SANTAAAAAAAAAAAA

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

We stayed in STL this Christmas - way too much going on (and too many boxes unpacked) to go visit family. So family came to us!!! So grateful to be only 9 hours away from Texas family and 2 hours away from my sister! Mike and Sarah and the kiddos came on Christmas Eve and Amanda, Chris & the kids came the day after Christmas and my parents and Matt came a couple days later. It is so nice to have enough space in the new house to have guests (and a basement to throw the kids in haha). We had so much fun. I loved seeing my kids play with all of their cousins. Makes me smile pretty big : D 

Christmas day was a whirlwind of wrapping paper, stocking candy, squeals of joy and squeals of "YOU OPENED MY PRESENT". It was pretty hilarious having Bailey, Ragen & Hunter trying to open presents as fast as they could - they didn't care much what was inside or who the present belonged to. They figured it out about the time we hit the last present of course (after lots of snot and tears)

THE CORNUCOPIA!!!
Our itsy bitsy teeny tiny tree makes the mountain of gifts look MUCH more impressive haha


The kids were banned to the basement until
the adults were awake and good n ready to start the present opening frenzy. Kenz & B were NOT happy (as you can see) about being locked down there watching the little kids while mind-blowing joy was waiting up stairs.



Bailey got a sweet grocery basket &
Braxton got "Brock" - a talking dino robot thingy


This was absolutely hilarious! McKenzie has had some serious listening and obeying problems the last month or so. We kept telling her Santa knew she wasn't being very good but she STILL asked for a stinking swing set! Of all the NERVE! Well the big day came... B & Bug got what they asked for from the big man. McKenzie was very confused when she got a swing - just a swing - not the set - and a card from Santa. The card explained that she hasn't been 100% good so Santa told the elves not to build her 100% of what she asked for. If she was really really good maybe her mom and dad would help her build the rest of her present. It took until Jan 9th for her to be good enough for us to build it. Maybe that'll teach her. Nope - doubt it!

 The second picture I snapped to get her reaction to seeing pieces of a swing set on our hot mess of a back deck. I did not realize until looking at the pictures later that BAILEY, not McKenzie, had the best reaction of the whole day caught on camera! SHOCK AND AWE PEOPLE! SHOCK AND AWE! HILARIOUS!

CLOSE UP! ... I can just hear her little high-pitched voice...
 "AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH"

Ragen, Hunter, McKenzie, Bailey & Braxton in front of the tree. The best of about 20 pictures we took in this same position hoping they would smile and cooperate. Taking good pictures of one kid sucks -  5 kids sucks 5 times as bad!

Some of my favorite present opening pics and some of the kids very favorite presents! I loved that anytime Bailey opened clothes or dress-ups she immediately stripped off what she was wearing to put on her new outfit. 

The next day Amanda, Chris, Rilea & Dylan came to play! 

Which also meant more presents to open!

Magic House day of fun (and exhaustion haha)

The kiddos were SO excited when Grandma, Pa Pa & Uncle Mashoo got to our house! Again - more presents to open and more pictures too take : )

I am so grateful we got to share our Christmas with people we love SO much. Thank you to Mom, Dad, Matt, Mike, Sarah, Amanda & Chris for sacrificing so much to be here. MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Christmas is coming!

I absolutely love Christmas time and the month of December. Our December was extra busy and fun this year with the move and reno, lots of family visiting, decorating, our first "snow" (barely stuck), ward party (which they put me in charge of - no one knows why) etc. Here are some fun pics of Christmas prep and December goodness. Dont make fun of our sad little pipe cleaner - i mean our cute tree LOL. The fireplace pic pretty much sums up our life right now. It is our home reno headquarters and storage area with some added stocking flare haha.

GIEGENVIVE!!!!!!!!

Oh my GOODNESS WE WERE SO EXCITED TO HAVE JENNI & ANDY COME VISIT US!!!! Of all the fun vacation spots for a young, kid-less, married couple they picked St. Louis and a huge list of home reno stuff to do at our new place. I think they are crazy - I would have picked Mexico, but i am GLAD they are crazy! We had such a fabulous week! We went to the Science Center, went to an Imax Omnimax movie, we toured a chocolate factory, got hooked on Duck Dynasty, we bought a smoker and got our smoke (& eat) on, we had pictures taken with Santa at the Bass Pro Shop Winter Wonderland. we saw Wreck It Ralph at a dine-in theatre, we were gluttonous on our double date at an all you can eat crab leg buffet, we ate (TWICE) at Ted Drewes frozen custard (in the middle of December) and had some Jilly's Cupcakes. Ya... we ate a LOT... we are Bowman's - that's just what we do! On top of all that fun we worked Andy & Jenni pretty hard painting doors, doing electrical work, installing roof vents etc. They were a huge help and we are so grateful that they actually enjoy projects haha.

As I was going through pictures I was SO sad that i only took a handful while they were here. I must have let my photo mom guard down because Jenni takes such incredible pictures and she always beats me to the kodak moments : ) Good thing she is just as amazing at blogging. Her blog post of the trip was so awesome and hilarious. Plus the great pics of course... check it out at  http://andyandjennibowman.blogspot.com/2012/12/heyjack.html

So here is my sad mini collage ... don't laugh... it is embarrassing...

We love you Andy & Jenni & hope to see you two soon! Thank you for all your help!!!

Happy Birthday Buggie!

I cant believe my baby is not a baby any more : ( She is a big girl now. Two years flies by so fast! She is such a sweet little mamma's girl who loves to talk, dress up, sing and play with her brother and sister. Her favorite foods are fruit snacks, "nuggies", and sausage. She LOVES nursery time at church and her bff's are all the older girls in nursery and Aubrey, the 2-year-old I babysit during the week. 

For her birthday she wanted nuggies so we went to Chik-fil-a and had dinner and played at the play place. Then we went home for some presents and cake! We just moved the week before so our kitchen was a disaster but we made do. 

Goofball at Chik-fil-a



She loves her sisiter... and her self...



CAKE!



PRESENTS!



Baby Belle was her favorite!



Her awesome shoes did NOT fit : (



Cute girl & not so cute (yet) kitchen



Smile Bug! Or not...        BFFs




Thank you to all of our family for helping us spoil our little buggie!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEET PUNKINDOODLEDOO!!!

Thanksgiving with Grandma & Papa Bowman!!!

We were SO excited that Grandma & Papa got to come for Thanksgiving this year!!! Unfortunately it was not such a relaxing vacation for them. They are real troopers and HUGE helpers to come fully aware that we were in the middle of renovating and moving to our new house. We are so grateful for their help and sacrifice. They were amazing! We could not have done it without them! We still managed to squeeze in some fun, some snoozing and a lot of food. It was a fantastic week full of painting, snuggling, story reading, eating, packing, laughing, and ipad-ing. The kids were addicted to Grandma's Ipad - good thing she brought two and was very willing to share : ) Braxton's favorite part of the week was Thanksgiving dinner (he is a Bowman!). McKenzie's favorite part of the week was having Grandma come to her 1st grade class to help the teacher and meet all of her friends! Bailey's favorite part of the week was snuggling Grandma & Papa. 

The worst part of the week was saying goodbye. This part always rips my heart out! It is hard being so far away but we are grateful for the time we got to spend with them. My kids will NOT be happy that I posted these pictures. Just shows how much they love Grandma & Papa. This is how Rich and I were feeling on the inside too : (

We love you two so much. Thank you for all you do for our little family!

Happy #5 Bracky!!!

I can't believe my little boy is a big boy... Birthdays are always bitter sweet for a mom. A day to celebrate and a day to reflect on how fast five years has flown by! Braxton has been looking forward to his birthday since November 15th of LAST year! He had his day alllllll planned out. We went to his favorite donut shop, Tony's, for breakfast. We had "Old McDonalds" for lunch (of course!), went toy shopping with his birthday cash from faily and had dinner with ol' Chuck at Chuck E. Cheese. The part of the day he hadn't planned was waking up to a brand new OPTIMUS PRIME BIKE!!! He was pretty shocked! I was up most of the night painting the new house and rich was up most of the night putting together the bike hahaha. At dinner we found a game that must have known it was B's birthday... it was SPEWING out the tickets! The kids were in heaven! No dumb erasers or fake bugs for a prize this time... He got a DVD & Car Hot Wheels set off the TOP SHELF : ) It was a wonderful day all about Braxton! Thanks to everyone for spoiling him rotten! Happy Birthday sweet boy. We love you!!!

Bailey: "Appy HOWEEEEEN"

Ohhhh Halloween... SUCH a fun Holiday! Bailey was a ladybug (recycled from Kenzie's first Halloween). Perfect costume for our Bailey Bug : ) Braxton begged for MONTHS to be Jake from the disney jr. show
jake & the Neverland Pirates. Poor kid got his wish and he kind of looked like an 80's jazzercise instructor. Dont tell him I said that HAHAHA. Kenzie was "Izzie", the girl pirate from the same show. When we went to the Halloween store to buy the costumes they had a life size, motion censored zombie girl from the show walking dead. She was wearing a pink night gown with bunny slippers, she was kenzie's size and half of her face was rotted off. Her head slowly turned towards us when we walked in and the kids about POOPED themselves. I had to calm them down. Bailey was bawling and the other two were TERRIFIED. It was awful and hilarious at the same time. We went trunk or treating at church and trick or treating with our good friends, The Greenwoods, at the mall on Halloween and then trick or treated around our neighborhood as well. Lets just say the kids slept REAL good that night!