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???

Sleeping Beauty

For the past 2 months I have been doing a tiny bit of child care in my "spare" time. I never ever wanted to watch other peoples' kids, but my neighbor needed someone to watch her newborn just one day a week and I thought the extra cash would be nice, so Thursdays are our day with Baby Heaton. Weston is always really good when we have an extra little man around and is helpful with binky retrieval and entertainment. Davin, on the other hand, is not a fan of having another needy baby around.

The point is that on Thursdays I just have to plan on getting nothing done and just taking care of kids. It's funny though because every week I seem to manage to get all three kids sleeping at once. It only lasts 10-30 minutes, but I always am in awe that it even happens.

Davin is not a good napper and doesn't usually sleep during the day for longer than an hour. It is SO infuriating. Weston is a superb napper. As an infant I actually worried about him because at 9 months he was still sleeping 16-18 hours a day. He is almost 3 years old and still takes a daily 2 hour nap. Sometimes that is more than Davin gets!

We all need sleep. Some of us more than others. I fall into the "more than others" category. In my pre-kids days I would get cranky if I went more than one night in a row without getting my 9-10 hours. Now I generally get 7-8 and I am always tired. The other thing is that I HATE waking up in the night. It is so annoying, especially if there is no screaming baby to blame.

I had a bad night last night. I went to bed late (for me) at almost 11pm. I then proceeded to wake up 5 different times (only once with Davin) before my alarm went off at 6:30am. I think it's funny how worked up people get about sleep. It is such a big deal. I am a horrible, mean person in the middle of the night. I snap and grumble and blame and sometimes cry because all I want is sleep and I know I'm not going to get it and I'm going to be tired for the rest of my life.

Sigh. I know I'm not the only one who gets this way. My friend told me her agreement with her hubby. There were weeks of getting in fights in the middle of the night about who would get up with the baby and saying not nice things to each other. In the light of day the words didn't mean much and the anger went away, but the sting kind of remained. So they decided "what happens in the middle of the night, stays in the middle of the night."

I really like this motto. I always feel so disgusting and guilty when I wake up after a night where I've ranted under my breath and snapped at Ian because I wasn't sleeping and he can sleep through a train wreck. I never would say crap like that in a normal awake state of mind. Anyway, what do you do to cope with lack of sleep with your family? In the end, the only real solution is to get more sleep, right? I'll work on that.

Not So Lazy Days

Exciting news: this little beauty came in the mail for me last week. Even though I had a fabulous time at my swim meet last month I was pretty sure I had come in at the bottom of my age group in my races. However, according to this fancy schmancy red ribbon, my 1:32.8 time in the 100 back earned me 2nd place among the women age 25-29 who competed in the race. Impressive, right? OK, maybe not, but I was pretty excited.














In other fun happenings at the Bowles household . . . we went and visited with Santa last week. Weston was very excited. We went nice and early to the mall and it was totally worth it. There was no one waiting, so we went right up and Weston got to stare at and sort of chat with Santa. The Santa was kind of creepy, to be honest. His beard was real, which was cool, but he had a badly made fake eye, so one eye was staring off in the opposite direction. Not his fault, of course, but still a little odd for Santa. Luckily I am married to a design genius who photoshopped the pictures for me. They look much more charming now.
Davin was not a huge fan of Santa. I apologize that I didn't get one of just him with Santa. He started crying as soon as I put him on Santa's lap with this look that said "Mom, who the heck is this crazy man with all the white hair and why do I have to sit with him?" He, of course, turned to check out all that white hair right when I took the picture. Oh well. Perhaps next year he will be more cooperative. Weston loved sitting with Santa and told him that he wanted the monster movie (Monsters Inc., check) and a Spiderman camera (real camera, check).
Santa gave Weston a little coloring book about "How I Can Give." It was semi cute and semi lame. He did color the whole thing though while we ate lunch at Carl's Jr. later that day. See's Candy was RIGHT behind Santa, so we detoured there. I got a half pound of chocolates for Ian and I to share while we decorated the Christmas tree and for Christmas Eve.

Here is Weston posing in front of the ginormous fireplace with his new book. Doesn't he look so excited? Christmas should be fun this year.
After playing at the mall for awhile longer and Weston getting kind of sad that he didn't get to see Santa again on our way out (there was a line by then) we headed out to lunch. Sometimes I totally regret going out to lunch with the kids. Carl's Jr. doesn't even have a playplace, but I really wanted a western bacon cheeseburger, so I prepped Weston for the fact that it didn't have a playplace and made him pinkie promise to eat his food. We had such a nice time. Davin was happy and babbling, Weston ate his food and colored his book and I got my fix too. It was a nice day. Check out all this almost 9 month old cuteness!
On Friday night the plan was to go pick out our Christmas tree. We decided to forgo the actual lot since it has gotten so expensive (about $10/foot) and went to Smith's Marketplace instead. We had to drive separately since Ian was bringing our neighbor's truck to transport our tree home. I left earlier with the boys to pick up milk and a birthday present for Weston's friend, Makenzie. It was kind of a madhouse. Finally we went and met up with Ian and picked the first tree we looked at, so I think we were all together for about 5 minutes.

Ian stayed and paid for the tree (and my copy of White Christmas) while I took the EXTREMELY tired boys home to get them to bed. I let Weston stay up until we got the tree up in the stand. It was kind of an ordeal because our tree had a really thick stem and didn't fit in our basic tree stand. Ian ended up running to Walmart at 10pm to get a new stand. The new one is lots better and the tree isn't going to fall over if Weston pushes it.

We ended up staying up until almost midnight to get it up and get lights on it. Ian is my hero and made a box for our tree to sit on. Yay. Saturday morning (after I slept in until 9, thanks hon!) we decorated the tree. Weston LOVED putting ornaments on it. He kept wanting to put them all in the same spot. It was funny. We had a nice time getting it put together. Here is the final product.
Apparently I was incapable of taking a clear picture earlier today, so here is a blurry one of the boys in front of the tree this morning, and yes, that is snow outside. It started snowing around 9:30am and is still going. We haven't had much snow this winter, so it's not depressing . . . yet.

Dinner Party Frock GIVEAWAY!!!!

Dinner Party Frock GIVEAWAY!!!!

This is such a cute dress and even though I don't have any little girls, I might someday have one. I also have 3 nieces and several friends with adorable girls. :)

Success!

Just so y'all know, I finally found the Playskool Tonka Bounce Back Racer that I wanted to get for Weston for Christmas in stock on Walmart.com this afternoon. Hallelujah! I am done shopping for everyone! I still have to buy lots of baking supplies, but still, mostly done. Want to have a wrapping party, anyone?

Crafty Schmafty

Today was a significantly better day than my last post. I woke up with major back pain from wrapping presents for over an hour last night, but after my shower it eased up. I decided to get started on personalizing our dollar store stockings today. I felt a little nervous about it. I am not particularly crafty. I went to Joanne's and bought felt and some decor. I was trying to do something similar to our stockings at home growing up.

It actually wasn't as tedious and difficult as I had imagined it would be to draw and cut out all the letters. I really had fun doing it. I was trying to decide what else I wanted to do to decorate the stockings. At home, years ago, my Grandpa Snowball, who was an incredibly talented artist, cut out all kinds of cute things to put on our stockings (snowmen, stacks of presents, Christmas lights, etc.). I knew I couldn't even attempt that, so I decided to go with holly. I had bought a few pre-made things at Joanne's, but I did the holly myself. I am very happy with the end result. I think they look very festive and they remind me of home.

I hung them above the fireplace that we made last weekend. Ian and I were discussing where to hang stockings this year (we have never been home for Christmas day and therefore had never hung stockings before) and we decided that it would be fun to create our own little fireplace. Weston mostly just helped tearing paper to make the fire. I think it looks very cozy.
Later this afternoon Weston had a little meltdown when I threw away all the shreds of his latest drawing because they were making a huge mess. I told him he can't tear paper into that small of pieces. He was very sad. This is that exact minute.

Davin-happy as a clam because he had just woken up from a nap.
Weston-my almost 3 year old throwing a little tantrum. Doesn't he look fun? I get this look more often than I should. Ugh.
It was fun to make the stockings and I am very excited to do Christmas at our home and establish our own traditions. I hope that everything comes together and that it can be a memorable 1st official Bowles Christmas. We have some other fun Christmas activities coming up, so stay tuned for Weston's first visit with Santa and the Christmas tree!

I Struggle

Sometimes I am such a loser. I did a lot of shopping yesterday while hauling around my 2 little ones. It was not the best experience. The kids were really good, but the stores were frustrating and it took forever and I didn't even find everything I was looking for. Blah. Anyway, at the end of our LONG shopping outing (Bath and Body Works, Payless, Kohls, Chick-Fil-A, Target) I get all our stuff loaded in the car, get the kids strapped in and go to open my door only to realize I have once again locked my keys in the car with the kids. Ugh. I could talk to Weston through the door, but he couldn't figure out how to unbuckle his carseat.

Oh, I forgot to mention that I had forgotten my phone on this outing. Great. So I had to explain that I was a loser to a stranger so I could borrow a phone. Long story short, the boys were fine in the car until the last few minutes before Ian showed up to rescue us. By the time we got the door open they were both crying. They calmed down pretty quick and we made it home. Finally. Weston didn't get down for his nap until 3:15pm.

I ended up having to go back to Kohl's after the kids were in bed since the ONE item we purchased there broke by the end of the night.

The good news is that I am SO close to being done with my Christmas shopping. I have one more thing I am trying to track down for Weston. I might not be able to find it anywhere though before the big day, so I may have to settle for a different gift. Oh well.

My friend introduced my to this awesome blog that sells these lettering signs. They aren't your standard signs. They are very artsy and fun. They are having a giveaway this week, so if you want to win check it out HERE.

I am still working on decorating the house. I just can't seem to muster up the energy and motivation to dust and really do it. Plus, for some reason Davin has been really fussy lately and I can't put him down or leave the room without him freaking out. I'm kind of in a funk right now. I'm hoping listening to some Christmas music and a few chocolate kisses will pull me out of it.

Happy Turkey Day!

This Thanksgiving marked a special occasion--I made my first pie. Ever. I know, you all think I'm such a domestic goddess and yet I've never even made a pie. Well, now I have and you can hang onto your assumptions about my amazingness. Anyway, I was actually really nervous about making pie. Luckily, my sister in law was staying with us and she is a Family Consumer Science (aka Home Ec) major, so she supervised and gave me tips, but I really did do the whole thing myself. It turned out great! It looked fairly pretty and tasted fabulous. I was very proud of myself. Here I am in all my domestic glory.
I also made a green bean casserole for the first time. It was also very tasty. So, I spent all morning cooking and I didn't even remotely have to do the whole dinner. I'm not really looking forward to the day when I will have to do all the cooking and host the big dinner at my house.

We went to my Auntie Barbara's house for Thanksgiving. It was beautiful with TONS of great food. We are so incredibly blessed. It was fun to visit with family and to be together. Here's our little clan.
Weston literally ate half of that roll and that is all. The next day he asked when we were going to have Thanksgiving. I was like, "it was yesterday, remember? You didn't eat anything." He didn't quite get the whole idea of the holiday. Weston was buddies with his cousin, Emily, most of the afternoon. They sat together for dinner. This is the best picture I got of him all night.
Weston got a little hyper after we had been there for a couple hours and decided to clomp around in Daddy's shoes. He thought he was hilarious. It was actually really amusing.
We had a nice Thanksgiving and enjoyed having Aunt Aly with us for the last week. She was so helpful with the boys and keeping me company and running errands, etc. I am so excited that it is officially Christmas time. I am in the full swing of listening to Christmas music and in the process of decorating today. Ian is outside putting up lights and last night we watched The Grinch. I love Christmas and am looking forward to this entire month with baking, picking a Christmas tree, wrapping presents, lighting candles, singing my favorite Christmas songs, and the general good will that seems more prevalent at this time of year. I hope everyone is catching the holiday spirit too!

On a final, completely non-holiday note, Weston is almost officially a big kid. He started pooping in the potty several times in a row this past week and keeping his pull up dry. Today he is in underwear and no accidents thus far. I am SO happy that we are nearing the potty training finish line with him. I have no idea what suddenly made it click for him, but I am happy it did.