November? How?

Things are just chugging along here at the Bowles house.  I don't have anything all that exciting to blog about, but I don't want to go too long between posts or my family will miss seeing updated pics of Beckett!  He loves going on walks in our unseasonably warm November weather, which has now turned cold and snowy.  We got 4 inches of snow yesterday!  He doesn't so much love tummy time, but he tolerates it for a few minutes at a time. 

 

 

Last weekend was so nice!  We were just home and we got stuff done but didn't have a ton we HAD to do.  I went and got my hair cut in the morning.  I'm still kind of growing it out, but it badly needed a trim.  It feels so much better and looks about the same.  I ran a few other errands while I was out without kiddos.  My morning alone was made possible by the fact that Beckett is the best baby ever and takes a bottle without a fuss.  Seriously love that little guy! (I love my cute Dav man too)

Saturday night Ian and I went on an impromptu shopping date.  It was super fun.  We took Beckett along.  We grabbed some dinner at Corner Bakery then did some clothes shopping for the kids at Carters.  It was really fun to have Ian help me pick outfits for Beck.  He was an extra good sport because our next stop was the Apple store where Ian bought an AppleTV for us to stream Netflix and Hulu since our current setup was not doing a great job with that.  We finished up with a quick stop at Sam's Club to pick up a Blu-ray player then dessert at Applebee's.  It was a super fun night and Beckett slept the whole time.  I think we might be ready to leave him home next time.

We had our next door neighbors over for dinner on Sunday and it was a blast!  They are so cool.  They brought over muffins with custard that you spoon over the whole thing (James is British and it's a delicious British thing) and our boys put on puppet shows for us after dinner.  We are lucky to have such great neighbors.  Their boys are downstairs watching Tron with my boys as I type this.  I can't put into words how grateful I am that things worked out with selling our house and we were able to move to this neighborhood.  It's exactly what we wanted.

In other news we got a new-to-us dining set this morning!  We just didn't fit at our cute little table anymore.  We were using a folding chair at dinner to accommodate us all and there was zero room for food on the table.  It was time.  We bought the set off KSL, of course.  I found a brand new set online that I loved, but we decided with four little kids and all of the coloring and play doughing and sticky fingers we were better off saving our money and buying used.  I'm excited to eat our first dinner as a family there tomorrow night (Ian is working today/tonight).

I am enjoying these last couple of weeks before the holiday craziness begins.  The Fall is flying by so fast!  I am usually done Christmas shopping by now, but this year I'm not even close.  And oddly enough I don't really want to go do it.  It feels more like a chore than ever before.  Maybe once I'm past Thanksgiving I'll be more excited about it.  In the meantime I am going to relax and let myself be filled with gratitude for all the blessings we enjoy, especially my great kids and hardworking husband.  Happy November!

Happy Halloween!

For Family Home Evening last week we carved our pumpkins.  The boys both did great with scooping out pumpkin guts!  They finally thought the grossness was cool!  Weston did almost his entire pumpkin all by himself.  He scooped it out as much as he could, drew the face on and carved all of the face except part of the mouth himself.  I thought he did a great job for his first time. 

 

 

Davin and I collaborated on his pumpkin.  He told me what kind of face he wanted, including modeling the eyebrows.  :)  Those were all his idea.  I did the carving.  Ian carved Talia's little pumpkin and she LOVED it.  She was so excited when he handed it to her.  Obviously Ian carved his own Avengers pumpkin since it was one of his favorite movies this year.  We also ate our donuts off the cat for our treat.  Talia is a fan of the powdered donuts.

 

 

 

 

 

Halloween morning started bright and early since Weston wanted to eat breakfast before he got in his costume for school.  He sure makes a cute and realistic Harry Potter!  He had a costume parade in the morning and then a little party in the afternoon. 

Later that morning Davin got all ready for his preschool party.  Talia didn't want to be left out so she put on her Minnie costume.  Of course Beckett wore his little monster outfit all day.  After I dropped Davin off at school I figured I'd better take Talia to do something fun as long as she was all dressed up.  We ended up at the dinosaur museum.  She loved it and it was almost completely empty.  After the museum we went to lunch at McDonald's and she played for a bit.  We ended our outing by picking up our jack o lantern pizzas from Papa Murphy's and picking up Davin from preschool.  Everyone had a fun day.

 

 

I couldn't get Talia to settle down for a nap.  I figured it was going to be a very long evening, but she was pretty good and happy.  The kids were super excited for trick or treating.  We had pizza and fruit for dinner then got all dressed up again.  Brad and Mel came over and the menfolk took the little ones trick or treating while Mel and I handed out candy and snuggled Beckett. 

 

 Talia only went to about ten houses before Ian brought her back, but she seemed to have fun and was super cute when she said "tweat!" at the houses.  She was content to relax on the couch eating her candy and watching Elmo for the rest of the night.  Davin came home about 20 minutes after Talia and said his feet were tired.  I had told him before he went that he could trick or treat for as long as he wanted to and to come home when he was done.  Weston stayed out the longest, but still was home a little after 7pm.  It is kind of nice not having quite as much candy around. 

I thought for sure we would have SO many trick or treaters, but we only had about 100.  I only gave out half of my candy.  Sigh.  Anyway, we got the kids calmed down and to bed at 8 o'clock and then us adults hung out and watched some Anjelah Johnson comedy before Brad and Mel had to leave.  It was definitely a happy Halloween.

UNRELATED:
-Weston made this awesome Red Ribbon Week poster that got hung up at school during Red Ribbon Week.  It was all his idea and doing.  He also got to have lunch with the principal earlier this week for showing respect and exemplifying service.  So proud of my good kid!

-I finally got to go visit my good friend Tara and meet her newest baby who was born just a week after Beckett.  Little Micah is such a cutie and looks so much more Samoan than any of her other kids.  It was nice to talk to her about life with four kids and not feel so alone in the craziness of my life.  I'm so grateful to have such a good friend!

 

Back to Reality

Ian made it home just before the kids went to bed on Friday night.  He texted me on his way to not have the kids brush their teeth.  He brought them fun German chocolate eggs with little toy surprises inside.  They were a huge hit.  We hugged and ate chocolate and then sent the kids to bed.  Ian went to bed a little bit after them since he had been up traveling for about 14 hours.  It worked out well though because he slept all night and then was mostly back on our regular time for Saturday.

 

 Ian brought a whole bag full of fun European candies and chocolates.  He also brought home magnets from the two main cities he stayed in.  We always get magnets when we are on trips.  :)  It is nice to have him back.  We finally had a relatively quiet Saturday together!  I ran a couple errands with Weston while Davin went to a birthday party then we watched the BYU game.  Go Cougs!

 

Saturday night was our ward's Harvest Festival and chili cook-off.  I made a chili and the kids got all dressed up in their Halloween costumes.  It was a really fun, well-organized party.  Ian was in charge of the pumpkin bowling game, so I was on my own with Beckett and Talia.  It was ok.  Talia mostly just liked getting candy, so I helped her "play" the games while carting Beck around.  It was exhausting, but we all had a pretty good time.  I loved that they had a photo booth room.  :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today is the big day, Halloween!  Weston is already in his costume and off at school.  I missed his costume parade because it was at 8:15am.  Sheesh!  Davin has a Halloween party at preschool in about an hour too.  We are all excited for trick or treating in our own neighborhood tonight.  More on how that all goes soon!

Single Mommyhood

Ian got the opportunity to go on a business trip to Ireland and the Netherlands this last week.  He left early Saturday morning leaving me on my own with 4 kids under 6.  I was a little nervous.  It has been ok.  I certainly don't envy single moms or moms whose husbands travel a lot for work or are in the military and are deployed.  It's hard. 

Lucky for me I have an awesome sister who lives only 20 minutes away!  Mel and Brad came over Saturday afternoon and stayed with us until Sunday night.  They helped out with church, which ended up being pretty fun because it was the Primary Program.  The boys did great at singing all the songs and reciting their assigned scripture with their class.  I thought the ward did an amazing job putting together a concise, spiritual, cute program with over 100 kids.  We really did have a super fun time hanging out with Brad and Mel.  Incidentally Talia LOVES Brad.  It's really cute.

After Sunday I was on my own, but I tried to make sure I had plans to see/talk with other adults every day.  Monday I didn't and it was a long day.  It was my cleaning house and doing laundry day.  I did take Beckett and Talia for a walk while the boys were both at school.  She played on the playground and liked being in charge of where we went.

 

 

Tuesday I went and visited my friend, Natalie.  She's always great company and Davin enjoyed playing with her son who is his age.  Natalie fed us homemade soup and rolls for lunch and then offered to watch all of the kids so I could run to Walmart and pick up a few groceries for the rest of the week by myself.  It was great. 

Wednesday I met up with my friends from our old bishopric, Alison and Michael Ann, for lunch at Thanksgiving Point while Davin was at preschool.  We had four kids with our group but we managed to have a nice visit to catch up with each other.  And Michael Ann got to meet Beckett!

Thursday we woke up to the first snow of the season.  It was just a dusting, about half an inch, but it was a cold day and the snow kept coming down on and off all day.  Mel came over after work and we went to pick out our Halloween pumpkins!  The first place we tried was closed because of the weather, but the next place was open.  We didn't stay long because it was freezing, but we all got a pumpkin we were happy with.  :)  After we picked out our pumpkins we went out to dinner at Burger King. 

 

Mel stayed and helped me out with baths and getting the kids to bed last night.  Once they were all settled we curled up and watched Twilight.  Mel had never seen it!  It's such a horrible movie, but in a fun way.  We made fun of it and laughed and criticized the actors.  It was great. 

Today was crazy hair day at school for Red Ribbon Week.  Weston has been excited to do this double mohawk hair all week.  He's such a goof, but hopefully a drug free forever goof. Talia must have sensed that crazy hair day was just around the corner because last night she insisted on all of her new flowers in her hair at once. 

 

Davin was supposed to do show and tell today but I completely spaced it.  I think spacing one thing this week though is not too shabby.  We are all excited for Ian to come home tonight.  We have already made him a welcome home treat and decorated the front door with welcome home signs and he is on his final flight home as I type this.  I'm most excited to have a back up at night with Beckett again.  That and my snuggle buddy.  I better sign off before this gets too mushy. ;)  Anyway, I am definitely feeling grateful that we were able to get through the week with minimal meltdowns and decent nights with Beckett.  I am also so appreciative to all everyone who kept me company this week in person and on the phone.  Love you all! 

Newborn Photos

A couple of weeks ago my sweet and talented cousin, Kim (of Kim Bullock Photography), took these beautiful photos of baby Beckett.  I'm so excited to get a few printed out and hung up.  I love having newborn photos to remember how cute and tiny my babies were.  If you are looking for a great newborn photographer in the Salt Lake Valley area you should definitely check out Kim's website!  Here are some of my favorites from our shoot.

 

It was fun to visit with her and let our older kiddos play together.  Beckett was good for the pictures even though he stayed awake for most of the shoot.  I wasn't really planning on being in the photos (which is why I'm unshowered and my hair is in a ponytail) but I'm so glad that she took a few of me with Beck.  I sure love my baby boy! 

Fours

I feel like I'm finally catching up with my normal life since I had Beckett.  We are falling into more of a routine and I'm getting a little more sleep at night.  I am truly surprised at how well I am adjusting to having four kids.  Because four is a lot!  (Check out Weston's number sentence of our family!  Woah!)

Beckett is four weeks old today!  (Not quite officially a month since I like to count on the actual day of the next month, so technically this Sunday.)  He started wearing his 0-3 month clothes this week instead of his newborn clothes.  I have mixed feelings about this since as he outgrows his clothes I am getting rid of them.  I'm a little sad.  And a little excited about the next phase of my life.  No more having babies, but raising kids. 

 

 I am feeling a lot of satisfaction and purpose in staying home with my kiddos.  This has not always been the case since I've been a mother.  I didn't immediately have this sense of well being and contentment with being a stay at home mom when I had Weston.  It was tough for me.  I think it's taken me a long while to hit my stride as a mom. 

Part of that may be that four kids keeps me much busier than just one.  Or that some of those kids are old enough to carry on intelligent, interesting, funny conversations with me, which helps mitigate the loneliness I struggled with when I first became a mommy. 

Another part is that I know just how fast these babies are going to grow up!  I mean, my tiny sweet firstborn is going to be 7 years old in just a few short months.  He is already almost smarter than me.  It makes me cherish these newborn moments with Beckett all the more.  He is my last little lump and he will be smarter than me all too soon.  :)

OK, I think this is starting to get rambly.  Talia is calling for more juice and Davin needs to be picked up from preschool in ten minutes, so it's time to wrap it up.  The last sentence essentially sums up my days here with four little ones.  Now if I can just figure out a way to get Talia to start talking more and screaming less my life would be just about perfect.