Ezra Emil

I saw this on a blog I love and couldn't help but copy it (thanks Emily!). Today I'll tell all about Ezra, in a few days I'll do Georgia, followed by Scarlett. Hope you enjoy!

(yes, you've seen that picture on here before. I've just been a loser picture-taker lately.)

Name & Meaning: Ezra Emil Lifferth. Out of all of our kids, Ezra's name is the most steeped in meaning. We knew we wanted to do an E name for the first and Emil for the middle in honor of Spencer's great grandfather Ernest Emil (aka E.E.) and Spence's younger brother, Eric Emil. I adore Ezra's name-it's such a strong, steady name shared by many great and spiritual men. I love the fact that Ezra will have not only E.E. and Eric to look up to, but also Ezra Taft Benson and the great biblical scribe and priest, Ezra. Plus he shares his name with a (little-known) book in the Bible-how cool is that?

Age: 3 years, 4 months

Nicknames: I call him: Ez, little bug, Ezra Emil (I know it's his full name, but I often use it as a nickname, not just when he's in trouble). Spencer calls him: buddy, little critter, buckaroo, buckaroon-macaroon, Ez. Georgia calls him : Ezie, Ez.

Favorite Activites: Building things from blocks, playdough, and pokey blocks, playing with trains, singing, throwing things, drinking liquid of any kind, reading books, and playing with his bestest frenemy (ie: friend and enemy), his cousin Greyson.

Favorite Foods: chicken nuggets, french fries, cereal, rice and bread with butter (ok, really safe margarine 'cause everything's better with blue bonnet on it), chocolate soy milk, regular soy milk, vanilla soy milk, juice (did I mention my kid drinks all. day. long.) and Philly Swirls.

Least Favorite Foods: sandwiches, soups, onions, tomatoes, meat (obviously chicken nuggets aren't counted as meat in his book...he might actually be right :P), and any of the other countless foods he's never tried but insists he hates.

Favorite Music: the Veggie Tales song (broccoli, celery, gotta be...VEGGIE TALES!), hymns and primary songs (his favorite hymn is How Great Thou Art which he insists is called, Oh Lord My God), ABBA, and other random songs like Zac Brown Band's Chicken Fried, Tim McGraw's Last Dollar (Fly Away), Katy Perry's Hot 'N' Cold, and much, much more.

Favorite Toy: Trains, balls, and his buildable marble track.

Favorite Book: The ABC Sing Along book. Before that it was The Little Engine That Could. Anything by Dr. Seuss is always a sure bet.

Favorite Item of Clothing: flip-flops (he was ecstatic when it was warm enough to wear them today), his cousin Greyson's sandals (he covets them), and any shirt with a sports-related picture on it [insert eye roll here].

What Makes Him Happy: cuddling, especially if there is a book involved...even better if there's a sippy too.

What Makes Him Sad: when the wind blows through the trees, turning them into "scary trees," the dark, and when Georgia beats up on him. (I'd like to say I'm kidding, but I'm so not. seriously.)

Funny Words or Phrases: "It hurts like the dickens," "The Grinch...he's creepy," "I need my sippy/milk/juice. It makes me feel better," "How could you do that to me!" (usually said with much wailing and gnashing of teeth), "MiMi-she's crazy," and (my personal fav) "Mommy, you're my favorite" (even though I'm really not).

Drum roll, please...

As if one blog wasn't enough...


now I have two!


Check us (Aubrey-my absolute best girlfriend since all the way back at Stillwater High and me-obviously) out at Hot Chocolate Talk. We'll be talking about anything and everything, because that's what girlfriends do.

ps-Who among us doesn't loooove free bows? Heaven knows, I do (and with two little girlies needing John Denver hair help, I sure need 'em). The cutest little bow shop is having a fabulous free giveaway here.

Gotta love a place that fries a vegetable...

Sorry guys, but it looks like we're in for another big catch up post...

First off, the critters and I just got back from lovely, warm, humid Alabama where we were visiting my sister in Mobile. I gotta say, I just love the South. How can one not love a place where every third person says something like, "Bless your heart, honey," have deep fried foods as a staple in their diet, and have a Lynyrd Skynyrd song written about them? If Spencer found a job in the deeper South, I'd move there in a second (yes, it's even worth the summer heat). At least I still have a little bit of the culture here in Oklahoma with our fried okra (gotta love a place that fries a vegetable), hand over heart exclamations, and biscuits and gravy.

My cute sister Liberty and Scarlett

Little Miss Ella, all ready for bed

Gunnison checking out Scarlett (she loved all the attention she got from Lib's beasties)

Georgia showing off her big girl panties
(no, she's not completely potty trained, but she's on her way and verrry excited about it)

MiMi and Josiah showing off his composition he wrote for Grandparent's Day
Jos even got to recite it in front of the entire school!

This would be the one and only picture I got of Gavin the entire trip
(he's a hard one to catch)

Our King Cake

My brother in law, Kit, was a doll and bought us a King Cake when our Mardi Gras parade got rained out. It really was more appetizing than it looks. I promise.

Georgia enjoying her own little slice
(I've got to take a moment to brag-don't ya just love what the humidity does to her naturally curly hair)

New Orleans

The Saint Louis Cathedral, oldest continuously operating cathedral in the United States

MiMi, Georgia, and Jos waitin' out the rain

All of us in front of a 'gator statue in New Orleans
I love how a woman (my mom) so obviously took this photo. If it was a guy the entire alligator would be in the picture but we'd all look like ants. Since it's a woman taking it, you can see all the people clearly, but the focal point-the statue-has it's head cut off.

Ezra, Auntie Libby, Gunner, and Georgia digging into their beignets

Overall, we had an absolutely fabulous time with Liberty and her brood (and of course her hubby too!). I wish we could get out there more often, but I'll take what I can get and be oh-so-grateful for it!


Georgia's new favorite food is yogurt. To most moms, that'd be no big deal, but to me, that's huge. Ginormous. Paramount. Georgia passed both her soy and dairy challenges and she can now officially eat basically anything (well, except for nuts. We're still waiting on those). I can't even begin to tell you how exciting that is. I've never known what it's like to give my child ice cream at a party, a spoonful of my cream-based soup, or any random piece of candy the nice old lady next door gives her. It's seriously one of the biggest milestones in her short little life.

I snapped this picture the other day and I believe there's only one word for it...

Diva.

If you still have the time, here's a quick video of us eating beignets and dancing to the music at the famous Cafe du Monde in New Orleans. Have a fabulous day!

A Bug Is Born

I don't know if you've been to Chick-fil-A recently, but I feel the need to warn you: do not, under any circumstances, buy the kid's meal.

It all started with an innocent lunch out last week. We're big fans of Chick-fil-A around here as it includes a nice play place that isn't dirty, overrun with mowgli children (other than my own), or inviting to any suspicious lurkers. Stephanie, my sister, had an extra toy left over from her daughter's meal, as Ella's still too young to appreciate it (I don't typically buy Chick-fil-A's kid's meals because of milk allergy issues). Usually we're all very excited when Ezra gets Chick-fil-A toys because they're educational *and* entertaining (which believe you me, is very hard to find). Most boys collect baseball cards, but not Ezra, Ezra collects Chick-fil-A cards on space, bugs, and other educational topics (even the more eyebrow-raising because he's three and can't yet even read what's on the cards).

Back to the topic at hand...right now, the kid's meal includes cardboard cut-outs of different bug body parts (in this particular case, a bee). You're supposed to pop the parts out of the cardboard and follow the directions while folding and tucking the parts together. Then Vualah!: A Bug Is Born. Simple, right?

Wrong.

These are the instructions:

This is the end product:


This little beauty took me just over 45 minutes to make. That's right, just a quarter shy of a entire hour. I put Georgia's entire wood doll cradle together faster than I did a measly cardboard bee. Not only was it time consuming, it was hard. Really, REALLY hard. I almost gave up half a dozen times, but Ezra's poor little excited face was just more than I could handle. He kept checking up on me to see if his stupid bee was done. So there I was, sitting in the middle of the living room at 9:30am in my pajamas with scraggly hair, glasses on, and no end in sight.

After the ridiculously complex origami was over and the bee was done, Ezra gleefully began flying it around in the air while shouting, "Mom, I'm buzzing Georgia, I'm buzzing Georgia!"

Was it worth it?

Not at all. Avoid it like the friggin' plague.

ps-the bug lasted approximately 20 minutes before it fell to pieces. I can't say I'm all that suprised. Are you?

Being Martha Stewart

You know those days where you wake up, throw up the sash. breathe in that fresh winter air, and decide that today is the day you will be your own new-and-improved Martha Stewart?

...neither do I.

I do, however, know what it's like to be woken up by two very noisy little kids jumping on your bed [read: bellyflopping onto you], in an absolutely frigid room and then being dragged by necessity and said children into a shoddy imitation of Marth Stewart.

Yesterday was one of those days.

The day started off bright and all too early...again, not because I wanted it to, but because I had to hurry and get a new license and do five loads of laundry. No, I'm not joking. That was actually only 2/3 of the laundry, the other 1/3 I have to do tomorrow. It's abso-friggin'-lutely cold and icy here, so everyone was basically stuck at home as temperatures dropped by noon. Instead of being all bummed about staying indoors all day (doing aforementioned laundry, no less), I decided to let Ezra convince me to make popcorn. Real popcorn too, in an actual popper, not any of the pansy microwave kind. I don't usually do it because it's a bit of a hassle and I'm kind of lazy by nature. However, Ezra must've timed it just right because I needed a bit of a laundry break and I knew if the Little Ones had popcorn and a movie, I could sneak in a some one-on-one with a book.

[cue the Martha Stewart]

While making popcorn, I turned into a bit of an Earth Mother and dealt with all questions and mishaps in a gentle, patient, go-with-the-flow manner.

Example:

*The breaker tripped when I tried to melt butter and pop popcorn at the same time. Ezra immediately started screaming, "The power is gone! The power is gone!" Georgia, who adores chaos in any form started squealing and wiggling in delight. I just went and flipped the switched back on.

Earth Mother? check.

*The butter kept popping in the microwave, making a ginormous, oily mess and wasting gobs of butter. It did it two separate times, in fact (I wised up and even covered it the second time and it STILL popped all over. grrr.). The kiddos, of course assuming the worst, thought things were exploding. I just cleaned it up. Both times. (you'd be proud of me mom. I was tempted to leave it for another day. no one ever looks in your microwave, anyway, right?)

go-with-the-flow? check.

*After a while, Ezra insisted he did not like the wet, soggy popcorn found at the bottom of his bowl. He then threw it on the floor and tried to grind it in. (I, personally, don't know what he was whining about. What kind of weirdo doesn't like the popcorn that is saturated with buttery goodness?) I insisted he pick it up and throw it away if he didn't want it. He refused. I said he couldn't have anymore popcorn if he didn't. The sparring went on for quite a while. (I think I ended up just picking it up myself when he wasn't looking so that he wouldn't realize I was giving in)

gentle and patient? wellll, maybe not check exactly, but at least I didn't wring his scrawny little neck.

All in all, it was quite a fun way to spend an afternoon and kept me in a good enough mood to even make homemade chicken noodle soup. So, while I might not quite be Martha Stewart ('cause we all know Martha wouldn't make popcorn only for a book break, she'd do it to instill her children with a sense of self-worth by spending lots of quality time with them), I think I'm doing pretty darn good anyway.

Ezra enjoying the fruits of his labor

Georgia looking mowgli, as usual.

(she's wearing pajamas in the middle of a weekday afternoon because she had soaked through her previous outfit and I simply didn't see the point in wasting another outfit on a stay-at-home day)

NIP and Sunbeams

Sunbeam: a beam or ray of sunlight.

Jesus wants me for a sunbeam
To shine for Him each day
In every way try to please Him
At home, at school, at play...

This last Sunday, Ezra became our very own little Sunbeam (he went into Primary a week late because we were out of town the week before and didn't want to have to deal with trying to transisition him in an unfamiliar ward). As Ezra has been a Sunbeam for almost a full week now, I've had time to contimplate his new title (although don't call him a Sunbeam, he insists it something he becomes at Church and then stops being as soon as he leaves the building and gets upset when anyone contradicts him [insert eye roll here]). As I've done this, it's become more and more apparent to me just why they call my little three year old a "ray of sunlight". While Ezra is often a little raincloud, he is more often literally a little sunbeam illuminating our home. He makes me laugh and smile when I really just don't want to. Whether he's dancing around to ABBA, going granola while watching The Lorax over...and over...and over, giving his baby sister lots of kisses, or informing me that The Grinch "gives [him] the creeps," I just can't help but smile at my little ray of sunshine.

A sunbeam, a sunbeam,
Jesus wants me for a sunbeam
A sunbeam, a sunbeam,
I’ll be a sunbeam for Him.



On a completely different note...

Many of you, I'm sure, have heard of the recent Facebook controversy over banned breastfeeding photos. If you haven't, here's a link to a newstory about it (here's another one that's a little more slanted in a pro-breastfeeding direction). Here's my take:

I'm a big fan of breastfeeding. As I'm currently raising my third nurser in three years, one could say that I'm pretty comfy with The Girls. I long ago decided that it wasn't worth the hassle to go find a empty room, freezing car, or bathroom stall to nurse in, and have since started to nurse whereever I happen to be when the baby gets hungry, whether it be at the mall, on an airplane, or (heaven forbid) in sacrament meeting (and, according to some, scaring deacons the country over ;). I'm fairly discreet while doing it, but I can't promise I haven't ever accidentally flashed anyone. Frankly, I don't care if it offends someone, it's my right to feed my child anywhere I want, anytime I want. Which is why the fact that Facebook bans any nursing photo that it deems too revealing is so darn offensive to me. While I'm probably not going to take pictures of me nursing my child and post them on a Facebook account, but I still very much, in my opinion, have the right to. Will someone please explain to me while it's completely acceptable for them to show pictures of pre-teens making out in bikinis while drinking beer, but a woman lovingly nursing her newborn is not kosher? While I realize that Facebook is a private company and can make any rules it wants, that doesn't mean they *should*. In sum, if it makes you terribly uncomfortable to see a woman breastfeeding her baby, whether in real life or cyberspace, simply don't look.

So much to post about, yet so little time

ok, so I'm a loser and didn't get a chance to post while still in Utah. Actually, to be honest, there actually was buckets o' chances, but I was just too lazy to go hunt down the camera cord *sigh*

Now that I'm home and things are slowly getting back to normal, the time has come to update the blog. You see, I have a fair amount of musings to fill ya'll in on...

First off, Georgia isn't always a mogli. I realized, while looking at past posts, that nine times out of ten, I post pictures of my daughter looking like a vagabond. To remedy that, I am posting a picture of her looking all cute and ready to go out and face the world. As you can see, she doesn't always have food on her face and John Denver hair.

We all had loads of fun in Utah, but to Ezra it was a magical, mystical place. It might as well had a couple of fairies and talking animals in his book.

PS-we were visiting Spencer's family the entire time, so all the "Aunts" and "Uncles" you see are Spence's little brothers and sisters.

Playing in the snow with Aunt Leslie

Helping Grandpa shovel the driveway

Hanging out in the Hot Pots

Bowling with the boys:

Grandpa and Uncle Kyle

(I was actually hitting up Victoria's Secret semi-annual sale during their bowling extravaganza. Who doesn't love cheap bras and lingerie?)

The Girls had their fair share of good times too...

Georgia blowing her toenails dry after Aunt Heather painted them

Taking a break in Daddy's arms

Helping Grandma decorate Christmas cookies

Chillin' with Aunt Kimberly

Dipping pretzels in safe chocolate

Christmas Festivities

Scarlett and Ezra showing off their Christmas Jammies

Is she not friggin' adorable?

Uncle Eric and Ezra on Christmas Eve

Cheesin' it for the camera

Poor boy was speechless when he saw his, Georgia's, and Scarlett's combined gift from Santa

Georgia checking out her new dishes ($5 from Wal-Mart-what a steal!)

Georgia playing with her brand new doll and cradle

And last but not least...

My sister Liberty thinks I've been neglecting Scarlett in the last few posts...and I'd have to agree. So, to my darling sister who has been begging me for more of Littlest, here ya go:

(Sorry about the sideways video, I wasn't being particularly bright at the time. Yes, she's on my bed and No, it's not made.)

I'm super-impressed if you made it through my Uber Post. Hope you enjoyed and have a fabulous day!