Ezra's First Birthday

I can't believe that Ezra is already one, but I'm sure all parents feel that way. He is such a great little boy and we are so lucky to have been blessed with him. We had prepared ourselves for a very rough first year, but were pleasantly surprised with an easy going and very funny little man! He has been such a trooper through it all. Not a day goes by that Bob and I don't mention how blessed we are, and how being parents is a thousand times better than we ever thought it would be (and we both thought it would be pretty great).

He pretty much just went at it with his finger. Not that messy, but not that bad.

I spent the day trying to get ready for his party, and trying to do all the things that he wanted to do. However most of the things that he wants to do are not allowed, birthday or not, and they are not conducive to having a clean house. That night we had a party with a few of our friends (more like our family away from family) on his birthday. Ezra is pretty lucky because he shares his birthday, not only with his Great Grandma, but also with the Russ twins across the street. I made them each their own little cake so they could all blow out candles together and a big one for the guests. I wanted the cakes to reflect things that Ezra really likes so his personal cake was supposed to look like a Signing Time DVD (it really is the only thing he will watch), and the big one had his favorite bird on top made out of Rice Krispies. I hope to get a video of him soon where he says "dee dee dee" in an attempt to tweet like the bird. Ezra was incredibly spoiled with some awesome presents and we had a good time. Thank you to everyone who sent cards, presents, and birthday wishes.

Abby and Zack turned three!

Zack's cake was my attempt at Spiderman.

Abby's cake had purple and red as requested and

I threw on some babies because I know she loves them.

Ezra opened his presents with a lot of help from the little guests!

After some modeling we opened the grand finale from

Grandma and Grandpa Bowling!

It was a big hit with all the kids and I think Ezra is going to love it.

A better picture to come later!

Thanksgiving and Bob's Birthday

I was a pretty slacker mom and didn't find him a "1st Thanksgiving" shirt

so this was my attempt to make up for it!

I'm pretty far behind in blogging, but I have to do these before I do Ezra's birthday. We had a great Thanksgiving. We went to the Chase's and Mindy had done an awesome job. The table looked great, the Turkey was amazing and I finally stuffed myself. (Last year I was too pregnant to make a big dent.) After dinner we headed to the Bowman's for dessert with some other families in the ward. It was really nice. I couldn't believe the mess Bob and I left at our house when all we did was make a few veggies.

Ezra didn't eat much on his own with the rest of us, 
so Bob helped him do a round two!

This picture is just to prove that Ezra does know how to make a mess when he eats.

This is his new favorite face to make. Especially when he is looking in the mirror.

Maybe he is trying to look like Grandpa Lundin with those squinty eyes.

Bob's birthday was the Saturday after Thanksgiving and he worked most of the day. I took some Key Lime Pie to his work for them to help him celebrate. He mostly wanted to enjoy his time with his family, so we just went out to dinner without Ezra so that they would still have time to play. We did get to catch the tail end of the BYU vs UofU game when we picked Ezra up. We won in overtime! It wasn't too exciting of a birthday for him I am sure, but we enjoyed just being together.

We were trying to prepare Ezra for his birthday by making him help Dad.

Apparently he hasn't learned how to fake excitement over lame presents. 

Hopefully Bob likes the new LDS Spanish Bible better than Ezra.

The New England Aquarium

So it is basically a fact that to be a Bowling you have to enjoy the ocean (usually from underneath it rather than at it's shores), so we took Ezra to the NE Aquarium. It was really crowded when we went and not as big as I expected, so I am really glad we got discount passes from the library. Ezra got scared of some big ugly fish near the top of the big tank, and then preferred to have one of us holding him to look in the big tank! They had a lot of cool things though. My personal favorite was the sea horses, they also had a bunch of leafy sea dragons, some huge sea turtles and a really cool octopus that liked to show off. Due to the crowds I didn't get the greatest pictures but enjoy!

Ezra rode the Subway for the first time so we could save on parking!

They had some nice sea horses, this one is just a plain brown one.

The white looking thing is a leafy sea dragon.

This is the show off Octopus. Sorry about the blur!

Not that you can tell but that is the sea horse tank behind us!

Third generation?

Ever since he has had any degree of manual dexterity, Ezra has enjoyed exploring my mouth. He likes to scrape at my teeth and stares with some sort of fascination. Maybe it's just because I let him do an activity that would otherwise be taboo but I like to think he really does like teeth. His most recent development is that we can no longer brush our teeth in peace. If he sees EmmaLee or me brushing our teeth he wants his own tooth brush to "brush" his teeth with. We'll have to work on proper technique further down the road! What ever Ezra chooses to do for a career in many moons from now is fine by me, but I do have some bias and would say that dentistry makes a fine profession.

Performing an intra oral exam

First Hair Cut

Last Thursday we cut Ezra's hair for the first time. Bob has been bothering me to do it for weeks, and I finally felt brave enough so we did it. It was really long, and stuck out way over his ears, even with his helmet on. I never thought I would be the kind of mom to get emotional over things like haircuts and the first day of school, but apparently I am. I didn't cry or anything (I hate crying and did not do it during any of his surgeries, so why do it over a hair cut?) but it has been hard to see yet another physical manifestation that my baby is quickly becoming no longer my baby. Luckily he still wears his helmet, so I don't have to be reminded too much. He is an adorable little guy though!

Bonus video: This is why Ezra is not walking just yet, he is too busy doing an Irish Jig every time he is standing!

Halloween and B-day pics!

I want to keep this post short but filled with pictures. We took Ezra Trick or Treating with some girls from our ward. It was a lot of fun and Ezra even picked out his own candy. Bob took Ezra up to most of the doors, but I took him up to a few and gave Bob the camera so that there could be a picture of me and Ezra...what did I find upon the return of the camera....a close up of my rear end (not included). Thanks for the memorable picture Bob!

Sunday was my birthday. It was not too eventful, but we made it to the cemetery for the third year in a row, and Bob spoiled me all day. It was a wonderful day. Bob and Ezra got me a case for my sewing machine (now I don't have to pack it in the box when I am not using it) and these magnetic measuring spoons I have been wanting. Ezra really enjoyed the candles and was a little confused when I blew out the flames. They weren't so exciting anymore!

Oh how we love the fall!

Autumn is such a beautiful time of year here. It almost makes up for the long, cold, winters. Okay not really, but I still do enjoy the beautiful colors that are everywhere. Today we went to the Mt. Auburn Cemetery to find acorns for a craft project and then we let Ezra and Emily play in the leaves. They had a blast and it was fun to watch them be so cute together. We may not get a picture of Ezra in a pumpkin patch, but at least we took advantage of the natural beauty!

We also had our ward Halloween party over the weekend. It was nice to have a reason to dress up. We couldn't pass up Ezra's first Halloween, yet he really doesn't need candy and can't even say trick or treat. We did the ward Trunk or Treat and it worked out great. We are loser parents and all the batteries were dead in both camera's so this is all we got for you. I will get some good ones of Ezra crawling in it for a later post!