Spring has Sprung...

...finally! Isn't it about time?!?

I'm so glad that the sun is finally shining and the weather is warm! It makes everything a little nicer!!! It's been great getting Owen outside and the sun just makes you feel good!! :)

The weekend started out on a positive note - when Owen got a good report on his ears! His hearing tests were all within normal range and the tubes looked like they were still in place and doing well!! We're so glad we made the decision for tubes!!

Friday night we celebrated Alyson's 30th birthday with Alyson (duh), Greg, Emily, and Tim. We went to dinner at VI


Then we headed down to the fireworks...we had an awesome time!! It was a bit chilly, but it was worth it for a fun night out!




Saturday, Owen slept in until 8:45! It was a new record!! Granmuffin watched O on Fri night and must have had too much fun with him and wore him out (and what a welcomed surprise for him to sleep in after a late night out - well if you call 11:00ish late (for us, yes!))

At 9:30 - Dylan had a soccer game so we decided to hurry up and get dressed and ready and head out there to cheer him on! It was a bit windy - but it was so nice to get some fresh air and watch all the kids play - they're so cute at that age (I think the league is either 4 and 5 or 5 and 6 year olds) and Dylan and his team did awesome! Here's Kenz chillin out on the field while the team is playing in the background (silly girl!)

After soccer, Dylan went out hunting with Paul and they got a turkey! It worked out pretty well, Scott was just on his way out to his dad's house to go picks some stuff up when the phone rang and it was Dylan calling to tell Scott they got a turkey! Good job guys! :)

Saturday afternoon I dutch danced and there were SO many spectators!! There were only five groups performing and there was an art show in the park, so the dancers drew a huge crowd! Our group had a lot of people there to watch (gran, barb, aunt mary, tim, emily, emily's mom and step dad, scott, owen, jen's fam, robin's fam, and families of most of the other dancers too!)

what a fun time!! After we danced we figured we would take advantage of the nice weather and kid's good moods and try to get some cute pics by the tulips, since they were all in their costumes....

Paul and Scott were like paparazzi - taking tons of shots in hopes to catch one where all three kids were looking...This is one scott took - Jen and I were looking at Paul's camera though - but I think its so cute, Dylan looks like he's deep in thought, and Kenz is checkin out her cuz and Owen wanted to say hi!


Another attempt...

This one turned out pretty cute though!


Scott's two little dutch boys!


Sunday- Owen, Scott and I headed to Kinderplaats downtown to check out the fun...We parked way over on River and walked the boardwalk (which I never really knew existed) to get there - so we got a nice long walk in too!


It was fun to see what it was all about, but will be much more fun when Owen is a little older. Owen got a balloon, got to pet a pony, check out some pigs and goats and birds, and he saw a great big bulldozer, a police car, and lots of other fun stuff. Scott stood in line for awhile so we could get a caricature done of Owen.

While Scott was in line, Owen and I watched the group of Irish dancers - probably ages 5-15 on the stage. They were so cute! Later on, Owen even got his pic taken with Curious George! Though, I think Scott is a little more excited about it than O! :)

Sunday evening, Scott went out fishing with some friends and when Owen got up from his nap, we headed over to gran's and went on a nice long walk by her house (double exercise today, I don't think my body knows what is going on!)

What a great fun-filled weekend with family and friends!

On a random note, these are some pics from last weekend...Owen doing what he loves best (riding his little firetruck around (he can kinda make it go backwards)...and looking out the window in his new chair...

Hiatus

Yes, it's been awhile - my camera was on the fritz and we've been crazy busy!!

So what have we been up to, you ask?!

Well, for starters....

• Scott put in a 'dog run' in the backyard, so we could control the 'pooping grounds'
• I planned a baby shower for Kelly (so much fun!! Can't wait to meet you baby K!)
• We have the "mother of all garage sales" coming up in June, and I thought I'd start preparing now.
• Reglazed our bathtub (thanks to the hard work by my hubby!) and it looks amazing!
• I went on a shopping excursion to Schaumburg over Spring Break
• Scott is creating a food plot for the deer out at his dad's
• Scott is also gearing up to plant a garden in the back yard
• Scott has been enjoying some free time on fridays and has gotten out fishing a couple of times
• With the welcome spring weather (which can come back anytime as far as I'm concerned) it put us in the mode to do lots of 'spring cleaning'.
• We've been trying to get out as much as we can and enjoy the nice weather

Oh, guess what? Did I tell you? I am Dutch Dancing this year - come watch if you can:
Saturday, May 2 4:00 pm - Corner of Central and 12th
Tuesday, May 5 7:00 pm - Corner of Central and 10th
Wednesday, May 6 8:00 pm - On 8th St in front of Dress Code (between River and Central)
Thursday, May 7, 8:00 pm - On 8th St in front of Teermans (between Central and College)
Friday, May 8, 8:00 pm - On Central (just south of 8th St)

In other news...Owen has had some fun lately, learning how to (slowly but surely) move around the foot stool while standing up, he also realizes now what a reaction he gets when he laughs and so puts himself into major laughing fits and has also developed a fake laugh (which is nothing short of adorable), he got to spend some time with Uncle Nathan and Teresa in Fremont Over Spring Break and also some time with Uncle Travis and Katy (while mom and dad went on a date - since the Steven Curtis Chapman/Michael W Smith United Tour was in town a couple of weeks ago, we decided to go with Scott's parents and Jen and Paul - it was an awesome concert!).

Owen has also been growing some more chompers (pronounced: chom-(with a long o) -peas)! He now has three bottom teeth and two top teeth and has started to eat little gerber puff cereal (reluctantly, at first, as he much prefered his 'baby food' - but has since discovered the luciousness that is 'real food' - or partially real anyway, since he still refuses anything else - including bananas, noodles, etc).

Verbally, he still says dadada all the time, but no mama yet!! He's also trying to say cat (every time he sees her he makes a 'k' sound).

He's also still doing awesome after he got his tubes put in and has been sleeping through the night (which really couldn't make me much happier)!!! He got to feel the grass in his toes (along with grass and sticks in his hands too) and though it was just grand!

He takes after his dad (HC!)


Owen also loves looking out the front window (and apparently licking it (pardon the rain splatters))...


So sweet (I think he's in the process of making a fun noise by rubbing his hand over his mouth...


Oh - and when I was getting some pics off my old camera - I stumbled across this forgotten pic - from a couple of months ago...so precious

and to top it all off...this is just plain hilarious, for a number of reasons...

Dancin' Boy

Here's some baby dancin' - so cute!! Such a dancin fool that he got a little carried away, I love the look on his face before he goes over! :)

40 Weeks

Thanks to the Planning Family updates I get by email each week, I realized that my babe is 40 weeks old! Can't believe that he is as old as the amount of time I was pregnant! (well almost - since he decided to come a week late!)

These past 40 weeks have flown by (much faster, I might add, than the last few weeks of my pregnancy!! :))

9 month stats:
Weight - 75th percentile
Height - 60th percentile
Head Circumference - Off the charts

My New Mantra...

So, this is a post that I started back in January (yeah I'm a slacker!)...

According to Wikipedia: A mantra is a sound, syllable, word, or group of words that are considered capable of "creating transformation"

The followign words are written on a bracelet I recieved as a Christmas gift from my mom...

Hope
Be Brave
Dream
Take Chances
Love
Create Change
Find a passion

I think these words/phrases are what matter in life - all of them pure simplicity, yet most of us find some if not of them difficult to do... OR we do these things but come at them from a negative persepective.

My goal: take time out of the busy times to focus AND energy away from negativity and put it instead on what matters, on what drives me, on the future...its time for some transformation!

Just some food for thought! :)

9 Months

Had to do another quick post with this pic...can't believe how much he changes from month to month!! (click on the pic to enlarge)

Spring Break!

Spring Break is here! Where I work, we typically get the Thurs and Fri of spring break week off of work - and this year I took the rest of the week off too so that I could take care of Owen, since his daycare is closed. I ended up working most of Monday though, so Owen got to spend the day hangin out with Grandma!

The rest of the week has been spent pretty lazily - no better way - IMO! Just hung out with Granmuffin and played at home since the weather was not very nice! I do have some shopping fun planned for the weekend! Also, today my little guy had his tubes put in!

Today, we started our morning off very early as we had to be at Zeeland hospital by 6:30. Since he couldn't eat in the middle of the night, we had a very long night as he was awake and screaming from about 12:30 - 2:30. This is how we found him snuggled up this morning when we went in to wake him, complete with thumb in mouth (I hated to disturb such peacefulness!)



Surgery was scheduled for 7:30 - and we were home by 8:30! Grandma even came to be with him! The procedure went so quick and Owen did amazing, he cried when he came out of the anesthesia but as soon as he came back to us he nursed and did pretty darn good, considering that he just had surgery and hadn't eaten since 8pm last night!!

The doctor came out afterwards to let us know everything went well and said that he had TONS of fluid in his ears - he was suctioning his fluid out before putting in the tubes and couldn't believe how much there was and then once the tubes were in he said even more fluid came bubbling out. So - he definitely thought we did the right thing by getting the tubes. Once we got home O sat on my lap and played a little bit and went to sleep by a little after 9. We could already tell a difference in his hearing, he would respond to little noises, which he normally NEVER noticed before (clearing of a throat, footsteps, etc) and would turn his head right away when we called his name - where before he wouldn't always hear us. Now the true test will be how well he sleeps tonight!

Stay tuned...

In other news this week, Tuesday was the official 9 month old mark!!! And once again, I will have to say I can't believe how fast time is going, it seems like the time between each month gets shorter and shorter as Owen gets older!

Here's what he's been up to:

Wearing size 12-18 mo clothes
nicknames: buns, peanut, O, munch, mister, little man, buddy,
loves his sippy cup



has a fun time playing dress-up!



is now taking a bath in the regular tub



shows NO interest in any 'real' food other than baby food (with the exception of yogurt, applesauce, and ice cream) this is him checking out the strawberry puffs on his tray (soooo disgusted with them!)...



his favorite baby food is sweet potatoes with corn
can stand with little assistance
pretty much has given up his paci
loves looking out the front window
making new noises every day - mostly da, la, go, ga (no mama yet!)
loves to clap and dance
clasps his hands and twiddles his thumbs
loves to read
favorite toy is probably a small box filled with differnt toys (he loves to pull them out and play with the box)
enjoys Veggie Tales and Baby Einstein
has the most adorable cheekers...



As always, the froggy buddy pictures...

well, he wasn't exactly cooperating and was taking some aggression out on poor froggy buddy...





this is about the level of cooperation he was willing to provide...



so we had to do a re-shoot again today...

success...