Daisy's baptism day

 House-guests, Thanksgiving & Day Trips

It's been pretty busy 'round here at the Owens' home, and two of the big projects aren't even going to be covered in this post! It all started about 2 months ago when we offered to hold Thanksgiving at our house. We decided if we were going to have so many people over that we aught to go ahead and bite the bullet and do some landscaping (curbing & pavers) out front so it looked more presentable. We organized that project and got it started and Justin also started a retaining wall in back around the playground (both of these to be blogged about later). No pictures of those, but they were very time consuming projects and aren't quite done yet!

The weekend before Thanksgiving we had my Uncle JP staying with us for a few days because both of my parents were out of town, one on business and the other up at the cabin doing some maintenance. JP is 88years old and doesn't have any family. He also suffers from pretty severe dementia (among other things) and shouldn't be left alone for extended periods of time, so he stayed with us. It was funny how excited my kids were to have him here. Not to mention they all got to have "sleepovers" in Brighton's room for two nights since JP was sleeping in Adaira's bed. Dale is such a good sleeper since he began sharing a room with Brighton when he was about 8 months old. He is a very light sleeper; Brighton is a very deep sleeper. He goes to bed at 7:30; Brighton goes to sleep around 8:30-9pm (unfortunately!). Nonetheless Dale has learned to settle himself in when he gets awoken by his big brother. He wakes up and maybe talks to Brighton a bit, but then he lays down and ignores him or just watches him from his crib. He never cries! It is a great thing, considering that even Adaira can sleep in there too without any issues.

 I turned on a history channel show for JP and within 5 minutes I turned around to see this.
Brighton is still such a cuddler, and I know JP probably really enjoyed having him watch TV with him. Brighton has always been so nice and sensitive to JP since I told him about how sad JP must be not having any family or many people to talk to. It was great to be able to ask Adaira or Brighton to help with JP and they would listen the first time, every time. It was amazing! I'd ask Adaira to show JP where the bathroom was (because he would forget) and she would run over and take his hand and walk him to the bathroom. They would also help me at the store when I'd ask them to hold JP's hand in the parking lot so he "wouldn't fall". He probably didn't really need it but I knew it would melt his heart since he's never had any grandchildren. They would take his hand and he would get a huge smile on his face and quicken his step a little bit each time. I later told the both of them that they would get a special prize for helping JP so much. I explained to them that they were serving JP and what a great thing that was. Brighton then said, "Yes, and HE served OUR country in World War II!" I laughed at his correlation between the two. JP did serve in the Navy during World War II, and was also at Normandy on D-Day, though he didn't fight on land since he was a Sailor. It's just too bad that he can't remember the words to describe much of it though.

 I took these pictures of Dale because it's so funny the way he "charges" around. You know how toddlers just walk full speed with arms waving back and forth as they take on the world around them? It's cute to see, and I see it a lot because this is one BUSY child.

 Just a few more months and Dale will be able to figure out the pedals on this bike. He tries almost every day to get around on it.

 Brighton and Adaira have been playing on the playground nearly every day after school since the weather has cooled down. It makes me happy to see them playing outside and using their imaginations rather than wanting to be inside watching TV. Sure one of them comes in crying every 30 mintues to tell me how the other one did them wrong, but after I acknowledge their pain they miraculously recover and run outside again :)

 This is the outfit Adaira came out wearing a few days ago. I'm really starting to get frustrated with the fact that she always wants to dress like a hobo rather than wearing her nicer clothes. This morning I had even picked out an outfit for her (and it had a skirt, which is one of Adaira's requirements) and she didn't like it, so you can see how frustrating it is when she turns me down to wear THIS stuff! Personally I think it's a power trip, which it probably is. Adaira is pretty controlling of those things she has control over...
I told her she could either change into something that matches or she would have to stay downstairs with Frances while I ran errands. She chose to stay downstairs...

Dale loves to help me with laundry. If I'm loading things into the washer, he is right next to me pulling stuff out of the basket and pushing it into the washer too. If I'm transferring clothes to the dryer, he's right there again. Same thing with the clean clothes out of the dryer, except sometimes I catch him doing it himself and putting the clean clothes back into the washer... Today he was reaching really far to get the last items out of the dryer and realized he could fit in there, and that's just what he did. 

 If any of us are kneeling down, Dale loves to run up from behind and lay on our backs. I took this picture over my shoulder when I was folding laundry. Isn't he sweet?

Dale is also the source of 90% of the mess in our house. We call him the "relocator". We find kitchen items in the master bathroom, bathroom items in the family room, etc. I've installed latches on a lot of his favorite drawers to raid and it has made him pretty angry. He's figured out if he just yanks it back and forth enough the latch will either break or skip and open. It's frustrating...

Thanksgiving 

See all of my Thanksgiving pictures? Oh, that's right, I forgot to take some. We were so busy cleaning the house and getting ready for it that by the time it came, taking pictures was the last thing on my mind. We hosted Justin's family & cousins for lunch (30+ people, mostly adults) and my family (13 adults & kids) for dinner. It was a lot of work but really fun to see the kids get to run around the yard and play with their cousins on both sides throughout the day. I also didn't have to cook anything and that makes for a great day!

Colossal Cave

I opted not to waste my time doing Black Friday shopping, so instead we took a day trip to Colossal Cave down south of Tucson. We took Brighton and Adaira to Peppersauce Cave two years ago and they loved it, but for some reason when we got to Colossal Cave, which is much bigger and more organized with a tour, they were afraid to do in! We were holding their hands for the first 20 minutes inside because they were so nervous. The view from just outside the entrance was beautiful!

 I realized when trying to organize family pictures that Justin and I have very few pictures of the two of us. We had Brighton take this picture. Unfortunately it's impossible for Justin to open his eyes in the sunlight :)

 We initially started the tour with Dale in the backpack. He LOVES the backpack. When we get it out at home he starts whining and following us with is until we put him in it. Unfortunately the tour guide kept stopping to talk about parts of the cave and Dale was getting too bored. He was a total PAIN on this tour. A complete wiggle worm and we could let him walk around because there were a lot of small cliffs and openings that were only blocked off by a handrail that he could easily walk under.

Justin trying to keep Dale quiet away from the rest of the group so his whines and screams wouldn't interrupt the tour...

 Me trying to manhandle Dale. All he wanted to do was throw himself backwards and run around on the ground...

 Overall it was a nice family trip. We stopped in Casa Grande on the way home for a luxurious dinner out to Dennys (which until the kids are older is the only place we will actually pay for them sit down and eat at). We found another place off the side of the road on the way home that would be great for another day trip, hopefully in the next month or so!