Christmas Pictures 2009

Merry Christmas 2009!

Santa brought the kids this AMAZING kitchen. (pretty sure it took him 1 1/2 hours to put it together Christmas Eve...)

Stockings... lots of candy this year.



The kids cookies must have been delicious.


Christmas Jammies. Santa was a little nervous about putting the jammies on the kids this year, but I told him since he started the tradition he couldn't very well stop it. In fact Kami woke up in the middle of the night and she knew Santa had come because she had penguin jammies on. We told her to go back to bed.


All Smiles


They both look a little excited don't they?


Landon always loves these fuzzy balls so Kami knew it was exactly what she wanted to give him.


Petshops, naturally.


The kitchen (Mom's pride and joy) was a huge success


I love Cooper's face in this one.



Worth the effort!
All Kami wanted was little kitties. We looked everywhere for them and finally found them at JoAnn Fabrics (of all places) She adores them.


Brandon and I have always excluded ourselves from Christmas presents, but this year we decided to let ourselves spend $25 on each other. It was so fun! For us as well as the kids.
The kids picked out a nice tie for Brandon (it's been an awfully long time since he got a nice new tie for church) and I bought him some cologne. It was the same cologne he used to wear in college when we met. He had been out of cologne for 5 years. The Sunday he put it on I quite literally cried when he walked in the room. I got a whiff of him and all those happy memories just flooded back. (yes, I must be the biggest bawl baby in history)

And, so I definitely didn't drop any hints about this... but Brandon and the kids bought me a snuggie! (So Happy!) I couldn't believe Kami, she knew about it and kept it a secret for a whole 3 weeks, even with all my pestering. That girl is a vault!

(here's the deal, I know I didn't really post this until January 28th, but I post dated it so it would be in chronological order for when I am looking back. I'm sneaky like that.)

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Dear Santa.

Dear Santa,
Please bring me an orange kitty with white stripes because I like them. I want a toy kitty. Please bring Mom flowers, she loves thee ones that are pink and they close and open. My Dad wants lemon heads, because he likes them. They's candy. My brother Cooper wants a Handy Manny shop with tools. And then Landon a green ball that has spiderman on it. And kitchen for all of us, with food.

Love, Kameryn Bowen (Dec, 2009)

sweetest letter ever appeared in Kami's backpack today.
It just made my day. Kami is peering over my shoulder saying "why are you crying?"
Kids are so perceptive.

Quick Hitters

1. My baby boy has reached one of my "most favorite" stages of baby/toddler-hood and has just disposed of his very smelly diaper by himself in the middle of my kitchen floor. Lovely. Luckily he's very efficient and also attempted to wipe his bottom with his fingers. mmm. pleasant happy feelings all around.
   
2. I am singing a solo in church next Sunday. First time in 10 years... yep, definitely more pleasant happy feelings abounding in good works. I'm so terrified I just might...um yeah. Here's to hoping I don't pass out from fright and break my nose on the way down, or something else equally as unpleasant.
3. Cooper is understanding the value of a clean house... not really, but last Sunday when I sat down in the recliner and knocked down a blanket in the process Cooper said to me. "Mom! You're makin' a mess ebby-where an I just cleaned dis house up!" Then he proceeded to show me the proper way to sit down with out knocking anything over. "See Mom, sit down like dis, like me do. See? No mess. Dat's how you do it"
4. Brandon has had some wicked bout of some form of deadly disease... like the flu. It's been no beuno. Hopefully he's on the up and up, but you never know.
5. Speaking of no beuno, Brandon and I have been asked to speak in the Spanish branch. That's going to go over "muy bien. Como esta?... leche." Yep, and that concludes my talk in Spanish. Oh wait, I forgot: "Que te pasa calabasa? Nada nada enchilada!" Okay there, now that concludes my talk in Spanish. No beuno.
6. I am, however, looking forward to listening to Brandon speak. I love hearing him speak in spanish. very. neat.
   
7. Kameryn is doing great in school. In fact we just got back her report card. We don't want to brag, but she's brilliant, of course. Her current favorite thing she's learned in school: how to make snowflakes. Snowy goodness all over the place. It's really been fun. (and no, I am not being sarcastic.)

Sensory Safari

A little while ago our amazing little library had what is called a sensory safari. Basically the entire library was chalk full of taxidermy animals that you could touch! The kids absolutely loved it, as did Brandon and I. It was really cool.
We went twice. (We had to go back and get pictures for the grandparents to see.)

very. very. cool.

Kami's favorites were the zebra and the leopard. In fact, when Kami first saw the zebra, she was so excited she she tried to climb up on his back.

The lions were amazing. When you were petting them you thought "how this is so cute, like a kitty or a puppy" and then you thought, shoot, if this thing was real it would eat my lunch!

Cooper loved everything. Especially the big predators with prey in their mouths. He thought it was so cool and told everyone that came into the library to come look at "dis guy bite-in dis litta guy! armp! armp!(those are chomping noises courtesy of Cooper) "
Landon loved the crocodile best, but of course wouldn't stay still for a picture.

The kids got a picture next to a reindeer (really a red deer) ... but not one of Santa's, of course.

I had to get my picture next to the warthog. Holy crap are those things hideous. Disney does not do them justice. I pulled my ugliest faces, because, why not? When else are you guaranteed to be the best looking person in the picture no matter what you look like.

Now, I saved these pictures for last because they come with a special warning: Dear Grandma Mere, if you still read my blog, absolutely please do not continue to scroll down. Absolutely do not!

Alright, so this little ditty scared the pants off me. It was tucked around the corner behind some bookcases and I quite literally almost stumbled upon it. holy crap! I tried to get a picture of me with my initial reaction but there were people there who kept looking at us... just imagine my face looks like one of sheer terror. That's a big snake. Poor little deer guy is toast!


That's all the pictures we got. There were quite nearly 20+ animals including Bison, a big bear, lots of different deer and sheep varieties, etc. The whole family had a blast. Apparently it comes every year and we can't wait until next year.

It's Called a Turkey!

somebody's a little lax in their blog postings...hmm.

The day of thanks, happened like this: Lots of pie making (Wednesday night) Cooking appetizers in the morning, me overcooking what would have been a delicious ham, indian headdresses, kick ball in the front yard, and of course a little bit of eating... just a little bit.

Well, how about some Happy Thanksgiving pictures?

Kickball Thanksgiving Morning:

The Eating Frenzie:

The little guy fell asleep before even taking a bite of turkey.

trying to get a picture of the two of us together (check out Landon in the background)

Of course B wouldn't cooperate (seemed to be the theme of the picture taking with all the husbands as you will soon see)

So, this picture resulted. This is our "angry faces" picture.

Gina and Dave

Lyss and Steve.

Mom and Dad (Dad really was the insticator in this "how about we all make ridiculous faces in all of Brittany's pictures" idea)

Kiddos. (Even Kami was on board)

Alyssa and Steve are the best at over the top themed pictures. Love those two!

GinaGina and Pays.Lyss and Steve

Turkey Aftermath:

Jami makes the best after turkey "stoned" face ever. He makes it all the time.

Cooper showing us how full his belly is (he does this after every meal. After which Kami always replies, he's just bending his back to make his tummy look bigger.)

We rounded the night out by playing this fantastic game Alyssa and Steve brought.


Fun times had by all.

Oh yes! And in completely, partially related and fantastic news: Look at what else we did Thanksgiving weekend: (and by we I mean Dad, Steve, and my hunky piece of man goodness)and yes, my husband did make that face on purpose. Remember, it's the theme of the weekend.
Yay! for a bathroom floor! My Dad rocks. He can do anything. This bathroom is going to be beautiful. You should see the bathroom cabinet he made over, it's Gorgeous! I'll take a picture next time.

By the way, now that Thanksgiving is over, guess who is officially listening to Christmas music?!!! You bet ya!