The not so Boston Bowlings

Ezra's 3rd Birthday

2012-01-16T19:49:00.000-05:00

Our little boy is not so little anymore. He turned three last month and even though his birthday was on Sunday we still had a party. Ezra wanted a construction party so we played some games along those lines. It was pretty fun, especially because Ezra was really into it all!

The cake didn't turn out quite like I was expecting, but Ezra liked it.

They all decorated their construction hats with construction stickers.

Next we enjoyed some Don't Eat Pete...

and then used a wrecking ball to demolish an old abandoned building.

I totally forgot all about the spaceship that I bought for them to build, but they enjoyed plenty when I remembered later in the week. Ezra was happy with the day and that was all that mattered!

Jessica came over to help me with the cake and we also made that Tangled tower

for my niece Bella. Her birthday was earlier in the week. (The same day as Bob's!)

He got oodles of presents, just what any boy needs three weeks before Christmas!

November

2012-01-02T16:57:00.001-05:00

We started off November with this awesome nature lesson. I had just come inside and was making Ezra's lunch when I noticed a bee on my shoulder. I promptly flicked it away, but I must have stunned it because rather than fly off it landed in this spider web. When I looked over I noticed that a spider was coming out so Ezra and I watched it very quickly wrap up the bee. It was amazing to watch, and creepy to think that there had been a black widow in the house. In the end we killed it and enjoyed the experience. If you click on the pictures they should get bigger and you can really see the details.

This year we went to Utah for Thanksgiving. We got a great deal on flights and we couldn't miss Talya's baptism. It was really good to see most of the family!

Once again, I swear I turned these, but whatever!

Talya asked Bob to speak at her baptism and me to give the opening prayer. They also had all the cousins sing. We quickly taught Ezra the song and got him all excited about it. As soon as he saw her in the water he started to sing "I like to look for rainbows..." at the top of his lungs. It took us a while to convince him now was not the time to sing, and when the real time came he hardly sang at all. We were all happy to be part of Talya's special day!

Talya was baptized by her Grandpa Mike and confirmed by my Dad.

We also had a family party while we were there. They ended up combining October, November and December all in one so there were a gazillion of us.

I made this with my sister Jamie. I think our two visions combined led to a pretty awesome dinosaur.

I thought it was very wise to just make each person a cupcake.

We had a great time in Utah and hope to get back that way sooner rather than later!

October

2011-12-14T20:47:00.001-05:00

There are about a gazillion pictures in this post. I hope you enjoy them. Most are self explanatory. We had a great time this month.

I love that Ezra is getting to spend more time with his Grandparents! They are feeding the fish.

He loves the rain with his rain boots and "boorella"!

We went to a cool park in Chico with the cousins (a term we use to refer to Dave and Jessica's kids). We had a picnic dinner and then went out for ice cream. It doesn't get much better than that.

Bob finally started working this month! Wahoo!

We also went to Bishop's Pumpkin Patch with the cousins. We also had a picnic dinner and ice cream (well I actually had an apple dumpling and Bob had a caramel apple, but you know). Like I said we had a good time this month.

I designed the pumpkin and then Bob and Ezra did the dirty work.

We got our big pumpkin at the pumpkin patch as I am sure you could have guessed.

We were going to be Team Umizoomi for Halloween, but it was looking expensive and we are broke

so we went with this.Ezra still liked it and we pulled it off for under ten bucks.

We had a spooky Halloween dinner. It took all day for me to pull it together.

I don't know that I will do it every year but it was fun!

Bones, monster tongues and spiders. (We tried to go the healthy route rather than candy route.)

Monster eyes, zombie fingers, apple monsters and the veggies they like to eat!

Mummies, puke dip, monkey brains and witches brew.

I also made these worms (thanks Emily). They were quite tasty!

We ate by candlelight and lava lamp with some dry ice special effects.

This in one of the saddest looking ghosts, but this was dessert.

September

2011-12-13T15:42:00.001-05:00

September was spent breaking into our Gridley life. We played with cousins a lot...

I started working with my Cub scouts...

and Ezra got more brave and would swim in the pool by himself, and jump to Daddy.

I thought it was great when Ezra came down the hall with these stickers on him.

He put the hair sticker by his hair, the shirt on his shirt, the shorts on his shorts,

and shoes on his feet!

We made Ezra this train track with his tracks and Grandma's tracks combined!

We also had great FHE at the temple with the whole family that lives around (minus the grandparents). Bob gave a wonderful lesson and the food, company, and view were great! Thanks to Rachel for taking over the photography responsibilities.

Graduation Party

2011-12-10T15:03:00.000-05:00

We had a graduation party for Bob. To show our thanks for the education Bob has received we made school kits for the church Humanitarian Program. We got all of our family involved and I think it went over well. We are just so glad that Bob is done. He still wasn't working at this part thanks to little lame mistakes on paperwork (not done by Bob but his school and the sheriff's office) but thankfully he is working now!

We were in charge of the bags, and I made Bob help me sew them!

I love rice krispies and Bob made this one nice and festive!

We threw in a little August birthday party too.

All the family was there, even Great Grandpa Bowling and the Oregon Bowlings.

Unfortunately the LA McDowells bishop died unexpectedly so Craig had to run the ward.

We missed them, but luckily they got to come visit a little bit later.

Aren't those bags stylish. I hope the kids like them.

That bag on top was by far the craziest. Hopefully some child will think it is awsome!

Pit stop with the VanDusens!

2011-12-07T00:28:00.000-05:00

Once I was finally completely done with school (thanks to Henry, the Cargills and the Pritchetts for getting me through my last few weeks in Boston), I met up with EmmaLee and Ezra in St. George. On our drive to finally settle in Gridley we stopped to meet up with our friends. They happened to be visiting their grandma who lives at the perfect halfway point for the trip! She owns the Double Eagle Resort at June Lake in the Mammoth Lakes region. She has an awesome cabin that the Van Dusens were staying at that totally had room for us and other family that was visiting (with still more room to spare). As you will see it's in an awesome place and it was a joyous reunion for Emily and Ezra.

They almost tackled each other when they hugged when we first got there.

We went hiking to see some cool waterfalls.

Apparently they had record precipitation this year because this waterfall doesn't usually exist.

Sorry we were too frustrated with the internet here to re-post with the proper orientation.

Lyla was already looking too grown up after just a few months.

We really wish we could have stayed there for a week. There would have been plenty for us to do, but we were happy to be on our way to Gridley!

Utah in July part II

2011-12-06T00:28:00.000-05:00

The last week of our trip was much more exciting than the first 4 weeks. Four days before my youngest brother Josh's wedding my dad got in an accident. We had been at an FHE with some of my cousins and their families at Gunlock reservoir and afterwards my Dad and brother headed up to Enterprise to drop off my Dad's motorcycle for new tires, or some kind of repair. On the last stretch just before you come into town my Dad hit a deer. Luckily my brother was following him and was able to call 911, stop traffic, and let us know what was going on. It was definitely scary, but in the end my Dad spent one night in the hospital and came home with a broken collar bone, 5 broken ribs and lots of road rash. They said that if he had not had on his helmet he would have died. I saw the helmet and I am pretty sure they are right. So fortunately for us all he was able to go to the wedding. My mom and I took care of his dressing changes, helping him eat, and helping him get around. I took the night shift the night before the wedding, so by the time the reception was over my Mom, Dad and I were exhausted. Luckily my sister took Ezra off my hands so we were able to get some sleep. Thanks Jamie and Tony! Ezra was sad that Grandpa couldn't play because he had "really big owies" but luckily we had already been there a while. Bob got stuck at school and missed the wedding by 3 days, but it was a beautiful wedding and we are happy to have Samantha as part of our family.

I believe that point of impact was where you see the truck parked in the background.

The deer ended up here, my dad was a little farther, and the bike was even farther.

Luckily he hit the deer right in it's belly because that is the softest part.

Unfortunately that meant my dad was plastered literally with blood and guts.

Notice the intestines on the side. Sorry if it is too graphic for you.

Here is his bike covered in blood. We were amazed it wasn't more damaged.

My dads helmet looked a lot like this except with more deer poop on it and a big chunk scraped off it.

The tail light and handlebar both look like this on the side that slid on the ground.

It broke out a blinker light and his rear view mirror and

scraped some spots but all inall it is still in working condition.

We could have had some pretty good family pictures if Bob had been there.

Dang that BU!

It was super hot and my Mom was on the verge of passing out so

here ended the family pictures at the temple!

I promise that Josh is slightly taller than me but I was wearing heels

and Jamie has on even taller ones.

I feel like cute little Sam makes us look like a family of giants!

Clearly these happened first but I am too lazy to change up the order.

We finally make it to Gridley, but not for too long!

2011-11-13T00:52:00.000-05:00

I will let most of the pictures do the talking. We enjoyed cousins,Grandparents, having a yard, a pool, and just space. I am so glad that Ezra will be raised somewhere besides just 22 Marion Road!

Ezra went poop in the toilet for the first time so we had a treasure hunt to celebrate.

Unfortunately he did not make a habit of it.

I have never been so happy to not have to go to the laundromat!

Brief Bunker Bonding

2011-11-09T23:42:00.001-05:00

We got to spend less than 24 hours with the Bunkers, but as usual, they packed a lot in. We spent Sunday night at their wonderful house. (I am jealous of people who have houses, especially people with nice big ones.) I thought it was great the way Avery and Austin acted as if they had just seen Bob yesterday. They were climbing all over him and having a great time. Austin pretty much just seemed scared of me.

The next day Jared took us to see some cool things while Avery was at school. Then we met up with them for lunch and checked out the new Mormon Battalion Visitors Center. Unfortunately we had to head to LA, fortunately it was to see our new niece Abby who was born that day!

I think that is Coronado Island in the distance.

You can see Ezra is excited to be a Pacific Ocean kid now.

See I told you we were with the Bunkers.

You were probably starting to doubt with the lack of Bunkers in the pictures.

The boys had so much fun playing with this water pump.

The longest stop on the trip...Utah

2011-11-08T17:59:00.002-05:00

While we were on our cross country trip Ezra was enjoying time at Grandma and Grandpa's with Jett and Zane. My poor mother had all three of them when they came down with some kind of illness and they all three had diarrhea. It was pretty bad (apparently) but luckily she had some help. They were all healthy and happy by the time we arrived!

I know they missed us, but not too bad. They certainly had fun together.

They enjoyed trying on grandpa's hats.

Isn't that a great smile Zane has going on?

This is a quilt that I made for my cousin's daughter. My Mom helped me finish it.

I never would have gotten it done without her. She is pretty amazing!

We stayed long enough to go to a family birthday party. These are the May and June birthdays.

I don't know why, but Ezra loves cowboys hats. He steals Keian's all the time!

New Orleans

2011-11-05T02:36:00.001-04:00

The last major stop on our trip was New Orleans. We met some VERY interesting folks, had some great food (like alligator), and were glad we weren't there for too long after sundown. We had a good few hours there, but I won't be too sad if I never get there again!

They had some great masks, but they were a bit pricey for something I will likely never use,

and I don't have a house to display it in. So we came home with only a wooden alligator.

We enjoyed taking pictures with all the cool buildings. I'm glad there were no beaded girls up there though!

The infamous Bourbon Street. Home to some crazy drunk guy!
And no, I'm not referring to Bob.

North Carolina

2011-10-13T20:22:00.001-04:00

Ever since I did my 5th grade report on the state of NC, I have wanted to go see the Cape Hatteras light house. Then when I lived with Camber, it renewed my wish to go, and now many years later I finally made it. Shortly after we entered the state we drove past GRAVEDIGGER. The boys made us turn around and go back an up close and personal experience.

We continued on our way to Kitty Hawk to see the Wright Brothers National Monument. It was really interesting and I am glad we were just in time for the telling of their story.

This is a replica of the plane they made their first flight in.

Here I am flying out to the 4 different distances their first flights went.

You can see the last marker way out there. Way to go guys!

Snapped this one on the drive. We didn't have time to go see all of the cool lighthouses.

This is the Bodie Island lighthouse.

It was really smokey from some fire on the mainland, but the view was still great!

We decided to take a ferry back to the mainland rather than trekking all the way back up the Outer Banks. I turned out to take a lot longer, but we enjoyed the experience and the break from the car.

We had about an hour wait between the two different ferry rides.

Luckily their gift shop was going out of business so we scored some

cheap souvenirs including the Frisbee that kept the boys entertained.

Here we are on the ferry with a front row view.

Sorry the only view you get to see is of some man.

Back to the trip-DC part II

2011-10-13T01:44:00.001-04:00

We're finally getting back to blogging. We've had several different kinds of computer issues so we'll be doing catch-up for awhile. Now that it is fall, you can enjoy seeing our summer activities.

Museum of Natural History

This tree is all metal, not just painted.

The line was ridiculously long to see the declaration of independence and the constitution

but we took a picture in front of the building at least.

We were mostly excited to go to the aerospace Smithsonian. Lots of cool stuff.

Luckily we had Brandon to tell us why it was cool.

Arlington National Cemetery was cool. We were there just in time for the changing

of the guard. Sorry, no pictures. It was pretty cool how reverent everyone was there.

The Iwo Jima monument was our last stop in the DC area and then we were off to North Carolina

It was way too much to see in a day, but we hit most of the big stuff. I had been before but I think everyone who hadn't was satisfied with what we saw. Stay tuned for more of our road trip fun.

Hanging out in St.George

2011-09-18T22:50:00.001-04:00

Ezra and I spent a wonderful and crazy 3 weeks in St. George. Ezra got to spend a lot of time with his cousins, and he loved it. I somehow managed to not get any pictures of Ezra with Talya and Keian even though he spent a lot of time with them. He had two sleepovers with them, which were such a nice break. Thanks Jamie and Tony, I owe you one. It was just nice to be around for the comings and goings of the family. I hope we were more of a blessing than a burden in our time there.

Hanging out with Jett! They play together so well.

They found a ladybug!

This is the most common place to find Grandpa when he is home,

and Ezra will take what he can get.

They really like reading Grandma's pop up books.

How could they not like it when she gets this into it!

Fast Forward...

2011-09-15T14:41:00.000-04:00

I have so much to post and catch up on, but the jump drive that I had put all the pictures on got left at my parents, the computer which they are on, that has no internet access, I cannot access because the USB hook-up for our wireless mouse and keyboard got broken so I am just going to fast forward to the pictures that are on my camera!

While Bob was back in Boston, Ezra and I headed to Utah. We pick up on the 4th of July. We had a great time hanging out with family waiting for the fireworks. Ezra was scared of how loud they were and made me cover his ears the whole time, but other than that we had a blast.

The sprinklers came on in this section of the lawn.

How unfortunate for the people sitting there, but how fortunate for Tate and Ezra!

I thought it was so funny the way Ezra and Lilly both started their running

with their hands behind their backs.

The poor kid couldn't keep his pants on once they were soaking wet.

Our Spread!

Killing time.

Washington D.C.

2011-08-16T13:09:00.000-04:00

After we left Philadelphia we headed to D.C. to catch a session at the temple that evening. The drive to the temple, with it coming out of nowhere, did not disappoint. It was such a great experience, I'm sure I will never get over that way again, and I'm glad we gotta go.

The next morning we headed into the capitol. We were expecting horrible traffic, but we did not hit any and the drive was actually quite lovely.

We stopped at the Washington Monument first, but this is about as close as we got.

I saw this blue bird on the way to the White House and just had to snap a picture.

The view of the monument from the White House.

The man in the back is telling everyone to leave

because someone important is coming down the street.

The White House

I thought these ducklings on the WWII monument were cute.

Bye bye Massachusetts!

The new WWII monument.

Each one of those stars behind Bob represents (I think) 5,000 people killed.

California here we come!

What the? The reflection pool was completely ripped up. Talk about a rip off!

Pretty awesome view huh? Not!

Lincoln Memorial

Another view that could have been awesome.

We also did some Smithsonian stuff that day which will come in another post. I'm sorry I'm taking forever to catch up, but our now SUPER slow internet makes it take forever to upload pictures, so I completely lack motivation. I still have so much to post though, just to get us to Gridley. I will try to be better.

Philadelphia

2011-08-01T12:01:00.000-04:00

We spent our second day of our trip in Philadelpia. We only saw the touristy stuff, but I still enjoyed it. The best part of the day was definitely eating at Tony Lukes. What a great, authentic Philly Cheese Steak.

I think they called this the Moon Tree because it was once taken to the moon.

It looks like it didn't fare too well!

We toured the U.S. Mint and bought Ezra a giant coin. The boy loves his "monies".

I'm not sure what all these flags represent but I made everyone point to the one they liked best.

We got to see these soldiers rope those young'ens into joining the continental army.

A statue that I don't remember.

Note Independence Hall under construction. Turns out most everywhere we went

had stuff under construction. We didn't have the best of luck.

I believe this was a "tomb of the unknown soldier".

Not the be confused with the "tomb of the unknown soldier".

Oh man, these sandwiches were so tasty. I only wish I could make them that good.

New York

2011-07-14T11:18:00.000-04:00

We didn't get out of Boston until almost noon, and had to make a stop in CT to see the oh-so-wonderful Russ Family. It was like 2 or 3 before we got to NY. It was a really quick trip and we did only touristy stuff. It is not my favorite place in the world, but we scored a free parking spot. My one regret is that the rest of us didn't give in to Dayna and go on the carriage ride through Central Park. It was dark, and I am sure that we didn't miss much, but I know Dayna would have liked the experience, and now looking back it wouldn't have been a big deal, so we should have just done it. Anyways on to the pictures!

Our first stop was Battery Park to catch a glimpse of the Statue of Liberty!

Thanks to Sherrie, I now like to make people pose like the statues we see.

This is what Bob did while the rest of us looked at the S. of L.

Bob and I had already seen it, so he didn't mind waiting in the car rather than looking for parking.

I'm sure you could have guessed Time Square.

We really wanted to eat at Grays Papaya, but it was closed :( Mine and Dayna's next choice was just a hot dog street vendor. I still can't believe that for all the blocks we walked (and even drove for that matter) we never saw a single one. Talk about lame. We ended up just eating at a chain restaurant for 3x the amount you would pay at any other location. Oh well, what can you do!

By the time we made it to Central Park it was dark. We still took a little walk through.

We saw a raccoon eating out of the garbage and some crazy guy on a bike.

We played with our cameras while in C.P. and this is my favorite one that I took.

I kept getting impatient for it to take it and would move. This was the result.

Our last days in Boston

2011-07-06T15:04:00.001-04:00

We had some nice days while Bob's parents were still in town that we took advantage of. We went out to Concord and Lexington, and of all the times I have been there this time was the most exciting. They had soldiers in old school garb that went on the bridge and shot off some guns. Ezra was totally scared of the loud noise, but was more than happy to run around the rest of the time. He also enjoyed throwing rock off the bridge.

After Bob's parents left we headed to the Zoo for one last day of fun with the Van Dusens. As usual it wasn't too exciting, but I think that I saw more animals this time than I have ever seen at that zoo. We also started a free roaming peacock enough that he showed us his big beautiful tail. It was the first time I have even seen one do that in real life.

By the time Brandon and Dayna came to town it was considerably hotter. We were down to one little air conditioner and they arrived right in the middle of our yard sale, so it made for a bad (but realistic) first impression of living in Boston. We made up for it that night by going to Kimball Farms for some dinner, mini-golf, and of course their fantastic ice cream. We really owe Justin for all his help with the yard sale and for driving us around that weekend. Thanks!
We also went on a duck tour, did the freedom trail, and lots of packing and sweating. We did throw our mattress off the back porch (well we let it down with ropes) and the movers have no idea how lucky they are that we did. It was a hot and busy few days, but by the end we were ready for our long road trip. We put my parents and Ezra on a plane and headed out the next morning on our adventure.

At one point in our packing Ezra found some sunscreen and applied it to himself.

We let Ezra sit in this seat up front while we waited for our driver as long as he didn't touch anything.

I signed "no" to him as he reached for something and this is him signing "no" back at me.

Not that you could tell from this picture, but they let Ezra drive the duck boat

while we were out on the river. He got two turns and LOVED it.

I didn't feel like making the trek to the USS Constitution so we stayed and hung out by

this fountain while we waited for my Dad and Brandon to get back.

Bob's Graduation

2011-06-23T19:07:00.000-04:00

Just a few days over a month after it happened I am finally posting about Bob's graduation. As with most graduations it was pretty boring, went way over and the Dean even shushed the crowd at one point. Weird huh? Anyways, we couldn't be more proud of Bob! I only wish he could wear such an awesome outfit to work everyday! Sadly you just pay a bunch of money for it and then you have to turn around and give it right back. (Seriously though, who would want to keep it, maybe for Halloween.)

We were about an hour early, so we had plenty of time to kill.

Ezra used the time to run around.

That is our parents and Ezra in the middle. I was mostly playing with my camera.

I used my bigger lens for the first time. Too bad it took me a while to figure out to

turn off the flash so the pictures wouldn't be so dark.

For this lens, I really needed a tripod or something. Sorry for the blurriness.

Bob was mostly making funny faces because Ezra was crying for his Daddy!

Getting the GIANT diploma envelope.

Bob and Henry. He is who Bob did his externship with.

This is one of Bob's good classmates, Zack.

Don't mind the chocolate face on Ezra. They had refreshments at the reception.

We are so happy to be (pretty much) done with the Dental School portion of our lives. I feel so blessed to be married to a man who is willing to work so hard and sacrifice so much for our family! Now on to the glorious working years!

The Trek

2011-06-15T20:37:00.000-04:00

This cross country (and then some) trek is what we have been up to the last couple of weeks. I still need to post Bob's Graduation, and then I will get to work on posting this. Stay with us while we work on unpacking and getting all the pictures off the camera!

Changes

2011-05-11T15:53:00.000-04:00

As you might expect we have had some changes happening around here. The first being that spring has mostly sprung and we are enjoying the weather being in the 60's. I have always wanted a family picture taken in the Mt. Auburn Cemetery in the spring (or the fall) and this spring was our last chance. Last spring we were too late and the Cemetery was closed. The pictures are kind of last minute, so we aren't dressed super classy or anything but they turned out alright.

You wouldn't know that I straightened my hair twice prior to this photo shoot.

Dang that humidity! I guess I should have gone curly.

"To infinity...and beyond"

Ezra knows how to spell him name, so we were excited to find an Ezra tombstone.

A second change is that I have really started to pack up. It hasn't been too bad, and I think everything will come together pretty smoothly. Ezra has not missed any of the toys that we have packed up yet, and is mostly enjoying the extra space and the boxes. He LOVES to climb on, jump off, color on and hide in the boxes!

We have added a lot of boxes since this picture. Crazy!

Notice how the majority of our boxes are diaper boxes.

The last change is that our fish died. (Sorry Bunkers!) We got him from the Bunkers when they moved away and on the day that we were going to pass him on to someone else he passed away. We had a whole discussion with Ezra about death and I think it went pretty well. If you ask him where his fishy is he will tell you that he ran away to Heavenly Father. The only problem is that I think he kind of thinks that they toilet is how you get to Heavenly Father. Oh well, what can you do? We have actually been having some good conversations around Heavenly Father and prayer. Ezra will often comment on how Heavenly Father is watching us even though we can't see him and that we can talk to him. It is pretty heart warming.

I think this is the only picture of Shark Bait that we have.

We hope you are all having some good changes in your lives too! Change is hard, but exciting!

Easter

2011-05-02T12:50:00.001-04:00

We had the most beautiful Easter Sunday here in Boston. Unfortunately the day before was not as nice. It was almost like the storms during the Crucifixion and then wake to the beautiful weather and knowledge of the Resurrection on Easter Morning. We had a nice dinner at a friends house, and it was just a lovely day.

Ezra got to do 2 different Eater egg hunts, one on Friday with primary kids, and another indoor one on Saturday with kids closer to his age. He enjoyed both of them, but still needs a little practice to be competitive. During the first one he would pass up on some eggs and grab others. I guess he knows which ones he is too good for. After he had found his limit he still just enjoyed running around with the other kids who were still looking. At his second hunt he seemed to think he had enough and was less into finding more once he had a few. Luckily we didn't come home with too much candy!

Thank you to the Bullocks for letting us use their house!

Most of the candy from this hunt didn't even make it home.

While other kids were still looking Ezra was digging in to what he already had.

We also had our annual egg dying party. It was the messiest year to date, but I think everyone had a good time!

Ezra really enjoyed putting the color tabs in the vinegar.

This was Austin's first time coloring eggs, and it was pretty awesome to watch.

At first he would crush the eggs in his hand and then throw it into the dye.

Needless to say his mom ended up doing some very hands on helping.

The Chase's were the only ones to make it to all four years of our Egg Dying Extravaganza.

Aren't they the greatest? (In others defenses they didn't live here all four years.)

I made the multi colored one and Bob did the Black Label and 2-toned one.The rest were all Ezra.

He is trying to add stickers to them, but the stickers were too old and didn't stick.

On Easter morning the Easter Bunny left Ezra a trail of eggs to follow, which made it much easier for him to find his basket. Daddy was not so lucky and I had to practically tell him where it was. Ezra was pretty spoiled between us and Grandma and Grandpa. He seems to really enjoy all of his spoils though. All in all we had a great day!

Following the trail!

He got the rest of the Toy Story figurines he has been earning for cleaning his room.

He also got some Lightening McQueen clogs, Bambi, a new church book, a swimming suit,

some new outfits, and of course candy.

Testing out his new recorder!

No need to wait for breakfast when you have plenty of candy.

I think he liked the ring pop the best though.

Congratulations are in Order!

2011-04-21T11:05:00.004-04:00

In case you haven't heard Bob passed his boards. Both his written and the clinical portions! We are so excited/proud/relieved. He now only has one major hurdle left, and that is finishing his requirements. Thanks for all the support and prayers thus far, but please keep sending them our way!

It's long, but mostly pictures!

2011-04-19T17:14:00.001-04:00

In our lack of posting we have been doing a lot of little things. We made rainbow cupcakes, or at least tried to. Despite hearing that these were hard and time consuming I couldn't resist making them anyways. I did the first batch all carefully while Ezra napped and then when he woke up we let him (and ourselves) make crazy ones. Turns out that they all ended up looking more tie-dyed than rainbow so I could have skipped the careful layering.

He was really excited and did a good job!

Enjoying their spoils!

I think it is funny that red was my bottom layer and is the most prominent on top.

Also it is in the middle of the done version and the blue

and purple that were on top got moved to the bottom. Weird!

See how the ones from this blog are perfect on top and have nice layers after being baked.

Mine did not turn out like that at all. No idea what I did wrong, but I don't really care.

It seems odd to me how often Ezra ends up eating an all orange lunch. On the day pictured below it was grilled cheese sandwiches with Tomato Basil Bisque (yummy tomato soup from Costco) and cheetos. Yesterday it was Mac-N-Cheese with oranges and carrots. He also often has what we call vegetable juice, but is actually Ocean Spray's 100% fruit and vegetable juice. Some of them are orange, and all of them are quite yummy to me and Ezra. He does get a variety of food, I promise. It is just that he never has an all red lunch or an all green lunch.

Yes, he often eats lunch while still in his pajamas.

Ezra has also taking a liking to exercising with daddy. He is actually pretty good, but gets in Bob's way a lot.

Here he is doing "downward dog" in the brief yoga part.

In this part they bring their knees up to their elbows, I told you he's good.

Beside a nice view of Bob's behind,

you also get a nice side shot of one of Ezra's lunges.

Ezra has been more into play-dough these days too!

In fact as you can see he wears his p.j.'s a lot.

That's what happens when you can't go out much.

While Bob was doing his WREB Ezra and I went to the park. I could have sworn that I took a picture of him standing up because it was the first time (and only time) that he got to wear shorts this year. This is the only one I had on my phone though. He is swinging with our friend's baby Lyla. We had a picnic lunch, but had to cut our trip short when Bob needed me to be his patient. Allison and I loaded up the kids, walked home, and then I dumped Ezra off on her and stole her car. Luckily I qualified to be a patient and it all ended up being worth it. We owe them big time though.

I also made these cute spring rose balls. If you want to see how you can see the tutorial here. Mine are bigger than the ones in the tutorial, and I think I would have liked them smaller, but what can you do. They are still cute and cheap. Me and my friend also enjoyed making them, and so did our kiddos since they got to play together.

My glue gun drips a lot, but I never thought too much of it.

However when doing a project like this and leaving it on for so long it really wastes a lot of glue.

Good thing you can buy refills at the dollar store!

WREB

2011-04-17T19:45:00.001-04:00

Last weekend I challenged the Western Region Examining Board. It was a nerve wracking and exciting weekend. The exam consists of a written portion, and doing 2 root canals, 2 fillings and a deep cleaning. I took the written portion at a testing center a few weeks before. The weekend of the exam was for the clinical portions. The exam was on Friday, Saturday and a half day on Sunday. The only part of the weekend that was scheduled was the root canal portion. It is done on extracted teeth on manikins so there is limited space for the this part. I was unfortunate to have it scheduled on Saturday, the day most of my patients could come in. I worked things out with my patients so that I could seen one Friday afternoon, one Saturday after the root canal exam and one on Sunday morning. I lost the leeway since I could get anything lined up for Friday morning so everything needed to go smoothly. Fortunately for me, I have a wonderful wife.

My lovely assistant and I in our garb. (Sorry for the low quality phone pictures)
I think that I tried to smile for this picture.

The my assistant for the weekend ended up being my patient on Friday. EmmaLee first saved me by being my clinical assistant that day. Everything was going fine until Saturday afternoon. My patient for the deep cleaning didn't show up and I couldn't get a hold of him! When he finally called back he said that he had been to the hospital but promised up and down that he would be able to come in the next day. I called my patient that I was going to treat on Sunday to come in, but he out of the city and wouldn't be able to make it on time. It was the same case for the other patient that I had screened for the exam. I started asking my classsmates if they had any back up patients I could use for either a filling or a deep cleaning to no avail. EmmaLee had a really small cavity that I was afraid that the examiners would not accept, but I had run out of options. She totally saved me again by dropping what she was doing and coming in to be my patient. The examiners approved her as a patient and I was able to get the filling done in time. Sunday went smoothly because my patient did make it in and I had an assistant. I also need to thank the Van Dusen family for their help. I couldn't do it without them either!

Hard at work saving the world!

The Jury is still out on whether I passed or not, but I think it went well. At least I didn't have any automatic failures (like not having a patient) but only time will tell. I did, however, find out that I did pass my national boards. If I did indeed pass the WREB, the only thing I need to do is finished my requirements for school. Thank you so much for the love and prayers from everyone. Please keep us in your prayers.

To sleep or not to sleep?

2011-04-02T19:33:00.002-04:00

We recently charged the battery in our camera that takes video, and I am so glad that we did. I was able to catch this gem on camera tonight!

This reminds me of BYU. I often wanted to say to the student falling asleep

"Just give up and put your head down!"

It was always funny to watch though.

To explain this video, I must reveal a bad parenting moment. We went to our monthly game night last night and stayed until 11pm. Ezra was a champ, but very tired by the time we got him home and into bed. Despite the late night he still got up at 7am and then refused to nap even though he was clearly tired. Once Bob left for dinner with the Elders Quorum before heading to the priesthood session of General Conference I made Ezra a simple dinner of frosted shredded wheat and fruit (it was what he wanted and I wasn't in the mood to fight). He didn't make it very far, as you can see and we called it quits. He was in bed by 7:15. FINALLY! Tired boys are not exactly fun boys.

As I looked at what else was on the camera I came across this funny video. It is supposed to be all black because it is Bob and I standing outside Ezra's door at like 10:30pm. It was a few months ago and Ezra was obsessed with hot lava. (Don't ask me, he just thought the words sounded funny and liked to pretend the heat coming out of our vents was hot lava. I even overheard him playing with some little guys saying "Oh no, hot lava! Run Away! Run Away!"). Anyways he had been in bed for an hour and a half and I could hear him talking. When I got closer to his room this is what I heard. Listen closely over Bob's laughing and you will hear Ezra saying hot lava and then laughing his head off. What a funny boy!

You might need to turn your volume up all the way to hear him!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

2011-03-17T18:19:00.002-04:00

I made these cute shirts for Ezra and I last night. It was super easy, and I am happy with the result. I just did it with freezer paper and fabric paint. If you want to see exactly how you can check out this blog. I wanted them to be little momentos of our time here in Boston and not just St. Patty's Day shirts, and I think I got what I wanted. The best part was that I got my shirt on clearance at Old Navy for $.97! It is a small, and I really should buy mediums, but for $.97 I couldn't resist. So for a total of about $5 Ezra and I have super cute shirts.

In honor of this holiday I just want to say that we are so LUCKY to have this sweet little guy! Approximately three years ago today we were blessed to get pregnant with Ezra (T.M.I. I know!) and what a wonderful three years it has been. (Minus the first few months.) It was just a week or so ago, that Ezra was totally in a terrible two phase. I thought we would get lucky and avoid it for the most part, but it was not seeming so. I felt like he forgot how to talk and only knew how to whine. I was worried we were going to move in with Bob's parents, and they would think I was the worst mom ever. Fortunately after a few days he snapped out of it, and is back to his wonderful little self. Not that he is perfectly behaved by any means, but he is so much more pleasant to be around!

Bikes, Boards, and Blessings

2011-03-14T17:47:00.001-04:00

I will start with the blessings. Our apartment got taken!!! We only did two rounds of showings, and I am so relieved that I don't have to do it anymore. The best part is that it saves us $3900 that we would have had to pay in rent if we hadn't found someone. We have of course had countless other blessings, but this is the biggest one as of late.

I know this picture is random, but we have been making Ezra clean his room each night.

For every two weeks of cleaning he gets a toy. The first week it was a construction set.

He really likes the hat, and he has a blast with the tools.

We also did our Miles for Miracles event. It was a lot of fun, and over $125,000 was raised. Thank you to all of you who supported us! I ate a ton of the food that was there, to be sure and not loose any of the calories that I burned. I also enjoyed the post-ride massage, which was more of a professional stretch, but it was still nice. We really appreciate Cate and Wyatt riding with us. I definitely did not want to do another hour on that bike. I had a hard time sitting for a few days as it was.

Bob gave himself much more of a workout than me.

I got a little sweaty, but took it pretty easy on myself.

You can't really tell, but our shirts have smiley faces with a little cleft.

This is right after Wyatt finished (he was last), that is why the rest of us look so rested.

And last but not least Bob has some big exams coming up. He is taking Part II of his boards on the17th and 18th and then the written part of the WREB on the 22nd and 23rd. He would appreciate any prayers you could offer up in his behalf!

Do we eat our bed?

2011-02-26T19:18:00.001-05:00

To help Ezra understand when it is okay to do something, and when it is not, we ask him a lot of questions. These questions are usually about something that he just did wrong. For example, lets say Ezra colored on the wall...
Us: "Do we color on the wall?"
Ezra: "nooo"
Us: "Do we color on our bed?"
Ezra: "nooo"
Us: "Do we color on the floor?"
Ezra: "nooo"
Us: "Do we color on paper?"
Ezra: "Yeah"
Us: "That's right, we only color on paper."

You will hear this for all sorts of things at our house. I often hear Ezra from the back seat of the car saying things like: "Do we kick the car? Noooo. Do we kick our friends? Nooo. Do we kick a ball? Yeah?", all to himself. I guess it is good reminding.

Lately we have had to ask "Do we eat our bed? nooo. Do we eat our toys? nooo. Do we eat Daddy? nooo. Do we eat our food? Yeah"! I think it works pretty well, but as you can see from the pictures it is not completely 100% effective.

These happened on at least two separate occasions. I think they happened when he should have been falling asleep for his nap, but needed a snack instead, I guess. The little stinker! You can see that I tried to color in one spot with a marker, but it clearly didn't work.

Wow, that was fast!

2011-02-08T21:55:00.004-05:00

I just posted our apartment on Craigslist this afternoon and within hours I already had 4 people interested. I am completely shocked. With our apartment not available until June I thought it would be a month or so until I had any interest. Turns out I have to clean my house well enough to be shown by Sunday! AAAAHH! I am freaking out just a bit. It was easy to make it look nice for pictures, when I could move all the stuff from one room to another. Where am I going to hide everything while we show it?

Posted Actual

Amazingly I had a hard time finding pictures of my messy house. This is due to my great photography framing skills more than my clean house maintenance skills I assure you!
P.S. Notice the cute quilt I made for Ezra's bed. (click to enlarge) I was really nervous about it, but I think it came out great!

Will it ever end?

2011-02-02T09:29:00.001-05:00

As we sit at home through yet another storm in one of the snowiest winters on record, I can't help thinking that California can't come quick enough. GET ME OUT OF HERE!

These were actually taken a few storms ago.

They don't do the amount of snow we have received justice.

There is nowhere else to put it.

I heard on the radio a few weeks ago that most towns in MA had already spent their budgets for snow removal and were having to pull money from other places. It said that the city of Boston alone had spent $11 million on snow removal so far. Isn't that CRAZY!

Miles for Miracles

2011-01-19T16:05:00.001-05:00

For those of you who have already been contacted about this you can ignore this post. For everyone else...

We are participating in "Miles for Miracles", a fundraiser for Children's Hospital Boston. As you all may know, Ezra was treated for cleft lip and palate there, and you can all see that they did an amazing job. What a great way to help children in need! Our team needs to raise $1000 for the event. If you feel that you can afford to donate please follow one of these links to do so.
https://howtohelp.childrenshospital.org/cycle/pfp/?ID=BE0082
https://howtohelp.childrenshospital.org/cycle/pfp/?ID=BB0076

(One is for Bob and one for EmmaLee but either will go towards our team total.) Every little bit counts, and we really appreciate your support!

A New Year!

2011-01-17T20:37:00.000-05:00

We could wait a little and have this post be for the Chinese New Year, but I just want to get it over with. We had two blizzards the last few weeks and Ezra really likes the snow now. Thankfully we scored some free snow boots (Thanks Thomas') so he stays dry while tromping through the snow! Our friends came over the day of the last one to play outside some while the men shoveled. It ends up being one of the few times we actually see a lot of our neighbors.

Our neighbor built this little snow cave for her son. She is a more fun mom than me.

I surprisingly got released from Young Womens, and despite only having five months left in Boston was called to Cub Scouts. I think it will be a fun calling, especially if I can manage to somewhat control 11 nine year olds. I feel really unprepared given that I know next to nothing about scouting. You think growing up in the middle of five boys I would know a little more, but all I can remember is my Mom in a yellow scout shirt (I assume while she was over Cub Scouts) and an Arrow of Light thing hanging in my brothers room. Bob keeps saying things like "You can just say belt loop and everyone else will know what you are talking about." The problem is that I can't remember the names of anything. I figure that this is to help me be prepared for Ezra and to draw closer to my in-laws who are both Silver Beavers. (I am not even sure what that means exactly except that they have done A LOT of scouting.)

Bob started a new work out program called Power 90, and after only a week we can notice improvements. If he keeps with it (which I think he will, it is pretty simple) maybe he will post his before and after pictures. I decided not to do it with him in hopes that I will get pregnant instead.

Ezra was looking so handsome I couldn't resist an attempt at a photo shoot.

Unfortunately I lack great photography skills.

Is it possible to get a picture of a two year old without some kind of bump on their head?

Ezra is getting less into naps, but still very much needs them. It just means that I have to go in a lot more before he finally falls asleep. He has such a great imagination and stays entertained with all his new toys for quite a while all by himself. We are excited for a new year full of development for Ezra, it is crazy to think of the differences between a two year old and a three year old. I am not exactly looking forward to potty training this year, but look forward to no diapers. The downside will be getting Ezra's pants to stay up (which they already don't) without the extra bulk.

Moving On

2011-01-16T19:18:00.000-05:00

My plans to be caught up by the end of the year were derailed when we were asked to dog sit for two weeks starting on Christmas day. It was really nice to spend two weeks in a beautiful house, where someone else is payed to shovel the snow after a blizzard, and we are not paying for the heat, but it makes it hard to get much done. Ezra really loved Cosmo (the dog) and they played together quite well. He also really enjoyed their Little People Nativity set. One of the first things he did was unhook the cart from the donkey, hook it up to Mary and put the donkey in the back of the cart. I guess he felt sorry for the donkey and decided it was time for a little payback.

He loved to try to snuggle the dog, it didn't matter if he was laying down or not!

Our Christmas was very lovely, and it was so fun to open presents with Ezra. He was so excited about everything. When he opened his first present he got the wrapping paper off and excitedly exclaimed "little box" and then set it aside. It was so funny. I guess he could have been much less spoiled and still been happy. Mrs. Clause wouldn't let Santa put too much candy in Ezra's stocking, and it is a good thing because we spent the first ten minutes or so convincing him to get past the candy. Unfortunately we are still trying to finish off Christmas treats, and Ezra is eating way more candy than any human should.

Unfortunately we did not get a picture of all of us in our new p.j.'s in front of the tree,

but at least we got one of Ezra.

Once he got past the candy he found some equally exciting fruit and toothpaste.

Thomas toothpaste of course.

The majority of his haul. Some is not pictured and some came later.

We are very appreciative to everyone and their generosity.

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

2010-12-23T19:34:00.002-05:00

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!

2010-12-22T09:51:00.000-05:00

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

2010-12-22T09:16:00.001-05:00

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

2010-12-07T14:34:00.000-05:00

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!

2010-12-04T11:56:00.002-05:00

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!

Music Videos III

2010-11-14T19:32:00.000-05:00

I am a Child of God

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

The boys are back in town!

2010-11-11T17:13:00.002-05:00

Over Halloween weekend my cousins Trey and Tate, along with their parents, came to visit. We have been looking forward to their visit ever since we moved here. Trey and Tate are 12 and 10 respectively, but have been some of my best little pals since they were born. I babysat them a lot (often at my own insistence) and we had lots of sleepovers. Tate couldn't even hardly talk when I went college, and it is crazy to think how old they are now! We were super busy while they were here, but it was really nice to have them here for my birthday.

On Saturday we went to Plymouth and saw the rock, the Mayflower II, and Plimouth Plantation. We also went to Newport, RI to see a mansion. Ezra and I stayed outside while they toured it, because once was enough with a one year old. That night the Denos' headed up to Salem to check out the Halloween spirit, but Ezra was beyond exhausted so we stayed home. Sunday they kept Ezra while we went to stake conference, and we met them on the Freedom Trail when we were done. We also went to the Temple and the Mt. Auburn Cemetery. Monday was my birthday and we went out to the Basketball Hall of Fame. It was actually better than I thought it was going to be. That night we went to Cheesecake Factory and had some yummy food.

He loved throwing the leaves above his head.

We tried to get some great fall leaf pictures of Ezra.
He loved playing in the leaves but his face looked like this in most of the shots.

Unfortunately there wasn't much at the hall of fame about the Kings, I guess they need to play better.

Here is Bob by a little of what we did see of the Kings.

Here I am by my favorite b-ball player of all time. He was inducted in 2009.

No not Micheal Jordan, but John Stockton at the very top.

Bob didn't really like him, but I wouldn't either if my team had to play against him.

I just think he was a great player, and he has very admirable qualities both on and off the court.

I thought Ezra was just messing around,

but this is apparently his skill at taming a loose ball.

This boy LOVES basketball. He tries to dribble,

and just loves to be in the action when others are playing.

It is pretty adorable to watch.

Shaq's shoe was crazy big. That is next to Trey's shoe. They just seem big and fake.

I grew up with two brothers with size 14 feet, and these shoes were monstrous.

I couldn't get over how big Shaq's feet were.

My foot didn't look that small compared to the other footprints on the floor.

Despite all the adventures my favorite part of them coming was playing games at home. We had a blast playing games every night. I even lost REALLY bad at Ticket to Ride with a final score of -20. For those of you who don't know 100 is a fairly average score, and people usually never score in the negative. It was pretty awesome. Anyways we had a blast and look forward to seeing them again. I need a rematch.

One of the games occasionally had people doing crazy things like drink like a cat for 30 seconds.

Or dance while humming your own tune.

Can you believe he was more worried about his humming.

Just so you know, I didn't marry him for his dancing skills.

Tate had to shake his booty in the air. Keep in mind he is 10!

My favorite parts are Brooke's laugh. Isn't she great!

Music Videos II

2010-11-08T12:21:00.001-05:00

Chrome users...Our videos quit working in chrome but still work in Internet Explorer. You can try that if they don't work for you either.

The Wheels on the Bus (Sorry it got long.)

Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam

Music Videos

2010-11-04T13:04:00.000-04:00

Bob and I wanted to showcase Ezra's singing. He loves to sing and is really good at a lot of songs. In these videos he was more excited about jumping around than singing, but he can sing most of the words to all these songs. There are like 8 videos or so, so we will post them in spurts so as to not completely overwhelm you
.

I Love to See the Temple

Ezra really does love to see the Temple. Whenever we drive by he yells "Temple of God" over and over again. Of course it happens a lot more than just by the temple here. There are a lot of old churches that he also thinks are the temple of God. Basically if it is tall and has a steeple of some sort it is the temple of God to Ezra.

ABC's

Ezra can sing most of the alphabet on his own, but he gets really in to it about the time that he hits W. I love hearing him sing it by himself in the back seat sometimes.

Fall Activities

2010-11-03T12:36:00.002-04:00

Conference weekend was pretty uneventful for us. Bob had to work on Saturday, but Ezra was really good and I got to enjoy conference. He wasn't quite as good the next day, but Dad is more fun than Mommy, and we had events like this happen.

He dumped out most of a box of Cheerios, and this is him attempting to clean it up.

I had on warm fuzzy sock and Ezra wanted some too.

I though my knee high Christmas ones had the best chance of staying on. He loved them.

Sunday was freezing. We bundled up to keep warm, and Ezra had to wear his big

coat because it was the only warm thing that would fit over his cast.

We bought him some slippers the next day.

The next weekend we went to the Cranberry Harvest Festival. We went with a bunch of friends from the ward, and it was a lot of fun. We got there a bit late, so we didn't get to do a lot of the kids activities, but we enjoyed it.

Ezra did not want to take this picture.

He wanted to sit on the shore and throw rocks in the water.

This year he was old enough to play on the giant sand pile, but he wasn't that crazy about it.

These are the kids we went with. Luckily Ezra doesn't mind being the only boy.

Sadie was there too, but she was too little to enjoy the mini bog.

After the Cranberry Festival we headed to a Zoo in R.I. for a Jack-O-Lantern Spectacular. We got there before it opened, and still had to wait in line forever. It was worth it though. They had somewhere between 5,000-10,000 pumpkins all professionally carved. It was cool.

This picture is after we have been waiting in line for a while.

It is not so bad when you are with friends.

Some of the professionally carved pumpkins. It was hard to get good pictures, but hopefully you can tell what some of them are. The theme was something to do with time, so besides some classics, they had things from the time of the dinosaurs to major historical events.

I believe this one is of the revolutionary war.

This one if for you Dad.

That is a super huge pumpkin with other pumpkins in it's mouth.

It looks like they strung lights up the tree, but those are all pumpkins.

The thing I found most interesting were that most of them (all the non pumpkin face ones) were actually not cut all the way through. They just thin out the pumpkin enough for the light to shine through. It was cool.

The Toddler Bed

2010-11-02T12:39:00.000-04:00

Bob and I had been debating moving Ezra into a toddler bed for a while and we had planned on doing it around Ezra's second birthday. However thanks to his daredevil stunt we moved that up a couple of months. Our crib already had two recalls on it, but we were putting off taking it back until Ezra was ready for a big boy bed. (Are we terrible or what?) So we ordered the toddler bed and took apart the crib. We had to borrow our friend's van to get the crib back to the store, in case you don't remember getting the crib check out this post, and it was a huge headache, since the crib was no longer in their system, but we did get all of our money back, which is nice. Now we can buy a new one when we get to CA and have another baby.

The hardest part about switching to a toddler bed was a bit unexpected. Ezra's crib held/hid a lot of stuff. I was completely unprepared to find new homes for all the stuff. We rearranged, and boxed some things up, but some things still don't have a home. All of Ezra's clothes won't fit in the few remaining drawers (the others still have dental stuff in them), but I am actually happy with how his room looks now.

This is how his room looked with the crib out and all the stuff it was hiding piled in the room.

Here is the crib taken apart, and the card table and chairs that were also hidden by the crib.

This is it! I wanted to take pictures when his room was all clean and organized,
but this post really needed to get done. Notice the sleeping child in the bed.

His bed is now on the opposite wall and the drawers are now where his crib was.

We re-ferbered Ezra and we are all sleeping a lot better. I thought we were going to be putting him back in his bed all night, but he stays in it. Even in the morning he will just cry until I come in, which is funny because sometimes he justs gets down on his own when I get there. He plays on the thing all day, so he knows he can get out, I guess he just knows when he needs my permission. Not that I want to give it at 7am but what can you do?

Broken arm update!

2010-10-27T21:36:00.001-04:00

We are having internet issues so my posting has slowed a bit. Our desktop (which has all my pictures on it) will not connect to the internet, but Bob's laptop does with no problem. I don't get it. Sometimes it will bring up the homepage, but no other websites. Anyways...

Ezra colored this while we waited at one of our appointments.

We had a follow up appointment one week after the break. When we got to the orthopedists office they sent us down to radiology for more x-rays. After reviewing the x-rays they told me that Ezra's bone had dropped a little, but it was still totally at an acceptable angle so they wanted us to come back next week. They said that if those x-rays looked fine then we would be good to go until the 4-5 week post break range, when they would take his cast off.

These x-rays are from the day of the break immediately after they put on the cast.

Two weeks post break we came back, but this time with Bob. We were supposed to be quick and then drop Bob off at school and then I would head to my presidency meeting. After all the trip was pretty quick last time. Once again we were sent down for x-rays, and once again we were told that his bone had dropped. It had gone from a 18 degree angle to a 23 degree angle in a week. They said that they could accept a 30 degree angle in a child his age, but that we would need to come back again next week to make sure that it didn't keep dropping. They also wanted to replace his cast, because it was loose around the top and clearly loose on the x-rays. So what took a half hour the previous visit took over two hours this time. Needless to say Bob got to school much later than he hoped and I missed the first hour of my meeting.

These x-rays are from the 1 week follow-up.

You can see a slight angulation at the end of the bone in the one below.

I wish I had more x-rays, but this is all they gave me.

I was tempted to head straight to radiology for the start of our third visit, but when I checked in at orthopedics they said that the doctor had ordered x-rays with the cast off, so we were to go to the cast room and have this cast cut off. They wrapped Ezra's arm with an ace bandage and half the cast and sent us down to x-ray. This time they said that the bone did not drop any further and that we should be good to not come back for another 4-5 weeks. While Ezra's cast was off so the doctor could look at his arm she was telling me how it would take him about a week to regain full range of motion in his elbow after he got the cast off. He then completely straightened his arm, much to the doctors surprise. This time when they put the cast back on they just did it with Velcro strips, so we can take it off. He can have it off for bath time and bed time. After about 3 weeks with this cast we could start to wean him off of it, and let him go longer without it. We are now about 2 1/2 weeks into that and I let Ezra have it off more than I probably should. I just keep forgetting to put it back on in the morning. He doesn't really seem to mind if it is off or on though, which is nice. I'm glad I'm not fighting him. It has been nice to have a break from all the doctors visits, and probably good for him to get a break from all the x-rays.

The day after the break.

2010-10-16T12:16:00.001-04:00

Chronologically speaking this post should have come before The Big E, but who really cares right? We were supposed to go with our friends to the zoo the morning after Ezra broke his arm, and since I thought he would need some distraction we decided to still go. We had a good time, and Ezra is enjoying the animals more and more every time we go.

This new baby zebra was less than two weeks old.

This may not be the best zoo, but the lion (hard to see thanks to the reflection)

has roared every time we have been there.

The grossest part of the day came in the gorilla house. There was a gorilla fairly close to the window laying on it's back being silly so we stopped to watch and get pictures. Before we left another gorilla came up to the window and stuck a piece of poop in its mouth. As if that wasn't gross enough he started smearing it all over the windows with his tongue. Ezra (who wasn't too interested in the gorillas before) was fascinated and the gorilla even moved over right in front of him to do it all over again. He and a couple other kids even tried to touch it. Luckily it was on the other side of the glass. It's like the other mom there said "now we know what he thinks of us!"

We spent the rest of the day doing things that Ezra could do with one arm, like him handing me all his animals to set up one at a time and singing with his microphone. All in all I would say it was a pretty good first day with a cast.

The Big E

2010-10-14T19:34:00.001-04:00

The Big E is a like a state fair/expo for all of New England held in Springfield, MA which runs for about a month. Bob and Henry heard a lot about it while on their externship, so we hit it up our last week there. All I had mostly heard about was the crazy food they have there like hamburgers where the bun is a glazed donut, deep fried jelly beans, deep fried butter balls, deep fried oreos, deep fried mushrooms (which we sampled), deep fried beer, I think you get the picture. Basically anything that you could think of-deep fried. But the one thing that really drew me in were the giant cream puffs. I LOVE cream puffs, so I couldn't miss the opportunity. Also our doctor told us they had a lot of animals for Ezra to see. It was pouring down rain, which doesn't go well with a new cast, but we still had a good time.

Every time I see Clydesdales I can't get over how big and stocky they are.

He wasn't too into riding a cow!

It was sad the number of dead chicks in this hatchery. Luckily Ezra was too young to notice.

It's hard to get a good picture when you are taking it in the rain, but this is on the Ferris Wheel.

Bob and I each got our own. It was so worth every penny!

Even with sharing with Ezra I couldn't finish it. I sure wish I had one right now though.

How much do you love your doctor?

2010-10-12T22:29:00.001-04:00

Probably not as much as we love ours! People think I am crazy when I tell them about this, but what can I say? We had the BEST DOCTOR EVER! Our family doctor recently quit her job because the two hour commute each way was killing her, and she really just wanted to be a small town doctor. She said that if we were ever out her way that we should stop in and see her. When I informed her that we would be living in Holyoke (only about 30 minutes away from her) for part of the week, she invited us over for dinner. She lives in a beautiful small town (now I totally understand why I couldn't convince her to move to Gridley) and we had a great time. The weather was nice so we ate a delicious meal outside, except for Ezra who was too in love with her chickens, tomatoes directly off the vine, and wide open spaces to settle down for something as boring as eating. Her girls were so great with Ezra and excited to see his cast. Bob and I felt like we just unloaded all of our recent medical drama on her, but we did enjoy getting to know her more personally too. It was so nice to get to see her again, and I think she was close to tears when we left. I know she enjoyed our visit as much as we did. We will definitely be going back to see her before we move!

Comfort

2010-10-10T22:49:00.000-04:00

Being in Utah without Bob was hard. My family was really great, but it was hard to basically be Ezra's sole emotional support. I gained a whole new appreciation for single parents, and I even had a lot of help. So when Bob called to break the news that he had developed a new medical condition that could turn out really bad (although the chances are super low) and that it would require us putting off having kids for a little while, I was feeling really weighed down by everything. It was nice to have family around to talk about it with, but really hard to not have Bob there to comfort me.

When fast Sunday rolled around I was really seeking for some answers. I was actually a little surprised that they came as quickly as the opening hymn. We sang "I Know that My Redeemer Lives" and the second verse contained my much needed answer. "He lives to calm my troubled heart. He lives all blessing to impart." I may not know exactly how things are going to turn out, but I know that I can trust in Jesus Christ and that through his Atonement he is able to comfort me through my trials. As hard as it was for me to accept the fact that more kids would have to wait, I know that He does indeed live "all blessings to impart" and that I will be blessed with more children. I am sure that in a couple of years from now, this will seem like such a small thing, but I am truly grateful for the knowledge that my Heavenly Father knows me personally. That He cares about what is important to me now, and that He will help me through anything. I am so grateful for the Gospel and the knowledge and comfort that it brings into my life. I am also grateful for my sweet and loving brother who fasted for me and Bob even though I had not asked him to, I know that it helped me find the answers I needed. Thank You!

While the Wife's Away

2010-10-08T22:41:00.001-04:00

Life in Holyoke, MA is not very exciting, so you have to jump on those rare opportunities to have some fun when they present themselves (more posts in store!). A couple of weekends after E&E went to Utah there was an air show in the nearby town of Westfield. I convinced my classmate/roommate Henry to go with me so we checked it out.

Henry and I chilling with one of the sponsors.

The traffic there was really bad. A 20 minute drive ended up taking 2 hours, but we caught some of the entertainment as we got close.

If you click to zoom in to get a better view of the jet you may also

notice the line of traffic going around the curve in the road.

Here I am with various aircraft:

Another one of the sponsors was Jeep. They had a road course and an off-road course that you could test drive various Jeep brand vehicles on.

I've always been a fan of the Cherokee so I drove it on both courses. They had to tell me to slow down a couple of times on the off road track. Maybe it wasn't the best place to live my dream to be a stunt car driver.

They didn't let me drive this though.

Or this jet powered bus that went over 300 mph!

Due to our fears of exiting traffic we bailed before the Air Force Thunder Birds took flight but all in all it was a good time.

Utah- Weeks 3-5

2010-10-06T21:34:00.001-04:00

Since I am so far behind in my blogging this will be a super condensed version, okay not really. Just a lot of pictures and less words. Enjoy!

Grandpa took a week off and Ezra loved helping him disc up the yard.

Keian slept over a lot that week and Ezra followed him everywhere.

Grandpa found a baby Tarantula. Ezra was obsessed,

as he is with most things that move of their own accord.

We went swimming at Rick and MaryAnn's. They had these little suits that we put on to be funny.

Ezra actually loved his and I didn't mind the extra sun protection, so he wore it the whole time.

We call this the magic pool because Ezra loves to swim in it and has never cried in it.

He even went down the water slide by himself. That is huge for a boy who is unsure about slides.

Modeling Keian's hat while playing.

It was way past his bed time, but he entertained us with a few dances so we let it slide.

Uncle Andy took care of the bed time story that night!

He woke up the next morning saying "Andy, book. Andy, book"

This enormous bonk actually happened in week 2, but I forgot to post it.

He fell down the porch steps that are made of brick.

More Jett time!

They played so well together. It only took them a couple of weeks to figure it out.

Ezra also loved playing with baby Zane!

We went to the lake on Labor Day weekend.

Ezra stole Keian's hat and I again did not mind the extra sun protection.

I actually enjoyed the red sandy beach, but stuck to the shade.

Enjoying a story with Lily, Jett and Jonas.

Don't smell your cake while Tony is around!

Brandon found a toad one night. I'm sure you can guess that the boys enjoyed him.

They ended the night with a little Ring Around the Rosies

I got lazier and lazier with the photo taking, we did more things and had a really great time! I especially enjoyed all the family time. As fun as it was we were SO GLAD to be back with DADDY!

We interrupt our regular programming...

2010-09-28T14:46:00.000-04:00

...to bring you "breaking" news. Ezra broke his arm last week, and in true Ezra style it was a HUGE deal. I have said it before, but some kids have all the luck and Ezra is not one of them. I will finish off our Utah trip later, but lets back up for the full story.

While we were in Utah Ezra slept on a little kid air mattress, and in order to keep him in bed to go to sleep, I started the very bad habit of laying next to him on the floor. Needless to say after 5 weeks he has decided to be completely dependent on me for falling asleep. When we got back to Boston he started to wake up a lot in the night, and with sleeping somewhere different every other night (I can't wait to be done with Holyoke.) he often ended up in bed with me. I am normally VERY anti Ezra in my bed, but exhaustion drove me to such madness. After two literally sleepless nights in Holyoke I was determined to get Ezra back to sleeping on his own.

We got back from Holyoke at 11:30, played a little, had lunch and then were ready for the crying to begin. As soon as I mentioned the word nap Ezra started in with "Mommy's bed", but much to his dismay I insisted he sleep in "Ezra's bed". He was of course crying, but I was ready for five minutes of it before I went back in. Unfortunately, I think we made it about 2 minutes before I heard the thud. I went in to find Ezra on the floor. I was a bit surprised because I have never once seen even a hint of him trying to climb out. I decided that there would be no napping in the crib today until I could figure out a way to keep him from climbing out, so I gave in and took him to my bed. When I laid him down I went to hold his hand (something he likes me to do while he goes to sleep so he knows if I try to leave) and felt that his wrist was clearly deformed. I looked down and knew that we would be making a trip to the ER.

When we got to the ER they got us in to the triage nurse fairly quickly because Ezra's arm was visibly broken. They took his vitals and stuck me in a wheel chair with him on my lap and his arm on a pillow. While we waited to be seen by the doctor Ezra drifted off to sleep. When they wheeled us back the doctor checked Ezra's eyes and felt his arm, and he slept through all of it. She decided that was not a normal response, that he should have woke up crying. Because I had not seen him fall they felt they had to assume a head injury. They took him from me (which woke him and sent him into a screaming frenzy) laid him on a bed, and stuck a neck brace on him. He, of course, hated it and he spent the next 30 minutes or so fighting me and three other people trying to hold him down. They decided he needed to be transferred to Children's Hospital and called an ambulance. They kept calling him Houdini because despite four of us holding him down he managed to get the brace off of his arm three times. When the paramedics finally arrived it was even more mayhem trying to keep him still and get him strapped to a board to transport. Once we got him into the ambulance, and he could hold my hand he calmed down.

While we drove, with lights and sirens blaring, Ezra fell asleep again. I am sure he was exhausted. When we were getting close the paramedic checked his eyes and decided to wake him. He was lightly pinching the inside of his arm and he just kept sleeping. This freaked him out, so they rushed him in to the Children's ER announcing that they had an unresponsive toddler. This sent a ton of people into a flurry of activity. Once again, as soon as they went to move him he woke up screaming and fighting. They cut off his shirt, started an IV, put a much better brace on his arm, and switched for a smaller neck brace. They ordered a CT scan of his head and X-rays of his neck, elbow and wrist. They said they would likely keep him overnight for observation.

Poor little guy! Check out the messy IV and the pool of blood.

I won't bore you with the details of the next eight hours of our time in the ER other than to say that the radiology tech was less than gentle (but his wrist did look a lot more straight when she was done) and that everyone kept commenting on how sleepy he was. It turns out that he was just tired (like I had thought the whole time), and all his tests came back great, with the exception of the wrist, which was obviously broken. When they finally decided we could go home the doctor came in and said "How comfortable do you feel going home?". I'm sure it doesn't surprise anyone that I quickly replied "Super comfortable!". It was a long day! Allison picked us up about 10pm and took us back to our car which was still at Mt. Auburn Hospital (thanks again). The worst part was that Bob was in Holyoke so I was flying solo the whole time. I'm sure it all seemed a lot more scary for him from a distance, what with talk of a neurosurgeon and all. I was mostly starving and sick of people asking me if I was holding on okay. I hate crying, and it is the last thing Ezra needs to see with all that crazy stuff going on. I can stay calm and collected, but the more people ask, the more you feel like breaking down.

With the neck brace off and finally able to sit up a little he was much happier.

This picture pretty much sums up the day!

They had to send us home in a gown and blanket since they cut off his shirt.

He was just ready to go to bed by the time we got home.

It took Ezra a couple of days to adjust to the cast, but he is doing really well. We even went to the zoo the next morning. That will be another post though. I love when people ask him what happened to his arm he just points to it and says "broken" or "blue cast". He is such a trooper and needs to be with luck like his!

Utah- Week 2

2010-09-22T21:23:00.000-04:00

We started off week two with a family birthday party. We have a lot of August birthdays, so Ezra was completely overwhelmed by all the people. He was super whiney the whole time, but we still had fun. Before the party really got going we did a little photo shoot though. Dayna had bought the boys matching shirts (they didn't have them in Zane's size) and since they are all the grandsons together for the first time we snapped away.

Zane was the only one I could get to smile or look at the camera.

Talya felt left out, so she joined in at the end. She was only slightly more cooperative though.

Some of the birthday folk.

We are missing a few, and Keian's birthday was actually in July.

Ezra went for his first motorcycle ride around the yard with Grandpa. To say he loved it would be an understatement. Grandpa taught him how to honk the horn, so every time they turned right and the horn came within his reach he would honk it. I think this really helped Ezra warm up to my dad.

We also went camping later on that week. They are redoing a lot of the camping spots at Pine Valley, so we got stuck in the Equestrian Campground, which basically means sagebrush and cedar trees with no stream, instead of the nice and cool pine tree area. We still had fun though. Ezra was just happy to be outside all day. We played games, relaxed, and ate food, there was a little "hiking", but mostly games and food. It was a very transient camping group, with me and Ezra being the stable ones. We had 21 people and 2 dogs, but never everyone at once. We didn't mind though.

If you click on the picture it should get bigger and you can see the baby dear

poking his head up. The mama's rear is to the left.

This concludes the wildlife portion of camping.

Ezra loved to play with the trailer rigging. I think he was trying to pull it here.

Check out my game face!

Ezra zonked while eating licorice. You can't really see it but he has a very messy face.

Thanks for the good times everybody!

Utah- Week 1

2010-09-19T10:54:00.000-04:00

We were gone for so long that I have felt really behind in my posting, and didn't know the best way to go about doing it. So take it as it comes.

Ezra slept through most of both of our flights out, which was so nice! I didn't use any of the distractions that I brought except once during our layover. We got in early, and luckily my family was there early to get us. The week started out pretty uneventful, mostly me just trying to recover, and Ezra getting to know everyone.

Ezra loved playing with Jett and Keian. (Maybe not at first, but they learned.)

It is hard to say whether he loved them, or their dogs more.

The dogs were definitely winning at first.

Ezra loved this airplane teeter totter. It was nice to have something for them all to play on.

That weekend we made a quick trip to the Salt Lake area. Josh wanted to check out UVU and I wanted to see some friends. Unfortunately most of them were out of town. I did get to see Cami before she had her baby though. Isn't she so cute pregnant?

Dayna and her boys wanted to tag along, so we rented a minivan and it was still an interesting process trying to get all of us and the car seats in. Let's just say that one person was uncomfortable at all times. We had a good time though. I think the boys really enjoyed the pool at the hotel. Sorry no pictures though.

While Josh and Mom checked out UVU we went to a park.

It was so hot that we mostly just let the boys play in this puddle.

The next morning we met Cory and Natalia at a train museum. It was nice to get to see Lilian for the first time and to have something for the boys to do.

This is part of the original train station. There used to be a ton of these benches for

people to wait on. I just thought it was a cool room for taking pictures.

The boys loved watching the train go around the tracks!

They also had a little old car section. I think I prefer the cars we have now.

Ezra loved all the old license plates because they had letters on them!

He is supposed to be giving Lilian a kiss here, but he was a little confused.

He is used to being on the receiving end and doesn't give kisses very well.

I'm not really sure why these horses were there (I didn't read the plaque),

but we sure enjoyed taking pictures by them.

Despite what others might say, Lilian likes me the best.