Cake and Other Happenings

Ezra was delighted to have his very own 3-tiered birthday cake.  As you can tell, it wore him out but he sure ate a lot.  

Ezra and one of our sister missionaries, Sister Clark, share a birthday so we celebrated together.

Here we are before church last Sunday.  Max's new hobby is photography and he's getting pretty good at taking pictures of me and Ezra (as well as lots of pictures of walls, counters, and other really random objects found around the house at his eye-level).

Here's Max showing off his new watch and his new haircut.  

Ezra with his new birthday wagon (thanks Grandma and Grandpa!) and one of his new birthday hats. 

And finally, a very random shot of me posing in front of George W.'s hometown, Crawford, which isn't far from us.  When my mom was here we explored this area and even got to eat at one of George W.'s favorite cafes (we tried the GIANT baked potatoes smothered in chicken fried steak, gravy, and cheese...that's another story). Isn't this the most classic Texas picture ever? Cactus, George W. paraphanalia, big truck in the background, and of course, the Texas flag painted on the side of a building. Welcome to Texas, my friends.  

P.S. My door is always open to visitors if you'd like to sample the Texas-style baked potatoes for yourselves.  

One Year Old (Tomorrow)

I can't believe this beautiful, happy boy is already a

year old.  He has been an incredible addition to our 

family and we love him so much. 

Happy Birthday Ezra!!!

Good-bye Mom, Hello Reality

Well, after spending almost 6 glorious weeks with me in the warm winter weather, my mom had to go back to Utah last week.  I really can't describe how wonderful it was to have her here.   

I was spoiled with having someone else help keep up with Ezra at church, a magically tidy house, all of my laundry washed, dried, folded AND put away in the same day....I could go on and on. But really it was just nice to have a friend here with me.  So, thanks a million Mom! The boys and I LOVED having you here.

 

Have a Holly Jolly Christmas....or TWO!

We were lucky enough to have 2 Christmases this year.  We're so grateful that Ephraim's parents came to visit in December before he left for Iraq.  We had an awesome time with them. We ate some great food and had a wonderful mini-Christmas while they were here.  Max and Ezra were spoiled with lots of great gifts and Ephraim and I were spoiled to have babysitters around so we could go on an amazing date.  The boys had a ball playing with Grandma and Grandpa and we can't wait to see them again!

We love Grandma and Grandpa!!!

Max was thrilled with his toys and underwear.

Ezra had a great first Christmas.

The boys and I spent Christmas number 2 in Utah with my family and Ephraim spent it in Kuwait with lots of sand.  Its always great to be with family and the boys loved getting to see their cousins.  This year for our traditional Christmas Eve Nativity Pageant Max started out as a shepherd but insisted on changing into Buzz Lightyear.  He followed the baby Jesus around and threatened to laserbeam anybody who messed with him.  Most reverent pageant ever: NO. Most hilarious: DEFINITELY.  We also got our fill of snow while in Utah and were happy to get back to the 60 degree Texas winter.  Although I'm almost 3 months late, I hope everyone had wonderful Christmases like we did. We're really grateful for the Savior and for the love and support of all of our family and friends.  

The Pageant Transformation

Festive Holiday photos.

A few snapshots of some cute cousins.