Surprise trip to Utah

I decided, kind of, on a whim (or what I thought was a whim) that I wanted to go to Utah to visit my Dad for his birthday and for Easter. I looked at plane tickets and realized that Southwest was having an awesome deal, so I emailed my Mom and set everything up without my Dad knowing. As it turns out I don't think my thoughts to visit my Dad where anything close to whimsical, in fact I am pretty confident I was lead to do what I did by the Spirit. I thought many times that maybe I would just wait until May when Brent had a conference and would be gone a lot of the week, but I just kept thinking I wanted to be there for Easter and his birthday. So grateful that I was not only able to see him but to be able to visit with him and have him play and read with Owen and enjoy some of his last days on the earth.

Brent couldn't come with us, so Owen and I made the flight by ourselves. Owen did okay, but not great on the first flight and was really good on the second flight. My Mom and Mark picked us up at the airport and brought us back to Oakley. My Dad was taking a nap on the couch when we came in and we totally surprised him big time. I was a little worried that he actual knew I was coming, but he claims he had no idea. Owen took a little while to warm up but after some dinner and a bath he was sitting around watching soccer with uncle Mark and Grandpa and loving life.

We had a great trip...except for the sleeping part. Owen decided around 2 or 3 in the morning every night that he didn't want to sleep in his pack n' play and because I didn't want to keep everyone else up, I let him sleep with me, which meant I didn't get much sleep. I was pretty frustrated most nights and even thought so many times that I shouldn't have come because I was so tired and worn out. Of course I completely think it was worth every stressful night and although I wish it would have been more restful, I wouldn't trade my time there for anything.

We didn't do anything real exciting while we were there, just played with the cousins and Grandma and Grandpa and with "Key"(he called Mark this after about the second day). Owen was obsessed with all the balls my nieces and nephews have in there house and between that and all the "O" looking toys he was set. He was a little scared of Grandpa for some of the time, but mostly think it was because he had oxygen. There were a couple of things he would do with Grandpa and that was show him his alphabet book and run his cars across his tray. In fact he just kept wanting to show Grandpa the page of the letter B because the balls were on that page. Grandpa kept wanting to move on, but Owen kept flipping it back. It was actually pretty funny. He did however, say most of his letters for Grandpa on his birthday right before we had the party. I think it was the best he has ever done them as far as saying so many in a row.

We went swimming in the indoor pool they have in Kamas. Owen loved the slide and kept wanting to get out of the pool everytime after we went down so he could do it again. Needless to say he wasn't very happy about having to go home.

Reading with Grandpa

Playing with the b-ball under the stools

Swimming and playing with of course a water ball

We had an Easter egg hunt with the cousins. Here is Owen with Daylen and Cannon

Smiling after realizing what is actual in the eggs

Watching Tangled with Mariah and Uncle Mark

Grandpa's birthday party

Mark and Grandma introduced Owen to punch. He didn't want to put it down, but he still wanted his milk as well!
I just love this picture of Owen. He just looks like he is having a good time.

Playing with all the "O" toys. If you look in the background you can see all the toys he had been carrying around that are circles or rings.

Owen with all the Melanie's kids. Mariah, Daylen, Cannon, and Maleah

We left on Thursday night to go visit some of Brent's family. We had a good time jumping on the trampoline, playing on the slide, and playing with Jack's basketball hoop.Valerie and Andrea (Brent's sisters) came and brought Emma and Annie. It was so much fun to see them. Owen loves to be around other kids, so he had a lot of fun playing with Emma and getting into trouble with her. We played games and had lots of fun.

So, glad I got to visit. We wish we lived closer to family. Maybe one day!

Being tickled by Uncle Rodney and cousin Jack

This is the best picture I could get of Owen and Emma. I think they really did like each other.

Jack and Owen. Owen loved playing with Jack. Quick side story that I want to remember because it was so cute. When we were saying good-bye to Rodney's family Jack said, "I am so glad that Missy and Owen got to come visit...but especially Missy. Ahh..isn't that so cute. I totally expected him to say, "especially Owen."

Laurie, Owen, and Jessica

Playing with the girls before bed

Spring Break 2011

Okay, so I am behind as usual. We went to Texas for spring break and had a fabulous time. Owen did pretty well on the trip except that he constantly wanted to be watching a show on our laptop. So, well it isn't that hard for me to give in since the choices are listen to him cry and scream the whole 12 hours there or just let him watch movies for most of the day and at least he is quiet. We left on Sunday after church and got there late that night.

Monday we just hung out at the house, since we were tired from our trip and since the weather wasn't cooperating very well. It wasn't that warm, but we did venture out to the little park by Marcie and Craig's house. Owen loved running around like a wild man more than he loved the park. I honestly don't remember what we did each night, since this was a month and a half ago. I think on Monday we went out to eat at Rudy's BBQ. Very yummy, as usual. Brent and I love going to Texas to eat good BBQ.

Looking out the window for the cat. He LOVED seeing this cat that decided to adopt Marcie and Craig.

Eating at Rudy's

Tuesday we were going to go to San Antonio so Brent and I could go to the temple and so we could go to the Zoo, but it ended up hailing and raining in the morning and so we decided we would go on Thursday. We ended up going to Austin's Children's Museum instead. Owen LOVED it. He has such a fun time playing with the balls and throwing them anywhere he pleased. He also enjoyed the building block at the construction site, the slide, and just being able to roam free with lots of other kids around.

Playing on the drums in the Mexican house

Loving the slide

Construction zone

Owen wasn't looking at the camera

Throwing things in the little kid play area

Balls, Balls, and more Balls!

Wednesday we went to Taco Cabana for lunch and then later that afternoon/evening we went canoeing in downtown Austin like we did last year. It was so much fun. Owen stayed with Uncle Craig and threw rocks into the water. After that we had a picnic dinner at the nearby park.

As we were coming home from the park, my stomach started to hurt really bad. I barely made it into the house. I laid down for a while, but the pain just kept getting worse. I thought I might have food poisoning because I felt so sick, but eventually the pain moved mostly to my right side. I had a terrible cough/cold at the same time so the pain was excruciating whenever I would cough. I had Brent and Craig give me a blessing and I somehow made it through that night, although I have to saw it was the most pain I have ever been in my entire life. I honestly thought I had an appendicitis. The pain was even worse than labor! I was finally able to get a few hours of sleep in the early morning and after that the pain was still there but it wasn't that bad. We decided not to go to the doctor since the pain wasn't nearly as bad and we figured if it was something serious the pain would have gotten worse not better. I went to the doctor when we got home and they are pretty sure I had an ovarian cyst burst and that is why I was in so much pain.

However, since we weren't so sure about why I had the pain we decided not to go to San Antonio and just stay around Austin. We ended up going to Tangled because Brent hadn't seen it and since it was a dollar theater we figured we could afford to leave if Owen decided he didn't want to watch it. Owen actually did really well and watched a lot of the movie. We actually own it now and he watchs practically the entire thing. After the movie, we of course had to stop by Round Rock Donuts and get a dozen for the ride home. They sure were tasty!

Smiling for Uncle Craig. He started cheesing it up whenever Craig started taking pictures.

Cooking some yummy chicken

Playing on the swing

We left Friday morning to head home. We loved seeing Craig and Marcie and they were wonderful hosts, as usual. Thanks for letting us come see you, Craig and Marcie!

A little O.C.

So, along with Owen's obsession with basketball hoops and balls, he is now officially obsessed with the letters of the alphabet, particularly the letter O. He goes around the house pointing out all the things he can see that have the letter O on them. At first I just thought he was saying O for everything, since we call him "O" sometimes as a nickname. While we were in Austin I realized that he actually recognizes the letter and was saying "O" only when he saw the letter O. For a few days he was also very interested in the letter C, so I was joking with Brent about how he is a little O.C. about carrying around the O and C magnetic letters we have and not wanting anything to do with most of the other ones. He has since changed his ways and is now very interested in pretty much any letter. It is actually pretty fun to teach him his letters. I wish I could take all the credit for teaching him, but I am pretty sure he learned it from the PBS show Word World, which is now his favorite show. Imagine that, television CAN be educational, who knew?

Here is a clip, I recorded with him pointing out some of the letters he knows. It was about a week or so ago and he is already know about 5 more since then. I will have to do another video in a couple of weeks. I can't believe my baby is growing up so fast!

Untitled from Melissa Clark on Vimeo.

Haircut and Basketball Hoops

This happened about a month ago, but I thought I would document it anyways. We finally decided that it was time to cut Owen's hair. I put it off as long as possible, but it was starting to get out of control especially on the top of his head. We put him in his chair, put a movie on and BOTH Brent and I went at it. At first Owen kept batting our hands away, but after I gave him a sucker, he was good as gold.

Watching the show before the haircut

The Before
The After

He was pretty sticky after everything was said and done

Here are a couple of random pictures that were taken over the last month.

Sometimes he watches his shows this way

Playing at the park with Dad. Owen is OBSESSED with basketball hoops. He goes crazy when he sees one on our walks around our neighborhood and will constantly be saying, "Dall." I have been trying to get him to say "Ball" but to no avail.

When we go to the playground by our house, all he wants to do is run around by the basketball hoops and if we brought our ball, he just wants to try to throw it at the hoop. It is actually pretty funny. He also loves to run down to the basketball hoop two houses down from us and just stand under hoop in their driveway. It actually drives me a little crazy, since it isn't our house and I am sure the neighbors think we are nuts!

Enjoying the first popcicle of the year!

You can't really see it in this picture, but Owen has food on his head. He thinks he is hilarious when he puts stuff on his head.

Random picture, but this is what I got the other day when I was trying to get him to smile at the camera.

Wearing the 3D glasses we got from going to Tangled in Austin. More on our trip to come!

Life in the fast (slow) lane...

Life is interesting in the way that sometimes I feel like it is going really slow, but at the same I feel like time is moving so quickly. I feel that this is multiplied when I think of my days with Owen. Some days seem like they are never going to end, they seem to drag on and on, but then when I think of how fast he is growing up. I almost can't believe how fast the time is going. I am as usual way behind on blogging what has been going on with us, but I really feel like I don't know where to begin when talking about all the things Owen has learned to do and say since I last wrote about him. Kids really do grow up fast. I think Owen is in one of my favorite stages right now. He is learning so much and I am loving the fact that he understands me and I am beginning to understand him. Here are a few of his recent discoveries, abilities, and words.

• Owen loves to climb on anything he can. For instance he loves to open the dishwasher climb on top of it and then proceed to take anything he wants out of the dishwasher and grab anything else he can find on the counter right above the dishwasher. Not a good thing...especially if by chance his mother leaves a knife on the counter and he decides he wants to play with it. (He seriously has a guardian angel or maybe two watching out for him.) Nothing happened as a result of him carrying it around.


• Speaking of carrying around knives, he can also now reach things on the end of any counter...also not a good thing...considering his mother left a knife on a different counter top than was previously mentioned thinking that he could not reach it...too bad he could! Once again he was not harmed. Hopefully...no one reading this post has picked up the phone to report me to DFS. I promise that I really didn't think he could reach it.


• Owen loves to watch the PBS show Super Why. This isn't my favorite show, but he watches it so well that I must admit that he may or may not watch two episodes of it a day. One of the funny things he does when he watches it is that he "answers" the characters when they ask a question. For example, Super Why will say, "which one of these words starts with the letter T." And Owen will say, "Daaa." It is really funny to watch. I really need to record it before he stops doing it.
• His favorite thing to do in this world is run around the room and have us chase him. He LOVES it. He pretty much wants to do it all day long. Usually, I will play it with him for a little bit, but then I get tired of it and he will usually throw a fit when I say I am done. When we chase him we will also hide behind stuff and then jump out and scare him. He tries to mimic us peeking around the corner by leaning to one side, as if he were peeking around a corner. He is however standing in the middle of the room and not peeking around anything, but I guess in his mind he is doing the same thing we are doing.
• Whenever I put on my jacket or shoes on, Owen will automatically say, "Let's Go!" Although you can tell what he is saying, it isn't crystal clear. He loves when we go somewhere, which is probably because we don't go very many places!


• Some of the others words he currently says are: hello, nenna(Jenna), ook (Brooke), hot (mostly when we have a fire going or when he touches the dryer and it is still warm), ookie (cookie), cheerio (although most people wouldn't know what he was saying, I know that he is trying to say it), cracker (same as cheerio in that most people won't know what he was saying), diedie (diaper), whoa, no-no, uh-oh, eye, car, wow and dank dou (thank you). He tries to say a lot of other things, but only if we ask him to say it. He signs please and more, but really doesn't do anything else.


• He knows the animal sounds for tiger, lion, dog, kitty, snake, cow, monkey and pig. He also will occasionally do a fish face when I ask him to do it. I usually ask him every morning during breakfast what different animals say, mostly to distract him enough that he eats his oatmeal before he even realize what I am feeding him.


• He just started giving us kisses. It is actually pretty cute and not as slobbery yet as I am sure he will do in the future. Basically, he just opens his mouth and pushes it lightly on your face. Favorite thing he does right now!


• We have been trying to get him to be more reverent when we pray and so now he clasp his hands whenever we tell him we are going to pray. It usually only lasts a few seconds, but he does it and understands what we are asking him to do.


• He understands a lot of what I say to him. For example, I will ask him if he is ready for breakfast and he will run over to his seat. I tell him that it is time to brush his teeth (all 5 of them) and he will run to the bathroom door. I tell him it's time to take a nap and half the time he comes to have me pick him up to take him in his room and the other half he throws a fit and runs away. After I brush his teeth every night I tell him to go get Daddy for prayers and scriptures. He will go find Brent and then just kind of stand there by him until Brent realizes that Owen was sent to get him. Then Owen will run back to his room, looking back several times to make sure Brent is following him.
• This kid likes spaghetti, pizza, lasagna, green beans, grilled cheese sandwiches, enchiladas, crackers, cereal bars, and yogurt. But the only thing I can consistently get him to eat is fruit. He pretty much eats a whole piece of fruit by himself at every meal. Bananas, pears, mangos, oranges, pineapple, and peaches, you name it. At least I can count on him eating at least one thing, right?

Owen and Brent right after our huge snowstorm a few weeks ago. It was so crazy!

The view out our front door before Brent shoveled through it.

Owen loves to put things down his shirt or our shirt and then pull them out the other end. So, to aid in his obsession I put this vest on to he can put as many as he possibly can fit and still walk around without too many of them falling out.

Talking on Mommy's phone

See? What did I tell you about his obsession with fruit.

Trying to eat a ginormous apple

Grandma and Grandpa came to visit us in January.

Reading with Grandma

Showing off all his fun toys