Excitement!!!

So, we found a house that we like and are deep in the throes of going through the paperwork and such. We're really excited. We got to pick out the flooring this weekend. It was a spec home, so when we saw it for the first time, it was basically already mostly built. It will be really nice to have our own place that we can say is ours. It will also be nice to stop moving so much. The other day we both decided that in the last 10 years we've each moved 9 or 10 times, and 4 times already since we've been married. We close the end of September or early October (they weren't sure exactly what day, said it depended on what we pick for the remaining options and how long it takes to order things if they have to).

Susan has been fighting a cold this week, and Ezra has been teething quite a bit, so things have been interesting to say the least. Ezra's teeth are really coming in well though.


He's got his two top teeth and then three on the bottom. He's got two more pushing on the top it looks like.

This week he's decided that screaming is fun, so he screams at everything. He screams when he's happy, when he's sad, when he's excited, when its light outside, when its dark outside, you get the picture.

We're trying to start teaching him animal sounds, and most times you can get him to say moo, and you can always get a growl out of him, which is for either a bear, or a lion, or a tiger, or a dragon. He has started making car noises with his toys sometimes too.

We made some brownies this afternoon and gave Ezra half of one. He tried to fit the whole thing in his mouth, but it wouldn't fit. He just kept gnawing on the end of it and pushing until it finally did. He liked it though.


In other news, Ezra generally ignores the TV except when Sid the Science Kid is on, and of course he'll drop everything to watch M.A.S.H. I'm not sure what it is about MASH, but he's enthralled by it.

Melon Season

One thing that is always great about Arizona is melon season. 30 cent melons were nice. They were really good too!!!

The last couple of weeks have been a bit busy, but that's how it goes. Ezra has been getting so big. He has 5 teeth now, and is constantly eating something. He's figured out how to start climbing onto all sorts of things, which has kept us on our toes.

Randomly, he likes his hats now. Or at least he did a few days ago. Like everything else with him, it all depends on the day.


We made pizza the other night and Ezra was quite excited.


Its interesting to watch him now, he's not our little baby any more. He's growing into a little boy, and seems to always be learning something new.

Some of his favorite toys are blankets and pillows, but especially blankets. He'll crawl all over in them and just laugh and laugh.

Phone Book & Lemons

We let Ezra just play with the phone book that we got the other day, since we don't really use it. It kept him entertained for quite a while.

We were making lemon chicken for dinner, and he kept reaching up and pointing like he wanted the lemons, so we gave him a slice.

He seemed to like it at first.

He liked it up until the point where he started chewing on the bit of the lemon peel, and then threw it down and started crying. We'll have to remember to take the peel off next time.

The lemon chicken turned out great though. It looked especially nice on the fine china platter that Susan found for $3 at Savers.

Picture Heavy Post

We had a really great time on an extended vacation out to California. It was nice to get away from the heat for a while. The first week was spent up in Morgan Hill at Susan's parents' house. Ezra got to play with his cousin Sadie a bit more. It was cute to see them together.


Ezra loved all the time that he got to spend outside, as we all did. We took a morning walk through grandma and grandpa's garden. He had to point and pick at everything.


Whenever we got him outside for very long, Ezra enjoyed collecting leaves. He'd pick up a bunch of them and then would proceed to tear them apart and throw the pieces over his shoulder.

We took a family trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Ezra loved seeing all of the fish. He has a fascination with anything that swims.

It was a lot for him to take in, and he just had this amazed look almost the whole day.

He kept pointing at everything and saying, "This!"


They had a kids area and he had fun playing with the toy starfish.

Grandpa even soaked his feet in one of the exhibits (that has things you can reach in and touch).

Overall, it was just a really fun day.

We all really enjoyed being able to spend a bunch of time outside.


The beginning of this week we went down to San Clemente State Beach for a family reunion for part of Shawn's side of the family. Here's the view from the front door of our tent.

We got to go play down on the beach for a good part of the day on Tuesday. We all had a lot of fun.

Ezra was a little apprehensive about the water at first, but after a while he really started to enjoy it. Whenever a wave would come up, he would kick his feet in the water and laugh.

We only got minor sun burns (though some of the relatives got it pretty bad). Ezra was completely wiped out after the couple of hours that we spent at the beach and passed out for a couple of hours when we got back to the tent.


Though it was fun to get away, it's nice to finally be home.

1 Year Old

Life has been a little crazy the past 2 weeks. First we had visitors. Mandy and the kids stopped at our place for a couple of days on the way out to California. Ezra loved having more kids to play with. When we got the camera out Ethan was in the shower so he didn't end up in the shot.


After their visit we packed our bags and headed to New Mexico for a week long visit with Shawn's family. Ezra did really well on the drive there and warmed up really quickly to Grandma, Grandpa and especially Aunt Lori. On the first full day we were there he got his first birthday present from Grandma and Grandpa. A John Deere riding push toy.

He thought riding it was awesome.

Grandma showing him the animals that came with it.

On Monday we took Ezra to the zoo for his first time ever. He loved seeing all of the animals but he definitely had his favorites.

Trying to pull closer to see the polar bears better.

Watching the seals and sea lions swimming. These were his absolute favorite.

Ezra liked swinging at Grandma & Grandpa's house as well. He was pretty happy again once his 3rd tooth finally broke through all of the way.


Shawn's grandparents came over on Friday and we were able to get another 5 generation picture.

Ezra decided to be a bit silly when we took some family pictures.

Ezra really liked the rocking chair. It isn't every day that he gets rocked to sleep.

He's already had cake 3 times, and his birthday isn't until tomorrow. The first was on Thursday night. Lori was going to be gone on Friday night, so we gave him his first cake on Thursday night. It was a carrot cake. At first he wasn't sure what to do with it and just played with the frosting.

Susan took his hand and put it into his mouth, and he caught on really quickly. He managed to get carrot cake just about everywhere. The funny thing was that he only ate with his right hand for the most part, so his left hand was pretty clean.


He had some more carrot cake on Friday night so that his great-grandparents could see him with cake. He was a bit cleaner that time.

The third cake was tonight, and it was chocolate. Shari & Ammon came over for dinner and for cake tonight, since it worked out better for them, and Ezra is going to get shots tomorrow afternoon.



He had no hesitation with cake this time.

A lot of busy nothings

Things have been fairly busy around here, though I can't say that we've done a whole lot out of the ordinary.

Work has been really busy for Shawn, but seems like it should ease up a bit here soon, especially since we're going to be going on a decent amount of vacation here soon. It will be nice to have a reason to be away during part of the hot summer months.

Ezra has had his second tooth pop through the surface. He's starting to walk a bit, when we trick him into it. He seems fairly content to just crawl, but takes a few steps from time to time.

Susan hung up a bird feeder in the backyard, and now we have a flock of little birds all over the yard all the time. Its nice though. Ezra likes to sit and watch them.


We got Ezra a new toy that he just loves to play with. Its a little wooden train that you can take all of the pieces apart. He really enjoys anything that he can take apart.


Speaking of new toys, we got a new chef's knife at Home Goods for pretty cheap. Its nice! Hopefully it will keep its edge for quite a while.


We finally actually got a new picture taken of the two of us. We thought we'd share it, since mainly all that you see here are pictures of Ezra.


"What is this thing? How do you turn it on? Where are the batteries? Does it taste good?"