Family Vacation part 3

We took the Island's trolley all over-we drive twice the entire week!

This night we actually left our camera, our not so cheap camera, at the trolley stop! The driver found it and said it was sitting there for two of her rounds, like over an hour! We discovered it was missing at dinner and were more than sad. We connected with the driver that had picked the camera up and were very grateful!!!

Probably my most favorite picture of Owen that week! What's better than eating a PB&J in your undies on the deck after a long day at the beach! His smile is so sweet...

More pictures from our hot dog picnic

classic!

sums up how I feel about this trip..."thankful"

Family Vacation part 2

We walked.....

.....a lot! Owen and I had special mornings together at the beach. We would hunt for shells, dig, and walk together. It was good for us, and I treasured every moment.

Favorite memory hands down. We packed a hot dog dinner and ate down at the beach. We played. We watched the sun set. We laughed. It was an amazing night!

I LOVE HER!

We had just one day of storms, actually it was just in the late afternoon.

I read...A WHOLE BOOK!

It was hot and humid.

This is SO true!

Family Vacation part 1

We were so incredibly blessed to go on a fabulous family vacation in September. We found out about a ministry that blesses pastors and missionaries with a very affordable place to stay at the beach in Florida. It was about an hour south of Tampa-definitely a drive, but so worth it! We had an amazing time, I cannot even express how good it was for our family to get away and do this-just us! We pray we can do it again. Not going to write a ton about the trip, just going to tell stories through our pictures.

We got into FL around 4, and enjoyed a beautiful walk on the beach!

Little man took this shot-I think he did a great job!!!

First day in the ocean...water was perfect....just a tad cooler than lukewarm.

Owen loved the water and begged to go swimming at 8am almost everyday. We generallly made him wait til 9am! =)

One of my favorite things about Joe is how he loves to have fun! He and Owen are so fun to watch together. Owen and Selah are lucky to have this guy as their dad. And I'm just plain lucky!

My little beach bum.

We met up with our dear friends Dan, Sarah, and their daughter Parker. We met them in CO and have stayed in contact ever since. It takes no work to pick up with them, and I love that!

Owen and Parker taking a little stroll on the beach.

Preschool

I'm just shy of a month and a half late on this post. Which possibly makes me the worst blogger/milestone keeper ever!

Owen started a three day a week Preschool program in September. He was super excited to go to school, just like some of his best buddies do. Although, most of those best buddies are in kindergarten or beyond, he was still excited to be going to school. He loves people. He is one little social guy. So, Joe and I knew he would love doing something like this. I love his school, love the director and love his two teachers. Now, Owen did not get placed with the lovey dovey teacher, his teacher is good at tough love =) I think they are a perfect match, and her being on top of stuff doesn't seem to bother Owen. They have already done so many fun things! He love it. He has matured and learned a lot in the month and a half of being in a class room setting. Joe and I have seen a lot of routines that are expected out of him carry over to the house, which is so fun! Things like putting his shoe's away on his own, taking his plate to the sink-again on his own. He has also picked up on and brought some habits home that we are working on. Things like potty talk and weird behaviors that I know he is imatating from others-things that are totally expected!  All and all I am so happy he is at this school, and we pray he will be a student there next year as well!

enjoying a special first day of school breakie!

Sprinkle pancakes and scrambled eggs to start his day!

My handsome. All ready to go with his big school bag and all!

No fear. Just pure happy to go to school.

Outside the doors to school *sigh* before I know he will be leaving to go to college.

5 months

Sister is 5 months old.  Oh, how time flies! These past 5 months have gone by so fast!!! She is one rolly polly olly! She will roll all over the place. She does not roll to get anything, she just likes to roll for fun. She has hit an official fussy part of her day. She seems to not like like the hours of 4:45 in the afternoon to about 6:30. It's really fun! She refuses to take a nap at that time, yet is so tired. So she fights it. She is no longer all that cuddly. She's "too busy" to cuddle. It's much more fun watching Owen bounce around and see what else is going on. She prefers her mommy over most people, and is starting to notice when I'm not around. She let's everyone know about her preference! I think she is also working on some chompers.

She is starting to sit up when we help her and will sit for a few minutes, then tumbles over.  She has started making "da-da, ba-ba mmmmm" sounds. She still continues to talk and squeel a lot and very loudly. She watches Owen with wonder and so much love. She loves hearing her daddy sing. She is nursing 4-5 times a day. She kinda sleeps through the night. Meaning she goes to bed around 7 and stays in bed until 7 or 7:30. She wakes up most early mornings (anywhere between 4am and 6am) and talks and talks and talks. She is not hungry, she just plays, and puts herself back to sleep.

She is still so sweet, and is becoming a tad bashful. She has starting going into Owen's old jumper thing, and LOVES it. She is not as crazy as Owen was in it, but I'm sure she will get there.  Things are getting more and more fun with her. She started eating rice cereal about once a night last week. She does OK with it, doesn't love it and doesn't hate it. We will work on other solids soon!

4 months of Sweet Selah

Selah turned 4 months old last week. Not much has changed since I last blogged about her turning 3 months, since that post was so late! She continues to eat really well, and is becoming more and more fun! Her personality is blooming as each day passes. She is so smiley. Joe and I just talked about how we think she is more smiley at this stage than Owen ever was. One thing she has started is, rolling from her tummy to back and then back onto tummy. The other morning I laid her on the middle of a blanket and in minutes she was rolling to all over and eventually far off the blanket! I was reminded about how babies become mobile and I am definitely not ready for that...Owen started crawling around 7 months, and well that's not too far from now!! It amazes me how babies accomplish so many big things in their first year-crazy!

She had her 4 month check up and she is 14 pounds 8 ounces and 24.5 inches long. I can't remember her head circumference, but it was perfect! =) She is in the 50th percentile all across the board. Her doctor said we can start cereal, but I think I am going to give it another month...maybe even wait til 6 months. She doesn't seem to need it or "ask" for anything more than milk right now. She is sleeping great, so I don't think she need those extra calories to help her sleep better at night, so I think we are just going to wait. I also I want to get Owen good and settled in school and focus on the food transition with Selah. Her doctor was more than fine with that, she just suggested me keeping up with her 10pm feeding until we do start on the cereal, even though Selah never wakes up for that feeding and sleeps right through it. So, that our plan!

She continues to bring all of us so much joy. She has us all wrapped around her pinky...

A pirate's life for O

Owen is way into imaginary play right now. His newest favorite thing (credit to Jake and the Neverland Pirates) is to be a Pirate. I took him "pirate shopping" a week or so ago, and now he dresses up. He hunts for treasure, which is usually him putting his cars in his Lightning Mcqueen Box tin box thing he has. He drives his boat, which is a laundry basket. He has the "Arghh" and my favorite "Ahoy, Matey!" down. He uses his his telescope to look for dry land. While driving his boat he says that the area rug in the living room is the water, and he can't fall in because there are crocodiles. And, my friend Megan hooked him up with a cool sword to fight off those crocs!

The Captain (according to O) taking a rest in his boat.

Looking for dry land.

We had to pretend the baseball bat was a sword, until he got one. PS don't you think it's funny Charlie insists on being in some pictures!

The boy is cute! He is full of life. Full of joy-most of the time! I love how his little imagination works and how he plays, good and hard. It makes me smile, and a lot of the times laugh to myself at the things he brings up or the things he doesn't think I hear him say while playing. I pray he always plays hard. I pray that his imagination keeps growing and that he is always full of fun and joy.