Christmas 2008

Santa Claus stopped by our house with some goodies for a little boy who was high on the nice list this year!

Santa brought new puzzles, bath tub toys, books, building blocks, and sports equipment...............................................

he even left some bones and a new toy for Emma....

our pathetic looking toddler-proof tree with lots of presents!

Owen was a little apprehensive to come down the hall. He didn't understand why we were standing there staring at him with cameras aimed and ready!

Once he saw toys behind us he came smiling into the living room (and passed right by his pile of old toys and wrapping paper tubes that he's been playing with all week) and giggled the whole way down the hall...too cute!

he immediately stopped to check out his new truck....

and his new sports equipment.......................

he's not even 2 yet and he now has a baseball glove and ball, football, soccer ball, lacrosse equipment, hockey sticks and nets....hope he likes sports!

Chris was playing with his hockey sticks after we finished opening presents and Owen was following him saying "stop, stop!". He wasn't ready to share his toys yet!

checking out the new block set.....

Clip-O...the coolest building system for little ones!

examining the new socks from Grammy and Papa...

opening gifts.....

a fun new xylophone from Aunt Ashleigh........

a Little People farmhouse from Aunt Stacy and Jacob....

playing with the new puzzles....

Owen racked up!

the aftermath!

getting dressed to go to Uncle Mike's for breakfast....

We're off to Nonnie and Papaw's house tonight for another Christmas and more presents.....stay tuned for more pics!

It finally happened!

Owen woke up one day and decided it was time to talk......and he hasn't stopped since! I just love these pictures of him where he looks as if he's saying "what!?!"

Over the Thanksgiving break (bless that baby b/c he waited until we were all home together!), Owen decided it was about time to say something. Don't get me wrong, he still resorts to Japanese monologues when he has a lot to say but he is speaking wonderful English words more and more. The Speech Pathologist in me is jumping for joy....b/c secretly I was starting to worry a little. Owen now says the following words and phrases consistently: stop, mine, see, sit, up, off, dada, mom (not mama or mommy....very funny), thank you (day doo), love you (duh doo), good girl (guh gull), bye, hey, do it (he uses this for anything he wants you to do for him). He still shakes his head no in the most hilariously disapproving way when it suits him. He can follow simple directions and participate in routines (bedtime routine, getting ready to go somewhere routine, clean up, etc.). Our finest accomplishment though is that he can touch his nose on command. That's something we've been working on for what seems like forever!! He's overassimilated that skill though because if you ask him "where's your ears" or anything else for that matter he stops and points to his nose. Still needs a little work on that one!

We're so proud of him and all that he's learning. We're looking forward to Christmas break so that we can have extra time to enjoy him and all his new tricks!

Christmas fun!

We have had an action-packed week of pre-Christmas activities. Owen had breakfast with Santa this morning and as you can see from the picture below....he and Santa are not on good terms this year.


The photographer took a good picture of Owen that I need to scan and upload. He has the worst look on his face. Chris said it looked like Santa had just said "you're not getting anything for Christmas!".

Owen had a great time eating pancakes and sausage and running around with the other kids. Then we were off to a birthday party this afternoon. Owen still thinks it's his responsibility to entertain everyone when we go somewhere like that. So, he ran around running his mouth nonstop and being a ham.

A few days ago we decorated a gingerbread house together. Owen was much more interested in eating the candy than decorating. Once he got going though he was very serious about it. He did not want any help and made that very clear!

Apparently, Owen and I miscommunicated about the finished product because he was not too happy with me when I put him back in the living room.....yes, that's candy in his mouth.

Owen's finished product (with a tiny bit of help from mom and dad)

We have one last week of school before the break. The countdown to Christmas begins!

Turkeys and Tutus

There was heated debate in our house whether these photos should be posted online....of course I won so here they are! They're just too funny not to share!

Here's the backstory: my parents hosted Thanksgiving this year at their new house. There were going to be 20-25 people there including our 3 little cousins (Reece, Missy, and Jessi). So, my mom got out our dress-up trunk that Melissa and I played with when we were kids. It has all my mom's old dance costumes (vintage costumes as we taught the little girls to say!) plus our dance costumes from over the years and a few other things mixed in. The little girls had a great time playing dress up for hours on end. Owen wanted to be right there in the middle of them. I found him in the middle of sequins and ruffles holding up costumes exclaiming "see! see!".

How could I resist!?!

Even covered in sequins and tulle...he's still 100% B-O-Y!

So, these pictures will now be filed away only to return when he hits 16 and tries to test the limits........

A Toddler-Proof Christmas

We finished decorating the house for Christmas today. We definitely had to rethink everything we put out last year since Owen is such a curious toddler.

We decorated with our ornaments a little differently to avoid broken glass and the inevitable ornament hook in the hand.


everything's a little simpler....and a lot higher off the ground!


Our tree sans ornaments....still looks pretty good I think. Owen did go over and pull off one of the ribbons tonight.....so we'll have to keep a close watch on him until he gets bored with it.

We're wrapping presents and putting them in our closet since he would definitely go to town unwrapping them if we put them under the tree now. We've got our Black Friday haul spread out on the floor of the bedroom to be wrapped. I'm off to wrap, wrap, wrap so I can find my bed later!

Stay tuned for our Thanksgiving post....it's one you don't want to miss!

Break Time!

We were fortunate to have a nice break from work this past week. I was off the entire week and Chris was off Wed-Fri. Chris worked on finishing the deck at mom and dad's house every spare moment he got so Owen and I had lots of quality time together. The weather was nice and we had a great time.

We went to the park one afternoon and had a blast. Owen is big enough now that he can climb the stairs to the little kid slide and go down it all by himself....which he did about 30 times! He had a blast climbing and running everywhere.


He spent several minutes trying to move the leaves from inside the barrier to the grass below. I see little hints of OCD creeping in already....

too cute!

this picture truly captures the fun he had on the slide

We played outside at home one day with the wagon and trucks. Owen is so independent these days so he didn't want any help bringing his wagon from the garage

Owen likes to play with Chris' hats and fortunately for him Chris has about a million all over the house!

little hands always find the "no-no's"!

We had a little coloring time before lunch one day. Owen was more interested in pulling the crayons out of their holder than actually using them.

We had such a great week together and we're counting the days til Christmas Break so we can have more fun and adventures!

A Nasty Virus

We all passed around the stomach virus the week before Thanksgiving. It was the sickest I've been in as long as I can remember. There was one day where we all three were at the worst of it and I wasn't sure we would survive. We made it through just in time to celebrate Thanksgiving (more on that later). While we were holed up in the house I got these funny shots of Owen.

I know I'm biased but he is just the cutest thing ever....who couldn't love that face!?!


Owen loves to build things and plays with these blocks on a daily basis

look at those chunky little legs!

again....isn't he the cutest!?!

Fun with Food

It's been awhile since the last post so I've got a lot to post and catch up on. Here it goes....

Lately, Owen is very interested in "helping" out around the house. He unplugs the vacuum (when he considers the job finished), closes doors (even if you're standing in the doorway), brushes his hair and teeth, helps wash his body in the tub, and even sweeps the floor (as seen below).

those are cheerios that he poured out so that he could "clean up"
This picture was taken the day the stomach virus hit our family (one of the many reasons it has been nearly a month since the last post).

Owen is an incredibly picky eater so we're constantly searching for new things to add to his menu. He occasionally will eat mac and cheese so we got some Easy Mac cups for Connie to fix him at lunch. He was eating his mac and cheese while I cleaned up the kitchen and when I turned around this is what I found....

he was totally oblivious to the macaroni on his nose and just continued eating until I cleaned his face


As I mentioned previously, Owen is a picky eater...until it comes to desserts. Like all kids, he really loves sweets. So, we compromised and let him try Nutella on his toast. As you can see, it was a hit!

Despite the fact that he's such a finicky eater, he's still growing like a weed!