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!