Really

What would I do without this lady?


She came into town the day after Collette was born and just left today :(. I don't use emoticons unless I'm really serious about something and that sad face emoticon means we're really sad about her leaving. While she was here, Owen got 100% attention 100% of the time. No joke... she did everything for him, with him, all day every day. Just a few of the things they did:
Walking and more walking and more walking:

Every day for at least three hour walks... I honestly don't know how they both handled the heat for three hours during the day but they did and Owen loved every second of it.

While on their walks, she would stop and let him hop (pictured below), look for animals, put rocks in shoes (don't know where he came up with this game... also pictured below), play in the water fountain and every other thing Owen's little heart desired.

They also went swimming with friends, went to the children's museum a couple of times (No pictures of this unfortunately), rode bikes:

We visited the fire station:

Really... is this one of the cutest things you've ever seen?

Ate at our favorite restaurants:

And just hung out, watched movies and played with Collette.

 She also cleaned our house, did laundry, fixed dinners and all other things that needed doing in the house. Owen helped with that as well...

She really made me feel like this whole having two kids thing is easy breezy. I'm sure in the next couple of hours, Tyler and I will realize what a tough transition it's really going to be for us to take care of Owen AND this little lady:

Thanks Mom for everything! You are amazing! We miss you already... come back again soon!

Collette Rhodes

And she has a name!  It's Collette Rhodes,  she arrived Tuesday, May 17th at 2:58 pm. Weighing in at 7 lbs. 9 oz. and 19 3/4 inches tall. Not to be upstaged by her older brother who came out peeing all over his mom and the doctor, Collette decided to come out pooping.

We love her:



She's already a little Daddy's girl



Owen LOVES to hold her and help with her. I love watching him with her.

Aren't they cute? I love them.

The whole family. We need to get some more pics of us all together. I swear she changes every day.

I definitely need to take more pictures because she seriously looks way different at four days old than she did the day she was born.

We already can't get enough of her! So happy she is part of our family!

One Last Hurrah...

We decided to take one last little trip before baby girl Rhodes (yep, still no name) is born. Conveniently, Tyler's bother and sister-in-law were going to be in Orlando this past week and Tyler had some work he had to do up there so we decided to go spend a few days up there. While the men were hard at work, the ladies and Owen played played played.
The first day, Carrie came over to the pool and we just relaxed and swam:

Typically when we're up  in Orlando, we do the same thing every day... either Sea World or swimming but having Carrie there helped us mix things up. She has a friend that lives just outside of Orlando and owns a bunch of fun animals. She invited us over for an afternoon and Owen was in heaven. We saw:

Zebras

Water Buffalo

This animal is called a Zedonk, don't you love the name?
It's a cross between a Zebra and a Donkey

This guy wanted in the car.

Unfortunately, because this guy wouldn't back up we didn't get out of the car to see the other animals. We got to see them from the car window though... we saw baby pigs and baby sheep, some birds and some more water buffalo. Such a fun day trip.

That night we hooked up with the boys at Tyler's favorite restaurant for some dinner.

Mmmmm... Maggianos. They seriously have the best cheese cake you will ever eat.

Sadly, that was Carrie and Todd's last night there so Friday we woke up and Owen and I were on our own for entertainment. Owen's first request was a ride on the bus so we headed to Sea World.

I sort of feel bad...

That all my friends and family in Utah are still doing this:














While we're in the sun doing things like this:

Playing in the sprinklers and baby pool with friends

 And things like this:

 
Yesterday we spent the morning trying to get some stuff done around the house in preparation for the little lady that will soon be making an appearance in the Rhodes' home. By 1:00 in the afternoon, we were so sick of being indoors that we called up the John's and made some plans to go wakeboarding. Obviously, I wasn't doing any of the wakeboarding but I was really good at riding on the boat and taking care of the kiddos while everyone else took their turns.

Tyler... I love this man.

Landon who kept getting a ton of air and I kept missing the shot.
You get the point.

Can you believe this is going to be me in a couple weeks?
Two kids on my lap pretty much all the time?
Owen was really good at holding the flag. Born to be on a boat.

So like I said, I feel sort of bad about posting these. I'm not doing it to make anyone upset or jealous. I'm really doing it to entice you to come visit us soon! What do you think? Any takers?

Easter

Remember how much I said that Owen loved Santa? Well, I think that love might pale in comparison to how he feels about the Easter Bunny.  We went to the mall this week and the Easter Bunny happened to be there. Owen couldn't wait to get on his (her? Is the Easter Bunny a girl or a boy?) anyway, Owen couldn't wait to jump up on the Easter Bunny's lap. It was the cutest thing I've ever seen (do I say that about everything when it comes to Owen? I know... but I really think it); he could not stop smiling and laughing. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture because they ask you to not use a camera or a cell phone and to purchase pictures that they take. More unfortunate... their pictures cost $25 for the cheapest one. How ridiculous right? First of all, that's the most outrageous price for one picture, second... it's the Easter Bunny, how do they think they can charge that much to see the Easter Bunny? It's not like he's in high demand or something, there wasn't even a line.  Needless to say, no pics of Owen and how much he loved the visit.
We did however, get a few pictures (not of him actually smiling for the camera, you'll notice that these days those are few and far between) but pictures none the less of Owen doing some other Easter festivities. Like... dyeing eggs:

And then realizing that he can stick his fingers right through the egg shell and crush the egg (his favorite part of dyeing eggs):

Saturday was the annual ward Easter egg hunt. I loved how our ward did it. They had one section for nursery age kids and another section for all of the other primary age kids so that kids Owen's age would actually have a chance of gettting some eggs for themselves.

Sunday we woke up to find the Easter Bunny had visited our house and left treats and a present for Owen. I'll be honest, I was probably more excited about him finding the basket than he was but once he found it, he was pretty pumped.

Easter afternoon we had some friends invite us over for some super yummy dinner (Thanks Katie!), some egg hunting and some frosting of sugar cookies:

Super excited about finding eggs and other goodies around the James' house.

Getting ready for the cookie making to begin



Owen's favorite thing about the cookies: Coloring them with a cookie
marker (what a great invention) and sticking his fingers through the cookies
to make the biggest mess possible.



Mmmmm... yummy (just the frosting though. He wasn't having anything
to do with the actual cookie.

Such a great Easter!

P.S. Don't mind the raggamuffin-ness of our child. I do try to comb his hair once in a while, it just doesn't ever stay and since I feel like he is the cutest thing ever regardless of uncombed hair, I belive every one else probably thinks he is too. Then I start blogging, look at the pictures and realize that the whole lot of us are kind of a mess... oh well.