Short and Sweet

Feeling pressed for time, I'm just going to give you a brief re-cap of the weekend's highlights. On Saturday, we harvested our christmas tree and decorated it- big outing for the whole family (see pictures below). Owen went to the birthday party of a 1 year old and afterwards, slept for 16 hours- 3pm until 7am the next morning! He also discovered his love for "neg-nog" and would drink a whole gallon if I didn't cut him off. I've been christmas shopping and crafting like crazy and have completely neglected my house... dirty laundry and dishes and piles everywhere. Its sort of driving me crazy, but at the same time, I just can't bring myself to do anything about it. Poor Luke opted for a weekend with the family due to the threat of high winds and freezing spray, only to watch a clear, calm, perfect deer hunting weathered weekend slip by. So that's about it! Enjoy the pictures!

naked bullet re-loading with daddy

Owen loving the party favors

"helping" the birthday boy open presents

picking out our christmas tree

Luke dragging the tree back to the car

(do I even need to tell you how many

references he made to dragging-out deer?)

The finished product!

We're Back in business!

Sarah’s Thoughts: My last regular post was recounting Halloween and now here we are, two and a half weeks before Christmas! This is going to be a special year because we're not traveling! We get to celebrate this year at home with Owen, my brother and my parents. In light of my overspending tendencies at Christmas, I’ve been trying to focus on homemade presents. The problem is that I have about 6 x 12 different projects brewing and only 2 1/2 weeks until D-day, not to mention my full-time job and my 2 1/2 year old. Despite these obstacles, I’m spending every spare moment crafting my little heart out. I hope that old saying about it being the thought that counts, is true because there’s a good chance that all of these little crafts are going to turn out pretty hokey.... but, what's a girl to do? In the meantime, I'm loving it!

Low- The nastiness I found when we removed the outer cover of Owen’s car seat. Pulverized crackers, peanut butter and smashed dried cherries...

High- Toss up between getting to spend the afternoon with my brother and my hot Friday night date at the annual Christmas party for all of the dental offices.

Luke Update: When I asked Luke what he’d been up to this week, he said, “Oh, you know. Same old thing. Still dreaming of bigger and better jobs and bigger and better bucks.” He started back to work for the state mid-November and will be there through the end of the legislative session in mid-April. This time of year, there is very little going on in Luke’s office, so if you need any internet research done, he’s your man! Besides working, Luke has been getting out deer hunting on the weekends. He did manage to shoot another deer on his way home from a five day deer hunt, just before Thanksgiving so we are going to make it through another winter! Phew! Luke spent this most recent weekend at home working on our exterior christmas lights. After spending 2 hours out in the 20 degree weather, he discovered that its time to invest in some new lights...

Owen Update: Owen is all about Christmas and he doesn’t even really know about the present part yet. I think he’s going to freak out when he makes that discovery. The Saturday after Thanksgiving, Luke was out hunting and I decided to pull out our Christmas decorations from the attic. In order to gain access, I had to back the car out of the garage, fetch the foldable ladder from the shed, assemble it, climb into the attic and retrieve the Christmas boxes and then do it all again in reverse. Needless to say, Owen had some significant “alone time” in the house with the Christmas boxes. When I came inside, it looked like Christmas threw up in the living room. Ornaments all over the floor, rolling under the couch, wire decoration hangers gouged into the carpet, Christmas books and stockings and present tags and lights strewn everywhere, and Owen in the middle of it all shaking and yelling, “Tismas! Its tismis time!” I wish I’d had my camera!

Owen and his daddy

cousins

baby, it's cold outside!

exploring ice.

who knew you could throw a rock onto a lake

and watch it slide?

me and my hot date, out on the town

Winter Fun

While we're waiting for our camera to return from the fix-it shop, we thought you might enjoy a little video footage of this weekend's sledding activities. Hope you're staying warm and a Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

(I should mention the idea, most of the filming,

and all the sweet editing of the video is courtesy of my

innovative, thoughtful and talented husband.)

Bummer

Our camera is broken. Not sure what happened, but I'm not feeling the blogging motivation without pictures! Stay tuned... I'll be back!

Full-on Fall

Sarah’s Thoughts: Last Tuesday evening, I came home from work a little bit early. Owen had just woken up from a particularly long nap and was in a great mood, so happy to see me. Luke had thrown dinner in the crockpot earlier in the day and I’d made rolls the night before. I decided it was the perfect evening to carve our pumpkin. Owen babbled excitedly about pumpkins as we cut off the top and dug-out all of the goo and seeds. He’s been really into this penguin show lately, so we decided to carve a penguin pumpkin. I drew the design and Luke carved away. Owen and I washed, salted and roasted pumpkin seeds. We lit a candle in our penguin pumpkin and then ate our delicious dinner of slow-cooked meat and fresh rolls. It was one of those perfect fall evenings that you might remember during the days of endless summer activity. I didn’t think about the scattered piles of clutter or the fact that Owen doesn't have daycare come January. I just felt warm and peaceful happiness. The only thing that was missing was a wood stove.

Low- Christmas music on the radio this morning. Come on, now! Who in their right mind thinks that’s O.K.?

High- Realizing that it was really 9am instead of 10am and I had an extra hour to get to church this morning!

Luke Update: We woke up to fresh snow on Saturday morning, so Luke was dressed in camo and out the door before I finished my morning coffee. He headed up a nearby mountain ridge in search of fresh deer tracks. Sadly, all he found were fresh brown bear tracks... Guess that’s why they call it hunting! In between his Mr. Mom duties, Luke has started a new project. He’s working on another laminated net, similar to the one he made last year, but with some improvements, thanks to insights gained from a season of field testing. Once he gets the wrinkles ironed out, he’d like to move into production mode and try to sell them. Until you see his booth at the public market, you’ll find him in the garage, sanding and gluing away, in between diaper duty and slapping together a pb&j.

Owen Update: Yesterday was quite a big day. Owen was so excited about the snow that it was all we could do to get his boots on before he blasted out the door. There was only an inch or so on the ground, but it was enough to make a good-sized snow man. Owen loves our new yard decoration and makes sure that we greet it when returning to or leaving the house. Now that all the snow has melted, our snowman looks a bit odd standing in the front yard. I unsuccessfully tried to remember the words to “Frosty the Snowman” to gently tell Owen the snowman might not be around all that much longer, but I guess he’ll figure it out soon enough!

The fun didn’t end with the snowman- last night Owen got to try his had at trick-or-treating for the very first time. Extremely exciting. He wore a spiderman costume that my cousin Jason, brought back from Thailand (you may have seen it before if you’ve been a long-time blog reader). Owen didn’t care much for the hood, but he really enjoyed knocking on doors. If the door didn’t open promptly enough, he’d walk right in and make himself at home with the candy bowl. He didn’t like the houses with spooky decorations though, “too scary, mama.” He’s never had much of a sweet tooth, so when we got home, I let him spend some unsupervised time with his loot. He opened a lot of wrappers, but only nibbled at the chocolate. Its really fun to watch him actively participate in all of this. Such a fun age, I’m loving it!

the pumpkin, pre-carving

glowing penguin

trick-or-treater in action

checking out the loot

signature self portrait

bear tracks in the mud

owen and the snowman

Bonus

Here's a fun little video of Owen chasing after the chickens.

He says, "Chickens!!! I want to pet you!"

...and one more of Owen shooting a bow

Enjoy!

Birthdays and Camping and Diamonds, Oh My!

Sarah’s Thoughts: Last Sunday, I was talking to this little boy who was telling me how excited he was because his birthday was only 5 days away. He could hardly sleep. I can totally identify with that little guy because even at 33, I still get really excited about my birthday. I don’t usually have trouble sleeping, but I do have this urge to tell everyone that its my birthday. I like to get dressed up and then expect magic all day long. The reality is that its just another day. You still have to get up, make your bed, go to work, change poopy diapers, etc. Despite the potential for disappointment, I had a lovely birthday. Luke made waffles and coffee, my coworkers organized a birthday lunch and then my brother and Kristen came over for steak, wine and coconut cream pie. I think that for me, the magic lies in being remembered by the ones I love- that, and the fact that I looked fabulous. My oral surgeon boss told me that he liked everything about my outfit!

(Thank goodness I didn’t have to make my own breakfast or lunch because it took me 30 minutes to dry and straighten my hair! No wonder I never do anything with it!)

Low- Coming home after 1 1/2 days camping to a freezing cold house. The furnace went out... thank goodness for my own personal handy man!

High- Up until yesterday, my high would’ve been the fact that Owen went poopy on the potty for the very first time this week... but then my brother got engaged yesterday, so diamond trumps potty! We are SO excited!

Luke Update: This week, Owen was watching Luke shoot his bow in the backyard. He said, “Mama, where’s my bow? I want to do that!” I said, “Well, Owen, we better go tell your daddy.” When Owen repeated his request to his daddy, Luke looked at me and said, “Did you tell him to say that?” Needless to say, Luke was able to rustle up a bow and in no time, Owen was flinging arrows across the yard (with a little help). So proud! On Friday, Luke spent a good portion of the day fishing for coho salmon with his friend, Adam. The report was slim pickings... The other excitement was that our furnace stopped working, so Luke spent 3 hours on Saturday cleaning it. Its pretty incredible the amount of soot that builds up in a furnace! At nap time, our house was 50 degrees and I put Owen down under a mountain of fleece. Obviously, we were very happy when it was finally working again.

Owen Update: This weekend we visited our friends, the Andersons, who are care-taking at Echo Ranch this winter. For those of you that aren’t from Juneau, Echo Ranch is a bible camp that is a few miles past the end of the road. This time of year, the caretakers are the only folks holding down the fort, taking care of 26 horses, chickens and just making sure thing around camp are maintained. The Andersons have 2 kids (Gabby is 3 and Samson is 5) and Owen was in heaven. On our visit to the chicken coop, Owen ran in circles, chasing the chickens and yelling, “Chickens! I want to pet you!” Sadly, those smart, Alaskan chickens took shelter in the trees. Then we visited the horses and Owen did get to pet one. He pretended to drive a tractor, played with Samson’s excavator, cooked in Gabby’s “kitchen” and stayed up way past bedtime. Gotta love camp!

swinging with Gabby

birthday girl and her sweet boy

petting the pony

the mighty mendenhall

fishing in mendenhall lake for "sockeye fish"

fall leaves

Owen and the chickens

Shooting a bow for the first time

Home Sweet Home

Sarah’s Thoughts: We’re back! We had a wonderful trip, visiting family in Minnesota, North Dakota, and Georgia. Owen logged hundreds of relatively peaceful miles in his carseat, thanks to snacks, stories and portable DVD players. We spent almost a week with my sister in Minnesota, visiting with my Godparents, my college roommate and her husband, and some friends who use to live in Juneau. Then we drove to North Dakota to surprise my Grandma for her birthday- lots of singing, games, and food. After returning to Minnesota, we flew to Atlanta, Georgia to visit Luke’s family for a week. We spent time in the hammock, went to the zoo and Luke perfected his cast netting skills, catching shad off his parent’s dock.

After 2 1/2 weeks on the road, we returned home to find that autumn had come while we were away! Our tiny maple tree is dressed in a beautiful coat of yellow and snow is creeping its way down the mountains. On our last day in Georgia, Luke and I were taking a sunny walk in our sandals and shorts and I said, “Honey, we need to remember this moment, because its going to be a long time before we get to do this again.” Despite the cooler weather, Dorothy had it right; There’s no place like home.

Low- Atlanta airport, just moments before we needed to board our flight to Seattle, when I realized I’d lost Owen’s diaper bag...

High- The beautiful airport custodian who found the diaper bag about 30 minutes prior to my realization that I’d lost it, and just happened to ask us if it was ours... Thank you, God!

Luke Update: Its fall, so that means that once again, Luke is Mr. Mom-ing it while dreaming of hunting. After a summer of guiding fishermen and 2 weeks with an egotistical, high-strung would-be moose hunter, I think Luke is ready for some time off of work. He and Owen are settling into a rhythm: walking dolly, going to Costco, and they even checked out “Toddler Time” at a near-by gym. I think the fact that Owen is a little more independent and can verbally express himself makes the father/son time more enjoyable for all involved. Once Saturday rolls around, however, Luke quickly switches into “weekend warrior” mode. This weekend, he met up with his deer-crazed buddy, John for an alpine hunt on Admiralty Island. The report was cold and wet conditions and no deer sightings.

Owen Update: I know I’m a first-time mom and I think everything my kid does is incredible, but while we were traveling, I got some validation that the amount of words coming out of Owen’s mouth are impressive indeed. When we were on our never-ending flight from Atlanta to Seattle, Owen quickly realized that when people had to go to the bathroom, they got to get out of their seats. He kept saying, “Poopy, mommy. Go potty! Change pants right now!” ...and he wasn’t even poopy, sneaky kid! I came home from work one day this week to “Mommy! Mommy wooking. Tome in. Tome inside Owen’s house. Take off tote, mommy. Tome in house.” All I could think about was that Owen seemed so much bigger then when I’d left that morning, and he was so stinking cute. Probably the cutest little person in the world.

O.K. Time to get caught up on all the pictures you've missed out on the past 3 weeks....

Self portrait.

Alaska Penninsula in the background.

Caribou racks

Visiting our friends the Vidmars, formerly of Juneau

Megan and the pumpkins

Man! Pumpkins are heavy!

First ever pony ride.

I think its safe to say he liked it!

mom and dad with little miss birthday

Mr. Nonsense

My handsome husband

Party Animals!

The entire Kolden crew!

Swimming with Uncle Tristian and T-Rex

Birthday princess

Driving the boat with Grandpa

Gotta love shad fishing at twilight

Owen and the Komodo Dragon

the petting zoo

Future pilot.

He threw the biggest fit when I broke the news to him

that he couldn't ride in the jump seat.

Almost home!

One Year

Sarah’s Thoughts: I’m happy to announce that today marks the one year birthday of Mostly Owen! Over the past year, I’ve developed a love/hate relationship with this blog. For the most part, I really love it and am happy with the final result. The hate part comes every Sunday when I sit down to write. I get the same feeling before exercising, attending an organized event or reading my bible. When I’m finished, I know I’ll be happy that I did it, but getting myself started is always a struggle. What is it about obligation that turns something good, and enjoyable into something you dread? In this case, I think its the two hours that it takes me to complete an entry and the mental stretching and reflection required. My motivation comes from the desire not to disappoint the faithful little flock of blog readers out there. So here’s to you, my readers, my inspiration. Thank you for your encouragement, and your faithfulness!

P.S. Keep updated on the progress of Christian’s house project with the Kristen’s blog - www.koldenhouse.blogspot.com

Low- Friday morning, 7am call from my daycare provider that she couldn’t watch Owen... Thank goodness for Lela!

High- Surprise email from Luke and my dinner date with Christian, Kristen, and Tim

Luke Update: After not hearing from my mighty hunter for 1 1/2 weeks, I checked my email this morning and discovered this little beauty:

“I’m back... Man, the only things that come to mind are I MISS MY FAMILY and I'm so glad to have sent my hunter home (mooseless). Too much to say on email but in short the hunter I had was a real piece of work. I called in several bulls but they weren't what we were looking for. Had a nice bull just slightly out of rifle range yesterday after a stalk that took us nearly 7 hrs through some of the ugliest alder thickets I've ever seen. The bull was bedded down one minute, got the rifle ready, then he was gone. Got $700 for a tip so that's not bad at all. Much to tell but there's a line forming for the computer. I love you so much.”

He's flying home Wednesday morning.

Owen Update: We had the opportunity to go swimming at the pool last week and I have to say, my boy loves the water. He was jumping in with one of those cheap inflatable tubes around his waist. No fear. No mommy catching him. Not just a tiny hop , but a full-on, head disappearing briefly underwater jump. I’m thankful I don’t have a kid who is scared of the water because I don’t know that the swimmer in me could patiently handle that kind of apprehension. Our trip to the pool was in conjunction with a birthday party. Owen had a great time and now, he finally gets the fact that birthdays and parties and presents are fun and exciting. I was talking to him about our upcoming trip and telling him about how we were going to celebrate Great Grandma’s birthday and there was going to be cousins and a party and swimming. He could hardly contain himself. Look out, Great Grandma! You have one excited two-year-old who is ready to party and is headed your way!

I'm relying on the camera built into the computer and friend's pictures this week...

For some reason I always lean forward when I have Owen on my back...

he's just such a big boy!

Walking at Dredge Lake with my matching friend, Rachel-

matching Ergobaby carriers and 90th percentile 2 year olds.

dream come true.

loving the dirt pile

freshly bathed

Owen with his hearing protection.

I don't know if he loves wearing these muffs

just because he likes accessories (which he does)

or if he likes making me talk in a REALLY LOUD voice ...