Spring Time

Easter, sunshine, and long afternoons playing outside planting apple seeds and "bean stops". Life doesn't get much better!

Birthday Boy!

March 3rd was Ezra's Birthday. We started the day with presents, church in the middle, and then finished the day off with cake. I'm sure all parents feel this way, but there just aren't words to convey the love that we have for this sweet boy! He is such a special little guy, and everyone who meets him just falls in love. I cannot imagine our family without our "Ezra-Buddy". The bond that He and Hallie have is beyond sweet, and it physically hurts to think about what their lives would be like with out each other. I can't believe I ever worried about what having another child would do to Hallie. Now that I see these two together I know that Ezra was probably sending Hallie off to our family telling her, "don't worry Sis, I'll be there as soon as I can".  This Little boy makes everything make sense. I am so grateful for him, and a loving Heavenly Father who has the "big picture" when I am caught up in the details. 

Weekend Get-Away

In February I managed to sucker some of our friends into swapping weekends. They watched Hallie and Ezra for two days for us, and  in exchange we watched their 3 kids for a weekend. Oh, and their kids were 12, 9, and 6 years old- Yeah, we totally got the better end of that deal!  Grant and I decided to go to Nashville for our weekend, and it was HEAVENLY! We didn't really do anything that remarkable, but we did eat out multiple times, slept in, napped, went shopping, and had to throw one touristy activity in- Belle Meade Plantation! My favorite part of the whole weekend though, was the 4 hour drive that we spent talking, setting goals, and swapping memories. It was amazing to have an uninterrupted conversation with Grant, and best of all realize that we still liked spending time together! Time for another weekend!

Growing growing growing!!!

 Going through my pictures to update the blog, I realized not so surprisingly that we spent January and February of 2013 doing a lot of unremarkable stuff. Hallie continued to adjust to school, and I think by about mid February we were finally done with the fight over going to school every day. She is one strong willed little girl, so I consider it a HUGE victory that I was more stubborn than her on this one, and by the end of the school year she I would say she actually enjoyed her school days. Ezra spent this time perfecting his crawling, mastering the stairs ( which are pretty scary, aka; steep, wooden, and impossible to baby-gate) and more often than not fighting various bug, ear infections, and best of all- 3 bouts of thrush compliments of the non-stop rounds of antibiotics. Yep, your average winter not super fun, but still sweet because we got to spend it with these cute kids!

 Ezra got his first hair cut. Grant and I are both anti-long boy hair ( ask Grant about his mullet sometime) so we felt the time had come to give this boy a trim. Well, it wasn't the best haircut ever, but we learned a lot, and Ezra's cut's have improved considerably since.

Christmas 2012

Christmas this year was not quite what we had planned on. We we all pretty sick for most of December, so that put a bit of a damper on the festivities. We did manage to still have fun though, and were reminded of what a precious gift our family and time together is.

 Hallie enjoyed decorating the tree this year. We may have rearranged a few things after she went to bed that night ;)

 She also sent her first letter to Santa in which she requested an umbrella (with mom's help). She was so excited to put it in the mailbox, and excitedly checked the next day to be sure the post man had gotten the letter. When She opened the mail box there was a small package waiting and she quickly tore it open. It was a promotional calendar from our old Realtor, and Hallie looked at it, threw it on the ground and then started crying, screaming that she had wanted an umbrella not a calendar...
So we had to have a little talk about that.

 Christmas eve we did a little shopping. Hallie and Daddy rode the train at the mall. Later that night we read the Christmas story and the kids got to open their new pajamas.

 The loot.  And yes, Hallie got her act together in time for Santa to bring her an umbrella.

 Aunt Mandy's present to Ezra was an instant winner. We have been asked by numerous people since, if he is chewing on a dog toy...

School Days

Hallie started pre-school this December at the local rec-center. She goes two days a week, and loved it the first month, but now that the novelty has worn off, she is a little unsure about her feelings. Car-pool, time away from mom, and lack of adequate toys (in her oppinion), are all pretty distressing on school mornings, and she will spend hours trying to convince me that she is just going to stay home all day. So, some days happier than others she heads to school, and with out fail she always returns home with a big smile and an enthusiatic "I had fun today Mom!"

Thanksgiving in Hotlanta

 Todd and Cathie invited us to the McMansion this year for Thanksgiving, and we excitedly accepted. So Wednesday after Grant finished work, we headed out and started the drive to Atlanta. All was going well until about 3 hours in when we got stuck in some pretty bad traffic. They had the freeway closed going both directions and all we could do was sit and wait in the car for 2 hours.  Oreos and Red Vines only worked for so long, and then the kids started to melt down, and I started to feel like I was coming down with the flu. When traffic finally started moving again, we were able to push the kids for about another 1 1/2 hours, and then the nuclear meltdown occurred  and we decided it was best to get a hotel for the night. Once we had settled in for the night Ezra was having a hard time sleeping and we finally realized that he had a fever too. So, Mom and Ez were both sick. Pretty much it was a fantastic night ;) But well worth it when we arrived at Todd and Cathie's!

 The McMansion was decked out for the holiday. The food was delicious, the toys were enjoyed by both the big and the small guests, and best of all we got to spend time with family!

 Todd and Cathie were so generous and invited Cristy and Nathaniel too. We had so much fun seeing all of the kids, and not having to try to split our time between the two families!

All in all, a Great Thanksgiving!

We've survived 3 years!

Hallie turned three in November, and was soo excited this year for all of the festivities that surround a birthday. She helped me make cupcakes for her party, I decided to give up control and just let her have fun decorating them...

 I think she enjoyed the process.

 Hallie had a party with a few friends at Totter's Otterville (basically a ghetto children's museum, but we love it). As most things I plan usually do, the party took on a life of it's own and ended up being bigger than  my original idea of  Hallie+friend play at Otterville, but in the end she had fun, and we were glad that we were able to share her birthday with so many sweet friends! If your biggest problem in life is that you have too many friends, then I think your probably doing okay!

 We spent a quiet day together on Hallie's real Birthday and opened presents from Grandmas and Grandpas, and Mom and Dad. It was a great  day, filled with lots of princesses, pajamas, cookies, and "Hangabur-Helper", and if you know Hallie you know that is a fantastic day in  her book!

I can't believe this girl is 3!!! I love her more each day, and am in awe of the amazing girl she is growing to be!