Newborn photo shoot

We thought it would be fun to shoot some photos with a baseball and glove since Sawyer had such a cute baseball outfit that Grandma had bought him.

We realized he fit right inside of it!

We love this precious sleepy boy!

That hand!!

This baby picture might be my favorite ever! Sawyer is a beautiful baby!

The boys

We love that Kyler has a brother!

It's so fun to think of their future together.

A new member of the family

Sawyer Quinton Owen was born June 26, 2015, at 3:10 a.m., weighing 8 lbs, 6 oz. He was born in the middle of the night after a very fast labor!

Mom had been feeling contractions throughout the day, but she had had so many contractions throughout the pregnancy she wasn't fully sure it was labor until an hour and a half before he was born. Coincidentally, Aubrie had thrown up at her Girl's Camp that night and came home a day early. She arrived home just before midnight and mom and dad left for the hospital around 2 a.m. This was a miracle in of itself because we left the kids home with her babysitting and she didn't have to miss out on any of the fun. This was her biggest concern with going to the camp is that she wouldn't be around when Sawyer made his debut.

Mom and Dad walked into the labor and delivery department and 30 minutes later this sweet baby joined us. There was a few scary moments where his heart rate dropped, so oxygen was given to mom, but other than that there were no medical interventions. As mom was pushing him out, the nurses were giving her an IV and drawing blood -- these things should have been done well before this stage! One drawback of this quick birth is we had left everything in the car -- even the camera and video camera! Thankfully, we at least had our cell phones! This was the first baby that had been born without induction, so we didn't know what to expect!

The next day, these cuties met their baby brother and completely fell in love.

They examined every detail of his cute body. 

Sawyer had some low blood sugar issues the first two days, so they tried to help this by feeding him a high calorie formula.The good part is it made everyone else feel more connected to him.

The girls have been practicing this on their dolls for years. It's pretty exciting to have a real baby to feed now!

Even Kyler had a chance.

We are so lucky that Grandma was able to arrive before too long!

Sawyer's first bath.

This is Kyler's chubby hand getting acquainted with Sawyer's toes. The beautiful blanket was made with love from Grandma Taggart.

We can't believe we have FIVE children now! What a great crew!

Teyah's 8th

It took Teyah weeks to conjure up the perfect theme for her 8th birthday party. In order to create the magic and fun she experienced a few months prior on our cruise, she decided to do a Disney Cruise-themed birthday party with a Disney cake.

After conducting a deck dance party, several famous Disney characters came out to sign autographs.

The first stop on the cruise was Japan, followed by Hawaii.  The big sisters provided a surfing lesson during their stop off.

The next stop was Costa Rica where the girls competed in a jungle obstacle course.  The girls crawled through the tunnel, jumped in the car....

and lastly threw balls at a monster.

The girls ended the cruise with a magical dress-up karaoke show.

Then it was time to dig into the cake.

Daddy's birthday wish

For Dave's birthday, he planned an entire day with the family doing what he loves most.


We started out the day at Benihana for lunch.

We then ventured from park to park in search for the best fun for our kids...and Dave.


Dave loves climbing the structures with them and chasing them around.


I can't tell who had more fun.

 

We ended our day at French Regional Park and took in the Minnesota lake scene.

It was a summer day to savor.  Happy Birthday David!

Kyler's Sports debut

Kyler has spent years watching his big sisters anxiously waiting the chance to play on his own sports team.  As expected, Kyler brought an enormous amount of energy to the team.

This picture was taken after one of his games...."After game snacks!!!"

Brotherly love

Having your little brother wish you good luck just before your school concert is awesome....

Until he decides to embrace you in front of ALL your friends.

I love Ky, but HOW embarrassing!?

I love to see the Temple

Its not very often that we get a chance to have some 1 on 1 time with our kids.  We had such an experience in going to the temple together with Aubrie for the first time.  She's such a sweet girl with a natural ability to feel the spirit and discern right from wrong.  The temple symbolizes our family unity for the eternities and it was an amazing memory to take our first kid with us to experience that feeling together.

Momma's Day

Momma got several fun presents for Mother's Day this year.


But here is a picture of the best Mother's Day presents of all.

Star Spangled banner

Just 35 minutes before Ellie was to join her group in preparation for singing the National Anthem for the Twins game, she was performing her piano recital piece about a 30 minute drive away.  The second she performed on the piano, she and Dave raced across the city to meet the choir group within seconds of the start.

Prior to the game, Kyler and Dave went a little closer to the field to catch Ellie and her choir singing the National Anthem.

This little group of performers did a great job to start off the baseball game.


If you look closely, you can see Ellie on the far left on the mega-tron.

Ellie's best buddy, Brooklin was also there to lend support.

It was an absolutely perfect night for baseball, and the Twins won! We will never forget the miracle we pulled off in allowing her to perform both piano and singing in such a tight timeline!