Let the good times roll

pictures will just have to come later. I have to get all this fun stuff down before I forget.
Last Wednesday we discovered Ezra has two teeth in his mouth! Cody randomly stuck his hand in and found his two bottom chompers had popped through! He has been so mellow we didn't even know. What a champ. Then the same day like 45 cans of formula came from our insurance for pretty cheap. So now Ezra is pretty much exclusively taking a bottle! We also got some cutie bootie cloth diapers from cousin Jill slash China (bless her heart), which we are trying out and liking so far. So it has been a life changing week for Ezra.
Friday Cody surprised our little family with a road trip up to Oklahoma. It was so exciting. I love surprises, Road trips, First times (it was my first time to Oklahoma), and waterfalls! we went to Turner Falls It was so neat up there! I loved being in nature. The water was spectacular. The colors were amazing and the waterfall was beautiful. The boys discovered a neato cave where we ate lunch. It even had a window, two entrances and a air vent up top. It was a great discovery. We played around all day.
Saturday was the Young Womens broadcast and we tried to have a picnic but we almost got blown away but it turned out really fun and the conference was Awesome! Thanks to Lynda and Paige too for all their help. While we were YW broadcasting Cody had "gone to pick up his friend Brian at the airport" which was actually MY MOM!!! I was soo surprised! and Happy! and grateful! and excited!

lost in translation

So in case I haven't told you yet my friend Mona from Beijing is coming for a few days to visit. I taught English in Beijing the summer of 05 and met her there. and she has now been sent here with her new job, well to Houston, but that's a lot closer than China. I was going through old pictures of that summer and had to share this movie we found that cracks me up. There were tons of pirated movies and a lot of times they just liked to put English on them to look legit. In case you can't tell this dvd has the characters from every fish movie made in the past 7 or 9 years. Finding Nemo, Shark Tales, Little Mermaid and a couple others I have no idea.
Enjoy! You have to read the back

Weekend

Lynda invited us over for a Digiorno's pizza party. She got a cool party in a box from them and we had fun on Saturday night.... while it was SNOWING!Ezra is a fan. and so is Cody

and Rowdy was there too but he was probably watching a movie with the cousins. We got to see Degan and Kodi Lynn too. and Bobby and Tiffany on Sunday at Tad and Amelia's house. It was fun being all together even if it was for a minute.
Dallin H. Oaks came to our stake this Sunday! It was fun to hear him talk to us. The first 20 minutes was doctrine and the last half was stories. He was kind of laid back. It was neat.
And now the weather is 70 degrees and sunny.
There is always something to talk about in Texas

A good day to be brothers

When I get after Rowdy, a majority of the time it is because he is hurting or about to hurt Ezra. Ezra is a really good sport and a pretty tough cookie. Maybe thats why he was born with all of that padding? Today was so fun with the two of them. Rowdy was pretending to be a horse and would let me set Ezra on top of him. They both had such a good time.A lot of times when I am holding Ezra, Rowdy will come ask me "Can I take care of this baby?"

Yesterday I was a little bummed just because I feel like I have been getting on Rowdy's case a lot. So I vowed to be more patient today. Then at the playground there were some older girls and Rowdy playing at the jungle gum. I was on a park bench nearby and could hear they were getting ready to play house. Rowdy says, "I want to be the Mommy!" The girls were looking at him with eyebrows raised telling him he was a boy, but he just kept insisting. Anyway, hopefully it was because he likes me and not because Mommies have all the power :) I took it as a complement. and we had a super fun day.good thing Ezra is patient with Rowdy... and me
love you brothers

flyin'

We have everything we need here in the back yard.
Maybe just a tree and a garden to make it little more lovely

7 months

stats

1 case of strep throat
2 shots and 10 days of antibiotics=feeling better

We went through 2 kites this week
500 loads of laundry
Cody saved 3 lives (giving blood)
24 boxes of cereal and 1 "perfect coupon storm" hee hee

Our front tree has 700 popcorn blossoms

3 hours of the crazy Kirby vacuum presentation
15 times we were insulted by the Kirby vacuum salesman ha ha
Lynda took 4 rolls in her Ezra photo shoot

and he may be adding 1 more after she gave him his first Krispy Kreme
also placing her in 1st place in the favorite aunt category

Now and..

Then (Rowdy)

little tidbits

I am just wanting to write down some little tidbits of stuff so we don't forget them. They maybe unremarkable to most of you so I hope you don't get bored.

-The other day in Wal-Mart or something Rowdy grabbed Cody and I around the neck and said,"You are my best family ever after."

-Ezra is getting so good at sitting up for quite awhile. and he cracks my up in the bathtub. he gets so excited to be sitting up and will kick his legs into hyper splash mode and scream laugh. Especially when we squeak this little bath book we have. It is so funny.

-Ezra also fishes for attention from Rowdy now. He will stare at Rowdy until He looks at him and them will scream laugh at him. Its like they try to get each other to laugh now.

-Ezra also is the sweetest chubbiest contagious laugher, its no wonder all the young women in the ward fight over him. I am flattered for him.

-Ezra's new favorite toy is the string from a hoodie. He loves it! He will sit there for the longest time sucking on it or shaking it around or twisting it in between his fingers. Maybe Rowdy's make believe cat sessions are rubbing off on him.

BEFORE you read some of these Rowdy Experiences I would just like to add a disclaimer that he is 2 years old... as in terrible twos, as in... we both have different agendas.

-Rowdy likes to pretend that he is a cat or a dog and it made me smile the other day when I asked him what his Dog name was and he said, "Loud Anderson" Rowdy has been acting like a cat a lot lately, but I am kind of egging him on. He will sit on my lap and cuddle for much longer if he is a cat.

-Rowdy has given up his afternoon naps :( but he will stay quietly in his room for a while, but still.. around 5 or 6 he gets delirious and either cuddly or snappy.

-Rowdy also has this funny habit of telling you exactly what is on his mind and then backtracking like...did I really just say that out loud? for example.
R-"I am tired I want to go to sleep in my own special bed"
Mom or Dad-"OK Rowdy lets go lay down"
R-"no! I don't want to go lay down. lets watch a little movie"
M/D-"lets go lay down"
R-"no I want to go to Lynda's house"and on and on trying to change the subject

-Rowdy also has gotten into this quirky little habit of trying to use reverse psychology on everyone. It cracks me up. "I don't WANT a cookie!" and he usually says it with an angry little tone. This is before he even asks in a normal form. so funny.

-Rowdy has also started telling me at random moments how he feels which is kind of cool. unfortunately it is usually "I feel angry" or " I feel scared" or "I feel sad"... I know I know someone needs to come rescue the poor sap.(grandparents? any takers :) He will also say,"I am sorry I made you mad" that one melts my heart. That's usually after he gets in trouble for being mean to Ezra. Don't worry though we always make up nice.

-Cody has also taken up couponing and is also converting some of his male friends to join his coupon club :) I love this boy. and I love lookin' in my fridge right now at all the fun deals he couldn't pass up because they were so cheap after all of his scheming.

-Cody took us fishing on Friday, along with our friend Brian Bellenger, and it was such an awesome day. We caught like 15 rainbow trout (we let them go) but it was sunny and nice and just a fun family day I think we were all needing. Then later that night sweet Paige watched our boys and we went to a movie.. Avatar. Just the two of us and I had such a nice time. Cody makes a nice date.

They really are the "best family ever-after"