Good food...

This weekend has been both busy and restful at the same time. Not really sure how that worked out, but hey, why not? We got the orchid tree re-staked. With all the wind we've been having, it was starting to wind its way around the stake right up against it.

We've had some really good food this weekend. We broke in our smoker with some ribs, don't they look good?


We made some nice coleslaw to go with them, had BBQ chicken pizza for dinner tonight, and for dessert some good banana bread.

Emma even got to try something other than formula for the first time. She started with green beans. She spit out a bit, but did really well for her first time eating solids.

Ezra continues to get into things. He got really quiet on Saturday, and this is what we looked over and found.

I guess that tissue is really fun to tear up, apparently.

He has also been grabbing Emma's headbands and putting them on whenever he finds one. Its kind of funny ...

Sentences, Projects, Monsoons...

We got the pictures back, and they turned out great. Thanks everyone for putting up with the heat for these. Here's a really good one of Ezra and Lizzie.


Ezra has taken to saying a few new sentences:

"Come back here ... NOW!!" when you wander off on him.

"Give it back" when you take something from him, or when he just wants something that you have.

"Going on?" when he wants to know what everyone is doing. This one is heard a lot at night when he comes to his door when he's supposed to be asleep.

He likes to help with things. He helped Susan make a pound cake this evening. Every time she would turn the mixer on, he would start banging on the counter with a measuring cup and yelling, "OH YEAH!"

The two kids get along really well. Ezra likes to come up to Emma and in a sweet, higher voice say "Hi Emma" over and over again. She smiles at him most times.

She rolls over all the time now, though sometimes she gets a bit frustrated if there is something in her way. It is almost automatic for her to flip from her back to her stomach. She can roll back onto her back, but doesn't quite as often.


We sorted through a bunch of stuff that was stuffed in the closet this weekend. It was like Christmas all over again for Ezra. We even found Shawn's old toy dog and attached a new string to it. Ezra has been pulling it around the house. He gets a little frustrated at it when it falls over and catches on things, but he gives it a good, "Come here... NOW!" and that seems to help.

It has been really humid as of late, thank you monsoons. The storms initially didn't do too much cooling, so it was fairly miserable for a week or so. It has cooled it down quite a bit the last couple of days, and we've been able to go outside in the evenings. Ezra has been quite happy about that.



Looking around in the yard, we've come to find that we have a new resident. On the tangelo tree there is a 2" praying mantis. That should keep the other bugs away...

Big blue eyes

Another Sunday...

Storms rolling in, though we'll see if it gives much more than wind and a lightning show.

Emma rolled over from her back to her front for the first time today. She's been on the cusp of figuring it out for a couple of weeks now, and finally succeeded.

It's already the middle of July!

The last month has been somewhat eventful. The heat is definitely here. Our cooler temperatures were just too good to last I guess. Ezra and Emma have been growing and learning like crazy. Emma smiles a lot now and we have been able to get her to laugh a bit the last week or so.

Ezra loves coloring all of the time, even more so than before. One of his most favorite things is drawing on pads of paper. We went out and bought him a big package of pads to draw on, and he enjoys it.

Ezra has started counting things a lot the last little bit. He has learned to count to 10, though he still misses a number every now and again. He also recognizes all of the letters and can tell you what they are. He's a pretty smart cookie.

(The brace isn't his, it was someone else's but he decided that he wanted to wear it)


This last week we had Shawn's whole family in town. It was great to get to see everyone and spend time together. Ezra especially had a blast when we got together at Kelly's house on Monday. He ran around all day, hardly stopping for anything. We were able to get some family pictures, and we'll have them back in a few weeks.

Of course he had to try on Kelly's hats, and he pressed her into service to color with him, along with others.



All in all, life is pretty good.

Happy 2nd Birthday Ezra!

Ezra is officially 2 years old. He's 33 1/4 inches tall (30th percentile) and 28.3 lbs (60th percentile). Growing right away. He talks quite a bit more clearly, though still gets pretty frustrated when we don't understand him at times.


Emeline is now 2 months old. She's 13lbs 2oz(95th percentile) and 22 1/2 inches tall (50th percentile). She's starting to "talk" and smile a lot.


We blessed Emma on Sunday. We ended up doing it at home, and had some friends & family over for that and Ezra's birthday.


The two kids seem to get along really well. Ezra still is working on understanding exactly what gentle means, but he loves his little sister.



Ezra has enjoyed all of his presents. He mainly got books, but it works out because he really likes to look at all of his books.

Memorial Day, Projects, and the kids...

The kids have both been growing like crazy. Ezra is approaching his 2nd birthday. He's really interested in the world around him, and has started talking quite a bit more clearly. He still hasn't quite figured out that his sister is smaller than him, and he needs to be a bit more careful sometimes, but he's still young.

He likes his books. We just have to make sure that he doesn't rip stuff up. He had a tendency to like to do that recently. He tore the back cover off of one of his coloring books, and will gladly shred any junk-mail that we give him.



Yesterday we got out a water toy that we had bought last summer, now that we finally have a decent place to put it. He wasn't quite sure at first, but he really liked it. It took a while to blow everything up though. Hopefully it will get him to where he likes taking baths again; for whatever reason he's not too keen on them recently.

Emma has been starting to "talk" a bit, and smiles fairly often now. She's still at the stage of mainly just eating and sleeping, but she has a few wakeful times throughout the day.


She's big for her age, and has strong neck muscles. She already holds her head up by herself pretty well.


We took her to church for the first time on Sunday, and she slept almost the entire time. We learned that with her we have to take two bottles. She took one at the beginning of church, and then when she woke up later we had to make a hasty exit to get another one for her.

This weekend we worked on a few projects. We got the accent wall in our room painted. We haven't taken pictures of that yet, so we might show that later sometime.

We got our picnic table for the back patio all stained. We just have to seal it and put it together. It has turned out really well so far.

Shawn also cut the grass for the first time. The lawn isn't completely filled out, but it seems to be doing pretty well. Everything seems to have perked up a little bit with the heat.

We've started hitting triple digits. I guess it was bound to happen sooner or later, at least this year it was later.

1 month old

Emma is 1 month old. Time has flown by the last little bit. Everything is starting to settle into some semblance of "normal", whatever that is.



Emma sleeps a lot, though most times wants someone to constantly hold her. She's already up to 11 lbs, so holding her all day can tire your arms out a bit. She's a happy baby generally though.


Ezra loves his little sister and is constantly trying to give her hugs and kisses. He sometimes forgets that he needs to be a bit more gentle with her, but we're working on that.


Ezra's new thing is to wear Shawn's shoes all over the house. Sometimes he'll even tell Shawn to take his shoes off when Shawn gets home so that he can wear them.


We got a new movie cabinet, our old little cheap one had gotten too small, and there was not a good way to keep Ezra out of it. Ezra got the box to use as a fort. He has loved playing with the box, and coloring on it.