Owen turned 3 on December 21st. I will never forget that first glimpse of his quivering lip! The nurse said “oh boy, watch out for that pouty lip”.  His round little face. His new baby smell. His daddy passing out just after his birth. His flipping and flopping inside me going breech and back to head down and back again. We were hooked up to an IV on December 19th for a c-section but the snow storm blew into Northern Virginia as Owen decided to flip head down so we were unhooked and sent home to wait out the storm.  That silly boy.  He was born a few days later via C-section because he went back to breech. The swine flu had broken out so we weren’t allowed to have visitors except for my mom, sister-in-law and a friend. Jackson couldn’t come meet his brother…which at the time was so sad but meant we spent lots of time resting and cuddling those first days! Owen has had quite an adventurous life with a move to Switzerland at 6 month, lots of travels and then another big move at 2 1/2.  He may be the younger brother but he is doing his best to at least make as big a presence as his older brother.  His favorite things to say are “yea, that’s right”, “hi guys”,  “and then…and then…”. His favorite food is peanut butter and jelly sandwiches…correctly pronounced as “peanujelly sanwich”.

For his birthday this year we kept it to just family. My parents had flown in from Texas for Christmas and my brother and his family live about 25 mins away with my two nieces and nephew so it was a crowd! Our friend Bonnie also joined in on the fun.  Owen requested a fire man birthday party and we just so happen to have a fire station around the corner from our house.  We took the kids over for a tour of the station and then came back to the house for dinner, presents and dessert.

the kids colored at the table while we pulled dinner together. We served giant hot dogs and chili with fixings so people could have chili or make a chili cheese dog,  We also served loaded baked potato dip with chips and fruit.

Owen didn’t remember opening gifts from last year so he was pretty comical. He kept telling people not to look and then when he had a gift opened he would lift it above his head and yell triumphantly “here it is”.

the cake tasted great but was by far not my most creative creation. The cake was red velvet with cream cheese frosting which worked well per Owen’s request for a red cake. The flames on the chandelier might have been Owen’s favorite and accompanied by the red table cloth were my minimal attempt to make the house look appropriately dressed for a Fire Man party and not Christmas.

Happy Birthday little man!