Ringing in the New Year...

... with a little bit of color. Happy New Year!

Ready For The A.M.

We have the evening all set. Santa's cookie? Check! Santa's Milk? Check! Reindeer carrots? Check! Fat lip, comical belly and beard? Check, check and check. Welcome Santa.



Looks like someone's having a beautiful Christmas.

We anticipate that Owen is going to have a baby cardiac arrest when he sees this in the morning. He went to bed with no presents under the tree. He will wake up to this. It's good to be a little boy.

Holiday Cheer From Arizona

Christmas is upon us again and that means another trip to the railroad park, where everyone goes out of their way to make things extra Christmasy. Although we didn't sit in Santa's lap (by request of a certain 2 year old in our company), we did say "hi" to him and tell him Merry Christmas. Being in the gifting mood, we also decided it was time to do something about our car that was hit by the golf ball hail and ended up looking not unlike a golf ball itself.


This is the train that welcomes park-goers all year round. It looks decidedly cheerier these days.


There are lots of Christmas lights throughout the park. These guys are fireworks.


Bout to roll on the train around the park. Owen had a very good time and we followed suit. It's tough not to catch the Christmas spirit when you have a 2 year old with you.


Ah yes, our (Carrie's) new car. We are smitten.


Wagons, wagons, we love wagons. We also like 72 degree Christmases!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Take Your Baby To Work Day

We just realized there are a few blogs we started to post but never did. We probably weren't in a creative mood and felt bad just slapping the pictures up. Since we still don't feel creative, we decided to just slap the photos up anyway. Don't want to waste a cute photo, right?

So I present: Owen hanging at my (Carrie's) office circa November 2009.

In all honesty, I hope he doesn't end up in a job like this (i.e. sitting in front of a computer for 9 hours a day).


This is the face I make when I have someone ask me to write another memo. So many memos in government work and so little time.

It's Beginning To Look Alot Like Xmas

Five more days till Christmas. My goodness times goes by quickly. All and all it's been a nice holiday season for us. Ed is officially on break though he has one more week of his school. All our presents are shipped and we are almost done shopping for Owen. He has asked Santa for a truck and some apples. I think Santa will come through this year. We checked out neighborhood Christmas lights and baked cookies. We just want to go to the Railroad Park and ZooLights and I think we have done everything on our holiday tradition list.


This guy's house was crazy. The lights played to music, there was a bubble machine and a faux snow machine. The side of his house was decorated too and he had a firepit where the kids could roast marshmellows. I guess he goes crazy at Halloween too so we'll have to check it out next year.


It wouldn't be Christmas without Christmas cookies.


Owen was mildly into making cookies. He liked cracking the eggs and playing with the flour. I lost him after that but he jumped back in to help when he saw the frosting and sprinkles come out.


Cutting out the middle man - who needs a cookie when the sprinkles can go straight into your mouth.

Goin' On A Tree Hunt

What do you get when you have 3 moms, 4 kids, 1 dog and a chainsaw? Why a fun little getaway in Pine, AZ of course. Dawn wanted to cut her own Christmas tree this year. Kristi (Miles' mom) had a friend with a cabin in Pine. Ed had an insane amount of work to do this weekend. So it seemed like a perfect reason to pack up the car and take a road trip up north.


Playing in the cabin. And I use the term "cabin" very loosely. It was a house. A fabulous house. The woman who owns it has it set-up for guests: movies, music, dog food, fire pit, wine - you name it, we had it. It was wonderful and I am very grateful to the woman, who I will probably never meet, that let me sleep in her home.


The boys were in heaven playing pretend in the forest.


Goin' on a bear hunt... we're not scared...


Dawn and her Christmas tree. Pine doesn't exactly have trees fit to be a Christmas tree but we managed to find one that would work. Unfortunately, for her, she did not get to use the chainsaw. The trunk was tiny and it would have been silly. Fun but silly.


Something about a toddler with a saw didn't feel right. But, we needed fire wood and he volunteered.


Only thing not pictured is the large dog on Dawn's lap and the large chainsaw in the trunk. Needless to say, we were cozy but we had a dang good time.

One Reason To Love Arizona

The sunsets are just amazing. Pictures below snapped from our backyard.

Belated Thanksgiving Post

We are late posting the Thanksgiving photos but better late than never. (We say that a lot lately.) Thanksgiving was nice and also not so nice this year. Nice because Robyn came down to celebrate with us. Not so nice because Owen and I were sick. But having Robyn around for that reason was also very nice because she could help out with Owen and I could sneak in some extra sleep. Plus she helped Ed grade papers. Probably not the trip she had in mind in terms of fun and craziness but it was a huge help and relief for us. Anyway - onto Thanksgiving fun!


Making mashed potatoes crazy Ed style.


Robyn and the best gravy in the world. The best, we say!


Owen and I were down and out but managed to clean ourselves for some turkey goodness.


Owen and grandma anxiously awaiting pumpkin pie. (It was exactly one year ago on Thanksgiving that Owen took his first step. Seeing how far he has come was one of the main things we were thankful for.)

Owen's Happy Place

Owen found his happy place at Costco. He startled quite a few people who didn't expect a little boy to be huddled in the tires.

Letting Our Hair Down

It's not often Carrie and I get a chance to let loose a little, so when we have visitors, we like to have a little fun. We took that opportunity at Staci and Brandon's wedding. We have shown some fun photos of Owen, but here are some fun ones of the rest of us.


Everyone still mostly coherent at the ceremony. Good, wholesome times had by all.


Ron and Debby enjoying the festivities.


A rare siting of Carrie and me in the same photo... dancing, no less.


You'd think from this photo that Carrie had a good time at the reception. And you'd be right.


Like grandma, like grandson.

I Gotta Hang Out With This Guy More

So, his first baseball game is in box seats with the president of the D-Backs. It stands to reason that his first basketball game would be in box seats then. I gotta get on his good side, maybe he'll get me on the 50 yard line with the Cards or center ice with the Coyotes. I can't wait.


Concierge, can we get some more chicken-fingers in here? Thanks. Oh wait, hey, is everyone down for another round? Yeah, maybe another round of milk too.


Hangin' out with my bro-ha, Myles. Watchin' some hoops. That's just how we roll.

Owen And The Bowns' Big Day

Carrie was right about our neglecting our posting. In our defense, time has sped up significantly lately, as I'm sure you all have noticed.

Last weekend was the wedding of our longtime friend Staci and our slightly less longtime friend Brandon. It was a beautiful ceremony on a golf course and Staci and Brandon looked as happy as we've ever seen them.


What marriage on a golf course would be complete without the happy bride and groom whisked away to the reception in a golf cart?


Two nice things about a wedding on a golf course: 1) Great scenery, 2) You get to dress up a little. Put those two together and you have a rare toddler photo op indeed. We took advantage of that rare opportunity.


One less nice thing about putting those two things together: Lots of room to run around. A favorite quote of ours was when Owen said "I walk grandpa!" And it was so.


Owen asking for a little help getting up one of the slopes to the green.


Aside from the wedding party, Owen hands down took the best-dressed award for the night. I can't tell you how many compliments he got at the wedding and the reception.


This is one of my favorite shots. He was having so much fun just running around. One of the scariest things about how fast that time is slipping by is the realization that the age of innocence doesn't last forever.

Band Band

Oh man. We are so behind on blogging. Not necessarily the number of posts (because we have been consistently bad about that for awhile). More the fact we have some good photos - and some great ones - and we have yet to put them up. Operation Post Photos is now in effect.

This photo probably doesn't fall into the great photo category but it's pretty dang cute. When Owen gets even just slightly hurt, he wants a "band band" aka a band-aid.


I'm not too sure what happened with the top of his lip but he absolutely had to put a band band there to fix it.

Herding Cats

Owen had his first sport class on Saturday. We had signed him up for a six week class through the city. He'll learn soccer, field hockey, and t-ball. As to be expected, teaching toddlers to play an organized sport is like herding cats but it was very cute and Owen seemed to enjoy it.


Listening to the coach.


Learning to kick while grandpa and dad watch.


Goal!

Happy Halloween Part 2

The "tourist" (Football player and race car driver were not working out because he didn't want anything on his head. So we improvised.)


Did you hear about the new pirate movie? It's rated ARRRRR.


What do you call a penguin in the desert?
Lost.

Happy Halloween (again)!

(Update: Hilarious line from the night was when a family walks up and the mom exclaims, "El Pollo! El Pollo!" while pointing to Ed which means "chicken" in Spanish. Owen called Ed a duck all night. A truck, with a bunch of kids in the back, drove by yelling, "There's the penguin! Hi penguin!" I do think Ed, unofficially, had the best costume in the neighborhood.)

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from Arizona!



We carved pumpkins last night and celebrated one of my favorite traditions, baking pumpkin seeds. Owen loved them, which we figured because he tends to like everything I do (which is fun).

Carrie and I are going a a pirate and penguin, respectively, but we're not 100% on Owen's costume yet. We have the option of toddler football player or toddler race car driver. I think that's going to be a game-time decision, but we'll put up some photos however it turns out.

Wishing you all a fun, safe and happy Halloween!

Potty Bear

Some mornings, when Owen wakes up, we're told Huggy pooped during the night and needs his diaper changed. So we take Huggy and "change" his diaper. Well this morning, Huggy had to go potty but didn't like diapers anymore so he wanted to go on the big boy potty.


Owen is not a fan of the big boy potty and I was hoping this was a sign he was warming up to the idea of using it. But, in an unfortunate turn of events, Lion (Owen's other favorite stuffed animal) also had to go potty but Lion hates the big boy potty so he pooped on the ground.

Hopes were dashed and we instead talked about how we don't potty on the floor. (When Niah was potty training at the daycare, she would sometimes potty on the floor. Dawn taught the kids the mantra, "Don't potty on the floor!" and Owen repeats it, but I fear curiosity might get the better of him one day.)