Flying Babies

These "baby flying in the air" pictures never get old.  Especially with faces like those.

Good today: I ran 13.1 miles, a HALF-MARATHON!

Bad today: My on-again, off-again back pain started back up tonight and that hasn't happened yet during my training.  I hope it doesn't last... :/

Life through Cambria's lens

Cambria has her own camera and she takes pictures with it around the house on a daily basis. 

It was handed down to her from her Aunt Katie. 

Tonight I uploaded the 200+ pictures she's taken and I just HAD to share some of them.  

My 2 year old is a photographer already, I'm a proud mama ;)

"Myspace pic"

lots of the pictures are self portraits like this one.

our house + her hair

her dragonfly necklace, the dragonfly is missing a set of wings

mama on the phone

of course blankie has to be included

emo cambria

eyes

scary, drooly  close-ups of brother

nice angle on this one cam

one of brother eating

tiger

something red...I'm thinking this was one of her birthday balloons.

Tangled, her current favorite movie, and mine too :)

her favorite

onions from the garden + my foot

pizza

her view from inside the crib

crossed legs

cutie pie :)

{Cambria seriously took every single one of these pictures!!}

Papa

Mr. James Amos Nixon 

September 6, 1925-August 19, 2011

May he rest in peace, forever beside his wife of 65 years.

I can't wait until the day Ezra is old enough to understand that he shares his middle name with his great-grandfather.  

Naming our son after him was the least Kyle and I could've done to honor this special man.

He will be greatly missed and I don't think I'll eat a grape without thinking about him for a very long time ;) 

{and if you can't tell, Ezra definitely favors the Nixon side, especially Kyle's Papa!!}

Six months with Ezra

Six months ago, you and I looked like this.

And today we look like this.

 

So much joy you've brought us these last six months, Ezra.  You're a cool guy, never in a hurry and never too demanding.  Except at night, when you don't like to sleep, you like to make noises and cuddle with me and keep me awake.  It's okay though, I love you.  You prefer to be held, all the time.  Your smile is beautiful and it makes me smile every single morning when you open your pretty blue eyes.  You enjoy nursing more than anything in the world and like to do it all the time.  You're tall and lean and healthy as can be. Your big sister makes you giggle more than anyone, you guys love each other so much.  You've showed me how easy it is to love two children.  I love you in your own special way, different from your sister, but no more or less.  We have a connection that's deep. Your dad thinks we're obsessed with each other...we kinda are. I'm okay with that. Thank you, Son, for these last six months, they've been amazing.

Mr. Ezra Eats!!!

Something BIG happened today...

 

  

   

Yep, Ezra ate real food {aka non breast milk food} for the first time. 

He's been lunging at our food for a few weeks and will be 6 months old tomorrow, so, he was ready.

And we're doing baby-led weaning again.  

No purees or spoon-feeding, just the real stuff from the beginning.

And yes, it's a HUGE MESS:) 

As you can see, he LOVED it.

Can't wait for him to try more delicious foodies!!!

Square Art

This past week, I helped my little sister Casey make a cute & cheap DIY art project for her new college apartment.  I'm so excited for her and her new adventures so I was happy to help her out.  My mom and Casey actually came up with the idea, I just helped in making it happen.

This is how we made it. 

We started with nine of these plain art canvases which we found on sale for $12.99 at Michaels.  Seven came in one package so we bought three of them.  She used nine and I'm going to use nine to make this same art project for Ezra's room.  We'll have three left over, but I already have ideas for those. {The canvases pictured were ones I purchased on accident because I didn't realize they weren't the squares.}

                                                                                             source

Casey picked three different types of fabric she wanted to use.  {side note: I thought I was the only indecisive person in my family, but no, Casey took for.ev.er to pick out which fabric she wanted!! Sorry Case :)}  Two of them came in pre-cut squares like the ones above, but she to buy a yard of the third fabric she wanted. 

We first had to iron all the fabric to get rid of the creases from the folding.

I cut rough squares out of the fabric that wasn't pre-cut, I just eyeballed it.

Finally, I lay the fabric right side down, put the canvas on top, wrapped the fabric around and then glued it with my hot glue gun. The one thing I had to make sure of was that the fabric was stretched tight.  Very simple!

Casey sent me this picture of the finished product hanging in her room.  I think it looks bright and funky, love it!  And if she ever gets sick of the arrangement she can just change it up.   This was such an easy and cheap project and there are endless possibilities for these plain white canvases for future projects! 

I love you Casey, Ms. working & college girl! :)