Merry Christmas!

Message from Santa....

We put together a messsage from Santa using the Portable North Pole. Owen was a little to young to really understand the message, but it was so cute to see him watching Santa and pointing and saying "Santa...Santa....Santa". Click here to watch Owen's message from Santa!

Fall Vacation

Still playing catch up.....Back in early November, we decided to take a last minute mini vacation to Kansas City and Branson. First stop....the Kansas City Zoo!

Owen is all about animals and animal sounds right now, so the zoo was right up his alley. We started out at the Polar Bear exhibit and ended up staying there for almost 45 minutes because it was so much fun! We happened to walk up right as the trainer came out to show off all the Polar Bear's tricks. Owen was amazed.....he kept pointing/waving and saying "bear", "eeewww", and "hi". The polar bear was by far our favorite!

Owen thought this was really cool. The polar bear would swim right up to the glass in front of him and do a back flip and push off the glass to swim around his pool.

Owen loved ringing the cow bells...

Owen loved roaring at the lions, but didn't care whether it was the real lion or just a picture of a lion.

Christmas Decor

Decorating for Christmas has been an ongoing project at the Summerford house. We started the weekend before Thanksgiving with the Christmas tree and outside lights and finished everything about 2 weeks ago. Lets just that decorating with a toddler takes time!

Owen really enjoyed hanging ornaments on the tree! We let him pick out his own ornament every year... last year it was a jingle bell and this year he chose a choo-choo train. He really liked the candy cane ornaments too.....but was upset when he realized he couldn't eat them!

trying to ride the choo-choo train....ha!

Overall, Owen has been pretty good about not messing with the Christmas tree. We hung all the breakable ornaments above his reach and have shown him the ones he's allowed to touch. He really likes pointing out all the Santas and candy canes, but there have been some rambunctious nights where he hit and pulled all balls off the tree! But I guess that's to be expected!

December rEcess

December rEcess was once again...a success!! All the kids enjoyed the Christmas crafts, large group caroling, and Polar Express during movie time. It's so much fun to see the kids get excited about rEcess! I also love hearing about all the thing the parents did on their night out. For some it was a trip to wal-mart or dinner and a movie and for others it was Christmas shopping or a work Christmas party....but for all, it was a night out knowing that their kids were being well cared for by their one on one volunteer!!

Sam and Josh...

(check out Josh's LOVELY Christmas Sweater!)

Addison and Danielle


Large group...

Shelly... our entertainer!

Sarah and Hannah

Zachary playing with the jingle bell...

Princess Emma and Princess Caroline

the kids really got into the 12 days of Christmas...

Lights of the Ozarks

I'm officially playing catch up... again! We made our annual trip to the lighting of the square and the Christmas parade at the end of November. We met our community group and some friends for pizza at Tim's before the festivities began. It was crowded, but totally worth the effort. Owen enjoyed the parade from Josh's shoulders and love waving and saying "hi, hi" to everyone and everything that past by....it was so cute!!

Travis and Danielle

the boys...ready for the parade

Santa!!

Thanksgiving...

We spent Thanksgiving in West Memphis with close friends and family. It was a nice relaxing week with way too much food. This was our first Thanksgiving to cook almost everything low-fat so Owen could par take and I think it was a success. There was one exception that did not pass the low-fat standard.... the fried turkey! We just couldn't give it up so we cooked 2 turkeys.... one fried and one baked. They were both delicious! Owen's favorites included sweet potatoe casserole, mash potatoes, and dressing!

Just not quite big enough to reach the table...

Family...

Owen really enjoyed hanging out with Watson and Emma Gayle.

swing with Papa Bart...

the boys watching football...

Josh made the boys a Hog House....and it was a hit!!! They played in it for hours!

Halloween Night

We spent Halloween night at our house. Papa Bart, Gigi, Aunt Anna, Beema, Papa Joe, Aunt Amanda, and the Childers' all joined us for trick or treating and dinner. It was so much fun watching Owen and Charley in their costumes going from house to house collecting candy! We only made it to about 8 houses, but the kids had fun and were ready to get out of their costumes.

Our little lion...

Mommy and Owen waiting on trick or treaters...

Owen did great handing out candy to all the trick or treaters..... but after the first rush of kids, Owen decided he needed to sit down and go through the candy bucket himself! This was Owen's first Halloween to be into all the candy... and we thought we had planned ahead well enough to allow him to eat candy and stay within his restricted fat intake. Little did we know that he would think that Reece's Peanut Butter Cup looked the best!! Lesson Learned: Only purchase candy that Owen can eat!

Owen and Charley excited to see each other...

Drew leading the kids through the neighborhood...

Owen following Charley's lead...

Charley

Owen
About half way through trick or treating, Owen decided to sit down and throw a fit! Ha! He finally decided to get up and finish the journey hand in hand with Charley.

Summerfords' and Childers'

Love this pic!!