Thankfullness

Owen turned one year old today. It's been a crazy year with new worlds opened up to us and lots to learn. It's still hard to believe that it's been a whole year since Owen was born through such a crazy delivery (I was sent home and then he was born an hour after we went back in!) and he was taken to the NICU at Childrens hospital for breathing difficulties. It was tough, but we got through it and are still getting through. Owen is such a joy and has stolen many hearts. Our family has been blessed many times over since he came into our lives and I can't wait to see the ways in which we will continue to be blessed. With Owen's birthday so close to Thanksgiving, I have been very conscious recently of how thankful I am for all of the specialists and other people who look after Owen. We have some wonderful people taking care of us and I am very grateful for that. I started to make a list, but it was REALLY long, so I won't go into the details here. Anyway, we had a great time getting to celebrate with family. We don't get to do that nearly enough and getting to share this big day with them was very special. We all took lots of pictures, but I don't have time to go through them all now so I'll post a few soon. Sorry!

Happy birthday, sweet boy!

A Few More Pictures

I forgot to post a couple pictures from our pumpkin patch trip (see post below).
Kate finally got to try a real climbing wall. She has always wanted to do one of these when we have seen them at various places, but has always been too small or it has been too expensive. It was only $3 to do this one and there was no line (and mom was off changing Owen) so we gave it a try. She got up about 12-15 feet before she got scared. Not bad for a 3-year old.



















Kate also enjoyed sitting on a tractor and pretending to drive it. I thought Nana would be proud. Finally, what good corn maze would be complete without a box full of corn to roll around in. I have to admit I have never been to one of these places, but I was not expecting to see this.

Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

Last Sunday we took a trip to the local pumpkin patch. There is a really popular one north of town with both a huge corn maze and a haunted corn maze (that supposedly simulates being buried alive). We did not partake of the mazes, but did do a "hay ride" to the pumpkin patch to pick out a couple pumpkins. It was great to just be together as a family and to enjoy the great TN fall weather. October has to be my favorite month in TN and the leaves this year are exceptional. We also ran into some friends at the pumpkin patch, another great part of living in Knoxville. Below are some pictures of our pumpkin experience.