Officially Six

The rest of our Saturday after Weston's birthday party was spent at home getting the house tidied up and birthday stuff opened, played with, and put away. Ian and I put the kids to bed and then picked up the babysitter and took off for downtown SLC. Several weeks ago we bought tickets to see one of our favorite bands, Blind Pilot, in concert. We realized that it was the same day as Weston's party, but figured that the party would be in the morning and we would be fine, but man, we were tired.
It was still really fun. We stopped for some gelato before the show, then headed over to the venue. The tickets said the show started at 9pm. We figured that with the opener and set-up the band wouldn't be on until at least 10. We got there at 9:45 and no one had started yet. Yikes. The opening duo didn't go on until 10:15 and played for half an hour. Then another half an hour of set-up and Blind Pilot finally went on at 11:15ish (keep in mind we were standing this entire time). Needless to say it was a very late night, but Blind Pilot was awesome! They are so good and I love all their cool instruments, especially the trumpet. They are also just the happiest little band. They smile and are kind of goofy. Loved it!


Sunday was Weston's big official birthday. He requested eggs and sausage for breakfast, then spent the morning playing. We went to church and Weston loved being sung to in Primary and getting a special birthday note and package from his teacher. I taught the combined 5th Sunday lesson in YM/YW. It went really well and the youth were all good about participating. Talia napped through the first hour, so by the time Ian brought her to church we only had a couple hours left and she was a happy girl.

After church we had some friends over for Weston's birthday dinner. He wanted chicken scampi this year, so I got to work on it. It was delicious, as usual, but I should have made a little more. Weston was itching to open his presents so after dinner was cleared we gave him the ok to open presents. He got lots of Star Wars stuff thanks to one of Ian's co-workers who was cleaning out his collection and passed some things along. There were a bunch of Star Wars trading cards, a Chewy action figure, C3PO action figure mounted, and a light up green light saber. Weston also got a Star Wars lunchbox and the Lego Star Wars Wii game. He got an alien Lego set, another Green Lantern toy, and a new church book too. So spoiled!
Finally it was time for cake. He changed his mind at the last minute and decided he wanted chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting. I swear I didn't make him choose it! It was super yummy. He blew out all his candles, but was sneaky and didn't puff out his cheeks. :) Happy Birthday my big 6 year old boy!

Weston's 6th Birthday Party

Today was Weston's big birthday party. We had it at McDonald's. This is the first time I have done a party anywhere other than our house and I was giddy at how not stressed I was. I didn't have to clean my house or prepare food or bring anything. All we had to do was show up. It was still a little chaotic because there were 10 kids running around and needing different things during lunch, but I would definitely say it was a success.

A few minutes after I took this picture they put balloons at each kid's place too. It was very fun and festive.

The kids played while everyone arrived, then we ordered food and ate. When the kids were done eating they played some more while we cleared the tables. We finished things off with presents and cake and more playing. There was also randomly an employee doing face painting, so the kids all got their faces painted. Bonus!
Weston had a great time with his friends and opening presents. Talia knocked the cake off the table and onto the floor, but it was covered and survived pretty well. The one thing I would do differently next time would be to leave Talia with a sitter. It would have been much easier if I hadn't had to keep her happy through nap time in a busy, public place while supervising lots of other kids. Good thing she's so cute. All in all it was definitely worth the money to leave the mess and head home at the end. Hooray for another successful birthday party!

Just because it was the first time I put bows in her piggys.

Coloring and playing with toys after the party this afternoon.

Talia Update

Talia had her evaluation with DDI Vantage a couple of weeks ago. It was interesting. A group of three different therapists came over to our house and played different games with her to test her fine and gross motor skills, communication, social-emotional growth, and her hearing. She responded pretty well, but after about half an hour started trying to scootch away and just play with her own toys on my lap.

She is doing just fine in all of the tested areas except her gross motor skills. She has a delay there. Now she will be meeting with a physical therapist twice a month until her goals are met. Her goals are to take 3 independent steps four out of five trials to help her on her way to walking independently. Her other goal is to crawl on her hands and knees. I'm excited to see her make progress. We love our sweet Talia girl!

Weston, Age 6

1. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE T. V. SHOW? Super Mario Bros. Super Show

2. WHAT DID YOU HAVE FOR BREAKFAST? A muffin.

3. WHAT IS YOUR MIDDLE NAME? Robert.

4. FAVORITE FOOD? Chicken Scampi.

5. WHAT FOOD DO YOU DISLIKE? Salad.

6. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE COLOR? Blue.

7. FAVORITE LUNCH? nice, warm spaghetti. (as if I usually feed him cold spaghetti? And I can't remember the last time we had spaghetti for lunch.)

8. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE THING TO DO? Play on screens and watch "lion dances". (He watched a Chinese lion dance at school for the Chinese New Year this week)

9. IF YOU COULD GO ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD ON VACATION, WHERE WOULD YOU GO? Where is the warmest place in our world? California.

10. FAVORITE SPORT? Martial Arts. Since I'm doing it.

11. WHEN IS YOUR BIRTHDAY? January 29th.

12. ARE YOU A MORNING PERSON OR A NIGHT PERSON? I like to be up in the morning when I'm all ready to go to school.

13. PETS: No.
14. ANY NEW AND EXCITING NEWS YOU'D LIKE TO SHARE WITH US? I learned how to say Happy New Year in Chinese.

15. WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP ? An Astronaut.

16. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CANDY? Extremes. Those sour strips are called Extremes.

17. WHERE IS THE FARTHEST YOU'VE EVER BEEN FROM HOME? Oregon.

18. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE BOOK? Harry Potter.

19. WHAT ARE YOU MOST PROUD OF? When I finish each project at school.

20. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE MOVIE? Despicable Me.

21. WHICH CAME FIRST, THE CHICKEN OR THE EGG? I don't know? The chicken! I mean the egg. The egg came first and then the chicken came.

And, for fun, I asked him the same questions that James Lipton asks at the end of Inside the Actor's Studio.

1. What is your favorite word? Potter. (Short for Harry Potter, apparently.)

2. What is your least favorite word? blkensoklicks. I don't have one.

3. What turns you on? (I rephrased with, "What do you like?") reading Harry Potter (do you think he's a little obsessed?)

4. What turns you off? (I rephrased with, What don't you like?") Doing jobs.

5. What sound or noise do you love? Annoying noises.

6. What sound or noise do you hate? The sound of a fire drill alarm at school.

7. What is your favorite curse word? (I asked him what his favorite bad word was. He responded with) Poopy? *runs away giggling and repeating*

8. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt? Football. I want to try it.

9. What profession would you not like to do? The trash man or girl.

10. What would you like to hear God say when you arrive in Heaven? I have been missing you for a long time. I love you.

***I borrowed this cute interview idea and all the questions from my friend, Lori's awesome blog. Check her out!

Sun, Glorious Sun!

We have had a mild winter, so I can't really complain, but it has been rainy and chilly this week. Really gray, you know? Friday, however, was just beautiful. It warmed up to about 55 degrees and the sun peeked out. I picked up Weston from school early and had promised the kids an outing. We ended up deciding to go over to Gardener Village. It was a perfect day for it. The place was practically empty, the ducks were all out basking in the sun alongside us, and we got to peruse all the fun shops.
We got a treat at the candy shop and ate out in the sunshine while we watched the ducks (I didn't have any bread to feed them). After our sugar we were thirsty and I didn't have a water bottle so we walked over to the bakery to get some water. We were talking with the lady checking us out at the bakery about the ducks and she offered us some bread ends to feed them. It was so nice! So after the bakery we spent some time playing with the train table in the toy shop before going back outside and feeding the ducks. They were all hungry since it's the middle of winter, so they were coming right up to the kids for some bread. Davin got a little nervous about how close the white ducks were getting and backed into a tree. It was funny. Talia went nuts for the ducks too. The whole outing just made me happy.
Switching topics . . . let's talk about hair. First let's discuss mine. I am growing it out. I hate growing my hair out. I really don't know why I am doing it except for that I kind of want to do something different and Ian likes it longer. For Christmas I wanted a new straightener, but I didn't want to spend $100, so I picked one that had good reviews in a lower price range and told Ian which one to get. :) I was so excited about it, but when I tried it out Christmas morning I was disappointed. It pulled my hair. If you straighten then you know what I'm talking about. I used it for a couple weeks hoping it would work, but I really just wanted one that would be nice and smooth like my sister's nice one. I ended up returning the John Frieda one.

I stumbled on this Chi on Amazon the next day for just $10 more shipped than what Ian had paid for the other one. I ordered it. It arrived on Wednesday and I immediately had to plug it in and try it out. It is SO much fun to use! And bonus it's cute and orange. Yay! I went a little nuts that first night and just straightened my whole head of hair and flipped it out a little. If you are in the market I highly recommend this straightener!
Now onto the other little lady of the house . . . I have been trying out new hairstyles on Talia since her hair is getting so long. If I don't do anything with it then it hangs in her eyes and looks kind of weird. On Friday I tried piggy tails. Oh my goodness I cannot even tell you how cute and grown up she looks in piggy tails! You'll just have to check out the picture for yourself.
Saturday was a rarity. We had nothing on the calendar! Ian and I both went to the gym, Weston went to karate, I ran to the grocery store by myself, and then we all went together to the mall for a little outing. I'm not going to whine, but just know that the crazy Utah weather pulled a 180 on us and we got 4 inches of snow on Saturday. Sheesh! We had friends over for dessert and games (don't worry I totally rocked at Yahtzee) and ended the evening by watching a movie a movie snuggled up on the couch. It was really a wonderful Saturday.

The only negative was that Weston was SO whiny! Finally in the late afternoon he had a major meltdown and I realized that he really just wasn't feeling good. His throat hurt. He actually asked to take his medicine and go to bed while our friends were here. Considering how social Weston is that must mean he really wasn't feeling well. Poor kid. I went to meetings all morning before church but then came home and stayed with the kids during the block. I was kind of bummed to miss hearing Ian's talk, but I think Weston really needed the down time. All in all it has been a relaxing, fun weekend. I wish more of our weekends were this chill!

Everything's Better With A Moustache

This week has been kind of long and boring. I mean we have been busy. I haven't seen Ian in days since we have been trading being home and gone every night, but nothing overly blog worthy has been going on either. Yesterday I took the kids and we all went and had lunch with Weston at school for his "birthday table" day. Everyone who has a January birthday gets to sit at the special table with their family. They also each get to pick a birthday prize. Weston chose these silly glasses. And boy were we silly with them!


I also did ponytail #2 on Talia. She cried just as much, but it turned out pretty cute. I went for the side pony since her hair naturally grows that direction. I put a bow in it too, but she ripped that out pretty quickly. So far she doesn't seem to be able to get the elastic out though, so that's a good thing. She did NOT want her picture taken. I had to sneak this picture while she was distracted by Baby Einstein (and she's still kind of glaring at me). Notice how she is sucking on her bottom lip? She has been doing this a lot lately and it's giving her a rash all over her chin. I have no idea how to get her to stop.
As for me, things are going well. I missed swimming on Monday this week because of the holiday. I had to help the YW put out flags in the early morning hours instead. However, for mutual on Tuesday we had an exercise night and did some fun Latin dance work out videos, so that was at least something. I went to the gym and did the elliptical yesterday and I will swim again tomorrow, so not too bad for a holiday week. I am loving My Fitness Pal! It's really helping me keep track of what I'm eating so I can stick with my goals. I'm desperate for some new quick, healthy dinner options though, so if you have anything to share please do!

Turtles and BYU

Last week Davin was really into turtles. We watched a documentary about turtles on Netflix Sunday night and on Monday after school Davin wanted to watch it again. Here he is just relaxing and watching the "turtle show."
Davin also drew several turtles. One for every person in our family, actually. He's pretty cute.
Last week I attempted Talia's first ponytail. It was rough. She cried and tried to push me away. I had to start over about 5 times before I finally got some hair in the elastic, but it turned out to be a pretty cute little sprout. I haven't done it again since, but I should probably just keep trying. Moms of girls, please tell me that it gets easier!
Weston had Friday off of school, so we went to Jump N Bounce to burn off some energy. It was great fun. Even Talia loved bouncing and going down the slides with me. There are no pictures because I just couldn't manage a camera and constantly holding Talia on unstable terrain.

Saturday morning at karate Weston received his green dragon belt! He had tested for it the week before and passed. He was pretty excited. We are so proud of him and all his hard work at karate!
Saturday afternoon we headed down towards Provo to attend the BYU basketball game. I didn't think Talia would appreciate it, and I knew I wouldn't have as much fun if I had to wrestle her the whole time, so we dropped her off with a babysitter on the way down. We took the boys to Burger Supreme for dinner and it was delicious! Mmm. The game was really fun too. BYU won and scored almost 100 points! We ate Cougar Tails, waved our pom poms, danced, sang the fight song, and Weston rang the victory bell with Cosmo. It was a definite success (except for our family picture which was a fail due to all the back lighting and an inexperienced iPhone photo taker).
Ian doesn't get today off work, so I'm on my own with the kiddos again today. And it's snowing. I think we are going to go bounce again today (we bought a one month pass) so the kids can get some energy and noise out. I will try to blog again before another whole week goes by!

Fresh Start

New Year's felt a little anti-climactic for me this year. Possibly because it was on a Sunday. Possibly because I was sick. Or maybe it was because I couldn't seem to find the Rose Parade being broadcast anywhere on my network television here in Utah on Jan. 2nd. In any case, I haven't formally sat down and written any sort of list of resolutions or goals.

I always look forward to New Year's and the fresh start feeling it gives me. I know a lot of people don't like the idea of New Year's resolutions because they think it's silly to wait for a certain day to start doing something you want to do. I only somewhat agree with that. Even though there are lots of things I want to do, they often fall by the wayside when life gets busy or stressful. New Year's gives me a good reason to re-commit myself to working harder on certain things in my life. What's so bad about that?

The problem I am having at this point in my life is that my goals/resolutions each year look an awful lot alike. There are some things that I am ALWAYS going to be trying to be better at. For example, I still want to work on eating healthier this year, be more committed to a daily scripture study program, get up earlier in the morning and go to bed earlier at night, spend more quality time with my little ones, exercise more, etc.

The point is that I enjoy the feeling of getting a fresh start on living my ideal life. So far January has been a great month and I'm feeling very optimistic about 2012. Now don't consider this a formal list of resolutions, but here is what I am doing to be better.

Health:
Everyone always has health goals at the start of the new year. I am no exception. I gained my fair share of poundage over the holidays, and add to that the residual weight of having three babies, I am really trying to focus on this one. I am exercising a manageable three times a week. Monday and Friday I get up early and swim a mile with my friend, Lori. It's fun and motivating to do it when a friend. Wednesdays are my free day. So far I have been getting up and going to the rec center gym to use the elliptical for 45 minutes. If it gets too cold or snowy to want to leave the house at 6am then I always have Jillian Michaels or Denise Austin to fall back on.

As far as food goes . . . sigh . . . that one's harder for me. I just really like delicious comfort food and sweets. I am not doing any particular diet because I just don't think I would stick to it and I'm not willing to spend tons of extra money on special food for me. I am, however, tracking my food and calories with My Fitness Pal on my phone. It's kind of a pain, but as I add my typical breakfasts and lunches to the favorites tab it will be easier. It does hold me a little more accountable and helps me see how some foods are just not worth the calories.

Wish me luck here and hopefully I will be close to my goal weight/size in time for my sister's wedding in June (aka motivation!).

Spiritual:
I won't go into too much detail here since it's a rather private matter, but I feel like my scripture study has been lacking. I am starting the year off with a brief 10 day "Walk With Christ" study program that was given to me by our stake Young Women Presidency. It has been perfect. It doesn't take me too long (15-20 minutes), it tells me which scriptures to read, then it includes a quote or story relevant to the material. I especially like that each days study ends with a question to think about throughout the day. I really wish I had more of this to use. I love the structure. Any suggestions of a more guided scripture study would be appreciated!

The other thing I am trying to work on here is being a better planner in my calling. I'm rather Type A, so I do plan, but I really want to have everything in place for YW activities and lessons so I don't have to scramble. I am also going to work on delegating more to my counselors and advisor.

Personal:
Sleep is my friend. We like to see a lot of each other. If I want my other goals to succeed I am going to need to take better charge of my sleep. This means going to bed earlier instead of staying up watching TV shows or playing Words With Friends on my phone. I'm aiming to go to bed at 10 or earlier every night. I am a morning person, so I am trying to get up early even on my "off" exercising days. The goal here is to be showered and dressed in time to take Weston to school at 8:45am. So far I have only taken him to school in my pj's twice. This is an improvement. Trust me.

I want my time to be more meaningful at home. I want to read to Davin and Talia more. I want to schedule special time to spend with my kindergartner, who I feel like I never see. And I want to spend less time stressing out about the state of my floors or bathtub and more time on the floor playing rolly ball with Talia.

Certainly there are more things I want to be better at and do more of, but these are the main ones I am focusing on right now. Here's to a shiny new year!

In Between

I was pretty apathetic about blogging over our holiday break. Sorry about that. It wasn't for lack of time though. We were home plenty with nasty colds that started the day after Christmas. Monday everyone was feeling fine, the weather was a beautiful, sunny 45 degrees, and we had a dinner invitation in Ogden. We hopped in the car after lunch and drove up to the Hill Air Force Museum. We had a really fun time looking at all the planes and reading about the history of the planes and Hill Air Force Base. Weston made good use of his new camera and took a picture of literally every single plane. Unfortunately he learned the hard way not to delete pictures off your camera until they are on the computer and lost all of them. Luckily Ian and I got a few pics on our phones.

That's me on the far right in the red coat taking a picture of Davin and Talia.

After the museum we headed over to Auntie B's house to visit with cousins and eat good food. It was fun to catch up with Chris and Sarah. We also got to go see Jessica's family's new house and visit with her for a little bit. She was stuck on the couch with a post-surgery ankle from her car accident the week before Christmas. I sure admire her attitude about it all though, and their new house is so beautiful and spacious!

On the way home from Ogden that night Ian felt a cold coming on. Sure enough he was sick sick the next day. I came down with it Tuesday night and that was pretty much how we spent our week. Luckily I got most of Christmas taken down on Tuesday when I was still feeling well. And the rest of it got put away during the week.

By Thursday the kids were going a little stir crazy and Ian was feeling a little bit better (I was feeling like crap), so he took the kids out. The weather all week was just fantastic! Sunny and warm (for December) in the 50's. They made some paper rockets and shot them off at the park.



New Year's Eve came and went. We didn't do anything too exciting. The Bayles' came over for some pizza and games and movies. We actually didn't end up getting to the games, but we hung out and watched Sherlock Holmes after the kiddos went to bed, then toasted in 2012 together. It was a fun night.

Photo by Weston

Since New Year's Day was on a Sunday, Ian had the official paid holiday on Monday. We decided to go check out the new Utah Museum of Natural History. It was very cool. Ian and I will have to go back sometime without kids so we can actually see all of the exhibits.
The have a really great look-out patio with a guide to all the mountain ranges and peaks you can see from where you are standing. I loved that. Plus it was just such a warm day I was enjoying basking in the sun. :)
The boys loved the wall of skulls that showed human evolution, the dinosaur displays, and the excavation pit. At the end there was a fun kids room with lots of animal dress ups. We spent a good 30 minutes in there. It was a great outing, but we were all pretty worn out by the end of the day.
On Tuesday it was back to work and school. It was kind of nice to get back to the routine, but I sure loved having everyone home. Since we were sick and not doing our daily outings, the boys played a whole lot of Mario Kart on our new Wii. They were in heaven. Weston also spent a lot of time making videos on his new camera. Enjoy. :)


The nice weather has continued and we stayed to play at the playground after picking up Weston from school the other day. Talia sure loves her new found freedom that standing up gives her.
I don't know if your kids love baths, but mind sure do! Weston used to shower, but he has reverted back to baths just because he has so much fun playing with Davin in the tub. They had a bubble bath last week and Davin wanted me to take his picture. Weston said he looked just like Uncle Terry. Hee hee. Please do not look at my dirty shower. Eek.
So there you have the catch up between Christmas and New Year's! The last week since we have been back to our routine have been nice. Busy, of course, but I am enjoying the kids being back in school. They are back to 1 hour of screen time a day (much to their disappointment) and are somehow surviving. Weston had karate testing again last Friday and he did really well. I tried sushi for the first time as an adult during our at-home date Saturday night. It was ok. I just wouldn't want to spend big money on it, you know?

As for New Year's resolutions. The kids set some goals for 2012 for Family Home Evening, but Ian and I generally shy away from doing it since they are all pretty much the same things we are always working on. So nothing formal from me, however, I am trying to be better about exercising, cooking, scripture study, and getting to bed and waking up at good times. So far, so good. A more specific New Year's post will be forthcoming.

Some Stuff About Our Family

2011 Bowles Family Wrap-Up

2011 found Ian celebrating his 6 year anniversary of working at Verite. He is still designing, but has also taken on more of a project management role as well. It has been both rewarding and challenging. Ian spent the year balancing work with family time and his very busy calling in the bishopric of our ward. He also spent most weekends in the Fall attending BYU football games with his season tickets. We love the times when we get to be all together as a family, even if they are not as easy to come by as they have been in the past.
I have been a busy girl this year also. Besides the repetitive busyness of being a stay at home mother of three little ones, I have also spent the year working extensively with the youth in our ward as Young Women president. We did get to take a few family trips this summer. We traveled to Oregon via Boise to visit with the Bowles side of the family in June. We had a wonderful time visiting the coast and OMSI. In August we spent a week in California with the Olson side of the family. We enjoyed hanging out at the beach, playing with cousins, and attending my 10 year high school reunion.
Weston is a big 5 year old kindergartner this year! He attends full day kindergarten and loves every minute. He is getting better and better at reading on his own and loves to write stories. Weston is such a good, nice kid. He makes friends easily and is a great helper at home. This Fall Weston started taking Karate lessons. It has been lots of fun for him. Ian and I have enjoyed watching him get stronger and better each week. He is an orange dragon belt. Weston loves playing on the computer/phone/Wii, reading, Webkinz, and bubble gum.
Davin turned 3 this year. He goes to preschool twice a week and seems to enjoy it. Davin is a happy, fun little boy. He says the funniest things and is constantly making us laugh. Davin has recently learned to write his name and say prayers all by himself. Davin loves playing Cars, Spiderman, frogs, playing on the computer/phone/Wii, and hot dogs.
Our sweet baby girl Talia just turned 1! 2011 started with her as a teeny little infant and now she is babbling, scooting around, standing, and sleeping through the night. Babies change so much in that first year. We have loved watching her grow and learn new things. She is also the cutest girl in the world. Talia loves Baby Einsteins, her activity table, and yogurt.