Sunday, April 19, 2009

Our Garden!!!

I am so, so, SO EXCITED!!!! Yesterday we planted our vegetable garden!!! For the past several years we have had it in various different locations, none which got quite enough sun. We've always had a good garden, but we just knew that we needed a little bit more sun to make it even better. This year I think we've done it! Tony worked so hard and did such an awesome job building a terrace on our back bank. Then we dug up dirt from the woods, put in top soil and soil conditioner, and made a nice little level garden that gets sun all day long! We planted tomatoes, zucchini, bell peppers, jalapeno peppers, oregano, italian flat leaf parsley, and basil. Then we put up a chicken wire fence to keep the rabbits and deer out. We're going to try our hand at making my Papa's famous pepper jelly. I sure hope it turns out well :) OOOHHH!!! and I just cannot wait to eat homegrown tomato sandwiches, YUMMY!!!! Big boy helping us dig in the dirt! YEA! The finished product, I LOVE IT!

Easter Sunday

We had a such a wonderful, wonderful Easter Sunday! We started out the day at church and heard an incredible message from our Pastor. Owen even had an "exceptionally good day" in the nursery (words from his teacher) Owen's not exactly crazy about being left in the nursery every Sunday, but he's getting better! :) After church we went to my parents' house where mom fixed a WONDERFUL Easter lunch. Robert, Kelly, Chris and my grandfather all joined us and we had a great time. After lunch Chris & my grandfather had to leave, but the rest of us went hiking up Pigeon Hill. All in all, it was a glorious day! We are so so grateful to have, first and foremost, such a loving God who sent His son to die for us, but also such a loving family too :) WE ARE BLESSED!!! Owen's 1st Easter Basket
(he was a little too young last year!)
Checkin' out all the goodies! ...and then dumping it all out! All the grandparents Noni, Grandpa & Uncle Chris Geebee & Pops On top of Pigeon Hill HAPPY BOY, HAPPY EASTER!!!

Spring Break part 2: DA BEACH!

We spent an entire glorious week in Orange Beach, AL at my grandparents beach house. We got there on Sunday late afternoon and the Dunns arrived a few hours later. We had sooooooo much fun!!!! The first part of the week was pretty chilly & windy so we did a little shopping, a little walking on the beach in sweaters, and just some general relaxing and hanging around the house and enjoying doing NOTHING and being on vacation! On Wednesday the Zerchers joined us and they brought warmer weather and less wind! We spend 2 great days on the beach, ate delicious food, and played lots and lots of Loaded Questions :) We were so blessed that we were able to spend an entire week at the beach with great friends. No one was ready to leave on Saturday, but I guess we'll just have to plan another trip back soon! Here are a few (okay, quite a lot actually!) of my favorite pictures from our trip!

Spring Break part 1: Wedding!

We started out Tony's spring break with a trip to Mississippi & Tennessee for Karen's (Tony's cousin) wedding. We got to D & Dean's house on Friday night for a good home cooked meal. Saturday we headed to Memphis for the wedding. It was such a gorgeous wedding--the entire thing was held at Ronny & Pat's (Tony's aunt & uncle) house. They had a lot of landscaping done for the wedding and it looked like we were in a garden. The wedding ceremony was in the front yard and the reception was in the backyard. We had a great time and Owen especially loved walking all around and dancing to the music. In fact, Owen walked and danced so much that, at the end of the night, Grandpa picked him up and handed him to me and he immediately fell asleep on my shoulder! We went back to D & Dean's afterwards to spend the night. On Sunday we headed to Aberdeen to have lunch with Tony's grandmother. We were going to go to church with them too, but Owen was asleep in the car so we drove around Aberdeen and caught up with everyone as soon as church service let out. After lunch we continued on our journey and headed south to Orange Beach, AL for an entire week at the beach! Riding on the tractor with Grandpa at D & Deans house Pretty excited Grandpa let him drive! Beautiful family :) Just before the wedding ceremony started
Owen had a blast walking EVERYWHERE!!! Daddy attempting to keep up! Dancing with my little guy on the dance floor!

Saturday, March 28, 2009

...and he's off!!!

Owen is walking more and more and better and better each day!!! I finally got a video of Owen walking. He's a fast little kiddo and difficult to capture on video, but here's a short segment of him walking across the room. He's already even more steady and walking even further than when I took this video two days ago! We had some music on too so there's even a little dancing at the end :) Occasionally, Owen will combine the two and dance standing up. Now that's a sight to see! Still haven't caught that trick on video, but I'm working on it so keep posted!

American Idol baby!

We are definitely American Idol fans in our family :) Tony and I have been watching it for years, and Owen, as a huge music lover, naturally love it too! Our favorite this year is Danny Gokey. Owen dances to all the performances, but he really busts a move when Danny sings, just take a look at him dancing to Danny's performance this past week...

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Owen's Birthday Party!

A week ago Sunday we had Owen's 1st birthday party! Owen had SUCH a great time and of course just loved having all eyes on him! We had lots of family and some friends come and Tony's grandparents even came all the way from Mississippi to help us celebrate. Owen was a little confused when everyone started singing the "Happy Birthday" song. I think he was wondering how we all knew the same song :) He got so many wonderful, wonderful gifts and we were so grateful that so many people that love Owen were there to help us celebrate. Here is a slideshow with some of the highlights...

Owen's Birthday Party!

Paddington Bear Pajamas

The other day I took some sweet pictures of Owen wearing some Paddington Bear p.j.'s that my brother used to wear when he was a baby. He just looked so sweet in them that I had to share :)

Meeting Aunt Steve!

A few weeks ago, Owen finally got to meet my sweet, sweet friend Stephanie--affectionately known as Steve to yours truly and in return, she calls me Hank :) We were roommates junior & senior year of college and she is my forever friend, my kindred spirit. I love her so very very much and I know that Owen already does too. Just look at these pictures of them together, love them!
Owen & Aunt Steve

Sharing a laugh :)

Pretty typical of Steve & Hank pictures :)

Friday, March 20, 2009

1 YEAR OLD!!!

It's official, as of last Thursday, my sweet precious child is 1 year old! AAHH, I'm still in a little disbelief/shock to actually write that...We had a grand time last Thursday and had a GREAT day...all about Owen, of course!!! When Tony was leaving for work I asked him if he wanted to wake him up to sing Happy Birthday with me, but Tony said to let him sleep and he'd wish him a Happy Birthday when he got home (Tony leaves for work about 7:15 am and Owen and I don't usually get up till around 7:45 am). So when Owen woke up I burst into his room singing the "Happy Birthday" song and I must admit, I started choking up a little because I was just so excited for him--and also in a little disbelief of how fast he's growing up! He's almost always in a great mood in the morning and used to my silly songs in the morning, but I'm not sure he knew what to think with his crazy mama singing that loud song ;)

The entire day was quite a lot of fun! Sara, her mom, Jack, my mom, Owen and I went to a consignment sale that morning and Owen got lots and lots of great spring & summer clothes! We really racked up and I'm so excited about all the adorable outfits Owen will be sporting soon :) Then Geebee came back to our house and hung out with us for a while. Later that afternoon Tony, Pops, and Noni & Grandpa all joined us. It was such a nice day that we went outside and watched Owen play with the balloons that Noni & Grandpa brought him for a while before going back inside for a yummy dinner. IT'S MY BIRTHDAY...I'M SOOO EXCITED!!! Loving on our special boy!
One very blessed little birthday boy with all of his wonderful grandparents!

Group shot :)
Hamming it up for the grandparents
We tied the balloons to his overalls so they wouldn't float away :)

Balloons are so much fun!

After dinner, we took Owen to Dairy Queen for his very first ice cream cone ever! We were all so excited to see what he'd do with it...plus, ice cream is my favorite :) When we got there, they were having trivia night and it was packed, but luckily we did find a table. There was lots of fun music, which of course Owen loved! With all the excitement of the day, I'm sure he thought all the people and music were there to celebrate with us! I'm not sure if it was all the distraction, or the coldness, or what, but Owen wasn't really too huge a fan of his ice cream (he's his father's child in that respect!) and was content to play with it and eat the cone instead. He did get quite a kick out of taking a plastic spoon and flinging ice cream all over Tony and the floor quite a few times! It was SUCH a great day and evening, and a very, very happy birthday celebration for Owen!!! Daddy, Mama, & our birthday boy!!!

hmm, I'm not sure about this stuff...

It sure is cold!

I think it's more fun to play in it!


Owen at a glance: 12 months...
I would definitely say that Owen is officially walking now. He still will crawl quite a bit, but takes steps 5 and 6 at a time (his most at once is about 10 so far) and does this frequently throughout the day.

He is getting better & better at "copy catting" things that we say. He won't repeat everything, but will repeat quite a bit.

He is getting more and more dance moves every day and is now doing lots of head and body swaying back and forth, up and down. He is so precious to watch and I am still trying to catch this on video, though I haven't gotten a really good clip yet.

He has developed quite a bit of self independence and will play with his toys by himself for 20 minutes or so at a time. He's still quite the socialite though and LOVES to play with other children!

Owen loves to capture the spotlight! Whether we're at a restaurant or we just have family or friends over, he wants to be the center of attention with all eyes on him. He'll talk, shout, dance, and move around until all eyes are on him...he's quite the little ham :)

He's eating more and more solid foods these days and we usually try and give him a little of whatever we're eating as long as it's is soft and easily chewable.

12 Month Measurements
18 lbs. 4 oz (0-3rd percentile)
31 1/4 inches (75th-90th percentile)
and I didn't catch his head measurement, but I do know it was 25th-50th percentile

Owen is still quite the slender little thing, but his doctor isn't concerned. He says that around his age, babies that were born premature start catching up to the full term babies. They do this at a very rapid rate and so it knocks the slower growing children down a bit on the charts. Our little skinny mini will catch up eventually :)

Family Vist, continued...

Here are a few more pictures of the weekend that my mom's side of the family came to visit. My uncle Berry was just getting over being sick and was really itching to get his hands on Owen, but refrained just to be on the safe side so unfortunately, I was unable to get any pictures of Owen & him. Also, Sandy & LeeAnn had already left when these pictures were taken, so I was unable to get any of them either :( However, here are a few pictures of Owen playing with bubbles with Pops outside at my parents house along with a few of him with Lali (my aunt Alison) playing with their cute little dog, Sissy. Being gentle with Sissy

Playing with Lali & Sissy

Handsome boy, growing up so fast!

Bubbles with Pops

Bubbles, bubbles everywhere!

Figuring out how to make the bubble maker work

Hey, whatcha doin' there, Pops?
Practicing walking
More walking with Mama & Daddy...love Owen's expression!

My sweet, little snuggle bug!!!