Old Man Sweaters!!!

Owen had a Christmas performance at church last night. So adorable!! We've spent many hours the last few days practicing the songs and the motions that go with them. I have a video of him rehearsing the songs and talking about how excited he was to sing them at church. Skip to the service... he was the only kid just standing there for the entire performance. No singing and no cute little dance moves. I think he has a little stage fright. But it was so cute!!! Our whole family was laughing the whole time because he was so cute and funny just standing there (exactly front and center of all the kids) and the only one doing absolutely nothing! He did sing the last song though. I'll post some of the video when I have time. These pictures were taken afterwards of the boys in there Christmas sweaters. I love that the hugs and kisses were all spontaneous!

I know I've been a little bit of an obsessive blogger lately. But you Grandmas better enjoy it now. I swear that after the holidays I'm giong to be on a hard-core job hunt. So, I figure I better get a bunch of posts in now.

Heisey Look-alike Meter

To all of you people that keep telling me how much my kids look like their dad: I now have used facial recognition software to prove that they look like me too (and even more so)!!

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebrities - Collage - Morph

Heisey Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Celebrity Collage - Family history

This is elf-tastic!

In case I forgot any of you on my email list... you've got to check this out:
http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1294945454

Look alikes?

I'm sure that everybody's sick of me doing three posts at a time, but I have some good news to share! Plus, I'm pretty sure that nobody else reads this anyway. At least, if nothing else, this blog is a form of therapy and entertainment for myself (not to mention job searching avoidance). Anyway, both of my kids slept at the same time during the daytime with me not holding either of them. This was a first! It only lasted 15 minutes, but it was glorious!

I've never thought my kids look alike at all. But then I discovered that I took the same pictures in the same outfit of the both of them. And I think they look more alike than I recall. Can you tell which is which? Okay, so the mohawk gives it away!

You may think it's funny... but it's snot!

Owen and Kierstyn had there first real sleepover this weekend! We were putting the kids to bed and Owen declared that he wanted to cuddle Kiki before night-night. So, we let them get in bed together. Kierstyn then asked Owen if he wanted to sleep with her. They both adorably pleaded with Colin and me to allow them to sleep together. We told them they could have 5 minutes and if they weren't asleep Owen would have to go to his bed. I was sure that they would never fall asleep... but I never heard a peep from them. It was so cute!! They fell asleep hugging eachother, and this picture is what they looked like a half hour later.

Unfortunately, Owen came into our room at 2am saying he needed a kleenex and has had a horrible head cold ever since! I hope you didn't catch it Kiki... but i'm afraid you probably did. So then, day 2 with the kids together did not go so well. Colin had to work ALL day, and on Sunday! But don't feel sorry for him... I was here with the THREE kids! Owen's nose was pouring like a faucet all day and at one point all three kids were screaming at the same time... the two big ones because they both "needed" the blue cup with dinner. It's the first time that the "naughty spot" was so full we had to invent a second one. At one point I almost was to the point of tears, and then realized that the situation was so ridiculous it was funny, and I instead called my mom to try to share the humor and all the noise. But the whole day was not so horrible... there were some moments when the kids were so sweet to eachother. We had a very manic day... one hour we'd be laughing on the floor together, and then we'd spend the next taking turns in time-out. It's crazy how one moment they can be sharing so nicely, and then the next screaming at eachother over a toy that neither of them wants. And they thought that if I was feeding Sutton, it was a free-for-all to jump on the beds and hit eachother!! I think they both behave a lot better when there is more than one adult around, and definitely when they are not sick. And now, I'm afraid that Sutton and I are getting sick again too. I'm so sorry if this post has turned into a pity party for myself... I'll try to be cheerier next time. I really do love my life... but if you catch me in the right moment I might trade both my kids for a massage and a bowl of ice cream!

Busy Bees

We've been so busy lately; I just realized we haven't spent a weekend at home since the beginning of November. And now we're exhausted!! We're really excited for the holidays... but I don't know how much we'll be able to relax this weekend either. We had a blast in California visiting my parents last week and we all went to Tucson for Aidan's graduation this past weekend. My brother and his girlfriend were going to California and we tagged along at the last minute. I'm pretty sure that after 4 days and a total of 12 hours in the car with Owen, we won't be invited on any more of Rory's vacations. Owen, the lucky duck, went to Disneyland for the 3rd or 4th time last week (reminder: he's only 3!). I guess that's what happens when you have Grandparents that like to spoil you that only live about 10 minutes from Disneyland. Plus, my Dad gets just as excited about going as any kid I've ever seen! The Christmas fireworks show is amazing.. gotta see 'em! I'll try to post some Disneyland pictures as soon as I get some from my mom.

These are some pictures of Owen at the Christmas party at my Dad's countryclub. He was so excited for his t-rex balloon... I couldn't believe how long he patiently waited in line to get it! He also got to see Santa Claus there; who, of course, drove up on a holiday golf cart! Owen says that is what he drives when there's no snow for his sleigh.

Here are some pictures of Sutton just because he's SO cute! The first one is how he looks before I take the first picture, the second one is the face he always makes after the picture flash (I think it's very Zoolander "blue steel"!).

Is it Christmas yet?

Today was a very full day! First thing this morning I took Owen to a doctor's appointment to check how his broken leg from 18 months ago healed. He just couldn't believe how cool it was that the doctor could "look through his leg to the bones" with the x-ray machine. Then we went over to our friends, the Richardsons' house to build gingerbread houses. Well, sort of build them anyway. Jami and I struggled to kind of put the walls together while the kids decorated the roof pieces that never quite made it on the houses. They thought they were pretty sneaky eating the candy and licking the icing spoons... but their sticky, white faces kind of gave them away! Our construction skills might be lacking, but we had a lot of fun!!!

Kole and Owen decorating gingerbread together.

Linkin, Kole, and Owen with more gingerbread pieces. Brooklin was there too, but she escaped when I broke out the camera. And Sutton was hanging out too! Such a trooper in his carseat most of the day.

After making a huge mess, we all went out to lunch. I'm embarrassed to admit where I fed Owen (suffice it to say that a $.99 menu was involved). Then we were off to our most exciting adventure of the day... a visit to Santa Clause. Owen has been asking everyday whether it's Christmas yet and once he saw Santa was in his house at the mall he declared "It is Christmas time!" He was really excited to see Santa but could only say that he wanted toys and candy. Santa asked him which toys, and all he kept saying was new toys. So, I guess that should be easy enough.

So, after all this, we were way past nap time. Owen then fell asleep on the way home and unfortunately woke up when I tried to carry him to his bed. So it was... no nap and no break for Mommy. As if his day wasn't already the best he could have every imagined, we then did some finger painting and went on what Owen called a walk to "far, far, far, far,..., far away" (with enough "far"s to last about 5 minutes). It was a beautiful day out today. After this fun, but very long day, Colin finally came home and we enjoyed a nice dinner together as a family. At bedtime Owen definitely hit the pillow hard! And now it's my bedtime too!

Just Another Manic Monday

So, we all woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning (including myself). It's just one of those Mondays, I guess. I have a kink in my neck that makes it pretty painful to hold Sutton. At least he likes to sleep in his crib... oh wait... I almost forgot... he wants to be held ALL THE TIME!! And Owen has been rolling on the floor all morning doing his impression of the cookie monster... you know, where he screams at the top of his lungs that "I don't want breakfast, I want a cookie RIGHT NOW!" But enough venting... after 3 cups of coffee I changed my attitude and decided I better help Owen work on his. So we cheered up and wrote a letter to Santa. This is his list (and I quote)...
"a zebra toy, a new flashlight, candy, lots of candy, a house, a baseball, a bat, batteries for flashlight and my train, more dominoes, bigger toys, snow at uncle Rory's house with the big doggies, a candle"

I think it's so funny (and logical!) that he thought to include batteries. I think that it's because replacing batteries is his favorite part of playing with toys. He then proceeded to declare multiple times that he wanted "lots of candy, lots of toys, and lots of treats". When I told him that maybe it would be better if we just got a few of each he said "OK, Santa can just bring a little bit, cause Mommy will give me lots" He sounded pretty positive... but i'm not so sure...


Well, I guess this is a good opportunity to share some other recent Owen quotes:

After getting his shots at the doctor he quickly said: "Oh I know, let's put my pants back on." It's pretty much the only time he's wanted pants on. And even after getting two shots he said as we got in the car "That was fun, Mommy"

He loves to say "Oh, I have a great idea..." and then tell us whatever he wants to do. He has lots of great ideas, a lot of them involve his baby brother. After we played with a 7 month old baby last night, Owen said this morning, "Oh I have a great idea: let's put Sutton down on the floor so he can roll around like Grayson did."

There are a lot more funny quotes, but seeing that I'm sleep deprived, I can't remember a single one!!! More to follow!

GO SUNDEVILS!!!

Random Pictures

OK... so some of these pictures are kind of old; but I just got them from my mom and couldn't resist sharing them.

Owen spontaneously started to stand like my dad and announced that "When I get bigger I'm gonna golf like Papa"

This is Owen on the way to visit his new baby brother at the hospital... I think he looks so cute in his backpack.

This is in the cafeteria at the hospital after Sutton was born. It was just so much easier to keep them in control when they were sitting with me.

There was a complaint that there was not enough pictures of "Mama Blogger".... so here is another.

Owen's Shenanigans

I think Owen's life and his behaviors have finally found a post-baby normalcy. The combination of his age and the new baby were creating some not so fun "terrible two" fits for a little while there... but we've worked out most of the kinks and we're back to having lots of fun! The top two pictures were taken at lunch after Sutton's baptism. They have a huge field for kids to run around in and Owen and Kierstyn did a lot of that. I just think these pictures are so cute because they remind me of how hard he was laughing as he ran away from the camera (he thinks I've been taking too many pictures lately).

Uncle Rory taught Owen how to set up and knock over dominoes, and now Owen can't get enough! With all the time Owen and I spend together, we've played with every toy and game a thousand times... but I never even thought to set up the dominos. We used to just count the polka dots, but he thinks this new activity is way more fun.

The rest of this video is so cute... but for some reason it will only show 4 seconds! I'm still not so good at this blogging!!

Sutton's Baptism

Sutton was baptized Nov. 25th with Dave and Kelly Page as his sponsers. We were blessed to have so many people who love Sutton be there to witness and support him on this very special occasion in his life. As for Sutton... he slept through the entire service, including when the water was poured over his head.

Thanksgiving

We have so much to be thankful this year and we were blessed to spend the holiday weekend with all of our parents, siblings, Colin's Grandpa, and many friends. We spent Turkey Day at Carrie's house in Phoenix where we had a smoked turkey, a fried turkey (thanks to all the guys for being in charge of the turkeys) and all the trimmings (and I mean all of them!!). Then we headed off to Colin's parents' house in Tucson. Friday night Kathy and Greg had a big bash at their house and the Brunners and Bri played music around the fire.

Don't you dare say that turkey carving is a man's job!! My mom did great!!

Ryan, Paul, and Wayne Brunner and Brianna Heiseiy doing their thing

Shannon (Aidan's girlfriend) and me

Colin and I enjoying the music and the warmth of the fire (it was the first really cold night we had here in AZ)