Michigan State played their first game tonight, so the kids and I snuck upstairs after dinner and put on our MSU gear to surprise daddy!
Category Archives: JTOK
July (and vacation) pictures are online!
>>> July pictures are now online at Shutterfly!
Owen’s first Fun Run!
Owen ran his first Fun Run (with daddy!) this morning during the AuSable River Festival! (Sidenote: it will always be Milltown to me…though AuSable River Festival does fit better.)
Katie wanted to run…on daddy’s shoulders. 🙂
We had time to waste before the race started so we wandered around downtown and ran into Papa and Grannie! 🙂
And a pout for good measure.
Pre-race announcements:
Heading to the starting line!
There they go!
Heading a block back to the finish line—it won’t take them long!
Here they come! There was no official time or finish places, but they were in the top 10!
And here’s the start—and finish—all in one video!
Post-race snacks! 🙂
Fairy Camp, Day 5: The Recital
On her last day of Fairy Camp: Mama, there’s a lot of tutu in here!
Waiting for class to start.
Recital time! Tom was able to get off work to come, and it was going to be a surprise for Katie! It was funny because she just kept staring out at me and then Tom and then me and then Tom. I was just happy she didn’t freeze up or cry like Owen has done!
The studio records every ceremony so this is from their YouTube channel:
I took a few still shots…
Getting her fairy wings:
Beautiful dancing:
Her fairy group:
Family selfie!
The post-recital lunch…which Katie walked in and thought it was all for her birthday! 🙂
She LOVED the experience. I would really like her to do another week (they have a Sophia the First camp in August), but full price is $175!! Even with their $25 discount for taking the Fairy class…$150 is too much. (We got this camp via a deal site and I only paid $89! so I’m a bit spoiled!)
Their first fireworks!
We knew the weather was going to be a crapshoot, but we figured we had to try since they were just three miles from our house!
It started off well enough…Tom and Owen went off to check out the food offerings and Katie and I had a picnic (oranges, string cheese, cheddar Chex, and a juice box) which she loved: “Mama! This picnic is the best ever!”
And even though it was sprinkling, she was running around in the grass and having a blast…until she realized she had a boo boo on her foot and then she turned into a hot mess drama queen as seen here.
Then as soon as daddy came back 15 minutes later, she was all smiles and amazingly forgot all about her boo boo.
As soon as daddy laid down, she copied him. 🙂
Then I jumped in for a picture.
Owen had been off playing football with some kids but he came back to check in and said “We’re tackling and I knocked two people down!”
Since we had everyone, we took this shot. A lady behind us actually offered to take it but I said “No thanks, this is how we do it!” And it was perfect—done in one shot!
And then it started to rain harder. And it was chilly. And we had already been here two hours and still had about 45 minutes until the fireworks were going to start…do we stay or do we go?
The show was happening rain or shine and I hated to miss it after being there so long already…so we decided to go sit in the car and potentially watch from the tailgate or through the moonroof if it was a downpour. Thankfully it didn’t do much more than a light rain.
We had the car on to listen to music so the kids were having fun in the tail lights…
Owen: “This is burning my face!” 
…and playing to the music…
Owen being a lamppost:
And then the show started! They both immediately covered their ears so we got out the noise-canceling headphones for both of them.
Yes, I was happy we had the minivan so we could do this!
Both kids said it was the BEST DAY EVER and they wanted to know if we were going to go to the fireworks next year. Ha HA! I’ve created fireworks monsters!! (Tom doesn’t really care for them, but now we outnumber him three to one! And he really did enjoy watching the kids loving everything!)
P.S. Wow, this is post #6000!
Game 1: Raptors vs. Storm
I apologize ahead of time for the volume of photos…but this was his first real game so I wanted to show it all. I promise there won’t be nearly as many from upcoming games. 🙂
Practicing with daddy beforehand.
Typical Owen. He had grass-stained knees before the game even started!
Tongue out!
Not a kid from Owen’s team, but so cute I had to take a picture. 🙂
He had SO much fun and was SO excited about everything—it was awesome to see. And Tom had a great time, too, as he’s envisioned this for SO many years. 🙂
Happy Easter!
We told Owen he had to wait for us to come get him in the morning, otherwise he likely would have found all the eggs before Katie even got out of bed! (We also said it in case we didn’t get around to hiding the eggs before bed and Tom had to do it in the morning.)
Every time Katie opened an M&M, it went straight into her mouth. 🙂
A “fused” photo so I had one without Owen’s tongue sticking out. 🙂
Some fancy twirling in her new tutu. And we have NO idea where Owen got the “I’m going to text my friends” bit. NO IDEA.
Katie has started taking after Owen with the crazy faces when I’m trying to take a picture.
The ears didn’t fit Owen at all so it was only a matter of time before this happened!
Since it’s Easter, I thought I’d pull out a pretty hand-me-down dress from the Beson girls—and of course Katie LOVES it! She kept saying “It’s so BEAUTIFUL! Look at my beautiful dress!” 🙂
And the best two:
And since she was dressed up, and we were actually all getting dressed to go out on errands, we took a family picture!
BINGO!
The PTO had a pizza dinner/Bingo event tonight and we all went! Unfortunately we didn’t win any bingo games, door prizes, or raffle items…but we all had fun! After almost every game when someone else won, Owen would say “OHHHH! I ALMOST WON!” Even if he was five numbers away. 🙂
Two out of four looking…that’s about right. 😉
With Aden, one of his classmates (and the one he went to the martial arts event with and broke the board):
The picture taken by the school principal (she’s at every event and walks around taking pictures with her iPad!)—again, two out of four looking:
Aden’s family (our table mates):
Afterwards, since the kids had been so good, we stopped and got froyo on the way home. 🙂
No school, the Pentagon, and an award!
Tom was scheduled to receive an award at work (the Meritorious Service Medal) and we had decided we would ALL go, which meant taking Owen out of school. Since Tom knew he’d get the rest of the day off, we decided to make a special day of it and do something really worthwhile of missing school—take the kids to Baltimore to the National Aquarium!
A family selfie before we headed out:
Thank heavens for the HOV express lane—this was the standstill traffic on the way into DC (well worth the few bucks it cost us):
Then we had about a 3/4 mile walk in to the Pentagon from the parking lot. Yeesh—Tom has to do that twice a day. Tom was obviously already cleared, but the rest of us had to go through a metal detector and get wanded. Then once we were inside the Pentagon, we had to walk clear to the other side. With my horrid sense of direction, there’s absolutely NO way I would not get lost if I was on my own.
I’m not exactly sure what I was expecting, but it wasn’t what I was expecting. 🙂 There were lots of wide open hallways and empty corridors with nondescript doors and exiting one ring to cross a “street” to get to the next ring. And while logically I know the Pentagon is HUGE, it didn’t seem as huge as I thought it would (if that makes sense).
And then we were in his office. No windows in the whole thing, of course, and a tiny cubicle:
Before the award ceremony we had a brief meeting with Tom’s commanding general (the Senior Communications Officer of the entire Marine Corps) where he met me and the kids and had a few get-to-know-each-other minutes. Owen was really great with him and shook his hand and answered questions.
Then it was off to the conference room to wait. The kids had fun checking out the big room and seeing themselves on the big TV:
And as more and more people filed into the room, Owen got more and more shy and hid behind me the entire time. Katie was shy, too, but at least sat quietly in a chair.
A coworker of Tom’s offered to take pictures so I wouldn’t have to worry about it so that was nice (even though I hated to give up control).
The general welcomed everyone and jokingly asked what time people were thinking of leaving and there was a pregnant pause while no one said anything so I piped up “9:07” (implying we’d be leaving as soon as the award ceremony was over) and everyone laughed and the general said Tom was welcome to leave and go celebrate and everyone else was to leave at noon. 🙂
The kids with free reign to run through the halls on the way back to daddy’s office:
The view as we are leaving Tom’s ring and heading directly across the courtyard to the other side to exit the building and head to the parking lot (this is where it seems much smaller than I thought it would be):
Letting Owen ride the escalators on our way out (since he loves them so much):
Then Tom gave us a mini tour of the food court area, some of the shops on that level, and we stopped at the chocolatier for some yummy treats! Then it was the long trek back to the car!
Then it was an hour’s drive to Baltimore for the next part of our adventure…
Walking instead of jumping!
We had planned to take the kids to the trampoline park but the crowds were insane and the tickets were sold out way into the future…so we came home and went for our nature walk!
All dressed for the big game!
As I was getting setup for the shot:
Owen took this one!
Opening presents via Skype!
It’s at times like this that I love technology!
We got our family photo!
Before heading out to see Santa, we had Uncle Rob take a few shots. Amazingly, the very first one was the winner! We hadn’t even tried to get Maggie in it, but she jumped right up!
I don’t love myself in it, but since everyone—including the dog!!—is actually looking at the camera with eyes open and mostly smiling faces…I consider it a win!
Happy Thanksgiving! Here’s our first best attempt at a holiday photo!
And a great one of Tom and the kids:
And a decent one of the kids:
And, of course, classic Owen! 🙂
This doesn’t happen very often.
Our last night at Gramma and Grandpa’s house
After the group photo, he commandeered the tripod to use as a cannon…and then actually as a tripod and was pretending to take pictures.
Sitting by the fire!
Not a bad spur of the moment family picture!
Making s’mores!
Eating s’mores—or in Katie’s case, eating the chocolate bar off the graham cracker.
Random fun on our last night
ATTACK!
They both like Legos and Owen is willing to share!
Getting ready to start loading the car!
Happy, relaxed family!
She wanted to try to poop so very badly…and she’s SO cute.
Goodbyes
Tom’s unit wasn’t scheduled to depart until 6:30-7, but we went about 4:30 because the waiting was just THE WORST. I knew we wouldn’t stay the entire time (to actually see them off) because I knew I couldn’t keep from breaking down that long. And it was about eleventy billion degrees and humid and the kids needed to eat dinner. Tom was perfectly okay with an early goodbye.
This is what the staging area looked like (forgive the bad pictures—I only had my phone)—piles and piles of bags and gear, hundreds of people, and lots of trucks.
Of course, now that Katie can walk, she really did NOT want to be held…so we just let her roam and she had a blast. She had a few tumbles because the ground was fairly uneven—but she didn’t let that stop her!
More than a few people commented on how cute she was, how cute her dress was, and how good she was at walking.
That’s Tom taking her picture.
Then as I was trying to get a picture of Tom and Katie, one of Tom’s buddies stepped in to take a family picture. Amazingly, he took two and one was halfway good!
Hugging daddy before getting in the car. I know he understands that Tom is leaving, but I really thought he’d be a bit more emotional—but he seemed kind of lackadaisical about it.
Then Tom and I hugged and kissed goodbye, he walked off, and I got in the car…and Owen started crying. 🙁 I got out to give him some tissue and a kiss, and of course seeing him break down made it worse for me…
THANKFULLY it didn’t last too long—we passed by a playground on the way off base and he said he wanted to go! Well, it was too late for that one (I wanted to be closer to home if either of them got tantrum-y) so I took a different route home so we could stop at a playground…
Last family photos
I had grand plans of hiring a photographer to take a real family portrait before Tom left…but that obviously never happened. So I had to make do with a last-minute haphazard couch photo shoot before we went out for dinner.
How Katie likes sitting with Tom.
*This post also introduces a new acronym for photo tagging purposes: JTOK (Jen Tom Owen Katie). I’ll be going back and tagging old family photos. 🙂
Family time watching Mythbusters
Great Wolf Lodge, Day 2
Both kids slept well (no random nighttime Katie screaming is always good) and our day started off with donuts from the Dunkin Donuts inside the resort.
The park didn’t open until 9, so we just lazed around and hung out.
Owen tried climbing the ladder again…but only got this far again. 🙂
Being at the park when it first opens is AMAZING. There’s no hunting for a table and chairs, there are no lines, there are no throngs of people…and it’s calm and almost quiet. Tom and I took advantage of the no-lines and tested the River Canyon Run family ride in the hopes that Owen might go down that one (it’s a huge inner tube that didn’t look that precarious). HOWEVER. The ride down was quite wild and we knew instantly Owen would NOT do well on it. As it was, it actually made Tom a little dizzy (though he blames the sinus stuff he had going on!).
So we let him enjoy his slides…
In the adults-only hot tub…we only spent about 15 minutes there. It was nice…but we were missing watching Owen have fun!
In the wave pool waiting for the waves. Owen didn’t want anything to do with this pool yesterday but today he was all about the waves!
Underwater Owen!
Pruney baby feet!
He wouldn’t even go under the water with Tom…
Watching and waiting for the dump bucket…he always appeared VERY concerned.
We kept trying to get him to come under and he never would.
I even tried to get him to come with me under the bucket…NO GO.
Owen doing the crazy robot:
Tom took Owen to the outdoor pool and frog slide one more time while us girls went up to the room to start getting ready to leave. Of course I had to get a picture!
Owen had seen all the kids running around with wands (you can buy an expensive wand and they can play games) but he was too young for that…so when we saw this light-up sword in the gift shop, we had to get it for him. It was his treat for being such an awesome kid on the trip. He LOVED it!
I highly recommend late check out—even with the additional fee—because it was great being able to go back to your room to check out instead of having to check out then haul everything to the car and take a bag to the park.
I think Katie was out by the time we left the parking lot and Owen lasted about 20 minutes…
Great Wolf Lodge, Day 1
I had been planning on heading to Great Wolf Lodge when Tom returned from Afghanistan…but he suggested we go beforehand. So he took two days off work and we headed up this morning. I had the brilliant (if I do say so myself) idea of taking our babysitter, Virginia, along for an extra pair of hands and eyes…and as it turned out, it was completely AMAZING—it was great being able to pay more attention to Owen (who will remember it) and be able to take tons of pictures (though Virginia is in most of the pics with Katie!). But seriously, Virginia was awesome with Katie the whole time—even when we weren’t actually at the water park.
So without further ado, the pictures.
Proof we were actually here, LOL—though this picture was taken as we were checking out. 🙂
We splurged and got a Kid Cabin suite—complete with log cabin bunk beds and a day bed (and their own TV which we never even used). Owen was excited about his own room/bed and testing out the bunk bed steps. He didn’t make it to the top because he was too scared. 🙂
The view of the outdoor pool area from our third-floor balcony.
Katie was (of course) intrigued by the new annoying band on her ankle.
Sneaking one of my fries. Tom ran to get us Chick-Fil-A while we got settled and into suits. We figured we’d be eating at the hotel enough (and spending enough money on overpriced food) that fast food was acceptable for our first lunch.
Waiting in her 2T suit. We had brought her 12m suit (that Grauntie Rose got her for her birthday) and I actually put it on her but it was really too tight.
Ready to go with Miss Virginia!
She SEEMS to be interested in the bubblers, but unfortunately it only lasted about seven seconds (if that). She just wanted to MOVE. This is where Virginia came in really handy.
Owen liked them quite a bit, however.
Of course, she was more entranced with the hole that had no water coming out of it…
This is how Owen watched the 1,000-gallon dump bucket—far away from the action on the sidelines…
…in the bubblers. 🙂
One of the few things Katie could reach and was semi interested in.
Miss Virginia on constant vigil—keeping Katie’s face out of the water as she tried to drink it.
FEETS!
This is where she liked to crawl.
Making sure I actually get in a photo!
She LOVED the lazy river (Owen hates it with a passion—he has some strange fear about inner tubes).
The outside frog slide that he loved!
Just hanging out. I cropped the pic so he appears closer than he really was. He was pretty far out. I love that he’s old enough we can let him do that and not worry or freak out.
It was about this time that Tom and I decided to splurge on drinks from the bar…since it was right there and all…and it was HOT outside. Yeah, we only had one drink because while they were certainly tasty, they were NOT worth the price. But, as a bonus, while we were standing there waiting for the drinks and Tom was holding Katie, she peed on him. (She had a swim diaper on, but they can only hold so much.) 🙂
I then had Virginia take a family shot—and she only took three and one of them came out really well!
This is how Katie crawled most of the time—her knees were sore (yours would be, too, if you were crawling on cement!) so she would kind of drag one leg while actually putting the other foot down (if you look closely you can see the foot prints on the right side).
Owen having fun in the pool with the water toys.
Virginia spent a lot of time walking Katie around. Again, brilliant idea.
Owen on his favorite indoor slides. It was terribly hard to get good pictures of this due to timing and the new camera that I wasn’t totally familiar with the best settings to get the best shot. So lots of the future shots might look a little off. I did the best I could. 🙂
The other area Katie liked—the waterfall station (well, it was more like a sheet of water). It was somewhat interactive because the water did crazy things when you stuck your hand in it.
Tired boy…and we had only been there 2.5 hours at that point!
Climbing in the ropes with dad. They headed to the top to attempt the waterslide…but once Owen got to the top he said NO WAY (even though the one he went on in Kalkaska was about the same).
Back at the room for dinner. This is where Katie loved to crawl.
Miss Virginia taking a break.
Owen and daddy taking a break.
Virginia stayed in the room with Katie while I took my real (i.e. non-waterproof camera) down to try and get some better pictures of Owen.
Owen liked the sheet of water, too.
This is him doing his robot through the falls.
Back up at the room on the balcony with Virginia and Katie. Katie liked to push the furniture around and stick her feet out the slats.
Completely THRILLED that she got the remote and we didn’t take it away from her!
Owen in his own bed!
Katie had only slept about an hour in the car and then didn’t get an afternoon nap at all…so we were hoping it would help her fall asleep quickly. And it did…she only screeched for about four minutes before she was out cold. I’m sure Owen wasn’t too far behind, and Virginia even put away her laptop and went to bed about 9:20. Tom and I turned our phones off about 10:30 as we were exhausted, too. However, I didn’t have a great night’s sleep…I tossed and turned and it felt like I had slept a loooong time but when I looked at the clock it was 1am. Ugh. The cycling of the A/C pretty much kept me up/woke me up—when it was running, it was COLD and you needed to be under the covers…and when it was off, it was WARM and you didn’t want the covers on. Plus my back hurt (as usual) from the car ride and what carrying of Katie I did (though Virginia did most of it). Plus it was only a Queen bed. So I knew I’d be exhausted the next morning…
Family Reunion
Since we typically miss the Christmas get-together, we got everyone together for dinner in Bay City!
Owen did okay getting back in the car again but Katie was. not. thrilled. and let us know. 🙁 However, during one moment in which Katie was momentarily quiet, we heard Owen pope up: “Good job, Katie. You’re being patient.” 🙂
Everyone adored Katie and most of them said she was a mini Jenny (we still don’t see it).
A birthday balloon for Katie from Grauntie Rose:
On the move…
Rocks taste good:
First beer!
Owen LOVED playing with Jessica and Alex…but obviously liked Jess just a little more!
With cousin Aubrey, who is six months older—can you believe it?
The gaggle of young cousins:
And the same group two years ago (April 2011). Nick (almost 7), Gracie (almost 5), Aubrey (almost 3), and Owen (just turned 2). Owen outweighs Aubrey by at least 12# and is about 5# less than the 5yo.
An attempt at a family photo:
Timmy did the grilling!
With Aunt Lori:
And Gramma Jean:
The whole family (minus Greg, Aunt Sue, and Uncle Marv…plus friends Chris and Pete):
Katie in a fancy dress… Lisa brought a few bins of 3T clothes for me to sort through for Katie—a bunch of which were winter clothes and fancy dresses (which we don’t need) but this dress was SO cute I had to put her in it just for a few pictures. She loved it!
Owen had SOOO much fun he didn’t want to leave, but we had to drive back to Grayling… The big test was to see how the kids did sleeping in the car and being taken directly into bed…which they both passed with flying colors!
Our new family portrait!
So back in February, a friend of ours posted about this really cool family portrait he had commissioned by KateWhitmoreArt on Etsy. Everyone RAVED over it and said they would love one…including me. And then a few months later, I finally said YES, I’M DOING IT! But it was going to be a pre-deployment surprise for Tom.
I worked with her for about six weeks before we had a final product—sending ideas, evaluating sketches, changing details, etc.—and I managed to keep it a secret up until the very end, when I needed his input on something (though, honestly, I could have decided on my own—but you know how I am about surprises and the final reveal would only be a day or so away anyway).
And I have to say that for someone who doesn’t get choked up too easily…I think Tom was actually a bit choked up. 🙂
In it, you will notice all the small details of our family that I gave her to make it perfect…
- Owen driving his police car.
- Me taking a photo of Owen with my iPhone.
- A replica of our favorite Troy playground/park in the background.
- Tom wearing an MSU shirt.
- Katie wearing pink and grabbing my hair. The artist did the hair-grabbing thing on her own. I did NOT provide that detail.
- Owen is wearing blue.
- All pets are accounted for—and Charlie even has the nose dot.
- Owen’s drink is his actual cup.
- We have USMC Tervis tumblers. (I wasn’t expecting them to have a visible design, but I can tell they are the USMC one that I sent her the sample photo of.)
- Our exact diaper bag is under the table.
It turned out more perfect than I could have imagined. But, it did take a bit to get there. Here’s the first draft, when she was trying a Christmas theme (I told her we loved Christmas):
She sent it with this:
I thought it was a little too ‘out there’, possibly. I thought it would be cute to have you guys in the tree, surrounded by your ornaments and lights! I just felt it might be a little fun—the ornaments would have either icons/colors for your interests, the USMC, Cars, things like that, and something a little more unique than a standard portrait. Something you can’t get a photo of, you know? If you don’t feel this one, though, just let me know and I can take another crack at it!
So, while I did really like her unique take on us INSIDE a Christmas tree (I had told her we LOVED Christmas) I just wasn’t loving it enough…so I gave her the suggestion of a park or the ocean and sent a few more pics, after which she came up with this:
My thoughts were more YAY! but it wasn’t QUITE there yet. She said she didn’t do a slide (as I had suggested) because the spacing/sizing didn’t work out right. So to me it didn’t look like we were really at a park but more just having a picnic—which we haven’t really ever done. And I wasn’t sure about the kite as he’s never flown a kite so that’s just not him. I thought I might be over-thinking it but my online sounding board assured me I wasn’t…and that the artist DEFINITELY wanted clients to be happy. So I asked her to put Owen in his power wheels police car, have me taking a picture with my iPhone, have our actual sippy cup/Tervis tumblers on the table instead of a pitcher of lemonade, and change the picnic basket to the diaper bag (a long story, but it took trying/buying/returning about 15 bags before I settled on that one, so it’s kind of a running joke).
She was fine with all the changes and then sent this, which was IT.
Then came the color version and it was almost perfect. Bonus points if you can see what the last missing detail was.
Highlight this text to see what it was: The white S on Tom’s shirt.
So overall I’m absolutely and completely THRILLED. I’ve already ordered artwork for our walls (I had bought a Groupon ages ago unsure of what I would use it for…and I’m glad I saved it for this) and I’ll just say that I’m sure this will turn into Christmas presents… 🙂
MSU Game Day
Well, technically, a televised scrimmage. But it was MSU and it was TV so we all wore our green and white!
SNOW!!!
Who would have thought it would be freezing cold and snowing in North Carolina today? Of course, Owen was excited and wanted to go out and play in it!!
Making a snowball with daddy!
Mama says “Pictures, please!”
Back inside to find Katie and Grannie watching out the window…
Katie’s first snow!
The fam.
Annual Christmas Photo
It’s not too bad for a 10-minute process!! Maggie is the only one not cooperating—well, that and the flash, since I had it set for three-pics-at-a-time and my battery was dying. But it’s still a pretty good pic!
And then when we were done, Owen wanted to take some pictures. So he took this one! (Basically he just pressed the button and the camera did the rest—but he was still proud!)
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!
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!
