Easter Eggstravaganza!

Well, this is going to be a long one since I haven't posted in a few days. We had a great Easter weekend visiting with PawPaw and Bona (we're not sure why Owen calls her that, but he does). We played poker (I won!), Mom and I got to go shopping all day Friday, we went out to eat Saturday night, watched a movie, went to church, had a great Easter dinner--it was just a nice relaxing family weekend! Here are some pictures we took over the weekend.

I dyed eggs on Saturday afternoon while Owen was napping and then he decorated them with stickers that night. He had a lot of fun with them. I got a Sesame Street kit so he was pretty excited about that.

He loved playing with all the character eggs. He liked to line them up on the table.

Here's the Muhses before church on Sunday morning. A picture with Owen looking at the camera, sitting still, and smiling is very rare these days so this is the best we could get.

Here he is with Bona and PawPaw.

Here's what the Easter Bunny left him while we were at church.

Checking out his loot.

He enjoyed hunting the eggs. We practiced with him on Saturday and he caught on to it pretty quickly. He didn't want to carry his basket though, so I had to follow behind him with it.

Of course, he had to open each egg that he found that was filled with candy as soon as he picked it up. He ate some of it and then dropped it into a bowl that I carried around as well.

Here he is sampling the candy--notice Murphy is trying to get a little taste too.

After a day of hunting and eating candy, a guy's just gotta relax a little.

Hope everyone else had a blessed Easter! Now if we could just get that Spring weather back everything would be much better!

Count Owen

I know he's looking at me like I'm a crazy woman when I tell him to do what "The Count" from "Sesame Street" says but I swear he does it EVERY OTHER TIME! Oh well, you'll all just have to settle for me doing it instead!

Pucker Up

So here is what I looked like pretty much all day yesterday:

No, Cody is not beating me. For some reason, my lips and/or face keep swelling off and on. This has been going on for about 3 years now but I don't remember it happening since I've had Owen. It happened a lot before I had him but then it just sort of quit. Then this weekend it started happening again. Friday night it was very slight, then the same on Saturday, and then Sunday I looked like I'd been on the losing end of boxing match. This wasn't even the biggest they got! Cody kept calling me Angelina or Goldie. I had to take 3 doses of benadryl before they would go down--in the past I've only needed one. Cody researched it online for me and didn't really find much except that there is something in toothpaste that I could be allergic to. But I think that it would happen every time I brushed my teeth, and it happened yeseterday when I woke up before even brushing my teeth. I've tried to think of different things I've eaten or put on my face and I'm just not coming up with anything. From Cody's research, he found that a lot of other people have the same thing and they don't know what it is. Anyone got any words of wisdom on this topic?

Golf, anyone?

Cody's friend, Dana, gave Owen a cute little golf set because Cody helped him move a couple of weeks ago. Cody was so excited for his boy to finally have his own set of clubs and he couldn't wait to show them to him. So last weekend when the weather was so nice we decided to break it out of the box and get the next Tiger Woods started early.

So, here you can see the clubs and bag (not yet put together) out on the lawn. Where is Owen, you ask? Why is he not utterly excited about this wonderful new sport? The sport his daddy, grandpa, and many uncles absolutely love?

He found a great stick, that's why! He ditched the new toy as soon as it came out of it's box, ran to this stick and said, "Cooool!!!"

Daddy and I decided that we were going to have to get in on the action to get him excited about this wonderful game.
I really do think Mommy's form is better than Daddy's, don't you? hee hee.
Alas, Owen discovered there was a much easier way to get the balls into that little cup.

"Golf clubs are highly overrated."

Looks like it's going to be more like "Dorf on Golf" rather than the next Tiger Woods.

Spring Fever

Last weekend found Owen sitting at the window and crying until we took him outside. He kept bringing us his shoes so we would take him and finally we had to give in. So Sunday evening we headed to the park for a little fun.

He LOVES slides. He kept going back to it saying, "Sliiide!!"

Here he is having fun on the swings.

Owen has turned into a very close examiner of things. He has to get right down in the face of everything and check it out. He does it mostly with bugs (ew!) but here he is doing it with a rock.

Here's Owen and Daddy looking down at me through a tire tunnel that they had. Poor Mommy, never gets in a picture.

Wow! This makes 3 posts in 3 days! I'm hot! It's not stopping anytime soon, folks. Lots more pictures of recent days to show so if you want all Owen all the time, keep comin' back! Hope everyone is enjoying Spring!

Science is Fun!!

Last Saturday we ventured over to Des Moines with the Eisenbarths for lunch and a trip through the Science Center. Aside from the fact that we were seated 2 feet away from the bar at Applebee's, right next to a man who was smoking, but we were still in the "Non-Smoking" section, everything went great! This was the first time we had been to the Science Center since Owen has been walking and old enough to interact with a lot of the stuff. Although, except for the stuff in the "Small Discoveries" section, which is designated for toddlers, he mostly just wanted to run around the place. We still had fun though!

Lizzie putting on a puppet show at the puppet theater.


Here's Gracie hamming it up during her puppet show. This girl loves the camera!

As soon as we got there, Owen and Grace ran straight for the blocks and stayed there for a bit. Jasmine and I commented on how we spent 6 bucks a pop for them to play with something we both have in our living rooms!

Owen really liked the big blocks! He said, "Cool!"

They have ton of golf balls in the toddler section, which he loved playing with.

He loved walking through this tunnel/ramp thing!

And this last picture is one of Travis' little jokes. They had a little "fishing area" there and then a chalkboard to write who caught the "big fish" of the day. So Travis wrote in Cody's name. We all got a big kick out of it.

He's a Party Animal, Folks!

So I'm finally getting around to posting pictures of Owen's birthday party. He had a great time! He ran all over and played with all the kids and just had a ball! He was so busy he didn't even open all of his presents and I believe he only ate about 2 bites of the Elmo cake that Mommy slaved over for 3 hours. Oh well, I still enjoyed making it and he still enjoyed looking at it. Here's a few shots from the night:

Logan, Jack, and Owen playing the piano. They had so much fun together!

The Elmo vacuum--if only it really worked! But he likes it!

The Elmo doctor kit. Do you see a theme to this party, here? ;)

His Laughtop which is a little old for him, but he still loves pressing the buttons on it.

The Elmo Cake

His first time seeing the cake. He tried to pick the whole thing up! Shortly after this we sang "Happy Birthday" to him and he was just mesmerized. His face lit up like a Christmas tree and he just loved that everyone was singing for him. It was the cutest thing!

The happy Muhs family

And this is my friend, Dusty letting Logan put a crown on his head. I'm really just putting this up because he told me not to. hee hee. Notice the beer in the hand as he plays with his child...stellar parenting. :) Love you, Dusty!

Ah, the princess of the ball. Look how happy Logan is to see his daddy dressed up like a little girl. ;)

Well, I have tons more pictures of recent happenings in the Muhs household to get up here. We've all been fighting colds that just won't go away for the last week so I have just been too worn out to get up here and put anything on the computer. But I'm hoping to get something new up every other day or so since I have so much to talk about. So check back often! Hope everyone is enjoying the Spring weather. I know we are glad to see the snow GONE!

They Say it's His Birthday...

...and Uncle Jay's birthday, too!! A big happy birthday to my baby boy, who turns 2 today! And also to my Uncle Jay--but I won't tell what he's turning! ;) I will never forget 2 years ago when Uncle Jay kept telling me he was holding out for Owen to be born on his birthday. Since his due date was March 24th, I just laughed at him and said, "Yeah, keep hoping!" I couldn't believe it on March 14th when my water broke and the doctor told me I would have him that day. I called Auntie Gaye and told her to tell Uncle Jay his wish came true. Now they will forever be "Birthday Buddies!" We are celebrating Uncle Jay's birthday night, but waiting to celebrate Owie's until his daddy is here on Saturday. Stay tuned for pictures from the parties! Happy Birthday, Boys!

We're still alive!!!

I realize it's been a while since I've posted anything! I've just been too lazy to get on here at the end of the day and type. We are doing well here in Murphysboro, aside from the fact that Owen has caught a cold. He seems to be taking it in stride and is not letting it slow him down. I am healing slowly but surely. I still have a little pain every now and again but only seem to notice it when I really try to overdo it. I'll be so glad when I can finally pick my baby boy up again!

Last Saturday we went to by brother's near St. Louis to celebrate Maddy's 5th birthday. They had a great party at a park, which Owen loved. He ran ALL OVER that park! Grandma had to do most of the chasing though because I just couldn't keep up with him! Here are some pictures I took.

Maddy and her "Happy Feet" cake.

The cousins go down the slide together.

Owen loved Maddy taking care of him and she loved to do it.

He loved playing with Danielle's soccer ball. He kicked and threw it all over that park!

Trying out Maddy's hula hoop that someone gave her. Or as she called it, her "hulie hoop."

Owen walked by the picnic table with the cake on it, saw it, and said, "Caaaake!!" Then he proceeded to climb up to get it.

Owen and "Un Josh," as he calls him, digging in the sand. He was so excited that Uncle Josh showed him how to dig.

This is what Uncle Josh and crew got Owen for his birthday. It's a little Cadillac Escalade ride-along toy. I'm sure he'll have hours of fun on it with Daddy pushing him around!

Grandma (or Bonah, as Owen has started calling her. we're not sure where that came from.) and all her grandkids.

GiGi and the kids

It's been one of those days...

...all week long. This has just been one of those weeks where things happen and you say to yourself, "I really don't think it can get worse than this!" It all started off with my surgery. Everything went well but I was TOTALLY wrong with the whole "relative amount of pain" thing. I woke up in recovery, gripping the sides of my bed, moaning, and thinking to myself, "What in the hell have I done?!?!" It just hurt so bad! I left the hospital at around 4:30pm that afternoon and came home and went straight to bed. It was so hard for me to move at all because I had lost complete use of my abdominal muscles. It really was as bad, if not worse, as a c-section and I just wasn't prepared for that. Thankfully, I am getting stronger everyday. Today was the first day I had enough energy to climb the stairs, thus the lack of posts through the week.

Unfortunately, my surgery is not the only excitement in the Muhs household this week. On Saturday at 11am, we lost power due to a horrible ice storm. We got it back briefly in the middle of the night that night, just long enough to warm up the house. We went all day on Sunday without it. Power lines went down all over and every county in Iowa has been declared a disaster area. After hearing that, we thought it might days before we had power so we checked into a hotel that did have power on Sunday afternoon. Our power was restored that night but we still decided to stay at the hotel just in case it went out again. We came back home on Monday morning, only to have it go out again at 3:45pm. While all this was happening, Owen was napping and my mom was at Wal-Mart having trouble getting my car to start!!!! I kept thinking, "Really? One more thing?" Luckily, she got it started and the power was restored by 10pm that same night.

Tuesday and Wednesday were pretty uneventful and then today we started getting more bad weather. We are just on the edge of a blizzard that is expected so we are hoping to not see much snow or ice. They have closed interstates, colleges, malls, churches, everything all over the state. The wind is blowing so strongly outside right now that it feels like our house is going to blow away! We lost power for only about 10 minutes this evening and are praying that it doesn't go out in the middle of the night. After hearing many other stories, it sounds like we were really some of the lucky ones. We lost some trees but that is about it.

Owen had a great time in the outages, although he now thinks it's normal to wear to layers of clothing! Here are a few pictures we took:

This is in his Pack 'N Play in the hotel. We hooked his DVD player up to it and he watched movies in there all night! It was so cute to see him "lounge."

He loved to say, "Hi!" to himself in the hotel mirror.

He carried a box of Cheez-Its around with him during the second outage. We were so exhausted that we couldn't even fight him on it!

Owen and I are heading to Murphysboro on Saturday for 2 weeks as I'm not supposed to be lifting him. Auntie Gaye will be coming over everyday to help me and then G'ma and G'pa will be helping at night. We are so thankful to have Grandma Debbie here helping us now and so thankful to be able to go home with her and get help there! And the best part...we hear it's 60 degrees there! Woo hoo!!!!