Owen, my sweet 2 year old

Its cliche- but time really does fly. I wish I could stop time because to be honest, I dont want them to get older. I LOVE their ages. Is it hard? Absolutely. Does Owen scream in every grocery store throwing blueberries on the floor and ripping waffle boxes, yes. But I wouldnt have it any other way. Because getting older means I have less control and they start getting their feelings involved in friendships. Even watching Hannah now playing with little girls, breaks my heart when she gets her feelings hurt. I KNOW how much harder it gets. So if cleaning up blueberries in Target is a bad day, then I'll take it! (sorry for that...Im having a REAL hard time at the thought of them getting older and they are still young!)

Anyways, Owen, my sweet Owen. Your smile literally lights up my heart. From the minute you wake up to the minute you lay down, you are an utter tornado. You destroy everything in your path, but you could look at me with that huge, toothy grin and I dont even care what you just did. They called you "smiley" from the day you started smiling in daycare and it just fits. That smile just melts me.

You are finally saying more...I never thought you'd talk! Most of it, only we can understand but hey, you're getting there :) When you would say Yes to us, you used to do this HUGE, head nod. We loved it. We always looked at eachother and laughed. But the week of your birthday you started saying, Yea. And its equally as precious! Your No, sounds like Nah and we love that too.

Your new favorite "show" is Cars on Netflix. Every morning you cry for milk and cars. You say "cars" until we turn it on. Hannah isnt as happy about that! You LOVE milk more than any kid Ive seen. You could almost drink a half gallon a day. Since you all dont really drink juice we just give you milk and water and you pretty much only drink water if its in my cup :)

Whenever Hannah isnt with you, You ALWAYS say, Hannah?? Like where is my sister, my best friend?! Its precious.  You absolutely LOVE her and she does you. Your bond is beautiful and I can only hope it stays this way. You all laugh all day long. You love when she "puts you to bed" like one her babies. And for the most part, you will let her do what she wants to you. You all love taking baths together and its usually ends in disaster but you two have a great time in there!

You sleep SO great. Please dont ever change that :) You go to bed about 8:00 and sleep until usually 7. Some days you wake up earlier or later but you always go down for a nap at 1:00 and sleep until 4 or 4:30. I know why you need that nap, because you are a wild man until then!

You just go, go, go. Reminds me of Hannah. You are ALWAYS walking around looking for something to play with (or destroy).

You are just plain funny. Jeremy and I always look at eachother and laugh and shake our heads. We just dont know how we got such funny, wild children! But thankful for your personality.

You love doing this Monster roar! You like to run up to Hannah and her friend Maddie and "roar" at them. They laugh but Im sure you thought you'd scare them :)

You weight almost 30 pounds, we found that out last week at your dr appt for an ear infection and you DO NOT like a dr going any where near you. It was seriously like wrestling an alligator. They commented several times how strong you are! You are in 2T to 3T clothes, getting bigger so really more like 3T.

You are having some separation issues with us but I know thats totally normal. And because you've been home with me every day since you were 8 months old, so I understand, you just love your mama :)

You love pretending to use the potty! I know we arent clost to potty training but its so cute how you want your diaper off and want to sit on the potty. You almost fall in every time but its still cute :)

At night before bed, we touch fingers. I know it seems silly but we've done it for awhile now and its our "thing". I lay you down, cover you up and kiss your sweet head, then you put your chubby little finger up and we touch fingers. You, my Owen, are a sweet, loving boy. You are ALL boy, but a sweet one when you get the chance :)

Your hair is really growing and its so light! Almost blonde in some light. And you sometimes get a sweet little curl in the back :)

You love to play, you love to be outside, you love your mama, you love to eat everything but your dinner, and you are a happy, happy little boy. My heart melts when I hold you, even if its only for a minute when you first wake in the morning. Because after that, there isnt much holding time I get. I would absolutely in a heart beat do your newborn days over again. The nights where I thought if you didnt sleep longer than 2 hours I would go crazy, I would do it again to just snuggle the life out of you!

I love you so much it hurts. The fits, the crying, the terrible twos :), the kisses, the laughs, every single bit of you. Thank you God for choosing Owen to be all ours.

(So its totally normal that I just cried through this whole thing right?!?!)

Owen's Birthday week!

We were so lucky to have Jeremy's mom and sister come in town for a week. We were busy and had a great time and got to celebrate a special little 2 year old!!
They got here on Saturday & we were hoping to catch the KY Derby but we just barely were going to miss it so we took them to see the fountains at the Bellagio and see the strip in the day time (which is obviously a little different than night time!)  Then we grabbed dinner and all went home and just enjoyed the company!

Sunday we got up and decided to hit the outlet malls down by the strip. I had actually never been down to those so I was excited :) Of course outlet shopping with kids isnt all that easy! That day Jeremy and I had plans to stay at Mandalay Bay for the night as a short getaway, it was much needed and we had a great time! It was so fun to just lay by the pool together, have a nice dinner, laugh, and just have some fun together, without packing diaper bags, changing diapers and trying to get Hannah and Owen to keep their hands off eachother!
We still had access to the pool for most of that day so Sue, Kim and the kids met us down at the pool and we spent most of the morning there. That was fun and the kids had a great time!

 Im sad we didnt get a picture together but I did get a picture of Jeremy after he won some money!

We made a trip to the mall, which I dont ever get to do so that was nice too!

 

Jeremy, Sue, Kim and Hannah went to the Hoover Dam one afternoon, its really only about a 45-50 minute drive so its not too bad. They said it was so neat! I will make sure to see it before we leave. Their pictures were really neat.

 

Thursday was Owen's birthday and we spoiled him all day! Its so crazy to think that he's two. I swear I could just re-live his newborn days forever. I absolutely loved them. And I love these days now, he's just alot more mobile and vocal :) I love this kid so much it hurts. So glad I have a mama's boy!

 

 I love making this cake for special occasions- Ice Cream Sandwich cake. Just layer one layer of ice cream sandwiches, layer of mint chip ice cream, another layer of ice cream sandwiches, another layer of mint ice cream and top with cool whip! SO easy and good!

 She did a great job helping me make his ice cream sandwich cake :)

 I guess cause he's two he can do what he wants on his birthday!

 Hannah 4 and Owen 2, hard to believe!

 We always have our hands full!

 Hannah was a BIG helper ;) Its a good thing Owen didnt mind too much!

 We also made it to Jeremy's course to have lunch with him. I always love going there, its beautiful!

 The kids love chasing the bunnies!

 

 They left that evening but we had a wonderful time with them! We loved having the company for Owen's birthday and thankful we were able to get away for a night while they were here. They got to see & do so many things so I was glad about that!

 That weekend we celebrated Mothers Day and just enjoyed the kids and all their crazy!

 LOVE them!!! I seriously cant squeeze them tight enough at night. And boy do they love eachother. We're going through the phase where they physically cannot keep their hands off eachother. It starts as laughing but usually ends in one of them crying!!

 Mothers Day Breakfast

This week turned kind of rough when I took Owen to the dr for an ear infection and then later that night came down with a sudden sore throat which was Strep throat, and Jeremy had the exact same symptoms as I did, right at the same time. Ive never had it and ohmygosh its AWFUL. I seriously thought I had the flu the first two days. I was hot/cold, fever, body aches, neck and throat pain. It was just bad. I finally got some antibiotics and Im on the mend. Jeremy and I must have picked it up from the hotel because that was the only place we were alone together. I guess we paid for our night away, ha ha!! 

Our plane tickets for KY are BOOKED! Yay! Thank you Southwest for dropping your tickets ha ha! Right before KY Hannah has T-ball and I cant wait for that!!!