Seven Months!

How in the world is Ezra already closer to being 1 than he is a newborn? Where does the time go? I remember when Ezra was first born and we were saying that we didn't want him to get any bigger...we just loved the way his little legs would fold under themselves as we cuddled him day and night. Then he started to smile...and we thought was just the best stage and he should stay right there forever. Then came grasping things, rolling over, laughing, crawling...and now standing up! And every day we think, "Now this is the most fun stage!" It's fun that it works that way...that it just keeps getting better and better. People "warned" me that once 'they' crawl they are into everything. But, I have to say that this is truly my favorite stage! I love that he can get into everything. We can watch his curiosity play out as he explores and cruises all around our house. We get to see the moments when he is so proud that he made it up, and the moments when he is brave and lets go with one hand, and the moments when he startles himself by crashing to the ground.

Here are some photos of our cutie pie from the past couple of weeks...

**Please note that Ryan is not tied up around the knees...Ezra's favorite toy is Ryan's belt and somehow it ended up just laying over Ryan's legs.
**Oh, and just to clear up any possible confusion, the spatula on the ground is another toy...we don't use it for spankings. :)

Happy (Belated) Halloween!

We had a very fun halloween this year! Ezra and I joined a group of our friends at Jacob and Samantha's house where we ate dinner in their front yard while passing out candy to the trick-or-treaters.

at home getting ready...


lil' bee and flower...


Our friend Matt dressed up like Ryan...Ezra was slightly confused all night...


All of the kiddos..aren't they adorable?! Estrella as a ladybug, Moses as a peapod, Ezra as a bee, and Josiah a baseball player!


Once the trick-or-treaters slowed down, Ezra and I went and watched Ryan play with Cameron as "Flight of the Conchords" at Armitage Wine Bar...a very fun night indeed!

Coupon Time!

About a year ago I decided I was going to start becoming a coupon guru. Well, I didn't. I felt totally overwhelmed by how to match everything up, and I felt pressure that I had to get everything for free, or it was a bad deal. I still desire to get everything for free, but I have come to understand that stocking up on things when they are cheap is a great system...and that is what I am in the business of doing now!
For example, last week at Fry's cases of diced tomatoes were on sale for $11/case!...that's less than 49cents/can...and that my friends, is a smokin' hot deal.
We just got our first FREE items this week and I'm totally smitten about the fact that they were free (AND things we needed)!
Here they are:

Ezro on guitar

I know I've been posting a lot of videos lately, but I just remembered that video is fun to take...so I'm building up a stock of great videos that I know my parents will want to see. :)

The one thing about the video camera though, is that it seems as soon as I turn it on, Ezra stops doing whatever it was he was doing that made me want to get the video camera out. As is true with this video, but I still love it!

Will the real Ezra Green please stand up!

The other night Ezra was playing around in the refrigerator while I was putting groceries away. I was laughing to myself and wishing Ryan was home so he could see it, so I pulled out the video camera...and just so happened to get Ezra's first time of pulling himself up on video! I wasn't expecting him to pull himself up, so once my brain registered what had happened, my mad video skills ceased and I almost dropped the camera so that I could catch him in case he came crashing down on the tile (which he did not, thankfully). My favorite part is when he slaps his hand really hard on the shelf...as if to say, "Did it!"...oh, and I just love his little grunts on his way up. :)

our lil' jolly jumper...

Our sweet lil' home has no door frames, so I was bummed when I realized we couldn't get a jolly jumper, because Ezra LOVES to jump! But then, lo and behold...this gem appeared on craigslist: a jolly jumper with a stand! I wish we had video from the very first time we put Ezra in it, because he just cried and cried at first. He seemed totally panicked to be standing up on his own while Ryan and I just looked on. But then a few bounces in he started laughing/crying...and then just laughing. And now, he's hooked!

Naked in the kitchen...

Our little guy likes to be naked. Or, I lean slightly towards the hippy side of life and just let him be free (which happens to work well with EC :). Whichever way you want to look at it...naked baby butts are flippin' adorable!

Last night while we were cleaning up after dinner, Ezra decided to take charge of the pots and pans. It was so funny to hear him banging them around and trying to fully climb into the cupboard.

Pictionary

I thought I'd give you guys a visual of what I meant by Ryan drawing pictures to say what is inside of our tupperware in the fridge. It makes me smile every time I eat leftovers.

(taco meat)


(chicken pot pie)

Pumpkin Party!

Prior to last weekend, it had been years since I carved a pumpkin! (Well, technically speaking, I didn't carve one last weekend either...but Ryan did, and marriage has joined us together to be one, right?)

Our friends Matt and Abby hosted what I like to term "The First Annual Pumpkin Carving Party" (not sure if they know yet that it is to be an annual event...this is their subtle hint. :)

We started out nice and simple...kitchen knives as our primary tool for carving.


Then, it started getting crazy with power tools...



Estrella and Joel won for fastest carving. They completed 2 pumpkins before anyone else finished their first.


The final products!
From left to right...(back row) Michael Landon a.k.a. "Pa" from Little House on the Prairie :), White Sox, Napolean Dynamite (the first place pumpkin, carved by Jacob), (front row) gun shot wound to the head (there are pumpkin guts coming out of the wound, but you can't see it in this photo, jack-o-lantern a and b, and kitty cat! Can you guess which one is ours?


Josiah is helping Jacob celebrate his overall first place win by eating the frosting off the cupcake!

Welcome Moses!

Blanca two weeks ago...


Blanca and Moses one week ago (Moses is 1 day old in this photo)...


It's become a joke among our friends that if you have a boy, you have to use an Old Testament name. Joshua, Ezra, Josiah, Moses... Enoch anyone? :)

Happy Birthday Ryan!

Today Ryan is 29! I love it when his birthday strikes and we appear to only be 1 year apart in age, even if it only lasts for about 6 weeks. :)


29 things I love about Ryan!

1.) He makes me (and Ezra!) laugh on a daily basis...and has taught me how to laugh at myself.

2.) He is transparent with how he is doing and open to share his feelings.

3.) He loves to create music and continues to follow the dream God has given him to perform.

4.) He still wears the pajamas I made him 5 years ago (when I didn't really know how to sew). :)

5.) He graciously offers to go to the grocery store for me every single time I need an ingredient for a recipe (which is about every single day).

6.) He is the leader in our family.

7.) He loves Little House on the Prairie as much as I do!

8.) He is a board gamer.

9.) ...and a card gamer.

10.) He continues to be willing to teach me guitar, even though I never practice. :)

11.) He makes me a full-on breakfast almost every morning (and doesn't tease me too much that I eat about twice as much as him these days of nursing).

12.) He hosts "guys outings".

13.) He draws pictures on our Tupperware to indicate what is inside instead of writing on it.

14.) He loves to drive, and always makes me feel safe on the road.

15.) He has an extremely large amount of patience.

16.) He has great perspective on life.

17.) He allows me to dream about living all over the world.

17.) He is the best pizza, taco, and hot dog chef I know!

18.) He writes beautiful lullabies.

19.) He insists on honesty all the time (unless it has to do with how many cookies he ate.)

20.) He holds the record for making Ezra laugh the hardest.

21.) He "hates" the 9am-5pm thing as much as I do, and is willing to go against the norm so we can spend our lives together instead of working.

22.) He likes to eat healthy foods!

23.) He lets me sleep-in in the mornings when Ezra has been up all night.

24.) He can eat Mexican food 7 days/ week.

25.) He is the only person (aside from possibly Jill?) who flosses every day.

26.) He is an expert cloth diaperer and EC'er.

27.) He is a wonderful father to Ezra.

28.) ...and the bestest husband I could ever have imagined!

29.) He always strives to be himself!...and that is who I love!

Happy Birthday Babe!


This past weekend he and a bunch of guy friends went paintballing for his birthday!


And he now has several welts to show for it (it kind of looks like he has a bad case of ringworm actually. :)

White Mountains 2010!

Every year we take an anniversary trip. It generally doesn't happen on our actual anniversary, nor does it usually happen 2.5 months late like it did this year. :)

1st Anniversary was to the Grand Canyon.

2nd Anniversary was to San Francisco!

3rd Anniversary was Patagonia, Arizona.

4th Anniversary was The White Mountains (Northern Arizona).

And, our 5th Anniversary was back up to the White Mountains this year! I must say, it was a bit more relaxing to be 6 months pregnant last year than to have a 6 month old with us this year in the White Mountains...but we much rather be with Ezra than without him! :)

The "prom pose" (a.k.a. it's awkward to take a photo with a sleeping baby in the ergo and get everyone in the shot. :)


The view from the rim walk is soo gorgeous! It actually reminds me a lot of being in the White Mountains in New Hampshire.


How cool is this tree?


And this tarantula?


Even though this trip felt a little less relaxed than before, we still had oodles and oodles of relaxation time. I think Ezra is quickly becoming Ryan's 2nd biggest fan (I remain the holder of biggest fan).


Lots of great floor playtime...


Someone found some new favorite toys...



Lots of fun dada time...





And mama time...



And family time...(a friend of Grammie's knit all of our matching hats :)

Chicago Half Marathon in print...

I just got an email with photos from the 1/2 marathon I can order. They are ridiculously expensive, and besides I don't really have a desire for a 5X7 of myself looking sweaty, exhausted, and about to keel over. :)

Exhibit A:


Exhibit B:
(this one actually looks semi-decent, but Ryan said it looks like I'm speed walking instead of running :)

EC 201

As I mentioned in my first post about Elimination Communication, it can be a part-time thing. In fact, it can be a very part-time thing, as in once a week sitting your baby on the potty. In everything I've read, babies are totally fine with going between the potty and a diaper. Ezra on the other hand, has decided he'd much rather go in the potty, and especially at night.
We had a rough 4-5 days in a row of Ezra waking up every 45 minutes at night. And, it wasn't just the wake up and nurse and go back to sleep type of waking up. It was "hello guys, I'm awake!" type of waking up. It was rough, and we were both exhausted. Ryan was gracious enough to take Ezra out in the living room one of the mornings to play (at about 3 a.m.), but Ezra was still really squirmy (as he is when he has to go to the bathroom) and wouldn't play. Finally Ryan put him on the potty, and he went right away...and then was ready to go back to sleep.
Hmm...was this issue? Did he just have to go to the bathroom every time he woke up? But, rather than putting him on the potty, I was filling him up with more liquids and then trying to make him hold it longer? Oops.
Sure enough the next night we decided to put him on the potty whenever he woke up, and he'd go right away and then go back to sleep for a long chunk (since now he was able to relieve himself, he didn't need to wake up so frequently). The past few nights he has only woken up once/night to go to the bathroom (and wakes up dry!), and 1-2 times to nurse, so it's pretty easy. We've switched from having him wear pj's to just putting him in his leg warmers with a pre-fold for easy on and off diapering at night. I'm totally in love with the leg warmers...aren't they adorable?

Brown and Green (and Leeches too)...

Last week my parents visited with two of my nieces, Haleigh (Brown) and Lydia (Leech)! :) Haleigh visited a couple of years ago, and is somewhat of a veteran traveler. However, it was Lydia's first time to Arizona. In fact, it was her first time flying. She is 11 years old and a total conversationalist. She loves fashion and hair, and should have probably consulted my wardrobe while she was here to tell me what could stay and what needed to go. She is as sweet as can be, and I loved watching her quiet excitement about being so far away from home. She took photos of everything. The palm trees, the yards of almost every house on our street (to not have grass is quite strange afterall when you are from Michigan), and a gagillion photos of our lil' guy.

Her first chance to see Ezra on the visit (he was sleeping for the night when they arrived)...


A view of Sabino Canyon before we hiked in...


We told Lydia to pose looking frightened...this is what we got. :)


Haleigh and Lydia enjoying the shade by the creek (it was 104 out!)...


Full-on swimming in the creek with their clothes on...awesomeness!



Ezra wanted to join in on the fun too...



It was a wonderful to have all of them here to visit!!