Ezra's First Goal

Saturday Ezra had his second soccer game of the season. Daddy was able to be there for it too! Our little star spent most of the game standing near the ball and running the same direction as the ball, but keeping some distance from it. Though there was one time during the game that he got the ball and just ran with it. He ran straight for the goal and kicked that ball right in! It was such a proud moment. Especially for little Ez :)

His victory dance!!

AAANND still celebrating. 

I may eat him.
He has been telling everyone about it and especially adds the part about how proud his daddy is of him and how when he looked at us he saw daddy cheering for him :)
I'm so happy this was the day that James was able to be there for him.

Baby Update- 26 Weeks

I'm still pregnant in case you were wondering. It's still a boy as far as we know and I'm still due December 28th. Things are going pretty well. I have been feeling more and more pregnant. The constant, "You're so pregnant" and "Wow! Look how much you've grown" remarks don't exactly help.

I am having a harder time breathing, especially when I do something strenuous. I always seem to have this problem during pregnancy. I panic because it seems like I can never get enough oxygen. This means we need to stop what we're doing and just sit quite often.

My thyroid levels have been good since they last raised my medication, so that has been a relief. My endocrinologist reassured me that since I am on medication and we have been able to keep it under control for the majority of my pregnancy that we need not worry.

I tested positive as a carrier for cystic fibrosis. They never tested me in Idaho, but I guess it's kind of routine out here. This meant James needed to be tested for the gene to see if our baby was at risk of being born with it. Thankfully James' test came back negative.

I've reached the point during pregnancy when it's dangerous to sneeze if you know what I mean. My tailbone hurts just about all the time. I get charlie horse's in my legs almost every night; especially if I was extra active the day before (i.e. walking around Disney, ow). Is this common for anyone else during pregnancy? I only get them when I'm pregnant.

I have had heartburn, but it hasn't been every day, so it's manageable for now. Unfortunately I now crave sweets ALL the time. This baby moves nonstop. It is the first of my pregnancies where the baby actually keeps me from falling asleep or wakes me up from movement. I could cry on cue and sometimes do.

James and I are still debating on names. He has one he loves that I hate and vice versa. The other night he suddenly said, "Choncho! I love that one." And then couldn't stop calling the baby choncho. We're not making any progress here. He somehow believes that he gets to decide this one even if I hate it. I'm pretty sure that was never the plan and won't ever work out that way. James now tells me he didn't like the name Ezra or Makai and I chose those. I don't remember it that way AT ALL, so I think he's playing with my mind.

Ezra likes to feel the baby kick from time to time. He comes up to me and says, "love you baby" and I usually say, "I love you" back and then I get reminded that there's a baby in my belly and he wasn't talking to me. He is constantly asking me why the baby doesn't wear diapers in my tummy. I guess it's weird to him that there is a naked baby in there.

Makai thinks there is a baby in his tummy too. He does give my tummy kisses every now and then and he'll gently rub it and say, "baby".

I love all the movement I feel. It is the best part of being pregnant. It's fun to watch my belly move around. I very rarely feel movement in just one area at a time. I think he does jumping jacks or practices karate and is kicking and punching at the same time. Sometimes it tickles and I can't help but smile.

I have had a hard time connecting to this pregnancy. I may have mentioned that before. It could be because I'm busy with Ezra and Makai. I think there's more to it, but thankfully I am getting more and more excited the closer we get. If only we could settle on a name!

First "Official" Soccer Game

I use the word 'official' lightly because they are only 4 years old, so how official can you get, right? The program that Ezra was in last year never had any games. We mostly just practiced and got used to having a ball at our feet. This program is a real soccer program with set teams, weekly practices and weekly games. Ezra is so timid and was really unsure at the beginning of his first game, but he thankfully got more into it the second half.

At the end of the game he said, "Wow, I really did great. Did you see me run so fast?" He was still timid and kept his distance from the ball until Grandma, Pop pop and mommy cheered for him to get the ball. I'm just glad he's having fun with it.

Warming up before the game. He did not want to take those sunglasses off. He cried and told me he didn't want to play because it was too bright. He's a bit of a Diva sometimes.

The pre-game cheer.

Waiting on the sideline to get back in the game.

Of course Baby Kai was there and causing some trouble. He wants to play soccer too. So badly he tried volunteering as the ball and then the goalie during the warm-up. Trouble trouble, but oh so yummy.

I absolutely LOVE fall soccer. It makes me feel grown-up mommy-like. It makes me feel more justified for driving a mini-van. It makes me feel happy. Very happy.

First Day of School

Ezzy started his second year of preschool last week. 

He has a hard time being serious. No idea where he gets that from ;)

Makai was excited to go to "shool" too.

Ezra is in a different program this year and I'm still not sure how I feel about it. It is at the high school and taught by the HS students in the early child development class. I think it's a great opportunity for the HS students, just a little different for Ezzy. It's a really small class and he has different teachers just about every day, so that might be a hard adjustment. It's only about an hour and it is super cheap compared to every other program around, so that's an upside. It's mostly for social interaction anyways and he'll certainly be getting that.

He made a friend. His name is Michael and apparently he is Ezra's "BEST friend". He's also a teenager and one of his teachers :)

Magic Kingdom AGAIN :)

Our 5th and final Disney day was spent back at Magic Kingdom. It was either there or Epcot and my parents went with the flow, so we got to choose the most magical place of all again :) 

Unfortunately I still wasn't feeling very well, so we rented a wheelchair for me for the day. I felt like a huge dork and James admitted to being embarrassed to be around me, but it was such a blessing. Don't know if I could have made it through the day without it.

 Big thanks to my dad who pushed me all day. (Even though it was completely embarrassing to have people see just the two of us and me with my Happy Anniversary pin and then wish us a Happy Anniversary. At one point my dad proclaimed, "Not me, these two (gesturing to me and James, who kept his distance from his handicap wife.)

It did rain on us this day and we all got pretty wet, but it didn't stop any of the fun.

This is the end of the day. Poor little Makai. We did plan on leaving the parks a couple of the days for naps, but that never happened, so he napped in strollers and on shoulders and not at all some days. What a trooper.
(Just noticed my mom is glancing over at Ezra. She was most likely watching to see if he was putting his fingers in his mouth like he did for just about every picture we tried to take. She got him some stuff to put on his fingers to help break the habit. So far no luck, but I'm going to keep trying. Thanks mom.)

This is my favorite picture of our whole trip. He is holding hands and staring up at Rapunzel (his favorite-est princess ever). I can just see the magic in his eyes. Seriously, I keep looking at this one and it almost makes me tear up.

She is making a "pinkie promise" that she won't tell anyone that she is his favorite princess. She also gave him a kiss on his cheek and let him hold her hair. So precious.

Cinderella is the ONLY princess that Makai would see. He cried and ran from the rest, but he barely loosened his grip on Cinderella.

Seriously, who is that guy in the front? Okay, I guess I'm not much better, but gotta love my dad's genuine smiles and cute little Ezra being so brave.
Ezra LOVED Splash Mountain. We did this one a handful of times.

The Toy Story ride. We rode this one a handful of times too. Even Makai enjoyed it. Have I mentioned how kid/baby friendly Disney World is? Makai went on most of the rides with us.

These boys... They are my favorite. (Makai too)

Is there a more magical place than this? I want to be Minnie Mouse.

 We got a sneak peak tour at the New FantasyLand opening this December. It was so neat. They had the kids put on a little play with Belle and Ezra was chosen to play the Beast! He had to "roar" in front of the audience and he did great!

Ezra with his Beast cape, Makai/James was the pepper shaker and that other little boy is Maurice (Belle's Father) in jail.

Here he is "roaring" at Belle.

It was clearly a very ferocious roar.

At the end of the play they shared a dance. I could just die over how happy this makes me.

Belle gave my handsome prince a big smoocher-oo in front of everyone. He loved it.

We had an early evening and went back to the condo to pack and get ready for our long drive back. I am so happy to have these memories to share with my parents. My dad is the king of video-taping so I can't wait to see the movie he makes! Big thanks to mom and dad for their help with the kids and little old me. Love you guys.

We will be going back in the not too distant future if anyone wants to join us? I miss it. It wasn't even that bad being pregnant besides getting sick and hating myself in all our pictures. So glad we have like a bazillion pictures and family videos to help us remember and re-experience the magic over and over again. 

Downtown Disney

So I mentioned in my last post that I started feeling sick towards the middle of our trip. I blame James who kept promising all he had was allergies and smooched on me anyways. Pregnancy makes sickness a little bit harder, so when I woke up Thursday morning feeling worse we decided to take the day off and take it easy. So we went to Downtown Disney :)

Before we started the day I got pampered by my 3 favorite boys :)

We made a quick stop at Target to get some souvenirs and this is where I found Makai. 

We had lunch here. It's owned by the same people who did Rainforest Cafe, so it has that same kind of feel only with Dinosaurs. It was awesome! They even have a pit filled with "bones" covered by sand so the kids could explore. 

This guy was right above our table. Makai loved watching him move.  

 We also LOVED the Lego store:

These are made of legos. Ezra thought it was so neat. 

Lego Woody and Buzz = Christmas wishlist

Lego Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

This was James' favorite

 Right outside the Disney Store:

We spent most of our time in the Disney Store and ToyLand.

The boys got to ride the train there. There was so much to see. They even had a little splash pad for the kids. If I wasn't trying to get home so I could lay down we probably would've stayed a lot longer. We did get a really cool Christmas gift for the boys that I'm pretty excited about. 

We got home early evening and went swimming. Then our Florida Friends came over for a little bit to play a game and say good-bye. After that I let James get the boys ready for bed and then I went to bed. No fun being sick on vacation, but my family was so understanding and that really helped.

Only one Disney Day left :(

Hollywood Studios

Our 3rd Disney day was spent at Hollywood Studios:

We waited in line forever to meet these two.

Another long day for little Mak.

Don't know the lady James is sitting next to, but this picture is just awesome to me. Love my mom's face!

This was at the speedway stunt show. It was an awesome stunt driving show and they had a real Lightning McQueen there. It was so neat for the boys.

We did a lot more, but I started getting sick this day, so I was a little out of it. We saw a lot of shows and met a lot of characters this day and they were all great.