Happy Birthday Owen!

We had a great time celebrating Owen's 1st Birthday this past weekend. It is so hard to believe that he is already 1! In addition to having some local friends over for a little cake celebration, we were very lucky to have our friends Melissa and Rich come down from DC to help us celebrate. We feel very blessed to have such great friends.

Random Pictures

Just a couple of cute shots from an afternoon at home this week...

Owen would probably call this "torture," not cute!

Yummy. Goodness.

I am in no way a food pro, nor am I trying to be a food blogger, but I was introduced a while back to some delicious cupcakes known as "Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough cupcakes" and I have been dreaming of them since. They are delicious and the best part is that they have raw (can be egg-free) cookie dough in the middle! I researched a bunch of recipes and settled on one the other day, so I made them during nap/quiet time and they were just as yummy as I remembered. They are a brown sugar cupcake with cookie dough frosting - yum! If interested here is the recipe I used: http://www.lovintheoven.com/2009/02/cookie-dough-cupcakes.html.

A future in art?

Tatum was very proud, as was I, of the family that she drew on her art easel one morning while I made pancakes. It is amazing how her drawing skills are developing. She is also a pro at staying within the lines while coloring pictures too. Just one more sign that she is growing up.

Owen "jumps" in

Our little one sure loves the pool!

Swim Lessons

The kids are enjoying their spring swim lessons at our local Y. Tatum has gone from semi-fearful to totally fearless on her own in the water as is evidenced by her constantly trying to jump in the water when her instructor is assisting another swimmer and by her testing her independence in various depths of water. We were lucky today when another father was able to grab her quickly as she struggled to remain afloat in water too deep (she had wandered away from the step in a matter of seconds). Owen just loves swim lessons and he truly enjoys his special time with daddy. (Unfortunately the lighting was not great and once the camera de-fogged I was only able to grab a few decent shots.)

Visitor's to Virginia

While we were pretty terrible about taking pictures over the last 4 months, we did manage to get a few pictures of some of our friends and family who came to visit this past fall and winter, and they deserve a quick "shout-out" on the blog. We hosted Uncle Mark and soon-to-be Aunt Alison in November; Tim, Carlye and Luke for New Year's; and Steve and Natalie in February. We had a great time with all and as always, time flew!

Mark and Al

Blowing bubbles at Towne Point Park (T's favorite)

Tim and Carlye

The kids ready to watch the Rose Bowl game

Steve and Natalie

Self Feeding

One more sign that Owen is getting older...

Setting the table

Today, in preparation of our/her friends coming over for dinner, Tatum helped mommy to set the table. She did a wonderful job setting the adult table as well as the "kid table." We thought that it was pretty neat that Tatum picked out matching plates to coincide with the chairs that she picked for she and her friends to sit in.

Owen meet whole milk, whole milk meet Owen...

So this did not go over so well as the pictures show. Owen does need to get used to milk because he needs to be 100% weaned by April 8 as I will be gone for the weekend at Alison's bachelorette party - woohoo!

Going in for the sip...

um...yuck...

that is not juice!...

bye-bye...

the end. Owen won (this time)!

Sibling Love

St. Patrick's Day 2011

Notice Tatum's bum!

Missing Max

While most everything that happened over the past 4 1/2 months was great, sadly, we had to say goodbye to Max on December 4th. After a short, but brave battle with Feline Renal Failure, Max's 4.5lb body no longer had the energy to keep fighting. He was loving guy until the end and he certainly is not replaceable. We love and miss you Max!

Back to blogging (again!)...

Once again, after a many month hiatus (four, almost 5 to be exact), we will attempt to update the blog on a regular basis. Since our last blog post a lot has happened, very few pictures have been taken (bad!), and time has flown. The holidays came and went in the wink of an eye and we now find ourselves preparing for Owen's first Birthday in less than 2 weeks! Thanksgiving was nice and relaxing here in VA, Christmas was a whirlwind in St. Louis, and New Years was again a great time with great friends here at our house. After the holidays life quickly resumed back to normal with crazy work and gym hours for Mike, school for Tatum, and gym, bible study, grocery shopping, and "mommy work" for Lindsey. Owen, being the happy little camper that he is, happily tags along with whomever he is with. So that being said, we promise to be better about pictures and updates for the (few) people whom we know enjoy reading our blog!

Fun in the Grass

Quinn crawling around

Playing chase...

Yay! Owen can sit up now!

Where in the world is Owen?

In the laundry basket!

Cheering Daddy on!

The kids and I enjoyed cheering Mike on as he ran the Marine Corps Marathon this past weekend. While we were not able to catch him at as many sites as we had hoped to, we were thankful for our friends, Mike and Stacy, who met Mike at 3 other sites along the course. Pushing a double stroller and working with the DC metro system weekend schedule made for long rides on the metro and little time on the sidelines. Nonetheless we had a great time!

All bundled up as it was only about 40 degrees

School Halloween Party and Parade

Getting ready to go around the neighborhood

The 3-year old MWF LUMPS class

Showing off their goodies

Our little spider

Owen (aka "our little spider") enjoyed watching Tatum (aka "Belle") trick-or-treat around the neighborhood with her class as they celebrated Halloween. After a nice walk around the block the kids enjoyed some Halloween treats courtesy of their teachers, Ms. Megan and Ms. Wendy.