A Good Place To Start

Ezra was a little overwhelmed by the gifts, but got over it pretty quickly. He enjoyed helping everyone open their presents, but the boxes were in typical kid fashion, the favorite event.

Wyatt liked his presents too, but didn't really understand that today was any different than yesterday, or tomorrow. Mostly as the parents, we like his presents for him. Cute clothes and fun toys are more for mom and dad right now.

'Twas The Night Before Christmas

So here it is, as promised, our tree.

We've had to wait until tonight (Christmas Eve) to put any presents under it, because Ezra has quite the grasp on the un-wrapping concept this year.

I'm sure there will be plenty of pictures tomorrow, so enjoy your families, and the holiday, and check back with us soon!

So if the post had credits, they would be in this order,

Spelling Advice~ Eric Clifford

Thanks Dad!

A Sad Day

It was a sad day for me, and a very, very happy one at the same time. We bought a new vehicle, which is happy because we got rid of the flamer truck, but sad because we also sold my 4-Runner. The truck has been nothing but trouble, and the 4-Runner has been quite the opposite. My Toyota was my first car, and I loved it. So, a few tears, a little smile, and a pile of debt.

Here it is, our new car. A 2003 Ford Explorer.

Anyone who has comments about the flamer truck, feel free to post them! All I can say is, at least we didn't have to drive it off a cliff to get rid of it. We were beginning to think that was the only way.......

Do Not Pass Go, Do Not Collect $200

Due to unforeseen car problems and the likes, we are no longer planning on moving to Spokane at this point in time. We are planning on visiting over New Years, but will all be coming back to SD.

Ahhh, The Age Of Independence

It's been a while since I put a naked picture on, so I thought it was about time. Ezra is enjoying being able to take of his clothes himself, and spends a good part of his days doing just that. Oh well, at least we're not out in public that much.

Oh Christmas Tree.....

I know what you're thinking, 'but there's no tree in this picture..' --I know. I set out to take a picture of my tree, because I really do have one, and it's pretty, but there is a gravitational pull towards the kids next to the tree, and it just didn't happen. Again.
So that's the bad news. The good news is, Wyatt is still cute, in case you were concerned.

And The Award Goes To.....

There was no special occasion for this picture to be taken, other than he was just too cute not to.

I probably should mention that he rolled over for the first time. A week ago. I know, I get the lousy blogger award here..... I was making cookies (again) and looked over at him only to notice that Ezra had shaken the pack 'n play so hard he flipped Wyatt over. Oh wait, Ezra wasn't in the room. Yeah, so I get the lousy mom award too for trying to blame it on Ezra.

F Y I

I'd just like to say that the picture of Wyatt in the post below with the cat is next to the wrong text. The cat DOES NOT sleep in his bed with him. That is in the pack'n'play by the kitchen(where they all hide from an overly exuberant Ezra). I couldn't get the text next to the right picture, and just wanted to clarify that. I'm sure some of you noticed. The cats actually got tossed out for a while one night because they were in his bed, in a wrestling match, on him. They aren't really supposed to even go in his room, because it weirds me out and cats are icky. They walk around in a litter box and then want to lay on your pillow, or even worse in this case, on your baby. I'm not okay with that. Go ahead, call PETA, see if I change my mind. I'm not saying I don't like cats, I do, or I wouldn't have two of them. They are very nice cats, but they still have litter box nasty on them.

I'm having some trouble with Blogger, and its not posting the pictures with the text... Be patient, I'll get it figured out!

My Sweet Boys

So I've been saying that I'd post pictures, well here they are!


Ezra loves his rain boots, because he can put them on himself, so he wears them all the time.













Ellie is very gentle with Ezra, and she likes animal cookies. We don't typically eat sitting on the counter, but she gets a bit excited and it was a safe spot. Don't mind the mess, I'd been wrapping Christmas presents!









I took the camera with me when I went to get Wyatt up from his nap, and this is a very typically 'wake up' for him. He's the happiest baby I've ever been around....










He is also very cute when he cries!














And we're back to happy!!!

Our News

Well, a lot has happened recently, and I've not been great about updating this. Part of our big changes includes moving back to WA. The boys and I are going to be heading back for a few months until things are a little more stable with the RR. We've got a little duplex lined up and will be taking off the first of the year. It's not my favorite way to be going back, but I'm excited to be around family again. Most of our family in WA is pretty excited to be able to hang out with the boys and get to know them a little better too.

So that's the short sweet version, and I'm sure I'll get around to more details one of these days. I thought I'd at least mention that though, so maybe I'll get off easy for not blogging.....

There will be pictures eventually of boys and the tree. The tree is pretty comical really. Only the top three feet are decorated. Ezra enjoys taking off the ornaments, and Ellie can reach even higher than Ezra! I promise to get a picture of my half decorated tree on here eventually.

Wrangler Butts.....

Ezra has a thing for my boots, which is fine until he tries to go down the stairs in them. He does pretty well most of the time though. He actually can get them on and off by himself which I think is an accomplishment since they are taller than his inseam is long.....

Ellie's Sweet Face

I heard all about not having put a picture of Ellie's face on here, so I here it is! Isn't she cute?!

Doggy Daycare

These are our new friends Ellie, and Lacy. Ellie is the Bloodhound from next door. Her owner John asked me to babysit the girls a couple of days a week, since they eat his house if they are alone, and it's been much too cold to leave them outside all day. I of course jumped at the chance to play with Ellie. She has so much personality, and is cute too. Ezra wasn't sure what to think when he got up this morning and there were dogs running around the house. He's warmed up to them pretty quickly, as they have to him. The only thing that is even a little bit of a problem is that I don't have dog toys, and the only milk carton I had empty took Ellie about two minutes to destroy. I'm not talking, tear it up and put a few holes in it, I'm talking about it would have been in better shape had I put it through a wood chipper.

So, if anyone has idea's for ways to make (Durable) dog toys out of random house hold items, post a comment!

I love that Ezra is doing the typical kids stuff, like trying to wear mom and dads shoes.
He'd eaten a really messy dinner, and was wandering around in his diaper until we got to the tub, and shoes seemed like necessary accessory .

Gummer

I love tooth-less grins, and Wyatt has a very infectious one.

This is me as a baby, and I just thought I'd prove that one of my kids looks something like me. Wyatt has my nose, and chins.

What's Goin' On Up There?!

I love Wyatt's surprised look. When he looks up you can see his little skinny neck under his big jowls.

Here I Am!

This was just another incident where Ezra was demonstrating my lack of skill with power tools. I put child locks on a while back, and they are 100% inefective. As seen here.

Loving them to death. I think she ws wishing for death at this point....

Can I Help?

Again, this is another reason it takes longer to do stuff. This is nosy Sniff.

Lights, Camera, Action!

You wouldn't believe the trouble I actually went to for this picture. My camera was on the other side of the counter from me, and I would have had to walk past Ezra to get it, in which case he would have seen me, and left the cat alone. So, I crawled over the counter, and then laid on the floor peeking around the corner to get this picture.
I hope you all appreciate the picture, because I've got bruises on my knees!

Check Please!!!

Ezra almost always gets a healthy breakfast, and I figure that he's probably a little tired of scrambled eggs. So, this morning I decided to give him a treat. Banana and Lucky Charms. The banana was to make me feel like I wasn't feeding him straight sugar and he ate it like he always does. The Lucky Charms were an entirely different story. He ate the cereal part, and then licked the marshmallows and stuck them to his face. He's not a wimpy kid at all, but he hates to have his hands sticky, so you can see where this was going. I couldn't wash him quick enough, and for once he wasn't thrilled to have his picture taken.

This right here, Ezra clinging to my legs, and tripping over cats, is why I don't get anything done. My phone was ringing, and I couldn't take a step! As much as I like having pets, they don't speed anything up.

It's been quite a while since I just posted some random thoughts and a little bit of an update on our day-to-day life.
I think it's actually been since before our Spokane trip. So, here goes.
We are pretty much doing the same things that we were a while back. The boys are settling into the house pretty well, although I just moved Wyatt to his own room today, so we'll see how the night goes. I'm not too worried, he's a trooper.
We got two cats, Scratch and Sniff. Sorry, there was no prize for picking the names. It kinda fit them, because Scratch, the little yellow one is feisty, and Sniff is VERY nosy. I told Ben on our way home from picking them up that I felt like a normal person again, and he looked at me like I was just some crazy cat lady. Later, after he'd been watching them he said that he understood what I meant. It's been two years since either one of us has had a pet (the fish I killed don't count). We are both pet people, and it just seems to complete the picture. Now all we've got to do is acquire a couple thousand dollars in credit card debt and we'll be living the American dream..........
We are hoping to get to Spokane for New Years to see everyone, but at the moment it looks a little iffy. My dear old car is sick. Really, 247,889 miles and now it's gonna quit? I love my car. It was my first car, and it's been good to me. I'll put a picture of my beloved car on one of these days.
We are excited for Christmas, but a little sad too. It will be hard not to be with our families, but hopefully this is the last year it will be this way. Lots of pictures and phone calls are in the near future.....
I hope this caught everyone up a little, and that you could follow my scattered train of thought. I'm sure I'll post again soon.......... The Big Red Mama

This is Scratch. She is a little stand-offish, but really pretty. I guess pretty girls really do get away with being mean....

This is one of my favorite parts of having cats.... Having them snuggle with you when you're watching T.V.

Life On The Edge

This is the friendly kitty, Sniff. She's not so smart, and got very wet just moments after I took this picture.

Ezra is loving them. He wants to hold them all the time, and now has decided that he wants to hold everything smaller than him, including Wyatt. I'll get pictures of that pretty soon....

Aint Nothin Like The Real Thing Baby

This was Wyatt's first taste of solid food. He wasn't such a huge fan, but hopefully it will convince him that he's full.

These are the two new kids in the house.

They don't have names yet, so if anyone has suggestions leave a comment!! They are both females, and I'm horrible with girl names.

Crazy Cat Lady...

I am the official "Cat Lady" in the neighborhood.

My sister put it very well, Ezra might actually love them to death.

Melt Down....

I never thought I'd be one of those moms who locked their kids out side. Turns out, I am. I understand it now too, some times you just need a few less obstacles in the kitchen. We had plenty with out kids yesterday. For example, there wasn't enough oil to fry the turkey, so Ben had to go to the store. We wound up not eating until three hours later than we'd planned. Both boys were getting cranky by then end of the day, and voicing what everyone else was feeling, but too polite to say out loud. We had very gracious company who never complained or cried, or threatened to leave.

All in all it was a pretty good day, and a definite learning experience. I learned, I need my mom to help me. Or at least remind me to thaw the turkey.....

A Watched Turkey Never Cooks.....

Well, I said I'd post to let everyone know how it went. We're still waiting to find out. Yea, an hour and half after we were supposed to have been eating, we're still waiting on the bird. Not because this one was frozen, but because there wasn't enough oil, and Ben had to go to the store... Thankfully everyone is being very patient, and not crying, or yelling, or even drinking heavily.

Again, I'll post later to let ya know how it actually turns out.

Forgetful Me

This is how we spent our day-before-Thanksgiving. Climbing insane amounts of stairs. We went to Mt. Rushmore with Tim and Ashley, and Tim's parents. You can't see it in this picture, but there are LOTS of stairs. A little over a half mile of them actually. That might not seem that bad, but strap a couple kids to your body and you've got yourself a heck of a workout.

Most people would probably be home, cleaning, getting food ready, but not me. I was out hiking and forgetting that you can't thaw a turkey overnight. Yeah, I forgot the turkey. I know I know, TURKEY DAY!!!!!!!!!! Who forgets the turkey?! It all worked out, because the turkey that I'd bought to begin with turned out to be much too big for the frier (I'd like to point out that this was not actually my fault) and we had to get a smaller one anyway. So, as they say, all's well that ends well. I'll post soon and let you know if it ends well.

Dress Up

This is what Ezra would look like if I let him dress himself. This is actually a car-seat cover for Wyatt, but don't try to tell Ezra that.

I let him get a little frustrated trying to figure it out on his own, and it's kinda cute.

House Keeping

Ezra loves to help me with whatever I'm doing, and being my Swiffer man is a good job for him. He is very interested in the vacuum, but it makes that job REALLY slow when he helps.

The swiffer breaks down and I can make it a perfect size for him, and he loves it.

I'm sure there are plenty of comments I could make about him going to work for the government someday, but I'll leave those to your imaginations....

Typical.....

This is just the sun setting over Rapid City. I think it's really pretty. If you look at the horizon really closely, and compare it to the last picture, you can kind of guess as to where Rushmore would be.

One of these days I'll actually have my camera around when I'm getting up, because the sun-rises here are beautiful as well.

Room With A View

So I keep saying that you can see Mt. Rushmore from my house, I though I'd put a picture on here to prove that I'm not as crazy as some might like to think (Ben).

I took this out my dining room window yesterday. The little red circle is Rushmore. I promise. If I thought I'd actually get the film developed sometime this year, I'd take a picture with my 35mm, with the zoom so you could actually see it.
I can see myself investing in a telescope soon.

The Order Of Things

This is how pictures are taken here. One of Wyatt (or whatever else I want a picture of), then One with Ezra's hand reaching for the camera, then half his face, then him very close up, and yet another picture of him even closer.

Buddies

Wyatt is becoming a very happy little floor dwelling baby, and Ezra is like it. He can kiss him, or use him as a pillow whenever he wants to. Fortunately Wyatt is alright with both of those things.

You though I was joking about the pillow thing didn't you?

Sittin' And Spinnin'

This is actually Ezra's toy, but so far he hasn't figured out how to use it. He's not quite strong enough to spin it himself, but he likes to sit on my lap and let me spin us.

Ashley decided it looked like a good toy for her, but almost vomited after not very long. Funny how kids can do stuff like this for hours and not get sick, but you hit that "grown-up" mark, and everything changes.

Prelude To A Nap

Naptime is very important to us. Thankfully Ezra likes naps, and is very willing to take them. They haven't been coming early enough for him these days, and he's barely making it through lunch.

Our Friend

This was this morning, before it started snowing. Gregory came out to say hello, and Ezra was pretty excited to see him.