Maxed out and moving

So, the dreaded happened...we've maxed out our space on this blog. I knew it could happen but wasn't sure how long to expect it to take. I was coming on to upload Owen's 8 month and baptism photos last week when I got the message. Ugh.

Here's our new address: http://willowenseth.blogspot.com/

Christmas Tree

Bathtime and smiles

He's happiest when walking!

Thanksgiving

Willow made this handprint turkey card for her teacher at school. Despite her mom's "in the box" thinking, she was determined NOT to color the body brown:

Her Preschool class, along with the 4-yr old class and Kindergarten class, had a Thanksgiving program for parents. Despite her singing the songs at home constantly before the performance, she wasn't so sure about being up on stage at first:

You can see her starting to "warm up" by the end:

By the last song she was ok with the idea of being on stage:

We enjoyed spending the Thanksgiving weekend with Kim, Chad, Nana, and Grandpa. Chad's parents and grandma joined us for the Thanksgiving meal. 

Willow "cutting" her jello during the Thanksgiving meal.

Owen wishes he was able to have REAL solids...

We have so much to be thankful for!

Fireplace, etc.

Chris is calling our year in this rental house an "adventure." It came fully equipped with a few things we've never had: a working fireplace, shower faucet on a hose, and oil heat. The kids enjoyed sitting by our first fire:

So sweet!!!

Ohhhh...goofy girl...

We can't get enough of that smile!

She's very serious about her writing.

Oh yeah...our first child, Alli, is still around. She's decided that maybe this new house/neighborhood thing will be ok. She's resorted to sitting on my schoolwork in the evenings in order to get attention though...

On the move!

Owen's officially on the move! He decided to save the first special moment when he was home with daddy while Willow and I were at gymnastics (they were both doing tricks at the same time!).



After his first crawl he decided to take about a week off before going at it again, but he's picked up speed now!

Owen: 7 months

It's getting harder...

but here it is:

Our poor little guy has been pretty congested for the past 2 weeks, making sleep (for all of us!) hard to come by. He's still not a big fan of sleep (day nor night) when he's not congested though =(    Owen is now officially a "sitter" though he prefers to be holding someone's fingers and walking around the house. Along with being a sitter comes the joys of his first time sitting in a high chair at a restaurant and his first time sitting in a shopping cart. He's able to get up on his hands and knees and will rock back and forth. He usually gets frustrated at that point and hasn't figured out how to maneuver his hands/legs to be able to crawl. Owen has tried Cheerios now but hasn't quite figured out how to move them around in his mouth and has mixed success with getting them into his mouth. Another big development for Owen this month is that he's started saying repeated sounds: yaya and dada. His other favorite noise is a squeal. Owen is still in love with his big sister - when she comes in the room it never fails that his whole face lights up. His favorite toys are his activity table, little piano, "Jo Jo" giraffe (aka Sofie the Giraffe), blocks, and anything that he can put in his mouth. So far Owen prefers to eat books rather than listen to them. He's enjoyed being able to go outside when it's warm enough.

Willow: 3 1/2 years

It's hard to believe that Willow is halfway to 4 already! Here's a snapshot of Willow these days...

Favorite foods: "egg on toast" made by Daddy for breakfast, quesadillas, hamburger quiche, Chick-fil-A, Moes, Cheetoh puffs.

Favorite activities: being outside, reading books, playing pretend (usually school), watching tv, playing games on the computer (new "privilege" in the last month), sending "messages" or playing games on Mama's phone, making up songs, watching people

Favorite TV shows: Clifford, Super Why, Sesame Street, Cat in the Hat

Although Willow is doing many typical strong-willed 3-yr-old behaviors, like trying to be in charge, throwing fits, bedtime battles, etc., she is truly a sweet little girl. She absolutely loves her little brother and melts our hearts when she says, "I love you. I hope you have sweet dreams," to him at bedtime in her sweetest little voice and gives him a kiss. She doesn't like when he fusses and she can be super helpful too. While we were trick-or-treating, a friend of hers and her big sister were bickering about who got to ring the doorbell. In her sweetest, most sincere voice Willow said, "Actually, Carson, you can have a turn at the next house, ok?" I love to hear who she asks to pray for at night, especially when she'll bring up someone we were praying for a few months prior (Mckenzie's grandma, baby Tucker).

Willow is soaking up everything she's taught in Preschool. She knows her letters, sounds, shapes,  how to write her name, how to count objects, and can count aloud to 49. She loves to ask and be asked what the first letter of words are. I love that it's a game to her to figure it out by repeating the beginning sound (t-t-table starts with T!!!).

Since moving to our new house, Willow has taken up the hobby of tree climbing. She's become more adventurous in jumping off (while supervised of course) and has ventured to a tree a few houses down that has good foot-holds a bit higher up (inspired by the 6-yr old girl that lives there).

She's not too good about being sneaky (thankfully) and isn't good at lying yet. Recently she'd been coloring then wandered off. When she walked around the corner a few minutes later she was smiling a guilty smile. When I asked her what she was doing, of course she said "Nothing" with a big grin on her face. In tracking back to where she'd come from I saw multiple green lines around the living room (mostly frustrating since we're renting this house!). Thankfully they came off easily with a Magic Eraser (the "magic" made it a bit too easy for her and didn't seem like much of a consequence...lesson learned on my part). Another day Willow had been playing in the playroom while Chris worked. He noticed that she was holding a permanent marker and asked her, "What have you been doing with that?" When he started walking in to the playroom and she very sincerely said, "Dada, I want you to stop walking." =)  She'd drawn on her Elmo doll's eyes and apparently didn't want to get caught!

Willow Libby keeps us on our toes, but we can't imagine life without her!

"Hurricane" days

We were blessed to not be hit by Hurricane Sandy nearly as bad as anticipated. I was especially thankful to get 2 days off of school for it though! We did a couple baking projects with Nana and Willow including these AMAZING imitation Thin Mint Cookies and a sea star pretzel recipe from one of Willow's magazines. She's quite a little baker already!

Owen enjoyed gnawing on one too!

Willow and Owen both have been spoiled with having so much time with their grandparents lately. Owen has especially enjoyed walking around holding on to people's fingers. 

Maybe she's going to be ambidextrous? I caught her coloring with her left and right hands (not at the same time).

Owen's new skill:

Inflatable Palace

Willow has practically grown up at Inflatable Palace. Click here for a flashback to some of her first times down the slide. We took the kiddos to Inflatable Palace last weekend and it was Owen's first time. He had a great time with some of the toys he was able to sit down and play with. 

This one makes me laugh because you can see Gramma falling out of the inflatable in the background!

I think, like Willow, he'll enjoy it more and more as he gets older. He was "ok" with the slide:

Halloween

Willow and Owen enjoyed dressing up for Halloween this year. Willow was easy to please, choosing to be a princess (I believe this is a requirement for all girls at some point between the ages of 2-5) and wearing one of her dress-up gowns. We borrowed a cute cow costume for Owen (not sure it'll fit next summer for Cow Appreciation Day though...) and he humored us by being cooperative in wearing it. We took both kids up and down the block at our new house. We've been super-pleased with how welcoming and friendly our new neighbors are (a TRUE blessing!) and it was great to meet a few more of them. 

Nana and Grandpa helped man the trick-or-treaters at our house so we could take Willow to a friend's neighborhood to trick-or-treat with church friends. There was quite a crew!

Willow had a great time running up to each door. She wasn't too crazy about a couple houses where the adults were dressed up in witch hats...to the point that she didn't even want candy from that house! Lucky for Chris and me, Willow is still at the age that she won't notice that we're "helping" her eat her Halloween candy =)   

Owen's Baptism

Owen LOVES to jump!

(We didn't have any pictures taken on our camera, so I will fill this one in when I get pics off Kim's camera in a couple weeks.)

Gymnastics

Willow keeps progressing with her gymnastics! She can do a handstand against the wall by herself, a headstand with help, a forward roll by herself, a backward roll with help, has now mastered the "seat drop" on the trampoline (this was really hard for her at first), and just learned how to skip! WOW! The best part, in her eyes, might actually be that when they're in the "big gym" she gets to watch the big kids while she waits for her turn. (...hhhmmm....it might be a lot cheaper to just take her there to watch...)

Fall pictures

We got plenty of not-so-great pictures this afternoon, but here's the money shot (it's harder than you'd think to get 8 people looking at the same camera, let alone smiling!):

Fall Fun Around the House

(I warned you that every post was going to be called "Around the House!")

Willow did a great job helping gut our pumpkin and Daddy did a great job carving its face! Willow especially enjoyed eating the pumpkin seeds we baked!

We love being outside in the nice fall weather!

He thought Mama trying to jump rope was pretty funny...

Beach

We escaped to the beach for the weekend with the kiddos and my parents. We had great weather! Both kids enjoyed the beach and the indoor pool where we stayed. Willow was even treated to her first ice cream cone to herself from Ben & Jerry's (She's always had to share our cup at Sweet Frog). Needless to say she didn't have any trouble finishing it off by herself!

Willow held Owen's hand and sang him "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" when he was "done" in the car. It worked!! He loves his sis!

Without hesitation, Willow laid right down in the sand and started making a "sand angel." 

She loves the sand!

Owen is happiest when standing!