Home Sweet Home

Baby Dale Justin Ellsworth Owens was born at 4:50 AM on 8/31/09 . He weighs 9 pounds and 5 ounces. The guy is 21 and 3/4 inches long. We proudly welcome him into our home and thank Audra for all the hard work she has put into bringing him home. In anticipation of my departure in 3 weeks we wanted to have the baby this weekend on our schedule. We paid a price for that. The other two children were born quickly once they were ready. With Dale we first went in at 2:30 pm on Saturday 8/29 and went through 2 rounds of ripening gel then speed walks in the hallway and around the hospital. While Audra had regular contractions they weren't painful or doing much so we were sent home. Sunday morning we called at 6:30 AM for our 7:30 AM induction appointment. They hospital was full so we were on hold all day. Audra walked two miles and bounced on the large exercise ball but no luck. We got the call that they had room for us while Audra was in the shower. We made our way to the hospital and...

I always considered myself to have blue eyes....until Adaira was born. My eyes look like hazel compared to hers. As an infant they almost looked purple at times. Now they look like sapphires. They are beautiful!

This last week we had the camera out to take a picture of my big belly and afterward Adaira and I were playing around trying to get a picture. She kept ducking her head to try to keep me from getting a picture with her. We finally got a few, and she thought it was a hilarious game. She asked me to play it again with her a few days later.

This last Mother's Day, Justin and the kids (k mostly Justin because the kids got bashful) sang this to me as a present (accompanied on guitar). Justin had been secretly teaching it to them, althoughAdaira blew cover a few times singing "there's only one thing to say..." but it didn't matter since I had never heard the song before. Since then we've heard it on the radio a few times and watched it on YouTube and it will always be special to me, especially when I see the kids' faces light up and hear them singing it with the music. Adaira and I were listening to it today. I don't know how to post the actual video of the song, but here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1LwS6-g-7E&feature=email

So growing up my family used to always sit down and watch America's Funniest Home Videos. We couldn't stand dumb Bob Saget but the videos were funny and I still get a kick out of watching AFV today with my kids, sort of a family tradition with some good wholesome entertainment. For the heck of it, I submitted this little clip online yesterday and AFV actually called me today! I know we won't win anything but apparently the screener was going to pass it on because it was a cute clip. Justin shut the camera off right after Brighton finished talking so it ends pretty abruptly, and the screener wanted to know if we had anymore footage. I told him we didn't but he said he still thought they could use it. Pretty cool!

You Know You Are DONE Being Pregnant When: You refuse to bend over any more. I don't care that the floor is a mess and needs to be swept, or that my kids are now my servants any time I drop anything. Bending over is OUT until this soccer ball disappears from my midsection. Your maternity clothes are too small for you. I feel a draft on my lower belly with half of my maternity shirts now, I'm starting to feel like my 10th grade Chemistry teacher whose shirt slowly rode up above his pot belly at least twice a week. Your body feels like it belongs to senior citizen. I don't think there is a position I can get into without grunting anymore. You are going to the chiropractor three days in a row to try and fix your screwed up SI joint that hasn't allowed you to sleep for a week, and it STILL hurts. You can't gloss over with a simple "good" when people ask how you are feeling. You just grumpily say "don't ask". Every time you look at yourself in ...

Justin Deserves Some Recognition So while we were building our house we were very aware of how many people around us were struggling. We have been so blessed in the past few years as we rode the real estate boom with a house in Chandler and some land in ShowLow and were able to save a reserve to allow us to buy some land in Chandler to build a house. It was a risky deal as we had to buy a larger piece and bank on the plan to split it and sell it before we ran out of money making the payments for the whole thing. Lucky for us, we got a buyer within three months, and originally we split the lot into two 1.25ac pieces, but the buyer wanted slightly more land, so we re-surveyed and had the .25 shaved off of ours to give him 1.5acres. He paid us enough more for the extra .25ac that we were able to add an unfinished basement to our plans! It was really a miracle for us because less than a week after we closed the deal his wife changed her mind and decided she didn't want to live there. T...

As sweet as Adaira is asleep she is even more beautiful while she is awake. Her blue eyes pop and her smile is so precious. We love her so much. These were taken as we waited for Brighton on her first day of school.

Tender Moments Every morning we have to check on Adaira. It's a routine now because half of the time she isn't in her room. The first few times we were alarmed because you think of some crazy man stealing her through the window or something, but we are used to it now. This is usually where we find her: in Brighton's room. Sometimes we find her next to him, sometimes opposite him with her head on the other end, or occasionally on his top bunk. This was where we found her last night. They fight as much as they love on each other, but this is precious with her little arm on him.

Brighton Goes to School Brighton had his first day of Kindergarten today! I sniffed a little bit after dropping him off at his classroom but today was a work day for me so after I went to work it didn't seem any different because either way Brighton wouldn't have been with me. Tomorrow all day with just Adaira and I will be different. Here is Brighton just before we left to school. He had his backpack straps on both shoulders but then took one strap off and said "some kids wear it this way." Gettin' a hug from his little sister Not such a great picture, but the bus got him home okay! Justin came home a little early to be with us to meet Brighton. Afterward we went and got ICEE's to celebrate

Oh So Helpful! Brighton took it upon himself to charge the battery to my camera since it was low. Now he can't remember where he put it and I can't find it anywhere, so no new pics for a while. Kids....gotta love 'em.

We love the Monsoons! We had a downpour for almost two full hours with 45-50mph wind gusts. The kids loved playing on the patio but once the wind started they got freaked out. It knocked out our power for about 4 hours and partially flooded our basement (good thing it's unfinished!) A few hours into it I called my parents, who only live three miles West & four miles North, to see if they still had power and they hadn't even gotten any rain! The fun ended once I told Justin he aught to check the basement to see if the rain was filling up the window well. The rain ran down the outside stairs to the basement, flooding the stairwell all the way up to the bottom of the door and into the basement. We (mainly Justin) had mostly cleaned it up by the time we took the pictures. We hadn't even removed the duct tape from the cover of the drain in the stairwell and we couldn't turn on the sump pump because we didn't have power! He was filling up two buckets and running them ...

Is this thing on? The house was complete enough to move into in March. We are not done, but we probably never will be completely finished with the house. Our construction blog is at: http://www.ownerbuilderbook.com/blogs/users/OwensNewHome.aspx There is nothing like driving home from a long day of work and seeing the house we built. It is very satisfying. Just this morning Audra said "I love our house". The particular comment was in reference to the sumptuous kitchen cabinet space that we have yet to fill up. It is much easier to find things when the cabinets are 50% full vs 100% full. We are about to embark upon a journey of having our third child (a boy) and quite possibly a 6 month relocation. More details to come . . .