Only 2 months late on this post...

Since I have not gotten around to posting pics of O's birthday (nor for lack of trying...blogger shuts down when I try to load pics lately. Frustrating!) I figured I still need to write a 3 year old tribute post to my big boy. Here goes.

Owen, here are the things that I always want to remember about you being 3. You are the COOLEST kid. Ever. You love sports, and are really stinking good at them. You drain basketballs like it ain't no thang, you can smack baseballs when daddy pitches to you...but you have a wee bit of trouble hitting off of a tee, which should make t-ball interesting! For your birthday, you got a trampoline, and you are on that thing constantly. You love to bounce Wade when he is in the trampoline, and you think that it is hysterical when mommy bounces, and you don't understand why momma can't bounce for hours on end. You have developed a fascination with superheroes! You love to climb on everything like you are spiderman. You are still a VEEERRRRRYYYY picky eater, but you are getting better. You will now eat chicken from anywhere, and you have started to enjoy meatballs! Pasta of all kids still makes you gag, so we don't make you eat it. You love going to the dr, and the dentist...anyone who will fuss over you! You want to be outside allll of the time. You have the biggest heart of any kid I know. You want to have lots of friends, and you are so good to your friends. You worry about everyone's feelings, and are such a well-liked kiddo. You are the definition of a "routine kid", and you do not appreciate when something is out of line. You have your bed arranged a certain way, you sleep with your cheetah every night in the same position, you have to have your fan going and your fishtank light on to go to sleep. Speaking of fishtanks, you LOVE your fish...a beta named "Owen Jr." How you came up with that name, we will never know! You will start preschool in the fall at Second Friends, and you are SUPER excited. Your friend Hudson will be in your class, and I am SO glad about that, that will give you some confidence! I know your teachers are going to love you. You are the best big brother to Wade that we could have ever hoped for! You will do anything for him, and you love to make him laugh! You sometimes get mad at him when he wants to take your toys or when he is taking too much of momma's attention, but you never get MAD at him. Wade loves you so much that one of his first words was "buhbuh". You think your dadda hung the moon. Anytime that anything needs to be found, fixed, put together, etc, you say "my daddy can do that for us." SO cute. You are his little helper. You love the water, but you hate getting water in your eyes. You love to snuggle still, and I will encourage that as long as possible!! I still can't quite believe that it has been 3 years (and 2 months, whoops) since you were born! How much our lives have changed for the better with you in them! We love you more than you will ever know, and I can't wait to see what the rest of the year has in store for you! xoxo, mommy

First of many, I am sure.

We went to Paradise Park today with some friends, and had a wonderful time! But, something happened during our visit, that made me not look forward to the later years with our boys, especially with Owen, who is incredibly sensitive.

Owen was playing in the water room with his friend Avree, and I was feeding wade his lunch at a nearby table. A mom that was with our group was in the water room, and she heard another mom go "EWW! He is drinking the water!!" She was referring to Owen, who, clever little man, was using the measuring cups to get water from the water table and drink from. Obviously, that is pretty gross, but obviously a 3-year-old boy doesn't see the problem, lol! But Owen heard what the mom had said ("EWWW!") and knew that she was talking about him. He then put the toys down, and didn't play anymore. He gets embarrassed and heart-hurt so easily, it breaks my heart. I know that there will be many more times in his life where he gets embarrassed and withdraws, and I know that I can't do much more about it than to encourage him to be his amazing self. I hate thinking about how he must have been feeling when he heard the other lady say "ewwww!" at him. I wish my babies would never have to know what that feels like. I wish I could have been there today, to say "O, no big deal! If you are thirsty, let's go get a drink!" With him, quickly diffusing the situation is key to preventing him from feeling bad. I feel bad I wasn't able to do that today.

Sweet moment with my sweet boys

I realize that I have yet to post pics from O's 3rd birthday, and write his annual letter to him. Guess that means I am out of the Mother of the Year race. RATS! I do need to do that, like, soon, obvi, before I forget all of the fun that occurred at his party.

We went to Lowe's yesterday, to buy some wind stakes for O's trampoline. The boys were riding in one of the racecar carts, and this lady that works at Lowe's came up and started chatting with my boys, which, who can blame her seeing as how my boys are so sweet and charming, who could resist them?? After she asked Owen the standard questions "what is your name? how old are you? are you a good boy? is this your little brother...?" to which Owen politely and sweetly answered, she moved onto Wade. Wade loooooves to play the "me so shy and coy!" game when people are talking to him, usually he will smile at the person, and bury his head in my chest. Well, since I wasn't holding him, he instead snuggled right into Owen, laid his head on O's shoulder, and hugged O's arm, while smiling sweetly at the lady. I.About.Died. from the cuteness. Owen then spoke up for his brother and said, "It's okay, he is just shy!" Awwww!

In other news, both boys are still amazing. Owen is smart as a whip, and starts tball here shortly. He is so dang excited. He is going to be on a team with Hudson and Gavin, which makes this even better! Wade is doing great! He is almost 11 months now, and not crawling! But before you start "oh my gosh! wade isn't crawling yet! can you believe it? that is crazy! something is wrong!"...I asked their pediatrician a few weeks ago about it, and his reply was "Be glad! Less chance for him to hurt himself!" Apparently crawling isn't even a milestone since so many kids just don't do it. He has the strength to do it, because he will hang out in the crawling position, but he just doesn't seem to care! Oh well! No skin off of my nose. ;)

Camera Gear

After my last post, I got a few emails asking what equipment I have...so, here it is!

Camera Bodies:
Canon 5D
Canon 30D (back-up)

Lenses:
50 mm 1.4
85 mm 1.8
24-70 2.8L

This year, I am planning on selling my 30D, and getting the new 5D Mark III when it is released, then my 5D classic will become my backup. I also hope to add the 70-200 2.8L IS lens to my "gear" this year. Exciting stuff! At least it is to me, lol.

Where have I been?

Wow, it has been a hot minute since I updated this thing! Let's see what has been going on with us...

-Owen turned 3! I have a big blog post to make about that whole shindig. It was so much fun! I still can't believe my baby is three. How.Is.That.Possible?

-We got Owen all signed up for spring Tball! He is so excited. He is going to be on the same team as his little friends Gavin and Hudson. We can't wait to see him play. He is a sports nut and he is going to completely eat this up.

-Wade is fabulous! Such a happy baby. We have been working through sleep issues. He was getting up 8-12 times a night, and it was realllly beginning to wear on me. We did a modified Smith of the No Cry Sleep Solution, and we are happy to say that he is doing great! He is down to only waking an average of 3x per night. And he naps in his crib now and sleeps in his crib until 3 am or so! Woohoo!

-Chris has been doing great at work. I am so thankful that he works so hard so I have the opportunity to stay at home with our kiddos. He has been having lunches with the president of his company, and just last week, the OWNER of his company sent him a personal letter thanking him for his leadership, professionalism, and hard work. Way to go, babe! Just had to brag on him for a sec.

I need to update with some pictures of the boys! They are growing like dadgum weeds!

First Snow

When it snowed last week, it was far too cold for us to venture out, so I laid out some trash bags with beach towels in our living room, and brought in bowls of snow for the boys to play in. Here is O's snowman that he made!


He was pretty proud of himself!

This is his "policeman" face. He always talks about how he is eating his dinner so "I can be strong...like a police man!", or "Careful, momma...I will do it for you, I am a policeman." LOL!



Wadey wasn't in the best mood during this activity, so he decided to eat the snow, instead.



...and he hated it!