Setting up the Christmas Tree

Owen and Daddy had a great time setting up the Christmas tree last night. I have the rest of the house to decorate, but this was their thing. LOL. Isn't it beautiful???

Thanksgiving at Home

We weren't fancy, but we ate well this Thanksgiving at home. Owen loves the cranberry sauce. I even tried a new bean dish, with slivers of almonds, onion, and fresh mushrooms, all in a sauce of beef broth and soy sauce. It was yummy. :)

Christmas/Thanksgiving at Dad's House

Lots of family. Lots of children. Lots of food. Lots of fun.

Fun in the snow!

Okay, BEFORE our basement disaster, there was a beautiful snow! I was able to catch a few pretty pictures, plus Owen playing around too. Even the birdhouse got some snow action. :)

Broken Water Heater....

Our water heater broke as of about a half hour ago? Half of our basement is flooded. So, if you could please pray that our landlord will be able to get a new one quickly, and that from now till then, we can get the emergency things done, like get the flooded areas cleaned up enough to stop any more damage. It's up in the air right now, when we will be able to use water. That means no flushing toilets, no running water of any kind, no showers, etc. I'm going to have to cancel Owen's playdate also.
Here's Mr. Dean, (our landlord), cleaning up the water as I post....It's 4 minutes past midnight. Owen doesn't seem to know anything is going on. He's sleeping upstairs, even with this LOUD shop vac working.

Water, water, everywhere.

Getting Ready for the Wager Christmas at Thanksgiving Time

Here's Owen, reading the labels on the presents. LOL.

And here's the kitchen that I had to work with for organizing all the food. 41 people needed to shuffle through, with all the food for tacos, and toppings. There were 6 crock pots, a pot on the stove with Taco soup, plus dips, and dessert, and drinks. Food was everywhere. This is the view looking into the livingroom.

Another view of the kitchen. My dad did all the woodwork you see. It's really beautiful.

Here's daddy, sitting for a "few" moments, after setting up the stocking rack. I spent most of the time in the kitchen. But, I have to say that it was so easy to do, with everyone's help.

Visiting Miss Betty

We went to visit and stay overnight at Miss Betty's house this past weekend. Charlie and I needed to be working at organizing Dad's house and getting ready for our family feast, so Miss Betty watched Owen. Here's Miss Betty in the kitchen, getting a wonderful breakfast for us.

And here's Owen, still in his p-jays, playing gently with "Misty." She is a very sweet dog, and she crawls right up on your lap and curls up.
Miss Betty is a wonderful lady, who is very gracious and sharing. We were perfectly delighted to spend some time with her. :)

November Snow....

It's amazing how a November Snow can be soooh pretty.

Bowling!

A group of us moms when to Spectrum Lanes today to do bowling with our kids. This was Owen's first time bowling, so I wanted to take pictures. He used an 8 lb ball, and I used an 11 lb ball. After my first try in frame one, I joined Owen with using the bumper pads. LOL. Owen's style of bowling is to get the ball, hold it practically in his face, bending backwards, and then "THUNKING" it down on the floor. We all had a great laugh over that. And once, his ball was soooooooh slow, that it stopped halfway down the lane. That was funny too. Then we saw they had these cool metal ramps for kids to use. So, he got to set it on that, and roll it down. All in all, he had a blast. His final score was 46! WOW!!! YAY OWEN! I think I scored around 70 something. LOL.

Ramp It UP!

Apparently, this started last night, as Charlie tells me. But, today, Owen spent lots of time developing his new set of tracks upstairs. He must have had a "lightbulb" moment, because he finally thought about the underside of the tracks, and that they could be build on top of something. (These are Lego train tracks.) Boy, did he have fun, and was really preoccupied with it. I was proud of him.

Home Depot #6: Leaf Press

Isn't he cute in his orange Home Depot apron? And look, he is starting to rack up a few pins on it too! :) Daddy said that he really enjoyed himself. We've put a leaf in the press already, and it takes about 3-5 days to dry. I can't wait to see our first leaf. Now I need to get him a scrapbook. LOL.

Happy Halloween!

We had a blast Trick or Treating! First of all, it was around 60 degrees out, perfect for walking along with your bag of goodies. Owen was super happy and polite about it. He said "Thankyou," at every house. Also, we started early enough that it was still light out, and we went to a safe neighborhood by "Grandma Carol and Grandpa Bill's" house. Some funny things....Once Owen sweetly looked up at one lady and said, "I'd like one more, please." Too funny. It was confusing, as some people handed out ONE, and other's a handful, and other yet let the kids pick out 2 or 3 of their own. We had to educate him on that one. LOL. One place we stopped, a man was passing out candy, and he mentioned that his dad used to work on the railroad as the engineer! That was very exciting to Owen. He just kept chug, chug, chugging along from one house to another. If you can believe it, Owen did not have ANY candy, until we we in the car on the way home. He didn't even ask for it. :O And he only had one box of Nerds. LOL.





ANd then we went to "4 The Kidz Gymnastics," that was set up for open gym, and also some games. Here, Miss Alyssa was playing a game of "Ring the pumpkin" with Owen. We had come later after trick or treating, and so he was the only kid there. But, they had great fun with him anyway. And he had tons of fun on the trampolines and the blow up obstacle course, etc. Worth every penny for the fun! They will be doing this again in the Winter. I volunteered to help them, as it seemed really fun, and they are really nice ladies.