One more post before we go back to the boonies...

The other evening our friends invited us to the TTU pool where they have a membership. It was an AWESOME pool for kids. I'm sure the Tech students love that. Anyway, Ezra had never been to a "real" pool before since every summer since he's been alive we spend in the mountains where the streams are frigid. He loved it. They had a very shallow area with these geysers all over and he would go from one to another yelling "Water!" Around the geysers and other pools was a lazy river. I held Ezra and we went around the river who knows how many times. If we were here during the summer I would definitely consider getting a membership. Thanks J & E for inviting us. You probably don't read my blog but if you do, thanks. :) I have a video too but I don't have time to upload it (three loads of laundry to fold) and I sound like a dork, so a picture will do I think. And just for kicks, I took a picture of Ezra eating his own plate of pad thai...yes, we went for Thai food twice in three days while we were home. What can I say, I'm pregnant and that's what I'm going to blame it on. He was a fan to say the least.

Ezra's vacation

Our good friends the Parrishes offered to take Ezra for a week during 5th session of camp. They teach 4th session and were bringing their daughter up to work 6th, so we decided that the week in between would be perfect. This is the longest we have been away from him. We missed him so much, but we knew he was having a BLAST...probably more fun than he has with us. No, not probably. We did enjoy the week by ourselves. Chad and I got to spend a lot more time together, I got to go to all the evening activities and just be more involved in camp. We sure were glad to get him back though. Toni & Charlie were nice enough to document the week with plenty of pictures. Here are a few. Thanks Parrishes for taking such good care of our boy and giving him plenty of juice. Haha!

Toni or Charlie would send me a little update every day. I think the description for this day was that they had to run some errands, so they took Ezra for ice cream so he would enjoy the outing. To continue the Toy Story obsession, Ezra now has a Woody doll to accompany his Buzz Lightyear. Thanks, Charlie!
Slave labor: get the two year old to help wash the car. He'll like it!
Especially if you let him play with the hose.

They took Ezra to see his first movie in the theater, "Cars 2." Ezra must have paid attention, because he can now identify Mater, McQueen, etc. when we go to Target.

He didn't quite make it through the movie. I don't think Toni minded one bit. Playing at the park on a hot day.
Ezra loves the Parrishes' cat, Pansy. He was looking at these pictures and set "Get out, Pansy." I think they had a healthy competition over Ezra's chair.
Pansy is a good sport. We'll be back for good in another week. We will miss camp and the people there so much, but I am ready to get back to "normal" life and start making preparations for our new addition.

13 week picture, 2 weeks late

Here's a picture of me already wearing maternity clothes at 13 weeks. My tummy is definitely more pronounced now, since I am 15 weeks along, but no picture to go along with it so this will have to do. I'm not sure yet when we'll find out if this baby is a boy or a girl (for the record, I think it's another boy), but I will for sure post when I do find out. Thanks to my wonderful sister-in-law Emma for the new wardrobe I get to have this time around.

Ezra turns two!

Yesterday was Ezra's second birthday. Whenever we would ask him what yesterday was, he would smile and sheepishly say, "Birthday." It was so cute.

We drove into Lubbock from camp yesterday and ran errands when we got home. I was craving Pad Thai from Thai Pepper, but they were closed, so we went to Thai Thai instead (what would you do without these crucial details of our life?) Ezra shared the pad thai with me, and he kept saying "more noodles. More noodles." Until we were totally out of pad thai. Should have ordered him his own. It was sooo good though...I might need to go back there tomorrow. Then, we ran a couple more errands, went and visited Charlie and Toni, and stopped at Red Mango for frozen yogurt. Ezra would only eat his yogurt out of the small sampling cups. Our last stop of the night was Sprouts, which is where Sunharvest Market was for all of two months, and it is the exact same thing, except maybe the produce is cheaper. I'm not sure yet. Anyway, we were pretty much the only people in the store, and Ezra ran around like a crazy person for 15 minutes or so. He loves to hear the sound of his voice echoing so he would yell just to hear it. Anyway, that was our day. We did have a party for him a couple weeks ago so we got all that present-opening out of the way.

Things about Ezra at two:
-He LOVES Toy Story. Most of the time these days, his first words in the morning are "Watch Woody Buzz?" over and over again. He alternates that with saying "Hey mama! Hey daddy!" repeatedly. After typing that last sentence, I went to get him up from his nap and he ran into the living room to find his new Buzz Lightyear.
-In typical two-year-old fashion, he is quite dramatic. He is such a happy boy, except when he is very unhappy, which is usually over something pretty miniscule (in my mind). He is learning how to cope with not getting what he wants all the time, or having to wait for something or someone.
-He is talking well and saying more and more word strings.
-He says the sweetest prayers. He will thank God for this person, and that person, etc. and usually end his prayers with "and all the people" just in case he left anyone out.
-His favorite foods are juice, cookies, candy, and fruit snacks. As far as real food goes, cheese, pizza, chicken nuggets, green beans, and mashed potatoes are some things that he always enjoys.
-He calls my iphone "My Phone" and wants to play with it all the time.
-He has become a very good car traveler--facing forward, watching woody buzz on the laptop, and playing with the iphone all help with this. He actually enjoys riding in the car these days.
-His favorite books are "If you Take a Mouse to the Movies," "Each Peach Pear Plum," and "Where the Wild Things are."
-He loves playing with his Woody, Buzz, and Rex, mega blocks, cars and trucks, stickers, and his race track.

What a blessing it has been to be entrusted with this little boy for the last two years. Ezra, you are truly a joy, and we love you so much! Happy second birthday!

Taking a break

I am taking a break from facebook. You won't be able to find me on there. I deactivated my account, which means I have to physically log back in to show up again in people's friends lists. Facebook is a great tool to keep in touch with my family and friends from all different points in life, but lately I'm just sick of it. You may ask why I don't just stay off of it, and keep my account active. Well, that is a little too tempting for me. I had a nasty little habit of checking it a few times a day, just to make sure I didn't miss anything, and always wanting to see what comments people were making on a status or who posted on my wall. Unfortunately, most of what I wasn't missing was complaining about unimportant stuff, pictures or speech that I didn't want to see, people checking in to every place they ever go, etc. And then there was the app on my iphone that I had access to all the time. So I deactivated to allow myself more self-control and more time in the day and deleted the app from my phone. In the past 24 hours since I left facebook, there have been a few times I have wanted to send someone a message or update my status, but it's never very important. Overall, I really don't miss it.

Some scriptures I have been meditating on that led to me being off of facebook for a while:
"Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children without fault in a warped and crooked generation." Philippians 2:14-15
"Let no unwholesome talk come out of your mouth, but only what is helpful for building others up, that it may benefit those who listen." Ephesians 4:29
"Be very careful, then, how you live, not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil." Ephesians 5:15-16

Facebook is not a problem for everyone, but I was finding myself lacking self-control with the amount of time I spent on it, and the posts I was reading even from some of my Christian facebook friends were preventing me from thinking about things that were true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent and praiseworthy (Phil. 4:8). I wonder how many out there are like me. For now, I'll be spending my time on other things and will try to post more to the blog so family and faw-away friends can keep up with us and see pictures of Ezra and our newest little one in just a few months. And, be sure to check back here to find out in a month or so if we're having a boy or a girl, if you're interested.

That's it for now. Stay tuned for a post about Ezra's 2nd birthday, which was yesterday.

Life update

We're home for the weekend so I thought I'd post some pictures. We are having a great time at camp. I can't believe we only have 3 weeks left!

Ezra is just growing and talking more every day. He'll turn two on July 28.

Ezra was unhappy because I was taking too long to get the camera and take the picture...he wanted to go outside in the RAIN!
We had a birthday celebration for Ezra last week when most of Chad's family was at camp. Here he is trying out his first oreo ball. I think he liked it. :)
Ezra and his cousin Norah holding hands during lunch.
Not sure how well you can see it, but here is a bear's paw print next to Chad's shoe up by the dumpster. The bear has been coming into camp and getting into the trash cans.
Must have been tie dye day...

The banquet theme is "Cowboy Christmas" so we have been dressing Ezra up in his chaps, vest, boots and hat.


I went to the doctor today and he did another ultrasound since Chad wasn't with me at my last appointment. It looked like a real baby today...we got to see the heart, spine, limbs, fingers, etc. So cool. Ezra kept looking at the screen and saying "watch movie. Watch Woody Buzz." So he was probably a little disappointed, but it was fun for the parents!

Our summer at Blue Haven is almost over. Next week we are leaving Ezra with the Parrishes so I will be able to be more involved in camp and not have to worry about taking care of him. I think this is the longest we will have been apart, so that will be hard, but once I get used to the naps and sleeping past 6, I think I'll be okay.

Other than that, I can't think of much else going on. Just enjoying our weekend at home, getting to worship with our South Plains church family on Sunday, and returning to our home away from home.