good baby Ezra

I don't think I have shared what Ezra's name means. It's a Hebrew name, of course, and it means "Helper." 

Besides liking the name, we liked the meaning. Wouldn't it be nice to have a "helper" baby #4 instead of another destroyer baby? I've never had a truly laid back child, though none of them have been difficult babies in the least. And yet the idea of 4 children was a little daunting to me so we kinda hoped that he would be a laid back helper. 

Lo and behold, he lives up to his name. He is such a good baby. He's been sleeping through the night since 8 WEEKS! I've been wanting to share that for a while but thought I'd better wait until I was sure he'd keep on doing it. He sleeps til 7 or 8'oclock in the morning consistently (I am a firm believer in the book Baby Wise [i could say a lot about the controversy of this book but i won't] though my other kids didn't sleep through the night until around 4 months)! He naps great, with an occasional hiccup. He hardly ever cries - not even to go to sleep anymore. 

Maybe it's loud enough as it is with three older ones running around and he doesn't feel the need to add to the din. But I hope he continues to be chill. He's such a joy. 

2013 fair

Last year Terry's dad offered to take the kids to the Central States Fair for the afternoon. They had such a blast on those rides, just like I did when I was a kid. He offered again this year and this time Gramma went along. Shari and Grace went for a while also. I stayed home enjoying the silence of nap time since Samuel and Ezra are much too small.

Here's Evie, Grace and Gramma next in line for the ferris wheel.

Almost ready to leave. They rode tons of rides and had so much fun. I'm so happy that Jerry and Alice are willing to do this. 

Check out the sweet balloon crown Evie got.  

Noah got a balloon snake and cried when part of it popped. They sure love balloons. 

12 weeks

Baby Ezra is already 12 weeks old! The summer sure flew by (wish we could say that about winters). 

My sister reminded me to make sure I don't neglect the baby and take plenty of photos of him. Taking her advice, I stripped little Ez down to his diaper to do some comparison shots from when he was only a few days old.

Here's Ezra at 3 days old when he still had his umbilical stump and was jaundiced with dry, peely skin. 

Here he is at 12 weeks! I'm not exactly sure how much the little pudge weighs, but it's over 13 pounds, perhaps even 14, since he was nearly 13 pounds at his 8 week check.

He is quite efficient at smiling these days. Every time it's like a little gift.

Look at his pudgy little legs! Samuel was so skinny that it's nice to have a squishy baby again (Evie is still called Little Squish around here).

Yes, it's somewhat gratifying to squish those legs and cheeks and belly. Makes me feel like I'm doing a good job :)

Cutie!

swinging Evie, growing baby

While I was making dinner yesterday I looked outside and saw Evie swinging all by herself! That was new to me though Terry said she's been doing it with a start-up push for a while. I pay such close attention. But yesterday was the first time she could get herself going and keep going. She swung for like a half hour. What a big girl! :) and :(

When I wrote about Ezra's first smiles a couple days ago, I realize that I've been terrible about taking photos (cell photos don't count). So I took the opportunity while supper was simmering away and snapped some of the growing baby. And crazy Daddy. Look at his fat little thighs! So different from Samuel. I love it!

See how his face is elongated? Yeah. He's changed a lot in just a few weeks. Go figure.

Swing!

Kiss kiss kiss

Ezra was a little grumpy because he woke up way too early from his nap but Daddy got him to smile with some tickles.

And he's done smiling. But still adorable.

Squish the face!

Wardyn visit

Last weekend our good Gburg friends, the Wardyns, visited us. It's turning into an annual thing since they visited us last year as well. They really wanted to meet baby Ezra (and see us) and have a mini-vacation, but I hope it stays an annual thing. Or we have to keep having babies every year to lure them back. 

We love this family. Their kids are a lot older than our kids but that doesn't stop Noah and Evie and Samuel from adoring them. The Wardyns are so selfless and play with them all day long. It's actually a vacation for me since I don't have to worry about my kids at all. They even babysat all of our kids so Terry and I could go out on a double date with Shawn and Becky. They had some funny stories to tell when we got back. Apparently Samuel didn't make it to the potty in time and pooped on the floor (Snap is better behaved than Samuel). Daniel's reaction was pretty hilarious.

We were a lot more stay-at-home than last year due to baby Ezra's naps so we were all just hanging out together. Here they're working on a 500 piece puzzle Noah was having a hard time with. They finished it right up for him!

Daniel, their youngest, just loves Samuel. The feeling was mutual. Samuel quite enjoyed having someone dote on him. 

Work it, Samuel.

After church on Sunday we went for Chinese where Daniel taught the kids how to slurp jello through a straw and Samuel tried to climb through a window. Fun stuff. Come back next year Wardyns!

thumb sucker

I found Ezra like this after a nap a couple weeks ago.

I've never had a thumb sucker before! Noah loved his pacifier from the start. Evie learned to like it after I forced it on her. Samuel definitely didn't care for it. Ezra used to take one sporadically but seems to prefer his thumb when he's in bed. I've heard it's a difficult habit to break... But he's so stinking cute!

Noah's pictures #5

A few weeks ago Noah was bored and asked to take some photos like he used to in the old days when Samuel was a baby.   

Samuel is quite a lot bigger now! He's still got that hair we all love though. I hope that never changes.

Terry was busy playing Risk with some Andrew, David and Steven.

Ezra was wide-eyed awake.

Even though he's chunkier than Samuel was, his feet are pretty small comparatively. They look more like Evie's did.

Noah's thumb is freaking me out. It looks like it isn't there...

My freckled girl.

That ribbon must be exciting.

Noah had so much fun taking photos that he bugged us incessantly the next day to take more photos. We came up with a better idea. Terry helped Noah make his very first stop motion video. Star Wars Battle. After they watched it on YouTube, they watched someone else's much better, funnier video and Noah wanted to make more. He also wants to make movies when he grows up now.

first smiles

I am a month behind in blog posts. When I see these photos I am struck by how much he has grown in just a month. Currently, his head and therefore his face, have grown a lot longer. And his rolls are bigger! Samuel never ever had rolls. 

Ezra has been smiling since he was about a month and a half old - or mid way through July.

As if the kids needed one more reason to adore him. The smiles are just the icing on the cake. They actually fight over who gets to talk to him and make him smile.

He is so cute. His eyes are always wide, wide open. People always comment on "how alert!" he is.

Evie discovered how he can hold on to things now. His thighs are rollier than this now. You know what I mean even though that's not a word. I looked it up :)

dungeon: part 8, tape, mud, texture, paint

 I'll be up to date on the dungeon progress after this post. It's so fulfilling to see how much we've (Terry's) accomplished. He worked incredibly hard the week leading up to his disconnect youth trip to WY the first week of August. Really, it was a grueling week for him mudding in the evenings but he wanted me to be able to paint while he was gone. I was glad to have something to keep me busy. 

Here is the first layer of mud over the tape and screws. We thought the second and third coats would go quicker since he wouldn't have to tape as well. Boy were we wrong. 

Here is the second coat of mud going on. 

And here is the third! Talk about fanning it out wide, right?! Terry is quite the perfectionist. Even though this was his first time mudding, you wouldn't have known. He did a fantastic job. The drywall was so smooth that we could have skipped the texturing and just slapped the paint on. 

I thought it would be cool to show before and afters of the walls of mud and paint. What a difference eh? It's a real room!!! 

Mud opposite side of the room where the TV and couch will go.

Let there be paint! I wanted a blue gray and I think it turned out well. Sherwin Williams Gray Screen.

Mud on the north wall. Nice right?! 

Boom baby.

Mud going up the stairs. The hallway was very strenuous, difficult work for Terry. It looks great.

Bam.

Here's a close up cell photo of the knockdown texture before it dried. Terry had never textured either but he knocked it out of the park. Of course.

Check that hallway out. Brilliant.

dungeon: part 7, drywall

I am so behind. It's okay if no one cares about our basement project. I want to remember how much work went into it. :)

The months of June and July were devoted to hanging drywall.  Here's Terry's genius home made bracing for gluing the drywall to the cement stairs.

He worked so so hard on that hallway. All I did was sit and watch Tim Hawkins DVDs.

The view from the stairs.

The other side of the room.

Back up toward the stairs. 

He wasn't originally planning on putting drywall up in the utility room but changed his mind because he's a perfectionist. And to deaden the sound of the furnace. And to put shelves against.

Here's looking out of the utility room.