Tile Skating

"Dad, you need to hurry and finish your lunch. You have tile skating lessons!" Now you tell me, how in the WORLD could you say 'no' to that!? Ethan has never been much of a slipper man but at walmart this weekend he found some too big incredible hulk slippers that were on clearance for $1. If you're a mom you know that getting out of walmart with your 6 year old for $1 and no fighting is quite a task! He loves them! They aren't the highest quality and are very slippery - hence, tile skating!

Spen didn't have 'tile skates' so he had to improvise and use his white socks. The lessons were HILARIOUS! There were step by step instructions given, demonstrations, and critiques! I was loving being the 'crowd' with Ezra.

Ethan was more into the running and the tricks than the actually sliding across the tile! He's had so much fun with his new slippers, and his extremely good sport dad!

Boys~

(Back story / facts to understand: Ethan's room is ALWAYS a mess. Always. My Mom is a very thoughtful person. Ethan is stubborn. My Mom doesn't like seeing Ethan in trouble for not cleaning his room.)

My sweet Mom came to my house the other day with a prize for Ethan! A toy container with wheels! It's suppose to help the messy room and the constant fight that accompanies the messy room. That was the idea!~ Ethan had another idea for it! (I'm just kicking myself that I didn't take a picture of Ezra napping in the bed Ethan made for him and put him in without my permission or knowledge!)

The thing about Ethan that I adore is how much he LOVES his brothers. He always wants to play with Mason. He is always thinking up things to do with Mason that will make him laugh. Mason LOVES his "E". And why wouldn't he? Ethan is so sweet and so thoughtful towards him! We have a different situation at our house having a 'severely disabled' Mason, but I love that you would never know there is anything different about Mason by how he is treated. Ethan made a little bed in his 'toy container with wheels' and put Mason in it by himself so he could push him around the house! He even tried to tie the container up to his scooter so he could tow him around!~

As you can see.... Mason ate this game right up! He had so much fun! He laughed the laugh that is so hard you can't hear it and wouldn't know he's laughing other then he turns bright blue and gasps to get air!!

After the fun of pulling him around faded, the two of them just cozied up and Ethan played Star Wars. It is weird how Mason is just so happy to be next to Ethan, even if there isn't anything going on!

Still Not Feeling It~

We keep trying, but Ez still isn't so sure about eating!! He likes to be with everyone at dinner, just not a fan of his dinner!

My favorite thing is when he tries to 'nurse' the spoon! He sucks on it like it's a bottle! Spen thinks it's his way of saying, "just give me my bottle back!" I swear Ez thinks we are clueless most of the time with the looks he gives us!!!

1st Wish Bone~

Tonight was a big night at our house!! My Mom brought us one of those Costco chickens for dinner. I don't really know how we have avoided it for 6 years but Ethan has never even heard of a wish bone! Tonight was the big night for his first wish bone...

He and Spen got all ready and made their wishes, they closed their eyes, and

Thank heavens for everyone in this house... Ethan won the wish!

He was so excited about it! It made it even better that Spen was so sad!

Perfect Face!~

Ezra~

Somehow because I have no real biologic connection to my adorable baby I don't feel at all conceited bragging about how gorgeous he is!

I have never seen a baby who likes to watch people and look at people as much as Ez does! He can't get enough of it.

If you're lucky he'll flash you his heart melting smile, but sometimes he just stares!

He loves to suck his lips. I think it is so cute! His sweet little cheeks are the softest, kissiest cheecks you'll ever nuzzle! If you can't already tell, I'm twitterpated!

Disney On Ice with Heidi~!!

It finally came!! Over a month ago Heidi called and told me she bought tickets to go see Disney on Ice!! Heidi is my 'sister.' Our family met her a few years ago through a friend of a friend and since she has become family! Thank goodness too! I don't know how we've survived without her! My kids know her as their Aunt and love her as Aunt Heidi!
She invited me, Ethan, my sister Michelle, and three of Michelle's kids. She bought them to celebrate her birthday that is coming up this week. She sure knows how to throw a birthday party as far as I'm concerned! We've been looking forward to this for so long and hooray we finally got to see it yesterday!
This is Aunt Heidi and all the kiddos ready to go inside!

She got us tickets right in the front on row 7! We were so close you could feel the chill from the ice! It was so darling and so much fun. They did little synopsis shows for several of the Disney favorite cartoons! Ethan was on the edge of his seat wondering what was next. He loved to pick his favorite part from each little show and his favorite character/skater!

These are the pictures I took...

Here is a small taste of what we saw!
(scroll to the end and pause my blog music for better viewing enjoyment!)

I really think the 'adults' had more fun and loved it more than the kids. Who knows, I could be wrong. I really had a great time though! Thanks Heidi!

Jett and Jarro

In the pediatric wing of the hospital they do this really cool thing. It's called Pet Therapy. There are two families who volunteer and come several times a week to visit the sick kids stuck in bed. One sweet older man brings his super chubby bull-dog named Sapphire. She is super spoiled and very sweet. Mason loves to hold her on his lap and rest his head on her. Last time they were licking each other. Priceless and gross! This time he got to see Jett and Jarro again. I wish I knew what kind of dogs they are but they too are so sweet and friendly with the kids. They are incredibly trained and extremely gorgeous!

I wish I would have taken a picture of them playing with Mason, but I was too involved playing myself to remember pictures!

Lift... practical and fun!

I know I have mentioned this but recently I have had to have a few surgeries. As you can imagine the post-op recovery instructions are a bit difficult to follow when you have 3 kids. One of them being a baby and another a Mason! We came up with the solution of renting this manual hydrolic lift.

It's very handy for getting Mason in and out of bed. I've heard that you can get use it to get him in and out of his wheelchair, but I can't see how that task is possible yet! Ethan has become extremely fascinated with the lift. It may actually be a good thing that they only had a sling in the adult medium size! Ethan lifts Mason up and down and wheels him all over the house. It's interesting to me that Mason laughs and giggles whenever Ethan puts him in it and gets stiff and nervous when I use it! Where's the trust!

As you can see the lift has become more than just a practical item at our house. It's an adventure! These two play in this sling for hours! They make beds in it, they 'take naps' in it, they pretend it's a treehouse. It's been a lot of fun for them.

I'm so lucky to have two brothers that love each other so much! I love that Ethan doesn't even notice Mason's disabilities. They just play and have fun like two regular brothers!

(side note: I won't allow them to bring Ezra on their adventures yet, or he'd be right there with them! They've asked!)

My Ezra is 5 months!

I know I say this every month that I post Ezra's month older pictures, but I really am just dying at how fast time is flying by!

He's just the happiest, smiliest baby! He loves when Spen talks to him. He gets really excited to have his daddy around.

I love to have pictures of my kiddos with the same thing every month so you can see how much they've changed by how they are interacting with the toy! Ez loves to hold his 'Rocco' bear we made at Build-A-Bear. With my other boys we used balls. Ethan had a football and Mase had a baseball. I really wanted to use something more cuddly with Ez this time! If you look back on our posts I love the Rocco bear because Ethan and Mason made him special for Ezra. (They also made a matching 'Ethan' bear that they gave to Ezra's birth mother.) I loved that idea so that she had the exact bear I was sending pictures of with Ez every month!

More than any baby I know, Ezra is a watcher! He LOVES to watch people and see everything that is going on around him. He even watches TV with us! He just has to be able to see what is going on for him to be happy! If you walk out of the room (even if you weren't playing with him at all) he gets really sad.

This for me is a rare moment that I had to post with his 5 month pictures! Ez is not much of a cuddler! He loves to be with us and be held and sit with us but watch out if you try to make him cuddle in! He's not a big fan! I sneak my cuddles when he is sleeping! He loves this fuzzy brown blanket my cousin Tiffany gave him and I'm sure glad. I got my cuddles picture!

Video of Mason skiing!

So, I finally edited our video Spencer took of Mason's skiing adventure.
It's not too long, but for optimal viewing I suggest pausing our music at the bottom of the blog!
Let me know what you think!!