Bowles Family

pregnant ellie

Sometimes when Ellie is leaning on me or cuddling, the baby kicks her.  One time I pointed it out to her and she looked a little disturbed.  I asked her if she wanted to put her arm there again and feel the baby kick and she made a face and said no.  She has gotten over it now.  All the kids try to get the baby to kick (well maybe Evan doesn't) and when it doesn't I tell them the baby is sleeping.  Evelyn still likes to talk about when she is a momma.  Ellie will join in sometimes and talk about the baby in her tummy.  The funniest thing she has said is that the baby in her tummy is throwing up.  I don't know where she comes up with this stuff, but she is pretty funny!

pete was right

On June 30th of last year, Ben flew home from Texas to move us.  When our ward and some family members were helping us pack up the moving van, I had the following conversation with my brother in law, Peter or Pete.  It may not be exact, but it went something like this:

Pete:  So when is the next baby coming?

Me: I don't know.  I've actually been baby hungry since October.  I'd love to have another baby, but you do know my husband has been out of town for the last four weeks, so...

Pete:  True, but he has been home for what (looks at watch and grins slyly), 4 hours now?

Me:  (trying to look unembarrassed, since I didn't know some of the men listening in all that well and trying to look innocent, with eyes wide)  Hmmm...that's true. (nodding slowly)
Well, Pete was right!  If you calculate the due date correctly, with a 32 day cycle that I was on, the estimated date of conception was June 30th.  The baby, with unknown gender, is due on March 23rd (about 8 weeks away).  Surprise!

after surgery

Another post I found unpublished from June.

After my surgery, I felt O.K. and probably did too much because the drugs hadn't warn off.  The weird part was my legs and knees were throbbing.  I wasn't expecting that.  Anyhow, Ben told me to go to bed while he got the kids.  I couldn't.  I just needed to see them.  They were all asleep, except Ellie, by the time he got home.  He had told them I would be asleep and they would have to wait to see me til the next day.  When he walked in with Ellie she gasped and said, "Ewe wake mom!  Ewe not sleeping!"  She came and sat by me and said, "I yove ewe mom (I love you mom)!  Ewe yuk butful (you look beautiful)!", while she held my cheeks so softly.  It melted my heart!

The doctor's orders said I had to be on bed rest for 3-5 days and nothing strenuous till after the follow-up appointment.  I have to admit, I felt pretty grateful Ben was laid off that week.  He was absolutely insistent that I stayed in bed.  People volunteered to bring us yummy meals.  In between, Ben cooked whatever I requested.  He woulds send up the kids with water bottle refills or any other misc requests.  I had his laptop and spent too much time making wish lists after researching products.  He left facebook open downstairs, so I could instant message him my requests and remind him to do things.  Seriously, Ben was amazing!  I have never been so pampered before in my life!  I wasn't even in much pain, my body was just tired, a little sore, and flushing stuff.  My kidney had been plugged up for six weeks!  Before the surgery I was constantly exhausted!  I couldn't get enough sleep.  I was told this was because my kidney wasn't flushing properly.  I got plenty of rest which greatly increased my recovery to feeling good.  A week after the surgery, I was amazed how much energy I had and how cheerful I felt! 

I am so grateful to Ben and all the people who brought meals!  I am also grateful to my mom for watching the kids while I had surgery, helping me put kids to bed while Ben was at school, and going with me to the doctor to have the stint (that was going from my kidney to my bladder, to prevent the ureter from collapsing) removed.  I was really scared for that part, but it wasn't too bad! Terrible picture!  Evelyn insisted on documenting the occasion,

and making sure she got all the really important stuff,  like feet and shells!

anesthesia

I found this post that I never published from back in June, so I am publishing it now.

In the past when I have had surgery, the doctor has talked to me as I go under the anesthesia.  I wake up remembering that they were saying something, but I have no clue what.  I also go under fast, like before I can finish scooting over to the surgery table.  When I had my surgery in April, the doctor asked me a question as they medicated me.  I remember starting to answer as I went under.  I woke up and thought maybe I dreamed all of the things I remembered saying, or that maybe I had logged what I thought to say but couldn't and my brain clung to those things.  I felt like I had been thinking about the subject for a long time.  I was determined not to forget, so I kept running it over as over in my head until I woke up all the way.  At the first chance, I asked the nurse if I had talked in my sleep.  She replied no.  I asked if I talked about my kids.  She said no, but the doctor had asked me as I was going under what my kids names were.  She told me I had said "Evelyn, but we call her Evies or Eves.  Ethan.  Eleanor, but we call her Ellie, and Evan."  They must have made a comment about all the E's, because I explained about the situation that we had the two girl names and than Ethan was the only boy name we could agree on, so we knew we'd have to stick with E's.  I remember mentioning that I wanted at least one more baby, a girl, to name Edith.  I told them my husband doesn't like Edith.  He likes Elise or Elaine.  It was so important to me that I talked about Edith.  She repeated all this to me with Ben there.  As I was sitting there, I felt like for some reason that should mean something to him, prove to him that we should have a girl named Edith because I went to all the effort of saying that even though my body felt like it should go unconscious.  It didn't.  He still hates the name.  Why am I writing all this?  I'm not sure.  I think because I really felt something that day and I don't want to forget or the drugs made me think I felt something that day.  I guess that is what I get for procrastinating writing down the details.  I guess we'll see what happens!

olivia

I bought this book for Evelyn about 3-4 years ago.  Evelyn never related with it and she rarely read it.  I didn't really relate with the little girl in it either.  When my mom was in town, we got a bookshelf for the kid's books and finally unpacked them.  Ellie found this book and asked grandma to read it to her.  My mom kept saying, "Hmm this reminds me of someone.  Who could it be?", as she read the book.  It is seriously Ellie!  It makes me laugh when I read it now because I feel like someone knew Ellie and then wrote a book about her!

jeep

Earlier in the fall, we were garage sale shopping for several things we needed.  We came upon a garage sale that had a kids jeep.  Ethan was so excited.  He said, "I always wanted a jeef!"  Ben and I laughed at that one a lot.  He's been in the motorized jeeps before, but never been able to drive.  The weather was great last Saturday, so we took the kids out front to skate and ride bikes.  The little girl next door had a princess car and she let the kids have turns.  Evelyn drove pretty well. Ethan was not such a great driver.  He kept staring down at the steering wheel and not looking where he was going.  Look at Evan holding on with an anxious face!  We stuck him in the car because it kept him from running away constantly.  Ethan ran over my foot and crashed into Ben's car.  After driving it for a few minutes, he was done because it intimidated him.      I just realized this looks like a repeat from Christmas.  Evan is in his jammies and Ethan is wearing the same sweater.  We have been keeping Evan in jammies all day to prevent him from taking off his diaper.  Well, check driving a jeef off Ethan's wish list!

evelyn's hair

Evelyn had no hair when she was born.  When Ethan was born he had more hair than her and she was 17 months old.  When Evelyn finally got hair, it was thin and scraggly.  Right as it was starting to thicken up, she cut it off.  It actually turned out pretty cute, after I fixed it, and I had been thinking about cutting it short anyway.  For a long time, she asked if I would shave it like Ethan's.  No.  No.  Finally, she quit cutting little pieces here and there and I was getting excited that I wouldn't keep having to look at that one little piece that was bugging me.  A few months ago, I started noticing that she had a short piece of hair up front.  I asked about it and she swore she never cut it.  It turns out that she chewed it off and it keeps getting shorter.  Also, a few months ago, I found a handful of hair in her room.  She had been pulling hair out when she was bored.  I started finding little balls of hair here and there.  I started noticing when I blow dry her hair on Sundays, that the front part of her hair around her face is getting thinner and thinner.  So, not only is she pulling out her hair but she's doing it all in the same area.  The hair around her face has gotten pretty sparse.  Maybe I am the only one who notices it, but it is very thin.  It really upsets me.  It makes me feel anxious and my stomach churns.  She could care less.  She's not doing it to upset anyone, just for something to do before she falls asleep.  She has started asking to grow her hair out and be able to have pony tails, pig tails, braids and more.  I keep telling her she has to stop pulling her hair first.  In fact it is so bad, I'm going to have to cut it as short as I can with out changing the style.  I know it bothers me because I can't control it, but it's kind of a hair dressers worst nightmare to get a kid who doesn't have any respect for hair.  Oh well!  I guess the laugh is on me!

fairy tales

Ben bought a book of fairy tales, which was filled with stories about fairies, for the kids when we were living in AZ.  He would sit in bed and read the stories to the kids.  They loved it!  Well, we finally unpacked our books last month and the fairy book was missing.  We looked everywhere and couldn't find it. 
So, last month Ben spent part of a gift at Amazon and bought this book of fairy tales for the kids.  It's not so much about fairies, like the other book, but more the kind of fairy tales you would expect it to be about.  The stories are way better.  It was so cute to see how excited he was to show the book to the kids.  Now any night that he is home, he reads a story to the kids.  I sit and listen too.  I couldn't with the other book, boring.  Anyhow, the kids look forward to the nights that Ben is home to read to them.  I do too.  I love letting Ben take the lead, but mostly I am glad that they will have these memories to look back on!  I love these quiet, hmmm maybe relaxed is a better word, nights sitting together as a family.  I don't mind that we don't go anywhere.  I just love being all together!  Everything feels right when we are all home together.  I wish Ben had more nights home with us.  I think we have learned how to treasure them now.  Maybe before we took it for granted and went about our nightly grind to get the kids in bed, but now we know what a gift it is to be together and it has special meaning and feeling.  We have learned to take time to just be together.

Oh!  We found the 'other' fairy book last week when we finally unpacked a few boxes that had random stuff thrown in them (one of those last minute, just put in here for now, type boxes that we have stuck in the guest room and avoided unpacking).

28

Well, it's official.  I am 28!  It's kinda of weird to me. I know I'm not 20, but I don't feel old enough to be 28.  Friday, we went on the first date we've been on since August.  We definitely miss our old babysitting co-op.  I was able to trade haircuts for babysitting-score!  It was so nice to get out and relax.  We spent most of our date wandering around Target, trying to decided what to use a gift card on and that was surprisingly very fun.  Ben also surprised me with a book I've been wanting to read and it's rare that he is able to surprise me (I usually know).  Anyhow, Saturday was the day before my birthday.  I told Ben I just wanted to sleep in, have breakfast in bed, and have my house be really clean.  So, Ben did a lot of deep cleaning on Saturday and we got the house all ready.  There is nothing better than waking up Sunday morning after all the Saturday chores have been done and everything is sparkling clean.  Also, on Saturday Ben found a wet package on the door step (it was raining). 
He opened it and pulled out this cook book I have been wanting, luckily not wet.  I was so excited!  It was from my sister, Sarah.  She remembered me mentioning that I wanted to go see the Pioneer Woman when she was in town for her book signing, but I didn't want to go with 4 kids and I didn't have the book.  It's such a silly thing, but it almost made me cry.  Saturday night I was up all night with stomach pains, yuck! 
Sunday, Ben let me sleep in and made me crepes for breakfast.  My stomach wasn't hurting as much, luckily.  After that, I fell back to sleep and missed church.  Evan stayed home with me.  It is near impossible to take all four kids to church by yourself.  Evan requires an adult of his own.  I put him down for a nap and went back to bed.  I got to talk to my parents and grandparents on the web cam and Julia called too!
We had a yummy dinner and Ben made me my favorite cake, rainbow chip.       I love that Ben is using a gigantic match used for grilling and that Evan's face is looking typical after eating.  We were going to go to a fireside that actually had childcare, but I wasn't up for it and Ben had home teaching. 
Instead we had family night on the bed (Ben works Monday nights), reviewing the proper way to take the sacrament... again.  I thought it was a lovely day and I guess now I am 28!

sauron

Last night Ben was getting some fried rice from the pan and he spilled some.  I raised my eyebrows at him like, 'Yep, I saw that.  Feel free to clean it up.'  Have I mentioned I'm obsessed with having a clean house?  It's a full-time job with four kids and it doesn't always happen, but when it does I feel SO happy.  I know it might be a bit of a sickness, but "cleanliness is next to  godliness", right?  Anyhow, I may nag everyone just a little bit...too much...a lot...incessantly.  Ben said, "Alright Sauron."  I said, "What?"      He said, "Sauron.  You are Sauron.  You have an all seeing eye."  I laughed so hard!  It's true.