly due to lack of nap. So thanks to Kylea (and Mike and Karen) for a crazy, fun trip to the aquarium.

As mentioned on FB and I think the previous blog, Maddy took 3 weeks of "swim lessons." AKA blowing bubbles, jumping into the water and trying to float. She loved them when daddy was in the water with her, but every time I took her to swim lessons she cried and screamed. I tried not to take it personal. She took the class with her neighbor friend Charlie. Here they are high five-ing on graduation day. Too cute. She had so much fun the last day she ran back into the pool after she was all dry, Eth had to run and retrieve her!

So birthdays and baby gifts have come early this year. My parents got us this totally awesome stroller. It's practically a Transformer! I really like it because the back seat can be removed and turned into a jump seat or platform for Maddy to stand on. Totally awesome!

For a while Eth and I have said someday we'll put cabinets in our laundry room. So for my birthday I mentioned that we talked to our parents about putting them in. Then as luck would have it... not only did my sister Dianna put some up, but Eth's Dad Mike did too. So since Mike was in the handyman groove... he went ahead and put them up. They are great and already full! All that's left is picking hardware and putting a hanger bar between the cabinets. Maybe this will help me get the ironing done. :) Thanks to all for my early, awesome birthday gift!!!

Well Ethan was the absolute best husband ever and we had an actual date night!!! Eth's parents took Maddy over night (THANK YOU!!!) and we ate at my favorite restaurant. It was soooo good. I called it the perfect pregnancy dinner... big burger with cheese and bacon and loaded waffle fries. Eth had to take a pic...

We then watched Bounty Hunter, the movie not the show :) and enjoyed a Maddy free evening. Hallelujah we even slept in the next morning, meaning I woke up at 8 and I woke up Eth at 10:00 so we could get ready and get Maddy. That was a much needed date.

We've made it to the last trimester and all is well. I'm feeling great... as in feeling good and feeling huge with child! Here's documentation of my greatness...

On funny yet sad note, I was at the mall returning a few things and the man helping me at the counter asked if Maddy was an only child. I then informed him that in a couple months she'd have a little brother. He then said in a surprised tone "Oh, well that's great. Congratulations." Really... you couldn't tell that I'm over 7 months pregnant!? Ugh, way to boost the self esteem. Thanks Dillards guy. When I told Eth he laughed and just said... Well, Iowans are fat, better not assume and be safe. Hooray for fat Iowans!

2010-07-05T10:43:00.000-07:00

Happy Fourth of July!

We decided this Fourth of July to go all out and cram as much as we could into one long weekend. It was very fun and exhausting!

First we went to the Balloon Glow at Brucemore Mansion. In the huge open lawn there were vendors, live music (note the super cheesey rocker), and about 5 hot air balloons. When the sun finally set they would light up the balloons it was really pretty. Unfortunately, we couldn't enjoy the full effect because we had to take Maddy home since it was so late. Maddy was a super trooper and did great. Her favorite part was probably the ride we took in a school bus over to the event. She's been saying, "Ride school bus" ever since.

The next day we went to the Kernals minor league baseball game. Maddy really enjoyed the melty icecream Ethan got, which she refused to eat with a spoon. So she just dug in with her fingers. For some reason no one else wanted to eat the icecream. Hummm... While Maddy mostly ignored the game, she loved it when the crowd got up and cheered and clapped. After the game we also got to enjoy some fireworks. Maddy loved them. She would occasionally clap and cheer, but mostly just stared at them wide eyed, mouth open.

Earlier we took Maddy to Old Mac Donalds farm. A mostly lame "zoo" where kids can look at farm animals. It's right in town, but I always forget it exists (probably due to it's lameness). The last time we were there was a little over a year ago. So we decided to take pics similar to the ones we took last year. My how Maddy has grown!!!

By the time the 4th actually came we were exhausted, but what kind of 4th of July is it with out eating some fried chicken and watching stuff blow up. We'd be unamerican if we didn't celebrate. So leading up to the 4th we had absolutely beautiful weather. Maddy and I both have farmer tans from our trips to the park to prove it.

So even though the weather report said 70% chance of rain, we went downtown to "camp out" and wait for the show. We enjoyed cloudy skies for long enough to sit and picnic... then some cops patroling the area told us that we maybe had 20 min before a serious storm was coming. Accepting defeat, we started to pack up. We felt some sprinkles and looked over the river to see a literal wall of water heading for us. 20 min quickly turned into 3 min. I threw Maddy in the stroller and booked it to the car. It was so rainy and windy Kylea's umbrella blew inside out and ripped, it was seriously like what you see in the movies. When we finally got in the car we were literally soaked... I could wring the water out of my clothes. The rain eventually stopped and the firework show went on as scheduled, but we gave up. We went home dried off and enjoyed the Macy's Fireworks and the illegal fireworks set off by our surrounding neighbors.

Before all the 4th of July craziness, we celebrated Karen's birthday. Maddy was very excited to eat the icecream cake!

Not only have all the celebrating been keeping us busy, but Maddy has been keeping us on our toes with her usual antics. Her newest catch phrase is, "No, No, I don't want too." She doesn't yell it, she just is stating her opinion. Right now find it cute and funny, I'm sure it's going to drive us insane soon enough. We've been enforcing time outs more and more, now anytime we tell her no to something, she puts herself in a time out... here she is facing the wall telling her self, "time out!"

Ever since we took Maddy to Toy Story 3, she's been in love with as she says, "Buzz-y, Whoody, and Cowgirl." She takes cowgirl everywhere.

Maddy's always enjoyed counting things. Lately, for some reason, she's really into counting her toes. One day she did it the whole ride home, then in the bathtub, and even as she lay in bed falling asleep.

Probably the most difficult thing of late, is weaning Maddy off of her binky. We've endured periods of over an hour of crying, cuddling in her bed until she sleeps, singing lullaby's for what seems like eternity and so forth. I just got her a new doll that is only for bed time and we are hoping it will help with the transition. Today was day one, nap one with the doll and it looks like it might work. Cross your fingers!!!!!

2010-06-27T17:45:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to say a quick Hi to every one and share some of the cuteness that has occurred since our last post.

Maddy has never had a professional photo shoot so when she turned two, I thought, maybe we should get some official pics of Maddy. Our neighbor Bill Stevens is a photographer (and former classmate of Ethan... and who's daughter, Charlie, is 1 week older Maddy aka Maddy's future BFF) and went on a walk with Maddy and took some great shots. Here are some of our favorites, it was really hard to narrow it down to just these.

I've been getting bigger and bigger and feeling huge. Sleeping through the night is basically impossible! Either I've got to go to the bathroom, some body part falls asleep or cramps, or my back hurts. Isn't being pregnant so wonderful!!! HA HA! This little boy is already very active, can fetus' have ADD!? This kid is movin' and groovin' all the time! Eth can even see my belly shake from accross the room! Here are comparison pics from how I looked with Maddy and how I look now. The Maddy pregnancy is from about 7 months, this pregnancy is at about 6 months. Sadly, I think I look about the same size. I just keep telling myself that this one is measuring bigger than Maddy, that's why I'm so huge... right?!

We've been having crazy thunder storms in the evening. I normally love storms.. but these are so loud at night they wake me up and shake the walls. At least we haven't needed to water the lawn!! Here's one storm blowing in, the colors and the clouds were so different and had to take some pics.

Summer has been getting hotter and hotter, so more and more time is being spent at the pool and in our ducky pool in the back yard. Maddy is even starting swim lessons in July, with future BFF Charlie, hooray. Here Maddy is after some ducky pool time. I had to take the pics because we were lazy and didn't put her in a swim diaper. Maddy got super grumpy once the diaper was full... swim diapers are important, lesson learned.

So a Zmoos family friend, Vicki Garbett, is a fabulous seamstress and made Maddy another dress. Here's her showing it off before church. So cute, I love it. Maddy is also sporting her bracelet and necklace my mom made. She's only 2, but she's already FABULOUS!

Maddy is also "singing" more and more, mostly in the car... which means I can never record it. It's really funny because it's pretty much just talking and extending the words, if that makes sense. But she loves it. She even tried singing a hymn today... she gets an A for effort. Here's a semi ok video of her "singing" her vowels.

2010-06-12T09:16:00.000-07:00

Time has kept flying by in the Zmoos house and things are still busy as ever.

Spring quickly came and gone, now the hot humid summer is here! We tried to get Maddy to run and play in the sprinkler... Unfortunately, that resulted in screaming and running away from the cold water in fear. We quickly went inside after that failed attempt!

Maddy's little personality as continued to develop. She's turning into quite the jokester... and a little naughty. She's learned to make a silly face and even played a "joke" on daddy.

Right when we were gearing up to fly to Utah for Taylor and Abby's wedding, Maddy got sick. In the days leading up to "go time", she spent her time being grumpy, achy, and looking like this...

She did however do surprisingly well on the airplane and in the airport. At one point she got really antsy so Eth took her to walk the aisle... she looked up and down the aisle, realized there was nowhere to go and lost it. It was tragically funny!

Sadly we got to Utah and Maddy was still sick. She was a total grump for most of the festivities. The wedding was nothing less than spectacular. But we knew it would be... it's Taylor and Abby!!! I didn't take many pictures because the photographer was great. So here are the few I took.

These are probably my two favorite Maddy pics from the wedding. It completely illustrates what she was feeling... and what we had to endure!!!

After the all the wedding craziness, we took a trip down memory lane and visited BYU. Maddy feel in love with the Y and everywhere we went she shouted "Yay, Y Mountian." We also visited the Museum of Art. After Maddy was done running around and yelling to hear her echo, she got really bored and proceeded to lay down on the benches and declare she was "going to bed."

She finally perked up a little when we stopped at the Creamery. She enjoyed her own icecream cone and I enjoyed my favorite Mint Choco Chip icecream. Ahhh, how I miss that stuff, no other brand compares!On our last day in Utah we went to Thanksgiving Point with quite the entourage in tow. There were Zmoos', and Monson's, and Carney's... Oh my!!! Maddy was starting to feel better and really enjoyed doing kids stuff. We went to the little kid farm and a wading pool. Of course, me being pregnant, exhausted, and forgetful... I didn't pack Maddy's swim suit... oops!Maddy's favorite part was probably the pony ride. As soon as she saw those ponies she started crying "Ride pony, ride pony" as she not so patiently waited her turn. Yeah, she rode 4 times.

We'd like to give a big thank you to the Carney's for coming down to see us and to all the friends and family who helped us during our crazy vacation to Utah! The biggest thank you and I love you goes out to Ethan, for helping out with not only a sick, cranky two year old... but also an exhausted, emotional, pregnant wife. Thank you Eth, you are seriously the best!!!

We (especially Maddy) are very happy to have come home where life has calmed down. Maddy was so happy to be home, after a good night sleep she woke up in a good mood and spent the morning saying hi to her bed, Lola, and various toys around the house. She's now back to her usual routine... wrestling with Daddy, reading books, and drawing!

On the pregnancy front things are going great for me. Besides being tired and having a hard time sleeping, I'm up eating, cooking, and getting things done! Even though he doesn't have a name... little baby boy is doing great. He's extremely active and gave the ultrasoundnographer (?) a run for her money. Here he is at 22 weeks saying hi!

2010-05-20T16:19:00.000-07:00

So it's been quite a month! Here's what's been happening...

Our friends the Carney's moved. It was so fun to have them here and sad to see them go. Maddy loved her little friend Lexi.

Recently, the local grocery store had a kid safety day. They brought in the Life Flight helicopter, police cruiser and dog, fire truck, ambulance, etc. Maddy mostly enjoyed seeing all the vehicles, however she did cry in the helicopter. The longest most grueling line though was for the balloon animals, of course! I waited in line while Ethan entertained Maddy. I do have to admit, that guy made the most amazing balloon animals I've ever seen. If you look close in the last pic, you can see Maddy's ladybug, it even had a little balloon bracelet that attached to her wrist... yes amazing!

Maddy also turned 2. She's such a big girl, literally... 30lbs and 36 inches. Still in the 95th percentile. Go Maddy! She's growing leaps and bounds. Her 2 cutest new developments are ...playing pretend with her barbies and stuffed animals... and trying to sing. The singing is hillarious. I'm still trying to get it on camera. She's also getting more and more into coloring. She'll "draw" a picture and identify different scribbles... clouds, fish, rain, and various shapes are her most "drawn." I've included a labeled drawing.

Sadly, we missed Maddy's official birthday and Mother's Day. Yes, many of you know that I ended up in the hospital. It was absolutely crazy. Here's the ordeal...

So I've been sick, really sick this pregnancy but I was trying to keep a stiff upper lip and keep pushing through the fatigue, vomiting, backache, swollen lymph nodes, etc. Well, we are still not quite sure what ultimately happened, but I got to a point (on Maddy's birthday) where I wasn't keeping down food, water, or even stomach acid. Ethan called the obgyn (because I was a mess) and they told us to go to the hospital for an IV. So Karen and Mike took Maddy and we headed off to what we thought would be a few hours in the hospital getting an IV then leaving. When we got to the ER they took one look at me and they were immediately worried, I must have looked like a wreck! We cut everyone in the ER and they took us right in. They started running a billion tests, it was literally like a House episode, except everyone there was really nice. I definately was severely dehydrated, that they knew and I got at least 6 IV bags (I lost count). Over what turned out to be a 4 day stay at the hospital they ran a ton of test... Maybe it's a UTI, no... unknown infection, no... mono, no... strep, no... mumps...no. At one point the lymph nodes on my neck got so huge Eth said it looked like I had a goiter and you could tell from across the room that they were inflamed. It was pretty painful. I almost went home a day earlier... but when I was taking a walk in the hall with Eth I started to black out. It was the weirdest feeling... things going black, hearing was fuzzy, eye sight went blurry, went limp... etc. I never lost conscienceness, but everyone freaked. But as soon as they laid me down in bed my blood pressure went back up and I was totally fine. The good news is after my hospital stay there's been no more fainting, no puking, and I'm gaining weight again. I feel better and occasionally have nausea and fatigue, but I'm dealing with it. Unfortunately, they still don't know what happened. I did test positive for an auto immune reaction and my thyroid function is a little low. My doctors aren't too worried, they are just still running tests and watching me. They did a sonogram and the baby is looking good and is a boy! He also kicks like a little ninja in there! Hooray. So all is well... no worries family and friends things are looking up!

So, after all the hospital drama we still needed to have Maddy's birthday party. We had 50+ hot dogs in our fridge and Eth's mom made like a million cupcakes... we were having that party no matter what!!!! It was great. We had it at a park that had a little gazebo, a field, and a playground. The weather was great... it was a perfect party. Lots of Maddy's friends and our family came. Maddy had so much fun and was so exhausted she cried going home, went to bed over an hour early, and even slept in the next morning. I was super tired, so I didn't take many pictures and Ethan stepped up and took a few. Sorry Maddy... we'll do better next birthday!

As an additional "gift" Maddy has now gotten a new big girl room. She's actually been sleeping in it for a while, but I just officially finished decorating and moving over all her clothes. She transitioned right into a big girl bed no problem. The dresser and night stand are hand me downs that I painted and put new knobs on. I think it turned out really cute! Its a small room so getting pictures was a little difficult. She likes to climb in her bed and play with her toys.

Maddy's OCD has continued... her newest thing is "fix it." She'll start whinning that her toy, balloon, lollipop, etc. is broken and needs to be fixed. So she'll give it to me, I'll hold it for a second, then hand it to her. That cycle will continue until she loses interest in the item or I take it away. This is NOT a fun phase.

We love all of you and are grateful for your thoughts and prayers during this crazy month.

2010-04-25T14:47:00.000-07:00

So things have been a little busy around here... and boy are we glad for a little break. We had a crazy busy week, Ethan's little brother Zach married his high school sweetheart Kylea. There was a bridal shower, endowment, sealing, family dinner, reception... and so on. It was fun and exhausting. I mostly survived... aka no puking at the temple or in public.

We also got to meet Taylor's fiance, Abby. In June we are heading out to Utah for their wedding. Hopefully I'll be feeling better by then.

This past week Taylor (and Abby) graduated from BYU. Hooray!! Sadly we missed it, but I think it would have been too much for me to handle. I'm still puking and losing weight, bah!!! Today at church my friend said, ohh it looks like you've lost weight... YIKES!!! Maddy has even picked up the charming habit of making puking noises. The semi good news is, I am about 4 months now so hopefully I should be getting better soon... cross your fingers.

Ethan has been doing well, besides a bout of stomach flu. He gained a little more sympathy for me!!! He even man-ed the office by himself this week. It was really busy, and ended up working late, but it went well.

Maddy is quickly approaching her 2nd birthday. She is quickly becoming more and more quirky, maybe a better way to put it is OCD. Examples...

1. When given a snack she always counts the snack and lines up each, say cracker, in a straight line.

2. When putting her magnets back on the fridge, she lines them up in a straight line.

3. She must shut all doors in the house.

4. When playing with blocks each row of her towers are organized by color.

5. She has a stuffed animal in the corner of her crib, one night I moved it to a different corner and she freaked until I moved it back to the correct corner.

6. When leaving anywhere, she says good bye to the people and things there, over and over.

Is this normal? I'd like to think so...

2010-04-04T10:02:00.000-07:00

So you might be wondering... Where has Liz gone!? Few phone calls, rarely on facebook, finally updating the blog after TWO months... Well there are 2 reasons.

First my Grandmother died after fighting cancer for over a year. I am grateful I could go to Idaho and attend her funeral and spend important time with family. Thank you dad for getting all of us there. She was a wonderful, jovial woman who will stand as a great example to me through out my life. Love you Grandma.

Second, as a few of you know we're...

Yup, Zmoos #2 is on it's way and is due October 12th. I'm almost 13 weeks and while today is a good day I've had quite a few rough days. Thus me falling off the face of the Earth!!! We are very excited!!!

Maddy of course has no clue what is going on, other than Momma puking and laying down a lot. She's been a source of sweetness... hugging me and patting me on the back after puking. And a source of comedy... saying in a confused manner after I puke things like, "Momma potty" and "Ah-choo, bless you." We told her that she is going to be a big sister and asked her if she wants a baby in the house, to which she smiles and responds "ok."

Thanks to Ethan, Mike, and Karen for picking up the slack... honestly I've been a disaster on many days!!!

We're glad to share this exciting news with you all. Now, if you have time, keep reading... I've done a lot of updating.

2010-04-04T09:45:00.000-07:00

HAPPY EASTER!!!

Hello friends and loved ones, I hope you all enjoyed this wonderful Easter Sunday. I know we did! Maddy has been enjoying the build up to Easter as well. She saw several Easter Bunnies, which she LOVED. As soon as she sees the bunny she starts saying "oh bunny" and immediately tries to hug, cuddle, and climb on the bunny. Sorry to all Cedar Rapids Easter Bunnies!!!! Her reaction is so hillarious, I had to post several pictures!!!

If you look carefully at this pic, the bunny is kinda pushing Maddy off of her!

We had heard that there was going to be a Bunny trail/Easter egg hunt. So I started prepping Maddy for it. I'd hid hid eggs in our living room and help her find them and put them in her basket. Sadly, the Bunny Trail just had baskets full of just eggs. Totally lame. We'll have to do a really egg hunt next year.

Easter morning was a little anti-climatic. Her basket had a new slinky, ring pops, a Wall-e bubble blower, and more!!! As soon as she saw the chocolate she was gone.

2010-04-04T09:17:00.000-07:00

Things you've missed, because I've been a lazy blogger... and since I'm extra lazy and loaded the pics out of order, enjoy this backward journey through March then February!

Last Sunday Maddy wore he fabulous Chinese dress Taylor got her on his mission. It was a hit, so we had to include a picture!

March came and brought fabulous weather! I couldn't believe it, in a snap of your fingers winter was over and spring was here. So we've been spending as much time outside as we can. It's crazy how big Maddy has gotten. She can do many of the things at the park on her own. She even does the big corkscrew slide and goes on the big kid swings!!! Brave girl.

In February we also took a trip to the Iowa Children's Museum. I'd totally go more, if it wasn't 30 min away. Maddy loved her first carousel ride. She didn't quite like being a mailman, but she enjoyed "driving" the ambulance, being a dentist, and playing in the "physics" room launching balls off ramps.

In February we got in one more sledding trip. We got to go with Maddy's BFF Lexi Carney. Maddy loved sledding, Lexi... no so much!

2010-04-04T09:03:00.000-07:00

Video Update...

So how can I quickly update everyone on some of our most recent activities!? Here's your Maddy Video Update!

Maddy LOVES music. She'll listen and dance to music all day if she could. She can sing completely on her own several songs, sometimes we have to prod her along. But she'll just randomly break into songs through out the day.

Maddy also likes to pretend she's going to sleep. She'll grab blankets, cuddle in Lola's dog bed, or even climb in the tub...

She is also a very daring child. She jumps, climbs, and crawls over anything she can. Here she is inventing a new way to use the exercise ball!

2010-02-06T11:50:00.000-08:00

So we've been mostly stuck inside due to freezing weather, so we've made some videos documenting what has been keeping us busy... (warning, I didn't edit any of the vids, some are kinda long, sorry)

It was actually a nice, sunny day today so we went sledding. Maddy had previous stated that she didn't like sledding so we thought we'd try again. We asked if she had fun, she says no... but this action shot says differently...

Funny side note... Maddy wasn't going down for a nap today so Eth went in to check on her... She had her pjs unzipped and pulled down to her ankles, her diaper half taken off, and she was saying "Sticky pee pee, PU." I guess she needed a new diaper!

2010-01-25T17:02:00.000-08:00

January has been quite the month. Maddy was sick, then I was sick, and now Maddy is sick again. The issue with Maddy being sick is not the grumpiness or the ick oozing from her eyes and nose... it's the sleeping. When she is sick she will not sleep on her own, she must sleep with either Ethan or me. Which means we don't sleep! So I spent the last 2 nights on the couch and our inflatable mattress with Maddy coughing, kicking, sniffling, etc. While many people can sleep through this, I can not. I am a sensitive sleeper, therefore I haven't been getting much sleep lately!

But besides being sick, Maddy has been growing leaps and bounds. It's amazing to me how quickly now she is learning. Our little baby is gone... sniff sniff.

Here are some of her new developments...

Hats, specifically big hats, she won't wear her hats but she will wear this viking hat!

She is also putting our shoes on and walking around. I tried to get a pic of her in my slippers, but she sat down to read when I got the camera. As she puts them on she'll say "one shoe, two shoes" adorable!

She is also doing a really good job of playing on her own. She's "reading" aloud to herself. The videos are below, sorry for the poor cinematography, Maddy was on my lap and I was blindly holding the camera out, hoping I got the shot. And yes she is sick and yes her nose is running, I know gross!

Lets see... Maddy can now count to 15 and she's getting close to making it to 20. She is also putting multiple words together like "I love you" "No picking" (referring to her nose and dry skin) "PU Stinky" when we change her diaper, "go fast" and so on. She is very polite saying please and thank you. She is climbing on everything and has gotten pretty good at her colors. And yes, more runny nose!

She is starting to get the concept of hide and seek which has been cute and hillarious. She also now understands cuddling. She come up to us with a blanket and say cuddle. Here she is drawing and asking to cuddle.

We had noticed that Maddy has balloon issues. When we are at stores she cries for them, if she has one she has to hold it, sleep with it, etc. You can not tie the balloon or her or anything else and if the ribbon is curled, knotted, or messed up in anyway she cries "fix it" until you trim the string. We've pretty much banned balloons.

Funny side note, her newest word is Wall-E. She saw it playing at Sams and watching it for almost 20 minutes, smiling, laughing, and saying wow. She asks for Wall-E everyday now.

If you are still reading or are interested at all with Ethan and I, things are good. He just went on his winter camp out with the scouts, they roughed it in a cabin!! yeah, a cabin with a wood burning stove! Some scouts did sleep in the snow caves... not Ethan.

I have been trying to work on my new calling in the primary presidency over cub scouts. It's a mess... luckily I am organized and will soon get everything going smoothly! I am also slowly but surely messing around with the fancy hand me down camera my parents lent me. Some of the pics above are with the camera. Here are a couple of shots of some roses Maddy (aka Ethan) got me. I'm still having some lighting/flash issues. Its a work in progress.

2010-01-16T18:59:00.000-08:00

I've been sick lately so Ethan's parents had Maddy for a sleepover and took her sledding for the first time. She tolerated it for about 15 minutes. If you listen carefully to the videos you can hear her own opinion of sledding. Thanks Karen and Mike!!! I'm finally feeling better!

2010-01-05T17:43:00.000-08:00

Are you ready for this...

Here's another long blog, if you are reading this, you must really love us!!! So we are finally recovered from the very full Christmas we enjoyed. Lots of family, lots of fun, and lots of Maddy!

My parents hobby now is photography, they are really good. I think I took about 5 pics this Christmas. They literally gave my hundreds of pictures, so the ones in the blog are some of my favs. One day I took my parents to a little "museum" that had a photo exhibit. We were the only people there, Maddy loved running the empty halls. On the way out of the museum, my dad got this shot. I think it's cool.

Most of the time we spent having dinner at each others homes, while my parents and Zach and Tay had to get in their Maddy fix. She loved having so much family. She was exhausted every night after all the excitment!

Of course she did have to make time for Dora!

Lola even got her own photo shoot.

We did have some snow and boy did it get cold! On a warmer day we went out for some fun in the snow.

Christmas Eve we enjoyed our Zmoos Christmas traditions of opening one present and having dinner with the Garbetts. Vicky made her famous beenie weenies... Maddy is a fan.

Christmas day came and Maddy started strong, but quickly faded. She wouldn't open any gifts, but when we opened them and showed them to her... she perked up. She's soooo spoiled, she's just too cute. I really think she had a mental break down. Out of now where she would just start crying. Not a tantrum, or screaming. Just sitting there whimpering with big tears streaming down her face. She did that a couple times over 2 days. She has since recovered, thank goodness, I was feeling like a really bad parent.

Thinking that my parents would get some totally awesome pics, I took them to the Brucemore Mansion. It is an amazing house on 26 acres, the people that lived there owned 3 lions and the kids rollerskated around the house. Too bad photography in the house was prohibited.

Not only did we celebrate Christmas and New Years (which I actually stayed up for), we also celebrated Zach's and Mike's birthdays.

Before my family and the boys left, the manly men took the opportunity to go hunting. They came back with all body parts... so I'm pleased with the outcome.

So, there you go, a very full 2 weeks. We loved having our family here, thank you to everyone.

2010-01-05T17:31:00.000-08:00

Now Videos Galore...

It seems every day Maddy's doing hilarious and cute things. Here are some moments, including Christmas.

Here she is Christmas morning seeing her baby station for the first time, I think it was a hit.

A little later she saw her other gift, a Dora doll house. She LOVES it, of course, she loves Dora!

We then went to Grandma Zmoos' house where Maddy got her first bike.

On a "warmer" day, we took Maddy outside to enjoy the snow. She saw and tasted her first icicle...

We then ventured to a snow hill in our yard for "sledding" it was totally lame, but Maddy had a good reaction.

Maddy really loves music and any shows that have music (like Dora). This video shows how focused she really gets.

2009-12-12T10:14:00.000-08:00

So 18 months have come and gone. The days are flying by, Maddy is growing bigger and bigger by the second. Eth always says that she looks bigger every day when he comes home from work. As far as new developments go...

We had a photo shoot for this years ornament pic, here's a couple that were hilarious, but not ornament worthy!!

Maddy has gotten sick acouple times, and had a really runny nose. I was getting so grossed out pulling boogers out of her hair, or pulling her hair off of her face, I got her hair cut. The place was great, the played a video for Maddy, gave her a balloon, candy, and a certificate. She did pretty well, she just kept trying to see what the lady cutting her hair was doing. What's funny is they take a pic for you, as seen below, but they take it with an original polaroid camera, that's why it looks like a pic from they 70's, because that is film from the 70's! HA HA!!

As seen in my previous post we enjoyed Thanksgiving. Sadly, we didn't have any left overs, so Eth had to indulge in another Turkey leg the next day and graciously shared it with Maddy. As you can see she enjoyed it and kept coming back for more!!!

Also, Maddy has become obsessed with Dora... Thanks Eth!!! She wakes up saying Dora, backpack, and Map. So we had to bribe her with Dora to clip her nails!

It has been cold, to say the least, so Maddy has enjoyed the snow while I shoveled and on the days its been too cold, we went to the mall to enjoy the "toys" there. She was in awe of the snow. She just would say, wow, snow, and stomp!!!

We are so excited for Christmas, Maddy's got some pretty sweet toys we are really excited to give her. Plus, my parents are coming to town!! We can't wait.

Merry Christmas Every One!!!!

2009-12-12T09:00:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful gut busting Thanksgiving with Eth's family. It was delicious and fun. Maddy had lots of fun helping us "cook." And while she didn't eat much of the Thanksgiving dinner, we ate while she napped, she really enjoyed grandpa spoiling her with icecream!!!

Rae Gun Ramblings

2009-11-19T18:49:00.000-08:00

Rae Gun Ramblings

Has the cutest little christmas skirts for girls!!! Check it out, she even doing a give away!!! SWEET!!!

Rae Gun Ramblings: Advent Giveaway Extravaganza Day 3: Guest Giveaway Noggins

2009-11-19T18:39:00.000-08:00

So Rachel posted on her blog about this give away, so now I need to post it. There are some totally cute hats... check it out!

Rae Gun Ramblings: Advent Giveaway Extravaganza Day 3: Guest Giveaway Noggins

2009-11-10T19:37:00.000-08:00

More Videos

So here are a few more videos... gotta keep grandma happy!!!

So Maddy loves her shape sorter, she loves her shapes. She points them out everywhere and asks me to draw them for her all the time. Crazy kid!!!

So not only can Maddy do shapes, count to 10, and say the alphabet... she can also make the sounds of the letters in the alphabet. I have other videos of her doing it perfectly, but as you watch this video you'll see why Eth wanted me to post this one. Maybe Maddy should be teaching me!!!

I love this one, this is from carving pumpkins! She was really excited at first, but when she touched the gooey innards she wasn't to into it anymore! Another Ethan trait, she doesn't like dirty hands. She say yucky and then scrub, scrub; meaning wash my hands!!!

Lastly Maddy loves music and singing. She dances, conducts, and is starting to "sing" or chime in on songs. Here she is with Ethan, doing one of her favorites.

2009-11-10T19:13:00.000-08:00

Randomness

So time has flown by and Maddy is now a year and a half. Can you believe it!? Man how time flies. She is just so wonderful, we love it! Here is some of what has been going on in the last couple months...

Well Maddy made her first "purchase." She kept climbing on her chairs on the deck, which are not sturdy and tip easy and was freaking me out. So using the money from her piggy jar, she got a chair. She can climb on it all day long!

Maddy is also now getting into stuffed animals. She carries around her cat everywhere and needs it to sleep. While at Target we found, what I thought a big teddy bear. Of course later that week when we went to Sams we found something just a little bigger.

For a while Maddy was saying Pee Pee and Poop and would say potty... so thinking my child is a genious, got her a potty and potty books. For three days she used the potty, then she was done. She still sits on the potty and we read, but she does it for fun, not for functionality!

Besides having a week of cold, rainy weather it has been beautiful here! Today was in the 60's, in November!!!! So we've been enjoying the weather by going to the park. She loves running around, goes down the slide on her own, and is even doing the stairs on her own using the handrails! Here are some of my fav pics... The first one is her yelling "Quack Quack" at the ducks. Everyone was watching and laughing.

Here she is up in a tree. Not only does Maddy look like Ethan, she has inherited some of his quirks...

Last time we were at the park she picked up a stick and started swinging it like a lightsaber and saying schoowa (lightsaber noise). Ethan was so proud! She is definately her fathers daughter!!!

2009-11-10T18:48:00.000-08:00

Visitors

So way back in September; Dave, Dianna, and Lucy came for a visit. It was great!!! Maddy LOVED Lucy. She stills says her name and shows me pics of her. We did some great Iowan activities... farmers market, Amana Colonies, Pork Tenderloins, Iowa Popcorn, and Nauvoo. Sadly we didn't have time to go into the Temple, but we did do some of the touristy stuff. By the end we were all tired. It was great. Thanks Dianna, Dave, and Little Lucy for making it all the way out here!!! These are some of the best pics from Nauvoo.

Oh and for funzies... Here's a rockin' rock band session we had. Maddy enjoyed the drums... every time she sees them she gets excited and says tap, tap.

2009-11-10T18:25:00.000-08:00

Halloween

In the build up to Halloween we carved pumpkins. At first Maddy was into it... but once she saw the sticky guts she was done!! You can see the look on her face, ha ha. There's also a video, I'm working on getting that one posted.

Fortunately Eth's parents came and distracted Maddy so we could finish. My pumpkin is the monster, Eth's is the Mummy. Turned out pretty good!!!

A few days later we had the ward trunk or treat. The games were a little to hard for Maddy, so she got a lolli and her face painted. She LOVES lollipops now. She can even say lollipop and sucker. She met up with her friend Alexa, she was a very scary lady bug!!! I love the first pic...classic

On Halloween Maddy was the cutest giraffe ever! She did fairly well trick or treating. She held her bucket and walked most of the time. But really the liked just looking up at the sky and shouting "Moon! Stars!"

She pulled a nice haul, which we ended up giving away since we had a TON of trick or treaters this year. We did however keep all the lollipops!

2009-10-05T11:59:00.000-07:00

Hello, just a quick video update. Here are some things we've been up to... reading, playing pony rides, etc. I'll update again soon with pics and stories. Hope this holds you over till then.

2009-08-23T18:41:00.000-07:00

So as mentioned in my previous blog, I took my own vaca with Maddy to Colorado. She really liked the plane ride and did well. She laughed at take-off and landing, looked out the window, and tried really hard to buckle her seat belt on her own.

The first few days I spent with Melissa. And boy did we pack in the activities. On the first day we went to the Colorado Springs Zoo, which was awesome and now my favorite zoo. When you walk in you can feed giraffes, and they are right there, you can even pet them! It was great. Maddy got a souvenir shirt. I thought it was funny.We then went to a friends house for a BBQ and Maddy played with two little girls, Delanie and Savannah. By then end of the day she was soooo tired. Yes those are bags under her eyes.

The next day we walked to the park where we played and went to this huge fountain. It was so cool. We didn't know that Maddy was going to get so wet, so by the end she went white trash and was playing in just a diaper. We then walked back through downtown where we stopped for lunch and Maddy kept trying to crawl on my lap because she was sleepy. She did perk up at the toy shop where she had a hard time picking a stuffed animal, she eventually went with the cat. She was exhausted by the time we got back to my sister's place. We had to keep giving her flowers (which she is obsessed with) to destroy to keep her happy, thus the aftermath in this pic.

After visiting Melissa, I headed down to Arvada to visit Kendra, Catherine, and Chelsea. It was so fun see how everyone was doing and reminiscing of our crazy college days. Ah, youth. We were so excited and chatty that Kendra's little boy Alex had to tell us several times to quiet down. Yeah, he's 4. Ha ha. Maddy loved playing with Alex and Lydia. It was just great!

Maddy has been growing up fast these last few months. She can say so many words, communicate her needs, she's climbing, having tantrums, and she can even say her own name and identify herself. Crazy, I know! Here she is just cracking up at Ethan spinning her ducky in the tub. Sorry for the nudity, I usually am more careful in my filming!

Saturday was a beautiful day and I convinced Ethan that we should go to the Iowa State Fair. It was tiring, but worth it. Maddy loved seeing and naming all the animals. We were in awe of how huge all the animals were. Here is the worlds largest bull, 3,404 lbs. Other pics include the butter sculptures and the 4th place 998 lbs pumpkin. I am a little bummed at the lack of good pics. It was a really crowded day!

Probably my favorite part of the fair was the butterfly house. There was over 5,ooo butterflies. So cool. You just stand there and they just land on you. Here's one on my head and some other cute pics.

Maddy definitely was exhausted by the end of the fair! She got pretty grumpy and practically passed out on the shuttle on the way back to the car.

It was really crazy, but really fun! Now that we've been once we feel like we have a better handle of what's going on, next year we will go crazy... chocolate covered bacon on a stick... you never know... We love the Iowa State Fair!!!

So last week was really rainy and Maddy definitely had a case of cabin fever, so we went to the mall to the children's discovery museum. She had fun playing with the pulleys, the ginormous blocks, etc. But her favorite thing was the 3 way mirror. She giggled, squealed, and just loved it.

Maddy has become such a big girl here she is with her first pig tails. Can you believe it!? She's not our little baby anymore!

2009-08-03T11:21:00.000-07:00

Alright, I apologize, it has definitely been too long since my last post! SORRY!!! We've been having fun and enjoying one of the most mild Iowan summers in a long time. Our days are filled with trips to the park, playing in her pool, or just roaming around the neighborhood. Maddy is a crazy walking fool and hates to hold your hand. Which drives me nuts because she just runs off in stores and into the street. Oh, and apparently saying no to her is hilarious. She has gotten so big, she can go down slides on her own, tries to jump, and is trying to climb on things.

It is amazing how much she does learn... I'm shocked at times. Out of no where today she was tired and kept saying, "Sleep, sleep" so I brought her to her room and put her down for her nap. That was a nice heads up! Her favorite word now is probably star, any time she sees one she has to point it out. She's learning new words every day, I don't even know how many words she can say. Here are some highlights.

Here's another Maddy video. She got her first doll, this is her first reaction to it. No worries, she is nicer to the baby now. She likes pointing to the baby's different parts, especially her eyes, and clapping the baby's hands.

Since the last post Zach we celebrated the 4th of July and the home coming of Ethan's brother Zach from his mission in Colorado. Here we are at a Kernels baseball game and Maddy in her wagon (which she loves) waiting for fireworks. At first she was scared of the fireworks, but when Ethan held her and clapped and ooh-ed and ahh-ed at the fireworks she started really enjoying it.

So I had heard of this little "museum" that had animals and kid appropriate displays, so of course we had to go... It wasn't as fabulous as promoted. It had about 3 rooms that Maddy had no interest in. She did like the stuffed animals, she really liked an owl that we had to fight away from her. However I think her favorite part was sitting on Daddy's shoulders and ripping out his hair!!!

Maddy in the past few months has made a friend, Alexa Carney. She always gets excited when she sees her, and even at times gives her hugs and kisses! They are pretty funny together. They fight over toys, steal sippy cups and pacifiers from each other, and mimic each other. They are just too cute. Lex is really good at splashing, which Maddy finds hilarious, so pool time and bath time is very fun and very wet!

More recently I took Maddy to a play place with bounce houses, obstacle course, etc. She was totally over whelmed. I tried to take her into the inflatables, but she just cried. She did however enjoy running around and playing with her new favorite toys... balls!

I know Maddy is the star, but if you're interested, Ethan and I are doing well!

He has finally received his license and is seeing patients like crazy. Eth's dad is even going out of town and he is going to run the office for a couple days!!! He is doing a great job and enjoying it. He often comes home with funny stories, mostly about people accidentally farting when he adjusts them. Man, all that schooling and officially a doctor, all to have people pass gas in your face!

As for me I'm trying to keep up with the 10 week fitness program I have enrolled in. 6 days a week I diet and get my butt kicked at the gym. I still have 4 weeks left, but so far I've lost about 10 lbs, 12 3/4 inches off my whole body, and shaved almost 2 min off my very slow mile!!! I'm fitting into some of my old clothes, so that's encouraging, but I still have a long way to go. Also, I just fixed up some old hand-me-down furniture and trying to clean up a little plastic desk for Maddy.

On Friday Maddy and I head to Colorado to visit Melissa and some of my college friends. I'm really excited. So hopefully next week you'll see a new posting!

Hope you're having a fabulous summer. Love you guys!

2009-05-17T16:30:00.001-07:00

One... Already!!!

Maddy Day 1... 7lbs 5oz 20inches

Maddy 1 year... 24 lbs 4oz 31inches

So on May 7th Maddy turned one, can you believe it?! I can't!

Here are some Maddy facts...
She is 24lbs 3 oz (she lost weight)and 31 inches. She's in the 95th percentile. She loves to walk. Her favorite thing to do is "run" around on the deck and chase bubbles. Here she is doing it on her birthday.

She also has 8 teeth with a molar on the way. Which have caused many sleepless nights. Maddy was having a hard time. Here she is passed out on the couch.

She loves to look at books and several times a day will empty the book shelf looking at her books.

She can say dog, cat, eyes, and hi. She can also recognize quite a few words. She will also clap when you sing, if you're happy and you know it clap your hands. She can also point out your eyes, ears, mouth, and nose. Here's some video evidence, I messed up on one video, I was trying to show the camera the flash cards but missed, duh!

She also has some funny habits. First, she is sitting on your lap and reading she pinch your arm and pull your am hair. Also, she inherited my funny habit of rubbing our feet together and against things, and crossing them.

Anyway, like any parent we can't believe how much Maddy has grown and are so proud.

As Maddy's special day approached I got the house ready and in 2 weeks built a brick patio, retaining wall, put in a flower garden, planted 7 trees, and a small strawberry patch. Yes, I'm crazy, but my parents and aunt and grandma were all driving in and I couldn't have a big hole in my back yard. So here's the patio.

It was great to have so many family and friends together for Maddy's birthday.

We had a BBQ, cake, and presents... oh and fun! Maddy got wonderful gifts like much needed clothes, books, a zebra she can bounce on, a big ball, which she is terrified of, a key board, her favorite a xylophone, and much more.

When it came to cake time, Maddy was exhausted! As you can tell from the video, she wasn't too enthusiastic about the cake. But she ate enough to get wired later on and have diarrhea the next day.

Thank you friends and family for everything. I was such a wonderful birthday. I have tons of pics, but I think this blog is definitely long enough. BTW here's some more blog!!!!

Since her birthday Ethan has taken Boards and feels great and I lucked out at Lenscrafters and when they were adjusting my glasses broke them and I got a new pair for free! They are nicer and even more expensive, sweet!!!!

I just had to include this picture, I know it's kinda grainy, but it's hilarious. Maddy has started eating rice cakes and when she has bitten off enough, she shoves the whole thing in her mouth. Man that's quite a set of chompers she's got there!!!

2009-04-13T17:48:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter!

We enjoyed a trip to Des Moines to celebrate Easter with Ethan's family at his Aunts house. We stayed over night at a hotel so Maddy got to enjoy some swim time.

Gotta love those rolls!

We can't believe that Maddy is almost 1 year old! It's crazy how quickly time has passed and how big she has gotten. I recently put her is size 5 shoes and a toddler dress. Yeah, I wasn't kidding, she's gi-normous! She is also increasing in skillz! Here are some recent videos...

Maddy shaking it...

Maddy walking on her own...

Slurping noodles... (ps not a cool diaper change after that!)

"Swimming"...

"Jumping" into the pool... (she did much better the first two times, by the time I got my camera, I think she got cold)

She will also play ball with you, babbling a ton (no words), understands no (but doesn't always listen!), and getting into all sorts of trouble now that she's mobile. I went to the bathroom and when I came out there was dirt from the potted plant on the floor, her hands, and unfortunately her mouth. Ah, baby proofing. She's our crazy girl and we love her! Hope you enjoyed the videos, pics, and most importantly I hope you enjoyed your Easter.

Love
Liz

2009-03-24T19:11:00.000-07:00

As requested by my mom, here is a quick update.
Since my last update we went bike riding...

And been enjoying the good weather...

Most importantly in the past week Maddy took her first steps, started crawling, and can sit up on her own. CRAZY!!!! She's cruising really well now and is falling a lot because she is becoming a little more daring. Enjoy the videos. Love you all!

2009-03-14T08:50:00.000-07:00

So, I've been avoiding doing my blog, but when it was pointed out to me that it's almost spring, and I still have Christmas pics up on my blog, it was time for an update. I know it's another long one... but keep reading, there are some funny gems...

OK, Maddy's 9th month has come and gone and now she is in her 10th month. It's funny how time flies by, she's so big, literally! Still in the 97th percentile, Maddy is a whopping 24 lbs and 31 inches. We've made some baby friends, they're about 18 mons, and all smaller than Maddy. It's pretty funny.

Here she is wishing you a belated, Happy Valentine's Day.

Well, she has increased in more than just size, she still doesn't crawl, but she has scooted backwards, she can go from sitting to all fours and reach things, and she can rotate around in circles while sitting to reach for things. Here she is faking me out like she's going to crawl.

We've also been doing baby signing time. She can't sign at all, she'll get made and pull her hands away if you try to grab them to make the signs. But she LOVES to watch it. She rocks, claps, talks, laughs, etc. Nothing will get in her way of watching it! Here she is watching it intently!!!

Oh, whats funny, is when she rocks, she rocks on beat, we'll play different songs and she'll stop and and adjust how fast she is rocking.

So, Maddy's not crawling, but she loves walking... with help. When she starts going, she barely holds on to your hands, but as soon as you let go, she stops. She has stood on her own for a few seconds only a couple times. We need to get going on baby proofing, while leading us around she stops and trys to go down the stairs to the basement or points at the outlets. She is cruising. She likes to go around and around her little play table.

She loves that toy. She plays on it everyday! It's a life saver. What's weird is recently she started waving but will only do it while playing with this toy. Here's the video...

Bath time is still one of her favorite times. I thought these were funny, so here you go. Even a little video of her laughing at animal noises. She hasn't laughed at them since.

It has come to my attention that Maddy loves to watch other kids. I mean she cracks up watching them run around. So on the few days of nice weather we've had, I've taken her to the park, here she is swinging. She likes to swing most of the time. We got a little swing and hung it in our basement. Here she is trying it out for the first time.... Ethan started swinging her a little too high at first!

Ok, other random Maddy updates... Ethan likes to sit her on the counters or couch and let her fall off into his arms. Needless to say now she just throws herself off of things. Thanks Eth! She's started really babbling and making lots of new noises. I tried taking her on a bike ride, to which she cried and screamed almost the whole time. When I say scream, I mean it. Neighbors came out to see what was happening and you could her the screams echo around the neighborhood. She has 4 more teeth coming in for a total of 6. Oh, and she loves earrings. She grabs your head and twist it to the side so she can look and touch your earrings. Uh, last random fact, we are going to start her on the My Baby Can Read program. Being a paranoid first time mom I've been worried about how I'm going to teach Maddy something so important. So we are going to try it out. Ethan and pretty skeptical, but it's worth a try. Eth's dad joked that we are going to turn her into a freak nerd child, everybody point at the 18 mon old that can read. Anyway!!!

So if your still interest in Ethan and I here's how we are doing...

Things are pretty good. We are still coming to grips with being home owners, man there's a lot to do. We are about to order flowers, put up an invisible fence for Lola (I'm going to make Eth get shocked and video it, so coming soon...), we painted the bathrooms (thanks to the help of Eth's really tall bro Jesse, we didn't even need a ladder! We are looking a tiling a backsplash in the kitchen, doing a brick patio in the back yard, and on and on.... it's pretty overwhelming once you start listing it all out!

Eth is doing well at Zmoos Chiropractic. This weekend he is at a seminar with his dad, that's why I'm blogging (bored and lonely). He feels great when he sees people literally walk in crooked and walk out standing up straight. He is starting to prepare to take his last board exam, which he has been stressing about. He's got a review class starting in a couple weeks which will help him prepare and be a little more at ease. Eth's little bro Jesse just left for the MTC to go to Santiago Chile. It was bittersweet and Eth got a little teary eyed, but everyone was so happy for him. What's random, is that my parents ran into him at the airport, weird I know!

As for me I'm spending my days keeping the big, little one happy. I also am the teacher of the CTR 8 year olds at church. Boy o boy do the wear me out!!!! Ten, eight year olds, that is a recipe for chaos!!! Let's see what else... I've also tried to make my own cheese, I'm still waiting for the gouda to age. Once I taste that one and most likely learn from my mistakes, I'll make another one. I'm also finally reading books. I'm behind with the bestsellers and most people have read them, but if you haven't, some really good books are... Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and the Poisonwood Bible. Both by Barbara Kingsglover. Oh and for all you peeps with kids a great fun book is Kid Concoctions. These are really cool projects you do with your kids. Make your own chalk, slime, "fossils", ball launchers, etc. and most of it is made with stuff around your house! Cool. Maddy is too young, but I'm excited to eventually do them!

OK, so if you've read this far, I congratulate you, even if you skimmed. I'd like to end with a scary and hilarious story one of ladies at the office told us...

So some friends of theirs has a really big boa constrictor, which "normally" sleeps at the foot of their bed. Yeah weird... just wait. So recently its made its way up the bed and sleeps in between them, which they were ok with. They started getting worried because it stopped eating, so they took it to the vet, very concerned for their loving pet snake that would cuddle with them. When they informed the vet of it's behavior and their worries, he told them that that was the least of their worries. The snake had gotten so big that it was starving itself and emptying out its stomach for a larger meal. You know, like when you fast before thanksgiving, you have to make room! However, the large meal as you have probably guessed, was THEM!!!! CREEPY. So they had to get rid of their snake! UH. Moral of the story, don't have a pet that can eat you, they may love you, but I think they love eating more!!!!

Love you all!