Cookies in Alabama

While we were at mimi and pop's house we made chocolate chip cookies.

I tried to pay close attention. This is brown sugar.

You have to make sure you get all the ingredients and measure them correctly.

Mimi helped me put the egg in the cookie dough.

I stuck my hand in the dry ingredients and then wiped my hand on my shirt.

I think it looks good. You?

I stuck my hand in again just for fun.

Well, just one more time.

Ah so you use a whisk instead of your hand. You could have told me sooner.

The chocolate chips are the best part.

Actually, turning the mixer on might be the best part. It is really loud and it SPINS!

I've thought about it and nope the chocolate chips are the best part.

We put the dough on cookie sheets.

And put them in the oven.

And waited.

Still waiting.

Aren't I waiting so nicely.

Hello cookies.

I had a lot of fun watching the timer. I love numbers!

I got tired of waiting in the kitchen so I decided to move to the living room and do the cookie dance.

Oh yeah, cookie dance!

I love to dance.

AND I LOVE COOKIES!

- worth the wait -

I am a great cook! These are delicious!

Thank you, Auntie Manda, for giving us your recipe!

Cookies make me . . .

. . . HAPPY!

And silly!

Oooooooo cookies, I love you!

Why are you giving me a towel?

I asked for, "More cookies!"

Check It Out

When I was at the doctor's office and ready to go with jacket zipped and hood donned,

I said to the nurse, "Check it out! I am Owen!"

I was wearing this coat which I did not want to take off once we were home. Isn't it great? My friends Lynn, Grant, Mac, and Virginia gave it to me. I can only wear it when it is really cold because it is made of wool. Conveniently for me, it has been extremely cold here. I mean -- it got down to 25 degrees the other day. In HOUSTON!

Do admire the hood.

Daddy built a fire in our fireplace - a first - when it went out, I said:

"Oh No! The fire broke!"

I love PupPup.

A couple of days ago momma said, "Owen, I am so glad that you are the baby in our family." I said, "PupPup, I am so glad that you are the PupPup in our family."

Discipline Matters:

We have adopted a three prong disciple system to help the cats, momma, daddy and well, me, to make good choices. We empathize, set a boundary, and offer an acceptable alternative (a strategy taught us by our friend Lynn).

This might sound like: I know it is fun to climb on the table and you may not climb on the table. You may climb on the floor.

Here are some actual examples of this strategy in action:

Owen: "Zoe, you may not stand on the couch. You may stand on the floor."

Reading Hop on Pop by Dr. Suess:

Momma: "No, Pat, No. Don't sit on that."

Owen: "Pat, you may not sit on the cactus. You may sit on a chair."

Owen: "We don't throw milk. We don't throw milk. You may throw PupPup. You may throw a pillow. You may throw daddy. That's silly. We don't throw milk."

Two boys:

This is a picture of me and my friend Wilson. It was taken before Christmas when I was at his house playing. Wilson is such a cool guy. Thanks for hanging out with me, Wilson.

Geese

Here are some more pictures from my visit with Grandaddy, Grammy, Uncle Blake, and Uncle Steve in Tennessee:

There is a beautiful park with geese that I love to visit every time I am in Tennessee.

Look at them! Wow!

I tried very hard to pet one. The geese were not so inclined.

"Hi geese."

There are ducks too.

This is my cousin Hannah. You will remember that we had a big party where I got to meet many people in my family.

Momma helped me open presents. Here we are reading the book that Uncle Blake got me.

Cousin time. See Bennett (Uncle Charlie's son) and Hannah and Austin (Aunt Ginger's daughter and son) playing with me? You can also see Aunt Debi, Uncle Charlie, Uncle Ken and Uncle Blake.

BCS National Championship Game

A house divided . . .

A son set against his father . . .

My loyalty to both Texas and Bama is not normally challenged - after all, the Longhorns play in the Big 12 and the Crimson Tide plays in the SEC - but on this day . . .

I have used my "silly bands" to represent the situation - my two favorite teams are playing each other. My daddy is a student at Texas, and my mimi and pops are in all their Bama gear at the game today in California.

Being rational people, momma, daddy, and I had a conversation this morning about what to wear. We decided that as we live in TEXAS, I should wear my Longhorns shirt to school.

I put it on and then as soon as we got upstairs . . .

I requested "Alabama milk."

What can I say?

"Roll Tide!" "Hook 'em Horns!"

Airplane

As you all know . . .

. . . I am a frequent flyer.

These flying pictures were captured in Alabama but we are now back in Texas.

Merry Christmas: Tennessee

First . . .

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Welcome 2010.

From Alabama we went to Tennessee. In addition to granddaddy, grammy, Uncle Blake and Uncle Steve, I got a chance to spend some time with Santa.

Granddaddy read me lots of books.

We all enjoyed playing with this train.

Grammy played ball with me. We called this ball the "crazy pink ball" becuase it is pink and it rolls crazy - I thought it was very funny.

Uncle Blake and I took our anual tour of the yard.

And created amazing works of art.

There will be more pictures of this - we had a huge Christmas party. My Aunt Ginger, Uncle Ken and cousins Hannah, Abby, and Austin and my Uncle Charlie and Aunt Debi and cousins Caroline and Bennett were there just to name a few . . . it was amazing. In this picture you can see Hannah playing with me, Bennett to the left of her, Austin to the right. Uncle Blake is in the brown chair and Caroline is in the corner. Wow! We had so much fun.

There are more pictures coming from Alabama and Tennessee. So, stay tuned!

In other news: On the drive from TN back to AL, I kept holding PupPup up to the window so that he could see out. I showed him the rocks. There are amazing rocks here. They cut through mountains to put roads - we don't have anything like that in Texas!