That's Amore!

Here is Andy figuring out That's Amore on his Dad's accordian. Ezra is completely enthralled by that odd music coming from his Dad. All this time Andy claims he has no musical talent. I think not only did I unknowingly marry a liar, but I married an accordian player, too! ACK! ;)

I Married a What?

The post about feeding the hungry little hippo

The Hungry Little Hippo is very interested in any food or drink we may have. He even tries to grab it from us. Sorry, little hippo, no beer for you!

He finds his own drink and guzzles it down. Loud burps soon follow. Little hippo sure can belch!

Little Hippo has a sweet big sister. She helps feed him too. But still Little Hippo wants MORE. He is never full, it seems!

Mommy decides to give some rice cereal a try. The Hungry Little Hippo is delighted to see a spoon coming his way. He opens wide and gobbles it up!

Mean mean mommy stops to take a photo of little hippos first bites. The hungry little hippo cries. "Feeeeeeeeed ME, Mommy!!!!"

The hungry little hippo attempts to feed himself just in case that mean mommy tries to take any more pictures.



The cereal is gone and the the little hippo is... what?? Full! Amazing! The hungry little hippo is hungry no more. And look at that, most the cereal went into the little hippo's mouth, and not on his bib. Hungry little hippo does not waste food.
After the hungry little hippo eats up all the rice cereal he decides it's time for a little nap. He probably is dreaming about more food!

Playing Games

Last weekend we drove down to Redding to visit with my cousins - we had a really wonderful time with everyone! Here is the one set of pictures I took all weekend. Sometimes I seriously forget about that funny thing in my purse called a CAMERA.
This is my cousins youngest, Simeon, playing the game SORRY with Ezra, Andy, and Sarah. I love how Ezra looks ready to join in. He always is ready to join in. It really makes him a lot of fun!

The reason we went to Redding, though, wasn't for fun and games. My cousin Kaylene's wonderful husband, Toby, passed away after a long battle with cancer. He was a such a good man and we feel blessed to have known him and blessed that he made Kaylene's life so wonderful for the 17 years they were married. Toby was a very dedicated man. Everything he did, he did well. From being a great employee, a good neighbor and homeowner, and especially in being a wonderful father and husband. I know that Andy was inspired by his dedication to his little girls so much that it changed how he viewed fatherhood. Thank you, Toby, for daring to be a better man than you had to be and for setting an example worthy of following. I can't wait to see you in Heaven!

A Weekend in Astoria and Halloween at Home.

Our church held their annual Ladies Retreat in Astoria, Oregon this year and after much debate we decided that we would ALL go. This worked out so well for us! Andy and Sarah got to explore beautiful Astoria, I got to enjoy the fabulous speaker and friendships at the retreat, and Ezra enjoyed all the attention from 60+ ladies, not to mention Daddy and Sissy! Having Andy there to help with Ezra really was fabulous. I think if I went with just Ezra, I would have been too tired to really enjoy the speaker. The weather was SPECTACULAR all weekend. Andy and Sarah enjoyed climbing the Astoria Column, riding the Trolley, and visiting the Maritime Museum. I was able to take a few walks along the trolley trail and enjoy the company of several wonderful ladies that I don't see nearly often enough.

Let's see, here is Andy and Sarah in the Trolley. The trolley runs through Astoria along their waterfront which is inside the mouth of the Columbia River.

















And here are a few pictures from the Astoria Column. Look how beautiful it is!































We drove home via Oregon Highway 30 all the way through Scappoose and St Helens. The trees were soooooooo beautiful! It really was a spectacular drive and the perfect end to the weekend. Oh, and Ezra did great in the car, sleeping most of the way there and back!

And here is one shot of Ezra from a few weeks back. He doesn't generally take the binky, but this day he was happily sucking away and just looked so cute, I had to snap a shot. The blue blanket is an elephant that Sarah bought for him to give him when he was born.





















And here is Snow White, her Handsome Prince, and the 8th Dwarf - Hungry. They are all ready to go Trick Or Treating on Halloween Night. Sarah loved her new costume and especially loved being able to wear some of mom's lipstick. :D It was a nice warm night, no coats needed.





















Ezra is 7 weeks old today. We haven't been to the doctor recently, but I'm sure that he's gained a LOT of weight. He eats like a teenage boy and is SO HEAVY already. I bought a baby wrap called The Baby Bundler and wearing him in that seems to be his favorite thing. He loves to be snuggled in close.

We had our first parent-teacher conferences at Sarah's school last week. Sarah's teacher commended her for doing really well with her reading and math. We're very proud of Sarah and how well she's adjusted to a new school, new baby, and new routines this fall.

Andy bought ANOTHER car. It's an Audi and he's trying real hard to get out of house projects (like the baby's room) by "needing" to work on it. So you know he's happy to have another tinkering project.

I bought my first new Christmas Music for the year the other day - Chris Tomlin. I'm really enjoying that and looking forward to all the Christmas activities that we do.

Video, Pictures, and chit chat

If you get this blog via email, please go to the blog directly to view the video.

http://familyfey.blogspot.com/


















Sarah lost her first tooth this week!













I tried to take some pics of Ezra who is now ONE MONTH OLD yesterday and he didn't cooperate so well. Gotta love his cute baby pout, though!

















Sarah didn't want to be left out of the photo session.














When I hold Ezra, I think he's small and cute. When I lay him down and look at him, I can't believe how big and long he is!













Sleeping babies are always the cutest!




I finally got around to ordering a few pictures from Costco so I can scrapbook and found this little gem mixed in with the photos. Very cute!

This week was my first week back with Max, my daycare boy, full time. It was fun to have Max back and Sarah loved playing with him again. Mostly, I was tired from the constant breast feeding which leaves me unable to get any housework done and makes it harder to supervise the kids very well.

Andy also started back as a volleyball referee. He said it went really well, but I'm certain that he's also very tired.

Ezra's doing great and is still just SO CUTE. I've done a little bit of scrapbooking and am looking forward to picking up some photos at Costco today and scrapping them later.

Sarah's birthday is coming up and I finally placed an order (from birthday express) for her halloween costume (Snow White, I guess that means Ezra can be Sleepy) and her birthday party supplies. We found some fairy themed items and some other unicorn items that we'll mix together and it will be like her german Lillifee and Unicorn that she loves so much. Now to think of the rest of the party plans and so on.

And then there is Christmas to start thinking about too... oh my. It's crazy season, isn't it?!

Lots of baby pictures!

Here is a handful of baby pictures. We don't have our photo editing software loaded on our computer so you'll have to forgive that they are in need of cropping or color adjusting...

















I took this picture today - Ezra is 10 days old and a good napper.







































Not much cuter than baby toes, is there?













Ezra might be a thumb sucker, he keeps trying to get it in his mouth and actually did suck his thumb for a bit today.





























My cousin Kristene came and helped us out for a few days. She was a godsend and loved on us all real good!

















Sarah is a great big sister and loves to read to Ezra. She also is great at snuggling and kissing him, too!













Proud Papa.













Look at the scale - 9lbs 10 oz. wow!

















Another proud papa picture. He actually liked wearing those scrubs! Of course, he wasn't about to go under the knife, was he?! lol!

We've been home for a week now and in some ways we're settling in real well. In other ways, we're hitting the hard part: Ezra is up a few times a night to eat and that's leaving us very tired. Ezra is a sweet baby though with an easy temperment and we're enjoying him very much. I have a hard time letting him sleep during the day because I just want to snuggle with him! I mean, who can put down a baby that cute?? ;)

I'm definitely feeling blessed. That's for sure.

Happy Birthday!

Monday was indeed a very very happy birthday! Andy and I are thrilled to introduce you to our BIG bundle of joy - Ezra Andrew Fey. He joined our world on Monday, Sept 14 2009 at 12:42 pm weighing in at a hefty 9 lbs and 10 oz (4365 g). He was 20 inches long (51 cm).

He was born via C-Section which was a little rough being he was so big, they had a hard time getting him out of me. Of course, I'm very, very sore now but happy to be home. Ezra looks so much like his big sister did when she was born, I'm just overwhelmed by how much the same they look!

When they pulled him out he gave a very big healthy cry to let us know his lungs work PERFECTLY. He had a small problem with both his glucose levels and his biliruben (jaundice) but the smallest amount of TLC had those issues taken care of quickly. He's been very sweet and snuggley and is just beautiful like a baby should be.

I'm tired and headed to bed, but here are a few pictures from the past few days.














Andy and Ezra in the recovery room within the first hour of birth.














One day old and his first family photo in our hospital room.














Today, Sept 17, before leaving the hospital.














In the delivery room after being cleaned up.


















In the prep room before the C-Section.
(how did I walk around like that??!)

I'll post again in a few days about his name and other fun tidbits. :D

Honey Dew and Honey Do!

Sorry I've been gone so long, we had some terrible computer problems that I think are finally fixed.

I'm nearly 35 weeks now and still doing great! According to BabyCenter this week baby is the size of a Honey Dew Melon and is " over 18 inches long and tips the scales at 5 1/4 pounds". Development is nearly complete and all baby has to do now is sit back and grow a little bit. Baby Fey is still a great kicker and is keeping me tired with all the commotion. I've been having some contractions, but nothing overly long or strong for this stage of the game. We have our hospital tour this weekend. I'm not sure if I'm really looking forward to that or not, with all that being cut open stuff and all...

In "Honey Do" news, Andy is still working on the downstairs. What a project. I'm hoping this weekend will be pivotal for him in rounding the corner towards completion. He's had a busy summer with work and volleyball and this downstairs project. Thankfully, volleyball finished this week. The nesting in me is dying to get more things done around here, but until the downstairs is done, there is just nothing I can do on the baby's room!

Trip to the beach, trip to the basement.

2 weeks ago we took a weekend trip to Manzanita, Oregon. One of Andy's customers from the shop owns a house right on the beach and we've been able to rent it from him a few times over the years. This time, we went with friends from Andy's volleyball team. The weather was so perfect and beautiful!! Here is a picture of Andy and Sarah at the top of a cliff where I would have scolded them for being if I had been there. They went on a grand adventurous hike uphill for 2 miles to be rewarded with this view. Isn't it spectacular??! Andy reports that Sarah is an excellent hiker and is excited to go hiking with her again.















This weekend was Memorial Day Weekend and we celebrated the three days off by stripping out our basement. All the furniture, toys, and inlaws stuff are boxed up and out in the garage. The carpet is GONE (to the dump) and the popcorn ceiling has been stripped down. I'm SO GLAD that dirty old icky stuff is gone! The bare ceiling looks better than that popcorn texture ever did!! Here are some pictures of Andy working hard.























































































No, I'm not trying to show off Andy's behind... just showing that his back pocket is FULL of popcorn junk. ewwwwwwwwwww. He had that stuff everywhere.




















Andy laid a plastic tarp down on the floor and moved it around with him as he worked so in the end he "just" had to roll up the tarp and take it out to the truck. Fortunately, the neighbor (max's dad) was around to help with the heavy lifting on that one.

Up next: repaint and texture the ceiling, seal the cracks in the floor that caused the flooding in the winter, and get quotes for carpet and electrical for ceiling lighting. I can NOT wait to have better lighting down there instead of the insane amount of (mostly ugly) lamps that we've had for seven years now. YAY FOR LIGHTS!!!!!

When the downstairs is done, all the stuff from this room upstairs can get moved down and then this room can become little andy's room. :D

An Avacado Sized Boxer!

Baby Fey is now 4 1/2 inches long and moving around like a boxer in training!! He especially loves to box at my stomach after I've eaten. While it's nice that he's not tap dancing on my bladder, really, I would like to enjoy my meal without the rumble in the tummy afterwards!! Our ultrasound has been scheduled for 5/8 - my birthday! We can't wait to find out if it's a boy or a girl!! Other than the baby boxing, I'm feeling great!

This weekend we'll be celebrating Easter at my dad's house. I need to make a few desserts to take, but am brain dead on thinking of some yummy ideas.
Do you have any ideas?

Basically, I'm always brain dead these days! I forgot to change the alarm from our "weekend wake up time" to Andy's "weekday wake up time" last night. Fortunately insomnia is getting me and I was awake at 530 this morning!!!

After Easter, Sarah has a week off from school for Easter Break. Our plans include Powells Books, OMSI, and 2 days at Auntie Becca's "Camp Becca" :D I need to come up with another idea or two, but am waiting to see what the weather will be like.

I've also started planning out some summer activites. Hopefully Oma and Opa will pay for some of the German Camp again this summer. Sarah had such a great time there last year. And her school has 2 weeks of Vacation Bible School that she can go to - LOVE her school! So between camp and swim lessons, I hope we can keep Sarah busy and time flying. :D

Andy got his first sunburn of the season. I DID remind him to wear sunscreen. But did he??? NOoooooooo. lol! Today it's supposed to be 77* here (near 25 C*) and I hope to get outside with the kids for some spring fun. The mailbox planters are needing their annual spring cleaning. :D

I hope you are doing well, happy, healthy, and blessed!

12 on 12

Last year I heard about this thing called 12 on 12. It's where you take 12 pictures each month on the 12th of the month. Surely it was started by someone who felt the didn't take enough pictures as it is. ;) Anyways. I decided to do that this year. I thought it would be need to track a few things during the year such as gas prices, mileage on my car and so on. So here is January's 12!

















The table at the end of the day.

















Our mailbox












Miles on my car.
















Goodnight, sweetie!
















Price of gas at our gas station.
















My apron!
















Cooper!












Sarah's new chart system.
















Done with coffee.














A layout I started today.
















Andy at the end of the day - he worked both at the shop and Volleyball tonight.
















I didn't quite get my 12 in on the 12th... this is Sarah and Andy leaving this morning - on the 13th. :D