Thanks Aunt Beth and Uncle Jim—this thing is a riot. We all like it!
Category Archives: Family
Tummy time!
Tonight was the first night she lasted more than a few minutes without getting screechy! (The frog was a gift to Owen from Aunt Beth and Uncle Jim—now passed down to Katie!)
Thank you, Grauntie Marge!
And like brother…like sister. Owen was 3m3d and Katie was 4m5d.
Owen’s walkabout
Skyping with Grandma, Owen is showing her all of his robots.
Then he decided to take Grandma Marsha on a walkabout. It was hilarious, because he doesn’t quite grasp what she can and can’t see and was in his dark playroom showing her a puzzle that makes noise when you turn the lights off.
Happy 39th!
My birthday started out wonderful…I got to sleep in until 9:30 (thanks to Katie getting me up at 5 to eat and “wish me happy birthday!”), Owen said “Happy Birthday Mama!” all on his own (I wonder how much instruction that took!), Tom made waffles for breakfast, and I had a Facebook wall full of birthday wishes from friends and family waiting for me!
After a nice lazy day of hanging around the house with the fam (and publishing my updated blog!), my day was topped off with a rousing chorus of Happy Birthday from my niece and nephew (Gabrielle and Robert), reading my entire wall of Facebook birthday wishes, and CLEAN SHEET NIGHT! I’m a lucky girl! 🙂
3000 + 14 = 0
So…3,000 miles in 14 days (6 long days of actual travel) and I’m done. I think that was the last of our road trips for a loooooong time. I hope everyone got their fill of us!
Reading with Grauntie Marge
Grauntie Marge wanted Owen to see where she lived, so we took a quick trip over to her house. She then gave Owen a present of a new book, which she then read to him.
The end of a long day
We spent the day with Grandma Marsha in Kalkaska and had a nice picnic get-together with Tom’s friends and family. Owen got to play with a lot of kids his age (though, honestly, he didn’t really play WITH them) and he missed his nap. When we finally got back to Grayling, he crawled up onto the couch with his B…
Earlier, between rain showers, daddy and Owen attempted bubbles (this also averted a meltdown, of which I can’t even remember the problem).
And Grandma with Katie…
Lots of family photos!
Grannie Lin with the kids
Papa with the kids
I wanted to get all our blue eyes in a photo, but I settled for three of them. 🙂 I’m really happy we all have my dad’s eyes. ♥
Linda’s mom and dad, aunt and uncle, and a family friend all came over for dinner tonight. They all LOVED holding Katie and all threatened to steal her. 🙂
Grauntie Rose meets Katie
Family Jerseys
Family MSU jerseys (Tom’s 40th birthday presents)… Any other game I’d actually be rooting for State, but today I’m rooting for CMU, my alma matter! GO CHIPS!
Happy birthday, Gramma Jean
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4xkYEQT7jQ
I love the ending…I was whispering for him to say Happy Birthday again…but he says CAKE! 🙂
Don’t cry, mama.
Of course, being who I am, I was crying when (and after) my mom and aunt left. Owen noticed the tears on my cheek, pointed to them, and asked What’s that? I said they were tears and I was crying because I missed grandma and grauntie. He comes over to me, pats me on the shoulder, and says “Don’t cry, mama.”
/bawl
Three hats
We broke our usual tradition of matching jammies because we couldn’t find any good ones…so this time we did hats. Unfortunately, hats don’t work too well on me since my head is so big (yeah, it really is—just look at the pic!). But it was still neat!
He likes Grauntie Marge’s bed!
Executive decision & first bottle!
I tried my hardest to breastfeed again…but I had the same problems as I did with Owen (not a good latch, painful latching, super sore breasts, etc.) so I had been pumping and then we had been feeding Katie with a syringe while she sucked our finger (so she wouldn’t get spoiled by the bottle and would still be able to breastfeed)…but then after lots of thought, I just made the executive decision to give it up and just start pumping full time and feed her with a bottle. It also nicely coincided with my mom and Aunt Marge being here, so they could help feed her! Grandma Jean got the honor of giving her the first bottle!
Katie Pictures 2
This is how Owen reacts when Katie cries…
Our first family photo!
The awesome banner our friends had waiting for us when we got home!
New Cars book and Cars Surprise!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPAUW1EG3WY
Thank you Aunt Sue and Uncle Marv…Owen loved the Cars stuff! And I’m sure Katie will love her night-lite!
Road trip–Family, Cousins, and Water Country
We took a somewhat last-minute trip to Williamsburg, VA, to see family—and we also decided to go to Water Country USA since we were able to get free tickets for being military.
Saturday night we met with Stef & Al (my third cousins, I think—I’m bad at figuring out those type of family relations) and their kids for dinner and then swimming back at our hotel pool. It was nice visiting with them—I can’t even remember the last time we saw them!
Sunday it was off to Water Country to meet up with Lisa & Timmy and their kids for a day of fun in the water! They were visiting Williamsburg for a week’s vacation so we were more than happy to come up and see them!
I didn’t take my phone and didn’t have a waterproof camera, so we didn’t get a ton of pictures…but we did get a few. Owen took a little bit to get comfortable playing in the water, but once he did, he had a blast! It was enjoyable for me as well since I didn’t have to worry about running around to all the rides…sometimes being eight months pregnant has its advantages!
Also, major thanks to Timmy for splurging on a cabana…that really IS the way to go for a whole day at the park!
Taking a break for ice cream!
COUSINS! Of course, Owen is the beast of the group…he’s almost 3.5 while the others (from left to right) are almost 6, almost 8, and almost 4. 😮
Last-minute plans!
Ugh, last-minute plans…I hate them because I’m a planner, but I have to learn to go with the flow.
A few months ago my cousin said her family would be coming to Richmond, VA, for a vacation and would like to see us if possible. It’s four hours away but yes, of course, since otherwise we only get to see them at Christmas. And as a bonus we have other family there we could see as well.
I KNOW I put a reminder on my Google calendar but it’s not there now so it was a big surprise when she texted yesterday saying “We’ll be there June 9-15!”
OH CRAP.
Obviously we can only do a weekend and their dates only include THIS weekend… So do we go or not?!?!
First I have to see if our other fam is available. Then I have to see if someone can watch the dog. Then I have to see about hotel rooms. Luckily Tom has Monday off so that helps.
Sooooo…our Richmond fam was unavailable. But that was actually okay since we found out the visiting cousins weren’t actually staying there, but rather in Williamsburg…where we happen to have other family. And neighbors could watch the dog…
So hotel rooms (the hotel we really like) are stupid expensive so we were going to make it work for just one night. Until I thought “You know, military gets free tickets to Busch properties and since we’ll be RIGHT there…” So now we’re staying two nights AND going to Water Country USA…in just two days.
EEK!
I can’t wait!!
BEACH!
Going to the beach doesn’t have quite the same meaning as it used to (laying out in the sun) but the new definition (watching Owen play) is just a different kind of fun!
C’mon, gramma! (He outgrew his 4T swim outfits so we jumped to a 6T.)
He still doesn’t like the sand, even with more closed-toed shoes. He immediately started requesting “Shoes off!”
Our postponed Easter!
Tom hid the eggs outside so they were ready once Owen got up. Here he is, super excited and ready to go!
And off hunting for eggs!
The spoils—chocolate, candy, coins, and Cars cars… (This part doesn’t seem to be quite as exciting to him as finding the eggs—he still needs practice.)
Gramma Jean got Owen his own little baby doll to play with! He doesn’t like it as much as he loves his cars (of course), but he will pick it up and play with it and feed it. 🙂
The Easter Bunny got Owen a few more Cars-themed things, too… Presenting Miles Axelrod (his newest favorite)…
And Crabby (who he also loves, but is only in the movie for a few minutes)…
Dad’s home!
Tom is home for the weekend!
:heart:
BUBBLES!!!
is a HUGE hit!! Thanks for Owen’s birthday money, Aunt Rose!
Snow, turtles, and seahorses, oh my!
http://www.ncaquariums.com/fort-fisher
Tom had today off, so we all went to The North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher. Owen didn’t have the longest attention span (so we spent longer driving there and back than we did at the aquarium) but we still had fun.
The first exhibit area was freshwater fish, turtles, frogs, crocodiles (or alligators or both—I will never remember the difference), and snakes…nothing really noticable in and of itself…except they had misters that went off every five minutes or so and Owen thought it was snow and just loved it and kept asking for/saying “Snow! Snow! Snow!” 🙂
Between exhibition areas, you pass through a little room where you get your pictures taken on a green screen (and will, of course, later have the chance to purchase them) and amazingly, Owen did well with the instruction to hold his arms out so it would look like he was surfing:
Then we got instructions to look scared by putting our hands up to our faces…which we all have done…except Owen, who looked scared by hiding his face! 🙂
Then, a normal group photo.
It was a fairly speedy trip through the rest of the aquarium, but Owen did like the sting rays, seahorses, and playing in the crab:
Looking at fish with Gram:
Then Owen got a treat from the gift store…which he played with on the final walk outside.
We stopped to look at turtles on a log…
And birds in a field…
Owen and papa!
Owen’s 3rd Birthday Party!
Owen’s birthday cake—he was so excited he wouldn’t stop jumping for me to get a good picture! (It was made by an acquaintance of ours. I decided to splurge this year and have someone else make it so it was his first REAL birthday cake!)
This is what it looked like after I decorated it with his own Cars cars (while he napped):
Family photo!
Since he had so many presents, we started opening them before the party. He loved the bowling pins from Grandma Marsha and Uncle Rob! (After we played with them as actual bowling items, they turned into soldiers!)
I have no idea why he plugs his ears, but it happens often:
Drinking out of his new big boy Cars cup!
“Happy birthday to you…”
Trying to blow out his candles…
We didn’t get a group picture, but we celebrated with Papa, Grannie, Dad, Mom—and our good friends Roger and Ursula and their kids Virginia and Caroline!
Sidewalk chalk!
We all had fun drawing in the driveway with/for Owen! He contributed a few random lines here and there, but guessed correctly on every single thing we drew (even Gramma’s attempt at a basketball hoop in the front right!). 🙂
Walk with papa and driving the police car!
Geting ready to head out on a walk with papa:
Back from a successful golf ball hunt/walk:
And finally driving the police car!! YAY! Unfortuately, he refuses to steer!
And then we finally got him steering! Somewhat. 🙂