Owen's One

Owen had a birthday on the thirteenth.  We were in San Diego and spent his birthday at Sea World.  He seemed to have a good day at Sea World at least.  A couple of days ago we had our family over for his party.

We borrowed the baby gate from some friends and bought some balls to go in it for a ball party.

Banner...

Birthday cake...

Cousins...

Family...

We're so grateful for our family and how many awesome people our boys have to love them.

My little Owen.  I was really happy that at Owen's last doctor visit he weighed in the 5th percentile.  The last couple of visits he has been below the charts and I have been worried about making sure he eats enough.  He's still scrawny, but gaining weight.  He is not walking yet, but he is just starting to try and sign one or two things.  He shakes his hands for "all done" and says, "dah dah" although so far he's just copying me when I do it.  When I sign more he claps his hands and says, "mah."  He is good at throwing and likes to grab a ball out of the ball pit, stand up, and throw it and repeat.  He is eating mostly table foods now and loves beans, salmon, bread, cheese, and berries.  When we hold a sippy cup or bottle for him to drink he will take a few swallows then swat the cup out of his face really fast, look around, then he's ready for some more until he swats it away again.  Mark and I like to joke he's saying, "Get that thing outta my face!" from Nacho Libre.

And because I couldn't resist, a few more cake shots.  It's my favorite part of a first birthday, can you blame me?

Kindergarten!

Dallin started school today.  He was so excited and so ready.  And so cute.  He chose to wear his shirt we bought in San Diego so when I did his hair I told him I'd make it look like a wave to go with his San Diego shirt.

Dallin is such a smart kid and I am looking forward to him getting the opportunity to learn some new things at school.  He loves to learn.  His preschool years he has either been taught by me or in joy school where other moms have rotated turns to teach.  This is his first experience getting outside of the home for school.  It was easy to see him go to school though because we actually considered putting him in kindergarten last year since his birthday is in September.  We decided to wait another year so kindergarten has been on my mind and his mind for a long time now.  It's time.  Plus, it's only half day: 2 1/2 hours.

Here are Dallin and Adam in front of the school:

We got out of the car and started walking across the front of the campus toward the kindergarten playground and Adam started yelling into space, "Get out of here you crazy neighborhood!!"  I've heard him yell this before a long while ago but hadn't heard it since.  Pretty soon both Dallin and Adam were yelling pretty loudly, "Get out of here you crazy neighborhood!!"  Other parents that were walking their kids into school were laughing at us.  I asked Dallin what that was suppose to mean and he reminded me that they were yelling at the cicada bugs that were really loud around the school.  That must have been the last time I heard it: last cicada season.

Gotta love these kids.

San Diego 2010

It's funny how it says "San Diego 2010."  Apparently I am trying to make it sound like we go there more often than twice in my life ever.

We had a great time on our family vacation last week!!  Here's the lowdown.

Monday: Mark and I woke up early.  Our goal was to be out the door about 6am and we pulled away at 6:15.  It felt very much like a win.  We drove straight to Balboa Park in San Diego and got there about 12:15.  The boys got out of the car and felt the breezy 70 degree weather and demanded their jackets.  They did look a little silly at the park as the only ones wearing jackets.  After a picnic at the park we drove to our hotel to check in then headed to La Jolla.  We saw seals hanging out in one cove and although we weren't dressed for playing at the beach the boys couldn't help themselves but play in the other cove.  La Jolla was beautiful and pretty ritzy.  The coastline there is gorgeous with the rocks and cliffs.

Tuesday: This was Owen's first birthday.  My sister Dawn her husband and four kids met up with us in San Diego after their visit to Disneyland for a few days.  They live in Dallas which is a 14 hour drive from here and San Diego is only 6.  So when Dawn told me they were going to San Diego this summer I knew we had to make it.  We went to Sea World that day and Owen actually sat and watched the animal shows.  He loved the animals so that was quite nice.  Dallin's favorite was the Atlantis ride which he went on twice.  Adam loved everything--especially the aquariums.

Wednesday: Beach day.  These days were the best.  I had to keep reminding myself after we got to the beach on Wednesday that we didn't have someplace to be or anything to do and really, I didn't even need to know what time it was.  The weather was PERFECT for us.  The ladies at the hotel kept telling us it was going to be a hot day. Hot for San Diego is 80 degrees--HA!  So, it was not freezing cold at the beach like normal--thank goodness.  I was so grateful for that because I am sure we all had more fun--especially the kids.  We went to Pacific Beach and spent our time playing in the water and sand, boogey boarding, and flying kites.  It turns out I am quite good at boogey boarding, by the way.  I was totally schooling most of the other folks out there.  The kids had fun boogey boarding too.  Jack and Wyatt went several times (14 and 12) and Savannah (7) and Dallin (5) got in on the action too.  Mark and I would hold a board for them and tow it in as the wave pushed them to shore.

Thursday: The McHalffeys (my sister's fam) went to the zoo and we took our kids to Legoland.  It is a fun park for little kids with actually a lot to see and do.  There was even a baby care area where I could go and warm up some baby food for Owen and use a high chair, change his diaper, etc.  The kids had a great time at Legoland, I think it was Dallin's favorite part of the trip.  My favorite part about Legoland was seeing MiniLand with all of the lego buildings.  That was awesome.  Lots of things at Legoland are interactive, either there are guns for shooting targets on the rides or pedals to keep your skyride moving faster, or the fountain below which was playing music.  Whatever instrument you stood in front, it would add that part to the music already playing.  We just finished waiting 45 minutes in line and riding the skyride when they closed it and many other rides down because of lightning.  So we went to a shop and an indoor activity.  By the time we were done with that many people had left the park and some of the rides opened up again for the last hour til they closed.  We still hadn't eaten dinner by the time Legoland closed so we drove around Carlsbad looking for a kid-friendly place that was open.  Mark somehow found us a Denny's and Owen was asleep so it worked out perfectly.  The boys had hot chocolate and macaroni and cheese.  During his meal Dallin kept putting his thumbs up and muttering things like, "Yeah.  Definitely two thumbs up."  Kraft mac and cheese at its finest apparently. 

Friday: Another beach day.  We started at La Jolla again.  We wanted to show the McHalffeys the seals, but the seals were all lounging on a rock a further distance out into the water.  So we played for a while and enjoyed the beautiful, clean water there and managed to find a juice and sandwich shop that wasn't so hoity toity.  After lunch we drove to Oceanside Beach where we finished the day lounging and playing.  There were a lot of families at Oceanside and even several playgrounds right on the beach.  The kids had a great time here boogey boarding and playing and finding sand crabs in the wet sand.  Owen was ecstatic about the wet sand.  He loved how it felt and had so much fun moving it around and playing in it.  We walked out on the pier where at the end, about 1/2 mile down is Ruby's Diner where we had dinner too late that night.  From here on I have to credit my sister Dawn, because I got lazy with my camera and so I stole several of her pictures from Facebook.

Saturday: We went to the Mormon Battalion Museum in Old Town San Diego.  It is quite an impressive museum and the tour is amazing.  After the tour we panned for gold and checked out the other stuff they had outside.  Then since we were in Old Town San Diego which is jam packed with great-looking Mexican restaurants we had to have Mexican food for lunch.  It was good too.  The McHalffeys were happy to have Mexican food and not Tex-Mex.  After lunch we gave hugs and said goodbye.  We headed back home to Arizona and the McHalffeys stayed in CA for another couple of days.

It was a great week, but it is nice to be home where baby Owen can sleep in his own bed.  He did well on the trip, excluding sleeping, which actually accounts for a lot.  I finished my Mexican food in the car on the way out of town because I spent my time in the restaurant holding little Owen who had just had more than he could take. 

We were in route to arrive home Saturday night about 8:30 or so.  A couple of hours outside of San Diego, "in the hottest region of the entire country" (Mark's quote) is where our car's air conditioning went out.  We kept driving while the kids sweated in the backseat.  It wouldn't have been so bad if we didn't have to worry about the little guys getting warm.  It was 5:30 on Saturday night so it just made the most sense to just drive home in the heat.  But we decided to stop in Yuma and find an ice cream shop.  Mark and I were a little frustrated at the delay in our travel home but as we walked towards the shops Adam starting singing, "We LOVE eachother  so MUCH!" over and over.  How could that not lighten the mood?  The Cold Stone Creamery was right by a movie theater which happened to be showing Toy Story 3 which we hadn't seen yet and it was going to start in 15 minutes.  It seemed too perfect to pass up.  We bought tickets and watched the movie.  I was out in the halls with Owen for a while but eventually he fell asleep so I got to see most of it.  When the movie was over it was dark and only 99 degrees instead of 112.  The boys slept most of the way after that.

We miss the McHalffeys already.  Dallin was so funny because he couldn't keep his arms off Savannah and Madeline.  He had his arms around them or was hugging them nearly nonstop.  If they weren't his cousins I'd have told him to chill out.  I'm glad we bothered someone on the Oceanside Pier to stop and take this one and only picture of all of us:

We love you guys!!

stick a caption under there and call it good

Weapons to defeat uncle Ryan

Adam's Day with Dad

Cute kid doing art project at Arizona Museum for Youth

Here's the cute kid again eating an ice cream cone for Family Night treat

Dallin says, "Owen's a Wascal.  Not a 'rascal,' he's a Wascal."  Cute wascal though.

Making a Banner

Finished Project

And let's do another one for Grandpa.

The End.

Geek Squad

IT guys. Love 'em or hate 'em, we all need them. In the early days computers were crude, clunky, and would encounter severe problems at unpredictable times. Nowadays computers are far more predictable. A standard modern PC is designed to encounter severe problems precisely 7 times each year--usually when the user is working on an important Relief Society hand out or trying to catch the Biggest Loser finale on Hulu. Hence the need for those brave souls known affectionately as "IT guys".

Our family is fortunate to have our own IT guy. Like many geeks he's generally good-natured and and attracted to anything that glows; he also shares the all-too-common trait of sometimes smelling funny and is often found with food stains on his shirt. But we love him for it. After all he's only 11 months old.

Which may explain why his repretoire of computer fixes is limited. When there is a problem Owen will usually pound his hand repeatedly on the keboard, throw the mouse, or perform multiple hard restarts by pressing the PC power button again and again. That's his favorite trick.

Take the other week, for example. Marily had been laboring over a blog post and stepped away from the computer for a minute. Something in Owen's highly technical brain must have sensed that a virus was threatening our computer at that very moment because he crawled over to the computer--nearly at light speed--and promptly pushed the power button initiating an immediate hard shut down of the computer. I tried getting an explanation from the little guy as to what type of emergency warranted such swift action, but like many of his techno brethren his verbal skills are--shall we say--somewhat lacking. Some IT guys have trouble forming complete sentences. Owen struggles with forming intelligible words. I remain convinced he had his reasons, though.

Although our family appreciates Owen's generosity of taking upon himself the task of keeping the computer healthly, some members have expressed doubt that he knows what the heck he's doing. Some have even taken measures to physically impede our adorable geek from even touching the computer. But his enthusiasm remains unabated. He luuuuuuuvs fixing that computer, and we luuuuuuv our little IT guy.

Simplify

This has been on my mind lately.  Funny, because I am starting to notice it has been on other people's minds also.  What could that mean?

I seem to be getting the message to simplify my life.  To be honest, I think my life is not that complicated when I compare to others(which I shouldn't be doing, I know)--that there are a lot of things that we don't spend time and money on already.  Our kids are not involved in many activities, we haven't yet ventured into sports for them, we try to keep our stuff to a minimum, and we are not really ones to go out and spend money on more things that we don't need.  But I have realized that there are a lot of ways that I can simplify my life to make more time for more important things and not waste energy and worry about things that don't matter.  I had been thinking a lot about this and started to write down some of my thoughts in my journal when my dear friend Kathryn added this quote from Marjorie Hinckley to her blog:

"We women have a lot to learn about simplifying our lives. We have to decide what is important and then move along at a pace that is comfortable for us. We have to develop the maturity to stop trying to prove something. We have to learn to be content with what we are.  As you create a home, don't get distracted with a lot of things that have no meaning for you or your family.  Don't dwell on your failures, but think about your successes.  Have joy in your home.  Have joy in your children.  Have joy in your husband.  Be grateful for the journey."

The other week I was at the library checking out books with the kids.  It was time to go so I decided we'd just swing through the adults' section and I quickly grabbed a couple of books that caught my eye.  One of them was this one:

I have really enjoyed reading this book and have gotten a lot out of it.  Mostly I have benefited from trying to change my way of thinking about what is really essential and what is merely optional.  I am trying to reevaluate lots of different things.  We are going to get rid of lots of toys and other things.  We are going to scale back on the amount of clothes and toys that we store in the house.  I am going to go through every last corner of this house and rid it off the excess stuff that is cluttering up our lives.  I am going to recommit myself to my morning and evening cleaning routines. 

One major change that I am working on is that I have decided that I spend way too much time in the kitchen cooking and cleaning.  I know that not everyone has this problem, so you might laugh at me for it.  But I have told myself that cooking is the only hobby I have left.  I enjoy it but the whole process of looking up new recipes, making grocery lists, going shopping, cooking meals, and then cleaning up after them is taking too much of my time that I could be spending on more important things like playing with my kids, mostly.  I have decided I need to simplify this area of my life.  I am kicking around the idea of doing something like this for dinners:

Monday: meatless

Tuesday: 2X Tuesday (Make double of something that can be frozen for later or eaten the next night)

Wednesday: Freezer meal

Thursday: Leftovers

Friday: Movie night (eat pizza or hotdogs or something easy)

Saturday: sandwiches (paninis, subs, grilled cheese, etc)

Sunday: who knows

I think having some type of schedule will make meal planning take less time.  I like to be more flexible with meals, to cook whatever sounds good, or whatever sounds fun to prepare, but I think this is what we need right now.  I realized when I don't have to cook dinner or I do something super easy I have so much more time, partly saving time from cooking, but also all the time saved not having to clean up as much. 

The cooking thing is my first step.  What do you do to simplify your life?  I am just barely getting started--give me your ideas.

11 Months

Dear little Owen,

You are 11 months! Wow.  How can I say this except you are a handful.  You get into lots of trouble, and that might be why you were built so cute.  We get lots of comments on your beautiful blue eyes and your daddy and I are often saying that you are the cutest thing in the world.  To us it's true.  Daddy likes it when he picks you up that you will pat your little hand over and over on his arm.  I asked your dad what you are up to and he says, "He's squirmy, he's grabby.  That pretty much sums it up."

You love to push the button to turn the computer on and off and somehow you can sense when someone has forgotten to close the bathroom door and you will bolt to it.  I have been stressed over you this last month because you went through a good three or four weeks of not eating or drinking very well.  You were sick for a while then after you seemed better your appetite didn't improve and so I took you to the doctor who said your throat was sore.  Finally you are eating and drinking again.  It's been a long month.  Also, your blood was drawn again and instead of your triglycerides being crazy high, they were only slightly high.  The doctor says this is likely because you were not able to fast for long enough to make them totally normal.  He is not worried anymore, but we will do another blood test when you are old enough to go without food for a longer period of time. 

You are standing up holding on to things and will probably stand all on your own soon.  You are a speedy little crawler (especially if the computer hutch is open or the bathroom door is open.) 

Today at 11 months we went to Grandma and Grandpa Smith's ward to hear your Aunt Courtney speak before she leaves for her mission on Wednesday.  She is going to the Baltic States mission, Estonian speaking.  She will be in the cold--Estonia borders western Russia.  We are so proud of Courtney and hope you will have a testimony and a desire to serve the Lord someday like she does.  Also during sacrament meeting four teenage boys sang a musical number.  After they were finished I said to your dad, "We need to teach our boys to sing."  I hope you will be able to feel the influence of righteous music in your life. 

You guys are so fortunate to have such great family.  Look how sweet Courtney is. 

Love you little guy,

Mom