Are exploring!

Owen is feeling like a very brave boy these days...notice his one hand stance on the scary coffee table (although the scary coffee table now has bumpers). I love how his other hand looks like he's saying, "Come on, Mom." I'm sure I'll see that look many times in his teen years.

Owen knocked down the tissue box and wanted to get it so badly! It took him quite awhile but he finally figured out how to get down to it without falling....here's his progression. You can actually see how hard he is thinking about getting down there!

Of course, as soon as he got it he was done with it and started to crawl to get the camera!

We attempted a walk in this chilly weather we've been having lately because we were both getting sick of being inside and arguing about whether or not Owen should be able to climb up the Christmas tree/pull up on the fireplace. We had a Christmas Story moment when Owen fell down in his puffy coat....poor baby. :)

Daddy and I decided to take Owen out to see Santa and do some shopping on Saturday evening and we thought the best outfit for Owen to do this in was his very own Santa costume! Needless to say he was a big hit around town! He wasn't scared of Santa at all and sat nicely on his lap. I'll see if I can figure out how to scan a picture (or just make Dan do it) to post soon.

In this picture Owen is clapping! He does it every time you say, "Yay."

Loving on our little Santa Claus when we got home.

Are crawling

Owen has started crawling this week! It's still a bit awkward but he's doing it :) He gets so excited when he gets to the things that he wants. So far his main targets are:

1. George

2. Henry

3. The door stoppers that go boiiiiiing

4. The Christmas tree

5. His riding toy from Uncle Matt and Aunt Julie (that one is a big hit)

Owen woke up at 5:40 this morning, which sounds awful, but it's not so bad when you have to be up early with a baby that's this happy! He's such a giggle box in the morning and he looooooves breakfast foods so it's fun to feed him in the morning...this morning he had oatmeal and blueberry yogurt and ate almost 6 ounces of food! Of course it also helps that I stayed up until 7:30 and then tagged Daddy and went back to sleep until 9.

It took Dan and I two hours to figure this whole video thing out so hopefully we'll be posting them more often in the future! Enjoy :)

Are moving and shaking!

This past week we had a great Thanksgiving! We had a fantastic time with Aunt Julie and Uncle Matt at Nonni and Grandpa's house. Unfortunately my camera never came out so there are no pictures to share but we had fun and ate lots of delicious food!

Here's the rest of what we've been doing in the last week or so:

This sweatshirt was bought at a little thrift store in Harrisonburg when I was in college because I thought it would be so cute on my future child. Ten years later it turns out that I was totally right...my child is precious in it :)

It's official: Owen is mobile. He's crawling and pulling up on everything he can get his hands on! This evening I put him on his mat to play with his toys while I put the last few ornaments on the tree....and here's where he ended up....

Look at that face! He was having a great time tugging on the branches and trying to grab for the ornaments.

Owen is such a happy baby. He loves to play with his toys and dump them all over the floor. This green tub is the first thing we ever saw him pull up on!

Today we went shopping for Owen's big boy car seat! We are thinking about this one: http://www.buybuybaby.com/product.asp?SKU=17588435&RN=7022& . It's expensive but it will last a really long time because it goes up to 70 pounds.

Take a trip to Virginia!

Madison, James Madison, we are the dukes of JMU!

This past weekend we went up to JMU to visit friends and see a football game. This was Owen's very first trip to Mommy's college and he loved it there...we're already saving for out of state tuition for our future duke! Before we left on Sunday I decided to take some fun pictures around campus.

He's crawling his way to academic excellence!

Owen's buddy Jimmy Mad

Uncle Toddy happened to be at JMU visiting friends so we did some tailgating with him. Owen loved his pretty red beard and couldn't keep his hands off it.

While we were on campus I had to get a kiss on the kissing rock! This is the second McDonald boy that I've kissed on that rock - it's nice to follow in such an old tradition :)

Owen's first football game was with his new friend Henry!

After we left JMU we went to MawMaw and Papa's house for 5 days to take care of them! We cooked lots of recipes and got some good snuggle time in (the first was mostly me and the latter was mostly Owen :). We loved seeing them and spending time with the family!

Make yummy recipes!

This week Owen and I have been trying lots of new recipes! So far they've all been really good after some tweaking (we used the reviews to tweak).

We tried beef stroganoff: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Slow-Cooker-Beef-Stroganoff-I/Detail.aspx and it was really good! We looked down at the reviews and made a lot of changes because it was a pretty boring recipe on its own.

We also made this yummy soup: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Slow-Cooker-Chicken-Tortilla-Soup/Detail.aspx If you're into comforting, warm food, you'll be a big fan. It was awesome just as it is in the recipe. I used a rotisserie chicken though so that I didn't have to worry about how to cook the chicken.

We didn't get around to this one yet but we will be trying it when we get back from our trip: http://eatathomecooks.com/2009/11/honey-hoisin-chicken-in-the-slow-cooker.html

Speaking of our trip....We are going to JMU tomorrow morning and then going to MawMaw and Papa's house! We can't wait to see the MRDs and our friends and then our family! It's going to be a fantastic 7 days :)

Have a baby tornado!

Notice that green basket back there under the swing? That used to be full of toys...and sitting on its bottom...and nowhere near that swing. Then Owen got ahold of it! Owen has started traveling around the room, not crawling, but somehow he is all over the place! He dumped out his whole toy bucket and then scattered them all around the room. We didn't mind though because he entertained himself for about 40 minutes doing it!

He's getting ready to crawl! This is Owen's newest trick, he gets up to a sitting position from his hands and knees and then back down to his hands and knees to crawl. So far he's just rocking and moving his knees a little bit but hasn't quite coordinated his hands and knees to move anywhere. Doesn't seem to be stopping him much.

The other day our big boy played with some puffs and attempted a pincher grasp! That's the first step to eating finger foods so I was pretty excited....yes, I'm a nerd and I don't care because it's not a bad thing to be excited about the small things in life!

Owen got his six month shots at his check up on Thursday. He did a really good job and hardly cried at all. He also met all his NINE month development goals! She was asking questions about what he's doing and apparently he surpassed all the goals of a six month old and went through the nine month goals too! He is 28 1/2 inches long and 18 pounds 14 ounces. He is still in the 90th percentile for height but dropped the the 60th for weight. The doctor said that since he dropped in percentile he should start eating more calories each day. We've now started three meals a day and his breakfast meal has rice cereal with breastmilk for some extra calories. He seems to enjoy the rice cereal so far. I'm not concerned about his percentile drop because he's started moving a lot and he's burning more calories. He's excited about getting to eat more often though!

Make big fat messes

Owen loved his dinner tonight! He's decided that it's high time that he feed himself, apparently, so he tried to grab the spoon every time I tried to put it in his mouth. As you can see it ended up on his head, face, hands, chair, shirt, the floor, and all over me. We both had a great time and finished the night off with a warm bath :)

We also went to playgroup today and spent time with 11 babies. There were babies there as young as 8 weeks and as old as 10 months so it was cool to see where Owen was just a few months ago and where he'll be soon! I love to spend time with the moms and eat pumpkin muffins too!

Get free sod!

You should see how pretty our yard looks! After it was completely torn to pieces during the construction last week it looks gorgeous! I'll try to post pictures later but I'm sure Dan will have me working on a sprinkler system until late tonight!

Play at Latta Plantation

Today we went to play in the leaves (and dirt) at Latta Plantation, a historic home near our house. We met up with Emily, Jessica and their babies Molly and Evan to take some pictures with the fall leaves. Owen was very excited by the leaves, pine needles, and basically everything else he could grab off the ground and get into his mouth before Mommy caught him. It's amazing to watch him explore new places and see things he's never seen before that we take for granted. I love seeing new things again through him.

Loving on my boy!

Celebrate our first Halloween!

Cutest small fry ever?

Yes indeed.

Today was our very first Halloween as a family! We made chocolate chip cookies and took them around to the neighbors as a "reverse trick or treat" since Owen can't eat candy yet (and Mommy and Daddy don't need any more!). All the neighbors thought he was adorable and we had to agree. He was smiley and happy while all the kids came and got candy but he passed out by 7 pm! Apparently being a french fry makes a kid exhausted.

We sat out on the porch and waited for trick or treaters. It was fun to hang out with all the neighbors.

Daddy loves his little fry!

We went to McDonalds and got some happy meal boxes to fill with cookies for our immediate neighbors. We even put the cookies in fry wrappers!

The McDonald family....ba da ba ba ba.

We had a great time! Can't wait to celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas as a little family this year.

Happy Halloween!

Explored Discovery Place Kids!

OMG it was amaaaaaaazing! It's all about imaginative play, there's a whole infant section, and it's only $90 for a year of family membership (2 adults and however many children are in your household). It's 2 miles from our house so we're definitely joining when Owen gets a little more mobile! It'll be the perfect way to spend the afternoon on rainy days or just to play for 1/2 an hour. There's a HUGE playplace right in the middle that would kick any McDonald's butt too so we won't have to resort to playing at a fast food restaurant when I'm desperate to entertain him!

Here's a little bit of what we did today :)

Played at the water table with awesome infant seats so the babes could reach themselves!

Owen played in the baby area that was all padded. He was trying so hard to get a truck that was a couple feet away. After about 5 minutes of scooting he finally made it!

Trying so hard to get that truck!

He finally got it!

Evan and Owen row the kayak!

Owen was cracking up at the baby in the mirror! (This is actually his reflection...notice the third shoe at the bottom of the page)