Favorites of the Week

What a good week it's been! Here are a few of the things that made it so great:

-my cute boys (they are at the top of almost every list I make)
-Owen has *finally* started giving kisses!
-breakfast for dinner
-making strawberry jam with my mom
-babysitting the cute neighbor boys
-playing with friends
-getting our first Citrus Lane box. I don't think we'll get anymore though.
-a walk around the lake with grandma and grandpa
-the sun!! We spent a good chunk of everyday outside this week and nothing makes Owen happier.
-finding a puppy outside to play with
-going to Aunt Rissy's Hershey track meet and watching her qualify for the semi finals
-making cute Mother's Day gifts with my Activity Days girls
-buying grow boxes to start our first garden
-having a unexpected visit from my dear friend, Karen, after Clark and Owen went to bed and staying up till 1:30 talking and laughing like I haven't laughed in ages
-finally getting a start on making our tiny backyard cute for the summer.
-seeing a giant turtle at the garden shop
-looking forward to a BBQ at Grandma's tomorrow

I love my life :)

^^ he LOOOOVES the swing. Always has :)

^^ eating limes ha ha

^^ Owen didn't know how he felt about our furry friend

^^ matching boys!

^^ Dane, Owen, and Oakley have so much fun together

^^ what a hunk :)

^^ bad picture, but this is Owen giving me kisses *swoon*. It makes my heart melt everytime.

^^ he is so cute in the mornings when he is still sleepy :)

Owen's First Birthday

My sweet little Owen turned one years old last month. It's still hard to believe! He instantly became a part of the family and such a huge part of our lives that it's hard to imagine there was a time before him. But in my mind he should still be a tiny little 4 week old.

It has been the best (and hardest) year of my life. Owen has taught me so much about life, love, happiness, parenthood, family, the gospel, our Savior's love, and so much more. He has brought Clark and I closer as we learned together how to care for another human being. I cannot express how much I love this little guy and how grateful I feel everyday that I get to call him mine.

His Birthday turned out so great. He woke up happier than he ever has, we could hear him talking in his crib instead of his usual whimpers. I tried to fill his day with everything he loves. After changing his diaper I let him crawl around nakey (HUGE risk) then we watched his favorite show Yo Gabba Gabba, and then I made him a pancake and cut up some bananas for breakfast. The rest of the day we played hard and he napped hard. Later in the evening we went to my family's house where we had his party. He loved it, I've never seen him happier :) he got spoiled by family and friends and enjoyed sitting in his highchair with his cake, although he didn't seem too interested in eating it, silly boy.

^^ Most of that mess was us trying to get him to get into it.

^^ We were excited when we forgot to pack his jammies so he got to wear one of the super cute new outfits from his aunties.

^^ Owen's best friend, Oakley

^^He loves his cute wagon from Grandma and Grandpa

Owen Wade,

Your Dad and I thought we were happy until we met you, then we learned what true happiness was. You make me laugh daily. Your smile is contagious. I love how you love books. When you crawl up with a book in your hand and hand it up to me there's no way I could tell you no. And I love how excited you get with each new page. You are so smart. I see you learning new things everyday and it makes my heart so happy. But I don't mind that you still refuse to hold your bottle. I love cuddling you while you eat and I hold onto everything your willing to give me that makes you stay my baby. Like how you don't even try to walk, because I know once you do you will really be a toddler. You are growing into such a sweet, loving, fun little boy and I am so proud of you! I'll eat you up, I love you so ;)
Love-
Mom

A day in the life of a stay at home mom

I have been so grateful to be able to stay home with Owen the past month and I hope I will be able to forever, and not have to work. What I didn't realize is it's a job in itself.

Staying home all day is hard!
Especially when it's cold outside.

Owen wakes up at 7. I love going in to get him from his crib because he gets so excited when he sees me. I bring him downstairs, give him a bottle and feed him breakfast. Then I let him play and I lay on the couch (lazy much??)

Clark comes down and we read scriptures and he leaves for work at 8:30. We play for 2 hours until nap time. We play with his toys, pull DVDs out, read stories, climb stairs, explore each room, look in the mirror, watch Yo Gabba Gabba. Finally at 10:15 I give him a bottle and put him down for a nap.

I try to exercise, shower, clean a little bit. But in all honesty sometimes I end up napping too.

Owen wakes up between 11:30 and 12 and we repeat. Counting down until Clark comes home for lunch at 1.

Owen goes down for another nap at 2:30 and I clean one thing (the bathroom, the floors, the kitchen) and then I watch tv or read. When Owen wakes up we try to get out of the house. We go to the store or my families house. We visit friends. We try to do something.

We wait for Clark to come home at 6. Finally. If he's even a few minutes late I start to get anxious. We have dinner, then feed Owen dinner and get him ready for bed. He goes down at 7:30 and we clean up, pick up his toys and do his baby dishes.

Then we're stuck at home for the night. Sometimes Clark does homework and sometimes we watch something on Netflix. We go to bed at 10.

Then we repeat.
Everyday.

I can't wait for it to warm up. We need to get out of this house!! I'm so excited to go for walks, play on the play ground, go to the swimming pool, go to the zoo, soak up the sun.

I love my new job. :)

The sleep habits of Owen (and of me since I only get to sleep when he does)

This is one of those posts that's more for me to look back and remember with my next babies. So sorry if its long and boring , you don't have to read it. Just know sleep training a baby is hard!

When Owen was first born I thought I had lucked out with a good sleeper. He only woke up 1-2 times a night from the time we brought him home and would go right back to sleep after eating. He even slept through the night a couple of times. For the first little while we would rock and bounce him while he cried until 11 or 12 but then we finally realized he was just overly tired and would go to sleep much easier around 8. Also around this time (I can't remember exactly when but maybe 4 or 6 weeks) we found out how much he loved his swing he slept in it and napped in it everyday until he was over 5 months old.

When he was around 4 months it all got really bad. He started sleeping only 2 hours at a time ( on a good night) and refused to sleep in his crib. The only way he would sleep at all would be in our bed where I would just nurse him all night. I was waking up 10+ times a night and it was making me ornery! For the next two months it just got progressively worse. It took hours to get him to bed to only sleep for thirty minutes.

We went to his 6 month check-up and the doctor said not to let him cry to sleep. When he woke up to just nurse him and rock him and treasure it because soon Owen wouldn't want me to rock him. I understand that.. But 10 times a night?! I don't think so. A week after that Clark talked me into letting Owen cry to sleep anyway. I was exhausted and at my wits end and was finally willing to try it. We got him ready for bed, rocked him until he was drowsy but still awake and put him in his crib. He cried for 40 minutes, it was so sad. We checked on him every 5 minutes. Let's be honest, Clark checked on him every time because I just wanted to pick him up. He actually threw up because he was crying for so long , which made me cry. But finally he fell asleep and slept through the whole night! It was amazing! The next night he cried for 8 minutes and slept through the night again. After that he never cried for more than a few minutes. He didn't usually sleep through the night though and I would get up and feed him once. But I'd take it! It was so much nicer!

Since then he's gone through phases where he doesn't sleep as good. When we went to Logan over thanksgiving for two nights it threw him off and then I took him to Ohio for a week and it threw him off even more. Or when he got an ear infection at christmas time and started waking up really early. but it never takes him long to get back on track. By Christmas he was sleeping 10-13 hours straight at night. I stopped feeding him during the night and that's when I stopped breast feeding for good. He was also taking two 1-2 hour naps a day and still is.

Owen is funny.
The earlier we put him to bed the later he'll sleep in. When we put him to bed at 7:15 he'll sleep until 8 or 8:30 but when we put him to bed at 8 or 9 he'll wake up at 6 or earlier. It's hard to be home that early to make sure he gets to bed on time every night, but if we don't we're kicking ourselves in the morning.

I wish sleeping was easier with babies and I wish we could count on them sleeping from this time to this time every single day and take a nap at the same time. But every day is different, just like it is with us. Sometimes we have a hard time falling asleep and sometimes we wake up a lot during the night. I just try to remember that with Owen, and try not to expect too much from him :)

Also, Owen falls asleep in the funniest positions. When I go in to check on him sometimes I Just have to laugh. This is my favorite. Foot up on the crib, arm hanging out.. I love him.

All the Holidays combined into one super long post...

This year was awesome. I loved it all. I wish I was more on top of things and did a post for everything but alas..

Thanksgiving was awesome. I had to work (so lame) so our plans to spend it with Clark's family in Logan were ruined. But that meant we got to spend it with my family which I always love.

I worked until about 1:30 and we made it to my family's house right in time to eat. All the Sam's were there and all the food was soo yummy! We ate and then everyone hung out. We played werewolf and skyped with Amy and Hillary.

Owen had such a good time. He liked trying bites of the sweet potatoes and rolls but hated the mashed potatoes. He especially loved the chocolate cream pie, his face after his first little bite was priceless. Pure joy.
Is it bad that I'm already getting him hooked on sweets?

Owen with his pilgrim hat

Hanging out with Aunt Bren and Cousin Lizzy

Meeting his cousin (second cousin?) Kennedy. She's almost 2 years old and is the same size as Owen!

This picture is terrible, but it's the only one of me and Owen on Thanksgiving.

He was SO tired when we got home. He NEVER falls asleep like this.

We got to spend the weekend in Logan visiting Clark's family. We hung out, the boys went to a football game, me and Owen went shopping with Heather, we had cheesecake for my birthday. We all had a good time and Owen loves seeing his uncles and grandparents that he doesn't get to see as often. I'm sad these are the only pictures I got.

Swinging in the backyard

I loved this outfit. I'm sad he's outgrown it already :(

Love this picture of Owen with his Great Grandpa Cederlof

We were lucky enough to go to Temple Square with my old roommate Amber, who I hadn't seen since we were roommates at Snow College. It was so much fun to get to catch up with her and meet her husband, Jordan.

My favorites.

Amber and Jordan

We had the Sam family party in Vernal. We ate turkey and Santa came, then we had a white elephant gift exchange. I ended up with a bag of snickers and Clark got a tin of popcorn. Owen got a teething book from Santa. I didn't know Santa was coming and in so glad he did. It was Owen's first experience with him and he was so funny. From the moment we put him on his lap to the minute he walked out the door we couldn't get Owen to stop watching him. He just stared the whole time! Silly boy.

This is the best picture we could get, Owen did not take his eye of him the entire time!

Sisters! You can't tell in this picture, but we're all wearing colored skinny jeans. We planned it. We're cool like that.

I have the cutes grandparents.

Santa leaving in a cop car, just like when we were little.

Owen loved his first Christmas present of the year!

We had the annual Menlove Christmas party on Christmas Eve at my Grandma and Grandpa's. for the last two years instead of drawing names we have been doing a sub for Santa for different family's. It is such an awesome experience. I love going out and shopping for people that I know will be really grateful for and really need the gifts.

Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus

 After the party we went home, opened presents from siblings, gave our parents our gift to them, watched The Christmas Orange, the. Went down and watched The Santa Clause to go to bed. I'm surprised how well Owen slept away from home. He started stirring at 4 but didn't get up until 5:45 which is what time we all got up anyway (I know, crazy.) Owen absolutely loved waking up with everybody. We opened presents then went to Lori and Al's for breakfast. Then we spent the rest of the day hanging out and eating.

The family on Christmas Eve. It took us forever to figure out the timer. I also like how the date says 01/01/2007.

Owen pouting in the giant box.

his favorite toy.

There were a lot of Ohio State hats this year.

We got spoiled this year.
Owen got a little snake rattle from his G.G. and Grandpa Bob. Some play blocks from his cousins, a trike from the grandparents and a few outfits, a walker, and a singing puppy from us.

Clark got a new drill, a carhartt vest, an outfit, some new work clothes, some things for his drill..

I got a bundt cake pan, some super cute serving dishes, a book, some massage coupons, a video camera...

Like I said, spoiled!
Having a baby makes everything so much more fun and I loved every second of he holidays with my sweet little family :)

Ohio!

Back at the end of November Owen and I went to Ohio with my mom to visit Amy and her cute little family. I was really nervous about traveling with a baby and being away from Clark for the first time, but my mom helped so much and we had so much fun! The way there we had a layover in Denver. The first flight was pretty hard. There wasn't enough seats for Owen's carseat and the whole time he was tired and anxious and just wanted to move. The second flight was better. He napped for the first little bit. The trip home was a lot easier. He napped for he whole first flight and half of the second. But after he woke up he had the biggest blow out of his life. I had to take him into he tiny bathroom on the plane and put him on the tiniest changing table ever, which he hated. I only had two wipies left to try to clean him all up and then I didn't have a change of clothes for him so he had to go the rest of the trip in only his diaper and jacket. It was terrible, and so embarrassing!

Ohio was so much fun! Owen loved every minute of it. He loved his cousins. I've never heard him laugh so much as he did watching Kaleigh and Lily play.

He didn't sleep very well at all! I think it was a combination of not being in his own bed and sharing a room with me and my mom. I felt bad for my mom getting woke up so much, but she was great at helping out and didn't complain at all :)

My new nephew, Benson, was such a perfect baby. I only heard him cry a couple times the whole week we were there. He would sit in his bouncy seat and put himself to sleep and didn't even cry when he woke up. He is the cutest baby with the cutest little scrunched up face and so much black hair!! I can't wait until him and Owen are older. They will be best cousins and have so much fun playing in the tree house their grandpa made them :)

I just have to give a shout out to my brother-in-law, Jeff, he is awesome! He is such a good dad and Husband. He did so much to help Amy while we were there. I hope Clark is as good as he is when we have our third baby :)

Me and Owen on his first ever plane ride

Meeting Benson

Owen could crush him.

Owen had such a blast with his cousins.

A little dark, but Lily was so excited to have a fire in her backyard to roast hot dogs.

On their way to church

They have the best Grandma

Making Gingerbread houses

Lily's Gingerbread house.

Kaleigh's house.

 

 

 

 

I love this little guy!