Owen is 3 months old!!

Oh Owen! What can I say??? You are so much fun, and so adorable, and so full of personality for someone so small! I cannot believe how much he has changed. He is no longer a little sleeping bundle. No no. He is so active and aware of everything around him. And his most favorite thing to do? EAT!!! and don't even think about interupting him or you will get an earfull. :) Its why he is growing so fast and changing so much that I feel I cannot keep up with pictures and blogging. :)

Owen LOVES LOVES LOVES the mobile above his crib. He kicks and coos and reaches with his arms. Its quite entertaining to watch. Fussy? Put him under the mobile! He is just mesmorized by it and I think its great! I can put him down for 20 minutes and put in a load of laundry and he will be in there totally entertained. :)

Owen has figured out how to stand supported and he LOVES it! I am afraid this love of being upright is a prelude to walking early. :) He makes this funny little face, and I imagine him thinking, " Look at me! I am doing it! I am so good at this!" Its pretty funny. Along with the smiles. Too darn cute.

Our life saver is the swing. He is not a fussy baby really, but more so than Emma was. He's generally a happy boy, but he gets to the point sometimes that he is tired and needs to sleep, but just refuses to. His eyes are glued open and he thinks he will miss something. The swing takes care of it 99% of the time. Out like a light. :) This is great at 3am when he decides hey, maybe I should stay awake? lol. Mom says, No please. :)

Owen does NOT like tummy time. Emma hated it too. As soon as you put him down he is fighting it. But I still put him on his tummy several times a day for just a few minutes. Helps build character (oh and those muscles too. lol).

At Owen's last checkup he weighed 11 pounds and 13 ounces. Just shy of the 12 pound mark, but by now he is at least 12. Its been a few weeks since then. He is not a huge baby, but he is catching up. A few other things...He loves to be played with, especially holding his hands or feet. He is starting to realize Emma is someone to pay attention to. He watches her when she is in sight. He wants Mommy to hold him and cuddle pretty much 100% of his waking time (thank heavens for the mobile and swing!). His favorite time to give smiles is 6am(not my favorite time. hahaha). He does not like bath time for some reason. Emma always loved it, but he cries as soon as his feet hit the water. He eventually calms down and will tolerate it for a bit. Then he is done and cries again. He is no longer sleeping in the bassinet in my room. He has graduated to his own crib. Yay! He is just growing and learning so much! Its amazing how much difference a few months makes. Can someone invent a way to slow down time? I wan to hang on a little longer please. :)

Siblings

Emma and Owen looked so much alike the day they were born. When they handed me Owen, one of my first thoughts was how much he looked like Emma when she was so new. Not only that, but once they weighed and measured, Owen was only an ounce more in weight and the same length. So very similar. (Labor was 100% different for each though. lol.) And as I look through pictures I can see how much they really do look alike. Especially at the similar stages in age. BUT as he grows I see how very individual they are. Owen is a handsome boy and Emma a dainty girl. No one has ever confused their genders. There is so much that I can see that is their very own. The above photos are of Emma at 1 month and Owen the day he was born. ( I tried looking for earlier pics of Emma, but I only have them in print, not on my computer. ) Emma is very feminine even now and my boy is all boy! Emma, until she was 3yrs old, always measured around the 10th percentile on the growth chart. Just dainty and girly. But Owen loves to eat and he went from being in the 10th percentile at birth to the 25th percentile by 2 months. Not a huge baby by comparison, but he has doubled in size and has these great chunky thighs. :) And as he grows he changes and the similarities fade as he becomes his own. So similar and yet so different. I love to watch them grow! ;) (just wish it was slower. haha)

Memorial Day

It was a pretty nice day for Memorial Day. It was 80 degrees, sunny, and perfect for a day at the pool and a bbq. We took emma to Desert Breeze Pool. Owen came along for the ride. :) He slept half the time in his carrier, but when he woke up we put him in his little suit and got his feet wet. He didnt like that it was colder than he was used to, but once acclimated to the temp he was relaxed. He was so cute in his little outfit! Emma is a little fish! She enjoyed the shallow water and all the other kids. And no one had sun burns. :)

In a far away city, Phil was watching a parade and a flag ceremony. My mom's husband is a Vietnam Vet and he is very active in his community. Phil got the VIP treatment and had a good time celebrating in style. :) We miss him, but he will be here this coming weekend. Yay!

Mother's Day

Sometimes it is just so surreal to me that I have two beautiful children. I am so grateful that I have been blessed to be a mother. Its so not easy, but it the most fulfilling experience that I will ever undertake. I am so lucky to have such a good husband and such happy children to call my own. Emma is just so loving, eager to please, and so imaginative. I love hearing her tell me stories and to listen to her playing when she doesnt know I am eavesdropping. lol. She is such the helper and just loves her new job of big sister. She wants to be everyone's friend and she is not shy in any way. She finds people just about anywhere to chat up. This weekend it was the Flight attendant at the door while we waited for our late plane. :) She has charm and charisma! I adore her so very much. I love you Emma! And Owen is such a character and he is only 8 weeks old! He decided the week of mother's day to start smiling for me! I LOVE it. He is so darn cute. He is demanding when it comes to eating and we joke its a dictatorship when its time to eat. Must be a boy thing. lol. He is such a good baby though. Generally happy and loves to be loved. :) And he is such a huge blessing. I love you Owen!

As you can see from the previous post, we are getting ready to move to Spokane at the end of the summer. We drove Phil up last weekend, spent the week with him, and at the end of the week, we drove down to Quincy to have Mother's Day with Grandma Pammy. The weather was weird so no fun pics outside, but we did manage a few. We got up on Sunday morning and went to Grandma's ward which does sacrament last so I felt all turned around. lol. In sacrament the primary sang mother's day songs and the talks were all about mother's day. Two of the men that spoke gave hilarious talks about their mothers and their childhood. At the end, the moms were given chocolate! So much better than a carnation. lol! We went home and had lunch and relaxed. We made my version of stuffed parmesan chicken for dinner. We exchanged a few gifts, and had vanilla ice cream with raspberry compote or chocolate chips for dessert. It was a very nice low key Mother's Day. It was really nice to spend it with my Mom. The last few years were just conversations over the phone and cards in the mail. It's nice to spend time and appreciate eachother. Monday was time to head home. My mom, even though its a tedious drive(she wrecked her car last time), took Emma, Owen and I to the Pasco airport and we flew home. (And Allegiant air is a whole different story! lol.) Happy Mother's Day to all those Mother's in my life! I hope your day was spoiled. ;)

Trip to Spokane

For those of you who don't know, Phil has accepted a job offer in Spokane,WA. We drove him up on May 1st and spent the week exploring the city. Washington is a beautiful state. I have now been on the west, central, and eastern areas and they are all completely different, but all very scenic and green. It took us 2 days to drive. We stopped Sunday night in Logan, UT and visited the Tribetts. I haven't seen them in a few years and it was really nice to visit. Emma is very social and jumped right into playing and visiting with them. We saw Great Grandma Tribett and met Deegan and Tayson for the first time. So cute! Too short a visit though. On Monday we drove the rest of the way. It was the longer end of the drive, but Emma was so good. Owen slept most of the drive except when hunger would wake him up. He is an eating machine! lol. A funny side note was that Owen had a huge blowout and we had to stop and clean him up, but it took forever because it was all over! Gross. lol We got to Spokane in good time and got into our hotel room and relaxed before bed. The next day we all got up and took a look around Spokane. We drove around to different areas and got a sense of the layout and where things were. On Wednesday Phil had his first day which went well. He took us over on his lunch and showed us the office and we met a few people. Then I took the car and took Emma and Owen around while the weather was nice. There is a large river that runs thru Spokane and I took Emma to this park right on the river downtown. There is a large Red Flyer Wagon slide that Phil had told Emma about. So I took her over to play. We walked around and saw where the river drops and creates a waterfall. Emma thought the whole thing was great. Its all very pretty. Then today was a relaxing day. We went for a 3 mile walk around this trail along the river. There are these rodents that are a cross between squirels and groundhogs. They are all along the riverbank and Emma fed them Chex mix. I think this was her favorite thing! She even took Phil out to see them. They were pretty funny and took the food right out of Emma's hand. She thought that was great! She even ran out of chex mix. lol. We are going to go see the temple this evening and then tomorrow after Phil gets off we are driving to Quincy to see Grandma for Mother's Day. Emma has been having a ball! She understands we are moving here, but I think she thinks we will be living in the hotel. haha! Overall we are having a good time and enjoying the change in scenery. :)

Owen's 1 month old!

Owen turned one month old on April 15th. I can't believe how time flies! We are all having so much fun with him. He is so tiny, but so strong. He tries to hold his head up and look around or tries to push up with his legs. He likes to think he can sit up too. Of course he can't yet, but he is determined to try. He has the cutest smile, although its mostly in his sleep. He loves to eat! He gained 3 pounds in 6 weeks. If he is sleeping and wakes up hungry he doesn't wait to let you know. He immediatly cries as loud as he can to declare its meal time. He isn't exactly a binki baby but he will take one when fussy. Emma never did accept them. lol. He is getting rounder and I can tell how he has grown. And its so fun to put him in cute baby boy clothes! I am enjoying that, while he has grown, he is still so small. :)

Emma just loves Owen to death. Always wanting to hold him or be a helper. She tells me all the time that she loves him and she loves to give him kisses. She is such a trooper through this change. She was concerned in the beginning, especially when I was in the hospital, and then about his belly button which was funny. At first when he cried she'd put her hands over her ears and ask why he was crying. Now its just second nature and as soon as he fusses she will bring the binki out. We have been stopped a few times in places like Smiths or Walmart and people stop to ask Emma if she is the big sister. Of course she proudly answers "Yes!" She asks all the time if "when he gets bigger, can he play games?" She is so excited to have a brother and we are so excited for her!

So far so good. Mommy doesn't get much sleep. I usually get thru a 24 hour period on about 4 hours sometimes 5 hours of sleep as the longest stretch. Daddy works so we try not to disturb him on those days. We have had all our doctor appts and everyone is healthy and doing great. What more could we ask? Healthy, happy, and safe. :) We are truly lucky and blessed!

Owen's Baby Blessing

Easter was Owen's baby blessing and it went very nicely. Phil did a great job! All our family that could attend came and we took up two rows at church. lol. Made it a full sacrament! Owen was very cute in his little white outfit, but he is still so tiny that he swam in it. We were also afraid that as babies do, he would have a blowout in his white outfit. haha! Would figure right? But all went well and no ruined outfits. Our little family wore blue for Easter and we all had white accents to match little man. It really was a beautiful Easter Sunday. A bit windy, but very pretty(parks were full!). After the blessing we went to the Flemings for an Easter/Blessing lunch. We had sandwhiches, and potatoe salad, deviled eggs, bbq baked beans, and more. They went all out! Brenda got this adorable cake too. We all visited and had a great time. Wade told us about this dog he had when he was a kid. Some funny stories came out! Love learning about family. We had a very good time and it is an Easter we will all remember! (and now I have no excuse to foget what date Owen was blessed. lol!)