Christmas Morning

Our Christmas morning started out with me waking up before anyone else, of course. I can never sleep well on Christmas Eve. Luckily Weston woke up about 15 minutes after me, so I didn't have to lay in bed for too long. Unfortunately Davin wasn't awake yet, so Weston and I went out and I got him some breakfast and he watched Elmo for almost an hour until Dav woke up. It was kind of weird. Oh well.

This picture is actually from Christmas Eve. Weston picked out some cookies to put out for Santa.
Here's Weston seeing that Santa came and filled up the stockings. He thought it was pretty cool.
Davin loved getting to play with all the things in his stocking too.
This was Weston's favorite thing that Santa brought. His toy wand. He found it in the check out line at Walmart and decided he needed to ask Santa to bring it. Ian and I knew that this $3 little thing would be his favorite present and sure enough. . .
Davin got a hat and cute little pound puppy in his stocking.
Weston really was excited about his RC car, but I didn't get a single cute picture of him because he had a runny nose and is sniffing in all the pictures I captured.
Weston had a blast tearing through his presents. He got the RC car, a couple Disney movies, a camera, and slippers from Santa. He was also spoiled by his grandparents and other relatives. Davin got stacking rings, which he LOVES and a xylophone, which Weston loves. :) This is the aftermath of opening presents.
We then sat down and had souffle and coffee cake for breakfast. We got showered and played and played. Then the power went out. It had been snowing really hard all morning. We lost power for about 2 hours. Luckily I had already showered, so it wasn't that big of a deal. It did get a little cold though. Later that night I made a Christmas ham dinner. It turned out pretty good, but I did question whether it was worth it to make all that food for just our little family. We ended up just staying home and playing with our new toys all day. It was a nice Christmas at home. We missed both of our families, but spent some time chatting with everyone via webcam before the power went out, so we didn't miss out on seeing them completely.

Here is Weston playing with his car. Davin thinks it's really cool too.
The weekend after Christmas we overhauled the house and have been organizing and cleaning. All of a sudden Sunday night I got sick. Today I am pretty bad. I'm trying to take it easy and get better since I just found out last night that my parents are making a surprise road trip up here to see us and stay for New Years! Yay! I am so excited to see them. Anyway, I have loved reading all your Christmas posts. Sorry mine was so belated. I hope everyone has a fun and safe New Years too!

Christmas Eve

Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house not a creature was stirring . . . oh wait I have kids! Our Christmas Eve was far from quiet and tranquil, but it was fun and fairly low key. Weston and I kept busy by baking cookies for Santa's snack and putting together our snowman crafts from Auntie Mel. I spent the rest of the day baking and putting together souffle for Christmas morning.

Here is Weston on the phone with Grandma B while helping bake Santa's cookies.
Everyone was in a pretty good mood. This is early in the day though. We borrowed the nice camera from Ian's work for the holidays. Here are pictures of the rugrats of the house.
Late in the afternoon while the boys were asleep I got out my china to set our Christmas Eve dinner table. I hadn't used the china in a couple years I think. I forgot how beautiful it is and how much I love it.
So, Weston had been sick the night of Ian's company Christmas party, but then he bounced back and seemed fine. Randomly though on Tuesday night he woke up at about 10:45pm and threw up. A lot. After we got him and his bed cleaned up he was fine and went back to sleep. Anyhoo, he has learned that saying his tummy hurts and that he is going to throw up will get him out of things he doesn't want to do, such as eating dinner, cleaning up toys, etc. When I told him it was time for dinner on Christmas Eve he pulled the sickie card, so he layed on the couch for about 5 minutes then got up and wanted to color. He ended up screaming in his room for 15 minutes while the rest of us enjoyed our chicken scampi. Finally Ian went in and talked to him. After the talk he came out and told me that the table looked pretty and sat down and ate a little bit. :) It was less than the ideal Christmas Eve dinner I had imagined, but I guess that's life with an almost 3 year old. Here are the happy members of the family at dinner.
After we ate dinner we sat down in the living room and read the first Christmas story from the Bible. Weston followed along with his book from Auntie Joy "My First Story of the First Christmas." Then we sang Christmas hymns for awhile. Finally, Davin went to bed, Weston laid out Santa's cookies and milk and then we watched Frosty, read the Polar Express and tucked Weston in.

5 minutes later, as I'm putting the china away, Weston comes out of his room and asks "Is it morning yet?" I assured him not yet and told him to stay in his bed and go to sleep or Santa couldn't come. It was pretty cute.

Ian and I watched White Christmas while we wrapped stocking stuffers. Right before we went to bed we laid everything out. I was so nervous that Weston was going to wake up and come out while I was filling stockings or something, but he didn't.

Santa had plenty of time to fill stockings . . .
. . . and lay out presents. All the presents in blue snowman paper were from Santa.

Bowles' Christmas Visit

This last weekend Ian's parents and Grandma braved the snow to drive all the way from Portland to Utah and visit us before Christmas. They made it here in the wee hours of Saturday morning and caught some sleep at the hotel before coming over to see the boys. Weston was really excited to see his grandparents. Davin took a little longer to warm up. Weston got to open a few Christmas presents right off the bat (he was very happy about that since he watched all the presents come in and get put under the tree). He then took his new snow boots and gloves outside to play in the snow with Grandma. They were unsuccessful in building a snowman because Utah snow is so incredibly dry. They couldn't even get a decent snowball to stick together. Oh well, they still had a fun time in the white stuff.
Davin has learned to really get where he wants to go in the walker now and can almost reach the tree. Luckily there are lots of presents to stop his progress. I just thought this picture was so funny of him reaching backwards trying to touch the tree and maybe grab an ornament.
We were grateful that Ian's parents had made it in time since we were counting on them to be our babysitters while we went to Ian's company Christmas party. About 2 hours before the party, Weston was whining and not feeling good and saying his tummy hurt. Sure enough he threw up. Poor kid was not a happy camper. We decided to go to the party anyway. Grandparents are saints who are willing to deal with toddler throw up when it's not even their kid. Weston threw up once more all over Grandma and himself before bed. After that he seemed to be fine, just not a big eater.

Anyway, Ian and I had fun dressing up and going on a date. Verite's party was at a really nice restaurant called Spencer's. It's a steakhouse and the food was amazing. I was already almost full after the appetizers. Then I also had fillet mignon (?), delicious garlic mashed potatoes, asparagus, Alaskan king crab legs, spinach salad, and chocolate cake with Haagan daaz ice cream. Wow. Best meal I've eaten in a long time. Here we are acting all grown up.
Sunday morning Ian's parents and grandma went to Music and the Spoken Word then we all went to our ward. I sang with the choir, so didn't see much of Weston, but he looked so cute getting ready in his big boy church clothes. He LOVES to wear his tie. He says he's "stylin'".
After Sunday dinner we all bundled up in the 10 degree weather and went to look at the lights at Temple Square. It is always beautiful and this year was no exception. We didn't last long in the cold with 2 little ones, but it was still lots of fun. You can't see the nativity in this picture, but you can see the lights and huge tree in the background.
Weston had fun playing with his Papa. They built block robots. Weston just looks so pleased with himself.
Grandma brought fun Christmas books. We particularly enjoy the Olivia books, so here is Grandma reading Olivia Saves Christmas with Weston.
Davin was pretty tuckered out by Monday night when we were going to do our Christmas celebration, so Ian lucked out with a rare cuddle moment.
Davin really enjoyed banging on the presents and tearing the paper in tiny shreds. Luckily he hasn't really figured out that he can put stuff in his mouth if he takes out his binki, so he didn't eat the paper as long as it was in. He got this fun lights and sounds ball from his grandparents. He loves it. The boys got quite a taste for presents and Weston is very excited for Christmas day.
Davin also got lots of fun new warm clothes. I had to get a couple pics of him in this new little overalls outfit I put him today. They are both such sweet boys. I am a lucky mommy.

We are so glad that the weather cooperated (sort of) and we got to spend some time with family before Christmas. It was such a fun time. It's officially the home stretch and I am baking, but mostly ready for Christmas. I'm looking forward to a nice, simple Christmas at home with my family. I hope everyone enjoys these next few days of food, fun, family and most of all the spirit of Christmas!

Bad Hair Day . . .

You would think that having all boys in my house would prevent bad hair days, but you should have seen my kids yesterday afternoon. Eek. We spent all morning playing and then they both crashed for naps. This is right after they woke up. Davin has crazy rubbed fuzzy hair all on the side facing the camera and Weston woke up with major faux hawk going on. We even went out later in the evening and I DIDN'T comb their hair! Why? First, I'm lazy. Second, it is absolutely freezing, so I figured they could both wear hats. This worked fine for Weston, but Davin refused to leave his hat on his head. Stinker.
In case you are not currently living in Utah, you should know that it has been snowing and COLD all week. I mean, really cold, like this Saturday the forecast says a HIGH of 19 degrees. That's really chilly. Since this will probably be my first white Christmas, I promised my sister that I would take a picture from the outside of my house. We actually put up some lights for the first time and our Christmas tree is in our front window. You can also see the awesome wreath I made a few years ago and love. You can't so much see the massive icicles we have all along the front of the house, but they are very cool looking.
Today I asked Weston what he wanted to do and he said "go play at the dinosaur playground!" So we decided to brave the mall. It actually wasn't that bad. I did get suckered into waiting 3o minutes to see Santa (again) by my 2 year old. He was a much better Santa and had a cuter background, but it was at the "snobby" mall so you couldn't take your own pictures. No way was I going to pay $20 for 5 pictures of my kids. Lame. Weston just sat on his lap and chatted for a minute, got his candy cane and book and was happy as a clam. Here is a picture of Weston in part of the line.
So, all in all a good day. After our mall adventures where (Ian will be proud) I passed up a shoe sale of 2 pairs for $12, we went and had lunch with Ian. He is working late late hours this whole week, but next week he only has to go to work on Tuesday, then he's off until January 5th! Yay! Two whole weeks to play and have daddy home. It should be nice.

Merry Elf Christmas!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

I thought I would jump on the bandwagon of elfing ourselves. Weston wanted to see himself. He giggled and said, I'm so silly. Enjoy!

Re: Girls Night

Last week I went to Girls Night at my friend, Tara's house. It was so much fun. Good food, good friends, good conversation, fun times. I stayed out entirely too late, but it was completely worth it. Everyone probably thought I sit around and watch TV all the day long, but I really don't EVER watch TV during the day. I do, however, watch favorite shows most nights with Ian after the boys go to bed. Point is, I referenced a few favorite shows and clips that night. I wanted to share them with everyone so you can all have a good laugh, even if you missed Girls Night.

First off, Twilight was a part of our philosophical discussion. Here are 2 of my favorite "mockings" of the movie.
This is a spoof of the movie trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dompotjTeIA

This is an article/editorial from a favorite writer of mine, Eric D. Snider. He is a BYU grad who now lives in Portland and writes extremely funny commentaries on random subjects. Check out his "Snide Remarks" column about Twilight:
http://www.ericdsnider.com/snide/my-rejected-twilight-screenplay/

Secondly, I brought up a few TV shows that I think are hilarious. If you are interested in a little teaser, here is a clip from "How I Met Your Mother":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRuahfVLa5A
Seeing as how I am LOVING Neil Patrick Harris right now. This is my other favorite thing. This was made during the writers strike last year and it is awesome. Behold, "Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog" (and yes, I have the soundtrack on my itunes, run time, 43 min.):
http://www.hulu.com/watch/28343/dr-horribles-sing-along-blog
Finally, another very funny show that I love, "Big Bang Theory":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGT71Zv2tGU
If you had time to read this blog and watch all the links, I am very impressed. I have to admit it took me an hour to write this post because I had to rewatch all the clips and get my humor for the day out of them. Next Girls Night I will be bringing the laptop so we can watch these all together since that's even more fun.

Happy Days

Just so everyone knows, Davin has taken 2 full on hour and a half-2 hour naps for the past 3 days straight. He's a new baby and I'm a new mommy. All because I finally sucked it up and bought a noise machine for his room. I keep it set on "rain" and he sleeps like a champ. Why, oh why did I wait so long for this???