Charlie videos!!!!

Ok, after many not so subtle requests...behold...Charlie videos. Enjoy! The first few are from Sept/Oct of last year...the rest are more recent.

An oldie, but a goodie...this was the first video I took on my new phone so, sorry it is turned wrong...


More dancing...


Not his most graceful of moments...


Another one of his dance moves...


Charlie being Charlie :)


Charlie's version of running...he has pretty much done this since the day he was born...but now he squeals and says What and Huh at the same time :)



Sometimes I teach him stuff just because it's funny :)



Charlie playing with the dogs.


Charlie saying his favorite words...What and Uh huh.


Charlie stacking blocks...he can do up to about 4 tall...pretty impressive. He only gets 2 in this video.


Charlie "playing" with the dogs. :) I don't think anyone of them particularly enjoys this interaction.

I think we are officially done with baby food...Thank God!

Yes I realize my son is 15+ months old so obviously we should be done with baby food...well it's not so obvious with my picky eater!! For awhile I haven't been able to get him to eat ANY meat or vegetables that weren't baby food. Well, slowly but surely we have worked up to where he would eat fruits and veggies but still no meat. Well...for the past two days I have gotten him to eat non other than CHICKEN NUGGETS...TWICE! I think we are finally on the right path. So now he will eat corn, green beans, peas, carrots, edamame, pears, bananas, cheese, bread, and chicken nuggets!!! Thank the Lord! Gonna keep working on other meats, but he has also started refusing baby food all together anyways.

Only bad thing is I have a small stock pile of baby food, but it doesn't expire until like Oct 2012 so maybe my next kid will eat it LOL...if not, I can give it away to someone I'm sure.

Charlie man still isn't walking yet...we practice everyday, but his balance just isn't there yet. I've been looking to buy him some good hard soled tennis shoes but OMG kids shoes are expensive...like what the heck??? Seriously...how can a tiny pair of shoes cost so much. The cheapest I can find them in at Walmart for $10 (but I didn't like the colors) and Target for $15 (didn't have his size) but every other place I've looked they are $30-40...seriously?? NO WAY am I paying that much for a pair of shoes he is going to grow out of in a few months...that is against our Bowen family code of cheap...I mean frugalness...So, I'll keep looking at Walmart, Target and consignment stores.

I'm going to try and get all the videos off my phone and camera to post a few...stay tuned.

PS-fun story of the night...Charlie puked milk(and reminants of dinner) ALL OVER the carpet tonight...he drank a lot of milk and then just sat up and bleck...good times...good times.

The countdown to Disney has begun...again...

For those of you who know Trey and I, there is one thing for sure...we love Disney, in particular, Disney World.

Sometime we will meet people that know us through other people (friends of friends) and they will say "Oh you are the Disney people!" Haha.

Trey's love of Disney World is from a life time of memories going all the way back from when he was a very young child. Disney World was(and still is) their family vacation spot. They went a lot growing up and he has a lot of great family memories there.

My love of Disney World began on a non-assuming band trip there in late May of 1999. I had never been and honestly wasn't really looking forward to that trip. I was at a point in my life where I didn't have any good CLOSE friends and definitely didn't have any boys in my life. But that trip changed everything. My friend Jessica (she is now my dear, great friend, but at the time we were really just acquaintances) was dating one of my other friends Dawson. Long before, we had to sign up with who we were sitting with on the long drive to FL from TX, and since this was before J and D were dating, D had signed up to sit with his friend Trey Bowen. I was suppose to sit with J. Well, J asked me if I wouldn't mind switching seats with D so they could sit together. This means I would be sitting with Trey for a 24+ hour drive. I knew Trey through D, but never really talked to him alone before. Me being an agreeable friend I said ok and sat with Trey. That moment, as they say, was the beginning of a beautiful friendship :) That trip I found my husband and my best friend.

So, that alone would make Disney World a special place to us, but it doesn't end there...in September of 2004 Trey "surprised" me with a trip to Disney World, just the two of us. I say "surprised" because obviously we weren't married at the time so both sets of parents needed to be aware of this trip so I had heard discussions of it. Plus Trey Bowen is the WORST secret keeper in the world, at least to me anyways. I figured he was going to propose, but I just wasn't sure when or how. Trey told me later that he had big plans on how he was going to do it, but hurricane Frances came through and ruined everything. So, on September 6, 2004 they re-opened the parks after they had cleaned up after the storm. It was pouring rain on and off the whole morning. There was almost NO ONE in the park with us. I look back now and think, man I really should have enjoyed that because I didn't realize at the time how empty the parks really were, this was only my 2nd time being there. Anyways, we rode Space Mountain over and over until the rain stopped. We walked to a path just to the right of the castle and Trey pulled out a box, but not a ring box, a big blue box. He opened it up and there was a glass slipper. Engraved on it, it said "To my Cinderella, Keep on Believing" This was our special saying. We had been through a lot in the time from May 1999 to Sept. 2004. We had dated throughout high school mostly long distance and were currently at separate colleges, also long distance. He then pulled out the ring box and got on his knee. He said: "Dana I love you so much, will you marry me?" I think I said something about..."Oh look at that duck over there" (I'm not the best with awkward moments :) and then said "Oh, of course, yes!" That moment is so "us".

Since then we have been to Disney World an additional 10-12 times. I've been for our honeymoon, for at least once per each year of marriage (even if we couldn't afford it), I've been when I was 15 weeks pregnant, I've been privileged enough to share it with my family (Dickensons) who had never been, I've been numerous times with my in-laws getting to stay at all different resorts and do a lot of fun things, and I've been for my son's first birthday where he got his first haircut at the Magic Kingdom. It's amazing how many memories we have in this place. So, you could see why we are the "Disney people". It feels like home to us. No matter where we travel, we always say...it would be better to be in Disney World.

So, we are going back in a couple weeks...again. Yes, we are crazy. Yes, you might call us obsessed. But, it is just "our" place. And I can't WAIT to go back!!

Engagement trip. Beautiful skies after the hurricane left :)

One of the "married" trips.

Christmas at Disney with the Bowens.

The Bowen "kids"...before kids :)
Technically Charlie's first trip...15 weeks pregnant.

Charlie's actual first trip...which was also my family's (Dickenson) first trip.

Our customary photo at our engagement spot.

First flight.
Another reason we love this place. At one of the resturants the manager brought all of us hats and brought in characters to celebrate with us. We were celebrating: my parent's 30th anniversary, Amy/Shane's birthday, Kristin's graduation and everyone (except Trey, me, and Melaina's) first trip. It was awesome!!
Charlie's first haircut, on his 2nd trip.

Our customary photo at our engagement spot.

Obviously I don't have pictures of EVERY trip, but that is what I could find :)

PS - If you happen to be planning a trip, let me know, we have lots of info./spreadsheets, etc. to help planning :)

Charlie is 15 months old!

Alright so here we go. I haven't updated on Charlie since October and a lot has happened since then. He is now 15 months old. He has really become a little boy now instead of a baby.

We went to his check-up yesterday. His stats were:

22 lbs 12 oz (25%)

30 1/4 inches (25%)

So he is still a little man. He had to get two shots which were no fun, but he handled it pretty good. He was really nice to the doctor and let her do her whole exam with out squirming or crying (if only he were that calm when I try to cut his nails lol). So all looks good. We discussed all of his development milestones and he is pretty much on track like normal.

He isn't walking yet. He cruises around really good holding onto anything he can reach. He has recently started walking with us while we hold one hand up. He is still pretty wobbly, but he is getting better. I think he'll be walking pretty soon. Dr. said as long as he is walking by 18 months she isn't worried.

He talks A LOT, but no English :) He talks craziness(Charlie language) all day, but he has a few words: Mama, Dada, Ball, Dog, What and Huh? Pretty funny. I got him to say block once and occasionally he will say Bye bye or night night. Dr. said that was on par too as long as he seems to understand words, pointing to indicate wants, etc. I think at this point they are suppose to have 3-6 words so we're good. When he finally does figure it out, we might be in trouble :)

His schedule is pretty routine now. He wakes up about 7 am and then goes to nap at about 10:30am until noonish. Then he usually takes an afternoon nap from about 3-4. Sometimes he skips the afternoon nap, sometimes it's longer. I think he will probably be transitioning into one nap a day soon. He just always seems so tired by about 3 though so we will see.

He has almost all of his teeth now. I swear he has been in a constant stage of teething since he was 5 months old. All of them have broken through except one (well except his 2 year molars in the back haven't shown any signs yet, hopefully we have a few months before those come in). It is crazy how many teeth he has, but he really has handled it like a champ!

His table food eating is SLOWLY getting better. He is a very picky eater (honestly so am I) so for awhile he has only eaten certain table foods (banana, yogurt, toast, crackers, cheese). Lately he has added pears, peaches, edamame (I know crazy!) and peas. If only I could get him to eat a few more vegetables and some meat!!! I still give him one jar a day of pureed baby food meat and veggies and I am so ready to be done with that. I have to fight him to eat those, but I know he needs to protein. Maybe one day he will eat SOME meat. I've tried lunch meat, hot dogs, ground beef, pretty much any meat we eat, but nothing. Oh well, I'm sure one day he will just love it like he has done with the other stuff. He is always surprising me.

Since our last update we've gone to Disney World for Charlie's birthday, Thanksgiving, two separate Christmases, traveled to California, and Trey has been to Vegas & Australia for work. It has been a crazy few months! And it doesn't seem to be stopping. Trey is going back to CA for work and we are going back to Disney World (just for fun :) We had some time share points we needed to use and Trey and I hadn't been with just us (T, D, and Charlie) yet so we decided to make a short trip. This will be Charlie's 4th airplane ride and 3rd trip to Disney World!! He is such a great traveler, I am so lucky. We are really looking forward to this trip to get away just the three of us.

Well, honestly, this is all I have time for right now and I don't have any pictures on this computer to upload.....SO.....sorry this will have to do and if you want to see pictures check Facebook :)

I can't believe our baby boy is 15 months old now. At Trey and I's anniversary dinner we always discuss where we are and where we want to be etc. and the topic of baby #2 came up(we've decided to re-discuss that in a few months and see where we both stand, so no...not yet :). It seems like just yesterday we brought Charlie home. Life really is flying by. It makes me a little sad because there is so much joy and it keeps changing. But, we have so much to look forward to and we are really relishing each moment with our little family of three. We are so blessed.

Blog post...coming soon...

Oh my goodness. I am a terrible blogger.

The last two months have been a whirlwind. Trey has literally been all over the world for work. I haven't been home for more than a couple days at a time for the past month. And any free time I did have I spent on making two awesome Shutterfly photobooks for both sets of grandparents as a Christmas gift. That being said I've had no time or energy to update here.

But, it's a new year, a fresh start. Charlie is almost 15 months old!!! Our lives have changed so much, but we've really settled into a good rhythm.

So, my plan is to get caught up on housework, cleaning, etc. over the next week. Charlie has his 15 month check-up on Jan. 11th. After that, I PROMISE I will do a lengthy update including pictures and maybe a few videos. Stay tuned!

Until then, I leave you with this beautiful face to keep you company...