It's Christmas time…without the snow this year

Well, time seems to be flying by...wasn't it just summertime? Even without the snow this year we still got out the good ole Christmas tree. Audrey was excited to be involved in the decorating. When I told her I was going to go pickup the tree she said "But Dad, it's not Christmas time yet; there's no snow!" So after a quick review of geography and meteorology she decided it would be ok for me to go get the tree...Audrey patiently waited while dad untangled all the decorations...
So here's a picture of me...although you may have to look closely.
And Audrey got to put on the star!
So we went to the Henderson Christmas Parade...which was kind of, well; interesting. It seemed a little more like watching a whole bunch of low budget commercials...just kinda wierd. But that didn't stop us from enjoying ourselves. There was also a craft fair, a (very small) festival of trees, and a petting zoo. Unfortunately it started to rain though, so we took off for cover to go eat lunch. At the parade there were several marching bands from local schools which Audrey enjoyed, and Ezra managed to even sleep through all the drums. The Parade was on Water Street: Here's Audrey cheering on the parade:
Our little guy sleeping during the parade:
And at least there was a Santa Claus at the end of the parade!

We also went to the lighting of the nations tallest Christmas tree. One of the local casinos was pretty proud to tote that fact throughout the night. It was pretty tall though...it took them 7 days to put on the lights/ornaments.

I also thought I'd include some more pics of Ezra. He's growing like a weed...over 9 pounds 14 ounces at his six week appointment, up from his birthweight of 6 pounds 12 ounces. Here he is getting ready for a bath:

He looks thrilled...right?Well, I guess that's all for this week. We hope you all have a very Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!

Love Chris, Chelsey, Audrey & Ezra

Blog Hijack

So I'm gonna shamelessly use our blog to get some votes for a picture we have in our photographers photo contest. Take a look at the pictures here:

http://baillyphoto.com/blog/?p=434

Vote for your favorite...and hopefully it's photo #1!

Happy 3rd Birthday Audrey...and Happy Thanksgiving!

Well, little Audrey is getting older...three years old to be exact. Since the recent addition of Ezra to the family, and since we're relatively close to family in Utah, we decided to just do a small party here in Vegas with just our fam, and then my sister Holly volunteered to put together a birthday party for grandparents and cousins. This really helped us out because we didn't have to do anything really, except just make the drive!
Well, we decided to save the real birthday cake for the big party, and Audrey decided she wanted to make cupcakes for her birthday. Everyone knows that Audrey likes to help out mom in the kitchen!
Meanwhile, Ezra is sleeping a lot better. One of the nurse practitioners at our pediatricians office recommended that we have Chelsey avoid dairy and soy products while she's breastfeeding because some of Ezra's symptoms appeared to be a dairy intolerance...and so far it seems to be working. Hooray for sleep! Poor Chels's non-dairy diet isn't very fun for her though...but at this point we're voting for sleep over saveur; easy for me to say.
Mmmm...frosting.
And then the fun part...decorating the cupcakes! We were each given a personalized cupcake that was decorated just for us.
Three little candles for Audrey's cupcake.
And then the presents...
We also ventured out to eat at the Elephant Bar & Grill. We hadn't been there before and we all had fun and Audrey likes all the animal pictures/sculptures that we around. It's kinda wierd when they ask how many seats we need and now we say "four"...really? We're a family of four now? Crazy.
And then off to Utah...the big party was at my sisters house...as you can see, Audrey and Noah were happy to see each other. I guess the kiss on the cheek thing is cute now; let's hope they grow out of it someday though...
Here's Aunt Holly! Yay!
So...here's the awesome birthday cake. As you can see, the party was themed after Minnie Mouse and Audrey was suuuuper excited the whole week leading up to the party.
And Holly put a lot of hard work and effort into this party for Audrey and we are so grateful for her work! As you can see, the party decorations were awesome...
Here's a pic of us watching a little video I put together for Audrey:
More pictures at the party watching the video:
Let's not forget the other people that worked hard for the party...Uncle Mark was the head chef and Grandma Jana was a helper too.

Hangin out at the party...
So the food was delicious, and the pancakes were specially shaped for the theme. Also, the kids got to decorate the pancakes with toppings of their choice...yummy!
Thanks Uncle Mark!
Audrey and Noah enjoying the food:
And last but not least...the piñata! Audrey was totally stoked, and the piñata was awesome...
Audrey got to pull the last string to open the piñata, and as you can see her expression in the picture that she couldn't be any happier.
Grams and Gramps with little Ezra.
Here's a shot of us as a family before devouring the cake.
Audrey and the the party planner, Aunt Holly.
Grams, Gramps, and Audrey.
What would a Minnie Mouse party be without getting Minne Mouse as a gift?!?
More presents!
It's a shame to destroy the awesome cake, but we couldn't look at it forever!
Uncle Matt and the birthday girl.
Cousins on the couch
So we came up to Utah the week before Thanksgiving and we basically celebrated it eary since I had to work the day after turkey day. Thanks to Grandma Jana & Grandpa Rob for hosting the early Thanksgiving!
We were able to have Great Grandparents over too! ...there's some good cheeser faces in this one:
And that was Ezra's first road trip (to Utah) and flight on an airplane (back to Vegas). We hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!
Love Chris, Chelsey, Audrey & Ezra

Halloween and stuff...

Well, it's already November! I've been slacking on not posting anything...but let's just say that this cute little baby is a night owl and then sleeps a lot during the day. You can tell by my glazed over eyes that I'm a little sleep deprived. Chels declined my offer to post a picture of her in her sleep deprived state. Little Ez, just chillin.
Audrey and I have had lots of Daddy-daughter time recently since Chels has been so busy with Ezra. We try to keep out of the way and help Chels recover from the C-section. Here's Audrey playing at the park:
More pics at the park in the tunnel:
I also took Audrey down to the trick or treat extravaganza that was held at one of the hospitals that I work at. Audrey was most impressed with the small pumpkins.
We've been very fortunate to have family from my side and Chelsey's side to visit and help take care of Audrey while we were trying to all get fully recovered. Thanks everyone for your help! It was fun to see everyone. Here's my mom with Ezra:
She even got somewhat of a smile out of him:
Audrey has been absolutely fascinated with the idea of being a big sister. She's been really thoughtful of Ezra and she tries to help calm him down when he cries. I couldn't help but throw in a couple pics of them together:

One of the days my fam was out here we went to the local "pumpkin patch", which is basically the local grocer's parking lot with some trashy carnival that's here to take your money. None-the-less, Audrey enjoyed it. Here's one of the rides...it basically looks like some old bathtubs that you can spin around like the tea cups at Disneyland. I call them white trash tea cups. Actually, my dad went on it too with Audrey and they spun themselves silly...
Pics at the "pumpkin patch".
Okay, this is the duck pond. Pretty much you pick up a duck, and look at the underneath side to see if what letter lies beneath. "S" wins a small prize and "L" wins a large. I took advantage of the situation and hurried and looked under 90% of the ducks when the teenage "worker" was picking their nose. I was looking for the duck with the "L"...I never found it. I call fraud, fraudulently. Regardless, Audrey had fun winning several small prizes.
Then it was off to find some pumpkins for carving. It took quite a while to actually find pumpkins since it was already October 31st. But my mom and dad found some and we took them back home for carving.
Here are some pics of the Halloween costumes. Audrey was a cute little cat, and Ezra was a mouse.

Halloween 2009
We all went down to one of the local outdoor malls called The District to do most of the trick or treating. It was jam packed with people trick or treating from store to store, and they had lots of decorations and music playing. I think Audrey had a blast. We also did some trick or treating in the neighborhood, but to our surprise the majority of the neighborhood didn't have their lights on, indicating that they weren't exactly having trick or treaters come their way.
Uncle Matt & Audrey.
Audrey thought the fog machines were amazing:
Dad, check out my candyyyyyyy!
Uncle Matt, Grandpa Rob, Audrey, and Grandma Jana before they had to leave.
So starting in November, I have been taking Audrey to swimming lessons. We have always wanted to get her in lessons, but in Boston it was just too expensive. Anyways, she absolutely loves it and we look forward to spending more Daddy-daughter time a couple times a week.
I guess that's all for now. Have a great Thanksgiving everyone!

-Chris, Chelsey, Audrey & Ezra