Charly's Mop on Top

I usually keep her hair up in a pony tail. It flips under perfectly. I love it, it looks great naturally with little to no effort on my part. Today we went for the hair band look. I knew it would only last for about an hour before she tore it out so I thought I would share. Of course no picture of my daughter would be complete without something in her mouth.

Cooking with Owey

When Charly is napping I try to spend some quality time with Owen. He likes to cook, it's more like stirring and pouring stuff. I won't let him near a flame, he not to be trusted. So we have been trying new recipes, cookies, cakes, dinners, whatever looks good. He is such a good helper and it a good time for teaching. This day we made those no bake chocolate oatmeal cookies. They didn't turn out well. The heat must not have been high enough, so we tried again, another failure. I think we will be skipping this "easy" classic. :)

December 28th Christmas x 2

After going through all my pictures for my blog I realized that again I have managed to take most if not all of the pictures, leaving me out of all the family and holiday pictures. This will be a New Year's Resolution for me, I will hand the camera over so I can be in the recorded family memories.

Okay so we arrived safely from MS and tried to rest before our big day the next day. :) Owen was loving all the present opening. And Charly could care less, she was just happy to be in her own bed. I was happy to be home too. It's nice to go away, but I love my own bed.

Super Owen! To the rescue!
He loves to tie blankets around his neck to be a "Super He-o" even though he has two real capes.

Yea! More presents!

Some flare for Garett's desk.

Charly eating more presents.

Bob the Builder from Grandpa Charlie! Thank you!


Later Christi and Skot came over. They came in from Chicago for the holidays. We love it when they visit. They are lots of fun! Owen talks about Christi every time we get dressed for church (because she had bought his church jacket that he loves) so when she came over he was asking if we were going to go to church. :)

Our little Goo Goo Baby. She was having so much fun, new people and new things to chew on.
That is a 12-18 month shirt. It was a touch tight but I wanted her to wear it since it was the closest thing we had that resembled a candy cane.

If you can't tell from the pictures, she is the sweetest little girl.

One of Owen's favorite toys. Clean up on isle 2.

Christmas In Mississippi

With Garett's work schedule we were not sure if we were going to have the time to go to Mississippi to visit family. Last minute we got word that we would be able to go! So we packed quickly and took off. I was worried about the kids having a hard time with the long car ride but it worked out fine since we left at 7pm, they slept most of the way.

Hey big guy. It looks like you need a taller seat.

Charly wasted no time falling asleep.


Since we drove through the night we had time to visit and relax. Charly took a nap on nearly everyone there. :) Owen spent as much time outside as possible. He loves exploring and playing in the dirt. There are horses next door so he liked watching them too, but chasing the cats was the best. He kept trying to rub their backs with sticks and what Owen called a hammer, the cats knew better than to hang around for that kind of love.

Charly taking a nap with Aunt Nicole.



Notice the cat in the bush. I just happened to catch him goofing around.

Owen's "hammer". It's metal and dangerous for sure. No wonder the cats were running. No cats were harmed. And the "hammer" was removed from the toddler.

Charly catching some rays, it was 70 degrees. :) I miss the warm weather. While we were in MS Charly started to wave at everyone. It was so funny, everytime Charly saw Nana Charly would throw her arm up and wave.

Owen in persuit.

Opening presents.

Eatting presents.

Owen's cousin Keaton. Keaton is 3 months older. They look like brothers. They played together well too.

Saturday we said out good-bye's and headded home. We tried leaving earlier in the day. We ended up having to take time in the middle of the trip for the kids to get out and move. They did so well with the break in the middle, it just made for a long trip home.

The family. Wayne is missing.

I love you too Owen.

This is the double I Love You, also known as Airplanes, but not Hang Ten. I keep telling him that it's Hang Ten too, he gets mad and tells me No Hang Ten Mama. :)

Merry Christmas

Like many of you, we have family all over and on different travel schedules so we celebrated Christmas a few times this season. The first time was with Wendi, Marilee and my father.

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree
Where is your tree skirt?

The kiddos... They had the wiggles.

The look on Owen's face cracks me up! "Augh! Soccer!"

And chill time after playing with presents. All the Art work on the wall was hand made by Owen with assistance from Charly and I. I really enjoy art projects with Owen.

December 14th

On December 14th, my niece Marilee turned 2! (Wendi's daughter, if you didn't know) We had fun celebrating. She is now at the age where she shows surprise at opening gifts, it's a lot of fun watching.

Hurray! Marilee's 2!!! Make a wish!

And the re-lighting of the cake. Owen blew out the candles.
The second go round we still aren't sure who actually blew out the candles.

One of the best gifts for a 2 year old.

I know I know I know

I am way behind on updating the blog... again. But I'm going to make a few posts and catch up. :) So keep checking. I promise updates. :)