On the first day of the new year Michael spotted the appearance of Alexandra's first little tooth poking through her bottom gums. I am nursing her but have been lucky that she hadn't clamped down with her emerging tooth yet. AND since Savannah didn't get her first tooth until she was a little over 9 months, I was not looking for teeth from Lexi quite yet at 5.5 months! Well only a few days later it was apparent that Lexi was cutting yet another tooth right beside the first. She's a drooling machine but is handling it like a trooper chewing on everything and smiling all of the time.
The girls and I took a trip to Brenham to visit the Blue Bell Creamery. Lucky for us Brenham is just about half way between our home and our Houston family, so Auntie Kiki and cousin Noni joined up with us there. The tour itself wasn't all that exciting for our sweet girls but they certainly enjoyed the yummy treat at the conclusion and we enjoyed snapping fun pics of our cuties!
And the girls also got to enjoy climbing, jumping, and sliding around in the McDonald's play land while Kiki and I visited. Once the girls started snarling at each other it was time to part ways and return to our homes. We are hoping to be able to find more fun half-way points to share adventures in the coming months so that the girls can continue to enjoy playing with each other and we can see some fun places as well.
In January, Michael started working from home exclusively.
In February, Naomi went into retirement from Primrose and also started working from home exclusively.
In March, Savannah turned 1.
In April, we took a family vacation to the UK. We visited family in London and friends in Scotland. It was a fantastic trip and Savannah was a great traveler too.
In May, a major heat wave descended upon the Austin area resulting in more than 60 days of over 100 degree weather throughout the summer months. We were also lucky to host our sweet Adlight for a brief visit. She traveled all the way from London to stay with us.
In June, Naomi was very pregnant when she celebrated her anniversary of turning 30. Also we got to experience a pretty damaging hail storm AND Savannah took her first bicycle ride via Daddy's bike trailer.
In July, Alexandra (Lexi) joined our family. A healthy 9 lb beautiful baby girl, who could ask for anything better?!
In August, Naomi & Michael celebrated eight years of marriage. We were also blessed to have a visit from Grama D.
In September, Michael celebrated his anniversary of turning 30 too. He also became a US citizen and a registered voter. Plus we were blessed with special family visitors who came for Lexi's blessing day.
In October, Michael sported a new hairdo for a week and Auntie JoAnna came for a brief visit to meet her newest niece.
In November, Alexandra discovered her giggle and we enjoyed a Thanksgiving feast at Dwayne&Kina's new place.
In December, we're so glad to look back on the year and all of our sweet blessings. We're especially grateful for our loving family members who've made the journey to see us this year and to all of those who have hosted us this year. We love y'all!
Every Christmas for as long as I can remember, I've gotten new pajama's that match with my siblings and parents. It's been a tricky thing for my Mom to keep this tradition going in recent years because there are so many of us and we come in many different sizes. This year we all got matching blue scrubs. Grama D even made sure that Savannah's new dolly has a matching set. (Thanks for the fun pj's and memorable tradition Mom&Dad.)
Our girls scored even more matching pajama's because the sales were unbeatable.
And we've carried on the tradition with cousin Kioni, so these sweet cousins could match on Christmas too! So fun.
We send our warmest regards to your family this holiday season. We also want to say "thank you." Our lives are made so much richer by the bonds of family and friendship that we share as our paths are allowed to cross. For that, we are truly grateful. We treasure your friendship and value the part that you play in enriching our days on this earth. Thank you for being an important part of our lives.
We hope that your holiday season is filled with many joyful memories to cherish.
Merry Christmas! And Love, from our family to yours.
Our holiday festivities include decorating the house inside and out, viewing Christmas lights in the neighborhood, decorating and sharing goodies, breakfast with Santa at Primrose, fun holiday parties, listening to Christmas music nonstop, and spending time with a lot of our favorite people.
After seeing some ideas in a family magazine, I decided our home needed a little more festive charm. So we wrapped the doors and framed art with paper and bows. It has definitely brought a new look to the house and will be fun new tradition I believe. I was also in a dither as to what to do with the many christmas cards/letters/photos... Rather than letting them stack up on a countertop, I stapled them to some curling ribbon to make a fun garland around the tree. Now we are able to look at the tree and see some of our most favorite folks smiling back at us! Savannah likes to point our her friend Becca and then the many images of Santa. :-) Oh yes, we've decked the halls in the Owuor home this year. We're ready for Christmas.
We were lucky enough to have a visit with auntie Kiki & cousin Kioni for many fun adventures. Below are some pictures from some of our highlights. See December 12th posts for more of our fun times.
We enjoyed decorating holiday gingerbread man cookies.
We had fun going on a walk and hayride, through our neighborhood, to see all of the Christmas lights and decorations.
We enjoyed dinner and a musical program at our wards' Christmas party.
We played and puckered up at the many parks close-by.
We played and climbed some more.
We played at the mall.
We played in "clean mud" AND we fed the ducks.
We made birthday cupcakes to decorate and eat in honor of Noni turning 3.
And we took the girls to Sears for sweet cousin pictures. How sweet are they?!
Yeah, we had many fun adventures. It was a blast and we look forward to spending more time together.
Our dear friend Netsanet organized a fun mommy-daughter movie date to watch Disney's The Princess and the Frog. All of the sweet girls were invited to wear their princess dresses and crowns for this fun event. Well, my little princess Savannah is a bit too small for the princess dresses available in general retail stores. So we decided to wait on getting her the amazing gown but she and cousin Noni did have their own adorable jeweled crowns. Unfortunately for us, after being really good through a two hour show, the girls were not up for pictures and/or wearing crowns...but the picture below was just too sweet to not share.
BTW - the movie was very cute. All of the girls sat quietly through the film in entirety, even though it was nap time for our own sweet princesses!
On the first day of the new year Michael spotted the appearance of Alexandra's first little tooth poking through her bottom gums. I am nursing her but have been lucky that she hadn't clamped down with her emerging tooth yet. AND since Savannah didn't get her first tooth until she was a little over 9 months, I was not looking for teeth from Lexi quite yet at 5.5 months! Well only a few days later it was apparent that Lexi was cutting yet another tooth right beside the first. She's a drooling machine but is handling it like a trooper chewing on everything and smiling all of the time.
