Football and the Great Outdoors

If you know me/my family then you know I am not an outdoorsy type of girl.  But I do enjoy nature.  It's beautiful and fresh.  I just don't like the bugs and dirt and uncomfortable camp chairs.  Ian is more outdoorsy than me and therefore we manage to make it outside every once in awhile.  On Labor Day we didn't have plans so we decided to head up Big Cottonwood Canyon for a picnic.  We found a day use site and explored, played, and ate lunch.  It was a warm day, but cooler up in the mountains.  We all had a fun time and enjoyed being in the mountains soaking up the sunshine surrounded by trees and rocks and lots of sticks to play with.  There was even a little playground!

If you know me/my family then you know that I'm not super into sports.  We never followed any professional sports growing up.  We played our share of kid sports and we were/are especially fond of water sports and "dancing" sports, but beyond that not so much.  However, I have come to love watching college football over the years, especially the Cougars!  We had planned to go as a family to see BYU play Weber State last Saturday.  We didn't want to bring Talia though since she would not be interested in sitting in one place in the sun for 3+ hours.  I tried to find a sitter, but in the end decided it would be best for me to stay home with Tal.  Luckily Uncle Brad was able to take my ticket.

This was Davin's first time going to a BYU football game and he was super excited.  They got there early so there was time to do some of the pre-game activities outside the stadium.  The boys both won prizes and ice cream, so it was hit.  Weston came home with a BYU/Ford lanyard and a BYU/Ford drawstring backpack.  Davin won a lanyard and a BYU/Ford mini towel.  The towel came in handy when soaked with ice water during the heat of the 1pm game.  It was a long day for them, but I think everyone had a good time. 

And I was grateful to be watching the game from the sofa in my air conditioned house (remember how I'm not outdoorsy?  It has something to do with comfortable temperatures too).  Talia and I ran errands and went out to lunch, then came home and crashed.  She napped through the entire football game.  I only napped through halftime.  She napped so long that I got to watch the game in peace and quiet AND got the house vacuumed and brownies baked while she was sleeping.  I think there are some teeth coming in and a growth spurt going on, which make for great napping, but not so great behavior.  Talia is getting to know the time out corner pretty well these days.

Saturday night our friends, the Bayles', stopped in to hang out for a couple hours and talk all about their exciting adoption news!  They are now officially matched with not one, but two adorable little boys from Ethiopia!  We couldn't be happier for them and I loved staring at the pictures of their sweet new additions.  Can't wait to meet them in person!  It was a fun night and a fun weekend. 

You Have Been Warned

Warning: This post will more than likely contain whining.  If you are over your quota of whining for the day either skip it or come back first thing tomorrow.

Tomorrow I will officially be 38 weeks pregnant.  If you count by weeks that means that I am 9 and a half months pregnant.  Pretty much I'm just really pregnant.  I feel like I haven't talked too much about my pregnancy on the blog this time around, but I've hit the wall.  I'm now taking it day by day.  I don't really want to have this baby until next week, but even that sounds really far away right now.  If he is sleeping and not trying to move around in his limited space then I feel pretty good, but whenever he's shifting and kicking and stretching it is pretty painful.  I also am tired.  My back hurts.  You get the idea.

Despite being ginormously pregnant I have still managed to stay pretty busy with the day to day of running our house and getting everyone to and from school.  The boys have been building a lot of Legos.  Especially Davin.  That kid spends hours in the basement building "creations."  And he always wants a picture of them.  Weston built this alien to enter into a Lego Jr. magazine contest

  

Last Friday was Weston's spotlight day in his 1st grade class.  He put together a little booklet about himself and got to bring in 10 things to show and tell.  He was so excited and pondered for days what he would bring to show his class.  He ended up showing a craft he made, his Lego space shuttle, his Star Wars encyclopedia book, his favorite book Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, 2 of his Webkinz, and his fossil from the Paleo Lab at the dino museum.  He did a great job presenting and it was fun to see him with his classmates and to see his teacher interact.

Talia has just been doing her normal things.  Playing, watching "shows," becoming a more picky eater by the day (and following in Bowles kid tradition wanting cheese all the time), learning new words, popping bubbles, and fussing at me.  She sure is cute in the mornings though when she is happy and has crazy hair.  Ian took these pics of her a couple weeks ago when he was up with her in the morning and I was sleeping (it was fantastic).  We sure like our girl.

Davin Goes to Preschool

 Davin has been waiting two whole weeks since Weston started school for his first day of preschool.  He was so excited to finally start.  He is going to USA Tykes Preschool in a beautiful home across the freeway from us.  On the way there he told me he didn't want me to walk him in because he "knows everything about preschool."  "I know how to walk myself into preschool Mom." he said.  I walked him in anyway, but told him if his teacher said it was ok he could walk by himself next time.  :) 

 

Davin could hardly be bothered to worry about saying goodbye to me.  It was more emotional for me than sending Weston off to 1st grade.  Davin is just so little and still seems to need me so much.  He did great in school though and had a super fun first day.  He is even more excited for today!

Final Countdown

I've really been slacking on my blogging lately.  Let's blame it on the baby.  I am definitely starting get a little anxious/excited about this baby coming THIS month!  I'm officially full term and feeling every week of it.  The last few weeks of pregnancy always drag, but I feel like the weeks are also going by too quickly for me to get everything done that I wanted to before baby #4.  It doesn't help that by 3pm all I want to do is lay down. 

We did get quite a bit done this Labor Day weekend and I'm feeling a little better about being ready for baby.  We got out all the newborn and 0-3 month clothes, found my nursing "gear," moved the guest bed out of the nursery, went through the baby's closet, and made a start on collecting furniture for Talia's big girl room so that the baby will eventually get to be in the crib.  We also enjoyed a picnic with the kiddos up Big Cottonwood Canyon and watched The Pirates! movie together. 

Now for some catch-up . . . back at the beginning of August (a whole MONTH ago!), we had a fun camping adventure with some new neighbors.  We went up American Fork Canyon for a fun dinner around a campfire.  We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows and got to know some new friends.  After dinner Talia and I headed home while Ian and the boys found a campsite with another family with 2 boys from our neighborhood and they spent the night.  They had a blast!  They tried baking brownies in an orange in the fire, goofed around in the tent, rode the Rollins' 4 wheeler, and visited the lake.

 

 

 

 

We also spent almost every evening in August out riding bikes.  And by "we" I mean Ian and the boys.  One evening the boys rode to the park and Talia and I joined them later.  It was a nice evening.  We love living in such a great neighborhood with a park so close!

 

 

 

Talia has been super into books lately and bring me her favorites to read over and over.  Current favorites are Goodnight Moon, 10 Little Babies, and Duck and Goose Find a Pumpkin.  She also will sit and look at all of her books on her own.  It always makes me happy when my kids enjoy books.  :)

 

She also has become quite the little poser.  She knows when we are taking pictures and will smile and cock her head to the side.  It's cute and funny.  Talia and I hang out on the porch a lot while the boys ride bikes outside.  This particular afternoon we had just gotten back from Target, so Talia and I were chilling on the porch while she finished off the bag of popcorn from our outing in her little chair.  She is getting to be such a big girl!

 

Finally a little about Weston. We had a fun play date with our friends at the dinosaur museum a few weeks ago.  Weston discovered these bat ear headphones that were part of the Science of Sound exhibit.  They looked pretty awesome and I think he really wanted to take them home.  :) 

 

Weston has a few different playlists on the kids' phone that he can put on in the basement while they are playing or cleaning.  Ian took this pic of his re-named playlists a few weeks ago.  It's just such a prime example of what living with little boys is like.  Sigh.  Weston will probably not thank me for this in the future, but it was such a crack up that I couldn't not post it for posterity.  

 

Sprucing Up & BYU

One of the fun things we did with Ian's parents was to re-plant out front planter!  Denny weeded it for me and then Tuesday after Weston got home from school we headed off to Home Depot to pick out some plants.  I have never planted anything before, so I was pretty clueless.  We bought mostly flowers and a few shrubs.  When we got home the kids played outside while we dug holes and planted and watered.  I love how it turned out!

 

 Unfortunately a week later the black eyed Susan's are looking pretty sad and I don't think they are going to make it, but the rest of the plants look ok.  I haven't killed them yet anyway.  I'm trying really hard to keep them looking nice and it's fun to have something out there that I had a hand in choosing and planting.

On Wednesday Ian stayed home in the morning for a couple hours before heading into work.  Then we all got ready and headed down to Provo.  We stopped first at the RC Willey Clearance outlet to see if they had a patio furniture set I had seen in their ad that was on sale.  I was so excited that they had it in stock!  It was a steal at $50 for the set.  It definitely completed the sprucing up of the front yard/porch.

 

After the furniture detour we headed to BYU campus for some serious shopping at the BYU Bookstore.  Grandma and Papa spoiled the kids with new BYU shirts, hairbows for Talia, and a couple things for the new baby.  I added some BYU socks for the boys and got a couple books and some fudge.  We ate lunch in the Cougareat before heading home with tired kids. 

This pic was taken on Thursday when the kids all wanted to wear their new BYU clothes.  :)

Later that afternoon it was time for Grandma and Papa to pack up and head to the airport.  We had such a fun visit with them and wish they could have stayed longer!  We will get to see them again in October though when they come out to meet the new baby and catch a BYU football game.

First Grade

Tuesday was Weston's first day of school.  He had a hard time sleeping because he was so excited.  It was adorable.  We all got up and walked him to the bus stop.  He made Grandma tear up, but I was surprisingly un-emotional.  Not that I didn't care, just that I wasn't sad about sending him off to 1st grade.  I was excited for him.  I think he's going to have a great year and make lots of friends and learn new things.

 

 

 

 

 

Waiting for him to come home from school on Day 2.  Mostly I included this for the belly shot.  I am starting to feel huge and uncomfortable and ready to not be pregnant.  Four more weeks!

 

 

Today is Friday of the first week and he's already combing his own hair in the morning and walking to and from the bus stop by himself.  I watch from the driveway.  I'm so proud of my big kid and love to watch him become more and more independent.  I like it for now anyway, while he still blows me a kiss as he walks away from me.

Grandma & Papa Visit!

We have had a fun, busy week so far.  On Sunday afternoon Grandma Denny and Papa flew in for a visit.  Ian picked them up from the airport and we got to hang out and play for awhile that afternoon.  Mel and Brad joined us for dinner and games that night too.  It was really fun and I was the big winner in Mormon Bridge, so no complaints.

Monday was a packed full day since it was the last day we had Weston home from school.  His request for his last day of Summer was to go to the Children's Museum, so we got ready and headed downtown to the Gateway.  Grandma and Papa had never been to the museum and we hadn't been since Talia was a tiny baby, so it was all kind of new.  Talia loved it.  Her favorites were the balls, the tiny piano in the house, the water table, and the magnets.  The boys already knew their favorites and had a blast playing and showing all the cool stuff to Grandma and Papa. 

 

 

 

 

 

 We stayed until we got hungry then went to In N Out for lunch since Grandma and Papa don't have it in Oregon.  Lunch was delicious.  After that we drove out to Riverton to look at a bike for Davin that was on KSL.  The lady ended up having two bikes for sale that were Davin's size, so I let him choose between an older Spiderman bike and the newer Tonka bike.  He went with the Tonka one.  It's a good bike and he's having fun being on a big boy bike with Dad and Weston.  Grandpa put the training wheels on when we got home and helped him ride for awhile.

 

 

 Grandma went with me and Weston and Talia to Weston's Back to School night, which was actually at 3 in the afternoon.  We went and met his teacher, Mrs. Peterson, and explored her classroom.  Weston was excited to see the Fox Hollow Elementary fox mascot too.  We were a little confused trying to find out about when and where the bus would pick him up, but we managed to figure it out. 

 

We also found out that he is an early bird.  I had requested the later gator schedule, so I was kind of bummed that he had to go early, but Mrs. Peterson's later gator class was already more full than the morning so I didn't bother trying to switch him and so far it's worked out ok.

We ended our whirlwind day with a trip to Target to pick up a bike helmet for Davin, some school supplies I didn't have on hand to send to school with Weston on Tuesday, and an alarm clock to get him up in time for the bus.  Dinner was low key,  followed by baths and a quick school blessing FHE.  Then Weston set his alarm and tried to get some rest for his first day of first grade!