Fall Time Fun

I love the fall season, especially in Eugene. The weather here is just beautiful. We've been to a couple pumpkin patches, which I absolutely love doing, so I thought I'd share some pictures, mostly of Owen, with you.

Me and Owen at Johnson Farm with our Mommy 'n' Me group

Owen and his friend, Dallin. And no, we didn't mean to dress them to match, funny though.
Thomas, Owen and Dallin at Thistledown Farm picking out their pumpkins



Owen and Daddy
Almost walking!

We had a LDS Law Halloween party the other night, so we dressed Owen up in his gorilla costume and paraded him around, it was great...


...Owen did not think it was so great, he hated wearing his costume.Gorilla Owen and Monkey Dallin
I don't think he wanted to deal with wearing his costume, so he just fell asleep to make it go away. When he woke up at home, he started crying, like "Why am I still wearing this?".
Today was such a pretty day, so we headed to the park to take pictures of the leaves. Owen was having a blast playing in the leaves and Blake was having fun playing with the camera.


Try to ignore the nasty drool all over his cute shirt. It's inevitable that he will have a wet shirt in all pictures.Snack time

Weekend in Utah

We had the opportunity to go back home for a few days. The main event was Kristin's brother's wedding. We also celebrated Owen's first birthday (one month early) and his great grandparents' 50th wedding anniversary. We have barely had time to rest since we got here. Here are a few pictures.

Kristin, Owen, Hannah (Kristin's cousin), and Jean at Kennecott Copper Mine.

Kristin and Owen at Snowbasin

Owen's Birthday Party

Owen didn't even stop to play with his cake. He wanted to just eat, so we had to take it away before he ate too much.

Kristin and Owen at the Bountiful Temple.

Lynnsey is our wonderful new sister-in-law. She was a beautiful bride.

Owen got to wear a tuxedo. He was a very handsome groomsman.

Nick and Owen.

This is a saloon a friend of the family built in his backyard. Don't worry, I just had a diet coke.

Dinner at the Timbermine for the 50th wedding anniversary.


Kristin's Grandparents. Happy 50th! They came in from Michigan for the weekend.

Happy Anniversary!

I know it's a couple days late, but I wanted to post a wedding picture to celebrate our 3rd anniversary. I really lucked out and got a good one. I love you, Blake!

I want that!

I've been wanting to mention some of my friends' businesses for awhile now, hopefully to send a little business their way, so if you are interested in supporting stay-at-home-moms, they have some really great products!

Embellished Ink & Paper
First, is Heather. She just started a business making homemade greeting cards.They are really cute and unique. Her cards range from $2.50 for a single card to $10.00 for a set, like invitations. I personally like the Thank You cards. She has put a lot of time and effort into her business, and I wish her the best of luck.

Limabeanhome at Etsy
Second, is Kristine. She makes some really great bags from new and "reclaimed" fabrics. I have really been wanting to buy these. I've seen some of her bags and they are really well made, and she can even do custom orders.

Kelly Color Portraits
Third, is Kelly, Blake's brother. Okay, he's not a stay-at-home-mom, but I admire his work, so he's on the list. He started a photography business aside from his career and going to school for his Masters. He is a great photographer, he has taken our family's pictures a couple of times and they turned out great. See this and this post. He lives in Layton, Utah, so if you live close by there, look him up.

Parker Takes A Swim

Every fall one of the local pools allows dogs to come swim the day before they drain the water for the season. We decided it would be a good opportunity for Parker to learn to enjoy water. I know what you are all thinking, I better be up on my vaccinations, right? We made sure we were there first so we weren't swimming in dog broth. And for all you sickos out there, no we did not make Owen swim with the dogs. In fact our friends were nice enough to take him for a couple of hours. Actually, there were more humans in the pool than dogs, hardly any of the dogs wanted to get in.

It was really fun. Parker doesn't like to be in water that much, but he took it with a level of maturity that you don't find among dogs anymore. There was the fiasco where he found the open gate and ran around in the parking lot for a while. Luckily neither man nor dog can resist the wonderful taste of Kraft American Cheese Singles.

Parker must have been swimming really well because a news reporter asked me about him. I was featured on the evening news talking about swimming with Parker. Now before you all rush to the phone and request an autographed dvd of my interview, I must remind you that this is local Eugene news and it was Parker that caught the cameraman's interest. (I don't think he mistook my crazy swimming for Micheal Phelps). That being said, I tried really hard not to look stupid on camera. Unfortunatly, the news station rotates their videos quickly and now I can't find it anymore. Therefore I have also posted our own Parker footage just because I can.


Our video footage.

Family Portraits

My brother was kind enough to take some family portraits for us. We are really happy with the way they turned out. Owen was being a little reluctant to pose, but with enough Gerber fruit puffs, any baby will sit still. Here are a couple of sample shots. Kelly does a lot of interesting things with photography. I recommend checking out Kelly's photo gallery.

The magic behind a calm baby during a photo shoot.

Just like daddy, he likes books with pictures.

The Whole Family (minus Parker)

Our Trip to Utah

I reserved a couple of weeks at the end of summer to go home and visit friends and family in Utah. We have had a really fun time so far. This vacation is far better than our winter break because Owen is older and Parker has been with my parent's dog ever since we got here. We've had more time to do the things we want to do. We camped one night, went to my cousin's wedding, had a photo shoot with my grandparents, rode Frontrunner down to SLC, went boating, hiked, and even went to a demolition derby. This coming week we plan to go swimming with nieces and nephews, barbecue with friends, and go boating again. We have managed to pack each day with something fun. Here are a few pictures from the past week.

Owen at the Demolition Derby with Nick and Lynnsey Owen and Daddy boating at Pineview The family swimming
Owen hanging out with his friends, Austin and Zack
We had a lot more pictures from our trip on my laptop, but Owen managed to break my screen and I had to ship it off to be repaired. We had all of our camping and hiking pictures on there, so we'll post some later assuming I get my laptop back.