breathe in, breathe out

Today I was feeling frustrated as I sometimes seem to do. I was a little cranky with everything. James asked, "are you cranky with candy?" To which I replied "no." "Are you cranky with me?" To which I replied, "a little." "Are you cranky with Jesus?" To which I replied, "James, I'm not cranky with everything, just some things, ugh." Then I grabbed a piece of pizza and tried to solve my problems with food. James decided to try to teach me breathing exercises to calm down. Here is what happened:

J: You just need to breathe in the good air and exhale all the bad things.
K: No
J: c'mon, just breathe in good, exhale bad. You'll feel better. Let all the good fill your body and let all the bad things come out through your mouth.
K: (I begin to blow and I spit a chunk of pizza all over my husband. I began laughing so hard.)
J: Uuummm
K: You're right that does feel better.

I'm not kidding. I love spitting food or water at my husband. There is just something about actually following through with your secret, only slightly evil thoughts that does make everything better. My advice: The next time you're mad at someone, throw water on them. It's easy to clean, makes you laugh, and lightens the mood in a way no breathing techniques can.

(This story made it to the blog because James requested it. So for all you bloggers who now think I'm horrible, please know that James laughed with me.)

Moments of Heaven

This morning I was resting on the couch and I began to cry. The reason for my tears is irrelevant. However, the second Ezra noticed my eyes fill up he ran to me, wrapped his arms around me and just stared at me with the most concerned look. When my tears fell over the bridge of my nose and splashed on the couch Ezra ran to the bathroom to get me a tissue. Not only did he get a tissue and wiped my nose, but he also grabbed an extra tissue and proceeded t0 wipe my tears from the couch. He ran back and forth to the bathroom and me about 4 or 5 times until I told him I was okay. He was so concerned. I thought maybe for even a moment he cared about me as much as I care about him. It was such a sweet moment to feel so loved by someone so young and precious. He makes me feel so close to Heaven sometimes. I can't imagine my life without my little tressler boy.

Ezra these days...

A friend of mine did an update about her little girls favorite things such as words and I thought it was a great idea. Mainly for the grandparents. So, Miss Erica, I am stealing the idea. Thanks.

One of his favorite things is to sit on the potty. It's an Elmo potty, so he loves it mucho. He hasn't ever actually gone on the potty yet, but he's good at pretending to push if you know what I mean. He will usually sit on the potty right before bath time and then the second I put him in the tub he pees in the water. Oh that boy.

Ezra also really loves his binky. I just don't know what I'm going to do to get rid of it. My sister-in-law Katie pointed out that the binky is his best friend and it really is so hard to take that from him. We'll see. For now it's his bedtime companion and only that.

He likes balloons, bubbles and balls. He hits balloons, pops the bubbles and throws the balls. He's got a great arm, but unfortunately he has hit a couple of babies in the head :( I don't think it's intentional, but it still makes me sad.

A few of his other favorite things are running back and forth, his puppy, jumping off the couch, bouncing on his horsey, driving cars and crashing, running through any store, reading and sitting in a pile of his books, Elmo, calling Grandpa when no one is watching, sledding, being pulled on the tube through the parking lot, and dancing with mommy.

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He will repeat almost everything we say. I really enjoy trying to get him to say things like bonanza, or artichoke. Some of his favorite words and sayings include:

mama

dada

ball (baow)

car (caw)

ready set go (ray say go!)

Elmo

out (owt)

gone (ga)

No

Yesss

Jesus (Zeezee or dezus)

cracker (cwa caw)

cookie (coo-k)

banana (nana)

please (bee)

giraffe (raff)

turtle

mouse (mow)

monkey (mon-k)

frog (fra)

baby

many body parts especially butt ;)

etc...

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He loves making animals noises. My favorite is his elephant. Some of his favorites are:

elephant

cow

horse

lion

bear

lizard

dog

cat

chicken

monkey

fish (face that is)

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he also knows a few words in sign language:

please

thank you

more

food

drink (he forgets this one a lot)

bird

monkey

i love you (he tries)

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He loves to sing:

Bringing home a baby bumble bee

itsy bitsy spider

popcorn popping

I am a child of God

rubber ducky

ABC song

And pretty much any other song he can do hand motions to.

I'm sure I'm forgetting a lot, but it's kind of fun to think of all the things he's learning. he knows how to shake his tail feather and pop lock. He has been in nursery for a little over a month and has been doing great until two weeks ago. He's going through a clingy stage and I can't say I hate it. He's my buddy and I like knowing he misses me when I'm gone.

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He is just over a year and a half and still little for his age, but growing steadily. Like any first time parent, James and I are so in love with this little boy. He brings so much joy to our family. We are struggling to know what to do when he's not around because everything we do is more fun when he's with us. Except going out to dinner- that's more fun without him. In short- we're obssessed with a 1 year old and we don't know what we're going to do to overcome it. Do you ever overcome being obssessed with your kids?

Christmas

This Christmas James, Ezra and I were invited by our friends and neighbors, the Williamson's, to join them and their family in Bear Lake. We were so excited to be with more people for the holidays! We had a blast with them too and couldn't be more greatful for the invite. Christmas morning was more exciting for me than I think it was for anyone else. I just love Christmas morning. Playing Santa was definitely different than anticipating Santa, but it's fun to create that joy for Ezra. He first ran right to his horse and camped there for most of the morning. He did get off to open every present which was so exciting to him. He didn't seem to care what was wrapped, but rather the fact that something was wrapped and he could rip it.

This is Ezra's horse that can hook up to the TV like a video game for him to ride and play. He loves it. I need to get a video of him because he doesn't just ride, he has to spaz out while he jumps and turns. So weird, but so my child.

He also got a Mr. Potato Head because I think they are a "must" for any kid. He didn't like it much until we brought it home and he started realizing how cool it is to take off a face.

I was pretty excited about this hopper ball, but Ezra still doesn't get the point. He likes to carry it and then throw it.

Mega Bloks. The other day James locked himself in Ezra's room and he told me to occupy him because James wanted to be able to build something without Ezra knocking it over (which he thinks is the point of Mega Bloks). I did this thinking James was building it for Ezra to destroy, but when I realized he just wanted to play, I released the bundle of destruction and told him to take over. Silly daddy, Mega Bloks are for kids.

And with everything he got he couldn't forget about his horse. In between each present he kept going back to it. Maybe next year we'll just buy him a real horse; or perhaps just one really exciting toy instead of so many only kind of exciting toys. Then again, maybe we'll just leave the exciting ones up to Grandmas. They seem to get it better than mommy.

Kami got a gun for Christmas, so we HAD to take it out to give it a try. Neither of us were very good at aiming, but it was fun nonetheless.

What you can't see is that I was aiming at James trying to convince him to give me a bigger budget for Ezra next year so I don't go over like I did this year. He's okay, he surrendered and no shots were fired until he was out of range. (No one was injured in the making of this photograph)

Our friends have a horse and they didn't even charge us to ride it! He's a really good horse and Ezra was very content riding him.

Ezra seemed to enjoy riding on the horse. He got sad every time we took him off and when we had to go inside. I think I could just ride horses all day if I had the chance and a comfy saddle.

For New Years/my Birthday James had to work, but Ezra and I still had some adventures. We spent time yet again with the Williamson's at their party playing games and eating yummies. The power only went out like 3 times, so all in all it was a great New Years/ Birthday!

Anywhoosier... Sorry it's so late. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

That Tressler Boy

He sure knows how to melt my heart. There is nothing more fun and rewarding to me than being a mommy. As this semester is coming to an end, I should be doing final projects and studying for finals, but I can't seem to take my attention away from this one year old package of heaven. I have learned that the only thing I need to do to get Ezra to show me affection and appreciate me is to give him my time and attention.

Every time I play with him he hugs me and kisses me in between each airplane ride or each horse crash or each song we sing.

I wish everyone could laugh the way Ezra laughs and love the way he loves. Of course I am bias and I want it to be known that I do not think I have the most perfect baby. I just feel so blessed to be trusted with one of Heavenly Father's children.

Being Ezra's mommy means so much more than the default diaper changer or bath giver or vomit cleaner-upper. Being Ezra's mommy means being an arms reach away from the most joyous piece of heaven I could ever imagine.

Everything inside of me comes together to love this little boy. I am so amazed at how much love James and I both feel for him and how much it just keeps growing. So often James and I just look at each other and make that puppy dog look that doesn't make much sense to anyone else, but to each other it means (as cliche as it is), "Words could never be enough to express how much love we feel for Tressler Boy. What would we ever do without him?" Having a family makes the love between a husband and wife grow in the most unique of ways. I love James more because we both share the sweetest love for Ezra and I really don't think words could ever come close to describing such a love.

If you are a parent, you know and if you aren't, you will know and then you will think back to this post and you won't think I'm so obsessed with my baby because it will all make sense eventually.

Halloween

I know Halloween was a month ago, but I promised a few lovelies that I would post some pictures of Ezra in his costume. He was a lion. It happened to be the only costume on sale that kind of fit him. So, a lion by default, but a trick-or-treater by necessity.

I can't believe he kept his head on the whole night! He was quite the Halloween trooper.

Ezra loved trick-or-treating. He and his friend Katherine (the beautiful lady bug in the background) got really good at knocking on the doors and then holding out their baskets. Ezra would pick his treat and then carefully put it in his pumpkin. Though I did notice him clutching his hands around a few pieces. Honestly Ezra, I wasn't going to eat ALL of your candy...

Unfortunately there were several doors that didn't open. This was disappointing for all of us. One apartment opened their door, but had no idea it was halloween and another one opened their door and gave us whatever snacks they had in their cupboards. There's nothing like a 100 calorie pack to keep two 1 year olds satisfied.

He was always very content when he did get candy and ready to move to a new door.

This is our friend Nikki. Ezra really likes her. He especially likes her when she's holding a huge bowl of candy. He kept putting his hand out for more candy, so she just kept giving him more! It was really cute.

AND... The end of trick-or-treating. Ezra was not pleased to hear that we were done and there would be no more candy :(

Later Halloween evening we went to a family party on campus. It was sort of fun, but I think James would have preferred to stay at home and scare the kids instead of leaving our bowl out only to have all our candy stolen. Maybe next year we'll be smarter and not quite so trusting.

Ezra and I decorated a sugar cookie at the party, but as you can tell it didn't take long for him to dive in and start picking off all the treats.

And that's the end of this years Halloween adventures. Thanksgiving post to come. Stay tuned.

The Joy of Ezra

Well, life has certainly been busy lately. Ezra is usually being shuffled around from babysitter to babysitter. He also runs around all day with mommy going on errand after errand. It's been a little rough on all of us, but we're still finding time to sleep and play. Here's what Ezra has been up to lately:

Unfortunately James and I have discovered the joy of temper tantrums within the last month or so. Ezra doesn't throw them often or for long, but he is good at it when he does have one. The hardest part is when he throws himself on the ground and bangs his head on the wall or the floor. It's a dirty trick, because he knows I'll hold him when he's hurt. How do I ignore him when he's hurt? It's so sad.


He's so cool. He just loves sunglasses. He doesn't keep them on for long, but he really enjoys pulling them off, putting them on and poking me in the eyes with them while trying to put them on me.

We got a new couch this month, so we put our other couch in Ezra's room. To fit it through the door we had to take off the legs. Ezra was very eager to help daddy and to have a couch in his room. Finally there is a place for his stuffed animals! It's just too bad that now there isn't much room for anything else.

I came home from school one day and found this in my living room. Apparently Ezra and daddy had a lot of fun while I was away. Ezra loved it. James cracked a bunch of glow sticks for him and they sat in there and read together. It was really cute. Oh, and James made sure to clean up all the blankets!!

While I was in the kitchen doing dishes one day, Ezra was in the living room paying bills or something. He really enjoys my wallet. He does this too often. I never do learn my lesson to keep it out of reach, so I suppose this mess is my fault. The funny thing is, James was sitting right in front of him on the couch and didn't even notice he made a mess. Oh James. My silly boys.

I am Ezra's Mom

There are some days when I think all women lose their identity. We are what we do. We cook, we clean, we feed, we carry, we soothe, we clean, we teach, etc... Then I remember why I do those things in the first place. I remember the most beautiful thing that I am a part of and that is motherhood. I am Ezra's mom.

There are multiple people who approach me at church, or approach Ezra and they know him. They know his name, they can recognize how much he has been growing, but they don't know my name or anything about me. They know me as Ezra's mom. I never get sad about that. I love being known as Ezra's mom.


I have never felt more warmth inside than the day I gave birth to my son. Having my husband by my side supporting me through it all made the idea of an eternal family become so real.

This week I have had several people ask me if I feel judged as a mother. I told them that while I am sure I am, I don't mind. There is one thing that I have always known about myself and that is that I would be a good mom. I'm not boasting. I just know that my heart was meant for motherhood and I have always longed for that calling.

Today is one of those days that I have been caught up in the moments of what I do that I've lost sight of who I am. I took a step back and felt the warm embrace of my husband and looked into those beautiful sparkling blue eyes of my son and thought, "oh, there I am." I am surrounded by God's love. Today I am no longer what I do; I am someone's eternal love and I am Ezra's mom.

Our Summer Vacation

Well, we're back from our vacation. We spent just short of two weeks out east in Maryland and New Jersey visiting family and it was wonderful. There is so much to say about it, but instead I think I'll just do a list of some of our highlights from the trip along with some pictures of beautiful baby Ezra.

Highlights:
Being out there with Duane and Ilene
Touring DC
Capitol Building
Botanic Gardens
Meeting up with our good friends, The Brady's
The Metro
Smithsonians (a bunch of them)
Blue Crabs (for James)
Visiting Erica and Dusty's family (James' sister)
Wakeboarding
Rafting (We learned that Ezra really enjoys paddling!)
Hiking
Wakeboarding
Tubing
Shopping
Government job fair
Shopping
Touring downtown Annapolis
Washington DC Temple and the 7th floor! How cool.
Wakeboarding
Traveling on a plane with a toddler...

Here's the good stuff:
This is Ezra on the first plane out to Maryland waiting for "blast off"! He really did well on the planes in the sense that he wasn't crying, but he is so active and was so wiggly. I got many scratches and hairs pulled out from this little boy. Though I did make sure to bring a duffle bag FULL of some of his toys and books to keep him entertained. That only kind of worked.

Seriously, what is this? It was in the Smithsonian Sculpture Garden. I could make that with play dough.

Of course the Washington Monument, though we never did make it that far down the National Mall.

Here's Ezra in Hawaii. Well, in the Hawaii section of the Botanic Gardens, which Ezra loved!

So proud of both of my botanists.

He was such a good boy through all of our touring!!

We taught Ezra how to throw coins into a wishing well. He kept begging for more coins. It was really cute.

This is on our hike in New Jersey at a beautiful spot called "Child's Park." This is also where my brave ten year old niece jumped off a cliff!

Here's Ezra getting ready to go out on the boat!

It was very windy, but he was very well behaved and well entertained by the water.

At the mall.

He had just enjoyed some cotton candy for the first time!

Ezra falls asleep with his two stuffed animals at his side all the time and he just looks so precious! This is on the roadtrip back from visiting The Townsend family in New Jersey.

Here Ezra is helping Grandma make beautiful music. Actually, he was mostly messing up her beautiful music, but he had fun nonetheless.

There is so much to say, but we'll just leave it at that. James is now back to work, Ezra is back to his normal sleeping schedule and I am back in school. This semester will definitely be harder than last, but I'm getting closer!

Happy Anniversary

Today James and I celebrated our two year anniversary. The second year was harder for us than the first, but James says that's because we had Ezra. I think it's because the honeymoon stage lasted all through the first year and by the second we had to make an effort to love each other. Maybe it was both. However, I will say that having Ezra brought us more joy and happiness and we are much closer because we have him. Also, making an effort to love makes you appreciate each other a lot more. So all in all, the second year for us only made us stronger and we are both so grateful for our trials.

Here was how we celebrated: In the morning he took me and Ezra out to breakfast where he had a bouquet of flowers and the sweetest note waiting for me on the table. Then he and I went to get a couples massage at Sage Day Spa (we each got a gift card there for mother's day and father's day.) Neither of us had ever had a professional massage before, so we were a little nervous about it. Aside from getting oils all over our face, head and body, we loved it. Then we tried to go play laser tag with our friends the Brassells, but the dumb place was closed until 4. Sorry guys :( Why do they decide to change their hours only for the week (starting on the day) of our anniversary? I was sad, but we got over it quickly. The remainder of today Ezra spent sleeping and I spent packing and cleaning. Luckily James got home from work early tonight to help me pack and clean.

We're going to Maryland tomorrow and we can't wait! I have a huge soccer bag full of toys, books and treats for Ezra, so hopefully he does okay on the plane. We have been looking forward to this trip and it's so exciting that it's just a day away!!