st. george in the spring

last spring, my parent bought a second/vacation home in st. george, which my sister, annie, and her family are currently renting. this month i took the kids down for a little spring break getaway.
while there, we decorated my parent bedroom. notice my mom squished in the backseat of the truck.

annie and i went on a run together.

 ezzy and robi got to feed some zombie chickens and collect eggs. 

 they also collect easter eggs which taste much better.

and we ended the week with a kite festival.

thanks guillenas for letting us invade your house for the week. we had lots of fun!

discovery gateway

a few weeks ago we took a stay-cation to salt lake and enjoyed the discovery gateway children's museum. esme loved playing and we loved watching her just be a little girl.

the little kitchen was her favorite. she loved being a little mom!

the helicopter was so much fun. (my personal favorite)

my secret dream anchor job.

ezzy definitely played hard and passed out as soon as we were in the car.

april fools

i gave the girls cookies and diet coke for dinner... they should have known something was up.

notice that esme chugged the diet coke and thought nothing of it??? that was 7-up and soy sauce! so nasty! the cookies were potato and black bean. girls were disappointed, to say the least.

a week in pictures

i realize i need to record more of our daily lives before they slip from my memory. so here is a week through my camera phone.

 grandpa is the best kite flyer.

 our first fire and smores of the year. 

living next door to your cousin means you play everyday and become more like sisters than cousins. i love these two pictures. they were taken within seconds of each other and tell a perfect story.

 recently, ezzy became fascinated with earthworms. (gross.) one morning, she found one on our driveway. it was just barely hanging onto life, half its body was already cemented to the ground. she was enthralled. for the rest of the day, each time we loaded into the car (which was a lot) she just had to check on her worm. it was annoying... but kind of cute.

little man got his second haircut this week. here is his crazy mop before; notice the wet spot in front where big sister licked him. you'd be surprised how often that happens. i forgot to take an after shot... it looks the same, but shorter. ;)

 we woke up on wednesday to snow. ezzy was so excited! so excited in fact, that she refused to waste time getting dressed, and so it became a pajama and snow boots kind of morning.

 ezzy and i have started a new tradition (or bad habit) of going to lunch every thursday after ballet. any excuse to stuff our faces with hamburgers and frosties. ;)

ky-ky is eating solids so well! his new favorite is sweet potatoes.

 this week was my niece ellery's birthday. she asked for a yellow swiffer duster. seriously. um, i will never pass up an opportunity for child labor, especially in the form of a birthday gift. she was SO excited, and i'm excited for her to come dust my house.

brandon has been working on re-landscaping our garden and ezzy has taken every opportunity to play in the dirt piles. she's taken a LOT of baths this week.

i have to end with these two pictures of my favorite people. obviously they worked (and played) hard this week.

kiss those terrible twos goodbye!

ezzy kate turned 3! let's be honest, this year has been a little rough, so i'm thrilled to have it behind us. people aren't kidding about terrible twos, but things are looking up and life is getting a bit easier. the tantrums are getting shorter and less frequent, and we're starting to be able to reason with this little girl. i could not be more grateful.

this birthday was so much fun! it's the first year that ezzy has known what a birthday is. she was looking forward to it all week. she woke up that morning excited to eat cupcakes and open presents. she was thrilled to see the house decorated like her favorite movie, frozen. after we opened presents, we ate her requested breakfast of cupcakes. mmm. 

that afternoon, we went iceskating with grandma and grandpa roper, aunts millie and abbie, cousins ellery and aayla, and future uncle james. look at this girl's face! she was SO excited to go iceskating!

after iceskating, we headed home for some frozen themed food, cake, and of course more presents.

there are days that i can't believe my baby is already 3! where did the time go? but then i think, "i've only been a mom for 3 years? that's it?!? it feels SO much longer!" ...in a good way, promise. nothing has changed my life more than this girl. she makes me laugh everyday, she is so loving and tells me she loves me all the time. she is still a daddy's girl and probably always will be. she loves to color, read books, play outside in the dirt, and watch "shows". she is obsessed with frozen and has every song memorized. her favorite food is oatmeal and peanut butter sandwiches. she is kyson's second mother and loves to take care of him. i'm so grateful that she is in our lives! happy birthday ezzy!

baby ezzy

ezzy has decided that she is done with naps. ugh. i hate this idea. but the other day i found just the thing to do the trick...

little miss loves to be held and rocked like a baby, so i played it up. i swaddled her like a baby, rocked her for a bit, and put her in the pack-n-play. she loved it. and was fast asleep within minutes.

birth story

the sunday before baby boy arrived i started to have contractions. brandon and i walked and walked and walked but the contractions went no where. the next day, i was still having contractions but they were inconsistent and not very strong. then at 6:00 they became stronger and were coming every 3-5 minutes. i showered and did my hair and makeup to try and keep myself occupied. by about 9:00 brandon was ready to go to the hospital but i wasn't. there were no tears yet and i didn't want to be turned away. i don't know why i was worried; at my last dr appointment i was dilated to 3 and 80% effaced. they wouldn't have turned me away... i might have been a little irrational. shortly after 10:00 brandon convinced me to go in. he dropped ezzy off at my sister's house and we headed out... but of course not before stopping at wendy's. :)

we got to the hospital at 11:00. still worried they wouldn't keep me, i made brandon leave the bags in the car. (seriously don't know what my problem was.) we got in, the nurse checked me and immediately asked if i wanted an epidural which of course i did. (no shame!) she then ran to the door and yelled, "she's at a 7, 100% effaced with a bulging sack and she wants an epidural." bless those nurses; they hurried in and got me prepped and ready for the anesthesiologist. i guess it was a good thing we came in when we did. ;) my mom and sisters wanted to be at the delivery, so brandon called and told them to hurry over. by 11:45 i was feeling so much better; all numb and comfy. my mom and sisters, millie and abbie, arrived and annie was there via facetime. it was pretty much a party in that delivery room.

the dr. broke my water and discovered that baby was posterior. luckily, he was able to turn him and we were ready to get the show on the road. around midnight i started pushing. on the second contraction, baby boy's heart rate dropped pretty low and the doctor got his forceps ready. thankfully i was able to get him out on the next contraction without any help from the baby-tongs. whew.
at 12:15 baby boy took his first breath and shocked us all with his full head of hair. holy monkey, i have no idea where that came from but we are in love with it.

i am so grateful that everything went so perfectly. we are enamored with our little guy and feel so blessed to have him in our family.