The Uke Man...

Ezra has been playing his uke non-stop for the past week or so. I absolutely love it. When he is sitting down and playing, he is quite the headbanger. And, if he's standing he stomps his foot enthusiastically (I think he may have gotten that from watching Cameron :).

Ez and El go to the zoo...

Ezra had been jammin' out on his uke when Eleanor arrived, and well he of course had to serenade us on the drive, so in the car it went. And when you have two tots, two ukes are a must. Eleanor played Ezra's while I oh-so-carefully let Ezra bring Ryan's. (Shhh...please don't tell Ryan. :)

Ezra was super duper excited to see that the splash pad was open again!

Cousins, two of a kind (in outfits and in climbing skills)...

Back at our house...yet still in matching outfits. :)

we have carrots!

Our winter garden has mostly come to a close with the exception of some kale that is still lingering...and carrots! I wasn't sure how to tell when the carrots were ready, so I decided I'd just wait until April to dig them out. I'm not sure why I thought this, but for whatever reason it was in my head that for each leafy "stem" I saw above the ground, that meant there were 7-8 carrots in a bunch under the ground. I was getting worried that I had planted hundreds of carrots and I wouldn't know what to do with them all. Fear not, one leafy stem = one carrot. Now I'm slightly sad to know that there are only about 25 more carrots to dig out. I'm not exaggerating at all when I say that the carrots from our garden are by far the best carrots I've ever eaten in my entire life. Seriously. They are sweet, crunchy, and uber delicious. Ezra has liked carrots okay in the past, but he'd never been a super big fan. Tonight however he ate carrot after carrot after carrot. I was feeling quite proud. :) At first I dug out only one carrot for us (Ezra, his friend Dean, and myself) to share...

But clearly that wasn't enough so I went back two more times to dig out more...

Eating carrots is always more fun when sharing with friends...

And every carrot we dug up was eaten until there was just a nubby little stem of leaves left.

These carrots are too good to be served any other way than just by themselves. I have a feeling they will all be gone by the time Monday rolls around....note to self to plant more next year!

Toolman fashion trends...

In case you are wondering what the upcoming fashion trend will be this summer, look no further...

View from front.

Side profile

I laid him down for a nap with his shirt off, and when I went to get him after his nap, he was dressed like this. Not sure if he got cold, and then mid-nap decided to take an arm out, or if the shirt got put on after he woke up, and then with much thought he pulled one arm out for the 2012 Summer Fashion Toga Trend. Whatever the case was, I liked it...and therefor that is how he remained the rest of the day. Ryan put in misters for our back patio...yay!!! For those not from the dry dessert, misters are basically sprinklers that hang upside down from your patio ceiling to keep you cool in the summer. They were surprisingly a fairly inexpensive (less than $40) upgrade to our backyard. And, with how much time we spend out there...I'm super thankful to have them!! And since the tool box was out while Ryan was putting them in, Ezra decided there were a few other things that needed "fixing" around the house...and he has been diligently fixing things everyday since last Sunday.

p.s. blogger just changed their posting format, and I have no clue as to what I'm doing anymore, so sorry about the photos and text being all over the place...I'll work on that. :)

Welcome Summer!

It's official, Tucson has had it's first 100 degree day.  Being from the midwest, I can't still call this "spring" even though that is what the calendar says...clearly 100 degrees means summer...and what better way to welcome in the heat than with a pool party among friends?!

We will miss OWEN!!!

On Saturday our friends Stephanie, Joel, Owen and Otto will be moving to Colorado! Sadness does not even begin to describe how I feel about the situation. We met them in our birthing class when I was pregnant with Ezra, and Stephanie was pregnant with Owen. Stephanie has become such a great friend whom I can call on a moment's notice to spend the morning or afternoon with while our boys tot around. In fact we often spend several days a week together. Stephanie always makes sure we have a girls' sewing night at my house when Ryan is out on tour. She always loads me up on yummy treats that she has made. And, as the boys have EC'd/potty trained...we have been fine just letting them run around naked at each other's houses so they can go potty at a moment's notice.

Owen is Ezra's BFF. Seriously, these boys play so well together it makes me want to chase after them and go start the commune in Colorado. Last weekend we were at the park and Ezra ran to the grass, took off his shoes and laid down. Two seconds later, Owen did the same exact thing. Then they ran around and chased each other. They take turns with each other better than Ezra does with anyone else. And they laugh harder together than Ezra does with anyone else.

We will miss them dearly (and hopefully visit often)! :)

Here's a little slide show of the boys over the years (can you believe I can actually write years???):

rashy rash

Today would have been day 8 of amoxicillin to treat Ezra's strep throat. However, instead he woke up with a big ol' rashy rash (that got worse as the day progressed)...doc says it's a drug reaction so we stopped the antibiotics.

Thankfully he doesn't seem too bothered by it (other than the fact that he keeps asking me to wash it off). It's just so sad seeing him covered in these red bumps...

(not sure if you can tell in the picture below, but his arms, legs and face are covered...his belly and back are just starting to break out)

Workin' on the car

Today was GORGEOUS outside! As in, 60s with a blue sky. A perfect break from the upper 80s we have already reached here in the sunny state of Arizona. And, also perfect weather for my boys to do some work on the car*.

Does putting a license plate count as "working on the car"? Tools were involved, so I'll say yes.




And, the mailman just happened to go by while they were working on the car. The mailman is pretty exciting news around these parts, not quite as exciting as trash trucks...but still worth waiting for and talking about. So, that meant Ezra got to receive the mail by hand.


I ran the Sabino Canyon Sunset Run (7.4 miles) tonight. I finished 12 minutes slower than I did last year. But, I'm also carrying around at least 12 pounds more this year, so I'm okay with it.


*We got a 'new' car!! Although I love the idea of being a 1 car family, it's just not practical for us with Ryan's work schedule (especially since he has to bring so much gear (guitars, etc) to work with him). It's a 1991 Honda Civic. Her name is Blue Beauty, but you can call her BB for short. We love her already..it feels like the old days of when we had Gray Beauty (minus all of the quirks). Welcome to the family BB!

26 weeks...

For Jill who has requested a belly shot...


(as I'm posting this, I just realized that I'm wearing a hand-me-down shirt from Jill...how perfect!)

Happy Easter!

Ezra woke up at 1am on Sunday. And then again at 4:30am...that time I was alert enough to realize he was blazing hot and running a fever. We gave him some ibuprofen, and by morning he seemed fine. I wrote it off as teething. After all, he is two now, doesn't that mean his 2 year molars will pop through at any moment?

We went to church and he happily played in the nursery. Yup, I was that mom who brought a sick child to nursery (though I still claim total innocence!). Ack!

Then we headed to Ryan's Aunt Terri's for brunch...where Ezra just slept in my arms the whole time (totally uncharacteristic of him...especially when there are horses to be petted and Easter eggs to be hunted!)

After he returned home he perked up just long enough for us to re-hide the Easter eggs that he never did end up searching for at Aunt Terri's...


Inside each one were craisins...and he emptied the contents of each and every one before looking for the next egg...




Shortly after our Easter egg hunt, Ezra was back asleep in my arms. On Monday he still had a fever...and his face was bright red. Finally, we were able to go to the doctor and learn that he has strep throat. He's been on antibiotics now for 36 hours...and is perking back up...yay!

All good things must come to an end...

Our last day at Disney World was filled with petting goats...


(I love his curls peeking out from behind the goat)


Riding trains...


Playing drums with Emma...


Climbing on dinosaurs...


Soaking up time with Grandma and Papa...


...and sleeping on Dada...


Thanks for a great trip mom and dad!