Cell Phone Randomness... Jan to March

It's that time again... time to clean the pics off my cell phone. Some of them are too great to just sit on my hard drive : )

Silly little dress up addict!











The new Hot Wheel Wall! Toys are WAY cooler than when I was a kid!
And another amazing wall... BUMBLEBEEEEEE!!! Thanks to Papa Bowman!!!





Peek-A-Boo & Pancakes : )

"Duh Easer Bunneeee"

HAPPY EASTER!!!

We had such a fun weekend with my little sis and her family! First thing on the to do list... Jilly's! DUH! Once we picked up our cupcake stash for the weekend we went to the Science Center! We had been just the week before but we love it that much! Chris and Braxton had some boy time and saw the Air Racers Imax movie while we played. The kids had a blast!...

Diggin' D!
Bailey was so excited when we got there she had to pull her shirt over her head because that's just what 2-year-olds do when they are that excited!

Poor little Grandma Rilea had a hard time getting around : ( LOL And the boys couldn't get enough of the cars of course. D was SQUEALING he was so amazed!


Kenzie, Smile! (She then turns around, flips her head back at me and pops her hip out... CHEESE) Typical Kenz!


Bailey loved the American Indian baby she found in the TP! And Uncle Chris got busted "playing" with the kids - texting with one hand and "digging for fossils" with the other hahaha


Next... COLOR EASTER EGGS!!!

We got up bright and early the next morning for church. We were even EARLY! The eggs and the food and the baskets are so fun but none of that matters in the end. I am sitting at my computer trying to come up with the right words... Gratitude, Humility, Peace... We can all be forgiven and we will all live again because of our brother, Jesus Christ, and his atoning sacrifice and example. I know He lives! I know He knows me personally and bares my burdens! I know He loves me! And I know he loves my little family : )

The BowDoells :  )

This picture looks so weird! I think the Easter Bunny
ran in front of the kids while I was taking the picture!

Rilea Jean the Beauty Queen! I think Mr. Bunny
ran back out of the house on this one! CRAZY!

I stinkin love these two!!! SO CUTE!!!

The kids found their baskets and ripped them apart in such a frenzy that i didn't get any good pictures : (
After the basket stashes had been ravaged we had lunch (Reeses eggs haha) and then Amanda and I worked on our huge dinner... Baked ham, super buttery mashed potatoes, squash casserole, green bean casserole, corn and "butt" rolls! I am stuffed just typing the description! While we worked on dinner Rich hid eggs outside for the kids to find. They were so funny! He had to eventually divide the hunts into Kenzie & B and then the little kids in another group so the older two wouldnt hog them all before Rilea, Bailey & D even realized what was happening hahaha. Rich was VERY proud of his egg hiding skills. He is good! The girls looked FOREVER for this little white egg. Congrats to Rich for outsmarting a 2-year-old and a 3-year-old HAHA! They finally found it at the same time and Rilea scooped it up before Bailey even knew what hit her! Bailey was TICKED and we were dying laughing : )

She still got a bucket-full of eggs and had so much fun! We all did! HAPPY EASTER!

Snow Days!!!

We have gotten a CRAZY amount of snow lately. So much for spring showers. Try spring snow storm of 12+ inches that snapped half the branches off of our 8 huge pine trees. The day kenz was supposed to go back to school after spring break turned into a snow day! The kids certainly didn't mind ! Their new favorite activity is helping dad shovel the snow. This lasts for 5 minutes and then turns into snow ball fights of course. I threw in pics of McKenzie learning to ride her new birthday bike and pics of the other fun snow days we have had in the last couple of months as well. Hopefully I can do a post about beautiful sunny days at the park soon!

The prettiest pic of our back deck yet! 12" of snow does a good job covering up the awesome blue chipped paint and ghetto floor board fixes.

Spring Break in STL

McKenzie literally cried after school the day she got out for spring break because she was going to miss her friends and teacher for TEN WHOLE DAYS! Ohhhhh sweet kenzie... we will see how many years that lasts. She got over it pretty quick once we started having some fun! Ok... slight exaggeration .. first we ripped out kenzie's old crappy bathroom vanity (starting our spring break bathroom reno project) and then we cleaned the back yard and THEN we had fun. First order of fun business... the zoo! The weather was very cooperative! T-shirts and flip flop weather but B was very ticked that I wouldn't actually LET him were flip flops to the zoo. That kid would wear flip flop snowboarding if I let him! I just love the zoo and seeing the kid's reactions to all of the animals. Bailey's favorite? Elephants! Bracky's? Bears! Kenzie's? Giraffes
I love the penguins but Kenz & B were not fans - "IT SMELLS SO BAD IN HERE MOM! I'M GONNA THROW UP!" Thank you drama queen. Go puke in the trash can I'M WATCHING THE PENGUINS! My favorite part of the day was Bailey seeing the baby elephants! "MOM they are SO CUTE". As we started to walk away she freaked out and yelled MOM I HAVE TO SING TO THEM. We walked back over and she sang Itsy Bitsy at the top of her lungs, leaning out as far as she could over the fence doing the hand motions so the baby elephants could see her. She is so silly and so sweet!

We walked around Forest Park after the zoo. Not by choice haha. The zoo was SO packed that we had to park there. It was a fun walk though. Got a good pic of the real St. Louis and my 4 goofballs!

We filled the rest of the week with the Science Center, shopping and playing at the mall, enjoying the beautiful weather, having an Easter egg hunt with our church friends and finishing kenzie's bathroom reno (hopefully I can do a before and after blog post of the new house soon) oh and Jilly's cupcakes of course!

Mmhmmmm... life changing new flavor! Chocolate Chip Cookie. UH MAY ZING!

So long, Spring Break... Here comes the SNOW?!?!?!?!

SEVEN?!?!?!?!?!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEET MCKENZIE!!! Rich and I are having a hard time with how old our kids are getting... ok, let's be honest - we are having a hard time with how old WE are getting. Still hard to believe that my baby macadoodle is 7. She is such a beautiful and caring girl. She transitioned so well to her new school after we moved. She has wonderful new friends that she loves to pieces! We are so proud of you, McKenzie, for all of your hard work at school and for being such a great big sister and good example to everyone around you. We love you! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Our sweet girl... (Daddy has his shotgun ready... gonna need it!)

 This year McKenzie BEGGED to have a "real" party with friends. Thanks to groupon we made it happen. We had a fun-filled diva day all about the birthday princess. We had a girl date and went and got her hair cut. She kept telling everyone "My mom took me to the salon to get my hair styled". Nope, try an $8 great clips trim with a coupon HAHA. I will let her think it cost a fortune though. We got smoothies and went shopping for party favors. Then her best friend, Tessa, came over to play before we headed out to the parteh at the family fun center. We ate pizza, played arcade games, had a red velvet cupcake decorating bar instead of a big cake (Chef Kenzie's idea of course) and bumper carred our brains out. It was so much fun! Even the moms of the girls who came rocked the bumper cars! We all had an absolute blast! Thank you to family and friends who helped to spoil the crud out of her!

Presents, playing and big haircut...

PARTY TIME!!!

Blog slacker repentance

Uuuuuugh... are you kidding me? Its the middle of January 2013??? I didn't realize how far behind I had gotten on our blog until Rich reminded me that I haven't blogged since SEPTEMBER 2012! SHEESH! We have been just a bit busy (Bought a house, renovated a house, Braxton's Birthday, Grandma & Papa Bowman came for Thanksgiving, we moved to the new house, Bailey's Birthday, Andy & Jenni came for a week to be our handyman & woman on the new place, Mike, Sarah & the kids came for Christmas, followed by the Doellman's and then my mom & dad and Matt came to join the rest of us for New Years then Kenzie was crazy sick for a week.)  HOLY CRAP! I just can't skip the past 4 months, so thank you in advance for your patience with the barrage of very belated blog posts that will be coming your way...  Wish me luck (I'm gonna need it!)

Happy New Year People!!!

New Year's Eve has never been a huge deal for us. Pretty sure we slept through it last year haha. This year we had great company and great grub to make it that much more fun! Kenz & B were just excited to fill their fancy glasses with some bubbly (Martinelli's). The boys put together some puzzles, Hunter ate handfulls (literally) of spinach dip, Dylan & Hunter stripped down into just diapers (partners in crime) and we all gave lots of hugs since Mike, Sarah & the kids headed home after midnight. We will miss everyone so much when they all head home but it was still a great night!!!