One Year Photo Shoot

The weekend before Owen turned one, we had a photo session with Sarah from ButterflyChaser Photography. We're so happy at how the pictures turned out - the weather wasn't great, and my back was killing me, but she was full of energy and kept Owen in a good mood for two hours!

Here are some of our favorites. I'm definitely ordering some prints to put up around the house.

Happy Birthday Boy

On Saturday, March 19th Owen had his birthday party with the Burns family and a few of our friends from church.

We had a beach/surfer theme. I used a lot of Owen decorations from his room, and some wonderful friends made a really cute surfer cake and yummy cupcakes!

Nana and Pawpaw got Owen a slide for his birthday - this boy love to go fast and already prefers crawling up the slide to using the steps. :-)

 

Eric and I gave him a wading pool for his birthday. Thanks to the warm Texas weather, we were able to pull it out for the big day. Owen wasn't a fan of sitting down in the water, but he sure loved to splash!

Owens friend Linclon was also able to join us for the party - we were so glad he was there! He was a good sport to put up with Owen's splashing. :-)

Next on the agenda was bubbles! This is now Owen's favorite past time - he asks for "Bubulls" many times a day. It was love at first sight! :-)

After a delicious dinner (Eric grilled chicken stuffed with jalapenos and cheese) it was time for the pinata. This was mainly entertainment for the adults, but the birthday boy had to get in a few good whacks first. The pinata stick is actually a piece of pvc pipe, expertly decorated with duct tape and streamers by aunt Kat ... and Owen's favorite toy of the night! :-)

 After the pinata was demolished by uncle Scott and Eric it was time for cake. Owen wasn't that excited about it. I think he may have remembered his run-in with the cake at his California birthday party. That cake ended in tears, this one just ended quickly. Owen didn't know what he was missing, it was delicious!

Ready for the Cake!

His one and only bite!

The other highlight of the party for the birthday boy were the balloons. What more can a boy ask for?

One Year - We Made It!

Owen Lars is one! Here are a few of his stats:
31 inches and 28.4 pounds (he was actually heavier than this a few weeks earlier, but he's recovering from a pretty rough ear infection and lost over a pound in a week)

Still no walking, but he has started standing on his own - especially when he's "helping" mamma water the plants. :)

 

He's so much fun and loves playing, laughing and "talking" to his parents. A few of the words he says pretty consistently is dog "gog" - he really emphasizes the "g" and says it whenever he sees the dogs. "caw" for claw - daddy has The Claw when he tickles him and he loves it! Bubbles is his new word (he was introduced to his new favorite past time at his birthday party) his says this word almost perfectly - "bubul" and asks for it constantly. And of course he's a pro at saying mamma and dadda. Although he primarily says mamma when he wants to be picked up. :)

Owen's favorite place to be is outside in the front or back yard. He'll lay by the door and cry if anyone goes outside and doesn't take him. We have had a few temper tantrums in the last week - been kind of hard for Eric and I not to laugh. When he doesn't get his way (usually not being picked up or being allowed to go outside) he'll bury his head in his lap and then roll onto his tummy and kick the floor all while crying. It's such an obvious attempt at trying to get sympathy, we usually just try and ignore him or start having fun very loudly in another room and he quickly stops crying and crawls to see what we're up to.

Even with the little tantrum now and then, he's still the sweetest boy I know ... who refuses to look at the camera! :-)

Old Friends and New

I March our friends Libby and Greg came down from Pennsylvania for their first trip back to CS since their daughter Emily was born last summer. We had a fun, noisy, hectic dinner over at our house with our friends Megan, Jeremy and Addie and Sonia, Cameron and Lincoln. The kids were troupers and instead of getting a picture with all the mommies together, we decided to grab one of the kids.

Emily is 1st on the left and is almost 8 months in the picture, Addie is next and is about 21 months, then Owen at almost 12 months and finally Lincoln who is around 9 months.

Aren't they cute! But here is the funny part...listen to the parents trying to get the kids to smile for the picture :)

We had a lot of fun catching up this night, and hope we get to do it more often!

Walkin' and Rollin'

Once again I'm about 6 weeks behind on the blog - and a busy 6 weeks it's been. Get ready for a series of short posts that will hopefully bring us up-to-date.

When Owen started crawling and pulling up at 7 months, we thought he would be an early walker. Not so. Whether it's because it takes a lot of coordination to figure out your balance for a kid his size or it's just a confidence issue, Owen has become a world champion crawler - with absolutely no interest in walking by himself.

In early March he finally started making some progress!

After a few days, he was going even farther and would eventually push the stroller completely around the couch.

We thought he would start walking any day. Little did we know he would make us wait more than a month!

I also captured this video during the stroller phase. I love how it shows Owen using his inside voice. :)

I can't believe he's 11 months

Who are you looking at?

I love this picture. :)  Owen typically takes a 2 hour nap after we get home from daycare (to make up for not sleeping the entire time he's there) and always wakes up cranky. He's smiling within a few minutes, but this captures his usual "woke up on the wrong side of the crib" expression.

Owen is at such a fun age right now. He hasn't really reached any new milestones in the last month, but has developed a few new habits. Most are cute, some more than others.

• If you look closely in the pictures above you can see he's holding a book. Owen finally likes us to read to him - I was beginning to worry about the kid - and now has favorite books that he pull out for us to read over, and over, and over. His top picks are a winnie the pooh book and a beach bugs pop up book.
• He likes to dance - well, it's more like bouncing up and down, but he loves to push the musical button on one of his toys and dance with his mamma. I always oblige, no matter how ridiculous I look. :)
• He's cruising more and more and walking really well when we hold his hands
• He likes pointing at objects and having you tell him what they are - his favorite is an animal book and he "barks" when we point at the dog.

Now for the less than fun achievements ...

• His new found height means that he can now open the front door - daddy is installing new locks on the front and back door at about 6 ft high as I type. :)
• He can also see on top of the bathroom counter - which means he starts pulling things off the counter. Mom has had to have a few moments of "discipline" with little O this month
• He has decide to talk VERY LOUDLY. He yells down the hallway, in the car and during dinner. We've tried to ignore this in the hopes that he'll stop if he doesn't get attention.

No matter what, we absolutely love being parents and can't believe Owen Lars is almost a year old!

Fun in California!

In early February Eric, Owen and I headed out to California for a week of fun! Well Owen and I had fun, Eric had a conference for half the week down in San Diego while we hung out in Fallbrook with Mimi and Papa.

Owen and I enjoying the sunny 70s while Texas was in the single digits!

I love this picture - it totally illustrates his personality.

Owen had two big experiences while we were in California...

Hanging out on the beach!

Waiting for the waves ...

The beach is fun!

Owen, Mimi and I went to the beach in Oceanside. We had such a good time and Owen let Mimi hold his hands and "walk" down to the water. He wasn't scared of the waves at all and really liked crawling on the sand.

The next day we went down to Coronado Island to meet Eric for lunch. There's a great beach there as well so of course we had to check it out. :-)

Owen LOVED the sand - until he tried to eat it...

Papa giving O a ride.

Hotel Del in the background ...

The other big event on our trip was an early birthday party with our California family!

Uncle Marc, Aunt Becky, Aunt Jen, Brynn and great grandma Oslund were all able to join us.

Ready to party

Now what is this ...

Total destruction accomplished!

Owen actually didn't eat much of the cake. After he destroyed it, he finally put his hands in his mouth and started screaming. We weren't sure if he accidentally bit his finger, if the sweet frosting made his teeth hurt or if he got it up his nose - he was sneezing blue frosting the rest of the evening.

We had such a good time and can't wait until we can go back and visit!