Hil-arious!

I just had a major uncontrollable laugh attack (ask my husband) when I saw this picture on Pinterest. I sent it to my twin sister and she thought it was hilarious too. I'm the one on the left, I seriously used to try and convince my twin that she was adopted! Why I thought that was necessary or funny when I was a kid, I'm not sure, but this is just cracking me up!

Does anyone else find this hilarious or is it just me since I can relate?

Train Table

Owen's birthday is on December 24th but we're celebrating today with our family that lives nearby. We stayed up very late last night putting together his birthday present, a train table. I think I may be more excited for him to see it than he will be when he sees it. I can't wait for this afternoon when the big reveal happens! For now it's hiding underneath a big sheet with many distractions planned throughout the morning.

Thirty

Today I am 30 weeks and 1 day pregnant. When I hit 30 weeks with Owen things kind of felt "downhill" until the baby arrived. I'm feeling a little panicked tonight. We're not ready for baby girl to arrive, not one bit. We have no clothes or diapers for her, we've hardly talked about names, I don't really know where she's going to sleep, I really don't remember how to nurse (only nursed Owen for 5 weeks), I can't remember the ins and outs of my E.A.S.Y. routine I loved so much thanks to Baby Whisperer, I don't even remember how long and how often a newborn should eat, and I'm not really sure how a mom takes care of a 2 year old and a baby at the same time. A couple nights ago I was feeling so excited to meet Baby Girl and hold her. Tonight I'm thinking she can stay inside as long as she wants.

Woot-Ease

"Woot-Ease". This is how Owen says "Whoopsies", and he says it a lot. It's funny how when your kids start talking you realize certain words you use without realizing it. "Whoopsies" is one of those words for me. It cracks me up every time Owen says "woot-ease". It's the cutest thing I've ever heard.

Speaking of, Owen is talking so much these days! All of a sudden he's putting (2 year old) sentences together all over the place. I love the little conversations we have together. We still talk about "Gigi's Bus" (Clayton, his cousin, getting on his kindergarten bus) and "Daddy gawk" (Daddy went to work) all. day. long. Seriously, those are two topics Owen never gets tired of.

Also, just in the last couple weeks he identifying the colors red, green, blue, yellow, and brown. It's taken me by surprise! Maybe it's normal timing for kids to be picking up on colors, I don't really know, but he really is pretty accurate with these 5 colors and I'm feeling pretty impressed.

I love how Owen "counts" lately. "One, Two, One, Two, One, Two..." as he point with his pointer finger to whatever he's counting. He loves lining his cars up and counting them. There's lots, but he repeats his "One, Two" over and over. It's pretty cute.

Gingerbread Houses

We hosted some gingerbread house decorating this weekend. For the last two years we went to the Brimhalls (friends from WA) for gingerbread houses. I always had so much fun I really wanted to carry the tradition on here in MN. It was a really fun evening with our friends enjoying a holiday evening decorating our houses. I wish I had taken a "before" picture of the houses because I made all of them and if I do say so myself, I think they turned out pretty cute. Turns out it's a lot of work to put homemade gingerbread houses together, but I'm really happy I did it. Take a look at the final products.

Miranda and Steven. Please click on the picture to try and get the full effect of their "haunted house" style gingerbread house. It was pretty entertaining and impressive.
Rachel and Brandon's Target gingerbread house.
Dan and Jessica
Adam and Sarissa and cute Baby Gavin
Jared and Erin
Alisa and Ryan

Slumber Party!

a few weeks ago owen's best buddy, corbin, stayed over night with us. i love watching these two together, they have so much fun together! these boys enjoyed a little popcorn and curious george before heading to bed.

lovin' my owie

owen has certainly reached toddlerhood. the whining and demanding has come with it. there are days he is pushing me and i'm not really sure what i'm supposed to do. even amongst those long hard days, it's amazing how much a momma can still love her little guy. i do love this little guy so much.

a few weeks ago we made a "race track" down the stairs. he had a good time with it for a couple days.

the swelling has begun. here's owen helping ryan massage my swollen feet. it was pretty cute. it turned into "this little piggy" which is what i think they were doing in this picture.
not a great picture, but here's owen propped up on the window sill at the library reading his books. our weekly library trip is something we both look forward to.
sound asleep. owen certainly takes after his mother's crazy sleeping habits.

Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

I can't believe it's December 1st! Where does the time go? It's starting to look a little bit like December around here. Here's some evidence: We had our first snow a couple weeks ago (it melted by the next day and has only snowed again once since. I have to admit, I thought living in MN we'd be covered in snow by now. At this point, even knowing we'll get dumped on eventually, I'm ready to have a good snowfall). Owen was pretty intrigued, but his hands quickly got so cold that he wasn't interested long. Now that we have the right snow gear I'm hoping he'll enjoy the snow a little more. But I thought he looked pretty cute in his pj's, coat, and boots.

We went Monday night to get a Christmas tree. It was fun. I am loving getting ready for Christmas with a toddler around. Owen certainly doesn't totally understand what Christmas is, but he's definitely showing interest in the decorations and Christmas talk. I love it! I now see why holidays are so fun with kids. By Tuesday night all Christmas decorations were up. I love some good Christmas lights, they make things feel so magical. (I love the picture of Owen checking out the underneath of the tree with Ryan. It was pretty adorable).




After we got our tree we came home to our homemade Starbucks Caramel Apple Cider. Mmm, I love this drink. Buying the Starbuck's syrup has made for one happy household. We've enjoyed ourselves many-a-Caramel Apple Ciders already!

Owen decided to join the month MOvember

actually, he's just loving our green smoothies we've been making lately

Thanksgiving Weekend

We had a fabulous Thanksgiving weekend! It all started Tuesday night when I picked up Amber from the airport and we headed south to Alissa's (Amber, Alissa, Liz, and I were BYU roommates). We spent Tuesday night and Wednesday together. It was so fun spending a quick day together. Wednesday night my cousin Kara and her family (Kevin and kiddos Mylee and Bennett) arrived. We loved having them stay with us all weekend! We did a lot of visiting, hanging out, they had a few of their own plans, and we had a few plans together. Thursday Ryan and Kevin played in a Turkey Bowl while Kara and I took the kids on a walk and baked our portion of Thanksgiving dinner. We went to Matt and Camie's house to join the Jensen family (Nan, Keith, Amber, and Taylor) and Amy and Andy's family for dinner. It was an amazing dinner with wonderful company. The babies took naps during dinner so Ryan and I had an especially nice Thanksgiving dinner. We ate a wonderful meal and enjoyed visiting for awhile before Owen joined us for the festivities.

Ryan got up bright and early before work Friday morning to join the black Friday shoppers at Cabela's to get us a generator. Kevin was gracious enough to stay home with the kids while Kara and I went shopping at a more normal hour. It was fun to do that together. Friday night we went downtown Minneapolis to see "A Day in the Life of an Elf". It was so cute! We loved seeing everything the elves do in preparation for Christmas. At the end we got to see Santa. We were curious to see how Owen would do given he did not like Santa last year. As you can see he wasn't so sure at first--I think that picture is so funny, his face and reaching describe exactly how he feels, but he settled in quickly and did great on Santa's lap. He also sent a letter to Santa. Afterward we took the McBrides to one of our favorite cafe's, Yum! I can't believe this picture of Owen and Mylee is the only one I got all weekend. Overall they had a lot of fun together and Owen loved palling around with her.






We made plans awhile ago to spend the Saturday after Thanksgiving at the Stansels. Kara and Kevin took off to the Mall of America for the day and joined us for dinner. Amy and I had great plans for a project we wanted to do. We worked on that while the boys watched football. Lucas and Lucy joined us for a little painting while the Owen and Jane took naps. It was a fun day!
I thoroughly enjoyed our holiday weekend and hated to see it come to an end. We have so many things to be thankful for, one of which is being able to have so much family nearby to spend the weekend with!