Liam

For real, have you ever seen a cuter little Liam? Liam will be eight months old tomorrow. EIGHT. He is crawling on his belly (army crawling) and is all over the place. He is officially my earliest crawler. I'm not sure I was ready for all of the movement going on in this house. He loves to locate all of the cords in the house and scurry toward them to find a place for them in his already saliva filled mouth. The kid already has six razor sharp teeth. He is still a great sleeper, too. My boy sleeps at least twelve hours every night and takes two or three naps during the day, each lasting an hour or more.

Liam loves his papa. He lights up the second Will walks in the door.

Judah's favorite thing to do with Liam is to grab him by both legs and drag him across the room, mostly to get him away from Judah's beloved toys. Mayah's favorite thing to do with Liam is to give him his bottle, even though he doesn't need the help any more. So, there you have it. Liam is beautiful and wonderful and sweet and fantastic.

My Little Comedian

Last night, Judah decided to break out of his normal bedtime routine to play a little joke on Will. When I say little, I mean tiny and almost not even worth calling a joke. When Will came out of the bedroom, he told me what Judah did and explained how hard Judah laughed at himself. I love when a kid laughs at his own joke. Pure joy.

This morning, I heard Judah leave his bedroom and run down the steps to wake up Liam. I reluctantly rolled out of bed and headed down the steps. When Judah heard me coming into the kitchen, he threw open Liam's door and jumped out.

"MAMA!! Last night, Papa said, 'Good night, Buddy.' And I said, 'Good night, Grandma!!' HAHAHAHAHAAHA!!!"

"Wow, Judah. That's pretty silly. Why did you call Papa 'Grandma'?"

"I WAS PRETENDING HE WAS GRANDMA! HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!"

You get the gist. Maybe the lamest joke of the century. I love that he was waiting all night to tell me this joke. I love that it was the first thing he thought of when he saw me. I love that he giggled so violently.

Man, I love my kids.

PARTY #4!!

Judah turned four years old last Thursday. Because Judah and Mayah both have November birthdays, we will be celebrating their lives with our families this Saturday. I decided to throw Judah a party on his birthday during the morning with his friends.

He decided that he wanted a "Letter" party this year. Yes, very scholarly, I know. We decorated the house in his favorite color, red. I bought streamers and hung wherever he pointed. Then we baked cupcakes and decorated them with letters. Each cupcake had the first letter of someone's name who was coming to the party. "J"udah got a "J" cupcake and so on. Each friend also got a sack with his or her letter on it. The sacks were full of fun things to take home.
To finish off the letter theme, we cut out squares with letters of each child's first name. The kids played a game where they had to find their letter
before they could have a cupcake. Judah had a

blast getting the house ready and planning
games for his buddies. There were eleven kids at his party. It got a little crazy.


Judah's friends in attendance were Zoe and Elijah VH, Mylie, Emmett, and Raya M, Jaxson and Lincoln M, Titus H, Kenan T, and Mayah and Liam. We are blessed to have such great friends!



Judah really scored with presents! He got some great dinosaur gifts, a cool barn set, a book, helicopter, and some other little toys. He has been playing with them nonstop! I think the morning party is officially the way to go. It was just like a play group, only with purpose. The kids played in the play room and then had cupcakes and ice cream. The party started at 10 and they went home for lunch around 11:30. Sure, cupcakes at 10:30 isn't ideal, but it really was a success.

Feeling Useful is Better Than Feeling Important

Those are the nuggets of wisdom I just heard the narrator on Thomas the Tank Engine impart on said show. Hmmm...I'm beginning to believe Will's theory about the show being written by communists.

Anyway...

The other night, I asked Judah and Mayah to begin calming down before bed. I could not get them to stop running, let alone calm down. Will, assuming I had everything under control, went upstairs to shower and left me alone to deal with them on my own. I took this video to show him what he was missing:

Also...

I wanted to let you all see how precious Liam is when he is smiling and grunting. What I really captured is my oldest son being the victim, my daughter being the bully, and my youngest being oblivious. Enjoy.

In case you are wondering whether just asking for the ball worked, it didn't.

Halloween Party

Will and I were invited to a Halloween party by some friends in our small group. Like so often happens in our relationship, neither of us any idea what we were going to do until a few hours before the party began. Will's first goal was to be Jemaine from Flight of the Conchords, but the glasses he had got all bent up when I was popping the lenses out of them on the way to the party. Ooops. So instead, we came up with Party Will. Will was dressed up like he would if he ever agreed to go to parties. My clever man.
I went to WalMart about an hour before the party and threw together my Rocker Jess outfit. Total cost: under $10.

Above is a picture of Party Will and good friend, Hippie Josh. Will really seems to be enjoying his Red Bull.

My friend, Krista, was Sandy from Grease. Cory, Josh's wife, was also a hippie. The girls had lots of fun playing games and dancing.

My favorite costume of the night went to my friend, Kris, and her Mom Jeans.

My Kids Really Bug Me

The Owens children had a great time during Halloween this year. Judah decided that he really needed to be a spider, and that he really needed to wear the same costume that he wore when he was two. Sadly, the costume marked 12-18 months still fit the little guy. He was elated. Judah then dictated that his siblings needed to also be bugs. Luckily, Cousin Maddie had sent Mayah her costume from last year which happened to be a love bug. That left one costume to be bought: a bumblebee for Liam. This is a great photo because it shows Judah doing his thing. He often takes it upon himself to make sure that Mayah and Liam are smiling or looking or doing whatever he deems necessary by guiding their faces. I'm waiting for Mayah to sock him someday. She was too busy eating candy to care in this photo (notice the puffed out cheeks).

This is Judah's scary face. His tongue was moving from side to side because he was practicing catching bugs with his tongue. I am pretty sure he was confusing spiders with frogs.

This was the best shot I could get of Mayah's costume. That girl loves her some candy.

I was pumped to get to dress Liam in a baby costume. This Halloween marked my first chance to get to dress a non-walking baby. Loved it. He was so sweet.

The kids spent Friday begging at the local stores in downtown Ames. It was great because they were open from 10 to 2, so it wasn't cold and dark like so many Halloweens can be. There was even a professional photographer taking photos of kids and giving free 5x7s. I am excited to see their photo. I think that this is the way to go for toddlers and preschoolers. We tried to go Halloween night, too, but during the day was so much easier for some reason. Plus, there weren't a bunch of crazy goblins or guts and blood to scare the kids. Day Halloween gets my stamp of approval.