Time to wake up...

Okay, so it has been over a year. Lots has changed in that year. We have moved to La Crosse for to help plant a church and we had another a little one. We've decided its time to "wake up" our blog for all our family and friends who we don't get to see nearly as much as we would like too. Rather than trying to play catch up we will write like we never took the year break....

I always have loved to peek in on Owen when he is sleeping. I really don't know how he sleeps in some of the ways that he does. Here are a few photos of my sleepy guy over the past few months.

And of course, Emmett is quite cute when he sleeps too. He still is sleeping well in his swaddle blankets. He has only woken up more than once a night three or four time since coming home from the hospital. He sleeps all night long about half the time now. If he wakes up it isn't before 5:30am. We are blessed to have such a great little guy!

 I couldn't resist putting this photo in too. Both Emmett and Owen asleep after a long car ride. Owen happily and comfortably rear facing at two and a half and Emmett in his infant seat.

Photos

One of my favorite things to do is capture great photos of Owen. Well last night Eric, Owen and I went out to have some fun in the park and get some photos-Owen's 16 month photos, just a few weeks late. Here are some shots from Pettibone Park in La Crosse. I think we will spend a lot of time here this summer, as they have a nice beach for Owen to play at.

Owen loves to pick the flowers...he often tries to eat them still.

I love how little he looks in this photo.

Picking more flowers up...

After the park we went back across the river into La Crosse and went to an old building I had seen before. I knew I wanted to come back to this place to take photos of Owen.

There was traffic that kept his attention, he wouldn't look at Eric or me.

I love how blue his eyes look in this one!

I posted an ad on craig's list this week to in hopes of taking some portraits for others. I have gotten a few hits so I hope I will be able to get some shoots scheduled soon. I have so much fun taking photos of kids I would love to be able to turn that into some revenue for our family too.

Lots of Visitors

So we have been luck to have lots of visitors lately. Last weekend my mom, uncle Dave and Paul all came to visit on mother's day. We had a great time with them in La Crosse. We went to Grand Dad Bluff and to the park to play. This past Saturday Ian and Brittany came to visit too. Sunday we got to see John and Elaine. I think Owen was excited to see everyone too! He even started to say Grandpa while John was here.

We have also started to use cloth diapers with Owen. It has been going well too. It is so much easier that I ever thought it would be. I wish I would have started this sooner! At least we haven't had to purchase diapers since last September anyways. We really like the Rumparoozs and Knickernappies so far. Its crazy how many choices there are for cloth diapers.
Owen has also been getting into sweets more and more. He has figured out where we keep them, and he has figured out how to get into our pantry where he gets out cans of food. He is a growing boy who is getting into everything!

A short trip for mom & dad!

Last weekend Eric and I got to take a short trip, without our little one. We were blessed to have my cousin Michelle and her husband Paul watched Owen for us. To read about Owen's weekend you can link to her blog here.

Eric and I had a wonderful trip to Charleston, SC. Our goal was to just get away and have a fun care free weekend together. Friday night when we got to SC we went to Folly Beach for a short walk at sunset. It was great to dip our toes in the water, hold hands and talk!

After our walk on the beach Eric and I went to Taco Boy's for dinner. It was SO GOOD. We had some amazing fish tacos...the good kind, with cabbage and a yogurt sauce on it! If you have never had fish tacos you must try them some time!

Saturday morning we toured an old garden and plantation, Magnolia Plantation. The garden was beautiful. We enjoyed walking the paths around the old historic plantation on the banks of the Ashley River. Here are a few shots of the gardens.
After the garden we went to down town Charleston to the Market. We walked though and looked at all the vendors, but didn't find anything we wanted. Down town had tons of amazing old houses with shutters, window boxes, and tiny little streets. I truly don't know how someone would want to live in a new house when they could live in a house like one of these.
After walking down town we made our way to Sullivan's Island to see Fort Moultrie. While we were there we were able to see the Blue Angles preform. We had such a great view from the fort!
Next Eric and I went to Isle of Palms to walk the beach there. We walked barefoot, in the waves, for several miles picking up sea shells along the way. It reminded me of our honeymoon. As we turned around to walk back to our car we could see something off in the distance. We couldn't make out at that time it was just the fishing pier of it it was a bunch of people standing by the pier. As we got closer we could tell it was a huge crowd of people. Once we got to the crowd we found out that they were releasing a sea turtle back into the wild. We decided to go get the camera and stick around to see the turtle make her way back to sea.
We finished up our night with a great meal and some shopping back downtown. It was a great weekend away and I can't wait to do something like it again. We were so luck to have my cousin and her family watch Owen!

Crazy Boy

So today has been of to a great start for Owen. He has been into everything today so far. Of course there is the normal little things like trying to throw away his toys, climb on the kitchen table, stand on his rocking moose and all that...

But today he has added a few new items to his list of things to get into...

I was in my room making the bed when I heard Owen say "ma ma, ma ma" so I went to look where he was. The bathroom. Hands on the floor of the tub, belly on the side of the tub and feet kicking in the air. He had the biggest smile on his face. He has learned to open doors now too. Not good.

He also decided to do a little furniture rearranging today too. New places for his chair.

And just after I got him dressed for the day we went to visit dad downstairs. Eric and I had to check something so Owen went over to Eric's desk, grabbed Eric's coffee and poured it all over the floor. I heard this turned around just to see Owen slip and do one of those TV falls with the feet in the air and all. My little boy, in a white shirt, was now covered in coffee.

Ahh, great times with my little one. Luckily he is down for a nap, so I should get a chance to get a few things checked off my to do list now.

Okay, so I haven't been on here in a long time. From what my family tells me, way to long. Lots has happend since I last posted. Owen had his first birthday, we had Christmas, went on a really long trip, and the biggest thing is our move. We have moved to Onalaska, WI to be part of a church plant here that our church from Eau Claire is starting.

We love our new place. I'm making it feel like home more and more each day. We are blessed to find a place with a large basement for all of Owen's larger toys and my craft things. It has an office space for Eric too. It has a large deck for Owen to play on and a nice yard too. I have a few things I need to get in order here but as soon as I do I will post some photos of our new place.

We have been busy exploring the area around La Crosse too. Saturday we went on a long car ride up and down the Mississippi River in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Iowa.

We also went to a nice park last week on French Island. You can see the planes landing and taking off from this park so I have hopes of Owen and I going to the park to watch one of Eric's flights land some day and then going to pick him up afterwards.

Here are a few of my favorite photos from that day in the park:

Okay, so really I will try to this more often....

new kicks

One of the many great things about me staying home with Owen now is my "free time" that I can use during his naps if all my to-dos are done. I have been able to get a lot of craft projects done and have really been enjoying all of the creativity! My newest project that I have been working on was making baby booties. I had really been wanting to make some but I had to first find some suede for the bottom-which was hard. I finally found a old ugly coat at Good Will that was $4. I used some scrap fabric I had and this is what I came up with. They are just a first draft and are not made that well...but I will just have to work at perfecting them.

Owen is starting to take steps more and more now (will try to post a video soon). He will walk for 2-4 feet and then start to crawl. Its so amazing to watch his development!

This weekend packed up and went home to Portage to spend time with the family. We spent Haloween night at the Crammond's handing out candy and enjoying the down time. Grandma and Grandpa got some balloons for Owen!

He loves when they give him balloons!

I have also started to let Owen drink from a cup some on his own-it is defiantly a learning experience. He is really good about holding the cup and getting the water into his mouth-he just seems to spit out the water once it is there...but he did the same when he started drinking out of a sippy cup too. Here are a few photos from tonight.

One of Owen's favorite things is when Eric tosses him up in the air. Tonight in the midst of getting ready for bed Eric decided to have some fun with him. I just love the expression on Owen's face!