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!!!