Holidays – Page 22 – JTOK Chatter

Katie’s pool and pizza birthday party.

Posted on July 15, 2014 @ 7:16 pm by Jen — No Comments ↓

Unfortunately, Gramma Jean was sick so she didn’t make it to the party—and we didn’t get a group picture—but Grandpa David, Grauntie Marge, Grandma Marsha, Uncle Rob, Grannie Lin, and Papa were all there! Even our dear friend Paul stopped by!

He bonked his nose diving in the shallow water.

Katie was having a blast splashing EVERYONE. We kept trying to redirect her to splash Owen but she kept coming back to us.

Tom turned the water on and she stuck her foot right in!

She has no fear—she jumped right into Tom’s arms!

She loved daddy pushing her around the pool!

Owen was not comfortable in the big pool and stuck to the steps and the side of the pool. He would NOT go out any farther, even though we showed him it wasn’t any deeper AND Grannie promised to hold him tight. Eventually, after maybe 30 minutes, he FINALLY let go…and of course had fun racing with daddy and Katie!

And then it was time for the party! Grannie Lin and Papa bought all the plates/decorations, the cake and cupcakes, and the pizza—and brought Burger King crowns for both kids!

Grandpa David would put a cheeze ball on Tom’s beer and Katie would eat it off. We did this a handful of times.

Papa and Grannie had bought this scooter for Owen for his birthday but then they weren’t able to come visit…so they brought it now, but he’s just a bit over the recommended weight limit so it went to Katie instead. You can see she liked being pushed on it. 🙂

But then we let Owen try it, just to see if he’d like it and would maybe want a bigger scooter for himself. He did like it, and Katie took to running in front of him saying “WATCH OUT! WATCH OUT!” to clear his path. 🙂

Then it was back to the house where it wasn’t long before the kids were ready to crash. A good day!

Len Christmas in July

Posted on July 13, 2014 @ 9:28 pm by Jen — No Comments ↓

The family decided to have Christmas in July this year and the Besons hosted. It was a GORGEOUS Michigan summer day on the river spent with our AMAZING family! Timmy supplied about 32 different types of brats (okay, maybe only about 12) and we stuffed ourselves silly on them plus all the other good food everyone brought. A good time was had by all and I think we may officially be moving our holiday celebration to the summer from now on!

Owen was a bit shy at first, so he and Katie were both in Nick’s room playing by themselves.

Katie loved the boat. LOVED. LOVED!! She would have sat out there all day if we let her and kept wanting to go back.

Finally Owen wanted to play!

Owen is six months younger than Aubrey. I know, right?

Cousins Katie 2, Owen 5, Aubrey 6, Gracie 8, Nick 10, Alex 12, and Jess 15. We never actually got Owen back-to-back with Nick, but I think they were within a fraction of an inch of each other (with a five-year age difference). And Katie seems to be pretty close to Aubrey, who is four years older. I guess we really DO grow them big. 🙂

Last year:

Lisa B. made these AWESOME ladybug cupcakes for Katie’s birthday.

And these for Greg’s birthday. (I missed a pic of the ones for Aubrey’s birthday, but they were Frozen-themed.)

We did pretty good keeping track of Katie all day (when there’s so many people around, there’s always someone half watching) and then we failed right at the end. People were running around cleaning up and putting things away…and before I know it, Tom is carrying Katie back from the front yard. Apparently Katie was wandering down the driveway and Greg caught her and brought her back. Phew.

And before we knew it, it was time to head out. Katie didn’t make it to the end of the road before she fell asleep, and Owen lasted about 15 minutes.

Happy 2nd Birthday, Katie—Part 2

Posted on July 10, 2014 @ 7:57 pm by Jen — No Comments ↓

We had planned to have Katie’s birthday party at the hotel like we did last year, but as it turned out, we could have had the party today since everyone was at the house! We will still have the pizza/pool party, but Gramma Jean still made a cake to celebrate her actual birthday!

This is the look we got after I stopped her from picking a chocolate chip off the cake before we all sat down.

Stripped down because she was covered in chocolate!

Happy 2nd Birthday, Katie!

Posted on July 10, 2014 @ 12:34 pm by Jen — No Comments ↓

And a TBT birthday along with today’s version, both taken in Gramma Jean’s back yard!

Braxton’s Birthday

Posted on June 18, 2014 @ 7:45 pm by Jen — 3 Comments ↓

Owen wrote everything. I’m not sure why he did both Rs lowercase. 🙂

He had a blast at the party. They’re waiting for cake:

S’mores!

Messy with mama!

Owen’s friend Jocelyn:

Braxton’s mom, Alea, after a marshmallow attack! (She was in our mommy group. You can also see why Braxton is so petite.)

Their final hug:

Happy Father’s Day

Posted on June 15, 2014 @ 7:25 am by Jen — No Comments ↓

Our kids are so very very lucky to have you as their dad! You’re amazing!

And of course, to my own dad, who I love more than anything…except I blame his rule on not becoming a grandpa before he was 50 on scaring me so badly he didn’t get grandkids until he was 60! 🙂

And to my stepdad, David, who has a heart of gold and is a great addition to our family! And I just realized I don’t have a pic of just the two of us!

A Pinterest project non-fail thanks to a friend!

Posted on June 3, 2014 @ 12:30 pm by Jen — 1 Comment ↓

I had wanted to do an ornament wreath like I’d seen on Pinterest and had actually bought all the ornaments on clearance after Christmas! But I was afraid to attempt it on my own—I’m somewhat crafty, but Owen’s Lego cake fail seriously made me rethink my abilities to do anything crafy. So I enlisted the help of one of my friends and took all my stuff to her house. She was just going to help walk me through it while I did the work and we visited. Ha. HA HA. After I burned a hole in the ribbon during the first three seconds I was using the glue gun, she kindly took over. I felt bad, but she said as long as I didn’t mind her doing it, she had no problem because this type of stuff IS HER THING. Okay, you go, girl! I helped a tiny bit with the placement of ornaments, but she honestly did 99.5% of the work. And it turned out AMAZING!

She got to keep all of the leftover ornaments and ribbon, and I left with a tiny wreath to see if I can attempt it on my own. If I don’t do it before I leave, I told her I will give her all those supplies, too! 🙂

My mother’s day do-over!

Posted on May 17, 2014 @ 6:15 pm by Jen — No Comments ↓

Since Mother’s Day was spent house hunting/traveling, I officially declared MY Mother’s Day would be this weekend. 🙂 So our day started with a trip to Costco, Owen’s face-painting at the farmer’s market…and then since it was a GORGEOUS day, time spent outside using the deck/pool/yard/playset (we’re trying to use it as much as we can since we will have NONE of it at the new house)…

We were playing music outside.
Owen: DJ Shuffle is in the house!
Us: Whaaaaa?!?!

Owen hurt himself with that jump/landing, but felt a little better when I showed him the cool picture I got of him in mid air!

While we were outside, Tom went and got the mail…and my mother’s day present (that I ordered for myself!) had arrived! I LOVE IT SOOOOO MUCH! (It’s an 11×14 wrapped canvas.)

Then Tom grilled super yummy BBQ chicken (which Owen tried and liked!) and I made a huge batch of our favorite tomato and basil bruschetta and we ate on the deck!

And even though I got these from Owen awhile back (done at school), I forgot to post them, so there’s no better time or place than right now!

I love his answers! And he didn’t do too badly…though I can’t believe he said salad instead of any other number of things! 🙂

So overall I had a GREAT mother’s day do-over!

Owen’s Mother’s Day gift from school

Posted on May 7, 2014 @ 2:30 pm by Jen — No Comments ↓

Sibling Fun + Happy Birthday Grandma Marsha

Posted on April 27, 2014 @ 11:05 am by Jen — No Comments ↓

Then Katie wanted up.

They don’t always get along. 🙂

But he can be so good with her.

Then Skyping with Grandma Marsha for her birthday!

And singing!

Katie’s Easter Ears

Posted on April 20, 2014 @ 11:34 am by Jen — No Comments ↓

She did it herself!

Happy Easter 2014!

Posted on April 20, 2014 @ 7:39 am by Jen — No Comments ↓

So Owen was up early with Tom as usual and told Tom that there was an R2-D2 downstairs. That’s one of the “eggs” we hid, and Tom knew he hadn’t been downstairs so was perplexed as to how he knew about it. So he had a talk with him about lying. But Owen claimed he wasn’t lying so Tom finally said “Okay, show me.” And Owen took him to the landing which overlooks the entryway…and part of the toy room where Katie’s changing station is…where Tom had, in fact, placed an R2-D2 on the corner in plain sight!! Mr. Eagle Eyes strikes again!!

Then, surprisingly, when we headed downstairs, he completely missed the egg on the windowsill on the landing…Katie actually saw it as she was coming down (in video).

Owen sharing his eggs with Katie because we warned him not to grab all the eggs before she could see them!

He loved the R2-D2 containers!

She found about three eggs and then she was done—she was opening them and eating the candy as fast as she could!

We tried to get a double bunny ear picture but it wasn’t happening. This was all we got. 🙂

She wanted her bubbles right away!

Dinosaur apron from Grannie Lin!

Chocolate bunny and Lego from Grandma Marsha and Uncle Rob!

Some of the eggs had barrettes and hair ties for Katie! She’s putting one on her wrist here.

Owen REALLY LOVED his chick!

Both kids ate a package of the Despicable Me gummies Grandma Marsha sent!

“Open please daddy?”

Now watch me as I try to shove all four eggs in my mouth at once!

This is daddy laughing at how piggy Katie is being.

A full mouth!

“Bunny!!!”

The aftermath!

You can see her hoarding her Robins Eggs. 🙂

Overall it was a great success! I think they missed a few eggs so they’ll find them throughout the day. And while candy and chocolate was their pre-breakfast snack, they didn’t do too badly!

Easter baskets and eggs

Posted on April 19, 2014 @ 9:15 pm by Jen — No Comments ↓

Thanks to the grandparents, I didn’t have to buy much (we had the baskets and I bought bubbles—everything else is from grandmas)! No, our kids aren’t spoiled! 😉 The only bad part is the eggs are hidden inside since it’s rainy.

Thank you, Papa!

Posted on April 16, 2014 @ 5:30 pm by Jen — No Comments ↓

The cookies were appreciated by all!

(The rest of the package is being saved until Easter!

Bounce bounce!

Posted on April 5, 2014 @ 8:25 pm by Jen — No Comments ↓

We went over to Mitchell’s for Virginia’s birthday and the kids loved the trampoline!

Caught in mid-air:

Daddy does the bouncing:

Katie saw this bike and wanted it and made a beeline for it. Of course she couldn’t reach the pedals but she had fun sitting on it and being pushed in it.

Both kids had A BLAST running around the big yard and getting on and off and on and off the trampoline. Virginia held Katie while they bounced and I think she liked that the best!

The kids got to stay up WAY past their bedtime because they were having SO much fun (and because we were visiting)…

Two bunnies!

Posted on March 21, 2014 @ 3:54 pm by Jen — No Comments ↓

It’s hard enough to get both kids to look at me at the same time, let alone dealing with props that won’t cooperate…so I needed to do a bit of computer magic to get this picture. 🙂

Target Easter Bunny

Posted on March 21, 2014 @ 9:05 am by Jen — No Comments ↓

Excited to have the ears on…

Then SUPER excited to see them on!

Valentines Party

Posted on February 14, 2014 @ 2:05 pm by Jen — 2 Comments ↓

All three of us made it to Owen’s Valentines party! (You can see Tom sitting behind Owen.)

This is the valentine he made for us:

Katie made herself at home in the Comfort Corner with a doll and a tea cup:

A few random pictures from his classroom:

This has been up for awhile (when the letter of the week was obviously P). From the word Owen provided, I can tell you it was the week he earned a new Lego that was a Paintball player. 🙂

The class helping chart:

I later asked Owen what his job meant:

Well, we clean up and help people who clean up. If someone needs me, I help them.

Crystal clear, right? 🙂 I asked what some of the other jobs were and got equally as vague answers. I’m sure they’re positively clear in his mind…

And our last valentine treat:

Teacher Valentines

Posted on February 14, 2014 @ 7:20 am by Jen — No Comments ↓

The first one got a snowman with a hat and the sun. I think he said the other was a girl race car. 🙂

I told Owen to draw a heart, interested as to what he would do as I don’t think he can draw a heart.

Owen: Okay! I’ll trace around the outside!

Smart kid.

Snow day birthday Lego project

Posted on February 11, 2014 @ 3:55 pm by Jen — No Comments ↓

Owen wanted to work on this Super Heroes Lego kit he got for his birthday. He did quite well for the first two hours…then he started to lose his focus and get a little grouchy. So we took a break and finished it when daddy got home. But overall he does really well and doesn’t need much help.

Working on Valentines

Posted on February 11, 2014 @ 2:15 pm by Jen — No Comments ↓

These are the valentines we’re doing for Owen’s class:

Except I’m not being quite as cute with the cellophane bags and tie—we’re doing ziplock sandwich bags. 🙂

Here’s Owen writing his name on them. He only has the patience for about 4-5 at a time so we’re working on it all week.

He’s pretty good writing his name, though the W could use some separation and the N is often backwards. And we’re working on keeping the size consistent.

Owen’s birthday and dinner

Posted on February 4, 2014 @ 4:10 pm by Jen — No Comments ↓

We picked Owen up from school then took the kids to the playground.

Then heading into dinner:

And the wait staff singing their version of happy birthday was a little loud:

Owen is 5 years old today!

Posted on February 3, 2014 @ 7:13 am by Jen — No Comments ↓

Where has the time gone?

Serious Owen.

The post-party party

Posted on February 2, 2014 @ 6:28 pm by Jen — No Comments ↓

We had the gang over after the gymnastics party so we could hang out and visit—with everyone’s busy schedules (and with Trimble’s living back on base instead of in the same neighborhood) we rarely get together anymore. We ordered pizza for dinner and had a few drinks while the kids played. We had Owen open his gifts sporadically throughout the night and then had him blow out candles on his cake (I had forgotten candles for the gymnastics party). He loved opening his presents and pretty much every response to every gift was an excited “WHAT!?!!” It was super cute.

Then he opened his big gift from us—a used iPhone 4—and he looked at it like “Huh?” and immediately said “Daddy, this is yours!” and tried handing it to him. He completely didn’t understand that it was for him, even after I showed him the Lego Indiana Jones wallpaper. He was just too excited about all the other Lego/Ninjago/Star Wars stuff. We should have kept it until after all the excitement of the day was over.

Building one of the smaller Lego sets he got:

Taking his birthday picture…that I didn’t technically need to do because it wasn’t his actual birthday!

Happy 5th birthday, Owen!

Posted on February 2, 2014 @ 3:00 pm by Jen — 1 Comment ↓

We had Owen’s 5th birthday party at one of the local gymnastics places. We invited his entire class (16 kids) as well as our friends. Half of his class RSVPed (of which two asked to bring other siblings, which was fine) and I was annoyed but honestly pretty impressed that we got a 50% response rate. However, of those eight that RSVPed, four didn’t show…two of which were the ones that asked to bring extra kids. 😐 So that cost me extra because I opted to go with the 25+ kids plan (which allowed for another employee to be scheduled) because we were right on the line with RSVPs and I figured we’d likely get some that would show up without having RSVPed. So we ended up with 15 kids total instead of 23. Oh well, it’s only money, right? And Owen had fun so that’s what matters, right? But he did have fun so it’s all good!

Ursula made the awesome Ninjago cake!

When I called Owen over to see it (he was out playing) he said “It’s Jay!” (Of course, he was right, Jay is the blue ninja.)

Owen with two of his classmates, Tanner and Braxton (who I’ve posted pics of before). You see that Owen really isn’t the same size as the rest of his class. 🙂

Katie having fun running around:

Katie was very interested in what was going on in the bounce house—but we put her in with the kids and she screamed. So she was content to just peek in for a bit.

I showed Katie how to hang on the bar and she loved it! She’d hang and swing then drop off—over and over.

And then she got in the bounce house because it was fairly empty:

Back at the bar showing daddy her tricks!

The birthday boy in the middle of the parachute!

And here’s a 6 minute video of the parachute fun (pretty much for the grandparents). 🙂

Each kid got to do their own thing in the middle of the parachute balloon. Owen did a spinning twist.

A few last runs before leaving…

The last pic of our best friends for quite some time—our friend Tom is deploying next week and we’ll be moving this summer…

As Ursula was getting the cake packed up to go, Owen saw that the head was off to the side and was VERY concerned that it wasn’t coming home and kept asking about it. We assured him Jay was coming home. Then he saw Ursula carrying it to her car (to bring to our house) and he was concerned that the cake itself wasn’t coming home at all!

Overall, it was a great party for Owen’s first REAL birthday party (not just something at our house with a few friends or family). 🙂

Picking up Owen’s party balloons

Posted on January 31, 2014 @ 6:05 pm by Jen — No Comments ↓

We had him hold them so they didn’t fly around too much.

“Wow! There’s so many I can’t hold them!”

A Belated Christmas

Posted on January 27, 2014 @ 7:49 am by Jen — No Comments ↓

Daddy sent home a present for him and Owen that they opened first:

Katie jumped right in to help daddy open a gift from Grauntie Marge:

And we saved some of Grandma Marsha’s presents for the kids so Tom could watch them have fun opening:

He looks at this book every morning and every night.

Posted on January 21, 2014 @ 6:55 pm by Jen — No Comments ↓

This Lego Minifigure history book (LEGO Minifigure Year by Year: A Visual History) was a Christmas gift from Uncle Doug, Aunt Marie, and cousins Gabrielle and Robert—and he LOVES it! I’ll turn on his monitor in the morning and he’s flipping through pages. At night, that’s the book he wants me to “read” (I say “read” because he really just wants to flip through the pages and look at figures and ask me what their names are). Almost all of the figures he says “I want this for next Christmas.” 🙂