One down, still countless to go!

Cody actually finished the downstairs patio in September but lazy old me kept forgetting to head down and take pictures of it! I finally asked him to do it for me so now I can post the pictures of his beautiful work. He worked so hard on it and did a fantastic job!! We are very happy with it and can't wait until the spring/summer when we can start landscaping around it and put a swing on it! We are even tossing around putting a water feature around it but I think we both fear it will just become a small swimming pool for Murphy! ;) It's so nice to have something finished, even though we still have a ton of work left to do on the house. I have a feeling that by the time we get everything done we'll be ready to move to a bigger house! But isn't that always the way life seems to go?

Stay tuned for pictures of the basement progress and tree-trimming pictures! I keep putting it off every night but I swear I'm going to get that tree up by the weekend! :)

Happy....Thanksgiving?

Well, this is what Owen and I woke up to on Wednesday morning....

It continued to snow non-stop the entire day until about 5pm. I never heard a final total but I believe it was somewhere in the realm of 2"-4". I called Maddy and told her about it and she said, "What?!?! It's snowing?!?! It's not supposed to snow on Thanksgiving! Only at Christmas!" While I do agree, it was beautiful and Owen and I loved it! I would have loved to take him outside to play in it but there wasn't really enough to do anything with and with my coughing I just didn't think I should be outside running around in the cold. So we just admired it constantly throughout the day out the back door. He just loved it!

His favorite part was we he got to open the door to let Murphy in or out and then he would get down on the floor and just study it until Mommy got too cold for the door to be open!

Thankfully the weather didn't hinder our travelers and Grampa Gary and Gramma Lynn made it here safely on Thursday morning. Gramma Linda wasn't able to make it this year and we missed her tons!!! Owen watched the Macy's Parade for the first time and loved it. He'd shout out whomever character he saw that he knew and at one time said, "Look at all these dancers!" It was so much fun to watch him. I cooked all morning and we ate a HUGE dinner around 1pm. Thankfully, I got my much-earned traditional Thanksgiving nap! We continued to lounge around the rest of the weekend.

Grampa took off on Friday evening just as we headed out with Gramma to the square in town to see the lighting of the Courthouse and the Lighted Christmas Parade. Owen had a ball running around the square in what little snow was left. He didn't have much patience to stand for the parade, so it was nice that it was only about 15 minutes long! He loved seeing Santa at the end.

Here he is all bundled up. It was so cold out there!!! The Iowa winter is really in full swing!

Owen and Daddy clapping as they turned on all the lights surrounding the Courthouse.

He kept walking around like this with his arms out saying, "Very (He thinks it's very and not merry) Christmas, everyone!" I'm not really sure why he started saying it because no one else was saying it. He's continued to do it at home but for some reason he thinks he needs gloves on to say it. So he will put my gloves on and walk around the house saying it.

Hope everyone else had a great holiday as well. We are gearing up for our first Christmas in Iowa with Grandma and Grandpa Glodo! Hopefully we are going to get the tree up tonight so stay tuned for more pictures!

Carriage Ride on the Square

Two weekends ago the retailers in our town had a Christmas Open House. It's something they do in order to get people into their stores before they head off to Des Moines to do all their Christmas shopping. We've lived here for 6 years and I had never been in many of these stores! It was neat to see all the Christmas decorations and we even got to sample some yummy goodies. Owen's highlight of the day was the horse-drawn carriage they had giving free rides around the square. He loved it!

A full view of the beautiful horses and carriage.

He would have rode it all day if we'd let him! It was beautfiul weather and we had a nice relaxing time. Now we're pumped for our first Christmas in Iowa!

A Date with a New Boy

Well, it's official. Unless he decides to come on his own (which he probably will because nothing in my life ever seems to go as planned), I will get to meet my new boy on January 14th. I'm hoping it all goes as planned since we have Grandma Debbie scheduled to come and be with Owen while we are at the hospital, but mostly I like the idea of all my boys having their birthday on the 14th of the month! Cody is Sept. 14, Owen is March 14, and hopefully Cameron will be January 14!

I have also reached the point where I start going to the doctor every 2 weeks now instead of every 4. Owen went with me to my last appointment and I when I told him we were going to see Dr. Nieves he just kept talking about it. When the doctor walked in at the appointment, I said, "Well, Owen, there he is. You've been talking about him for the last 20 minutes!" Owen turned around and smiled really big and said, "Dr. Nieves!!!" It was so cute. Who knew a kid could love an OB so much?! Anyway, everything is going ok except for the fact that I'm still coughing, wheezing, and having trouble breathing. He put me on an antihistamine for a week hoping it would help and told me to call him and let him know if it did. I just called today and told the nurse that, unfortunately, it didn't help. To top it all off, I think I'm getting another cold, which is actually making everything worse. Ugh! So I'm just playing the waiting game until he calls me back and tells me what's next. He's trying to avoid a chest x-ray at all costs, which I really don't want to do so I'm hoping that can still be avoided. Keep your fingers crossed!

A Party for Cade

While we were in Murphysboro we celebrated Cade's 1st birthday. We had so much fun helping with the party preparations and had a great time at the party. Here are some pictures of the baby of the family (though not for long!) turning 1!

Cade and Auntie Sarah sitting out on the porch watching the slide show of pictures that his Grampa put together. The heaters we had out there weren't working so everyone was a little cold. Cade was all bundled up in a blanket and just curled up on me and watched the whole thing. He was so cute! I miss cuddling a little one like that! Also, notice the carved "1" pumpkin on the table. I forgot to take pictures of all of them! Beth, Ryan, and I carved different ones into pumpkins a few nights before as decoration. They turned out so cute and were easy to do!

Modeling his new Elmo hat

Checking out the bath toy holder that we got him.

This is the pumpkin cake that I made for him. It turned out better than we expected and it was pretty easy to do! Beth put the stem and the one on it.

Getting ready for cake!

Singing "Happy Birthday" to him. He loved it and was so excited!

His first bite of cake. He had a double ear infection and was starting to get pretty tired at this point but he still loved that cake!

"This cake is so good Grampa!"

Cade is the biggest Grampa's boy I've ever seen! He just LOVES him! It's so cute!

Here's Owen checking out all of Cade's loot. He just sat there staring at all of it in amazement!

The little ones at the party: Cade, Adyson, Owen, and Maddy. Cade was on his way to the bathtub at this point!

Owen is still walking around the house singing "Happy Birthday" to Cade. Thanks to the Brookses for a great time!

Little Bowlers

The first weekend we were in Murphysboro Aunt Beth really wanted to take Owen to a local bowling alley that was just re-done. They added a special bowling area just for kids and it was so cool! The lanes and balls are smaller and the pins are on strings. There are also, of course, bumpers so you never get a gutter ball, though miraculously, Owen and Logan still managed to get a few! Owen loved it! I wasn't surprised though, since I'm pretty sure bowling is in his blood. Between the two of us, Daddy and I have 3 of our own bowling balls, Daddy used to play in leagues when he was younger, and Cody's Uncle Wayne and Aunt Judie managed a bowling alley for years. We Muhses love our bowling! Anyway, we went with Aunt Beth and Cade and Auntie Chelle and Logan. Owen was still a little young to get that you had to roll the ball and not just throw it. So Mommy got a good workout chasing him and making sure he wasn't just hurling ball after ball down the lane!

Notice the smaller ball and the little bowling shoes. Aren't they so cute?!

Waiting for the ball to come back. He loved watching that!

Cheering as his ball knocked the pins down.

Little Caders sat adorably on the sidelines and cheered everyone on.

The cute little bowling buddies. They had so much fun together!

Thanks for taking us Auntie Beth! We had so much fun and can't wait to go again!

Frolicking in the Autumn Mist...

Happy Halloween! Yes, I know it's been a while since I've posted. Owen and I were in Murphysboro for 10 days and I just couldn't get it together to post while I was there. So now I'll start with our trick-or-treat night last night and then I'll go back and post pictures of all the fun we had with the family in the 'boro. We went to Pella last night and trick-or-treated with our good friends the Eisenbarths. Owen had lots of fun and caught on to it really quickly. He just loved it and Cody and I loved watching him experience it for the first time. He was the cutest little dragon out there, even though many thought he was a dinosaur! :)

Here's our little dragon, whom Auntie Beth nicknamed "Puff."

No dragon is complete without his wings and tail!

Grace the Vampiress, Owen the Dragon, and Lizzie the Barbie Fairy (she has a name, which I asked twice and I still can't remember! Sorry, Lizzie!)

First we headed to a nearby church where they do a "Trunk-or-Treat." That's where the parishoners bring their cars to the church parking lot and hand out candy from their trunks. It is great because you don't have to walk far and you end up with a lot of candy in a short amount of time!

Here's our little Dragon filling up his pumkin! Although, Cody said he doesn't quite know how to pick the "good" candy yet. :)

His first house

And you know me, I love to get pics of my two boys walking together. And it's even cuter when you see the back of the dragon!

Alas, our dragon got a little tuckered out by the end of the night and had to hitch a ride. Look at how heavy his pumpkin is!

We did get him to pose for one last picture before we headed home. Notice my husband got rid of the goatee while we were gone. I never thought he looked that young before, but now that he's shaved, I think he looks like a teenager!

So that was the Muhs Halloween! We had a great time and can't wait to do it again next year. Stay tuned for lots more pictures from the last two weeks! Happy Halloween!

The Snuggler

Owen just loves to snuggle these days. He'll climb up in bed and say, "Wanna snuggle Mommy?" Of course, it only lasts about 30 seconds but it is the best 30 seconds of my day! He'll snuggle anything though, his Thomas train, a toy, and just about any stuffed animal he can find. Here he is snuggling some Winnie the Pooh characters and his cherished monkey:
I don't know where this stuffed animal obsession has come from but it is definitely in full force these days. We've actually had to limit the amount of stuffed animals he can have in his bed because he wants to add a new one every night!

Presents from Grampa

Last Saturday while I was out shopping a package arrived at the front door for Owen. He and Daddy opened it and it was filled with Bears presents from Grampa Gary! Owen was so excited!

Owen with one of the 2 Bears cups in the package and his beloved new backpack.

He LOVES this backpack. He says, "Bears backpack! Wanna put it on?" Then he puts stuffed animals or anything else he can find and zips them up in there. Then he says, "Where's Big Bird?" He unzips it and says, "There he is! I found him!!!"

Of course, like most kids, the best part of a present is the box that it came in.

Also included in the package were a bottle, pacifier, and some cute jammies, all Bears of course, for the baby. I can always count on Grampa to outfit my boys with tons of Bears gear! Although, I am still cursing him for the life-size Brian Urlacher poster he gave my oldest boy that is currently on my living room wall. :) Thanks, Grampa!

Happy Birthday, Grandpa Steve!

Well, I was able to get him to sit still long enough to deliver the message but then he REALLY wanted to see the message! I wish I could have taken a picture of him while he was holding the camera watching himself OVER and OVER again. He'd just keep pressing the button, watch it, and every time it stopped he'd say, "Happy Birthday, Grandpa. It's not working!" Then he'd do it all over again. Too cute! In any case, hope you have a great day today, Grandpa! We love you and can't wait to see you in a few weeks!

Doctor Update

I never did talk about my doctor's appointment from Tuesday so I thought I'd just post a quick update. Everything with the baby seems to be going well. My friend, Dawn (she's a nurse), had mentioned to me that she thought the "I'm a boy!" ultrasound picture could be a little doubtful so I decided to ask the doctor about it. He looked at it and said he didn't think there was any doubt, nor did the doctor who interpreted all my ultrasound pics. He said had there been any doubt, that doctor would have said so. So I guess there are never any guarantees but we're still fairly certain it's a boy. I was panicking because I thought I might need to be out shopping for girl clothes! :) The baby's heart rate was 144 bpm, and the doctor said, "Wow, you are pretty consistent!" He continued to name off a number of appointments where the HR was 143 or 144 bpm. I'm surprised it's not 190 with the way this little guy moves all the time! It feels like he's doing back flips in there lately!

Unfortunately, I am not doing quite as well as the baby. My nausea is still pretty bad so I had to be put on yet another kind of prenatal vitamin to see if that would help. But with the help of some anti-nausea medication (my best friend in pregnancy!), I'm able to make it through my days with a toddler who has decided that he'd rather nap less often these days! My baby is growing up! I am also still coughing pretty badly. I believe Monday will start the 7th week of that. I told the doctor about it and said that I was also feeling some shortness of breath at times. He listened to my lungs and said that I was wheezing so much I sounded like an asthmatic. So he put me on an inhaler 3 times a day, which I have to say is not as easy to do as they make it look on TV! I'm still not sure I'm doing it correctly and that it's getting into my lungs but I'm doing what I can! If anyone has any tips for me, bring 'em on! I'm just hoping this will all clear up soon and that it doesn't turn into anything more serious.

So that about sums it up! I'm off to try to get this kid to take a little rest so I can get one in, too!

Owen Tidbits

Just thought I'd share some recent Owen stories that we found funny.



*The other day he was watching "Curious George" on PBS and after it was over, the adult shows came on for the evening. Someone came on and said, "This program is brought to you by..." And Owen said, "The letter B!"*


*One night he put on his pajamas that have dinosaurs on them and I said, "What's on your shirt?" He said, "Baby dinosaurs! Aw, cute little baby dinosaurs!"*


*Yesterday he went with me for my regular OB appt. As soon as we walked into the doctor's office he said, "Baby in Mommy's belly." Then I told him I was going to get up on the table so we could listen to the baby's heartbeat. When I was done and got down, he put his Thomas Train on the table said, "Thomas heart." Later he went and used part of the nurse's blood pressure thing and put it up to Thomas and said, "Thomas heart."*


*This morning after I dried off from my shower he said, "Thomas's towel?" So I gave him the towel and he proceeded to "dry off" Thomas.*

*Every time we watch "Wheel of Fortune" and someone wins the bonus round Owen yells out, "Thoooooouuusand dollars!!!" just like the announcer does.*

*We met Cody for lunch today and Owen was eating curly french fries. He found a really big one and said, "BIG french fry!" Then he picked up a small one and held it gently in his hand and said, "Little baby french fry!"*

He amazes me every day with what's going on in that little head of his!

A Day Out With Thomas

On Saturday we traveled up to Boone, IA, about an hour from here to go to "A Day Out With Thomas." It is at a railroad station where they bring an actual Thomas the Tank Engine that takes you on a ride! They had lots of other fun stuff to do like a straw maze, petting zoo, trains to play with, and a jump house. We all had so much fun together! Owen just kept saying, "Thomas tickets! Thomas tickets!" when we first got there because earlier in the week he was with me when I ordered the tickets on line. I also don't think he quite got that we were riding on Thomas but he still had fun!

The big guy himself, Thomas. You could wait in a VERY long line to sit in front of him and get your picture taken but Owen just didn't have the stamina to endure the line!

Mommy and Owen on the train. Cody was so good to make sure that I got in my fair share of pictures this time around, which was so nice!


The Conductor on the train came through each car (and there were many) to see the kids and he would even take a picture with them. I didn't think Owen would stand with him for a picture so I just took one of the Conductor. Owen kept saying, "Hi, Conductor!"

Getting his Thomas "tattoo," Grampa Gary must be so proud!


Here he is checking out his tattoo. He has had more fun with it that I have been afraid to give him a bath because I'm not sure what he'll do when it washes off. Alas, we cannot put it off any longer so I guess it's bye, bye Thomas! It's all he's talked about since he got it and we even had to call a few people on the phone so he could tell them about his Thomas tattoo.

Coloring Thomas


He LOVED playing with the trains that they had set up under the tents. Looks like we're going to have to get him a set for Christmas!


His favorite thing at the petting zoo, the baby pigs. They were the only animal that he actually reached through the cage to pet. He would never feed any of the animals but he kept taking Cody's hand and putting it up to their mouths for him to feed them.

One tent had live music in it.

Owen joining in with the band.

Meeting Sir Topham Hatt. He couldn't wait to get up there and see him, he kept trying to push through the other people in line in front of us! Of course, once we got up there I had to get in the picture with him and he was so much in awe that he wouldn't smile for the cameras! Oh well, at least he didn't cry!