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.

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!

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.

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.