Brato Is Back

The day after we put up our Christmas tree, Brato showed back up to spend the holidays with us. Owen absolutely loves this elf. The first thing he says every morning is, "Let's go find Brato!"

Brato is up to his usual mischief, getting into Owen's toys, drawing pictures, hanging from the ceiling fan.

 Owen was into dominoes one night, so Brato decided to join in.

Not sure if this falls under the category of "good parenting," but Owen had an especially rough morning and was pushing every button possible. It's his job to feed the dog and he decided to fight it for a good hour (yes, poor, hungry dog). The next morning Owen woke up and found Brato kindly reminding him what his responsibilities were. (Hey! It worked.)

Funny Hat Christmas Party

Owen's preschool had a little Christmas party today, which also coincided with funny hat day. What are the odds?

Because they were so dang adorable, they had to pose for many photos. (Owen, it turns out, does not find funny hats all that funny, so he opted out of the funny hat shenanigans. Not really surprising given how much he hated hats as a baby.)By the way, check out the pout of the little girl next to Owen. Isn't that classic?

The kiddos ate gingerbread cookies by a fire while listening to stories. Later, they each exchanged a book as a present.

Owen had a good time with his buddies. He got nice and sugared up (teachers love that!), and left with memories and a good book.

Creative Genius?

Owen seriously made up a joke tonight: 

 Q: What do you call a bee fart?

 

A: A sting-ker.

 My 4 year old made up a funny fart joke.  In his brain. Yup.

Earning Those "Gingerbread Boys"

Owen is definitely sensing that the holidays are among us.  The neighbors have inflatable reindeer in their yard, packages are starting to arrive for him that he can't open yet, and the dead giveaway - Mom is listening exclusively to Christmas music.  

In the spirit of the season, Carrie and Owen decided to make what Owen refers to as "gingerbread boys" today.  One of the best aspects of Carrie staying home with O this year is that time can be spent forming traditions the right way.  They spent the better part of the afternoon making gingerbread cookies from scratch.

Owen was running this project from the very beginning.

 He picked the gingerbread cutter spacing (with a smile, I might add).

 He got them placed on the cookie sheet with intent.

He watched them bake, adding that extra level of care truly exceptional cookies possess. 

We decorated the cookies as a family, but I'm going to give Owen the intensity award here.  There were no shenanigans whilst frosting the gingerbread boys.  He gets this way when exuding creativity.  I'm hopeful about what that could mean about his interests in the future.

The boys dabbling in Prometheus' work - but in a much more delicious medium.

The little things that serve as evidence of a mother's love.

Christmas Fort

Owen decided his fort needed a little holiday cheer.

Thanksgiving 2012

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. It's fairly relaxing, full of good food, friends and family, and you are celebrating all that you are thankful for. We were fortunate to spend this Thanksgiving with Staci and Brandon and their family. We've been friends for so long that their family is our family, and vice versa.

It has become a tradition to make Thelma's rolls for the holidays. It feels good to be able to carry that tradition along and I love that I get to use her hand-written recipe card every year. Owen helped out by punching down the dough and he did great. I think I have my official bread maker helper.

  

Staci is definitely the hostest with the mostest. It runs in the family. Her mom is a great home decorator and her sister is an incredible cook. Plus, Brandon makes sure drink glasses are always full. With their powers combined, it was a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Staci's sister has three kids who were over for dinner. Owen had a great time playing with them. Mom and dad had a great time relaxing, while Owen played with them. Win-win situation.

The kids played hide-and-seek for quite some time. It was Owen's first time playing the game, so he had to learn the rules.  He thought hiding under the table was the perfect hiding spot so kept going back.  He eventually caught on that doesn't work out so well.

It was the first time Staci and Brandon hosted Thanksgiving in their home, so the bird carving was a recordable event. I believe Brandon had a few cameras filming this.

We had a very nice Thanksgiving and are so thankful for our friends, family, and health. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Suspiciously Quiet

When am I going to learn my lesson? Quietness with a toddler, and a puppy actually, is not a good thing.

 "Mom! The dog threw mud at me!"

I think both guys are guilty. Fortunately, it's nothing nice, cold hose water couldn't fix. (Hey, it's 80 degrees here. I'm not that cruel.)

Getting Crafty With the Turkey

Owen and I decided to get into the fall spirit today and make some Thanksgiving crafts.

Working in a preschool has helped me come up with simple crafts on the fly. Nice little perk. Owen decided he wanted an alien turkey with teeth and a mustache. I went a little more traditional. 

Pretty turkey-lurkey fine, dontcha think?

Garbage Trucks!

Today Owen and I went on a little field trip to tour the city's solid waste transfer station. It was the kind of trip that only a little boy could truly love.

We got to see the garbage trucks come in and dump the garbage. Then a tractor pushed the garbage into a bigger truck. Owen loved it. I started to feel bad we don't recycle more.

Looks like Owen and truck drivers have a similar sense of humor since Owen thought this was hilarious.

Posing with the abandoned gnomes.

A Ghostly Night

My mom came into town this year to celebrate Halloween with us. Owen was really into it this year. He had been going back and forth on being a Transformer and Iron Man and at the last minute, he decided to be Iron Man.

We started off the day by going to Owen's preschool. The kids could wear their costumes to school and there was a short parade where the kids could show off their costumes. I, sadly, forgot my camera, but I'm sure you believe me when I say it was a very cute parade.

Later, my mom and Owen went on a bike ride while I got the chili ready for dinner. My mom is loving the weather. It's a little different celebrating Halloween in Phoenix versus Seattle.

Here we are all dressed up and ready to trick-or-treat. Owen was pretty shy at first, but very quickly put together what a good gig trick-or-treating is and had a blast going door to door.

A ghoulish moon set the tone for the night. (See the two ghosts under the moon? At least, that's how we saw it.)

Replacement Cards

Inspired by a 4-0 start to the season, Owen got into some of the football fever infecting the Valley (not to be confused with the more serious Valley Fever infecting the Valley). Well, since then the Cards have gone 0-4. This unfortunate turn of events has really taken the wind out of our sails collectively, but Owen decided to do something about it.  Completely on his own, he decided to make a team of his own. He made them numbers and figured they would have a better chance of racking up a few wins.

In all seriousness, it's kind of fun to see Owen get into sports. He does like football and asks who are the good guys and who are the bad guys. He's not exactly sure what the guys on the field are doing, but he can recognize a good play when he sees one and it's fun to see him get all excited and start flapping when someone passes for a long touchdown or something.

It's Pumpkin Time

Holy moly, time is flying by. Fall kind of creeps up on you when you live in Arizona. We are finally seeing cooler temperatures, and by cooler I mean in the 80's. It's wonderful.

Halloween is fast approaching and per Owen he, "absolutely cannot wait until Halloween" and is, "so excited!" We have decorated the house with Owen pushing for more and more decorations and scarier ones. (Though to him "scarier" is really cute spiders. He's not into really scary stuff yet.) He was going to be Iron Man, but then the dog ate his mask, so now he is going to be Bumblebee from Transformers.

We went to a pumpkin patch last weekend to get pumpkins. It was a pretty impressive set-up of things to do from a train ride, tractor riding, corn maze, petting zoo. You could even shoot tomatoes out of an air gun. Needless to say, Owen had a blast.

While there it dawned on me that not many pumpkin patches include La Bamba blaring over speakers, people wearing tank tops, and palm trees scattered along the edge of the field. That's fall in Arizona, folks!

New School, New Job

I realized we had not posted anything about Owen's new preschool and my new (kind of) job. I'll start at the beginning for those who may not know the whole story. We attend a monthly parents group put on by Miles' mom that is located at their church. One of the parents who attends the parents group is the director of a preschool that is located on the church's grounds. When she heard that I was unemployed, she asked if I wanted to work part-time and have Owen attend the school while I worked.

I had been feeling bad about not having Owen in a preschool because he made such good friends at his last one, and was going a little stir crazy staying at home full time, so it was kind of a win-win situation. The preschool gets some much needed help, and Owen and I get to leave the house and spend time with some very nice people.

As I said earlier, the preschool is on church grounds, but unlike his last school, the two are not blended so he does not have any religious study. The school is based off of the Reggio Emilia philosophy. It's an interesting concept and what it boils down to is a very loving, creative, and supportive environment. (The school is sometimes jokingly called a hippie school because it's laid back and artsy.)
 

Here are two of the lovely and incredibly patient teachers I get to work with.  The one on the left is technically Owen's teacher, though the classes work together quite a bit. I'm with Owen about half the time and the other half I am helping out with the little guys (1-3 year olds). I'm learning a lot by working here and Owen is enjoying himself and making new friends.

Pondering Life

Last year Owen went to a daycare that was part of a church and he went to chapel twice a week. He would listen to stories and songs about Jesus and God, so every once and awhile Owen will bring up Jesus.

Owen: (Looking at the sky) Where does Jesus live?
Us: He lives up in Heaven.
Owen: He's up in the stars? 
Us: Way, way up with the stars. 
Owen: Jesus lives in us too, right? 
Us: Yes, he lives in our hearts.
Owen: Well, I think Jesus is playing Wipeout in my heart right now cause it's beating really fast!

Owen: When people die, do they go to Heaven?
Us: Yes, they go to Heaven.
Owen: What happens if you go to Heaven, but you aren't really dead?
Us: Then you go back home.
Owen: How do you get home? Does God take you home?
Us: God has a special way of sending you back home. It's like magic.
Owen: No. I think God would take you home. God's a good guy. He would walk you home.

We love his little curious mind.

Don't Mind Me

Sometimes Iron Man "dies" in very inconvenient locations. Heartless as it may seem, we've learned to just work around it.

I'm starting to wonder if this costume is going to make it till Halloween considering it gets worn almost every day.

Oscar the Lizard

There was quite a bit of excitement in the Wilhelme house the other day. A lizard got into the house and we wanted to catch it before the cat and dog decided to have some fun with the little guy.

Those suckers are fast! Took us a while, but we managed to catch him. Owen wanted to keep him forever. He really wants a lizard (or a frog, or fish, or a guinea pig), so he tried to come up with some good arguments why he should be able to keep this little guy. He decided to name him Oscar after one of his favorite cartoons, Oscar's Oasis.

After a little bit, Owen realized that maybe the lizard did not want to live with us and he let it go in the garden. Owen now likes to leave a window open, just a little bit, in case Oscar wants to come back and play.

Even Superheroes Need Groceries

I felt very safe at the grocery store today. Not a single villain approached me.

Can't a Guy Just Sit on a Wall?

The kid cracks me up. This photo was all his idea. He wanted me to take it so he could show Ed when he got home. He knew it would make Ed laugh. Even sweeter, he wanted Ed to take the photo to school to show his boys and girls because Owen just knew they would find it funny. Either he's on to something, or I'm really immature, but this picture cracks me up every time I look at it.

The Trip - Part 3 - Bryce Canyon

If somebody asked whether they should visit Bryce Canyon or the Grand Canyon, we would definitely say Bryce Canyon. What an incredible place. The red rock is breathtaking and the geology is awe-inspiring.

The weather was still in the upper 90s, but fortunately our campsite had a pool which provided much needed relief during the middle of the day.

Imaginations take over when there is no technology around to distract. Here the boys are shooting the evil guys who are trying to take over our campsite.

 

Enjoying a dinner of spaghetti, the go-to camping meal for vegans.

Utah was celebrating Prairie Dog Day while we were in Bryce Canyon. Ed got swept up in the festivities.

Simply gorgeous. The photo doesn't do the canyon justice. We would like to go back someday and hike in the canyon.

Owen was much better here than the Grand Canyon. He seemed to enjoy Bryce Canyon: it was cool to look at; he got to ride a bus; there were ATVs everywhere; and there was a pool.

Ed still had to hold him tight at times. The kid fears no danger.

A rare family photo, and a pretty decent one at that.