Calling all Memories...

So here is a fun new blogging game:

1. Leave one memory that you and I (or Blaine) had together as a comment on my blog. It doesn't matter if you know us/me/him a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you.

Cue the Barbara Streisand music..."Memories..."

Night at the honky tonk

We went to the Taylor Swift/Rascal Flatts concert last night in Cheyenne. It was sooooo much fun and a great family affair. Tirsa's sister, Tiffani, and two of her kids, Mark and Maddie, and Tirsa's other niece, Makell from Oregon, all came along. Blaine, who disdains country music, humored us by being a good sport and refraining from too many disparaging comments.

Pre-concert grub at Costa Vida. Delicioso!




Converted to cowboyism?

Maddie and Makell sporting their new Rascal Flatts hats.

And these little guys were babysat by my parents so we could enjoy our night out. Thank goodness for grandmas and grandpas.

Ezra totally performs for the camera now. I get it out and he starts smiling. Soooo cute! Kelli, did you notice his Vans?

Visitors

Blaine's sister and her family came to Colorado for a visit. The men went backpacking/camping in the wilderness for a few days. Blaine said that it was a really hard hike but he enjoyed it even though there was snow and lots of mosquitos up there. Here are the mountain men roughing it...




The ladies were roughing it, too. Yeah, all of that pool time, eating out and going to the movies was really starting to wear on us...



While here, Ryan mowed our lawn, Mary Lou cleaned out our fish tank, and Rachel made a fort for Bella, played with her, and did her hair everyday. Seriously, you guys can stay at our house ANYTIME!!!

New Pics

After I saw these pictures, I realized how "grown up" Ez is starting to look. With all of his hair and with out baby chub, he is looking like a little toddler more and more. Call me biased, but I think he is pretty darn stinkin' cute.




Ez kept trying to steal the Z out of his name.

Sequel to the Target portrait studio story, Ez update, and conversations with Bella

I took Ez to get some new pictures at Target the other day. Bella had been whining the whole drive down so Blaine made her stay in the car with him instead of going into the store with us. (Remember when our parents used to send us out to the car when we were misbehaving in the grocery store? Of course, that would constitute neglect these days so I rarely get to threaten Bella with that except when Blaine is with us and we can divide and conquer). Anyway, back to the story...So, Ez is getting his pictures taken and the guy remembers Ezra's unique name and asks if he took his picture before. I said that he had. After we were done, and I was looking at the pics. on the computer, Blaine and Bella came in. I introduced Blaine as my husband and the guy said, "Oh yeah, I just looked on the computer and saw the picture of you and Ezra from the last time you were in." I said, "Oh, yeah" with an awkward nervous laugh as I am thinking in my head, "Um, that is a completely different guy in the pictures." (If you read my post about three months ago, I am referring to when I took Ezra and his birthdad to Target to get pictures together.) After we left, Blaine was saying how he should have made a scene and said, "What? I never got my picture taken here. You were with another guy??? Let me see those pictures!" That would have been funny to see the guy's reaction but I guess, after all, our lives just really aren't that Jerry Springer.

So, Ez is 9 months now. This past month has been one of many accomplishments. He learned how to sit up with out assistance and he is now crawling (the army crawl). He has cut his first tooth and he is eating those little cereal puffs. We finally moved him out of our room into his own room and he is basically sleeping the night through (he goes down at 8, takes a bottle around 11 and then sleeps until 5:30 or 7 am). Moving him into his own room was a much bigger deal for me than I ever anticipated. Bella got the boot from our room at a mere 6 weeks old but Ez had just come home from the hospital at 5 weeks and I worried so much about him that I wanted him as close to me as possible for so long. But, it has been so great having him in his own room now and we are all sleeping better because of it. It is amazing to me that he was born with a condition that people rarely survived just 30 years ago. Now he is thriving and has the potential to live a long, and healthy life.





Bella spent the night at my parent's house Sunday night. She and two of her cousins had a great time at Grandma and Grandpa's house. I missed her like crazy all day on Monday but man, I got a lot of things done around the house with out her here! She said some cute things when she got back:

"Grace "frew" a boogar on Ellie. But, she didn't "frow" a boogar on me. She is nice to me."

And, "Ellie and Grace fought a lot. Heavenly Father doesn't want us to fight. I told them that."

She has been using her line about what Heavenly Father wants a lot lately. After I have used my "mommy means business" voice on her a few times this past week, she has said to me, "Heavenly Father doesn't want us to be mad." Yep, she is right.

On the move...

Oh, boy...he is on the move. He is quite determined to get to where he wants to go. I just don't know how he holds that head up of his!

Popcorn Ball Night

Family Home Evening has always been a struggle for Blaine and I. In the beginning when it was just the two of us, we tried to read an Ensign article or something for FHE but, let's be honest, that really only happened a few times. Then as Bella came along, we tried to hold little FHEs, but it was hard to feel motivated. On the occasions that we did do FHEs when Bella was an infant and a toddler, we usually just sang primary songs and called it good. Even though we didn't do that consistently, we always felt good when we did. The primary songs brought such a nice spirit into our home and it was good to just sit down for a minute together and sing. Well, Bella is finally at an age where we feel like FHEs are worth the weekly effort. We now affectionately call Monday nights popcorn ball night since every week for the treat we make popcorn balls and Bella gets to create the color. (It almost always ends up being pink.)

Last night we had a great opportunity to work on a problem that Bella has recently developed: lying. For example, she drew on the floor with marker and told me that Sophie did it. When I asked her to clean up her mess and she protested by saying she couldn't clean it up all by herself, I gave her one of those classic parent lines like, "You made the mess all by yourself so I'm certain you can clean it up all by yourself, too." Well, once again, she pinned it on her very best little friend by saying that Sophie made the mess. (Sophie hadn't been to our house in a few days, so I was on to her.) So we have obviously been having many discussions lately about telling the truth, what a lie is, and why we need to be honest. We were able to talk about it even further in FHE where we played a little game trying to reinforce that good things come from being honest. We took turns asking questions like, "What color is your shirt?" If she told the truth by saying the real color of her shirt, than she got a chocolate chip. Of course, she told the truth every time so Blaine lied a few times about the color of his shirt or shoes so that she could see that he didn't get any chocolate when he told the lie. A very basic little game but Bella was having a lot of fun and I think she was understanding better the difference between honesty and lying.

Making the popcorn balls...we all have our roles. Tirsa pops the popcorn, Blaine melts the marshmallows, Bella chooses the color and mixes the food coloring, and Blaine forms the balls. Then we watch them disappear FAST!