Pre-Baptism Bowman Shenanigans...

We had a great week with Grandma & Papa Bowman and Andy, Jenni, Reggie!...

The adult men (yep, no kids) spent hours and lots of bad words trying to make designs with the kids pearler beads. It was HILARIOUS!

We went to on our traditional yearly trip to see Santa at Bass Pro Shop!

 Reggie was NOT feeling the pics. She just wanted to eat the fake snow! HAHA!!!

 Kenzie trying to convince the big man that she needed a fish for Christmas...

This picture KILLS ME! She looks like a chick you should NOT mess with! This will be a great "show your boyfriend" picture in the FAR future! 

Always striking a pose!

LOVE this picture!!!

The big boys taught the little boy a little black jack.... I think I was about his age when my dad taught me and mike :)

We went to the ZOOOOO!!! It was a cold Thursday and NO one was there! We have spent many many days at our beloved St. Louis Zoo over the years and never once have we seen it even HALF this deserted! Even better than no crowds... The animals were ALL OUT and social! Our best zoo trip with the fewest people and the most animals!!!

Reggie was going BANANAS over the orangutans! (Get it? Bananas!)

LOVE this picture of these two cuties! Kenzie was really sick with the pukes this day so Grandma volunteered to stay home with her. We definitely missed them both!

Reggie loved the fake penguins more than the real ones! HAHAHA! She was really mad when we had to leave them.

After the zoo trip was Kenzie's Christmas Band Concert. She has been so sick but she sucked it up. No WAY was she going to miss this! She had worked SO HARD! So proud of our little clarinetist. Funny thing was, we sat right by the percussion and it was SO LOUD but Reggie had had such an exciting day she crashed HARD and slept through the whole thing!

The next day we went to the Science Center for another day of FUN!!!

The shadow room was our favorite!!!

We LOVE St. Louis and we have so much fun doing our favorite things here with family! It was definitely an awesome week! Thank you SO much for coming to play with us!!!

A Buggie BIRTHDAY!

STOP IT BAILEY! STOP GROWING UP!!! Our baby girl is FIVE!!!
This Birthday was extra special because timing worked out perfect for Braxton's baptism the following weekend for Grandma & Papa Bowman, Andy, Jenni & REGGIE TO FLY IN TOWN ON HER BIRTHDAY!!!

Earlier in the day Bailey baked & decorated her own cake! It was,,, funtastic and covered in sprinkles and giant marshmallows LOL! Then we drove to the airport and picked up the crew. Bug picked Chik-Fil-A for dinner of course and then we went home and opened presents and blew out the candles! It was a wonderful day and we were so grateful to have people we love so much who live so far away there to celebrate with us! HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY SWEET BAILEY BUG!!!

If you think she looks sad it's because she IS! She threw up her new favorite elephant from Z & B and caught it and the creepy giant hard eyeball smacked her right in the FACE! 

Her other favorite present was new cute warm sheets for her cute room :)

These pics crack me up! Reggie kept getting stuck between the airport chairs... HAHAHA!!!

Turkey Day turned CREPE DAY!

A few days before Thanksgiving Rich yelled from the shower, "Shelly, I have an idea!" Rich always gets the craziest ideas in the shower so part of me wanted to run away LOL! His idea - Since we didn't get to go anywhere for Thanksgiving and no one was coming to our place we would make crepes and invite our ward to come over for Thanksgiving Breakfast! If you know Rich you are dying laughing right now saying "WHAT THE HECK! WHO IS HE?!?!?!" Well, that is what I was saying anyways... "Who ARE you and what have you done with my HUSBAND!!!" We are in general not very social people and we have never done anything like this before. He was dead serious though! The idea sunk in and we went with it full force! We put an invite out on Facebook 2 days before Thanksgiving thinking not many people would come... WRONG!!! We had THIRTY PEOPLE at our house for breakfast! It was SO MUCH FUN!!! We made 135 crepes, 9 pounds of bacon, and 4 batches of our famous crepe cream along with tons of fruit for filling and toppings galore. We had plenty of food and plenty of leftovers. Definitely a Thanksgiving we will not forget! After hanging out with our friends for a few hours everyone went home and we made our own full scale Thanksgiving dinner of course! HAPPY TURKEY CREPE DAY!!!

Favorite Bowman Memories

Random but too cute not to post...
Jenni is making a book for Grandma & Papa. She had the kids write/draw their favorite memories with them. Love em!!!

BUZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Braxton has been busting his butt on his spelling tests and he advanced to the District Spelling Bee! He did fantastic! He took 5th in the District! The word he missed was "which" - he spelled it "witch". Bummer! Was he happy though? Proud of himself? NOPE! NOT AT ALL! He was SO upset that he didn't get first place. One of his best friends, who recently moved to another school in the district, competed with him. I am so glad Trey was there to calm him down. He saw B upset afterwards and laughed, put his arm around Braxton's shoulder and said, "Dude, it's just a spelling Bee! Who CARES! LET'S GO GET SOME COOKIES!" What a great friend!  I love that kid!

The Westhaven Spelling Bee Crew

B trying not to look so nervous he was going to puke before the Bee started...

B & Trey Goodrich

I about DIED when we hit up taco Bell for a post-bee treat and THIS was on his cup!!! The word he will never misspell EVER AGAIN!!! HILARIOUS!!! We love you B and we are SO PROUD OF YOU!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LIGHT SABER MASTER!!!

SO B, What do you want to do for your 8th birthday dude?

Step #1:
"OPEN PRESENTS! And then have a Nerf War"

STEP #2:
"I WANT TO GO TO A BIG PARK AND HAVE A MASSIVE LIGHT SABER BATTLE!"
Free Birthday activity? SIGN US UP!!! We drove over to St. Louis, picked up Braxton's best friend Kaden Greenwood (BFFs since they were FOUR!), and went to our favorite STL park by our old stomping grounds, Millennium Park, and the battle commenced!!! Cracks me up how long these boys can battle, "boys" being Braxton, Kaden, and Rich of course :)

I LOVE this picture for obvious action movie reasons LOL!

EPIC BIRTHDAY STEP #3:

Dinner and a MOVIE OF COURSE! Or dinner WITH a movie at the dine-in theater! We saw The Charlie Brown Movie and ate some delicious grub! The boys had more food ON them than IN them somehow. LOL! I am so grateful for Kaden and friends like him that are just great kids for my kids to learn from and grow with! 

EPIC BIRTHDAY STEP #4: JILLY'S!!!

After dropping Kaden off we went home and had CAKE... not just any cake though of course... He had his very own Jilly's Cupcake!!! That's my boy!

Happy Birthday my not-so-little boy! We are so proud of the kid you are and the example you set for everyone around you! You are kind, thoughtful, smart, and HILARIOUS! We love you more than you will ever know!