Bentley Ray Owen is Born!!

Sunny Weekend Pictures

Alot of Cody's friends were here for kite flying so I hardly got close enough before he's run away again! Maxwell wins for getting the kite up and the highest for our family!!

Sunny Weekend Pictures!!

Just a bunch of cute pictures of the boys!!

Good NIght! I need to sleep!

ANGELS FANS!!

Bryant and Cody got tickets to the Mariners VS. Angels game tonight at 5:10- exactly 2 hrs before the game. But they got 2nd row seats in the Homerun section for $10 so it was a steal.

Before I knew it they were out the door and having a blast. I just called to make sure they got there and Cody was WhOOPin' and Hollerin' in the back ground and totally into the Game!!
I LOVE IT! (Probley not as much as Bryant)

The Boys Enjoying the SUN!

So everytime the sun is out so like once every 6-9 weeks Cody says it's so sunny can I get hte pool out? NO, the answer is always the same, but today since the temp was 59 degrees outside I figured I'd let them run through the sprinkler. So here they are! They had so much fun! I HATE RAIN!!
Would someone please remind me what the heck I'm doing living in seattle?

Cody Goes to State for Reflections Art Contest

"This is a story of 5 snakes.

They are inside thier house,

they sing and dance together.

A camel walks by,

He hears the music

and wants to come and dance with them."

Cody with the PTA Pres, Riley Martin, Principal Olsen & Other teacher

We made smooties for breakfast this morning. As you can see maxwell tried to enjoy every last drop but in turn ended up saving a few drops for a Raspberry & Peach Facial Mask. Cody on the otherhand didn't spare one drop and his was gone in record time. Hope this little picture made you smile...it did me!

It's so funny to me to post this, but I am anyways...I just framed a picture of my baby's "bottom". Anyways...the others don't prove that the child is even human. From every picture it looks like it will be a visit from an extra terestrial. Not a very good utra sound, but it was clear and eveident that IT'S A BOY. Cody and Maxwell are every excited to hear the news... Cody had fun as the tech pointed out toes, head, heart, spine and Peeper.(thats what we call it). My boys are ALL boy and I love every minute of it. We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of this precious little gift from God.

Christmas Time!

Maxwell's 2nd Birthday-

The Boys on Halloween

What 'Twilight' character are you?


Alice!

You try to make yourself and others happy. You always find a way to get what you want. Caring for others is your major duty, and you do it without complaining. You have real grace with everything you do, and people fall for you easily. You make a great caretaker and friend to those you feel the need to.

Cody's 5th Birthday has come at last :) I'm so proud of what a great boy he is and how his little spirit is so full of Love and adventure and excitement. He truly loves everyone and is excited about their successes and is saddened by their disappointments. He is such a good example to our family and we are BLESSED to have him.

Entrance to the enchanted Kingdom

Personalized Shields

Sugar Cube Castle Building

The Miniature Knight

You have NO idea how long it took to get the streamers up and I would say it took 1/5748497062th of the time to take them down

We had a mid evil feast with Chicken legs, Grapes, Cheese squares, Rolls and Juice

The Pinata was filled with coins with numbers and they got to come and buy a prize with the coin. WAY better than candy!

I have to say that this was the most fun thing I have ever done! ( Seeing Cody at disneyland is a close close second...) My mother (Bless her!!) took 11 days off and flew up to seattle from Utah to stay with my boys! (they want her to come back by the way!) We couldn't have done it with out her!! I hope she can pencil us in for a bit each year!

We did everything I could have imagined and more! The food WAS great, Everyone has asked about that...but I'm more into the unlimited ice cream, sweet land tours, late night shows and the friends that we made than the food! But If the food was excellent and all the other things were better than the food you can Imagine what a great time we had!!
We miss Dan and Melissa already!! We were lucky to meet some new friends and had a great time with them.

Bryant is incredible and made sure this was the most amazing experiance ever! He surprised me and doted on me and I felt like a queen the entire time!

So... I posted about school pictures a while back.... I did decide to get them and to say the least I am glad that I did. I can't imagine missing this little shot and Ihave been so busy lately that I haven't done a photo run with the boys as I should have.

Yes he is 4...four...cuatro.


And heres his little class. In the indoor gym.

Bryant and I got a pleasant surprise yeasterday when we registered online for our cruise through the official website. We found out our room assignment. We booked it with the belief that we wouldn't find out our cabin room until we got there, since I intend on being in the sun as much as possible who care what room you have right? With an Ice skating rink, a mini golf course and an Itinerary like we have, why would we even want to go back to our cabin...

Well we were assigned already and we got a top floor handicap room just around the corner from the Grand suite...the thing has a baby grand piano in it. I'm assuming that they probley wouldn't put the most expensive suite on a crappy floor so we are pretty excited!! And having a handicap room mean more space.... We are trying to talk about other things at this house but we are so dang excited that we can hardly sleep .

The Boys Got Hair Cuts!!

Ok life is never boring at my house... I'm sure I'm no exception. But since I cut the boy's hair( yes again!! ) It has been a joy to look at them. Cody love watching in the

mirror as the transformation occurs as I put gel in his hair, and so does maxwell. He doesn't even touch it afterwards. Maxwell's is a mohawk and Cody's is a spike up. Cody's picture isn't the best hair shot but that smile was irrisistable! I'll post a better one of Cody's hair later.

Today is School pictures for cody. So as soon as I leave here I will be choosing the shirt that will be documented for years to come. I hadn't realy thought about this before but...am I going to buy pictures from school? I take so many of Him already about every 6-9 months I take a real photo shoot. So I'm debating whether or not to spend the extra funds for "pro" photos :)

Cody Wins Ticket to Ride

Cody and I played Ticket to ride tonight. He did realy well and we had a lopt of fun!
Cody WON With 115 POINTS he completed the cards from Seattle to New York, and Vancouver to Montrel and Denver to El Paso. He was pretty excited about how long his trains were and that He Beat his mom but the first thing he said after hearing the score was... what do you thing Teacher Karyn is going to say? She won't believe this ...will she? (Preschool teacher)

General Conferance, as expected, hightened my desire to be more Christ-like, Recommit to being in tunned with the teachings of the gospel and has given me strength in myendevors to be kinder and more loving. I will strive to serve more selflessly and learn more from the lessons of those people and teaching around me.

James L Ferrell Wrote an excellent book that I love. The Peacegiver. I have readit a few times and it has always made it more clear in my mind my purpose here and how to become more like the Savior and live my life more in harmony with the true teachings of Christ's Church. I saw advertised a new book of his "The Holy Secret" and new that I had to get it, it was a weird feeling. I went to the bookstore yeasterday after conferance and picked it up not even looking at the price. Bryant and I picked it up tonight and he agreed to read with me... we'll see how that works. We read the intro-chapter 3 tonight. It's great. I love the way he speaks in his books... get it it's only 200 pages...a quick read for most.

I'd love to hear how you are enjoing it!! I would love to be in a book club and discuss books like this so if you do want to read lets talk about it...

In addition to this I'm reading Drawing on the Powers of Heaven!!! Fabulous book! I would recommend this to anyone seaking to increase thier connection with the Lord and recieve a more constant companionship of the Holy Ghost.

It's a weird feeling when your car get stolen!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rRbfZ8mH58

It's pretty creepy when your car get's broken into also!
We wike up this morning to our car window smashed in and our GPS gone...we'll investigate further any other missing items but I've been sitting here helpless as my insurance company is a bunch of hosers and no auto glass stores are open to call and get quotes... Of course our incident falls under 2 different insurance policies therefore not even meeting the cost of both deductables. The stole GPS falls under homeowners and the window falls under auto insurance... I'm extreemly sad right now...lets see what you you rather do with $800? Let me know maybe that will cheer me up!!

Easter

The Easter Bunny Came to our house this morning....
here are a few fun shots... sorry there aren't more of Cody but he was mostly hunting eggs and Maxwell was preforming for me :)

Paradise...

A Clean Home is a Happy Home!!

With my entire home well on it's way to organizational bliss, here are shots of the Loft: my office, workspace, design center. Here We just installed these new upper cupboards. I haven't added all the design elements that I would like but the beautiful capacity to have a place for everything and everything in their place brings equisite joy to me with each pass through. I have installed extra space to the pantry, 3 closests and the Laundry area. it's pretty amazing. for lack of time to blog about it all now here is the LOFT:

Maxwell Signing

This is a funny video... He realy is just looking at the camera and not realy signing at all. But he looks like a cutie doing it. He ends up saying a few things but i choose a bad time for him to preform and He dosn't realy know how to do anything besides smile when he's infront of the camera! He's a doll!

Maxwell A little update

Wow Maxwell is 15 months old and I have never done a post telling anything about him.

People always ask me is he alot like Cody was? or Is this what cody looked like at this age? Do they have similar personalities?

The answer is No, Nope, Nada!

Maxwell Alexander Owen the 1st

born 2 weeks late...I think that he was sent to try my paitents from the beginning! He was born 10lbs 8oz and is now...well I don't even know somewhere around 22lbs. He trails cody in size but not in attitude. Maxwell knows what he wants and when he wants it, reason takes a back burner to desire with this little guy. Cody taught me that children could be reasoned with and that children need to know thier boundries and expectations. Maxwell has taught me that...well I'm not sure... I can expect a good hard kick in the shins if every need is not met exactly as expected. I'm hoping that this is a phase that will surely pass. Maxwell is learning and has learned a bit of sign language that has helped a ton at our house.

Signs maxwell can do 100% as needed: PLEASE, Eat, All done, Down, banana, thank you, milk.

But he is learning and practicing signs like: sleep, play, mother, daddy, help, bottle, drink.

We have only been teaching the first signs mentioned until about a week ago but he is slowly learning the others and more. It's been amazing how as I have been using more signs...even ones that he dosen't reciprocate yet he has been using the signs that he does know sooo much more and applying PLEASE to every circumstance where there is a need or want...it's pretty cute...

He sleeps through the night but thats nothing new, my only sleep deprivation is self induced, latenight cleaning, blogging, movie watching or date nights. He is basicly at 1 nap as off last week, which is probley not helping his desprate frustrations as he is dealing with the recent lack of sleep in combination with new teeth and growing body, so hopefully I will be able to get him back into 2 naps but it is extreemly hard to do with with so much going on so I'll settle for his 1- 2+hr nap.

2 Weeks ago... I moved the crib into Cody's room...sounds like a sleep disaster...NOPE it was seemless... It's amazing... I wasn't quite able to give up my "craft room" and so Max was sharing the room with all of my supplies...with prohibited the creativity at the owen home quite a bit. Since the move I have been able to sew and have access to all supplies all day and night.

Maxwell loves: Brown bear brown bear. He gets books and backs up to sit on your lap. We are very excited that he has burst into his intrest in books as we are a big book family.

Maxwell loves: His Binkie!!

Maxwell loves: Walking outside

Maxwell loves: Counting to 3...sometime in the near future I will video that!

Maxwell loves: Cody! Cody is the rising and the setting sun to max!! I'm so glad that Cody is such a great example to him. And COdy LOVES maxwell as well so they are starting out on the right feet!

Maxwell hates: Being told no (Don't we all )

Maxwell hates: Well I think being told no pretty much covers it. He is an extreemly fun baby. He has attitude, emotion, personality, and carisma!! He's fun to be around and his smile will brighten anyroom!

Maxwell goes to the barber :)

I can't believe that it took this long to give Little Max his first hair cut.

His hair is so long and has parts that are longer than others.

But his little hair cut eased my fears in many ways he was ....still, obedient, cooperative and it turned out so well. He is so cute and I love his little even more.

It's amazing how much better he looks with a hair cut. Check out his face wearing the cape...Which he worn the whole hair cut!

BEFORE

AFTER

Maxwell's Little face is covered with the remains of a "kiss" it was the only treat that I had in the house and it was just foreign enough that he was very distracted by it. His cute little smile speaks for it's self. He is a true Joy!

The Boys...

These are a few portriats of the boys they are growing up for sure!!

We miss everyone and I wish that you could all be here to enjoy the Love's of my life and all of the fun and priceless everyday moments... but as we are away the heart grows fonder and we cherish the time we do get to be with all of you even more!!

All our love!

The family at the zoo.

Cody's numero uno activity is "Zoo tycoon" He loves creating feeding and designing the whole zoo. To feed his inspiration we got a zoo membership for the year. Here we were sorry i don't have time to make these look cute... it kills me to just post them raw...btu its better than nothing :)

...And I've had the time of my Liiiiiffffe...and I've never felt this way before....

ok so it wasn't realy like that...but it was very fun...hey baby... sorry I'm just in the "mood"

Bryant and I just started ballroom dancing... it was so fun. The studio is super nice the people there are great we actually meet I think every dancer there. It's like one big family with the instructors. Bryant and I found that we do NOT have 2 left feet but we have a little work to do and alot to learn. Bryant took me around the floor in some simple dances tonight we had the intro cha cha, but did some other simple waltz's,tango, and salsa. We saw some great numbers preformed by students and instructors, it was really great!! We go back next week! We went with the Deslers some friends from our ward. We are SO glad that we didn't have to just walk in on our own, they made it so great!!

I'll post more of our dirty dancing escapades as they come...:) Cha Cha!!

Victoria BC Canada -- Vacation

I've been home for about a week now.

The view that you see here is a fraction of the view that we had when we visited Victoria BC Canada. It was so fun we loved every minute of it... As I do with most things that I do with my family. We were in the top suite overlooking the Harbor. We watched the seaplanes take off and land and the police search and resuce teams practice out in the harbor with there huge raft boats and every one of them in scuba gear. ( near 100+) as we walked along the docks we even had harbor seals sneak up on us as we walked past the place where they normaly get feed. It scared me to death as I was NOT expecting it. I don't think that Cody could believe his eyes for the first few seconds and maxwell was pointing and squealing as usuall at any sign of excitement.

We walked somewhat but it was SOOO COLD. We mostly did exactly what we went there for...nothing. We spent time just as a family no phones, limited internet, no responsibilities of anything and enjoyed every minute of it. We had a 4 Man (5-6 if you break the rules) Hot tub to ourselves. and We took advantage of that each day and night we were there. Which was extreamly nice at bed time, when usualy we are confined to a hotel couch and limited cable we were able to go out and get in the hot tub and enjoy the beautiful views all around us, and warmed up to watch movies which we were prepared with and brought from home...we even brought our own DVD player which has TV gaurdian...it so great.

One of the cool things that we did venture out to see were some castles. So amazing...man if I could go back in time ( and be loaded) I would love to live in a castle and where Emma dresses and sit out on the lawn and work on my needle point or paint my beautiful paintings (I wouldn't know about photoshop or Digital photos so I think I would be content). (read: "EMMA" here I just got that from jenna to watch this week :) ) They were great!

Thanks to bryant for the surprise getaway It was so extreamly needed and I enjoyed...throughly enjoyed every minute of it!!

Yes the kids did come with us but they HONESTLY went to bed every night at 6:30 or 7PM it was dark early and they didn't get afternoon naps so they were ...ready for bed! It's so nice to have a semi-self suficiant 4 year old who wakes up...and quitely tries to go adn watch cartoon all by himself :)

Does anyone even...

just wanted to kn ow if anyone even reads or checks my blog anymore? Mom? Anyone? Sorry I have ebbn so out of it lately...Details to follow.
Love to all!
Shelbi

Maxwell we are glad that you were BORN!!

Maxwell celebrated his 1st birthday December 28th.
I was ready for Cody's first birthday it seemed he had been waiting to turn one for months, but my little Max? He was 6 months one day and all of the sudden grew up and now he's ONE!

Maxwell is a JOY!! Here are a few fun birthday shots!
We celebrated Maxwells Birthday at Grandma and Grandpa Labrums house.
We played fun games and of course had cake and bananas. Cake becouse we are in America and Bananas becouse those make Maxwell more happy that any other single thing I've put before him :) He's my little monkey :)
More on max later! When I get time to work in photoshop and Illistrator I will do a feature just about max. But for now!! I love YOU Maxwell! Happy Birthday!

We played cherades at maxwell's Birthday Party it was a lot of fun!

Another Year Has Gone By...

We hope that you enjoy our journey through the past year.
It was filled with many firsts for the Owen family...
Maxwell is born, Family vacation to California,
Cruisin’ mexico, Preschool and Maxwell’s first steps.

A. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning.
B. Each player answers the questions about themselves.
C. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

5 Things I was doing 10 years ago:

1. Driving anywhere I could In my Toyota Celica...That car ROCKED!! Thanks dad!
2. Hanging out with Kaela & Jessie
3. about this time it would have been the annual Shelbi's Christmas Kids Kamp! (so parents could go shopping, Where am I now that I need me?)
4. Probably organizing some type of project or fundraiser to help stop drunk driving or smoking.
5. Playing Basketball. (it would be my last year...if you had asked me then I would never have believed that! I'm playing again and It's great!)

5 Things on my to-do list today

1. Finish Christmas Presents
2. Household maintance (Laundry, vacuming, toy clearance, dishes, garbage, the floors need mopped but I don't think that will happen!)
3. Peticure
4. Play with my kids ( for once in the past week)
5. Get to bed before 11PM

5 Snacks I enjoy

1. Ice Cream/Frozen Yogurt
2. Rice Crispie treats
3. Ranch Rice Cakes
4. Sprite Zero
5. Fruit ( Apples, Peaches, Nearly ripe bannanas, Avacados)

5 Things I would do if I were a Billionaire

( After paying my tithing)

1. Get family out of Debt. (Which will probably lead to more debt... so maybe I'll just lower their monthy payments)
2. Buy a bigger (not gignormous) home on 2 acres, With a porch around the front, basketball Cort, meadow, wooded area with tree fort, hot tub. ( Where I would live forever)
3. Fly family to MY house for visits.
4. Take yearly vacations with my husband and children and Separate vacations with just me and bryant.
5. Help as many people as possible with there temporal needs in efforts to stabalize them to the point that they can focus on their spiritual and community needs.

3 of my bad habits:

1. saying that I'm going to check my e-mail then checking others blogs instead and ending up on the computer for WAY to long ( wasteing the beautiful nap time for children in which I could have finished the majority of my to-do lists.)
2. getting board or distracted and leaving undesireable things unfinished...

5 places I have lived

1. The Dalles, Oregon
2. Keizer, Oregon
3. Rexburg, Idaho
4. Renton, Wa
5. ( Does this count I have lived in 3 houses all on the same street! I believe it was between the years 11-13)

5 Jobs I’ve had

(it depends on what qualifies as a job I've been self employeed since I was 8)

1. Babysitter/Nanny
2. Hostess at O'Callahan's
3. BYU-I Catering Office Receptionist
4. Manager of Scrapbooking "papercrafting" @ Porter's
5. CEO-SLO Photography and Design
TRUMP ~MOMMY~

5 Things people probably don’t know about me

1. I Hate confrontation
2. I can't do everything!
3. I love running.
4. I don't like to cook.
5. ... is there anything else that's not totaly obvious?

TAG- Mom Labrum, Dad Matheson, Laura Westfall, Lindsey Jergensen, Mallory, Taryn. ( for those of you with out a blog you can reply to my post. Copy- Paste- Fill in your answers... Wa la!!)

Gingerbread Infestation

Cody's Gingerbread Play at the Winter Wonderland Family Night for his preschool.

He was a Doggie.

Bryants gingerbread tree ( He had alot of help from his creative cohorts)

This is my Wonderland masterpeice :) It was realy fun todo and much simpler than I thought. It did take a few days to complete but I just had it done and sitting on the counter and added fence peices here and there. I love Doing these and this one was great. I did learn alot since my past ones have been on a smaller scale... but I will try and do another next year!

A get together to decorate gingerbread houses. I basicly did mine all at home and the drive to and from the tyler's house was just to add stress to my life... it's so hard to come by these days I have to look for ways to add it (but luckily it only almost shattered 1 time) :) It was fun to be together at Christmas. Next year Messa ( the town homes) and I will have to do our own party and they can decorate with all the candy we have left over... I swear I could do 5 more houses with the candy I have. oh well... till next year!

A Christmas Treasure

It's finally Done!! Above is the front page of the Christmas Book. First I have to Thank Kaela Thatcher Fisher and Rachel Seimers for their tremendous help and time! This book is so fun!

Each day of december Has a Scripture, Story, Craft, Song, & Recipe. Some days have an added poem or other tid bit. This will be a treasured collectable at out home for years to come. I'm working on the cover of the binder right now.

If you would like a copy of the book, Please reply to this post I will make send outs every 2 or 3 days until everyone who wants the book has the book! Here are the specifications:

71 Pages- I printed all odd pages. (There is a feature in your print options), then all the even pages. Card stock or put your pages in sheet protectors or just print it and see how long it will last it might be fine!

(If anyone knows of a way for me to upload a file that can become a link that others can click on to download the same file to thier computer please let me know. The file is a PDF and is difficult to upload as-is)

Enjoy

This is a town about an hour and a half from us. Talk about devistation. This is a small town, in the middle of washington after a weekend of rain and snow... you never know what could happen... be prepared have a 72 hour kit. If you aren't aware of what a 72 hour kit is let me know and I can get you the information so that you can be prepared incase of an emergency.

Sometimes this world Surprises me.

http://msn.match.com/msn/article.aspx?articleid=8899&TrackingID=516311&BannerID=544657&menuid=8&GT1=10678

This is the link to an MSN page about 5 things you can do to let the woman that you love know how much you appreciate her. It's a MSN column, not an EFY talk, but they hit the nailon the head...I'm glad somethings like this are out there for ALL to see. Check it out or ... encourage "someone" else too!

Cody's Gingerbread House