The Things You Can Find...

Well, a huge shout-out to Annie for posting the blog about free Christmas cards from Shutterfly! I never know about these things until after the fact and i am so excited that i read the blog before Christmas was over.
So, we have some options: Our amazing tree that is only amazing because Owen decorated it all by himself and only put ornaments on the bottom could be part of the card...what do you think?

Wait, before we get into that lets think about what kind of card. i am for the easy approach and would love to just send out pictures with printed words, but will you all be offended if there isn't something personal?

These were three that i liked, but really, there are 803 to choose from! its going to take a while to narrow it down. I'm sure that over the next couple of days my mind will change at least ten times.
Now back to subjects for the pics. I'm more of a candid kinda person. here we have Owen sleeping/praying:
And Ed passed out after a hard day of walking, yes -- he is finally walking! Only about five steps until he falls, but better than nothing.
Or we have my favorite choice:
Comment, email, call, you're the ones that have to live with these pictures so what do you want?
Oh, i know what you want -- you want to have the same excitement i am having and make your own cards. well, I'm ok with that as long as i get one. here are some links to help you on your way:

Join the Fun!
803 Christmas Cards
Calendars (Kathy would like this one, ok, she probably has already been there:)
Photo Book (It's my New Year's goal to create one of these - wish me luck!)

Additions to our family

Toni had her puppies Tuesday morning. Owen went over with Pompa to see them moments after they were born. He got to hold them while they were still slimy. Not something i would be proud of, but he liked it.

He came home and told me how little they were and how you had to be careful how you held them. He also told me about how you have to wash your hands because they have puppy germs on them.

There are 6 total. Three that are spotted like Toni and three that resemble their father, Tyson.

Now for the next new species we are introducing to our farm:

Dad purchased three sheep from Anita. He plans on using them to help train his dogs. These sheep are not very nice and not kid-friendly so they have to be locked up at all times and we will be taking the dogs to them instead of the other way around. Dad spent all afternoon building them a fence. We'll see how it goes.

The new baby

Our cousin had his baby yesterday. Wyatt Russel Workman was born at 9:59 on November 4 (Dusty's birthday). Owen asked this morning if we could go visit and i said yes.

Owie didn't want to give him up (until he started to cry). The dinosaur you see in the picture Owen picked out all by himself and made sure Wyatt liked it. Edgar would just look at the baby and smile. It was a fun trip.

Then we went to Arctic Circle.

Where Owen got in a fight with a little girl.

I'm talking about a punching, hitting, screaming, kicking fight.

She started it.

I guess this wonderful day just needed a little grounding to it.

Halloween Fun

Just ignore the fact that i wasn't smart enough to rotate this picture before i posted it. i think the cute little lions should make up for that...right?

The cute lions quickly turned "mean" when they learned i would jump at their growls. They thought it was funny. Thanks to Jen for letting Axel come and play with us. Owen loved it!

Owen was "big horse, big gun" or as it is known in the rest of the world as a knight. Ed was a pumpkin. They were both so cute i just couldn't handle it. Owen loved trick-or-treating, but his costume slowly started to stay in the car until he only had his sword left.

You've heard of method actors, right? This is Edgar getting into character for halloween. :) He participated in the pumpkin painting this year for about five seconds - enough to get that lovely design onto his pumpkin. He quite enjoyed the bath afterward though.

Here was the final showing. Owen painted his big one and his little one all by himself. he also added some artwork to daddy's pumpkin. i love this tradition and am not looking forward to the year owen asks for a knife.

BIG Bed

Owen and Edgar have moved into a bed together. Gone is the crib and mattress on the floor in our room. Now they sleep in Owen's room and are doing well. The first night Owen wouldn't go in there so we just waited until he fell asleep on the couch and moved him in. At 1:00am he woke up and would not go back in there. The second night the going to bed part was the same, but he stayed in when he woke up in the middle of the night. The third night he he climbed in all by himself and stayed through the night. OK, so a little bribing was going on to get those last results, but there is nothing wrong with offering stickers to get your kid in bed - right?

Edgar, on the other hand, had no problem with the switch. He went in the first night and was fine. He still doesn't sleep through the night and i had to go get him a couple of times, but he was fine with just going back to the big bed. Owen thinks it is so cool to sleep with Ed and i like that they are friends.

Friends = Trouble

Owen and Edgar have started playing together. It is so cute when Owie will call Ed and want him to come and play. However, Ed will start making a mess since he doesn't know any better and Owen will join in because it looks like fun.

Well, at least their friends, right?

Stripes!

We painted the living room and dining room this week. The walls were those paneled wallpaper ugliness, but now, after lots of work, look like normal walls.

Huge thanks to Grandma for coming and helping paint both the primer and the color. Also thanks to Julia for telling me how to paint over the wallpaper and to Carson who helped with the second coat in the dining room.

Here are the final results

And the stripes:

Things didn't turn out exactly like i had planned. the colors were just a little too pink for me (most people can't even tell what i'm talking about) but i do love the stripes!

New Boots

Owen got new boots. He was SO excited! Once he got them on they didn't come off. In this picture he has on his pj's and the boots. I think it is pretty cute :) The best part of it is that he can put them on and take them off by himself.

We're still working on getting him a hat. He likes to wear Carson's but it falls off so we have to get one that fits. He is turning into a total cowboy. What a cute boy.

Summer Fun

We went to the Stan/Ed Clark Family Reunion. Lots of fun!

Owen found a new friend: Porter Teluskisinznkieberger (ok, that's not really his last name but i have no idea how to spell it)

Here they are hugging. They really hit it off and were even good enough friends to share a pop.

At the reunion Aunt Kera took Owie tubing. He loved it, except for the part where he had to touch the water.

Here is the last known picture of dear cousin Ryan. He was shipped off to the MTC last week and it looks like we'll never see him again. :)

Lounging

Owen likes to watch TV like this. Carson tried it and said it wasn't comfortable. But most of what Owen does isn't very comfortable so i wasn't too surprized.

Cow Videos

While Tucker was here we unloaded some cows. This first video was taken out west on Grandpa Jensen's place.

This next video was taken at Kaylie's house. It was rather windy that day so we all piled on her couch, staring out the window to watch the cows. There were two trucks to unload. The first backed up to the shute, the second parked right in our line of sight. So we had Dusty go ask him to move. He was so nice and backed up so that we could see the cows.

Here we see in the last video the nicce truck driver honking his horn for the kids. He really was a great guy and made our cow watching experience all the better.

Other Tucker

Here is the last of the Tucker pictures i have.

The boys took a bath for about an hour. They were having so much fun. We had to keep warming up their water.

Here they are playing with stickers.

This was the best shot i could get. i think it turned out pretty good.

Ed liked playing with the puppies. He would grab their hair and swing them around. For the puppies' sake I tried to stay close by at all times.

Kimber was not as excited.

But Tucker wouldn't let it go. He really wanted her to be friends with the puppies.

Tucker also wanted the other dogs to be friends with the puppies. He was so good at making sure everyone was friends (even if they didn't want to be)

Kimber eventually complied with Tucker's request. I think it was out of self preservation. She's been around Tucker too long to not know that he won't stop until he gets what he wants.

But Bobbie was there to make sure everything was ok.

The Zoo

We went to the zoo and had a ball. Owen and Tucker never stopped running, unless, of course, there was a cool animal to look at. I took lots of pictures, but most of them look like this one below: the backs of the boys as they run to find the next thing.

Ed liked being in the stroller until Kimber came along. She got in behind him and was trying to take a nap which ment Ed lost his back rest, so Grandma carried him the rest of the time.

If you weren't fast with a camera you couldn't get any pictures of the boys together. This one was just luck.

As was this one. Although they liked riding the lion and the tiger they were just both so excited to be there that they couldn't hold still.

Edgar really liked holding on to the bars when we were looking at animals. He would stand on the cement and grab ahold. I'm not sure he ever acutally saw any animals, but he was enjoying himself.

Owen, on the other hand, liked looking at the animals and wished the bars weren't there. Here you see him trying to chew his way into the tiger cage.

He wanted to get all the animals and play with them. :)

This was our best animal picture. The tiger looked right at us as i was taking it.

Hailey was trying to take a picture of Owen where he looked "normal" the whole time. In all of her shots he was turning, sticking his tounge out, opening his mouth wide, squinting, etc. Tucker likes to smile for the camera, but Owen likes to run away so I'm not sure she ever got a good picture.

Oddly, this was one of the boys' favorite attractions. We had brought water with us but the vending machine was just so cool...all those buttons you could push!

I wanted a picture with me and Ed. The only way to get him to look at the camera and be happy was to have him chew on my finger. so if you look closely you'll see my hand in his mouth.

Then i tried to get one of my little family (Carson was at work so he missed this experience). This was the best we got. Owen was making some kind of noise that sounded like "Whaaaa" and was trying to run away. I like the picture because it shows off what my son is really like.

Last shot of the boys together. One would stand next to the tiger while the other ran to the lion, then they would switch. Torie was trying to get one of both boys and her, but i don't think it ever happened.

Last, but not least, especially in the weight catagory, Ed sitting by the ducks. Isn't he cute!