Christmas Eve 2010

We got to spend Christmas Eve Day at Grandma and Grandpa's this year. It was so fantastic. We had pizza for lunch, which was delicious. Aunt Mandi mad sugar cookies for the kids to help roll out, cut, and decorate. She is the best sugar cookie maker. The kids had tons of fun and even brought home cookies for Santa.




Every year Santa brings the kids new jammies in the middle of the night. Well, this year Kami was pretty worried because she has had such a growth spurt she had absolutely no jammies to wear to bed tonight.
The kids were all in the bath when we heard the doorbell ring. When we opened the door no one was there.... but there was a package with a note... from Santa. He seemed to have heard that Kameryn was concerned so he dropped their Christmas jammies off early so the kids would have something to wear to bed. Kami says their cozy.
Thanks Santa.
Now we are off to drink some magic cocoa and read the Christmas Story. The true reason for the season.

In Loo of Wisdom.

This morning one of us in the family with a "higher" intellect (Okay, it might have been me, don't judge) decided it would be an appropriate time to put Landon in underwear.

Let's just say, it's only 9 and he's already been through 2 pairs...

Anyway, we are going to abandon that cause for something less messy. But before we leave the land of insanity and make believe I wanted to share the latest bit of wisdom from Cooper.

Landon was sitting on the toilet for the third time, to no avail, and naturally the second his naked bum hit the toilet seat he said "My done! My went poo-poo."

Cooper, ever the Socrates, had the following gem:
"No Landon, you have to make the noise (preferably a grunt) and then wait to you hear it splash in the water. Then you know your done."

Bah! This kid kills me.

...But I suppose he's got a point.


Okay, by the way, my title is a total play on words. Did you get it?
In lieu of wisdom (like instead of wisdom) but I switched it up and spelled it loo like the bathroom.
Aaah I'm so clever.

Picasso

Cooper came to me this morning:

"Look mom! I'm learning how to draw!"

"See, there's my arms and my legs..."
Actually, it was a pretty impressive self portrait.


Naturally seconds later, Landon is at his heels
"Mom, take a picture of me! Look it's an airplane!"
(I couldn't take a picture of him. Naturally it wouldn't be right seeing as how he only drew on himself so he could get his picture taken. What can I say, the kid knows he's really really ridiculously good looking.)

I had just recounted the merits to one drawing on paper as opposed to oneself to Cooper. And I expressed the same point to Landon. Upon which Cooper had the following to say:

"Yeah, let's hide it from Dad. And then when he sees it he'll say "Holy Smokes!""


On the plus side, I must make this point, the kid's tend to draw on themselves a lot more when Brandon is watching them... so naturally I can blame it on him and not my lack of supervision.

Simmon's House (Ginderbread)

This year we thought we would be cool parents and finally buy our kids a gingerbread house. We bought it on a Tuesday but were saving it for Family Night. It almost killed Landon. He asked every day if it was Monday so he could do the "Simmon's house"

Finally it was Monday. We were all just a tiny bit excited.

Sorry, I had to include both of these because Cooper's not looking in one and Kami looks questionable in the other.

See how excited Landon was?

The frosting was ridiculously difficult to pipe.

Cooper was really cute, he kept looking at the box to make sure and put things exactly where they did. It wasn't until I told him he could put it wherever he wanted that his real creative juices started flowing.

I know this is blurry but I couldn't get over how ridiculously adorable my little boys' smiles were.

Here is the rest of our family. He was the man behind the camera. Isn't he the greatest?!

I love this picture.


That double chin just kills me.



And of course you are all wondering how long the candy actually lasted on the gingerbread house, I mean we are the Bowens afterall.
Let's just say the very next morning Brandon made a bargain with the kids; a piece of candy from the gingerbread house for a hug and a kiss. When I walked into the kitchen a minute later Landon proudly stated "I eaten aw da can-ee off da Simmon's house" "Uh-oh" I said "Are you going to get in trouble?" "No! My gib da-ee a ug an a kiss. An I gonna eat da can-ee aw gone." And then he quite literally did.

A lesson in obedience: My mom just left me a comment saying I should update my blog. Well, seeing that she checks my blog once a month that seems like a fairly large threat. Just so you know, I've always been the most obedient one in the family.

I'm Grateful for this:

November 18. 2010

• for the way he smiles
• for the way he giggles
• for the way he wrestles the dog
• for his constant questions
• for the way he dances
• for the way he picks up any money and puts it in his pocket "so me can buy a bubble gum"
  
• because he loves books and stories
  
• for the way he lights up when he hears his dad's truck pull up
  
• grateful for his little voice telling crazy stories and saying silly things
• grateful for his silly little personality
• grateful that because he can talk now it opens me up to the world of his little brain working and how he thinks
• I'm grateful for his chubby fingers and pukanui (big belly)
• I'm grateful he'll think I'm the best mother in the world if I feed him nothing but hot dogs for the rest of his life.
• I'm grateful he is constantly asks to visit my dad so he can cook hot dogs in his fire pit
• For the way he thinks the greatest thing to do in the world is go drive around looking at fields with Brandon.
• I love that he wants to go to the dentist so he can count his teeth and give him a balloon.
• I'm grateful there is a dentist because Landon loves nothing more than candy.
  

If you knew him like I know him you wouldn't be able to help but love him. And then you wouldn't be able to imagine your life without him and you would thank your Father in Heaven everyday for the gift he is in your life. Like I do.

I am grateful I get to wake up every morning to his mood swings (he is not a morning person) spend all day cleaning up his messes (he is a very effective mess maker. Today he dumped an entire bottle of baby lotion onto my family room chairs and then rubbed it in... he does stuff like that all the time) and listening to his newest thinks. I am grateful that after I tuck him into his bed at night I can expect to find him wandering into my room some time in the wee morning hours for hugs or just to cuddle in bed.
I'm grateful he reminds me I am a mother. I am grateful he reminds me I am his mother. I wouldn't have it any other way.

You're Not Going to Believe This

I happen to be the kind of person who starts a project and then doesn't finish it for years.
Yep, I'm one of those.

Enter the kid's room project 2010.

But first, let's take a walk down memory lane.
Kid's room project 2008. (gulp!)

I wanted to take the "perfectly fine" original paint color we had painted 1 year previous and "aqua" it up a bit.
And of course I was justified because "I" added a wall of board and batten. (By "I" I mean my Dad, brother, and husband. I was a supervisor.) So it was natural that it got a fresh new coat of paint.

Pleased as punch with the results.


Until... Well we got new bunk beds, and it became quickly apparent that placing the bunk beds in front of the window was unacceptable. However, after spending so much time caulking and painting that one wall it just would not do to have the bunk beds cover it up. (now I might not have installed the woodwork but I definitely carried my weight doing all the prep and paint work)

So, naturally....
Kid's Bedroom Project 2010:

In July I ripped off all the trim around the window and doors and the baseboards.I've been wanting a certain type of molding for my house since... forever... and so, because I was putting up board and batten on the other two walls, it just fit that they should get new trim.Problem is... I knew how to install the board and batten but not the trim. I needed my Dad. (and more of his tools) So the room sat like this for a month. Until my Dad came up with his mad carpentry skills.

So, now we are in August when this happened.
Yep, that's me with a nail gun.


And, no, I didn't really let Brandon touch it much. (He was slightly "adamant" that it was my project. Something about it not being necessary... Men don't understand sometimes.)


So I did an amazing job installing all the trim that my Dad and Brandon measured and cut. (He didn't have qualms about helping my Dad. They must have been leaning on each other for emotional support)


Except.. I didn't have much foresight on the window and so I needed help.


And then the trim was up and the room looked like this. (Mostly, this picture is missing some trim. But you get the idea. Brown wood, blue top, white background. It's a growing trend)

And then it sat... like this... until November (hey that's this month!)

Well, technically, in my defense I did putty all the nail holes (and we are talking ALL the nail holes; like four billion) back in the beginning of October or so. And then my brother sanded it all down for me around the same time. And, I caulked one wall (the one you are partially looking at) in the middle of October.

(Am I making it worse or better? Probably worse.)

Well, then came the time that I just had to tell Brandon enough was enough. This project would be finished before Thanksgiving OR ELSE (sometimes you have to put your foot down with Brandon)

So, on Tuesday I spent 4 or so hours caulking trim. (whoosh, this stuff is gorgeous but it is a lot, and I mean A LOT of work.)

On Wednesday I had kidney stones. So I kind of took a break.

Thursday I started painting at 10:30. At 4:30 I had to quit because my brush was too gummy to continue.
Today, at 10:30 I picked back up where I started and at 12:30 precisely I put down my paint brush.

Then the boys took me out for lunch because I deserved it.

And now I sit, in a completely trashed home, with dishes spilling out of the sink, children running around like maniacs, and a thumb that won't stop pulsating (I kind of smashed it. Hard. and then I cried.)

But, guess what my kid's room looks like?

Oh, only amazing I guess!

2 hours of prep painting.
3 hours to install the board and batten.


3 or 4 hours to cut and install the trim.
1 hour to putty nail holes.
1 hour to sand.

6 hours to caulk.
and last, but not least, 8+ hours of painting.

You better believe it was worth it!

Even the kids are pleased.
(Side note: When Mommy's too exhausted to wake up in the morning to get little girl ready for school, she'll end up going like this. And no one will stop her. But they will feed her fried eggs and that's what really matters)

Cute stories:
Cooper came in yesterday when I was painting "Oh Mom! This looks so beautiful! ... and it smells good too."

And then later that same day when Brandon and Landon went out doing man stuff Cooper declined his invitation telling me "Mom, you're staying here and you are going to need a cute boy to keep you company so you won't be lonely. So I'm going to stay and be your cute boy."

Isn't he hilarious!

Photogenic

In the kid's room I have a 16x20 print hanging up of each child. I am currently caulking all the "new" (it was new in August) woodwork getting ready to paint. I had to take down Kameryn's and Landon's pictures so I could caulk the doorways on either side. Cooper's picture, however, was in the center and not in the way of any of my caulking so I left it up.
I was down on my hands and knees caulking baseboards when Cooper came in.

"Was I the happiest?"

I wasn't exactly sure what he was talking about.

"My picture, was I the happiest so dat's why you took down Kami and Lan-non an not me?"

Cute kid.
Yes, I found my other two children unbearable to look at so I took them down and only left the child whose smile was the most attractive.

Such a silly boy. The way his brain works just kills me sometimes.

Haunted Recital

You know, I've been doing this Haunted Halloween Recital thing for 4 years now and I've never blogged about it. In fact, I've never blogged about any of my piano recital. Seeing that I have 17 piano students now that come to my house every week (I teach Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday) and put up with my crazy household, it is only fitting they get a place of recognition on my blog. Plus, I love them so much, they feel like a part of my family.

So, here you go, 2010's Haunted Piano Recital!

Me with 13 of my students (3 of them couldn't make it and one had already left before the picture)

I only had time to snap just a couple photos after the recital. One of my piano students has an amazing mother and father (well they all have amazing parents) who set up the haunted cellar every year and then let us use it for the recital. It is amazingly fantastic. I wanted to get a video of it but when I went out to get started the "foyer" was already brim full of people. This was our best attended Haunted Recital yet. We had so many people. We set up 60 chairs and had about 10 still standing in the back.

And guess who one of my guests was this year?
That's right!
My man came!
YAY!!!

This is the first time he's been able to come. Usually he is in the super thick of things with harvest. My brother Jeron came too and they helped me set up all the chairs and bring in all the supplies from the vehicles. It was very nice because I'm usually doing all that myself. They were such HUGE helpers. They even tallied up the winners of the candy guess for me.
Kami got to perform this year. Jeron recorded a little video of it for the grandparents.



Can we just have a side note here where I can say how ridiculously proud I am of my daughter. She is fantastic. Being the daughter of the teacher has it's set backs... like only getting one lesson to help you prepare for your recital. But she was amazing. She picked a song at the back of her book, I helped her one time, and the rest of it she got all by herself. I was just beaming with pride. She is such a smart and talented girl.

Landon actually did a song as well, for intermission. At the recital everyone gets to pick a spooky sound on my piano to play their recital piece on. Landon's favorite sound is a submarine. It sounds like bubbles. He calls it the "fishy song". He had to play it for every piano lesson I had for a month. So I asked him if he wanted to play it at the recital, and of course he did because this little guy loves for everyone to see how cute he is. I don't have a video of this, but he sat up on the bench, placed his hands on the keys and then turned around (with his hands still on the keys) and gave the audience a big "aren't I adorable" smile.

But, do you want to know the best thing of all? After the recital was over and we were returning chairs Brandon said "Well, I think it went really well."
WHAT!?! Did you hear that?
I was so proud.
It really did make me feel fantastic inside to know my husband liked my recital.

Twick o Tweeten

Okay, I love that the only picture I took of the three kids together looks super artsy. (Okay guys, I want you to all gaze meaningfully into the distance.) Sorry Mom.

Landon the monkey. (Which for a week he told me has too scary for him to wear.)

Look, no teeth!

I think she has a piece of candy in her mouth for this one

It's our family.

Kami the "green witch"

Cooper, the tiger, and Landon the monkey (very pleased with his sack of candy.) This is the first year he's gone trick or treating that he can remember. Last year he slept right through it. This year I am pretty sure trick or treating was the highlight of his life.


Someone awesome gave out glow sticks for trick or treaters. Here we are at the beet dump playing with the kid's glow sticks.


We spent the remainder of Halloween night eating 7 layer bean dip in the truck while Brandon spent it pulling semi's out of the field with a tractor. That was a first. But, it was still fun. We don't really get conventional Halloweens around here with Brandon's job, but I'm coming to love our own little quirky traditions.