Snow pictures

We were lucky enough to have a family friend take pictures of the kiddos while we were in Pennsylvania over Christmas break. It was a fun gift to get the CD in the mail today! Check out some that he took of Willow when she was younger. 

Around the House (aka random)

Willow still loooooves to read:

Mr. Owen has now taken the ranks as messiest eater at the table. He hasn't been as adventurous as Willow was when starting table foods. His favorite thing to do after getting out of his seat, though, is to eat what's left in the seat =)

This is a mystery that only Cam Jansen can help solve:

Snow fun!

I'm thankful the kids got to experience a lot of snow in PA over Christmas since we don't get a lot in VA. We did get just a couple inches on Thursday night (enough to cancel school around here, of course!) and it stuck around just long enough for Willow to play for a little bit in the morning. 

Her favorite activity, like in PA, was eating the snow:

Her "snow eating" position

Playing "waitress" with her sheet of icy snow.

Animal Sounds

Owen thought it was pretty funny when I made animal sounds using the animals from a Noah's ark set that we have. Video of the giggly boy here.

Owen: 9 months

Owen Micah is a boy on the move! He prefers walking holding onto fingers rather than crawling. He's become more comfortable walking with one finger recently, but if he has two fingers then he has all the confidence in the world and really kicks it into high gear. It's funny to see how fast he can get those little legs going! Both sets of grandparents are determined to get him walking and would try to get him to walk between us over Christmas break. He's taken a few wobbly, leaning steps on his own but doesn't quite have the confidence or the torso control to take off yet. He's figured out how to sit down with more control now and will pull himself up to standing easily. It's easy to tell when Owen is up from his nap because on the monitor we'll hear the sound of him standing and rattling the side of his crib. For some reason he still feels like it's necessary to wake up in the middle of the night. Sometimes he'll go back to sleep easily with the pacifier, and other times we struggle for 60-90 minutes to get him back to sleep. Surely one day it'll all click, right??? A third tooth on the top recently broke through, so maybe we can blame that for his poor sleep lately. His latest curiosity is with doors - he loves to open and shut them. Owen loves to eat. The only thing he's really turned his nose up at is peas. Owen can be quite the chatter box lately. He'll do repeated sounds (baba, dada, yaya) or a high-pitch squeal (Chris' "favorite"), but the best is his little laugh. He continues to be smitten with his big sis, who continues to exhibit patience with him 95% of the time. 

 

and then it goes downhill...

Here comes trouble...

Christmas Part 2

We enjoyed a snowy week in PA with Gramma and Gramps. It snowed just about every day we were there, making it feel a lot more like winter than at home in VA! Willow mostly enjoyed eating the snow, though we did try sledding. It was great to be able to introduce Owen to many family members he'd never met! Willow and Owen soaked up lots of attention from Gramps and Gramma. Owen especially enjoyed having new things to discover as he walked around a new house. He even took a few steps on his own! 

Owen's "fangs" are growing in nicely. Thankfully a 3rd tooth has now made an appearance and will be catching up in size soon!

Willow enjoyed decorating a gingerbread house with Gramma!

We enjoyed a visit with the Shannon family. Willow "let" Meaera read her just about every book in the house!

I'm not sure why I can't embed videos anymore (?!?). Here are some links to ones you might enjoy:
Owen talks about the snow
Owen laughs at Gramma throwing snow
Willow ironing (she didn't learn this from her mother!!)
Owen's pre-walking excitement
My new favorite:  Daddy's monster attack (I love how Owen tries to get in on the action)

(FYI: Videos of Willow's Christmas performance are now fixed)