Bowles Family

did it

I updated all the events of 2009 that I can remember or have pictures of.  I don't know that anyone will take the time to read it all, but I am feeling good about it!  Now, on to my much neglected recipe blog . . .

christmas day

After I got my camera back, I got back my Christmas Spirit and I couldn't sleep because I was so excited! We woke up to this.     In all her excitement, Evelyn ran right up next to the bike and didn't even see it.  She stood with her back to it and we had to say, "What's that behind you?". This was the other view.  We were seriously so blessed by the generosity of others!  The castle, pirate ship, and car roads rug were all courtesy of our Home Teacher and the boys (Ben included) can't get enough of them! Candy was the first order of the day. Ring pop! Playing in the mess. Ethan's all geared up ready to try his skates in the kitchen. Ellie's ready! Ellie using a toy to climb on Evelyn's bike. Her little legs were just too short.  At this point my adrenaline wore off and I was exhausted, so I went to bed. Ben took Evelyn for her first ride while I slept.  I was too tired to be disappointed that I missed it.

Ben took like 5 pictures of Ethan and he smiled with his eyes closed in all of them. This is the start of the fall. This is Ev being a sweet older sister and helping her up. Once again, Evan trying to escape.      Ev rounding him up.  At this point, the Bowles called.  They wanted to talk to us on Skype.  Ben's mom got a computer hooked up to her big screen TV for Christmas.  It was like we were in the living room with them.  It was bit of a shock when Ben woke me up to tell me his family would be there in our bedroom in like 2 seconds.  We had a nice conversation with the family. Well, I thought it was nice.  Dad fell asleep!  In case you didn't know, he has sleep apnea and can't help it!  We also got to talk to my family and Becki, in Belize.  It was a nice relaxing day.  I loved every minute of it!  Ben did have to work that day, but originally he was scheduled to work 7am to 5pm, so 3pm to 11pm sounded really good to us!

christmas eve

I really procrastinated making and giving out treats this year.  I made quite a bit more than last year, but the decorations were really toned down.  I forgot to take a pictures, but the goodies were done just in time for the Kurachi Christmas Eve celebration.  We went over to Uncle George and Aunt Barbara's around lunch time.  Ben had to work at Toys R Us that morning and the lime plant that night, but he managed to make it over for some good eats and then leave.  The wind was blowing like crazy that day.  I got there at the same time as Uncle George got back from picking up Pa.  The wind looked like it would take Pa down.  It kept blowing Evan so hard that he couldn't get to the front door.  He was forced to walk a different direction. This was the first time the kids got to meet Pa, my grandpa/their great grandpa.  Look at their faces.  They are like 'Huh, why are we doing this?'.  We had lots of fun.  The Kurachi's were so sweet and got the kids little gifts and treats.  It reminded me a lot of what Ben's mom does for stockings.  My cousin, Kimberly, reads my blog and knew this would be our first year without our orange tree, so she added oranges in the goodie bag.  So sweet!

Luckily Christmas Eve fell on Ben's one early night off, so I kept the kids up to see Daddy before going to bed.  I realized I left my camera at the Kurachi's and got grumpy.  At first I wanted to cry and throw a fit, but I didn't.  Instead I just couldn't care about anything.  I felt like Christmas was ruined and all I wanted to do was go to bed and skip it.  I know, bad attitude.  After the kids were in bed, Ben offered to go get my camera because he "knew what I would be like if he didn't."  Hee hee!

Anyway here are the pictures of the kids in the their pj's that Grandma Frei got them. The kids were happy!  I was not because I knew the pictures would be all grainy since they were taken on the video camera, not that my camera is professional quality or anything. They are so dang cute! Typical Evan! The only way to keep him in the group.    All season long, when the kids would talk about Santa, I would quiz them on the true meaning of Christmas.  We watched some church movies about the birth of Christ.  Someone told me that in nursery they asked what Christmas was about and Ellie shouted, "Jesus' birthday.".  So after talking about it again, we read Twas the Night Before Christmas. This is what Evan did instead. This is what Ben rigged up to keep the kids from opening up the presents without us.  The left is the boys room and the right is the girls.  The other door is just a closet.

hide n seek

Since we have moved into the house, we have really enjoyed playing hide n seek with the kids.  Ben will shove them in the linen closet, on the top shelf, in between blankets and try to see if their siblings can find them.  It's so much fun to have more spots to hide.  We also have enjoyed playing tag.
The other day, I found Evan hiding.  Funny kid!

cinnamon ornaments

I was thinking about ornaments that I remember making as a kid this December.  I know my mom still has at least one of them that has survived all these years.  I came across a recipe on a blog and decided we were making them this year.  They are made with cinnamon, applesauce and glue.  We made them one Sunday. Evan was determined to press out his own.  He did a pretty good job with minimal help.  Both Evan and Ellie really wanted to taste the dough, so Ben let them.  Evan ate a few pieces.  Ellie ate it until the cinnamon started to burn her tongue. Ellie decided more glue was in order. Evelyn working intently.  She made them at school the week before. Ethan was waiting for me to finish rolling his dough out.  I think we will do it again next year.  It made the house smell so good!  Another fun thing we did was let the kids color cards to all their cousins.  They were super excited to mail them so their cousins would have them for the family Christmas Parties!

Right after Thanksgiving, we were out running errands one night and the kids were so excited about the Christmas lights.  They kept ohhh and ahhhing.  Evelyn calls out, "Look there's Jesus, Mary . . . and that other guy!".  I guess we need to review who Joseph is!

nice mom

Ellie has started really fighting bed time.  She will come up with a new excuse to get out of bed and when it quits working, she will invent a new one.  Well, recently she has come up dry, so she had started trying to say 10 excuses at once.  She'll claim Evelyn is being mean to her while Evelyn is sleeping.  Her newest thing is to cry like there is no tomorrow and say 'Why aren't you being a nice mom?  I want you to be nice mom.'  I'll admit that I've been known to yell here and there.  It is not frequent, but it has happened.  Even if I'm not yelling and haven't in a long time, she'll cry and say, 'Don't yell at me mom!'   If I say no to any of the other kids or use a firm voice, she will say in the most innocent voice, 'Why are you talking like that to my brother/sister?  I don't like that.'  She has called me out a few times and was right.  I was out of line and she knows it, so now she thinks she can say it whenever it suits her.  The other night, I had the bishop and his wife over to do haircuts and Ellie came out.  I told her kindly, but firmly, to go back to bed and she started crying and said, "Why are you not being a nice mom?  Don't yell at me!"  She sounded so pitiful and I just stood there embarrassed.  Nice!  I have a drama queen!  The worst part is, I know I was just like that and now I know how exhausting it can be!  She is mini me come to haunt me and make me pay for my wrong doing!  You would think I would know how to handle this, since I invented it, but unfortunately she's got me beat!

This happened yesterday.  Ben called out to Ellie, but she knew it was nap time.     He looked in the play room. No Ellie. He kept searching the house. Finally, he looked closer. OK, you found me!

elgin

After our tire busted, we realized we had to do more repairs on the van.  The kids spent over 7 hours, broken up into four different trips to mechanics in the course of one week.  Lets just say they were REALLY tired of it and would beg to go home.  While I was sitting in a shop one day, I saw a local free magazine sitting on a coffee table.  As I was thumbing through it, I saw an article about Elgin's Christmas Tree Farm.  Since we were planning to find a tree that night, I went home and looked up the prices online and they were better than the lots around town.  So we loaded up the kids and took the 45 minute drive to Elgin. There was a rooster in the parking lot.       I love the sign warning you about Jenny the Donkey! 
They took us on a tractor/hayride out to the field of trees.  Just our good luck, they were trying to clear out the last of a lot so the trees were all marked down!     It was really cold! Ellie's hood makes me smile. This is the tree we picked because it would fit in the trunk of our van! Ethan helping dad cut the tree, everyone got a turn.  Ethan, Ellie, and I on the ride back.    My pretty Evelyn.  There was lots of other fun stuff to do, but we were so cold that we just went home! Tree decorating.

ikea

We went to Ikea for cheap wrapping paper and ornaments (ours finally bit the dust last year).  The kids LOVE Ikea.  They say it is their favorite store ever.  Evelyn and Ethan go to the kids play place, while Ellie and Evan stay with us.  Even if we get nothing while we are there, the kids act like we just took them to Disneyland.      I love that I can let my kids climb all over things in a way I would NEVER do anywhere else. Cats. Cats falling!

 

We went in September with my mom and I wish I had taken a picture of Evan lying on the cart, half asleep while Ben spun it in circles.

sleeping beauty

I went in to wake up Ellie, so we could go pick up Evie from school, one afternoon. She had helped herself into Evie's bed.       I love that she is sleeping with a mask on!

Funny story:  We were out delivering our goodie boxes and it was late.  I told the kids we were going home and going straight to bed.  Ethan asked, "What about story time, scriptures, prayers, and brush teeth?"  I said, "We are skipping story time and scriptures."  Ethan said, "What happens when you skip scriptures?"  I said, "Uhhhh...", as I was thinking of an appropriate response.  Ellie cut in with, "You get LIGHTNINGED!"  I don't know where she comes up with this stuff, but she is hilarious!

One more:  We had been playing in a play area and Ellie had told a little boy he couldn't come play by them.  I told her to say sorry and that it was not nice.  As we were driving home the kids were talking about someone.  Evie or Ethan said, "He's a bad person."  I said, "We don't call people bad.  He made a bad choice."  Ellie said, "I a bad people.  I talk mean to that boy!".  She cracks me up!

family pictures 2009

On the same day as we got the coats, we had scheduled our family pictures.  My cousin, Kelli, is in photography school.  She agreed to take our pictures in return for hair cuts! Nice!  The first issue was outfits.  I got really creative.  Ben wore his formal outfit from the cruise.  I wore a dress I had.  I recycled the girls Christmas dresses from last year.  I had store credit from a year ago to Crazy8 and used that to get the boys suits.  They needed new church clothes anyway.  It worked out perfect!  The next issue was I had been crying and my face was swollen!  The other really big issue was it was freezing outside.  We literally got out of the car for maybe 15 minutes, took some pictures and went home.  I was hoping we would get one good one, but we got several that I like.

 

You can see how cold Evelyn is here.  Evan's hat is funny! I've decided I don't look so hot with a headband. We'll have to try again when the weather is warmer for the kid's individual pictures!