Birthday boy!

Happy Birthday to the most amazing little boy I have ever known!

Owen is ONE today!

I still can't believe how fast the time has gone.

He squirmed and rolled and scooted and crawled and now he is walking like a pro!

He went from a little baby being swaddled and held all day to a very independent and energetic little boy who knows what he wants to do and can do it all on his own. 

He plays and laughs and climbs eats and smiles up at you like you are the best thing in the world.

He loves to move and isn't always the biggest fan of snuggling...

But any moment he lets me hold onto him is the best moment of my day.

I have loved watching every moment of him growing up this past year!

Saturday was party day for Owen!

We started our morning at the zoo.

 He got to look at fish..

And even play with some goats!


Later that afternoon we had a little jungle party with some friends.

 Our kitchen became the jungle room..

With a jungle cake..

And all kinds of special jungle food..

And even a mud slide!

Owen had his own cake to smash.
It turns out he wasn't really into smashing it.
Or eating it.

He mostly just wanted to sit there and hold onto it.

As for presents, we neglected to take any pictures of him opening anything..
But he has thoroughly enjoyed playing with everything today!

 He loves his drum..
 

And other musical instruments. 

He loves his farm legos.

And he loves his push lion..

Until he accidentally knocks it over..

But its OK..

He just has to get up..

Look around..

And he is good to go again!

Now there's only one more thing that has to happen on his birthday.
I'm working to keep the birthday banner tradition going in this family.
So I made Owen his special banner.

And he was surprisingly happy to let me get a picture of him with it.
I love this boy so much!

Happy Birthday Owen!



 

nursery art!

We are finally getting things put together in our house!
Owen's room had no furniture.

Except a crib.

 Then there was a big plain wall..

I wanted to fix that.
So I went to pinterest :)
And found the website tagxedo.com
It lets you make your own word clouds. 
I thought it would be fun to fill his wall with wild animals to match the wild colors in his crib!

So I made a bunch of wild animals and printed them out!

 I think they turned out super cute!
 

And they were super easy!
 

I love them :)

Owen on the other hand could care less about his awesome new wall..

He'd rather play with boxes.

And blocks.

  And towers made of blocks. 

Maybe one day he will appreciate all my hard work... :)

ice cream

 What is this stuff?

I don't know but I want more!

I better eat it before they stop me....

 Uh oh mom, I ate all your ice cream..

Ice cream may have been the highlight of the day for Owen :)

 But we all had a pretty great time exploring Chattanooga and the aquarium.

spit and gurgles

Literally.

 

 Owen is learning to spit.

And Owen is learning to gurgle.

He thinks its fun.

And I think its cute.

 And as long as he doesn't do it while he is eating then everything works out.

Unfortunately we are not always that lucky.

And for some reason it seems to get funnier and funnier for him...

 Until he realizes he is now covered in food... uh oh.

 

catch up

 So... We have had a very busy few weeks!

We FINALLY got to move into our house that we are renting.

And we are SO glad that we are just renting.

 Within the first week or so our fridge quit working, our air conditioner went out, and our washer flooded parts of three rooms and a hallway. 

I left for 5 minutes and came back to find two inches of standing water and no idea what to do...

It was quite the adventure!

But on a very good note we also received all of our things and new furniture!
My favorite part may have been getting a table.
 Which is slightly sad...

But James and I have been married for over a year and a half and we have never owned a table.

 Until now! 
I never knew how exciting it could be to sit and actually eat dinner together at a table!

We have also been blessed up to this point with very generous people giving us couches, and we have gone this long without having to buy one which has been a huge help for us.

 But it was nice to finally to be able to pick something out for ourselves for the first time :)


As for Owen...
For some reason he thinks it is ok to keep getting older.
Clearly it should not be happening this fast because I'm pretty sure he was born like yesterday.

He was born with a wonderful head of beautiful dark hair that we loved!
Over time it started to fall out which terrified me since I was not prepared to have a bald baby.
Luckily.. he started growing new hair before the old hair fell out.
Not luckily.. the old hair never fully fell out.
It was slightly awkward to look at.

 So... he finally got a haircut!
He now has a full head of new real hair much lighter than he was born with, and we love it :)

He's been rolling like a pro for a while now.
Which is great!
 Except that it means he can move..

Recently he has been trying to crawl.
The problem is that he is super fat and can't lift his belly off the ground...

 It is ridiculously adorable.


And last but not least this is my very first Mother's Day with a baby that is not living inside of me!
Since I no longer live with my parents, I am no longer forced to take the yearly picture with my mom on this lovely day.
Since I do now live with my own family, I can now force my child to take the yearly picture with me on this lovely day.

Maybe he doesn't want to take it.

 

Maybe he does want to take it.

Either way...

I love this little boy...

So we are taking a picture :)

nature walk

So... Owen has spent most of his life in Utah and Illinois.
During winter.
In a small apartment with no furniture.
It wasn't that fun for any of us.

This month we finally got smart and moved down to Tennessee!
Yesterday evening it was 81 degrees with a nice breeze outside, so we thought we would take a little nature walk for FHE.
It felt great to get outside and enjoy the weather!

 

Owen seemed to enjoy it as well.

 

 

 Whether that is because it was warm and sunny or because he had a blanket tied to the stroller he could chew on I'm not fur sure...

 Either way it was fun to get him out and show him that sometimes plants are actually green.

 

Owen likes to eat... Toys..

So... Owen is in the phase of life where he likes to put EVERYTHING in his mouth. 

That phase called he is a baby.

 Some things actually belong in his mouth.

 He's just not terribly good at getting them in quite right..

Other things do not belong in his mouth..

Like his clothes.

Whether on him..

 

Or not.

 

 Then there is paper.

And toys.

And more toys.

 And tags on toys.

And certain fingers...

And toes.

 And sometimes he gives me this look like

"Well this is awkward. Yeah mom, I eat my toys."

And I figure one day he will decide that things like paper and toes don't actually taste that good and stop trying to eat them.