Lately...

Just wanted to dump some of my iphone pics.  Just some random things we've been up to these days.

 Family movie night.  Owen crawled over to snuggle up with Scott.  At first Scott was not having it, but in his defense Owen was all up on him.  They finally found a comfortable spot for both of them.  This particular night we watched Aladdin for the first time, Scott loved it (no surprise there).  

Then Owen got the sickies again.  Probably just teething for the most part but he tends to run really high fevers and thats been followed by a runny nose and post nasal drip awesomeness so he and I have had lots of extra snuggles.

Took my little sickies out in the sun for some vitamin D because the weather has been SO gorgeous!

 We got some family tattoos - spiderman of course, super classy!

Scott has several.  I have one on my arm (still) and that's Owen's little baby leg with a tattoo of course. 

We also recently explored a new park near by.

First steps

Look who is taking steps! Pretty excited stuff in the Campbell house.  He did this a few times and a few times he even took more steps, of course never when I had a video device nearby.  And, if you'll remember, Scott took his first steps when only Brian was home so YAY for Owen doing it for all of us!  The cutest thing was how excited Scott was to see Owen take steps.  He even said, "This is SO EXCITING!"

Butterfly hike

 We went to butterfly grove again this year.  

 The big boys drove up with mimi and papa and Hilary and I drove up with Owen (poor little buddy, already getting left out) and got to stop for some palermo on the way (heavenly!).  Of course the boys and mimi checked our hiking directions first.  And they did a great job of following the signs the whole way.

We met some dogs on the path and, after asking their owner for permission, played and patted them and got tons of kisses.

 And Scott taught Parker about making this face for pictures, Hilary: you're welcome!

And for comparison, here are the boys starting out the hike at this time last year - crazy the difference a year makes!

We went a couple weeks later this year and may have missed the peak of the butterflies.  We saw quite a few don't get me wrong but last year there were millions.

We hiked a little further this year, because the boys are bigger and experienced hikers now after all, and went over by the cliffs where we could see the ocean.

Buds

It was the perfect day with perfect weather and amazing views.

Owen enjoyed the fews from the backpack!!!

We picnicked in the shade of a grove of trees

And we tried for some pictures of all the boys, and of course didn't get any where they were all looking.

Owen's expression!!!  Just kills me!!  He's a crack up!!!

Papa and Auntie went tree climbing...

Prompting the boys to tree climb with them!

Mimi and Papa

We let Owen play with the empty juice box on the walk back.  He thought he was pretty big time.

The big boys helped each other get back to the cars too by exchanging "kitty back" rides.

I'm so glad we have little hikers on our hands!  It always makes for a fun day and a great adventure!

11 months...

 One month from today Owen turns ONE.  I'm dying!  How?!?!!!  Look at this big boy, wasn't he like just born?

Here is what he's up to these days.  Still not walking but he is a super fast crawler (so who needs walking I suppose is his game right now) and a great walker so long as he has a toy/chair/basket/box to push and help him.  I'm going to go ahead and make his first word blog official: "YAY".  He claps his hands and says "yay" and its pretty clear as day.  Some might argue he says "mama" but I personally think its more of a noise than him actually using it appropriately, every once in a while maybe but I'm going with "YAY".  So then obviously he has also learned to clap. SO cute and he does it with the biggest smile on his face!

Owen has 6 teeth now and officially hates baby food and thinks it is for babies only (which he is not, duh).  Only table foods for this guy.  He still loves cucumbers and pears and has done well with most other fruits and veggies.  We finally introduced some chicken which was  huge hit also.  He hates blueberries and bananas, won't touch them.  He has also had strawberries (much earlier than I let Scott have them, but they are organic and in season and I just can't say no) Owen loved them but his chin has been a little rashy so we might back off them for a few days and see if it clears up.

Still loves playing outside and anything his brother is doing.  He loves to play with cars and zooms them all over the house.  You rarely will see him crawling around the house without a car in his hand making vroom vroom noises.  And he HATES when toys get taken away from him. Scott and Owen are already fighting over toys - and it gets pretty rough, sadly with two boys I'm sure this is only the tip of the iceberg. 

Owen is definitely still growing like a weed.  I'm so curious to find out just how big he is when we do is one year well baby in a month.

We are definitely down to one nap a day these days, which actually makes scheduling our day much easier.  Night time sleep is still less than perfect but I am still rested because once Owen wakes up (anywhere from 1-3 hours after he goes down in his crib) he come and cosleeps with us.  He is getting a little big and taking up lots of room in our bed (he prefers the "ninja star" shape for his sleeping position) but it is what works for us right now.

He is such a little joy and always so happy.  I absolutely can't believe he is 11 months and I basically don't have a baby anymore but a toddler.

Valentine's Lovin'

Valentine's day was fun this year with Scott having a better understanding of holidays (not that Valentine's is exactly a holiday but you know) and with a school party to boot.

Here is a glimpse of ours.

Valentine's day chalk board:

Making valentine's cards for the class party (the night before, once a procrastinator, always a procrastinator...we went and bought supplies about an hour before the creative process commenced.)  Scott's card included pink and orange stamped dinosaurs, a pirate sticker and on a few he even stamped out his name. #preschoolisalottawork

 Valentine's morning greeted us with heart shaped pancakes and since it was Valentine's day what better time to let Owen have his first taste of pancakes.  I think he liked em!!!

 Owen saying "yay" and clapping.  Yay pancakes, can't beat em.

At school we had a pajama party so all the kids and moms wore our jams.  Scott, Owen and I rocked our jams when we stopped at starbucks on our way to school for a special Valentine's treat (kids sized apple cider for Scott)

 Scott's classroom with his teacher Miss Dana and a few of the moms.  Thanks to whoever posted this on facebook because I surely stole it, I took no pictures at school.

The day ended with work for me and pizza, bath and bedtime for the boys while I was out!  Happy valentine's day everyone!  Hope yours was extra special!

The time Scott (or his friend, or both) killed a fish (maybe)...

We just got home from an afternoon play date with Ryker.  It had been far too long since we had gotten together and it was much needed for all involved.

And now the story.

Ryker and Maddox got a fish tank for Christmas (?, or just because?), which is upstairs near the boys' room.  The big boys (Ryker + Scott) are allowed to play upstairs alone while Alexis and I hang out with the babies (toddlers now? sniff!) downstairs.  We can usually hear the big boys just fine and they play really well together so we hardly ever have to go up to check.

So Alexis and I are in the kitchen getting snacks for the little ones when Ryker comes down the stairs, followed closely by Scott (as always), and says "Umm guys??!!, one of the fishes died."  I look around the corner and so it is, dead, in Ryker's hand.

Oh my.

So we ask what happened as Alexis rushes Ryker + dead fish back upstairs.  She tries putting him back in the water (just incase he had some life left in him, we both suspected that the boys had plucked him out of the tank still kickin').  No luck.  So she's upstairs figuring out what to do with the fish + cleaning up the water that was all over and washing Ryker's hands, all the while questioning him on what happened.  I'm downstairs with Scott and the littles and I ask Scott what happened.

In his words:

"The fish was swimming, then it got dead."

Me: Did you touch it?

"Yes, I held it.  Then I squished it."

Me: Was it alive when it was in the water?

"Yes.  No.  Yes."

Me:  Was it swimming and moving around?

"Yes.  It was swimming up to the rocks then down.  Then it stopped and rested at the top.  We held it.  Ryker said we could hold it and we held it.  And I squished.  Just a little."

Me: (trying not to laugh at the "squished it just a little" comment, because although we are talking loss of fish life here, that was a really funny moment) So it was already dead when you got it out?

"I don't know.  I squished it."

So we washed them up and Alexis wrapped the fish in a kleenex and put it in the outside garbage.  Now at this point Ryker is upset about the fish dying and we told him the fist went to heaven.  Ryker: "No.  He went in the trash can."  We tell him the fish's spirit went to heaven.  Ryker: "How does the garbage truck get it to heaven?"  Stumped.  We tell him that the garbage truck just deals with the fish's body and the spirit goes to heaven on its own.  He is satisfied.  He then has lots of other questions about heaven.  "will the fish have a family? What if he doesn't like his family? what will happen when he comes back and is alive again?"  We do our best.  Meanwhile Scott is so over it all and playing with trucks again.  

We never really got a straight answer as to how/when the fish died.  We can hope for the best and assume it died of natural causes (at one point Ryker said he caught him with his hands, probably easier if he's already dead no?) as opposed to being squished to death at the hands of curious toddlers.

Rest in peace Barry the fish, Jewel (his tank mate) will miss you and I'm quite certain will be getting a new roommate here shortly (I heard mom promise, and a toddler never forgets).

A day trip

 Some of our family went camping at Lake Buena Vista for the weekend.  We decided to join them for the day.  It was FREEZING out, but we had a blast.  We stayed until the boys bedtimes, then got in jams and they went to bed in the car.  Perfect. I barely took any pictures (as always, whoops).  Actually, I only got my camera out once.  I snapped a few then put it away, never to be seen again.  

We brought Owen's car (smart move us!) so he could cruise around, which he did from the time we got there until he took a nap.

And speaking of cars, the big cousins (Tyler and Britney) brought their RC cars and Scott was in heaven.  He had never played with anything like that before and he had a blast getting to drive them himself.

We were home and in bed by 9!  Next time we will probably try to stay the night but for Brian's first weekend in town in a month it was the perfect day getaway!