Ezra James' Blog

2011-02-22T13:40:00.003-08:00

Snowpocalypse 2011 from Ryan Valdez on Vimeo.

2011-02-02T16:25:00.001-08:00

Ezra's blog is moving! Follow updates at Cowtown Camera Girl's site...

2010-12-26T13:40:00.000-08:00

Christmas 2010

Ezra James, 3 years old

2010-12-26T13:36:00.000-08:00

Cousins

December 2010

Click here to see more.

2010-12-26T13:29:00.000-08:00

Elvis the Elf

Playing a little catch-up today. Elvis the Elf was at our house for the last few weeks. Click here to see more...

2010-12-23T08:43:00.000-08:00

12-2-10

2010-12-22T11:25:00.000-08:00

Our Gingerbread Houses

Click here to see more.

2010-12-17T09:12:00.000-08:00

LOVE...

2010-12-16T11:28:00.000-08:00

Halloween 2010

3 Years Old

This blog. This poor neglected blog. I always have such good intentions. :0)

We have had a super busy fall. There was Ezra’s first soccer season, Logan’s Route 66 run, Cowtown Camera Girl sessions, Sean & Brittany’s Vegas wedding, Eric’s Surprise birthday party in Glenrose, Halloween, Thanksgiving, birthday parties, trips to the park, zoo, stockyards, & science museum, and lots & lots of hanging out time with our family. Life is good. AND as of tomorrow afternoon I will be off from work for two full weeks. Life will be really, really good.

So, back to my good intentions. Going to try to show off some of our fall pictures. First up, our Halloween. Ezra was a cowboy this year so we decided to go check out the Stockyards. Ezra and I did a little exploring in the stables and back areas. We met some cowboys who were so very, very nice to us. I'm always so impressed with how nice people can be to children. These guys were very sweet. Ezra was in heaven.

Then Logan met up with us for the Fort Worth Herd. He ran from our house to the Stockyards so that's why he's in running gear. Yes, that's how we roll sometimes.

Here are those super nice cowboys we met. The guy on the right is named JR. He's a rodeo clown. Notice the brace on his knee? He recently had reconstructive knee surgury. He also had a big ol' black eye. And he has had his nose broken several times. They told us this horse was the tallest horse in the stockyards. I believe it.

And one last shot at our house later that evening. This was right before trick-or-treating on our street. All in all a fantastic Halloween for a 3 year old cowboy! It's still hard for me to believe he's three years old....so much bigger now than he was in 2009, 2008, and 2007.

2010-11-15T08:50:00.000-08:00

Ezra Celebrates Dada's Birthday from Ryan Valdez on Vimeo.

2010-11-11T11:24:00.001-08:00

Untitled from Ryan Valdez on Vimeo.

2010-11-08T14:14:00.000-08:00

Fall Soccer 2010

Our first attempt at a team sport. I don't know how much soccer was really played but we still had a good time. Ezra's team was made up of 10 three year olds -- five of which were in his class at school. It was fun to hanging out with those families and we're looking forward to trying out t-ball (honk ball) in the spring with them again!

2010-10-27T19:28:00.000-07:00

Just a few more days. We are excited!

2010-10-26T15:33:00.000-07:00

A little project for me and my little helper.

Click here to see more.

2010-10-14T10:49:00.000-07:00

Fredericksburg

September 25, 2010

I spent a weekend in Fredericksburg last month with Shana, Lynda, and Cathy. A very relaxing three days. We visited a few vineyards....

We stayed at a really cool B & B....

And ate lots of yummy food all weekend long.

I really should take trips like this more often. :0)

2010-10-14T10:36:00.000-07:00

If You Give a Moose a Muffin

2010-10-07T13:33:00.000-07:00

Hello new blog header!

I've been meaning to update this blog for a while now. It's a hard thing though -- saying goodbye to our little "Day in the Life of Ezra James" blog header. Sounds silly I know. Logan started this blog right before Ezra was born and then our blog header went up shortly after. We switched out the picture one time early on and it's been the same ever since. Here we are now three years later so I think a face lift was needed. This new one is still under construction. I'm not completely sold on it but I think it's a good start. I snapped these shots of Ezra last Saturday night. A quick two minute photo shoot. All that was required was a piece of gum -- Ezra's new favorite thing. Give him some gum and he'll do just about anything for you. He was going to a wedding with Nanna & Pop while Logan & I headed out to dinner and a movie. (Nice!) I heard that he was a dancing it up that night. Of course I would expect nothing less than someone who wears green chucks on the dance floor. Thanks for the new shoes Aunt Bess!

2010-10-02T04:27:00.000-07:00

Me & Ezra

July 2010

I've been doing lots of editing catch-up this week and came across these pictures that I never shared from this summer. These are so very, very special to me. One, how sweet does my child look? Ok, I'm a little biased I know. Two, I'm actually in the pictures. Three, both of these locations are right by our house. We go to both of them all the time and have fun memories. Four, this was in the middle of summer. LOVE summer and this was a GREAT one! Five, I love how incredibly sweet Ezra is these days. We'll be in the middle of something or even just hanging out and he'll randomly look up at me and say "Mama, I love you." He says it with the biggest smile on his face. Melt my heart. :0)

A big thank you to Kristen of Anna Kristen Photography!

2010-09-27T14:16:00.000-07:00

Mister Big Face

You'll get this one if you've read Hi, Cat by Ezra Jack Keats. It's one of Ezra's favorites. I'm sure we've read it several hundred times by now. Ezra could tell it to you word-for-word. He does that with several of our books. It's quite impressive. I can only imagine how proud I'll be once he's really reading the words on the pages. :0) His version of Mister Big Face was all his idea. I just helped a little with the scissors. LOVE his imagination. We are seeing lots of things like this these days and it makes me smile big!

Love, love, love this little boy!

2010-09-25T04:49:00.001-07:00

2010-09-22T09:10:00.000-07:00

2010-08-31T03:33:00.000-07:00

Happy 3rd Birthday Ezra James!

Three years ago -- August 31, 2007:

August 29, 2010 -- Ezra's 3rd birthday party:

2010-08-29T10:31:00.000-07:00

August 2010 - 101 miles for me!

I did it. I ran 101 miles this month. And I feel fantastic! I'll probably stick to more reasonable 15-20 miles per week now that I'm back at work but for this August I am happy that I achieved my goal. And since posts are always more fun with pictures here are a few of someone who I'm always chasing around. He's doing the exact opposite of running -- eating Dales Donuts. But hey, it's all about balance right? Run 101 miles and you can really enjoy them. :0) Would you believe that we've never taken him for donuts until this past month? A fun little Saturday morning treat for sure. He digs them!

Ezra's 3rd birthday party is this afternoon. He is EXCITED!!!

2010-08-28T04:40:00.000-07:00

El Tesoro

8.7.10

We went out to El Tesoro a couple weeks ago. Logan is on the board for Camp Fire and was one of the volunteers for their De La Vida end of camp staff luncheon. So we headed out to Granbury for a morning of prepping food (Logan) and exploring the campgrounds (me and Ezra.)

Logan and Ezra - August 2010 - Ezra, almost 3 years old

And a little comparison shot from the last time we were there.

Nell and Ezra -- August 2008 -- Ezra, almost 1 year old

Back to 2010. Logan and Ezra walking across that same bridge.

We dropped Logan off and then Ezra and I went to explore. I have fun memories of trips to El Tesoro with my Bluebirds troop growing up. It would have been early elementary school for me -- probably 2nd-4th grade. These cabins still look the exact same to me as they did way back then.

2010-08-22T17:18:00.000-07:00

Week Three = 82 miles

18 miles and one week left to reach my goal. It's definitely harder to get in miles now that I'm back to work. If I could only add a few hours to the day. I wish. First day of school for Fort Worth kiddos tomorrow. Good luck to everyone in the morning. :0)

And a few pictures of my kiddo...he digs Logan's new Ipad. He looks so big to me in these pictures. And speaking of big, our success story of the week is that Ezra has made it a full week of sleeping in big boy underwear at night. No more pullups. That's the last piece of the puzzle for us on this whole potty training adventure. Now that he's made it a full week with no accidents in the nighttime I'm going to officially declare him potty trained. Right before his 3rd birthday. Big success for us!

2010-08-17T10:48:00.000-07:00

Dining Room Makeover!!!

It’s done! I am LOVING our new dining room! They say a room should rise up to meet you. This one definitely does and I love spending time in it! It’s where we eat most of our meals now and also where I do most of my editing. So alot of time is spent in this room. It took a little longer than expected to pull it all together but I think it was worth the wait. A big thank you to my amazingly talented sister Mary Bess for her decorating skills and guidance through this makeover.

The walls are a smoky gray color. They were inspired by the back wall at Simple Things. Love that store.

Chandelier – This one of my favorite things in our house. It's a wrought iron and crystal chandelier that belonged to my great Aunt Frances Short Carvill. It was given to her by her brother Tom Short who lived in California. Purchased sometime in the 60's or 70's and then eventually given to my mother. My mom gave it to us when we moved into our old house 7 years ago. I have always loved it and especially do now that it belongs to us.

Buffet – I found this back in April when I was in Austin with Shana for her bachelorette party. It came from a really neat store on South Congress called Uncommon Objects.

Mirror – I got this one a few years ago for free on a random trip to Goodwill. I was dropping off some donations at a drop off station when another guy was trying to donate this giant mirror. The only problem for him was that that particular station wouldn’t take large mirrors. So his problem became my new mirror! It was a yucky gold but I still liked it. He said it had been hanging in his mother’s house since 1978. For our new dining room I painted it white, then light blue, then black, and then roughed up the edges with sand paper. Walla!

Table, Chairs, & Bench – These are new from Crate & Barrell. The table is actually our second table to get this summer. The first one I purchased was an antique Mexican door table and it was delivered at the end of May. It was really neat but once we had it in the room we discovered the top was warped and was going to need a major rehaul to actually be functional. So for almost two months we had this one there while we were figuring out to do. Talk about some major buyer’s remorse on my part. Luckily I was talking to the owner of a different antique store here in Fort Worth and he suggested that I ask the store to return it. And sure enough they did. Nice! And then about a week later I found this one at Crate & Barrel. This new one is perfect.

Curtains – These were sewn by my sister Mary Bess. Have I mentioned how good my sister is to me?!?! THANK YOU MB!!! Curtain rods are from Pottery Barn.

Life is Beauty Full – I got this last year from Sugarboo Designs. This was the very first thing I purchased at our new home. Just love it!

China Cabinet & Rug – we’ve had both of these for a while now at the old house and new. In my original makeover plan I thought I was going to look for a new cabinet and rug. But after putting everything together I kind of like the way they look so they might stick around for a while.

And here's the before picture from right before we moved in last June:

And a few pictures of our dining room this past year before the makeover. These were all taken last summer/early fall right around the time when Ezra turned two years. I think this room has come a long way!

2010-08-15T18:15:00.000-07:00

Goodbye Summer 2010

Heading back to work tomorrow. I'm a little bit sad about this because it has been such a relaxing and laid back summer. Two full months of pretending to be a stay-at-home-mom has been really nice. I know that I have it really good (two months off of work is AMAZING! I know that most of the work world doesn't get this and I am truly grateful to have the awesome job that I have) but I am sad that I'm heading back to reality tomorrow. I will miss the slow pace we have had at our house and the flexibility of everything. I do not look forward to our school mornings starting up again tomorrow. That hour or so in the morning of trying to myself (and Ezra) ready, get out the door, get Ezra to daycare, and to make it to work on time always has my stress level super high. If you happen to see me in the morning between 8:30-9:00 you know what I'm talking about. That's the time that I'm always booking it. Hopefully we'll do better this year though. Preparation is key and tonight I have everything ready!

On a happy note though here are a few pictures from a couple weeks ago of Ezra James. One of his new things this summer has been baseball. We pretty much skipped right over t-ball after a day or two of the T and have been strictly baseball now for the past two months. I can't believe we waited this long to play. Yes, our Idaho cousins would be disappointed in us for starting this late. I will always remember how Topher was pounding the balls down the street at his 2nd birthday party many years ago. And I just know that one day I will be sitting in a major league park watching my nephew play ball! His Uncle Logan will be his agent of course. :0) Ezra loves baseball! We have played it many, many, many mornings this summer. Looking forward to starting him in a t-ball league. I think it will be spring?

And one last note about summer -- I have been super dooper productive this week. Why does it always work out this way. Wish I was like this all the time. AND today I put the last finishing touches on our dining room makeover. Pictures coming in the next day or two. I just need to find a "before" picture to share. The transformation is amazing!

2010-08-13T18:35:00.000-07:00

Week Two : 60 Miles

I've now logged 60 miles of my goal of 100 for August. Run 60 miles in 13 days and you'll feel pretty darn good about yourself. I do! This summer marks my 8th year of consistently working out. For 8 years now I've been doing some form of running, weights, or yoga. And a lot of that time I've had a combination of all three. (Love it when that happens!) It all started the summer that my husband was studying for the bar. Exercise has been a big part of his life ever since he lost 60 pounds (crazy, right!) Pretty much the only breaks he took from studying that summer were for working out so if I was going to see him it had to be working out with him at the gym. That's when it started. And it's just kind evolved since then. Sure I've had moments where I've taken a week or two off but besides those few times exercise has been a consistent part of my life and for that I feel great! So if you are reading this and don't exercise then you should start. It will change your life. And back to my 60 miles this month.... still feeling good but more tired this week. My legs are definitely feeling it. I can only imagine what this could do for me if I could do this all the time. I wish I could. It's a big push for me though so one month is a good goal for me now. I'm heading back to work on Monday. Back to the real world. I've definitely been spoiled this summer. :0)

2010-08-09T13:33:00.000-07:00

A few shots from our recent trip to our sweet little neighborhood park. We were there about 7:30 a.m. and it was already crazy hot. It didn't bother Ezra in the least though. He always wants to be outside. :0)

2010-08-06T13:45:00.001-07:00

30 miles this week

I feel GREAT! 70 more to go. And yes, I realize I picked the hottest month of the year to do this. Four of my runs were done at 6:00 a.m. and two were done on the treadmill. I loathe the treadmill but a girls got to do what a girls got to do.

2010-08-01T13:08:00.000-07:00

100 Miles in August

As I was running this morning I decided I need a new goal. So here it is: this month I'm going to run 100 miles. Not in one day like my husband but spread out over 4 weeks. 25 miles a week sounds doable. I've had weeks with high mileage before. And now that El Scorcho is finished I need something to try. Marathons are out for me.....too much involved in training for four months when you've got a family, full time job, part time photography business, and chasing around an almost 3 year old. So I'll try this one and see if I can do it. 6 miles down, 94 to go.

And since this post is about running, here's a shot of me and my sister Francie at El Scorcho Quatro. My first (and probably last) El Scorcho to run. A very tough race for this girl.
It looks like I'm going fast in my finish line shot. I wasn't. :0)

2010-07-31T12:24:00.000-07:00

July 4, 2010

Can you see this next one? I LOVE so many things in this picture.

p.s. - Can you see Logan's belt buckle in the golf shots? It's HUGE! But if you run 100 miles you need to show off your bling every once in a while. I like it!

2010-07-31T12:19:00.000-07:00

The Valdez Men

Father's Day - June 2010

Three generations of Valdez men. This picture cracks me up by the way. I don't think they were expecting me to come around the corner with my camera. But it is real. Any guesses as to what they were doing? I'm sure it will only take one.

2010-07-28T11:19:00.001-07:00

IPhone Summer Pics

Ezra James -- almost 3 years old

Fort Worth Zoo

Golf at Ridglea

Our backyard. Notice the circles? I think it's a sign of genius of course. :0)

Fort Worth Science Museum

Sweet little park in our neighborhood.

Swimming at Ridglea

Afternoon naps at our house are a BIG struggle these days. Ezra will only go to sleep for me now on the floor with me laying right beside him. And that doesn't guarantee a nap. Sometimes it doesn't happen. I'm going to be one sad woman when they are gone completely. I feel like it's coming soon. :0(

Our neighborhood 4th of July parade.

Ezra's "Handy Manny Smoothie." Our breakfast smoothie every day for the past 7 months now….1 cup spinach, 1 cup carrots, banana, 1 cup frozen raspberries/blueberries/strawberries, protein, chia, ½ cup orange juice, and lots of water. Still having to sneak veggies in but at least we get a few in every morning to start the day. Ezra drinks a cup of this and I get the rest. And Logan makes one too. Good deal for everyone!

Trying so hard not to eat these cupcakes for Logan's birthday.

And for Logan's birthday we went to see Better Than Ezra while Ezra stayed with Nanna & Pop for the night. Good stuff!

2010-07-27T12:11:00.000-07:00

I just blinked and summer is almost over. It’s amazing how quickly time flies. Life has been pretty darn good these days. We have had the most laid back summer. Love it! Here are a few things that we have had going on….

Ezra finished his swimming lessons last week. It’s amazing what six lessons will do for a toddler. He loves the big pool and won't have anything to do with the baby pool anymore. I have a feeling next summer he’ll be out there swimming across the pool all by himself. For now he can swim a few strokes (mostly doggie paddling but it’s a start), hold his breath under water, swim down to the bottom to grab toys, go all over the pool on a noodle, and he LOVES to jump off the diving board and go down the giant slide.

We wrapped up our TCU music lessons last week. This was our third summer to do those. This year Ezra was the oldest child in the class. He can do so much now at these classes. All three of us enjoyed it quite a bit.

Let’s see…what else….we've had lots of trips to the science museum, the zoo, Ezra’s first omni movie. We’ve also been playing a lot of golf this summer. Ezra digs it! He plays with us and also with Nanna & Pop when he goes to their house.

Speaking of Nanna & Pop….I have AWESOME in-laws. Ezra spends the night at their house 2-3 Saturday nights each month. It rocks! He loves it and we do too.

Ezra has been going to school part time this summer so that’s been nice. On my days home alone I’ve been doing lots of house projects and lots and lots of editing. Lindsey and I have shot 5 weddings together this summer so that’s definitely kept me busy. It’s amazing how much time goes into editing a wedding. Now I know why photographers charge so much. Time. It’s all about your time. And when you have a toddler your time is very, very, very valuable.

El Scorcho Quatro was this past Saturday night. My incredible husband did an amazing job as always running the show. (Shout out to JBalls too!) This was my first ever El Scorcho to run. I’m usually photographing all the crazy runners but this year I decided to try it myself. 15.5 miles in the middle of the night, in July, in Texas is not an easy run. It was definitely a challenge for me and I have a new appreciation for people who can run in the middle of the night. Normally that distance isn’t too big of a deal for me. I’ve run much further many times and it’s been fine. But the time of day was what got me on this one. I finished though. It wasn’t pretty but I finished and then headed home a little after 3:00 a.m. to crawl into bed. It might be my one and only El Scorcho to ever run. :0)

We’re starting to get geared up for fall. Logan plans to run another 100 mile race so he’s started training for that. Ever wonder what mileage you start training at for a 100 mile run? This weekend he’ll do a 19 mile run. And that’s at the beginning of his training. Pretty amazing, right? I think so. I have a pretty amazing husband.

And since blog posts are much better with pictures here are a few more that go along with my last blog post almost two months ago. We took these pictures on our wedding anniversary, June 7th. Every year we always take a picture on our anniversary. This was our seventh one to take. It's amazing how many different looks I've had over this short amount of time. Logan always looks the same to me but I definitely change. Anyway, it's a fun little thing we have going in the back of our wedding album that we add a new picture to every year. Thank you for the idea of doing this six years ago Mary Bess! And thank you to Jason for snapping these for us this year!
In our attempts to take a picture of just me and Logan we gave Ezra one of his favorite treats, an Otterpop. Such a simple little thing but man he loves them! We also told him that we needed him to be good so we could take a picture. So as Logan and I sat down for our shot he plopped himself down in the grass just a few feet away and happily enjoyed his treat. What a good kid. He cracks me up sometimes! :0)

More summer pics to come....hopefully...

2010-06-08T13:00:00.001-07:00

June 7, 2010

2010-06-07T13:46:00.000-07:00

June 7, 2003
Seven years today. It's been a pretty darn good ride!

2010-06-03T10:28:00.000-07:00

"I NEEEEEED my bat."

No bat. No problem. He's very resourceful. (And I've got to get those branches down off the roof asap! They are driving me crazy now every time I see them in a picture! I'll be calling TXU next week. They are touching electrical lines so no touching for me.)
Check out all that beautiful grass. I love it! It really was like an obstacle course in our backyard before we put in the grass. Ezra almost lost one of his front teeth back in January when he fell on one of the rocks. I know a fall is still possible but I feel alot better about him playing out there now. We also hope to replace that fence behind Ezra someday. For now though we just replaced the chainlink fence on the other side. Who knew fences were so expensive. Seriously!
WISH I had his eyelashes...

And one more that we like to call the "Tom Corbin" look. If you are in my family you know why. :0) Got to love genetics.

2010-06-02T12:50:00.000-07:00

Our New Backyard!

We finished up our big backyard makeover this past month. No more yucky landscaping, no more giant rocks & boulders, new grass, and a new fence on one side. A much more friendly environment for Ezra to play in and for all of us to enjoy. Here's the after shot:

And here's a before shot from last July:

It’s amazing for me to see the difference in Ezra in these two pictures, taken 10 months apart. He looks so tall to me now. Almost three years old in August. I still can't believe that. And he LOVES to run around in our new backyard!

We are VERY excited about summer coming up. I feel like it's here already even though we still have one week left of school. Lots of fun things going on this summer – music class, swim lessons, and lots of fun thing planned with friends. I’ve already started my to-do list and can’t wait to get started next week. First up, paint our dining room. I finally picked a paint color after about six different samples. After the paint is done all I have left to do is find a new rug and things for the walls. I’ll be sure to post a before and after shots once that room is completed. A big thank you to my wonderful sister Mary Bess for helping me with this project the past couple of months! I am so excited about our new dining room!

p.s. - Second up on my to-do list -- get those branches down off the roof of the garage. The ones you can see in the top picture of this post. Seeing them there reminds me that I need to get that done. Those have been there since the big snow storm back in January. :0)

2010-05-30T12:48:00.000-07:00

How every Saturday afternoon should be spent.

2010-05-21T12:11:00.000-07:00

Shana & Randall's Rehearsal Dinner

5.7.10

2010-05-21T12:07:00.000-07:00

Rehearsal Dinner

LOVE this picture! Lots more to come from rehearsal dinner but I had to share as this one makes me smile big right now. :0)

2010-05-21T11:49:00.000-07:00

Shana's Bridesmaid Luncheon

5.7.10

I'm finally getting a chance to post some pics from Shana & Randall's wedding weekend. First up, Bridesmaid's Luncheon at Ellerbe on Friday afternoon. It was lovely!

Shana & her bridesmaids.....

2010-05-19T13:59:00.000-07:00

"Mama Hold You"

My view every day. Many, many, many times a day. And I love it!

One more of this silly boy. This one totally makes me think of my brother. And yes, that's chocolate on his face again. The boy definitely enjoys chocolate.

2010-05-10T13:16:00.000-07:00

Congratulations Shana & Randall!!!

Ezra's Aunt Poolie & Uncle Dinosaur Randall were married this past Saturday. It was a fantastic weekend and we all had the best time. More pics and updates coming soon but here a few pre-wedding shots from last week. This little dude was the ring bearer in the wedding. :0)

p.s.- If you are wondering....Ezra calls his uncle "Dinosaur Randall" ever since he gave him a dinosaur for his 2nd birthday last August. He just kind of said it one day and it stuck. We love it! And we love Aunt Poolie & Dinosaur Randall!

2010-04-21T13:57:00.000-07:00

Play, play, play. Just about every afternoon you can find our family playing in the backyard. Soccer, golf, basketball, cars & trucks, brooms….you name it…Ezra digs it. I look at these and think he is one happy kid. No big pictures of the yard yet as I’m waiting to show that off. We’re putting in a new fence in a week or two so I’ll be sure to share when that’s up. It’s going to be good!

He still loves this tree....

2010-04-18T05:12:00.001-07:00

"Go into the kitchen Mama so I can stand on the table and not see you."
~Ezra, 2 years 7 months

No picture of Ezra on the table (although I have a feeling it will happen again) but I will share a couple from this past week. Ezra's Aunt Emilie always sends him such wonderful books. She keeps our library collection stocked with fantastic reads! Thank you!!!

p.s. - Doesn't he look so big here!

2010-04-17T03:55:00.000-07:00

MUSCLES!!!

Next time you are around Ezra be sure to ask him to show you his muscles. He is very strong.

He picked this outfit out all by himself. :0)

And he REALLY likes chocolate...

2010-04-15T13:54:00.001-07:00

A little Ezra video from Ryan Valdez on Vimeo.

2010-04-13T12:13:00.000-07:00

Hello!

Hello long lost blog friends! I’m going to try to be better about updating. Here goes…

Life has been crazy busy lately. Two full time jobs, one part time photography hobby/job, two parents who want to exercise way too much, and one super energetic 2.5 year old have all combined to make life feel way too busy. So in that regards we’re trying to slow down a little bit and simplify things at our house. I say “we” but it’s more me than Logan. My little photography business has gotten so busy that I could easily pack every weekend with 2 or 3 sessions so I’ll be cutting back and slowing down a little.

We’ve got several projects going on at our house one of which is our backyard. Last week we (Homero - got to love Homero!) took out all the landscaping that the former owners put in. It was nice but not our style and definitely not good for a 2.5 year old who wants to run around. We planted new grass and now have what feels like a huge backyard. Before it seemed so small since the majority was in flowerbeds. Now all we need to do is a new fence on one side and we’ll be done. Hopefully that will happen in the next few weeks. Ezra LOVES to be outside so I’m excited about having a nice backyard for all of us to hang out in this summer. We're also starting to redo our dining room. We took off doors to the kitchen and are looking for new furniture. I've got a paint project coming as soon as school lets out for summer. Anyone want to help? Anyone? Anyone?

My wonderful sister Mary Bess and her husband BD adopted our cat yesterday. This is BIG for us! We’ve been talking about finding a new home for Socks for a while now but I never really thought I could do it unless we found the perfect spot for him where he would get lots of love. The poor little guy just doesn’t get the love he needs anymore. I never thought I would be one of those people but in reality that’s what happened. Just never enough time for the little guy. Every time Aunt Bess comes to our house Socks loves it. She gives him so much love and attention so I know he’ll be in heaven living at their house. THANK YOU MARY BESS AND BD!!! Another big step in simplifying things around our house. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

And now for a few pictures of our Easter last week….

If you ask Ezra to smile this is what you'll get. I can only imagine what his school pictures will be like some day. :0)

2010-03-31T14:15:00.000-07:00

My two favorite people. Click here to see more.

2010-03-08T08:58:00.000-08:00

I took Ezra to the TCU basketball game Saturday afternoon and snapped a pic with my iPhone of the little dude hanging out with the giant, inflatable horned frog in front of the arena. Going through my iPhone, I came across a bunch of photos I'd taken over the past several months. Time to share!

Enjoying some popcorn just before tip off.

Stylin' on the swing.

"Trust me, I'm a doctor."

Time to go shopping at the Fort Museum of Science and History.

"Bread. I need bread."

Hiking at the Fort Worth Nature Center.

"Ezra, I think you've left the trail."

"Which way is it?"

"I think it's this way."

Good times, amigos.

2010-03-05T13:08:00.000-08:00

Rodeo 2010

Yee Haw!

Click here to see more.

2010-03-04T13:45:00.000-08:00

Fossil Rim

January 2010

What a great way to celebrate Preston's birthday! Thank you Francie & Eric for a wonderful day. Click here to see more pictures from our adventure.

A full day of playing with cousins and animals wore this little boy out!

2010-02-08T12:42:00.001-08:00

Just another day in the life of Ezra James. I LOVE these! Click here to see more.

2010-01-28T13:50:00.000-08:00

Love this little boy!

Click here to see more.

2010-01-19T15:45:00.001-08:00

A big thank you to Robin & Jeff for a wonderful dinner last night at The Japanese Palace! It made a great impression on our picky eater. Who knows...maybe I can even get in a vegetable or two.

2010-01-12T18:09:00.000-08:00

Thanks for the hat Mimi!

2010-01-04T05:29:00.001-08:00

Corduroy! from Ryan Valdez on Vimeo.

2009-12-30T12:23:00.000-08:00

Singing! from Ryan Valdez on Vimeo.

2009-12-25T20:05:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Click here to see some of our Christmas morning.

2009-12-23T08:21:00.001-08:00

2009-11-17T13:10:00.000-08:00

Man's Best Friend

We recently did some puppy-sitting for Nanna & Pop. I think Ezra enjoyed having Maggie at our house for the weekend.

2009-11-04T13:53:00.000-08:00

Halloween 2009

Our little dragon. Two years old.

Enjoying a post trick-or-treat goodie...

And a fun flashback to Halloween last year when Ezra was one.

Click here to see more.

LOVE THIS LITTLE BOY!!!

2009-11-04T10:14:00.000-08:00

A Parade!

Ezra's school had their Halloween parade last Friday. 90+ kids in costumes plus their parents all trick-or-treating around the block. What fun!

Through the McDonald's....

"SUCKERS!!!!" Ezra's favorite. :0)

Ezra's class...

Enjoying one of those suckers...

2009-11-02T09:34:00.000-08:00

Click here to see more of this cutie and his pre-Halloween sillyness.

2009-10-28T13:09:00.001-07:00

I've got a new Cowtown Camera Girl blog!

Just posted some new pics of Ezra in the top post.

www.cowtowncameragirl.com/blog

Or click here to see our little man.

2009-10-19T13:02:00.000-07:00

October 3, 2009

Logan (32), Ezra James (2), Nell (33)

THANK YOU Lindsey for taking these. You are the BEST!!!

2009-10-12T18:53:00.000-07:00

MY HUSBAND RAN 100 MILES THIS PAST WEEKEND!!!

28 hours 53 minutes

AMAZING!!!!

WE ARE SO VERY PROUD OF YOU!

2009-10-05T16:16:00.001-07:00

Big Shoes to Fill from Ryan Valdez on Vimeo.

2009-09-27T12:32:00.001-07:00

Puma and Popcorn

Ezra looooooooooves this shirt. Loves it, loves it, loves it. Well, I guess I should say he loves the puma. He likes to wear it backwards so he can see the puma. It's about five sizes to big for him. I believe it's a kids size small given to us from the guys Fort Worth Running Company. Who knew it would be such a hit. He wants to wear it every day. Not sure what he's pointing to in the first shot but it makes me smile big. :0)

Oh...maybe he's pointing to the shelves that he always wants to climb. He loves those too.

He also loves to eat popcorn with his dad. Ezra knows that one of the rules in our house is that food has to stay in the kitchen or dining room. The only exception is popcorn which is always a special treat!

Mmmm....popcorn! Got to love it!
And Ezra definitely loves it!

I love these two guys. :0)

2009-09-23T04:45:00.000-07:00

A few post-party pics with Elmo. :0)

2009-09-19T18:36:00.000-07:00

Love, love, love, love, love these!!!!

2009-09-19T18:05:00.000-07:00

Birthday Pics - Part 3

A few more from Ezra's party....

Still a few more birthday pics to come. Hopefully it won't take me two weeks to get to them this time. Saving my favorites for last. They are super sweet.

2009-09-10T18:42:00.000-07:00

Birthday Pics - part 2

Batman's cake

More to come...

2009-09-06T06:00:00.000-07:00

Hanging Out with My Friends from Ryan Valdez on Vimeo.

2009-09-03T15:39:00.001-07:00

All We Do is Play! from Ryan Valdez on Vimeo.

2009-08-31T14:01:00.000-07:00

Ezra's 2nd Birthday Party

Ezra, Nell, & Logan

8.30.09

Thank you Randall for taking these!!!!

2009-08-31T13:27:00.000-07:00

Two Years Old

Happy Birthday to our sweet little boy! I still can't believe it. Wow!

Thank you to our wonderful family who celebrated with us yesterday. We are blessed to have so many people who care about our Ezra. I've got lots of birthday party pics to share. Hope to post some later this week.

2009-08-30T07:34:00.000-07:00

Ezra's 2nd Birthday is tomorrow!!!

2009-08-27T19:29:00.000-07:00

"Ezra, Dada, tree, up high."

He loves this!

And I promise we do occasionally put clothes on our child!

2009-08-26T12:31:00.000-07:00

It had to happen eventually…

See this sweet little boy? I snapped these shots of him this morning before school. We had just returned home from our run as a big group of high school students were running down the street. I’m guessing they were from Ezra’s future high school – maybe their cross country team. There were lots of them and they just kept coming. Ezra was enjoying watching them so I set him up a spot to see out the front window. A perfect opportunity for me to eat a quick bowl of cereal. Well, see that little box of raisins in his hand? Ezra loves raisins. Now imagine us in the doctor’s office about one hour later trying to get a raisin out of Ezra’s nose. It was quite traumatic but our wonderful Dr. M was able to get it out. Ezra told me he won’t do it again. :0)

2009-08-22T21:08:00.000-07:00

More Adventures of Batman

I'm going to look back on summer of 2009 as summer of Batman! He now makes his appearance several times a day. And sometimes he lets his creative juices flow. If you are really lucky he might flex his muscles for you. No pics of that -- you'll have to see that in person sometime to really get the full effect. Just ask him though and he would love to show them off.

Batman also likes Play-doh....

2009-08-22T03:38:00.000-07:00

Batman & his B

2009-08-20T03:35:00.000-07:00

Fort Worth Camera - Pic of the Day!

Our little cutie was selected as one of FW Camera's Pic of the Day shots! Click here. They are celebrating their birthday month so I submitted this one to their birthday contest. This is my sweet Ezra James last year on his 1st birthday. Can't believe we'll be celebrating his 2nd birthday in just two weeks!

2009-08-18T15:49:00.000-07:00

Pachyderm Parade

We saw elephants in dowtown Fort Worth last week! Yea for the Ringling Brothers Circus! It's not every day you see elephants walking down the street. I see a trip to the Greatest Show on Earth in our future. :0)

2009-08-14T09:46:00.000-07:00

Trying to be productive these last few days of summer. This morning I've been cleaning up my computer, backing up & ordering prints, and working on photo albums. I came across these pics from a few months ago that I never posted. Taken at our old house right before we moved. Got to love Play-Doh!

2009-08-13T05:35:00.000-07:00

All Boy

The plan was to take a super cute picture of Ezra to put on his birthday invitation. He saw the dirt and had other ideas. Ezra loves a good pile of dirt.
So I thought I would try it again a few days later. Same result. He also loves rocks and sticks.

Love this little boy!

2009-08-11T11:50:00.000-07:00

Nanna & The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Two of Ezra's favorite things.

2009-08-09T06:45:00.000-07:00

Raccoon!

Ezra and I saw a big fat raccoon right outside our back door this morning! He was chowing down on Socks' cat food! I hope he enjoyed the Iams Weight Control and Hairball Care cat food. Sounds yummy, right? Guess I'll be bringing the cat food inside now.

This picture is not the raccoon from our porch but a raccoon I discovered while shooting pictures at El Schorcho a few weeks ago. The one from this morning bolted as soon as he saw us. Who knew there were so many raccoons around here!

2009-08-08T19:14:00.000-07:00

I went to see Legally Blonde at Bass Hall earlier this week with Francie, Mary Bess, and Addison. I've watched this movie 100 times so it was fun to see it in a musical. And of course I always love hanging out with my sisters and niece. (We missed you Emilie!)

2009-08-05T08:34:00.000-07:00

One more from this set. Love this one! He's reading his Cat book. The very last page has this little flap where you can lift it up and find a mouse hiding under the cheese. He loves to find the mouse.

2009-08-05T08:17:00.000-07:00

New Bookshelf

If you have been following our blog you know that we have been blessed with a child who loves to read! This makes his Librarian mama so happy! However, since we moved into the new house Ezra hasn't been as interested. Part of the problem is that all of our bookshelves are up high and Ezra hasn't had a shelf to go browse like he did at the old house. So what's a Librarian to do? Build a bookshelf of course! That's right....I built this and am so proud of my handywork! I think Ezra likes it too. I've definitely seen an increase in our reading time. And last night when Sean & Brittney came over the bookshelf was the very first thing that Ezra showed them. (He always gives a tour to anyone who comes over to our house.) He sat down on his comfy pillow, pulled out one of his favorite books, and started telling them all about it. These shots are of our little bookworm before naptime yesterday. He's normally sitting in my lap or right beside me. I love it!

2009-08-03T11:06:00.000-07:00

Little Monkey

2009-08-02T10:11:00.000-07:00

We're in the Fort Worth Star Telegram today!

I recently entered a photo contest with the FW Star Telegram for "The Best Places to Stand" in North Texas. Didn't win but they put a quote from us in the article today. Check us out....we're in the Life Section in the main article titled "Stand and Deliver." And our favorite pick? The Fort Worth Zoo of course! It's #5 on their list. Here's the pic I entered....

We love the zoo!

2009-08-01T13:38:00.000-07:00

I walked into the living room earlier today and this is what I found. Silly boy.

2009-07-31T11:10:00.000-07:00

$22 Backyard Makeover

Little projects can make a big difference! Our little back patio makes me smile. There's still quite a bit that could be done in our backyard but seeing flowers out there now brightens it up. There's a little spot for a garden right in front of the garage that we hope to use starting maybe next spring. Here's the after shot....

And here's the before....
And here's one more of our cutie... Our old house goes off the market at midnight tonight. Looks like we'll be renting it starting mid-August. Not the result we hoped for but it's something we're willing to try for a year. Hopefully the market will be better next summer. Our plan is to hold off on major renovations at the new house (bummer) but at least we won't be paying two house payments anymore.

2009-07-17T12:07:00.000-07:00

Let's Talk

So we have this kids music CD that Ezra loves. Loves it, loves it, loves it! We’ve listened to it a million times in the car. And Logan & I are about to chunk it out the window. It’s the only thing Ezra will listen to in the car. He always wants it on and only wants to listen to about the first 5 seconds of each song before he shouts "Mama, next song. Please!" So a couple weeks ago I started trying to get by sometimes without the CD . Instead of music I would say to Ezra “Let’s Talk.” And then we would talk about all kinds of things with the music turned off. But for some reason Ezra has it in his head now that when I say “Let’s Talk” then it always needs to start with “monkeys.” Here’s how the conversation usually goes….

Me: Ezra, let’s talk.

Ezra: Monkeys? (Sounded out like Monkeeeeeeeys???)

Me: What do you know about the monkeys?

Ezra: Monkeys fight. (We saw them fighting one time a long time ago.)

Me: What else do you see at the zoo?

Ezra: Gorilla, night-night.

Me: What else?

Ezra: Rhino, pee-pee. (Yep, we saw that. You can see lots of things at the zoo!)

Me: What other animals?

Ezra: Giraffes.

Me: What about the giraffes?

Ezra: Loooooong neck. Tall!

Me: What else?

Ezra: Sit down (We saw the giraffes sitting down one time recently. It was kind of odd to see about 10 giraffes all sitting on the ground.)

Me: What about the flamingos?

Ezra: Pink!

Me: And the elephants?

Ezra: Ball. (We saw them playing with the ball recently.)

Me: What does the lion say?

Ezra: Roar!!!!!

Me: What about the meerkats?

Ezra: Two!

Me: What else?

Ezra: Little!

So that’s the conversation we have every day. Several times a day. Sometimes there are different animals but these ones usually make it into the conversation somewhere. And as always this brings a smile to my face.

p.s. - The top picture is Ezra looking down at the Rhino. And this last shot is Ezra looking at the gorilla.

2009-07-16T16:00:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday to my kind, talented, handsome, extremely supportive, and fun husband! Ezra & I love you! This is one of my favorite shots of my two men. I believe Ezra is about four months old in this one.

2009-07-09T19:36:00.000-07:00

Peanut, Peanut Butter, and Jelly!

Remember that song from Kanakuk? I sing it all the time now! This kid digs a PB & J. Seriously, I've never seen anyone love peanut butter more than Ezra. Can't get enough of it.
After he had two extra swipes of peanut butter on the bread we started going with spoonfuls straight out of the jar.

Silly boy!