Last friday Owen learned how to tie his shoes! well - actually he practiced on one of my old running shoes, but he mastered it last friday. He's been wanting to learn since last summer, but we didn't get around to really 'teaching' him, plus he would have gotten very frustrated if he couldn't do it perfectly the first time, so putting things off until we know he'll get it quickly is sometimes the better option. I showed him once & he had it! Now he wants lace up shoes of course :)  I told him maybe next year for back to school. He's working on making the bow tighter but that won't take long for him to figure out.

First Time Skating

This past week we've been experiencing a severe cold spell. The one good thing about the cold weather is that the neighborhood pond is frozen and finally the kids could try ice skating! we bought Owen some skates last year, but never got around to using them and the weather never really got cold enough to freeze the pond. Unfortunately, his skates are a bit too snug this year & we'll have to buy him another pair for the next time we try skating. He persevered the too tight skates and tried anyways, but we could tell he wasn't very comfortable. The pond was completely smooth, someone had already shoveled it off & it was perfect because no one else was there! We're lucky that really only anyone in the neighborhood would know it was there, it's off a dead end street & hidden from the street as well.

I think Owen found it more difficult than he was expecting it to be :) but he's eager to master the skill and get back out on the ice. Unfortunately, the weather is expected to get much warmer this week - spring like! while I sure prefer the warmer weather, it doesn't help the kids learn to ice skate very much. Oh well, hopefully they'll get another chance to try soon :)

Surprise Mini Vacation

Last Sunday we surprised the boys with a mini vacation to Great Wolf Lodge! It was really difficult to keep the secret over the last month, but somehow we did it :) In the morning we woke the boys and showed them some videos "of a cool hotel we found" they were excited to see the videos and really excited when we told them we were leaving after breakfast for a mini vacation! Soooo fun to surprise them. I think Owen didn't really believe we were leaving that day & played along with pretending to be going lol. I'm not sure at what point he realized that we weren't kidding and we were actually getting ready to go!

Here is a short video of Owen on one of the kiddie slides

Such a great time! the boys can't wait to go back. There were plenty of fun things for even Grayson to enjoy & the boys played all day in the water park. Owen was able to enjoy some of the bigger slides with either gavin or myself, & Noah loved the kiddie pool and little kid slides. We're already thinking about when we can go back & planning the next family getaway :) 

5th Forever Family Day

It's been 5 years since we adopted Owen and officially became a family. Such an exciting time it was but also so incredibly stressful. The fear of "what if this doesn't happen" was too much to admit, but it felt so very real. Owen was meant to be ours from the moment we decided to adopt from Vietnam & life has never been better from the moment we made that decision. I seriously can not imagine my life without him in it.

On the anniversary of our forever family day, I am always reminded of those difficult early days. A sick (ear infection, bronchitis, teething) baby and grieving little baby. Maybe not so little - hardly any of his clothes fit. The crying would it ever stop? would he ever fall asleep? would I ever stop feeling this pain for him? Thank goodness he did fall asleep & after a few hours woke with a smile, drank a bottle & gave us a bit of hope that yes, life would be good for all of us :) Such a brave boy he is, continuing to have faith and open his heart to us, accepting and giving more love than we ever thought possible.

5 years ago in our hotel room in Hanoi.

We had been working on Owen's life book for months, and we finally finished it a couple of weeks ago. We received it in the mail on monday and gave it to Owen tonight. We're going to spend some time cuddling, talking and hugging with plans for a fun family get away on the weekend! We can't wait & we love you so much Owen!

17 Months Old

 Is it just me, or does Grayson look so much older this month? maybe it's his new teeth & longer hair :)

I seriously love this age so much, Grayson is learning so quickly & almost every day I see little changes in him. He's been in a hugging phase which is much better than his hitting phase, but I wish I could say the hitting has stopped. Now he just hugs after he hits & that seems to be his way of saying 'sorry' but I'm not convinced he's going to outgrow the hitting any time soon.

One fun thing he's been doing is pointing out the objects in picture books that he knows. He can now say 'baby' and in one of the picture books we have there is a baby crying, he tries to kiss the  baby when he sees that picture, it's so sweet.

He's gotten his two top front teeth and a bottom molar is poking through. I still find it strange that his molars have been the first teeth to come on both the top & bottom, but at least he's getting teeth now. Hopefully the molars are the worst of them, they are coming in fast now & I just don't want him to be in such pain :( He's been so clingy this past while & much crankier as well. It's made for some very tiring days when he just wants to be carried and held all day.

Grayson now wears 18 month clothes and he must have had a growth spurt because some pants that were far too long about a month ago, now fit perfectly. He's still in size 4 diapers and size 5 shoes.

Happy 17 Months Baby!

This past weekend Owen had his mind set on making an igloo in the backyard. Gavin helped the boys build their igloo which turned out to be more of a fort, but they were still happy. The kids couldn't believe that they used almost "all of the snow" in the yard to build it lol. 

I think at this point Gavin had worked up quite the sweat, these  snowballs were heavy!

The fort got a two thumbs up from Owen

There was just enough snow left to make the first snowman of the season - complete with eyebrows :)

Fun times!

The boys have already made it tobogganing a few times while on Christmas vacation :) They love it! We are lucky that the hill at the school is just the right size for the little ones to toboggan on, I know in the future we'll be off to find bigger hills! The one great thing about the hill is that it's all open space with nothing to run in to.

Here are a few short clips of the fun they had! We picked up these little sleds on clearance when the season was over last year, & I think we need to get out & get them some better sleds as they keep falling off of these ones. They have fun, but I worry too much about them getting hurt. I'll try to get them better sleds this weekend. In one video, poor Noah loses his sled before he even gets on it! so funny & so Noah :)

Happy New Year!

We sort of invited ourselves for a 'family style' New Years party at our brother & sister -in-laws house. They were great hosts and found enough space for us all to stay over night :) the kids were sooo excited to attend their first ever sleep over & couldn't wait for the party to start!

 Great food, Great drinks & great family :) the kids had a blast & were so well behaved. They had their New Years countdown at 9pm and were in bed close to 9:30. My two boys had a bit of trouble getting to sleep but finally drifted off some time after 11pm. Everyone slept great and were in (mostly) good spirits in the morning. Noah started getting whiny just as we were leaving this morning & we made sure to leave before wearing out our welcome, especially with a whining 3 year old.

The boys dancing :)

Make your own ice cream sundaes

noise makers - what kids doesn't love those?

glow stick dance party

Kids sleeping arrangement - it worked out well and everyone slept in the same room all night - success!

pancake breakfast!

Thanks Theresa and Jeff for hosting the party we had a great time!

Happy New Year!