December Fun

Just a few pictures of what we've been up to in the last few weeks.

We had some snow a few weeks ago - it was just a dusting, but it was fun to watch Owen. He kept calling it snowman. It was cute.



Matt and Owen had some daddy/son time one day and this is what went on.



My mom gave us a book called "Make Way for Ducklings" by Robert McCloskey. Owen LOVES it!! He requests it about 4 times a day and will sit still through the whole book. Here he is reading it by himself. Makes him look so grown up to me.



We had our friends Wes and Jennifer Farkas over for dinner recently. Matt took this picture to capture what fun Owen and Luke were having while we finished our dinners.



Owen and I reading the duckling book together - note the growing belly :)



Our friends Kyle and Jenny watched Owen the other night. We found these self timer pictures when we got home. I'm impressed that they got Owen to sit still for the self timer!!



Owen has started to show an interest in the alphabet and learning letters. Here he is looking at the alphabet on this toy.

Exciting News!

We are thrilled to announce that our nephew, Nathan Bryan, was born this weekend. We love you Nathan!

Here is a picture of Nathan with our nephew and niece Reese and Megan.

In the Words of Owen

Owen is constantly learning more and more words and phrases. It's quite precious. Here are a few of the latest.

-This morning after Bible Study, we asked Owen what he learned about in his "Bible Study" (nursery with a Bible Story). He quickly answered "Jesus." Nothing better than that!
-Whenever we see a fire truck, Owen tells a mini story including all of the following - "fire truck"..."flashing lights"..."loud"..."where'd it go?"..."help"..."bye bye truck". The noise scares him, but we've told him that the truck is going to help somebody and that seems to help.
-Owen can recognize the letters "O", "W" and "P". For "O" he says "Owee". For "W" he says "double p". And for "P" he just says "P". Double P (aka "W") is our favorite!!

Advent

We have now officially entered the advent season - the time where we eagerly anticipate the celebration of Christ's Birth at Christmas. Here are a few pictures of how we're celebrating thus far. We've been talking with Owen about how Christmas is to celebrate Jesus' Birthday. But, whenever we try to talk about it, he keeps saying "Happy Day Cow" or "Happy Cow" because there is a birthday party for a cow on one of the shows he likes to watch. So, I think we'll be celebrating two birthdays come 12/25 - Baby Jesus and Sarah the Cow.

We bought a Little People Nativity set that Owen can play with. He mostly likes playing with the sheep, box of hay, and pushing the angel causing an instrumental version of "Away in a Manger" to play.



This is a sweet picture of Owen that we took Saturday when we cut down our own tree!



I was very proud of Matt - he did a great job cutting down the tree, bringing it to the car, putting it on the car, and setting it up in our stand. I took a picture at every step of the process, but decided to include only one for your sake. Owen loved the whole process EXCEPT for when Matt cut the tree down. Owen started crying like we killed the tree...he's a little too observant/aware of things at times. He recovered and is now glad to have a tree in the house. We'll post more pictures when it's decorated. It's a very cute tree!

Race Day

This past Saturday, the staff and families of West End participated in the Jingle Bell 5k here in Richmond. About half of the participants ran and the other half walked. Matt enjoyed running in his first race since cross country days. Owen and I walked since I have stopped running at this point in my pregnancy. After the race, our senior pastor's wife had all of the women over for a brunch. It was a really great day to spend time with our new church family.

Here is a picture of the whole group.

BIG Brother

Owen has learned how to say "baby brother" while pointing to my tummy and "big brother" while pointing to himself. It is very sweet. He really has no idea what that all means, but we're making progress! In light of him preparing to be the BIG brother, I thought I'd put up some pictures of how big our little boy looks these days.

Doesn't he look so grown up in this picture? He's "sitting" on the couch. I guess he is technically sitting on the pillow...



One of Owen's favorite times of day is when daddy gets home. He'll run to the door saying "Daddy!!" and then ask/tell Matt to sit down on the ground and they wrestle and play. It's a very sweet time!



Owen is enjoying drawing more these days - usually that entails Matt and I drawing A LOT of turtles (still loves turtles!) and then Owen "drawing" things for the turtles.



We did end up dressing Owen up as a Redskin (an injured redskin - note the khaki pants, no work out pants) and visited a few of the houses on our street. It was a good chance to interact with our neighbors. He carried his football around from house to house.



I don't know what to say - he's just precious!



One night we went in to say good night and this is how we found Owen - all the way unzipped. We got this picture of him. He's not happy that we were taking a picture of him in the middle of the night. We couldn't pass it up!

A trip to Maymont

A few weekends ago we went to a big park here in Richmond called Maymont. We went with our friends Wes, Jennifer and Luke Farkas. They have become sweet friends of ours in our time here in Richmond. Luke is 18 months (just 2 months younger than Owen) and they have become great pals.

Here is Owen looking at the bears.



Luke and Owen posing for a picture. Aren't they so sweet?!



Here are the two bears that we saw. There were other animals out too, but these were the most exciting!



There was also a nature center inside where they have big tanks of fish and TURTLES and sea otters. Here Owen is standing by the sea otter tank saying "where did it go" because the otter swam away.

Little Drummer Boy

It's a little soon to start playing "Little Drummer Boy," but our little boy is drumming! Walking in his daddy's footsteps. I'm not sure how much to encourage this habit, but for now we do. Here are two videos of Owen going to town on the drums.

Visit with High School Girl Friends

Last week, Owen and I took a day trip to visit two of my girl friends from High School. We enjoyed hanging out and chatting and eating yummy food!

Here is the whole group - Cameron, Tori and Luke (3 months) and Owen and I. I have known Cameron since nursery school and Tori since 1st grade.



Miss Cameron gave Owen and Luke baby size pumpkins. Owen LOVES his. I am sure Luke does too. The next day, Owen just kept asking to hold his "pumpqua." He sat on his little bike while he held the pumpkin for a good 15 minutes.



What a sweet little boy! Luke Robert Secrest. We were so glad to meet him!

It's a ...

BOY!! We just found out this morning that we're having a boy! A playmate and "friend for life" (as one friend put it) for Owen and another sweet little boy for us. We are so thankful that the Lord has been so good to us and has cared for and formed this little boy thus far. We trust Him to continue that good work.

We'll try to get a picture from the ultra sound up soon. I didn't want to wait for that to get figured out before I posted the news though.

Jump!

Owen was trying to jump tonight. If you have ever seen a toddler try to jump, you know it is very cute and funny. Here is our sweet boy "jumping." After this video, Matt and I took turns jumping up and down for Owen - he laughed hysterically. Matt said "I think I'd die laughing too if I could see how we look!" Oh the things parents will do for their sweet children.

"Da Be"

This past weekend, we were a part of the Young Adults Beach trip through our church. Part of Matt's position at the church is to provide pastoral leadership to the Young Adults Community. One way we decided to kick off the fall was through a trip to Corolla, NC. One of the guys in the group has a house in his family. It sleeps 24. We brought 32 adults and Owen. Lots of people! It was a great weekend to get some time with this group of people that we are ministering to. Matt taught a series on Knowing God which provided the group with some great truths to think and talk and pray about during the weekend.

AND Owen LOVED the beach! He had been less than impressed with the beach in the past, but now he is hooked! He loved looking at the water and the birds and playing in the sand. From our house we could see the beach and he would constantly say "da be" which translates to "the beach." It was a joy for us to see him enjoy it so much. We had a very sweet time as a family Sunday morning before the worship service on the beach playing in the sand and going for a walk. Here are some pictures from our time.

Owen enjoying the sand.



Owen and Matt looking at the water. He didn't want to get close to it, but enjoyed looking at it.



A few of the folks on the trip made a turtle out of sand - Owen was thrilled!

Cox Farm with the Purdy Family

We spent this Saturday with Matt's family in Northern Virginia. We enjoyed lunch at Panera with Uncle John, Aunt Anna and Grams and Grandpop. Then we went to Grams and Grandpops for nap time where we spent time with Aunt Noelle and Aunt Megan along with the Panera crew. After naptime, we all got Owen, Ashley and Madison loaded up in the cars (Uncle Scott and Uncle Mark and Mrs. Nestlebush joined us too) and went to a farm in the area for the afternoon. It was a great time! Hot, but fun. Here are some pictures.

Matt and Owen on a hayride.



Owen enjoying some "hay" and a "couw".



This was a big tall slide that Owen and Matt enjoyed.



Owen, Ashley and Madison on the train.



Owen driving the train.



Owen and I at the top of a big tower of hay!



Matt, Owen and I picking out our "free" pumpkins. Owen can say pumpkin - it sounds like "pupqua". He enjoys spotting them all over town.

Fall is here!

We love fall here in the Purdy house! Here are some fun moments we've had recently. I realize that in almost all (if not all) of these pictures Owen is dressed in a couple of Orange shirts. He does have more than 2 long sleeve shirts!

Such a sweet boy!



He went through a phase of walking around with blocks in his mouth. Mostly he just likes to open and close the bag (thanks to my roommate Regina at our last Son House reunion!) and build "towe" with them.



Still making the cheese face!



I know we all had a puppy that you pulled along when we were young. Fisher Price is still making it and Owen loves to either pull it around OR he really loves to chase us when we pull it around or run from us when we chase him with it!



Me and my pal Owen. What a sweet boy! He gives us hugs and kisses and snuggles. What a joy he is to our hearts! Today he woke up from his nap talking about all sorts of things - puppies, paci, piggy... Then he said "God, Baby, Mommy." He knows that God made our baby and that he or she is in mommy's tummy. So amazing. (Note: he also thinks that daddy has a baby in his tummy and asks other people if they have babies in their tummmies...so he's still not really understanding what is going on, but he's making headway for sure.)

Maymont

A few weeks ago we went to a great park in Richmond called Maymont. It's huge - big walking paths, gardens, a Children's Farm, etc. We just spent an hour there between nap time and dinner time, but we enjoyed ourselves a lot! Here are a few pictures of Owen enjoying the animals. He was particularly excited about the cows and horses.

Two Blessings

Two blessings since moving to Richmond are our friends the Brocks and our new pizza place. I lived with Jenny at JMU, and she and her husband Kyle live in Richmond and go to West End. We're so glad they are here!

We have also found the best pizza ever! Mary Angela's Pizza in Carrytown is our new pizza spot. It's delicious classic NY Italian pizza. Every time we leave there I say to Matt "We don't have to go to any other restaurant, I'll come here every time we go out!" It's that good!

The Purdys and the Brocks at Mary Angela's.



Owen walking with his daddy and his good buddy "Kyye".

Football Season

Owen with his two favorite teams.

(Notice also his new expression for taking pictures. He says "CHEEESSE" and squints his eyes and smiles. Just a phase I hope. We'll see how he does next week for his 18 month pictures!)

Catching Up

We have been quite delinquent yet again in our posting efforts. So sorry! So, here is a marathon post to catch up. I think the main reasons for the lack of posting are 1) Most of what Owen is doing is not photographable (like all of the words he is saying and him running around and such), so it's harder to remember to take pictures; 2) WE ARE PREGNANT! We are 14 weeks, and I have not been feeling great, so I have not had much in the way of blogging energy. We'll try to do a better job in the coming weeks/months!

Owen has started feeding himself SOMETIMES - mostly with his yogurt at lunch. He's very Type A, so he doesn't make too much of a mess.



One of Owen's favorite past times is building with blocks. Here is a big tower that he and daddy built one day while I was out having some mommy time (most Saturday mornings I'll go to a local bagel shop and read and enjoy a bagel while Matt and Owen get some good time together).



For Matt's ordination, my brother Bryan and his family came up. We enjoyed time with them. Owen really loved having them here. We didn't take many pictures, but here are Reese and Owen building a tower. Reese is a lego expert, so he was teaching Owen some good building technique I think.



One blessing of our time in Richmond is a playgroup through church. There is a group of moms with kids Owen's age that get together at the church to play during the week. We've enjoyed being a part of this group and will continue in the fall. (Owen has enjoyed spending time with Luke Farkas (bottom right) and Kylen Zollinhoffer (second on bottom right) and Matt and I have enjoyed spending time with their parents too.)



We recently bought a drum and other instruments for Owen. He loves to play with the instruments. We usually turn on his favorite song on the Indelible Grace album - "Arise My Soul Arise" and sing and play.



There is a botanical garden in Richmond called Lewis Ginter. We went with our friend Blair Brown and Jeb and Anna Roe. This is Owen climbing under a big tree. (Joe and Matt were at work - Joe is the Children's Ministry Director at West End.)



We haven't done a bath picture in a while.



Uncle Bryan and Aunt Becky gave Owen this great bubble machine. He is COVERED in bubbles in this picture. He loves to stick his hands in front of the bubbles and let them collect on his limbs. At least it's a clean thing, right?