Merry Christmas, Owen!

Well, another Christmas has come and gone, but this year was very special for us as it was Owen's first Christmas. He wasn't quite sure what was going on and why everyone kept handing him toys, but eventually he caught on.
We started at Auntie Collette's house where we spent the night. Santa came and filled our stockings. Somehow, Owen ended up getting most of the good stuff. He must have been a really good boy this year.





Dad helped him open up presents from Santa, especially the toys.







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Then we were off to Granpa and Grandma Higham's house for breakfast, and most importantly: PRESENTS!!!! Owen did manage to hold still long enough and sit with his Great-Grampa Higham, who he doesn't get to see that often. After breakfast we opened up present after present. It was a good thing Mommy and Dad got a new car, or else Owen may have had to ride on the roof to fit all the new stuff we got for Christmas!

While Owen appreciated all of the nifty presents he received, it was the wrapping paper he seemed most interested in. In fact it was quite the chore to keep him from eating it all morning long. After opening presents at Grampa and Grandma Higham's house. We ventured out to Tooele to Grampa and Grandma Nash's house for more presents, family and food.
After that, we thought we could beat the storm and headed for home. Only to get caught right in the thick of it in Ogden. After a harrowing three and a half hour drive home with knuckles white on the steering the whole way, we finally made it safe and sound and Dad promising Mommy he'll never do that again. The next morning Owen was up bright and early and ready to play with all of his new toys.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

The Pre-Christmas Trip

Well, we survived a trip down to SLC and Tooele this past weekend. Sort of a "dry-run" for our Chrsitmas Trip. For those that don't know, we just bought a new car. Our "big car" as well call, the Mercury Grand Marquis began having some front end problems. We then stopped driving it altogether when we noticed pieces of metal hanging down in the front. I'm sure we could have had it fixed, but with 216,000 miles on the car, we really didn't want to sink any more money into it (like we did about year ago, to the tune of $1100. And I bought the car for only $1800!) So we bit the bullet and bought ourselves a 2005 Nissan Altima. We got a really great deal on it ($6500) though it has 75,000 miles on it. But we figured we needed something to last at least two-three more years, and we were confident we found ourselves a vehicle that fit the bill. Plus, it is quite a bit bigger than our Sentra so there is a lot more room (Lily isn't laying on top of Owen in the backseat). And the gas mileage is just as good.

So we made some stops in Salt Lake to Joe's Crab Shack with Grampa and Grandma Higham, Auntie Collette and Ryan and Auntie Maggie and Layla. Then we were off to Tooele, where we watched BYU lose in the Las Vegas. While I'm sad to see a Utah team lose, I'm not that heartbroken. If any team deserves to lose, it's BYU and their obnoxious fans! Unfortunatley , the Jazz lost as well.

We spent the night and then went to church with Grampa and Grandma Nash. Hunter, Olivia and Uncle Chase and Auntie Luz showed up too, (I guess Hunter's complaining about his "stupid ward" got to them and they decided to go to Grandma's ward instead). Auntie Chelsea showed up as well.

We then hung out at Grandma's house, ate some roast and played "Pirates of the Caribbean." Then we made the long trip back home. But not before we got some pictures of us playing on the floor!










We wanted to get a nice picture of the kids together, but after about 10 minutes of telling them to "put your hands down!" or "Don't stick your tongue out!" and "open your eyes!" we just finally took some pictures and this one turned out to be the best of the bunch. Oddly enough, it was Owen, at almost 8 months old who was the easiest to work with. His four year-old and nine year-old cousins were the trouble makers!
We finally got home and unloaded the car. We managed to get in some Christmas shopping while we were down there. Owen got an early Christmas present in the form of a new bath tub. His old one is getting just too small for him. So this morning, we couldn't help but take a picture of him playing in the tub. We couldn't get him to look into the camera, he was just having too much fun splashing around.





We finally finished up our Christmas shopping and present wrapping tonight. We're excited to see Owen open up his presents. As we found out tonight he loves wrapping paper and empty boxes. Had we known that before we could have saved ourselves the money we spent on the little jungle gym we bought him and just had some empty boxes wrapped up to give him. Oh well. Merry Christmas everyone!

Owen's First Thanksgiving

This year marked Owen's first Thanksgiving. So he had to get dressed up in his little suit to look presentable. This included his little brown shirt with matching brown socks, black pants and shoes and a black vest with a little black clip-on tie. Though the outfit as a whole didn't stay on him for very long, we did manage to get a few pictures of him wearing the little outfit.

While Owen wasn't able to feast on the food, he did eat up all of the attention he got from the family they came over for Thanksgiving this year. We had some of Mommy's family and some of Dad's family join us for the feast of turkey and ham.

We did have some pretty nice plates and silverware, we skimped a little on the glasses. Plastic cups and water bottles adorned our Thanksgiving table this year. None of it matter because the food was excellent (though by now we've had it with the leftovers!).






We had another rousing game of Bingo with lots of fun and prizes with Grampa Nash taking his usual role of Bingo Caller.




For the most part it was all about being together and having fun as a family. Just like Owen and cousin Ryan did all night long.








It was a good thing we had that game of Bingo as the football games this year were real snore-fests. We didn't need any tryptophen from the turkey to put us asleep with those blow-outs we had on TV. But we all had a lot of fun.


The next day we put up our Christmas tree after Mommy, Grandma Nash and Auntie Chelsea came back from their morning of shopping (Carrie had some fat lady call her a "mean lady" because Carrie asked her to move as her and husband were taking up the whole aisle). This year, Mommy really wanted to do a great tree, so she bought all red decorations for this tree. With Grandma Nash's help, they really put together a great looking Christmas tree!

And Dad only swore up a small storm trying to get the damn thing to stand up! All the while Owen just watched and laughed as he played in little music chair.









He better enjoy it now, because it be long before he is helping Dad put the tree up!

Owen and Dad Watch Football

We all had a pretty busy weekend, we were getting ready for everyone to come to our house for Thanksgiving this year. We had to dig nice dishes and silverware out of the basement, as well as the leaf for the table.

Once that was done, we sat down for the big game between BYU and University of Utah. We're all U of U fans, when they're not playing the Aggies.

Dad and Owen took their usual football watch seat, but this time, Lily had to get in on the action as well. We were all celebrating the win on Saturday night.

But before we could watch football on Sunday we had to finish off our Thanksgiving shopping. It's a well known fact that the best to shop at Wal-Mart is a Sunday morning. Even still, Owen hated it anyway. He didn't cry or anything, but he was happy to be heading home.

Owen just can't wait to sit in the little play set. This is by far his favorite toy. He sits in it for a while pressing the buttons and making noise. So much so, Mommy and Dad have just about had enough of the ABC song the thing plays.









Here is another picture of Owen being his usual silly self. He likes rolling around and having fun on Mommy and Dad's bed.

Big Boy Owen

Day by day Owen is becoming a big boy. This weekend was the first time we put him in his high chair. He also started drinking out of a sippy cup. Who knows, next we may be giving him the keys to the car so he can drive himself to the baby-sitter's house and give us a break!

He has also moved on to eating stage two baby foods. Next week we'll try finger foods so that by Thanksgiving he can pig out with the rest of us. He also has more hair than Dad at this point. Mommy likes to give him crazy hair-dos, like this mohawk:





But he is still our little boy. He still has to have his binky to fall asleep, usually cuddled in the arms of Mommy or Dad. He still hasn't mastered talking on the phone yet, as his grandma Nash tries every time she calls, but all he wants to do is eat the phone. And he still likes to cuddle with his blankie:

More Halloween

Annual Halloween Party

This last weekend was our Annual Halloween Party--and boy did we party down! We had both sides of the family come up for the day so we had a house load of kids running around.
The first thing we did was a Treasure Hunt for the kids. I told them I had found an old Pirate Treasure Map in the basement and that the house used to be the hideout for the Pirates of Bear Lake and that they had hidden their treasure somewhere in the yard.
So we used the clues on the map to find the treasure. Funny thing is, those pirates sure did like toys, because that was all that they hidden!!

Here is a picture of the kids holding up their treasures! Olivia is in the blue, and she wasn't too excited about the mermaid doll, I guess these kids grow up too fast. Hunter, dressed up like Indiana Jones and Ryan both got Pirates and soon after they were playing and playing with them.

Then it was time to carve the pumpkins!

There were enough pumpkins for just about everyone to carve their own. We had some classics and some fancy ones. There was even a dinosaur jack o' lantern!
Then we had some homemade root beer, and it looked just like a witch's brew!






After we downed some root beer and carved the pumpkins, we headed off to the Little Bear Bottoms Corn Maze in Wellsville.








The kids liked the haystack more than the mazes, and we did have to cheat to get out of the maze in time to pick up the pizza we ordered.
But all in all, we had a fun time, especially on the Haunted Hay Ride.
After that we went back to the house, ate some pizza and drank more root beer. We roasted pumpkins seeds, had cupcakes with black frosting (the kids got really messy) and we watched scary movies. It was 10:30pm by the time the party wrapped up.
Owen was ready for bed, and we were ready to clean up and do it all again next year!

Four Year Anniversary

This weekend we celebrated our four year Wedding Anniversary. Grandma Nash and Aunt Chelsea came up to Logan to baby-sit Owen while Mommy and Dad had a much needed night away at the Anniversary Inn.

In this picture owen is playing on the floor with Grandma wearing his new winter hat that Aunt Chelsea made for him.

Owen really likes rolling around on the floor and playing with his toys.

We pulled out some of the millions of toys Owen has and it was almost as good as Christmas morning. Lily liked the toys almost as much as Owen as she has chewed several of them already. So not only do we have to make a concerted effort to keep the binky away form, now we had to keep the toys away from now, too.








Here is a picture of the "Arctic Journey" room we stayed in at the Anniversary Inn. It wasn't the biggest room-the bed got in the way of the door when you walked in, but it was the best room we could afford. The tub was nice, though. Here's to four and many more...

Grandma and Owen had too much fun this weekend. She fed him pears and cereal and seemed to get everywhere in the kitchen except in his mouth. Grandma and Owen were wearing pears and cereal for the rest of the weekend.

We all had a great weekend and we are all looking forward to our big Halloween party next week!

Owen is Five Months Old!

Owen is Five months old! We can hardly believe it. He is now grabbing his toes, rolling around on the floor and trying to do his best to crawl around. He scoots around instead. Lily won't leave him alone now either. She thinks she is the mom. She is constantly trying to mother him.

He is also eating solid foods now. He likes it so much it is hard to get him to eat milk.

So far his favorites are bananas, apple sauce, rice cereal and for some strange reason: Sweet Potatoes! He just laughs and smiles while he is eating food. It is his favorite thing to do.





He also likes to watch football with Dad on Sundays. They get up in the big brown chair and cheer on the Chicago Bears. They always seem to have a such a great time doing this as well.

Here he is, getting ready for some football. He is getting pretty big too, these pajamas that Grandma Higham bought for him are for 12 months and up, and they are already almost too small for the "Big O".

He must think he is a big boy now just because Mommy and Dad had to take him up on campus the other day so Mommy could renew her spouse student ID to get in all of the football and basketball games for free.

He was cruising around the campus like an old pro, waving at the chicks and high-fiving all the dudes.

Happy Five Months, Owen!!!

Owen the Aggie

Well, Saturday was the day of the big game, and we decided we had better get ourselves outfitted for the occasion. Mommy and Dad got t-shirts and Owen got this little outfit to help support our team.

Grampa and Grandma Higham came up with Ryan and Auntie Collette and Auntie Maggie and little cousin Layla came too.

After eating lunch at Cafe Sabor, we headed off to the game to be sure we got some good seats.



Mommy and Dad and Grampa saved the seats while the others came a little later. We made sure to sit in our usual spot, just behind the goals posts in the south end zone right above the blue and white "A". We were really close to the action and Auntie Maggie almost got hit in the head with a ball during a PAT.






Here's a picture of Dad and Grampa with the "Little-O" saving some seats for the game. The stands looked empty then, but within a few short minutes it was packed with people, some wearing red, but most wearing blue.


We were hoping to get a picture of Owen with Big Blue, the Aggie's mascot, but everytime he came into the stands he was mobbed by people, so we decided to wait and get a picture at another game when it isn't so crowded. Though the Aggies lost by quite a bit, we still had a lot of fun.


Here's a picture from our trip to Bear Lake over Labor Day weekend. We were all pretty worn out that night (and the next day) because Uncle Chase rented a jet-ski and everyone got a chance to cruise the lake at high speed.

Though it was fun, we were pretty much feeling the effects the next day. Luckily we were tired because it was stormy on that Sunday so we had to find other ways to have fun.






Everyone always says that Owen looks like his Dad. Well, here's a picture to prove that Owen really does look like his Mommy.
Mommy took this picture one night before she and Owen went to bed. As you can see, there really is a lot of resemblance between the two.

Owen Meets Layla

This is Layla, Owen's new cousin. She came quite unexpectedly, but we're happy to have her. We took a trip down to Salt Lake City over the weekend to pay her a visit and welcome her to the world. It was hard to tell if Owen was excited or not to meet his new cousin, but we suspect that he was.

We figured that it won't be long before these two little babies are chasing each other around, getting into mischief and having a lot of fun.


But we had a lot of fun this weekend. We ate chinese food, we slpet over at Auntie Collette and Ryan's apartment. We had breakfast and Grampa and Grandma Higham's that was cooked on Grandma's new oven. We went bowling and visited Aunt Beanie and Uncle Leo and just generally had a great old time. Owen is always up for a good time and we really had one.
And then Sunday Grampa and Grandma Nash stayed the night and watched Owen while Mommy and Dad went to work and school.
Now we're just looking forward to another weekend at Bear Lake and some more fun times.