Owen stats

So we took Owen for his 18 month apt. at 20 months. I had to reschedule it twice because he's been so sick lately. He had bronchitis and then a double ear infection. Hopefully, he'll be completely better by Christmas!

But at 20 months he weighs in at 24 pounds and 11 ounces and is 33 3/4 inches tall. So that is the 25% for weight and the 75% for height. My tall skinny boy! Although, he wasn't that tall until recently when all his 12 month pants became a bit to short. I swear it was in the last week that he grew a ton.

Fall break.. yeah that was back in October..

Okay, so I am just now blogging about Fall break. Have I said yet that this school year is kicking my butt? Well, it is... so I am behind on everything this year.

We went to Atlanta for fall break and had a great time! It was nice to get away and spend some time as a family.

We drove down on Friday evening (sat in some traffic) and had a fun night in the hotel. Woke up and went to the Atlanta, Zoo the next morning.

Found out that we had a grumpy boy for the first part of the zoo trip and he looked like this...

He cheered up after a while, and we saw a really cool sun bear, only someone......

was terrified of the bear and cried hysterically.....

the rest of us laughed and took pictures.

We ate lunch and really enjoyed it.

Went back to the hotel for a nap and some window gazing at the aquarium. We went there after nap time.

After the aquarium we did some running in the park. The boys loved all the room to run.

Then on to get some dinner. YEA!!!

Oh, but don't forget the prayer!

Then time for big brother to read books to the baby. While baby gives hugs.

Swagbucks

So I do this thing called swagbucks. It's a search engine basically. By searching on swagbucks, you randomly win "bucks". When your bucks add up, you can change them in for gift cards and such. I have been changing mine for amazon gift cards. So far, I have earned $80 in amazon money. That's free money. I have been buying birthday and Christmas gifts with this money. It's so great knowing that I'm getting this stuff for free.

There are also some special offers you can do and earn bucks, or some surveys. Some women get $50 a month by using swagbucks, but I don't have much time to devote to this. So in the morning or evening I try to do a search and win some bucks.

Try it out. It takes a while to get into it, but it may be worth it. (oh and you can get free shipping for three months on amazon by joining amazon mom.)

http://www.swagbucks.com/refer/chipviolet

Digging for worms is fun stuff at the Crossley house.

This is Crossley fun right here. Digging for worms in the dirt and putting the worms in a dump truck to examine later on. Yep. Fun times at our house. They are both very serious worm hunters.

See the drool? That is what happens when your child doesn't get his first tooth until 14 months old. Since then he has been getting a tooth non-stop. Poor kid, he's constantly drooling.

Owen saying, yeah.

Okay, so it cracks us up how Owen says "yeah". We love it and have made a game out of how many times we can get him to say it. He hates getting wiped off after he eats, so that is why he was a little teary here. (Oh, and yes we hear Ethan talking to us the entire time.... trying to get the attention back on him.)

They crack me up

Seriously.... there are no words.

Read on down..

I posted 4 new blog posts. Several more to come sometime soon.... I hope....

Circus

I have never been to the circus. My mom was joking around saying that I was a deprived child, and the next day a friend gave us free tickets to the circus. So we took the boys and even though it started late, and my boys go to bed early, we braved it. The boys loved every moment that we were there.

Owen pointing at something. He was running around and yelling at everything.

Ethan being my sensitive child thought that it was to loud. But, he thinks most things are to loud, except himself. Hmmm... not really sure how that works because he makes the loudest sounds....

Before it started, Dan took the boys down on the floor to look at the elephants and ponies.

Oops... the pumpkin patch

So bad mommy moment. I didn't have my camera charged when we went to the pumpkin patch. So these few pictures were taken in between my camera dying.

The boys loved the pumpkin patch, the hayride, and the pumpkins. Especially the pumpkins. Owen especially. We had to drag him away from these pumpkins that were sitting in front of the place, just to go on the hayride. He screamed and kept crying for his "puppins". Thankfully a dog ran by and distracted him long enough to get the ride going. Whew. Crisis averted.

Both boys picked out wonderful pumpkins. Okay, that's a lie. Dan picked out two wonderful pumpkins! Ethan was busy catching grasshoppers. But, darn it he forgot his bug catcher. And Owen was just hugging on all the pumpkins. But, it was fun and the boys made it such an adventure.

Oma and Opa

Oma and Opa have moved back to Tennessee! Yea! We are so happy that we can see them more than once a year now. They live about an hour away and since they have moved here we have seen them several times. We went to a park that was so neat. It had a little lake and beach area and that was so much fun for the kids.

I won't lie. I hate lakes. Hate them. They gross me out, but I actually let my kids go in the lake. Trust me it was a big step. I on the other hand did not get in the lake. But, my kids got a shower when we got home.

Someone has started soccer...

I know he's adorable. How can you get enough of that cuteness? He plays every Saturday from 1:30 until 3. They have an hour practice and then play a three on three game. It's a little long for him and he's about done after an hour. But, he really has enjoyed himself so far. He has even asked Grandpa for an orange soccer ball for Christmas. I hope he likes soccer, because well I love it!

It's October

and I haven't posted in forever. I know.... I've disappeared.

Things are tough this year. So far this school year has been the hardest for me yet. I've been bringing a LOT home with me and working for a few hours every night.

So for now, my family and work has been taking over my life. I don't have time for much else.

A quick update. Both boys are growing. :) Owen had a hard time breathing on Sunday night. It was very scary. Dan took him to the doctor and had him checked out. He's not sick. No infection really, but he is having a hard time breathing. Maybe allergy related? So he gets a breathing treatment every four hours. Hopefully this will clear up soon.

Ethan is great. Very into Halloween. He has decided to be Timmy the sheep from the Disney channel. I will be making his costume. I have an idea, and have most of what I need.... but just pray that I'm able to actually make this costume. He is loving daycare and preschool. He is learning so much that it's just fun to watch. He came home talking about camouflage and how animals blend in. Makes me so happy to see that he loves to learn. He has started soccer and is loving it. I will post pictures soon... hopefully.

Back to work...

I'm tired. I'm exhausted. It's hard getting back in the routine of getting up early and going to work. I'll be back when I'm not so tired.

My little swimmer

Well, he's starting to become a swimmer. He has no fear of going under the water and getting things off the bottom. Ethan also likes to try and swim "like a fish". These are his words. He likes swimming under the water. Not as much on top. But, he will go under and kinda swim for a few feet. It's a step in the right direction.

I think a few more lessons and he will be swimming before I know it. The problem is that we don't have a place to really practice what he has learned. We don't belong to a pool or anything so while he has gotten better, I'm afraid that he may forget what he's learned over the summer. So maybe some lessons in the fall and winter would be the thing to do.

FIrst dentist trip

Okay, so not really his first visit. Ethan is a bit of a daredevil and fell when he was two years old and chipped a tooth. His front tooth. It looked bad. We took him to the dentist and had him look at it. It's grown out and really you can barely tell that it was chipped earlier. This May he also fell, on our carpet, and totally knocked one of his lower teeth. Seriously it freaks me out just thinking about it. I have a thing with teeth, I can't handle them. Ick. The tooth moved forward and the gum was completely purple, and it bled. A lot. Took him to the dentist then also, but that tooth seems to be doing okay also. Hasn't died yet and turned gray, so I think we are okay.

Anyway, his dentist trip went well. Ethan didn't want to lean back in the chair and so they just had him sit up and she cleaned his teeth that way. He picked chocolate toothpaste. Yuck. But, of course he picked chocolate. Anything chocolate and Ethan is happy. He went to the treasure box when it was over and picked out a snake and then it was my turn. He sat patiently and watched me get my teeth cleaned and even helped out a little by holding the water in my mouth. Good visit and no problems at all for either of us.

***oh and our dentist doesn't need to see kids until they are 4, so we weren't late on this appointment.***

I have a walker....

Well, to be fair he has been walking for a while now. He started before the beach and then didn't walk at all at the beach. (must have been the wood floors) Got home and off he went again. He no longer does the monster arms.

Sand Castles

Eldon and Kayla bought Ethan a sand castle bucket thing. Ethan promptly fell in love with it and had all kinds of plans for what he would do. So the next day, out he went and he did build a good sand castle. (with a little help)

This is what Owen and Dan did while Ethan was building.

The finished product.

Beach days

We had a great time at the beach. I know I already said that like 10 times. But, it's true. My boys loved it and were so happy to be outside all day long. During low tide was the best time, we would dig and dig and dig. Just to dig. :) Boys like to dig you know. We found some cool shells, some little creatures, and lots of sand.

Dig a hole, and stick Owen in it and he was a happy baby. Look at the concentration on that little face.

Just hanging out in the sand and water.

Dan is so good with his boys and never ceases to surprise me. He could dig and play with them all day without getting tired. These boys can run you ragged but Dan was quite content to just play with them all day long outside.

I think this is my very favorite picture. I just love my kids. They make me so happy and feel so fulfilled. I do admit though that there was some bribery involved to get Ethan to sit like this next to Owen. I am not sure what I bribed him with or if I even ever followed through with it, but I remember saying "if you sit here by Owen....". It is a cute picture though.

Family Beach Pictures

Every year we try to take family pictures on the beach. They turned out pretty well this year and the boys both did a pretty good job. Owen was a little mad that we wouldn't let him go play in the water, but not to bad.

***This one might be my favorite. I love how cute my E, was looking at me.***

This is the smile we get these days. My mom said it's the five year old smile and all of us kids did this at this age. Does this mean I have another entire year of this smile, since he's not five yet? (Oh and I know he needs a haircut. He's since had one. )