Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Trip to Searcy

We made our (what I hope will be) annual trip to Searcy, AR to visit Chad's sister and her family, who work with Harding University. I wasn't great about taking pictures but got a few. We also drove through Tyler and saw family there.

Chad's grandma used to be a beautician and she still has a beauty chair in her living room. Ezra tried it out.  
 Ezra & Ivy with Paul & Carolyn
 Ezra & June are buddies. They played on the trampoline pretty much the whole time we were there.

 The Harding campus is so beautiful during this time of year. They put so many lights in the main area of campus...this photo really doesn't do it justice at all but you get the idea.
 I thought this was cute because June loves to help. Emily gives her lots of jobs to do in the kitchen.

Thanksgiving 2012

We headed to central Texas this year for Thanksgiving to spend time with my dad and Chad's brother, who happen to live in the same town. It was quite warm so we got to spend lots of time outside. 

Granddad and Ezra riding around in granddad's riding mower
 Augie
                                    


 Ezra & Ivy
 Ivy & Augie were BFFs


 Dad carving the turkey...it was yummy!

Friday, December 14, 2012

The fall in review

As I was going through pictures on my computer tonight I realized there were some from September/October that I never posted to the blog (well, there are a lot more than this, but I'll spare you). Here are a few of my favorites from the last few months...
 Ezra "playing" with Ivy by putting as many toys as possible on her walker tray
 Ezra's first day of Superkids, 2012
 His "statue" face
 Quit taking my pictures
 Learning to button his own clothes
 Ivy at about 8 months old
 Ezra and Chad's first outdoor camping experience
 Playing with play-doh
 Chilling outside (this is from the spring; just got put in the wrong folder)

This is what happens when you leave the bath water running for a minute and step out of the bathroom.
 Sibling love.

Monday, October 29, 2012

The cutest lion and strawberry that you ever saw

I know it's not Halloween yet but I already have pictures of both of the kids in their costumes so I thought I'd get ahead of the game. Backstory...I have been asking Ezra for a WHILE what he wanted to be for Halloween. He kind of does this thing where he says he wants to do something and then changes his mind and then doesn't take to the change very well. So I didn't want to buy something on a whim after the first time he said he wanted to be a ________. So he said he wanted to be a lion. Then I asked him a LOT more and the answer was still lion. So I felt safe buying a lion costume...only there aren't any lion costumes in his size at the stores in town. Baby lions but no toddler lions. So off to the internet I went. I found this costume on ebay and was one of those crazy bidder people as the auction ended. I was so anxious to win this costume for my baby! And apparently so was some other mom (or dad?) because we got into a bidding war. Not to worry, I won it for $10.50. We got the costume home and the first thing Ezra said was "It's too big. I want a small lion costume." I thought I was going to wring his neck. Chad reminded me that he doesn't know how to react to surprises or doesn't take to excitement well (kind of like his dad) so I just put the costume in his room and acted like it wasn't a big deal. Worked like a charm...this first picture is of him later that same day. He had gone into his room and put the costume on. Isn't it adorable? Plus, he was kind of right, it is a 4T which is a bit big on him. Maybe he'll want to be a lion two years in a row? Or I can put a bow on it in a few years and let Ivy wear it.
 Saturday night I met up with my kids and the Parrishes (I was doing a photo shoot) at the LCS fall festival. Ezra had a blast playing games and getting candy...




 While my sleepy little strawberry yawned away and took it all in. Funny story about this costume too. When I was at A&M I worked in the college of geosciences dean's office, and my co-worker had a daughter who was too big for this costume. So she gave it to me. At that time I had two nieces (Elle and Riley). Emily took the costume and I think she said that pretty much all her girls had worn it. Little did I know that I would have a little girl who would wear it someday! Chad and I were just barely married! Anyway, some people thought she was a watermelon, but she's cute either way. (sidenote: if I had tried to put anything like this on Ezra's head when he was younger, he would have FREAKED! Just one example of how different these two kids are).


Ivy pictures 9.5 months








Ezra 3.25 years...FINALLY potty trained!

Three years and three months is such a fun age for Ezra. He is growing by leaps and bounds both physically and mentally. Here is what he is up to lately in pictures...
 He is a WONDERFUL big brother. These photos were not staged. Ivy loves him and he loves her. He is always mimicking what I'm saying to her and comforting her when she is upset. It is so sweet. In the picture below she was upset because I put her down and he went over to comfort her and she put her hand on his face too. And I just happened to have my camera! I was so excited!
 He loves his daddy and LOVES spending time with him. Not as enamored with dinosaurs as he once was but still likes them. Mostly he'll do anything as long as it's with Chad. They are buddies.
 We went to the corn maize for small group a couple weeks ago and Ezra got to feed a pig!
 His new thing is being a "statue."
 He really likes to do puzzles and he's really good at him! This is one thing that we really enjoy doing together as well. But if I'm busy, Ezra will just sit in his playroom and do puzzles by himself.
 We were out in the front yard one evening just playing and I got a couple shots. It wasn't cold at all but Ezra loves wearing these gloves for no reason in particular.

 He loves building towers, but the best part is knocking them down. He can identify all his letters and also loves stamping letters on paper.
 Oh, how I love this little boy. It will be so awesome to watch him become a young man. He has a tender heart and a hilarious personality.
 The best thing about the last three months is that I can finally say that Ezra is POTTY TRAINED! We started this journey in April and it was very difficult. Basically the last 6 months have been very unpredictable as far as whether Ezra was going to decide to use the potty or not, and even a month or so ago when he stayed with my mom he had multiple "accidents." It was so up and down with Ezra. He did well at first but then we had the hardest time all summer at camp, throwing away and washing so many pairs of underwear. So frustrating. Then we got home and it got better, and then he started back to superkids and it got worse again. He was even having accidents during naptime, but he was awake! He just didn't want to tell his teacher. But he has gotten so consistent and hasn't had an accident in a while. What a relief. I am glad to be done with that challenging part of our journey through parenting (until we go through it with Ivy, but I have heard that some people don't take 6 months to potty train so fingers crossed with her).

Ezra also loves to choose his own clothes and is great about getting himself ready. He can put on his own underwear, pants, shirt, socks, shoes, and is pretty good about following directions (if I say he needs to get a long-sleeved shirt or pants because it's cold or whatever). He changes clothes multiple times a day and likes to put on pj's for naps. I think he got this idea from staying at granny's house. 

The other fun thing about this age is all the hilarious things that Ezra says. He mimics a lot, so if we are stern with him he say, "Excuse me? You don't get to talk to me that way." "Listen to me." "I'm getting hungry and I'm getting thirsty. I need somethin'." The cutest thing he says at this age is "ya" instead of "you." So he'll say "I got ya!" (he likes to "get" us) or "I see ya!". Sometimes he will say the sweetest things, but other times he just keeps it real. I thought he was being sweet the other night when I was putting him to bed and he said, "I like your kisses." What a sweet boy I have! No, he just can't say his L's. So he was really saying "I wipe your kisses." As in, wipes them off. Thanks kid. Speaking of loving to do things with his daddy, he said the sweetest thing when he and Chad had their first father/son backyard camping experience. They were laying in the tent with their heads hanging out, looking at the stars, and Ezra said something like, "See that star? That star is for you and me. It's our star." Just Chad telling me that made me cry!

I'm sure there are more funny things he says that I'll add later as I remember them, but I know they are more interesting to me than anyone else and I'll just be recording them so I can remember them later. But that's our little three-year-old in a nutshell.