Elephant in the Room

Can you spot the elephant in the room?

It is right there...in front of your noses....

Owen has discovered the massive entertain value of toys.

He is loving being able to explore them all by himself....

That is...if Bethany's asleep of course!

~HEY~

hey!

Hey!

HEY!

Hey...isn't that what you say when you need to get someones attention? Looks like some of you really should have said, "Hey Milleses...do something about your blog...its been a whole week already!"

After all if Bethany has picked up on saying "Hey!" to us to get our attention, should you have known better too!?!

Well...So here you are another photo collage update.

First off, is our visit to the Festival of the Little Hills last weekend. It was such a gorgeous weekend we decided to go out and do something. Not knowing what was out there...we stumbled upon the festival (after noticing signs in Schnucks and a news broadcast).

The festival was full of people, fried-things, and crafts galore. But you want to know the highlight of the whole festival was? Well, it was by far the bus ride from the satellite parking place. Can't you tell by the picture below? Bethany was so excited to ride a school bus!!!

The nice weather has also prompted us to spend quite a bit of time outside (another excuse why the blog has been lacking posts). Bethany loves to play in the pea gravel under her swing set. It will entertain her for a nice long time! :) It would be nice though...since you know...we have to pay for the more gravel, that it wouldn't somehow magically jump out of the sandbox.

Meanwhile, all alone, in the garage Owen is chilling totally oblivious to all of the fun being had in the backyard.

Although...later in the week Owen is very much alert during the discovery of the cat and pig ear costumes that a teacher gave us for the kids. Owen and Bethany love the animal ears that Sue got them. Ok...really Bethany loves them. And what I mean when I say "Bethany loves them" really is that she loves to put them on Owen. Regardless...they are pretty cute! And Owen doesn't seem to mind Bethany dressing him up.

The poor girl is going to be in for a HUGE surprise once Owen develops wants and desires of his own. She won't always get away with dressing him up, smoothering him with kisses and invading his personal space. She best get it all in now...before he know better!

This week we also got out the Jumperoo. Bethany got this for Christmas when she was six months old. She didn't get as much use out of it as I thought, because she was just one month shy of crawling. And as you can imagine, once they start crawling they have no desire of being constrained even though we (the parents) love it just want to explore as much as possible.

Owen, on the other hand, is getting plenty of use out of the jumperoo already! He loves talking to those animals and seeing all the shiny lights and whatnots!

Finally, Bethany started teaching Owen sign language. She loved learning sign language when she was little.

*sigh* Since when is she no longer little?

I digress...

Anyhow...she knew tons of signs and used them all the time. We can't wait to get Owen started signing with us...but it looks like we are going to have a little help this time around!

I hope this week lag between posts doesn't become a routine. There is always a ton of things going on in this house that are totally worth of your knowledge...but since school has started...life is just more hectic. We are pretty conscientious about using our time wisely during the school week. When the kids are awake, we try to focus all of our attention on them & when they aren't awake we are trying to get caught up with work!

Sooo, dear readers, bare with us.

And if you need to...

Shout out...

HEY!

Blankies and Bananas

Both babies love their blankies. Bethany cannot fall asleep without her little blankie. Owen hasn't quite become dependent on his blankie...but he sure does like to have something to munch on and to hold on to with his dear life. But with both of them holding their lil' blankies the other night, it was just too cute not to snap a quick picture.


Bethany finally tried a banana for the first time a couple of days ago. She wouldn't try one for the longest time, always stating, "Don't like it!" Out of the blue, she asks for a banana. After a couple odd glances exchanged between Cory and I we gave her her first banana ever! Don't even know if she likes it. She just sorta parades around the house holding the banana, only occasionally taking a quick nibble at the end. I don't try to fully understand our Bethany...but she surely does try to keep things interesting around here!

Another First Day

Today was another first day of school.

It was again hard to leave the kiddos behind. But to keep the tradition we started last year and the year before, we took our annual "First Day of School" pictures. (Make sure to click back on those links to see blasts from the pasts!) However, this year's pictures are new and improved with our Owen making his first debut!

A momma and her babes:
With Owen:

Just the ladies:


Daddy and the babes:

The men of the house:

Daddy-Daughter Time!

Gosh...aren't we a cute bunch. Poor lil' Owen didn't know what to think with all of the flashing and what not. But Bethany is lovin' any excuse to ham it up, as you can clearly see!

Whole lotta nuttin'

So you wanna know what we've been up to? After all, it has been 5 days since the world wide web has heard a peep out of us. Being that it is in the middle of August...I'll give you 2 guess what has been keeping us away from our blog (and not to mention my farm on Facebook).

That's right...I heard someone say it out there....School's just about started!

So now we are back, in a routine with responsibilities and such. It is going to be hard to go back this year. Ever since Bethany's been born, I've had a hard time getting back into the swing of things. But now, with 2 little boogers around...it is doubly hard to get motivated! I love teaching and I love my school...but being home the past 3+ months, I know exactly what I am gonna be missing out on with my own children.

Here is a few pictures of the whole lotta of the nuttin' we've been up to since Monday.

The kiddos do a whole lotta of "playing" together. This usually means we put Owen down on his blanket & Bethany lies next to him. She then tries to hand him a half dozen toys...all of which he usually shows little to no interest in! But they are just the most darlin' things when they are interacting!

We definitely get a whole lotta of cuddling in. Who wouldn't want to cuddle those 2 cutie pies. You gotta love the way Bethany dictates the whole process. She will either insist on Owen cuddling in her lap or next to her in the chair by herself or occasionally she'll let me sit with the two of them & of course there are times where the chair is "hers" only!

Finally, after three full months of doing nuttin', Owen finally decided to impress his family with his rolling over skills! I was wondering when he'll finally roll over, remembering that Bethany was pretty quick to roll over. But now...he has proven to be a pretty competent baby at roll. Once he figure to push up and start leaning...he was rolling over pretty quickly. You can see his progress in the collage below of him starting on his belly and then ending up flat on his back!

So while we did a whole lotta nuttin' over the summer...it was the best nuttin' I've done in a long time. I am going to miss hanging with the babies during the school day, but I am grateful that I'm off work early in evenings and that we will always have our summers to spend with each other!

Sitting Up!

Yes, sitting up, not spitting up, although Owen still likes to do that. Here are a few pictures of him sitting in his Bumbo thing for the first time.

Of course, Bethany wanted to help as well! Poor, patient Owen...

It will be tough to leave them at the sitter's when we need to go back to school, but we have been blessed to have a wonderful and fun-filled summer with them both.

Your Turn...

So I decided to try again...to see if Owen would, perhaps, smile for you all.

He didn't seem too into it at first.

But after a couple of crazy looks and peek-a-boos from me...

he decided that it was your turn to see his smiles!

Yeah..I know...he is just too cute!

Wanna See?

So you want to see how unbelievably adorable Owen is when he smiles?

I know you want to see those dimple-producing smiles.

They are so amazingly, heart-melting cute.

I can only imagine you...sitting there...at the edge of your seat.


Well...I took over 40 pictures of Owen today, his 3 month birthday....

As you can see...

I didn't get 1 picture of his dimpleful smile.

However...as soon as I put the camera away and set him down to put his pj's on....

I get....

smiles

giggles

and

coos....

Sorry you missed them! I surely enjoyed it!

6 years and counting...

Here we are six years ago!

So much has changed for us since that day. Back then we thought we were going to live in Kirksville for a LONG time, buy a house there and raise our kids. We were about to embark on our first year teaching and just moved into a cute lil' duplex. Little did we know how much would change in 6 short years.

Since we decided to do something about all those extra pounds we were carrying around. We joined weight watchers and really improved our health! In the summer of 2006 we packed up and moved to St. Louis in order to be closer to our families. We started new jobs at the same school district. Then we quickly got pregnant right after the start of that school year and welcomed Bethany the next summer. Two years later...we welcomed another bouncing baby Milles in the world.

Often at dinner, we are at awe over the blessings that have come upon us. We certainly don't take anything for granted and often thank God for all we have. We were just talking today how we can't imagine live with out our babies. They are enriched our lives so much it is astounding!

It is amazing how much can change in 6 years. And I don't know what the next 6 years has in store for us (not to mention the next 60 years)...but I am glad that I will have my best friend next to me, hand-in-hand as life continues to unfold in front of us.