Home sweet home

I finally got a chance to post about our summer...we had a blast at camp, and we are glad to be home. I tried to put these pictures in chronological order, so you can see how much Ezra grew over the 2.5 months we were there.

The first day we arrived at camp it was cold, and Chad and Ezra tried out the backpack carrier. He loved riding around in this thing.
Ezra's first campfire...I can't get over how much of a baby he is in this picture, compared to the pictures at the end of the post. Ezra loved playing with his friend Ava. Ava's mom Miriam and I camped together, were cooks and counselors together, and now we have babies just 2 months apart. It was fun catching up over the two weeks she was at camp!Ezra all dressed up for silly songs in his glasses and PJ's.Ezra had a lot of buddies at camp, but Wayland was his best buddy. I can't remember the exact occasion that Sarah was helping me with Ezra, but I had a lot of help from friends when I needed it, especially when Chad had to come back and work. This was a special moment because Ezra is not the kind of baby that just falls asleep on people. Fourth session was the session of Montandons. Chad's brother and sister and their families came and taught, and Barbara came the second week to stay in our cabin and help with the kids. Everybody had a blast. Here's Ezra with Aunt Emily and Aunt Emma...Me and my lovely sisters-in-lawAll the cousins minus LeviLaughing with GrammeAll the cousins, including Levi, with GrammeWhile Chad's family was at camp, we had a little birthday party for Ezra, although his real birthday was still a couple weeks away. He wasn't so sure about his cupcake and took about one bite before he wasn't interested anymore.Ezra with his new Buzz Lightyear walker:Chad and I took a little four-wheeler trip with some friends on our weekend off to a place called Marble Falls. It was the first time I had been there and it was beautiful. This picture doesn't show that there was a third waterfall above these two.Right before his birthday we transitioned to a cup and whole milk...here he is showing what a pro he is with his cup.Love this picture of Ezra and Chad, just playing in our cabin.Taken on his first birthday. I just called his name and he turned around already smiling like that. Crawling across the dining hall deck. We are getting settled back in to life at home. Everything is unpacked, the house is getting clean, and we are getting back to normal. It is great to see all our friends and be back at South Plains. I think Ezra is having a hard time adjusting to not having someone to play with all the time, not being outside all the time, and not having something to watch all the time (like the 200 campers in the dining hall at every meal). The first couple days he only wanted to sleep in his pack-n-play, not his crib. He is doing better though.

Sorry this was mostly the Ezra show, but that's what most of you read this blog to see anyway. Enjoy!

Happy birthday, Ezra!

July 28, 2009, I gave birth to the sweetest, happiest, most precious baby boy in the world, and now he's one! It's been a while since I updated, so here's the latest on Ezra.

He has 7 teeth. Maybe 8. I don't really know because he won't let me look.
He is crawling fast, pulling up on everything, and trying to stand by himself.
He is drinking milk and water from a cup (straw or sippy...he has mastered both) and eating table food. His favorites are macaroni & cheese, bananas, pancakes, green beans, yogurt, pizza, cantaloupe, spaghetti, and turkey. He isn't a huge fan of sweets. He feeds himself great with his fingers (left handed).
He is saying mama, dada, bye (cutest wave ever), dog, Ezra, and tries to imitate our sounds. I can tell that he understands more and more of what we say everyday (including the word "no.")
He is very much a people person. He loves being around people at camp and will go to pretty much anyone. Lately though he has gotten more attached to me, so if someone else has him I have to make myself scarce. He reaches out for me almost every time he sees me. I love it.
He is the happiest baby I have ever met. My favorite game to play with him is "I'm gonna get you" where I crawl around after him and he gets so tickled that he collapses on the ground laughing before I even get to him. He also loooves to play with Chad and gets very excited when Chad enters the room.
Just today he started trying to stand on his own for just a second or two at a time.

Instead of posting new pictures, I thought I'd do a little slideshow of my favorite pictures and videos from the past year. It's about 7 minutes long, so get comfortable. Maybe pop some popcorn first. Happy first birthday Ezra! This year has been a blast!

Happy birthday, Ezra! from Lesley Montandon on Vimeo.

Some videos

Okay, one more post. Here are some videos that I've taken lately. They're nothing too interesting if you're not family probably. I think my favorites are the last two. Enjoy.

Ezra & daddy playing drums from Lesley Montandon on Vimeo.

Puzzle from Lesley Montandon on Vimeo.

Happy boy from Lesley Montandon on Vimeo.

Ezra and the hat from Lesley Montandon on Vimeo.

Lately

I've been meaning to take pictures of Ezra in Bible class pretty much since he started at 4 months, but just remembered the other day to bring the camera. He LOVES Bible class. I teach his class on Wednesday nights and he gets excited when any of the little flowers/clouds/fish/etc. pass in front of him (they learn about creation in Bible class).
Last weekend we visited Tyler to see Chad's family before we left for the summer. Ezra had a hard time during the traveling. On our way to Tyler we stopped at Erin's house to take a little break and feed Ezra. We had given him a full bottle in the car, and when we got to Erin's house we gave him a couple containers of food. During the second container, he started gagging and threw up everywhere. By the time we got him and everything else cleaned up, he was crying pretty hard, and he felt hot, so we took his temp which was around 101. There wasn't much we could do except just keep going on to Tyler, and we got there without much more excitement. Anyway, we could just tell he didn't feel great that weekend, and I guess in a moment of weakness I let him try a popsicle at gramme's house, which of course he loved.
Sorry, this post is really random. That was pretty much the only picture I took in Tyler. Sorry.

Ezra has been really cracking us up lately. I know it's one of those things where we think he's hilarious and it's really not that funny, but it's my blog so I get to share. He likes to mimic high-pitched noises and singing. So we do a lot of high-pitched singing around here these days. He has perfected his army crawl, pretty much using his left elbow and left foot only, with his stomach dragging the floor, and I'm not sure he'll ever learn to crawl for real because he is so proficient at this. The last couple mornings we have walked in to him sitting up in his crib. Last night when I was about to go to bed, I turned on the video monitor just to peek at him and he was awake, sitting up in his crib, just looking around in the dark room in complete silence. It just struck me as really funny. We're enjoying watching his little personality unfold. He is a super happy baby and is in a good mood about 90% of the time, but he also has quite a little temper if he doesn't get his way. He has also started to really prefer me and Chad, and he will get upset if one or both of us is not in view or if we hand him off to someone else. I know a lot of moms kind of like if their kid gets upset when someone else is holding them, but it's not fun for me at all. I want Ezra to be a friendly baby. :)

I guess that's about it. We are leaving in 5 days so this will probably be my last blog post for a while. Who knows how much things will have changed in 2 1/2 months?

Two recipes

I have been meaning to post this first recipe for a while. I had this crustless quiche at a brunch a couple months ago, and it was delicious. And this is coming from someone who has had an aversion to eggs ever since the summer of 2001 when I was a cook at Blue Haven. Something about that smell at 6 in the morning having to scramble 36 dozen eggs for 250 people just gave me the dry heaves. Anyway, I think I have finally gotten over my egg thing, and only 9 years later. Try this quiche! You won't be disappointed! I also took it to our ladies' Bible class brunch a few weeks ago and it was all eaten up by the end, and a few people asked for the recipe.

Garden vegetable crustless quiche I like this recipe because it is pretty much foolproof. Instead of using the egg substitute, I just use 9 eggs. Most of the time I don't have the right cheeses so I'll just put in whatever I have. Once I completely left out the cottage cheese and it was still good. Just use whatever veggies you want.

Sour cream jam muffins I just made this next recipe today. These muffins are delicious. The recipe makes about 8-9 regular sized muffins. Also, all I had on hand was fat free sour cream and it was just fine. Yummy!

Here are some pictures from the past few days. Just like every baby, Ezra loves remotes, cell phones, keys, etc. We gave him his own remote without batteries and he seems to like it okay.

A couple days ago Ezra started getting allergies pretty bad. It runs in the family. I felt so sorry for him...he has been sneezing a lot, has red and watery eyes, and his nose runs...a LOT. I bet you guys have really been wondering where the pictures of this season's garden are and how it's doing. It's great, thanks for asking! This year we planted basil, chives, dill, flat leaf parsley, a couple different kinds of peppers, spring mix lettuce, spinach, radishes, broccoli (pests got it), bok choy (pests got it), cucumbers, strawberries, rosemary. Last year we planted a honeysuckle plant that is blooming beautifully right now and smells so good. Basically all the herbs are doing well and we had a nice salad last night with the lettuce that's springing up. We have a couple strawberries popping up...but I think the birds and/or squirrels might get to those before they get ripe.

I guess that's it. Thanks for reading.

Bluebonnets

While we were in Georgetown we managed to find a tiny little bluebonnet patch that was pretty much on its last legs, but since we don't really have bluebonnets in Lubbock I wanted to take advantage. As grabby as Ezra usually is when you put something in front of him, he is actually pretty timid when it's something new. So he just looked at the plants with curiosity, but he was too interested to really smile at the camera. Anyway, these are the shots I got. Wouldn't you know, as we were driving back today, I saw the most gorgeous fields of bluebonnets all over the side of the road. Oh well, better luck next year I guess.

Meeting Levi

We got to meet our newest nephew, Levi, this past weekend! Thursday night Chad got canceled at work so we were able to leave just as Ezra would have been going to sleep. He slept almost the entire way there and we were able to get there that night instead of having to drive all day the next day. Here are a few pictures we got of our sweet little nephew and some others too...
Look at all that dark brown hair!
Shawn and Levi having a talk.
A rare sight...Levi with his eyes open. :)Ezra thinks he's a big boy now that he's not the youngest grandson anymore. It really was cute watching him look at Levi. Elle and Ava were WONDERFUL keeping Ezra entertained and playing with him.
As usual, uncle Chad was a big hit.

Shenanigans

Ezra has started spinning around on his stomach break-dance style. Over the weekend, he started really pushing off with his legs to get things out of his reach. I think he will be full-out crawling very soon. See video below.
Ezra still loves his walker and likes to pull this chair over. When it gets caught on his walker he drags it all over the living room.

Almost crawling from Lesley Montandon on Vimeo.

Family photos

We had our pictures taken by a professional photographer for the first time since Ezra was born...actually, I guess for the first time since we got married. What can I say, I'm cheap. Brooke Ogilvie did a wonderful job in a very small amount of time before Ezra was ready to go home and go to bed. Enjoy!