First Lost Tooth

Owen lost his first tooth on November 17th. We wiggled and attempted pulling it out for weeks before. Even his aunt tried pulling it out but that ended up in a total melt down. She did loosen it a lot though. His permanent tooth had already cut through so we told him it was very important to wiggle it everyday to make room for his new tooth.

When he failed to do so, we decided it was time to bribe motivate him with a reward trip to Toys R Us. He could get some Angry Bird Star Wars telepod figures when the tooth fell out. Everyday he'd bother us about going to Toy R Us. We stuck to our guns and said we wouldn't take him there until he tooth was out.

Eventually it was so loose that it was sticking out beyond his other teeth. We told him it wouldn't take but one pull and it'd be out. He finally let Barry try and he was successful. Owen was about to cry when he exclaimed, "I get to go to Toys R Us!"

So Much to Be Thankful For

Not a November goes by that my thoughts are not turned to Owen's and Emma's birth parents. My heart is full of gratitude for the blessings they gave to our family. How appropriate that November is National Adoption Awareness month. We have many acquaintances who have adopted too and I'm sure they feel just as thankful.

With both our families in the area, we end up rotating each Thanksgiving. This year we went to my Grandma's for Thanksgiving Dinner. My uncle from Washington and aunt from Colorado w

Were there as well as my cousin who I haven't seen in a while. It was an enjoyable time. Emma had fallen asleep in the car and slept through the whole thing. She didn't wake up in a very good mood either.

Halloween 2013

I always look forward to Halloween. I love dressing up the kids and Autumn is my favorite season. The weather is just right. It's not too cold and not too warm.



A week or so before Halloween we went to a pumpkin patch that is about 15 minutes away from us. Owen and Emma were really excited about picking out their own pumpkin. We didn't carve them but we did put them outside for decoration.



Owen is still obsessed with Angry Birds. I think it's because they keep coming out with different variations of the game. This year Owen wanted to be the Red Angry Bird. I found an easy tutorial on Pinterest so I decided to make his costume. This is the 3rd year that I've made his costume. I really enjoy making them.

I followed the instructions from this blog. I used fleece for the body and felt for the face. The only thing I'd do different would be not to use the sewable Heat n' Bond adhesive paper. I thought using it would be faster and easier than pinning. Boy was I wrong! It took much longer because the felt did't want adhere to the fleece for some reason. Next time just stick to the instructions. ;)

I made the pattern pieces for the face. I downloaded, manipulated, and printed off a Red Bird vector image. It was fast and easy for this computer geek. Most people will find drawing the pattern by hand to be just as easy. To finish off the costume, I also made a fleece hat using this pattern, and then, I had Owen wear a long sleeve red shirt and red sweats underneath.

I didn't make Emma's costume since I found this way cute cat costume from Carters. She really likes kitty-cats.

We went to our church Trunk r' Treat. It was so cold! Good thing Owen and Emma's costumes were warm and that they had hot chocolate there. The best part is they also served cake donuts! They are so much better than dough donuts in my opinion. It was fun to compare what Owen did on his 2nd Halloween versus Emma. Emma has a sweet tooth and wanted to eat everything.  Owen, on the other hand, didn't like candy back then except for Smarties.

All Girl

Having my own little girl is the best. Even better is that she is a 100% girl. Emma loves hats and wearing necklaces. She also loves to dance and talk on her toy phones.

One day I came home from work to find that Auntie painted Emma's toe nails. I was completely amazed that Emma would hold still for that long. Now if she'd only let me do her hair. She doesn't like her hair pulled into piggy tails or a pony tail. She won't keep bows or flowers in her hair either. She'll let it be for 5 minutes and then pulls it out.

Salt Lake City Trip

In November, we took a mini-vacation to Salt Lake City. Now that Barry's sister doesn't live down there we hadn't been down for a while.

We asked Owen what he wanted to do in Utah. He said he wanted to go to the Lego Store and the dinosaur place with the water and sand table (a.k.a the erosion table). He was talking about the Natural History Museum at Thanksgiving Point.

It's an awesome museum. They have complete skeletons of all the popular dinosaurs. There are also lots of places for the kids to play. One activity spot you can to dig and sweep off sand to find dinosaur bones. Then there is the erosion table where they can play with sand and water. We spent at least an hour there. The kids are suppose to learn how flash floods and erosion are involved in creating and finding fossils.

Emma loves dinosaurs. Owen has a big T-Rex at home that she plays with occasionally and carries around. She will even give it hugs. Emma was really fascinated with the dinosaur skeletons. I can't count the number of times I heard her say wow or listened to her roar.

Owen also wanted to go swimming at the hotel. He used to be so afraid to swim without mom or dad holding him even when he was wearing his life jacket. Now he swims by himself without any issues. We bought Emma a life jacket and she enjoyed being the pool much better than the last time. She doesn't like water in her face so we got her the life jacket to keep her face above water.

 

We met up with my college friends for a double date. We went to dinner at a Brazilian steakhouse called Rodizio grill. We've been there a couple times when we've been in Salt Lake and it's always really good. Then we went to a bakery called Kneaders. Barry had the Raspberry Bread Pudding. I had a few bites and it was wonderful! My white macadamia nut cookie was good too but next time I know to get the bread pudding instead.