Merry Christmas

Well my friends, once again I am late sending out my Christmas cards - so you will be getting New Year's cards. I just didn't want any of you thinking I had forgotten you because I haven't, and I have loved getting your cards and emails so thank you and have a wonderful Christmas!

More Graduation

Well, here is the rest of the graduation story. For about 3 years now I have been picturing in my mind what these glorious family graduation pictures would look like. I visualized my man is his cap and gown with me looking lovely by his side and our 3 adorable children basking in the happiness of the day. Well, how's this for matching that description??

Not exactly what I had in mind...no wonder everyone kept staring at us. As if we weren't spectacle enough being the only graduate with a family...we had to be a family with spazzing, screaming children.

Problem A: I managed to pack dress clothes for the kids but somehow forgot my skirt...thank goodness Dave's mom had a pair of black slacks with her or else I would have attended graduation in jeans...awesome.

Problem B: We had been running all over the place all day long so the kids were extremely tired, hence the reason Jack is wailing.

Problem C: Somehow none of us are looking at the camera. In fact, not one of us is looking in the same direction. Nice. Well, hopefully when I raid the parents cameras I will find something a little more promising.

But, even without the picture I have been dreaming about for years, it was still a great night and I enjoyed every minute.

Now for picture that I have been dreaming about for years failure #2

This picture is yet another I have been excited and planned for for several years now. But, since certain people in the picture aren't cooperating (why is he always doing that?), let me explain. This picture was to be titled "Dave's College Souvenirs." He has acquired a very lasting "item" at each school he has attended and we are all dressed accordingly. Kira=BYU-Idaho Brooklyn=BYU Jack=UNC Bradley=Fresno State (ok, Dave never went to school at Fresno State, but that's where we lived when he was born, so good enough for the sake of the picture.) Anyway, I have been so excited for this picture, but alas, I forgot one crucial parenting commandment. Thou shalt not rush the children. When thou doest rush the children, they shall rebel. Period. So, here is my memory. But, again, I am not bitter. Actually - I just look at it and it makes me laugh. So much for planning.

Ok - now for a few great pictures. While I was there I arranged to meet up with a few friends. I tried to catch them all for a picture, but of course missed a few, so here's what I got. We miss all these fun people. Kids sure do grow up in 1 1/2 years! It was so fun to see the ones I got to see - wish I could have seen all my good Greeley friends.

L to R: Jack, Sedra, Bradley, Brooklyn, Barak, Kristin, Madison, Kara, Aury)

L to R: Austin, Kaitlyn, Bradley, Brooklyn, Brandon, Eric)

***Just a side note***

Check out Dave's graduation gift.

My parents thought we could use a more "family-friendly" vehicle. Minivans are so yesterday.

(Truthfully, my dad just had a momentary lapse of sanity and decided that this would make a lovely rental car...I didn't even want Dave drive it at all - hello! Can we say "let's crash it and double our already overwhelming student loan debt!")

What's up Doc?

The day we have been waiting 6 years for has finally arrived! Way to go Dave!

Here he is at the sign - sayonara UNC!

Here's Dave's other home - Gunter Hall.


Dave did not appreciate me making him wander around campus in his cap and gown to take pictures. He was sure that everyone was wondering who the goon was that was enjoying his graduation robes a little too much. But, like the good man he is, he stood out there freezing to death wherever I wanted him to. Lucky for him, it was quickly getting dark.
Many more pics to come...

He's Done!

I just want to post a quick note to say that my new life has officially begun. I am no longer married to a student! Yay for me and a great big HOORAY for Dave. There will be plenty of graduation pictures and things to come but I am just so excited that I just had to share the wonderful news!

Why do these things have to happen at the quietest moments??

Last night Dave had to fill his YM leader duty and direct traffic for a Christmas concert at the church. This concert is a pretty big deal, so directing traffic requires flashlights, walkie-talkies, and the works. I tell you this by way of background for my horrifically embarrassing experience today. Here it is. We managed to make it on time for our 9:00 meetings, but just barely so we were sitting in the very back on the metal chairs which doesn't really bother me because my little people are loud and distracting. Well, just as we are sitting down Dave notices that there aren't enough deacons to pass the sacrament so he runs off leaving me with all 3 kids. Scary? Yes, but nothing I can't handle. Well, as they are passing the water Jack walks over to give me something and suddenly Dave's church bag starts "screaming" VERY LOUD white noise. Well, I am holding Bradley and trying to scramble to figure out A) what is making that horrific noise, and 2) how do I make it stop? Well, I find the source...those rotten walkie-talkies from the traffic ordeal. Dave brought them to church to return them but didn't happen to turn them off. Since they aren't mine, I don't know how to turn them off and every second I am in there feels like an eternity. So here's how it all went from there. Plan A was to quickly look for a power switch, but since there were 4 walkie-talkies in the bag, I wasn't sure which one/ones were making the noise and I certainly didn't want to turn on the ones that were actually turned off. So Plan B was to try and smother the sound with Bradley's blanket. No good. I then started to quickly formulate my plan of quickly getting all 3 kids and the dumb bag out the door without tripping over a kid or dropping Bradley. Thankfully the lady next to me held out her arms to take Bradley so I could run the "screaming" bag to the foyer. Once I get it out there I figure out which 2 were making all the noise and turn them off. I then look up for the first time and I kind of start into my nervous laugh. The people in the foyer found in quite amusing, as did a few people back in the chapel. I am waiting for them to open the chapel doors again when I realize that I just left my 2 and 4 year old in there unsupervised. (I think this is the only thing that gave me the guts to walk back in there.) Well, that could have been really bad and would have made this story 100 times better, but lucky for me, the kids did fine without me, including Bradley who was thrown into the arms of a stranger. It was pretty embarrassing, but I got a lot of laughs and a lot of people hunting me down to find out what in the world was in that bag. I think the red color is finally draining from my face and I hope that I have now had my "really embarrassing loud moment during sacrament" experience. Everyone only has to have one, right?

Tinkerbell Party

A few nights ago we had the Mia and Ella over for a little Date-Night-Swaparoo. Dave was gone on a camp out so I was obviously not having a date that night so Steve and Sharlene took their turn to go out without their kids (well, except for the baby).
So...what do you get when you put 3 little girls in the same room with a fairy movie, popcorn and pillows?
Lots and lots of giggling!

This picture shows how Jack felt about being out numbered. He made the conscience decision to set up camp away from the girls. (But I have to say that he was pretty excited about the Tinkerbell movie)

General Bradley keeping the troops in line

We had lots of fun having our little "girl party" (+Jack & Bradley). Brooklyn loves having her friends over and I think it is safe to say that soon there will be a picture of Dave and I on an actual date with no children but Bradley. It will be worth documenting since it is a very rare occasion. How exciting.

Sharing Soup

Well, this is officially my Happy Thanksgiving post. So, Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I got to go to Brooklyn's preschool today for Sharing Soup. Oh my cuteness! Just look at these adorable pilgrims.

Brookie & Logan

Having her Thanksgiving Feast (sharing soup, pumpkin pie and apple cider)

Mrs. Herman's Pre-K Indians & Pilgrims

Aren't they adorable? They have been talking all week about things they were grateful for and sharing with others. I am so impressed and how much effort they put into this preschool program. We have been more than thrilled with it all. I especially love that they invite parents (and siblings) to come in for big events like this. Such fun!

In one ear...

I'm sure my boy isn't alone in doing this, but seriously...the newspaper/TV is not going answer you, nor can they hear you - so why do you lecture them? This is such a strange habit. Dave's favorite is offering amazing advice to various athletic coaches. "If I were the coach..." "You've got to pull that pitcher." This is a perfect opportunity for a squeeze play!" Then, when the coach doesn't heed his advice, all night long I hear, "I told you, you should have done the squeeze."

Well, a similar experience was unfolding here just the other night. Only this time, he was yelling (well, ok, Dave doesn't yell) ...lecturing the newspaper on the ever famous subject of Proposition 8.

I was reading blogs or something, vaguely aware of the constant stream of ranting and raving coming from across the room. Sadly, it was so tuned out that I can't even give you a quote. Eventually, I look up and raise and eyebrow. "Why do you talk to the newspaper? It won't talk back you know." Then he looks at me with this traumatized look and says, "I wasn't talking to the newspaper - I was talking to you!" Oops...maybe my listening skills are a little rough when it comes to certain topics. I guess I better work on that.

Here's my cute boy (actually there are 2 of my cute boys in this picture) reading his paper in disgust. I'd like you to notice the headline...no wonder he was irritated.

love him. ^ (he'll be embarassed when he sees this)

You know you're tired when...

Brooklyn stayed up a little too late Saturday night so by Sunday afternoon - this is what we found. Dave and I were chatting in the living room when I noticed that things seemed a little too quiet. Jack and Bradley were both asleep but we thought Brooklyn was playing in her room. I went looking for her to find her asleep on the toilet. I think she had been sleeping there for awhile because she had even started drooling (as seen in the 2nd picture if you look closely).

(Poor Brooklyn, someday this will be extremely embarrassing!)

Too funny!

Day at the Zoo

Thanks to having a day off of school, we decided to take the kids to the zoo! (I LOVE living in a place where you can visit the zoo all year round!)

When we got there we headed to the back of the zoo for a picnic - which, as it turns out, is where the kids (and Steve) had the most fun. Here is Jack, Brooklyn, and Madie rolling down the hill. I wish I had a picture of Steve riding down the hill in their jogging stroller...



Are these 2 cute or what? They were both so good the whole time!



All the kids checking out the flamingos!



A 4 headed turtle?



Jack, Brooklyn, Logan, Ella, Mia and Madie - love these cute kids!


We all had a great time - and it only took us 3 hours. ha ha The kids were exhausted by the end. We love having such great friends to do fun things with!

Band-Aid Bandits

I'm not sure what it is about Band-Aid's that is so exciting but my kids (especially Brooklyn) are totally obsessed with them. It makes me crazy. I swear that at least every other day my bathroom looks like this:

And then various parts of their bodies look like this:

There are no "owies" under these Band-Aids - I guess it is just fun to stick them all over yourself. I guess I am going to have to put them on a higher shelf...

It's exhausting...creating such a mess

Obviously Jack put in a full day's work here. He worked so hard that it knocked him out for 3 hours. (This would be a good example of one of those messes that I clean up day after day after day.)

Brooklyn's New Do!

Check out Brooklyn's new haircut!

What do you think?

Our new roommate

Here's a picture of Dave and my new roommate.

He starts out in his room every night, but somewhere between 3-5am he wanders into our room and makes himself a little bed right along my side of the bed. I don't even know how to correct it because we don't hear him come in. But, to tell you the truth, I am not sure that I want to correct it because there is nothing sweeter than waking up to a little 2 year old boy quietly singing "Wheels on the bus." He is typically the first one awake at our house but is so polite not to disturb anyone. I am not a morning person, but it makes me happy to wake up to him singing. Then I get to lean over the side of the bed to wish him "Good Morning" and he flashes me his big beautiful smile and says "I sleep good." What a sweet boy - and thank goodness we have one morning person in the house.

Bradley's 3 month pictures

How time flies - our little man is already 3 months old! These are just a couple of pictures that Dave and I snapped. Isn't he adorable?

This boy could seriously win an award for the world's best baby. He is so good and happy all the time (except between the hours of 6-7pm when he just wants to eat and go to bed.) He sleeps like a champion and loves to just lay on the floor and watch the show. He is "talking" and laughing and smiles all day. I love this boy!

Happy Halloween!

We had an interesting Halloween this year. There was of course lots of fun and parties, but it was all overshadowed by nervousness. Dave was scheduled to give his oral exam/dissertation defense 3 days after Halloween. Yikes! I am writing all of this long after it all has happened so I can't even convey the anticipation/fear that Dave especially was feeling. But, the kids must have a wonderful holiday so here we are at the ward trunk or treat. Brooklyn is Sleeping Beauty, Jack is a pirate and Bradley is a...cheetah?? I'm not really sure what animal that costume is supposed to be - but it sure is cute!

This is Jack at home after the party. He has "beard" all over his face and clothes - but this is his salute to Halloween candy!

Besides the ward party, we had a little party with a few friends and then got to go to Brooklyn's school party. She is the pink care bear - I didn't think a Sleeping Beauty costume with a hoop skirt was very conducive for preschool. Isn't her teacher's bumble bee costume cute?

After all of this we got to go to Dave's parents house for Halloween night - yeah for way too much sugar. :) Happy Halloween everyone!

P.S. Dave passed his oral exam - and I for one, couldn't be prouder!

Pumpkin Carving

It's pumpkin carving time! Brooklyn was way into this - she was pulling pumpkin guts out like a wild woman with no thought to them getting all over her and everything else. Jack on the other hand took one look in there and said, "Ewww, gross!" There was no convincing him to even think about going in there.



Happy 1st Halloween Bradley! (We really could have used a bigger pumpkin!)



Here's my man carving away!



The finished product! (Dave seems to be giving his best impression of a Jack-o-lantern) :)

This is just a random picture from a family home evening we had a couple of weeks ago about listening to the Spirit. I just think the picture is pretty funny. We have a thing for ears around here.

Bradley's Blessing

I know I am probably overwhelming you with all these posts in one day, but I am trying to catch up and since Dave is gone to a fireside and the kids are all asleep - I can just blog away.

On October 12th, 2008 our sweet little baby boy Bradley Skoy Bowen was blessed. Isn't he the cutest little thing? It's a good thing we didn't wait any longer to bless him - he barely fit in that blessing outfit - I had to put a onesie on underneath to keep his big ol' belly from hanging out.


I will spare the details here, but here are a few pictures of all the family that came to support us. My mom, 2 sisters and Lindsey my best friend from high school came from Idaho. My grandma and grandpa SKOY (hence the middle name) came from Utah and Dave's parents came up from Newbury Park, CA. It was so fun to have everyone there with us! (I know it's a weird picture - we were having some trouble with the tripod - I'm working on getting a better one from my mom.)

Here's our little family - I won't say "Happy little family" because 2 out of the 5 were not very happy and so we really didn't get a very good picture. Oh well.

Jack refused to be in anymore pictures, so just pretend that he is in this cute picture.

Ok, I know this is gross, but I worried all week about what would happen if he "blew out" of his diaper all over his blessing clothes. What would I do? Send him up there in a diaper? Well, being the good baby he is, he waited until after the blessing and the pictures to do his business. (Sorry Bradley, this might be really embarrassing later.)

We love this little boy! He has been an absolute angel - it really does always amaze me that you can just keep loving them all-no matter how many you have! I love these babies!!

Preschool Fieldtrip

What a big day - Brooklyn's first ever school field trip. She got to go to the Pumpkin patch (yes, it is the same one we already went to, but since I couldn't go on the field trip :( I had to take her before.) Luckily, Kevin Ryan was able to go with the kids and take some fun pictures - which I just swiped off of their blog - thanks guys!
Highlight #1 for Brooklyn was that she got to ride the school bus! Pretty exciting. When she got home she told me all about the rules of the bus.
Highlight #2 was that she got to check the place out with her good buddy Logan. As seen below, they are quite the pair - Logan loves to drag her around and show her everything. (we aren't really sure what Logan was really pointing at, but as Stephanie pointed out, it looks like the woman in front of them is getting a little poke in the bottom. Gosh Stephanie - why did you have to point that out? Now that's all I see when I look at this picture. Now I guess that is what everyone else will see too. :)



Here they are on the hayride - thanks for actually looking at the camera Logan. What a cute boy!

Here is the Gettysburg Elementary Pre-K a.m. class with teacher Mrs. Herman

So, Stephanie and I think that secretly Kevin is planning the future wedding of our 2 children - how else do you explain him taking engagement looking pictures of them?

Brooklyn had a great time on her first field trip. I REALLY wanted to go with her, but a couple of weeks before Mrs. Herman announced that no siblings would be allowed to go due to it being too crowded. So, since I have a nursing baby - I had to stay home. But thanks again to Kevin for taking lots of pictures of the kids!

Congratulations Julie & Stephanie!

Way to go Julie and Stephanie for winning the Name That Baby Game! I labeled the pictures if you are interested in who's who.

A serious problem at our house

What do you do when your kids come bounding into your room at 5 am ready to go for the day?? Well, I will tell you what I do and what you shouldn't do. I sleepily tell them to go build towers and play cars in Jack's room. Bad idea. Building towers and playing cars would be way too boring for unsupervised time. So what do they do instead?

THIS

Please notice the pink and black spots in Jack's hair. I didn't get any pictures of Brooklyn - or the front of Jack, (his bellybutton was nicely done) but I am sure you have no trouble picturing it. Lucky for me there were no permanent writing utensils used, but still...no good.

So - we tried this:

Problem?

They think it's fun.

So now that you have given an empathetic gasp of horror or are laughing you head off...please help me. This started about 3 days ago and they have done it every day since - I keep finding new "masterpieces" all over the house and their bodies. I know Brooklyn is the one instigating it all and Jack is just following suit. They have always been good about entertaining themselves which has been great - but now that I am preoccupied nursing a baby and as in the earlier story, sleeping - they have gone wild. Most of it is no big deal - I can handle dumping out the toy box or jumping on the bed - but this drawing on the walls has got to stop. So does anyone have any brilliant ideas for me besides tying them to chairs, blowing up all their art supplies, or covering the walls in art paper?

Oh - by the way - the art supplies are on a high shelf but I think they are stashing markers and crayons somewhere waiting for the perfect opportunity. There is so much marker ink on their skin I don't think it will ever come off. washable?..... more like slowly fadeable.

Has anyone else's child ever had a chronic problem with coloring on themselves and the walls? Someone please help me before I have to re-paint the whole house and my children turn completely blue.