Thanksgiving Weekend

Our long Thanksgiving weekend was fantastic! Weston finished school on Tuesday, so on Wednesday we went to the aquarium and got our new memberships. We got to see the Caymans and the sting rays eat for the first time. It was fun to do an outing like that. I've kind of gotten out of the habit.
Thanksgiving morning was super chill. We watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade in our jammies and had coffee cake for breakfast. Ian cleaned up leaves in the yard while I cooked a little, then we gathered up and hit the road. We enjoyed another lovely, relaxing, delicious Thanksgiving in Ogden with the Davis's and the Bitton's.

We listened to Christmas music on the way home from Ogden that night and got everyone to bed at a decent hour. I didn't do any early morning Black Friday shopping, so Friday morning we all slept in again. We went and saw the Muppet movie in the middle of the day. It was so fun and cute! I loved it. Davin thought it was a little long, but they both liked the characters and it was totally nostalgic for me. I loved all the celebrity cameos too.

Friday afternoon I went to Kohl's and scored some pretty great deals on some clothes and birthday presents for Dav. It really wasn't that crowded, and I am glad that I ventured out. Friday night we went and got our Christmas tree! We picked one out at the Home Depot this year. I am really happy with it. It's still not decorated, but it will be after tonight.
Saturday we went on a family outing to the planetarium. We hadn't been in awhile and they had a couple new exhibits, like this cool cloud simulation. Talia was fascinated by it. We went and saw Born to Be Wild in 3D in the IMAX theater. It was a really interesting and sweet documentary about orphaned elephants and orangutans who are rescued and then prepared to return to the wild. I loved it. Davin refused to wear his 3D glasses, so I don't think he enjoyed it as much, but he ate almost an entire bucket of popcorn so he was still happy. :)
Saturday evening we had our friends over for dinner. They brought Thanksgiving food and I made some grated carrots and pumpkin spice pudding to round out the meal. It was delicious! As much as I love having Thanksgiving in Ogden, I sure miss having leftovers! Yum. The Bayles' stayed late and we watched Seinfeld stand-up and played Settlers.

Sunday was a busy day with church and tag team meetings afterwards, but when we all were home together we got out all the Christmas boxes and decorated the house. I am loving it! I had to put things in different places this year because of the new couches, but it's looking very festive and smelling so piney! I am so ready for the Christmas season this year. :)

It's a Beautiful Life

I married my sweetheart 8 years ago today. It was the best day ever! We have built a beautiful life together and I couldn't be happier. I love you Ian! Thanks for all the love, laughs, and our adorable children! Happy Anniversary!

Little Ones

Now that I have a child in school full time it makes my little ones seem so much littler. I love it. When Weston and Davin are together I always lump Davin in the "older kid" category. Sometimes I have to remind myself that he is only 3 and a half and remember how Weston was at that age. I have been enjoying our time together while Weston is away at school.
Davin is such a crack up. He still talks with his little toddler pronunciation and so every word out of his mouth is just adorable (ok, some words are less adorable, but still pretty cute). I love Davin's scraggly hair too. It's coarse and kind of wavy. Completely different from Weston's. I like it when it grows out a little. It makes him look like a messy little boy. Today we finally got his hair cut. He really wanted to spike it like his brother, so the stylist did her best. :)
Even though Davin is pretty much the cutest and gives the best loves, he is still 3 and drives me nuts sometimes. My main pet peeve lately is that he NEVER gets ready to go when I need him to. I ask him to get his shoes on and he says "but I not weady yet!" I ask him to get a jacket and he says "I not weady yet!" I am so sick of hearing that phrase. I may have sort of lost it when he refused to get ready to go pick up Weston from school the other day. It was time whether he was ready or not. My friend, Cami, posted this link on her Facebook wall the same day I got so mad at Davin and it just rang so true. And so funny. If you are the mother of a 3 year old (or ever have been) you will get a kick out of it. Still love you sweet Dav!

And that brings us to the littlest little one, Miss Talia. She is such a cute little bundle of girl. I just love to force her to cuddle with me. My children are not snugglers, but if I lift up her legs then she has no choice but to lay her head on my shoulder. It's sneaky, but worth it. Talia is 11 months old and I am just not prepared for the whole one year old thing.
Luckily she's on the slow end of physical milestones, so she seems younger. She still bum scootches because it's faster for her than army crawling, but I'm sure she'll figure out real crawling soon enough. I hope walking isn't too far off because Talia is getting heavy! She is just starting to fit into her 12 month clothes. It's so fun because it's a whole new wardrobe! I am also excited to move her into a bigger carseat. She has 5 teeth now, with one more almost through. She just got a new winter hat made by my college friend, Stephanie. I love it! So fun and warm. The flower is removable too. If you want one, let me know and I'll get you Stephanie's contact info.
Finally, just as a side note to this random post, I just watched the pilot of "Once Upon a Time" and I'm hooked! Can't wait to catch up on the rest of the episodes! If you are looking for a new show to watch while you fold laundry, check it out on Hulu.

Best. Weekend. Seriously.

This weekend my parents came to visit! That alone would have made it fantastic, but in addition to them visiting we did a bunch of fun stuff, ate a lot of fantastic food, and they watched the kids so Ian and I could sneak away for a night to celebrate our 8 year anniversary (which isn't actually until next week). It all added up to the best weekend ever.

Mom and Dad's flight got in late on Thursday night. I had just pulled into the park and wait area at the airport when I got Mom's text that said, (and I quote) "We're here! We'll get our bags and our car and come as quick as we can!" Wait, you're renting a car? (I texted back) Mom had forgotten that they were renting a car and therefore forgot to tell me. Whoops! It was pretty funny. So I headed home and put on the kettle for some hot cocoa for when they pulled in. We stayed up way too late talking and finally crashed for the night well after midnight.

Friday morning the kids were so excited to see Grandma and Grandpa! We had a nice, slow morning. When we finally got moving we headed to Chuck E. Cheese to win some tickets to buy some new silly straws. I may have melted the old silly straws when I poured boiling water on them by accident the day before. Oops. It actually worked out really well because we got there right when it opened so we had the place pretty much to ourselves and we all just played and had fun. And got some silly straws in the end. Success!
Ian came home early and we headed out after lunch for our anniversary getaway. We make a point to go away for at least one night every year for our anniversary, but last year it just didn't happen, so I was determined that we would have some time away together this year. I so appreciate my parents volunteering to stay with the kids! It was just perfect.

We decided to check out a new museum downtown call the Leonardo. It was really cool. Lots of fun exhibits. We especially loved the hilarious genealogy chair video, the infrared motion sensor area, the stop motion exhibit, and the green screen. I think Ian will have to take Weston on a special outing to explore this museum again sometime, but it sure was nice to be able to stop and look at everything at our own pace, rather than the pace of a 3 year old.

After we finished making our way through the museum we went and checked into our hotel. We stayed at the Little America hotel downtown. It was beautiful! Our room was huge, with a king bed, separate sitting area and little dining table with a cool chandelier above it. There was also a nice, big tub and a separate vanity room. We booked the bed and breakfast package and it was wonderful. I highly recommend it.

After dropping off our luggage we went to an early dinner at Faustina, our favorite "nice" restaurant in SLC. We were pretty early and so we were the only ones in the restaurant for awhile. The kitchen wasn't quite ready for us either, so it was a nice, long, drawn out meal. I actually thought it was just right. The food was amazing too. Wow. We had roasted red pepper and goat cheese soup, the Smoked Sonoma Chicken Salad, a chicken puff pastry with polenta appetizer (yum!), then Ian ordered stuffed beef tenderloin medallions, and I had the braided salmon with mashed potatoes and shredded vegetables on top in this delicious lemony sauce. Seriously, if you live in Utah you should try out this restaurant sometime. Dessert was chocolate lava cake with ice cream and creme brulee. We were kind of stuffed, but it was worth it.
We ended our date night with a couples massage at Heavenly Hands. We could have done with a little more time between eating and getting the massages, but it worked out. It was very relaxing. By the time we were done we were ready for some rest. It was kind of funny/sad, but Ian and I both ended up taking meds to help us sleep so we could enjoy our uninterrupted night.

Saturday morning we slept in. Of course! A beautiful breakfast was delivered to our room when we got up and we just took a slow, relaxing morning until it was time to pack up and head back to reality. :) Not that our reality is too shabby, but it does require more responsibility of us. We were happy to get home to the kids and to spend some more time visiting with my parents.
When we got back we went to lunch at Kneader's with everyone. It was a little chaotic and ended with us bundling a naked Talia into the car wrapped up in my coat. I won't go into the details. That afternoon we all rested. Mom and Dad checked into their hotel and took naps while we came home and unpacked and caught up with the kids. They had a blast with Grandma and Grandpa. They built stuff. It's a surprise for Christmas, so that's about all I know and I have no pictures. They also got to have dinner at McDonald's, so they were happy campers.

Saturday night we left the kids home with a sitter (again. I know, I felt horrible) so that us adults could go to the BYU football game. It was cold, but so much fun. It had snowed that afternoon, but the sky was clear and our seats were dry down in Provo. We stopped for some cheesesteaks near the stadium before the game, then walked over to our seats. We were right in front of the speakers, so my vision of us sitting up high so we could sit and talk wasn't exactly the way it went, but we stayed warm all bundled up with our hot chocolate and the Cougars played awesome! It was a super fun game. We were all glad we braved the weather and went. Thanks Mom and Dad!
Sunday morning came way too early, but it was a nice day. After church we just relaxed and watched a bunch of videos. I made chicken pot pie (recipe to come in a future post) for dinner. And Christmas came a little early. Mom and I sang all of our Christmas songs. It was so fun. I love singing with my mom. After dinner Grandma made Christmas sugar cookies with the boys. They loved it and the cookies are so delicious!
We also celebrated Talia's birthday early! She actually turned 11 months on Saturday. And check out what she started doing this weekend! That's right, our little bum scootcher is now capable of army crawling too. I'm so proud. :)

We watched Talia's newborn video, then let her open her presents from Grandma and Grandpa. She loved that she was allowed to touch that crinkly paper! She didn't so much care what was inside. She got a new Christmas dress and a Christmas Duck & Goose book. She loves Duck & Goose and was excited to read her new book with Grandma. We also sang to her and let her eat a sugar cookie. She loved it and most of it actually ended up in her mouth. She wasn't super smiley at this point in the night because she was very tired and we just kept making her do more stuff, but she's cute even when she glares at the camera.
Once we got all the kids cleaned up and the kitchen cleaned up we were all ready to put our feet up. We played some Bananagrams and ate cookies until it was time for Mom and Dad to head back to the hotel and get some sleep before their early morning flight home. It was such a wonderful weekend. I just wish it could have been longer! Thanks for everything Mom and Dad!

Update

The Good:
-I got to sleep in until 9am last Saturday!
-Ian got his new car detailed.
-Young Women in Excellence is over!
-We have all of our paperwork submitted for the sale of our house and the bank has done their appraisal, so we are finally going to be moving forward. Fingers crossed.

The Not-So-Good:
-It snowed and is very cold.
-We were very sick. Except Weston. Somehow being at school all day helped him escape the stomach bug the rest of us caught this week.
-I had to do YW in Excellence while sick. I wasn't sure I was going to make it.
-My van died last week. Luckily it just needed a new battery and was only out of commission for one day.

I feel like we have been crazy busy. Sorry for the lack of posting. I'll get back to it next week. We are all feeling much more healthy now and we are looking forward to my parents' visit this weekend. :)

I hope everyone enjoys their long Veteran's Day weekend! Thank you to all those who have served and do serve our country and to their families. My military wife friends, I love you and think you are the most amazing women! Thank you for the sacrifices you make because your husbands defend our beautiful country. I am so grateful! God bless America.

Happy Halloween!

We had a fun Halloween. Both of the boys had school. Davin wasn't allowed to wear his costume, but they had pajama day instead. He wore his super cool skeleton jammies from Grandma Denny and was perfectly happy. Talia wore her cute kitty shirt and Weston chose his black Batman shirt. My cute Halloween monsters before school.
When I picked up Davin from preschool he had his face painted and a handful of treats. He was so happy about his fun day at school. We went straight from school to run a couple errands. I had to go to the library to pick up my newest culinary mystery by Josi Kilpack that was on hold for me. I'm so excited for a fun read! After the library we went to Sam's Club. They didn't have trick or treating, but they did have samples! Davin loved his pumpkin pie and apple cider.

We relaxed that afternoon and took naps. By the time we picked up Weston from school we just had time for homework and dinner before it was time to go trick or treating. Weston had a pretty fun day at school even though it wasn't the big party day. He got some more treats too. He also made this cute paper. It says "I once got my brain eaten by a zombie. This is my story."
Weston was really excited about trick or treating this year. We drove over to a nice little housing track to trick or treat. It was the perfect size, but I was still surprised how many people weren't home or weren't giving out candy. The kids got more than enough candy and had a blast. We lucked out that the weather was so warm. The kids didn't even have to wear coats to trick or treat. Although it appears we just barely scraped by with a nice Halloween night because this morning it snowed!

Happy Halloween!

Other Random Excitement

It was another busy, packed weekend for the Bowles family. I'm not sure we know how to have any other kind! It was mostly fun though. On Friday Weston didn't have school, so we met up with my cousin Carly and her cute kids for a picnic at Liberty Park. It was chilly, but the sun was out, and we had a great time visiting while the kids played. I didn't take many pictures because I was holding Talia most of the time, but Weston asked me to take this picture and told me to put it on the blog and say, "Weston found this rock with words on it at Liberty Park." He's so silly.
Later Friday afternoon Weston had karate testing. He was very excited to get a new belt. I explained that he had to focus and do his absolute best so that he would earn the next belt. There were lots of kids testing and it was interesting to watch. I thought Weston was doing well, but I didn't really know what they were looking for. At the end of testing Master Troy told me that he passed all the skills for white belt (the one he was testing out of) AND for yellow belt (the next belt up). So instead of moving him to yellow until the next test in a couple of months, he gets to skip yellow and go straight to orange. Weston overheard this and was SUPER excited! I am so proud of my little martial artist. Go Weston!

Friday night we got a pizza and watched the TCU v. BYU game at home. It was kind of a bummer. BYU didn't play great and TCU is a good team. We lost. It wasn't a very relaxing evening either because I had to put together Young Women in Excellence invitations and fold laundry before before bed.

Saturday morning we carved pumpkins and then Ian had to go to work. Lame! I hate it when he has to work on the weekends. While he was gone we ran to the store to get donuts for the ward activity, I made chili, and gathered up all the stuff I needed for the games at the ward activity. Ian got home just in time for me to pack up the car and go to the church to set up.

The chili cook off was a success. There were plenty of yummy chili's and cornbread to try. I am boring, of course, and only ate my own and one other. My chili won the award for the "fastest emptying pot." Woohoo!

Ian brought the kids in their costumes, but we didn't get any good pics because it was kind of a hectic night. I was rather stressed out about doing the games for the activity. It was supposed to be the youth in charge, but the YM presidency recently changed and so it was pretty much all me. Luckily I had several youth show up early to help me set up and we had put together some of the stuff at mutual earlier in the week. The youth were really great about running the games so all I had to do was supervise. The kids all had a great time and got lots of prizes and candy.

I had a table set up for the kids to color a paper bag for their treats. There was a pumpkin toss (bean bag toss), witch hat ring toss, and The Spooky Swamp fishing pond. There was supposed to be donuts on a string too, but it just didn't end up happening. I put the donuts out on the food table and they disappeared, so it worked out. The highlight was the face painting. We have a sister in our ward who does professional face painting. Fortunately for us she didn't have a job Saturday night so she came and volunteered at the ward party. Doesn't Weston's face look awesome?
Davin got some stripes on his face and was very happy with them. This isn't the best picture, but Davin wore the Mike Wozowski costume and our friend's daughter was Boo. They looked so cute!
Talia was dressed up too, but we didn't get a picture of her. I promise I will take some good ones of her as a pumpkin tomorrow! Needless to say we were all exhausted by the time we got home and got everyone to bed.

Today Ian and I both had to teach. Talia and Davin both had runny noses. It was a conundrum. Those of you in normal wards are probably thinking, "why didn't you just call one of your counselors to fill in for you?" There is no one to call in our ward. I'm not lying. No one. Luckily my lesson was more conducive to having both kids with me since we were watching a couple Conference talks, but it was still annoying. The stress and exhaustion of having so much responsibility on our little family was definitely felt this weekend. We certainly aren't moving just to get out of our ward, but it is undeniably a perk.

Luckily most of our Sunday afternoon was relaxing (after Ian got home from doing tithing and after I got home from my presidency meeting). We vegged and watched "Tangled" and "Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin." I was pretty proud of myself for actually cooking a decent meal and getting the house tidied up for the start of our week. Can't wait for Halloween tomorrow!