New Kid Pictures! Owen 1 Year, 2 Months & Megan 3 Year, 4 Months

When I did Owen's last monthly post I completely forgot to include pictures from his 1 year photo shoot (which was two months late since he kept bruising his head!).  Anyway, click HERE to view the entire JCP album but I've also included some of my favorites below.

 

On Sunday Megan and I had a little photo shoot outside our house.  It was too nice not to enjoy the wonderful sunlight.  My special trick for this session was to let Megan take a picture of me with her camera in the desired pose first.  Then she knew what to do and smiled like a pro and had a blast!  Enjoy!

S'more Lewis Fun

Catching up from last week... Last Wednesday night was a perfect night to light a fire in our fire pit and roast some s'mores.  It was John's "free" day so s'mores were after a Papa Murphy's dinner which the kids loved!

John found these s'more marshmallows at Target which are square just like the graham crackers.  We didn't have any chocolate so we used cinnamon graham crackers.  Maybe better that there wasn't chocolate because it was plenty messy the way it was!  Megan dove into hers right away and Owen eagerly waited for her to get full so he could have a taste too! 

 

 

Plenty of evening left for some sillies!!!

 

 

Tough Mudder

Last weekend John put his training to the test and participated in the Tough Mudder.  Tough Mudder is one of the toughest obstacle courses out there.  The course in Somerset, Wisconsin that John, Michael and Becca completed was about 11 miles of hilly terrain and 18 insane obstacles along the way.  The course started out with going over a tall wall and also included going through a mud pit, jumping off a 25+ foot wall into ice water, monkey bars, carrying a log for a mile or so, crawling under electric wire and one last wall to climb at the end.  John and team mostly walked between obstacles and finished in just 3.5 hours.  John was also super proud of himself that he completed every obstacle along the course!  He also finished with only some minor scratches and bruises, more of which seemed to appear in days following the event.

Here are just a few pictures from the event.  

 

 

 

 

Megan thought those above pictures of John were really funny, especially because his beard was so muddy.  She took one look at the pictures and said, "What happened to Daddy's beard?"

Oh, and one more of John's recent accomplishments!  Here was the reading of the bathroom scale last week - John saw a weight in the one hundreds!  John would say that he has entered the "onederlands" and is now down about 70 pounds in the last year!  Way to go!

Funnies: Yep, Another One This Week!

I needed a quick sit-down project this afternoon so I am going to give you another funnies update!  The head does not keep our kiddos inside.  We were out playing almost every night this past week even though it was 90's even after work!

This is what happens when you invite Owen to your game of hopscotch....

And this is how Owen plays along with being outlined in sidewalk chalk!  The rest of us were taking turns being traced so Owen laid down too!  Then he laid down on his outline!

This is our little digger!  Owen can't quite get the bucket to move yet but we still had to carry him away from this when it was time to leave!

Megan enjoyed the digger as well but for some reason she found the urge to "swim" in the sand.  She also made a "sand angel" right after that.  Crazy girl!

At that same park there is a really old and narrow tornado slide which Megan likes to go down for some reason.  Well, John volunteered to go with her even though I told him he would get stuck.  We enjoyed watching the two of them attempt at going down the slide.  First he put Megan on his lap and they started down.  Next thing we see is John very uncomfortably inching the two of them down.  Then he sent Megan down by herself and he finished the descent.  I was laughing too hard I forgot to take a picture but I don't think John will be doing that again any time soon!

So, whichever kid put the tube of Desitin on the bathroom countertop one night this past week played a good one on me.  It was pretty late when I was going to bed and the tube looked just like our toothpaste.  Luckily I didn't actually brush my teeth with it but a big dollop of it did make its way onto my toothbrush before I realized I had the wrong tube!  Gross! 

My mom brought the kids to see me at work yesterday.  I had gotten a pair of computer glasses a few weeks ago and was wearing them when Megan ran into my cubicle.  She exclaimed, "Mommy, what are you doing wearing Kim's glasses?"

Finally, this is how and where Megan's slept the past four nights!  Yep, in a sleeping bag in the hallway upstairs.  Surprisingly she has been getting some good night's sleep in her new "bed".  It must just be Owen that wakes her up and the reason she can't sleep in her own bed.  

Owen at 14 Months!

A couple weeks ago Megan, who wanted to know where Owen was, said, "Where did my baby go?"  I thought that was pretty cute because every time I look at Owen lately I wonder the same thing.  At 13 months I knew he was all toddler and he's just getting more grown up every day and has gotten so much more independent this past month.  Of course having a big sister to keep up with helps too!

My absolute favorite part about Owen right now is how he always wants to sit on laps or sit down with toys.  He'll spot something that catches his eye, pick it up and then turn to sit.  If I'm standing behind him he still will squat as if to tell me to park it because he wants a place to sit!  My second favorite part about Owen right now is how he will use adults to get what he wants.  If I am holding him and he wants the banana on the counter he will turn my head so I see it, point to it and grunt, when I'm close enough he'll pick it up and hand it to me.  One way or another he will get his way I guess!

Owen continues to be a jabber box.  It sounds like he is saying: Hi, Bye, Buh-bye, Daddy, Mommy, Dog, That, Ball.  A lot of them aren't that clear but he knows what they are.  One word that he recognizes out of our mouths is "Go".  If we say that in the morning he is by the garage door in no time!  You can really tell when he's anxious to get going because he'll try to put his own shoes on!  This kid knows the routine!

Owen's mobility has increased so much this last month.  He is noticeably better about walking around objects on the floor and there aren't as many little spills.  He can climb onto the couch and weasel his way up onto chairs.  He wants to step up stairs when we're holding his hands like a big boy and then go down forward too.  And the most shocking one was when Owen pretty much mounted Megan's big girl bike all by himself.  I was guiding him a little but he swung his leg over the seat like a pro!

I hate to mention it but Owen's molars are starting to come in.  We didn't realize it right away but we had a few weeks of throw ups every other day.  I started to think he might have a dairy allergy (I did when I was a baby) and we switched him to goat's milk for a week or so.  I quickly remembered that other times when he had been teething he had spit ups too.  Molars are so much more painful and nauseating we just had some really big vomits!  Gross, but they have ceased and we're just back to normal teething symptoms.  But Owen, being the slow teether that he is, will have a couple more weeks of uncomfortableness before those molars cut through, I'm afraid...  He's been a good sport so far and hopefully he continues to sleep well through the night!

Owen has been copying me a bit lately as well.  For instance, one of my favorite things to do is pick the ickies out of Owen's nose.  Well, Owen learned that he could also try to dig in my nostrils.  I'm not a big fan of that.  Then... a couple weeks ago after a bath I let Owen run around in the buff for awhile.  He never pees but he did that night, right by their changing table.  I ran to get a rag to wipe up the puddle on the carpet.  What did Owen do?  He reached into the wipe tub and grabbed a handful of wipes and started cleaning up with me!

Owen still loves food, in particular fruit and meet.  The only meat he won't eat is taco but he will gobble up brats, hot dogs, chicken, hamburger hotdish, spaghetti...  Oranges are his favorite fruit and literally could eat an entire one at a single session.  No, Owen has not been weaned off the bottle yet... teething doesn't make that very easy... neither does a busy mama.  

Owen's hair is finally starting to come in.  John had a little fun with Owen on Fourth of July and gave him his first mowhawk!  It didn't last much more than a couple hours but still fun.  It will be interesting to see Owen with hair eventually and experiment styling it!

 

Enjoy a few more pictures of Owen through the past month!

 

 

 

Fishing From The Dock - Just Daddy and Megan!

One thing we do quite often after church is drive down the big cemetery hill and then down to the lake.  The kids enjoy walking out onto the dock and seeing the boats on the water.  It was so nice and cool last Sunday and there were a fair amount of people out fishing.  Megan said she would really like to go fishing and John thought that would be fun to take Megan by himself from the dock.  We quickly got him a license, bait, and a new bobber for his pole.  Owen and I stayed home and these two had a blast for the 1 1/2-2 hours they were out!

They only caught about eight or so fish (sunnies and perch) and really only one was of size worth keeping.  John also said that these tiny fish were good nibblers and ate a lot of the bait right off the hooks!  I think it looks like they had fun!!

 

Megan reeled this one in all by herself!

 

Funnies: First Half of July Wrap-Up

I thought we'd do a little funnies post this wonderful Monday to get everyone in a fabulous mood for the work week.  And here are smiles from my three here to get us rolling (this was from our lazy 4th of July morning!)  I wish they would always be so cheery!  

Also from the 4th of July is this picture of Megan when she took over my picture-taking duties.  All I have to say is I got a lot of low-quality pictures of people's mid-sections and feet.  But she had fun and the camera survived!

Owen says, "Mom, this risotto is so good, just feed me with the spatula!"

 

I guess all this orange got to her head!  When we walked into Home Depot the kids said they wanted orange balloons - they were in luck!

Megan has been proving to be quite the body-builder lately.  Without even asking she is lifting watermelons off of countertops, taking the stir crazy popcorn popper and then a 15-pound bowling ball last night!  (Bowling ball was not very funny... she only lifted it up three inches but when it dropped it burned out three lights in our chandelier downstairs!)

Megan and I had a couple mall outings the weekend before last.  That Saturday we went to get Owen's pictures taken and then off to find her a flower girl dress!  We found one right away at Sears that she loves and wouldn't even look at any other dresses after that.  I needed a dress too and we went the next day together.  I ran through a couple little girl sections to see if I could find a different flower girl dress I liked better but she kept telling me, "I already have one.  We're need a dress for you, remember!"  I ended up trying a dress on at Maurice's.  I told Megan that I was going to go ask the other lady what she thought of it but she piped up and said, "But Mommy, what about me?"  Megan said it looked good :)

At our church friends' house last week Megan was digging in their sandbox like a wild woman.  I asked her why sand was flying everywhere and she said she was trying to dig like a pirate!

John had his laptop setup in our bedroom a few days last week.  That means that there were a couple cords connecting the laptop to the wall.  Megan thought it was pretty cool when she found that the cords could be pulled apart (laptop cord and extension cord) and she could run through like it was a finish line!

The kids pulled John's Goldy Gopher bobblehead down off a shelf yesterday.  Megan asked what his name was and told her it was Goldy.  Poor thing... his name is now "Goldilocks"!

Out of the blue one night Megan said, "If you and Daddy both die I will get a new Mommy and Daddy."  Not quite sure what to think of that I asked her if she wanted a new Mommy and Daddy.  Her response?  "No, not yet...."  I realize I'm not always the most pleasant of Mommies but I hope she always wants me to be hers!

One night last week I put Megan to bed in her own toddler bed.  John and I were watching TV downstairs and I knew I heard rustling several times upstairs.  Megan never came down so I wrote it off as me hearing noises next door.  When we went upstairs to bed something looked odd...  Door to kid room was open, door to our bedroom was closed and there was a little girl sleeping in our bed!!!  Oh, how I love this bedtime stuff!!!  Actually, I am convinced she will not sleep by herself until we get a new house so she can have a big bed and her own room!  Ugh...  It might be time to get the sleeping bag back out - I had to pack it away so I could have a place to put my keyboard since I'm doing some church music again...

A Fabulous Fourth

Wow, it has sure taken awhile for me to recover from all the activities the past few weeks.  Besides that, John has been working a lot of closing shifts so I've just been drained at night - but time for some catching up!  Let's start with giving some highlights of our Fourth of July celebrations!

I can hands down say that this year's Fourth of July was my favorite yet.  It was awesome that John was able to rearrange his schedule so he didn't have to work.  It was nice that we could have a lazy morning as a family since the party we were going to didn't start until the afternoon.  And it was the perfect summer day after a ton of hot and rainy weather we'd been having.  Bonus is that the kids are getting older and can fend for themselves a little more!

Some holidays are really easy to explain to a 3-year old but for this one I described it as the "Red, White and Blue Party".  We picked out coordinating outfits, painted our nails to match and we were set!  On the way to the party in Eagan we stopped off at John's parents to wish them a happy 4th, drop off a cherry dessert and get a family picture taken.  I'd say Megan's spirit comes through in this picture!

We had a blast at my aunt and uncle's place and the kids could play outside.

 

My uncle grilled hamburgers and brats and there were lots of fixings for them.  John cooked up a couple s'more pies for dessert and they were a big hit with the crowd!  Megan enjoyed the ice cream cones!

After dinner there is always some daylight to kill before fireworks start so my uncle takes everyone to a nearby elementary school and launches off model rockets.  He's been doing this for years but we hadn't gone lately just because of the kids.  But they were perfect angels that night!  Not only were there rockets but kites to fly and water balloons to launch!  My uncle asked that I take some candid pictures during the outing - be careful what you ask for, Uncle Jon!

I love this picture of Owen and my Grandpa Gennrich!

 

 

 

 

I think this is the best picture of my parents that I've ever taken!

The lovely ladies on the hill!

Both Grandpa and Grandma got an item crossed off their bucket list!  Neither of them had flown kites before!  Thank you, John, for passing on the kite to them!

Megan asked so politely if she could do the honors of launching a rocket.  She waited patiently in her hippo chair as my cousin launched the first one but she got to go second!  Here she is with my Uncle Jon loading the rocket.

 

All geared up - safety first!!!!  Five, Four, Three, Two, One.... Blast Off!!!  There was a little button to push to eventually shoot off the rocket.  John got it all on video and we have one proud little rocket launcher!

We were able to stay for a long time but we could tell that Owen was soon ready to get going.  We drove back to Waconia, planning on watching the fireworks from home again.  I got Owen put to bed but then Megan and I sat in the opened up trunk of the Prius and John put on a private fire cracker show for us in the street!  Then when the city's show started we went up to the hill.  All except for the mosquitoes that finally made an appearance during the fireworks it was absolutely perfect and we all had a blast!