So I'm back for what seems to be my monthly update. Since a lot of things have happened, I'll try to keep the blog semi-short, I don't want this to be a novel!

Iowa is funny. I'm not sure yet if it is funny haha or just kinda ya know funny. For example, we had to go buy a snow shovel. Every shovel was either black or yellow, Hawkeye colors. Oh, and Iowans take the passing lane seriously, so seriously that you'll see a line of cars pile up at a light in the right lane with no one in the left lane. That's for passing only! I do love all the church signs everywhere. I look forward to the updates every week. Here are a few of my favorites.

"Forgive your enemies, it messes with their heads."
"Trouble sleeping, try counting blessings."
"Give Satan an inch, he'll be a ruler."

Ahh.... gotta love it.

Other going ons...

Ethan flew to California where he finally took his last set of National Board Examinations. Hooray, no more tests and studying! BTW, shout out to the Reddings for letting the guys study at their place, so sorry they trashed it! We will be making a trip to Cali in a couple weeks for graduation. It is going to be crazy, we fly to Vegas, drive to LA, go to graduation, drive back to Vegas and fly home... all in 4 days! FUN!

Maddy has been teething. You can see her two bottom teeth poking out. I haven't been able to get a pic, I'll keep trying. It's been a cranky time for her. Now I've noticed she has a runny nose... there maybe more fun ahead yet. Maddy has been growing like crazy and although she can be cranky she is also a crack up. Here are some videos of her eating, playing with the penny saver, and laughing a my singing.







What was really fun was Ethan's cousin Kelly and her daughter Mariah came for a visit! We hung out, hit the outlet malls, and unfortunately Mariah got croup. A very eventful visit. Maddy and Mariah became BFF as evident by these pics.


We also had the opportunity to give talks at church, where I played a nasty trick on Ethan. I always go overboard on my talks and end up talking for too long. So, I told Eth I wrote a short talk and let it in the printer. It was two paragraphs long and I summed up my topic in one sentence. I had Eth going for 2 days. I gave the talk as is to the whole congregation who freaked because they thought my talk was going to be one sentence! I'm sure the Bishop was sorry he asked me to talk! I did say just kidding pulled out my real talk, and spoke for my allotted 15 min. Ethan was relieved and everybody had a good chuckle!

So, as I mentioned before we bought a shovel, we had about 3 inches of snow and Ethan enjoyed shoveling OUR driveway! That will probably be the last time he enjoys it. I did also suit Maddy up and take some snow pics. Unfortunately I lost the mittens that match her hat, sad day! So she couldn't stay out side for too long.

Finally, Ethan begrudgingly agreed to take our Christmas family pics. It was rather difficult with Maddy, so Lola didn't make it into the final cut. Sorry Lola, we still love you!

So, there's life in Iowa. We are excited for the next few weeks. Walter is coming, flying to Cali, and I'm going home to NJ for Christmas. So my next post should be real good! Love you all!

So things have been busy here in the land of the corn.

Earlier this month we went to a pumpkin patch. It is actually just down the road from us. It wasn't very big, but it had cows, so it'll do. I think next year we'll drive a little further and go to one with a corn maze, petting zoo, etc. Unfortunately, we realized that we didn't have very much cash on us, so all we could get was $3.00 pumpkin. But as you can see, it was a pretty good size pumpkin. "We" meaning me, carved it later on for FHE.


Maddy is now working on her sitting skills. She can sit for a while if she has a little support like with the boppy. She can sit on her own, but only for a very short time. She still has no interest in rolling over. She just lays there during tummy time and arches her back when she is laying on
her back. She got really close once, but of course that was in the bath tub where I had to stop her!


We also went to Nauvoo for their annual pumpkin walk. They line the streets with hundreds of carved pumpkins. Some are pretty cool. It also gave us an opportunity to dress up Maddy. She was a very scary flower. Everybody thought she was so cute. It was really fun. As you can see Maddy eventually got pooped out. Our poor little wilted flower! Ethan's parents took Maddy back to the hotel and we went to a really lame haunted house! I didn't get scared at all. Ethan jumped once, a guy creeped up behind him and started him. What was really funny was there were all these black lights and we discovered that Ethan had a stain on his shirt! HA HA! The next day we went to church and Maddy got to wear her fancy Halloween dress, and our course that meant another photo shoot!


So we got to dress Maddy up again when Halloween came. We took the opportunity to trick or treat with Maddy and meet our neighbors. One neighbor had their house decked out, a fire going, and a buffet of chips, hot dogs, onion rings, etc. They like Halloween! We also met a neighbor that made cupcakes for the parents and handed out candy and glow sticks to the kids, safety first! Maddy loved her glow stick, she stared at it all night! Earlier we met one of our neighbors, he actually went to high school with Ethan, they played trumpet together! They have a little girl named Charlie that is only 5 days older than Maddy. Looks like we found her a best friend!



Maddy has a new toy, boy is she spoiled! Karen was a Sam's and found this Baby Einstein exersaucer for only $27. What a steal! As you can see she really likes it. I was amazed to see how coordinated she was, pressing buttons, spinning dials, moving pieces, crazy! Sometimes she does get mad at it because she can't get all the toys in her mouth!



Maddy's been growing and eating up a storm. She loves to eat anything and everything, well she did have a rough time the first time she ate protein! Since she's been eating solid foods, she's having even more problems pooping! So every day Maddy has to drink prune juice. Poor baby! We've also been working on holding her bottle and sippy cup. Her progress has been promising.



Maddy and I still go on our walks, when the weather is warm enough. I discovered a path that goes to a small park. There is a children's play area with a climbing wall and pond. There is a little building there the exhibits art. I can't really call it a museum, because it's tiny. The current exhibit is of Haitian art. There was some really cool pieces, but also some weirdo scary ones!

So that's about it! Oh, BTW I'm working on a blog for the office. It's still in the works, it's drzmoos.blogspot.com let me know what you think I should add/change.

Love you all!