Drew & Darcy

I am playing catch up.

A few weeks ago Drew and Darcy went on their first daddy daughter date. I suggested he take her to this frozen yogurt place close to our house since they hardly ever have anything with milk in it because of Ezra's allergies.

 

This is a big deal people!! Darcy is terrified of motorcycles (and anything that makes a similar noise) and doesn't even like to go near them. Haley and Brian are house-sitting for our family friends who happen to have a couple scooters. We had this idea that since they are quiet maybe we could show Darcy how fun it is to have a ride on that kind of thing. Drew just walked into the house, picked Darcy up without saying anything, took her outside, and they got on the scooter together. She immediately started crying but nothing too serious. After a couple times up and down the road she had calmed down. My family and I were standing by the road cheering for her which helped it be a little less scary for her I think. She didn't want to go for another ride, but maybe someday.

This one doesn't involve Drew except that he was the audience. A couple weeks ago Darcy dreamed up this hilarious little magic show. She came up with her costume, pulled her little table into my room, and got all her props. She did the same routine every time.

 Squirt some water into her mouth and touch the globe a few times (I didn't get a picture of that part)

 

Take her hat off

 Reach into her hat and say "I'm going to pull a rabbit out of my hat."

Pull her "rabbit" out of her hat and yell "TA DA!" (Just look at that face! I can't get enough of it.)

She did this very same routine over and over again and we LOVED it!

Family Pictures

I have been dreaming of having great family pictures taken for a long time now, and last weekend that dream came true! Sounds dramatic, but I'm pretty serious here. I don't know why pictures are such a big deal to me, but these are now one of my most prized possessions. The pictures of my kids about make me cry. My good friend/Drew's cousin's wife Sarah took them for us and did the most amazing job! I honestly can't say enough how much fun it was to have her do this and how much I love how they turned out. Check out her awesome blog http://www.mattawamum.com/.

I was really pretty stressed about the whole thing for the week leading up to this. I was worried about what we should wear, whether the weather would cooperate or not, and whether or not my kids (and Drew and I) would cooperate and be happy. I kept wondering if it was a silly thing to pray about, but I still prayed my heart out that everything would come together and I honestly felt like my prayers were answered. We were going to get together at 6:30, and all day before that it was really windy and cloudy, but right around six the wind died down and the sun came out and the weather was so perfect. It felt like such a tender mercy to me. Then on top of that, both of my kids cooperated wonderfully. YAY! Thanks a million Sarah!

Get ready for picture overload! (Everyone has probably already seen these on facebook, but I had to post them on the blog!)

Oh! And if anyone out there has an opinion about which is the best group shot I would love to hear it, because so far, this is as far as I could narrow it down. It's impossible to choose! I need a big one for my wall.

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

   

 

 

9 Months

Ezra is nine months old now and full of energy. We are loving this fun stage he is in right now.

Some things we want to remember about Ezra at nine months:

- 17 lbs. 4 oz. He isn't gaining weight in huge leaps and bounds, but he is steadily going up so I guess I should just be happy with that. 27 1/2 inches.

- We found out this past Tuesday that he is allergic to wheat, egg, milk, peanuts, and soy!!!! Yikes!! So I'm basically ready to give up on food altogether. There's nothing good left to eat. :) But honestly I'm happy to know what's going on. There is this amazing lady from church who's little boy had the same thing but has just outgrown his allergies (he's four now) so she gave me tons of recipes and even some of her alternative flours and helpful tips. I am so grateful. I have been feeling a little overwhelmed and I almost cried when she dropped all this stuff off. It is pretty likely he will outgrow these allergies so that is something to look forward to hopefully.

- When we can find something he can actually eat, he devours it.

- He is crawling! I LOVE crawling! I think it is the cutest thing. He is so happy to be able to get around on his own. He stays busy for really long stretches of time because he can go find lots of different things to entertain himself.

- He is pulling himself up on everything and loving that too.

- He waves and claps. He will clap on and on and on. We love it.  He also bounces to music.

- He loves to throw his binky or his burp cloth down on the ground when we are holding him over and over. He thinks he is being so funny. He loves to get a reaction. He also likes to yank my glasses off and throw them on the floor (not as cool).

- He goes to bed around 7:30 and wakes up between 6 and 6:30.

- He usually takes two naps. The first is 2 1/2 hours. The second is 1 1/2 hours.

- He wakes up happy in the morning and after his naps fairly regularly! Who knew that was possible? It's so fun to hear him up there talking and playing in his bed. Then he is SO happy to see us when we get him. It is divine!

- He loves the water.

- I asked Drew if there was anything else and he said, "He's just the cutest baby in the world." So there you have it. (I guess everyone probably feels that way about their babies.) :)

 I love this picture. We have another water baby on our hands! This was last weekend playing at Grandma and Grandpa Christensen's.

 Look at those blue eyes! They kill me. Also notice the bruise on his forehead. He's getting bonks and bruises on his head all the time these days. He likes to explore which gets him in trouble sometimes.

 He has started climbing the stairs and it makes him so happy.

 When we go up to play with Darcy's kitchen Ezra spends the whole time with her play food in his mouth. I guess with all his allergies this is the next best thing. I wish I could have a donut too bud!

Happy Moments

I love how much my mom is willing to do to make Darcy happy. She will go up the stairs twenty times, follow Darcy around looking at all the trash cans in our house, read books over and over and over, pretend whatever Darcy wants to pretend, let her make the cooking process take ten times longer, and even sit out in the rain. I am just sad I didn't get a picture of her with the pan over her head which was her original rain cover! :)

We had kind of a wild last couple weeks so we decided to just take it easy this past weekend, and it was so great to just spend a low key day together. We took a walk to the park and it was so fun. We let Darcy hold Ezra so they could go down the slide together.

Ezra's glasses just kill me. I love my boys.

Darcy loves going to the park. The other day she had her first under-dog and she loved it!

The other day I was tired and didn't want to go upstairs to get Darcy's jammies, so I asked her if she wanted to wear one of my shirts to bed. I told her that I used to wear my mom's shirts to bed and she thought it was so cool. She is really into wearing my shirts now.

Jumping picture in my shirt. :)

I did Darcy's hair in these really cute french braid pigtails the other day and she looked so cute! My mom was coming over and I told her she couldn't mess up her hair until my mom saw it. When my mom showed up, saw Darcy's hair and commented on it looking cute Darcy immediately put a shirt on her head and messed it up. So obedient! Haha.

Darcy decided to wear my boots today.

We were hanging out outside today and Darcy was having fun scooting around on Drew's skateboard.

This was just a cute picture of Ezra watching all of Darcy's action outside. This was right after I had put his feet in the sprinkler which was so exciting to him. He was squealing and kicking his legs like crazy.