Ezra and His Colors

Ezra's favorite color is green. He often asks to wear green, as you can see from the outfit in the above photo.

He can now usually identify pink, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, black, white and gray. He loves to point out colors, especially when drawing or folding laundry or playing Duplos, etc. But even if we're not actively doing something with colors, his little voice often pipes up with random colors as he sees a yellow truck when we're driving or a green tree on a walk. Seth and I joke that we never realized the world was so colorful until Ezra started telling us about it. (The same holds true for animal sounds and well, increasingly all objects. Ezra can't seem to help himself from pointing everything out and telling us what it is. He's a chatterbox.)

Sophomore Year of High School

My friend Ali recently found a copy of this photo and posted it to Facebook. It's hard to determine the specific date of this photo, but it was taken sophomore year of high school; probably fall 2001.

After looking at the photo on FB, Seth and I pulled out our yearbooks and went through them, reminiscing and counting up what students went to Covenant what year. Sophomore year there were 28 students!

As always when we talk about high school, we had to laugh about the fact that neither of us really remember each other in high school, but there we are: in the same high school class, 10+ years ago.

Jenny A, Jacob A, Duncan B, Ali C, Taylor C, Autumn D, Diane F, Amber F, Heather G, Ali G, Michael G (not pictured), Kelly H (not pictured), Heather H, Nick H, Hilary J, Brian J, Charissa L (rejoined spring semester; not pictured), Matthew L (joined spring semester; not pictured), Sarah P, Seth P, Darcee P, Rachel R, Elena S, Kathryn S, Erin S, David S, Caleb W

Drew and Dar

Ezra has come to love Drew and "Dar" (Darya). We walk from my parents' house over to the elementary school and pick them up and do piano lessons at my parents' house on Wednesday.

Drew was actually the first non-family-member name Ezra said and sometimes when we're standing in line for communion at church Ezra loudly points out Drew in the congregation.

Sometimes Ezra gets to watch "a show" so that he's not distracting during lessons, and last week Drew watched Veggie Tales with him.

Christmas Trees!

We went shopping for Christmas trees after church yesterday, on the first day of advent. Most years we've all gone the day after Thanksgiving, but there was an extra week in between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year, so...

Ezra of course always loves spending time with his grandparents and aunts and uncles, but throw in "trees" and "tractors" and he was supremely happy.

Holding all three aunt's hands.

Ezra and Daddy

Checking out tractors.

The whole family.

Tree decorating food.

Examining the lights.

Making animal sounds with Em.

I went back and found photos from last year's tree search and just had to compare the difference one year makes: 7 months vs. 19 months.

Thanksgiving

This year we celebrated Thanksgiving with the Andersons (my mom's family; parents, sister and two brothers) and Esther's parents. My parents hosted at their house. The cousins played Life, Ezra wore Esther's furry slipper boots, the guys threw the football around, we ate lots of food, etc.

Sarah and Allison

Ezra is completely head over heels in love with Sarah and Allison. For about the last month he's referred to the two of them as "Sarah" but we've been working to teach him "Ally" too.

Sarah plays with Ezra during Allison's lesson, and visa versa, but when I'm working with Katie and Elaina, they usually take Ezra outside to play. And we try to get together outside of lessons too, but that hasn't happened as frequently as it should this fall.

Daddy Date

Seth had the day off (we're entering the slower winter season for moving) so we went on a "date" with him to the Lakewood Library and then downtown Tacoma to ride the Link (or "choo choo") and eat dinner at the Harmon (while watching the 49ers beat the Bears).

Ezra Wearing High Heels

Memorial Day weekend Ezra learned to say "shoe" and I'm sure a day hasn't gone by (let alone an hour) that he hasn't said it since. He loves to wear his shoes (and he knows exactly where they're kept, as well as Mommy's closet of shoes), especially because that usually means we're headed outside, but he also loves other people to wear their shoes too. He finds it very upsetting when people take their shoes off and will often rush over and help you put them back on. Whenever we go out, we often see him looking at other people's shoes. He's obsessed.

But then. Ezra discovered high heels a couple of weeks ago. I have one pair of heels left over from a friend's wedding and Ezra has claimed them for his very own. And he's also learned where my sisters keep their heels and when we're at my parents' he will often go into their rooms and come out wearing a pair of heels. He usually requests to wear heels when he's dancing, but really any occasion will do.

Sherlock's Last Case

For my birthday Seth surprised me with tickets to see "Sherlock's Last Case" at the Lakewood Playhouse. He said it would be a shame for us to live a mere five minutes away from the Playhouse and never attend a show, and he knows I like the theater, so, off we went. My parents watched Ezra, which gave us a much needed break (especially after Ezra's latest all-consuming bout of sickness and teething).

We both agreed the play itself wasn't our favorite. The characters of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson both were changed, and not for the better. (To read a local critic's review, click here.)

But to be on a date and at the theater was wonderful.

Four Seasons Artwork

Lately some of my Facebook friends have been posting some of their artwork featuring trees with spring, summer, fall and winter foliage (or lack thereof). I love the idea, but I'm not sure if it's something that would work in my house (especially because fall decorations/blankets/dishes/candles, etc. are featured so prominently...) Still, I definitely want to keep this idea in mind.

"Defaced" Scentsy Warmer by Diane Crum

"Spring," "Summer," "Fall" and "Winter" by Tracy Andrews

Close up of "Spring"

Artwork credit: here

Artwork credit: here

Birthday!

I turned twenty-six years old yesterday (not twenty-four like I told someone last week). It was Sunday, so after church, we all met up at my parents' house and had dinner and ice cream cake and then drove to downtown Tacoma and rode the link to the Theater District to catch the tail end of the Broadway Center Fall Free For All, which culminated in an edition of the Tacoma Round.

It was a very special birthday.

Your Front Page Giveaway!

Your Front Page is hosting a give away, with six! different ways to win your very own personalized page. Head over to their blog to enter: http://personalizedfrontpages.blogspot.com/2012/09/give-away.html.

Announcement! Announcement! Announcement!

We are excited to announce that in approximately six months our family's new addition will be joining us!

Baby Parkinson #2

Due March 20, 2013

Charissa's House

My friend Charissa and her husband Chris recently bought a house in Northridge, just a bit north of Vancouver, WA. So Ezra and I, along with Auntie Ruth (or "Foof") went down for a brief visit.

Mischevious Little Boy

Ezra is quite the climber:

He army crawled to the office/nursery.

He climbed up on Daddy's chair (you can see his trail of previous destruction).

He typed on the keyboard.

He pushed buttons on the printer.

Second Anniversary Mariner's Game

Seth was in Yakama at Sacred Road with our church over our actual second anniversary, so we celebrated a few weeks later by going to a Mariner's game.

A week earlier, Felix Hernandez pitched the twenty-first perfect game in MLB history, so to celebrate the Mariner's gave away King's Corner t-shirts to everyone who came to the game, in order to make a "supreme King's court".  It was really fun to see how many fans came out to the game and to look out at the stands and see bright yellow everywhere. Of course, each run the M's scored just amped up the excitement. It was a great game.

Seth "felixing"

Two years!

Seven straight!

To cap off the night, my parents kept Ezra overnight and thus we officially began the weening process.


Update! We took this photo at the game, so that Baby #2 would also have an in utero at the Mariner's game photo, but didn't reveal it until now.

First pregnancy photo!