Owen + Five New Posts Below

This is my m.o. - a digital cornucopia of posts in one day. Then blog drought. Then another cornucopia. So - read on dear followers...It's pouring and Owen is just the beginning! :)

Kyle has been keenly aware that he's only got 1 more year before his little boy starts kindergarten. Can you believe in 12 months he'll be packing up to move away and we'll only see him at holidays and maybe in the summer for the next four years? Oh, yeah. That's college, not kindergarten. (Sorry honey, I had to poke fun a little.)

Anyways, there's been lots of GREAT father-son time happening recently - which, despite my sarcasm - I totally applaud. Best Dad. 

Anyways, here is Owen helping Kyle clean his deer rifle one day when the girls were napping and I was busy doing anything but helping clean the deer rifle.

Owen's favorite song these days is the 1978 hit "Just What I Needed" by The Cars. Thanks to Daddy again. He will sing it for you. Even the synthesizer parts.

Owen's favorite book right now (and has been for a while) is Ferdinand. What we recently discovered however is that he has it memorized. Word for word, page by page, with intonation just like when I read it. It's awesome. I just sit there and turn the pages and he "reads" it to Rebecca. Wait a minute - why am I needed to turn the pages?!?! Tomorrow night I'm going to have Owen put Rebecca to bed!

A little bit of Mommy time mixed in to his special Daddy time - Owen helped me make Katie's famous spinach and beef enchiladas a few weeks ago - he pretty much browned the meet all by himself and helped with all the measuring and mixing. The best part was even though we have had them before he was SO excited to try them and "liked them so much more" this time!

Most of the time Owen is kind of the best big brother possible. He is so sweet to his sisters...but he recently learned the definition of the word "provoked" when he stuck his finger in Maggie's mouth (for no reason) and she bit him back. Lesson learned. Not too long after Maggie was crying about something else and he said to Kyle "that sounds familiar..." and went to give her a toy. Sweet boy.

Reed on for more updates...see you next month! (Just setting your expectations low so I can hopefully exceed them.)

Extrovert Extrovert Extrovert

So, my eldest daughter is an extrovert. Perhaps no one is surprised. I guess I'm not really - but both Kyle and I keep finding ourselves ah-mazed at just how much she seems to be one these days!

At Laity Lodge she would walk up to every person between us and our destination and say without prompting:  

Hi, I Rebecca. I two. What you name?

Hi, I Rebecca. I two. What you name?

Tonight we met Bee and JoJo at the 'teria for dinner because Kyle is on call and he is the only reason I "cook" "meals"...they were running late so we were waiting out front and Rebecca started a conversation with no fewer than 12 senior citizens...

Hi, I Rebecca. I two. What you name? This is Maggie. This is Momma. This is my Mermaid. Bee give her to me. What you name? I have birthday comin' up. 

Lather, rinse, repeat. 

She is also quite perticular about "my things" (her things)...She can occupy herself for a surprisingly long time packing suitcases with toys, clothes, pantry items, office supplies and other things she's not suppose to get in to. She will get out every toy bag, purse and basket she has and fill all them them with "my things". This basically means that whatever room she's on is going to get emptied on to the floor while she packs. Beware. Piles piles piles. And even after she's packed she likes to pile up the piles so don't mess with her piles. (I bet sometimes that's how I look to outsiders.)

The good news is she also likes to "clean". (Not clean as in pick up the piles and piles of toys/clothes/kitchen items she just emptied onto the floor and mixed up in various containers - but don't worry, she has to anyways.) The cleaning she prefers to do is basically wiping things down. The girl would use an entire box of baby wipes on the piano if I don't keep an eye on her. Unfortunately, now that we put the ixnay on the wipes, she started improvising. with. spit. 

Packing, cleaning and dressing up. Definitely a little girl. Her favorite self-created outfits include are:

1) pink "party" dress she wears for at least a few minutes every day + big socks of Owen's + Owen's old brown merrill's + lots of dress up jewelry

2) undies + (no shirt) + Owen's socks on her hands and feet + multiple purses packed with all sorts of "my things" + a (clean) pullup on her head - maybe 2

3) a dress + a skirt on top of the dress + all of my workout headbands around her forehead hipster style + purple toms (purposefully) on the wrong feet

Here she is sporting Pam's squishy flip-flop heels. I have "tall shoes"! Oh boy. (Notice the bag packed full of Pam's toiletries and a watering can filled with stuff from their pantry.)

Other funny/sweet things:

She is quite the encourager. The other day we were on a walk and Owen was riding his bike and she kept yelling "good job man!" "you doin' it!" and "Owen!!! too far!!!". And when Maggie pulls herself up she says "good job Maggie - 'dat my talking 'bout!!!" I love that one.

I like this picture. Corndog in hand. Staring down the veggies. Willing them to turn in to ice cream.

That's my girl.

Pool Time 2012

I think I mentioned that Owen and Rebecca took swim lessons with the same Miss Amy from last summer at the beginning of the summer. Great fun and great progress for both of them. Thanks again to Bee and Nana to helped us get them there every time!

Owen loving the flippers because they make him go so fast! (Just don't forget to use your arms!)

 Working on side-breathing so he can go further!

 Thanks Miss Amy! We love you!

Now it's Rebecca's turn (she always wanted Owen to go first).

I think she's actually yelling - it's my turn Owen!

Woohoo going under!

High five!

And of course at our last lesson (where I plan on taking pics) it starts raining not too long into Rebecca's lesson so this is the only one I really got of her in full stroke. But you can see she's getting it!

The rain...and a potty break.

Thanks Miss Amy! We love you double!

Both kids have enjoyed some one-on-one pool time Nana recently. What a treat. Owen is getting braver and braver at jumping in to the deeper water. Diving board by the end of the summer???...

HAPPY WAHHHH WAHHHH WAHHH

I still can't believe this little girl is almost 14 months old! You probably didn't even notice I neglected to post these...but here were her stats at 1 month old:

Height: 30.5 in (75-90%)
Weight: 25 lbs 15 oz (97%)

In other official Maggie news...

• She is becoming quite the "talker" - which means she's constantly jabbering da da da, sh sh sh, ba ma, ba ma...you get the idea. Her favorite is this looooooooooooong sound she does most often in the car or sometimes when she's falling asleep (always when she's chilled out) - it sounds strikingly similar to a siren of some sort and goes like this: wahhhhhhhhhh-wahhhhhhhhh-wahhhhhhh-wahhhhhhh. It's very continuous and rythmic. Soothing almost. Except when the other two kids have already fallen asleep in the back of the car on your way home from Laity Lodge and you would really like her to be quiet but she keeps making the noise for 20 minutes...
• She is crawling like a champ and has started moving beyond the "on both knees" pull-up to all the way up on her feet. Wont' be long now folks!
• Probably goes without saying but she is IN TO EVERYTHING. All those child safety locks on cabinets that Rebecca broke way back when would sure come in handy right about now. Bookshelves need to be emptied. She loves the tupperwear cabinet - she is my excuse for how unorganized it is. Oh, and this is great - she can pull the outlet covers off - we even have the ones with little buttons on either side you have to squeeze to make them harder - I think she just muscles them off! 
• LOVES seeing her picture on my phone (grabs it, squeeze it and bites it until she accidentally - but consistently - gets it out of sleep mode and her photo appears). Won't be long until she's playing Angry Birds. 
• Along with loving her picture - she is at that "I love to look at myself in the mirror" stage where it's not entirely clear if she just thinks the person looking back at her is adorable and funny (which she is) or if she actually knows it's herself. Cute either way.
• She's sort of a ham. You've seen the shots of her hanging out sideways in her chair. She is a big fan of upside down too. When she's on your lap or in your arms she's always trying to through herself over upside down. And she's strong so you really have to work hard to keep her upright!
• Not too long ago she enjoyed her first ever sleepover at Dahdo and Pam's. She's done it a second time now. Big girl! Here are some photos from an evening we spent with them last weekend. Enjoying some sort of organic, free-range, gluten-free, sugar-free, dairy-free, soy extra-good-for-you ice cream sandwhich...

(This is why Maggie gets a bath every day. Okay, almost every day.)

"Lady Lodge"

Kyle and I have really cool friends. Seriously - we have some real stand-outs in the friend category. This is mostly true because they're rock-solid, salt-of-the-earth people who love Jesus and love to have fun. It doesn't hurt that some of them have cool jobs and live in cool places. 

One such set of friends is Trey and Leah Tull - Kyle was roomies with Trey in college and they are just awesome. Four kids and still smiling? The Tull Family rocks our face off (as my college roomie Megan used to say). Anyways...Trey is the Director of Singing Hills at Laity Lodge Youth Camp - an awesome Christian summer camp in the most breathtaking part of the TX Hill Country (near Leakey). (When Rebecca says LLYC it sounds like "lady lodge".)

We've been out to camp before in the off season but never before during the summer when camp is in session. This was SUCH a treat!!! The Tull's live on camp and we stayed in 2 rooms of a little staff house next door to their casa. We had a great two days/two nights. We got a great mix of family hang out time, and individual/couple time. The kids got to spend some of each day with "Canyon Club" - the mini-camp run for all the kids of the different directors - sort of like a little VBS. They luuuuuved it - and we loved the break. We were so busy I didn't take many pictures - which probably means it was good family time!

Trey was instrumental in designing the super-impressive zip-line/ropes course at the camp - which we got to try out!

Owen ready to hit the zip.

Getting hooked up to Daddy.

Off they gooooooooooooooooooooooooo! (Yes - that's over the Frio River!)

It's a little more intense than the one we had in our backyard...

Owen - our uber cautious child - did great. Yea! I, on the other hand, did not - and I completely blame Kyle. :) It was his job to tap his helmet as a signal for me to break and he overtapped and I overbreaked so...about 20 yards from the tree platform is where I stopped and dangled. Awesome. Trey yelled the instructions for my "rescue" (which involved sending me a rope and being yanked to safety). Kyle - my hero!!! (Still totally his fault.)

Then we had to cross this little "Burmese Bridge" - and I have to say I enjoyed it less than the zip line, which is a nice way of saying I was cursing under my breath so as to not freak Owen out.

I made it across first - here is Owen about to come over with Kyle. (Just to clarify - you're always clipped in.)

There were a total of 3 ziplines that we did - they got progressively shorter and lower to the ground so Owen (and probably me too, if I'm totally honest) enjoyed them progressively more. We were just both glad we got him to do it at all!

We also went out on kayak/water bikes, attended the "rodeo" the first night we were there - which was a muddy fun rootin' tootin' good time, and took all the kids fishing and they ALL caught something. Ah-mazing.

All in all the trip made me SUPER nostalgic for Camp Buckner and our days there. Wow - what good times. My nostalgia hugged the line of early mid-life-crisis a bit...while the Tulls and Kyle were fine to hang out at their house (and avoid camp craziness a little - which is totally understandable for Trey because it was his day off!) I just wanted to go hang out with all the college students working there for the summer! Not sure if I want them to be my friends (because in my head I'm still young/cool) or if I want to disciple them! I think a little of both.

Anyways, we had a great 2 days. Caught a pretty incredible sunset on our drive home too. Just pulled over too late to catch a better shot.

Thank you Tull family for such a great couple of days!!!

Daddy Day

I know Father's Day was a looooong time ago...but I'm going to be catching up on some blog-worthy things in the next few days and it was on my list.

I had Owen and Rebecca each complete a little interview about their Daddy and these were some of their more memorable responses. 

Owen:
Dad is: "36" [65 = 1st guess but I suggested he try again...]
He is "tall enough to rock climb.
His car is "kind of a race car"
He likes to cook "sausage" [Owen couldn't be more right here!]
My dad is the best at "riding a bike, at being careful and serving us dinner".
My dad tries really hard to "keep us doing the right thing".
He is special to me because "I can go to the ranch and go fishing with him. Also, he is tired a lot and eats a lot". [Can't get much more accurate.]

Rebecca:
Dad is "3".
He is "this big" tall.
My dad likes to go to "places".
His car is a "orange one - he he he". [funny girl]
His favorite tv show is "huh?". [exactly!]
He likes to cook "ice cream". [sausage and ice cream = they nailed the favorite foods]
He is so special to me because "my having fun with him".

Maggie:
You're right - she can't talk yet. But as a tribute to her daddy, it's pretty clear that she's saying dadda before momma. Already a Daddy's Girl.

Whether they realize it or not at this age, they pretty much have the best dad in the world.  

Happy Birthday America

Last year we tried to participate in the Tarrytown 4th of July parade with my mom. We made it just in time to see the parade finish...bummer. This year we were excited to take part in the parade for our soon-to-be new neighborhood (Bryker Woods) and we were determined to get there on time so we could actually participate! We wrangled the kids and Bee was in charge of the accoutrements...

Here we are in all our red-white-and-blue glory.

 Fussy at first.

 But mostly happy. (Cindy Lou Who anyone? And can you believe she kept that headband all for the entire parade? That's my girl.)

 Rocking a visor, tiara and glasses. Ready to roll.

Owen was so excited to ride his bike. It was a little tough to navigate all the people walking, etc. but he hung in there with Kyle right beside him the whole way.

 Bee pushing the girls so I could snap some shots and yap with some new neighbors.

Owen wasn't feeling great so he finished the the morning at Bee's house taking it easy and Kyle and I and the girls enjoyed a super fun (yummy!!!) cookout at a new neighbor's house. How does home-smoked brisket sound? Yep - delish. Then - and you just might not believe this...all FIVE of us took a THREE HOUR NAP. Happy Birthday to me America!

July Fun Times

Owen gets up every morning and asks me "what fun things are we going to do today?" - that's a lot of pressure! 

Here are a few random fun things we've come up with recently...

Eating an ice cream sandwhich from a gas station at the 360 downtown overlook. 

Good times in the ATX.

 Playdates - two friends (brothers) from preschool came over and spent the morning - we "painted" with food-coloring-dyed shaving cream. BIG hit.

 We moved this from an indoor on paper activity to an outdoor on yourself activity after only a few minutes. I wonder why?

 Thinking: I am so pretty!

On the top of every almost 5 year old boy's list of things they want to do...visit a SNAKE FARM. Yep, if you've ever driven on I35 between New Braunfels and Austin - you know the place. My mom and Sid were the brave grandparents to take Owen and Rebecca there. Owen can't wait to go back. Boy oh boy. He is still talking about the reticulated python (huh?) and king cobra and diamond back ratttle snake and on and on and on and on.

 When Rebecca heard him talk about the king snake she announced she was ready to go see the princess one.

 Bee let them each pick something from the gift shop. Owen picked a wonderfully classy snake farm t-shirt and Rebecca picked a rubber ducky. Those are my kids.

Thanks Bee & JoJo! If you hadn't taken then...I would have had to. :)