The Polar Express

Last saturday we took Owen to the polar express. It is a train ride in Williams, AZ that mimics the book The Polar Express. When you board the train you are greeted by the chefs. The train takes off and the story begins. The chefs serve you cookies and hot chocolate as the book is read overhead. You are whisked into the magic and end up at the north pole. It is so cute. After you arrive at the north pole, Santa boards the train. He gives each kid a bell, just like in the story. They finish with some carols and you leave the north pole. It was a wonderful experience. Owen was so exicted to ride a real choo-choo. He kept saying.. can we go now. You can just see in the pics how mesmorized he was by the train.

More pumpkin fun.

Decorating pumpkins with dad.

Hay maze.

The Botanical Gardens

We hit our second pumpkin patch this year at the botanical gardens. It was a steamy day but we still mananged to have a blast. We took a tractor ride out to a hay maze and then to the patch. Owen decorated his pumpkin with dad and played for a short time at the petting zoo. After taking the tractor ride back, we ate a quick lunch of corn dogs. Then it was off to the butterflys. The gardens had this cute monarch butterfly exhibit that we visited. Owen loved all the butterflys flying around his head and feet. After some ice cream to cool us all down we headed home. I love October and all the fun festivals it has to offer. Only 2 more days til Halloween and Owen is so excited to go trick or treating. He is going to be Frankenstein.

Happy Birthday Dad!!

Tonight we celeberated Steve's b-day a day early because Owen was so excited for his dad's b-day. He picked out his cake, card, and even the stylish jeans we bought him . He sang happy b-day and we all ate yummy cake. Tomorrow we are going out to eat at Oregano's and then it is off to a football game. We are very lucky to have such an awesome dad and charming husband. How handsome are these two. Happy Birthday Steve!! 29 years young and looking better every year...love you

What a social butterfly.

Owen is such a sweet boy. On saturday I took him to the splash park. It was 100 degrees and a good way to cool off. Owen loves to play with other kids. He quickly makes friends when we go to play at public places. As he was playing with this little girl about his age, I was listening to his conversation with her. I heard him say to her " What is your favorite color?" I was amazed that he would ask her this question. He is so social, a trait he definitely gets from his dad.

On sunday when we were watching the viking's game, Owen says to his dad "dad its not my fault". He was referring to something he had just done. How he comes up with some of this stuff I have no idea. His other big saying lately is " I got an idea".. followed usually by lets play cars or trains. He just loves to talk. His vocabulary has exploded this last month because he loves to repeat everything you say. We definitely have to be very careful what we say around this little parrot.

It's pumpkin time.

6 weeks to go and counting..
Watching the fireworks with Jenna.

Oh pumpkin head.


The Engen family.

Playing in the hay.

Ohh... such a handsome boy.

Finally October is here, my favorite month of the year. I love October because the weather is starting to change, the holidays are around the corner, and things just seem crisper. This last saturday we went to Schenpf farms with Owen's cousin Jenna and his auntie Cherie. We had a blast. They went on some rides, rode the haunted choo choo train, picked out a pumpkin, had some great food, and finished the night with some fireworks. The weather was perfect, not too hot and not too cold.

Happy Birthday to our October family and friends- Logan 1st b-day, Jaxson, and auntie Shel. We wish you all a year of happiness and health.

We still have not settled on a name for the new baby to be. So, any suggestion would be great. I am 33 weeks and can't wait to be done. We had a little scare last week when the doctor said I needed another ultrasound. I was measuring small, so they wanted to make sure everything was still on track. The neonatologist gave us the thumbs us saying, "this baby is a A+". What a relief. I think I just have small babies. Owen was only 6lb 8oz and I don't anticipate this baby being much bigger. As of right now the baby is weighing 3lbs 4oz. He has Owen's nose and some hair but his profile looks a lot different than Owen. The tech assured us this baby was 1000% a boy! We can't wait to meet the newest member of our family.

Owen's belated birthday party!

All partied out!
Phi and dad enjoying the museum.

Owen's ice cream cake. Yummy!

We celebrated Owen's birthday this last saturday at the children's musuem. Our summer has been crazy, so we were a month late on his party. It was a blast with all his friends and our family. They did crafts-colored and designed eye glasses, frosted cup cakes, sang songs, and played throughout the musuem. Thanks so much to all our family and friends who attended and all the great gifts Owen received. Here are the only pictures I have of the party. I was so busy running around I forgot to take pictures. If anyone has pics from the party, I would be really grateful if you could email some to me.

Our 2yr old

Anniversary dinner at Ah-So
Our cute 2yr old

Beautiful Estes Park, Colorado

Rodeo parade in Estes Park

Yesterday Owen had his 2yr well check up. We are about a month late because of vacations and a crazy summer. He now weighs 24lbs 5oz and is 34 inches. This puts him in the 10%tile for weight and 50%tile for height. Yeah, he is no longer in the shrimpy catergory for height. This is the 1st time since birth that he has been anything above 25% for height. Lately Owen's favorite word has been NOT, which drives me nuts. "Owen do you want to go to the store with moma? " Owen's response, "NOT". Everything is not. He did do the cutest thing the other day at breakfast. He was reaching around me to get something, and he said "Excuse me, moma". So sweet.

So as I mentioned earlier we have had a busy summer. In early July we went to Estes Park, Colorado with Steve's family to celebrate his parents 50th wedding anniversary. We had lots of fun getting to see Steve's brothers family who live in Michigan. We don't get to see them too often so it was really nice to spend lots of time with them during the week. We went hiking, fishing, took a tram ride up the moutian, mini golfing, amusement park, and saw lots of fun animals. Owen's favorite was when we fed the chipmunks. They are all tame, so they eat peanuts out of your hand. He also fed some beavers bread in back of Chris and Brenda's cabin. It was lots of fun spending time with all of steve's family. We loved our Colorado vacation.

Oh, also in July Jennifer, steve's cousin, had her second baby... Benjamin Micheal. Congrats! Now the new baby engen will have another boy cousin close in age. Yeah!

Since returning from Colorado, we have had my neice Nicole, from MN, stay with us. She is Owen's godmother. Nicole will be a junior this year in school. She has been so much fun. She just loves Owen and has been a big help to me. We love her so much, it was really hard when she left this past sunday. We also have my soon to be adopted brother, Phi, staying with us. He arrived saturday aug 1. Phi will be a senior in school this year. He has been with our family since early grade school. It has been so nice to have one on one time with both of them. We love when family comes to stay with us. We miss our Minnesota family all the time.

On the 29th of July, we celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary. I have the sweetest husband ever. He is handsome, kind, and a wonderful dad. We took my neice and Owen to AH-SO. It was so cute to see Owen and Nicole's face as they cooked the food. They loved it. Lots of July b-days to celebrate. Happy birthday to my neices Hannah and Kellie! Happy birthday to our nephew Micheal and my best friends litte boy Grant. Happy b-day to Owen's little buddies Cole and Brady. And finally Happy b-day to our sweet little boy! He is growing way too fast. We are amazed everyday with what he says and does. Oh the other day he did a summersault all by himself. We are very blessed to have such a beautiful boy and wonderful family and friends. Happy Summer to all of you. Enjoy it, it's going fast.