Cousins

Owen has been blessed with three cousins who love him very much. He has Olivia and Hunter on his Dad's side and Ryan on his Mommy's side. Hunter and Ryan are best buddies and play together really well. They are both four years old. Olivia is nine years old and is still trying to get over the fact that Owen was born a boy and not a girl.

Before Owen was born, his cousin Hunter was insistent on naming him "Darth Vader Popeye Nash" as two of his favorite characters are Darth Vader and Popeye. He was very disappointed when he found out that wasn't going to be Owen's name, but he consoled himself by telling us that Owen's middle name could either "Darth Vader" or "Joe", and he would be happy with that. Soon after Owen was born, Hunter got over it.

Here is a picture of Hunter listening to Owen's heartbeat before Owen was even born. Owen's cousins just couldn't wait for him to be born.

And here are his cousins just two weeks before Owen was born. They are at Wheeler Farm for Ryan's birthday. Ryan is in front with a cheesy grin. Olivia is wearing the cowboy hat. And Hunter is in the back being a goofball. Here is a picture of Ryan actng like a clown trying to make his little cousin Owen laugh.


In this picture Olivia was pretending her bag of chips was Owen because Grandma Nash and Aunt Luz wouldn't let anyone else hold Owen while we were in Tooele.
We think it's pretty safe to say Owen is going to have three big kids looking out for him as he grows up. And we can tell he loves his cousins just as much as they love him. He always gives them a smile when they talk to him.

Owen goes to Tooele

Well, we spent most of this last weekend in Tooele. We borrowed the projector from work and made arrangements to watch a movie outside on a big sheet. Well, we couldn't quite figure it out, so we scrapped watching the movie outside and opted to watch inside instead.

We watched the classic movie Gremlins which the kids seemed to really enjoy. The next morning, Dad figured out how to get it to work, so we all decided to stay late Saturday night and watch another movie outside.

So we ate some breakfast and did our best to stay cool in the blazing Tooele heat. We felt spoiled living up here in Logan, where usually the temperature is 10-15 degrees cooler, especially at night. But we made due and ended up having a good old time.
We had some fun adventures with Olivia and Hunter where we pretended we were pirates hunting for treasure and dodging traps and fighting mummies. Hunter was Captain Jack Sparrow and Olivia was The Jungle Girl. Dad had to be Hunter's sidekick named Knuckles and Owen was still Owen. Even Uncle Chase got into the act and his name was Cheeks. Grampa had a toy rocking horse tied up between two trees in the backyard and Hunter would ride him. He showed Owen how to ride the horse, and even named the horse Black Thunder. All in all it was a great time. Later that night we had Mom's family come over with Ryan and we watched Transformers on the big screen in the backyard. We got home pretty late (2:00am) because Dad had to go to work the next day and Mom had to feed Owen right when we got home, so we were all pretty tired the next day, but it was well worth it.
With Mommy's family coming down to Tooele, everyone got the chance to hold Owen. We even made an early morning visit to Grampa and Grandma Nash's bed on Saturday morning to give them a wake-up call. Owen laughed and smiled with Grampa and Grandma and really seemed to enjoy himself quite a bit. And he can't wait until he can go back to Tooele for a visit again.

Weekend with Grandma

This past weekend Owen got to spend some quality time with his Grandma Nash and Aunt Chelsea. They both came up for the weekend. They stayed Saturday night and left Sunday afternoon.


Owen really seemed to enjoy himself because whenever Grandma had a hold of him (which was most of the time) he was calm and easy going, that is when he wasn't asleep.

Can't say the same for Aunt Chelsea, though, he is still getting used to all of the relatives. At least Lily enjoyed hopping up into Chelsea's lap for some good pets. Sometimes I think Lily likes Chelsea more than she likes us.


One of the fun things we did with Grandma and Chelsea is we donned our sunglasses and went downtown for the sidewalk sale going on down on Main Street. No one bought anything, but it was a good excuse to break out the stroller and then eat at the Blue Bird afterward. The Blue Bird must be one of Grandma's favorites as she always wants to go eat there when she comes up. After that we came back home and popped up some popcorn and watched some movies.

Grandma also brought up several old photo albums of Dad when he was a baby. We all wanted to see if there was some resemblance. After being made fun of for having a rather pear-shaped head as a child, we all agreed that there was some resemblance between Dad and Owen, but Owen may have to grow a little bit before we can really tell. Once we see some pictures of Mommy as a baby I think we will find he is a pretty good mix of both Mommy and Dad.
One of Owen's Favorite things in the world is bath time. So we made sure Grandma got to bath the little guy while she was here. He likes to splash and really loves having Mommy wash his hair and pour water over his head.
Unfortunately he also likes to pee right when he gets in the water. More often than not we have to replace the bath water before the bath even begins!
But once we're done, Owen likes to get wrapped up in his towel, put on his little bathrobe and chill out in his pajamas.

Owen also really liked just hanging out in bed on Saturday and Sunday morning. He usually gets squished between Mom and Dad and then we all have to make room for Lily who, as of late, has become a real butter-ball.

All in all we had a great weekend and we are always looking forward to having company come and stay with us. Especially Lily because she thinks everyone comes up just to see her. But Owen really likes the company as well. Sometimes he needs new people to spit up on. And anytime he can spend time with his Grandma Nash, he will enjoy it. It seems he really likes his Grandma quite a bit.

Owen and the Cruise-In

Well, Owen survived his first Cruise-In. We had Grampa and Grandma Higham come up with Auntie Collette and Auntie Mags as well as Cousin Ryan. Bailey the dog came too, but he and Owen never really crossed paths a whole lot. They all stayed for the weekend and slept over Saturday night. We had a big BBQ with ribs, shish-kabobs, crab salad, corn on the cob and Grandma Higham brought cupcakes as big as canteloupes (just glad they didn't taste like canteloupes...yuck!). They also brought their new canopy/tent. Luckily Trevor and Chelsie came over with Daphne and Trevor was a big help in putting up the new canopy.

So we all got to chill-out in the shade. Ryan seemed very taken with Daphne and Chelsie. He loved making Daphne laugh. He was quite the entertainer. Daphne really enjoyed the little show he put on for her.

To be honest I think we all enjoyed the little show he put on for her.We had all eaten our fill and then went inside the house to really cool off in front of our new air conditioner. After a while, Trevor and Chelsie had to leave. By then it was time to make our way down to main street where Dad had sectioned off our familiar corner. We used to have quite a large crowd with us, but almost all of our friends have moved. Trevor and Chelsie were the last ones still here and they'll be moving to Provo next month. But we still had a good crew with us this year.

Owen was by far the center of attention. Grandma let go of Owen just long enough for Auntie Collette to swoop him up. Owen really loves his Auntie Collette. He seems to be right at home in her arms (which means he usually falls asleep).

After the Cruise-In we came back home for a rousing game of dice before we set off some fireworks. We were all still a little full from the BBQ hours ago, but we still managed to down some of those gigantic cupcakes all washed down with some Cherry Cokes while watching Patriot Games (it was still the Fourth of July weekend, so we had to watch something patriotic). Only Dad and Grampa Higham made it through the movie, though they fell asleep a few times throughout, they were both awake for the end of the movie and that is all that matters.

The next day we stuffed ourselves again for breakfast at Golden Corral and then the women (and Owen) went shopping while the men: Dad, Grampa Higham and Ryan went to see Iron Man. Pretty good movie and Ryan was well behaved throughout the show. When we all met back up Mom had to soften the blow to Dad about how much money she spent by showing him some of the cute outfits she had bought for Owen (it also didn't hurt that she bought Dad a few shirts as well).

All in all it was a pretty great weekend. We all ate so much that we none of us slept well that night, so we all took a long nap when we came home from work on Monday.

Pictures of Owen

We decided that people visiting our site would rather see pictures of Owen than read my blatherings. So here are some pictures of Owen:

Pool Time

Tonight was our annual work party at the Logan Aquatic Center. Usually Carrie and I forgo the humilitation of wearing swim suits and just show up for the good food. But now we have Owen and as good parents we made the sacrifice and wore our swimming gear. Because of the crypto virus we had Owen "double-bagged" in a little swimmer diaper and a swim suit as well. We took evcery precaution and he was so wrapped up tight that not even the Steve McQueen of poop could have escaped.

After some hot dogs and hamburgers catered by The Coppermill we hopped in the pool. Even though it was almost 8:00 at night, it was still hot enough that a cool dip in the pool felt pretty good.

We had our friends Mike and Melanie Elwood and their son Jayden to hang out with and we all had a pretty fun time. Owen really liked swimming with Dad as he pulled him around in the water on his back. We even got Mom to hop in for a minute or two to join in on the fun.

Afterwards we raced home to change (and to nurse Owen) so that we could make it to the fireworks. Logan City always holds their fireworks on the 3rd of July at Romney Stadium up on campus. Our workplace is right down the hill from the stadium and we always rope off the back lawn so all of our employees can get a front row seat for free.

Owen was clowning around when he should have been eating, so we were running a little late, but we made it just in time. We even brought Lily along which really made her week. She usually pouts and sulks as she lays down in her bed when we leave because she can never come with us when we leave. But tonight she got to come with us and she was as excited as Rosie O'Donnell at an all-you-can-eat buffet.

The work crowd was there laying on blankets or in lawn chairs. They had a radio on broadcasting the program from inside the stadium. Who needs Miley Cyrus when we have Lee Greenwood singing "God Bless the USA" (again)? Or Neil Diamond with "They're Coming to America!" (again)? But hey, it was a lot of fun and I think Owen really enjoyed himself. Our work gave out glow sticks to all of the kids, so Owen had a little green one we wrapped around his wrist. He really enjoyed playing with it.

This the traffic was heavy but moved pretty fast. What is usually a five minute drive from work to home took us about twenty minutes tonight. But we're not complaining, the same drive took us two hours last year. Seems the Logan City Police wised up and decided this year NOT to close down the major roads and force everyone to Main Street. This year 3rd and 2nd east were open and we got home rather quickly. That still didn't stop Owen from having a minor melt down. Mom had to hop in the back seat to keep him company. Owen loves his Mom. Just her sitting next to him so he could see her calmed him down. He was quiet the rest of the ride home.

Is there anybody out there?

I love movies. Anyone who has known me for two minutes knows that I love movies. Conversations with friends or family will within about ten minutes or so become long winded speeches about Stars Wars.

So Owen, despite being only two months old, already has two trips to the movie theater under his belt (or diaper tabs, if you will). Dad is very proud to say that the first movie his little boy went to see was Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Owen really enjoyed the show. We could tell because he farted pretty much through the whole thing.

The next movie we saw was a little lighter fare: Kung Fu Panda. I'm usually pretty leery of kids movies these days (The Incredibles being the exception). When they're not filled with scatological and sexual humor geared more toward adults (think Shrek); then they are usually packed with a lame political agenda designed to indoctrinate kids into a liberal milque toast mindset that would make Alan Alda proud (like the abysmal Happy Feet). But Kung Fu Panda was neither dirty, smug nor preachy. It was good, fun humor that both kids and adults could enjoy. Though he slept sporadically throughout the movie, I think Owen appreciated the slapstick stylings of Jack Black's vocal talents.

One Saturday afternoon after we had finsihed some yard work, Mom went up town and Dad and Owen stayed home and finally had the TV to ourselves. Usually, Owen gets pretty fussy after he eats as he tries to fall asleep. After about ten minutes of crankiness he usually falls to sleep. Well, this particular afternoon he was pretty fussy until Dad turned the channel to AMC and together we watched the Richard Burton/Clint Eastwood classic: Where Eagles Dare. Based on the Allistair MacLean novel this World War II epic was a real actioner. And at the moment I knew I had passed on at least one good gene to my son because he stopped fussing and calmed down and just kinda chilled out for a while. He fell asleep during the fight scene on top of the tram car, but I'll take what I can get. It's just good to know my son has pretty good taste in movies too.

New Kids on the Blog

Okay, this is our first foray into the World of Blogging. Almost all of friends do this and we decided to catch up with the times. We figured since we are so far away from most of our family, this would be a great way for them to keep up to date with Owen (and Lily, too).

Melanie, a friend of ours at work showed us how to get started and we got to work.

We'll try to keep everyone up to date as often as we can. Owen is quite a handful and he keeps growing and growing. Everyday it seems he does something or learns something new so we'll have plenty of fodder to post.

Anyway, please enjoy and come back often.

-Chism, Carrie and Owen Nash

(and Lily, too).

The Latest Edition

April 27th, 2008 is the day we welcomed the latest edition to our family: Owen Chance Nash. Weighing in at 6lbs 5oz and barely 19 inches long he came to us as just a little guy, but he has a personality that is larger than life. He is pretty laid back little fellow, however he will get upset if Mom waits even a minute over his feeding time.

His arrival to our home was made official when our dog Lily licked his head. She hasn't been too jealous, except now she has to spend more time with Dad because Mom just doesn't have as much time for her now.

Owen loves visits from family, especially his cousins Olivia, Hunter and Ryan. He likes being held by his two Grandmothers and is especially fond of his Great-Grandma Nak.

When he is not eating, sleeping, pooping, peeing, burping or farting he likes to look around, make smiles at Mom and Dad and grab handfuls of Lily's hair. He has a pretty good grip as Mom has found out on several occaisions when he grabs any stray strands of hair. She has a pretty hard time getting him to let go.