Most beautiful 4 minutes

Maddox jumped up when this music came on, and we danced around the living room.  It was so beautiful, and I couldn't help but think how great it will be to tell her the story when she's older.  :)  So, even though most of you have probably seen this, I'm posting it here so I can see this as often as I want.

busy busy

I really think Maddox is paying much more attention to me than I previously thought.  She holds the cellphone to her ear and pretends to talk- and I really am not on the phone that much!  She also apparently has seen me put the earphones of the ipod in my ear....and here is a picture of her with the card reader and portable hard drive...sticking the plugs in her ears.  Excellent.  You can also see the rockin' 3 ponytail style we have resorted to using to tame her crazy hair.

This is just a cute picture we took at a playdate at Chuck E. Cheese's.

***********NOW**********

Pictures from my new camera!  It is a Kodak Easyshare Z1015 IS.  I love it and I'm still figuring out how to use all the features.  A few of my favorite things are the image stabilizer, face recognition software, and the fast shutter speed, which help me avoid the constant blurry pictures of a moving 1.5 year old, who doesn't understand, or heed "Stand still!".  Understanding is one thing, but obeying is another issue entirely.  So, we get a new camera rather than a new kid.  Ha!

You know us.

Mdx is organizing her library.  She needs some new books.   I'm fairly sure we've read these about 400 times already-but she still loves them.

She has cut 4 new teeth in the past 2 weeks, and more seem to be on the way.

This is our friend D, who came over to play.  He has already learned the word "Mine" and was trying to teach it to Mdx.  She retorted with "No!", which was entirely appropriate...but makes for a trying playdate for the Mamas.  

We get out Mdx's special Steelers bear when there is a game.  She was given this bear for Christmas by Marshall's Aunts Lisa and Phyllis who live up in Pittsburgh.  They made it for her at the Build-a-bear there.  I had NO idea that Build-a-bears were so complex!  We hope the Steelers make the Superbowl this year!

The rest of Christmas

After breakfast we took a walk around the neighborhood, it was a beautiful almost warm, sunny day!

After noon people started coming over, Aunts, Uncles, Grandparents and friends!  Here, Brandi is being entertained by Marshall and Mikey.  I think I was upstairs napping, still trying to kick the sickness.

Mdx is trying on Brandi's new strawberry hat, with Aunt Betsy watching in the background.

After most people left we played some Wii (Christmas present to me from Marshall!).  It is amazing, I made it until I was 29 years old before I finally owned a game system.  Brandi is surprisingly good at bowling while holding a baby.

We put the kiddos to bed, (Mom and Dad offered to babysit) and then headed over to Brandi's house in downtown Gboro to play some "Apples to Apples".  It was really fun!  Did you know a morgue is trustworthy?

The day after Christmas we travelled to Charlottesville, VA to go to the annual family reunion at our family farm, which is called Brookhill.  This is really the only decent picture from the trip- I think Mdx is talking (what else is new?), which explains the mouth.

One sad part of the holidays was my digital camera going KAPUT!  It either got dropped (who me?  No way!), or disconnected incorrectly (once again, I am innocent of this, I'm sure).....and the memory would fill up with 5 pictures.  It also started having issues focusing, started having a longer delay after I pushed the button, and the flash wasn't EVER right.  It's okay, it was just something Marshall bought off of a street merchant in Korea.  So, I told him I was buying myself a new camera for Christmas, and then spent a few weeks researching what I wanted.  I finally ordered a new camera a few days ago, and I've been stalking......I mean, tracking the package- it should be here tomorrow!!  Yay!  And- thanks to Emily for graciously providing most of the pictures you've seen on these past 2 blogs.  :)

Happy New Year!

Before Christmas I had been sick for about a MONTH, and refused to go to the doctor because I thought it was just a virus.  I was coughing, couldn't get any rest, achy, hurting sinuses, the whole deal- you know, the kind that normally gets better eventually.  However, the day before Christmas Eve I decided it was bad enough and I needed medicine of some sort- after living on over-the-counter medications for weeks.  Dad took me to Urgent Care in Greensboro, and it ends up I had an Upper Respiratory Infection AND pinkeye.  I got some great antibiotics that they normally give to people with pneumonia, and within 24 hours I was feeling better.  

BUT- No time to talk......must upload pictures....stop distracting me!

Christmas Eve, Maddox with my cousin Ilana visiting from Michigan

At First Lutheran's Christmas Eve Service, Mdx did NOT want to sit in the pew, she wanted to walk all over the sanctuary and talk to everyone!  Here Marshall is trying to keep her occupied on the floor with a pencil and paper.

Time to go home and leave cookies and milk for Santa!

Here was the dining room on Christmas morning.  You can see how almost all of the ornaments got moved up the tree, since Mdx kept taking them off.  Sorry Mom!

Here is what Santa brought Mdx for Christmas: 

Mdx liked stepping over Anderson's new train set like Godzilla!

She also loved her new parachute from Aunt Emily and Uncle Mikey!

Later on we ate breakfast, and "How big is Maddox?" turned into doing the wave around the breakfast table.  It was very impressive!

Okay, I'm going to post this, and then try to upload more pictures.  Blogger is being dreadfully slow right now!