Meeting Grandpa!

While in Vermont, Owen was able to finally meet his Grandpa! It has been a long (almost) 12 months, but Grandma and Grandpa made the 3 hour trip to see Owen just a few days before Christmas. Owen had not seen Grandma since he was 7 weeks old, and had never before met Grandpa. It was a very exciting day! We spent most of the time helping Owen open gifts from Grandma and Grandpa, as he had lots! There are a lot of gifts to open when your birthday is right around the holidays!

We were so happy that Owen could see them, and have made sure to show him pictures of their visit since returning to NC. Hopefully we won't go so long between visits next time! Enjoy our pictures!...

Vermont Christmas

We're back from our Christmas in Vermont! We had such a great time with family and friends, and enjoyed every minute of the cold and snow. In the short time we were there, we fit in quite a bit! We played in the snow, went to dinner on Church Street, celebrated Owen's upcoming birthday, saw tons of family and friends, AND had Christmas! It was a busy week! Here are just a few of our pictures...

Owen's first time playing in the snow. We went sledding with Poppy!

We celebrated Owen's birthday with a cake made by his Mimi and Mrs. Jodoin. It was so nice catching up with all of our friends and family who could make it to the party!

Macy Rae did such a great job sharing her toys with Owen. He really loved her Tickle Me Elmo!

Mommy and Owen opening a gift from Nana on Christmas morning.

Owen snuggling with his Pops on Christmas day.

An Early NC Christmas

We celebrated our Christmas a little early this year. 2 weeks early to be exact. We'll be heading to VT for the real thing, so we figured we'd get it done early so we could get the house back in order before we head out next week. We had a great time watching Owen open his gifts and get excited about all of his new books and toys. Here are some pics from the morning...

Owen in front of all of the presents!

Loving his music table from Mimi and Poppy

Daddy gets one too!

Opening the best Crate and Barrel sheet set! I got the matching comforter too!

Cookies For Santa

This past Friday night, we decorated some sugar cookies we had baked earlier in the week. We had a great time introducing Owen to this Christmas tradition. We put him in charge of the sprinkles, while Ben and I took turns icing the cookies. He had so much fun shaking them.

We were having our Christmas the next morning (We'll be in Vermont for the real thing!), so we got them all ready and out for Santa. Here are a few pics we took!...

Preparing for a White Christmas!

We are so excited to be heading to Vermont for Christmas this year! It will be our first Christmas there since we moved to North Carolina in 2006! It's been snowing pretty hard there lately, so we're fairly certain our vacation will be filled with sledding, snowballs, and shoveling. We can't wait!

I took a day off to spend with Owen on Monday and spoiled him rotten at the mall. We found these adorable boots that we just had to buy. They say "Vermont" all over them :-) He's been so excited about them, so today he is breaking them in. He loves to click them on the floor and hear the "tap tap" sound. Another week and a half and we'll be on our way- boots and all. And Owen will be ready to fit right in with his Poppy and Uncle Aaron!!

Santa Train

This past Sunday, we took Owen to Bonsal NC to ride on the Santa Train. The entire train is open (no windows), however we chose to ride in the caboose, which is closed off. It was 35 degrees and we didn't want Owen to freeze! Owen liked riding on the train and looking out the window. He didn't really seem to care much about Santa, but did sit on his lap for a quick picture....

11 Months!

Our baby boy turned 11 months yesterday! Only one month left until he is a year old! We can't believe it!

Thanksgiving Recap

We had a great couple of days off together. We did TONS of shopping (both online and at the stores) and are now ready for Christmas! When not shopping, we made sure to do plenty of relaxing... and playing!

The three of us spent Thanksgiving day lounging and cooking together. We did lots of block building and book reading too. Owen has recently begun to attempt to build with his blocks instead of always just knocking them over. It's neat to see his mind working, trying to figure out how to put the blocks on top of one another. Sometimes he get's it, but usually he ends up knocking everything down anyway. He's also shown a real interest in books lately too. His favorites are Good Night Moon and Good Night Vermont. We read them about 6 times each per day (no exaggerations) and Mommy and Daddy can both recite them without looking at the pages. We are looking forward to Christmas when Santa hopefully brings him some new ones to add to our pile.

Black Friday has always been a day of shopping for me. In the last few years, Ben had gotten into it too, but we had to figure out a new routine this year. I woke up at 4 am and headed out the door to join the crowds at Target and Kohl's. I was back before 7 am, and found Owen and Ben still sleeping! As quiet as I could, I made them breakfast and put my goodies away. It was such a great way to spend the morning; shopping and surprising my two favorite boys with a hot breakfast! We relaxed and played for most of the day, but did go out for round 2 of shopping later in the afternoon.

Here are some pictures from the weekend:

Owen enjoying his first Thanksgiving dinner

Our Thanksgiving weekend wouldn't be complete without a walk to the playground.

Peek-a-boo Painting

Smarty Pants

Feels Like Spring... in November!

It was a beautiful day today! 70 degrees on the 14th of November! We took advantage of the weather (and the fact that Owen refused to take his afternoon nap) and took a walk to the playground. Owen really loves the swings. He could hang out there all day. They playground is perched in the center of our community, so there is a lot of activity. He can watch all the kids play, and of course, point to each and every airplane that goes overhead.... and there are many! Today we not only spent time on the swings, but we also brought Owen over to the slide and other ride on toys. Watching him play on the toys made us realize how big he has gotten in the last 10 months. Less than 2 months til our baby is a year old!!

Here are our pics from today's adventure!

Owen's Great Aunt Diane gave him a book months before his arrival. Good Night Moon is now his favorite book (I swear we read it about 5 times a day). While at the playground, Owen spotted the moon and pointed it out to Daddy.

Owen and Daddy took a trip down the slide!

Owen loved this car, which sits on a single spring. It teeters side to side, and back and forth. Hold on tight!

Photo of the Day

Photo of the Day

Trick or Treat! Owen is the Lovable Lion! We had a fun Halloween, with a baby costume party at Owen's friend, Emma Grace's, house this afternoon. Four cute babies all dressed up- nothing could be cuter!

Photo of the Day

My former preschool student, Ben, was diagnosed with Type one diabetes at the age of 3. Today, I walked with a great team, "Ben's Superhero Squad," to raise money for juvenile diabetes in the JDRF Walk in Raleigh. If you would like to donate, click the following link: http://walk.jdrf.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=extranet.personalpage&confirmid=87876870&sr=facebook.

While I was out raising money for this great cause, Owen got to spend some time with Daddy. They went for a walk, played in the tupperware cabinet, built blocks, and pushed trucks around. Here's a pic Daddy took while they ate lunch. Owen tends to get very happy when he eats :-)

Photo(s) of the Day

We spent some time enjoying the cool weather this morning. Brought a blanket and some toys out back and watched the planes go overhead. I took some cute pituress of Owen and couldn't pick just one to share. So here are your photos of the day...

Owen is Learning His Colors!

Owen has had a strong interest in balls over the last few weeks. Since we play with them often, we decided to add to the difficulty of rolling and going after them. We have 4- pink, orange, purple, and blue. Over the past 2 weeks, we have named the color of the ball we are playing with and asked Owen if he could get a certain color for us. If he got the color correct, we cheered for him. Our color game is paying off. Owen is learning his colors!

Photo of the Day

Leaf Paintings

Owen's cousin, Macy, was kind enough to send us a package of leaves straight from her back yard in Vermont! Here's what we decided to do with them!...

Photo of the Day

Owen and his friend, Lily enjoyed watching the landscapers mow the grass this morning! I love how they are both leaning to the right in this picture. The mower had just turned the corner...

Photo of the Day

We take pictures of Owen nearly everyday. We even joke that he is the most photographed child ever... In the last 10 months we've taken over 4,000 photos!! Oh boy.

So how about a photo of the day? Think we can do it? Let's see! Here's one from today....



Check back tomorrow!

Better Videos Are Here!

After 10 months, our wait has come to an end! iLife 11 (for the Mac) came out this week and we jumped on the opportunity to buy it. In my post about videos last week, I mentioned that we had lots of videos of Owen stuck on our camera because we didn't have the software to get them off. So last night, we put iLife to the test and put all 95 (yes, 95) videos onto the computer. It was so nice finally being able to watch those videos from when Owen was first born!

Well, we played around with it this morning. Owen was more than willing to show his stuff to the camera, so here it is. Our smart boy in action....

Autumn Air

Owen has been enjoying the fall weather the last few weeks. One of his favorite things to do during the day is head outside with a blanket and a bucket of toys. We sit out back for about an hour a day (30 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes in the afternoon), playing, and watching the cars and airplanes go by. And if we time it just right, we get to watch the school bus! Owen LOVES the school bus!!

If we are inside the house and we ask, "Owen, Where is the school bus?," he crawls up to the back window to peer out. We are pretty sure we have the smartest baby around!

Anyway, here are some pictures of Owen outside on this beautiful October day!

All Smiles

Pumpkin Carving!

We carved our pumpkins this past Sunday! Owen really loved "helping" and couldn't wait to get his hands in the mess! Here are our pics!