Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow?

One downside of living on the East Coast is that everyone has to pay to ship you your Christmas presents. Ezra loves the ups that come with the downs. Ezra loved these packaging peanuts. He made quite the mess, but we used them to snow, and to make an avalanche (just like in one of his Thomas videos). With a little help from Static Guard and the vacuum clean up wasn't too bad.

We have had a great Christmas season so far, with the exception of a bad stomach bug that went through our family. I have never been so sick before. Luckily it was one of those 24 hour kinds. I was literally wanting to go to the hospital so that they could put me in a coma until it was over. Fortunately for me, I got it last, and therefore got the most empathy. We didn't get to do one of our service projects because of it, but luckily the project still happened.

Ezra helped us decorate the "Christmas treat" this year. Whenever I try to correct him, he just corrects me right back, so Christmas treat it is. Ezra has done really well with leaving the Christmas tree alone, and only seems to bother the presents after Bob reminds him how many days until we can open them. I am glad that he is completely unaware of Santa, but seems to love baby Jesus. I really need to get a Little People Nativity so that he can play with one without breaking it. Next year we will have income, so maybe then.

Speaking of Nativities, I have been thinking a lot about the people who came to see the baby Jesus in the manger. I am sure that they sensed the wonderful things that Christ would do for all of us. What a special and reverent moment to see the most important man to ever walk the Earth as a newborn. Just imagining the love and potential I saw in Ezra as a newborn leaves me in awe of how it must have been to see the baby Jesus. I truly love that we have this holiday to reflect on such things, and to give thanks through good deeds. We are truly blessed.

Bonus Pictures:

 These are from Ezra's actual birthday. I had already made a fancy cake for the other party, so he got a store bought chocolate cream pie for this go round. He did much better at blowing out his candles and really enjoyed the pie.

Thanksgiving and Birthdays!

We went to Utah for two weeks over Thanksgiving. Mostly because it was cheaper to fly that way, but it is also nice to get to enjoy some time with the family for all the money that we spent. The week of Thanksgiving was super busy, but it was nice to see all my siblings. It has been a long time since we all got together. We did some family pictures with everyone, but they will definitely need some photoshopping to look the greatest. We also had a family party which I posted about earlier which let us see a lot of extended family too. All in all we had a great time. Ezra especially loved all the time with cousins. He still asks for at least one of them every day.

Sadly this is the best one for people looking at the camera, smiling, with eyes open.

 We should have known from this attempt to give up on a grandchild picture.

It snowed three times while we were in Utah and we were really unprepared.

Andy got Ezra to start doing this. 

Now if you stick out your finger he will run up and touch it with his and say "Elliot".

Ezra insisted that Grandpa dance with them, and it quickly turned into a chasing game.

 Isn't this just a great picture of Keian?

Grandkid attempt #2 (actually #3)

 We helped Grandma decorate for Christmas. 

I used to love to lay under the tree and look at the lights. 

Turns out Ezra likes it too.

The Nutcracker

In a surprise move, Bob took me to the ballet. For those of you who know Bob it is a big surprise, he does not do this kind of stuff. We went to see the Nutcracker, seeing as neither of us had ever seen it. We were going to eat at a nice place before the ballet, but we got out a bit late, and our train kept stopping. I was worried we would be late for our show if we ate at a nice restaurant, so we unfortunately ate at McDonalds. We enjoyed the show despite not having the best seats, especially the first act. Bob said that the whole second act was pointless dancing. I actually enjoyed watching the orchestra a lot of the time. I do think my one suggestion would be for the men to wear tutus also. The less we see the better. We both were glad for the experience, but I am sure this will not become something we do often.
*As a side note, I have been struggling to get pictures to download which is why our last post was a late post about Halloween. Hopefully I will get Thanksgiving done before Christmas, one can hope.

Better late than never...Halloween 2010

Several factors combined this year to make Halloween not so spooky.  We definitely participated in several fall/Halloween activities, but the actual big weekend was mostly spent doing other things with Ron's Family.  Because Halloween was on Sunday and the ward trunk or treat was on the day that they got here, we didn't even go trick or treating.  But since Ezra is little we had to dress up still!

Our "costumes" we all made from things we already have.

Ezra got the hospital gown when he broke his arm.

We just took this one because we forgot the chart prop.

Look Who's Two!

Today is Ezra's second birthday! It is crazy how time flies! He is such a joy in our lives, and we feel so blessed to have him with us everyday. We look forward to many more great years to come!

 1 Hour

 1 Month

 6 Months

 1 Year

 18 Months

Just shy of 2 years!

We had a birthday party while we were in Utah for the Nov. and Dec. Birthdays.

I made Thomas and Percy train cakes for Ezra and Jett!

 While still not a pro, he did manage to blow out at 
least one of his candles all by himself!

He was much better at opening presents this year! 

Thanks to everyone for their wonderful gifts!

At age two he can count to 11 (if he's focused - sometimes he counts 1, 2, 3, Teddy Bear, etc), and knows all of his letters.  He's working on recognizing numbers and only struggles with a few.  He uses sentences sometimes and enjoys games where we ask him yes or no questions.  He loves to sing and knows lots of songs, even though he likes to also make up his own words/gibberish.  Ezra still pretends to sleep sometimes when we check on him and is pretty good at mimicking and pretending.  He is currently in love with Thomas & Friends and still into Cars and other cars, trucks and tractors.  He loves to run around, but is not the world's best jumper.  He's a really good kid and loves to laugh!