Here, Owen Owen.

I CAVED! What can I say? I remember a few years ago going to busy places and seeing those parent's who had "tethered" their kid to their wrist. I thought. "Seriously you can't watch your kid without having him attached to a leash?"

Well, my apology's!

I am now ONE OF THOSE parent's!

Liam wasn't like Owen. If I turned around too suddenly when he was a toddler, I would knock him over due to him being attached at my hip, so it was never a worry that he'd wander more than an inch from my side.

Owen however is a WHOLE DIFFERENT story! If I turn my back for longer than two seconds he is gone! Poof! vanished into thin air. Or I am running after him to save him from immediate death. He believes he's invincible, or that his Mom is Super Woman and can catch him with one finger while pushing the grocery cart, balancing that carton of eggs and keeping Liam from opening some toy he's found in the checkout, all at the same time.

Well With Spring comes the preview opening of Hershey Park. Any Mother who has a child like Owen starts to sweat at the thought of taking him to a HUGE public place with rides, candy, water, kids, toys, strollers, and his new fascination of having to walk EVERYWHERE now that he can walk.

So to make it easier on both of us I bought said "tether." But to make me feel better, and every other parent I will call it his buddy backpack. It's shaped like a monkey and the tail is the leash, but when the child outgrows the Houdini stage, you can remove the leash and it become a stylish backpack with a little pocket that you could fit, well not more than a pack of mini raisins in.
But really it's not inhumane! It's good parenting. And a bonus, Liam and his friends think they have their very own dog that they get to cart around HP. WIN! WIN!

We didn't get a picture, but Liam has been asking now for a year if he could go on a real coaster. Unfortunately they are for Reese's and above height only! We even tried putting his tallest shoes on last year but he still didn't make the cut.

But not this year, his head barely touches the dividing line, so we did a parent swap (You can both stand in line together, then one parent takes Liam while the other tries to keep Owen from jumping onto the tracks, then you switch.)

Nate took Liam for the first ride and I was a little worried. Liam isn't the bravest of kids, in fact he cries over just about anything, but I guess he's a thrill seeker. He LOVED it! as soon as they pulled back into the station he starts screaming, "Now you ride with me Mama, we go again!" And to be honest it was a good ride! When we got off a mom behind me says to her 8 year old, "I remember when we took you on this ride for the first time, but you weren't near as happy as his is, in fact, you were crying and told us you hated us and that you'd never ride another roller coaster again." I laughed then patted Liam on the head. That's my boy! The next words out of his mouth were now can I go on that one? The great Bear that is one of the ones where your feet dangle and you go upside down a million times. "I want to go upside down!"

Sorry buddy! You have to be a Jolly Rancher for that one. But one day!

See an enjoyable time had by all!

Spring has sprung...

Well sort of.

If there is anything that Hershey does really well, it's the egg hunts. There are about a million of them here! They are all supplied by the Hershey company. (Imagine that!) But hey I'll gladly take mini cadbury eggs, caramel eggs, and Hershey kisses for free anytime!

However this particular hunt, was FREEZING! It was seriously so cold. I had never been happier that my boys were in the first two "heats" so we could collect our goods and be on our way!

This was Owen's first hint and he actually really enjoyed it.

Liam however was all over it and collected those eggs like uncle Sam collects your taxes!

Long Overdue!

All I can say is that I must have a few things better to do than blogging going on recently, since I haven't posted in a bit. I am busily getting ready for Liam's SUPER WHY party for his Birthday. (Yes that's right, Super Why! Another PBS kids show that he really likes. It actually has some educational content so I feel OK that this is his current like.)

I decided to make the kids all capes for their take home "prize" they have been really time consuming but turned out AWESOME in my opinion. I'm not totally done yet, but will post some pics when I am.

I found this great tutorial to help me with them at Puking Pastilles See my kid isn't the only one who want's to be Super Why! Thanks Georgia for this great idea!

We celebrated St. Pattys day with Green eggs and Ham, Green shirts NO pinches! And even slept in Green Jammies that night just to be safe!

Then I got to "Use" my Valentines day gift from Nate: An overnight trip up to New York to meet up with Nate's Mom and do New York with no kids!

It was great! It started out a little scary. I took Nate's car so he'd have the car seats and when I dropped my boys off at my friends house (Whom by the way also made it possible for me to go by watching my boys for the whole day, even though she was pregnant sick and tired. THANKS KRISTEN!)

And another Thanks to Eden for watching my boys the following day as well as her three! I have some serious pay backs in the future, but it was worth it!

When I went to get back in the car it wouldn't start and I had to make a detour to Auto Zone and then found out that I needed to stop by a mechanics cause we'd waited so long to replace the battery that acid warped the nut on the bolt to the point that they couldn't get it off.

I drove to said mechanics, he ended up cutting of the cables and putting a new one on and the best part was he felt sorry for me and did it all for free! THANKS MR. MECHANIC you made my day!

Then I was off and drove to Newark, hopped on the NJ transit and met a happy MIL at Penn station. Unfortunately the weather was horrible! It was raining for part of this day and freezing cold, but that didn't stop us!

We walked around for a bit to central park and times square then got ready for the play we saw that night: In the Heights. It rocked! And we had awesome seats. Thanks Marie for my first Broadway experience it was a blast!

The next morning it was snowing. That's right snowing, but only for a bit. We took a mild cab to china town, bartered for a new Dolce and Gabanna look alike purse and Tiffany's jewelry, then walked the "Marie Mile" (More like 3, but was needed!) Looked through a few SOHO shops on the way then packed up and hopped back on the NJ transit, to the car and back to Hershey.
We then got to spend a few days with Nana doing some fun things like going to Lancaster to make pretzels, Kitchen kettle Village for some fudge, An Amish Buggy ride, Liam took the reigns. A visit to Chocolate world for a traditional cow ride visit, And a visit to the local Fire station for PG. Whew. And that was just writing it all.

A pirate says...

I was getting Liam ready for school today and Owen walked out
wearing this.

Liam LOVES to dress up and I think Owen is picking up on that. I'm telling you this kid has an old soul and I love every bit of it. He keeps me laughing, crying and screaming No NO NO (which is one of his new favorite words.)

I have a bunch to post about but will have to get to that later this week. So enjoy this for now!

Cinnamon Sticks GUEST GROSGRAIN GIVEAWAY!!!!

Cinnamon Sticks GUEST GROSGRAIN GIVEAWAY!!!!

All about Owen

The time just keeps passing me by, and my Little Owen is now starting to say BIG words and walk. His favorite words are: UP, UH OH, Gog (dog) wuf, wuf, moo, and eyes. It is so fun to watch him learn new words and use them correctly.

He has also decided that he no longer needs our help to eat. He can do it by himself! He loves when I give him a spoon and a brush and a bowl full of mush, well the spoon and mush part anyways.

Here are a few clips of these milestones.

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Doesn't that look delicious!

Boys will be boys...

Some people thought I was crazy when I told them i wanted another boy after Liam. (Not because Liam was bad, but because they thought I'd want a girl.)
But I wanted Liam to have a brother so they could be best friends. Especially while we live so far away from family!
I caught the boys playing on the stairs the other day. Owen wants to do whatever Liam does, but finds Liam so funny. And this is why I thought it'd be so fun to have two boys!

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Liam was NEVER a climber and still isn't he is the cautious obedient child of the family. Owen on the other hand is NOT! He climbs on EVERYTHING! That kid will take on any challenge and a few that he has conquered are the dryer and the dishwasher as of late. Liam wanted in on the dryer action when he was SURE I wouldn't shut the door or turn it on!









They also enjoyed putting empty boxes of diet coke on their feet. Liam did this first and then Owen had to try too, but needed Moms help. Liam took our picture. NOT BAD huh!

No excuses

There are no reasons as to why my blog has been left dormant for far too long yet again. Mostly because little sticky fingers (aka: Owen) has to type while I type and so it would look more like this: to9kimay wkoie went56354 354...You get the point. So I have put it off. However today is a different story. It's about 23 degrees, but it feels like 10. No I am not exaggerating. Go check out weather.com The wind is blowing and it is freezing so we (well mainly I) decided that we were going to make it a stay in the house, wear your cozy's all day and put a post up on the blog kind of day. (Ok so I didn't finish this post and it's no longer freezing, IT"S GLORIOUSLY Warm and sunny so I need to finish so we can get outside and enjoy it!)

For a recap, we had Valentines day. Liam had his class party the day before and I was able to help thanks to my friend Kristen who watched Destruct-O for me!
It was fun to see the kids give each other Valentines and see what the typical day for Liam is like. Here are a few pic that I took.





That night we drove to D.C. to stay with our friends the Jones, who BTW are some of the nicest people I know and went WAY out of their way to help us. They let us stay the night at their house, got US dinner, then drove us to the airport at 4 am. Then took our car home so we didn't have to pay for parking, then dropped it off in short term the day we arrived so we didn't have to haul the luggage and the kids on the metro. (SEE what I mean about them being Nice! One day I will repay them! Thanks again Melissa and Brady.)

Then Valentines day was spent flying from D.C. to Dallas to SLC and it took a total of 9 hours. The kids weren't very happy when we woke them up at 3:30 to go. Owen especially he needs his sleep so he's ready to destroy as soon as he wakes up!
I can't complain though, the kids did fairly well.

We then spent the next week visiting family and friends in UT. It was so good to be back home. Although at this point I am wishing home was in a tropical paradise that is always 80 degrees with a light breeze, not the frozen tundra of my Dad's house where he still has 3 feet of snow on the grass from snow blowing and a Northern exposure. The rest of the valley didn't have much but it fluttered a few of the days we were there.

We didn't do any skiing since A: we no longer have any snow gear after living in N.O. and B: it costs like $60 a person to go for one day and C: Nate and Liam were still getting over Pneumonia and Owen RSV and skiing isn't as fun by yourself. But hopefully next winter we will hit the slopes and let the boys have a go at it!

We did go to all our favorite places to eat. Especially the Mexican restaurants. You wouldn't guess it, but Utah has really good Mexican food and PA's is terrible! So we made sure to get our feel of it in the few days we were there.

It was a really fun trip and I'm so glad we got to go!




We did a late birthday party for Owen since none of the family was able to see the big guy turn one and devour his cake. The cousins got a kick out of it.


Say hello to my little friend. Ok BIG friend. This is my Nephew Graham BAM who is very serious about food as you can tell. He is 5 months old here and weighed the same as Owen does currently. He has the best disposition. And my favorite part about him is all you have to do to make him happy is take of his pants.




My boys warmed up quickly to the family and loved hanging out with Papa and Corinne before they went to bed.

Me, my SIL, and Cousin all had baby boys within a few months of each other. I can't imagine the trouble these boys are going to get into a few years from now.



We were able to catch them all awake and happy at the same time so took some shots of the male posterity we have going on.
























(The Studs: Owen 13 months, Graham 5 months and Ethan 3 months)


We also let Liam pull Owen and Graham in the wagon. I'm not sure who had more fun?



And that is basically our trip to UT in a nut shell.

Jesus wants me happy!

So Liam may have had one of his more outrageous tantrums today while we were in Kmart. I had to grab a few things and of course that meant a meander through the toy section. He found a toy on clearance for $2 that one of his other friends has and asked if he could get it as a "surprise." (How do you say no to that?) So I say sure if you are my big helper while we are here.

Things are going great he's staying by me, not touching everything he walks by, then he sees something else he has to have (this is not on clearance, so there is no way.)I tell he already chose a "surprise" and that maybe he can get the other one another day???

To which he screams at me, hits me and says YES he can. (Wait, what? who is this devil child?) I tell him NO again and then let him know that he is no longer being a good helper and will no longer be getting either toy.

Now he is screaming "sorry Mama, I'm so sorry Mama. Don't me mad. I'm not a naughty boy. I'm a good helper." I tell him thank you for saying sorry, but you still aren't getting that toy today. That is the consequence for acting so naughty.

He then proceeds to sob and say, " But Jesus wants me to have that toy, he wants me to be happy!" (Insert my horribly covered up snicker and all the other ladies standing in line behind us at the check out.) I tell him yes Jesus wants him to be happy, but he also wants you to obey your Mommy and not cry or hit her when you don't get your way.

He thinks about this for a minute and still comes to the conclusion that Jesus wants him to get this toy and that I am the only thing standing in the way of his happiness.

I almost caved because I was laughing so hard, and who comes up with an answer like that?
But needless to say, I stood my ground and he didn't get his toy, but I got a good laugh.

A Bunch of Randomness!

Since our house has been the black death as of late, I've spent most my time taking care of sick babies, or sick hubbie. My blogging has suffered so there are a a few things that we did before the plague attacked so here are pictures from these "events."

First and foremost, an update on Liam's eye. It has been healing more and more everyday. It only has a little red left in it. And he seems to be happy that I'm not bugging him to look at it every five minutes.








































This post would have been titled: Oh how traditions have changed.
A few years ago, our yearly tradition was to gather at Lee's circle and watch our favorite Mardi Gras parades. Now, our tradition is going to the PA farm show. Both are great people watching shows although there are some super crazy things to spot at Mardi Gras.















But you can also see things you wouldn't see everyday at the farm show too!



This is an entire sculpture made from butter! And to tell you the truth, I'm not sure what the kids enjoyed more. Catching plastic coded beads and beer soaked stuffed animals or filling buckets with corn and seeing a 1600 pound buffalo two feet from your face???

We went with our friends the Banzhafs and the boys had a great time looking at all the animals. The parents favorite part were the chocolate milkshakes. Seriously one of the best I've ever had!



I have one of the most creative and talented sister-in-laws in the world. She does EVERYTHING! She scrapbooks, quilts, runs marathons, races road bikes and has finished the LOTOJA twice now.
But most recently she helped me finish my "first" quilt. I wanted to make a quilt out of all Nate's scrubs, T-shirts and his Shortie from Medical school and residency thus far.
I'd cut the squares and sewn them into rows, but hadn't decided how to fit in the short coat and the backing. This is why she's the talented one and I'm not. For our birthday surprise this year she finished it for us and sent it all wrapped and ready to be cuddled in. Isn't it awesome! Thanks D you seriously rock!





Another post I would have titled: Snow Sledding...Sort of!
We haven't had a whole lot of snow during the two winters we've lived here. This year we've already gotten more than last year. The association actually had to shovel our walks and driveway (unfortunately with a bobcat that beeped every five seconds at 4am.)
Liam was so excited to see the snow he got into his snow clothes first thing. We waited for dad to get home and had our neighbor Christian join us for the fun.
The snow was less than perfect and was only about an inch thick so it meant a lot of sledding on the dirt. It was nice to have Christian there, he was always willing to carry the sled up the hill for Liam and was on the quest to find a higher path each time.

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And last but not least. Liam got his OWN digital camera for Christmas from his Nana and Bompa Poulson. I just downloaded the pictures he's taken so far. It's fun to see what he see's. Here are a few of my favorites! I love the ones that he and the B twins took of each other. Expect more pictures to come!

Quote of the day.

Liam: "Owen, you makin me crazy!"

Not sure where he's heard that before.

Color me pink revised

Liam is looking much better today. (well his left eye anyways.) Turns out that it's not just pink eye. All that rubbing made him get a conjunctival hemorrhage. (It sounds a lot worse than it is. Basically it's a bruise inside the eye.)

It means he's going to have a red/bloody looking eye for a few weeks. So if you do run into us, you don't have to run screaming holding your eyes and running them under an eye station. The CH is not contagious, but he'll be staying inside for a few more days.

I got some more pictures of him. This time happy. What a trooper he has been through this all!

Color me PINK!

So the last NINE days at the Poulson house have been less than fun. Late Monday night Owen starts to get tired eyes and acting really sleepy. He then spikes a fever, but sleeps through the night wakes up on fire (fever of 102.8) and stays around that for the next four days.
About three days into Owen's plague, Liam spikes a fever and so now I have two lethargic sick kids who cry at the bat of an eyelash.
I take Owen in for a "well baby" check up the day after he no longer has a fever and find out he has his THIRD ear infection all three in the last three months, so it's a trip to the ENT for him in March to which I'm sure he'll end up getting tubes just like me and Liam had to. (Sorry bud, you can blame the hair side for that one!)
At this point Owen is pretty much back to his normal self of destroying anything in his path and getting into all sorts of trouble.

Liam on the other hand was in the depths of despair. I've never seen him that sick. EVER! Even when he's sick he still runs around, wants to play with friends and would NEVER pass down a homemade chocolate chip cookie. But I could barely get him to lift his head off the table for more than a sip of juice. I think to myself, hold on only a few more days and we'll be out of this Black Death and back to normal in a few days. Right? WRONG!

Liam starts to complain that his eye hurts. I can see it's a little irritated in the corner, but figure his stuffed up nose was the culprit. Boy was I wrong. He has a raging case of Pink eye, which Nate assures me is viral and just needs to take it's course and it will get better on its own. Are you serious? We can put a man on the moon, or grow seedless watermelons, but have nothing to cure viral conjunctivitis? Seriously people where are your priorities?

I feel so bad for the little guy. He only complains about it hurting occasionally and assures me that he is all better and can play with friends again.
You tell me. I took these pictures today. Do any of YOU want him over for a playdate? I'd be happy to send him your way.