Super Bowl to baby showers and everything in between

Well, I have officially made it through my first full week back to work. The week was started off by hanging out and watching the Super Bowl with our friends Kate and Dave. We have unanimously agreed that when the four of us hang out together, we eat REALLY well! We made a ton of finger foods for the night and ate them continuously for many hours. Needless to say, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves! I think I had somewhat of a romantic idea of what my students would be like upon returning to work...you know, organized, well behaved, experts on all things taught while I was gone, and of course excited to have me back. Unfortunately, only the last thing listed was true and for most of my students that only lasted about 10 minutes! They were all excited to see me until they realized that the sub was gone and it was back to business...my way. The good news is that kids thrive on structure and routine so even my students who enjoyed having the sub (because they didn't have to do work too hard) are glad that I am back so that they can have that structure again. On Wednesday, the staff celebrated the upcoming births of two of my dear friend's babies. It is super fun to be able to buy people baby gifts now that I have experience with baby products and can buy them stuff that has worked well for Owen. I am very lucky to have such a great group of girlfriends that work with me. Here we all are at the shower on Wednesday.



John and I have a wonderful community group through our church that has provided us with many friends and fun times. We are tagged the "young married with no kids" group at the church, so as you can imagine when John and I found out we were expecting we pretty much thought we would be exiled from the group just based on the name! Fortunately, our friends love us enough to keep us around and as it turns out we started a trend in the group. Another couple in the group found out that they were pregnant not long after we did and their baby boy will be here early this April. The other group girls and I got to shower Jamie with baby well wishes on Saturday....all of the hostesses took a picture together and they had to gather around me because Owen had just fallen to sleep on my chest:)





After a busy week full of baby showers and school work, John and I were able to kick back on Sunday and relax. We took Owen for a walk in the park and then headed off to community group for some fellowship!

Mommy's frist day back to work...turned Ice Storm 2009

Well I think I have had every moms dream of their first day back to work after a long maternity leave. I dropped Owen off at the nanny's house at 7:00 am sharp and didn't even cry when I left him! I made it to school and got everything ready to start the day...I was a little weepy while I was alone in my room, but I didn't have a chance to get too emotional because the bell rang and I was suddenly descended upon by children. The morning went great and Lettie (the nanny) brought Owen to me to nurse on my lunch. It wasn't long after they left that we got the announcement that school was dismissing early due to the sleet that had started. As you can imagine, chaos commenced once the students got the memo that they were getting out early. It took a few hours to get all of my students picked up by parents, but when it was all said and done I still got to leave early. I very carefully (considering everything already had a sheet of ice on it) picked Owen up from Lettie and made my way home. From that point on John, Owen and I have been captives in our own home due to the persistent sleet, rain and snow outside. Here are some pictures I took during our time indoors. Owen tried on a pair of athletic shorts that he will never be able to really wear because it is too cold out. I thought they were too cute not to put on for a picture! Thankfully we love our neighbors and ended up having a blast the past few days hanging out with them. Here is a picture of our neighbor Mike pulling his daughter Kalie on a sled behind his bike. It was hilarious to watch and she was having a great time until he slung her into the ditch full of icy slush! Our power was out all day Tuesday, so naturally our house got cold and so Owen got bundled. We then headed across the street and camped out with our neighbors in front of the fire place. Owen was sweating after about a minute and was stripped down to his diaper to cool off. Here are some of the pictures of our house and neighborhood.



John's parents have recently moved to a new house on seven acres in the middle of town. These are some pictures showing the destruction on their property.


Unfortunately, the whole city looks like this and most people still don't have power back. Thankfully, John and I have power back and are doing great! My first week back ended up just being half a day and the rest of the week I have gotten to spend at home with my family...and I am now getting paid for it! Not to shabby :)

Two months down and many years to come!

Owen had his two month check up last Friday. He weighed in at 12 lbs 13 oz and 23 in long. The doctor said that he is healthy and growing perfectly! Woohooo! After the doctor looked and poked in all the necessary places, it was time for the dreaded two month vaccines...boooo. The nurse gave him his shots in the left leg and I must say that it wasn't as hard for me to bear as I thought it would be. Of course I didn't enjoy watching my baby in pain, but his reaction was pretty entertaining. When she gave him the shot it was a complete delayed reaction to what had happened to him. His mouth just flew WIDE open and his eyes got HUGE but no sound escaped him for about 1 minute. After that minute was up, a very shrill scream came and lasted until he had decided he had made his point and then decided that the pacifier was looking pretty good. Thankfully, he took the paci and did not scream as we were leaving the office. Here is documentation of his boo boo :(

Everything is SO funny...or at least to Owen it is!

It is so neat for John and I to read what new things Owen should be doing developmentally and then to see it happen within a few days! He just started to laugh back at us and mimic the sounds that we make. John and Owen spent ten minutes last Saturday just cooooing back and forth at each other. It was so fun to watch him! I have recently figured out that I can take videos on my phone and then put them on the blog...so here is the debut video of Owen laughing at me. It isn't the best quality, so I am trying to get another good one. Hope you enjoy! I also took a video of him waking himself up the other day. As my mom says "he could have his own soundtrack" because the kid makes so much noise...ALL of the time. He is either grunting (which is the case in this video), coooing, snoring, laughing, screaming or whining. He rarely stops! Hope you enjoy and I will try to get some more up soon!

First Flight....to Houston!

Owen and I got an unexpected treat a few weekends ago and were able to fly to Houston for a few days to visit my family and friends! The thought of flying with a 6 week old baby was a bit daunting at first, but he did so great on the plane! He actually slept the entire way there and back on the plane. I was very grateful for that considering I was dreading being "that parent" with the screaming kid on the plane that everyone hates. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of us at the airport..I was a bit preoccupied trying to survive the security check points and what-not while holding my child (I hope all of you blog Nazis will forgive me!). The trip was AMAZING! I got to not only spend time with my parents, but was able to introduce Owen to some of my best friends. Lauren and Katie took every chance they could to smooch on him. My friend Megan, who delivered her baby boy Jacob in September (during Hurricane Ike!!), was able to come spend a couple days with us. It was so great to see her and we had a blast watching Owen and Jacob try to figure each other out.

Whoever says that babies all look the same is definitely WRONG...I mean seriously look at how different these two are! Megan bought them matching outfits and during their photo shoot, Jacob (who is teething right now) started chewing on Owen's arm! It was hilarious to watch Owen's reaction to it all. Owen also got to meet his Nana Connie (my mom's best friend), who he later christened during a diaper change!
It was a very special weekend and I thank all of you who gave up your weekends on such short notice to spend time with us!

Newborn Pictures

Here are some BEAUTIFUL pictures that Kate took of Owen right after he was born!













Thanks,Kate!

Christmas and New Year Cheer...better late than never!!

We survived the holidays! They were FULL of family, food, fun, and of course plenty of time passing Owen around! Since Owen was born smack in the middle of the holiday season, we were blessed enough to spend time with both of our families. My sister and her family got to spend Christmas week with us and it was so much fun getting to have Santa visit our house and leave presents for my niece, nephews and Owen. My niece Grace made fast friends with the neighbor girl, Kalie, across the street. They made Christmas ornaments out of Jolly Ranchers and cookie cutters and they made "reindeer food" out of glitter and oatmeal. On Christmas Eve they spread their reindeer food all over our front yard and Kalie's. Someone in our family, don't remember who exactly, was craving Chinese food on Christmas Eve, and so our Christmas Eve dinner was spent at Lin's Garden Chinese Buffet. It was a first for us all, but I must say that we had a blast eating all the Chinese food we could handle! We topped our Christmas Eve festivities off with Christmas lights at the town square and then headed home so the kids could go to bed and the adults could set up for Santa to come! As you can imagine with a house full of kids, Christmas morning was packed full of laughter, excitement, wrapping paper EVERYWHERE, and tons of toys! We spent New Year's Eve at our house cooking a FANTASTIC dinner with our friends Kate and Dave.
We had yummy salmon and blue cheese appetizers, pumpkin risotto and apricot stuffed pork tenderloin. Kate bought Owen a flashing New Year's Eve bow tie, which he wore for about the duration of these pictures and then started to cry!
Kate and I stepped back and watched John talk Dave through changing Owen's diaper..so cute!
It truly was a great New Year's Eve and a wonderful holiday spent with all the ones we love!