Ezra's 2nd Birthday

 Our little guy turned two. He took turning two really seriously and exploded into a whole new level of energy and business. We love our two year old busy boy to pieces!

Some things we want to remember about Ezra at two:

- 28 1/2 lbs.
- He really loves things that go (cars, trains, airplanes, bikes, motorcycles, etc.).
- He is a little dare-devil. He loves to test how high he can get and still survive a jump.
- He is a tough little cookie. He handles some pretty intense falls, bonks, and crashes better than I would.
- He loves his daddy soo much! He is really sad when it isn't Drew's night to take him to bed. (We switch every other night.)
- He asks, "Why?" already all the time. He also asks, "What's That?" all day long as he points to everything around him, and expects us to answer. 
- He loves to be outside.
- He loves to hang out inside the pickup in the garage.
- He loves to do whatever Darcy is doing.
- He enjoys testing his limits with us. We will watch him going to do something he's not supposed to do and see him look out the corner of his eye to see if we're watching and how we will react.
- He is now going to nursery without complaint. We love that!

 We blew up balloons and put them in his room so he would wake up to them. Darcy was so anxious for him to wake up that she actually went up without us knowing and woke him up.

 This was the worst part of the day for Darcy. Ezra cared more about having breakfast first than opening his presents, and Darcy just could not understand that.

 He seemed to have his opening presents reaction down. 

 So excited about his new robe and jammies!

 Cute kiddos in their birthday robes.

 We hadn't decided on what to get Ezra for his birthday, so we just went and walked around the toy section in Target with him. He cried and cried when we took him away from these magnetic trains, so we decided they were the ones.

 Darcy and Ezra had a squirt gun fight with his new squirt guns.

 Ezra's sweet nursery teacher, Sister Ezra (pretty cool right?) stopped by with a gift. She brought him a monster truck that he loves and some goodies so for his allergies (People being so thoughtful of his allergies like that really gets me.).

 I made the saddest cake in the world. Haha! Luckily it tasted pretty good, despite how terrible it looked.

 The birthday boy blowing out his candles.

 The party gang.

 Ezra scored an awesome tool set with these glasses. I wish he would wear them all the time for my entertainment.

Once again, I love these glasses!

Christensen Reunion

The Saturday after Darcy's birthday we went to the big Christensen family reunion. It was the first one I have ever been to and I thought it was so awesome! The Christensen family is really an amazing one. So many happy, fun, ambitious, kind, all around lovely people. Drew's family was thinking it might be the last reunion like that and I really hope that isn't the case!

One of Drew's dad's cousins was in charge and she did the most amazing job. She put so much work into all the details and I was amazed.

 There were so many fun things for the kids to do. Darcy spent the whole day with her good buddy Becca, who she is somehow related to. They had a swing set, teeter totter, and another jungle gym.

 For the bigger kids they had these paint ball bow and arrows.

 Some of the crowd. Under one of those tents they had a face painting station.

 

Darcy's fancy face paint.

 They also had a bouncy house and a dunk tank.

 Darcy and Becca having a moment of sadness together because they weren't getting a turn on the big swings as soon as they wanted.

Ezra playing with one of his souvenirs. They had this little photography set-up where you could have get a family picture. 

There was also an amazing fireworks show at the end that we left in the middle of because our kids were so tired and done for the day. Plus they don't like the noise.

Darcy Turned 4!

 Our girlie turned 4! I told Drew we have so much craziness going on this summer that I was not going to do any parties this year, but we still had fun with our little celebrations and I don't think our kids knew the difference.

Some things we want to remember about Darcy at 4:

- She is still really tall for her age.
- She loves to talk talk talk!
- She loves visiting Grandma's, Grandpa's, Aunt's, Uncle's, and cousins. Nothing is better in her mind.
- She likes to help me in the kitchen.
- She loves to have picnics and requests them often.
- She is about to start preschool.
- She still has some serious separation anxiety that we are trying desperately to figure out. She will not go to primary.
- She loves to dance around the house, and she is constantly making up songs.
- She loves family home evening and gets really excited when we tell her it's a family home evening day.
- She loves books and having us read to her.
- Most of the time she is a really great helper and likes to do service. She talks about doing service all the time.
- She played soccer this summer and hated it!!
- She has a little group of friends that she absolutely loves.
- She is getting really good at riding her bike and we are about to take the training wheels off.

We feel so blessed to have this sweet girl in our family and for all she adds to our lives! 

 We were going to be camping at our family reunion on her birthday so she got her presents from Grandma and Grandpa Christensen a little early. She was so excited about these awesome roller skates! She took off immediately, and we got a big kick out of her trying to get it all figured out.

 Grandpa Christensen helped her built her new castle for the first time.

 I woke up really early on her birthday and blew up some balloons and put them by her in our tent. When she woke up she sat up for a second and then laid back down, and then shot back up! She had the sweetest, biggest smile on her face when she realized she had balloons in her tent which meant it was her birthday. She kept asking where they came from and we kept saying we didn't know. It had probably been the birthday fairy. :) She loved it! That small idea was a big hit for her.

 Then I scrounged around and made this beauty to take some pictures. I was pretty proud of my work!

 Blowing out her candles. She requested a pink cake with chocolate and vanilla frosting. I just did what she said and it actually turned out to be pretty yummy.

 We just got her a couple little things and one of them was a bell for her bike. I love this picture of her reaction. Who knew that little thing would be so exciting?

 A robe was the only thing she ever told me she wanted for her birthday. I searched the whole city, and I am certain this was the only one anywhere. I was so relieved to find it! She loved it and still wants to wear it all the time. 

Jenne Family Reunion

 At the end of July we went to the Jenne family reunion. It was our first time camping as a family, and actually the first time we have been camping at all since Drew and I got married over eight years ago. That is crazy to me considering I camped at this very same place pretty much every year of my life growing up. We had fun seeing family we hadn't seen in a long time and letting our kids get nice and dirty every single day. :)

 Really my favorite part of these reunions is sitting around the fire talking and laughing. My dad's sisters are some of my favorite people on earth and I love being around them and their families.

 A Jenne reunion wouldn't be the same without my grandpa spending a good portion of his time chopping wood.

 Ezra and Darcy spent lots of time riding down the ramp of this trailer on their bikes.

 Darcy's turn

 Darcy holding one of the many frogs they found. (I am always happy to see my kids being brave enough to hold these animals I have such an aversion to.) :)

 Exploring

 Ezra exploring the lodge

 My 2nd cousin's son Lauren was there and Darcy had so much fun with him!

 Lauren and Darcy roasting hot dogs. They roasted way more hot dogs than they actually ate.

 My cousin Tate was quite the mountain man! He had his bow there and he was often spotted bounding through the forest hunting for squirrels. We were all very shocked when he actually ended up getting two and roasting and eating them. We all got to have a taste. Yum! :)

 We went to the lake a couple different times which I remember being a lot colder when I was a kid. Shay and Heidi took this cute little raft out for a spin.

 Darcy loved the lake and with this trusty tube she had no fear and would go anywhere.

 I was trying to stay close-ish to where Darcy was and to pass the time I was trying to take awesome pictures with the timer. I found this stump out in the water and I thought it would be perfect to stand on it and look like I was walking on water. The pictures I got that way were only of my back still down in the water because it was too far away from where I set the camera. Eventually Ashley came and just took the picture for me, and the stump was too jagged to put my feet on the top so the walking on water thing didn't work either. It was still a pretty place for a picture though.

 My dad's cousin brought these kayaks that we got to try. I had always wanted to try kayaking and this was my first opportunity. I liked it enough, but it wasn't really Drew's thing. We kayaked across the lake and while we were out there some jet ski's went passed. We liked the smell of the jet ski exhaust and decided we weren't really kayak people. Haha!

 Ezra playing in the water

 This is the only picture of our tent we got. We got this tent from my parents for our wedding and this was the first time we used it!

 We hiked this trail we always hiked as kids and I had forgotten how steep and treacherous it was. I thought it would be fine to bring the kids but it was really too much for them. Luckily Drew and my dad were willing to carry them on their shoulders. The trail was tricky enough that that kind of freaked me out too!

 The trail led down to the freezing cold river. It was so beautiful there!

 Some of my cousins and Ashley early one morning. I love these girls and it was so fun to spend time with them!

 

 I wish this picture showed the real magnitude of the dirtiness of this girls face!

 

 Cracks me up! We were happy to have baths when we got home.