Owen's Birthday Invitations...

I just had to post this up here. I think that these are the BEST invitations that my sister and I have made yet...







We paid alot of attention to the detail on these. Notice the star hole-punch, and the burning of the edges! :) Sorry, I'm patting my own back, but I just think their adorable!

MommyBrain: (or anyone else who might be interested) My sister and I can make these for you if your interested! You're little guy has to have a party, right?!:)

Poor little Owen & Sweet little Brett...

Something is not right with Owen. He's scheduled for surgery on Friday, to get tubes in his ears. (We just can't fight the infections anymore.) Anyway, he was up for THREE straight hours last night. Just screaming his little heart out. He'd start to calm down, and then arch his back again and scream. We're not sure if it's his ears or not. He finally found his sleep about 3:00 and slept till almost 7:00. Needless to say, I think Ryan and I are going to be walking zombies today.

Anyway ~ while I was up with Owen, I was watching this show on MSNBC. It was about this 5 month old who got stolen right out of her own bed. Well, I was a little spooked when I went to bed. It normally takes me awhile to get back to sleep once I get back to bed. About 3:15, I heard walking on the main level. I shook Ryan up, and told him what I heard. Normally, he would roll right over and go back to sleep, but I knew what I heard, and it was someone walking down there. I wasn't going to let him go back to sleep. Ryan sat up in bed, and my heart was racing like crazy. I whisper "he's coming up the stairs!" Indeed, someone was coming up the stairs ~ it was BRETT!! He must've been sleep walking again. He got to the top of the stairs, and went right back to his bed. This is about the 3rd or 4th time he's done this, so I should've know better than to panic, but after watching that show, I was a bit nervous.

Another quick story about Brett...I got Chloe ready for church yesterday, and as she was coming down the stairs, Brett was at the bottom of them, and said ~ "Dad, Chloe is beautiful!" If that wasn't sweet enough, he says "Chloe you look beautiful!" I started crying ~ ask Ryan, I really did. It was the sweetest thing ever, and when my kids have sweet moments, (they don't happen very often) I cry.

SIDE NOTE: I JUST CALLED OWEN'S PEDIATRICIAN, AND SHE'S NOT IN TODAY. THEY GIVE ME THE NUMBER FOR THE DOCTOR ON CALL. I CALL THAT DOCTOR, AND THEY PUT ME DIRECTLY ON THE PHONE WITH HIM. I PROCEED TO TELL HIM THAT HE HAS EAR INFECTIONS, AND THAT HE'S GOING TO HAVE TUBES PUT IN ON FRIDAY. I ASK HIM IF THEIR IS ANYTHING THAT I CAN DO TO COMFORT OWEN, CAUSE HE'S JUST NOT RIGHT. HE PROCEEDS TO TELL ME THAT MAYBE HE HAS AN INFECTION. DUH? DIDN'T YOU JUST HEAR ME? I SAID (IN A NOT SO NICE VOICE) "HE DOES!!!" HE TELLS ME THAT THEIRS NOTHING I CAN DO BESIDES TYLENOL AND MOTRIN. "CAN I PUT THE EAR DROPS IN?" HE SAYS "IT MIGHT MAKE THE MECHANICS OF THE EAR FEEL DIFFERENTLY, BUT IT WON'T HELP WITH THE FLUID." "THANK YOU." AND I HANG UP. WHY IS IT THAT ON DAYS LIKE THESE, THE DOCTOR ISN'T IN. ANYWAY ~ IF ANYONE HAS ANY IDEAS OR SUGGESTIONS, I'LL TAKE THEM! I NEED ALL THE HELP I CAN GET, BECAUSE I WOULD LIKE TO SLEEP TONIGHT!

Owen's Birthday party! PART TWO

I'm not a fan of Halloween, but this cake was so cute, I just had to get it.



And here's the rice krispie treats my mom made. For every "occassion" she puts a saying on there. Too cute!! :)



I think Owen's absolute favorite part of the day was THE CAKE!! He LOVED IT!!!



Here he is all cleaned up in his new cowboy p.j.'s from Auntie Jen, playing with his new toy from Auntie Tara!

We had a GREAT day!! My dad and Bette and Jake even came in for the party so that was alot of fun! (Thanks guys for coming ~ it meant alot! LOVE YOU!!)

Owen's Birthday party!

Saturday we had Owen's Birthday party! He's not "officially" one until the 30th of this month, but we decided to have it a little early so that the weather would be nicer. Well, the weather was nice, (sunny) but it was a bit cold. We had about 30 adults and 25 kids in our house. Phew! Most of the kids played outside the whole time, and Ryan had a bonfire out back, so some of the adults sat out there too ~ so it wasn't that bad.

It was a cowboy themed party. It was a lot of fun to plan, but also alot of work.





Here's the 25 treat bags that I made! They were little "ho-bo" bags! So cute!!


My little cowboy!!


He got bored pretty quick with opening the presents...

Here he is trying to get the gift receipt out of this bag. He preferred to play with that!

It's Fall!!!

And in my house, well, at least to my husband, that means ~ HUNTING!!! My husband is an avid duck hunter. He absolutely loves it. I on the other hand, can't stand it. Most Saturday mornings, and some Saturday or Sunday afternoons, I can assume that he will be hunting. And the days leading up to "Opening Day" he spends working on his boat/duck blind. Here's a few shots of Ryan building his duck blind...





This is what became of my garage for a couple of days. Don't fret, I didn't loose my parking space! :)

My cutest "baby" nephew :)

Don't have much to blog. I'll post later about Owen's birthday party. It'll be a long one, and I don't have the time to do it.

I'll leave you with this....





I could just eat him up! :)

I have a "clean" little secret...

I have a really hard time getting my laundry done. Just when I think I get it all caught up ~ there's a huge mound there again. It's pathetic. I have no excuses, my laundry room is on my main floor right next to my family room, so it should be no problem, right? Wrong.


Here is my mound of "CLEAN" laundry. You see ~ I have no problem with getting it washed. I just can't get it folded and put away. I did get this big mound folded and put away, but now there's another mound to wash. I guess I better stop wasting my time on this stupid computer and get to the laundry...

Sweet Comforts

Michelle H. and I were "blogging" about how nice comfort items were, but how awful they were too. Now, I will say, that I absolutely love that Owen and Brett have pacifiers and blankies ~ it makes for easy sleeping time, quiet car rides, just overall calmness when they are upset. On the other hand, I absolutely hate that Owen and Brett have pacifiers and blankies ~ it would be alot easier to go up to bed, and not have to deal with finding the paci, making sure that you have it before you go anywhere is also a complete pain. And when it comes time to wash the blankie ~ LOOK OUT ~ Brett cries for an hour, until it's done. Either case, they are bittersweet. Not sure how long I'll let Brett have his, (he is almost 2 1/2) but for right now, it's nice to know that if I need a little peace and quiet, we'll find his paci and nigh-nigh, and all will be well with the world.





Here they are taking a ride in the bike cart with daddy.




And here's a picture of my nice, quiet car ride.

It's painting time!!!

In my family, we paint pumpkins ~ not carve them. It's bit less messy, and just easier over all. The kids get to do it all, and mommy and daddy just stand back and watch. Put on the grubby clothes, head into the garage, and who cares what happens!




Brett had the most fun, we think. Although it looks like he's throwing a fit in this picture, he's really just laughing!


Did I say it was less messy? Well, maybe not. We are talking about Brett here ~ king of messes!! :)


Obviously we didn't let Owen paint his, so I did it for him, in honor of his birthday, October 30th.

Pumpkin Pickin' Time

Last weekend in Michigan, we took the kids to pick pumpkins. Of course, Chloe wanted the 50 pound pumpkin, but we settled for the little ones instead.


Of course, Chloe loves to get her picture taken...



Unlike Brett.


Owen didn't care too much to sit in the middle of the pumpkins, so we didn't get a good picture of him either.

Summer is officially over...

Well, for me (and my family) this weekend marked the end of our summer. We have a trailer in Michigan and go up there almost every weekend in the summer. This weekend we closed it all up. It's a little bitter-sweet for me. As much of a hassle that it is for me to go up there (pack the clothes, foods, etc.) it's still a good time for us. It's alot of family time, relaxation time, and just good-ol-fun time. :)

The weekend started of on a pretty bad note though. We all got in the car, got gas, McDonald's and we were on our way! We were about 7 miles from our exit, only for Ryan to say ~ "He got us" Yep, there was a cop who pulled out, and before too long had his lights on. [Great, wonder how much this ticket will cost us] He comes up to our window to tell us that he clocked us going 88 in a 70. [Wonderful, I'm sure it will be an even bigger fine] Ryan said O.K., and then the cop asked us if we had anything in our car. We looked at him kind of funny (the car is packed) and he proceeded to explain "guns, paraphanelia (sp.?) Ryan said, "Nope just 3 kids and a cooler!" Leave it to Ryan to crack a joke while he's getting a ticket! I love him! Anyway, he comes back and tells us that he gave us a break. He only wrote it for 75 in a 70! [Yeah] So we were on our way, only for Chloe about 3 minutes after we got back on the road yell out "Dad ~ I'm gonna puke!" [Could this trip get any worse?] Ryan pulled over, and she was puking all over the car. It was all over her. I couldn't pull her out. I was gagging like crazy, as Ryan is yelling at me to get her out of the car. [As he just sits there :)] I finally get her out, and she finished on the side of the road. So we get to a gas station, get her changed, the car cleaned up, lots of anti-bacterial gel on everyones hands, and were on our way again. (Turns out Ryan and Chloe got some kind of sickness we think from the McDonald's)

We finally get to the trailer at about 9:00, only to find that my bed is wet. the mattress and everything. Some kind of leak in the roof. That's O.K. I'll just put new bedding on it, and a Hefty bag over the mattress and it'll be just fine! And it was. I was determined to have a good weekend. I prayed really hard before we left, cause I was really crabby before we left, and all of this happening could have made it even worse, but it didn't.

All in all, it was a good weekend, a few mishaps, but good nonetheless.