Ezra At Four Months

Loves from his sister make everything better. :)

Ezra is now 16 pounds of pure lovable squish.

• Can now roll completely over and is a total roly poly. As soon as we lay him down, he rolls right to his stomach. 
• Recognizes his name. This has actually been a problem. If he is napping, and we say his name, he often wakes up startled. 
• Loves to babble and very loudly too!
• He has a few new nicknames: Ez, Ezzy (which Anniston came up with), The Big Easy and Easy (Gabe), and my favorite, Ezzy Wezzy.
• Has started to take naps in his crib. They usually don't last longer than 30 minutes, but it's progress. Now I just need to start mentally preparing myself to let him sleep in there at night.
• He usually wants to go to bed for the night at 6:45 pm, but we try to make him stay up until 7 pm, which is when Anni goes to bed too. He usually doesn't make it past the first bedtime story, but he's never asleep for long. Ha.
• Still eats every 2 - 2 1/2 hours. At night, he can sometimes (only sometimes) go 4 hours.

Going Native

Almost a month ago (I've been slacking), we went on our annual birthday vacation. We didn't want to go anywhere too crazy, due to the fact that Gabe is very busy with school, as well as his new job, and well, we have a 3-month old. We decided to go to Sedona, which is only two hours away from our house. Sedona is awesome by the way! We all loved it, but I think Anniston loved it the most. She was pretty amazed by the 'pink' mountains. They were definitely red, but thinking they were pink made her so happy so we didn't correct her. We went on a  hike every day we were there, sometimes two, and Anniston barely had to be carried. We would give her options each day and she would tell us she wanted to go on a hike every time. Anniston is true to her Native American roots and loves the outdoors. We are keeping our fingers crossed that Ezra does as well. I truly love this tradition we have started, of celebrating both Gabe and I's birthdays by going on a family vacation each year. We always have a very tight budget, because simply put, we are poor, but we always find free or cheap things to do and have a wonderful time! I really feel like our family grows closer when we take these trips together, and it starts our year off on a very positive note. If you love to hike, mountain bike, or just want to absorb some Native American history, go to Sedona. It's beautiful and has a million different trails to choose from. We will definitely be back, maybe even next month. It IS only two hours away after all and about ten degrees cooler than Phoenix.