Family Photos!

I've been wanting to post these photos for months now, but I was waiting until after Christmas so that we wouldn't spoil our Christmas gifts to family members (like I accidentally did for my sister...oops!).

Our friend Jacob Lauderdale did a photo shoot for our family over Thanksgiving Weekend. Somehow we picked the coldest morning (in the history of Tucson?!?) to take photos so Ezra wasn't as smiley as he normally is, but that's okay...we love our serious Ezra too!

We LOVE the photos that Jacob took, so pardon me, this may be a long post of photos...

The party we've been waiting for...

Ever since Ryan and I moved to Tucson, whenever we see a rockin' Mexican party at the park we always say, "We have to somehow become part of a Mexican family, so we can be invited to a party like that." Well, we still have yet to become part-Mexican, but we did get to go to a rockin' Bolivian Birthday Party for a sweet 2 year old (Estrella) this past weekend!

The birthday princess and her aunt:


The jumping castle! Hispanics don't mess around when it comes to parties...I'm not being racist in any way, it's purely facts.


This was the boombox that played the rockin' traditional music:


What's a birthday without a piñata?


The birthday girl's dad and grandpa...how cute is grandpa!?


Ezra and Josiah playing in the jumping castle:


Our little prince...


There was also face painting, but Ezra hates having his face and hands washed, so I didn't think that face/hand painting would be too enjoyable for him. So we opted to pass, maybe next year. :)

Happy Birthday Estrella!

Family date!

I love going on family dates with my guys! Last week Ryan had the whole afternoon off, so we went to the park. Ezra wasn't digging the swings like he normally does, so instead we played in the grass...



(A little behind the scenes of why the bottom buttons of his shirt are unbuttoned.... I put the shirt on him and thought, "I'll button it up in the car." Well, I tried...but the guy -Ezra that is- has a belly that protrudes a little too far for these buttons to fit around him anymore. oops!)

Farmer Ezra

Ryan found this hat at his mom's house from when he was in high school...and it has since become a favorite toy of Ezra's.









p.s. this lil' dude turned 10 months today!!! I can't believe he'll be 1 soo soon!

Crafternooners...

I just found out that there is a group in Tucson called the Crafternooners!! How cool is that? I haven't been to a meeting yet, but I see it on the horizon.

The other week I made this sweater vest out of a sweater for a little someone who is to join our community of kiddos soon!


It was super easy...you can find the tutorial here.

Kitchen Make-Over!

Were any of you left in suspense after this post? Well fret no more, the kitchen is complete and I have a whole series of photos to document the process...

This was our kitchen 'before'. Brown and boring (no offense to my Brown family roots). It was fine and functional, but just not "us".


Filling the no-longer-needed nob holes on the doors, sanding, and washing the cupboards...


The disaster zone...


Priming...


Painting in progress (2 coats total)...




The next part probably requires a little explanation. I wanted the cupboards to have a "worn-in" look. I read and read and read up on how to do this, and finally decided to go for the technique recommended as being the "best and easiest" on 2 different blogs. This technique called for painting stain on the paint, and then wiping it off. I did just that, and it looked great. The problem came 20 hours later when the stain still wasn't dry!! At this point I wrote the bloggers and asked if they had this issue, and they claim they didn't. Hmmmf. Off I went to Home Depot to see if they could help me, and I was greeted with, "You can't put stain on paint!, (duh!)"..."it will never dry". Me: "yes, I have found this to be true, thank you for rubbing it in my face." "What can I do?" They weren't a whole lot of help, so I called my sister and she pointed me in the direction of Valspar glaze which is sold at Lowe's. So off I went to Lowe's to get the glaze (and mineral spirits to remove the stain from the cupboards). Fortunately, the mineral spirits removed the stain without taking off the paint, so I didn't have to do another coat of paint. I applied the glaze in the same wipe-on-wipe-off manner as I did the stain, only this time it dried in a matter of a couple of hours, and I was quite pleased with the result.

Distressing take 1:




I think I was feeling a little too stressed to take photos of "distressing take 2", so instead I will now post the end results!

Let's once again glance at the 'before':


And 'after':
(with a flash)...I had hoped to do this during better daylight, but forgot...


And 'after' without a flash:


I love it...and it feels like our house is becoming more and more "us".

"New" Car!

We got a new car this week!!

I have owned three cars previous to this one.

In High School I had a 1989 red 2 door Ford Escort (here is a random google image to give you an idea):


For 1/2 of college I had a 1989 white Ford Taurus (it died my Sophomore year):


I went car-less for the rest of college and for my entire time out in Boston. When we moved to Tucson we bought Gray Beauty. A 1987 Nissan Sentra....


She died this summer, and since then we've been scrounging around borrowing cars and being ultra blessed by people just showing up and saying, "here you go, you can use our car until you get one...no hurry." It's been amazing really that we were able to go for 8 months without a car of our own!

But, now the day has come. Here is our 2002 Toyota Prius!


We have been averaging about 45 mpg, and couldn't be more excited to own a hybrid!

Oh, and her name you ask? G3 (Green-color, Green-last name, and Green-for the environment)...and one of Ryan's favorite concerts in high school was also called the G3 because it had 3 guitar shredders...or at least that is why I think it was called that. :)

blue-eyed boys...

The other day Josiah came over to play. He is as big (if not taller) than Ezra already!



It is so hard to remember, that just 7 months ago they were soo different in size:


Oh, and here is a photo of Josiah in the shirt I made him a while back...


It is wonderful having not only a great community for us, but also for our boy here!

Frugal Organizing...

I saved the netting that came around our Thanksgiving turkey. I'm not really sure why, but I had a feeling it would come in handy. And well, it did! Check out Ezra's new bath toy bag. Simple and practical.

Ping Pong

I sooo wish I had my camera with me tonight, but instead I'll have to paint the scene for you. We went over to Will's house for pizza and games. Ryan and I wanted to play ping pong, but of course also needed to watch Ezra, so we decided to attach Ezra's high chair to the ping pong table (and gave him his own paddle).

His reaction was delayed just so slightly that his head would look back and forth at who ever just hit the ball, but he never actually saw the ball. It was so adorable that I couldn't really stay too focused on the game, and got several reprimands about how the table is about 12" shorter than where I am hitting the ball to, the ball can only bounce once, etc. oops! :) Oh, I really really really wish I had had my camera.

Here is a photo of what his high chair (and chubby arms) look like, just to help give you an idea:

The Park

Lately I have been trying to take Ezra to the park quite regularly. He LOVES it! His favorite part is probably trying to eat the rocks, which I have to repeatedly re-direct him from doing. But, he is also a huge fan of going down the slide and swinging on the swings! Here are Ezra and Josiah swinging away...I just love how they are both smiling in this photo.

coming soon....

we have some "remodeling" soon to happen in our kitchen. some splashes of paint, and these beautiful gems...

stay tuned...

Extra extra...

Get your sammy bags...

click here

Thanks for the super flattering post Lindsey!

Gabe Zimmerman

I have been to a lot of funerals, probably because I come from a large extended family, a small town, and my line of work as a Child Life Specialist. Today was Gabe's memorial service. I have never been more inspired at a funeral as I was at Gabe's today. Person after person got up to speak about how genuine he was, how quick he was to stand up for others, how he literally died helping others (he was reaching out to help Gabby and Ron who had already been shot when he was killed), how everything he did he did with passion. It made me realize that it doesn't matter how long we live, it's the way we live that will leave an imprint. We have to choose the paths we want to take, not just happen upon them. It is my hope today that I will strive to do all that I do with passion. That I would live my life well. That I would put God, my family, friends, and strangers before housework, the internet, and other petty things that can consume too much time. In the words of Obama, "I want to live up to the expectations of the children in our country who see our world full of endless innocent possibilities". Feel free to remind me of this often.

Ezra Stats

Ezra went for his 9 month well-check on Monday. The boy is growing up sooo fast!
He weighs 19lbs. 11oz. which is in the 25th percentile. I know what you are thinking, "How can a guy with so many rolls only be in the 25th percentile?" I have no idea, but it's what the doctor said. I can't remember his height, but that was in the 50th percentile, and his big ol' noggin' was in the 75th percentile.

He loves to give high fives, and then bursts with laughter, because really it is a funny thing to do, isn't it?
He loves to play follow-the-leader while crawling with Ryan around the house.
He is still into organizing the dvd and game cabinets, as well as his drawer of clothes.
He loves going to the park and swinging in the baby swings and going down the slide.
Eating rocks and dirt are a favorite past time. As is throwing all real food from the table onto the ground, and then looking to see where it went.
The guitar is the one toy that has yet to get old.

One of the things that has Ryan and I laughing so hard these days, is the way that Ezra breathes in while laughing...it's hilarious.

We are falling more and more in love with him every day.

Helping dad...

We were generously gifted with a new dishwasher!!! I never knew how much I disliked hand washing dishes until I didn't have to do it anymore...and found how happy that made me. :)

Here is Ezra helping Ryan with the installation process. I forgot to take a "before" photo, so also make note of the old dishwasher...



Isn't it beautiful!!?!?!?


THANK YOU!!