Let the Pros Do the Work!

We finally went and got Owen's 1 year pictures done...only 2 months late! But hey, he's still only 1. :) Here are a few of my favorites.

And we also took a couple of  family pictures.

We didn't order all them, but we have a ton, so anyone who wants one, PLEASE let me know. We want to get rid of them!

Owen Loves....

....to dance!





....to ride his tractor!

It's really cute to watch him ride around on this. The best part: he can do it all on his own! I don't have to help him on, he walks around on his own, and knows how to turn it and back up. He also has learned to use it has a step stool, which is no good, because he gets into things he shouldn't, and it tips pretty easily. Little stinker!







....to ride his bike!


He ABSOLUTELY LOVES this bike but, unlike the tractor, he can't do it himself. It's hard to get onto and off of (he's taken many spills on it already), it's a little too tall for him to be able to walk with it, he can't steer it or pedal himself....YET! I expect all of that to come way too soon! But he loves to have Mommy or Daddy push him all around the house on it, laughing the whole time. He knows to put his hands on the handles and his feet on the peddles, though (even though he's not really doing either in the picture). 






....to take baths!

 His favorite part of the day is bath time. No matter what he is doing, when I ask, "Do you want to take a bath?", he will drop everything and run to the bathroom. When we get in there, I can't get the tub ready or his clothes off fast enough. Also, he is starting to get pretty good at helping me get his clothes off (which is not always a good thing), so I get his socks off over his heel and he will pull them off and throw them on the floor, and I pull his pants down over his butt and he will sit down on the floor and pull them the rest of the way off. It's really cute! When he's naked, he tries to climb in the tub himself, he has has accomplished one time when there was no water in there, but I don't let him climb in there himself. He goes head first.




....to give kisses, even if it's just a picture of Daddy!


Ryan was out of town for a week to go to Arizona, and Owen really missed him! He will give real people kisses too, but he's pretty stingy about them. It's awesome to get one, though!


....to play basketball!

Ryan got this Nerf basketball hoop for himself and hung it on the door, but the ball quickly turned into Owen's go-to toy, so we move the hoop to the stove. If he's cranky or getting into things he shouldn't, I distract him by asking, "Where's your ball?" He is a little smarty-pants, and I think he understands 90% of the things I say to him, maybe more. So anyway, then he looks around for it and if he doesn't see it he babbles something that sounds like, "Ayazah?" It's like Owen-speak for a cross between, "I don't know" and "Where is it?" He loves to throw the ball and put it in the hoop.

We are really starting to think Owen will be left handed, or maybe even ambidextrous. In the picture, he is using his right hand, but a lot of the time he throws and eats with his left. So who knows, but I think it would be cool if he was ambidextrous - that would be really useful for sports!


....to play in his tent!

He got this tent for Christmas from Grandma Angie and Grandpa Dan, and he loves going crazy in it. If he's cranky, this is one of my go-tos. I love it because it folds up flat and he loves to watch it pop open :)

(and being NAKED!)

....and remotes!

 He's learned the difference between phones and remotes. He knows to hold phones up to his ear and talk into them, and he know to point remotes at the TV and push buttons. Smarty pants!

Owen hates....

anything that makes him sit still, except for eating. But try to change his diaper (even if he hits the front of it to tell you it's poopy), change his clothes, put on his coat, or put him in the car seat? FORGET IT! He's just too busy and active for stuff like that! :) 


He's actually still pretty good about car rides, and he's an all around good, happy little guy, but he's strong, and puts up a good fight!

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.

Happy Birthday!

Birthday Boy!

 Today was Owen's first birthday!! It's crazy how fast this year went. All day I was thinking about the day he was born, and how much different my life is now than it was before he arrived. The only thing I would change about my life if I could, would be to have the grandparents closer!!!! :)

Someone asked me if the fact that he is a year made me happy or sad, and I told her it made me feel both. I keep thinking that I want him to stay the way he is right now, but then he keeps growing and learning and I keep changing my mind, that he keeps getting better with age!

Tree hunting

It's been awhile since I have posted, and we have been very busy since then. We went to my brother and sister-in-laws on Thanksgiving and had awesome food. I love Thanksgiving food! Then my birthday was the Saturday after Thanksgiving, and we went to Ryan's mom's to celebrate our niece's birthday (the same day as mine!) and we went to a tree farm to get some Christmas trees for Ryan's mom and uncles. It was a lot of fun, and Owen cracked me up. It was one of the first times that Owen wore his winter coat, and he could barely move his arms in it, which made it hard for him to walk. A couple of times he fell down and instead of trying to get back up, he gave up and just laid on the ground. He wasn't upset about it ever, just laid there, all calm.

Great-Grandma's birthday

The next weekend was my grandma's 80th birthday party. Owen got to meet a lot of new people at the party and was dressed to impress ;) We are very lucky to have generous friends and family members that give us hand-me-downs for Owen, and we always get some really cute stuff. I really liked his party outfit -- very handsome! My grandma was nice enough to share a few of her balloons with Owen, so he was very occupied at the party, and we took a few home that he played with for days. He LOVED them!


Last weekend we decided to go back to Elkader, just for the heck of it, but we had to leave pretty early on Saturday because a blizzard was coming. We made it back ok, but it's been very white around here since then. Luckily, the weather is looking good for this weekend, because we are celebrating the Big 01 for Owen in Dubuque with the grandparents, some aunts, uncles and cousins. It's too bad that his birthday is so close to Christmas, because we want to keep his birthday seperate from all the Christmas stuff, but it's hard for some of my family to get back this way two weekend in a row. So we will have to do some more birthday celebrating at Christmas, too. Oh well, I'm sure Owen won't mind!

HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY, OWEN! WE LOVE YOU SO MUCH!

Re-read about the day Owen was born here.

Peek-a-boo

Owen loves to play peek-a-boo!

My camera is fixed!

Yay! My camera is finally fixed, and we are both so happy!

I took a million pictures of him when I got home tonight, but they are all pretty much the same because all he wanted to do was play with the laptop. I have a little tech-y on my hands!

Here he's doing double time with my cell phone and the laptop!

He really does love anything electronic. He's constantly playing with my phone, the remote, the laptop, the stereo, the DVD player or anything else with buttons. He's been banned from playing with the camera and the video camera, though! :) A few weeks ago, he started putting the phone up to his ear, which I thought was pretty cool, but a couple of nights ago, he put it up to his ear and said, "Ahroh!" THAT WAS REALLY COOL! I don't think it was a fluke, either, he's a smarty-pants!

I can't believe he is already 11 months! He's not my little baby anymore! :( I am excited for him to be off formula and to be in a front-facing car seat, though! One more month!

He's still as active as ever, and has moved up to running around instead of just walking. What a crazy little monkey!