Saturday, October 29, 2011

An interview with Owen

The other night while I was putting Collette down, I heard Tyler and Owen talking in the other room. Tyler was giving him a "favorites" interview. I loved listening to his answers and thought it would be fun to record this interview in Owen's own words and post it here. He's a very active little child so I'm sorry I couldn't get him to sit still while asking these questions. He almost never just sits still.
 I love this kid. Have I said that before?

Since we're already on the subject, let's talk about the kids shall we?

New things with Owen:

1. He is a talker. If there is a lull in conversation, without fail he'll say "what should we talk about?" and then help come up with a new subject. Usually something like alligators or turtles. He is also in the "cuz why?" stage. Everything you explain to him he asks for more explanation... "cuz why mom?", "cuz why?"
2. When he's trying to get Tyler's attention and if Tyler doesn't respond after a minute or so, Owen will yell "HONEY!". I guess he notices that when Tyler isn't listening I'll yell "HONEY, can you please respond to Owen? "and he Tyler usually responds. Quick learner this kid.
3. When Owen wakes up in the morning he'll yell out "I'm waking up!" or "Hey guys, it's me!" or "Hey guys! It's sunny day!"  I love morning time.
4. We want to potty train him but if it isn't Owen's idea, it is not happening. We've been asking him if he wants to go in the big potty and he'll politely decline, then when he's a number two, he'll come to me and say "Mom, I'm pooping in my diaper because I like it". Just to let me know that he knows he should go in the toilet but it's not going to happen.
5. He LOVES to draw. Not color, draw, with a pen. He could do it for hours.
6. He loves to play trains, animals, cars and legos. But mostly he likes to destroy these things, run cars into each other, run trains into each other, have animals eat each other and have me and Tyler build lego structures so that  he can promptly tear them down.
7. He loves to say his nightly prayers. Usually consisting of only the beginning and the end. We usually have to remind him that we need to be thankful for things and bless other things. When we remind him of this, he'll usually say "Heavenly Father, thank you for Jesus, Amen".
8. He uses his favorite "beat" (blanket) for the following- Acting like a ghost, playing superman and hiding from dinosaurs and monsters under it.
9. He loves to play baseball. We have a little baseball set that a friend gave him for his birthday this year and he loves to set it up, hit the ball and run the bases over and over.
10. He always wants to help. He wants to help when I clean, help when I'm making meals, help give Collette a bath, help change Collette's diaper, and on and on... just today he wanted to help Tyler change a tire.
11. He's so good at calming Collette down when she is upset. Yesterday in the car she was crying and he kept saying "No cry baby, there isn't a monster coming. There isn't monsters at our house, only lizards and squirrels." I was laughing so hard in the front seat. Oh how I love this kid.
12. He is super friendly. No matter where we are, if there is another child around, he will go right up, say hi and try to play when them. Regardless if they are ten years older or a year younger, as long as he perceives them as a kid, they are immediately referred by him as a "friend". Love this about him.

He is such a fun little dude. He is constantly making us laugh and has such a great little personalty. I really feel like he is just my best little buddy and I can't imagine having a better sidekick.

And now Collette:

1. Collette is now 5 months old.
2. She weighs almost 15 lbs and is 24 1/2 inches long. (50% for each, does anyone besides the parents care about this percentile thing?)
3. She is an amazing sleeper. Amazing. This makes Mommy very rested  and very happy.
4. She is such a happy baby. She hardly ever cries and is super quick to laugh all the time.
5. She has rolled over but pretty much decided that once she proved that she could do it, she probably wouldn't do it again. Ever. She is sitting on her own though so I guess that's something.

6. She loves to balance on Daddy's hands. She also drools A LOT (as you can see on this shirt)
7. She loves to eat and has started on oatmeal, bananas and a few veggies. I was going to wait a little longer but she wasn't having it. She sees you eating and let's you know she doesn't want to miss out.
8. She LOVES Owen, loves him. He walks into a room and she starts laughing. He'll come and lay right on top of her, roll over her, put his hands all over in her face and instead of freaking out about it, she laughs and smiles the whole time. I love seeing them together.
9. She loves to be sung to. If ever she is crying, singing almost always calms her right down.
10. Her favorite things to do are sit in her bumbo while I'm cooking in the kitchen, play under her baby activity set, sit in her swing, be held by mom or dad, eat, poop, and just be the cutest thing ever.
11. She is a major thumb sucker. Loves her thumb. I know it's going to suck breaking that habit later on but it's sure convenient when putting her down for naps and bedtime. She grabs onto her blanket, sticks her thumb in her mouth and drifts off to sleep.


We are head over heels for this little lady.


Saturday, October 22, 2011

Just Fall Stuff


Well it's fall, or supposed to be but you'd never know it in the Sunshine state. Since the fall weather doesn't come to us, we decided to do everything in our power to make it seam like autumn at our place. Things like making Halloween crafts and Halloween sugar cookies with friends:
And doing more Halloween crafts:

A little Halloween garland to spruce up the place. I planned to do this one afternoon when it was pouring outside and we had nothing else going on. I thought it would take us all afternoon to finish it but no, Owen knocked the whole thing out in about twenty minutes. Leaves a lot of indoor time for Mom to figure out something else to do to keep Owen from the TV.
We also visited a pumpkin patch, or in Floridas case, a pumpkin parking lot.
I actually loved this place. I didn't expect much because they don't have real  patches here but this place was awesome. The kids picked out their own pumpkins:

Then, once you paid for your pumpkin, there was free pumpkin painting:
 Owen's best little girl friend Ella. Isn't she darling? We love her.
This is one of Owen's friends. He was super concerned with the fact that Owen wasn't painting an actual face on his pumpkin.
They also had a butterfly reserve (not fall-ish but still super fun for the kids):
And a giant chair for the kids to play in.
Who cares if all of the pumpkins are in a parking lot rather than an actual patch when they have so many other things to keep the kids entertained?

We also spent a night carving pumpkins with some friends. Our friends Kathy and Wade are awesome and love Halloween. They decorate their whole front yard for the holiday. This guy was there to greet us when we got there:
Actually, Kathy was so worried that this would horrify the children that she covered him up for us. We wanted to check him out though and Owen and his friends are still a little young to know to be scared so we took the cover off. Kylee, one of Owen's little friends loved "the bird eating the worm", see... still too young to know that the crow is actually eating the man's eyeball.

She also had a whole set up for pumpkin painting and carving.

And what would a Halloween party be without candy and treats and more candy and more treats for the kids?


Once everyone was all sugared up, the carving and painting ensued:

The finished product:
Not too shabby. Funny thing about trying to do punmpkin carving with two year olds... after about three minutes, the kids were ready to move on so the dad's end up finishing the project.

Meanwhile, Collette pretty much just sits around looking cuter than anything. BTW... she doesn't always go around shirtless, she is typically a very modest little lady but she had drooled all over herself and we figured it was better to just go shirtless than keep her soaking wet all night.

Since we don't have the cold weather, changing leaves or any other autumn things going on, I thought I could at least get some fall smells in my house. I took myself down to Bath and Body Works to buy the most fall-ish candle I could find. I feel like there is some research out there stating that I may be poisoning my family by using a candle, I really hope that's not the case since I've been burning it non stop for the past two weeks. How else am I supposed to get my fall on?

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Oh Don Bailey, you sexy man!

I don't know about you but to me nothing makes me want to buy carpet more than an almost naked man lying on in. I think this advertising campaign must have started sometime in the 70's and then they just never hired anyone to brainstorm new ideas. I've got to give this company credit though... it definitely gets my attention every time I drive by it.
Oh Don Bailey...

Saturday, October 1, 2011

Florida is not...

Florida is not all sunshine and beaches my friends. I'll tell you why. You move here and the friends you make will leave you for somewhere more permanant. In the past year, I have had six of my close friends leave me for greener pastures (or somewhere other than here).

This was the first girl I met at a church function in Florida. She taught us sushi making and talked running with me. She left us for Oregon.
This sweet woman I only knew for a short time but felt like we were just meant to be forever friends, with her love of P90X and my love of her inviting me to do P90X with her. And her great conversation skills. She left me for Tampa.
Let's not leave out this pretty lady, who became a close friend by spending her days at the pool with me and Owen. Thank goodness she now only lives an hour and a half away so we are still lucky enough to see her now and then. (P.S. Sheree, can't believe we don't have one picture together... let's fix that.)
This is one of my closest friends and hairdresser (oh, how my hair needs you back Kristi!) who left me for St. Louis.
This was my first and best friend here in Ft. Laudy Daudy. She, her husband and Eli are now in Utah. Can't wait for January when they are headed back our way!
This past week my other best friend (Ty Powell, you know how I have more than one at a time), left me for Chicago.
You've seen she, her husband and their darling little boy on our blog many times because these guys were always up for hanging out and they are so so much FUN! They will be greatly missed by the Rhodes family. On Friday we decided to throw a little going away party for them, since that's what the Mulcock's do best... PARTY! We called up a few other friends, ordered us some pizza and did some talking, swimming, eating fattening foods, you know all the things a good party consists of.
 Luke and Brian enjoying the pizza.
Kim and Janelle enjoying the pizza.
 ok, so everyone enjoyed the yummy pizza.
 The kids played and played and played...
 Like I said, we also did a lot of talking...
 and talking...
 And talking...
 These two little ladies were exhausted.
 And more playing. Owen loved this wagon, too bad it left with Jeff, Cait and Max.
See, don't they look fun? They are. It hasn't even been a week and we're missing them like crazy! COME BACK!!!