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.

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!

Swimming with Aunt Bess

Ahhh. So nice. Thanks Aunt Bess!

Hope you all had a fun 4th of July. We started off our day with our neighborhood parade in the morning, then we made homemade vanilla & watermelon ice cream, Logan got in a round of golf, and then we all went swimming. A perfect low-key 4th of July for us. Just like we like it!

Our summer...

Here's what we've got going on at our house these days:

Ezra (and me too!) have been loving the pool at Ridglea! Good thing because this Texas heat is a killer already this summer. We probably go up to the pool 4-5 days a week.

We have been in the new house now for about three weeks. Things are coming along. I’ve got just about every box unpacked and most things are organized. Still need to do some work on the closets and hang pictures up on the walls but that’s about it. Tomorrow we’re having insulation put in our attic. I am SO HAPPY about this! It’s pretty amazing how hot it is in our house, especially the upstairs. We’re hoping this helps. Our old house is still on the market. Interested? Click here! We’re waiting to do all our renovations to the new house until the old house sells. Oh how I hope it sells soon. We want to knock out a wall between two bedrooms and make one really big and really nice master bedroom. The kitchen needs an update – new counters, possibly new tile, a few cabinets knocked out, a new sink, new appliances. I really miss our old kitchen. We want to take out the carpet in one of our downstairs rooms. We want to put in a new fence and a gate on the driveway. Oh ya, and we need a new roof. Fun, fun, fun. Keep your fingers crossed that our house sells!

We are in our 5th week of music class at TCU. Completely different than last summer’s music class when Ezra was just starting to crawl. This time he’s up and moving and sometimes even running around the class. I have to sit back and laugh at it sometimes because it’s a very active class. Lots of little boys all doing the same thing as Ezra.

Ezra and I have been pretty good on the running lately. We average about 22 miles per week since summer began. I decided to stop fighting his early morning wakeup times and just go with it. So instead we get up earlier now and get out the door on our runs about 6:30. We were leaving about 7:00-7:15 so just this small shift in time makes a huge difference in the heat. Still hot – but much better. There's a four mile loop that we have been doing that takes us around TCU. There are some serious hills on that campus. My hat is off to my sister Emilie who use to run that loop when they lived in Fort Worth. There are three really good hills on our route. On good days we'll run up on all of them. I consider that a major accomplishment. Running plus pushing 30 pounds of Ezra plus his stroller. Ha! I've also been going to yoga twice a week and lifting weights twice a week. That one seriously is a big accomplishment for me. It's taken me two years to get it all back in after having Ezra. I guess I just need to be on summer schedule all the time. That would be nice. :0)

Ezra has been going to school a couple days a week this summer. I really truly do think that it’s good for him. It’s good for me too. :0)

We’re still going to the zoo 1-2 times a week and Ezra still loves it! This past Monday we went to check out one of their member Mondays and were so glad we did! We got to go in an hour early, they had yummy snacks for us, the zoo keepers had animals out that the kids could get close up to see, and we got to see all the animals out and about before their breakfast at 10:00 a.m. Too bad this was the last Monday for it. I should have gone to the others!

Ezra love, love, loves to hit golf balls and play basketball. He's always saying "hit" and "outside." One of these days I'm going to get him on video swinging. But not with a club in his hand. Just with his hands. He does this all the time. Pretends to swing. I love watching him do it. We have a basketball goal at the new house so that is fun. The shade in the backyard helps with the heat but really only in the mornings. Whenever I’m outside I look at the back of the house and think of Mimo and Granddad quite often. I know I mentioned that before but I think my sisters and brother would agree with me.

Ezra has started counting! This makes his former Math Teacher Mama proud! He doesn’t get them in order but he is trying. Mostly it’s when we listen to songs that count but every once in a while he’ll surprise me and say things like “two dogs” or “one cat.” Today he said “big dog” on our run. I guess maybe I say that one a lot??? I thought it was funny that he said it on his own.

We have finally started to let Ezra watch tv. I'm really proud of us for making it this long -- 21 months old. Good thing we did because he has instantly been hooked. We make a big effort for us to do other things so he's not asking to watch his "video." By video I mean the Baby Einstein Beethoven dvd. He can't get enough of it. He probably asks to watch it 20 times a day. That's the only one he wants. So even though it is so hot outside we are trying to get out of the house.

Ezra loves to share with his Mama. It’s pretty darn sweet. Anytime he has a snack he makes sure I have one too. If he has ice in his water then he wants Mama to have it too. If he gets sunscreen on then he wants me to have it too.

These days we’re reading:

Logan – Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen by Christopher McDougall.

Nell – Gym Candy by Carl Deuker (one of this years Lonestar books. My goal is to read ten of them this summer. So far I’ve read two. Oh well.)

Ezra – How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight? By Jane Yolen (Thanks for the recommendation Aileen! I totally forgot about these books! I think I purchased several of them years ago for my nephews???) Ezra loves dinosaurs so this series is great!

So that's our summer so far. I'm sure there's a lot I've left out that I will remember tomorrow. I think of things all the time that I need to blog about but never seem to actually sit down at the computer to do it. Must be that super cute almost two year old baby boy of mine. He's got us on the go all the time!

Anyone have a recommendation for a great company to come put insulation in our attic? Last week a company called Eco Source came out to our house. They confirmed what we pretty much already knew -- there's basically no insulation in our attic. It's a sauna upstairs! That's next on our to-do list. Check out Eco Source when you get a chance: http://www.myecosource.net/ They spent about two hours doing all this stuff to help make our house more energy efficient. And the best part -- they were free!

Hanging From the Trees

Uncle Tim and his friend Shane came over last weekend and did some major work on our trees. We have a great backyard! Just needs a little TLC. That's the story with a lot of things in this house. There's so much potential that we will slowly be working on. The backyard has kind of a Mimo & Granddad's backyard feel to it. The first two shots I took from our balcony. Again, another thing that has so much potential to be really cool once we remodel. However, that project is last on the list. It's not everyday you have someone hanging in your trees....

Ezra was very interested. Lots and lots of "whoa!"

Whoa is right! Check that all out. That doesn't include any of the stumps they came back for on another trip. Our house is on the left in this shot.

Thank you Uncle Tim!

Aunt Bess and Uncle Brian stopped by last Friday night.

Ezra looooooves all his aunts and uncles.

Getting Organized

Well, sort of. Ezra is one lucky little guy. He's got two rooms at the new house -- his bedroom and this awesome playroom. As you can see he likes these cabinets. I thought they were going to be great storage but looks like he's not going to go for that.

Speaking of his playroom....I working on getting some neat animal pictures up on the wall. I went to the zoo by myself last week to snap some shots. Here's my favorite. To see more click here.

Three Dudes Hanging Curtains

Our baby boy goes to bed great! If you saw our video a few months ago then you know what I mean. Seriously, 99% of the time he is all smiles and sweet "night-night" when he gets in his crib. We have a parent's dream when it comes to bedtime. However, waking up in the morning is a whole different story. For the past few months we have gotten things under control with an average 6:30 a.m. wake up times. But since we moved in a week and a half ago Ezra has gone back to his old ways -- 5:00-5:30 a.m. wake ups. We even had a 4:45 a.m. wake up one day. That's not good for anyone! We're hoping curtains help. Thank you JBalls for coming over to help put these up!

Cousins

Aunt Francie, Addision, & Preston stopped by last weekend. I love these pictures of them just hanging out. I think Addison was trying to get Ezra to give her a high-five in the first two shots. He loves it when he gets to spend time with his cousins. He'a always so happy playing with them!

Happy 2nd Birthday Alice!

Two very cute little cousins, two and a half months apart. It was so fun to see you guys again and to meet baby Bess! I can't believe you are two years old now. That means Ezra is almost two too! He totally digged those cupcakes. That's my boy!

Six Years

We celebrated our six year wedding anniversary last week. Six years ago we got married and moved into our old house. And now we've moved into a new house. I wonder what the next six years will hold for us. It's been a fun ride so far! This is us outside our house a few days before our move in. It already looks quite different since Homero came by and gave the yard a nice little trim. (Yes, we convinced Mo-Mo to come with us in the move to the new house. Ezra is happy about that one!) We met up with friends at our new house before we headed over to Beastro at the Fort Worth Zoo. Tons of Fort Worth Restaurants and our favorite band Better Than Ezra. More pictures to come on this if I can find the cord to our small camera. It was a pretty cool event.