Sweet Hats

One of our Young Adult friends at church makes these precious hats. I love them!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We enjoyed Tuesday - Friday of Thanksgiving week in Northern Virginia with the Purdy family. We were able to spend a lot of time together both during the day with the kiddos (including cousins Ashley and Madison) and at night too. I didn't get too many pictures, but here are a few that I did get.

My parents also joined us for the day which we enjoyed a lot - here is a turkey cheeseball that my mom brought. So cute and so yummy.



Uncle Mark bought a candy cane reindeer set. Owen and Ashley and Madison enjoyed creating reindeer with candy canes, pipe cleaners, cotton balls and googly eyes. We enjoyed it too.



The Purdy children hard at work on Thanksgiving Eve shelling shrimp. I stuck to setting the table! It was fun to all chip in and help Matt's mom get things ready for the big day.



Matt and the boys enjoying the Thanksgiving Day Parade. The JMU Marching Royal Dukes were even in the parade this year. We turned it on just in time to see them. Go Dukes! (We play in the seminfinals this weekend for the Div. 1AA Championship!)



Owen and Baxter playing in the big leaf pile that Matt's dad raked for them. I never knew how hard it would be to get your own two children to look at one camera. Phew!

Random Updates

Just a few random things that have been captured recently.

Owen has just aquired the skill of eating a banana by holding it. He learned this from his friend Grant. He calls it "banana in a bag - like Grant". So sweet.



One day Owen wrote his name like this - he hasn't been able to replicate it other than the O and W. The rest of it always looks like squiggles. It's so fun to watch him grow into a little boy!



Owen's rendition of a smiley face.



Baxter is starting to enjoy books - mostly to chew on - here are a couple that he pulled down the other day.

Video Time

We've taken some videos recently that we just had to share! I just added two of them.

Here is Owen singing "Tis So Sweet" while drumming. He also says "Bang!" a lot and maybe even "Tackle Bang" (I forget if it's in this video that he adds the tackle in, but he's been doing that a lot. At first I thought he was saying "Taco Bang.")



Baxter watching his first Elmo's World DVD.

Trip to Harrisonburg

We took a little road trip this weekend to my parents house in Harrisonburg. My brother Brett and his wife Carolyn and their two kiddos - Anna (2 1/2) and Jake (7 1/2 months) where down from Connecticut for the weekend. We enjoyed some great time just hanging out and chatting. Most of all, it was a joy to see Owen and Anna love each other A LOT and play WITH each other - peacefully for the most part!! We love you guys!

Here are the four cousins sitting on the couch. We missed you FL Gillan Cousins!!



Owen and Anna playing outside.



Gramma had some fun puppets that Owen enjoyed - especially this turtle one!



This is a video of Owen and Anna playing ring around the rosie outside.

Running

One of our favorite things to do is still going for family runs. Usually that consists of me, Owen and Baxter while Matt is at work. Today when we were about 3/4 of the way through our run, Owen said, "Mommy, when we get home can we run again?" I guess for him it was an easy ride! Needless to say, we did not go for a second run!

Here are the boys today when we got back.





Baxter is wearing a great hat that his friend Noah sent to him from Peru. Thanks Salvatierras!!

Two Cowboys

For halloween this year, we dressed the boys up as cowboys (NOT the football team!) and took them to a fall harvest celebration at a church nearby. Unfortunately there were a lot of loud games (namely balloon darts!) at the celebration, so our stay was short. We did however enjoy some time with a few of Owen's friends from playgroup and their parents before we left.

Here are some pictures of the cowboys before we left. They both fell asleep on the way home, so precious.

A little Baxter fun

Here are some recent photos of Baxter - he's a joy to us! Very busy and investigative. And oh so sweet. Enjoy!

Baxter really loves playing with this toy - Owen always enjoyed it, but not nearly as much as Baxter loves it! Sometimes they enjoy playing with it together.



We now know why they make these plastic covers for outlets.



He has been able to stand up in his crib for a while now, I am just now getting around to posting this picture.

Punkpins

You might think that I made a mistake in spelling pumpkins in the title of this blog. You are correct unless you are Owen Purdy. Last year, Owen called pumpkins "pumpqua" (still not sure where the Q comes from). This year, he calls them "punkpins". So sweet! One other sweet thing is that tonight on a walk, we passed a house with little white ghosts in the front yard. Owen has never encountered this before. He was talking about all of the punkpins that he saw and then he said "snowman, snowman, snowman, snowman!" pointing to each of the four ghosts. May he never know that they are really ghosts!

Yesterday we went to a nearby church that was selling punkpins and had a great time walking around, taking pictures and enjoying the fall (75 degree) weather.

Here is our family - this is the best shot we got of the four of us. How do you get two boys to look at the camera at the same time?!



Owen in the "punkpin hole."



B checking it out.



What a face! A little blurry but so precious.



Our two boys.



Baxter found a leaf and tried to eat it. Here Owen is helping him clean it off. Owen loves things to be clean. Each pumpkin that he picked up that had a little water on it he would say "this one is dirty" and promptly put it down.



Happy boy!



Here they are - a Baxter sized punkpin, and Owen sized punkpin and a Mommmy/Daddy sized punkpin. Sunday for dinner - punkpin pancakes! (I made sure that Owen knew that we'd be eating different punkpin in our pancakes!)

A few fun times

Here are a few fun things from the last week.

Owen finger painting - his favorite part is to mix the paint on the paper plate when he's done painting on the paper. We were using fall colors this day - red, yellow, green, organge. Notice the nice shade of brown that they made when he mixed it up. I love fall!



Because our little B is so much more mobile than Owen was at this age, we went out and got this new toy at a kids consignment store the other day. Love those stores!! BOTH Owen and Baxter love it. It's been a source of great joy and a source of learning much about selfish hearts! Oh, what a process it is to grow in Christ as a 2 year old!!



I don't remember why, but when Matt tried to take this picture of us reading, I started laughing and that made Owen look up at me and smile. Matt captured that moment.



Baxter just hanging out with some things to chew on - a bowl, a spoon and an Ant that has bells on it. What more could one want?

Matching PJ's

Just some fun matching PJ's we got for the boys.

Around the house

Just a few of our favorite things these days.

Owen loves to make a "hole" with pillows and sit in the middle of it. He'll just sit and sit and play. It's very sweet. Usually big puppy functions as the door that gets opened and closed. Sometimes Baxter tries to break in and it's fun MOST of the time!



We had some fun in our tunnel this week. Here is Owen hanging out in the tunnel.



Here is Baxter (who is now CRAWLING all over the world!!!) crawling through.



So Baxter is crawling everywhere! He is also leaning on anything he can - couches, Owen's drum, boxes, etc. He's much more adventurous than Owen was, but still cautious.

Another very special visit

We had a very special visit last week. My grandparents and Aunt had made the trip from NJ to VA to visit my parents. They all came over for a daytrip to visit with us and see the boys. We are so thankful that they were able to see our house and our boys. It is amazing that they were able to make the trip - my grandpa has had some really serious health issues recently, but is doing great and the Lord has sustained him and helped him so much! We love you Grandma, Grandpa and Aunt Barbara. (Note: My dad has a sister named Barbara. My dad married my mom whose name is Barbara. My dad's brother married a Barbara (this is the one who was here). Crazy, huh?!)

Special Visit

A few weeks ago we enjoyed a visit with our precious friends Michael and Laura. Michael and Laura are missionaries in Peru with Missions to the World. We were at JMU together and love them and miss them greatly! It was a treat to spend a few hours with them in Richmond when they were home. We love you all!

Preschool Update

For those who have been wondering/praying, Owen is doing MUCH better at school!! He has really enjoyed week 2 and week 3. We are so thankful!

Just a few from last week

Me and the boys.



we're still at the "almost" crawling phase, but it's fun to watch!



Matt always captures the greatest shots of the boys! I love the joy in their faces.