Owen is 11 Years Old!!!

Owen Michael Martin is 11 years old! 

This year Owen's birthday is a bit more special since his birthday actually falls on the same day it did the year he was born. He was born on Monday, January 15th 2007 on Martin Luther King Jr's Day. 

Let's talk all about Owen! 

Owen loves chess! He is getting so good at it it won't be long and he'll be beating me. He is the master at getting himself into stalemate! It makes me so mad that I can't get him into checkmate. That definitely takes a certain kind of talent! 

Owen can be quite ingenious and clever. The above picture is a LEGO mini figure giving birth. Notice the head coming out and all the red blood. 

For the first 9 years I do a theme party for the kids. Each of the kids get to choose to go out somewhere for their big 1-0 birthday. Owen chose GameWorks. He had a blast! 

Owen still loves these footie jimmies! He even wore them to school and church for pajama day! 

Charlie is the best thing ever in Owen's eyes. Charlie also loves Owen. He's the only person that Charlie actually grooms. Whenever Owen puts his face up to Charlie's he almost always starts cleaning his face. 

Last year we found out that Owen needed glasses. He had glasses back in 2nd grade, but hated to wear his glasses. He said they made things worst. It was weird to me that the eye dr we took him to basically figured out the lenses that Owen needed and didn't let Owen tell him what was more clear. This time around we took him to a different eye dr and sure enough he could see great out of one eye, but the other eye was horrible. He wasn't very happy to be trying on glasses! 

Every boy needs a cat and every cat needs a boy! 

Owen loves going to Ga-Ga & Pa's house. He especially loves when they get to go somewhere...like Dairy Queen! 

He also LOVES that Ga-Ga & Pa always let the kids get something from the gift shop!!

Even though he wasn't too happy about glasses they do make a difference. He still has to be reminded to wear them every now and then, but I think he's finally seeing how much they do make things better for him. 

My sweet boy isn't super into sport. This was at the Rainier's game. He wasn't too thrilled to be there. He'd rather be at home playing on the computer! 

I swear he looks like he's 14 in this picture. Owen loves the fire pit. He's always wanting Michael to build a fire in the summertime. 

My sweet boy is so thoughtful to his mommy! He still loves to love on me and snuggle! He definitely needs his mommy snuggle time and I'm going to enjoy it while I can! 

Goofy boy! 

This summer he caught his first fish at the lake house! This is when I really started to think that we need to start camping more. He loved sitting in that camp chair ALL DAY LONG fishing! It was so amazing. Not one complaint....not once did he ask to go on electronics. It was amazing! 

He did not want to gut the fish and he was not happy that we made him try it after it was cooked, but he still wanted to fish so that's good. 

Owen really is getting to be such a young man!! He has such great daddy to look up to! 

He's in heaven!!! 

I love taking pictures with my boy! 

He's always wanting to take goofy pictures where he's making a funny face or doing a strangle pose! 

Owen is a big game player...computer games, outdoor games, board games...card games....he loves them all! 

He also is in absolute agreement with his Mommy that Costco has the best pizza ever!!!

He also sometimes gets annoyed with his Mama when she wants to take pictures. 

Other than games...Owen also really likes to make set-ups. His favorite set-ups are with Jenga blocks and army men. 

He also uses his Angry Bird sets to create castles and such. 

Owen has a good sense of humor...even when the ketchup bottle farts all over his plate and hand! 

Owen loves road trips and he especially had a good time this last summer when we went to Wyoming. 

He got to explore Yellowstone National Park even though he was a stinker about it because he wanted to just stay at Aunt Linda & Uncle Lee's and play video games. Once he was there he had a great time though! 

This picture makes me sad...shortly after we got home from Wyoming we got the news that my Uncle had cancer. Stage 4 renal cell carcinoma! As I type this he's at hospice and he's not expected to make it much longer. It's just crazy to me how someone can be so healthy and then 4 short months later be dying. Cancer sucks!!!! 

Owen loves science and he really loves to learn. I love that he got to experience such a monumental moment like an eclipse! 

Later in the summer we went back to the lake house and this was the biggest miracle to ever happen....my kids got along with each other!!! 

5th grade has been good to Owen. Unfortunately his teacher Mrs. Tushar moved! It hit the kids really hard...like tears. They had only had her as their teacher for about a month when she left, but she had already made such a huge impact. Owen's new teacher is Mr. Herman and he's great. Owen just recently emailed Mrs. Tushar to find out how her Christmas was. I love that she gave her email address to them so they could keep in touch! 

This boy LOVES the water! 

The kids went swimming 4 times while we were at Seabrook and I think they could have gone double that and still have wanted more time in the water! 

This is the face Owen makes when he realizes that Daddy left the butter in the frig and it's too cold to spread! 

He is one awesome looking Halo dude! 

These are his other favorite pair of jammies. I got them off the Buy Nothing FB page. The funny thing is he doesn't even wear jammies to sleep...he sleeps in his undies. He does love to lounge around in jammies though! 

Owen with his favorite kitty and his favorite Christmas decoration! 

Owen sitting in his favorite spot during electronic time! 

Owen has had quite a year when it comes to teeth. He has lost at least 4 molars already! 

He also had to have his two upper baby canine teeth pulled since the adult canines were making his other adult teeth in front of them flare out. 

This guy loves guns...especially Nerf guns! He also really loves his shirt that says, "Tacocat spelled backwards is Tacocat!"

Goodbye 2017...Hello 2018! 

Just the couple days ago he was at school and one of his friends accidentally elbowed him while they were playing and knocked another one of his molars that was already loose out. The poor kid barely has any teeth past the front four on top and four on bottom! 

Owen Michael....you really are growing into a young man! 

You are so smart and so loving. You love to hug and kiss on me and I love that you don't get embarrassed by that. You will still wave goodbye to me at the bus stop and sign I love you and then open and close your hands really really fast as if you say you love me times 100. I love that!!! 

You are still such a reader. You love books! I have really enjoyed reading to you and Jack these last couple of months. It's so nice to get to have that 30 minutes of snuggle time with my older boys. 

You are so persistent!!! You do not take no for an answer and that drives me nutso sometimes. You will be a great negotiator one day!!! 

You still have crushes on quite a few girls at school. You don't have a ton of friends, but that's okay by you. At the beginning of the school year I prayed that you would make one good friend this year and you did. Jordan is at the other end of our neighborhood and he rides the same bus. He's a year younger than you, but you guys get along well. Jordan comes over and he likes to watch you play on the computer. You even shared the front seat willingly with him and then even let him have a turn on the computer. Daddy and I about passed out! You were seriously being nice to another kid! This was a huge leap in your social development! 

You are still not an adventurous eater. You do eat the required food that you have too, but that's it. You still try to talk your way out of eating stuff you don't like though. You did actually eat mashed potatoes without complaining the other day. You looked like you were going to puke, but you ate them! 

My sweet 11 year old boy....I'm not sure if I'm ready yet for what year 11 will bring. I have a feeling that there are going to be some changes coming this year for you. We've already talked about God's design for sex and marriage, but next up we need to talk about puberty and all the fun stuff that comes with that. (said with a sarcastic tone) You just recently started wearing deodorant...not that you need it, but Daddy didn't like the kind I got him so he gave one stick to you and one to Jack. I figured if you guys want to get in the habit now when you don't actually need it that's fine by me. I'd rather be ahead of the game then behind. 

In our devotion lately we've been talking about the Bible and how amazing it is and then we moved onto faith. Right now you have such an amazing amount of faith. Your prayers have been so sweet and genuine. I pray that your faith will only be strengthened in the coming year. I know that you will go through rough times in your life and that God will use those things for good. I know that if you hold tight to His promises and remember how faithful He is that you will be able to trust that He'll get you through. God love you so much Owen! More than even Daddy and I do...which is hard to imagine because we are pretty crazy about you! 

What's even harder to think is that in just 7 short year you'll be graduating high school. Oh man that makes me feel old just thinking about it. The funny thing is I'm not actually sad about you growing up. Usually when I write these posts I end up crying, but not this time. I think I've come to see how much fun kids are as they grow up. You are a lot of fun! We are done with the baby phase and that's okay. Each of you kiddos are in school and I'm loving the phase were in right now. 

Happy Birthday my sweet boy! I love you so!