2 weeks ago
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Tis the Season
We have so much to be thankful for...
Here are some photos from Thanksgiving--we spent the day at Bee & JoJo's house and had a wonderful meal and enjoyed a beautiful day outside.
Rebecca LOVED being held all day! Here she is with my sweet cousin Megan.
Rebecca with my sweet Aunt Debbie (Megan and Melanie's mom, Bee's little sister).
Rebecca with my sweet (and youngest) cousin Melanie.
Owen "hiding" in a tree...
Kyle's mom (Nana) was part of the festivities too!
Rebecca with Bee--laughing it up!
We actually got a GREAT family photo of the 4 of us (meaning we're all looking at the camera, which is a feat!) but you'll have to wait for a Christmas letter to see it...
The Friday after Thanksgiving we went to get our tree. Didn't get any photos of Owen because he was too busy running through "the forest".
Hopefully we'll get our tree decorated before Christmas Day, but no promises...
Here are some photos from Thanksgiving--we spent the day at Bee & JoJo's house and had a wonderful meal and enjoyed a beautiful day outside.
Rebecca LOVED being held all day! Here she is with my sweet cousin Megan.
Rebecca with my sweet Aunt Debbie (Megan and Melanie's mom, Bee's little sister).
Rebecca with my sweet (and youngest) cousin Melanie.
Owen "hiding" in a tree...
Kyle's mom (Nana) was part of the festivities too!
Rebecca with Bee--laughing it up!
We actually got a GREAT family photo of the 4 of us (meaning we're all looking at the camera, which is a feat!) but you'll have to wait for a Christmas letter to see it...The Friday after Thanksgiving we went to get our tree. Didn't get any photos of Owen because he was too busy running through "the forest".
Hopefully we'll get our tree decorated before Christmas Day, but no promises...
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
I must have eaten "Post" cereal for breakfast...
I was soooooo behind on blogging, I know (and my Aunt Joyce reminds me)! So, Owen was with Nana this morning at Gymboree and Rebecca has been taking a really long nap, so I've been busy posting! I think there are 6 new posts below this one...whew. I'll just warn you--this post is going to be a jumbling mess of thoughts/updates so hang in there...
Sweet Rebecca is now enjoying lots of new toys including her bumbo chair. Don't you remember pictures of Owen just like this??? She's also really really liking her play gym on the floor, but doesn't last very long on her tummy.
Still haven't really caught it in a photo, but she is the smiliest girl ever. She loves loves loves our faces and pretty much lights up at everyone she recognizes. Then the squeaky, breathy, cooing begins. I've started keeping my camera with me most of the time so I can try to catch both the smiles and the coos but I think she's shy, because she stops smiling and talking as soon as I pull it out!
Here is my beloved Aunt Joyce. She's holding the most precious tutu outfit you've ever seen--a birthday present for Miss Rebecca. She'll probably be big enough for it in the spring--I can't wait to have pictures of that! Joyce was in town for part of last week just to see us and hang out with my mom some. We had a great visit. She got to play with both of the kiddos and us girls got to escape to the "Christmas Affair" for some really fun shopping for part of a day. It was an overwhelming experience (you've never seen so much stuff and so many women!) but was a lot of fun!
Owen has a special project at Bee and JoJo's house right now. He helped Bee plant an amaryllis for Christmas and its his job to go water it once a week (after school on Tuesdays). He knows that a green and red flower is going to grow...not a blue and purple one (a little joke of theirs).
Okay, here is the random list of funny (to me at least) Owen-isms and recent happenings:
-I didn't realize how often we say "how about _____" because now Owen begins almost every sentence with it. "How 'bout I have some juice," "How 'bout no night night," "How 'bout 'where's my other shoe?"...
-Owen has also recently discovered "maybe," "neither," and "too". Like I'll tell him we're going to go to the grocery store and he'll say "maybe we see fire trucks, maybe we see school buses too!". And after the trip he'll be saying "we didn't see any fire trucks. we didn't see any school buses either". It goes on and on and on and on.
-Owen has gotten really good at trying to play Kyle and I off of each other. He has figured out that if one of us tells him No about something he should go and ask the other. Of course we try to be on the same page (and are about the big stuff) but if we're busy or distracted we won't know that one of us just tole him no more juice, for example... One time he came to me whining, "Dadda said no milk. Dadda said no juice. Dadda said no water. Dadda said no milk..." on and on and on as if he was truly being neglected. Smart.
-Owen has always really liked to draw. I keep poster-board on hand so he can sit on the floor and just go crazy. And he got an easle for his birthday which has a white board and a chalk board and paper which is a lot of fun. So, really, there is no reason for him to need to use his poop as means for artistic expression...but recently his Picasso-side broke free and he "drew" all over the floor and wall in our hallway. As soon as he heard me gasp his full name he knew he had done a BIG no no. He immediately started crying and asking for his dad. We spent the next few minutes giving him a bath and him telling me all the things that were no no's about what just happened--"no no touch poop," "no no draw on walls"....I think he got the point.
-We had a "standoff" at dinner the other night because he refused to eat the one tiny piece of carrot on his place that we told him he had to eat. He ended up sitting at the table until bedtime. He never ate the carrot (even though he had it in his mouth and chewed it up half way and then spit it out) but he didn't get to play with any of his toys for the rest of the evening. I'm not sure who won...
-He likes to practice telling flies (and anything else unwanted) to go away. I'll hear him just walking around the house waving his arms saying "shoo shoo do away" even though there are no flies in the house. He'll be ready the next time he sees one!
-I guess Owen has become accustomed to receiving praise at the dinner table (when he DOES eat his carrots) because the other day I gave him some ice cream and he kept telling himself "good job" while he was eating it!
-Another anti-discipline tactic of Owen's is that if we're in the middle of scolding him or instructing him about something he just looks at you and says "fire trucks" really loudly as if we'll be so distracted that we'll let him just change the subject on us. Right...
-Owen has actually started joking with us. For a while now he and Kyle have had a running joke about whether Owen can put lotion in his eye (no). And now Owen has started requesting songs he knows don't exist because he knows we'll say "there's no truck song" and he laughs. Ah the sense of humor of a 2 year old.
-Owen likes to say "bwess you" after you sneeze or cough but he also says it to himself (bwess you still, not "me") after he toots or makes any sort of noise.
-Owen's has added some new songs/poems to his list of favorites to finish: Supercalifragalisticexpialidocious (sp?)...if you sing the words he finishes w/ the "docious" but it sounds like "Do Shush!" and is either shouted or whispered. He also really likes "the Vision song" (Be Thou My Vision) which makes Kyle and I really happy because we've been singing that one to him at bedtime since he was born.
-As if it would change our minds about things, Owen has started saying "I said no" when he doesn't want to do something instead of just "no". Makes sense since that's what he hears us say.
-Owen can count to 10! The funny thing is we taught him to count to 3 but he figured out the rest on his own. We were both shocked the first time he did it. What a hoot!
Yea! You made it! Now feel free to peruse the other new posts below...You're a trooper!
Happy Thanksgiving...I'm off to make some casseroles!
Sweet Rebecca is now enjoying lots of new toys including her bumbo chair. Don't you remember pictures of Owen just like this??? She's also really really liking her play gym on the floor, but doesn't last very long on her tummy.
Still haven't really caught it in a photo, but she is the smiliest girl ever. She loves loves loves our faces and pretty much lights up at everyone she recognizes. Then the squeaky, breathy, cooing begins. I've started keeping my camera with me most of the time so I can try to catch both the smiles and the coos but I think she's shy, because she stops smiling and talking as soon as I pull it out!
Here is my beloved Aunt Joyce. She's holding the most precious tutu outfit you've ever seen--a birthday present for Miss Rebecca. She'll probably be big enough for it in the spring--I can't wait to have pictures of that! Joyce was in town for part of last week just to see us and hang out with my mom some. We had a great visit. She got to play with both of the kiddos and us girls got to escape to the "Christmas Affair" for some really fun shopping for part of a day. It was an overwhelming experience (you've never seen so much stuff and so many women!) but was a lot of fun!
Owen has a special project at Bee and JoJo's house right now. He helped Bee plant an amaryllis for Christmas and its his job to go water it once a week (after school on Tuesdays). He knows that a green and red flower is going to grow...not a blue and purple one (a little joke of theirs).
This video is priceless to me. It's some of the first real playing Owen has done w/ Rebecca. He's starting to pay a lot more attention to her--beyond just telling me to put her in the swing or her jungle chair (so he can have my full attention). Oh, you can very clearly hear him call her "Betta" which I love (all his c's are t's right now).
Okay, here is the random list of funny (to me at least) Owen-isms and recent happenings:
-I didn't realize how often we say "how about _____" because now Owen begins almost every sentence with it. "How 'bout I have some juice," "How 'bout no night night," "How 'bout 'where's my other shoe?"...
-Owen has also recently discovered "maybe," "neither," and "too". Like I'll tell him we're going to go to the grocery store and he'll say "maybe we see fire trucks, maybe we see school buses too!". And after the trip he'll be saying "we didn't see any fire trucks. we didn't see any school buses either". It goes on and on and on and on.
-Owen has gotten really good at trying to play Kyle and I off of each other. He has figured out that if one of us tells him No about something he should go and ask the other. Of course we try to be on the same page (and are about the big stuff) but if we're busy or distracted we won't know that one of us just tole him no more juice, for example... One time he came to me whining, "Dadda said no milk. Dadda said no juice. Dadda said no water. Dadda said no milk..." on and on and on as if he was truly being neglected. Smart.
-Owen has always really liked to draw. I keep poster-board on hand so he can sit on the floor and just go crazy. And he got an easle for his birthday which has a white board and a chalk board and paper which is a lot of fun. So, really, there is no reason for him to need to use his poop as means for artistic expression...but recently his Picasso-side broke free and he "drew" all over the floor and wall in our hallway. As soon as he heard me gasp his full name he knew he had done a BIG no no. He immediately started crying and asking for his dad. We spent the next few minutes giving him a bath and him telling me all the things that were no no's about what just happened--"no no touch poop," "no no draw on walls"....I think he got the point.
-We had a "standoff" at dinner the other night because he refused to eat the one tiny piece of carrot on his place that we told him he had to eat. He ended up sitting at the table until bedtime. He never ate the carrot (even though he had it in his mouth and chewed it up half way and then spit it out) but he didn't get to play with any of his toys for the rest of the evening. I'm not sure who won...
-He likes to practice telling flies (and anything else unwanted) to go away. I'll hear him just walking around the house waving his arms saying "shoo shoo do away" even though there are no flies in the house. He'll be ready the next time he sees one!
-I guess Owen has become accustomed to receiving praise at the dinner table (when he DOES eat his carrots) because the other day I gave him some ice cream and he kept telling himself "good job" while he was eating it!
-Another anti-discipline tactic of Owen's is that if we're in the middle of scolding him or instructing him about something he just looks at you and says "fire trucks" really loudly as if we'll be so distracted that we'll let him just change the subject on us. Right...
-Owen has actually started joking with us. For a while now he and Kyle have had a running joke about whether Owen can put lotion in his eye (no). And now Owen has started requesting songs he knows don't exist because he knows we'll say "there's no truck song" and he laughs. Ah the sense of humor of a 2 year old.
-Owen likes to say "bwess you" after you sneeze or cough but he also says it to himself (bwess you still, not "me") after he toots or makes any sort of noise.
-Owen's has added some new songs/poems to his list of favorites to finish: Supercalifragalisticexpialidocious (sp?)...if you sing the words he finishes w/ the "docious" but it sounds like "Do Shush!" and is either shouted or whispered. He also really likes "the Vision song" (Be Thou My Vision) which makes Kyle and I really happy because we've been singing that one to him at bedtime since he was born.
-As if it would change our minds about things, Owen has started saying "I said no" when he doesn't want to do something instead of just "no". Makes sense since that's what he hears us say.
-Owen can count to 10! The funny thing is we taught him to count to 3 but he figured out the rest on his own. We were both shocked the first time he did it. What a hoot!
Yea! You made it! Now feel free to peruse the other new posts below...You're a trooper!
Happy Thanksgiving...I'm off to make some casseroles!
Laity Lodge
One of Kyle's college roommates, Trey, works as the summer camp director at Laity Lodge Youth Camp outside of Fredericksberg. He and his family (wife Leah and kids Ellie-6, Claire-3 and Luke-9 months) live there during the summer and we got to go for the weekend to see them. The Fosheas (Joel, Katie, Emmy and Boone) came, as well as another one of Kyle's former roommates, Carlos. The boys went deer hunting a few times (no luck...) and the girls and kiddos just did a lot of hanging out (and nursing, it seemed).
Here is Trey and Leah's oldest daughter Ellie with a cup tower she built. Her next one was even taller and more impressive!
On Sunday afternoon (while I enjoyed a LONG nap) the boys took the kids canooing. Isn't it beautiful there? The trees had actually changed color...something you don't see in TX much, but this part of the hill country is really unique in its beauty.
What must Emmy be thinking here???
Ah, young love.
So, I know we took a picture at the end of the weekend with the entire crew, but of course it wasn't with our camera...who has it?
We're hoping this can be an annual trip--it was so beautiful and really great to hang out with these friends.
Here is Trey and Leah's oldest daughter Ellie with a cup tower she built. Her next one was even taller and more impressive!
On Sunday afternoon (while I enjoyed a LONG nap) the boys took the kids canooing. Isn't it beautiful there? The trees had actually changed color...something you don't see in TX much, but this part of the hill country is really unique in its beauty.
What must Emmy be thinking here???
Ah, young love.
So, I know we took a picture at the end of the weekend with the entire crew, but of course it wasn't with our camera...who has it?We're hoping this can be an annual trip--it was so beautiful and really great to hang out with these friends.
Happy 90th Birthday Granny!
My Dad's Mom, "Granny," turned 90 years old last week and the entire family gathered for a big surprise party at her home in Ralls, TX (outside of Lubbock). It was a great trip. The four of us flew up with my Stan and Pam (who pretty much took over parenting Owen for us for the weekend) and Alex and my cousin Jolie. We saw pretty much the entire family--and met a few new additions which was a lot of fun.
As you would expect, Owen loved playing in the dirt of the cotton ("totton") field right next to Granny's home. We got to watch the cotton strippers (which Owen calls "bines" because they look like combines) harvest the field. We saw tractors of every color and even one funky (or "funkty") one with huge wheels that was not a real tractor but some other obscure piece of farm equipment I should but don't know about.
Here is my sweet Granny with Rebecca. I know we got a picture of her with Owen, but I think it's on my dad's camera and he's the worst about giving me pictures and videos that he's taken. You checking this Dad? :)
Happy Birthday Granny, we love you!!!
As you would expect, Owen loved playing in the dirt of the cotton ("totton") field right next to Granny's home. We got to watch the cotton strippers (which Owen calls "bines" because they look like combines) harvest the field. We saw tractors of every color and even one funky (or "funkty") one with huge wheels that was not a real tractor but some other obscure piece of farm equipment I should but don't know about.
Here is my sweet Granny with Rebecca. I know we got a picture of her with Owen, but I think it's on my dad's camera and he's the worst about giving me pictures and videos that he's taken. You checking this Dad? :)
Happy Birthday Granny, we love you!!!
Diggers with Stan & Pam
One of the many blessings related to having lots of grandparents around is all the outings Owen gets to do! Here he is with Stan (Granddad????--we're trying this one out for size) and Pam checking out the diggers at their project site. 
After he got to sit in it the nice man who was driving it started doing his work again. Owen kept saying "my turn dribe, my turn dribe"! Not yet buddy...
After he got to sit in it the nice man who was driving it started doing his work again. Owen kept saying "my turn dribe, my turn dribe"! Not yet buddy...
Dear Dear Friends
We were blessed a few weeks ago to be visited by our dear friends Ann, David (whom Owen calls Dabid) and Lauren Ketch--the neighbors from Winston-Salem we miss so much (they moved to Nashville when we moved to Austin). We had a great (and somewhat eventful) week. They stayed at our (not huge) house which was the first challenge--Owen was in Rebecca's room, Rebecca was in our room and all 3 ketches were in Owen's room! Hey, it worked!
As you can imagine, with 4 kids it wasn't easy to get many pictures taken. This is one of the only ones we got of all 4 kids and it was at like 5am the morning they had to leave. Everyone looks so happy to be awake!
Lauren and David were soooooo sweet with Baby Rebecca. (In fact, I think Owen's interest in her started to really increase during/after their trip because he saw how much David and Lauren liked her). She was good practice for them since they're going to have a new baby sibling in January! David told me several times that he was going to go play with Rebecca now "to make her happy". He also (in his new grown-up uber-serious voice) told me that he was going to organize my house. Too cute! (Here is Lauren paying some special attention to Rebecca.)
Having recently been to Uncle Doug's dock to fish with Owen, we decided that it would be fun to go w/ all the kids! Luke and Bailey also came. It was a real circus, but worth it!
David caught his first fish ever--actually, he caught the only two of the day. And when I say that they were the world's smallest fish, it is not an exaggeration...Can you see it in the photo? We were all soooo excited for him.
After the fishing we took a "Texas jeep tour" in Luke's truck and spotted lots of cactus and a few moo cows. Good times.
We also had a great time taking a walk at Town Lake and riding the "Zilker Zephyr" train at the park. But for Ann and I, I'd say the highlight was getting a flat-tire on Mopac (the highway) on our way to have a little kid-free girl time at some neat shops nearby. Yes, having to be rescued by family and a motorcycle cop with a too-big helmet was lots of fun. (You're probably thinking--isn't this the same friend you had all those crazy adventures with at the beach? Yes, as a matter of fact it is. We like to challenge our friendship by always involving policemen and mechanics in our get-togethers...)
We're already planning a post-Ketch-baby-#3-trip so who knows what will happen! :)
As you can imagine, with 4 kids it wasn't easy to get many pictures taken. This is one of the only ones we got of all 4 kids and it was at like 5am the morning they had to leave. Everyone looks so happy to be awake!
Lauren and David were soooooo sweet with Baby Rebecca. (In fact, I think Owen's interest in her started to really increase during/after their trip because he saw how much David and Lauren liked her). She was good practice for them since they're going to have a new baby sibling in January! David told me several times that he was going to go play with Rebecca now "to make her happy". He also (in his new grown-up uber-serious voice) told me that he was going to organize my house. Too cute! (Here is Lauren paying some special attention to Rebecca.)
Having recently been to Uncle Doug's dock to fish with Owen, we decided that it would be fun to go w/ all the kids! Luke and Bailey also came. It was a real circus, but worth it!
David caught his first fish ever--actually, he caught the only two of the day. And when I say that they were the world's smallest fish, it is not an exaggeration...Can you see it in the photo? We were all soooo excited for him.
After the fishing we took a "Texas jeep tour" in Luke's truck and spotted lots of cactus and a few moo cows. Good times.We also had a great time taking a walk at Town Lake and riding the "Zilker Zephyr" train at the park. But for Ann and I, I'd say the highlight was getting a flat-tire on Mopac (the highway) on our way to have a little kid-free girl time at some neat shops nearby. Yes, having to be rescued by family and a motorcycle cop with a too-big helmet was lots of fun. (You're probably thinking--isn't this the same friend you had all those crazy adventures with at the beach? Yes, as a matter of fact it is. We like to challenge our friendship by always involving policemen and mechanics in our get-togethers...)
We're already planning a post-Ketch-baby-#3-trip so who knows what will happen! :)
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