This and That

In June I became the President of MOMS Club of Omaha/Elkhorn.  You can learn more about our organization by visiting http://www.elkhornmomsclub.org/ lately all my "free time" has been devoted to that.  So I have not been able to spend any time updating our blog and probably won't be able to update very often. 

So here is a quick glance at what has been happening with us:

Owen turned ONE June 18th!

We had a Batman themed party for him, which I am sure to most people sounds a bit odd.  We nicknamed Owen "Batboy" because he loves to be upside down!  He like us to hold him upside down, he throws himself backwards to be upside down, he even learned to do a somersault because he always wanted to be bent over on his head.  We think he liked being upside down due to ALL the ear issues he had (which are now better after he had tubes put in.) 

 


Bat Brownies



Note to self: Black frosting not the best choice.

Like Kendall he was not really sure what to do with the cake.

Frosting in the hair

He stuck his finger up his nose and then of course thought he was hilarious!

Owen is such an amazing little guy.  He is always on the go, climbing and getting into something.  He loves to snuggle and give me kisses.  I could never imagine my life with a little boy after having a girl but now I don't know what life would be like without my little boy! 

Check out all my teeth!

COPE Garden

Every year our MOMS Club voluenteers to do different service projects.  In August we (Moms and Kids) voluentered at the COPE Garden.  COPE stands for Christian Outreach Program Elkhorn; they provide various services but part of what they do every year is have a garden where they have voluenteers come in and work weeding, watering, picking and whatever else that might need to be done.  After you have picked the produce you take it to the center so people who need food can come and pick up FRESH produce.  I explained to Kendall what we were going to do and how important it was before we went but really did not know how much she truely understood.  The next day Justin's mom came and Kendall told her all about the garden; how some people could not afford food and how she helped to pick vegetable so they could have them.  I guess she picked up on it a lot more than I thought she would:)  The kids had a blast picking things and watering.  I loved that we showed them how much fun helping others can be.  I hope that I can continue to look for opprtunities for us to voluenteer.



Owen watered the fence;)



Kendall's First Pedicure and Manicure

My cousin Kari got married in July and I was one of her bridesmaids.  The day before the wedding all the bridesmaids got their nails done.  Kari was so sweet and invited Kendall to come too.  So she got her first "Pedicure and Manicure".  They do not do the whole works for kids but she got to stick her feet in the water and then have her nails painted.  She picked neon green for her nail color.  She loves having her nails painted so this was quite the treat for her!



Kendall

Kendall got a pot to plant seed in it from my parents for Easter.  When we got home she "planted" her own flowers in it.  She even dug little holes for them with her stick!

This is where you will find Kendall if you come to our house on a nice day; she loves to swing!

And she loves to be goofy!

Owen Lately

Owen took his first step about a week ago!

Kendall loves to pick out her clothes and Owen's clothes so this is what she picked out today for Owen.

Lately he has been eating up a storm and wants nothing to do with baby food!

He now says Jack (my parents dog)!  My mom told me he said it and I was like yeah okay mom, but then Jack walked by Owen and he said "Jack".  He did it like five times then the other day I got it on video but it is not as clear as in person.  So now he says Dad, Mom (always in a loud crabby voice; probably gets that from his sister) and Jack!

Owen is 9 months

Owen stats at 9 months:
29" (77%)
17 lb 7oz (8%)
Head 45 cm (43%)

I always find the percentages funny because when you look at Owen I don't think he looks like a skinny baby and the doctor is not concerned with his weight.  He is following his own curve just like Kendall did.  He continues to battle an ear infection he is on a stronger medicine to hopefully kick it.  I hope this one goes away so we can sleep though the night!  Thankfully he is a pretty good little guy during the day.  He loves trying new food; his new favorite is cheese and cheerios. 

He crawls EVERYWHERE and is into EVERYTHING!  We have a basket in the living room with toys and he is always digging in it.

He loves to play with whatever Kendall has!

Kendall is 3!

Kendall had her 3 year check up and her stats are:
37.9" (64%)
28 lb 9 oz (27%)

She was really good for the nurse and doctor are her check up I think partly because we have been there so much for Owen she feels comfortable there (and gets a sticker just for being the big sister at Owen's appointments).  She had her blood pressure taken and different development qusetions that she answered all on her own...so big girl! 

Kendall loves disney princesses so we had a princess tea party for her.  I decided to make a princess castle cake for her party.  So much easier than last years Dora cake!  I don't do well with piping a cake but the beauty of a three year old is she did not notice the imperfections.  She ate an ice cream cone tower (her favorite thing is plain ice cream cones, frosting and sprinkles so this was right up her alley). 

Kendall got clothes, barbies, barbie car, barbie bedroom set and a bike with training wheels.

Justin was in charge of pictures...

We had a variety of tea sandwiches, salads, mini banana bread, cheddar biscuits, fruit cups, strawberry ladybugs.

I have some of my great grandma's tea cups and I decided that she would want them to be used rather than sit in a box so we had lemonade floats and fairy berry tea.

So maybe blogging is not my thing...

Okay so maybe I am not a very good blogger but I am worse at writing things down for the kids to look at later in life.  I have not kept up their baby books but thanks to our old website, blogs and facebook I have most milestones documented somewhere.  I have been copying and pasting to my computer so I have them saved.  Owen has been battling ear infection after ear infection so sleep is not really his thing.  If their naps do line up I want to get a few things done around the house and don't have time to be on the computer blogging.  I hope one day to keep the blog up so family and friends that are far away can see what is going on in with our family. 

A simple thing that brings joy to Kendall...

Kendall goes to a kid's day out program one day a week for 2 1/2 hours at a local church.  She will continue there in the fall where she will be in the 3 year old preschool program.  So I have noticed that when I go pick her up she is super excited to see me.  She will run to me saying "mommy" and give me a big hug.  Then she absolutely loves to watch all the other kids run to their parent or grandparent!  It finally clicked a few weeks ago that Kendall gets so much joy out of seeing others happy!  I have now noticed it in other instances as well; like when Owen is laughing she is so smiley.  I hope we can continue her on this path and find some place where we can volunteer together as a family.  Any suggestion of where you could volunteer with kids? 

Florida

About a month ago I asked Justin what he wanted to do for his birthday (the big 3-0 this year).  He said go some place warm!  I looked at him shocked and said "really?"  (We are both pretty tight with our money and we have not vacationed; just the two of us since our honeymoon six years ago.)  He paused a moment and said "yes".  We came up with a budget, I planned the whole thing by myself and surprise him with all the details; including where we were going.  At first I was dead set on going on a cruise, but then it was hard to find good flights without being gone too long.  So then I searched resorts in Florida.  I was overwhelmed with all the choices and found it hard to choose from reading online reviews.  I texted all my friends to see if they had any suggestions.  My friend Jenny suggested Sanibel Harbour resort and spa by Marriott (technically in Fort Myers).  I looked it up and was sold!  I booked it that night along with our flights and rental car.  Jenny and one of my other friends Dawn had wonderful suggestions of where to eat as well.  I made a few dinner reservations but other than that I did not really want to over schedule our trip.  We are so lucky that my parents took time out of their busy schedules and time off of work to stay at our house with the kids.  It was so much easier to not have to pack them up to stay somewhere else and worry about what I forgot for them.

Saturday February 5th 
We woke up at 3:30 am and left at 4:00 am for our 5:45 flight time and headed to the airport.   Owen woke up around 3:15 and Kendall woke up at 3:45 (she must have heard us getting ready) so I was a bit nervous leaving my parents with them already off schedule.   My loving husband dropped me off at the door of the airport so I would not be too cold in my flip flops and sun dress.  He met me at the check in where I then revealed where we were going, he was very excited to get to warm Florida!  All of our flights were good and on time; which I was a bit nervous about since Detroit got a bunch of snow the Wednesday before.  We made it to Fort Meyers airport got our bags and headed to our rental car.  Our car was parked near a convertible and we thought about upgrading but decided to save the money (I am glad we did not since we only used the car a couple of times).  We decided that we would stop an outdoor mall (Bell Tower) since we had time before check in and it was sort of on the way.  We walked around a bit in and out of a few stores and then came across Gracie's cupcakes.  OMG they were amazing!  I had never had a cupcake that both looked and tasted good.  We got peanut butter chocolate gauche and Milky way (chocolate with chunks of cookies and chocolate butter cream frosting).  We decided to head on to our resort with the windows rolled down in the 76 degree weather!  Our jaws dropped when we saw how beautiful our resort was.  Right away noticed that the service was impeccable.  I decided to splurge a bit and get a waterfront view room with a balcony and it was well worth the money.  We sat out on our balcony for a bit then decided to head down to the outdoor bar and have a cocktail.  After our mojito and margarita we sat in the warm sun and let our feet dangle in the pool.  We then heard that there were dolphins just off the dock of the resort so we went over there and watch three dolphins swim, play and jump in and out of the water just feet from us!  After a bit they went back into deeper water and we spotted some hammocks to lay in.  After laying in the sun the the hammock we decided to get ready for dinner.  I had made reservations at Bay front Bistro in Fort Meyers Beach.  The service,  food, and bottle of wine were wonderful.  After we got back to our resort we went to the hot tub for a bit.  We were both tired from waking up at 3:15 so we went to bed at 9:00 (I know lame-o but we were both excited to get a good night sleep).

Sunday February 6th
We woke up and got a yogurt, granola, fruit and coffee and ate on our balcony while reading the newspaper.  After breakfast we were off to our couples massage!  Justin has never had a massage before so he was excited.  It was a huge spa and was very nice.  It was a bit cloudy and rainy when we went into the spa, but when we were done it was 78 degrees and sunny!  We thew on our suits and headed to the pool.  We ordered lunch, ate by the pool and lounged til the afternoon.  We went to Charley's (one of the four places to eat at the resort) and ordered a yummy white pizza for an afternoon snack.  I wanted to take more than the usually 20 minutes I have to get ready.  So Justin headed to the gym and I went to take a long shower (without a toddler!) and spend time actually putting on make up.  We headed to Sanibel island and stopped at a beach along the road.  I knew that they were shell beaches but I had know idea the number of shells that were there.  We then went onto Captiva (further down the island) and ate at Old Captiva House.  The food was good but the atmosphere was definitely lacking.  So we took our key lime pie to go and went back to the resort.

Monday February 7th
We started our morning with a jog around the resort and near the water.  It was so pretty and fun to jog together in the warm weather.  We then got ready and ate breakfast at the resort restaurant.  I got my book and Justin got his newspaper and we read in lounge chairs by the pool.  A few hours later the sun was getting hotter so we got our suits on and laid by the pool.  We ordered lunch by the pool.  We then sat in the pool to cool off from the 81 degree weather!  In the afternoon we decided to try out as many lounge chairs around the resort as we could!  Though we did not get to all of them we did find some great ones.  Pina coldas were great while relaxing on comfy couches.  We then made our way back to a hammock where I got a wonderful sunburn but it was totally worth it!  We went back over to Sanibel island to a restaurant called Doc Ford's.  It was awesome, there were some many things I wanted to try on the menu and the Mojitos were great.  We brought some mango hot sauce back with us from the restaurant. 

The beach on Sanibel Island

Again the beach

Shells

Justin enjoying  the weather

Justin on the beach

Me

The view of the pool from our balcony

Other views from our room

 

We came home on Tuesday to -5 degree weather quite a shock!  My reset button was definitely pushed.  It was what we both totally needed.  We were both very ready to see the kids.  We brought Kendall back some shells and she loved them, but then wanted to go to the beach!

The case of the missing bottles...

Owen has finally started sleeping from 9pm to at least 5 am!  (Might stir around a bit once or twice a night.)  Since walking down the stairs half a sleep is not very fun; we still fill two bottles with water and fill a formula dispenser just in case we would need it at night and then when he needs a bottle in the morning.  Justin usually gets everything ready at night and sets them on the stairs.  One night we were ready to go upstairs and the bottles and dispenser were gone...and so was Kendall.  We went upstairs to find Kendall setting the bottles and dispenser on Owen's dresser!  The next night same thing.  This now has been going on for weeks (we have never asked her to do it).  She has her moments of being too rough with Owen but there are so many sweet things she does for Owen and our family.

Photography Class

I have had my Cannon Rebel xsi digital SLR camera now for over a year.  I was mainly using it on the basic point and shoot settings.  I felt as if I was taking great photos with it...way better than the inexpensive cameras we had before.  However it was a waste of my money because not really knowing how to use the more advanced setting I was not using half my camera!  I finally decided since I love taking pictures and want to get better I needed to increase my knowledge.  Last Saturday I took a basic photograpy class.  I now understand most of my camera and realize that I can do so much more!  They have more advanced classes that I will probably take once I practice more.  I have tried out my new skills on Kendall and Owen; so here you go...(I still have some learning to do.)

I used a fun photo finish with my photo editor

This is how they are with each other most of the time!  So silly.

But they can calm down for a few pics

She loves to talk and he loves to listen!

what is Daddy doing?

I am usually a happy guy if fed every 90 mintues!

He now fights back!

squeezing my squeaky shoes