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...)