Kansas Christmas

We spent last weekend in Kansas for Grandpa Doug's 50th birthday party and to celebrate christmas since we were all there.  We also did some deer hunting, with no luck, our freezer is looking pretty bare compared to year's past as of right now.  Hopefully Matt has some luck muzzloader hunting this next week.  We had a wonderful weekend and came home with a truck loaded with toys and presents.

Owen never cooperates for a picture.  He was either looking the other way or covering his face somehow.

Trying out his new harmonica.  He got several noisy toys for christmas this year, Daddy is so excited :)

Package of 100 plastic balls to go in his new play tent.  Of course he had to open and dump them all of the floor amongst the many presents and gift wrapping paper.  Then we all helped pick them up and put them in a bag, just so he could dump it back out again, over and over.  So much fun!

His new Elmo backpack.  He looks like such a big kid with it on.

Reading a book.

Daddy's new gloves.

Aunt Dacey got Owen a toy machine gun that lights up, vibrates, and makes noise.  He loves it, and daddy does not mind the noise so much I don't think.  At least it's a manly noisy toy :)

Sighting in the scope.

Shooting the deer on the wall.  First thing he did when he got it was say deer and shoot it.

When we got home on Sunday he got his stuffed deer out to shoot at.  Daddy made it run across the floor, he aims, he shoot, and throws his hands in the air and yells "Got it!"  It was hilarious.  First deer kill photo.

New car track town.  He had to help me put it together.



Snow has arrived...

 Hard at work

 Owen helping daddy put together his work bench.

 Such a good helper.

 He really enjoys his new tools.

 He sometimes disappears and I will find him upstairs using his drill.

 "Ooo-ha" he says

 Decided he wanted to walk through the snow.  He only had his tennis shoes on at this point.

 Thought I would let him walk around for a short amount of time before taking him inside.  Then he fell down and got snow all over his hands and pants.  I made him go inside right after this.  He was not happy with me at all, so I told him we could go back out if he put his snow pants and boots on.

So it takes us ten minutes to get all bundled up, he can barely walk, and wants me to carry him around once we are outside.  I had to hold him up while walking through the snow with his boots on and just ended up making him madder by going inside after about ten minutes because I could not carry him around all bundled up for very long.  Plus I am not too excited about playing in the snow, I'll make daddy do it next time.

Christmas Begins

We began our holiday season last week with putting up the christmas tree.  Owen enjoyed helping and tried putting on garland and ornaments. 

He was very excited this evening, maybe the holiday spirit is getting him.

I had Owen help me make sugar cookies for christmas with Matt's mom's side of the family.   He enjoyed hitting the dough with the cookie cutter at least.

We spent Sunday afternoon at Wade, Steph, and Whitney's house for Matt's mom's side christmas. We love having everyone so close this year. Thanks for hosting you three. It was a great afternoon/evening with lots of good food, presents, and fun.

Owen was so excited for his trucks, and this one talked, it was priceless to see his face when he opened it.  I wish I had the video camera.

 Owen and Whitney have become great friends.  Whitney got a play kitchen that Owen enjoyed trying out with her.  They also ran around together the night before at a friends wedding.  It is so fun to see them interacting.

Owen got a workbench playset from Grandma Cathy and Roger.  We put it together last night, he loved it and was very mad that I made him quit playing to take a bath and get ready for bed.  Pictures to post later.

We forgot to get a group picture before Wade left for a meeting.  So we got a picture of all the moms and babies.  They are all getting so big.

Grandma Cathy picked up [noisy] laser guns for all grandkids :)  Owen really enjoys it.  We have not had it out when Matt is home, but he plays with it when it is just me home.  Guess I am trained to tune out annoying noises considering the profession I have.  He likes to point it at his belly to see the lights and feel it vibrate.

His new tonka truck. 

We had a great afternoon and thank Great-Grandma Audrey, Grandma Cathy, and Roger for all the great gifts.



Thanksgiving

I know thanksgiving was over a week ago and I am just now posting.  Better late than never right.

Papa, Granny and Grandpa Simpson, and Aunt Dacey were there for thanksgiving dinner Thursday evening.  Granny, Dacey and I got up at 3:00 Friday morning to go power shopping.  I enjoy it, though usually pretty crazy, except this year we did not realize Wal-Mart opened at midnight so we missed most of the good stuff.  Though we did end up with a lot of what we were after.  Thanks so much to Grandpa for staying with Owen, I know they had a blast looking at tractor books and hanging out that morning.  We had a good weekend relaxing around the house and got lots of play time in with Owen.  Cannot wait to see everyone again.

We tried building a fort, not too shabby, but a little flimsy for Owen, he succeeded in tearing it down pretty quickly.  He insisted on walking under it most of the time so the blanket would not stay up.

All bundled up!  He could hardly walk, poor little man.  And he could not even get up when he fell down, which was several times.  He resorted to wanting me to carry him around the yard because he was mad that he kept falling.  This did not last long, but he got a short time outside this way.   

Bedtime story:  Time for Bed Sleepyheads

 Come on Aunt Dacey, isn't this fun first thing in the morning??

 Granny and Grandpa Simpson bought a big screen tv Black Friday.  Owen has gotten a lot of entertainment out of the box the last few days.

 Climbing across and sliding down Daddy.

Thanksgiving Pumpkins

We had Owen's 18 month appointment last week.  Everything went well.  He weighed 28.08 pounds (80%) and was 33 1/2" tall (80%).  He did good during the appointment, other than slamming the door in the nurse's face when she came in to give him his shots.  Totally coincidental, but quite funny.  It is amazing how much he is learning and how smart he is becoming.  My new favorite things he says are "alligator" and "Wuv-you".  He also likes to glare at people while setting at the dinner table.  It is really cute and funny.  He puts he chin down on his chest and peers out of the top of his eyes with a growl look on his face.  Too cute!  I'll have to try and get a picture sometime.  Papa says daddy did the same thing when he was little.

We did not get around to carving pumpking for Halloween so I decided we would do them for thanksgiving instead. 

 Not too pumped about the gooey-ness.

 He did like taking out the seeds with the spoon though, and putting them back in.

 Much more excited about painting a pumpkin.  He had been carrying the paints and paintbrush around all weekend. 

Deep concentration. 

 "All done."

Happy Thanksgiving!!  We hope all of you have a great holiday!

 

He says "gobble-gobble-gobble" every time he sets at the table and sees his turkey.  He has also taken a great interest in coloring lately.

He decided to dump the entire box of 96 crayons on the floor.  Daddy just loved picking them up :)

November and a video

Owen's first time with French Toast Tracks.  He had them with butter and powdered sugar, just like daddy does.

 I think he likes it!  Sugar and Bacon, nothing better!

We had our 3rd Annual Bowhunting week last week.  Owen liked Nick's hat and shoes and Daddy's ear muffs.  We had Papa (Matt's Dad), Uncle Wade (Matt's brother), and Nick (friend from Wellsburg, IA) at our house from Wednesday through Sunday.  Wade was the only one that had any luck, but everyone had a good time hanging out anyways.  Plus, Matt got a few deer head in for taxidermy.  So excited he has finally got some business.  And more trickling in here and there.

Video of Owen riding down the cellar hill on his big wheels a month ago.  Just figured out how to upload it, hope it works for you.  Turn your volume up and you can hear the cute gigles.  He went up and down about a dozen times that day.

Fall and Trick or Treating

 Big Pile O' Leaves.  We had been practicing putting things in our pumpkin from the yard.  Sticks, leaves, rocks, ghourds.  Then when we got to actual trick or treating Friday and Saturday, he had to put leaves in his pumpkin with the candy

Helping mommy color a Frankenstein mask he got from Grandpa and Granny Simpson and Aunt Dacey.

We got lots of trick or treating in for Halloween.  We went to Ames with Jessica, Grant, and Brynna on Friday Night to trick or treat with Vandewater's, Aunt Steph and Whitney, Grandma Cathy and an army wife friend of Jessica's.  We had 10 kids total in our group.  Owen did pretty good, though was mad when we would not let him go into the houses that he was trick or treating.  He also wanted to pet every animal we saw, not a good idea with sticky sucker fingers.

We then went trick or treating in Stuart with Grant and Brynna again.  He did even better this time, I think he was a bit overwhelmed with the number of kids and people on Friday Night.  Poor thing cannot have the chocolate, but he loves skittles, suckers, and licorice.  So, mommy and daddy got some candy too.  Saturday Night was a perfect night for trick or treating!

 His first house with a mad scientist.

 First sucker of the night, he had one more later in the evening.

We went in to warm up at Grant and Brynna's Grandma's house.  Owen did not have his pumpkin near by so he stuffed a handful of tootsie rolls in his overalls pocket.

All tuckered out!  He fell asleep within minutes of getting in the vehicle to go home.

Heading home after trick or treating in Stuart on Saturday.  Best picture I could get, he would not stop moving until he was strapped in so a lot of the action pictures are blurry. 
Maybe a little biased, but cutest scarecrow I've ever seen!