CHRISTMAS 2014!!!

Christmas Eve! Ahhhhh how I love thee! There is just an air of peace, excitement, anticipation, and most of all gratitude for all that we are blessed with. This year we had our own little 2 bedroom apartment Christmas, just the five of us. While we missed our families terribly, it was kind of nice to just be us on this special day. We had a quiet night at home making pigs in a blanket, watching Christmas Story (of COURSE!), putting the previously wrapped and placed up high away from impatient little finger presents around our little baby Christmas tree, and opening a few presents. Then it was off to bed for visions of sugar plums dancing in our heads.

Rich & I snuck in the living room before the the kids woke up the next day to make sure the kids were good and that Santa actually came... guess what? HE DID!!! They all got just what they asked for. Bailey got a makeup vanity, McKenzie got a fancy art set with a bunch of supplies, and Braxton got Skylanders for his Nintendo DS. When they woke up there was literally a WALL of wrapping paper starting at the ceiling between the Christmas tree and the dining area so there was NO way they could peek. NO idea how Santa pulled that one off!

Three kids with minds blown at the amazingness that is Santa...

After coming down from the Santa high we made an awesome breakfast and got on a sugar high. Crepes for Christmas! Someone thought it would be a great idea to fill theirs with sour patch kids - as if they didn't have enough high fructose corn syrup streaming through their veins from their stocking candy, aka "first breakfast."

FINALLY time to open presents!!! Here are some of my favorite pictures of the kids with some of their favorite gifts! Bug's favorite was her Bailey-Sized Elephant "Ellie", Kenz got Just Dance for the Wii, and B was psyched about his new football! (P.S. the orange leotard was NOT EVER meant to go WITH the brown boots... just sayin...)

Now Mommy & Daddy get to open their present... out of the fridge... wrapped in butcher paper... ohhhhh prime rib baby!!!

The presents, family time, and delicious food made for great memories, but they are just added bonuses to what this day really means. Our brother came to this earth knowing the pain and suffering it would bring. He descended to earth to be our example and our Savior. Without Him and His great sacrifices we would not be able to return to live with Him and our Heavenly Father again after this life. HE is the reason and I am incredibly grateful and humbled by all that He has blessed us with in this life. Merry Christmas!

IT'S DECEMBER, PEOPLE!!!

I love love LOVE this time of year and all of the fun things we get to do in preparation for my very favorite Holiday... Christmas!!! This might definitely be a long post because we had so much fun! You were warned!

This year we started December off at Midwest Rehab for our ward (church congregation) Christmas Party. We made dinner for and shared the evening with all of the residents there. We made friends with a woman named Loretta Maston, who we are excited to come and visit again soon. Bailey, usually very shy with strangers, talked her ear off the whole night! It was a riot and very unlike her. I made the kids pose in their Christmas outfits after dinner. B gave me a goofball look and the girls just had attitude like WHOAH! Good thing they are still cute!

Next was Bailey's Christmas program. Yes, it was actually called a CHRISTMAS PROGRAM and it is PUBLIC SCHOOL! This made my heart happy. I am so tired of "Winter Parties." We aren't celebrating the temperature dropping, people. We are celebrating the BIRTH OF OUR SAVIOR! (okay - I will get off my soap box and continue the post...) Bailey was TERRIFIED to sing in front of all the parents. I managed a couple near melt down pictures before she ditched her friends and ran off the stage crying (15 seconds in). Oh sweet Bailey... better luck next year doll!

 Amanda, Chris and the kiddos got to come play one weekend too! We went to the Zoo Lights! It was a blast! So fun seeing the zoo all lit up at night. Once again I am incredibly grateful that they come to visit so often. I don't know what i would do without my little sister!

Some miscellaneous fun December things... We spent a lot of time feeding and petting the horse that live in a field behind our apartment. The kids even gave them all names.
We had a family trip to Family Dollar (literally LOL) for all of our Christmas decorations and baby tree. All of our Christmas stuff is in the dark whole that is our storage container until we get a house. Sigh... I was pretty fun though buying cute new things for our mini tree : )
One of my favorite December activities... The kids all decided to spend a good chunk of their Christmas money this year buying hats, gloves, and winter coats for kids who did not have their own. We went out shopping and got some great deals to buy way more than we thought we would be able to with their $100 budget. I was so proud of them sacrificing their own gifts for things that other kids really needed this Christmas season.

Another couple of things on our To Do list were bowling and pump it up. Done and Done!

We also got to go to the drive through light display at Our Lady of the Snows Shrine. It was incredible! Someone left a gorgeous poinsettia on our doorstep. I still have no idea who it was but it made me feel loved and brought a smile to my face every time I looked at it all month long! We had a beautiful Christmas program at church the Sunday before! Nothing brings the spirit like hearing testimonies through song and the spoken word of our Savior's birth to get you ready for Christmas day and the real meaning of December 25th! Of course I needed another pic of the kids in their Christmas church clothes.

We had nearly everything on our pre-Christmas To Do list checked off except for our big tradition... PICTURES WITH SANTA!!! Every year since we moved here in 2010 we have gone to Bass Pro Shop to play and talk to the big man! The kids look forward to this fun day every year! With our checklist all checked we were ready for the big day!!!

A Buggie 4th Birthday!!!

Thanksgiving bonus we had Bailey's 4th birthday party that night, a few days early so everyone could party with us! She got spoiled rotten, of course! She made her own cake ("Frozen" blue swirl cake with a crap ton of frosting and sprinkles of course) and the kiddos all helped her decorate it. Parties with family are another thing I really miss! It was so fun having everyone there to celebrate with us.

On her actual birthday we let he pick a handful of super fun activities to do while we were still in Texas. We went to Chikfila for lunch, wore ourselves out like a bunch of kangaroos at Elevate Trampoline Park (think wall to wall trampolines with basketball hoops, dodgeball courts, and wall climbing... yeah it was CRAZY FUN!!!) Papa and Grandma treated everyone to a delicious mexican dinner before we started our long (and sad) drive home. Bailey was EXHAUSTED - in case you couldn't tell from the sobbing pictures at dinner. Saying goodbye is always the WORST but we were so grateful fr the time we got to spend with family especially on Bug's big day!

Once we got home Bug was spoiled even more by Mom & Dad, Grandma & Papa Bowman, The Garbanatis, and Andy & Jenni!

I can't believe my little baby is FOUR!!! She has gotten so big. She is such a sweet and silly little girl. She brightens up any room she walks into. She loves all things girly and gymnastics. We are so grateful to have our little buggie bug! We love you Bailey!!!

Texas Thanksgiving!!!

It has been SO long since we got to have Thanksgiving in Texas! We were so excited that Rich's vacation time worked out so we could go play (& EAT) with the fam. Amanda & Chris got to come down too so the only people missing were Mitch, Faye and their sweet kiddos in England. The kids were losing their MINDS they were so excited! Bailey got to ride in a big girl booster seat for the first time too! We got in Thanksgiving morning, took a quick nap and started cooking! Dinner was AMAZING and we all ate way too much (Shocker!) It was so fun cooking with everyone. I miss that! Grandma made her famous pumpkin pie for Rich (it's his favorite) and Amanda made apple pie from scratch that looked more like a mountain! mmmmmmmmmmmmmm

We had such an awesome trip! We got to take the kids to the movies, play with all the animals at "Sarah's pet store", did a little black Friday shopping, played some mean games of Twister, and played on the tree lots!

More pictures of the fun!!!

School Picture Day 2015

My GOODNESS we have three cute kids : )
Bailey was extremely upset after school on picture day.
"MOM they didn't even let me do my POSE!"
BAHAAAAA who IS this kid? Not mine, that's for sure!

Frozen Snow Ball Fight

Bailey got invited to a birthday party with two special guests... Elsa and Anna! EEEEEEEEE! The preschool girls lost their MINDS with excitement and shock! The princesses sang Frozen songs and took pictures with all the kiddos. SHe had an absolute BLAST! In the middle of singing Let It Go it LITERALLY started snowing! It snowed all night and after church the next day someone (RICH!) decided it would be fun to have a snowball fight. He was right, it was pretty fun : )

Our Baby Boy is 7!

Good heavens... how does this keep happening? They just won't stop getting older!!! Braxton turned seven!!! He had very specific plans for his big day... Food and Fun! Breakfast? Chocolate chip pancakes with a whipped cream mountain. He didn't want to bring cupcakes to his class... he chose instead to bring them donuts and capri suns. Funny boy. Then Bailey and I took him out of school for a birthday lunch at McDonalds. Instead of a birthday party we drove to St. Louis to pick up his best friend, Kaden Greenwood. We went to see Big Hero 6 at the fancy dine-in movie theater. The food was delicious (the boys got more on themselves and each other than they did in their mouths, of course). The movie was one of our favorites EVER! It was a super fun night celebrating our sweet and hilarious Braxton. I just love this crazy kid. He cracks me up and makes me proud every day! We love you buddy! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Goodbye is my least favorite word!

Our fun was coming to a close in Utah. We were more than bummed but we were grateful we had such a wonderful time and made so many great memories. We made the rounds and said goodbyes to everyone and tried really hard not to cry... I did not try hard enough apparently... Goodbyes just plain suck!

Thank you so much Jim, Juanita, Andy, Jenni, Stef, Micah and all the kidders for everything! Can't wait till next time! We love you and miss you already!!!

Here are a few more pics of our awesome trip that I had to share... Baking with Grandma, Uno, playing with the little girlies, dinner with our dear friends, the Schaafs, and out cold on the ride home : )

The Ride

On our last day in UT we went for a little ride. Micah borrowed his dad's 4-wheelers and we all went up to Mantua for some ridin'. Rich and I climbed on Jim's wheeler with two kids, Stef drove one with three kids and Micah had Ari strapped to his back. It was a pretty funny sight all of us overtaken by children. We thought we were going for a little ride and then, with Micah in the lead, we. just. kept, driving... Fine by me we had an absolute blast! We went all the way (18 miles up I believe) to the tippy top of the mountain. The view was absolutely breathtaking! We even found a bunch of snow on the way. That was a big surprise that the kids LOVED!!! At the top we could see all the way out to Willard's Bay! The kids were troopers for the long ride. We had so much fun! I just felt bad for Jenni, Reggie, Papa, and Grandma who had to wait for us down at the bottom :( Sorry guys!

Thank you all for a fantastic day!!!

The prep for the ride and a pic from halfway up...

SNOW and a view from the TOP!!!

Guns & Rides!!!

What do we love to do when we are in Utah (or anywhere else really)? Shoot guns and ride four wheelers! On Monday we headed out with Jim & Juanita to do just that! We have picked up a few new toys since the last time we went shooting so we were MORE than excited to try them out! While we were in the gun shop buying Rich's new toy I fell in love with a sweet little number. The men in the store said that since the hubby bought a gun I get to go buy a new purse. I laughed, bags are not my thing. I told them, "Nah, I will just buy a gun too!" They all laughed and then I shocked the crap out of Rich and the rest of the good ol' boys by plopping down my charge card and telling the store owner to box it up for me. Rich just stood there with his jaw dropped. It was pretty hilarious! I BOUGHT MY FIRST GUN!!! Now it was finally time to try it out!

After giving the kids many many lessons on gun safety over the past few months, we decided to let them shoot my new 22!

We took some spins on Papa's four wheeler and tooled around the trails. After we were all four wheelered out (and almost out of ammo) we took a short drive over to Grandpa  Buttar's grave, which I hadn't ever seen. It is so beautiful and the mountains and blue sky in the background are just breathtaking!

As always, we had a fantastic day shooting and riding and laughing it up! MAN I miss this place - but I miss these people even more!!!

Reggie Roo's BIG DAY!!!

We were incredibly grateful that our time off worked out with Reggie's blessing. Andy and Jenni rearranged everything so we could all be there. It was such a beautiful day. Andy's blessing was perfect. The spirit was so strong. Reggie looked like even more of an angel than she does every other day. 

I jacked these pics from Jenni - Thanks, Vive : )

We all went to church for the blessing and then back to Jim and Juanita's to fill our bellies of course!

We had such a wonderful day with family celebrating the cutest baby ever! 

PICTURE DAY!!!

What do Bowmans do when everyone is in town and we have a new sweet member of the family? PICTURE DAY!!! Ashley Mae was nice enough to squeeze us in ridiculously short notice. We had a fantastic time and took some ridiculously cute pictures even though it was int he middle of a freezing cold rain storm! The little kids sure were troopers through the rain and wind! Thank you so so SO much to Grandma and Grandpa for spoiling us rotten with these great memories.

WE LOVE YOU!!! 

Here are some of our favorites... and you can see even more sweet pics on Jenni's blog post!
http://andyandjennibowman.blogspot.com/2014/11/bowman-family-pics-2014.html

This picture is extra special because Ari won't let anyone hold her! She had so much fun catching rain drops with Rich. It was adorable and everyone was shocked that she was so smiley! 

Uncle Rich has a gift : )

Trick or TREAT?!?!?!?!

Time to pull the costumes out of our suitcases and fill some candy bags! It's HALLOWEEN! We have not been trick or treating with The Bowman clan since 2009! This fun day was way overdue! Stef, Micah, Kayla, James, and baby Ari drove up to hang with us. It was SO good to see them. We missed them like crazy. The last time we saw them was 10 months ago for Christmas and Ari's baby blessing. Ari has gotten SO big and even more cute! Ugh - It just sucks living so far away! So grateful to be here now though! Anywho... HALLOWEEN!!!...

First on the agenda, make a spooky dinner with Grandma! They made mummy dogs and witch fingers. They always have so much fun cooking with Grandma! She is a much better sport with helpers in the kitchen than I am : )

Next thing to do, rake leaves of course! The grandkids were all playing outside so Papa put them to work! They were all over it. They had so much fun raking up piles and playing in them. At one point they buried Bailey and called me outside because they "couldn't find her." Then she jump out and "scared" me.

Elsa, Batman, Robin, Masquerade Ball Princess, Spidey, and Doc McStuffins all had an absolute BLAST trick or treating. They looked so cute all dressed up! We didn't get a pic with Reggie the ladybug though : (

While we were walking around the neighborhood Bailey had a death grip on Andy's hand. It was so cute!

 It felt more like a Texas Halloween than Utah! It was in the high 60's! Awesome!
The kids all got a ton of candy and had a fantastic time. The night ended having to drag Doc McStuffins off the front porch were she was divvying out the goodies to the neighborhood kids and prying the candy bowl out of her hands. Let's just say they all slept like rocks that night! So fun having Halloween at Grandma and Papa's again!!!