The little escape artist

In the last week Ezra has discovered he can hop right out of his crib. Which terrified me at first, but once I saw he was adept enough to do it without hurting himself, my terror switched quickly to anger. The first night and day after he realized he could do it were hard because he kept climbing out at nap and bedtime. I think he's figured out now that no matter how many times he gets out we will just put him back in, so he just stays in. The really funny thing is he can hop outta there in 2 seconds when no one is watching him, but the second I tried to catch it on tape he just stayed straddled over the rail and pretended he was stuck. SNEAKY! This kid dishes out something new everyday, it's a good thing he's so cute and funny or I don't think I could take it!

Bold Bouncing Boy Boy

This was at a Birthday party for a cousin, they had it at Classic Skating, the kids as you can imagine had a very fun time. Ezra had absolutely no fear, which I'm not entirely sure I appreciate at this stage in his life. Boys will be boys I suppose, they had to kick his father off one of the bounce houses because he was diving onto things that weren't meant to be dove on.....

Big Beautiful B week

Birthday girl with her Big Button hat (I made it, thank you very much:)

Blurry Birthday picture with Cousin Kennedee

BYU Boy with a Bag on his head

They colored their faces with a Brown marker (I had nothing to do with this one)

Beautiful BYU campus

A Blonde and a Brunette

Best Buddies

Bunny Sandwiches

Halloween in a spoooky old village!

Little House with a Fairy

Ezra was telling me where to go.

Esther and Honey (the pony not Abby)

Ezra was not appreciating this hayride, and he really wanted Lizzi for some reason, that's why he's squirming.

Esther's cornhusk doll

Ezra the lostboy "gink" or skunk if you speak adult English

Run fatboy run! It's ok to say that because he's not really fat, see? He was running to catch up with his brother (in the black) who hopped on at the end.

My what a busy but lovely Halloween!! These are some pictures from today at the This is the Place Monument Park in SLC. Last year we took the kids to their "Little Haunts" that the park does two Saturdays in October. As you can clearly see we had a great time and I feel a family tradition coming into our midst. This year it was just me Abby, Lizzi and the kids, Brock graciously stayed home to make stew and fresh bread for us to enjoy after trick or treating (I will do another post on that, but probably not tonight). Anyway it was a fun day activity to do with the kids and we saw lots of great costumes (a blow up sumo wrestler among them).

Happy Halloween!!!

"A" week without T.V.

SO last week I decided I would bite the bullet and unplug the t.v. Just for a week. To see what would happen. It's something I've been wanting to do for awhile, always feeling guilty that our t.v. is constantly on and I know Esther is watching way more than the recommended 2 hour a day quota for kids her age. I was terrified, but it was surprisingly easier than I thought. Yes, I did have to spend more time trying to find different ways to entertain them, but suddenly all the things I do when they are normally occupied by the telly, (like clean an apt. that is forever not clean) didn't seem to matter that much. Which is how it should be, I like to think. Mostly we went on more walks and played with play-do and the like. The best part was that it forced me to pay attention to these precious critters. I can only imagine the loneliness I will feel when they are grown and no longer need me. Also in conjunction with this no tv week I decided to start the letter of the week thing where each week you concentrate on one letter, and do activities or notice things that start with that letter. Each week I am going to crochet a block patch and chain stitch that letter on it and by the end we'll have an alphabet blanky!! I might be more excited about that at this point than my kids are but we'll see how it turns out. So here are some pictures of things we noticed during a week with no tv. Don't worry we talked about real A words too. Oh and in case your wondering if we watch tv now, the answer is yes. But only one hour in the morning and one hour in the evening. It seems to be working out fine.

"A" little farmer boy.

"A" pretty fall pixie

"A" pretty view of my favorite Nose Mountain.

"A" stop at the beloved Creamery on 9th

My favorite, an "A"utumn rose.

"A" window that sees a tree.

"A" face that reminds me of my own.

"A" Bluebird

"A"n unexpected warning. Bet you thought BYU's campus was the safest place on earth? Well think again!

"A" strange duck that didn't look like the rest

"A" Gingerbread house (I was having trouble finding A things to take pictures of)

Ahhh.......Autumn.

It's that beautiful time of year again up here on BYU campus, our second Autumn here. I just can't get enough of nature when the air is crisp and the ground is crunchy. I've always loved the feeling I get when fall comes, getting ready for the holidays, wearing lots of sweaters and warm socks....the colors, the smells. We would do lots of things outdoors when I was growing up, and I know I didn't care much about autumn hikes and camping, I took it for granted. But I find the older I get that those walks and family adventures instilled in me a hidden wonder for each season and the changes they bring.

This one's for Missy

So last Saturday I ran my first half marathon down the Provo canyon, and I am dedicating my run to my friend Missy who got me running in the first place. I never and I mean NEVER in a million years thought I would have it in me to walk 13.2 miles, let alone run it. But I did, and now I feel like I could do almost anything if I really wanted to and started out small. I ran this race with my good friends Erin and Jayna, and I wouldn't have any pictures at all if it weren't for Erin's husband (thanks Chaz). So what's next you ask? Well I seem to have struck some interest in Brock and hopefully soon we will start running together (I don't think it would take him long to train up to the same place I am). We want to run the Red Rock Relay next October (anyone want to be on our team?) I would like to start training for a marathon, I think I will have to do that by myself or with Brock, and then who knows? The sky is the limit!

Nico's Moon

Just a quick post for one of my favorite cousins, Sarah. She just had her second baby boy last week on Wednesday night, and I happened to notice there was a lovely moon out. Sadly I am not the photographer that my father and brothers are but I just wanted her and Nico to see I captured a little piece of nature in his honor. Welcome to the world baby Nico, I can't wait to meet you in person!

Our first kidless weekend since Ezra was born

Our trip started at Water World, where they had a large population of very unshy fat squirrels, I think this one was laughing at me.



Joey and his roommate Sam

The second time we've posed this way, I think it has been 8 years since we were last here.

I was exceedingly happy to ride the piccolo pony, the worlds largest rocking horse (according to the pamphlet)

The King and Queen....and a couple of people in funny costumes


Empty movie theater. We didn't mind more room to stretch.

Here we are in line for the latest Harry Potter movie, actually we were pretty much "the" line, and I think maybe 10 more people showed up for the movie. We couldn't figure it out.

This was us saying goodbye to the stinkiest Motel 6 ever. Stinky before we got there. And maybe a little bit after (Brocks fault:)


Our trip started out with driving through the wild and boring freeways of Wyoming into the night, and ended with a scenic drive through Colorado's mountains (i'm sure they have a name but I failed geography class.) We went to Water World on Friday, it was a pretty amazing water park, with the fattest squirly squirrels I have ever seen. Then on Saturday we went to the Colorado Renaissance Festival, it was loads of fun. This was our first time going on a vacation without the kids and I was excited to have a break and worried that they might be difficult while we were gone. Of course the kids did fine, in fact every time I called to check in it sounded like they were having a blast. We were having a blast too, but I was surprised at how much I missed my two little troublemakers. I found myself thinking every 5 or 10 minutes how much Esther or Ezra would like the things I was seeing. I think when they are old enough to handle a 8-9 hour drive we will definitely be taking them on this trip. It was so much fun we might just have to make it an annual tradition. Next year we might even dress up like all the other dorkasaurs that go to the Renaissance fair too.

Our Lava Hot Springs 4th of July

This year over the fourth of July weekend we went to the second annual Frost/Solomon family reunion up in Lava Hot Springs, ID. We had lots of fun going down the river and although had intentions to try taking Esther and Ezra down the river this time, we chickened out, afraid that we might go over with them. So they pretty much got to bounce around in the tubes all day (on dry land). Only Esther seemed to mind and I think next year for sure she'll be ready to go down the river. Joey and his girlfriend Gracie got to come this year and we had a lot of fun with them! We also cooked our first dutch oven dinner together (with the help of Brocks father) in pouring rain (it took 3 or 4 hours to cook) but it was so delicious it's inspired me to get a few dutch ovens of our own and cook some on our balcony! All in all a fun weekend with family, we had a great time!