Mother's Day 2010

Happy Mothers Day! I had the best day today with my favorite guys. After church Owen took a nap while I got some walking and pilates in. We drove to Hershey and had dinner at Red Robin and then went to Hershey's Chocolate World. They have a fun little ride that takes you through all the steps to making Hershey's chocolate. Owen sat through the whole thing and loved it! He is walking now and loved walking around chocolate world grabbing at everything he could reach. He just couldn't understand why he couldn't pick up the world's largest peanut butter cup and walk away with it. :) Last year we took a ton of pictures on Mothers day with me holding Owen. This year we tried but all he wanted to do was get out of my arms and walk around. So much has changed in a year! I just love my little guy so much and think he is perfect for our family. He is so much fun and keeps us laughing. He loves to go outside and is always pointing towards the front door saying "out". He also says hot, da da, mom, uh oh, yeah and no. He is a little peanut weighing in at 21 pounds at his 15 month checkup.
I had fun celebrating being a mom to Owen today. I feel blessed beyond measure to have such and amazing husband and son.

Happenings.....

Brian had off four days for Easter break and we had a wonderful weekend. We had amazing sunny and warm weather and we definitely made the most of it. Friday we went for a hike and tried out our Kelty backpack. Owen seemed to enjoy it for the most part but freaked out a little at the end. :) We finished the day with a cookout and the next day traveled to NJ to spend Easter with Grandma and Grandpa McHugh, Aunt Kate and Uncle Chris. It was such a fun time. Owen enjoyed playing outside with some new toys and going for walks with Grandpa. He still isn't walking but loves to move around holding on to someone's hand. We took some pictures of him playing in the back yard. His Great Aunt Ellen bought him the plaid overalls and he looked soooo cute!

I am so thankful for the wonderful weather we have been having. Owen and I go outside every day for walks with his wagon or to play at the park. O loves to be outside. He is really turning into a pleasant little boy. His new favorite foods are cucumber and yogurt. It didn't take long to also discover that he loves ice cream. :) His vocabulary includes Da Da, Mommy, hot, hi and yeah. He laughs and smiles all the time and will make friends with just about anyone. He loves going with me to the grocery store and riding in the front of the cart. Friday we went to the store and he talked very loudly from the moment we entered the store to the moment we left. He waved at everyone and got a lot of attention. The sounds and pitches that come out of this kids mouth are hysterical. He gets very animated when he talks and pretty much doesn't stop all day. When he wakes up in the morning or from a nap he just sits in his crib and squeals and talks to himself for at least 15 minutes. He is just the funniest kid. He keeps us laughing every day. We are constantly blown away at how blessed we are and with how wonderful our son is.

P.S. True Confession: This morning at church I was looking down at Owen's hair at church and felt envious over the light blond coloring. I realized that when I was his age I too had blond hair and didn't have to pay for it. :)

Brian had off four days for Easter break and we had a wonderful weekend. We had amazing sunny and warm weather and we definitely made the most of it. Friday we went for a hike and tried out our Kelty backpack. Owen seemed to enjoy it for the most part but freaked out a little at the end. :) We finished the day with a cookout and the next day traveled to NJ to spend Easter with Grandma and Grandpa McHugh, Aunt Kate and Uncle Chris. It was such a fun time. Owen enjoyed playing outside with some new toys and going for walks with Grandpa. He still isn't walking but loves to move around holding on to someone's hand. We took some pictures of him playing in the back yard. His Great Aunt Ellen bought him the plaid overalls and he looked soooo cute!

I am so thankful for the wonderful weather we have been having. Owen and I go outside every day for walks with his wagon or to play at the park. O loves to be outside. He is really turning into a pleasant little boy. His new favorite foods are cucumber and yogurt. It didn't take long to also discover that he loves ice cream. :) His vocabulary includes Da Da, Mommy, hot, hi and yeah. He laughs and smiles all the time and will make friends with just about anyone. He loves going with me to the grocery store and riding in the front of the cart. Friday we went to the store and he talked very loudly from the moment we entered the store to the moment we left. He waved at everyone and got a lot of attention. The sounds and pitches that come out of this kids mouth are hysterical. He gets very animated when he talks and pretty much doesn't stop all day. When he wakes up in the morning or from a nap he just sits in his crib and squeals and talks to himself for at least 15 minutes. He is just the funniest kid. He keeps us laughing every day. We are constantly blown away at how blessed we are and with how wonderful our son is.

P.S. True Confession: This morning at church I was looking down at Owen's hair at church and felt envious over the light blond coloring. I realized that when I was his age I too had blond hair and didn't have to pay for it. :)

Haircuts and M&M's :)

Owen got his fifth haircut and we fed him M&M's to keep him still in his chair! He is at the age when sitting still doesn't really happen so we had to come up with something good. The M&M's worked their magic and helped O to sit still for a while. In the past when we have cut his hair my job is to distract him and keep him still while Bri does the cutting. I usually tire of coming up with ways of getting a young boy to sit still and get distracted and Brian gets annoyed with me and the whole process is tons of fun. :) This time we agreed to not get annoyed and just kept feeding the M&M's. It was the best haircut process so far!

Pasta Pasta Pasta

Owen loves spaghetti and does a great job feeding himself. I just couldn't resist taking pictures of him during lunch the other day. Ciao!

"F"-"R"-"E"-"E" spells FREEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!

If you know me well you know that I (Brynne) love free things. Especially when it pertains to food. I love going to Costco just to get the free samples. If there is a free sample to be had anywhere around me I will be eating it. It doesn't even really matter if I like it....if it is free, chances are you will see me putting it my mouth. Maybe I should be ashamed to admit this, but I am not. :) Today if you wore your pajamas to Brusters you got a free waffle cone!!! They also offer free cones for little kids any time you go. So, we slapped on some pj's tonight and headed off to Brusters. Owen loved his little cone and Brian and I ate way to much ice cream. It was over 70 degrees here today so it was the perfect weather and the perfect way to ring in the spring season.

Spring is Coming!!!

Owen is getting so big! He has definitely moved from being a baby to a little boy. He has such a fun personality. He loves people and is always smiling and laughing. He has learned how to wave and shakes his head and says "yeah" whenever he is asked a question. It is sooo cute! He is close to walking but is not doing it yet. He will walk while holding on to one of our fingers but just won't let go.

Today I took him to get his first ice cream cone with my best friend Allison and her little girl Elliana. We sooooo wished we had a camera. They both had chocolate ice cream all over themselves. Owen loved it and held his cone all by himself. I had to change his outfit when we got home and found lots of chocolate sprinkles under his onesie. :)

He really loves going outside and loves going to the park. We had some gorgeous days here this week and went to the park several times. Below are some pictures from our park trips. We just keep falling deeper in love with this little boy! I will forever be thankful for his life. God blessed us with more than we could ask or imagine when little O was born. :)

Snow is Falling......Again!!

The other day I posted about the wonder of the snow and how it forces us all to slow down. At the time I was truly enjoying being forced to relax and stay at home. Fast forward to a few days later and I was struggling to keep this perspective in place. Tuesday night we got pounded with over a foot of snow to add to the 20+ inches we had gotten a few days earlier. We live in Lancaster city and things get slightly crazy when it snows a lot. The city is not the best at clearing off the streets and there is really no where for all this snow to go. Cars end up getting plowed in. Many people have been putting chairs or garbage cans in their spots to claim them. Shamefully, we did do this earlier this week. One sort of feels entitled to a spot after they have spent several hours digging their car out.

Brian had school cancelled yesterday and today. Yesterday I started to feel slightly stir crazy by the afternoon but we managed to have a fun day indoors. This morning we woke up and decided to venture out. The roads are crazy in the city when it snows but because we live in the city there are many things close by that we can walk to. I called our friends, the Peters, and asked if they wanted to walk downtown to a local coffee shop. We met up at the end of our snowy street and proceeded to pull our kiddos on sleds down the sidewalk. Some people shoveled and salted out so well that at times we found ourselves dragging the sleds on the concrete instead of snow. Owen loved riding in the sled and enjoyed his cinnamon muffin at the cafe. :) He had so much fun that he tired out and fell asleep in his sled on the way home. Too cute!! Check out the picture below.

When we got home O went down for a nap and we started shoveling out parking spots. I actually have never had so much fun shoveling! We don't often see our neighbors in the winter because no one wants to go out in the cold. Everyone was outside today trying to shovel out cars and sidewalks. We all sort of helped each other and it made the task much easier. There is some sort of community feeling with people you don't even know very well when you are in these situations. I enjoyed getting to spend some time with our neighbors. The weather outside is actually quite beautiful. It didn't feel too cold and the sun was shining brightly.

Right now we are just relaxing and are thinking Brian might not have school again tomorrow. He already has the day off on Monday for Presidents Day. If he has tomorrow off it will have made for a 6 day break from school. We are definitely not complaining. :)