Been a while...

ELEVEN days....until school is out and I can't wait! Spring is finally in full swing here in Northwest Arkansas and it feels like we are allergic to the indoors with all of this beautiful weather! Every free moment of daylight is spent outdoors and our evenings/nights are spent taming the BEAR that is our son while he is teething. John and I have been doing much planting this season including a Weeping Willow in the backyard and hanging tomato plants off the back porch. All of us neighbors are in a flower competition so be looking for a post with my WINNING pictures! :) My first Mother's Day was wonderful and relaxing. I promised myself that I wouldn't cry, but of course I was overwhelmed with all of those warm and fuzzy "Mommy" feelings and tears were most definitely shed. Here are some of the neat things that our friends, family and of course Owen did for me.













It was perfect! Owen is changing and growing everyday. He is 20 lbs and about 28 in long. He is sitting up on his own and working REALLY hard to crawl. He sometimes can army crawl to something if he really wants it, but usually just gets frustrated and results to rolling himself over. He is eating tons of different veggies and fruits and we are almost ready to introduce him to proteins. I have taken on the task of making all of Owen's food, so every couple of weeks or so my freezer looks like this while I am freezing his pureed food (I freeze it in ice-cube trays).



It just takes a couple of hours every couple of weeks and it is saving us a TON of money. I am very proud of myself for sticking with it! Owen had is first UH-OH moment this past weekend. I left him on the coffee table in his Bumbo seat for about two minutes while I ran into the other room. When I came back in, this is what greeted me....









It is amazing how far he will stretch to reach what he wants! I was laughing so hard when I saw him looking at me so innocently :)

Here are some other recent pictures of the little man...

Bumbo Sandman

Owen had green beans for supper on Saturday night. I didn't even make it all the way around the counter to the sink before he slumped over ASLEEP in his Bumbo seat! Hilarious...

Yummy!

Owen is officially eating baby food! It was a bittersweet realization for John and I. We are super excited to be moving on to new experiences with Owen, but at the same time it is just one more example of how fast he is growing up. He started off with rice cereal and then we moved him on to sweet potatoes, applesauce and green beans. I decided long ago that I would attempt to make all of his baby food and (knock on wood) so far, so good! It is super easy to make and store. Thankfully, he is taking to all of the changes very well and has liked all of his new foods. Here are a couple videos of him eating sweet potatoes and applesauce (his favorite!).

Easter Block Party

I know I have mentioned our wonderful neighbors before, but we truly are SO blessed by the families that live on our street. We have all become close friends, so naturally we wanted to celebrate Easter together in some way. We decided to have a block party so that the big kids (a.k.a kids older than Owen) could have an Easter egg hunt and the adults could eat LOTS of good food! I ended up carrying Owen around in the Baby Bjorn for most of the day because he constantly demands to be a part of the action and screams when he is not.










All the dads hid the eggs around our houses for the kids to hunt down. They had a blast searching for the eggs and then opening them all to find out what treats they got inside them.





The day ended with sun-kissed cheeks and a good long nap...it was wonderful!

Spring Break

I feel bad that it has been so long since I posted, but things have been crazy busy here. John, Owen and I went to Houston for Spring Break and had a wonderful time. We were able to spend time with my amazing friends and of course Gammy and Papa (my parents). We had so much fun being outside in the beautiful weather and were able to get some fun pictures while we were there!

Shopping trip with Owen in his umbrella stroller.



Swimming with Owen and Jacob.





Owen with Lauren and Katie.

**Technical difficulties...pictures coming soon!**

Bluebonnets!

**Technical difficulties...pictures coming soon!**

The Wood Family.



Nana Connie and Owen.



What a hunk!







Owen's first merry-go-round ride.

Sunshine and Flowers

Spring Break was wonderful! John and I spent some time in Houston visiting my family and friends (pictures and details to come) and then we got to relax and be productive for the rest of the week.

Being in Houston with the sunny warm weather spoiled us. We actually wore shorts home on the airplane hoping that we would be pleasantly surprised when we got off the plane....but that didn't happen. We ended up in baggage claim digging through our suitcases looking for our pants and sweatshirts to layer on before we went outside. This past weekend I just about had a cow when it snowed (yet again..) blizzard style on Saturday. Don't get me wrong..I love the snow...in December when you want to be stuck inside and snuggled up...NOT in March (nearly April!) when you want to be outside playing and wearing shorts! Thankfully, all of my gripping on Saturday payed off because Sunday was beautiful and we thoroughly enjoyed the day outside. In fact, we spent the day (yes the ENTIRE day) installing new outdoor lighting. It actually turned into a neighborhood gathering with half our street camped out in our driveway keeping us entertained while we trudged through the very detailed and looong assembly process. We are so very grateful to have such great neighbors! Here are a few shots of our schizophrenic weather and light installation!

Saturday...





Sunday...













I must admit though, the best part about Sunday was getting to go spend time with our dear friends Kate and Dave and their new baby boy William who arrived on Thursday! I didn't get a chance to take any pictures while we were there, but these were some that they took when leaving the hospital...precious!

Redneck Baby

Owen got to spend the day playing at his Oma and Opa's (John's parents) house on Saturday. I didn't pack a hat for him to wear outside, so they improvised with what "head gear" they had laying around the house that would fit a three month old. This is what our child looked like when we came to pick him up...can we say redneck baby?



It was not just a camouflage hat..oh no, it was better than that because it was actually a camo doo-rag. The best part is that John and I thought he looked so funny in it, we decided to let him wear it out to dinner with us. Thankfully, we were going to dinner at our friend's house and they promised to not judge us. We got lots of laughs on Saturday at Owen's expense. If you missed it the first time you looked at the picture, make sure you look at Owen's right hand. Oma and Opa suggested that we save this picture for a slideshow at Owens's wedding!

Just Pictures

Here are some recent pictures of Owen...he is now weighing in at 16 lbs 5 oz!!!