Happy Moments

We have had some really great days this week and today was an especially great day. I just wanted to write down a couple of the funny/happy things my kids did today.

- Someone was coming to take pictures of Darcy's dance class today (it was an old man and she cried the whole time because she was worried about him being there) so I told her to try and keep her hair nicely done and not to lean her head back in the car. As I pulled away from a stop light I hit the gas a little harder than I meant to and it threw us all back in our seats. I was thinking it was funny, but Darcy gasped and said in despair, "Mom! You got my hair!" She was so sad about it. I hadn't even realized she was actually listening to my direction, but apparently she was taking it very seriously.

- Drew had to work late today, so I was trying to make dinner and keep Ezra happy at the same time and I wasn't doing a very great job. I sat him on the couch and Darcy said, "I can read him a book!" (She really amazes me with how observant, thoughtful, and willing to help she is.) So she grabbed a book and they settled in on the couch together. It was Froggy Learns to Swim, a book from the library we have read to her multiple times. She opened it up and proceeded to "read" the whole book to Ezra. She knew so much of the story, and just how some things were said I was so surprised.

- Not long after, while I was still making dinner, Darcy hung a scarf across the back of the couch and onto the sofa table a few feet behind it and sat the globe on the scarf to make it stay up. They were going back and forth under the scarf and Darcy was singing "London Bridge". Then she knocked the whole set-up over one time which made both of them laugh. So they started setting it up just to knock it over, over and over again. I have never heard both of them laugh so hard playing together, and I can't even tell you how much I loved listening in. A few different times Darcy said, "This is the best time we've ever had!"

- Every night when we say our family prayers Drew asks, "Is there anyone here who would like to say the prayer?" Darcy usually raises her hand immediately, with some competition from me sometimes just to keep her hopping. (She always wins though.) Tonight though, when Drew asked his question Ezra's hand shot up! It made us all laugh so hard, especially Darcy. So Drew told him he could go ahead and say it, and he folded his arms and bowed his head. We loved it! He didn't actually say anything, but at this rate I'm sure it won't be long until he is giving Darcy some serious competition.

These happy moments feel like magic to me.

Happy New Year!

We were thinking we would try to stay home for New Years because we had been in Mattawa so much, but then Drew's parents called and invited us to their party and we just couldn't resist! Ha! They had my family over and some other friends from home over and we played games, talked, danced, and ate. It was a great way to bring in the new year (although I think this is where a good number of all those party goers - including three from our house - got a really crazy flu bug). :)

 Haley is so good at coming up with fun things for the little kids to do. During this game Darcy got to experience a little static electricity!

 My dad always comes to a dance party with his best moves, and Darcy LOVED getting to be his partner.

 Ezra is becoming quite the dancer these days too! Although, as you can probably tell from this picture, he mostly just lets loose with his arms.

New Years day is my brother Nick's birthday which always makes the holiday that much more exciting. He is going to look pretty fancy in this new t-shirt we got him, hu? He was obviously SO excited.

Christmas 2012

Once again, we had a busy but wonderful Christmas. Darcy was so excited about Christmas this year and all the fun that goes along with it. It made it all more magical.

 Darcy was one of the angels this year, and I have to say she made the sweetest angel. Here she is telling Mary the news.

 The whole cast. In case you can't tell Ezra was a sheep. He wore Emily's jacket turned inside-out which was fuzzy on the inside. The past few years the wise men have really been coming up with some amazing costumes! :) Oh and Joseph had some really great hair this year.

 Ezra was excited to find his Cozy Coupe on Christmas morning, and so was Darcy.

 This scooter was Darcy's big present from Santa and she liked it enough, but it was not her first love. She had asked Santa for playdough and silly putty, and those were really the things she was most excited about. Santa should not worry about getting extras in the future. :)

 Matthew looking cute on Christmas morning, and checking out the amazing playdough.

 Darcy and Grandpa playing with the playdough.

 My parents gave Darcy this medical kit that she has used so much since she got it. I am going to be the healthiest person around with all the checkups I've been having!

 Drew got a book on CD called Men of Valor. Obviously he is excited!!

 I just thought this was a funny picture of Darcy trying to show off her new church shoes.

 My Grandma Jensen sent us all these things to quickly make egg McMuffins so that's what we had for breakfast on Christmas morning. They were delicious!

 My mom has a sign in her house that says "Believe" which my dad kind of makes fun of because he says we don't need to just believe everything. So, he made this "Consider the Lilies" sign to replace it which I think was supposed to be a joke, but we though it was actually really pretty.

 At Drew's parents' house Darcy got a hand mixer and I love how excited she is about it here.

 Grandma and Grandpa Christensen got Ezra this roller coaster and it is another big hit with both of the kids! So fun!

 Darcy ready for church in her new church dress.

Luke's Visit

My brother Luke came home for a visit before Christmas. It was the first time since my wedding (7 1/2 years ago) that we have all been at home together and it was so much fun. 

 The boys (or are they men?) :) had some fun on their motorcycles. This is Luke doing a wheelie. Cool, but always slightly scary for me. 

 Ezra had his first motorcycle ride! He was a little worried at first, but quickly changed his mind and enjoyed his freezing ride.

We had a little snow and Emily gave Darcy a few rides on the sled, which Darcy loved of course.

 Sunday after church we decided we needed some siblings pictures. I really do love this picture.

 I thought we needed to do some silly posing, and these pictures kill me! Nick's face in this one makes me laugh so hard every time I look at it!

 Another good one. I think the rest of us were trying to duplicate a funny face Ashley had made in another picture, but apparently Nick didn't get that memo. Once again, his face kills me.

I am just realizing the rest of my pictures are of Darcy and this post is supposed to be about Luke visiting, but I promise, he was here for these events. Haha.

 We were having some snacks one day and Darcy was seeing the big guys stack their meat and cheese a couple layers thick, so she decided to make this for herself. Ha! I would have liked to see her try to fit that in her mouth.

 We all went bowling and then everyone came to our house for dinner. This was Darcy's first time bowling and I could not get over how cute those little bowling shoes looked on her feet.

 Pictures just don't do them justice. 

I don't know why none of the rest of us thought to do this victory dance. :)

Christmas Prep

 We have been busy getting ready for Christmas over the last few weeks. Despite the fact that we have been married over seven years, we got our first ever Christmas tree this year! I love how festive it makes our house feel. Darcy is old enough to be excited about the tree, Christmas lights, Christmas cards, and lots of the other fun things that go along with Christmas, like gingerbread houses! My mom, who is a woman of many talents, crocheted some big snowflakes to go on our tree. We had a family home evening party at our house to starch the snowflakes, and make a gingerbread house. It was so fun to have everyone here, and I love the snowflakes on my tree.

Drew and my dad were in charge of babysitting Matthew and Ezra, and they handled themselves quite well. (except for the multiple times we had to tell them to come get the babies away from the frosting and candy) :)

Darcy loved this activity! Especially the eating part. Everyone was trying to get her to save the gingerbread house so it could be decoration for the Christmas season, but it was basically gone by the next day. (Drew and I might have helped)

We eventually set some chairs up to block the boys. Darcy slipped through the back of the chair, so my dad thought he would try too. He wasn't quite fitting so Darcy tried to help pull him though. We all had a good laugh over this one.

My mom and I hard at work starching the snowflakes.

The finished gingerbread house. It took some work to convince Darcy it would be ok to put a dot of frosting and a little piece of candy on her nose. That just didn't seem right to her.

Our Christmas tree. I spent hours making that popcorn and cranberry garland, but it didn't last long.

A close-up of a snowflake

The reason the garland didn't last.

We have to redecorate the tree every once and a while. This was Darcy working on it one day after dance.

Thanksgiving

We had Thanksgiving with the Jenne's this year. I was in charge of bringing cranberry sauce and making a couple pumpkin pies. I was pretty much worked to the bone! :) This year my mom's birthday landed on Thanksgiving day so it made it even more exciting (especially for Darcy who loves birthdays). My Grandpa made us all weigh in before and after the meal to see how much we had eaten. It's been a while now so I'm a little foggy but I think I ate something like 2.5 lbs. of food. Haha. I was really pushing myself to try to get a good number on the scale! I love Thanksgiving, but it is always hard to accept that it's all over in about 1/2 hour or so. Darcy is just getting old enough to get excited about these holidays and was pretty excited about Thanksgiving which made it even more fun for us. Everyone was so sweet to make a second version of almost all the food that was safe for Ezra, which I really seriously appreciated!!

Mmmm, pumpkin pie!

Almost ready to dig in

Ezra is 15 Months

Ezra is coming up on 16 months now so I figured I should really get this post done. Our cute boy is a ball of energy these days, and he is definitely keeping us on our toes!

Some things we want to remember about Ezra at 15 months:

- 23 lbs. (25th percentile) and 30 inches (also 25th percentile) and I don't know the number for his head circumference but I know it is in the 99th percentile!! Plenty of room to grow some big brains I guess! :) I am happy that he is moving up in percentile with his weight and height.

- He was just retested for a couple of his allergies. The wheat and soy allergies are usually the first to go, so they just tested him to see if they had gone away. Honestly I wasn't surprised to find out he hadn't grown out of them. They will retest him for all of his allergies in a year.

- The thing that is keeping us on our toes most of all is his climbing! He loves to make his way onto the table and throw whatever is on in onto the floor. He also likes to dance up there which is scary. I am amazed he hasn't fallen off yet. We end up with our little chairs up on the table or counters, so he can't use them as his step stools.

- He says a few words these days, but none of them are really consistent. He is getting there though. He says Mama, Dada, Da-y (Darcy), hi, and ball (This is my favorite. He says it like "ba-O" with lots of emphasis on the O.) He also says a lot that we don't understand. :)

- He uses the signs for please, more, and all done.

- He loves to wave good-bye. If he ever hears a car drive up, drive away, drive by, or even just start he will immediately start waving. If someone opens the doors, steps outside, or walks away he starts waving. So when we are out shopping he is doing lots of waving in the parking lot as all the cars are coming and going, and then inside as people are walking passed us. It always makes us laugh.

- He is a pretty content little man, but most of the time he has a really sober expression on his face. It takes some effort to really get him to smile. If you do get him to smile or laugh though, it's especially fantastic!

- He still loves to push things around. He loves to knock over the block towers we build. He loves to throw a ball around. He likes toys he has to sit and figure out.

- He loves clomping around in shoes other than his own.

 The only place I can get him to sit still for a picture is his high chair. Even with a little milk on his shirt he is ridiculously good looking. :)

One of those smiles we love.

Looking smooth in Haley's sunglasses.

During Darcy's dance class Ezra and I get to hand out in the pickup together. He likes being able to roam and get his finger prints all over the windows.

He has had some awesome bead head lately!

Wearing some heels around the house.

Same day, new shoes. Darcy's this time. It takes a real man to pull off sparkly pink shoes!