Future Planner

Owen helped out with my homework the other night for one of my planning classes.

Owen's type of planning is a Phoenix developer's dream. Since Owen is such a lover of cars, he decided this city needs way more roads.

Owen's Car Wash

Owen watched Curious George make a car wash for his toy cars and decided it would be a great idea to give his cars a good monkey-style cleaning.

The design was pretty much his idea and it worked surprisingly well.  I love his imagination and creativity and we really try to put in the effort if he's game.

And it's fun when his ideas work out.

Feeling the Love

Owen: When I grow up, can I be an astronaut?
Carrie: Of course you can.
Owen: How can I be an astronaut?
Carrie: Well, you need to go to school and you will need to study science.
Owen: Why do I have to study science?
Carrie: Because astronauts study the sky, the stars, and the planets which is a type of science. Daddy and I will help you in school, and since daddy is a science teacher, he can help you with science. Then you can be an astronaut and go in a rocketship into outer space.
Owen: (Very seriously) Mommy, when I'm an astronaut, will you go with me in the rocketship?
Carrie: Sure. I'd love to go.
Owen: Oh good. Daddy too! We can go to outer space together. 

I love how much he openly loves us. How he can't imagine us not doing everything together as a family. How he constantly tells us that he loves us. How he casually holds our hand and doles out hugs and kisses. This is a wonderful phase.

Books with Friends

Owen had a buddy from preschool over last Friday. They were both so excited for this playdate. Each day at school, leading up to Friday, they would come running up to me asking if it was Friday yet.

Owen anxiously waiting for his friend to arrive.

For most of the playdate Braden wanted to read books with Owen, so the boys grabbed some books and read together on the couch. Adorable, right?

Boy and His Dog

We love this dog. Yes, he has some slightly annoying dog traits, but he is incredibly patient with Owen. The kid adores him and the dog adores the kid. It's a good match. 

We Love You

We hope everyone has a wonderful Valentine's Day. Remember, someone in Arizona loves you.

Happy Valentine's Day...Here Are Our Christmas Photos

I really feel like we should get our remaining Christmas photos up before Valentine's Day. February isn't too late to post these, right?

Christmas Eve and Christmas morning were as magical as expected with a very excited four-year old.  Owen curled up with his Huggie and quietly fell asleep, waiting for Santa. This is truly the age of wonder and as parents, these are the times that make all of the petty challenges pay off in a huge way.

Owen asked Santa for three remote controlled cars this year and Santa delivered. His reasoning was the sweetest part.  He wanted a monster truck for himself, a race car for mom and a mustang for dad.  Must be tough for Santa to deny a request like that. 

At the last minute, Santa added Bumblebee the Transformer into Owen's stocking. Little did we know that Owen had also quietly asked Santa for Bumblebee. I guess it's a good thing Santa loved Transformers as a little boy too and has a standing policy that all boys need to get a Transformer for Christmas.

Roland was pretty happy with his gift from Santa. That bone lasted him for a day or two. Even though its lifespan was short, it still ended up in one of Ron and Deb's houseplants.  They were very awesomely accommodating.

Christmas day was spent at Ed and Carol's. It was a very nice Christmas because all the kids and grandkids were there. Plus, we were able to celebrate with Oliver on his first Christmas.  It was wonderful to see the Howard family unit in action.  Team Howard is strong like Team Wilhelme.

Dave received the most heartfelt gift of the day. It brought him and Shawn to tears. To summarize, it's a calendar similar in philosophy to "Where's Waldo," but you instead need to identify the person relieving themselves gastronomically in each photo. 

Another adorable photo op. Just like wrangling cats, but cuter. Maybe...kittens.

The next day we continued the Christmas celebration at Grandma Miller's with a Miller Christmas party.  Robyn and Grandma Miller invested so much into this party; we cannot thank them enough.

It was wonderful that we were able to have one more Christmas together. Grandma Miller gifted everyone with a beautiful clock and Owen received an engraved swiss army knife.

Parada del Sol

Saturday we went to the annual Parada del Sol parade and street fair. It's a pretty hyped event in Scottsdale and an overall good time. 

Owen got a kick out of the parade. The parade was simple. It was definitely no Great Falls Fourth of July parade. In fact, Owen turned to me at one point and asked, "where are the jets?" I had to explain that not all parades include Navy jets flying over the parade route.

 

 There were horses. Lots and lots of horses. 

There was a pedal-powered traveling bar. (Probably my favorite entry.)

Cowboy kitsch was everywhere.

Owen's favorite part was the old cars that lined the street festival. He had to look at every engine.

Plus, there was a ton of stuff for the kiddos, including a petting zoo with the "world's softest rabbit" (Carrie's words).

Writ Large - Literally

They might be kind of hard to see in the photo, but each one of the green circles/doodles represents a plot twist to a story that Owen was creating in his mind. Owen was pretending he was frantically writing down a series of events that he was witnessing.  It was fascinating to listen to him. I wish I had thought to jot the story down as he was telling it.

Boat Grandma and Grandpa made an appearance in the story. Boat Grandpa battled an evil butterfly and Boat Grandma had a bomb and used it to blow up a scorpion. I believe those events are represented by two of the bottom left hand scribbles.

Ugly Sweater Christmas Eve

Ron and Debby decided to spice up Christmas Eve this year by having everyone wear an ugly Christmas sweater.  The whole "ugly Christmas sweater party" is a pretty hot thing to do, so it was slightly difficult to find a truly ugly sweater, but we all tried our best. It did make for a rather festive Christmas Eve. Below is the family (minus a picture of sweet Jameson) in all our ugly Christmas sweater glory:

Surprise Visit

Look who popped in today to say hi. My Aunt Judy and Uncle Rick are in town for Barrett Jackson, and while my uncle was busy sneaking into hotels to see the super-pricey cars, Judy came over to catch-up and say hi.

Sun and Food for the Soul

I woke up in a bit of a funk today. Job searching, followed by good 'ol job rejections, had brought me down. I really didn't want to be in a funk though and decided that some sun and aromatherapy (in the form of food cooking) was what I needed to lift my spirits.

It was a windy day so Owen had the wonderful idea of going to a park and flying a kite. Unfortunately, it seemed winder than it was so our kite flying wasn't that successful.

Owen didn't let that stop him from having fun though and he decided to take the matter into his own hands.

After the park, we came home to bake some bread. This is where my food aromatherapy came into play. I figured it would be hard to be in a funk when my house smelled like freshly baked bread. Owen immediately jumped in to help out. He's getting this baking thing down.

For the next two and a half hours I kicked my funk to the curb by making a home cooked meal. I have to admit, I am damn proud of this meal for many reasons:

• For one, I took a healthier approach to making sadness go away than I may have done in the past. (I'm looking at you pizza and beer.)
• Second, Owen was really into helping and I so enjoyed cooking with him. I had my soup simmering and he came over to check it out. It was loaded with veggies and beans so I wasn't sure he would eat it. He wanted to try some and after sampling some, gave me the thumbs up of approval. He then asked for a bowl of it, and as he was eating it turned to me and asked, "is there garlic in here?" I said of course. He then asked if he could add some bouillon seasoning to his bowl. At this point I was in a bit of shock that those words came out of his mouth, and I proceeded to get him some. He then asked if he could have the "mustard salt" like "daddy puts in his noodle soup." This is when it dawned on me that all the time we spend in the kitchen cooking was impacting Owen in a very positive way. 
• Finally, this meal rocked. It was simple, but it felt good knowing that I made every single thing we ate (minus the Tabasco) from scratch: soup, bread, dressing, salad. No additives, just pure and simple ingredients.

We've been vegetarians (bordering vegan) for over a year now. Our eating habits have changed drastically. While we may have not lost as much weight as we have hoped, we are healthier than we were a year ago. It takes time to make a healthy meal from scratch and so we spend a lot of time in the kitchen. This is where a considerable amount of our family bonding takes place. Ed and I talk while cutting vegetables and Owen gets a kick out of "stealing" the cut vegetables from us and eating them.  I've read it takes 66 consecutive days (or some other random number) of doing an act for it to become a habit. I really feel (hope) this way of eating has become a way of life for us. It took work to get here, but I am thankful for it.

Ice Day

Today was Ice Day at Owen's preschool. The families froze buckets of ice that contained food coloring, glitter, and special surprises and brought them to school for the kids to build ice castles with.

The kids had a blast playing with the ice. (And yes, it really is this cold right now in Phoenix: 45 degrees during the day and 27 degrees at night. My vegetable garden, which lived through 120 degrees, has officially died. Very sad.)

The days prior to Ice Day, the kids were shown a block of ice that contained a toy in it and were asked to guess how they could best get the toy out of the ice. Most kids guessed they should melt it and provided different ways to melt the ice such as sun, fire, stove. Owen very proudly raised his hand and declared, "we can smash it!" You have to hand it to him, he can see the shortest distance between problem and solution.

My new favorite portrait of our family, drawn by Owen in school yesterday.

Christmas Eve Day 2012

We were fortunate to celebrate Christmas multiple times throughout our time in Seattle. Our first celebration began at Trina and Shawn's house with Robyn and all the kiddos.

Suneela is almost taller than Carrie. But Carrie will make sure to point out that she still is taller, to which everyone smiles gently and nods, letting her have that honor for at least another year.

 Robyn quietly taking in the excitement of Christmas.

 Have you ever seen someone so happy to get a spoon?

 The Schneiders opening their photobook.

This only took twenty shots or so to get them all smiling, but it was worth it.

Cat Decides Boy is Better than Dog, Nothing

We've been back about a week from our trip up to Washington. I think the long trips away are starting to get to the cat. Plus, there is that dang puppy that she still doesn't trust.

For the first time ever, she voluntarily laid on Owen's lap and let him pet her. Owen was shocked and we had to take a picture to prove to Ed that it happened.