Autumn’s 6 Month Photo Shoot

I have been meaning to post these pics for the past week now and I am finally getting around to it. A few weeks ago, Matt & Kaitlyn Altman, our favorite photographers came over to take some 6 month pictures of Autumn. Wow, they came out awesome and Autumn loved being the star. She was posing and making funny faces and boy did she love all the attention she was getting. We tried to do some of Owen and Autumn together but unfortunately Owen did not feel like cooperating that evening. Who would blame him though, his best friend Olivia was over so he just wanted to play. We managed to get one cute one but Matt is still working on it so I will post it later. We also took the amazing Family Feet picture that is our new blog header that night too. We had so much fun and we are so blessed to have such talented friends. 

Brandon and I’s Night Out

This past Thursday our good friend Matt celebrated his 30th Birthday. We had our Bible study that night and his wife Kaitlyn made him a delicious homemade Carrot Cake. Yum yum yum! After Bible study all the guys headed out to go play some pool at a local pub. Last night Kaitlyn decided they could use a night out to celebrate and asked us to come along. They picked us up around 6 and we headed to PappaDeaux for dinner. Wow, it was so delicious and we all ate way too much. After dinner we headed downtown to a local Restaurant called Scalos where they were having a live Jazz concert. We got a table at the bar, kicked back, relaxed and enjoyed the awesome music and atmosphere. They were great and we all had so much fun. We had such a great time we didn’t get home until midnight. Wow, I can’t remember the last time we were out that late but boy was it much needed and well worth it!

The Birthday Boy/Old Man and his beautiful Wife Kaitlyn on the left and Me and My Hubby on the Right.

Me and My Bestie. Happy Birthday Matt!

My Little Chef’s

I know Santa was a little concerned when he gave Owen a kitchen for Christmas that he may not get his money out of it because he wasn’t quite sure how much Owen would actually play with it. Well Santa, you got your moneys worth. Owen is always asking me, “Mommy, you go to the play room and cook with Owen.” So adorable how could I seriously say no to that?

His favorite thing to play is Restaurant. He gets all dressed in his Chef outfit and says, “what can I get you to eat sir?” (Yes, he refers to everyone as sir, male or female.) Nana taught him how to play Restaurant and it is a major hit.

Here is the lunch he served me this afternoon; Tea, Soup, Eggplant, a piece of cake and an ice cream cone. Yummy. After he served me he said, “that will be $50 sir.” Who knew my son was the chef of a 5 star restaurant?

After he finished cooking me up a delicious meal he insisted that baby sister needed to be Chef next. Too funny. Autumn adores Owen and will do anything he wants. What a good little sport.

I love my kids even though they can both be major stinkers. They melt my heart!

Reward Chart

As Owen is approaching his 3rd Birthday, just about 3 months away now, we have decided it is time to introduce a reward chart. The chart is to help him realize that we get rewarded for good behavior and helping out around the house. Basically the first step into allowance. Each week, Owen had 6 categories he has a potential for getting a star in. The goal is to get 28 stars a week which is an average of 4 stars a day. The first week we started on Wednesday so his goal was only 20 stars. If he meets his goal each week he gets a reward. Last week he was working on getting a new Monster Truck, his newest favorite toy thanks to McDonalds Happy Meals. As you can see he met his goal last week. The two categories he seems to have the hardest time with are No Whining and No Yelling, go figure he’s a two year old. I’ll try and keep you all updated each week with how he is doing.

Keeping Busy

Tuesday and Wednesday were two busy days in the Burgess household. On Tuesday morning we had my friend Jess and her two little ones, Abby & Isaac, over to play. The kids had a great time playing together. Owen and Abby seem to genuinely miss each other after not seeing one another for a few weeks. They made up a little game where they would sit in a chair next to each other and then fall flat on their faces on the ground. It was so funny to watch.

It kept Jess and I laughing and entertained a majority of the time.

 

After the chair game they moved onto wrestling and Rocking’ out the Guitar.

Isaac & Autumn mainly kept to themselves. Autumn was pretty grumpy that morning. Darn teething!

Later that evening we had our BFF’s, the Altman Family, over for a nice Italian dinner. We all had a great time and Owen and Olivia had a blast playing together. They especially loved when we pulled out the homemade Chocolate Chip Cookies for dessert.

Milk ‘n’ Cookies, Yum Yum Yum!

Wednesday morning we had the pleasure of watching my beautiful niece for an hour while my sister went to the dentist. She is so adorable and really smiley now. She loved watching Owen & Autumn.

 

The 3 Cousins chillin’.

So Adorable!

Later that afternoon we also got to watch my good friend Leanne’s kids, Linkin and Finnley for 2.5 hours. The first 1 1/2 we just had Linkin who is 7 months older than Owen. With just those two it seemed more like Owen having a friend over to play rather than babysitting because the two of them play so well together. They were so funny to watch.

 

They started off by having a Tea Party. Who knows? Guess they were getting in touch with their feminine side.

Then they were playing with Elmo and Goofy and decided it was their naptime and put them to sleep on the couch. They also decided to go to sleep just like them. Lol.

I love that these two are gonna grow up together. Linkin lives right across the street and they will go to school together and will be in the same grade. They have a blast playing together.

Playing Cars. 

Autumn equally had as much fun as Owen. She loved playing in her jumper watching the big kids run around and play.

Owen’s 1st Dentist Appointment, Santa Fe & More Baking…

Praise the Lord, the family is finally feeling better. Brandon and Autumn were lucky enough to stay sickness free but poor Owen got hit pretty hard with it and I got a little taste of it too. By Thursday morning, Owen was back to his regular old self, meaning being crazy and back to his endless amount of energy. Unfortunately, I started feeling kind of yucky on Tuesday night. By Wednesday I was achy and had a little fever. Thursday I felt so so but thankfully by Friday I was all better. So glad it was short cause I was pretty miserable for 2 days. We are so thankful to all be happy, healthy and back to the norm.

Now onto the fun stuff. Thursday was a very exciting day for little Owen, he had his very 1st dentist appointment. We were a little worried, as I am sure most parents are, because we had no clue how he would do. We talked it up a lot the two weeks prior to his appointment and reassured him that the dentist was so much fun and that he would be such a big boy. Anytime we tell him he will be a big boy it is usually a huge motivator for him. I am happy to say, he did AWESOME. He honestly loved it and was so excited to lay down in the big dentist chair. They didn’t do too much, just a polish, flossed and checked for cavities. They said his teeth looked great and not a single cavity to report. Yay! Brandon actually sold a house to the Dentist Owen saw so it was nice to know him prior to going. The office is right across the street from our house, if the weather was nice we could’ve walked, so nice and so convenient.

The office is brand new and really nice. They have a little movie room for the kids to wait in. Owen was so excited when he walked in to see they were playing Finding Nemo.

Here is Owen with his new dentist Dr. Blair. Not only do they have a little movie theater in the waiting room, each chair has its own flat screen where he got to watch another movie.

Getting his teeth polished.

And here is the Big Boy with a new pearly white smile. I am so proud of him, he wasn’t even a little scared! Such a brave little boy I have.

 

Thursday afternoon we headed up to Santa Fe after the kids naps. Brandon has to renew his Real Estate License every 3 years which happens to fall in February. He had to complete a whole bunch of classes, mostly online, and then he has to go up to Santa Fe to get it signed off that he completed all the required classes. We decided to drive up, get his papers signed and notarized, walk around the plaza, eat dinner and then head back home. The drive up was very nice and we arrived around 3:30pm. We got Brandon’s business taken care of and then headed to the plaza. Well, it started to get extremely windy and cold and I really was not feeling very well to begin with. We walked around a little bit but decided it was too windy and we needed to eat and head home. We couldn’t find a restaurant that really sounded too good since my tummy wasn’t feeling good so we settled for good ole Dion’s, ate and headed back home. The day wasn’t exactly what we had planned and hoped for, but it was still nice to go for a drive and get away from normalcy for a bit.

 

Here are the kiddos enjoying the ride. Owen got to watch Aladdin on the way up and loved it.

Sitting in front of a pretty fountain outside of this beautiful old church in Santa Fe.

It is seriously gorgeous.

Walking around the Plaza. We went to this adorable Children Store but everything was so expensive we had to leave empty handed. O well, it was fun to look.

Enjoying a bite to eat before heading home. Autumn is really starting to love table food. She is so over baby food. Such a big little girl.

 

Warning: if you are tired of seeing Owen cooking  stop reading now!

Yes, we also did some more baking this week. I guess this is a little out of order since the baking took place on Wednesday night so please forgive me. We were in charge of bringing dessert to small group this week so we decided to make my famous soft Chocolate Chip Cookies. It was Brandon’s idea and boy what an awesome idea it was. Of course my little helper had to join in on the baking. Here he is in action. I know this may get old to some seeing Owen baking for the hundredth time but it melts my heart how serious he is about it and I know it makes the Grandparents happy too!

His faces crack me up. He looks so serious. The last picture he is trying so hard to sift the flour but his poor little hands were just too small.

Mixing & Pouring

Mixing in the Chocolate Chips and sneaking in a taste.

So tempting not to eat all this cookie dough but we did control ourselves. I forgot to take a pic of the final product, but let me tell you, they were amazing.

Just in case you were wondering what this little girl was up to while Owen and I were making cookies. Yes, eating snacks her specialty. She loves to eat veggie sticks just like her big bro!

Thanks for checking in on our crazy end of our week!