Do we eat our bed?

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!

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?

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

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!

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

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?

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.