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!

Update

Owen has had a terrible cold the last few days.  We stayed home from daycare Monday and Tuesday primarily because he was such a grouch, I hated to put the babysitter through that with 3 other kids to watch.  He is back to daycare today and was in a better mood thus far this morning.

Weather here in Iowa is getting colder.  The last two days has brought terrible winds, up to 60+ one night.  Today we had to break out Owen's warm winter coat and mittens.

We spent this past weekend tearing apart our yard.  We have wonderful friends.  The Smith's let us borrow their skidloader, truck, and trailer Saturday so that we could rework our yard so that it does not slope towards the house when it rains.  Matt did most of the work of course, but I enjoyed helping where I could.  I love to do things with my husband around the house.

Hunting season is in full swing.  Matt has not got one yet, but saw a good one this past weekend, and now has the itch.  I hope he gets one soon so that I can go out ocassionally.  Just not as much time to get out like he used to.

I don't have any recent pictures to post so thought I would compare October now to October a year ago.  Boy has he gotten big since then.

 October 2009 - 6 months

Look at those chubby cheeks! :)

October 2010 - 1 year 6 months.

Two Weekends Ago

We went back down to Kansas two weekends ago for Grandma Pat's Birthday.  We were able to pick Jason up on the way down and have a suprise birthday party for Grandma Friday night and suprise her with family pictures on Saturday.  Owen was AWFUL for pictures this time.  I am thrilled that we got as many decent pictures as we did, he screamed and squirmed for every picture until we put him down to run around.  The only time he was truly happy was riding on the tractor.  Boy is it a challenge to get a 1 year old and 9 other people ready for a photo all at the same time. 

KANSAS

Morning milk on Great-Grandma/pa's porch.

Toepfer Reunion (Great-Grandma Simpson's side)

Sack Races

And the fall hunting season begins...

Harvest #1 - Kansas Antelope

Harvest #2 - Kansas Mule Deer