10 months today.

heres the update:
-hes pulling himself up on E-V-E-R-Y-THING. and he sure has gotten good at it too.
-his conquests: the couch. the stairs. the armoire. the bathtub. his crib. his drop and roar dinosaur. and his little red table.
-he is still doing the buggle scuttle crawl. and is faster than ever.
-he crawls into the kitchen every chance he gets. and he loves to pull out the baskets that are full of his baby food.
-he'll crawl over to his highchair when he wants a snack.
-hes not a big fan of the country breakfast.
-but he does love banana cookies and string cheese.
-he loves to turn our hallway light on and off using the pull switch. (really, he has been doing this for a couple of months now.)
-he is terrified of the vacuum cleaner. and insists on being carried while its on.
-if there is a leaf somewhere on the floor in the house, he will find it and try to put it in his mouth.
-he has a specific blanket that he loves. and it has become quite the necessity for bedtime and nap time.
-he is sleeping a sound 12 hours each night in his crib. and still taking two good, long naps.
-several times throughout the day, he'll crawl into his playroom and just play all by himself for a couple of minutes.
-his favorite toys of the month: his elephant shape sorter. his busy ball popper. and his drop and roar dinosaur.
-if you hide something from him, he'll look all over for it.
-he gets really mad if someone goes outside without him. and especially if they take hudson.
-if he hears keys in the door, he knows someone is here to visit. and he gets crazy happy.
-he has discovered our big tote of magazines and is constantly trying to get to them. he loves to tear them all up.
-he gets really excited when his momma sings take me out to the ball game.
-he is talking up a storm. and loves to play the repeat sound game with you.
-he understands the words "hudson" and "doggie."
-he has waved bye-bye two more times. once to his grandma jan and grandpa scott. and once to his momma.
-and he has such a great little bond with his daddy. you should see the way his face lights up when he sees him.

it sure has been an amazing month. so many fun discoveries for owen. and sooooo much personality.

in search of the perfect christmas tree

so i thought i'd share a few pictures of owens first trip to hensler nursery. we had such a great time picking out this year's christmas tree. of course, we had to meet up with the resident expert, grandpa scott. (and grandma jan and uncle jonah too.) owen found a tree that was just the perfect size for him. he got to visit the reindeer villa, where he met rudy and angel. and it even snowed a bit...truly a fun way to kick off the holiday season. be sure to check out their website by clicking on the link above.

.

happy thanksgiving weekend

i sure am grateful for this little munchkin...

and oh, how i love that sweet little dimple...

and his classic "i'm kinda busy, mom" look...

happy fall.

enjoy the weekend.

1 more visitor

and we'll hit the 1,000 mark...how fun. leave a comment or send me an email to let me know who you are + and owen will send you some goodies in the mail. :) thanks, everyone, for taking the time to out of your day to visit the blog. hugs to you all.

trevor the turtle + aidan the monkey + owen the octopus

isn't he the cutest little turtle you've ever seen?
and how about this sweet little monkey?and of course, i have to share one more of this cute little octopus.

hes getting squirrely.

so all week long, owen has been trying to pull himself up on everything in sight. on friday, he took the big plunge and figured out a way to pull himself up using the bottom two stairs on our staircase. and then on sunday, he managed to go from a sleeping postion to a standing position in his crib for the very first time. boy, was adam surprised when he went into his room. guess its time to drop the crib mattress down a notch. and to prepare ourselves for some big big changes.

and in honor of veterans day, i'd like to take a moment to give a special thanks to all of the men and women who are currently serving, to all of those who have served in the past (thanks, grandpa doug), and to all of their amazing families.

and just for fun, heres a cute pic from the other day. hope everyone has a wonderful week.

halloween fun + 9 month check-up

so last week was a busy one. on tuesday night, jonah, riley, adam, and i went out for some pre halloween fun, while grandpa scott stayed and played with owen. (thanks a bunch.) then on halloween night, we headed over to aunt kathy's house for some trick or treating. met up with grandma bonnie and aunt jamie's gang too. then it was out to grovertown for some late night halloween fun with grandma jan, grandpa scott, and uncle jonah. we had such a great time with our little octopus...definitely the best halloween yet. and owen scored a TON of treats. thanks to grandma bonnie and grandpa doug for the henley shirt, the listen up roll-a-rounds, and for the animal crackers and other goodies. (i think his favorite was the little halloween cup...hes found so many fun ways to play with it.) thanks to grandma jan, grandpa scott, and uncle jonah for the pjs (especially loved the spider ones pictured above), the halloween book, and the cheerios. thanks to aunt crystal, uncle barry, and trevor for the halloween peekaboo book, the ghost socks, and the mini owen sized flashlight. thanks to great aunt julie, great uncle eddie, molly, hannah, and olivia for the fun halloween cheerios book. and thanks to great grandma ann and great grandma and grandpa heeren for the cards and treats. he sure is one lucky little boy.

as for owen's 9 month check-up...we went friday and everything looked great. he weighed 18.12 pounds (25th %), was 28 inches long (45th %), and his head measured 44.5 cms around (25th %). he got his first round of the flu shot and goes back in one month for the booster. and tomorrow he goes to the lab to have some blood taken to be tested for anemia. after that, hes good until his 1 year check-up. i think his favorite part of the visit was when dr. ludwig took a look at this ears. for some odd reason, owen thought it was just hilarious to have that pesky instrument in his ear. he just laughed and laughed.

and finally...owen is officially sleeping in his crib. naps and all. for the past two nights, hes even slept twelve straight hours. sorta sad to see him leave his co-sleeper, but glad that he has transitioned so well to his crib. hes getting to be such a big boy. (sigh.)

window light

so heres another pic taken yesterday with the 40d. this one was shot in aperature priority, indoors using only the window light...a little trickier to do. but i still got some catchlights in those beautiful eyes, so i'm happy.

its here!!!

...my new camera, that is.
the canon 40d digital slr.
and the canon 50mm 1.4 usm lens.
can you tell how excited i am?

so i went out to give it a try today, and this is what i got... (shot in aperature priority with all natural light.)



so so exciting...cant wait to learn more.
happy november!