Gingerbread House Party

As promised, here are photos from the party that Uncle Doc took. Of course, there's not a single one of him on here, we'll have to work on that in the future!!!


With Mark there, Owen wanted nothing to do with making the houses. As you can see, he and Mark were up to no good...I have no idea what was going on here, but it probably will take me weeks to break him of this bad behavior! ;O)
Aunt Lori single handedly decorated all of the Christmas cookies while the rest of us fought with the houses. She did an awesome job and I ate enough of them myself to be certain when I say they were delicious!!


Shawnie made us taco soup for dinner and it was so good!!! I know I personally ate WAY too much!
O.k., so here's the big reveal, Jenna guessed right...Liz and I made House #1....
and Shawnie and Jennifer did House #2...they had some infrastructure issues, but Shawn used her engineering background to rig it up by stuffing the inside with foam and I saw Scotch tape at one point, but never figured out what she did with it! ;O)
Hmm...Owen just pointed out that there isn't any pictures of Dave on here either. He was in the background of some of them, but I ended up cropping him out! ;O) Oops!!! Sorry Dave! I promise he's in the Christmas pictures I'll try to post tomorrow.

Gingerbread Houses....

Shawnie had a Gingerbread House party last weekend, mostly for Owen's benefit and Dave got Uncle Doc's camera on Christmas to download the photos, so I thought I'd share. Plus, we really missed Jenna and wanted her to see our "creations" and try to figure out who did which one! ;O)

So, here's house #1....

(Back)

(Front)
And here's House #2...

(Front)
(Back) Sorry this one's blurry, but I don't think you can get the whole picture until you see this side as well....
(Other side)
O.k. Jenna, pressures on...it was me and Liz on one team and Shawn and Jennifer (with extra help from Aunt Laurie) on the other. Can you guess who's is who's? ;O)

Merry Christmas Eve!!

I'm trying to stay awake to wait out Owen so we can play Santa Claus and thought I'd sneak in some time to post a few pictures. I haven't been taking many pictures lately despite the fact that all of us are close to healthy these days. I swear I'm never home these days!!! I'll be glad when the holidays are over and I'm back to having 4 days off!! Oh, speaking of work, I've been extended at Chevron through January now and I'll know more definitely next month, but I may end up staying through March. I'm not sure I'm excited about it, but I'm 100% billable this way and just minutes from Owen's daycare. So, there is some merit to it. I'm getting really tired of not knowing though!

Anyway, on to the pictures! Owen got a guitar from Dave and I for his birthday and wasn't so sure about it at first. He's been playing a tiny plastic one his Laster grandparents bought him years ago which was really meant for a toddler. So, when he opened this one originally, he told us it was too heavy. Well, he's gotten over that and seems pleased to have real strings to strum just like his dad. He even insists on using a pick! ;O)

Here's the two of them jammin' together! O.k., Dave was on the phone, but Owen was content as long as his dad kept strumming!
I stole a recipe for Sugar Cookies that includes sour cream off a blog I follow recently, so Owen and I tried it out. They were really good and moist, but I made them way too thick. They seemed to rise more than the average sugar cookie...so, I guess I need to make another batch to get it right! Dave isn't so anxious for me to do that since he's supposed to be watching what he eats however. Owen loves to cook though and likes liking the mixing spoon even better!!! His favorite part is breaking the eggs, so our food tends to have a little extra crunch these days! ;O)

Finally, I just thought I'd share a couple pictures of how I have to scrapbook. I didn't realize how nice it was to just have him under foot!!! I always sit on my exercise ball when I'm playing with all of my paper junk to spare my back and Owen thinks its so great!

Check out the air he gets!! You'd be amazed how long he finds this entertaining. I think its the fact that it drives me crazy that makes it extra fun.

Hope you all have a very Merry Christmas. We're really looking forward to tomorrow. We are all going sledding at a nearby playground and then coming back to our house for dinner. My cousin, Geoff, was the one that came up with the sledding plan and it made me realize Owen's never really been. We take him around the yard in his baby sled every now and then, but we don't have any real hills around here. So, we can't wait to see what he thinks. This kid is all about speed and the hill we're going to is plenty steep and plenty long, so he should love it! Hopefully, I'll be able to post the pictures we get right away!

More Visitors!

I swear these guys come right around Owen's birthday intentionally! I've been wondering when we'd see them this year. I may be wrong, but I think these might be the twins that hung out in the neighborhood with their mom last year as 2-year-olds. I guess that makes them the same age as Owen! ;O)

It was about 3:30 when I took these photos...dusk in our world...between that and the falling snow, my pictures are less than ideal. But, I thought you guys might get a kick out of them anyway. They were licking the salt off the driveway...thanks to Shawn, we switched from the toxic chemical type to salt used for water softeners. Huge break for the moose!

These pictures make them look pretty small, but they appeared to be as tall or taller than our 6 foot fence (hard to say when you are looking down on them). Owen said there were "little" and "so cute". He kept "mooing" at them which I don't think they appreciated...I swear they can hear us talking even inside the house. I was hoping they'd eat our pumpkins that we still have sitting out, but they were too busy licking the driveway to notice them on the porch. Maybe they'll be braver another day.

Hope you are all having a good week. It's back to work for me...a short weekend! Owen has an Inservice Day on Friday, so the school is closed. We've seen both his alternative doctor and his pediatrician this week. We're still trying to determine why his tonsils are so swollen. We have him on a TON of vitamins for his immunity and had him tested for food allergies. The results should be in some time just before Christmas. I'm not sure what to hope for there, but it would be nice if we could find something simple to solve his issues. His pediatrician recommended just having them removed...shocking!

Ice Fog!

We have had a solid week of ice fog. It's been horrible!! I had no idea how depressing fog could be....I usually enjoy it and think its really pretty. But, that's when it is foggy in patches here and there and passes after a few hours. Not when it is all the way to the ground making it impossible to see anything past the taillights of the vehicle in front of you, let alone for 7 days straight! I took a few pictures of the trees in the backyard on Monday during a rare break in the fog. We're lucky here, Anchorage definitely suffered a denser fog with fewer breaks. We've had quite a bit of wind and no snow prior to the fog, so this is all ice on the trees. It's thicker than I've ever seen here. At the time it was only about 7 degrees, so I wasn't really tempted to go outside for a better shot! ;O)

Here's a shot from today. Now that the fog has let up, the snow moved in. We're supposed to get up to 8 inches today, but I wanted one more shot of the ice before it really started snowing.

Owen's 3rd Birthday!

Owen had an awesome day yesterday at his party. I think he's confused as to who's birthday it was since he wished everyone there a happy birthday as well! But, either way, he went home with a truck full of loot! We started at home with the gifts he received from family in the mail and from my dad and Dave and I. He had a ton of new toys before we ever headed to the party!

I think the part he thought was the best of the pre-party gifts, was the card that my dad bought him. When you open it, it plays music. For some reason, Owen got the biggest kick out of opening it and closing it again. He's such a goof ball!

Owen had his 3rd ice skating lesson right before the party started. The last two lessons, I've wondered if I should pull him out. There's only 3 kids in his class and the other two are well over 5 (the class is for 3-5 year olds). So, Owen is way behind as far as maturity/attention span and muscle tone goes. But, he had a total break through right in the middle of the class! He can now stand on his own and skate quite a distance. I don't know what clicked for him, but it was a revelation and its like he finally "gets it".

Considering the party was at 5pm on a Monday and I didn't send out invites until the Wednesday prior, I wasn't anticipating more than a few people to be able to make it. But, instead, we had quite a turn out and had lots of fun. I really appreciate everyone making the effort to be there, its especially huge for Owen to have his family around him. He like he takes roll call in his head and starts asking about those that are missing, he's a pretty lucky kid to have so many people that love him this much!

The gift opening was a group effort which works out since Owen doesn't really like to make the effort anyway. He just likes seeing what's inside!

While I was taking photos of the group, Owen stopped me and told me to take a "face picture of Owen". He usually protests when I take his picture, so I'm not sure what brought this on! Anyway, this is Owen at 2 years and 364 days old! ;O)

I know that normally, parents buy a fancy cake with a picture of some cartoon character on it. But not in this family!! Everyone's favorite cake, including Owen's, is Funfetti from the Pillsbury box mix....don't ask. (It's everyone's favorite but mine!) ;O) So, anyway, excuse the messy cake. This is what you get if I cook!!!

Finally, we were off to skate!! Owen really wanted Dave and Geoff to zoom him around the rink. But, they really worked hard with him and made him practice doing it on his own too. Unfortunately, he can't make himself go fast enough for his liking....thats the daredevil in him. So, I am sure Dave and especially Geoff are feeling it today! (fyi, Dave got cleared by the doctor earlier in the day to skate, his knee is still sore and he's in the brace, but its slowly recovering).
I was shocked how well all the other kids skated, especially considering all but Thane are quite a bit younger than Owen. His friend Charlee is going to skate circles around him with just a few more visits to the skate rink and without lessons! I didn't want to post too many pictures of the other kids without the parents permission, but I got quite a few cute ones of all the kids.

Hope you are all having a great week! We're pooped and ready for the weekend already I think!

Christmas Photo Shoot!

I had Owen's Birthday/Christmas photos done at Sears today. He was so cooperative, you wouldn't believe it!! I'm praying that his good behavior holds out long enough to get through his first skating lesson tonight. We'll see!

There were two additional photos that turned out really cute, but I am saving those for our Christmas cards. So, you'll have to wait and be surprised. ;O) For now, these are the runner ups.

How old does our little man look in these photos, it kind of caught me by surprise when I first saw them. The hair cut probably doesn't help make him look any younger I suppose! ;O)

Hope you are all having a great week and recovering from Turkey Day!

Carving Pumpkins

Because of Gram's heart attack, we postponed Aunt Shawnie Day which is when we typically carve pumpkins. So, it wasn't until the night before Halloween that we finally got the chance to sit down and take care of these. Unfortunately, Shawn already had plans and didn't get to do it this year...she hates doing it anyway! ;O)

Owen really got into it this year. He wasn't too particular about following patterns however....
Owen got bored at one point and took quite a few pictures on his own....this one of Diana and the one of Will were Owen's shots!
I messed up saving this one, this is how blurry all of them were to begin with...mom, let me know if you want these and I'll send them full-sized to you so they are clear.

Halloween Day!

Sorry for the delay!!! I'm having issues with this latest version of Photoshop. I saved all the pics I wanted to post as I usually do, but it re-sized them to about 12kb making them really fuzzy!! Anyway, before I could get them fixed, Owen and I came down with a nasty head cold. I ended up taking Wednesday and Thursday off as well as Friday afternoon. We sent Owen to school on Thursday to give me some time to recover since he seemed to be recovering, but we decided he was even stuffier Friday morning and kept him home. We headed into town Friday evening to help Shawn move the last of her stuff and on the way in, Owen started to scream in pain and complained that his ear was hurting. Long story short, I am very thankful for my pediatrician's office being open until 9 (and fitting us in even though they were already overbooked) as well as our new Walgreens with a pharmacy open until 10 (we sat at the doctor's office for over 2 hours waiting for a break in patients, it was almost 9 before we got out of there)!!!! It turned out that Owen's ear was so infected, his eardrum was ready to burst. I felt SO bad!! He'd mentioned his ear off and on earlier in the day, but I figured he was just stuffy. He certainly didn't seem like he was in pain!!! Besides, the doctors won't prescribe antibiotics for mild ear infections typically. Anyway, he's been on super strong antibiotics since Friday and still seems to be suffering with a cough and congestion. I feel like I'm getting better, but still have to have my Kleenex at close hand!! I'm sure everyone will be thrilled to see me back at work tomorrow...;O).

O.k., so on to the pictures... We wanted to get a skating day in before Diana headed home and decided Halloween day was the day. Unfortunately, the skate rink had a carnival for the kids that day, so it was busier than usual and they had all the lights turned off. Not exactly an ideal situation for a little boy that's just learning! Owen gave up pretty early and was kind of a turd in general. This is him sitting in the bleachers with his hat tied tight so he wouldn't take it off, watching his dad and Aunt Shawn. I think he still didn't feel good which of course, didn't help the situation.

We grabbed sushi for dinner, so we made a practice trip to Uncle Doc and Aunt Lori's house in Eagle River on the way. Aunt Lori loaded Owen up with candy there! He didn't quite get it, but thought the candy part was great. We looked for a cape for Will to go with his vampire make-up, but couldn't find anything. It was just too last minute. So, this is how he went...

If it hadn't been for Will, I don't think Owen would have been willing to go out to trick-or-treat for real. But, once Will convinced him to get started, we couldn't get him to stop! ;O) It was only 27 degrees and Owen hit quite a few houses. I think Will and I were ready to quit long before Owen gave in to heading home!!

Hope you are all having a good week! We're hoping everyone is feeling better by tomorrow!! Unfortunately, Dave is starting to come down with this cold now and will only be at work for a couple hours today. Gotta love cold season (doesn't help that its sub-zero temps around here this week!!!).

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow....

Well, it's been a long month here and I've been really bad about getting on the computer to post pictures. In fact, I haven't taken many pictures at all if the truth were told. Owen's completed his first week at his new daycare this past week and seemed to enjoy every minute of it. I'm so proud of how independent and easygoing he is when it comes to meeting new people. I'd worried all month about whether or not we were making the right choice, but on Tuesday when I went to drop him off on his own for the first time and he turned to me and said, Don't stay today, otay mommy?, I knew we had! ;O)

Sunday morning we dropped my mom and Will off at the airport. They'd been here for two weeks taking care of grandma after she was released from the hospital and Will had wished for snow every day. So, of course, Sunday night we got about 4 inches. The first snow of the season!!!! Shawn said she heard on the news that we were within a week of beating a record for the first snow fall. I don't ever remember not having snow by November, although, we have had a few years that we got dumped on pretty hard and then it would warm up and melt come November/December. It's been plenty cold enough for snow though, even as early as September. I'm glad its finally arrive and it looks like we should plan on more in the coming days (we got about another inch last night). Of course, Shawn just closed on her new house yesterday and was hoping it would wait until after this coming weekend!!

Hope you are all having a great start to your week. I've got some more pictures to post this week and will plan on working backwards, so check back!

It's Getting Colder!

Owen and I went outside earlier today for a little photo shoot of his costume this year. We decided not to bother getting pictures done at Sears this time to save money and because I'm not sure I'm up to the battle right now!! He's so hit or miss these days as to whether or not he's going to cooperate. The costume photos will come later...

The dogs haven't been out in the backyard to run in forever. It's been pretty wet for about a week now and on top of that, Max keeps sneaking under the fence!!! Dave put up an electric wire that runs around the bottom of the kennel. Since then, Max has at least remained captive within that area. We'll do the same on the entire perimeter of the fence next summer, but its not going to happen as planned this year. Stupid dog!! Makes me feel like our $12k was well spent on the fence!!! At least Owen and Daisy are too chubby to squeeze under! ;O) So, anyway, after we were done with our photo shoot, Owen and I played with them for a while. Here's a picture of Owen climbing around in the trees, its hard to see, but around 11am there was still frost on the leaves!!