New Years Eve in Cleveland

We flew out to Cleveland to spend News Years with the Kuder/Simpson family. The first order of business was the gift opening. I don't know who was more excited...Owen or Grandpa!!!

Then we got cleaned up for the party. Owen and his cousin, Elizabeth, were ready to rock and roll. Well, the rocking part anyway! Aren't they cute in the hats that Elizabeth and Aunt Leslie made?

The rocking horse gets a lot of competition from the kids. For Owen, it's a battle of who gets to sit up front.

Dinner at the kiddie table...Aunt Leslie had to sit there since her next little one is in utero!

The New England Aquarium

Despite winter storm warning, we headed downtown to the Aquarium for a fun time. Owen loved the huge tank in the middle of the building that had everything from sharks, fish and turtles swimming in it.

Christmas Day

Christmas with Owen was nothing short of fun and magical. He was filled with so much curiousity and excitement as soon as he woke up and came down stairs.

Owen got quite the stash from Santa and quickly ripped into all the gifts.

It was fun to watch him excited about it all.

Owen's big gift was this awesome soccer goal that Daddy made for him. Owen wasted no time putting it to use.

Then there were lots of gifts from family. Owen had been especially interested in opening this big gift from Grandma & Grandpa Wade...
And it turned out to be this concrete mixer truck, which Owen absolutely loved. Gift opening went on hold for a while after this baby was opened up.

Ah, what a cute family. This was really such a wonderful Christmas and a lot of it had to do with all of Owen's excitement for the holiday. For the first time in a long time, I was sad to see Christmas come to an end.

Christmas Eve

We spent Christmas Eve with our good friends Ana, Sasha and Danya. The boys exchanged gifts and had fun playing with new toys.

Christmas Eve Fun

We thought going to the Children's Museum would be a fun way to spend Christmas Eve. Luckily it wasn't too busy, so Owen had a great time.Sssssss....Snake!

The Bobcat is always a favorite.

Water play is a lot of fun too...just as long as you don't get too wet.

Cookies for Santa

Santa needs a snack while delivering all those presents, so we needed to make sure we left him cookies and milk. Owen was super excited about this gesture.

Not once did he want to eat the cookies or drink the milk...which says a lot as they are probably two of his favorite things. They are for Santa, he would tell us.

Who knew that on Christmas morning the cookies gone and the glass empty would leave such an impression on Owen. He truly was tickled by it all.

Visiting Santa

This evening we meet up with Daddy after work to visit Santa. Owen was super excited and on the car ride over I asked him what he was going to do when he saw Santa. His response was that he was going to give him a big hug. I thought that was incredibly sweet, but wondered if he'd actually follow through. There has been lots of talk in our house about how you tell Santa what you want for Christmas, so I was trying to encourage him to do that. It was all fun and exciting until we actually saw Santa while waiting in the line. When our turn came up, Owen didn't want to do anything with sitting on his lap. We had to bribe him with a candy cane, and even then he wasn't too thrilled as the photo shows. As we were leaving, I went up to Santa with Owen in my arms and told him that Owen would like a firetruck for Christmas (this was the only thing he ever told us he wanted) and Owen seemed pretty happy that Santa got the word.

Elizabeth's Gingerbread House

Our neighbor, Elizabeth, does the most amazing thing...she makes gingerbread houses, sans decorations, for all the kids in the neighborhood. This year Owen was a recipient of one. As luck would have it, we were having Elizabeth babysit the boys for a couple of hours one evening so I thought a fun activity would be for her to decorate the gingerbread house with Owen. I bought lots of candy goodies for decorating, and I'm told Owen had fun tasting it all!

Gifts with Aunt Cat

Before she headed back to Ohio, we opened gifts with Aunt Cat. Owen was very excited to show off the hand prints that he and Marcus did for her.

Then Owen got an awesome gift of Lego from Aunt Cat.

The Stone Quarry Legos are a huge hit for Owen. A crane, front loader and concrete mixer...what could be cooler? Thanks, Aunt Cat!

Christmas Cookie Tradition

We have a tradition of making cut out Christmas Cookies, and this year Aunt Cat carried the torch on this task. She had a pretty fun helper.
Aside from the traditional Christmas shape, Owen was excited to use the Star Wars shapes (thank you so much Wilson and Hae-Won). So next to Santa and Frosty we had Yoda, Darth Vader and Storm Troopers.

As far as Owen is concerned...the bigger the mess, the better!

After all the hard work is done, we had delicious cookies. Owen was the official taste tester!

Chritmas Crafting

Owen and Aunt Cat had a blast making a hand print Christmas tree.

Aunts are so special.

Owen and Aunt Cat seem to have this special bond. When she is here, they are instant best friends...like no time has past since they last saw each other.

An Aunt Cat Christmas!

Aunt Cat is here for a visit and Owen couldn't be more happy to have an additional playmate. I wanted to get a good picture of Aunt Cat with the boys, and the above photo is a classic display of how difficult that task can be!

What a Character!

Owen sure knows how to put a smile on our faces. He has always had a fascination with sunglasses, and he has finally figured out how to put them on his face correctly. So silly!

Owen has a this strange obsession with telling us our names. "Mommy is Christine" and "Daddy is Brian" Why is it so odd to hear your child say your name?

Owen has a new phrase..."No, thanks" and he likes to use it A LOT!
"Owen, it's time to take a bath."
"No, thanks."

Christmas Activities

Today Owen was excited to get a letter from Santa in the mail.

Owen is just starting to figure out this whole Christmas thing. Just last week he was standing at the door saying "Christmas is coming,"...like Christmas is a person.

"Elf on a Shelf" has made his appearance at our house, and Owen gets excited each morning to come downstairs and look for the elf (who Mommy named Bob).

Owen has become fascinated with watching Christmas specials on t.v. While Charlie Brown Christmas was a favorite from my childhood, Owen seems to prefer Curious George and Shrek Christmas Specials.

Decorating the Tree

Today we decorated our Christmas tree and it was so awesome to watch Owen excited and helping out.

He exclaimed "I did it all by myself," after he figured out how to hang his first ornament...then was non-stop with all the decorations.

Christmas really is 100 times better with kids.

Getting our Christmas Tree

Today we went to a small tree farm to cut down our first REAL Christmas tree.
Owen seemed pretty excited about the whole experience and carried around his plastic toy saw.
Owen is full of all kinds of silly talk. He doesn't keep quiet long enough even for a photo at times. We were having fun taking pictures of ourselves on the car ride home.

Star War Legos

Daddy found a Star Wars lego set in the attic, so he and Owen had to immediately assemble everything. It is funny that Owen can already name Star War characters without hesitation.

Peanut Butter Man

Owen is a HUGE fan of peanut butter. He will eat it straight out of the jar if we let him. Daddy started this habit of putting a big scoop of peanut butter on a spoon for him to eat. If Owen asks for a sandwich, he talking about peanut butter on bread.