Happy Mother's Day

Brent wanted to do this post, so I was glad to hand over my laptop and let someone else add to the blog.

First off, I'd like to wish all of the moms out there a special "Happy Mother's Day". Today is a special day to make sure the moms in our lives know how much they are appreciated. With our busy lives and schedules, it often goes unsaid too many times. Owen is one lucky little guy, he has the BEST mom in the world. My wife pours her heart into making sure her family is #1 in her life. She is so caring, loving, and devoted to O and myself. She willingly makes many sacrifices for our family and is always thinking about us and how she can make us happy. Seeing all of the smiles on O's face makes me incredibly happy and also makes me so very proud to be married to such an awesome woman. Happy Mother's Day to all of our moms, and especially to you honey.

Boys Day at the Zoo

It's definitely time to dust off the camera and get back into the swing of blogging. Sorry for being absent for a while. We have been pretty busy and have taken full advantage of the warm (actually hot is a better word for it) weather we have had the last couple of months.

Since I am always with O during the day, Brent wanted to have a special day with O. At the end of April, Brent took a day off of work and the 'boys' went to the Zoo. They had a ball! O was so excited and it was perfect...low 70s, no crowds, and the animals were very visible. They left after breakfast and stayed until 5pm that evening. Of course, they took a long ride after lunch so O could take a nap (talk about a pricey nap with gas prices!). Brent said that O never asked to be carried, he was such a little trooper and had the best time. That's good considering he decided not to bring the stroller. We are lucky to have such a great place to visit so close to home.

Owen getting ready to go down the slide at the kid's play area.

What fun!

Owen at the rhino exhibit.



The giraffes were really close.

Easter Egg fun

Since today was so rainy and yucky outside, we decided to have a nice lazy Friday at home. For today's project, we dyed Easter eggs!! It was so much fun! Owen did great...he wanted to do it all by himself, and to my surprise, he did a good job on handling the eggs..he was very easy and gentle with them and did not break a single one!! He loved spooning them out of the cups and then decorating them with stickers. Afterwards, he was equally entertained by taking them in and out of the carton and telling us all the colors and then putting them all back in! He was so careful and easy with them!!! He knows all of his colors and his current favorite is purple...ha! Not exactly the most masculine color...but nevertheless it is cute and adorable how he likes to find purple everywhere. In fact, the staff at Harris Teeter thinks it is hilarious how he always wants a purple balloon...they try to get him to get blue, but he insists on purple...last month it was orange...I know he'll be back to blue or red soon...it the meantime, purple is his fav!

Owen was very excited!!!

He is very proud of his eggs

Dyeing Easter eggs

Loved putting stickers on them...

What a fun and lazy day!!! Hope everyone has a wonderful Easter!

Thankful

This morning as I was listening to our sermon, I kept thinking about how special and thankful that I was to have this special little guy as my son. It's hard to believe that this outgoing toddler was once a shy baby that would never let us out of his sight. Relying on faith has helped us get through the easy....and the not so easy times. Our pastor focused on keeping faith as part of your every day practice and I totally agree that with faith you can move mountains and work wonders. My hopes is that this sweet little angel will always have faith in everything that he does and hold God close to his heart in all of his dreams and journeys in life. Owen LOVES these peanut butter eggs. We got them from a local church here in K-ville (there is an article in the Our State magazine about these eggs). He is so cute....he says church eggs....MORE! ha!

My mom's birthday was April 2, we celebrated it on April 1....what a blessing it was so celebrate her birthday. This is about the best pic we could get...he is sooo busy!!! Owen's favorite...peanut butter and jelly and cheese balls...YUM! A lot of times we will both have a PB and J and he just loves it!! I think it makes him feel special that we both are having the same lunch! ha! A child is sunshine and moonbeams and more brightening your world as never before.

Children are a sweet new blossom of humanity.

Potty training ...we told him that Thomas goes to potty and he ran and got Thomas and got on the potty....wow....amazing how the small things make things work....

Children are a handful sometimes, a heart full all the time

Children are such a beautiful way to start life...he is such a happy boy!!! He loves cupcakes!

Tacky cupcakes for mom's birthday!

A child will make love stronger, days shorter, nights longer, bankroll smaller, home happier, clothes shabbier, the past forgotten, and the future worth living for...

I pray that Owen has faith in every situation that he encounters in his life. I hope that he understands the importance of faith and has a strong relationship with God. The sermon today really touched my heart on not loosing faith in anything in your life and believing in what you can't see....that's faith! Owen we love you so much and you have brought is so much happiness and joy in our lives. We love your sweet smile, beautiful personality, and even at 2, you express love for your church, God, and the Bible. Such a sweet way to start life!

Owen Chatting.....

Owen has really been talking up a storm lately!! He is really starting to put 3 and 4 words together and form sentences!! Wow! Here are some of his latest sayings.

The other day when I laid him down for his nap…well he was carrying on up there for over 30 minutes having a complete party in his bed… he was saying mommy, mommy, look…..finally I went up there to see what in the world he was doing and I found him doing a handstand in his bed to which he replied “there you are silly” haha!

At night he really carries on…. Mommy wash clothes, mommy wash blanket, froggy blanket.....which turns into singing OOO (song from preschool), Owen loves KK and her Sissy (preschool friends), Daddy Belk escalators (rides escalators at Belk) , Petco Maggie treats I throw (picks treats out for my dad's dog and throws them to him) . Percy Owen Carroll (he has named all his trains_____ Owen Carroll…too funny) then he will start jumping on his bed….he says “no bump your head”…haha! He sings, recites everything that he was done that day, and then he is OUT! WOW! We listen to him over the monitor and just crack up!

In Target today, a lady told him he was so cute he replied “why, thank you”…and blew her a kiss!

If you ask him something he says ‘sure' …..we are trying to get him to say yes m'am but for now everything is either sure or no…ha! Too cute!

If you are in the car riding you get a complete tour of your surroundings as you are in route….tree, big tree, tree fall, boat gone sold (a boat that was sitting on a corner 5 months ago is still there in his mind….doesn’t forget a thing), church, Frosty, Target, Kohls, Walmart, Chick-fil-a, up hill, down hill, fast fast, turn, park, white, yellow, orange…etc car……he talks nonstop in the car….and waves at everybody when we stop…even if they can’t see him!!! sometimes it can be a bit exhausting! Funny and cute nevertheless.

I just LOVE this age! He is hilarious! You never know what is going to come out of his mouth…he is so funny…it amazes me that he knows and remembers so much! It just seems like this week he is talking so much more!!! I have always been told that once they start talking they don’t stop and there is so much truth to that! We love him so much and are having the time of our life raising him!

Owen LOVES the reese cup eggs....just like me! Yum!!

Loves to talk to his daddy everyday while he is at work!!! he tells him what he and mommy have done and what he wants to do when he gets home...he ends with love you...and kisses the phone! Love it!

I HEART This Weather!!!

Don't you just love the beautiful weather that we have had over the last several days? Owen and I have been outside constantly, taking advantage of it completely. He has a new, well new to him, motorized fire truck and it is the coolest thing ever!!! It has a real hose and you can actually fill it up with water and squirt it like firemen do. It has sirens, a ladder, lights, CB radio, etc....it is like a real mini fire truck! He loves it so much and it makes me so happy to see him (and me) enjoy it. I can't wait to look back on these pics as he gets older...I am sure he will get a kick out of mommy driving his fire truck and daddy riding his bike!! What a fun family evening we had!

My sweet little side kick! LOVE HIM!

Whoever said adults can't have fun....I think these pics say it all!

This pic cracks me up...it was seconds before both of our hats flew off! ha! What fun we had....I sure hope the neighbors don't think I'm nuts! ha!

Wordless Wednesday