Photo Friday – 10.30.09

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awwww… We hadn’t taken any sleeping baby pictures yet because we are so afraid of waking one or the other up, but Noah was taking a ridiculously long nap so I snapped one.

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Noah figured out how to go backwards on Tow Mater, now he can get into stuff with his brother.

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Petting the elephant

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Ezra stuck trying to crawl over Tow Mater

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Folding Laundry

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Hanging out in our jammies

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Their faces clearly say nap-time!  We received these shirts as hand-me-downs, aren’t they cute?  I promise I was going to put pants on the boys, but after wrestling with Noah for 5 minutes, who btw is way easier to dress, I gave up.  Ezra picked out the flames himself.

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Also, I was only able to get one pic before baby attack!

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Yesterday this cat tried to attack mine through the window.  It was hilarious!  She kept trying and she was growling and smacking the window, giving both my guys the stink eye!  (we have tried to rescue her, but she is very wild, she is the momma of the kittens I rescued last spring, my neighbor feeds her, so she hangs around, but I have never seen her attack my cats)

Baby It's Cold Outside

The temperature dropped very drastically here yesterday and we actually had to break out the boys’ warmer clothes.  Matt took them for a walk last night, we put them in hoodies for the first time and also had to put a blanket over them.

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Apparently the hoodies make their heads too heavy to look up at daddy!

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Ezra saying, “I am going to get you!”

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Got you!

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Standing over his brother, yes I said STANDING!  He has been working on this new trick all week and is getting very good at it.

Photo Friday – 10.23.09

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Reading the paper

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Helping dad do some work

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Drumming on the solar oven

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Figuring out how the piano works

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Hi mom I can now crawl up to you and grab your pants!

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Still toothless 🙂

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His new favorite way of playing with the jumper

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Playing with Carter!

Early predictions

Ezra and Noah have some super cute little boy personalities showing through. We are already seeing a lot of things shine through. So we thought we would share some of our predictions.

Noah will be our little detail oriented engineer (poor kid). he will also probably be less of an adventurer, and more of the big idea guy, crafting up plans for ezra to execute. He will probably be taking things apart just to see whats inside, and how they work.

Why we think so:

  • Examines every nut, bolt, switch, button.
  • notices the smallest details. new things, moles, belly buttons, teeth, glasses, leg hair, stickers, labels, logos, scratches (on toys and skin), and so on.
  • He has to touch, pull, lick and poke all of the above.
  • flips toys over to look at said switches and screws.
  • quietly sits and watches.
  • giggles and yells when ezra is doing something funny or or something bad.

Ezra is our trouble maker. He will be the muscle behind noah’s plans. We are also hedging bets that he will be the first to break a bone, need stitches, and will be the reason we need insurance.

Why so:

  • Barely crawling, he knows every exit and door in our house.
  • He is already reaching for the handles (good thing he is short)
  • Ezra also figured out how to climb things. Already wanting to scale everything in sight.
  • He enjoys doing things that make noah happy, clap and giggle.
  • Already found the fun that comes from house plant dirt.
  • He has no real fear. Falls & hits his head on all kinds of things and rarely cares.
  • While he may do what noah wants, he is not afraid to tackle him already.

Photo Friday – 10.16.09

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I am going to get you!

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Noah eating his first injera, he liked it!

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Our week started off with lots of drool and snot!

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You see that mesh thing that is pushed down?  That is supposed to prevent limbs from hanging out, but Noah pushes it down during the night.

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I love this machine!  It spins and it spins!

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Ez discovered the cat toy and he actually had the cat playing with him.

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mmmmm glass!

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Yes there are four sides to the table, but only this one will do.

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Ez knows where are the exits are in the house and he is ready to escape!

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This way?

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Cute Fire Fighter.  🙂

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Taffi took it upon herself to make sure none of that formula goes to waste!

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This I just find funny.

blog action day


We have done the whole blog action day a few times, and normally we think and write it out way in advance. but then came two super cute little monsters that run our lives it seems.

So a little late in the day, but here we go. I’ll try and keep them light and easy, but I may toss in a few hard core hippie tips.

  • Shut off the lights. Really. We hardly ever turn on lights in our offices. Natural light is the best!
  • Print only if you absolutely have to. Check out Evernote to save items important, but dont need printed. I LOOOVE evernote.
  • Let your computers and printers sleep when not in use. They use a ton less power. And no screen savers either. a sleeping LCD is super quick to wake up.
  • Shut down your computer at night. I swear I know people who leave their towers on for weeks at a time. for no reason.
  • Clean. seriously. dust bunnies on the back of your computer make it run hotter. This will keep your computer lasting longer too.
  • Recycle. Seriously. Factor1 shares office space with a realtor who thinks recycling papers is hard. i dont understand how.

Some Super hippy tips:

  • Ride your bike to work. I do this probably 95% of the year, and love it.
  • Compost. its really easy these days. You generate less trash at the curb, plus you get nice dirt for your garden. I promise it doesnt smell much either.
  • Garden. Fresh veggies are the best. Organic, pesticide free, and as close to local as you can get.
  • Shower every other day. Unless you get all sweaty, every other day is perfectly acceptable in my book. And no one has to know. Well i guess now you know i skip a few showers a week.
  • Dr Bronners Bar soap can replace your shampoo, and body wash. 100x less packaging, no plastic, and eco friendly.
  • Eat less meat. Not a vegan / vegetarian my self, I enjoy a well balanced diet of natural foods with as little processing as possible. To grow, and process meat of all kinds is an amazing waste of water, oil, land, and other resources. Tons of stats on this, but most research shows our bodies were NOT meant to consume meat 7 days a week. We probably have meat once or twice a week in our home, and its usually local, grass fed, free range, organic stuff.

I could go on and on, but i wont.

So go, change the world, cut back on the resources you use.

Our Government at Work

The other day we received a replacement property tax notice in the mail.  It explained that because the Governor and the Legislature have been unable to agree upon legislation to address funding for schools, and that the Governor vetoed the most recent funding option on September 4, 2009.  This veto resulted in a change in the property tax.  It was then explained that we needed to pay the difference.  Care to guess what we still owe?

$.01 yes that is correct.  They reprinted all of those forms and re-mailed them out to all of those property owners.  I think it is safe to assume doing that was way more costly than forgetting about that penny!  I am thinking of actually just mailing a penny in, I don’t really want to waste a check on it, I already have to waste  a freaking stamp!

11 months!

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The regularly scheduled wordless Wednesday is interrupted to celebrate 11 months of Noah and Ezra! I cannot believe in just one month they will no longer be babies and welcoming toddlerhood, well at least Ezra will, Noah might not be doing any toddling!

Ezra is now getting in to everything!  He loves exploring the house and finding new things to play with.  He is figuring out how to open closets, drawers, and take down baby gates.  He is also practicing his balance, he is frequently letting go of things to see if he can stand.

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Taking out his immobile brother

Noah loves to stand, but refuses to pull-up!  I think he is now thinking about crawling, he dove out of my lap the other day into the crawling position, and now when we put him down on his belly he will scoot backwards.

They both now say momma, but only when they are upset.  More than one person has heard Ezra say “Tank,” so I guess that is his official first word.  Matt heard Noah say “Ezra” the other day when trying to get his brother to play with him!

Ezra now has his first tooth, I would try to get a picture of it, but it is a serious wrestling match just to let me look at it.

Noah claps all the time and I have been working on high-five with him.  I’ve also been trying to teach them some baby signs, I need to be a little more consistent and I think they would catch on quickly.

They seem to be self-weaning, they will hardly take bottles during the day, I have tried to get them to drink their formula from sippy cups, but they won’t drink much that way either.  The only bottles they drink regularly are before bed, the middle of the night, and their morning bottle (that one they don’t always drink.)  I keep trying and they do get a decent amount throughout the day even if it is just 1 ounce at a time.

We are currently dealing with our first stuffy, snotty nose.  I know we are very lucky to have made it this long without it, but the boys are driving me nuts!  They are very cranky and want to be held constantly and don’t want me to hold them at the same time.  It has made for a long couple of days.

Photo Friday – 10.09.09

I have been asked by more than one person why there aren’t more photos on the blog, well I could give you two good reasons, but instead I’ll suck it up and try to share more photos.
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Noah sporting some pants
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Ezra and his baby legs, yes I am fully aware they do not match, but his pants were seriously hampering his crawling
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Ez discovering he can now get to stuff on the table
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and share it with his brother
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and later cousin Abby
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hmmmm some sort of barrier?
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take that stupid barrier!
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drool!
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Abby is fun to make a mess with!
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Showing off my jumping skills

AZ Court date

We received paperwork from our county court to complete our adoption. December 8th!

It feels so good to think that our adoption stuff will be done this year!!!