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!