Christmas Present

Santa visited Grandmas today and I think Harper was most intrigued by her new pottery wheel. Just last weekend we went to Silver Dollar City and she watched the potters make bowls and cups. So we quickly busted it all out and got our hands dirty. I say we, but the we is actually Mommy, Harper, and aunt Mel. Just watch them at work:

Home of the Cowboys

Today we loaded up with Grandma and Boppy and headed up to Stillwater for the OSU vs Baylor football game. This day was much neater though, it was Owen's first OSU football game. We got to Stillwater early enough to catch the walk around and some of the fan friendly booths outside Boone Pickens Stadium. When it comes to OSU games Harper is an old pro, but she was very excited to wear her cheerleader outfit again. She was also excited when she got to get her face air-brush painted. Like a good little cowboy she chose to have "I love my Cowboys" painted on her cheek. After these festivities we headed around to the south side of the stadium to go in, when we rounded the corner by Gallagher Iba arena Owen caught a glimpse of the stadium and squealed with excitement. Both kids did wonderfully at the game, and both loved seeing Bullet run out onto the field, fortunately the Cowboys scored a lot so the kids got to see lots of Bullet. It was a great day spent with the family in a town I truly love and have so many fond memories of. We are well on our way to growing to dedicated cowboys. Ps- I gave Harper the things not to do in college speech as we were walking by Animal House. I figure it's never too early to plant the seed.

Owen and Daddy Fun

Recently Owen and I were playing outside while Harper and Melissa were at dance. We did all of the usual play things, swinging, chasing the dogs, getting dirty, and then dragging toys from the garage. Finally Owen decided that he wanted to go up and play in the playhouse. But before climbing the ladder he decided to play peek-a-boo through the ladder. This is the image I captured:



This picture is great because you can tell he is smiling without even seeing his mouth.

I think her tractors sexy

Yes, the title is correct. And yes that picture is undoctored. That is my beautiful wife driving her Dad's tractor. Those of you who know her may or may not know she does have this side. And this is only one of the reasons why I adore her.

Friday Night in the Hometown

What could be better than great weather, Friday night football, and family? Nothing. We got to spend last night together enjoying the Yukon Mustang domination. You definitely have a great sense of pride having a wonderful family and being at a hometown football game. You also can't help but be taken back to your high school days. I always remember that time fondly because that's where our little family started. You never expect to be bringing your kids back to those games, but it is awesome to be able to share that with them and see them get excited about the Millers! I look forward to another season of football family Friday nights!

Kindergarten?

Tomorrow my baby girl will go to her first day of kindergarten. I am not sure whether I am supposed to be excited or nervous. In reality I am both, I am excited for Harper because I know how much she loves learning and being with her friends. But I am nervous because this means my little girl is officially starting school. Yes she has already been in "school" for two years, but she will now be in school with kids who have never been in school. I wonder how this will effect her. I know one thing for sure, she is smart, confident, and dog gone-it people like her. I think she is very excited and that's all I can ask for. I am proud of you Princess.

I'm never gonna work there....

This evening we went to visit our Grandma and Boppy and we played until it got to be a little late. When we left I heard the dreaded ding of the low fuel reminder, so we pulled into our local "oh thank heaven" (which is 7-11 in case you forgot the reference). After fueling up Harper asked me when 7-11 closes, so I very nonchalantly replied that 7-11 never closes and that is open 24 hours a day. To which she vehemently replied "I'm never working there, they don't let you sleep!" which led me to explain how the night shift works and to which she replied "good because I like sleeping at night". Always fascinated at how my baby girls mind works!

Suprise Face!

Among Owens many new "tricks", his cutest is by far his surprise face



As you can see, he shapes his mouth into a perfect O and bugs his eyes out, it's priceless.

Summer re-cap

Due to a lack of maintaining my blog this summer I will try to roll it all into one MEGA POST (insert echo here). So here goes......
Summer began with Melissa jet-setting off to New York City, which led to our ritual of waiting for the daily emailed sightseeing picture or text picture, and finally getting to talk to mommy, grandma, and aunt Mel. It was a great preparation for the summer of daddy day care. Soon after Melissa's return home I left to go work the OSU basketball camp. It's always a bitter sweet time, I enjoy being in Stillwater and coaching, but I always miss my family.

After returning from camp Melissa began working four days a week, which gave me the opportunity to spend some amazing quality time with my kiddos. We quickly developed our zoo and library story time routines.

I think our zoo trips were easily some of the best times we had. We would pack our peanut butter sandwiches and cold pizza for Owen and head off to the zoo. We would listen to the stories, eat our snacks, make some rockin crafts, and venture out into the wild confines of the zoo.

We also had many amazing times just playing here at the house. The imagination of a five year old conjures some amazing games. Thanks to her little brother, she usually had a willing participant. Thanks to the sweltering heat we spent many afternoons inside watching sprout or Disney and the occasional movie. Of course my favorite part of these days was nap time because I regularly caught a cat nap while rocking Owen to sleep. One of the sweet bonuses to being the stay home Dad.

SAHD (stay at home Dad)

I have had the immeasurable joy of being able to stay home this summer and take care of my kiddos. Don't get me wrong it hasn't been the easiest thing to do, but we have had so much fun just hanging out together. I consider myself very lucky to have the kind of job that allows me to stay home and be a part of this: Our main routine (a word I never thought would describe anything I did) was zoo story time on Tuesday, library story time on Wednesday, random things on Thursdays, and finally family Fridays. A few of my favorite things were putting Owen down for his nap, which usually led to me catching a short nap while holding him. I also enjoyed the hot afternoons playing in the playroom. All in all I think sad is the best way to describe how I am feeling, getting back into school means no more mr. Mom and now back to reality. Thank you Harps and Owie for a fantastic summer!

Guess Who's Back

Man it's been a while. Many different things have been happening, for example Harper has finished her second year of school and turned into a grown woman. Owen has started walking and talking, let me qualify that, his favorite word is keys and he takes a maximum of roughly twelve steps before remembering that crawling is faster. I often catch myself stepping back and just marveling at how quickly my little babies have grown. Harper and I often talk about how she will be in each grade sequentially and she is fond of making herself grow up way before her time. Harper has recently developed a love for Junie B Jones and her many misadventures. But I am not sure who enjoys reading the books more, I love Junie's wit and humor and see many of her mannerisms in my little princess. Owen is showing how he is all boy, we have spent quite a bit of time lately wrestling, he grits his couple of teeth and we roll around the floor giggling. He has also developed a keen ability to climb on his bus, he is most proud when he figures out how to climb down. All I know is that I am really looking forward to spending ample time playing with these two bundles of sunshine all day every day this summer as I assume the role of SAD.
I will try to keep updated with the many adventures of the Barlow Crew.
Had to add a short video of the kids antics, didn't know whether to be amazed or scared, but it worked out so......

My Little Girls First Dance

Saturday January 30th, a day that will live in infamy...... Ok so maybe it wasn't that important, but it was huge for Harper and very big for me. This was my little girls first date, I had a great deal to live up to, I was setting the precident in her young mind for how all of her dances should go in the future. Ok so maybe I am exagerating again, but I tell you, I don't think I have ever seen Harper so excited. At about 4:00 on saturday I began getting ready, Harper cam into the closet and selected my suit and tie. She chose brown because it matched her dress. Then she stood in the bathroom and made sure I fixed my hair, she was clearly not going anywhere with me without my hair fixed just right. Then it was picture time, she looked like such a little lady and was very excited about the corsage and boutonniere, matching of course. Then we set off for the dance at the Dale Robertson center. When we arrived Harper's first comment was, "this place looks a lot different then when we got our shots". That's right in September we were in the same room getting flu shots. We stood in line for pictures and then the music started, Harper stood there with a mix of nervousness and excitment. When we sat for our picture, she was smiling from ear to ear and the photographer said I had the best daddy smile he had seen all night, it was easy when you have such a great little girl to be proud of. Then the dancing began with a Hannah Montana song, I had to show Harper that it is ok to jump around and have fun just dancing.


We did a couple of fast dances, a few slow dances and a few silly dances (the hokey pokey, YMCA, Chicken dance, the Twist). Then Harper decided she wanted some punch and cookies and a ballon flower. I wasn't sure because the ballons were being fashioned by clowns and I didn't know if she shared her mommy's fear. She chose a balloon flower and we finished out the night with the bunny hop dance out the door. The dance was easily one of the coolest things I have done with Harper so far, just to see how much fun she had and to get to treat her like a special lady. When we got in the car we began deciding where our special dinner would be. Harper suggested that we just drive around and find somewhere she has never been, but due to the recet ice storms we decided to stay close to home. She ultimately decided on Chili's, everyone's favorite for special occasions, I was truly afraid she would choose McDonald's. From the moment we walked in the door Harper was complemented by many people about her pretty dress and how beautiful she is, I told her it was because she was acting like such a lady. I decided to video tape her talking about the dance and what I got was priceless:




What do you say about that? Overall I could not have been more proud of my little princess and am looking very forward to next years dance!

"Riding along in my automobile, baby beside me at the wheel"

On Friday afternoon the kids and I decided to take advantage of the break in the rain and clouds and get outside and collect some much needed vitamin D. Harper ran out the back door and sprang off the back porch and was shouting "woohoo", clearly being very excited and getting out in her backyard to play. Owen was all kinds of pumped up to go sit in his swing, at least that's what I imagined he was feeling, due to the fact that you can only gather so much information from an 8 month old. Anyways I was finishing up hanging the swings on the play house and Harper had gotten out her John Deere Gator and was zooming around the yard. When it was time to go in I asked Harper to go put her gator away and this is what ensued.

All was well, Owen appeared very excited and proud to be riding shotgun with his sister. As you hear Harper inform her brother that "It's a tight turn OK Owie", I thought to myself I better get closer just in case. Good thing, the video ends, in case you can't tell, with me swooping in to grab Owen before he dives out, on a tight turn, into the yard.
All in all it was tons of fun finally getting outside to play!

"This is Jeopardy"

Owen and I have developed a very interesting afternoon routine as of late. I have discovered that Owen has a weird fascination with Jeopardy. That's right Jeopardy. "I'll take weird for $1000, Alex." I just turned it on one day and he stopped playing and started watching, so now everyday we get home change our clothes, get our snack and watch Jeopardy. I like to think it is my way of enriching his intelligence, when in all actuality it could just be that he is tired and manages to sit through Jeopardy and catch a little rest. Either way I look forward to sitting with him everyday and watching our show!

Funny from Christmas - out of the archives

I just had to put this up here. Harper and I went to pick out Melissas gift on Christmas eve, and Harper decided that her Mommy just had to have some candy orange slices because "she absolutely loves them". So, when Harper and I got home I decided to let her wrap the orage slices by herself. The following is what ensued, pay attention to the tape:

(never got to put the video in, but Harper ended up using nearly half a roll of scotch tape, every time she folded a piece of wrapping paper, she got another piece of tape)

It came out looking like a gift wrapped with love!

New Year

This past year has definitely been very good to myself and my family. First our new addition, whom is growing into quite the little man. We moved to a new house, which gave us room to spread out. Harper Started Pre-K, which means my baby girls is growing up way too fast. Melissa got a new job, which made me so very proud of her! All in all this past year brought many changes to the Barlow family, a family which doesn't take change lightly. That being said all of these changes have proven to be for the better and I wouldn't change a thing, except for maybe my new found receeding hair-line (yikes). I look very hopeful into the upcoming year and hope and pray that our blessings are as plentiful as this past year, but I have my health, the health of my family, a good job, and more love than any man deserves! It don't get any better!