Painting with Mimi

Thank you Mimi for a fun afternoon!

Ezra James in late January 2009 from Ryan Valdez on Vimeo.

A few more from last weekend. He's very much the climber these days. Ezra was out of my sight for maybe 30 seconds when I discovered him in the leather chair. He was just sitting there like he was watching a football game. What a funny little man. And then he decided to give me a little performance for the camera....

Someone has taught him to do headstands. We catch him doing this quite often these days. Hmmm, could that be his Nana-Banana?

This Past Week

A little bit of coloring....

A good lesson that I learned this week: you must take the colors away from Ezra when he leaves the table. :0)
A walk to Starbucks on a chilly Saturday morning while I got in my long run. Apparently Ezra was a hit with all their customers. I can understand why. He can be very charming.

Snack time. Okay, he doesn't really eat apples like this. I just happen to have my camera sitting there for this very first time that he decided to grab an apple and chomp on it. One bite was enough. He hasn't had a bite since then. He loves to hold them though.

Raisins are more his style...

A visit from the Godfather....

A couple games of chasing Ezra. He always goes back to this corner in his room.

Sometimes when you are chasing him he turns around and chases you...

A visit from Nana on MLK day. We love it when Ezra's wonderful grandparents visit. Loved that hour and a half to myself to get some things done around the house.

A jam session with Logan and Pop. I only managed to snap two pics because...

Ezra loved to grab that cord. We'll try some pictures again next time. I'm going to try to get a video of him dancing. He was so happy when they started playing! More jam sessions to come.

I am Jessica Seinfeld - Part 2

Aunt Poolie got me Jessica Seinfeld's Deceptively Delicious cookbook for Christmas and it has been a success. Thank you Aunt Poolie! So far I've made five of her recipes. Ezra's favorite...banana bread. Can't get enough of it these days. Yummy and healthy ingredients hidden on the inside: bananas and cauliflower. It's really good. I'm quite addicted to it myself. I've also made peanut butter muffins (carrots), macaroni & cheese (cauliflower), potato soup (carrots and squash), and peanut butter & jelly muffins (carrots.) Tonight I'm planning to make meatloaf (carrots and celery.) My New Years resolution was to make dinner for our family once a week and so far I've stuck with it. I'm sure some of you are probably laughing because you make dinner every night of the week. I'll be the first to admit that I've never really been a cook. I'm one of those girls who is spoiled with a husband who enjoys it. Logan cooks for us usually 5-6 nights a week. So this year I am starting to cook! Wish me luck!
Speaking of food....remember how I said Ezra is a very picky eater these days? Well, one of the things he does like to eat is chili. Loves it! If you've ever had Logan's chili you can understand why. He even won the "Most Unique Chili" award at Cross Timbers Intermediate School in 2005. It is delicious! Anyway, whenever Logan makes chili we always send leftovers for Ezra's lunch the next day or two. We don't think anything of it. Well, the daycare girls told me the other day how they were laughing and laughing about the whole situation. How he just eats it up and can't get enough of it. And then they said "Haven't you seen Mr. Mom? You aren't suppose to feed toddlers chili!" Oh man, that gave me the biggest laugh too. We've never even thought about that! We were just happy to find something that he will eat. I assure you, it hasn't had any effect on Ezra. I guess daycare probably doesn't get many chili lunches. I love that movie Mr. Mom by the way.

62 Miles!!!

My amazing husband ran 62 miles this past weekend in Bandera, TX! Can you imagine? Not a flat course by any means. If you've ever been to the Hill Country you probably seen hills similar to what you was going up and down. He started out at 7:30 a.m. and ran until about 12:20 a.m. the next morning. Total time 16 hours 47 minutes. It was a very chilly and very windy day. We are very, very, very proud of him!

At the beginning of the race...
31miles down, 31 miles to go...

Jason joined him for the second half. How many friends do you know that would join you for a 31 mile jog?

Ok, this next picture cracks me up. He was taking a break to eat a grilled cheese sandwich. He had lots of interesting food along the way. Pancakes at one of the aid stations. Dori and I brought them Sonic hamburgers at mile 47. I asked how many calories he thought he ate during the run and I think the guess was about 2,000. Calories burned? I think he said about 13,000.

And at the finish line with his friend Miles. 16 hours 47 minutes later.
AMAZING!!!

Loooooooooooooove this little boy!

A few random things about us these days....

1.) Ezra had his first peanut butter & jelly sandwich last night. Loved it! This makes me happy because now I have something new add to his list of lunches to send to daycare. Ezra is a very, very, very picky eater these days. And PB & J's are easy to send and his teachers won't have to heat them up. Yes, I know that's silly but I always want to send easy things because I know they are feeding 8 kids at a time in his classroom. I guess it's the teacher in me who thinks this way. Don't think I will ever get that mindset to go away.

2.) Speaking of eating .... Ezra no longer uses his booster chair. He's sitting in just a regular chair. We started trying this a couple weeks ago when he refused to sit down to eat. And now he's doing much better. He still occasionally wants to stand up in the chair but if you ask him once or twice he will usually sit back down.

3.) Nana taught him how to kick this past weekend. The kind of kick you would do if you were dancing. Kind of like Elaine from Seinfeld dances I suppose. It cracks him up. It cracks us up too.

4.) Speaking of Nana & Pop -- Ezra spent the weekend with his wonderful Grandparents. Thank you! More to come on that soon in another post....

Ok, that's it I guess. It seems like I always think of things to post but now that I'm sitting down to actually type I can't remember them. Ezra is learning so many things these days. I'm going to try to be better about sharing in 2009! :0)

Aunt Francie & Uncle Eric's house

12.29.08

We got together with my family for a games, gifts, and a yummy dinner a few days after Christmas. Ezra got in a little play time with his cousins who we miss so much now that they live in Idaho. And Ezra of course got lots of love from his aunts, uncles, and Mimi & Enno. I left my flash at home so these pics are kind of dark but fun for me to share anyway.

Three amigos...

I like this next shot. Kind of random. Good job Logan!

Ezra & me and three of the best Aunts in the world!

Christmas Day 2008

A few (okay, a ton) pictures from our Christmas this year. We started the day off with our own little Christmas at our house with Ezra. Santa was very musical this year. We are starting to feel like the Partridge Family. But that's okay....I like it!

Hmm....is this what you are suppose to do with a guitar? Seems like I've seen this scene in a rock video somewhere. And this is why Ezra now has his own guitar! He's so badly wanted to play with Logan's very expensive guitars. You can see why Santa thought he needed his own.

And then we headed over to Nana & Pop's house for Christmas morning with Nana, Pop, G-Ma, and Shana...

Thank you to our wonderful family who is always so very generous to us. I've got a few more pics to post and then I think I'm caught up on Christmas. Back at work this week so we're trying to get back into our schedule. Christmas break is always so relaxing and carefree. I love it!