Merry Christmas!

Hey- I'm only a month behind!

This year - 1 year, 10 days old

First Christmas - 9 days old

Hands down, this Christmas was my favorite Christmas that I can remember, and it's all because of Owen. I was SO excited to see how he would react to all his presents and if he would open them on his own or not. Also, I am always excited to hang out with family and, of course, show of my handsome little man! This Christmas was very busy, and is the first one in a few years that we were able to get all of our Christmases done in one weekend.

Christmas with Ryan's side


On Christmas Eve, Ryan, Owen, and I packed up and headed down to Muscatine to celebrate with Ryan's side of the family. That night was just hanging out with his mom, stepdad, sister, nieces and uncle at his mom's. We had a blast. There was food, drinks, laughing and lots of DANCING! Owen has liked to dance for a while now, but it was always in short bursts and was mostly just bobbing his head around. That night was like a dance lesson for him. Now he shakes his whole body and stomps his feet and really gets into it. More about that later.

Owen with Dad at Grandma Angie's

We spent the night at his aunt and uncles house, and woke up bright and early on Christmas morning so they and their two kids could open presents. It was fun to watch them because their kids are 2 and 5 and really get into it. After that, we headed back to Ryan's mom's and opened presents. Owen got a pop-up tent, a bike, a toy, an activity table and some clothes, and Ryan and I both got Vikings jackets, and I got a bracelet. There might be things I'm forgetting, too!

Then it was time to head over to Ryan's Grandma's house, where all the family was gathering. Lots of food, drinks and laughing there, too! We opened presents in the early afternoon - Owen got a stocking cap, a little puppy that walks and swims (which it turns out, he's pretty terrified of!!) clothes, and I can't remember what else! Ryan and I each got a North Face sweater, and I also got a charm for my bracelet. After we got our loot, it was time to head to Elkader!

Christmas with my side


When we got to Elkader, it was time to eat, and then more presents! Ryan and I had to frantically do some AWFUL last minute wrapping with whatever wrapping paper we could find before we took our family picture.

Then it was on to open! My nephew Ian was given the job of handing out the presents, which he did an excellent job at! :) Owen (and everyone else!) got lots of great stuff: a cell phone (which he grabbed out of my hands as soon as I opened it), books (some in Spanish! Yay!) a barn with animals and a farmer, a See-n-Say, an activity table (number 2), and some stuff in his stocking. He wasn't into opening the presents by himself, or maybe I just didn't give him enough time, so I opened them for him. I'm sure next year I'll have to be holding him back! He was actually more into playing with stuff I got in my stocking than opening presents!

I got a new pea coat, scarf, and gloves, and Ryan got an array of Vikings stuff! He joked that since the Vikings weren't good this year, he should switch teams, but now he can't because he got A LOT of Vikings stuff for Christmas! 

The next day was Christmas at my Grandma's with extended family. As always, we had delicious food, played fun games, and then it was present time. Owen got a tractor with a farmer and animals that makes noise. He loves to push the noise buttons on it and throw the animals and farmer around. He spent most of the day playing with a balloon my grandma had left over from her birthday party.

All in all, we had a really good weekend with family. We got the pop-up tent out when we were at my parents' house, which took 5 people and about 20 minutes to try to figure out how to fold it back up, but we finally got it! We were pretty packed into our car on the way home - lots of new stuff, plus our luggage, our dogs and ourselves! It was nice to get back home and get most of Owen's presents out of their packages and set up. Now if we only had more room in our house!

Owen's First Birthday Party

Eager to open presents!

For Owen's birthday party, we met up with some family at the Grand Harbor Resort in Dubuque. My parents came, as well as Ryan's mom, stepdad, sister, nieces, uncles, aunt and a few cousins. Needless to say, there were 6 kids 5 and under there, so thank goodness we picked the place for its water park! The water park is very kid friendly, and there is one slide that is completely dark and fast that was really fun for the adults. We took Owen swimming in a regular pool one time, and he's been in a couple of baby pools, but he was never a big fan. On the other hand, he LOVES to take baths, so we were curious to see how he would react to the baby pool. His first reaction: Still not a fan. The water in the baby pool was a little colder than I expected, and I think that is the problem for him, because I took him over to the hot tub (which I was thinking might be too hot, but it really wasn't) and he was fine in there. Eventually, we went back to the baby pool, and I set him down and walked away a little bit. He wasn't too happy, but I just kept backing away from him when he would try to walk to me, and eventually, he figured out that the pool is fun! He started walking around, splashing, and even crawled through the really shallow end. There were a couple of times that he fell while walking and dunked himself, which was a little scary to me, and I thought he would have a fit, but it didn't really seem to bother him very much. There was even a little kid slide that I took him down a few times, and he really liked that. I was very happy that he had a good time, and I think everyone else did too.

After the water park, it was time for some pizza and snacks, and then on to the presents! The little kids all gathered around, of course, but they were pretty good about not taking over the presents. Here are just a few pictures showing what he got:

A rocking chair with his name on it from Grandma Angie and Grandpa Dan,

The Night Before Christmas with Grandma Diane and Grandpa Dan's voice recorded reading it,

blocks and Weeble Wobbles from Great-Grandma Nancy,

and a cell phone in the shape of a dump truck from Great-Grandma Kuehl (which was the winner for the night).

Plus, he got bath toys, pjs, a football shaped pillow with a sleeping bag inside, a new car seat, and I can't even remember what else. He got a lot of great stuff, though!

After presents, it was time for cake. He got his own small cake, and instead of a candle on top, there was a Frosty the Snowman topper that plays music. He was a little hesitant about the cake at first, but eventually, he started in on it. I thought he'd get a lot messier than he did. 

 

Everyone else enjoyed a football cupcake-cake (a cake made from a bunch of cupcakes) and we hung out for a while and the kids played with Owen's new toys, while he was pretty occupied with the balloons my parents brought and his new cell phone.

The next morning we headed back down to the water park for about an hour before packing our car up to the brim with new stuff, grabbing some food at Wendy's with Ryan's family, and heading home.