Thanksgiving 2011

We celebrated Thanksgiving at home again this year.  This late in pregnancy, traveling 20+ hours in a car was not really feasible, and saving Brad's vacay time for the birth is top priority!  This year we were able to host 3 other families at our house - The Hamptons, The Daltons, and The Whitakers ... it turned out to be so much fun!  Here's the table... hard to see in the pic but my "fancy" table runner is a long strip of burlap, and the napkins are tied with twine.  It was nice to have an excuse to unpack the nice dishes I've had in boxes since we left AZ 31/2 years ago.

The boys were so excited about the day that they were bouncing off the walls.  Brad settled down to read with them to keep them from tearing up the house. 

 Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of everyone together, but I at least got all the kids!  We had four 4-5 year olds, three 2-3 year olds, and 3 babies 6-9 months.  It was the perfect party!  Thankfully we had a break from the cold and the weather was GORGEOUS.  The kids spent a couple hours between dinner and dessert playing outside.  We had SO MUCH good food and the best part was that I didn't have to do much cooking at all thanks to our talented guests =). 

 I at least remembered to have someone snap a picture of the four of us before everyone was gone.  And there must be some magic trick to this photo - you can hardly see my belly, but believe me it is HUGE.  Happy Thanksgiving everyone! 

Owen's Three!

Mr. Owen turned the big 3 last month!  I don't know how the last 3 years have whizzed by so quickly, but I'm sure a lot of it has to do with how busy this little guy and his big brother keep me!

On his actual birthday, we watched some home movies from his newborn days, had some birthday cookies, and a special package arrived from Grandma and Grandpa B.  Wouldn't you know it contained Cars character race cars, a Cars launcher and a movie (though the Cars 2 movie has since been banned at our house - what was Disney THINKING?  That's a whole other post though).   He and Eli spent the rest of the evening having car races across the kitchen floor. 

My big boy still loves to get his snuggles in though, and talked me into wrapping him up on his special day.  It was kind of hard to do with the rather large BUMP on my front at the moment, but he had some fun taking pictures of ourselves.

Owen's party was an intimate affair with a few good friends from the weekly playgroup we've been a part of for the past couple of years.  Owen was thrilled to have Grant, Lydia, and Iris Mueller, as well as Emory Tilghman come and celebrate with him. 

 

 He was particularly over the moon about his racetrack birthday cake... complete with a green race car with the #3 on it!  He'd been asking for a race car cake, and this was the simple alternative that his non-gifted-baker mama came up with.  In case you can't tell, the top is covered in crushed cookie so it looked a little bit like blacktop.

 

He definitely knows what to do about presents at this age! He ended up with Bendaroos (waxy craft building sticks) from his friends, and  Playdoh kit, Hotwheels cars, a Hotwheels launcher, and a jumping frog game from a combination of Mom and Dad, Grandma and Grandpa K and Great Grandma K. 

It was a fun night playing with all the toys!  The friends all pitched in with the toy testing, and after they went home, the boys and Daddy got to stay up late putting together hotwheels track and launching cars through a loop de loop. 

We sure love our "Little Big Boy!"  He is very excited that he is going to be a BIG BROTHER now, and he loves to look at my growing belly and try to feel the baby kick. Owen is quite  a hoot to have in our family.  He's been very verbal from an early age, and is already mastering the art of sarcasm and cracking jokes.  He loves to tease and be funny, and definitely has his own strong opinion on just about everything.  Some of the things he comes up with to say lately have had us laughing our pants off... I'll have to write some down and get them posted up here!

He is Mr. Independent as well and is never afraid to try new things.  He managed to potty train before his 3rd birthday as well, much to my relief!  He learned how to potty #1 in just about a day over the summer, but potty #2 was pretty stressful.  I remember one day after multiple trips to the potty over a several hour period, and lots of crying, and finally a potty mess on the floor thinking he was never going to get it.  Less than a month after that, he was taking himself completely independently to the potty, using toilet paper, and washing his hands afterwards all by himself!  I am still kind of shocked, but that's Owen.  Once he gets it, he goes forward full steam.

Owen's latest accomplishment is being able to say family and meal prayers all by himself.  He offers the sweetest prayers, and loves to be the one to do it at dinner and bedtime - he also likes every person to take a turn saying one.  He has also transitioned to being able to fall asleep at night without Mom or Dad snuggling him (though he still gets to sleep next to Eli in their big bed).  He is "mostly" off his binky, though still goes searching for it in times of distress or nightmare waking (of which he has had a few lately - must be that three year old imagination!).  He had his first dentist appointment and was brave enough to go through a real cleaning!

In general he is just a fun loving and sweet kid.  It has been a little tough on him that Eli gets to go to pre-school 3 mornings a week this year, but it has also been nice for us to have some one on one time as well.  He has become quite the little grocery shopping helper, and we make regular trips to the library together where we get to snuggle and read one on one, and pick out special things to bring home.  I know that I will probably look to him to be even more "grown up" in the coming months when our new addition arrives, so I am trying to cherish every moment left of his time as the youngest "baby" in the family.  I sure do love my Owen and can't say enough good about him!


The Basics at Three:
Height: 40 inches - 93rd Percentile
Weight: 38.4 pounds -94th Percentile
Clothes: In size 4T to 5T shirts and 4T pants - Eli's clothes from just last season!  Catching up fast!  10-11 shoe.

Favorite Foods:  Owen does not suffer from the picky eating syndrome like his brother.  He is not afraid of strong flavors, and I think has inherited my tastebuds.  He can down 3-4 pickles in a row and ask for more.  He is not afraid of vegetables, and would often eat them raw out of the garden this summer.  He loves steamed broccoli with feta cheese on top, salmon, and all the basics like pizza and burgers and chicken nuggets.  In fact, I'm not sure I can pinpoint a favorite food because he just enjoys eating, and always seems to have room for more!

Favorite Activities: As evidenced by his birthday gifts, Owen enjoys playing race cars a lot right now, though it's not his single passion.  He also enjoys trains, and in general loves to run and play with his brother.  His imagination has kicked into full gear, and he and Eli can cook up some interesting and often mischevious plans (most recently - flushing toys down the toilet and clogging it to the point we had to buy a snake). He upgraded to Eli's old tricycle this summer and enjoys strapping on his helmet and going for a ride around our circle.  He loves digging in the garden, playing in the kitchen and bathroom sinks (plenty of mischief there!), playing playdoh, reading books, and going to gymnastics.  His favorite time of day is when DADDY comes home!  He loves to wrestle and rough house with his Dad, but he also loves to snuggle and read with him in the evenings.  He brightens up our lives so much - we LOVE you Owen!

Birthday in Hannibal

For my birthday this year, we took a little family day trip to Hannibal, Mo - hometown of Mark Twain.  We got to ride on the "Mark Twain" riverboat and soak up the gorgeous fall scenery!

We played for a while at the park while waiting for the boat, and Eli and Owen thought they were in HEAVEN to get an up close view of a real train going by!

The views from the river were stunning... and the weather was perfect!  I can't say enough how much I LOVE THE FALL!

Owen cried most of the boat ride unfortunately... best we can figure is that he was just overtired.  Both boys were fighting over sitting on Dad's lap by the end. 

We had a really nice captain to saved the day by letting Eli and Owen have turns "steering" the boat once it was docked. 

Oh, the views in Hannibal!  It wound up being such a beautiful place!  We've been meaning to visit for a while, and I'm glad it ended up being this time of year.

What's even better than a playground?  A LEAF FIGHT at sunset!

Happy October!

We were the "Gone Batty" family for Halloween!  I re-used the batwing idea from last year, but added straps so the boys could actually get them on and off themselves... and I made the hats from plain beanies.  Brad's has wings, the boys' just have eyes, ears and fangs since their wings are on their bodies.  They had a lot of fun playing bats this year, and wore their costumes for hours! Not to mention at the ward Trunk or Treat, Eli's school party, and even Gymnastics!  Trick or treating in our neighborhood was SO FUN.  Owen ran to every single house until he just couldn't move anymore, and made Brad carry him home.  Then we got to hand out candy to the later trick or treaters.  The weather was so GORGEOUS this year too!  We haven't had a warm Halloween since we left AZ!

Earlier in the month, in fact the DAY we had our ultrasound and found out baby#3 is a GIRL, we headed down to Hartsburg, MO for the annual pumpkin festival.  We enjoyed climbing around the big pumpkins, on the haybales, and through the haymaze.  The boys' got their first taste of cotton candy, and the hi-light of their day - a horseback ride!

 Eli has been enjoying pre-school SO MUCH this year.  For their first field trip this month, they went to Peachtree Farms just outside of Columbia.  Moms and little brothers got to come too, so that was nice.  We took a hayride, and each kiddo got to pick their very own pumpkin from the patch.  We fed goats, held baby bunnies, heard donkeys go "HE HAW," saw giant catfish and more!

 

                           
And I couldn't help snapping a pic of Eli and his best buddy Lydia... awwww aren't they cute?  Lydia's mom and I are good friends, and have been doing playgroup together for over two years.  Now these two get to go to pre-school together.  One day when I was picking Eli up from school, he was sad that they had to part from eachother.  He told me in his sad voice, "Mom, I MISS Lydia.  I LOVE Lydia.  I love the way she talks.  I love the way she sounds.  And........ I love the way she runs!"  Now if that's not true love... =)  Owen really likes her too, and even though he is nearly as tall as she is, she likes to be a cute little "Mom" to him.

All in all it was a great month, with great weather!  Gotta love October!

Spring in Kentucky

Back in May we bought a 2005 Honda Odyssey (my new LOVE by the way) and took a short road trip to Kentucky to put it to the test. Our first stop was Louisville.  We arrived in the late afternoon and took a walk along the Ohio River.  The kids also had fun playing on a huge riverside playground - the equipment was built to mimic the shapes of the nearby bridges. 

We had dinner at a fun restaurant right on the riverbank.  There was live music, and a beautiful sunset to boot!  The water was really high (remember all the Midwest flooding last spring?) so the beach was just muddy... but the boys had fun throwing sticks and rocks into the water.  

 

The next day we spent the morning at Churchill Downs - home of the Kentucky Derby!  It wasn't a derby day, but there were some exciting races going on.  We all got a kick out of choosing our favorite horse and cheering it on.  We didn't place any bets, but I think we could have won some money just based on the boys choosing horses by the colors the jockeys were wearing =).

Photo op with "Churchill Charlie."  You can't see well in this picture, but I definitely had on my pearls and my wide brim hat for the occasion!  We got a nice rooftop view of the races after our meet and greet with him.  I felt bad for whomever was inside that horse, because it was HOT and HUMID that day!

When we couldn't stand the heat anymore, we packed up and drove to Lexington, KY.  We had a beautiful afternoon walk around the botanical gardens before crashing at our hotel. 

Eli and Owen re-enacting the horse races. 

 
The BEST sight of the day =).

The next morning we saw some of the scenic Lexington countryside and horse farms on our way to the Kentucky Horse Park.

 At the horse park, in addition to suffering heat stroke, we got an up close experience with some retired race horses, as well as a neat horse show with all sorts of different breeds.

Retired champion horse... don't remember his name though!

  The horse show was a lot of fun!

We finished the afternoon with a drive to the Shaker Village.  We didn't have enough time for a tour, but it was a beautiful spot!

Before our late night drive home, we stopped to see our friends the Prescotts.  We met them out here in Columbia our first year here.  They have since moved to Lexington, AND we have the great honor of renting their home here in Columbia =).  They have all girls, and our two boys had a blast jumping on the tramp and cooling down on the slip n' slide.  Here is a pic of Jenny and I.

 Overall, we really enjoyed Kentucky!  It's a beautiful state, in spite of the humidity =).  Everyone we met seemed to really embrace the idea of southern charm.  We hadn't had an interesting road trip in a while, so it was nice to hit the road again.  And I have to say, after all those years of touring the country in our tiny Saturn Ion, it was like HEAVEN to stretch out in the Odyssey! I'm not really a "van person," but I have definitely fallen for ours =).