Happy Thanksgiving

Wow, can you believe Thanksgiving has come and gone? Not sure about you but I am kind of starting to panic that Christmas is going to be here in less than a month now. Anyway, I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving filled with lots of food and awesome company of family and friends. Since Owen is at an age where his brain is like a sponge soaking up all the information of the world, I am trying to use everything and every holiday as a learning opportunity. I think we as adults tend to overlook the true meaning of holidays because we are just simply too busy to draw in and focus on why we are celebrating. So thanks to my 2 year old son I am really trying to focus in this holiday and get down to the true meaning of things. Thanksgiving, wow what a wonderful holiday it truly is. But why on earth do we only choose 1 out of the 365 days in a year to Give Thanks to God? Shouldn't this be a daily ritual for us as Christians? Look at all the many verses in the Bible where we are clearly instructed to give thanks:


"We tell God our problems, making our requests known to Him with thanksgiving." Philippians 4:6

"In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God." Thessalonians 5:18

"Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the most high" Psalms 50:14

"It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, and to sing praises unto thy name, O most High" Psalms 92:1

"And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him." Colossians 3:17

"Surely the righteous shall give thanks unto thy name: the upright shall dwell in thy presence." Psalms 140:1

And these are just a few verses I picked out. Do you see a trend in all these verses? We are clearly called, by God, to "Give Thanks" in all circumstances. I see no where that it says to choose one day to do this. So Brandon and I sat Owen down to remind him that today we were focusing in on the things we are thankful for. We gave him examples like family, friends, food, a warm home, etc. Then we asked him what he was thankful for to get him involved. He was very excited and began to tell us all the things he was thankful for. Here is a small list; His Trains, His TV, His Books, the wall, the Carpet, the lights, cars, cake, candy etc. As he gets older our hope is that the things he is thankful for gets a little more meaningful other than just things, but really he is only 2. O' to be a child again. Our day was wonderful. We spent it with my parents and my sister who joined us a little later in the evening for some delicious Pumpkin Cheese Cake she made. Yummy. Enjoy some pictures from our day.Owen and Autumn all dressed up for the day. They are so adorable! Autumn with her Nana & Pampo

Owen & DaddyAutumn & Mommy
The festive table all set. Like my awesome fire candle? My BFF got it for me from Durango for my B-Day. I love it, it even crackles like a real fire.
Yummy!
Owen absolutely loved all the delicious food, especially the cranberry salad.

We started feeding Autumn solids this week, mainly just rice cereal, but since all of us got to eat yummy food I made some homemade sweet potatoes for her. She wasn't quite sure what to think, but overall I think she liked them. Our good friend Gavin joined us too. He doesn't have family in town so we normally adopt him for the holidays.
Me and My Hunny!
My beautiful parents.

Me, My sissy & My niece Abigail. Come out already!

Red Light Green Light

Last night we went to a Birthday party for some good friends of ours adorable kids. Their son Matayus turned 2 and their daughter Aria turned 1. Yes my friends they are a whole 12 months apart! Wow, how do they do it? They had their party at this new place called Red Light Green Light. It is basically a play & party club that offers educational fun play for kids 1-12 years old. The goal there is to inspire passion in young children through role playing. This pretty much goes without saying that Owen had the time of his life! Owen went to bed talking about how much fun he had & woke up still talking about it. We will be going back there for a play day later this week with some friends of ours. Of course, I forgot to take the camera with us but I did have my phone. The pictures are not the best so I promise to take some good pics when we go back this week. Here is Owen trying to decided on his many future career choices...

Option #1: A Chef Option #2: Grocery Store Clerk
(It makes me so happy he chose to fill his shopping cart with all Fruits & Veggies. They did have shelves full of junk food but he chose to stay healthy. Way to go son!) Option #3: Construction Worker
Option #4: Veterinarian

Option #5: Truck Driver

Option #6: A Farmer
Even though Autumn can't really play yet, I think she really enjoyed all the stimulation of watching all the other kids playing. She was so happy the entire time and was a big hit of the party showing off her big blue eyes.

Hair Bows

A very dear friend of mine makes Hair Bows, Headbands, Wall Hangings to hold the Hair Bows, and etc. She is very talented and does some amazing work. Well, she is now selling them on Etsy.com and needed me to take some pictures of Autumn in some of the bows she has made for her so she can put a few up on her website. Well, some of the pictures came out so cute I had to share them with you all. Also, if you have any little girls you know who are in need of some absolutely adorable custom hair accessories, you have to check out her website: http://www.etsy.com/shop/camillebowtique. What a great Christmas gift idea, right? Enjoy the pics of my little princess!

Play Day with Livie

On Wednesday Kaitlyn brought Olivia over to have a little one on one play time with Owen. Wow, what a blast! Kaitlyn helped me finish fanning out the branches of the Christmas tree while Owen and Olivia danced around to the Chipmunks Christmas CD. When we were finished with the tree, the kiddos started to get a little restless and bored so I brought in the slide from outside to let them run around and play since it was too cold to go outside. They had so much fun, the slide was a major hit. Owen and Livie are at a great age and they say some of the funniest stuff. Overall it was a wonderful afternoon with our besties! Enjoy the pics.Here is Owen & Olivia singing, "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" to Autumn while snacking on some pretzels. I think she almost gave herself whiplash watching these two run around! One day Autumn, one day.

And here is the slide I brought in. They went up and down this thing about 100 times! O what I would give to have the energy of a 2 year old!

Crash! They are crazy.
We spent about 15 minutes trying to get these two to pose for a picture and as you can see it was a failed attempt! They could not stay still for longer than 5 seconds and if by chance they did one of them was not looking at the camera. O well they are still adorable!
I thought some individual shots might be easier. Here is Livie giving me her "cheese" face. Lol, she cracks me up. And I couldn't even get Owen to pay an ounce of attention to me. After all the slide fun these two needed to replenish some of the calories lost from running around with a nice and healthy snack, some apple slices. They were making each other laugh so hard by just being super silly and making funny noises. Can you tell how much fun they are having?

Decorating for Chirstmas...

Remember from my Birthday post about how I feel completely unprepared for the Holidays? Well, here is the part of me that is trying to get prepared. I pulled out all the Christmas totes from the garage today and decided to start some Christmas decorating. Owen was a very curious little boy and kept asking question after question about what was going on. His favorite one was, "Hey Mommy, what you doing?" He asked this same question over and over and over. Although, it was very draining I decided this was the perfect opportunity to talk to him about why we celebrate Christmas because I don't want to have ungrateful children who skip over the true meaning of Christmas & just focus on how many presents they get from Santa. Here is how the conversation went....

Mommy: "Owen, do you remember why we Celebrate Christmas?"

Owen: "Yes Mommy, I do."

Mommy: "That is great Owen, can you tell Mommy?"

Owen: "Because of Santa."

Mommy: (Ugh, he is 2 and his mind has already been corrupted by this fallen world thinking Christmas is all about us, Santa and presents. This is exactly what I am trying to avoid) "No Owen, We Celebrate Christmas because it is Jesus' Birthday. Without Jesus you, mommy, daddy and sister wouldn't be here today."

Owen: "O' we get to eat cake and ice cream?"

Mommy: (by this point I feel like I am making no lasting impression of what the true meaning of Christmas really is, especially because I just had a Birthday and I think all he can remember is the cake we got to eat.) "We may get to eat some cake, but we really need to take time to Thank God for everything we have on Christmas, especially for his son Jesus."

Owen: (Looking a bit confused at this point, he looked up at me and said) "O, okay."

I know some of you may think I am crazy for trying to have this conversation with a 2 year old, but you would not believe what their 2 year old little minds really retain. I am going to make it a point to remind him of the true meaning everyday up until Christmas so he never loses sight of what this Holiday is truly all about, Jesus. It is hard, I think sometimes we as adults tend to forget the true meaning with all the busyness the holidays bring. In all reality we shouldn't need presents or decorations or food to remind us of Jesus and the tremendous sacrifice He made so we can have eternal life. Not sure how my first conversation stuck with my little Owen but I promise to never give up. Here are some pictures of Owen helping Daddy put up the Christmas tree. As I was pulling the stockings out of the Christmas decorations tote and of course Owen was right by my side looking a little curious. He looked up at me and said, "Mommy, why you putting big socks on the wall?" I about died laughing. They are so hilarious at this age. I didn't want to tell him because Santa was going to bring him some presents & put in them because for the next 38 days he would be asking where the presents are. Toddlers have absolutely no concept of time. Bless their little impatient hearts.

Another Birthday Has Come & Gone...

It's 1oo% true! When you have kids, the years just start flying by. This past Sunday, I celebrated my 26th Birthday. As a kid I used to love when my Birthday came around because that meant Thanksgiving & Christmas were right around the corner. Now, I am panicking that my Birthday has come & gone, because I feel completely unprepared for the holidays to already be here! Since Brandon was out of town & I have been a little under the weather I didn't feel up to doing much for my B-Day, so my Sister & I decided that I nice relaxed PJ Party was the way to go. My very good friend Cammy made me some delicious Chili for dinner and my parents made me a very amazing chocolate cake. We had a great time. Once the kids went to bed, us ladies (My Sister, Mom, Cammy & My BFF Kaitlyn) all kicked back in our Pj's to watch a Chick-Flick. It was the perfect, laid back way to celebrate! Enjoy a few pics from the evening and Thank You everyone for the wonderful B-Day gifts, I am so blessed! Owen helping me blow out my candles.Yes, he ate the whole piece!

Nana, Pampo & Owen. Autumn with her Auntie Kiki & soon to be cousin Abigail. I am getting so anxious for my sister to have her baby girl. She is finally at the 3 week count down and i am having a hard time being patient. I can't wait to be an Aunt for the 1st time ever and Autumn is dying for a BFF!

Here is Owen saying Nigh Nigh to baby Abigail. So precious.
Autumn tried to stay up for the Chick-Flick, but she just couldn't quite make it! And here is what Brandon returned home from Panama to. A house full of women. I am sure he was wishing he never came back. J/K. Awe, I love these girls!

A New Found Respect...

For those of you who don't know, Brandon has been out of the Country since Tuesday. Yes, that means I have been solo with two kids for 5 days now! This is where the new found respect thing comes in. I have no clue how mom's who have husbands in the Military or work in the Missions Field do it, or a widow or single parent for that matter! Let me tell you, it is hard, non stop, exhausting and overwhelming and my husband will only be gone 6 days. Brandon's Best Friend, Jorge, who he met in College is from Panama. He moved back there after college and is now getting married. He made the trip up here to stand in our wedding 4 years ago and Brandon always promised to be there for his. We had to keep good on our promise, so Brandon is down there now standing in his wedding. It was too expensive to fly the whole family down, not to mention how hard the 9 hour plane ride would have been, and I am no where near ready to leave my kids for that long so I stayed behind to hold the fort down. I can't lie and pretend I am not extremely jealous of Brandon for getting this time away & visiting an amazing beautiful place, I am so happy he got the opportunity to be there for such a wonderful friend. Brandon has been so stressed with work lately and is constantly doing things for other people that I am so glad he is getting some time away and taking some time for himself because he really does deserve it. Well, it has been an exhausting week, especially since I have been under the weather on top of being alone, but with one full day left I am beyond ready for his arrival back home. Thanks to two amazing parents, a wonderful 8 month pregnant sister and an awesome BFF I have made it through. I am however sick of eating Shells & Cheese, Frozen Pizza, Fast Food & Bologna Sandwiches, and would like to get back to getting dressed before noon. Here are some pics from our week.

I would like to say this picture was taken early in the morning since both kids are in their pj's but who am I kidding, I think this was around lunch time.

Autumn is full on teething. She drools and bites on anything and everything she can get her little hands on. Her bottom two teeth are just about ready to pop through. Poor Baby Girl!

But it doesn't stop her from smiling! She is so fun. She has just started giggling and it melts my heart. She is just plain adorable!
This little boy has had quite a rough week without his Daddy! He is a total Daddy's boy and cried his little heart out when we dropped Brandon off at the airport. If you ask him where his Daddy is he will say, at the airport or in Panda (that is what he calls Panama). Too funny. Every time we pull in the Garage he sees Brandon's car and gets a huge smile and says, "Yay, Da-Da's home!" Yes, it breaks my heart to tell him, "No Owen, not yet." Then he looks up with a super disappointed face and says, "Okay mommy 5 more minutes." Poor kids have absolutely no sense of time!

Kind of a random picture, but I have waited a long time to put my daughter in a jean skirt with leggings. I have such a fun time playing dress up with her.
Owen loves his little sister. He loves to make her smile by singing to her and in this picture he is shaking her rattle for her. I love seeing the two of them interact with each other.
And one of his favorite things to do is kiss her. I love them so much!

This little flower is her favorite teething toy. Thanks Melissa!
Mommy loves this little hand!