We headed up to Lake Ouachita this past Thursday night and spent the weekend with friends skiing, tubing, and hanging out on the party barge. The weather was perfect and everyone had a great time. Owen is such a water baby and he was on his best behavior the whole weekend. We really enjoyed spending the time together as a family. Here are a few pictures from our trip.

Several people jumped off the top of the party barge and into the water. Chris did it several times and displayed his unique bellyflopping skills along with his patented cannonball technique seen here:

Owen has become such a good sport about wearing this constricting life vest. He doesn’t even fuss anymore when we put it on. He just looks slightly annoyed!

We spent 9 hours on the lake on Saturday and got to enjoy this beautiful view on the way back in to the marina.

Owen and his women. Missy and Josh had been away in Branson all week for vacation and apparently Owen missed them terribly. He talked nonstop to them in a very urgent tone the whole weekend as if he was berating them for leaving him for a week.

Owen is quite the cookie monster and threw the biggest tantrum I’ve ever seen when I pried one from his grubby little hand. So, he discovered that his mouth would hold an entire cookie and that made a pretty good hiding place! For the grannies in the audience…I’m aware that this is a choking hazard! He didn’t keep the cookie in his mouth for too long before I dug it out with a paper towel….which really hacked him off! I just made sure to get a picture of it first!

On Saturday afternoon Owen just laid over in my lap while we were lounging in the water and took a good long nap. I think I held him like this for 45 minutes while he snored!

Owen enjoyed playing with the boat keys


hanging out at the back of the barge

playing with my toys

playing with daddy in the water

driving the boat with Uncle Josh

relaxing with my aunt Missy

We had a really great weekend on the lake!

On another note, I haven’t reported on Owen’s 12 month well baby checkup. He weighed 21 lbs 15 oz. and was 30 (almost 31) inches tall. He is only in the 10-20th percentile for weight (which sort of concerned and puzzled us) and had actually lost a little weight since his last visit. Dr. Albin said that it’s normal for babies to lose a little weight as they transition from baby food to table food. Owen is generally a big eater but I guess since he’s so active he’s burning calories faster than he’s taking them in. He’s healthy and we think he looks alright so we’re gonna be ok with it for now. His height is just over the 50th percentile so he’s probably going to be “just average” in the height department like Chris and I. Chris decided that athletically it’s better for him to be short and fast than tall and slow! Owen is very muscular and extraordinarily strong. The nurse even commented on his brute strength when we were holding him down for his shots. We’ve discovered that Owen is lactose intolerant and he’s solely on lactose free milk and we’re restricting his daily dairy intake. The regular whole milk caused him to have terrible diaper rashes and an upset tummy. He’s tolerated the lactose free milk so far so we’ll keep him on that for the time being.

Owen has a new affinity for the broom and mop and carried them around so much that we got him his own child’s version of a broom w/dustpan and a mop. He carries them all over the house and stays busy helping me with the housework. I’m hoping to start training him early to be a good husband when he grows up. I’ve got to give a shout out to my mother-in-law who trained Chris in proper house cleaning and laundry duties.

Owen’s best bud Hudson is turning 1 this weekend so we’ll be heading to Dairy Queen on Saturday for his big party. Stay tuned for more exciting adventures in Owen’s toddler world!

Sorry that this is such a delayed post. I’ve had the pictures uploaded for over a week but I’ve been trying to work on rearranging them to put them in order. Apparently, my blogging skills are still lacking so I finally gave up. I’ve been too busy to work on it as much as I’d like. Just bear with me and hopefully it will all be clear as mud!

We took Owen to the park for the annual 4th of July fireworks show. They have music and food starting at 6 and then the fireworks are at 9ish. We went early for the music and food but cut out before the fireworks. I actually took Owen last year to the fireworks and he slept through the whole thing. Of course, he was less than a month old at the time….I know call DHS…that’s such a bad thing to do. Anyway, the weather was great and there was a good crowd and good music when we got there. Owen is quite the social butterfly and he wasted no time scoping out girls and new friends! He loves an audience and he really hammed it up for everyone. Here are a few pictures from our night.

Owen brought some of his new trucks to play with. He really likes this one that his Grandpa Ray got him for his birthday.

Owen took off walking toward the playground at one point so Chris went with him. He walked all the way over there like such a big boy. I thought this was a really cute picture of them together.

The Farmers Bank employees handed out fans to help combat the Southern Arkansas July heat. Owen really loved playing with the fan. He saw other people fanning themselves and started imitating them. At one point he took his fan over to an older man and they took turns fanning each other. He played with this fan for at least a week after the 4th. The kid’s got hundreds of toys but he’d rather play with a fan….go figure!

Owen showing off his new fan

action shot!

Here he is playing in his tent. He gets in here at least once a day. We have to check it for contraband every once in awhile. I’ve found shoes, clothes, phones, cameras, etc. stashed in the tent.

peeking out the window

Owen loves the swings at the park

cruising for chicks…..

found one!

this picture was supposed to be the first one in the post

time to get dressed…Owen loves laundry and putting clothes into baskets and just playing with clothes in general. Today I caught him taking shorts out of his drawer and tossing them into his laundry basket.

breakfast! Chris made blueberry pancakes for us several mornings with blueberries he picked at Jean and James house. They were so delicious!

Nap time! Owen has gotten a little better about taking naps and will go to sleep on his own a lot now. He’s still taking two naps a day for 1-2 hours each time. He plays so hard that I can’t imagine him eliminating his morning nap any time soon.

He loves eating popsicles with daddy!

Hope everyone had a great holiday!

I still haven’t figured out how to rearrange the order of the pictures that I upload so this story is very out of order. Bear with me and enjoy the massive amount of pictures I added to this post. Owen turned the big 1 last Wednesday. We had a little cake after dinner on Wednesday to celebrate and then had his party on Saturday. He pretty much had a weeklong birthday celebration…but you only turn 1 once…so it’s ok. Looking back I realize that we bought 5 cakes….1 big one and 1 little one (for Owen) on Wednesday….another big one and 1 little one for his party…and another cake for his birthday photo shoot Saturday morning. We’re all “caked out” for the time being! Had I been able to rearrange the photos in the correct order this first picture would have been last. Again, bear with me and I’ll try to put the story in the right order. Here it goes….

Obviously…Owen loved the cakes!

A few shots of his birthday celebration…..

Owen was so nice to share his new toys with his buddy Hudson. I conveniently left out the picture where Owen smacked Hudson in the head with his new ball….they’re still working out the whole playing together thing.
Owen got lots of great gifts for his birthday. Amazingly for the kid who has everything…he didn’t get a single toy that he already has and there were no duplicate gifts. He truly loves each and every new toy that he got. He’s been a busy boy playing with all of them. Chris and I especially love his new piano and try to sneak in some playing time for ourselves.
Owen got some great outdoor toys for his birthday as well. He really loves his new sand and water table. He can see it from the kitchen and bangs on the door when he wants to go out and play in the sand.

Owen was a little unsure of the cake at first…………..
he took a taste and then looked at me for confirmation……..
decided that was pretty good and dug in!
The sugar rushed through his system all at once and he started laughing and laughing!
His new swingset came the day before his birthday (thanks Grammy and Papa!)

trying out the mini rock climb up to slide……..

he hasn’t quite figured out that once you slide down you have to walk around and climb back up
Owen had to have a little hair styling before his big day…his hair was starting to look like a mad scientist! We were holding out to see if he’d have some cute curls in the back but unfortunately he inherited hair that is straight as a board so a little grooming was necessary!

Owen had a great birthday and we all enjoyed spending time with Grammy, Papa, and Ashleigh (and Miguel). Owen goes for his 12 month well baby visit this Thursday so stay tuned for an update on his development. We’re already taking bets on what his weight is now. We’ve also got a Fourth of July Fireworks show to go to that night so I’ll be sure to post some pictures this weekend of our fun this week. Stay tuned……