Summer is upon us

So summer is basically here. Its been getting over 100 the last few days. Its hot, but doesn't seem quite as bad as previous years, probably just getting used to it I guess.

Our gardenias that we planted a few weeks ago have started blooming, they're really pretty.


Kelly and Cameron were here this weekend looking for a place now that Kelly will be working not far from here. It will be fun to have them around.

We also saw Tammie, Paul & Daniel. Ezra is a little bit bigger than Daniel, but Daniel is walking now. We had to keep Ezra from trying to grab Daniel's shoulders to pull himself up.

It looks like Ezra is going to get his second tooth soon. He's been jabbering a lot more, and every now and then he seems to say things that almost sound like words. He eats like crazy, he seems to always be hungry, but if I were growing as fast as him I guess that I would be too.


He's getting to the point where he probably could walk if he would try. He can stand on his own and will even squat down to pick stuff up when he drops it. We've tricked him into taking a couple of steps every now and then, but for now he prefers to crawl.


He laughs a lot now. Kelly had him giggling the whole time they were here. He seems to be just a fun-loving little guy.

Susan and I got to go out on a date last night. It was nice to get out and have dinner with just the two of us. We went and saw Star Trek. It was awesome! One of the better movies that I've seen in quite a while.

Projects

So we've had a busy week. Work has been crazy for Shawn. We have been working on getting our projects done. One of the projects was to recover the chairs that our landlord included with renting the house. They were all stained; why anyone would get white chairs I honestly don't know. We've gotten to all of one chair so far, but here it is beside one of the uncovered chairs:


Improvement, no? The big project this weekend has been stripping a wallpaper border out of Ezra's room and then painting over where it had been. It was quite the job, and took all of Friday night and most of the day Saturday (with a few breaks, since its hard to work on this stuff with a 10 month old awake). The wallpaper was basically falling off of one of the walls. Before:

During removal:



After:


I think it looks a lot better, even if you can tell that it was amateurs that painted it.

We were still able to find a decent amount of time to play while Ezra was awake though. He loves chasing Susan around the house. She'll run a little ways and then wait for him to chase her, and then run a little more before he catches her. He laughs up a storm (especially when he's tired).

We were talking last night a bit, and Ezra was just playing around in the living room. We turned around and he had plunged head first into his toy bin. By the time we got the camera, he had righted himself. He was pretty proud of himself for climbing into the toy bin all by himself.
This afternoon was just a lazy afternoon, once Ezra went down. He didn't get a morning nap since we were at church, and he wasn't about to fall asleep in a new exciting place. It will be nice to have him back in his own room again. Two nights doesn't seem like much, but he likes to have his own space to play. We like to have an easy place to watch him too. We took a bunch of pictures of him, playing around with the camera. Here are some of the best ones:




Isn't he cute?

Summer starts

So it looks like summer is just around the corner. It was pretty warm here today, upper 90's, and it hit 100 yesterday. Oh well, you can't have everything can you? This is a picture of our back yard. We still haven't had a chance to mess with the fountain to see if it actually works though. Yes, I am dragging out sending out pictures of the new place.

Things have been pretty good recently. Shawn had a bit of a cold the last few days, but nothing too major. Ezra has cut a tooth, though it hasn't really pushed out completely so we can't really get a picture of it. He's been eating more and more. He has decided that he LOVES apple juice, and can't get enough of it. He's fun to play with, and he smiles quite a bit.


We put up our tent for the first time tonight; we figured that we should have at least set it up once before we go on vacation this summer. This year has gone so quickly, its already the end of April almost!




Ezra started playing with some cloth boxes that we put some of his toys in. He managed to get kind of stuck in one of them today.


He likes to stick his tongue out and play with it. He makes a "la la la la"sort of sound as he wags his tongue back and forth, its cute.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter everyone. Hope you had a good one.


So this is the face that Ezra gave Susan on Saturday when she asked him if he wanted to go shopping. Already decided that he doesn't care for it I guess. Either that, or its just because we've been out a lot, getting little things and whatnot.

Ezra has started climbing on EVERYTHING. I'm surprised he hasn't taken any worse spills than he has.

We've gotten quite a bit more settled. We got some new couches for our living room (kind of long over-due, we've been talking about it for months and months). That was a long day. We went to 5 stores and despite everything, most of the salespeople were less than helpful, the same "well that's the price it is" story. The last place that we went, the couches were on sale and then the salesman got us another $100 off without us even really asking too much. It was nice. (The couches are in the last picture of this post).

Ezra got a new shirt for Easter, and Susan got a new dress. She was happy because it was one that she had seen earlier, but hadn't bought, and it was on sale for 1/2 off.


Yay for new Easter clothes!

Ezra got some toys in his Easter basket (the bunny is the basket). He was happy. Who doesn't like new toys?


Ezra also got a hat from grandma, which he didn't leave on for very long. He doesn't seem to like having things on his head for whatever reason. Guess some people just aren't hat people.

We went to both our new ward's sacrament meeting and the one at our old ward. The new ward will be quite a change for us it looks like , but it should be good. Ezra missed his morning nap though, which made things interesting. It was kind of bitter-sweet going to our old ward. We're going to miss all of the friends that we've made. We both had gotten to the point where we knew a decent amount of people fairly well. Oh well, the new place makes up for it, and this gives us the chance to meet more people.

After we got home and had lunch we all just took a nap for a while. It was nice just to rest. Ezra slept for like 3 hours.


We had a nice dinner. Breaking from tradition, we didn't have ham. The main reason was that we couldn't see what we'd do with that much ham between just the two of us. We had a roasted chicken instead. It was a really good meal though, and worth all of the dishes.

Not me, I'm not teething!!!

So we got everything moved. It was quite the week of moving everything. We were all so tired by the time that evening came, but it has all worked out. A big thanks to our friend Garrin for coming over and helping us move the furniture. We're still in the unpacking stage of things, but almost done with that. We'll put up pictures of the house when we've got it to a respectable condition, which should be soon.

It has been a bit of an adjustment having stairs, but all in all, it has been really nice to be in a house instead of an apartment. It's a lot quieter, and the neighborhood is nice. The house is a lot nicer than our apartment ever could have been. It's still weird to think that we're paying less each month in rent than we were for our apartment.


Ezra has adjusted pretty well. He likes having all the extra room to play in. He's been chewing on everything recently. See!


He's been pulling himself up onto everything, and has figured out how to get down without just flinging himself off of whatever he is holding on to or just letting go. He should probably start walking soon. Every now and then when he is holding on to you, you'll notice that he isn't using you to hold any weight at all, and is in fact standing by himself, but just doesn't realize it.


He has learned how to wave his hand at people; sometimes to say hi, sometimes to tell you that he wants something. He's been growling a lot too. Its really cute.

He's our good little eater. He eats anything you put in front of him. He always has to eat when he sees us eating.


He's figured out how to play peek-a-boo with a blanket, and seems to like to cover himself up and then pull the blanket away and laugh.

We've noticed that whenever it gets really quiet, you start to worry. (you can normally hear Ezra banging around on the tile floor) Today, Susan went after him when it got quiet, and this is what she found:

Moving

Ezra has been crawling and climbing around a lot recently. It sure makes it a bit more interesting, especially since he is so curious.

Susan is feeling somewhat better, but still a bit sore.

We did end up finding a place to move, and it just so happens that it is nicer than the one that we were going to move in to. With all of that, we may not post for a week or so; but that's not too much different than normal, now is it?

Funny story. We were at a store looking at rugs for the new place. Ezra was in the shopping cart and we both had turned our backs to look at the rugs. There was a slight rustling sound and a 7-foot fake plant came tumbling down onto us, he had apparently just pulled it down. Ezra just looked around, it didn't even phase him. Needless to say we kept a closer watch on him after that.

When it rains, it pours...

This last month has just been so crazy. So as Ezra was getting better last weekend, both of us got sick. It was a cold, and we both had a kind of cruddy weekend. Shawn got better fairly quickly, but Susan's congestion wouldn't go away on one side, and her jaw started hurting. Apparently she got a bit of an infection around her wisdom tooth. The dentist that she saw on Friday morning sent us to an oral surgeon, and Susan gets her wisdom teeth out tomorrow afternoon. Not quite what we were planning, but it gives Shawn's family an excuse to come visit. Thanks a million for coming to see us Mom!!!

We were going to start moving this weekend. Friday morning Shawn went and dropped off our deposit check for the house that we were going to rent and got the keys. A few hours later our realtor called us and let us know that the landlord had backed out and decided that they didn't want to rent their house after all. That would have been nice to know 3 or 4 weeks ago when we started this process, but whatever. We went and saw another place on Saturday and are waiting to hear back on it. Needless to say, its been a bit much.

Otherwise, Ezra is doing great. He's pulling up on EVERYTHING. He's taken a couple of small spills, but nothing too major. He's 9 months old today. Its been going so fast. Enough rambling, on to the pictures:

Such a happy kid!!!


The tent was added to the barrier in the hallway because he just about climbed over the plastic bins.

Playing with his toy box. He loves standing up.