Holiday at the Ranch

We went to the Stow House with some friends to get into the holiday spirit. It was a pretty chilly rainy day which made it nice. It was not too crowded and perfect for hot apple cider and fresh baked cookies! It's a pretty local home grown event that I just love. The Santa they have every year is great! He keeps you laughing and is good with the kids. You can also take a tour of the historic Stow House which is beautiful and has been decorated for Christmas. In the kitchen they have volunteers rolling out sugar cookie dough for each child to decorate their own cookie and then bake in the old fashioned ovens that still work. Outside, they have hot apple cider, crafts for people to make and take home, and reingoats, not reindeer, reingoats. ; ) The kids can pet the goats who are all dressed up with red and green coats and jingle bells. They do a great job every year!

Owen was pretty freaked out by Santa last year, but this year he warmed up to him after a while. He didn't quite jump into his lap by any means, but he talked to him and eventually sat on his knee with out myself or Adam being right next to him on the bench. He told Santa everything that was on his list: A "Bert and Ernie Book, a Gold fish, Gold fish crackers (go figure), and toys." Easy enough. The two year old want list is nice and doable for Santa and Mrs. Claus this year. It's when he's three and starts asking for an iPhone because all his friends have one is when I am going to be scared! I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking...

Santa must be saying something very important, Owen is listening intently!Here's our Christmas Card shot!Looks like Mom was naughty this year? I don't believe it. It was actually the first time in her life she had ever sat on Santa's lap! Checking out his new reindeer candy cane he is going to hang on the tree when we get home.Owen's sugar cookie before it went in the oven.Three fabulous Moms (me, Suzanne and Daalia) who are simultaneously working on baking bun number 2 in the oven!

Looking so festive and ready to celebrate!

Tis' the Season to be Jolly, Fa la la la la, la la la laaaa!

OK, I should have probably turned this into a few different posts, but it's too late. So bare with me and all my pictures : ) This week we started Christmas early. On Sunday, Nanna, Pappy and Adam took Owen to the Yacht Club to trim the tree, decorate sugar cookies, eat an all you can eat kids buffet and watch a Christmas puppet show. Owen had a ball! Here is the sunset that night from the club. (Adam took this one).
Owen started off with his first plate of mac and cheese (his favorite) piled high, with french fries and chicken strips. Ugh, not one green thing on his plate : ( He survived, and so did I ; )Oh here comes the greens....oh wait, it's icing for his sugar cookies! Putting on sprinkles as a finishing touch to his edible art work.He got to explain it all to me when I came in. (I had to miss the start of it because I had to work). For some reason he didn't quite get the concept of eating it when he was done. So we took them home and he had them over the past two days. He was pretty excited as he shoved it in his mouth saying "more" with his cheeks full of flour and sugar already!

We got to the puppet show a few minutes after it started and Owen took off on his own and worked his way through all the kids and found a seat right up front! : ) He had never seen anything like this, he was in awe!
Thank you Nanna and Pappy for taking Owen! He loved it!The next morning I woke up to a beautiful sunrise with fog rolling out in the field behind our house. The pictures don't do it justice, but it was a bonus for getting up early. : )

My Mom said that my Dad used to LOVE Christmas and would always get the tree the day after Thanksgiving. I wouldn't mind doing this, however, I am a little worried about having a dead tree on Christmas morning...so we waited until December 1st to get it. I think I am especially excited this year because Owen actually 'gets it' this time around. He talks about Santa Claus and Christmas lights etc, every day. He is getting very excited, and I am so excited to see his face on Christmas morning!

We just went around the corner to Home Depot to get our tree. I would have rather gone to a lot with the works, but it was a last minute decision to go and the trees we have gotten there in the past have all been great. Owen had a blast running around picking trees saying "THIS ONE!" to every tree he saw. He's not too picky!

Covering those sensitive ears of his when they cut off the bottom of the trunk to keep it freshTime to decorate! Our little reindeer helper was ready to get to work! Starting with the lights first of course.Adam untangling the lights. I had it on a slow shutter speed to get the craziness of the lights on accident. Thought it was cool : ) They were not as tangled as it looks!All done and lit up. Now Owen gets to check out all the ornaments for the rest of the night.

The End.

Thanksgiving at Nanna's

Thanksgiving turned out to be a really nice day/night. We went to my Mom's house around noon and Owen took a nice long nap over there so we could relax, and help cook (though Mom seemed to have everything under control and wouldn't let us do much). David BBQed the turkey perfectly as always. Everything turned out great, from the homemade stuffing, whipped sweet potatoes in orange cups, the cranberry sauce 'competition,' to the pumpkin pie with almond spiced whipped cream. The food was delicious, Owen ate non stop as usual. The sweetest part of the night was when Grandma Zena (David's Mom who just turned 96 years old on Monday) was saying grace with her eyes closed. Owen sat quietly and watched her while she spoke. As soon as she was done, he said "Grandma Zena is tired" (because she had her eyes closed!). So cute.We are so thankful to have such a supportive and loving family. This goes to all our friends and our family on the east coast as well! I am grateful to have you all in my life.

We also got to watch our friend's pug, Jaquemoux (pronounced 'Jock a moe' :) for a few days. He was so sweet with Owen and tolerated all the demands a two year old can make on him. For example, Owen came up to him while he was sleeping soundly this morning and sweetly said "Good morning Jaquemoux" which was then followed by "Jaquemoux, GET UP!" He wanted to read his books to him. Owen now has a new best friend he can't stop talking about. Sorry there are SO many pictures of us with this dog that's not even ours, I couldn't narrow them down : )Wiping a big wet dog kiss off my face!

Sweet

Owen was so sweet tonight. We had a great day together, and the night was even better. He is starting to slowly wean himself off the paci and his blanket a bit more than he was previously. But tonight they were replaced briefly with "Silky" his stuffed sea lion, and his bowl of plastic fruit. For the past week or so he takes this bowl of fake fruit with him everywhere in the house. He has to eat his meals with it by his side. He snacks on it all day long pretending to eat it and sharing the grapes, oranges and banana's with Adam and I. He usually pretends to take a bite and then says "mmmm, juicy strawberry!" or whatever fruit he happens to be "eating." It's pretty cute seeing him start to pretend a lot lately.

Tonight he was reading a book to Silky and feeding him plastic fruit. He made his sea lion kiss all the animals in his book he was reading and then proceeded to kiss the pages himself. That is the most loved sea lion ever. He got a ton of hugs tonight! I am a little jealous actually.

Photo Shoot

I have been interested in photography for many years and have been in and out of practice throughout my life. I just got a couple of great photography books this week and thought that I would practice with my little "subject" during sunset in our backyard. I of course deleted more than half of them, but here is (more than) a few of what I got that I am happy with : ) You can see the rest on www.picasaweb.google.com/adamanton. Stay tuned for more advanced work as I figure out what the heck I am doing in the creative modes with my camera!

Dentist Appointment

Owen had his first real dentist appointment today. He got to watch a fun video of two (real) dogs driving a kid sized jeep to the office (I was cracking up!). Then they came in the office and played with the chair up and down while they learned about all the tools that would be used to clean their teeth. Owen loved the movie! His dentist was very sweet and let him hold all of the equipment like the small mirror, the water sprayer ("Mr. Elephant") and the suction ("Mr. Thirsty"). He didn't let the dentist do anything except brush a little with the toothbrush. He wanted nothing to do with the gritty polish she started to use! She took one picture of the inside of his mouth with an oral camera, but couldn't get much. He would rather look at it than put it in his mouth. He walked out of the office loving the dentist as he got an Elmo toothbrush, a monkey sticker, a Dinosaur AND a bouncy rubber ball out of the treasure chest!

Conclusion: we will go back when he is 3 and has all of his teeth, he is still waiting for more to come in. The dentist said it was a successful first visit because he was happy and left happy. He now knows what to expect when he comes in next time.

My thoughts: I think we should have gone to a pediatric dentist who knew of different ways to get his teeth cleaned the first time. He has deep grooves in his molars (he has Adam's teeth...not a good thing), and it's hard to get them clean. : ( Maybe we'll try someone new in 6 months??

My visit was great, no cavities and healthy gums! : ) In case anyone was wondering about my oral health (Mom).