Today is our Family Day. Exactly one year ago today, we became a family. It has been a wonderful year, challenging, life changing, but absolutely amazing. I cannot believe it has already been an entire year, it flew by so quickly.
We celebrated with Ethiopian food tonight, my first try at cooking it. One dish was super spicy and the other was a little bland. We then played outside, pretty much a normal evening as a family of 4.
My Grandparents, John and Kay
Last weekend we went to see my family in OKC. My grandparents had celebrated their 60th Anniversary and we were having a party to celebrate. Plus everyone needed to meet my little cuties!
The trip was a lot of fun but exhausting. The boys did not take to sleeping in pack and plays very well. The first plane ride wasn’t too bad, but the second one with overtired toddlers, was horrible. Funny story, as we were boarding the gate attendant says to Matt, “if they are screaming on the plane the flight attendants will come talk to you.” Matt’s response, “To do what kick us off the flight?”
Here are some of my favorite pictures. I put more here and here.
Punch and Cake, hmmm is that why Noah stayed up until midnight that night?
Ez thought the ice cream was a little cold, Grandpa and I thought his face was hilarious!
Ez to Hudson, "Give me that paci!"
Ayden pulling all three toddlers around, up hill in the grass, impressive
Enjoying some quiet time with my Grandpa
Ayden entertained Ez for about 30 minutes by jumping in and splashing him
Noah escaped mid-diaper change and boy is he getting fast
Tackled!
Hudson and Noah
I just love this look.
Showing Ez how to squirt his cousins
Sometimes the fence needs a hug.
The plane ride, lucky on the way out we got a whole row, not so lucky on the way back
For Grandma’s Birthday we decided to give her a d-backs game with the boys. The boys had a lot of fun and we hardly saw any baseball. Ezra sat and watched the big screen, clapped, and danced with Grandma and Daddy. Noah on the other hand wanted to run.
Running and dragging Grandpa along with him.
We went up to the Sandlot, he ran around screaming (happily) and then kept trying to escape.
We then went back to our seats so we could have some dinner. We all ate like pigs and had way too many calories. We even let the boys try some of our lemonade.
Here’s me and Ez, he is staring at the big screen.
Looking for an escape.
Grandpa and Ez.
Noah having fun with the seat, just ignore me.
Grandma and Ez.
My babies are 18 months old today. Unbelievable! Last year on this date we failed court for the second time, oh the heartache, but what a difference a year makes. They fill our lives with such joy!
They are very busy boys. They love the outdoors, water, reading, making noise, dancing, music, and playing with mom and dad.
Currently they are really working on their vocabulary and try so hard to copy us. Words they are saying: dadda, momma, kitty (ez says key but I know what he means), door, shoe, bubba, dog, hi, hey, uh-oh. Noah also says Ezra and has said Grandma, but refuses to now. They also say nana for banana.
Noah and his wocket for his pocket.
shhh don’t tell him the book is upside down, he likes it that way
what you said don’t put my foot on the table?
don’t ask.
Yesterday my grandparents celebrated 60 years of marriage. WOW!!! Congratulations to them. We get to go back and celebrate with them at the end of the month. I can’t wait for them to meet their great-grandsons. 
Here’s the clip from their local paper, there is another couple on the page married for 73 years!
Yesterday I decided to let go of control, the control I had because I still fed the boys their breakfast and lunch. I decided it was time they could feed themselves. They’ve been feeding themselves dinner for a long time and I had been resisting letting them feed themselves the rest of their meals. Today I decided to just rip the band-aid off and let them at it. Well they loved their new independence and did really great, plus ate plenty of food.
Here they are enjoying breakfast:
and lunch:
We were having so much fun with our new independence we decided to try out our booster seats and sit at the table for snack:
We also ate dinner this way. All four of us at the table, it was nice. Plus not having high chairs in the kitchen frees up some space.
Never be too busy to stop and take a moment with your child. There will always be dishes to wash and counters to wipe down, but these moments will soon just be memories and he will be grown.
Yesterday we dedicated the boys at church. They looked super cute in their Ethiopian outfits.
The Family
Noah
Ezra
As you can see the boys were a “little” interested in the stage behind us and all the instruments up there.
After church we came back to our house for a lunch and a little fun.
Ezra and Ethan giggling together.
Abby
Michelle attacking Noah
Ez with Grandpa’s camera
The cousins and the Bunny
Thrilled
My bro, me, and the kids
Dancing Noah
Dancing Ezra
Ez contemplating
Abby mowing
Abby hunting eggs
No Winny
Ez checking out his basket
Noah finally picked up an egg, then ran off to take it apart and put it back together, again and again
Ez eating an egg
Abby and her juice
The boys’ received a membership to Phoenix Children’s Museum for Christmas. (I had asked for memberships places since we have lots of toys already.) We waited until now to actual purchase, so the boys could enjoy it a little more and enjoy it they did. They had lots of fun and kept us very busy! It will be a great place to go and play once the weather is hot and we can no longer play outside for hours on end.
Noah loved the squishy ball machine, Ez was scared of it.
Sand and light table.
Noah licked the sand, yuck.
Air vent was a big hit!
Painting with water.
Notice they are going in opposite directions? Luckily there were four adults to keep track of them.
Playing some music.
Mmmm food puzzle pieces.
Ez fixing mommy a plate.
Yes he also ate some dried beans, notice a theme with Noah?
Noodle forrest was scary! We did traverse a couple of times though with mommy and daddy's help.
Thanks Nana and Papa!
Yes, almost a miracle! Matt is down to 19 t-shirts. Yep. he cleaned out the closet. Some people at a garage sale / goodwill are going to have some sweet shirts.
Some may say 19 is normal. You may need some history on matts shirt collections.
the guessing game
the final count on how many T-shirts matt owned last year
So as you see, 19 is way down from 83. Thats not even factoring in how many were acquired over the 2009 year.
19 still doesn’t count dress shirts, polos, bike jerseys or misc other items.
Please don’t tell me it’s been another month already! I can’t believe how fast they are growing up. I couldn’t resist the photo above. Look at those teeny, tiny babies in my lap! They are such big boys now.
Ezra has 6 teeth now and Noah has 4 with numbers 5 and 6 about to poke through. Plus I think they are both working on their one year molars.
We spend our days playing outside, eating, eating, and more eating. They love snacking on fruit, graham crackers, cheerios, and dried fruit. They aren’t always so thrilled with what I cook for dinner, but when its compatible I can add spaghetti sauce and they will eat it.
We officially are done with day-time bottles! They still get a bottle if they wake up in the middle of the night. They slept through the night 3 times last week!
Noah said thank you for a whole week and it was adorable, then he stopped. I am sure it’s still in there, he’s just busy learning something else. We still mostly hear dada, mama, kitty, and hi/hey from both of them.
Playing in Grandpa’s tent (this was my dad’s tent from when he was a little boy)
Playing outside is still our absolute favorite.
Climbing is really starting to pick up.
Noah cooking his momma something.
The boys love to vacuum. Here’s a little clip of the fun:
Vacuuming from Stephanie Adams on Vimeo.
Yes that is Noah playing in front of the vacuum and screeching with delight, so hard to believe just a couple of months ago he was terrified of the vacuum.
Daddy wrestles with the boys before bed to get them good and worn out and, of course, they love it.
Bedtime Fun from Stephanie Adams on Vimeo.
If there is one thing worse than a rainy Sunday, its a rainy Monday. Mondays are the hardest day of the week for me, simply because I am spoiled over the weekend with all the extra help. This morning it was rainy and wet outside, so we stayed inside, because we live in Arizona and we don’t know what do to in the rain and we don’t own any rain gear. The boys decided they would work in the kitchen this morning and this is what it looked like just before nap:
Sorry it’s blurry I didn’t realize Matt had used a setting on the camera that I am clearly not ready to use. I could not walk in the kitchen with out tripping over something, toddlers, toys, pots, bowls, tupperware. The floor is now clear and the sun is starting to break through the clouds, we might just get to play outside this afternoon.
