Friday, December 26, 2008

Patience with the Presents

Owen's new word for the week is patience. I kept having to tell him "patience with the presents Owen". Before we left for Illinois last Friday we gave Owen a present to play with for the car ride and ever since - presents were a hit. We had a wonderful Christmas and so glad we were able to see my family in Illinois even if it was short on sleep and treacherous weather. I again asked myself on our way home- "why do we live here?"
We arrived at my cousins in Chicago late Friday night and the exhaustion began. First, I woke up at 1am with the flu and kept having to return to the bathroom every hour until 6am. During one of my trips to the bathroom my sister was in there and I told her she probably would want to leave. She wasn't very sympathetic to my sickness as last year her and Jason got the Owen super virus and she didn't want any part of that this year!


On Saturday, all of my Mom's side of the family was coming to my cousins house for Christmas. I love spending time with them and everyone gets along so well and there are tons of cousins for Owen to play with.


I felt horrible most of the day and drank Sprite, while everyone else was drinking fun drinks like martinis, cosmos and eating all sorts of food. At about 6:00 that evening I could tell Owen was getting tired and needed to go to bed. With all of the excitement he didn't take a nap and mommy was pretty much ready for him to go to bed. Derek said he would stay up in his room with him for a while. A half hour after putting Owen to bed Derek still hadn't come downstairs so I went to check on him. It was completely black in Owen's room but Owen wasn't in his pack n play and Derek was asleep on the bed. I felt like my heart had gone into my chest! Then out of the corner of my eye I see a little body on the other side of the bed running. I said Owen what are you doing out of bed. I put him back in the pack n play and told him it was time to go to bed. Derek was out cold on the bed and must have fallen asleep with Owen. Not sure why Derek decided to cuddle up with Owen on the bed because Owen is known for not sitting still and moves around ALOT before finally falling asleep. I then proceeded to head to bed about an hour later and was woken up to Derek getting sick in the downstairs bathroom. YES I could hear him all the way downstairs. Not sure why when men are sick they think they may die! I felt horrible for my cousin that we we infected her house so badly. Since Owen went to bed at 6:30pm he then woke up at 5:30am and since Derek was sick, I was also up at 5:30am. That day we left for my mom's house which was about an hour away. We stayed at my mom's one night and then left the next day for my dad's house which was also about an hour away. Owen had fun at both grandparents houses. He was able to shoot baskets at my mom's (his favorite thing to do), and got to play guitar and see cows at my dad's farm.
We arrived home on Christmas Eve after 8 hours in the car. It usually takes 6 hours but the weather held us up. Owen was so good in the car - I couldn't have asked for a better little boy. The funniest part of the trip was when we were almost home and I said to Owen - "we are almost there", and he replied - "patience." I about died!

I decided during this trip that it is time to perhaps start looking for treadmill. Every place we stayed at had a treadmill at their house. I loved being able to run on it pretty much anytime of the day. I know for sure when baby #2 comes there will be one in the house!

It was nice being home on Christmas morning and seeing Owen's face when he walked into the living room and opened his stocking and presents from Derek and I. Later that day my sister came over to help me cook and give Owen his present. Derek's family was coming over later that day to celebrate. Owen was so excited to see his Opa and I don't think Derek's dad was able to sit down until Owen went to bed!


Christmas was great this year. I loved being able to partake in all the fun activities with Owen, like reindeer rides, Santa Claus, decorating cookies, singing songs, and buying presents for him. I can't wait to see what Valentines and Easter will bring!

Monday, December 15, 2008

Christmas Weekend

Owen is now in the Christmas spirit. On Saturday we went to a neighboring town and rode in a 1860 Russian sled with Reindeer pulling it. Thank goodness I had my sister waiting with me in line and helping me keep Owen focused on the task at hand.


He got to see Santa as well walking down the road as we were waiting in line. He didn't know what to do with the big guy at first but when I told Owen that he had candy for him - he was all about hugging him!

The funniest part of the day had to be when a couple butted us in line and I said to Rachel - "well that's crap." Owen then repeated crap, crap. I should have whispered in his ear - "cheaters!" I need to remember that he is loving to repeat ANY word! That night we went to downtown Minneapolis where they have a Holidazzle parade. The place was packed because it was such a nice evening. Owen's favorite float was probably The Three Little Pigs and The Big Bad Wolf. He kept saying Huff and Puff all the way home. Then on Sunday I went to a friends house to bake cookies - AGAIN! This time I decided to be somewhat healthy and make my pumpkin bread with chocolate chips and applesauce instead of canola oil. It is really good. As you can see from the picture below it is a good thing I workout or I would be in some serious trouble!

Monday, December 8, 2008

Christmas Cookies

Every year for Christmas my sister and I have a tradition of decorating Christmas cookies. We have done this for as long as I can remember and this year we carried on the tradition with Owen! As you can see from the picture below Owen did more eating than decorating. He really enjoyed the sprinkles and trying to make a star cookie.
I decided I should enjoy my fair share of cookies since I was one of those crazy Minnesotans yesterday and went for run outside in 5 degree weather! WOW was I cold when I came home. It wouldn't have been so bad but during my run it started to snow and then my hands got wet and my poor face had frozen snowflakes in my eyes when I got home. I yelled for Derek right when I stepped into the house because I couldn't get my gloves off - they were too frozen to move!