Second post, not bad huh?

The month of January has been relatively busy for all of us.


We've been passing colds around, and it looks we're almost done with that finally *knock on wood*
Emma has figured out how to drink from a sippy cup, though she still just takes water from it. She even holds it herself. Now if we could only get her to hold her bottles herself, we'd be in business.

She's been teething off and on, but still just has the two bottom ones. Emma overall is a really happy, really busy little girl. We had finally got to a point where most everything that she wasn't supposed to get in to was out of her reach. Then she hit a growth spurt and figured out that she can go up onto her toes for some extra reach. Things are starting to have to be moved again.

She found out that if she stood on the keyboard, it is just enough for her to see out of the window.


This is a classic one of her looks. A lot of times she'll go around with her bottom lip stuck out a bit like this, not sure why. It's cute though.

Every now and then Emma decides that she needs a rest, and will put her head down on a pillow or blanket and lay there for a few seconds, and then off she goes again.


Ezra continues to keep us busy. He has an almost endless supply of energy, and gets even more hyper right before he finally falls asleep.

He has loved being able to go outside so much, since the weather has been nice. The other day we went for a walk, and he army crawled across the entire field by the park. He thought it was great.
We also finally got our planter boxes built for our garden. It only took three weekends, one to buy everything, one to build everything, and a third to fill them.

Ezra had a blast digging in the backyard, and he made sure to help every chance that he got.

They turned out pretty well, so this next weekend we'll have to see what we can get planted. Hopefully, we will be able to get a lot of good food out of the garden. Regardless, we'll have fun working on it together, and that's probably more important.


On a completely different note: Isn't it great when shrimp is on sale?


Emma likes to growl a bit, and can be quite loud about it at times. Here, take a look:

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

2010 brought us a very nice Christmas with family. Emma had a good time seeing everyone, and Ezra was excited the whole time, since this time he really has started to understand what was all going on.

Emma is still our happy little girl, even though she's been teething. She still has just the two teeth, but is working on the others.

They both clean up pretty well, don't they?

The weather has been interesting to say the least. Over the course of the last month we've had everything from highs in the 80's to snow flurries this last few days. I know, snow flurries, crazy stuff. The sunrises and sunsets are still to die for, that's always a plus to living in the desert.

We spent Christmas in New Mexico, visiting Shawn's parents. It was good to see everyone. The kids loved having more people to play with them. Ezra even minded Lori better than he minds both of us, weird huh?

Ezra enjoyed making cookies with grandma.


On Christmas morning, both of the kids made out like bandits. Funny how the little ones always get spoiled. We all enjoyed it though. Emma liked having so many new things to play with.



Ezra did too, though funnily enough, he probably played with Emma's new stuff as much as his own that morning.






Emma enjoyed playing with the bags and paper as much as anything though. Ezra thought that it was great to have 3 different present opening sessions: one at grandma & grandpa's, one at great-grandma and great-grandpa's, and one at Mandy's house.

Emma is cruising along all of the furniture now, and is trying to walk early. That will add a whole new dimension of interesting to our lives, since she's considerably more curious about everything than Ezra ever was, and that's saying something.


Both of the kids enjoyed all of the play time they got with family. Nights were interesting, getting them to sleep in a new place, but it was a good time overall.

We had the adventure of driving through a very large storm on the way home, and were all quite happy to finally get home.


Kelly and Cameron came over today and we exchanged presents and had dinner together. It was nice to have seen them as well.

Christmas Party

So Emma has got Ezra beat in the inquisitiveness department. She's already found the cabinet with the plastic stuff in it and pulled everything out to chew on. You'd think she's teething or something.

The kids are just growing away. Ezra loves going and playing outside at the park.

He just climbs all over everything there.

Emma enjoys playing peek-a-boo.

She's the happiest little baby. She has figured out how to pull her self up to standing if you hold your hands out for her. She gets a little satisfied smirk on her face once she pulls up. She hasn't figured out how to get herself completely to standing just up on the furniture all by herself, but we guess she'll be cruising around the couches here before too long. She will generally take steps if you hold her hands and "walk" her around, but it depends on her mood at the time.

We went to our ward Christmas party yesterday, and it was a blast. They had a Hawaiian theme, so we dressed the kids appropriately, though Ezra insisted on wearing his beanie.

They even had a dancing group that came in and danced for us. I think most of them are relatives of one of the people in the ward. It was awesome.
Ezra waited in line to sit on Santa's lap. He was all excited about it while waiting in line. Then, when he got to the front of the line, he had to be coaxed just to even come near Santa.

He did eventually sit on Santa's lap for just a second, but didn't seem to care for it much. At least he didn't freak out completely though.

Thanksgiving and the Zoo

Thanksgiving was a nice, quiet affair with just the four of us. We had a lot of good food. Here's a sample:

The rolls for dinner

The cinnamon rolls for breakfast



The hickory smoked turkey


Look at the smoke ring... yummmm... it was really good, will definitely try it again.


The pumpkin cheesecake


And the normal stuffing, potatoes, noodles, and Martinelli's .


Ezra was already eating before we got it on the table.

Dinner ended up being quite a bit earlier than expected, but that's what happens when you try a new way of cooking things.

It left us with most of the afternoon free, so we put up the Christmas tree.


We all really like it. Ezra had been talking about how much he wanted to decorate the tree since Tuesday.

We broke tradition and went shopping on Black Friday; I guess it counts as shopping if you go to the grocery store and hardware store in the afternoon for some necessities.

We spent most of today at the zoo. Ezra LOVED it. Emma liked it too.

Ezra has been constantly wearing his beanie ever since we bought it for him. Best dollar I ever spent.

This was Emma the whole time, when she wasn't asleep. We were surprised at how content she was all day long.


Ezra liked seeing all of the animals. He would point them out when he finally saw them. Some of them were hard to find.
The elephants were even hard to find. The first time by the enclosure, you could only see one of them, and it was laying down sound asleep. First time we've ever seen a sleeping elephant that any of us could remember.


The monkeys were a hit, of course. Ezra didn't care for the few snakes that we saw, so it wasn't a big deal that the reptile house was closed. His favorite by far were the tortoises. He got really excited when we saw the big turtles, which he called tortoises after we told him that's what they were. He even ended up with a stuffed tortoise which he has carried around ever since we got home.



He kept pointing at the frog statue, so this one required a few takes to get a picture with him actually looking at the camera.

We almost couldn't get him out of the giant clam shell.
There was a little park with "Little People" animals and characters and a little barn. Ezra thought that the little horse and cow were the best ever, since you could ride on them. It took a bit of coaxing to get him off of these to start heading towards home.

It was a really fun day, but by the end of it we all felt about like this sleeping rhino: