The Sweetest Pumpkin in the Patch!

My buddy and me.........

Yesterday, I spent the morning at the Maitland Art Center for a photo shoot. Katie and Hannah came to help me watch Owen while I worked, and so afterwards, the four of us explored the grounds and snapped some shots. The funniest moment of the day came when Hannah was looking through a stone medallion into a neighboring courtyard. I asked her if she saw any jungle animals in there and she told me very matter-of-factly that she saw a giraffe. Well I thought that was pretty cute, so I asked her "what kind of sound does a giraffe make?" Without hesitation, she scrunched up her nose, made a tight "o" with her mouth and started making a sniffing sound! Owen, as usual, just followed Hannah around as her audience/side-kick. They had fun, I'm so glad they're buddies!

This is such a typical Owen face!

Eight going on Sixteen.....

Yes, that is my EIGHT (almost nine) year old in the driver's seat! Don't worry, he was just pretending, but boy did he think he was cool. Of course, if Jack pretends to drive the car, then Owen has to pretend to drive the car, so we spent a good 30 minutes in our driveway going nowhere. My crazy boys, love em!!!

First Haircut

Owen is such a big boy now! On Saturday, we had to take him for his first haircut (the "oh she's so adorable comments were tolerable when he was 4 months old, but not one year old!). Our precious babe was born with so much hair, it looked like he had a black helmet on! Even though it almost all fell out and came back in much lighter, he still has tons of hair, and it was looooong around the ears (even though I previously trimmed it when he was 6 months 0ld) and in the back. So, Chris and I took him to Big League, where I take Jack to have his hair cut. All in all, he did pretty well! He didn't fuss at all, but he did not want to sit still and I think it was a little bit of a challenge for the woman cutting his hair, but she did a great job! Here are some before and after pics from that day (as well as some from earlier that day @ Lake Eola park). They even gave Owen a certificate stating that he has "officially graduated from baby-hood". Awwwwww! Sorry for the pic overload ;p

He's a c-o-o-l rider

SO serious ;)

Check out those sideburns!

This... is a new one - a fish face?

Having so much fun at the park

What a sweet boy!!

Jack and Marianne feeding the swans

Baby's 1st haircut :(

So far, so good, he seems to be enjoying himself

In fact, maybe this is kind of fun!

Don't get carried away mom...

Thank you SO much for taking me to get my hair cut mommy!

Now I really look like a BIG boy!

PS - I DO realize I sound like a total nerd narrating pictures in a baby voice, hahaha!

Baby Cayden

Ahhh, I got my fill of tiny, cuddly, newborn-baby sweetness last week! Chris' neice, Alycia, gave birth to her baby boy, Cayden Lee, on Thursday, 9/11. I have a great deal of respect and fondness for Alycia (and Cayden) because she is only 17. Having once been a teen-age mommy myself, I know not only the many challenges she will face, but also those amazing, sweet moments that are beyond anything else I believe we can experience in this world. Cayden is a beatiful and precious baby and Alycia and Bobby are doting parents, totally in love with him! I had the privelage of visiting them in the hospital the day after he was born and taking some photos. Gosh, it seems like just yesterday, my little boy was that tiny and now he's a big one-year-old. You know what that means.....time to start trying for #3?! :) Congratulations to Bobby and Alycia on the birth of their beautiful baby boy!

Takin Care of Business

These pictures were too cute and funny not to post. The shirt that Owen is wearing actually used to be Jack's when he was little (except he wore it when he was 6 months old) and with nothing else on but his diaper and socks, Chris and I couldn't help but think of Risky Business. It was my idea to add the sunglasses, which, sadly, ended up making him look more like Stevie Wonder than Tom Cruise :)

Flunky Monkey

My very good girlfriend, Jaclyn, invited Chris and I out to celebrate her birthday last weekend. I was super excited because, well, let's be honest, I don't get to go out and do "grown-up" things all that often right now ;) So, we dropped the kiddos off at my parents house for the night and head to Funky Monkey, a new-ish restaurant on Mills. I've heard rave things about this place - how cool the atmosphere is, how great the food is, what an up and coming hot-spot it is...you get the idea. OKAY - first of all, we drove right past the place like seriously 3 times. THEN, after we finally spot the tee-niny little yellow building next to a gas station, we notice that there is only valet parking. Well, Chris doesn't have any cash, so we park across the street, down nearly two blocks. I shimmy my rear-end across Mills in my (now infamous **see high school reunion post below**) black peep-toe heels and we finally make into the restaurant about 30 minutes late. All is well...... Jaclyn looks beatiful, all her friends and family are there, hugs ensue, drinks are ordered...... As we're nibbling on our garlic edamame, Chris points out how strange and annoying it is that there is a GIANT flat-screen TV right in front of his face, playing the food network (with no sound, natch). Since we are there for a semi-private party, Chris calls the manager/owner over and politely asks him if he would mind turning it off since no one seems to be watching (there were all of 3 other tables occupied that night). So, here's his response (insert jerky, tight-wad tone of voice here) "No, I will not turn the television off, it's part of our atmosphere and well, I just won't turn it off, no, it's staying on." And, with that, he turns his little caboose around and heads back to the...well, I don't know where he went, but he went "off" somewhere. So, another guy from our table goes back to ask him, yet again, if he could PLEASE turn the television off since NO ONE else is watching it and it actually does not suit the urban-chic atmosphere at all. More snarkiness is exchanged on the part of the manager/owner but eventually the waitress comes over and flicks off the TV. So, we have a very nice dinner (well, the food was at best pretty good) and go along our merry little way to continue the birthday celebration elsewhere. Unfortunately, Jaclyn was sick and had to go home early to try and recuperate. Yes, I said try to recuperate. She was nestled all cozy in her bed until she got a very disturbing phone call from our friend Amanda. Apparently, Mr. Manager/Owner had the nerve to call Amanda the next morning and accuse our party of stealing their remote control! Not only did he accuse her of grand-theft-remote, but he threatened to call her boss and tattle on her!! (Amanda works for a liquor distribution company that sells to Flunky Monkey). So, Amanda calls Jaclyn, who promptly calls her dad (who was also at dinner) who promptly calls Mr. Monkey to give him a peice of his mind (we figure our table spent approx. $1000 collectively). Somewhere over the course of their conversation, Jaclyn's 88 year old grandmother pipes in and says "remote control? I have a remote control in my purse"....... How it got there, nobody knows, but Jaclyn and Grandma had to drive to Flunky Monkey to return the remote control and end this nonsense once and for all! So, I promised I would blog about it to let all my faithful readers (haha) know that if I had to give this restaurant a review, it would be a bad one. If it weren't for jerky-pants, I probably would have recommended it and seen most everything in a better light. Here is the restaurants website in case any of you are curious: http://www.funkymonkeywine.com/ . If you feel so inclined, check it out for yourself and if you experience service as bad as we did, drop them a line and let them know.

Well, at least Jaclyn sent me really cute picture of us to commemorate the evening! HAPPY BIRTHDAY JACLYN!!!

Happy Birthday Owen!

Well, it happened. My BABY boy turned one yesterday! Chris and I were marveling tonight at how much he seems to have changed over the last month. He has started walking, talking, he's gotten 4 new teeth, is eating all table food now and is starting Mother's Day Out this week. While a part of me feels sad that he's no longer such a tiny baby, I mostly feel overjoyed at what an amazing little boy he is becoming. He is a WILD CHILD! He is so full of energy and and joy that you can't help but smile every time you look at him and laugh when he's being Mr. Mischief. At the same time though, he is such a loveable child, always giving hugs and kisses, even to the dog and his stuffed animals. I feel so blessed to have two such amazing children!! We had Owen's birthday party on Saturday and he had a BALL! He had so much fun with the other babies, he genuinely seemed to know that the party was for him and he relished being the center of attention. Although he wasn't a big fan of the smash cake, his face lit up like a light bulb when we all sang "Happy Birthday" to him. In fact, he liked it so much, we sang it to him twice!! He got some very lovely gifts from all of his friends and we are so grateful that they all were able to come to his party despite all the rain. Here are some pictures from the big day!

Special birthday outfit

The theme of his party was "Under the Big Top"

"Aunt" Jessica and "Uncle" Damon
Cousin Hannah
Pretty Ella
"Aunt" Nikki and "Aunt" Christy
The Birthday Boy!
Lily and her Daddy
Owen with Tutu Now, what is going on here??
All smiles when we sang "Happy Birthday!"
But what exactly am I supposed to do with this??

Hmmm......
I don't think I like this very much!

Nope, not at all

He liked it a little better with a fork The final damage

Ella liked the cupcakes!

post smash-cake bath

Opening his gifts
He's mommy's little present!
He had a cupcake later and I think he got a total sugar rush!

He was CA-RAZY!


Walking tall like a BIG ONE YEAR OLD boy!!