Hallelujah! Relief is in the forecast!

This little boy is now 3 years old! When he woke up on his birthday and I gave him his morning snuggles, it hit me! He is definitely not a baby anymore. I have loved and celebrated every milestone and growth achievement with him, and didn't feel an ounce of sadness until that day. He is only going to keep on getting bigger and bigger. I love his independence, but too soon the day will come where he thinks he doesn't need me anymore, or he's too big or too cool for his mommy. So I will have to savor his littleness while it lasts. I love his littleness.

He had preschool in the morning, so I had made some cupcakes to bring and share with his class. While he was gone to preschool, I came home and set up the tables, party hats, balloons and decorations. It was so fun to see his expression when he walked in the door after I picked him up! But first, we had to make a few stops to run some errands, and pick him up a happy meal, his lunch of choice on his happy birthday!

That evening we had some of Nick's dental student friends and their families over to celebrate. We had dinner, pinata, and cake. It was so much fun, they are such great friends! And here is the soccer ball cake Owen requested for his birthday. I have to admit, I was very pleased with the way it turned out! It was pretty experimental, and very hard to get the black frosting to look like a soccer ball. There was an ice cream layer in the middle, with green tinted coconut for grass.

After singing happy birthday, here is the birthday boy blowing out the candles.

It was really fun to see these little kids trying to break open the pinata. They just don't hit very hard, so we had to get help from some of the daddies there. It was pretty funny!

I think it's fun to look back in time exactly a year ago to see how much has changed. Owen has grown a ton this past year! Last year this time we had barely moved in to our house a week and a half before Owen's birthday, and we were still getting settled in. I took a look at my blog post that day, and thought it was fun. Check it out if you are interested!

http://millerrubbish.blogspot.com/2008/09/happy-birthday-to-owen.html

Today was Owen's first day of preschool! Yeah, I know he isn't even three until next week, but he is definitely ready (or at least I am). And I have to take advantage of the opportunity while there is one! There is a group of 6 of us in our ward here who want to do a neighborhood Joy School thing. And it is cheap. I am not sure we'll be able to afford to put Owen in a real preschool ($150 + a month in Vegas!) so this will have to do! We get the lesson plans and materials in the mail, and we take turns hosting it at our homes by months. It's just two hours a day, twice a week. Here he is, all excited to go.

I made him stop for a picture before I dropped him off. He was ready to play with the kids!

Here he is playing with a buddy, Nathan. When I came to pick him up, he asked if he could come back. He was very happy when I told him he'll be back in two days! Success! I wanted a picture of his little class, but only 4 of the 6 were there today. Maybe next time. They are cuties!

This is from our last weekend of freedom! Nick started back to school today (going on his second of four years, yipee!) so this was the last relaxing weekend he'll have for a while. We went to St. George to spend time with family and see Owen's cousin get baptized.

Owen has really been into dinosaurs lately. He has a book with pop-out dino skeletons. He likes to talk about how they are not alive anymore, but we can find their bones in the dirt. There is a place in St. George where they have found dinosaur footprints, and have a museum to check them out. Nick took Owen to see them.

He was really hoping to see a full skeleton, but there was just a small collection of random bones and eggs. Which is still pretty cool.

And of course we spent some time at the pool everyday. I forgot how packed it got there on Labor Day weekend!

Here is Owen laying out with daddy. I was hoping his daddy would get a little more color on his skin before he went back into his cave for the next year, but it didn't really happen. Owen is still darker!

The past month has flown by! We've spent 3 weeks in Utah with family and friends. The greatest thing about being married to a full-time student is the long breaks between semesters, and holiday vacations. I have to enjoy it while it lasts to have Nick around like this. So here is a recap of what we've been up to. We spent most of our time with Nick's mom and step-dad, and were immensely spoiled.

Owen helped his cousin London celebrate her 7th birthday by going to Build-A-Bear. Own picked out the monkey. Here he is giving him a scrub down after he was filled with fluff.

Owen picked out the basketball uniform for his monkey, which just happened to be the Utah Jazz. His dad wasn't even there to influence that. He then named his monkey Basketball Monkey.

Here is Owen with the birthday girl London and her brother Sammy in front of the store.

Owen has been watching Wonder Pets on Nickelodeon lately, and saw an activity on tv about making Ming Ming Cupcakes. He asked his nana (Grandma Moore) if she would help him (more like insisted). So we spent one Sunday afternoon decorating cupcakes.

Owen enjoyed it, but the two that got into it the most was Nick and his mom!

And here is the finished product:
(If you've seen Wonder Pets, you'd know that these do slightly resemble Ming Ming, the yellow duck with a fly hat on.)

Owen was very excited to share with his cousins when they came over that night for dinner!

And I can't forget to mention what Nick was so proud to make:

The older cousin girls had a fun time dressing up the little boys as well. Here is Sammy, Beau and Owen. Owen insisted on keeping the veil over his face. What cute little princesses!

We went back to Lagoon (a second time) with our bounce back passes. This time we went after nap time, and stayed until they closed.

Owen hit all his favorite rides again.

While Nick went on some bigger rides with his mom and step-dad, I took Owen on this ride. After waiting in line forever, I realized that he was big enough to go on it, but too small to go by himself. Being so pregnant, I knew I couldn't go with him, so I stuck him on the ride and hurried out the gate to watch. We got away with it because nobody questioned why a tiny guy was all by himself. That's why this picture makes me laugh.

One day we went to the aquarium there in Sandy, for the first time. Owen had fun looking at the cool fish and spiders and even tried to touch a sting ray.

Owen also insisted on going bowling one day. Here is his daddy helping him bowl with a ramp.

After a while, the lights went off and the cosmic lights and music came on. We don't know why, but it was very cool to be there for that!

We went swimming a couple times. Here is Owen having a snack during a pool break. I love this picture of him.

We also went miniature golfing (twice at Owen's request. See, I told you we were spoiled while we where there!) I love this shot of daddy helping Owen.

Owen really loved it. It took a while to get the ball in the hole, but he always did.

And here he is celebrating. He was usually 2-3 holes ahead of the rest of us.

He has a love/hate relationship with miniature golfing. At one point he was so frustrated and upset, he threw his ball into some flowers, and couldn't find it. But that was after he got ahead of us so far, he hit his ball in the last hole that doesn't return it. That made him mad. His daddy was very patient and fished another ball for him out of some water (which was thrown in the flowers later). We could have went back to ask for a new one, being as 2 year olds golf free there. Oh well. We all had fun still. Here he is being a sulky stinker. I told him to sit in the shade and watch us finish the game.

We went camping one night with my parents, and their dog Daisy. Nick was thinking about staying a second night, but by morning, his mind had changed. It wan't the 2 year old, it was the pregnant lady with allergies that changed his mind. He has a hard time sleeping with me blowing my nose, and getting out to pee so often. And I was trying to be a good sport about it the whole time. Here is Owen after he had trudged through the stream and collected a pile of firewood for us.

Nick didn't get a fishing license, so we just watched grandpa do the fishing.

He didn't catch anything that evening, but in the morning my dad got up early, and came back with 4 decent sized fish. Owen now pretends to fish all the time, and open up his bag to show us his big fish like my dad did.

Oh, and here is the best picture. I thought I would cool off on the lake and stay dry by perching myself on this tiny tube. I was wrong. I tipped over and got drenched. But it did make for a great picture! (which there are very few of me, for good reason) So here I am at about 32 weeks. Enjoy!

My sister Liz and her returned missionary boy Jonny showed up in the morning to play. Owen had lots of fun in the raft on the lake with them!

Here is Nick thinking about getting in the cold water.

Yes, it was a bit cold.

But it was fun!


And that's a few of the highlights from our Utah trip. Nick still has almost a week left before he heads back to school, so we will make the most of it. We already have the baby girl crib set up and ready to go with some cute bedding. Owen's old crib had been recalled a few months ago, so we got to take it in and get a brand new one! I am filling up my schedule for the next month and a half to keep me busy so time willl go by fast. Should be fun!