Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Half-Birthdays

Owen turned six months old on March 18th.  Owen's two best buddies, Carter and Miles, are also close to the six month mark.  Carter turned six months on March 12th.  Miles will be six months old on April 6th.  We had an Eagles Devotional on Tuesday, March 17th, so I decided to make the three of them a "Half-Birthday Cake."  It was so fun!

[caption id="attachment_299" align="aligncenter" width="499" caption="Half-Birthday Cake"]Half-Birthday Cake[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_296" align="aligncenter" width="499" caption="Owen's Side"]Owen's Side[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_305" align="aligncenter" width="499" caption="Miles's Side"]Miles's Side[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_295" align="aligncenter" width="499" caption="Carter's Side"]Carter's Side[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_300" align="aligncenter" width="499" caption="Owen and Miles holding hands"]Owen and Miles holding hands[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_301" align="aligncenter" width="499" caption="Owen trying to play with Miles"]Owen trying to play with Miles[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_303" align="aligncenter" width="499" caption="Carter and Owen playing after the Devo"]Carter and Owen playing after the Devo[/caption]

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Too cute...

I was clipping coupons the other day while Owen was jumping in his bouncer.  He was sort of whining, but I was almost finished, so I just let him whine for a minute.  He stopped whining, so I looked up, and this is what I found...

[caption id="attachment_291" align="aligncenter" width="499" caption="Sleepy Boy!"]Sleepy Boy![/caption]

Six Months Portraits

On a whim in Murfreesboro, my mom and I took Owen to Portrait Innovations to get some six months pictures made.  These are totally posed studio portraits, but they are still adorable.  Stay tuned for some new "lifestyle" pictures from Denise Skelton (www.skeltonphotography.com) once Owen is sitting up.  These pictures were made on March 9.  Owen is officially 6 months old on March 18.0009

0011

0022

0030

0042

0049

0062

0071

Eatin' Green Beans!

My baby boy is getting so big! Now that he is 6 months old, his tummy doctor says that he can have stage one baby food.  We tried green beans first.  These pictures were taken on March 13.

[caption id="attachment_264" align="aligncenter" width="499" caption="Getting my bib on..."]Getting my bib on...[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_265" align="aligncenter" width="499" caption="Eating my bib because momma is too slow!"]Eating my bib because momma is too slow![/caption]

[caption id="attachment_266" align="aligncenter" width="499" caption="Eating my shoulder strap..."]Eating my shoulder strap...[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_267" align="aligncenter" width="499" caption="Checkin' out my supper"]Checkin' out my supper[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_270" align="aligncenter" width="499" caption="Momma is coaching me"]Momma is coaching me[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_269" align="aligncenter" width="499" caption="Takin' a bite"]Takin' a bite[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_268" align="aligncenter" width="499" caption="Are you sure this is my supper?"]Are you sure this is my supper?[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_270" align="aligncenter" width="499" caption="A happy boy!"]Eating my hand for desertEating my hand for desert

A happy boy![/caption]

Overall, we really didn't get too messy.  In a month or two, I'll give him the spoon.  Then I will have a mess to post about!

Andy's 30th Birthday

For about the last two years, I have been thinking in the back of my mind what I should do to make Andy's 30th birthday really special.  I tried to come up with something creative, and a surprise party was as creative as it got.  Luckily, we have lots of other friends who have birthdays in January or their children's birthdays are in January.  Jamie let me pretend to help her throw baby Tye's first birthday party, when in fact we were having a party for Andy.  Andy was a little suspicious, but for the most part, we surprised him.  Thankfully, Andy is easily pleased and was so happy to spend some time with all of his friends that it didn't matter to him that I was not very creative.

dsc_0563

dsc_0566

dsc_0565

dsc_05721

dsc_05602

dsc_05701

dsc_0578

[caption id="attachment_252" align="aligncenter" width="499" caption="Carter, Miles, and Owen were all born within about 3 weeks of each other."]Carter, Miles, and Owen were all born within about 3 weeks of each other.[/caption]

dsc_0598

dsc_0606

[caption id="attachment_255" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Had to sneak in a picture of my sweet baby!"]Had to sneak in a picture of my sweet baby![/caption]

Where have I been?

Good Question...As most of you know, Owen was born on September 18, 2008.  I was fortunate to receive 4 months of maternity leave, so I did not start back to work until after the new year.  As most of you also know, I worked from home.  I thought, "This is perfect...I can work and watch Owen!"  Well, that situation turned out to be not so perfect.  I found myself working all day long to work part-time squeezing in work between feedings, putting Owen down for naps, doctors appointments, and the ever-popular spit-up game Owen likes to play.  Then, once Andy got home, I got to wash bottles, do laundry, and if I was lucky, take a bath while Andy entertained Owen.  Needless to say, this lifestyle was stressful (returning to work with over 1000 e-mails and trying to do a full time job in part-time hours) and sad (I spent most of my day trying to keep Owen quiet so that I could work).  It soon became apparent that this was not going to work out.  Since Owen is my priority, I wanted to be sure that I was giving him the attention, stimulation, and love that he deserved.  I decided to turn in my notice at work about the third week of January.  "The third week of January was a long time ago...what has been going on since then?" you ask...Well, it turned out that a teammate of mine at work had just had surgery and was on medical leave for 6 weeks.  My boss asked me ever so sweetly if I could stay on part time until she returned.  You know me, can't say no, so I stayed on until the first week of March.  The last two weeks have been full of catching up on overdue housework, taking Owen to several doctors appointments for check-ups, and sleeping as much as humanly possible.

I will briefly catch you up on the happenings of the Sneed family for the first three months of 2009...

We spent New Year's Eve at the Gobble's house playing board games and eating great food.  We stayed out until after 3:00 AM, and I won't be doing that again for a long time.  It turns out that babies don't care how late you stayed up; they get up at the same time every morning!  Here is a picture of us ringing in 2009 as a family...dsc_0344

Next was Camden's Birthday Party on January 3...he turned 2 years old.  It was a really fun Thomas the Train party.  I believe the official theme was "Chugga, Chugga, Two, Two!"  We got some sweet pictures of Owen and Carter, his best buddy who is 6 days older.  Here is one of my favorites!img_6423

On January 9, Owen officially rolled over from his back to his belly.  For a while, he wouldn't stay on his back to sleep, but for about a month now, he has stopped rolling over onto his belly.  At least we know he can, and here is the proof!img_64331

On January 13, Terra kept Owen for me for a little while, and she got this sweet picture of Owen's little toes...dsc_0471

January 21 was Andy's 30th Birthday.  Man, he is getting old!  Owen and I threw a surprise party for Andy...I will do a full post on that later.dsc_0572

On February 1, we watched the Super Bowl at Joe and Jonie's after church.  We had a good time, but I don't even remember who won!dsc_0614dsc_0616

Owen is getting so big, he is trying to hold his own bottle.  He can only do it when it is almost empty, and he wants NOTHING to do with a sippy cup...img_6481

Near the end of February, we got a new camera.  My first order of business was to take some pictures of Owen's gorgeous eyelashes.  dsc_0030

Here is another picture taken the next day...dsc_00461

Here are a couple of other snapshots of Owen that I love...dsc_0109dsc_0092