rock star in the making?

Just another dinner-time jam session…

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our little sweetie

I just couldn’t choose… 

Enjoy!

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nothing says summer like peach pickin’

Not too long ago, the kids and I headed to Eckert’s in Belleville, IL for some peach picking with some friends.  My friend, Emmie, offered to let us ride with her in her big-enough-for-four-car-seats SUV.  It was WAY more fun this way…especially considering it takes almost an hour to get there.  Between us, we have 4 kids under the age of 4.  So it took us quite a while to get our stuff out of the car and ready to go into the orchard.  Here’s a picture of Owen with the babies…Luke and Molly…waiting patiently as the mommies got the stuff ready.

When we finally had the strollers packed with snacks, drinks, cameras, extra diapers, bug spray, baby wipes…the list goes on…we headed for the orchards.  To the boys’ delight, you have to ride a tractor to get to the orchard.  The tractor pulls a flat bed type thing, like you would use for a hayride minus the hay.  Owen was really pumped about this and couldn’t stop talking about riding the tractor.  Here we are waiting for the tractor to pick us up:

When we finally got to the orchard, the kiddies were anxious to get to pickin’!  The peach trees were a great height for our little guys…they could easily reach the fruit and pick it by themselves.  Here’s a picture of Owen and Chase (Emmie’s son and Owen’s buddy) putting their peaches in our basket.  (As they did this, Emmie weeded out the ones we didn’t want to pay for.  Funny how 2 and 3 year-olds don’t really grasp the concept of not wanting to purchase bruised/partially smashed fruit.)

Of course we had to make sure the peaches were tasty enough to buy.  Owen had no trouble polishing off a peach on his own.

Later that day I learned that peach juice stains.  We’ll always remember our peach picking experience when Owen wears this t-shirt.

The peach picking experience was fun.  It was very hot the day we went and the bees loved all the smashed peaches that littered the ground in the orchard.  Being slightly afraid of bees, I was pretty ready to get out of there as soon as we had our basket of peaches.  Owen loved it and would have probably spent all day in the orchard eating peaches until they made him sick.  His new favorite thing to eat is a whole peach.  It’s pretty cute…peach juice dripping down his arms and all.

You’ve seen lots of pictures of Owen enjoying the peach picking adventure.  What about Molly??  She’s such a trooper.  She hung out in the stroller the entire time and just kind of looked around.  She was so hot, but she actually slept a good bit of the time we were picking and only cried for a few minutes when we were being swarmed by bees while awaiting the return of the tractor.  Who can blame her?  I felt like doing the same thing.  Here she is, looking all relaxed in her comfy stroller:

What did I do with all the peaches we picked, you ask?  As I mentioned, Owen loves to eat them whole…but I picked 4 pounds and that’s a lot of peaches for the little guy to consume.  I found a recipe for a Fresh Peach Crisp, compliments of The Pioneer Woman’s blog.  If you haven’t visited this blog, it’s a must-visit.  I’m completely obsessed and have been known to keep my computer with me in the kitchen while I cook, following the recipe picture by picture (you’ll understand what I mean when you check out the amazing cooking section of her blog).  Check her out…you won’t be sorry!

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the force is definitely strong with this one

As you may or may not recall, Owen has a bit of forced (pardon the pun) history with Star Wars. I somehow managed to talk Emily into letting him be Yoda for his first Halloween (see that post here), he and I received the Millenium Falcon for Christmas last year (see post here), and I videoed the first time he ever saw a scene from Star Wars (see clip here).

I’m proud to say I force it no longer. The boy loves the movies (yes, he’s holding a Star Wars DVD case in the above picture and wearing a Jedi robe on a mound of yet-to-be folded laundry); he’s seen them all but Episode III: Revenge of the Sith – not sure he’s quite ready to see Anakin Skywalker burn in lava. He begs in the morning to wear one of his two Star Wars t-shirts. He insists on listening to the Star Wars soundtrack when playing. The minute I get in the door home from work he’s waiting for me with two light sabers in hand ready to do battle. And he plays with his Star Wars action figures non-stop to the point of taking them with him on errands to the grocery store.

But I’ve said enough. The following video proves the boy’s inner Jedi knowledge and experience more than words can even try.

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why i love hgtv…

Maybe if I didn’t dedicate hours of my life to watching home decorating shows on HGTV I wouldn’t have thought to recover these dining room chairs to make them work in my house.  See…now I can rationalize the time I’ve spent on the couch NOT doing laundry and cleaning up kiddie messes.

As I mentioned in this post, my grandma has recently moved away from her house and into a nursing home in Dallas.  Over the past 2 months, my mom and her sisters have completely cleaned out all the things in my grandma’s house.  Some of these things the sisters wanted to keep, other things were sold at an estate sale, while still others were divided up between the grandchildren.  There were several things I wanted as keepsakes from my grandma’s house, but I was most excited about these chairs.  Here’s a picture of them before my HGTV redo:

I’ve always thought these chairs were really pretty.  The covering was perfect in my grandma’s house but I watned to recover them to fit my decor a little bit better.  My mom said that these chairs were part of the dining room set in their house when they were little.  I’m excited to use them in my dining room.  Here’s where I envisioned them sitting:

After two trips to Joann Fabrics (the first time I bought a fabric I thought I liked and brought it home only to discover that it SO didn’t work), I finally was ready to begin.  I invited my mom over to help and we set to work.  I thought this would only take about 30 minutes because that’s how long it took the designers on HGTV.  It took me slightly longer than 30 minutes…okay, maybe about 3 hours.  But when they were finally done, I was thrilled with the result.  Here’s a completed chair:

And here’s a shot of them in their special place in my dining room:

I love having them in my house because they constantly remind me of my grandma.  I also love having the extra seating.  We finished them not a moment too soon…we needed both of them this past weekend for Molly’s baptism lunch.  Oh how I love HGTV!!

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molly’s baptism

This past weekend was Molly’s baptism.  We were really looking forward to this day for a number of reasons.  First, we were reminded of what an important job it is to be a parent.  We have such an important responsibility as parents to teach our children about God and to pray for them and with them.  I was also reminded of what a blessing it is to be given the chance to have my own children.  It was very encouraging to see the members of our church family commit to coming alongside us and supporting us as we raise our children.  Second, we were so excited to have our friend and a pastor at our church, Ben Porter (Ella’s daddy…Owen best buddy), baptize Molly.  Here we are with him after the service.

Another thing that made this day so special was that both sets of grandparents got to be present at the baptism, as well as my brother, Nate.  Here’s the whole group:

And here’s Molly with Nana and Bubba (Travis’s parents):

And one of Molly with Mimi and Dada (my parents):

And one of Travis and me with our little girl…and you can see our wild little man exploring the wide open spaces behind us.  We opted to let Owen hang out in the nursery during the baptism due to the fact that he’s a bit of a loose cannon…

And finally, a shot of our sweet little girl.  I remember worrying that Owen was going to freak out during the baptism and start screaming…that’s just the kind of kid he was.  I didn’t worry about that all with Molly…instead, I was SUPER nervous that Molly was going to spit up all over Ben while he was baptizing her.  I seriously had visions of projectile vomit all over his suit while he was sprinkling her head.  Luckily she decided to spit up during the prayer prior to her baptism.  I was able to get it all wiped up before he took her.  I was SO relieved!  After the service people told us that she beamed at the congregation the whole time Ben held her.  She’s such a precious little thing.

We continued the celebration at our house after church.  It was a lot of fun having both sets of grandparents share a meal with us and play with our kids.  Here are the ladies and Owen getting ready to dig into pulled pork sandwiches, potato salad, baked beans, and cole slaw.  Yummy!

Thank you Nana, Bubba, Mimi, Dada, and Uncle Nate for being with us to celebrate Molly’s special day!

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another month older

Today Molly is 4 months old!

We went to the pediatrician this morning for her 4 month check-up.  Here are her stats:

*14 pounds, 11.5 ounces  (75th percentile)–Remember when the doctor had me worried that I was going to have a very small baby? *25 1/2 inches long  (90th percentile)

And just in case you’re wondering…at this age, Owen had three more pounds on her.  He was weighing more than 17 pounds at 4 months.  She’s not the chunk he was.

We were concerned that Molly was going to have to wear a helmet because at her 2 month visit the doctor was noticing a pretty good flat spot starting on her head.  We worked really hard over the past 2 months to make sure she rotated her head while she slept, and I tried to keep her off her back during the day as much as possible (easier said than done when you’re trying to take care of 2).  It must have paid off because the doctor said her head looks great.  Still a slight flat spot but not enough to warrant a helmet.  I am SO glad!

Another thing the doctor noticed was the AMOUNT of spit up Molly produces.  By the time she came into the room, Molly had pretty well saturated the paper covering on the table.  When the doctor began her exam, Molly proceeded to spit up all over the doctor’s arms.  While we were there, not kidding, she spit up well over 1o times.  After seeing all this, the doctor said, “You’re right.  Molly does spit up a lot.  Maybe Zantac isn’t strong enough for her.  Let’s try Prevacid.”  So I’ve got a prescription of Prevacid waiting at Walgreens to pick up after naps today.  Maybe now I won’t have to do laundry quite as much??

My question for the doctor at this visit was about Molly’s milk allergy.  She had told me that babies sometimes start to outgrow the milk protein allergy between 3 and 4 months.  Her instructions to see if this has happened is to go heavy on the dairy products and see what happens!  I’ve gotta admit, I’m a little nervous about the things that could happen if she’s still allergic (bleeding, lots of bleeding).  But at least if it happens, I’ll know the cause and then just lay off the milk.  I’ll keep you updated.  We’re already planning a nice pizza meal this weekend.

Anyway, otherwise Molly is great!  She is becoming incredibly social.  The doctor commented on how loud she is and how much she likes to hear herself talk!  She’s got to compete with her big brother so she’s learning to be loud.  She is SO smiley and loves to laugh.  We are loving to see her personality develop.

On to her brother…Owen is 27 months today!

Owen is such a fun kid and is at such a fun age.  He continues to LOVE LOVE LOVE everything Star Wars (notice the shirt).  He can spend hours (literally) lining up his Star Wars characters in different poses.  (Look for a post soon about this…).  He also is speaking in complete sentences a lot of the time.  It’s hilarious to hear some of the things that come out of his mouth.  Owen loves his little sister and is starting to ask to hold her all the time.  He says, “Owie hold her, Mama?” when he wants to hold her. 

This normally lasts about 10 seconds before he’s ready to be done.  I have to be right there because he will literally try to throw his baby sister off  his lap.  When he’s done, he’s done.  Can you tell by his face in this picture that he’s saying, “Owie DONE, Mama!”?

Even though her big brother has about a 2 second attention span when it comes to playing with her, Molly loves him to death.  He can make her smile like nobody else.  Here’s a shot of him trying to kiss her while she tries to grab his face.

Okay, that’s all for now.  I’m almost 100% positive that Molly’s diaper is leaking all over my lap and I hear a mysterious thumping noise coming from her brother’s bedroom where he’s supposed to be napping.  Time to go back on mommy duty.  Stay tuned for more posts coming soon…it’s been a busy few weeks and I have lots of blog posts running through my head!

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“owie play star wars with don”

This is what we’ve been hearing out of Owen’s mouth ever since Travis’s cousin, Don, came to visit last weekend.  Owen now considers Don his best friend, due largely to the fact that Don played Star Wars with Owen for hours AND bought Owen several new Star Wars action figures.  Don will forever be the coolest cousin in Owen’s opinion.  Can you tell Owen’s in heaven?  (I think Don and Travis were in a little bit of heaven, too…they had an excuse to geek-out and play with Star Wars action figures all in the name of spending time with Owen!)

Besides holing up in the basement and re-enacting scenes from the Star Wars movies, we tried to give Don as much of a flavor for the city as possible.  On Friday, we met Travis downtown for a picnic lunch under the arch. 

After lunch, I took the kiddies home for naps, and Travis and Don went up the arch.  Trav had never been up it before and has been trying to convince me to go up with him ever since he moved to St. Louis 6 years ago.  Being a St. Louis native, I did the arch when I was a kid and, due to some clautrophobia and height issues, I have NO desire to ever go up again.  When Don suggested that he might want to go up, Travis was thrilled (and so was I). 

Saturday morning we got up to brave the heat so that Don could experience the St. Louis Zoo.  Owen was super excited to see the “ots” (as he calls elephants).  Here’s a pic of the boys when we finally made it to see the big guys:

One final zoo picture…while visiting the wild boars, we happened upon two of them attempting to grow their family.  Yikes.  Not a conversation you want to have with your 2 year old!  Here’s Owen’s reaction before we whisked him away to a more child-friendly viewing experience.

Saturday night we took Don to the Schlafly Bottleworks Brewery Tour.  It was a great tour and at the end they let you taste several of their beers (and let me mention that this tour and tasting experience is totally free!).  After the tour, we ate in the Loop at Blueberry Hill.  Before heading home to relieve our babysitters (my parents), we took Don to the Central West End to get drinks at Llywelyn’s Pub.  It was a great weekend.  Travis and I were reminded of how much great stuff there is to do in our city.  Anyone else wanna come visit??

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watch out, lebron!

Much to his father’s delight, Owen’s favorite pasttime is “ball in the bucket” (as he calls basketball).  He has a hoop in the basement that he loves to play with (well, and he loves to get his Star Wars guys tangled in the net so they dangle precariously in mid-air…but that’s another post).  He also has a hoop on his clubhouse in the backyard.  Owen had been frustrated with the hoop outside because the basket was just a wee bit out of his reach.  I had been picking him up and letting him dunk the ball, but after about 10 minutes of this my arms were getting a bit tired.  The solution…stand on the bench of the picnic table and slam it in!  Owen LOVED this solution and can’t get enough.  Check out this picture…the kid’s got pretty nice form!

Here’s a video of our little baller in action:

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Here’s To John Hughes

May he rest in peace. This list (courtesy of IMDB) says it all…an absolutely insane 7 year stretch:

Oh, and if you’d like a great playlist of classic 80s music from John Hughes films, click here.

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