Well, our time in Houston is quickly drawing to a close. We are cramming in last visits with family and friends before we leave on Sunday. It's sad to say goodbye (especially since everyone is so attached to Ezra), but our last year in Italy will fly by.

The first picture is of Uncle Garrett and Ezra. We enjoyed lots of Tex-Mex this summer. Mmm... Next is a picture of Ezra passed out in his swing. He doesn't use it too much anymore, but clearly it's still good for a nap.

Ezra has hit some major milestones in the last couple of weeks. He is sitting unsupported for a few minutes at a time. He is also well on his way to crawling. He gets on all fours and rocks. He's even starting to move his knees a little bit. I can tell he already enjoys the freedom of scooting around on his own. Look how happy he looks. :) The last big milestone was the addition of a tooth. Fortunately, it was uneventful in the way of crying or running a fever. I wouldn't have even know it was there, had I not felt it. I know you can't see the tooth in the picture, but I did want to show my ridiculous attempt to photograph a squirming baby with one hand.

What a beautiful family...

These photos document four generations of Greers (left) and Athertons (right).

Ezra with Great PapPa and Great Meme (left).

Ezra with Great Grandma (right).

Ezra with Grandpa and Nana.

Mama and Ezra. The only person missing is Daddy. :(

We've had an eventful week. It seems as our time in Texas draws shorter, we are increasingly busy. We had an awesome time at Jennifer's wedding Saturday. I was in the bridal party and we took this picture shortly before walking down the aisle. So much fun!

This week we went to Ft. Worth to see some more relatives.

Here, Ezra poses with Great, Great, Aunt Alta and Uncle Leonard.

On our way back home, we stopped by Uncle Jim's farm. We saw some baby cows, a goat, a goose, and some chickens. Ezra wasn't too sure about the chickens, but he seemed to have a good time "riding" on the tractor.

We also made a trip to the doctor today, Ezra's 5 month birthday. He currently weighs 16.5 lbs and is 27" tall. He's in the 90th percentile for height. All the nurses said, "He's going to be tall!". I just smiled and said, "Well, it's not because of me..." (But I might be a contributor. I am my father's daughter.) He did very well with the 4 shots they gave him. The Tylenol was already in full effect, so I'm sure that helped.

Yep, that's right. Another Astro blog. Thanks to Mike's Dad and Pam, we got AWESOME seats between the dug out and home plate. The fist pic on the right is during the Natl. anthem. The picture underneath it is of the giant flag they brought out for Natl. Anthem---4th of July style.

On the left are a few of our favorite players. Berkman, Ensberg, Pence, and of course Biggio (who just reached 3000 career hits). As you can see, we were directly behind the batter's box.

We arrived at the park early to make sure we got the hats they were giving away. Once we got inside, Ezra and I walked down to the rail to see if we could get an autograph. Sure enough, pitcher Dan Wheeler came over and signed our new baseball cap. Then we went to our seat. Since we were one of the first ones to sit in our section and we were only 4 rows behind the camera man we were easily noticed. The camera man turned around and said, "What a cute baby. I have to get him on camera. How old is he?" He then proceeded to tell us about his 5 1/2 month old, Curran and showed us a cute picture of him. After we made friends with the camera man and felt relatively sure we might make it on TV, we made a few phone calls to family and friends so they could keep an eye out for us. We were on TV 3 times. To see us, click on this link http://houston.astros.mlb.com/mediacenter/index.jsp?c_id=hou . Then double click on the green box that says 7/4/07 Phillies vs. Astros. Then click on the MLB.TV. You can slide the little ball down the line to fast forward to our clips (the most important parts of the game ;) ). The first clip is about 10 seconds and Bill Brown comments on the "little Bagwell fan". It is at 42 min 7 sec into the game. The other 2 clips are during "God Bless America" at 1 hour 58 min 04 sec and then another close up at 1 hour 58 min and 17 sec. So cool!

Ezra's first Astro game. Thanks to the McClendon's, Ezra was decked out in full Astro uniform. Everywhere we went, I could hear people saying, "Look at the cute baby...".

In the picture on the

left, we are walking from our parking lot to Minute Maid Park.

In the next picture, Ezra has his hand on his pal Biggio's shoulder. Carlos Lee doesn't look too happy that we're ignoring him.

Next we went to hang out with the boys. Here we are with Berkman, Ausmus, and Oswalt. I don't know if they're life-size, but then again, I am pretty short so they wouldn't have to be that tall.

Ezra was really good. There was so much to look at he never really got bored. He fussed a little when he got tired, but it didn't take too much rocking to put him to sleep. He took a little nap, and woke up refreshed and ready to cheer the Astros on to an exciting victory.

Here he is with Uncle Jim. See, he's captivated.

These are pictures of Ezra at the lakehouse. It's so nice to go up there to get away from the traffic and hustle bustle of our area, but with all the rain they had recently, the water was very muddy. I was hesitant to go swimming, but what's a trip to the lakehouse without going swimming? It wasn't too bad, but in some places I was up to my knees in silt. Gross huh?

Ezra loved sitting on the deck and watching the trees sway in the wind and the jet skis go back and forth on the lake. When it was time for a nap, he just fell asleep on his blanket in the grass. He loves being outdoors. Looks like Daddy's going to have to do Boy Scouts and lots of camping trips. Not that he'll mind. What dad doesn't love to take their son into the out of doors to do manly things?

Ezra's still not done meeting relatives. Since we were in central Texas this weekend, we "stopped by" to see Aunt Carma and Uncle Paul. A two hour trip south from the lakehouse isn't exactly "stopping by", but seeing Paul and Carma and some outlet shopping more than made the trip worth it.

Grandma and Bill just came down

from an extended stay at Bill's house in Bonham Texas. Bill treated us to a lovely lunch at Landry's and after we ate, we got a passer-by to snap this picture for us. It's a 4 generation picture for the Athertons.

Here's another random bath picture. I just thought it was cute because he's playing with his newly discovered toes.

Here is a picture of Ezra with his favorite Atherton cousin Laney and his new pool buddy Heather.

A friend introduced me to this blue contraption called a "Bumbo". It has high sides so he can't get out or make it fall over. It helps him to develop his sitting muscles. At first he wouldn't sit in it for long periods of time, but now he's getting used to it. He likes to sit with us on the couch and watch TV in his Bumbo. It's also great at restaurants (when I can remember to load it up with all his other gear).

Ezra has found his toes. Grandpa Greer had to show him where they were at first, but once he found them, he was fascinated. He kept trying to grab a hold of them (not an easy task because they kept wiggling around). He wanted to pull off his big toe to stick it in his mouth.

Because of our trips to the pool, I decided it was time to invest in a hat. He likes being in the water, but I feel much better about him being out in the sun with his tender little head and face covered AND sunscreened.