7 months old

Here is our super happy boy in his Bum Genius cloth diaper that we got free with a coupon from Mothering Magazine. Ezra loves his cloth diapers and FREE makes it all the better! Except the velcro, I love everything about this diaper.

Andy weighed Ezra on our home scale the other day and insists that he's 20 lbs already. I can't imagine that's possible, but he IS a very heavy baby. He is very close to crawling, he gets up on all four and will move a knee or hand but then loses his balance. He also is working on sitting up, but I'm pretty sure that's a ways off. He continues to love his food. I'm so grateful that both our kids have been excellent eaters! So far he's had rice cereal and oatmeal cereal, pumpkin, applesauce, and cheerios. We mostly give him the cheerios while we're eating dinner and he has fun chasing them around on his tray. As you can see by the pictures, his legs are ALWAYS in motion. He's constantly kicking, and they are all happy and excited kicks. Soccer? Football? We'll see!

Random Pictures

GIRL GERMS!!!!!!

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!

Long

Long. Ezra just seems so long to me already. He fills my arms, he fills my lap, he even fills my bed! This picture is just short of 4 months old.

Ezra continues to be such a happy baby. He's really got that smiling thing down and I'm sure will be quite the charmer when he grows up. He has learned how to roll from his tummy onto his back which he does NOT like at all!!

Sarah is really doing great in school these days. She breezes through her math and reading homework with very few questions or problems. She received several new books and a wonderful Bible for Christmas and has had her nose buried in all of those, reading as much as she can.

I've been feeling creative and experimental and have tried a few new recipes lately. I'll have to take a few pictures and post a few recipes with my next blog post.

Cloth Diapers for our Little Man

Blogger is giving me trouble tonight and won't upload my pictures in order so here we go...
















Here is Ezra modeling his new Bum Genius All In One Diaper . When I got it, I wasn't sure how I would like it. The "inserts" are sewn in and make it look very odd. But once I put it on him, it went on easily and fit great. No leaks! My concern on this one is that since it's a hemp (takes longer to dry) all in one (has the PUL cover built in), that the PUL (plastic cover) will not hold up to the dryer. I like how the cover part rolls inward on the thighs.





















Here is Mr Popular. He says that he loves his new diapers, he loves his Momma, and he EVEN loves the camera today. He was being very very adorable and smiling and laughing at me, but once I put the camera up, all I got were his huge wide eyes staring at the camera. This was the ONE smile I was able to capture on camera. :D Isn't he adorable? He's not as chunky as this photo makes him look, though.






















Another picture of the Bum Genius.






















Here is Mr Wide Eyes who was smiling until the camera thing came out. He hasn't figured out yet to KEEP smiling when the camera comes out. He is wearing a FuzziBunz Pocket diaper. You can see in the picture how the white fleece lining is showing a little bit at the thighs. It "rolls" outward a bit. I was worried this would cause wicking and give him wet clothes, and sure enough it did. I'll try and adjust the fit (there are elastic adjustments in the thighs and at the back) and see if I can fix that.















Here is our starter lot of diapers. I bought 3 cloth fitted diapers (meaning they snap on but need a cover), 3 all-in-ones (meaning they snap on and have the cover on them already) a cover, and some inserts / doublers. So far, I like the fit of the Swaddlebees Organic Cloth Fitted and the Bum Genius Organic All In One the best.

Day 1 of Cloth Diapering has been a success. Andy even changed him and reached for the cloth and not the disposable. :D

The Big Sister

First of all, can you even believe that Sarah turns 7 tomorrow?? I am so glad to have a new baby, otherwise I would be in tears over how grown-up Sarah has become. She really loves having a little brother and is always ready to help us by holding him and sharing some loves and kisses with him. I'm really blessed by her loving spirit because it is so helpful right now. (otherwise, I would never get a shower!) I think my favorite time is in the afternoon when Max goes home. I nurse Ezra out on the couch and Sarah reads to us. She's become a wonderful reader and this time of the day is just so perfect. So what if the dishes aren't done, my daughter is reading to me. And I'm so proud!

Happy Birthday, baby girl. I'm so glad you've filled my life with your joyous love!

Cute Pictures

The other night it was getting late, Ezra was getting cranky and needed to nurse. So I took him to bed and laid down with him. Soon enough he had nursed till he was full and drifted off to that beautiful slumber that makes us all so jealous. Babies really know how to sleep, don't they? It wasn't really late enough to be my bedtime and I still needed to finish my chores, yet I had the HARDEST time pulling myself from that bed to go finish my day. Not because I was tired mind you. Because Ezra was just too darn cute to leave. I just laid there and stared at him. Can you blame me??
So I compromised and took some pictures. Someday I'm sure, I'll complain that he's SUCH a busy boy, and why won't he slow down just a *little bit* for his mama? And then I can pull these photos out and remember...

Baby Smiles

Ezra has started to give us the greatest baby smiles. Big toothless grins are sure precious, aren't they??
If you can't view this video, go directly to our blog at : http://familyfey.blogspot.com/

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.