Ashley's Disney Party

This past Thursday was my sister Ashley's 11th birthday party. (Also a shout out to my nephew Michael who has the same birthday. He just turned 3. Happy Birthday from all of us Michael!!) My mom wanted it to just be a party with family and Haley had the idea to make it a Disney themed dress-up party. It was fun/funny to see the costumes all these silly adults came up with.

Two Cinderellas!!

Drew is seriously such a good sport. He isn't afraid to wear these obnoxious costumes I dream up no matter how silly he looks. :) Everyone got a kick out of this particular costume. In case you aren't familiar with the movie, he is Mickey Mouse in Fantasia. I made that really professional looking hat with paper right before the party, and he wore my robe. Haha.

Nick might never forgive me for posting this picture. Do you know who he is? Gaston from Beauty and the Beast! We laughed so hard when he came in, and he didn't last long in his costume.

The whole group: Me-Belle, Drew-Fantasia Mickey, Ezra-Sher Khan, Ashley-Cinderella, Darcy-Cinderella, Matthew-Rabbit, Haley-Piglet, Brian-Winnie the Pooh, Nick (no longer dressed-up)-Gaston, my mom-Cruella, my dad-Woody

Ashley with her birthday cupcakes. My mom spent all morning slaving over these things. They were adorable!

7 Months & the ER

Some things we want to remember about Ezra at 7 months:

- 15 lb. 13 oz. We went back to see if Ezra had gained weight over the last month, and much to my dismay he was actually down an ounce. I am so confused. Now I am really trying to stuff his face all day long. Once again, I didn't pay attention to his length because I was distracted by his weight.

- He is getting to be a really good sleeper again. He has been taking longer naps during the day and sleeping all night.

- He is such a content little guy most of the time. I can just lay him on the floor after he eats and he will play happily by himself for quite a long time. That is REALLY handy for me.

- He is rolling around the room now.

- He sits up really well.

- He has his two bottom middle teeth.

- He had his first trip to the ER this week. Time for the story.

Wednesday night, after finding out Ezra hadn't gained weight like he was supposed to, I decided to try giving him some formula again. He actually drank a little right at first and I was so excited, but then he changed his mind and started crying about it. Then I fed him a little and then tried the formula again. After going back and forth like that a few times he was getting really worked up and mad at me. I gave up and stood up with him, but then he threw up and it seemed like it was mostly mucus. Then I noticed his voice sounded a little hoarse and then a minute later his breathing started getting a little raspy. Over the next five minutes or so it gradually got worse and worse until he was kind of gasping for air. I was trying to figure out what to do and I was vigorously patting his back trying to help him breathe. After a couple minutes of that I started really panicking and then crying when I looked at his face and he really looked like he wasn't getting enough air and his eyes looked so scared. I hate picturing it. It suddenly dawned on me that our neighbor who we only know a little bit had told me she is a nurse. Even though it was almost ten I had Drew run over there. She came running back with him with her stethoscope. She was so wonderful and sweet and I am so grateful for her. She checked him, but said she could hear what she needed to hear without the stethoscope and that we should take him to the ER right away. She thought it might be RSV which is going around right now. Luckily for us my Aunt Karen happened to be staying with us and so she stayed home with Darcy while we headed out.

I held Ezra while we drove and pounded on his back while I prayed out loud that he would be ok. The roads were mostly empty and we got to the hospital pretty fast. Even by the time we got there his breathing seemed to be a little better. We were admitted quickly which I am so grateful for because I know sometimes it can be crazy there. They stuck something way up his nose to check him for RSV which he hated of course. They told us the results would be back in twenty minutes. While we were waiting Drew gave him a blessing. Then Ezra had his blood drawn and some x-rays done. He was falling asleep off and on through all this and his breathing was getting better and better even though they hadn't done anything for it. We sat in the waiting room for a couple hours before I finally got brave enough to ask a nurse if they had forgotten about us. That nurse, who was so sweet to us, said they hadn't forgotten us and that they were waiting for the results of all the tests, but then she started looking into what was taking so long. She discovered that the blood they had drawn originally had coagulated so they hadn't been able to use it. That was a little frustrating because we had been waiting there forever and they hadn't even bothered to call and tell us they couldn't use the blood they had drawn. So then they had to poke his finger and squeeze out enough blood to fill two little vials. It took a while and Ezra was pretty sad about it, but of course he survived.

Around 2:30 in the morning the doctor finally came in and told us all the results had come back normal. They assume that when he was crying while I was trying to get him to eat he inhaled some of his mucus or saliva or something which made it so he couldn't breathe very well for a little while, but that everything is ok now. By the time we left his breathing was back to normal and he was fast asleep.

We had a pretty intense moment there, but now everything is totally fine. Our nurse neighbor came over the next morning to see how Ezra was doing and told us they had been praying for him all night. She was really so sweet and amazing, and luckily I had made some cookies the night before that I got to send home with her. I am so grateful for all the help we received during this scary little moment.

It was a long night and Drew fell asleep on the bed while I was holding Ezra. I was falling asleep with him in my arms and was worried I would drop him so I put him up on the bed with Drew.

Making his way across the room.

His two little teeth. It is impossible to get a clear picture of those little guys!

Ezra and Darcy hanging out together.

Park

The other day we had some really beautiful weather so we headed to the park with our friends.

These Days

This is what's happening around here these days. No pictures. Boo.

- Drew has been building. I saw an entry bench on Pinterest I liked. I showed it to him. He made it in a couple hours. Wow! I painted it and I love it. I will post pictures eventually. Then he made storage shelves for the garage. Another wow! It is so nice to have the garage feel more organized. Now he is working on extending our cement slab in our back yard. Man he is handy!

A few weeks ago Drew got a new job within his job. He is enjoying having something new to do, and it's giving him extra work and keeping him busier which he appreciates.

- I have been decorating the house a little here and there. Drew helped me (well maybe he did most of it) put up a big picture frame collage in our long hall. I haven't gotten all the pictures printed yet, but when I do I will post pictures of that too. I love that we finally have things on our walls. It makes our house feel so much homier. (Is that a word?)

I had a major breakdown last week for a few days. Being a mom is just really hard sometimes, ya know? Especially when I feel so tired all the time. I thought I might just go crawl in a hole for a bit there, but then I started reading Sister Hinckley's book Glimpses and it pulled me out of my funk. She was such an amazing woman with the most incredible perspective and attitude. I want to be like her.

- Darcy has become an entertainer. I made up and taught her a song to help her learn to spell her name and she likes to sing that song and dance along. She expects clapping when she's done. Then she does a hilarious curtsy. She loves to turn on different songs on my keyboard and dance. She could dance forever. She prefers to have Drew and me dance with her and it can get pretty wild sometimes. :) She has learned from us and has started saying, "I like your moves mom/dad!" She cracks me up.

She still has her moments of course, but she's starting to be really obedient. It is so refreshing to tell her to do or not to do something and to have her listen to us. It's amazing! She is also getting really good about saying "please" and "thank you" (more like "sank you").

We had some great neighbors move into the house behind us and Darcy has been playing with them as much as she can and loving it. I love watching her learn how to interact and play with other little kids. They do the cutest and funniest things. She had her first race the other day and had no idea she was supposed to be in front, but she laughed the whole time they ran and almost fell over she was laughing so hard.

Oh and one more BIG thing about Darcy. She is officially a nursery-goer! I bribed her with ring pops and it was the right thing to do. :) She still cries when we leave her initially, but calms down quickly and then she even has fun! YAY! It really is a huge relief.

- Ezra is supposed to be gaining weight so he is getting stuffed with food all day. According to my scale he still isn't really gaining weight though and that kind of freaks me out. He goes to the doctor next week to be weighed so I guess we will see then if anything has changed.

He is starting to have a little separation anxiety and is pretty attached to his Mama at the moment. He will let other people hold him without any problem, but if I leave the room and come back he starts whimpering for me. He also loves to give kisses and slobber all over my face. I love it too actually. He is such a good snuggler.

He is sitting up and he has two teeth! I think more are on the way. He still scratches his head when he gets mad and if we let him cry for too long in his bed we will find him with blood on his head because he scratches so much. Not cool.

He is popular with the ladies. They can't get enough.

Valentine's Day

I have seen lots of things around (mostly on Pinterest) about 14 days of Valentine's and I thought it would be fun to give that a try this year. We didn't end up doing things every day but we had some days with lots of things and I thought it was really fun to make Love Day a big deal. Darcy is confused now though, because four days later she is still wishing us a happy Valentine's Day.

Some of our days I don't have pictures of:

-Drink strawberry milk
-Watch a romantic movie and have chocolate covered-strawberries
-Make cards
-Make lists of the things we love about each other
-Put hearts on the wall that say "I love you" in different languages
-Heart-shaped sandwiches
-Read and eat conversation hearts
-Dance to love songs
-Lipstick kisses on the mirror and cheeks(didn't do it)
-Foot rubs (didn't do it either)

I saw this fun idea on Pinterest to make mailboxes for everyone to put our Valentines in.

One day in the middle of all this when Drew was gone playing racquetball I was reading a blog about this young married couple who wrote these really sweet love notes to each other all the time. They were trying every day to make sure their spouse knew they loved them and working really hard on their marriage. When Drew got home I was telling him we needed to be more like that and how I thought their notes were so great. Then he asked me if I had ever looked in my mailbox since I had made them, and I said no but of course I went and looked. He had written me two very sweet love notes. It actually made me cry (I had had a rough day and was emotionally compromised at that point.) :) It was so sweet!! A good love note can go a long way!

One of the things on our list was to make and decorate sugar cookies. I wish I could say it was a really awesome thing to do together, but it was mostly too messy for me to handle.

Darcy got a little dough, rolled it out, and found the tiny cookie cutter to make these little beauties! She really decided to do it all on her own.

I was going to make pink pancakes, but Drew asked for waffles instead. I am not good at taking pictures of food, but these waffles were pink, I put a little red food coloring in the peaches, and the whipped cream was pink too.

Another day we had eggs in a blanket with a heart-shaped hole for the egg.

On Valentine's Day I SLAVED to make this homemade heart-shaped meat raviolli with tomato basil and cream sauce. I don't have the pasta attachment for my kitchenaid so I had to roll it out by hand and it took forever. It was yummy though!

Another thing on my list was to take a family "love" picture. (Really just a family picture) We just took it with our timer so it's not the best, but I am pretty happy with it. In the very first picture everyone was looking at the camera! Amazing! Unfortunately I ruined it with a crazy face. Sooo...I sent a couple pictures to Haley and she swapped my head! Awesome right?! I think YES!

Overall it was a fun, but exhausting day!


Happy Valentine's Day

Love, Us

Ezra is 6 Months!

Half a year already? WHAT?!

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

- 15 lbs. 14 oz. He lost almost a pound over the last couple months and I am totally shocked! I feel so bad. I never thought I would have this issue. So now I am going to be trying to feed him extra and try some formula (even though I don't think he will take it). I didn't even catch how long he was because I was so shocked about him losing weight. He went from the 75th percentile to the 10th percentile. Sad.

- He is still such a happy boy. He loves to have people come talk to him.

- He rolls from his belly to his back and on to his sides from his back.

- He has been trying more baby food. He seems to really prefer the vegetables. The other day I made butternut squash for the family and mashed some up to give to him and he couldn't get enough!

- We love to watch him and Darcy interact. They love each other so much and it is so cute to watch!

- He still spits up like crazy. Booo!

- He is a cuddler and I absolutely LOVE IT!!

At Ezra's six month checkup today all the sweet nurses were telling him he was such a handsome boy...and I have to agree! Just look at that sweet face and those big blue eyes!

Drew took Ezra outside this afternoon and even though it was cold out there he was loving it!

Having some carrots.

Drew took this gem today. I love to have these pictures with my babies!

I just thought this picture really showed how much Darcy and Ezra have matching eyes.

Solution

For the past few weeks I have been having A LOT of rough days. I think it's mostly because Darcy is a two year old and she is testing limits, and she is one stubborn little lady if she feels like being that way. So, we are having to do lots of disciplining which puts a damper on our days. Anyway, I was having a rough time and I was mad at myself for not enjoying my days as a mom more. Laying in bed the other night I came up with this idea. I thought I would share it in case it might be helpful for someone else too. I decided to start a journal that I write in every day and I list the great things the kids did during that day. Only good things. At the end of a hard day it really helps to be able to look back and see how many good things actually happened that day, and I don't go to bed feeling like that day was a bust. It has really helped me!

Here are some things my kids did lately that I loved:

- Darcy and I were having fun together and she asked "You happy Mom?" And I really was.

- Darcy and I were both giving Ezra tons of kisses and it made him and Darcy both laugh.

- For the first time, without being prompted, Darcy randomly came and gave me a hug and said, "I love you."

- While I was Visiting Teachings I got to hold Ezra while he slept (I never do this) and I could barely handle how sweet his baby face was.

- After I told Darcy how to put her doll's diaper back on, she came and instructed me on how to put Ezra's diaper on.

- Ezra was so excited to see Drew when he got home from work. He was thrashing around with excitement.

- When I was done folding the laundry, Darcy walked over and grabbed her pile and took it up to her room without me asking.

- We were riding stick horses and Darcy named hers Towel.

- We went on a stroller walk and Ezra was so happy the whole time (this was big because Ezra is teething and has been pretty cranky).