Our wonderful 8 days in Southern California!

DISCLAIMER: This post is very long and filled with lots of pictures. I'm trying to decide if I like to use slides or not, so this is my attempt at a lot of pictures without a slide.


Since Jesse had a work conference in Costa Mesa last Sunday-Thursday, we decided to make a vacation out of it. We spent last weekend in San Diego with my Spencer and Kim, my wonderful brother-in-law and sister-in-law. Then we spent Sunday-Thursday in Costa Mesa. We drove back to Sand Diego and spent one more night in there before coming home on Friday. It was so much fun! Preparing for the trip was the only tricky part. I had a rough time trying to pack for such a long vacation. Luckily I had Ezra to help me!


Having fun with the Fam in San Diego:


On Friday we all went to luch at Soup Plantation. Ezra was partial to the black olives and the muffins. He had so much fun spending time with his cousins.
We had such a wonderful time in San Diego. I feel so blessed to have such wonderful brother-in-laws, sister-in-laws and neices and nephews!

On Sunday we had a big family dinner with all of Jesse's immidiate family that live in the vicinity, including Jesse's amazing, beautiful and loving Grandmother. After a delicious dinner, we had a good time talking while the kids played. I thought this picture of my was too cute! My niece claire, fell asleep in that funny position and stayed there for the longest time.

Here are four of my super cute neices and nephews. From the top: Daniel, Sarah, Rachel and Eric. Since blinking was the topic of conversation, here are the three oldest kids best blinks. How fun are they?!?

Driving to Costa Mesa:

Ezra was such a tropper in the car. Although we spent so much time driving, he was always trying to have a good time. Periodically, he would start up a game of peek-a-boo or pat-a-cake. Smetimes he would catch my eye in the rear-view mirror and blow me a kiss (my heart melted everytime). On the 90 minute drive between San Diego and Costa Mesa, he found something new to occupy his time: The Bottle Sterilizer. Between the sterilizer and the bottles inside, he was content the majority of the way to the hotel.


DISNEYLAND:

Since Jesse had classes he had to attend during the day, I decided to have a real vacation while we were in California. On Monday, Ezra and I went to one of my favorite places in the whole entire world: Disneyland. For years and years my family would go there over Halloween/Nevada Day. It's only been since we've gotten older and married that we haven't been able to make it every year. Anyways, I had the hotel print out a map and I successfully navigated three freeways, found Disneyland, parked, and made it into the park. I would me really impressed with myself (I have a horrible sense of direction), but I prayed really hard that I wouldn't get lost, so I know it wasn't all me.

Ezra and I had so much fun at the park. Although it seemed like there were a lot a people walking aroung Disneyland, we practically kept walking onto ride after ride. Ezra soon caught on that whenever he saw a boat/car/train upclose, we would be going on a ride. Everytime he realized we would be going on a ride, he started kissing and hugging me. It was so cute. A few times he made such a show about that people in line would start laughing.

Unfortunately, Ezra didn't want to take a nap. He had a minor meltdown in Toon Town, but after some food, a diaper change, and being able to walk around and play, he got a second wind that carried us through the rest of the day. Since Ezra loves stuffed animals, I let him pick one out. I was prepared to buy him a really soft and fluffy one, but he loved this "Baby Pooh." I think it had to due with the fact that we rode the Pooh Bear ride a few times.

Catching Up:

On Wednesday, I drove to LA and spent the day with Nicole Taylor, my roommate from college who is one of my favorite people in the whole world! Although we still talk on the phone periodically, we don't get to see each other very often. It was so much fun to see her cute baby, Josh, and spend some time with her.

San Diego Zoo:

On Thursday, Jesse, Ezra and I went to the zoo with another one of my wonderful sister-in-laws, Emily, and her two little girls, Ashlyn and Claire. Ezra was so cute - he growled at every animal he saw.

Here is Ezra and Ashlyn petting a goat. How gross is that? I'm not really a fan of petting zoos (understatement), but kids love them and so Jesse wanted to take Ezra. Ezra has no qualms about animals. He thought the goats were great. At one point he almost walked under a pooping goat. I had to save him from the fall out - I'm still not convinced that petting zoos are fun. Jesse made fun of me for washing my hands afterwards even though I didn't touch anything.

What strong men I have - they "tackled" the gorilla.

Here is Claire at the Zoo. Isn't she beautiful?

The Drive Home:

Luckily our drive home was uneventful. Ezra really enjoyed eating in the car. It's funny how once you're a mom you do things that you never thought you would; I let Ezra eat his "leftover" lunch off of his carseat for about an hour. It definately kept him happy while we drove. I soon saw him stuffing the food in the crevices in his carseat. Soon he unearthed an old grahm cracker and started eating it for dessert. How gross is that?!?

Picture-less Highlights:

1. We got $35.00 a day to spend on food at the hotel. They had a really good and sorta expesive restaurant there (that was basically the only place to spend the money), so we got some really fun meals.

2. One night, Jesse and I went to the hot tub. We put our sleeping baby into his stroller, covered him up, walked down to the hot tub and got in. Unfortunately, we didn't realize that it closed at ten. No joke, about 1 minute after we got in the hot tub, the security guard came over and said he was closing up for the night.

3. We got to spend time playing games with the family. I love to play board games, and no one plays board games like the Plumbs.

4. Since I forgot a dress for Church, I went out and bought a new one.

Conclusion and What's to Come . . .

Overall, it was awesome to get away and have a real vacation. I have the best husband, the best son, and the best in-laws.

Although I have been gone for awhile, I have to be gone some more. On Tuesday, Ezra, my Mom, and I are driving to Salt Lake for a few medical appointments. We should be back either Saturday or Sunday.

Five things that made me happy today

I've decided I like lists. I like it when other people post lists and I think it is kind of fun to post lists myself. I'm going to start posting a different top five list everyday. Here's the first:

Top Five Things That Made Me Happy Today:

1. Ezra saying "My Mama" and giving me a kiss

2. Jesse playing 3 rounds of Settlers of Catan with me

3. Going to aerobics and not only getting to work out and talk with friends, but also getting to watch Ezra dance during our warm up, try to drink Brady and Easton's bottles, and try to "make a break for it" when I wasn't looking

4. Jesse having the entire day off in honor of Columbus Day

5. Playing Halo 3 with Jesse and getting 2 kills - Go Me!

Cute Pictures!

Since I’ve neglected my blogging duties the past few days, I’m posting a bunch of pictures all at once. I’m still super excited about my new camera (and a little trigger happy) so I had to limit myself to my absolute favorite pictures. In no particular order . . . (drumroll, please)

Tonight, Jesse, Ezra and I went to the park. Aren't these pictures too cute?

I was cleaning out Ezra's closet this past weekend and amongst all of the clothes and blankets was his old bouncy chair. As you can see, he was excited to see his long, lost seat.
This is Ezra's favorite pastime. Today, at the church exercise group, I found Ezra stealing a little girls shoes and trying to wear them on his hands. The little girl was a few years older than Ezra and quite perplexed by his behavior.

Ezra loves ketchup. Last week, he was eating fries at his Aunt Jena’s and got ketchup EVERYWHERE! His cousin Benson loved eating anything Ezra dropped and it soon became a game; Ezra would drop a fry and wait expectantly for Benson to eat it. It was pretty cute. By the end of lunch both babies were covered with ketchup.

Who needs TV when we have our own little Mighty Morphin Power Ranger right at home?

Ezra loves restaurants!

Monday, we went out to lunch at Chevys. Ezra ate and ate and ate and ate. And when I thought he was done, he ate some more.

These Shoes Were Made for Crawling . . .

This is definately a step up from eating the shoes! Now, I just need to teach him about our "no shoes on the carpet rule" :)

Friday Night Out

Friday night we got together with a bunch of friends and tried to watch the free movie in the park at the District. Unfortunately, by the time we got food to-go from La Salsa, and walked over to the park, there were so many people there that we couldn't really see the movie from any of the open patches of grass. We settled for a picnic and then went back to Rachel's home to hang out some more.

We were all having such a good time, that we acutally let Ezra stay up way past his bedtime. Except for putting one of the twins in a chokehold in order to steal a remote from him, and crying (for about 45 seconds) when we left Rachel's, Ezra did pretty well for being so tired. He particularly enjoyed eating tortilla chips for the first time and playing with his friends toys.

Hooray!!! We officially have a future Aunt Kristen in the family!

My wonderful brother-in-law, Riley, and his beautiful girlfriend (now fiancé) have set a date for their wedding. The much awaited nuptials will occur on December 29th. We are super excited to be gaining such a wonderful sister-in-law/Aunt. We love her already and know she will be a perfect addition to the family. And, as a bonus, Mom and Dad will get to briefly leave their mission in London and spend some time in sunny California with the family.

I wanted to post a picture of Riley and Kristen, but, unfortunately, I didn't have any of them. So instead here are some pictures of Riley and Ezra. As you can see, Ezra is always super excited to see his Uncle Riley.

Oh, Happy Puffs!

Today, I gave Ezra the whole container of puffs. As you can see he was perfectly content to dump them in his lap and shove handfuls of them in his mouth. I should portion out single servings and let him dump them out everytime.

My Favorite Pictures of the Day!

My wonderful, handsome, intelligent, kind, loving husband bought me a spiffy new camera for my birthday. It is nearly indestructible, which is a necessity for me. I have been so excited, that I’ve been taking pictures of EVERYTHING Ezra does. I have so many cute pictures, but I’ll just share my favorites.

On Saturday I bought a little rug to put next to our sliding glass door (just in case you didn't know, I'm freaked out about shoes on the carpet). Apparently, Ezra thought it was just for him. Too cute!

Ezra was having a rough day today (mainly because of his nasal stints). So, Mom and I took him to the District. After we did some window shopping we took him to his favorite store at the District: Panera. He absolutely loves to eat at restaurants. He's been to Panera before, so he perked up as soon as we entered. He was so happy after his tummy was full!

Our future Text Message-er

Family Party!

We had a really fun family dinner on Sunday in celebration of my birthday. The highlight for me was when Dad told the room I had just turned 24. I almost hated to correct him and say I had just turned 25. Ezra had so much fun with his cousins and with the dog, Rex. After dinner we got to check out my Dad's new dirtbike. It was so nice to have my grandparents there, too.

One more down . . .

And Ezra is doing great! He is such an amazing little guy! The surgery went well and Ezra is trying to be is regular happy self. It is amazing how fast he is healing. He should be on Heroes he heals so fast. He is really doing remarkably well - much better than expected.

Our plastic surgeon seemed pretty pleased with how the surgery turned out. We were pretty lucky, because our ps was running ahead of schedule; Ezra started surgery about an hour early. That meant we didn't have to sit in a tense pre-surgery waiting room with a hungry baby.

Although Ezra's surgeries are always difficult for me, we have been so blessed throughout the whole experience. Not only does Ezra handle the situation well, but I have Jesse to help me through the rough parts. He is such an amazing dad and husband.

We figured having surgery warrented a few cartoons. Ezra never gets to watch TV so he was pretty happy to relax in front of the tube the morning after surgery.

When Ezra saw me for the first time after surgery, he looked at me and said "Mmmm." He proceeded to drink just enough liquids to get us released from the hospital. When we got back to hotel I started feeding him a cheddar cheese stick. We went nuts! He started babbling and laughing and doing his happy dance when I kept feeding him bite after bite of cheese. It's like he can endure anything once he has a little bit of food in his tummy.

Ezra loves Froggie. Ezra loves Tylenol. He even tried to "feed" Froggie some Tylenol. It was pretty dang cute in a really pitiful way.

If you look closely at this picture, you can see a piece of wrapped gum in Ezra's little hand. This piece of gum kept him occupied for about fifteen minutes while we got ready to leave the hotel. I took this picture right as he was contemplating eating the gum - wrapper and all.

My two favorite, amazing, perfect guys!

Ezra's surgery date bumped up and other random, medical related musings

On Wednesday I got a call from our plastic surgeon's office asking us if we could change Ezra's surgery date from September 20th to September 18th. So, we are heading up to Utah on Monday and having surgery this Tuesday!

On a ridiculous note . . . Last Friday I got a call informing me that our insurance needed to see pictures of Ezra before they could pre-authorize his upcoming surgery! As if we were going in for elective surgery! I sent the pictures right away and all of the medical/insurance people I talked to were really nice and helpful and slightly embarressed about the situation. When I called back this week to make sure that everything was in order, the insurance representive acted like I was crazy when I told her that I wanted to make sure that the appropriate person had the picutres. She seemed to think it was preposturous that anyone would request pictures for cleft lip surgery. It wasn't until she pulled up our info on the computer that she even believed I had called the right insurance company. Luckily, everything has been approved and we are good to go.

On a positive note . . . On Thursday I got a call from the hospital telling us that we would reach our out-of-pocket yearly maximum with this upcoming surgery! Although that sounds like bad news, it's acutally great news, because the rest of Ezra's surgeries this year will be super cheap!

Here's Ezra a year ago. How cute is he?!? This is about a month and a half before he had his first lip repair. I guess Fall is the time for this boy to have medical work done. This is one of my favorite pictures of him. I've been tossing around the idea of making a blog that chronicles mine and Ezra's journey through the wide world of Cleft Lips and Palates. We'll see if I ever get around to it.

Roughing It!

Last weekend my whole family drove up to Mt Charelston for a picnic. It was so much fun. My dad packed an amazing lunch and Ezra had a great time playing with his cousins. I didn't realize it was so pretty up there. I might have go back more often.

We tried to get a picture of Nana and her baby boys, but they had other plans!

Ezra loves hanging around his cousins. In this this picture, Ezra decided that Harrison made a nice bed. He climbed right up onto the cot and rolled over onto Harrison. He must of decided that Harrison was comfy, because he had no intentions of moving!

Somebody's getting tired . . .

But who doesn't feel better after a bottle of chocolate milk?

Check out my FunPix!

Ezra's New and Improved Surgery Schedule

September 20th: Lip Revision - shouldn't be too bad. We might not even have to stay overnight. Our plastic surgeon will fix Ezra's lip line and put some plastic stents in his nose - just for good measure.

October 29 - Removal of the palate prosthesis. This will be the easiest procedure of all. The only downside is that he will be without his prosthetic palate for a whole month.

November 30: THE PALATE REPAIR: This will be the most difficult procedure of all. If you run your tongue along the roof of your mouth, you will feel a hard section from your teeth back, and then you will feel a soft section that runs into your uvula. Repair of the soft palate and the hard palate are two differnet ball games. We thought that they were going to be two different surgeries, years apart. We just found out that Ezra will get them repaired at the same time. So, essentially, this surgery will completely repair Ezra's palate. Downside: it is painful, the surgery takes about 4-5 hours + a few days in the hospital, and Ezra won't be able to eat solid food for weeks. But on the upside: his palate will be completely fixed and HE WON"T HAVE ANYTHING ELSE FOR ABOUT 5 YEARS!!!!! We are super excited about this!