Easter

My mom had a great Easter planned for the Owen side of the family. She had a color coded Easter Egg Hunt planned where everyone was supposed to only get their own color. That way you can hide based on age, brilliant. Then she had an egg pinata full of goodies for the kids to bust open. The weather, however, had other plans so the pinata was hung in the garage and the egg hunt was minimized and took place in the living room. The kids still had a good time though and that's what's important.

Reed found this to be very exciting but took it very serious.

Millie was ready to send it to the moon.

Jacob was the one who finally sent it flying though.

Silly kids.

Our crew!

Does anyone claim these 2? I sure don't.

Evidence of why we could not have outside activities during our Easter Celebration.

For Sale - Knoxville, TN

Well folks, you know how much Rick and I hate to clean so instead we just move when the house gets dirty, haha! Surprisingly, we have been in Knoxville for 5 years which is 3 years longer than our previous homes. So we were long over due for a move. Lucky for you, this beautiful home can be yours, if the price is right! You know Rick will settle for nothing less than perfection in all the work he does so his additions, updates and construction to this house are top of the line. A large custom workshop was added on along with a trex deck and screen porch. Built in cubbies (photos still to come) were added in the laundry room which makes the organization of the kid's shoes, coats and backpacks a breeze. He also built me an awesome front porch cover 2 years ago for Christmas. He is so handy. So, if you are looking or know ANYONE in the Knoxville area looking, please pass this info along. It will be listed soon at www.forsaleknoxvilletn.com

Front

Back

Screen Porch

Living Room

Dining Room

View of Foyer from Dining Room into Living Room

Master Bedroom

Master Bath

Master Bath

Bonus Room

Bonus Room

Bonus Room

Bonus Room

Laundry Room

Laundry Room

Second Bathroom

Kitchen

Kitchen

Screen Porch (My Favorite Spot)

Bob The Tooth's Big Adventure

I am sure you all enjoyed reading Millie's submission to the PBS Go Writer's Contest and I was happy to get a letter back about it yesterday. Millie earned 4th place! I called to see if I could stop by the office and pick up her book and while I was talking to the gentlemen in charge of the contest, I asked how many submissions they had. He said they had about 30 Kindergarten entries. I was hoping his answer wouldn't have been...4. Haha! But she did great and once again, I was very proud of her and her hard work!

Millie's Piano Recital

We took a few test videos before it started but it saved them all as 1, you can skip ahead to 33 seconds for the real video to start. If you want to view in You Tube, click here.



I don't think Millie was very nervous for her very first piano recital but that's good because I was nervous enough for the whole room. I don't think I took a breath during her whole performance! I was so worried she would mess up and then get upset. But no worries, it was flawless. I am such a proud mommy! She was by far the youngest and newest performer but she opened the show with a bang and set the stage for a very enjoyable evening filled with talented young folks.

Reed did very well too, being quiet and very well behaved. He clapped and cheered for each performer and kept busy before the show reading the program and studying up on the pieces everyone would be playing.

Although I failed to get a photo of Millie with my mom, I was so glad that she drove 4 1/2 hours just to watch Millie play for 30 seconds in the recital. I am pretty sure only an act of God would have kept her away. We are so blessed that she stays so involved with the important events of the kids even though she is so far away. Thanks mom, you rock!

I may be a bit biased but I am certain that Millie was the cutest little performer there that night!

Millie's First Lost Tooth

I don't think I have ever seen Millie as excited as she was when I picked her up from school on Friday after loosing her first tooth.

PBS Writer's Contest

Millie was super excited to participate in the PBS Writer's Contest. She did this a few weeks ago but our lives have been a little upside down crazy lately and I have not had a chance to post it yet.

Millie came up with the main idea for the book after I started throwing out some wild ideas. She jumped on the idea of writing it about a loose tooth because she had her first one at the time and that's really all she talked about. She decided that the tooth would tell the story and that his name would be Bob. I had to help her wrap it up a little bit because I don't think she would have ever ended it. She came up with all the ideas of the illustrations on her own and the dialog was all her own. I typed up her words as she dictated and made an outline for her on the computer so she could copy it in her writing to the book and finish it on her own.

After she wrote all the text and drew all the photos, I put it together and bound it for her. We submitted it a few weeks ago and still have not heard anything. Maybe we never will but she truly enjoyed doing it and kept telling me over and over "Thank you so much Mommy for letting me do this!"

Reed's Words

I know I have not provided photos for a while and I apologize but here are a few more silly things from Reed.

"Mom, you are my favorite snowman!" I have no idea where this came from.

"I have some past feddles (fast peddles) on my bike, I can go like this real fast."

"If we get a new house can we take our food...and our milk and water?"

And he assured me this morning, after he wiped my kiss off, that if I gave him another one he would keep it on all day while he was at school. But IF he needed more, his teacher would give him some.

R - "Mom, my pee pee hurts"
M = "It does, a lot or a little?"
R - "It just hurts. I think we just need to cut it off to make it better."

"Mom, my Belly Buddy is hungry, I just need some food to eat. Feel it. It's all empty!"

Reed's Words

Reed - "Put my costume on me...please."
Me - "Use the potty first then I will put it on."
Reed - "Ok, come take me."
Me - "You are a big boy, you can do it by yourself."
Reed - "Oh yeah! I a big boy, I can go with myself! Uh huh!"

He always says "with myself" instead of "by myself". He can do lots of things with himself, haha!

2 Out of 3's Not Too Bad

I was hoping I would have a great and wonderful post this morning about Reed's fantastic accomplishments but he failed at 1 last night.

First - He has started sitting on a big potty without a training seat and holding his boy business down by himself. This is huge! We still use a potty seat at home so I don't have to hold him but it's nice when we are out and he yells, "I have to go poop!" and we can actually take him and not have to run to the car and get the travel seat. Those of you with boys know what this is like.

Second - Yesterday he was being stubborn and would not let us help him go to the potty. I finally left and said, "Do it yourself." I knew he could get his pants down and go but he had not been able to get them back up by himself. I was waiting for him to yell for help when he came running out and had pulled his pants and underwear up by himself. So exciting! He even closed the lid and turned the light off.

Third - This is where we struck out. He has been waking up dry in the mornings for about a month now so I figured it was time to nix the pull ups all together and go with big boy underwear at night. Well, at midnight I heard him crying and when I went in, he told me he peed in his bed. He was very upset because he thought going to bed in big boy underwear was pretty cool stuff. I am going to try again tonight though and see how it goes.