Happy 1st Birthday Owen!

Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday sweet Owen,
Happy birthday to you!

Little Longhorns' First Game at DKR

We took the boys to their very first Longhorns football game at DKR this weekend. Texas was playing the University of Central Florida so we figured it wouldn't be as crowded as usual. Our plan was to go to the game without any expectations of how long we would stay. It turns out the boys quite enjoyed the game day ambience and we stayed until well past halftime!

We made a stop at the Shotgun 30 tailgate. Joey enjoyed a breakfast taco while relaxing on the stinkiest couch known to mankind. But hey, it's burnt orange so it's a keeper!

The four of us squished into our two seats. Here we are during pre-game festivities.

Sometime around the 2nd quarter, Joey got tired of sitting in our seats so we wandered down to our friends' seats in the front row. Joey got some smiles and winks from the UT cheerleaders and even made it on the Jumbotron!

Joey running down the row looking for some high-fives.

Owen and Daddy eventually made their way down too and as you can see, Owen did his fair share of charming the cheerleaders too!

Happy Halloween!

This was a busy Halloween season for us mostly because it was our first time coordinating for two kiddos. So I'll never understand why I decided that it would be a fun idea to make Joey's costume. I may have thought that it would be cheaper than buying one (which it wasn't) or maybe I thought that he would appreciate it more (which he didn't). But one thing's for sure - a lot of blood, sweat and tears went into that thing and it actually turned out quite cute!

Joey helping out by painting one of the styrofoam wheels.

The finished product...TA DA! We used a carseat box and to make the car red (Joey's favorite color) and to help make it a bit sturdier, we wrapped red electrical tape around the whole thing. We topped it off with some styrofoam wheels, a couple of LED headlights and daddy's homemade TX license plate.

Our not so happy sunshine. Why does trick or treating have to start so late?

Trick or treating with our friends and neighbors, the McInnis family.

Here's a video from the Halloween Parade at Joey's school where his red car costume made its official debut.

Happy birthday Da!

Sweet Pumpkins

TX-OU Weekend

Since we don't have tickets (or the energy) for TX-OU weekend in Dallas anymore, we hosted a small get-together of fellow Longhorns at our house during the game. This was the boys' first real experience with a TX-OU party and they'd better get used to it because there's a lot more where that came from. Hook 'em!

Owen enjoying a pre-game Mum Mum snack.

Joey and his future college roomies, Cristian and Zander.

Joey showing off his brand-new parking garage to our friend Daniel. More importantly, check out Colt and Mack on the TV in the background with their victory pose.

Owen is talking!

Owen is quite the babbler as of late. His vocabulary currently includes "hi", "dada", "lalalala" (which signals to us that we need to start singing) and "nai nai" (Chinese for Grandma). No matter how hard I try, I cannot get him to say mama. That darn boy.

Owen's 9-month well check

Owen turned 9-months old today! Here are the stats from his well check:

* Weight: 23 lbs., 14 oz. (90th percentile)
* Length: 28 1/2" (75th-90th percentile)
* Head Circumference: 47 cm (75th-90th percentile)

Here is our big guy getting around the house in a walker. He's not crawling yet, but the pediatrician suggested we just skip that stage and work on his cruising skills instead.

Our two guys enjoying some post-nap downtime in Owen's crib. It's hard to wake up after a good nap!

First day of school 2009

Today Joey started his second year of Mother's Day Out at Bethany School. This year he is in the Monkeys class with Ms. Laurie and Ms. Dana. There were a few tears this morning but then his teachers got out the toy cars and all was good in the world again.

Daddy and Joey walking into school.

Joey playing with the cars in the classroom at drop-off.

Owen and daddy walking back to the car.

First trip to the circus!

Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey was in town this weekend so we took the boys for their first trip to the circus. Our boys may not yet have quite the attention span required to enjoy a long sit-down show as this year's performance was almost two hours long. Owen slept for more than half that time and as Joey walked out of the Erwin Center (with souvenir toy in hand, might I add), he declared, "I don't like the circus." Okay then. Glad we spent about $800 on food, drinks and souvenirs.

Owen eating his lunch before the show begins.

Joey riding a motorcycle on the circus floor during the pre-show.

Joey's potty training: Round 1

I've been trying to play it cool with the potty training and decided that I was just going to let things run its course and that we would start only when Joey let us know that he was ready. Over the last couple of weeks, Joey started asking us to take him to the potty and actually successfully went pee-pee and poo-poo several times. So I took that to mean that he was giving us the green light (and I was also admittedly excited about cutting down on diaper purchases).

So we got the boys' bathroom ready to go with all the requisite potty training items:

Toilet seat

Kid-sized urinal (aka the Peter Potty)

Reward chart

Bribes (er, rewards)

Our plan was to give Joey 1 sticker each time he went pee-pee and 2 stickers each time he went poo-poo. Everytime he earned 2 stickers, he would get a car. Joey wore big boy underwear during the day and wore Pull-Ups only at night or when we were leaving the house. The training went surprisingly well for about 5 days as far as the pee-pee was concerned (as evidenced by the chart pictured above). He earned a lot of cars and we even had a song and dance routine that we would perform each time he went ("Joey went pee-pee in the potty, repeat, repeat, repeat). The pooping started out okay and just slowly deteriorated throughout the week until finally he was pooping in his underwear and freaking out when we would try to change him. Then he started peeing in his pants too and it was around that time that mommy's patience started to wear thin. And that was that for round 1 of potty training...

Port Aransas

Mima organized a family trip to Port Aransas to close out the summer. Almost everyone was there (we missed you Kevin and Laura!) and it was great to see Joey and Owen play with their cousins Beth and Maggie. We can't wait to do it again next year! Click here to see the pictures.

Happy birthday mommy & daddy!

Another year, another birthday for mommy and daddy. Our birthdays are not nearly as fun and exciting as the kids' birthdays - we don't get balloons, smash cakes or parties. But we do get to celebrate with two of the sweetest, most adorable boys ever so who are we to complain?

Joey has started singing songs a lot recently. Here he is performing "Happy Birthday" with a bit of prompting from mommy and daddy.

Going to the Big D

We made a trip to Dallas over the weekend to catch up with family and friends. We got to see the Kelleys and their brand new baby boy and visited the beautiful new home of our friends the Poglitsches. The drive there and back was actually pretty pleasant. Both boys slept a lot and when they weren't sleeping, they were about as happy as can be expected.

Joey flipping through the pages of a costume catalog in preparation for Halloween.

Owen and his precious bunny.

I love this picture of cousin Scott staring at Owen like he's some sort of alien.

Cousin Susan practicing her baby skills by feeding Owen his dinner.

Our boys with all our friends' cute kiddos.

Happy 8-months, Owen!

We took these pictures a few days after Owen turned 8 months old. He is such a sweet baby boy, so relaxed, laid-back and happy! He naps well, sleeps well at night, eats well (obviously) and is sitting up like a big boy. Happy 8 months, sweet cheeks!

Showing off his 2 teeth

Poor guy does have some struggles with pooping. Here he is working it out.

Owen's 7-month photos

We did Owen's 7-month photos earlier this summer to capture his cuteness in all its glory. The photographs were taken by my playgroup friend Rachel in the comfort of our own backyard. It was brutally hot outside (as it has been all summer) but Owen did flash us a few smiles. We also were able to get some pictures of our two boys together and even a good family pic. Click here to see the full set of photos.

Here are some of my personal favorites:

Twinkle Twinkle...

Every night we sing one song to Joey as part of his bedtime routine. His favorite by far is 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star' - he's been requesting that one for at least the past 4 months. On a side note, he also likes to change out the word star for other words. For example, tonight we also sang 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Car', 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Daddy' and 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Mommy'. Anyhow, Joey usually mouths some of the words as we're singing or he'll help us finish a line. Tonight, though, he surprised us by singing the whole song on his own. We didn't have the camera with us but Brian pulled out his iPhone to capture the moment. And then I took a video of the iPhone...

Finger painting fun!

Joey had his first encounter with finger paints this week and there is no doubt in my mind that I am the worst mommy in the world for depriving him of this fun until age 2. And to be completely honest, the only reason we busted out the paints was because sweet Caroline (our mommy's helper) was game. Joey had a blast with the paints and was just as delighted with the wonderful mess he made all over his body and his pj's!

Here is Joey just getting started and still being cautious about dipping into the paint. Please note how white his top is.

Joey and Caroline's handprints side by side.

The aftermath...

The artist at work...

Owen's first haircut

Our sweet baby Owen has some of the craziest hair you've ever seen on an infant. Since the wild hair was captured in the baby photos that we did a couple of weeks ago, we felt it was time for us to take the plunge and chop it off. We asked our playgroup mommy friend Roxanne to come over and do the honors yesterday.

Here's the 'before' shot.

Owen looks a little worried and slightly frightened.

Owen thinking, "Okay, this is not bad, not bad at all..."

"Hey, I'm really starting to enoy this!"

All done!

Here's the 'after' shot. Let's hope the haircut will put a stop to people asking us if Owen is a boy or a girl. Seriously, people!