Success!

Just so y'all know, I finally found the Playskool Tonka Bounce Back Racer that I wanted to get for Weston for Christmas in stock on Walmart.com this afternoon. Hallelujah! I am done shopping for everyone! I still have to buy lots of baking supplies, but still, mostly done. Want to have a wrapping party, anyone?

Crafty Schmafty

Today was a significantly better day than my last post. I woke up with major back pain from wrapping presents for over an hour last night, but after my shower it eased up. I decided to get started on personalizing our dollar store stockings today. I felt a little nervous about it. I am not particularly crafty. I went to Joanne's and bought felt and some decor. I was trying to do something similar to our stockings at home growing up.

It actually wasn't as tedious and difficult as I had imagined it would be to draw and cut out all the letters. I really had fun doing it. I was trying to decide what else I wanted to do to decorate the stockings. At home, years ago, my Grandpa Snowball, who was an incredibly talented artist, cut out all kinds of cute things to put on our stockings (snowmen, stacks of presents, Christmas lights, etc.). I knew I couldn't even attempt that, so I decided to go with holly. I had bought a few pre-made things at Joanne's, but I did the holly myself. I am very happy with the end result. I think they look very festive and they remind me of home.

I hung them above the fireplace that we made last weekend. Ian and I were discussing where to hang stockings this year (we have never been home for Christmas day and therefore had never hung stockings before) and we decided that it would be fun to create our own little fireplace. Weston mostly just helped tearing paper to make the fire. I think it looks very cozy.
Later this afternoon Weston had a little meltdown when I threw away all the shreds of his latest drawing because they were making a huge mess. I told him he can't tear paper into that small of pieces. He was very sad. This is that exact minute.

Davin-happy as a clam because he had just woken up from a nap.
Weston-my almost 3 year old throwing a little tantrum. Doesn't he look fun? I get this look more often than I should. Ugh.
It was fun to make the stockings and I am very excited to do Christmas at our home and establish our own traditions. I hope that everything comes together and that it can be a memorable 1st official Bowles Christmas. We have some other fun Christmas activities coming up, so stay tuned for Weston's first visit with Santa and the Christmas tree!

I Struggle

Sometimes I am such a loser. I did a lot of shopping yesterday while hauling around my 2 little ones. It was not the best experience. The kids were really good, but the stores were frustrating and it took forever and I didn't even find everything I was looking for. Blah. Anyway, at the end of our LONG shopping outing (Bath and Body Works, Payless, Kohls, Chick-Fil-A, Target) I get all our stuff loaded in the car, get the kids strapped in and go to open my door only to realize I have once again locked my keys in the car with the kids. Ugh. I could talk to Weston through the door, but he couldn't figure out how to unbuckle his carseat.

Oh, I forgot to mention that I had forgotten my phone on this outing. Great. So I had to explain that I was a loser to a stranger so I could borrow a phone. Long story short, the boys were fine in the car until the last few minutes before Ian showed up to rescue us. By the time we got the door open they were both crying. They calmed down pretty quick and we made it home. Finally. Weston didn't get down for his nap until 3:15pm.

I ended up having to go back to Kohl's after the kids were in bed since the ONE item we purchased there broke by the end of the night.

The good news is that I am SO close to being done with my Christmas shopping. I have one more thing I am trying to track down for Weston. I might not be able to find it anywhere though before the big day, so I may have to settle for a different gift. Oh well.

My friend introduced my to this awesome blog that sells these lettering signs. They aren't your standard signs. They are very artsy and fun. They are having a giveaway this week, so if you want to win check it out HERE.

I am still working on decorating the house. I just can't seem to muster up the energy and motivation to dust and really do it. Plus, for some reason Davin has been really fussy lately and I can't put him down or leave the room without him freaking out. I'm kind of in a funk right now. I'm hoping listening to some Christmas music and a few chocolate kisses will pull me out of it.

Happy Turkey Day!

This Thanksgiving marked a special occasion--I made my first pie. Ever. I know, you all think I'm such a domestic goddess and yet I've never even made a pie. Well, now I have and you can hang onto your assumptions about my amazingness. Anyway, I was actually really nervous about making pie. Luckily, my sister in law was staying with us and she is a Family Consumer Science (aka Home Ec) major, so she supervised and gave me tips, but I really did do the whole thing myself. It turned out great! It looked fairly pretty and tasted fabulous. I was very proud of myself. Here I am in all my domestic glory.
I also made a green bean casserole for the first time. It was also very tasty. So, I spent all morning cooking and I didn't even remotely have to do the whole dinner. I'm not really looking forward to the day when I will have to do all the cooking and host the big dinner at my house.

We went to my Auntie Barbara's house for Thanksgiving. It was beautiful with TONS of great food. We are so incredibly blessed. It was fun to visit with family and to be together. Here's our little clan.
Weston literally ate half of that roll and that is all. The next day he asked when we were going to have Thanksgiving. I was like, "it was yesterday, remember? You didn't eat anything." He didn't quite get the whole idea of the holiday. Weston was buddies with his cousin, Emily, most of the afternoon. They sat together for dinner. This is the best picture I got of him all night.
Weston got a little hyper after we had been there for a couple hours and decided to clomp around in Daddy's shoes. He thought he was hilarious. It was actually really amusing.
We had a nice Thanksgiving and enjoyed having Aunt Aly with us for the last week. She was so helpful with the boys and keeping me company and running errands, etc. I am so excited that it is officially Christmas time. I am in the full swing of listening to Christmas music and in the process of decorating today. Ian is outside putting up lights and last night we watched The Grinch. I love Christmas and am looking forward to this entire month with baking, picking a Christmas tree, wrapping presents, lighting candles, singing my favorite Christmas songs, and the general good will that seems more prevalent at this time of year. I hope everyone is catching the holiday spirit too!

On a final, completely non-holiday note, Weston is almost officially a big kid. He started pooping in the potty several times in a row this past week and keeping his pull up dry. Today he is in underwear and no accidents thus far. I am SO happy that we are nearing the potty training finish line with him. I have no idea what suddenly made it click for him, but I am happy it did.

Tom Cruise. Star Wars Kid.

Here is a little video I did for fun.

Park It.

Weston has been very into playing with cars these days. He has slowly amassed quite a collection too. His new favorite thing to do with them is to "park" them in the piano. This is what my piano looks like by the end of a typical day. I think it's so funny because apparently Ian says fitting the cars between the black keys like that is exactly something he would have done as a kid.
Fun thing #2 to do with cars? Line them up to make them look like a choo choo train, of course! Weston seriously was entertained for about 45 minutes putting this together. He was very proud of himself too. He asked me to take this picture of him with his cars.
Last weekend was my old roommate, Lisa's, wedding. It was so fun to attend her sealing and remember all the amazing things that happened on my own wedding day. It was fun to have that to think about the day before my own 5 year anniversary. Aren't they such a beautiful couple?!?
That night we went to the reception and brought the kids. They were both pretty well behaved, the hall was absolutely gorgeous and the good was amazing. The reception was actually at a garden center, so there were TONS of plants and little waterfalls and stuff. Really pretty. So congrats to Lisa and Ryan. I was glad I could be a part of your day.
Also last weekend Ian was working on leaf clean up in our backyard and Weston got to "help." Leaves are a nightmare at our house because we have 9 mature trees on our little .16 acre lot. As you can see it's a big job. I think Ian has already filled 20 bags with leaves. Luckily our city does a leaf clean-up program and provides big leaf bags and allows you to drop off the filled bags at designated sites. Anyway, I thought this picture was too funny of Weston trying to play baseball in all those leaves and wearing his cowboy hat. I love that kid.
Well, the holidays are officially upon us. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. I am excited to eat me some turkey and mashed potatoes. I am also going to be making my first pie ever to contribute to dinner at my Auntie B's house. I'll let you know how the pie making goes. We will be busting out the Christmas decorations this weekend and lighting the house. Yay! I can't wait. Everyone have a fabulous Thanksgiving!

Has It Been That Long?

It was over 5 years ago that Ian and I met and fell in love. Long story short, we met at ward prayer in our BYU ward in the summer of 2003. We spent every waking minute together that whole summer. In August we got engaged in Portland, OR.
We got married November 22, 2003 in the Los Angeles temple. It was a fabulous day. So fun and exciting. We were so happy that we could become a family that day and know that we would never have to leave each other again.
Since we have been married we have had the good, the bad, and the amazing. I will highlight some of the wonderful, fun times.

We saw Jimmy Eat World from the front row at the McKay Events Center. Amazing.
We played lots of Settlers and Cities and Knights with our wonderful friends from BYU in Provo.
We spent a really fun weekend in Vegas for my best friend's 21st birthday.
We saw lots of BYU football games, but this one we got to watch from the 2nd row! It was so cool.
Towards the end of our college days Ian was invited to do an internship with an ad agency in New York City, so we packed up and sealed up our apartment in Provo to go and sublet a teeny tiny apartment in midtown Manhattan. We were there for 3 months. It was such a great experience. We had plenty of time to do all the tourist sites. We also enjoyed feeling kind of like real New Yorkers. Here we are at Madison Square Garden watching a women's basketball game.
The iconic picture from the top of the Empire State Building.
When we first got to New York we found out that we were expecting our first baby! Let me just mention that the smells of NYC are not my most fond memories of that time.

At the end of 2005 we both graduated from BYU and moved up to Murray where we could be closer to Ian's "grown up" job in Sandy. He has been working at Verite ever since. A month later Weston was born. Parenthood changed our marriage, but in a good way.
On Weston's 1st birthday we put an offer on a house and moved in by the end of the month. We LOVE having our own place, but have definitely seen the down sides to home-ownership. Here is a picture of me and Weston playing the piano in our house.
Summer of 2007 we found out we were pregnant with baby #2. Davin was born in March 2008. Here is our first full family picture. I actually don't have a more recent one of all 4 of us.
To celebrate our big 5 year anniversary we stayed at the Hilton in downtown Salt Lake. Our anniversary was on the same day as the big BYU v. Utah game, so our romantic dinner was at the Skybox sports grill at the Gateway. If we had won it would have been perfect. It was still a blast watching the game on a HUGE screen and getting to eat dinner at the same time. Here we are at Skybox.
Us in our hotel room before we headed back to real life.**
Looking back, we have had a pretty busy 5 years. It has been quite the ride. I am so glad that Ian wanted to marry me. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful guy by my side through everything. He already does such a great job, but continues to try harder to make me happy. He is a fabulous daddy. It is so fun to watch him with our boys. He works hard to provide us with our home and all the things that go with it, including allowing me to stay home with our kids. Here's to 50+ more years!

**Thanks for staying with the boys Aly! We SO appreciate it. :)