Kate's 3 year picture

I know I am completely, 100 percent biased, but wow! Isn't she cute??!!

"She didn't want any of her toys"

When the weather is cold, rainy, snowy, etc., I usually drive the girls down to the end of the street to catch the bus in the mornings. Jack and Kate are usually pretty good about watching tv or eating their breakfast while I'm gone. If Hannah is awake, I strap her in her swing and go as quickly as I can. The other day, I came home to Hannah screaming in her swing and all of her baby toys on the floor around her. Jack said "She didn't want any of her toys." Jack and Kate had tried every toy to see if she would be happy, but to no avail.

Family pictures

When we were in Utah for Christmas, we got to see our fun aunt, uncle and cousins. For all of the years growing up, our family trips were to visit these amazing people! Who would ever guess that Worland, Wyoming would be someone's favorite vacationing spot? My kids all love Worland too! About once a week, one of them will ask me when we can go and visit Aunt Claudia & Uncle Bruce. My cousin Ashlie & her family flew into Salt Lake from Boston (although because of all the snow in the west, they arrived about 8 hours late - with no luggage). We had scheduled family pictures for the next morning and amazingly, we still did them! We had coordinated clothes for the kids and everything! I had the shirts for the girls and Ashlie had actually mailed the boy's sweaters to her mom for extra padding in her package. Wow! Thank you Nielson's, Esco's & Graf's for the fun, family, memorable family pictures (which included some throw up and a messy diaper, but oh well)! We love you guys!!!

This is all of us

This is my whole family - my parents, their children, our spouses and their grandchildren

Here are the 9 grandchildren of Jay & Jeannette (my grandparents) and their 9 great-grandchildren.

(Row 1: Riley, Max, Emily, Abby, Lindsey, Jack, Tommy, Kate & Hannah

Row 2: Matt, Ashlie, Aaron, Jeannette, Peter, Richard, Meg, Michael & Becky)

Food Choices

We have started to give Hannah some baby food. She'll be 6 months old this week and has started to get up once a night again (which is so typical of my babies - they sleep great, like 10 or 11 hours - and then they get their first cold and they get back up once a night until they are completely weaned). So, we have been trying to get more food in her belly during the day. She took a couple of bites of rice cereal, but then clinched her mouth shut and wouldn't take any more. We tried again and the same thing happened. This happened for about 4 days. Then, last night, Jon fed her some mashed potatoes for dinner. She loved them and kept opening her mouth every time he offered her some. I tried rice cereal again for lunch - denied! What a funny baby!

This is after a taste of rice cereal

This is Hannah refusing to eat any more

She'll happily try pretend food though


Oh, so cute!

Thank you, President Bush!

I am really not one who enjoys political debates, but I wanted to just say how grateful I am for the leadership of President George W. Bush over the last 8 years. I think he has done a wonderful job as our Commander in Chief. He's a man of morals, integrity, concern, respect and values. He's a leader to stood up for what was right, even though that's never the popular thing to do. He kept our country as safe as he could and served with honor. My prayer is that our new President, Barack Obama, will be just as honorable and full of integrity as President Bush is.

Kate's Birthday Party

In between near-head injuries and the flu, we managed to have a Dora & Diego birthday party for Kate. It was great that she is only three so that we could do the simplest party in history. She invited her little preschool friends - Hailey, Emily, Calder, and Eliza - and her cousin Kyle.

Jon was at work, so my three older kids helped me do it. We had the kids come and play with Kate's Dora toys for a few minutes. Then, we had set up a little tent and I read them a Dora story and then took turns letting them tell their own stories. I would read them the beginning of a line and they would make up the rest of the sentence. During this, Kate was begging me to let her open her presents, so we let her do that next. She was really excited and happy about all of them.

Then we had cake and icecream and then the kids played again! Talk about easy! Kate loved it (thus not making me feel guilty over the simpleness of the party). Kate has really cute friends and it was fun to have them over!

Kate with her Diego cake

Cute kids - Emily, Hailey, Kate, Eliza & Calder

Telling stories

Making a wish!

Oh 2009....

....I know that there will be many great things that happen in 2009, but it's been a little rough so far! I don't want to complain, but I'm going to for a minute. I've been back from Utah for a week and a half and in that time -

* A good friend was hospitalized at 24 weeks along in her pregnancy and will probably be there until she delivers.
* Another good friend's mother and sister were in a car accident. Her mother was killed and her sister is in the ICU in critical condition.
* Jon's wallet was stolen.
* Jack and Lindsey were hit with the flu (but thankfully it was fast and only them).
* Kate fell during Emily's basketball game on Saturday and hit her head pretty hard. She threw up all over me and herself, but thankfully she was fine (and thankfully Sam's Club still lets you shop with throw up on your leg).
* Another friend's long-time dog passed away.

Okay, I'm done complaining. Here's to a wonderful, prosperous, happy 2009!!!

3:45 a.m.

So...as I get ready for bed, I am wondering if I will be woken up at 3:45 a.m. The reason I wonder, is that for the last two nights, Jack has come into our room at exactly 3:45. On Sunday morning, he came in and asked for a bucket. That got me out of bed quick! I went and got him a bucket and he seemed fine with just being put back in his bed. I went back to my bed and went back to sleep. Then when I went to wake him up to get ready for Church, I asked him how he was doing. He said that he had thrown up. Sure enough, in his bucket, was throw up. I guess he had done it and then just fell back asleep. (I must say as a parent, a great milestone is getting your children to get all of their throw up into a bucket!).

Then last night, he came in again at 3:45 a.m. This time, he came to me and said "My armpits hurt." So, I got out of bed, gave him some Motrin and put him back to bed again, not really understanding how someone's armpits could hurt. After about 45 seconds, he came back into my room to tell me that the medicine didn't work. I put him in bed with me and asked him to show me where it hurt. He pointed to each of his armpits and then he kept wiggling in pain. So, back out of bed to heat up a heating pad. (It's a bag with rice that I just heat up in the microwave). I put one side under each of his arms, kissed him goodnight and went to the couch to finish the night's sleep. He was all better by morning, with no complaint of armpit pain.

Weird! Here goes another attempt at sleep....

Happy 3rd Birthday, Kate!

Our sweet Kate turned 3 today!!! I can't believe how fast another year has gone! Our lives are better and happier because of this spunky little blonde! I still chuckle every day when I see Kate and her blonde hair. She's so cute! She loves being the princess of the family and we sure adore her!

Kate has a high-pitched voice that she loves to use to talk and talk. She also loves to sing - especially Church and Christmas songs. She has a loving, caring heart and loves to be a big girl. Here are some of her favorite things:

Weight: 30 lbs (40th percentile)

Height: 37 inches (90th percentile)

Favorite color: pink

Favorite foods: hot dogs, nuggets, grapes, fish crackers, candy, juice boxes

Favorite show: Dora the Exporer & Go Diego Go!
Favorite friends: Hailey Rasmussen, Emily Larson, Calder Hymas, Eliza Burt

Favorite Person in the Whole World: Grandpa Sorenson

Favorite Things to do: play with toys, go to preschool swap, Music & Movement classes at library, Fun with Jodi class, dance class, gymnastics class, and watching tv

Favorite Quotes: "I'm a Princess."

"Someone pells (smells) bad."

"You're mean!" (this is what she says to me when I put her to bed at night)"

"I love you mommy."

Kate, we love you so much! You are the sunshine in our lives and we can't imagine our family without you! We're excited to see you grow even more this year and see all the new things that you get to learn.

Goodbye Dear Friends

Kate and I each had to say goodbye to something in our lives this week...

It seems that a Bowen baby tradition is to have a binkie. All of our babies have had them and we love the quiet and peace that they bring. Right before the kids have turned three, we have gotten rid of the binkie and so Kate had to bid hers farewell this week. I took her to Target on Monday night and I told her she could pick out a new toy that she could buy with her binkies. She wanted a new baby doll (since the 36 we have weren't enough), so she found a little set of twins, complete with their own stroller, swing and diaper bag. Luckily for Kate, I had some Target gift cards from Christmas, so I consented. We went to the checkout and I handed them to her. When I told her to give them to the lady, she happily handed them over. (The lady looked at me like I was crazy and I told her to just throw them in the t-r-a-s-h. She still looked confused and I think she was thinking that I wanted her to donate them to underprivileged binkie suckers or something. I finally had to just say - "please just throw them away.") We left Target and Kate was as happy as could be - until it was time for bed. Each night since Monday, she has asked to return to Target to get the binkies back from the lady. But, she's also fallen asleep really great and done fabulous! I think it will take her awhile to completely forget about them, but she's done really great and hasn't even tried to take Hannah's from her. Way to go Big Girl!

Then, I am going to need to bid farewell to my dresser. This poor dresser was literally smashed in our move out to Ohio 6 1/2 years ago and has been held together by wood glue. Well, the other day, I was putting clothes away in it and one-by-one, each drawer started falling on top of each other. It's still in our bedroom and thankfully the only drawer I can't get in right now has capris & shorts in them.

Life is definitely full of "hellos" and "goodbyes!"

Ice Skating with Uncle Tom

My kids are so fortunate to have really fun aunts and uncles! All of them are so good with the kids and each of them do the sweetest things for the kids. During our trip to Utah, the kids got to do something fun with their Uncle Tom and their Uncle Peter. Uncle Peter took the kids swimming at a really fun indoor pool and the kids had a blast. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera, so I didnt' get any pictures, but it was fun to watch them play on the slides and fun to find a pool that we can maybe do lessons at some day. Aunt Candy came along too in order to help - thanks Candy!

The kids also got to go ice skating because of their fun Uncle Tom! We went to the Olympic Oval in Kearns, Utah where some of the skating events of the 2002 Winter Olympics took place. Jon had already gone home and I can barely keep myself up on ice skates, so Uncle Tom was the good sport to strap skates on and help the kids on the ice. Emily and Lindsey have been taking ice skating lessons, so they were fine. They just went around and around. Jack and Kate needed lots of help though and Tom may still have back pain from bending over to help them around the rink. We finally got a hold of a little walker thing that the kids could hold on to. Jack went all the way around by himself (looking like a funny old man) and then Kate used it for a few minutes too.

Thank you Uncle Tom for sacrificing your back to help the kids! Thank you Uncle Pete for the fun day of swimming and thank you to all the kids aunts and uncles for just being so darn cool!

Christmas with the Bowen's

Our sweet Grandma & Grandpa Bowen drove with Tom and Anne back to Salt Lake from Oregon while we were in Utah! I still get goosebumps when I think of them doing that! They are so sweet and it was so wonderful to be able to see them.

The kids and I (Jon had already gone home) drove down to Provo and spent the evening in Anne's home celebrating Christmas together. Diane, my mother-in-law, had made each of the kids a beautiful quilt. Each one of them LOVED theirs so much! Diane does beautiful work and it was fun to see the kids excited about their quilts. (As I'm typing this, Jon just left with the kids for basketball practice and Kate insisted on taking her quilt with her). I know how much time and love go into each quilt! Thank you so much Grandma for the treasures!!

It was great to be with Anne, her kids and Uncle Tom as well. We missed having Jon there, but again, we're so grateful for the Bowen's and their willingness to travel to Salt Lake to see us!

This is how the kids looked when I arrived at Anne's house!

The longest bowling game ever!

(I'm attempting this post for the 5th time...so here it goes again). After we found out we weren't going to Oregon for Christmas, we decided to take the kids bowling. We called around and found an alley that offered a "Buy two games, get one free." We thought that sounded great, so we loaded up the kids, put bowling shoes on their feet, put the bumper pads up and started bowling. In our excited about such a great bowling deal, we hadn't considered how long it takes for a bowling ball to make it down the entire length of the alley after being lightly pushed by a 2 year old! Do they make bowling lanes longer these days? Anyway....Wow!

The kids had a great time taking turns. Sometimes they would use the ramp to send it down, or other times they would simply place the ball on the ground and give it a push. Jon and I even tried to do an entire game ourselves (only to get through 2 rounds before the kids wanted to take back over). I think we were there at least 2 hours! But, we had a great time and loved being together!

This would have been me if it had been socially appropriate!