9.16.12 Ezra turns 1!

Our little Ezra celebrated his first birthday yesterday.  And he is not our little Ezra anymore.  He's a big boy with his own personality and likes and dislikes.  He has his favorite games and he loves to make his mommy and daddy laugh.  Not walking yet, but he's just started testing out standing on his own without any support.  And his first tooth came in just a couple of days before his birthday too!

Since my mom is Kathy, I had to make a sign and do some decorating for my little boy's birthday...

Marc and I decided early on that we wanted to give our children only one gift for birthdays and Christmas.  I modified this plan later on to giving one gift and one book. We were hoping that this would help keep our kids from becoming spoiled or entitled.  However, we forgot about all of Ezra's grandparents, aunts, and uncles (and there are a lot of them) who would send presents too.  Ezra was definitely spoiled on his birthday, but he didn't seem to mind and neither did we. :)

One of the first things he went for was the crinkly paper bow on top of his gift from the Asay's....

He was very careful when tearing off the wrapping paper, which surprised me because he can sure tear a piece of paper to shreds when he it's something he's not supposed to get into.

He got a dump truck from mom and dad.  Hasn't figured out how to move it around much, but he loves putting the legos in the truck and taking them out again.

We were able to video chat online with all his grandparents and most of his aunts and uncles throughout the day.  They got to watch him open presents and make a mess of his birthday cake.  It's amazing that even though we live so far away, it still felt like our family was here with us to celebrate.

Ezra was fascinated by the candle, but of course, didn't grasp the idea of blowing it out, and instead tried to grab it out of the cake.

Surprisingly, Ezra started out by being very delicate with his cake, picking off the sprinkles first...

...but it didn't take long for him to start digging in!

 And he had a whole audience to cheer him on back in Utah!

I was pretty relieved that he ate as little as he did, and stopped of his own accord.  I don't think I've ever seen Ezra refuse any food or stop eating because he was satisfied or full.  This gave me hope that he does, in fact, have a limit!

Happy, Happy Birthday Ezra, dear! 

We love you!

July in Utah

Our trip to Utah this summer was so nice.  My very favorite thing (other than seeing family of course) was being able to hang out on the grass.  Not only is it usually too hot in Midland to just be outside , but there is also no decent grass to enjoy.  It's either dead or infested with fire ants.  A green lawn is definitely what I miss the most about Utah.

I also loved being on the farm in Mona.

Ezra loved his very first 4-Wheeler ride!

And despite Marc's guarantee that I would crash, I drove a motorcycle for the first time.  I may have ended up in the weeds on my first try, but I did not crash!

Ezra loved the trampoline. He's lucky enough to have one in Mona and another in Orem to play on.

It was fun to see Ezra play with so many of his cousins too.  He got so used to all the people and attention that when we came home he acted a little bored with me.

Ezra and Gemma were fun to see together.  Ezra was in awe of Gemma's walking and babbling.

It was good to get home to our own place and normal routine, but we still miss family and the beautiful  Utah outdoors in the summer.

I've been horrible about taking photos of Ezra since we got back, but I will do better and post some more recent photos soon.  He is getting so big, and on Sunday he turns 1!  I can't believe how fast this year has gone!

7.14.12 Ute Stampede

The Ute Stampede Rodeo is a summer tradition, and living in Texas is no excuse to skip out on this tradition (zombie walks are also no excuse, Jeremy Stubbs!).  We didn't come to Utah for the sole intent of going to the Stampede.  However, when planning the dates we would be visiting family, the dates of the Stampede were a big part of the equation.

As always, the day starts out with the Lion's Club breakfast...Ezra was happy to sit with his Grandpa Gordon because he was much more generous with his food than Daddy usually is.

We also stopped in at Matilda's to see Grandma Holly...

...who had a very cute cowboy hat for Ezra.  Too bad his head was a bit too big for it to fit properly :).

We also spent some time with cousins at Adam and Andie's house...

Ezra loved being able to roam free on the grass and play with all the all the animals there.

Grandma was kind enough to babysite Ezra for the night so Marc and I could go to the Rodeo with the usual crowd. 

As always, they featured the bathing beauty winners at the beginning of the parade.  One day I will enter that competition!

Half way through the rodeo it started raining hard.  We were fortunate enough to be under the grandstand, so we stayed pretty dry...at least until the wind started picking up.  Trevor, Amanda, Travis, and Allison all had blankets to help keep them pretty dry.

I pulled my jacket up over my head and hunched over my purse to keep it dry.  

My back was soaking wet, but my purse made it out okay!

And Marc had no blanket nor jacket, so he pretty much got soaked.

And through it all, the rodeo kept going, 

because afterall, "It's the bulls and blood, it's the dust and mud!"

6.15.12 San Antonio

Way back in June we took a weekend trip to San Antonio for Marc's birthday.  It's about a 5 hour drive from Midland, but apparently to Texans, this is a quick drive for a weekend getaway.

Our first stop was the Alamo in downtown San Antonio...

Sadly, all I really knew about the Alamo before we decided to go to San Antonio came from Pee Wee Herman's Big Adventure.  We watched The Alamo movie (the modern version with Billy Bob Thornton) a few weeks before we went to get some of the history. I obviously knew nothing about the Alamo because I was shocked when we got to the end and the Mexicans won!  I had no idea!

Near the Alamo is the famed River Walk.  It really is beautiful and was one of my favorite parts of our short trip.

Ezra loved the boat ride...not so much because we were on a boat or in water.  I'm pretty sure he was oblivious to this.  He loved it because he had a captive audience of strangers.  Our little boy loves to be the center of attention.  I really don't know where he gets it because neither Marc nor I are that way.

After the boat ride, we had dinner at one of the restaurants on the river.  The River Walk is beautiful at night, but the heat and humidity didn't let up at all after nightfall.

The unfortunate part of our trip happened when we got back to our truck after dinner.  We found the window smashed and all of our luggage opened inside.  Thankfully, my ipod was the only thing that was stolen.  However, we couldn't find any one that could fix the window until Tuesday, long after we were planning to head home.  So for the rest of the trip and on the drive back to Midland we drove around without a driver's side window.  We shut up a blanket in the door to block out some of the wind and keep in the some of the cold air.  This helped a little, but it also made us look very white trash.

On Saturday, we went to the San Antonio Zoo.  It was fun but very HOT.  Ezra was even pretty lethargic from the heat.

We found some respite in the reptile house...

...and the riverbed play area.  Ezra loved the riverbed, although I spend most of the time trying to prevent handfuls of sand from making it into his mouth.

Ezra really liked all the colorful birds....

...as well as the hippopotamus feeding.

After a long nap back at the hotel, we had some fun in the pool, which was actually heated unlike any pool I've bee to in Midland.

We really liked San Antonio, and hopefully we'll get back there soon to see and do more.  But next time we could definitely do without any break-ins!