Bowman Clan

Family Pictures

2011-12-22T11:14:00.001-08:00

So do you remember these pictures? They were taken when Vivian was 1. We paid an arm and a leg for them... but we loved them.

Now we have 2 more kids... and still not enough money to go around. So we couldn't go get those done again. However enough is enough and on October 15th we finally had a photo shoot with a professional photographer.... 3 and a half years later.

~~~

(oh and it's not the professionals fault if not all of them aren't perfect... those are our faces.)

That was just a taste of all the pictures I have to work with now. Thanks to Angie Hansen and her affordable prices. More to come later.

You can check out her site here: http://www.angiehansenphotography.com/

or like her on Facebook here: http://www.facebook.com/?closeTheater=1#!/pages/Angie-Hansen-Photography/222429654101?sk=wall

She did such an awesome job and even made this cute collage for us.

In a couple months (when I get my act together) my walls will look really good. Thanks Angie.

Everyone else... check her out.

All I want for Christmas...

2011-12-22T10:36:00.001-08:00

Is my two front teeth, my two front teeth, see my two front teeth?

Gee if I could only have my two front teeth, then I could wish you

Merry Christmas!

This year has been good for us. A new child, a new job for John and new school time adventures have been ours. We hope that your year has treated you well and that 2012 will be even better. Merry Christmas Everyone!

Costumes 2011

2011-10-29T23:04:00.001-07:00

SHOCKER!!! I am posting a picture the same day it was taken.

Here is our Gang for Halloween. We finally got it together enough to put together a real family theme.

And just for those of you who may not be Nintendo savvy here is a run down of Characters:

John - Mario (Hero)

Papa - Luigi (Mario's older brother)

Vivian - Princess Peach (Damsel always in distress)

Theodore - Toadstool (Princess Peach's servant)

Michael - Bowser (Villain)

Lorina - Bob-omb (Bowser's wind-up minion)

Nana - Fire Flower (Power-up for Mario that gives him the ability to shoot fire balls)

Lawrence - Star (Prize for Mario when he accomplishes something)

Nana made Vivian's Dress and I did the rest of the accessories. I sewed a little but used a lot of hot glue. We found Michael's Turtle costume at Goodwill. The red and blue T-shirts were bought and so were Theodore's pants. I think it came together quite nicely. We will have to put on the costumes again to get better individual shots.

Halloween Decorations

2011-10-28T12:30:00.000-07:00

Confession: I read craft blogs.

I sit around and learn about all these home made ingenuity's and wish that I could make them too. Then I remember that I have no where in my house to decorate, except my mantel, which is getting over run with light houses and the rest of my stuff has to hide on the shelf in the school room where company can't enjoy it.

Then I got the brilliant idea that if I put a nice china cabinet / hutch in my living room I could fill it with homemade decorations. So I went out and bought 3 of them.

OK so those are just for Vivian but we did stop at the Goodwill and we found this one for $65.95. I didn't get it then but a few days later it was still there and I had Kenneth go pick it up because I hadn't been able to stop thinking about it. See the chewed up corner on the left? and the missing handle on the right? Yeah I didn't care. I still think it's a wonderful piece, it even has lights on the inside that work. The first thing Theodore did was drive his cars on the little ledge and Lawrence likes to pull on the handles but we'll need to replace them anyways. The kids can't really even reach the handles for the glass case and they know that anything in there is just to look at and not touch. I LOVE IT and now I have a place to put my nice stuff.

OK, so what does this have to do with Halloween? Well that is the current holiday and it happens to be one of my favorites. Especially when it comes to decorating. I hosted a Girls Night Out Halloween party last year so I did a few decorations for that. But this year John was turning 30 and I wanted to go all out. I made some invitations using this idea: http://www.meandmyinsanity.com/2008/10/bat-iful-party-invitations.html

And here is what his party looked like:

Cardboard tree (Free), paper bats ($1), streamers ($1), spider web in window ($3), Halloween lights ($3), and balloons ($4) they were part of a game.Skull lights ($2.50), spider web banner on back door ($1) the other panel was on the front door, Pandora Halloween channel playing in the back ground (free), homemade chocolate candies for favors ($15-$20 For molds and chocolate), Black table clothes with purple tint (Free - Fabric from Debra who surged the sides for me after I cut them to size), bag of small spiders scattered all over floor ($3).

Freaky Fabric hanging from chandelier ($3), bag of big spiders ($2.50).

Pumpkin and skull flashing lights - $2.50, tea lights - borrowed from Debra, orange jelly toy - $1, Halloween town - 5 houses - $5, assorted ribbon - $7, Paint - free, witch and Mummy - $2, scrapbook paper - $1, google eyes - $1, stickers - $1, hot glue sticks - $1, 2x4 - free along with everything else I already had on hand and I have lots of leftovers to play with for next year.

3D tree - $3 from Target, skeleton favors - $2 for 8, Butterscotch candy - $1, Eyeball rocks - $2.50 [I just printed eyes from here http://www.flamingotoes.com/2010/09/bowl-of-eye-balls/ (another project that I wanted to do but didn't get to) and cut them out and glued to the bottom of the clear glass rocks from the Dollar Tree.]

Black tray - $2 @ Goodwill, salt dough ghosts and tombstones from last year, idea here: http://familyfun.go.com/halloween/halloween-crafts/ghost-crafts/salt-dough-ghosts-671167/

and Jar-o-lanterns - free, idea here: http://familyfun.go.com/crafts/jar-o-lanterns-1024695/

This I found awhile ago and I had to make one for my friend (she loved it) and it ended up being one of our Super Saturday projects. But these are the two I ended up with. Idea here: http://adiamondinthestuff.blogspot.com/2011/08/googly-eye-halloween-frame.html

And you gotta love my furocious wreath. idea here: http://familyfun.go.com/crafts/fur-ocious-wreath-1024768/

And this is the one that took the most time... My Witches Cupboard. This is how it looked for the party. I collected any glass bottles I could get my hands on without going too far out of my way. I confess I bought a few things just for the bottles but knew we would use the product anyways. I printed most of the labels from here: http://thehauntinggrounds.com/2010/halloween-props/new-potions-and-ingredients/ but the rest I got off of a list on a Harry Potter fan site. (I guess some geek read the books or watched the movies and wrote down any potion they mentioned and I chose the ones that weren't obvious or exclusive to Harry Potter). Then I formatted them in Word, printed it on cream paper and aged the paper by crumpling it up and using distress ink. Then I filled them with whatever I felt fit. I bought a few things for this but most of the bottles are filled with water or shampoo with food coloring or paint. Then some of the powder is just from my cupboard. A mix of spices or baking ingredients. (I was able to clean a few old things out of my crowded cupboards without throwing it away.)

Here is my spider sack that never got more spiders added around it. Idea here: http://youcraftmeup.blogspot.com/2010/10/spider-egg-sack-tutorial.html

Here is the food spread. I asked everyone to bring an appetizer. John wanted a Fondu party so we tried to have that available as well (however we failed miserably with the sauces). We tried again for his actually birthday dinner and the sauce tasted better but still ended up just being poured over peoples food instead of used as fondu. I guess it's not really a party food.

I dragged the entry way table over to be the drink table (genius on my part). I bought a brain mold ($5) but my punch mixture was too heavy to float in the punch bowl but we still had green punch and water. And you can't see it in this picture but I bought a witches broom for $6 at K-mart and it is along the back of the table. Oh and the crows were at the Dollar Tree and I got 5 of them. The Halloween plates and cups and napkins were about $15 altogether. And this was the first half of the freaky fabric I bought from Walgreen's.

One of the guests bought John a totally cute cake. (Which was awesome because I totally meant to make him one but ran out of time, I had bought a couple pumpkin pans from Goodwill too, oh well.)

So after the party I put all the decoration into the cabinet to still show them off.

Here is the skeleton tree with more skeletons on it. I had intended something different hanging on the tree but this was improvised and definitely a keeper.

So my Halloween Town is [one] of my proudest accomplishments from the whole thing. Mostly because it is more of an original idea than anything else. I do confess I did see a couple blogs of using a birdhouse and putting Halloween scrapbook paper and other embellishments on it so I didn't come up with the idea all by myself. But I only was on that site for a few minutes and could never find it again so I was on my own and couldn't make a carbon copy of someone else's work. It took me awhile to gear up for it. I painted the houses one night. A few days later I put some of the paper on it. It was one of those things I wanted to get out of the way early but for some reason I was having a hard time with idea's. One day I said today is the day I will get it done and then I realized... I'm not creative during the day. So I did some other more brainless work (probably made more glass eyeballs or something) and then that night about 10 or 11 when John was getting ready for bed, I sat down with the glue gun and got to work. I was amazed at how everything just came together and each house ended up with its own personality. It is totally how I wanted it without really having a picture in mind to start.

Now to my Snow White's Step-Mother display. I saw a few things like this:

http://christybuonomophoto.blogspot.com/2010/10/witchs-spell-book.html

and this:

http://www.madiganmade.com/2010/10/turn-old-books-into-spooky-decor.html

Then I used the labels from here:

http://savorypg.blogspot.com/2008/11/peddler-punch.html

So I was going to put the spells in the book but my book ended up too cool looking for me to display open (see below) So I turned the Snow White spells into plaques instead and displayed them with the potion ingredients needed.

And of course the Crow adds to the display since she had her own black bird with her.

OK now my spell books. You already saw the links above that gave me the idea of having a stack of spell books. So I had gone to Goodwill and bought some hardcover books with old looking pages and preferably no color. I chose 1 bigger one to use as the spell book and the best one I could find had blue in it but otherwise was colorless. And then I came across this tutorial from craftymommyandme.blogspot.com. (for some reason the link isn't pasting in here) But she used hot glue to create a 3D image on the front of the book and then cut out thin cardboard for a name plate and to make the spine more authentic looking. Then she took a paper towel and watered down Elmer's and formed the paper towel around the whole cover of the book and then painted it with watered down paint. So I went to get the books I had bought at Goodwill and it turned out the titles of the books were Servant of the Bones and Dirty Business. Well I thought those two titles would look good in the witches cupboard as they were so I took the big one I had bought and found one on our shelf that neither of us cared too much about and got to work. It went a lot smoother than I thought it would and turned out to look super awesome. On the big one I aged the pages by painting watered down brown paint around the edges while the book was closed. I did this several times in front of the fan and then I just took 5-10 pages at a time and crumpled them up and then straightened them out. Then once it was dry I put a couple cans on it to weigh it down to flatten the pages a little bit more.

People ask why I chose those symbols and I really don't have a good reason. I just looked up Celtic knots on google images and chose an easy one. Then I did the celtic tree of life because that is the one the lady in the tutorial had used. I still have to name these books but that will come later.

I had some Family members question me a couple times while I was making all this Halloween stuff to make sure I wasn't going to the dark side. I really wasn't putting mental thought into most of it - it was purely for decorations only. I did realize at some point in the middle of it that some of my ideas were a bit dark and wrong so I didn't do them. They also wanted to know why Halloween was one of my favorite holidays and at first I couldn't give a real reason. Then I thought about it and decided that the Day of the Dead was to acknowledge our ancestors but to also celebrate our life and to celebrate life we need to have fun. So on Halloween I will probably spend a couple hours with the kids talking about Family History and maybe we'll turn my spell books into something along those lines instead of potions, curses or hexes like I intended on. But we will also dress up and have fun together as a family. I have had a lot of fun making everything and I'm so excited for my new cabinet and to go all out for Christmas and other holidays now. I hope you enjoyed my display and don't think I'm evil for getting so into Halloween. My kids on the other hand love all of it and both want to have Halloween be the theme for their birthday parties (February and May). I think I'm ok with that since I have enough decorations already.

Here is Michael camoflaging (sp?) with my dead tree.

Mighty Michael

2011-09-09T20:17:00.001-07:00

Hi, I'm Michael and I go to First Grade. (Not in my pajamas though) Mommy caught me in the middle of asking a question. I guess it's not that hard to do since I ask A LOT of questions. But I know that is the best way to learn and it's why I am so smart.

I eat this many Vitamins every day so I can grow big and strong.

I love my baby brother Lawrence.

And Theodore is so much fun to chase around.

Vivian can be sweet sometimes too.

And after 6 years, I still love my blue pillow.

I love to take pictures with Mommy's camera.

I love to play dress up.

And I love my row boat (wagon).

I love to find different ways to use things.

And to use up all my energy.

When I was in Kindergarten I went to rock climbing class. On our last day Mr. Marlow set up a zipline. It was so fun. And over the summer when we went camping, I got to go on Grandpa's Zipline that was waaaaaay bigger. It was awesome.

This is my teacher Ms. Anita.

This is my science teacher, Mr. Meade.

It was a lot of work, but I graduated.

Here is my whole class.

Over the summer I got to light fireworks.

And I took swimming lessons.

That is my teacher in the middle. I'm over there talking to the girls.

See my backfloat?

After a busy summer, I am sooooo ready for frist grade.

Now I'm off to do my homework. Bye!

Vivacious Vivian

2011-09-09T19:40:00.000-07:00

Hello, My name is Vivian Rose Bowman and I am 4 years old. I like to play dress up. This Princess dress was a little too big for me.

Now I'm a Pirate.

Nana made me this one. I'm all ready for church.

Now I'm a cowgirl ballerina.

Oh and my toys like to play dress up too. Here is Pooh floating in a tube down the river.

Oh and this is my wheelchair for when I can't walk.

I like to wear my brother's clothes too.

Michael helped me put on his Mario pajamas.

I even fit in Theodore's brand new outfit that he is too little for.

Oh and I found this brand new sleeper too and was able to stretch it on. Mom wasn't too happy when my toe poked a hole in it.

But I was even able to fit a bunch of toys in it too.

This is my special place where Theodore can't mess up my toys.

I love to get in Lawrence's face. He's such a cute little baby.

Theodore makes a great pillow too.

And dancing with Michael is always fun.

When Michael was in Kindergarten, I used to get to play with the hula hoops in PE class. I can't wait until I'm in Kindergarten next year.

I can get pretty crazy sometimes.

And I can be really silly a lot too.

But then I have to take a nap.

Goodnight!

Thourogh Theodore

2011-09-09T12:33:00.000-07:00

"Hi" my name is Theodore and I love cars.

My sister "Yinyin" (Vivian) is so silly and makes me laugh all the time.

I love my "baby" brother so much.

My big brother "Mygol" (Michael) is so fun to play with. He always helps me when I can't do things by myself. Mommy says I am a lot like him and we both have transformer pajamas too.

Sometimes accidents happen and I get hurt. But it doesn't stop me for very long.

I can climb in and out and up and down almost anything if I want to.

But sometimes mommy tells me 'NO' and I get sad.

Even though I'm a big boy, I still suck on a binky sometimes. I know it's naptime or bedtime when "mommy" comes at me with the binky. Sometimes "Daddy" forgets and I have to tell him, "Bink! Bink!"

But they love me anywyas. And they always make sure I have Barney to sleep with. I love singing with him when I wake up, "You love you..."

I can fold my arms for "par" (prayer) too.

And rock on a horse.

But after I'm done playing, I ask "Where go?" (They know I'm talking about my cars)

Yay, I found them in a row just how I put them.

I am always happy if I have a few "car car" s in my hands.

Then I put them in my "bie" (bike) and go for a ride.

This was the best $2 mommy ever spent. Because I ride around the house all day.

"beep beep" Here I come.

Oh wait, I need my "sho" first.

Sometimes I steal Mommy's phone to look at the picture on it.

Then I run and hide so she can't find me.

Michael likes to dress me up.

I walked right out of the pants so he put them on my head. Silly "Mygol."

Here we go again.

I got pretty tired after a trip to the moon.

And sometimes "mommy" forgets to give me a nap so I have to lay down somewhere by myself.

I'm a good helper though and love to collect all the "uppy" s.

"YAY" that's the end.

Little Lawrence

2011-09-09T09:56:00.000-07:00

Hi, My name is Lawrence. I love to watch TV.

I love my Daddy too, even if he sometimes bites my cheeks really hard.I also love to stick my tongue out.

And roll over.

Mommy and Grandma think I am a doll sometimes and put me in Vivian's toy cradle.

Vivian thinks I am a doll too and dresses me up.

Theodore always has kisses to share.

And blankets to lick.

I watch them play outside and can't wait to join them soon.

Papa holds me really far from the ground.

But I'm still the happiest baby ever!

See that red block in the middle of the blanket? Yeah that is where mommy put me down and she was surprised to find me here. She still laughs when I end up accross the room.

Daddy loves to make me laugh.

And I love to help Daddy work.

I'm even starting to sit up by myself, as long as someone is helping me.

I can jump by myself too, as long as I'm in my jumper.

But I can hold my bottle with my own two hands and nothing else.

That's all for now. See you when I'm bigger!

Old Video

2011-08-09T09:50:00.000-07:00

My sister in Florida that has never met Theodore or Lawrence requested I upload some videos even if I don't have time to do a full blog. We just got a new camera and since our old one was down for awhile this is the last cute video I could find. It was taken May 14th, 2011. The day after Vivian's Royal Party where they each had a cardboard sword to slay the dragon. This is when Theodore was just starting to talk. He has many, many more words now at 20 months.

March

2011-04-07T14:13:00.001-07:00

So around February Theodore started the phase of loving to open and shut doors. Unfortunately he is way to short to even try to reach the doorknob so if he shuts the door all the way he is kinda stuck there. Usually he will whine and I will have one of the kids go open the door for him. Or if I'm walking by and I hear him playing in a room I will open the door. This picture was from an occasion when he didn't whine and I didn't happen to walk by and hear him. It looked like he played with his drawers for a little bit and then fell asleep.

So cute!

Papa was helping me out a lot in March with Babysitting and I caught him playing Ponies with Vivian.

They both look like they are having fun.

The monster baby likes to chew and dismantle Michael's foam bullets.

This baby just squirms and wiggles and looks cute.

The monster baby likes to get into things he shouldn't.

And climb on everything possible.

This princess likes to try on clothes, even if they are not her own. (more to come in future posts)

This boy likes to pose for pictures.

First time in the Bumbo chair. Neck still wasn't strong enough.

This M&M hat and Onesie I bought in Florida in May 2006 when Michael was still in foster care. The girls (Rachel and Regina) had come over for a visit and decided to try it on Theodore. It's amazing how much he looks like Michael.

Theodore and Lawrence are going to be best friends.

I love my baby and my monster baby.

I am torn between calling Theodore a big boy or a baby. Sometimes he looks like both and it's hard to choose. This picture is definitely a big boy moment.

Sleepy time with Lawrence.

Now he's awake.

And interesting....

and bundled...

and blue...

and happy.

So Vivian is really imaginative in her play. This cat couldn't fit on the train and was very upset about it. But then it found Vivian's dirty sock and is taking a shower. It is fun to listen to her play by herself.

This is one of the frogs that live under our drive way.

These clouds out the window made me feel like there was a mountain right there. But then they blew away... SIGH. One day I will live next to a mountain and I will be able to look out my window at it any time I want. But until then I am sentenced to live in the flat Central Valley with hardly so much as a hill nearby.

I hope you enjoyed our month of March. Stay tuned for April and May.

Michael's New Bike

2011-04-07T13:45:00.001-07:00

Papa found a 2nd hand bike that looked about Michael's size and it had Superman all over it. Why not get it. Well at first we weren't sure he was ready. Then on March 12th we let him go at it.

John of course helped him at first.

And as soon as he would let go....
Michael would fall.
But he was a trooper and kept trying.
This little girl was jealous.
Total grump.
Until she got her turn.
They love going out front to ride their bikes. It is weird having a 6 year old that can play outside on his own without adult supervision. He always goes over to the neighbors houses to see if the kids can play. I still get really nervous and don't let him out on his own very often. What do you think? Is 6 to young to have that kind of freedom? Or should I just give him some rules and let him go?

Lawrence's Blessing Day

2011-04-07T13:40:00.000-07:00

So another really old event that I am finally getting around to posting.

We blessed Lawrence on March 6th.

Enjoy the cuteness.

Quilt Show and Park

2011-04-07T13:32:00.000-07:00

So my Mom is a vendor at a few local quilt shows. This is at the Manteca Quilt show on March 5th. Here is her booth.

And here is her friend Deborah Miller that shares the booth with her.

Here is the Bag my mom made for their quilting contest at her guild. They were all given a fat quarter of the same fabric and had to use it to make something.

A quilt I enjoyed.

Another quilt I enjoyed.

Then we went to the park afterwards and I had fun snapping all sorts of pictures.

Michael is cheating, but I think John still won.

This was so adorable. Theodore had started running towards the street so we had Michael go get him and this is them walking back.

He is such a mini Michael.

Then they started playing in the huge grass field that was inset into the ground for flood purposes. I was feeling rambunctious or something and decided to roll down the grassy hill a couple times. Not the smartest thing for a nursing mother but it was fun nonetheless. And the kids need to see the childish side of me once a year at least.

~~~

Since then they have seen me run through the house and Michael said, "I didn't know you could run." So sad. I'm trying to be better at remaining youthful but I still need to work at it quite a bit.

Theodore's First Haircut

2011-04-07T13:30:00.000-07:00

We don't usually have a family party in the bathroom but this (february 28th) was hair cut day so we all watched while Michael had his turn.

Then it was Theodore's turn. He did surprisingly well and it helped a lot that he had gotten to watch Michael go first.

Now he looks older and way more like Michael. You'll have to look at older posts for before pictures and future posts for after pictures.

Park Day

2011-04-07T13:24:00.000-07:00

So these pictures were taken on February 27th. Michael had been wanting to go to the park for awhile and fly his kite and play baseball so we finally took all the kids.

Enjoy the cuteness.

He's sooo tiny...

String cheese

Little Theodore loves hieghts.

Vivian... not so much.

Super Bowl

2011-04-07T12:30:00.000-07:00

So I do realize this was over 2 months ago but I am attempting to catch up the blog to help me stall on other projects. So here we go...

~~~

I am so grateful that my husband isn't the "typical male" that has to watch the football game every sunday. But there is one sunday he does get excited about (for the commercials as much as the game) and I realized this year that that is perfectly acceptable. So he called his brother to see if he wouldn't mind bringing over his projector for the big game. So here is an attempt at showing you how big the screen ends up being on our wall.

But since the flash hides the screen here is a more blurry but more effective shot.Pretty big huh? I actually tried to understand what was going on this year. John always roots for the underdog and Kenneth (John's Dad) was rooting for the other team. Michael sided with Papa because his favorite color is green. So he was excited when they won.

~~~

Here is some of our grub... veggies and chips with all kinds of dips, cookies and crackers all the party stuff.

Plus a huge tray of bbq ribs and chicken and muffins.

I guess Theodore didn't get the memo that this was a MAN'S Party. We should have hid all the girl toys.

We hadn't celebrated Jenny's birthday so we made her a cake as well.

It was fun to hang out with family and watch the game on the big screen. Maybe next year we'll have friends over too.

Stories

2011-03-26T23:32:00.001-07:00

The kids have done a few super cute things last week and everyone keeps telling me to write them down so here I go.

~~~

Wednesday I was doing the dishes and Michael asked if he could go out back. They had been fighting all morning so I said, "Sure, Go ahead" anything to get them out of the house and to stop fighting. So here is the conversation that followed

~~~

Michael - "Come on Vivian, lets go out back."

Vivian - "I don't want to go out back."

Grumpy Michael - "Fine, I will NEVER let you come outside with me."

Sad Vivian - "But I WANT to go out there."

Happy Michael - "OK, Lets go get our shoes on."

~~~

Apparently my 6 year old already knows the art of reverse psychology. So they get their shoes on and go out back. Then I hear yelling about 10 minutes later and Vivian comes back in the back door.

~~~

Vivian - "I don't want to be outside anymore."

Michael - "Come on Vivian.... I have a surprise for you."

Vivian - "Ok, I will put my shoe back on."

~~~

So they go back outside as I am laughing at Michael's success in manipulation. About 5 minutes later...

~~~

Vivian - "Mommy can you put me on the swing that Michael is saving for me?"

Me - "No Vivian, I'm doing dishes right now."

~~~

2 minutes later

~~~

Vivian - "Can you PLEASE put me on the swing.... I'll give you a hug!"

Me - "OK, Vivian, just a minute."

~~~

It was too adorable to say no again. But they both know how to manipulate and I don't think that is a good quality in children. When I told Debra the story she couldn't get over the fact that Michael was 'saving' the swing for her... saving it from who?

~~~

So they have watched Megamind about ten times this week and have started speaking in 'code' which in that movie is pretty much just saying the word "code" before you say what you are going to say. "Code: They are really cute"

~~~

Also they have started playing Super Why "Code: Not so cute, but clever." For those of you who are not familiar with this cartoon it is about a boy named Wyatt and his friends that live in Storybook Village. They usually encounter a problem and they go to the Book Club to look in a book for the answer. They end up flying into the book and the story has the same problem they are having just in a different context. Usually the main character ends up saying at some point, "I have to ______ because it's in my story." So then Wyatt (Super Why) changes the story for them so that they can solve the problem.

~~~

So she started playing Super Why when it comes to potty training. She said, "I have to pee in my underwear because it says so in my story." I jumped on that one and said, "Well I changed your story and now your story says you go pee in the toilet. Vivian has her issues with solving problems. Whenever she is playing barbies or ponies or make believe in general she always creates a problem and no matter how hard I try, she refuses to pretend to solve it. So she comes back with, "Only Super Why can change the story." So I said I WAS Super Why and she said I'm a girl and can't be Super Why because Super Why is a boy. So then Michael joins in and tries to change her story but it still didn't work because nothing works with her.

~~~

(Any Potty Training advise is welcome)

~~~

Saturday Michael freaked out about getting hurt while playing rough with Daddy and we told him to stop, he didn't so we sent him to time out. (I know we sound like horrible parents but if he is choosing to play rough then he is not allowed to get upset when he gets hurt because that is what happens while playing rough, obviously there are times when he is hurt bad and we don't punish but cuddle but for minor pains we don't want a whiny kid) So when we asked him why he was on time out he said, "Because I fruck out about getting hurt." We started laughing and he got more upset and so I said, "Michael, I'm sorry we're laughing but you said a funny word, you said fruck out instead of freaked out. Fruck isn't a word." They are so cute when they make up words. At least he gets the idea about past tense.

~~~

Vivian wasn't feeling well the end of last week so on Saturday I wrapped her blanket all the way around her. After dinner she said, "Mommy can you snug me again?" She kept using that word, "I want you to snug me." , "I want to get snugged." It was adorable.

~~~

Since Theodore wasn't mentioned in any of the stories above I thought I would include his latest news. First off.... he loves to dance now. Even a small jingle on a cartoon can get him moving. It is hilarious to watch. Last night when we were singing "Families Can be Together Forever" before the kids went to bed we were cracking up because he could not stop moving to the song. After we finally finished singing I pointed out that that was not a very good calming the kids down experience. So I took Theodore out of their room and John sang more with the kids to get them calm but it was fun to be laughing all together.

~~~

He has also started to say a few words more regularly. I don't really count them as words until he says them several times and it's obvious he's gotten the hang of what something is called. So the one he's been saying the longest is probably "Bye" He learned this several months ago but gave up on it for a few months and just started using it again a couple weeks ago along with trying to say "hello" which I will not attempt to spell. He definitely knows "bath" but it turns out to sound a lot like "ba." Then his other favorite is "hot dog" which he pretty much thinks is anything that comes out of the fridge. I will ask him if he wants to eat and he'll walk over to the fridge and say "hok kog" or something like that as he tries to open the door. He also knows the sign for 'more' and 'all done/gone' He knows how to say "aw ga" but doesn't only use it for meals... he kind of goes around all day saying it so it's hard to tell if he knows what it means.

~~~

He is really good at folding his arms for prayer now and attempts to say "amen" as well as gibbering through the prayer thinking it's his turn. He loves being up high and pointing at anything and everything.

~~~

He used to be my obedient little kid by running to his room when it was nap time. As soon as we put the bottle in the microwave he would run to his room and wait for us. He also started a few weeks ago to lay down where ever he was at when he saw us coming with the diaper and wipes. But now... he runs away... he finds the farthest corner to stay in until we come get him. He used to give me back my phone when I asked for it... now he runs. But he does still take things where we tell him to for the most part. "Go give this to Vivian", "Go put it in the trash" This one cracks us up because right now we have the trash cans on the other side of our baby gate and if he's on his tip toes his finger tips can barely reach the top of the gate so the hope of him actually throwing something over and getting it into the trash is a waste but it's just so funny to watch him try.

~~~

Since he was a few months old he has enjoyed hair. If it gets on his hands... he will stick it in his mouth and try to eat it. We were always wondering what he had in his mouth (because you can't see hair) so we would have to go up to him and inspect his mouth and hands until we found the culprit hair. Back then there were 5 girls in the house so it was all over. Now that Tammy and the girls have been gone it doesn't happen as often. So he has tried to get it from the source a few times by going up to Vivian and pulling her hair out. One night I was brushing and braiding Vivian's hair and he got ahold of the brush... his own brand of lollipop. I wonder when this phase will end because I don't want him to appear on My Strangest Addiction someday.

~~~

That's all I have for now. I have a ton of pictures to post so hopefully it will happen soon.

Mother of 4

2011-02-25T11:22:00.001-08:00

So as all mothers know, it is hard to keep the right names with the right kid. My sister told me that I mixed them up in my blog about the hospital calling Lawrence "Theodore" on accident. I can't believe I missed that, esp. with how many times I proofread my posts. However this mix up is quite frequent because we are just in the habit of calling the baby of the family Theodore. The kids are better than me and John are about keeping them strait but I have heard Michael slip up a few times.

~~~

Lawrence developed jaundice Saturday morning. Vivian had it too the first couple days so instead of trying to get him to see a doctor (on the weekend) I decided to just keep feeding him and let him bathe in the sun. The yellow didn't go away as fast as it did with Vivian but around day 7 he got a good color back. Vivian loves Lawrence but once again she gets so close that sometimes it scares us. It seems like it's another doll to her... a very special doll... an alive doll... but still. I will be grateful when he is at least a month old and can hold his head up better.

This was me on day 5. Not very flattering that's for sure... But Lawrence is adorable. I have been having so much fun nursing and cuddling and napping with him but at the cost of my other children. I need to snap out of this 'babymoon' and try to enjoy some time with ALL my kids.
Lawrence has 3 or 4 cowlicks (sp?) on the back of his head. My mom thinks they will go away when he looses all his hair, but I don't think it works that way. We might have to resolve with always doing his hair in a mohawk.

you know how babies loose a layer of their skin pretty quick? With the other 2 I don't remember it being all at once but here is a picture of Lawrence's belly, it's kind of hard to tell, but the day before this was taken it was definitely obvious. Vivian happened to be in our room when John finished bathing him and when she saw his tummy she's like, "Why is Lawrence all messy?" It was adorable and now John and I have a new inside joke every time we see dead skin.

Michael is again an adorable big brother. He ALWAYS wants to hold Lawrence and gets mad if it has been too long in between holds. Of course he only wants to hold him for a minute or two b/c he's not that exciting yet but it's still adorable.

~~~

Nana took me shopping on Presidents Day because my sister told me I couldn't pass up the Sale at Michael's. While we were gone a little too long Lawrence got pretty hungry and we have this adorable video of Michael singing to Lawrence while swaying him around the living room. I haven't had the best experience of uploading video's but I thought I would tell you about it and type the lyrics to Michael's made up lullaby. "It's alright! I know it's going to take a long time. Just wait until mommy comes home... today!" John said that Michael singing was the only thing that would calm him down. In the video he tried giving him back to John and he sure enough started crying again so Michael said to put the video on for Lawrence to listen too.

Theodore is also pretty cute with him. The first few days he would look at him and smile pretty big behind his binky but then he would look at me (keep the smile on) but have this look in his eyes saying, "He's in my way." He still has his jealous moments but usually he just looks at him and smiles. He is pretty good about keeping his distance and not touching him but there have been a couple times that I have had to protect Lawrence. Mostly because Theodore is in that curious stage of, "what will happen if I do this." He is learning that some things get Mommy mad, and whenever he makes me mad he goes strait to the time out corner without being asked. I've only actually sent him there once. It's amazing how much he's learned just from watching the other kids.

Every time we see him looking at Lawrence we say, "Baby." over and over again. He is starting to say a few words so we are doing our best at teaching him the basics.

For me personally, my babies just look like babies. They all look the same to me until they get a little older. But from what I can tell, I think Lawrence will be a lot more like Vivian than Theodore. He came with the strawberry on the forehead, long fingers, long feet and toes like Vivian had. I'm also pretty positive he will have blue eyes but John is in denial and is really hoping for another child with hazel eyes. However Lawrence's head shape looks more like John's, Michael's and Theodore's so only time will tell what he will really be like.

Lawrence is a great nurser. The first 16 hours he wanted to be on me constantly and I was hoping he wouldn't be like that all the time because I wouldn't be able to handle it. However the next 16 hours he slept so deep that we barely got 2 or 3 feedings in him (hence the jaundice the next morning). Since then he has tapered off to a more regular eating schedule and at 2 weeks was almost up to 9 pounds.

~~~

This may be graphic for some but before babies smile consciously they smile in their sleep and I think it is the most adorable thing when an infant smiles with their mouth full of boob.

Here I am with my 2 babies. I thought this was such a candid moment that I (super stingy with what I let my kids play with or touch) actually asked Michael to go get the camera and take a picture of us. He was so proud saying, "This is my first picture ever." (yeah right, he's snuck the camera a few times and has had the privilege of playing with Grandparents phones and camera's frequently.)

Here is my 2 babies again, This is the look Theodore always has on his face when he looks at Lawrence.

He wasn't quite sure what to do with him in his lap though.

I've been trying to give Lawrence some time to work out his neck. I will feel so much more comfortable once he builds those muscles. It happened pretty quick with the other 2 but Lawrence still seems so fragile.

This is Michael's adorable big brother face.

And here is Vivian holding him however she pleases like it was her own doll.

And here are my 4 beautiful children. I am slowly getting used to the fact that I have 4 kids and I'm only 25. I almost have my house fully together. The past few weeks we've been organizing cupboards and closet's and if I can only get my office/craft room and front/school room organized then I will feel a whole lot more prepared for the busy months ahead.

While we were still in the hospital killing time until we could come home I called each of my sisters to make sure they heard the news. Melanie asked me a question I wasn't prepared for. She asked if my family felt more complete now. I wasn't sure how to answer her because even though John and I knew we wanted more children this one did come as a surprise to us and it's been hard to get used to the idea. However the more I thought about her question I could only think of little Adelaide that is still waiting in heaven to join our family. The more time I have spent with Lawrence there is no doubt in my mind that he belongs here as well and I'm sure there is an important reason why he came now instead of later.

~~~

I'm not sure how the conversation happened but Michael was telling John that he didn't want another little sister because if they both took a toy away from him he wouldn't know which one to chase after first. We had to burst his bubble and let him know it wasn't just little sisters that took toys away from him and that he will have to deal with it from Theodore and Lawrence when they get older too.

In a few weeks we will have to get the 6 of us in one picture. Usually we get one at the hospital but the kids didn't come to the hospital this time and it just hasn't worked out at home yet.

~~~

Well I hope you've enjoyed learning more about our ever changing family. I will try to post more often (it's one of my new years resolutions).

Help

2011-02-25T10:45:00.001-08:00

So I had a lot of help the first week of Lawrence's life. Nana would come over to babysit the bigger kids or cook meals while John had other obligations. Here she is playing computer games with ALL the kids. I had been pretty stuck to the couch but when I saw Theodore climb up there, I had to walk faster than was comfortable to go get the camera for this shot. It was just too cute.

While John took Lawrence for his Circ. I decided to surprise him by doing the dishes. He has been so awesome and I new doing EVERYTHING was starting to ware him out. So I set the kids up with Play dough and got to work. Michael decided to surprise me and make a bunch of hearts. He was proud of his "fence" (made of the play dough cups) to prevent me from seeing the surprise before it was ready.
Theodore decided to "Help" me eat my cookies.

He also helped Papa measure the hole for the new Pair Tree in our backyard.

While me and Nana went shopping with Vivian and Lawrence the rest of the guys were working on planting in the back yard. They planted a new orange and pair tree, 2 grapevines, 9 asparagus plants and a bunch of onions. Thanks John and Papa!

I am so grateful for all the help I received and I'm sure that had a play in my quick recovery. I am feeling almost back to normal and it's only been 2 weeks. With the other 2 I was down for 5-8 weeks so I am very grateful for all of my blessings.

Michael's Birthday Acknowledged

2011-02-25T10:11:00.000-08:00

So Michael's actual birthday was the 12th. We got home from the hospital the night before so that morning Nana came over to babysit Vivian and Theodore while I took care of myself and Lawrence so that John could take Michael shopping. He got to spend the gift card he received at his birthday party. John took him all around Target and they made a list of all the things Michael wanted to go back to. He finally decided on 2 dart guns. John bought him some extra darts so that the fun can go on forever. Here is one of their first gun fights.

Such an animated Character, some day he will be in acting classes.

~~~

Nana bought him a color magna doodle and he drew a pretty good version of a clock on it for this picture. All 3 kids fight over this toy big time. Theodore thinks it is a great toy to sit on but we are trying to change his mind.

Nana also made him a cake for his birthday. It was just John, Vivian and I that were awake to sing to him but he enjoyed making another wish before blowing out his candles and plunging the room into complete darkness.

John also took him to buy new tennis shoes and new church shoes for his birthday. We made sure to get ones with laces to force us into teaching him how to tie his shoes. Unfortunately we haven't left the house very much to work on it but one of these days we will get it going.

Lawrence James Bowman

2011-02-12T20:33:00.000-08:00

Here is Vivian Rose Bowman after 18 hours of labor (measured from insertion of first induction pill to time of birth) including 2 intense hours of pushing. Here is Theodore Scott Bowman after 22 hours of labor including several pushing attempts before pushing for half hour. (I forgot how clear his skin was)

Here is Lawrence James Bowman after 6 hours of labor and only 2 minutes of pushing.
I was just so amazed at the different experience. John and I were really hoping this one would go a lot faster because we didn't want my body to go through what it did before, and we really wanted it born on the 10th so that there would be at least one day in between his and Michael's Birthday's. So for those of you who care, here is the whole story. For those of you who don't want a whole lot of detail... you might want to skip or skim the following text.
~~~

I felt like I was further along than I have before and mentally I had prepared myself to work instead of just dilly dally around all day. I had also decided on the epidural to ease the pain and hopefully make the experience a little more pleasant for us all. So my mental outlook going into the hospital was different than before.

~~~

We got to the hospital at 7am but waited for quite awhile before OB was ready for us (so much for pre-registering to speed the process). It was after 9am before she checked me to put the first pill in. But I was already at a 4 so she had to talk to my doctor before putting it in. Dee (my CNM) told her to go ahead and put the first pill in and then she would come around noon to break my water. So it was probably around 9:30 that I got that first pill. 40 minutes later I went on my first walk. (usually I saunter) but I was on a mission. I really wanted my water to break on it's own this time. It did with Vivian but Dee had to break it with Theodore and I think that is one reason why the labor took longer, because my body wasn't quite ready yet.

~~~

So there I was walking briskly down the hallway pushing my IV stand, with John trying to keep up complaining about his hips hurting. We didn't head back until my IV battery was running low and I was glad to lay back down. Of course Dee didn't show up at noon (I didn't really expect her to) but my mom and John's mom were both there by 1pm. Debra (John's mom) kept saying we would have a baby before dark. I didn't believe her but hoped it wouldn't be too long after that. We went for another short walk (this time it was hurting more but I was still trying to move faster than normal). Dee was there when we got back.

~~~

Sometime between 2 and 2:30 is when she went to go break my water. She had everything ready and checked me, I was at a 6 almost 7 and while she was in there my water broke on it's own. YAY, I was glad about that. Then they said, "OK, what kind of pain medicine do you want." I said, "Dee suggested the epidural so I'm gonna go with that." Well, they came back a few minutes later to tell me that the anesthesiologist was busy and wouldn't be available for 2 hours and by that time I would be way past that so I went with the same pain meds I've used before. They totally knocked me out but didn't really take too much pain off of the contractions. Of course John waited until then to snap a couple pictures of me. And he had to turn on the video camera and ask me how I was feeling which had the same response as last time... "GO AWAY!"

So at one point I felt like I needed to go to the bathroom but I really didn't want to get up because I was so relaxed. I got up anyways and sat on the toilet for about 10 minutes as Debra suggested. I was leaning on John the whole time dozing in and out though. Then went back to the bed to doze some more. John was such a trooper in there. He kept trying to come up and kiss me or just squeeze my hand to let me know he was there for me and I didn't say, "You did this to me!" like all the movies think we do... but I did shoo him away from me because I was trying to focus on my pain. Poor guy. I love you John.

~~~

Not too long after that I started pushing, my body told me it was time. Debra jumped up and went to the hallway... "She's pushing in here!" So they called Dee and told her to come back and they got the table set up pretty quickly.

~~~

Dee put my feet up on that horribly uncomfortable bar and continued getting things set up. I tried dropping my feet once and she yelled at me for ruining her sterile area so I put them back up. (This is something that happened several times with each of the other two but I only made the mistake once this time). I started pushing and tried to get the epidural again. They said, "Honey, you are totally past that. This baby is coming now." I still didn't believe them. But I had to push again, my body said push. So I pushed... it felt like the head was right there. Dee performed the unfavorable but necessary episiotomy, and I pushed again. They told me to grunt push, so I did a few of those and then the head was out. I pushed again and the body came out.

~~~

"Wow"

~~~

That was the only word I could say for the next 5 minutes. I really hadn't believed them, but they were right. So at 4:20pm on February 10th, 2011... Lawrence James entered this world, measuring the exact same as Theodore.... 8 pounds, 1 ounce and 20.5 inches long.

There were more pictures from right after but all of them are flashing his privates so I will have to see if Debra was a little more careful than John was about concealing Lawrence's manhood.
The doctor that has performed our other two boys circumcisions is currently out of the country for awhile and the other surgeon doesn't do circumcisions in the hospital. So with that, we decided we wanted to get the heck out of there as soon as possible. The nurses made sure to get all the paperwork done during the day and as soon as they were done with Theodore's 24 hour PKU test, we headed out the door. This is what we dressed him in to go home.

Here he is in the bassinet today.

And here he is with the kids. Theodore was unfortunately asleep when we took these so we will have to do it again in a couple days. Michael is so excited about having another baby brother. He was adorable the morning we left for the hospital. He kept saying, "I'm soooo excited for baby Lawrence to come."

Vivian didn't seem as excited. Granted she was tired that morning but overall she hasn't seemed too excited about another baby invading her space. However she has proved to enjoy the little one and always wants to hold him. We have to frequently tell her she's too close and remind her of the rules but otherwise she seems to be alright with him.

When we came in the door they were all waiting on the other side of the gate for us. Nana had the camera ready, Theodore was screaming his head off and the other two were anxious to catch a glimpse of Lawrence. All I wanted to do was run to Theodore and give him a hug... which I did, but I couldn't pick him up and I think he was a little confused.

We are pretty sure his eyes are going to be blue. Usually you can't tell this early but they definitely have a distinct blue ring around them.

He is a great eater and has a tiny cry (for now) so we will enjoy that while it lasts.

My recovery is better and worse than before. But overall... way better. I think it will be a faster recovery because I didn't put my body through as much strain as before. But man the after contractions are pretty killer this time. We are all doing better than expected. John is off for the beginning of next week and Nana (Debra) is making sure we are all taken care of.

~~~

Thank-you for your thoughts and prayers.

Pregnancy

2011-02-03T19:39:00.000-08:00

So here I am at 38 weeks today. (Sorry it's the same shirt as the last belly shot) I pre-registered at Doctors Hospital of Manteca today and I am scheduled to induce next Thursday, February 10th, 2011. One week... and counting...

This pregnancy has been different from the last two. Similar in some ways to each but then it's been better and worse at the same time. I was able to manage the nausea pretty well. I take a zophran pill every morning and try to eat a couple bites of something before I get up. Heartburn has been worse. I get these attacks that I actually have to use labor breathing to get through them. If anyone is near me when that happens they start looking really concerned until I'm able to say, "It's just heartburn."

~~~

My pain level down below is also way worse than last time. I will get this random pinch that feels like my water is breaking except it's not quite that extreme of a pain (and no gushing fluids). Sometimes it hurts to walk and sitting in certain chairs or on the floor is a killer as well. On top of that, it seems like he has dropped (something the other 2 did not do) and I feel him turning his head in between my pelvic bones, or he'll randomly head butt my bladder or something down there and it is never pleasant.

~~~

However the symptoms have been a big part of my life the last 2 years so my body has gotten used to it. I am so used to being pregnant that sometimes (if he's not moving) I will forget that I am with child. But then I will look down at my belly and realize the big change laying ahead.... 4 kids...

~~~

I am 25 years old and I will have 4 kids....

~~~

In Young Womens we always joked that I would get married really young and have a huge family but after High School it didn't seem likely for me to go that route. I guess adopting our first kid caught me up to that prediction. The thought of being responsible for 4 lives other than my own scares me more than I care to admit but I know Heavenly Father will help me through this. We are not opposed to having more kids after this but it really just depends on how life goes with 4 first. When people ask how many kids I want I usually just say, "One at a time."

~~~

Despite how hard it's been and how scary the future sounds at the moment, I do have great helpers around. Michael has been such a good big brother to Theodore. The past couple weeks it has been his job to get Theodore out of his crib after naps. And the past couple days he has started putting him IN his crib for naps and into his chair for meals. This will be a big help after the baby comes because my pain down below will be 20 times worse.

Vivian is a big helper when I drop something on the floor. If I don't have to bend over I won't and the kids are so patient with coming all the way across the room to pick up something right next to me. They are also both really good at going to get something for me, or themselves, so I don't have to get up.

Theodore also helps by crawling under his crib to get his own Binky.
I'm not quite sure how Vivian and Theodore are going to react to ANOTHER baby in the house. Vivian still has issues towards Theodore. She loves him, but she can get too close in a bad way and still (at 3 and a half) really wants to be a baby herself in a lot of ways; Refusing to Potty Train completely, Refusing to eat by herself or with a fork most of the time and this last week we caught her sucking on a Binky a couple times. It's hard for me to choose which one to fight her on and when so my lack of consistency just makes it worse.
~~~
Theodore can get pretty jealous at times too. Sometimes when Vivian is on my lap, he will start screaming bloody murder. But for the most part he keeps busy and I can tell he will be a lot like Michael. The more tired he gets, the harder he plays. And he's developed Michael's old habit of playing in his crib for an extended time period before falling asleep. He is getting to be such a big boy that other than the fact that he can't talk yet it will be easy to not think of him as the baby anymore. I just hope he will understand that he will have to share mommy a lot of the time.
~~~
I also have a spectacularly wonderful husband. He's been awesome about washing the dishes so that I don't have to lean over my belly and hurt my back to do them. He is also a great sport about all the little things; putting my socks on, cleaning up messes the kids make, vacuuming, wiping the table, switching laundry, etc. The list could go on and on with all the little things he does to make my life easier and I should tell him how much I appreciate it more often.
~~~
So other than the long to-do list that we are trying to finish before life gets crazier, I think we are pretty much ready for next week. At least with all the things we can control. My mom is going to come up and watch the kids while I am in labor and then between my parents, John and his parents, the kids will be taken care of while I am in the hospital. I have the baby clothes washed and the bassinet never got put away (just filled with junk). So there are a few more mandatory things we need to set out and rearrange but everything else we will just handle it when we need to.
~~~
We will definitely get some pictures from the hospital on here as soon as we can and keep everyone updated through here or facebook.
~~~
Wish us Luck... Here we go...

January

2011-02-01T20:31:00.001-08:00

Just thought I would share a few pictures and stories from the last month.

~~~

This one below is what happens when I sleep in. The kids end up feeding Theodore breakfast. They had peeled at least 5 cutie oranges for him and themselves and he was just happy as could be sitting up there like a king stuffing his mouth.

This is me at 35 weeks. I will have to get another photo and give you a full pregnancy update later this week.
This is the Christmas Tree that me and Michael made in Woodshop. We had forgotten all about it until we needed his backpack for school again. While Michael was at school, Vivian decided to decorate it with Silly Putty ornaments.

Here is Big Papa blowing out his candles on his birthday. I didn't ask how old he was turning and therefore didn't have the correct amount of candles but I figured 18 was enough to celebrate.

Here is one of Michael's favorite things to do. Theodore is learning fast as well.

Here is another Favorite thing to do, Climb on Daddy. These next few pictures were just too fun not to share.

Theodore is 14 months old today. He is getting to be such a smart boy (I can't say big, because I don't think he has grown much. I'll find out at his 15 month check up next month.) But he's on track to be just like his dad, short... but full of brains.

Michael's Birthday Party

2011-02-01T19:57:00.000-08:00

So because I am going into the hospital on the 10th of February and Michael's Birthday is the 12th, we decided to Celebrate his Birthday a couple weeks early. I told him we weren't going to have a big party, no themes, just friends and cake.

~~~

But first things first. The week before the Party Michael discovered a loose tooth. He lost it just in time for the party. So here he is the night before the party SUPER excited about loosing his first tooth.

Last summer Nana bought a small blow up Jumper at a yard sale. We used it quite a bit over the holiday's and it came in handy for his party as well. It's small enough to fit in our garage (when it's clean) so the weather doesn't effect it's use too much. I sent out evites and had a craft set up in our front room and they all had a blast.

~~~

Here he is while we are singing to him. I've never known anyone to look bored durring their own birthday song. Maybe he's just thinking hard about what he wants to wish for.

My finger food snacks look like they were a hit. Here is Papa trying to explain what a gift card is. Michael was pretty excited about it, so one of these days we will be taking him to Target. Thanks Sarah and Nathan.

He got a bunch more fun presents; a U-build Mouse Trap game that we all had a blast with the next day, some Spiderman stuff, a couple Batman toys, a new outfit, a fun Car and an Imaginex squid toy. Thanks to Everyone who came and helped us celebrate.

~~~

And a BIG thanks to my mom who was there hours before helping watch the kids and bake the cupcakes while I had to go to the doctors and run some last minute errands before the party. Then durring the party decided to hide out in my bedroom and fold my laundry. Thanks MOM, I appreciate everything you do for me.

Theodore turned 1

2011-01-20T15:59:00.000-08:00

OK, I know this is almost 2 months ago, but I thought I should document the fact that we did commemorate Theodore's First by letting him get messy and eat his first real dose of sugar.

Michael wanted Theodore to have a Family Cake. Luckily my sister was in town and she has artistic skills with frosting. (The cake was kind of falling apart but it still tasted great.)

His face only got that messy because Regina shoved it in the cake. Nobody was too happy about that but it did make for some cute pictures.
I was just surprised that he was really eating it. Most one year olds just play with their cake, but he was shoving it in his mouth pretty good.
He got a toy bus that sings and a new Cars outfit from the Maka's.

And here he is opening the present from us. We had to help a lot and try to keep the other kids away. They were waaaay too anxious.

But it was a huge hit. Way more exciting than the socks we also got him.

Well, there ya go, Theodores First Birthday Party on December 1st, 2010.

Climber

2010-12-21T15:49:00.000-08:00

Who's helping Daddy cook?

Yep, 1 year old Theodore. Climbed up the ladder all by himself a couple weeks ago.

This afternoon I walked into our main room (Kitchen/ Dining Room/ Living Room) the kids were sitting at the table coloring and Theodore was ON the table watching them. I said, "Who put Theodore on the table?" They both looked up and were surprised to see him there. Michael asked, "How did he get up there?" Then I took him off the table and put him back on the floor.

And he proceeded to show us, how he got up there. What am I going to do now?

Baby Name

2010-11-13T18:12:00.001-08:00

As most of you know we have had a hard time picking another boy name. When we asked Michael, he said we should name him "Theodore"

When we asked Vivian, she said we should name him, "California"
When we asked Thodore he just laughed.

We tried to give him several suggestions but he just laughed harder at each one.

Both me and John were hoping he would be a little more helpful considering he's the one that saw his brother in heaven last, but he still just kept laughing.

~~~

John has been particularly picky about this name and kept turning down everything I suggested. Finally I told him he needs to give at least some of the names a chance.

~~~

Soon after that I became pretty set on a name. It has taken him WEEKS to come around to it and he's not 100% attached to it but he has finally agreed to it and there is no turning back now.

~~~

Our third son will be named

Lawrence James Bowman

Lawrence means crowned with laurel. (Laurel is a tree but also means honor.)

So Lawrence means Crowned with Honor and James is a 'substitute'.

~~~

So we now have our name and we can start refering to my tummy as Lawrence. Again we will not be giving him a nickname we will call him Lawrence just like all our other kids go by their full name.

~~~

Lawrence will join our family on February 10th. (At least that is the induction date and I am fairly motivated to pop him out quick this time. I stalled too long with Theodore.) And I am hoping that we can keep the 12th set aside as Michael's Birthday.

~~~

Hope life is treating you well.

~~~

With Love,

Johnathan Ray

Lorina Renee

Michael Xavier Marshall

Vivian Rose

Theodore Scott

and

Lawrence James

Halloween Costumes

2010-11-13T16:39:00.000-08:00

After that Girls Night Out I was kind of done with Halloween. For months we've been planning on being characters from Nintendo Mario Games but when it came down to it, we were too lazy. So at the last minute we through together our costumes.
John wore his suit with a nice black hat and when anyone asked what he was he said, "What do you think I am?" And whatever they said he would say, "yep, that's what I am." So he was a few different things, a Pimp, a Gangster, Michael Jackson, Oompa Loompa and a Newsie.

I couldn't find a hat that fit me so I ended up being a pregnant fairy. Not the best costume... oh well.

Nana dressed up for the first time in Years and she made her very own princess dress. Papa was a hippy (He actually got to have hair) and Kenney wore a black hooded cloak and was the Grim Reaper. But I never got pictures of them.

I didn't get a very good picture of Vivian but she wanted to be Dora. Grandma made her some orange pants and she bought the hat for me to try and make black hair but I thought she was cuter with her own red hair. We already had the back pack so the orange pants were the only thing missing.

Grandma decided to make Michael some fleece pajama's and let him borrow Grandpa's old Helmet. He loved it.

We even taught him how to Army crawl and I caught him doing it through the tables through out the party.

This little guy took the most thought but ended up being the cutest. I had bought this sleeper for him a couple weeks before Halloween and we always called him a jail bird in it. So when I couldn't think if anything else for him to dress up as, I just made him some shackles out of wide ribbon and used black pipe cleaners for the chain.

He looked so adorable walking around the Cultural Hall.

I think I was probably the only one that was in something uncomfortable (my feet were killing by the end of the night). Everyone else looked super comfy in their pajamas or in John case in something he is used to wearing every day. All in all it wasn't a failure but hopefully next year I will be able to put more thought into it. (We even bailed on setting up our trunk for the trunk or treat but next year we will do it for sure. I had so many idea's left over that I didn't get to do for my party that I was going to use for the trunk or treat but I just lost my steam after that.)

Vivian Moments

2010-10-16T19:09:00.000-07:00

I had to take Vivian to the Doctor yesterday because she has been sick all week. Her fever has been up and down, her eyes have been especially droopy, she started getting a runny nose and then we noticed her pee stunk really bad and just didn't seem normal. So we are sitting in the waiting room and they call her name. She was busy playing on the floor so she yells, "What?" All the nurses start cracking up, I don't think they get that response very often.

So Dr. Lunat checks her tummy (because we think it's a bladder infection) and sends me home with a couple cups to try to get her to pee into and a lab slip to drop it off at the lab when we get the sample. Since it was Friday he also gave me a perscription for amoxicillan in case it is a bladder infection but told me not to start the meds until after she peed in the cup.
So later we picked up John from work and we were talking about how she needs to pee in the cup and we showed her the little cup and then she says, "Yeah I will pee in it and then it will be a pee rattle." We laughed so hard because that is just too hilarious. (Don't worry, no one used the cup as a rattle after, or before, it was peed in)

Michael is such a good big brother.

And this little guy gets put in the weirdest places.

Back to Vivian: She has been getting sick a lot lately and whether this is a bladder infection or not we are headed for round 2 of potty training for her. The first round was unsuccessful because she just doesn't realize when it's about to come or didn't care if she did. We were having 3-5 accidents a day after 2 weeks so we decided to give her a break. It's been 2 or 3 weeks since so this morning when she was finally ready to pee in the cup she told me she needed to go and we rushed to the bathroom and got set up and after a couple minutes she looks at me with big bright eyes and says, "The pee pee is about to come out."

~~~

It was adorable and she has been in underwear all day without an accident until just now. Hopefully this time around it will be successful. I did let her pick out a package of underwear at the store and asked her a lot of times if it was going to help her go potty in the toilet. She already has a Dora chair because she is too tiny for the normal toilet seat (and was kind of scared of it). Because I'm worried about the germs and her getting sick so often has anyone every used the flushable wipes, and would you recommend them or would it be a waste of money? Does anyone have any other tips? What potty training tricks worked for you?

Girls Night Out

2010-10-15T09:35:00.000-07:00

This year in Relief Society we started what we call Girls Night Out. Each month there is a different host that chooses where and what we will do. The purpose for this is to learn new skills, learn what other people are interested in, to have a night away from life and mostly just get to know one another better. I chose to host October because I love Halloween and I knew it would be a good excuse to get into it. I put out flyer's a couple weeks ago that advertised, "Bingo Night, with a Halloween Twist" People started showing up at 7:00 last night and this is what they saw on the door. (The other side says, "Sorry Out of Candy")

When you walk into the house we have a couple rooms and then there is this entryway into the rest of the house. I decided to put a bat attack there as people walked in.
Then there was this little witch on the wall.

Hanging by our back door is Mr Jack. He's supposed to be just a Pumpkin Man but I have nicknamed him Jack. And this is Chris Papworth our new Relief Society President.

I told everyone I wasn't really taking pictures of them, I was getting the decorations on the walls. So these are the pumpkins that Michael and Vivian glued the faces onto.

These are some of the paintings that we did. They are supposed to be ghosts. They look pretty scary to me.

Here are some more Paint blobs and the balloons that Regina, Tammy and Rachel put up for me.

More Paint blobs. The two bats came out pretty good. Everyone is engrossed in the word search puzzle I made. 80 words are in it. I know I am crazy, but everyone enjoyed working on it.

Here is a close up of my table decorations. The tree is made out of a paper grocery bag and the little figures are just out of salt dough that we put in the microwave to get hard.

As you can see, I had the kids help with this one. It's amazing how messy they can get.

Here is my lovely snacks I had available. Cantaloupe and grapes, candied orange slices, homemade pumpkin bread, witch's fingers (out of string cheese), monster toes (out of lil smokies and strips of tortilla), and Halloween snack mix (including, homemade Carmel corn, raisins, cashews and candy corn).

And here is my candy buffet. Butterscotch, Carmel squares, pumpkin shaped candy corn, and chocolate with eyeballs and monster wrappers. I bought a ton of Apple cider for the night but wasn't sure how to serve it so it just sat there looking cool. I did have Tang and water though.Here are some of the games we played. We did a word unscramble, a Halloween Trivia that was 20 questions long. And then the word search that I made. I also had little cut outs of ghosts that they could take home and make with their kids or grand kids.

I had this jar of tootsie rolls for people to guess how many were in it, but everyone forgot so I ended up writing every ones names on the little slips and I just drew randomly for who won it. I also had door prizes that I gave away using the same method. (I didn't realize the pun last night, but the prizes really were for the door.) I had made 3 extra of the Trick or Treat/Sorry Out of Candy sign.

Here is the Bingo Game we played. My mom actually created it years ago and I got the master copies from her and copied them to orange paper, then glued them to the red cardstock and laminated them. We used candy corn for the markers and everyone enjoyed it. The game to the right is a memory game I made for the kids.

They also got to pick up a couple treats on their way out. I made chocolate covered pretzels. Chocolate covered large pretzel sticks with sprinkles. Chocolate covered marshmellows with coconut shavings. And chocolate covered marshmellows with sprinkles. There are a few white chocolate things in there too.

Also for fun I decided to dig this out of the game closet. This is something I made in 8th grade (I think). It is a full board game that I got 50 out of 50 on. I did a pretty good job back in the day. John, Regina and I played it the other night and it was fun. Each player has a list of items they have to go around the board and collect for the Halloween party. The first player to collect all their items and return back home wins.

After the party I decided to put up my display of salt dough figures on the entryway table. There we can enjoy it until Halloween.

All in all, it was a super fun evening. We had a pretty good turn out with new people coming so it was super fun. I was glad I got most of my decorations up and if you want to do any of the crafts most of them are from familyfun.com. Also it felt so good to go to bed with a clean house (except dishes, which Tammy is awesomely working on as I type).

~~~

HAPPY HALLOWEEN everyone.

Little Rascal

2010-10-09T08:47:00.001-07:00

I know it seems like most of my posts are about Theodore. But how can you ignore this...

This picture didn't capture it correctly but if he's not picking something out of the trash then he is using them as a walker and pushing them all over the place.
This is his favorite toy.... and there is one in every house!
He crawled up right underneath me while I was trying to cook. (It was hard capturing this picture because of my big belly. The more I leaned back, the more he did too.)
We definitely have to do something about this.

Because I keep tripping over him.

And that smile is just killer because he knows it is wrong.

Oh and those magnets hurt when they end up under your foot.

(There is that smile again.)

Washing dishes twice isn't fun either.

Even though it's been nice to not have another baby gate up, I think it will be exiting the garage in the very near future.

Warning: If you hear really loud screaming at random points durring the day, Just know that it is Theodore frustrated at the new gate blocking off his favorite place to be.

Pumpkin Patch

2010-10-05T15:49:00.000-07:00

Here is Michael's class. Not all of them are kindergartners. This field trip was for the whole synergy program so it does go up to 8th grade but there are very few in higher grades.

This is Michael's favorite teacher Mr. Meade. He teaches the Science class and we see him around a lot as he is highly involved in the Synergy Program.

Michael was making "baa"ing noises the whole time I was taking this picture.

This sign was up all over the farm.

This is on one of the bridges in the Corn Maze. We all went as a group so Mr Meade is the one who was following the map and we didn't make any wrong turns. It was kind of like taking a walk in corn. Not as exciting as getting lost but the way my brain was working (or not working) I wasn't about to wander in there alone. Vivian was terrified of the steps up to the bridge and was even scared during this picture.

Family picture. (Yes I left Theodore home. I didn't want to pay for him too.)

The Tram ride. I think we were supposed to get facts about the farm while we were on this ride. It sure would have made it more interesting because it was only going about 5 miles an hour.

Michael really wanted to sit next to Emma. Too bad he leaned in front of her right as I took the picture. I was excited to get a candid shot of her... it's not easy.

Here is Michael next to Chloe on the Hay Ride. I think we were supposed to receive information on the farm here too but still nothing. At least he was going 10 or 15 miles an hour.

Here is me and Vivian, I don't know why she has her hands in the air. Maybe she thought it was a roller coaster, but I feel terrible for catching this lady scratching her nose.

They had a beautiful Zebra in the petting zoo. I never really though about them being grey before.

Here is Michael petting the Zebra. They kept asking for food to feed them but the whole group was in there at the same time and I figured they were getting enough food for the time being.

Here is Vivian with the baby goats but she kept yanking her hand away before I could get a picture of it.

Here is Michael ready to race. The women with black hair in the plum shirt is his teacher Mrs. Anita.

Here Michael is almost tied with his friend Quinton. Later Michael ended up ahead quite a bit and was very proud of himself for winning the race. I won't be surprised if he tried to rub it in his face next time he sees him. Maybe I should try to prevent that.

Here is Vivian in the Kiddie Land. She was loving this race car. Later she finally went in the bounce house and a minute later she stuck her head out and was like, "I'm doing it mom!" So I gave her a thumbs up so I wasn't yelling across the yard and then she was so adorable giving me a thumbs up back. I love watching her grow up and try new things. She has been making really good strides out of her little shell and I think she knows it.

After they had their fun in the Kiddie Land we walked over to the old town set up they have their to take pictures. Vivian goes in the jail and says, "Ayudeme, ayudame!!" (Which is help in Spanish from Dora)

Michael goes in there and shakes the bars and says "Help, I can't get out, I'm stuck here forever!"

The lighting isn't very good but they were having fun. Michael always liked to look on the other side before he stuck his face in so he knew what he was being.

Here he is getting Vivian something from the store.

Hard at work.

She is so cute and tiny.

I had a lot more pictures but I figured that was plenty to show you our day. We had fun and I enjoyed spending the time with them without distractions from Theodore or anything else. I was surprised how much came with the Field Trip price. I highly recommend everyone go check out Del Osso Farms before Halloween. During a weekday is the best but if you have to go in the evenings or on a Saturday, just be prepared for crowds. We have gone every year for the past 6 years and it gets bigger every time.

Theodore 10 months

2010-10-01T10:34:00.000-07:00

Theodore turned 10 months old today and he surprised us yesterday by WALKING for the first time. He's been so close for awhile and I knew it wasn't going to be long but he is 10 months old and walking. He would take several steps at a time towards someone and he did it all afternoon and evening. However by the time we got the camera out he was a little too tired and we had him backed up too far. So this picture represents his successes. The Video at the bottom shows the only successful attempt at catching it on film and it was the first one. All attempts after failed. We have one video where he just kept toppling over in all directions.

He is also really good lately at throwing tantrums.

And being happy wherever we put him.
He often sleeps like this on Rachel, his favorite mexican mom.
The girls take a lot of the pictures of the kids and this one cracked me up when I saw it.

"That darn dog, woke me up again." The look on his face is classic if you can see it.

He loves this toy and can actually draw on it.

So many expressions from this little guy.

We have started a points system in our house where the kids get points for helping out and then they get to redeem them for toys or other things. Vivian picked out this crown and wand the other day and they all look so good in it.

Theodore would try to take it off when we put it on but last night I caught him trying to put it on.

Vivian loves it the most and will twirl around the livingroom turning everything into a volcano.

I was wrong!!!

2010-09-28T20:46:00.000-07:00

John took the afternoon off for my 20 week ultrasound. We loaded up the kids and when I got on the table and the tech started in with her measurements I said to her, "Oh by the way I have been refering to her as a girl, you get the pleasure of telling me I'm right or not." She said she would go down there in a minute. When she got there she's like, "Sorry, there is DEFINITELY something there." And sure enough there was.
~~~
John kept telling me to stop calling it a girl. But I said, "Hey, if I'm wrong, I'll be wrong. I won't be disapointed, It will be fine." And I am fine. I was calling it a 'he' 2 minutes later and it still felt natural, I haven't slipped up once.
~~~
However I had myself totally convinced it was a girl, not that I cared either way it's just this pregnancy was sooo like my pregnancy with Vivian. The past few weeks I have actually noticed the similarities between this and when I was pregnant with Theodore but I haven't wanted to tell anyone that because I was so sure it was a girl.
~~~
Here is a breakdown of pregnancy symtoms
~~~
With Vivian:
-normal breast pain in 1st trimester
-fatigue
-nauseated ALL the time
-heartburn in last trimester
-major aversion to most foods
~~~
With Theodore:
-normal breast pain in 1st trimester
-heartburn the whole pregnancy (probably due to weight gain)
-aversion to eggs and sweets
-pelvic pain unless I took it easy
~~~
With #3:
-breast pain in begining of 2nd trimester (I guess they don't need as much prep since they did this last year)
-heartburn (I try to avoid the foods that cause it but it's hard because that includes like 80% of foods)
-pelvic pain unless I take it WAY easy (even sneezing hurts sometimes)
-nausea (unless I sleep 8 hours and keep food in me. I also take a nausea pill and drink a yogurt before I get out of bed. Also drink a B-vitamin energy drink (don't worry it's caffine free) in the mid morning.)
-small aversion to eggs
-addiction to sweets
-fatigue (the energy drink helps though)

-hot flashes
~~~
Overall this pregnancy seems like a mix between the two. I was hoping it was a girl because then I would know within the first 2 months what the gender would be b/c I would assume if I got nausous it was a girl, if I didn't it was a boy. Oh well, I guess I can't judge it by that anymore. But I have been under a little more stress this pregnancy than last.
~~~
So now I just need to get used to the fact that my family isn't going to be balanced like I thought. Instead of 2 boys and 2 girls I am going to have 3 boys and 1 girl. And our other girl will just have to wait to join us. I know she is up there but she will have to wait a couple years.
~~~
Speaking of Heaven. Debra (MIL) kept telling me to ask Michael and Vivian what they thought it was. She says they are closer to heaven and they just know certain things. I had asked them before but it was always the same, Vivian wants a girl and Michael wants a boy. So today I was telling Michael where we were going and asked him if he thought it was a boy or a girl.
He said "I think it's a boy"
I said, "Do you think it's a boy or do you want it to be a boy?"
He said, "I think it's a boy and I want it to be a boy."
I said, "What if it's a girl, wouldn't it be fun to have a girl."
He said, "We can have another boy and then a girl."
~~~
Interesting huh? Now we just have to try and find a boy name we like. Such a hard battle. Wish us luck.

2010-09-27T10:18:00.000-07:00

Well I was hoping to have good news to report about a clean organized house but the only good news I can report is that Theodore (and the rest of us) are alive.
~~~
On Friday after I finished here I decided I would be more productive if I was clean and in actual clothes instead of pajamas. So a couple minutes after I get out of the shower (around 12:35ish) I hear Theodore screaming his head off. I knew that Tammy and Regina were out there but this wasn't a normal scream so I hurried to throw some clothes on and I get out there.
~~~
Tammy is holding him in his room trying to calm him down but it's not happening, I grab him and try and it's still not happening. We notice he is purple and a little shaky. I figure maybe throwing him in the warm bath might calm him so I try that. Nothing. Still screaming, still purple. We take him out wrap a towel around him and I give him some tylenol. I had no idea what was wrong but figure it couldn't hurt. I put a diaper on him then wrap him in a blanket.
~~~
I went in the front room and tried to rock him, he calms a little but he still isn't breathing right and he is still purple. I call Debra (My nurse of a Mother-In-Law) and she says he is probably choking. "WHAT?" so I put him on my lap and start pounding on his back and nothing. She calls Kenneth (My Father-In-Law) and he drives over to take me to the hospital. Tammy had made sure the neccessities were in my purse while he was on his way and then we were out the door.
~~~
I sat in the back seat of our van holding Theodore while Papa drove 90 miles an hour down Airport Road honking his horn through red lights. While we were on French Camp Road (heading to San Jouquin General Hospital) Theodore calmed down enough to get his color back. He started looking around and even talked a little bit. I said this is not worth an emergency room visit (and co-pay) so we head down to Manteca to his doctors office.
~~~
They put me right into a room and the other doctor came in to look at him. I have never had her before and she is kinda scarry looking and seemed like she was trying to make it sound like it was my fault for child neglect. I said, "No I had babysitters out there while I was in the shower" Even if I didn't are you telling me that I'm not allowed to take a shower if no other adults are home? I can name a few moms that shower and leave their kids alone in another room. It's not a big deal. I've done it before with all three of them awake. I didn't say that to her but seriously!
~~~
So while we were waiting the 10 or so minutes for the doctor Theodore had been playing on the floor as normal as could be. Then after she had been in there for a couple minutes he started crying again. It was normal at first but then he started the same grunt he had earlier where it seemed hard for him to breath. I think that helped my case with her because she didn't believe me until he started doing it again in her presence. Luckily she could tell it wasn't a normal cry.
~~~
So we head over to Doctors Hospital of Manteca for x-rays and bloodwork. Since I am pregnant I couldn't be in the x-ray room. Papa had to hold him in whatever awkward positions needed. Meanwhile I was outside the door listening to him scream but also very aware that I hadn't eaten lunch (or really even a good breakfast for that matter) As I am sitting there slowly getting hungrier I see this doctor cut himself a nice peice of chocolate cake and then proceed to eat it in front of me. HOW RUDE!!! Luckily I knew that chocolate cake wasn't the best thing to stick in an empty pregnant ladies stomach and since I was fairly distracted with Theodore's whole situation my stomach hadn't had a chance to get nauseated yet.
~~~
After the torcher of the x-ray room I had to take him across the hall and subject him to more torcher. This was the first time his blood was drawn and I felt so bad for the little guy. They tell us we can go and that the doctors office should have results in 1 hour. This time when we got to the car I actually put him in his car seat and with in 2 minutes he was out. Poor guy. I would be tired after all that crying and torture too. Papa drove me to wendy's where I ordered a 10 peice of chicken nuggets and we headed home.
~~~
I called John on the way and informed him of our adventure. I hadn't bothered him before that because I knew he wouldn't be able to do anything except worry and that would distract him from work. I downed to whole wendy's order before we got home and said thank you to Papa for driving me around and aiding in the torture of Theodore (also assuring him he wouldn't remember it later and for sure wouldn't hold it against him).
~~~
I called the doctor's office at the appropriate time and she said there was no evidence of foreign substance or pnemonia from the x-ray and the blood test showed he was fighting a minor stomach virus. She said if it happened again to go to the Emergency Room.
~~~
Theodore has gotten pretty upset several times since then but he's never gotten purple again. He has had several bowel movements so we just have to let his body fight this and keep him as comfortable as we can.
~~~
Vivian woke up saturday night screaming in pain. She said it wasn't her tummy it was her "breastes" which means chest pain. Sunday I stayed home from church with the two little ones and Vivian spent the entire day on the couch with a fever. I don't think it went past 102 so I didn't give her any meds. I wanted her to burn it off and get over it quicker.
~~~
Sunday night (or rather early monday morning) Michael came in complaining that his tummy hurt. Then proceeded to throw up 4 or 5 times over the next couple hours.
~~~
I am so grateful for a husband that is willing to take over those night shifts when the kids are sick or fussy. This pregnancy it has been very important for me to get a good nights rest otherwise the next day is just no good. I usually try to stay up to put Theodore to bed but once I am in bed John is always so awesome at getting up for crying children.
~~~
On a lighter note here is a video of how much Theodore loves dogs. He laughed so hard every time Buddy licked him.

Michael, Kindergarten and Me

2010-09-24T09:26:00.000-07:00

I decided to put Michael into Venture Academy which is less than 3 miles away. It is a Charter School and the only program they offer for Kindergarten is called Synergy. It is an ALL home school program that offers on-site classes 2 days a week. So I am responsible for all lessons and bringing him to school as well.

On Tuesdays he starts school at 9:40am for phonics, then science and then playground time. On Thursdays we start at 8:00am with Wood shop or Rock Climbing (depending on the week) and then more phonics and exercise class. Then we have a Parent/Child Workshop which is just doing different things together. Once a month we will have a Field Trip and one week out of the month is called "Check In" week where there are no on site classes but we have a meeting with the Teacher to turn in our work for the past month. Also he has Dance class every Monday morning at 8:00 am.
All in all the schedule confuses me. Even if we do get into a routine with the Home school lessons, then Check In week will come around and throw us off. I'm not going to back out because I have already started and I love the Teacher and the kids in Michael's class. He is such a lovable kid and makes friends very easily.

Because it is kindergarten and it is a big school they want us to stay with them the whole time. Also some of the classes (mostly rock climbing and wood shop) require a parent there to help their kindergartner. I am very lucky to have people at home that are willing and available for babysitting Vivian and Theodore while I am off at school with Michael. During Phonics we have to sit outside the classroom because it's not big enough. Most of us sit in the Lobby of the school which is just down the hallway and we can see when they are about to go on their walk to the bathroom. I use this time to read or talk with other parents. But for all the other classes we are supposed to be in the room with them (of course those are the classes that need our help so they better have room for us.)

Traditional Public school was not an option for me. This may sound stuck up but I still want to control who my child knows. Not that I completely shelter him from the world. If there are kids playing at a park that I don't like it's not that I pack up and leave or anything. But for something as regular as school I didn't want him associating with who knows who from who knows what kind of family. I know several families from church that attend Venture Academy and they all say that the parents are great.

They kind of have to be to go there because a Charter School is all about parent involvement. If you put your child in there you have to be willing and able to put in time with your kids to do homework or lessons. Which means if they are willing and able to put time into their children they are probably good strong families with some sort of value system. The parents I have met so far have all been great! The kindergarten class has 19 students but not all of them come to on-site classes. A few are strictly home school and might show up for Field Trips and such. Which means the class size is nice and small with an average of 11 kids showing up each time.

Like I said, I love the program (despite it's crazy schedule) and I will not back out but I do have a confession:

Anyone that knows me knows it is hard for me to put time and effort into my children. Part of my desire to do this (Home school) was to force me into it. So far I have failed miserably. I am awesome at bringing him to on-site activities (whoop-de-do that's the easy part) but when it comes to the lessons at home I have yet to develop a routine. I know it's something that doesn't necessarily require a routine but the way me and Michael work is best under routine. He thrives on them and it provides me with some sort of discipline so that I can't excuse it if I'm not feeling well or if I want to put priority on my projects over school.

However I have given myself this road block that I haven't been able to get over. John and I like to call it "sharpening our pencils." We both feel like we have to have a certain amount of preparation before we can begin certain things.

I have told myself that before I can get into a routine with Michael's School I need to have my office/craft room and my front room organized. The front room is what I am using as a school room. I have posters up and all sorts of stuff. I have room to put learning games and I even have some of the bookshelves for all the kids books so he can have a reading center. I have a lot of plans for school but I can't get to any of it.

Before I can access it all easily I need to get several boxes of random stuff sorted and put away. This includes 2 huge tubs plus a few boxes and smaller tubs of random papers to sort. Something we have ignored for the past 3 years which is why our collection has grown so big. It's one of those things that is so overwhelming that you don't know where to start.

I have told myself I am going to start it... TODAY!!! If I make a big mess then I will have all weekend to clean it up. I have to do it so it might as well be now right? Wish me luck and hopefully I will have good news to report next week.

PS. The pictures were of August 16th when we were heading to the Kindergarten Orientation. Michael was bored the whole time but it was still technically the first day of school and my only real opportunity to take first day of school pictures. I also took a video where he told me what was in his back pack and what he would be doing at school. He counted to 50 or so and sang the alphabet song then we shape searched for a minute and talked about colors and how his back pack and his shoes were camouflage. It was a cute video but it wouldn't upload for some reason.

Vivian got Wet

2010-09-19T08:12:00.000-07:00

In all the times I have been to the Mistlin Sports Park in Ripon, Vivian has never gotten wet on her own... Until August 7th. John came with us that day and for some reason I was able to talk her into it. We were going to go to Grandma's after this and I told her I would tell her where we were going if she got wet with me. She had a blast. My little girl is growing up!!!

Break is over

2010-09-16T10:23:00.000-07:00

I know I've been a complete slacker when it comes to this blog and I'm sorry to those who actually read it and have been wondering where I have been. I love the idea of blogging and journalling all the cute things my kids do and say. But I also know that instead of blogging about it I should be enjoying it because I had a habit of spending all my time on the computer reading others blogs and playing games on facebook that I was just ignoring my kids. So I told myself that I shouldn't spend so much time on the computer anymore. However I can't say I have been better about playing with my kids either. I was probably just wasting time elsewhere. So in an effort to change habits I think blogging should find it's way back into my life as well as a more assertive effort to spend time with my children. Here are a few pictures from August to enjoy.

Mr. Potato Head glasses on Theodore.

He is my binky baby. But lately he has been hiding them and we have no idea where all of them are anymore.

He gets a good workout in the jumper.

And then falls asleep eating.

We had to make a bed in the living room for him on the bad teething nights so he wouldn't keep waking up the kids.

Such a happy boy!

I don't know what Vivian is wearing or why she is holding Michael's pajamas. Michael found a pair of maternity pants.

Theodore Scott is Here!!!

2009-12-03T21:58:00.000-08:00

Theodore Scott Bowman was born on December 1st at 8:26 am. after 22 hours of labor. He weighed 8 lbs and 1 oz and was 20.5 inches long and his head was 14.5 inches around. He is a happy healthy baby boy and we are so glad he is finally here.

Here is the full and complete story of the birth. If you don't care for details or don't want to hear my whiny version, just skip the words and look at the pictures.

My induction was scheduled for Monday morning (November 30th) at 6:00am (or so I thought). We got to the hospital a little before 6 and they said that my appt wasn't until 7:30 but that I could start on the paperwork. We did that, drove around for a little while, tried to go back in at 7 but they said to come back at 8. We took a nap in the car and then went in. They didn't get the pill in me until 10:10 am but I was already dialated at a 2. That got our hopes up because with Vivian I was at a zero and no progress was made for awhile with her. However her labor was only 15.5 hours so I guess it didn't matter, she still beat him.

Dee Adams is my CNM (Certified Nurse Midwife), she came in at 7:00 pm to break my water. I was only at a 4 by then. By midnight I was complete so they got everything ready but for some reason I wasn't ready for it. I started complaining a lot. So Dee left and told the nurse to call her when the head got to a certain point. I was annoyed. Everyone started getting really mean and I don't like mean people. I was begging for drugs which they didn't want to give me (because it would slow things down even more) and I started begging for a c-section. (which is totally ridiculous because I just spent the last 2 months terrified of the idea of one)

They finally agreed to give me one more dose of meds as long as I promised to get serious when I woke up. I don't remember the nap at all. I remember a glimpse of her putting the meds in my IV and then the next thing I know I'm feeling contractions again. Sooo NOT COOL, I wanted to enjoy that nap, dang it. So I felt like I got no break from them hounding on me. I was immeadiately shoved in the shower. When I got out I was still complaining and begging for a c-section.

The nurse finally called Dee and they gave me 3 options, 1)I could push the baby out. 2)They could give me pitocin (a drug which intensifies contractions) and I could push the baby out. or 3)They could give me pitocin and a spinal (their version of an epidural, which numbs the bottom half of your body) and I could push the baby out. So I took that as prettymuch 1 option which was to push the baby out (which annoyed me even more) however I did choose the second route and choose the pitocin to speed things up. (I think they gave me that with Vivian too but I don't remember it being a choice, maybe that is what the difference in time was.)

It was around 6 am when they gave me the pitocin. I was still complaining and I really wanted them to call Dee and tell her to come. They kept saying if I got the head to the right spot, she would come and I kept insisting that if they tell her to come, I would get the head to the desired spot while she was on her way. They didn't believe me (I wonder why). They had a shift change around 7 am. I seemed to handle the new nurses a little better.

I told my mom to call my dad, I wanted a real blessing with oil. She called and told him he didn't have time for a shower to just get there. He got there around 8 am, I had made quite a bit of progress by that time. He had forgot the oil but gave me a fathers blessing anyways. I ended up having a contraction in the middle of it so I think he cut it short a little. (He probably felt weird with me bearing all force into it.)

Somewhere around the same time I heard one nurse telling the other to tell Dee to get there "...no if, ands, buts, about it, just tell her to come now!" FINALLY!!! Ok, so Dee was on her way, my dad was there, I started getting serious.... And it hurt.

This is where I will leave out most of the details. If you want them, you can ask me.

Dee got there 3-4 minutes after he came out. I'm glad it wasn't any later because my cuts were stinging and the nurses aren't allowed to sew me up. She was proud of me that I did it. I was proud of me too. I did it without the Vacuum and without Dee and with my Dad there. (Maybe I'll have a special post tributed to my Dad later.)

Here I am on drugs. John took a video right after this picture and I kept bobbing my head and I was actually trying to eat something at the time too. He asked me how I was doing and my response was, "Go away."

Here is my pushing face.

Here Theodore is napping between my legs in our hospital room.

Michael proudly holding his new little brother.

Vivian was really wanting to get the "yax" (ear wax) out of Theodores ears. The video was adorable but way too big to upload.

Here I am telling Michael what all of my bands are for.

Vivian's turn to hold her little brother. I think she is looking at his 'pointer' and 'thumbkin' as she always calls them.

I wish I knew what happened here but she looks thoroughly entertained.

Grandma holding her newest grandson. Thanks mom for being there and for bringing the kids to see us.

This is them saying good-bye to baby Theodore.

Here is baby Theodore before we left the hospital wrapped in the blanket Grandma made for him.

Here I am on our way out of the hospital.

I was trying to get a good picture of that dark hair. We are still not really used to it.

This is how we keep him pacified when he is awake. (Which isn't very often yet.)

Theodore is such a good baby. He is nursing well and doesn't have a very loud cry (yet). He usually only cries when we take his blanket off. He sleeps well (for now) and likes to pretend he is still in the womb with his arms tucked to his chest like a dead chicken. The kids love looking at him but they are pretty good about leaving him alone.

John appologizes for not being as diligent about taking pictures this time. We didn't get one of him on the scale with his birth weight or of his first bath (probably because it wasn't a real one like they did with Vivian.) And for some reason the family pictures we took in the hospital didn't end up on our camera so I will be posting those later when I get them from Nana or Grandma.

We came home from the hospital Wednesday night. I figured I could get better sleep without the nurses coming into my room every time I fell asleep. Theodore is happy and healthy and I am on the mend taking it as slow as I can. John has had this whole week off which has been nice. And Tammy and her girls have been a great help with the kids. I hope you enjoyed the update and that all is well with you.

Thanksgiving

2009-11-27T00:27:00.000-08:00

I found myself stopping to think of all the things I am grateful for today (I wonder why?). I know I haven't posted in awhile but I figured this would be a great thing to write down before I enter this next chapter of my life.... Ok here I go in no particular order.

1) The church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, without which I would be very lost and alone. I love knowing I have friends and people to help me wherever I go.
2) My wonderful husband who is always so awesome. He does so much for me and the kids on top of his job and his calling in the bishopric. I love him so much and can not imagine life without him. It has been a fantastic four years with him by my side.

3) My adopted son Michael who teaches me something everyday. Our life wouldn't be the same without him and I am grateful that he was able to join our family for eternity.

4) My daughter Vivian who brightens my day with her smiles and her songs. She is our little princess that amazes us with how smart she is.

5) This pregnancy, it has changed my attitude about life and has helped me crawl out of the depression I was carrying around since early in our marraige (I think around the time Michael was taken into foster care and our fight for custody began). I believe I have grown up a lot in the last 9 months. (Kinda scary now that it's almost over though.)

6) Our new roommates, Tammy and her 2 daughters, Rachel (17) and Regina (13). They moved in with us the end of September and have been such a blessing to me and the kids.

7) For baby Theodore Scott who we are excited to meet on Monday (or tuesday, depending on how long the induction takes.)

8) For our house that we were able to purchase this past spring. Even though I wasn't ready to become a homeowner at the time, I am so grateful that we have a roof over our head at an affordable rate and that I can call it my own.

9) For my parents and all that they put up with from me growing up. They set a good example for me and I am grateful that they raised me with the gospel.

10) For John's parents and all the help that they give our family. It is such a blessing to have them only 3 blocks away.

Well I'm sure I could go on and on but I do need to get some rest. I hope you enjoyed the pictures from the last couple of months. And don't forget to check back sometime next week for pictures of baby Theodore. I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

News

2009-08-25T08:13:00.000-07:00

I don't know why I've been putting this off but I guess I can't anymore. I feel so behind on this blog but I have no idea when I'll get around to catching up. However I felt like I should post an update with our BIG news.

IT'S A BOY!!!!!!!!!!! We are really excited. I kind of knew it was a boy just because this pregnancy has been a breeze which is so contrasting to when I was pregnant with Vivian. It will be interesting to see if this trend continues if we add to our family in the future. The only downside about learning it is a boy is we are at a total loss for boy names. We've thrown around a few but niether of us get too excited (especially over the same name). I don't dare mention them because our taste in names scare people a little more with boy names than girl names. I'm sure we'll find something and I'll let you all know when we do.

John took the day off for the ultra sound (why he needed the whole day, I don't know) It was nice having our daddy back for a fairly normal weekday since our saturdays have been pretty hectic lately and we hardly see him on Sundays either as he has bishopric meetings all morning and a good portion of the afternoon. So after the ultra sound he dropped me off at the Lab to do my one hour glucose test and then he took the kids to the park. He had a lot of fun playing with them and taking pictures so here are some recent cute pictures of the kids.

Other than having fun at the occassional park we've mostly been holed up in the house while I've been canning. Yes, I found a new hobby. I will probably post more on that later. Our garden is doing quite well. Our tomatoes are delicious the sqaush are florishing and our watermelons will hopefully get big enough. We didn't plant them until the end of June but I still think they will do good. We have several the size of cantelopes already now we just have to wait for them to get the promised 25 lb or somewhere around there.

I am also getting ready to start a Joy School for Michael. I found a couple sisters from church that are going to participate as well. We each have a younger child as well plus I babysit Malakai. So our group will consist of 3 four year olds and 4 two year olds. The only boys are Michael and Malakai. Because of all the little ones 2 of us are going to team teach and it should be a lot of fun. I am hoping to learn as much (if not more) from the experience as Michael does. He is so excited about going to school and sharing his paints with his friends.

Vivian is growing up really fast. I am constantly taking away clothes that she has grown out of however they claim she is underweight. I think she's just going to be pettite though because she is a pretty good eater and she's got chubby cheeks. Her language apears advanced. She talks so clear and in very full sentences. She seems to sing more primary songs than Michael and she loves Dora with all her heart. However she is very UNinterested in the potty which is something I was hoping to take care of before the baby gets here but I'm not going to push her because she'll more likely revert back with the new one anyways.

I had my follow up appt today to get the results from the ultrasound and the glucose test. I am thankfully not diabetic although I am slightly anemic again but not as severe as I was with Vivian. But I still get to have fun forcing the iron pills down again. He is also a week ahead of schedule in his growth however she didn't change my due date so I'm still on for December 6th I guess. We discussed the option of inducing early again which even though she had to talk me into it last time I was all for it this time around. They aren't allowed to go more than 7 days early now which is the same as what we ended up doing for Vivian. I was hoping to go a little earlier (like before Thanksgiving) But the earliest date she gave me was November 30th. Which doesn't give me the time with John after the baby because he doesn't have enough vacation to take extra time off. I'm also afriad of this little guy being bigger than Vivian (whom I barely got out of me at only 7 pounds 5 ounces) and I'm terrified that I will need a C-Section. The whole epedural thing and the longer recovery and not being able to laugh (yeah that one will be impossible as I am married to a pretty funny guy that always makes me laugh) all scare the crap out of me. And the whole mindset of once-a-c-section-always-a-c-section thing is not a fun thought either. So if you have any positive thoughts on C-sections or have questions that I should ask my doctor/midwife please let me know so I can be prepared for whatever may come.

So other than preparing myself for the worst case scenario, the coming months will bring a lot of housework trying to get this house as organized as possible before the baby comes. Hopefully we can potty train Vivian and get Malakai to be potty trained here not just at his house. And then a lot of fun times with Joy School. I hope to get the blog up to date as well because this is pretty much the only journal I'm keeping track of. So look forward to pictures that are months (if not years) old and realize they are more for my benefit than yours. I'll look forward to hearing your thoughts on C-sections. I hope you are all doing well and have enjoyed our little update.

Go Bananas

2009-06-30T21:03:00.000-07:00

Ok, So I'm finally gonna get my Go Bananas pictures on here. My sister was in town for a couple days in March so I had her come with me to play with the kids and have fun herself so that I could take pictures.

For some reason whenever I go there I get bored enough to throw all the balls back into this little pool.
My kids love jumping in and hiding when it's full.
Malakai too. But other kids just like to throw them out so I don't know why I do it.

I think he bit his lip or something.

I don't know why she was pointing at me.

And I don't know why Michael is pointing at Melanie either. But I was entertained when I went through the folder and saw two pointing pictures right next to eachother.

The new Whale that they had. It's already gone though. Janice (owner) said it was too big for her ceiling. She bought it online and was mislead on the size.

Climbing the "rock" wall.

Malakai walking through the dinasaur bones.

Michael's turn.

Michael climbing up the BIG slide.

Michael sliding down the big slide. (sorry it's a little blurry)

Vivian loved hanging out by all the toys. She's my little homebody that doesn't like to do much or wander far.

Lounging in the princess chair that she claims as her own each time we go.

I loved this cool little climber. I want to find one for our back yard someday.

Vivian and Malakai pretending to play pac man.

Look at my little monkey... he really does go bananas when we come here.

Lounging with his water cup.

Vivian sliding down the whale.

We really miss this one. It was the only one she was super confident about doing the stairs by herself.

Michael being cute.

Malakai sliding down the whale.

I don't think Vivian liked this strange little boy getting that close. I just hope she keeps that fear when she's a teenager.

We had so much fun going to Go Bananas again. Unfortunately our 3 month passes expired and we have to wait until we can afford it before we go again. But I'm hoping that will be sometime around the end of July or begining of August. That way we can get 3 good months in before the baby comes. It'll be nice to have an indoor place to go in those super hot months though. If anyone wants to join me, let me know. It's so much funner to go with friends. Here's the website if anyone wants to look into it: http://gobananasnow.com/

Easter

2009-06-30T09:19:00.000-07:00

Ok, I know this was like 2 and a half months ago, but you have to give me a little slack because we moved the day before so I kinda forgot about them.

Here is Michael and Daddy on Sunday morning. (We love holiday's when he doesn't have early meetings on sunday morning.)

This is the best picture I got of Vivian that morning, she wasn't cooperating witht he camera.
Here is my attempt at capturing some sybling love sorry it wasn't a very good one.

Here is Vivian running away... again.

We went to Grandma and Grandpa's house after nap time and Michael was facsinated with the colored eggs.

Grandma helped supervise this activity.

Vivian just wanted to feed her baby.

Here are all the different colors we used. We didn't try anything fancy though... maybe next year.

Now it's time for the Easter egg hunt in the back yard.

They both found quite a bit, but Vivian was a little slower than Michael. She wanted to open them and Michael just wanted to find as many as he could.

This is her attempt at getting more lemonade.

We had a lot of fun at Grandma and Grandpas house and it was nice to get out of the mess we left at our new house. So to keep the Spirit of Easter alive in June: Remember The Savior and what he did for us. He suffered for all our sins and every day I am grateful that I have the opportunity to repent for my MANY shortcomings and mistakes. I am grateful that I have the opportunity to repent each week as I partake of the sacrament and start the week with a clean slate. I hope all of you remember Our wonderful big brother and what he did for us.

Happy Easter (in June).

Growing

2009-05-05T14:15:00.000-07:00

This word has been coming up a lot lately. The kids are growing so big and so smart everyday. I can't believe the sentences that are coming out of Vivian's mouth. And the smart questions that Michael has been asking lately. I can't just shove them off anymore, he really wants answers and most of them (when I take the time to answer them) he understands quite well.

Also I've been thinking a lot about growing myself. I've been more interested in reading things or talking to people that have more wisdom then me and just trying to grow my mind and testimony. But I've also begun to grow something else inside of me. Something we've been trying to start for 6 months and now we can officially and proudly say that I am now pregnant for the second time with our third child. I am looking forward to this next chapter of our family.

We told Michael that the baby has to grow inside my belly until it gets too big and then it will come out and we will have another kid in our family. It will start out as a little baby and then it will grow big and strong like Vivian and Michael are growing big and strong. He asks me everyday if the baby is big enough yet. Hopefully he won't be the one to make the pregnancy go by slower. So far though it seems to be a much better pregnancy than the last one. By this time when I was pregnant with Vivian, I was so sick and didn't want food near me for 16 hours every day. But so far I haven't gotten sick and I am LOVING food.

We are all very excited for our family to grow in late November or early December. I'll keep everyone posted on any new developments. I hope everyone is doing well and I would love to hear how you and your family are doing.

Camping

2009-05-02T23:23:00.000-07:00

We decided to give Michael and Vivian a little taste of camping. It was kind of a rushed trip and only for one night but it was fun. We just drove down to Caswell in Ripon. It's $20 to camp for the night so not bad. But it gave us an idea of how to be more prepared for a real camping trip.

Sunday Paper

2009-05-02T22:24:00.000-07:00

This is what our family does with the sunday paper.
This video is hilarious. It is so true to everyones character. Especially Vivian, always cuddling, never really in the action but at the same time she gets those random urges to be a pest and get in the way, however this family just works around her.

Celebration Dinner at Denny's

2009-04-07T15:01:00.000-07:00

So the day after we found out the Bank accepted our offer we went to Denny's to Celebrate. Malacai's Mom and Sister came with us. It was pretty fun accept for the first part. Kids are always impatient waiting for their food. So I pulled some peanut butter chocolate chips out of the diaper bag.

Vivian is usually really slow at eating things (just like her mom) but when it comes to chocolate chips she inhales them (just like her dad). I guess she stuck one to many in her mouth and started choking on them. She ended up throwing up all the yummy chips as well as most of her lunch. Which included some pretty large pieces of pickle that she didn't chew very well (just like her dad) Ok, sorry if all that was TMI.

So I didn't come fully prepared (Even though I had a feeling earlier that I needed to grab some extra clothes for them.) All we had was the clothes from Malacai's diaper bag. So we brought a cute little girlie girl into the resteraunt, and brought this out of it.

She still looks adorable though.
And to hold the pants up, John decided to be resouceful and use his tie.
I love the huge bow on her bottom. I've made sure to keep an extra outfit in the diaper bag from now on.

Tree

2009-04-07T14:50:00.001-07:00

Before we move out of this house I thought I would share the interesting tree that is in the back yard. In the fall it was covered in bright firey orange and neon pink leaves and then in the winter when it was bear it's branches would turn red. I noticed it got redder the worse the weather. I took these on an overcast day to demonstrate the beaty of this red tree. Right now in the spring it's leaves are bright yellow. It is still just a baby, but I bet it will be even more gorgeous as it grows.

Update

2009-03-18T21:26:00.000-07:00

I have realized that there are a few things I haven't really informed many people about. I've been posting pictures of the kids but I haven't really been talking about whats going on with the Bowmans as of late. So I thought I would update everyone through my blog.

First I thought I would start off with John's new calling. On December 6th we were asked to meet with the Stake President during Sunday School. The last time this happened, John became Elders Quorum President. But this time it was a little bit different. So the following week, my parents and Johns parents met up after church to witness John ordained as a High Priest (by my father) and set apart as the 2nd Counselor of the Bishopric.

WOW! I'm still getting used to it 4 months later. I think I've got the hang of keeping the kids content during sacrament meeting though. At first I tried snacks but then I discovered the wonderful invention of Silly Putty. Michael never gets tired of it. It's good for church, doctors offices and anywhere else that I need to keep him quiet and fairly still. And most of John's meetings are on Sunday before and after church so he is able to borrow Kenney's car that day so that I can bring the kids and then leave right afterwards for nap time. He misses sleeping in on Sunday mornings but at least he's not gone multiple nights each week. He does try to attend mutual on Tuesday nights though so that he can connect with the youth.

John finally had to say good-bye to being Gospel Doctrine teacher 4 weeks ago but hopes to get that calling again someday. I'm still enjoying being the secretary for Relief Society. Michael enjoys going to Primary and is loving his new substitute teacher (we'll see if he stays). Vivian has finally gotten used to nursery with out Michael and sometimes heads down the hallway by herself after sacrament meeting. (This scared us after stake conference where we searched for 10 minutes for our little girl. Luckily the Stake RS President knew who she belonged to when she found her outside heading for the parking lot.)

The other new and exciting thing that is happening for our family is we are in the process of buying a house. It is just a starter home for us but it has taken me quite awhile to warm up to this whole idea which is probably why I haven't talked much about it yet. We got a killer deal though ($118,000) and our mortgage will be $300 less than what we are currently paying in rent. We hope to use this money to get out of debt quickly.

The house is in a fairly new development in South Stockton. The house was built in 2005 and is 1814 square feet. The lot is .23 acres which is fabulous. Here is a birds eye view of our property.

We are currently in escrow and hope to close before the end of the month. It will be ready to move in as soon as we get the keys which is quite a rarity for the houses that are on the market right now in Stockton. Most of them have been striped of all appliances and some even have missing hardware (door knobs, ceiling fans, light fixtures, piping, cupboards, microwave, dishwasher, oven, air conditioners, etc). Luckily all we will need to get is a fridge since we already have a washer/dryer. (If you know anyone with an extra fridge, let us know)

Even though it has taken me awhile to get used to this whole thing (it's happened so fast) I am excited to own my own house and to be able to set things up how I want them. We are most excited about our back yard. There is so much potential but we will have to save up for awhile before we do anything major. As soon as we get the keys I'm sure I'll post some more pictures of the house but I wanted to let everyone know that we will be moving sometime in the next 1.5-3 weeks. Also I wanted to remind everyone about my secondary blog where I post my more serious thoughts and my projects. Check it out: http://lorinasbitsofknowledge.blogspot.com/ I hope all of you are doing well and enjoying the journey of life.

David Stewart's Wedding

2009-03-11T23:08:00.000-07:00

One of John's good friends from Manteca finally got hitched a few weeks ago. The funny thing is he's been telling us for years that his wedding date was going to be 2-14-09. I assume he chose that date because it was when Valentines Day fell on a Saturday. Well the begining of last year he moved to Alameda and met Ellie in the Singles Ward there. They started dating in the summer and the rest is history.

David wanted us to bring the kids because he wanted them in the pictures. Michael was really mad and confused that he couldn't go into the Temple. He still remembers going last March (exactly a year ago today) to get sealed to us. He kept talking about the blocks that they built a really tall tower with. It was pretty cold outside while we were taking pictures so you'll see how we tried to handle that one. Sorry that it is a really long slide show, but the kids were just super cute I couldn't cut any out. Hope you enjoy.

Dress Up

2009-03-11T14:47:00.000-07:00

After Christmas I put together a small box of Dress Up type items and for some reason this was the first time I had gotten it out for the kids to play with. They had so much fun and were totally cute. I definitely need to get more stuff for this box.

Let me know if you have any ideas as to the kind of stuff I can add. Hope you enjoyed the pictures.

Go Bananas

2009-03-03T15:08:00.000-08:00

About 18 months ago an awesome friend told me about this awesome place. We both got 3 month passes and we were there like 1 - 3 times a week. It was so much fun and the kids had a blast. Let me tell you about this wonderful place. It is an indoor warehouse full of Jumpers/Bouncers. They have a ton of fun slides, and a little ball pit for the little ones and they have also added a lot of arcade games for the older kids. They have a toddler area so that the little ones can stay corralled and protected from the big kids but they are free to wander around where ever they want which is my favorite feature of this place. You can just take the kids there and let them run wild. It gets all their energy out and it is pretty safe (I think it would be pretty hard for them to get hurt unless another kid was involved). It even has a diaper changing area and bouncers for the little ones. They have a snack bar with reasonably priced food and the owners are really nice people.

When our passes expired we stopped going. After 15 months I finally went again this morning. Man did I miss that place. I forgot my camera but the kids had such a great time and so did I. We jumped, we slid, we threw balls, we played and we had FUN!!!

I asked the owner if they still had the 3 month pass (since their wasn't anything about it on their website) and she said yes. But one thing I didn't know is that it gets cheaper with each kid. Since the information isn't on the website I'll tell you but don't yell at me if they change it.
The 3 month pass for one child is $75, for 2 children it's $135 and for 3 children it's $180. I don't know what the prices were after that because I only have 3 kids to worry about but I was expecting it to be $75 per kid and $225 was way out of our price range. But since it was $180 and I had already spent $21 to get in this morning, I was only $159 away from 3 months of fun. I was able to talk John into it under the condition that I will go at least twice a week. I said, "NO PROBLEM!"

So for anyone who wants to join me for some Go Bananas Fun on tuesday and thursday mornings from 10:00am to noon thirty, I would love to have some company.

Here is their website to see where they are located and their hours and such: http://gobananasnow.com/index.html

Please let me know if your interested in joining me. And I promise I'll bring my camera next time I go so that I can show you how cool this place is.

Catch up pictures

2009-02-27T19:04:00.000-08:00

Here are a few random photos from the last month and the stories behind them.

Can you tell what's wrong with this picture?

Maybe this picture will clear it up.

I had noticed his pants were on backwards earlier but that is a common occurance now that he goes to the bathroom by himself. But when I walked in and saw the shirt on backwards too I couldn't help but laugh.

"I can button my own shirts now. At least when I'm not being a grump." [Not a direct quote, obviously]

I forget what he was calling this but it was hilarious. I guess that is my punishment for not posting it right away. Anyways, if you can't tell, he stuck Mr Potato Head onto Tiggers head. It looks like one of those drones from Star Wars.
Malacai always takes his naps on the couch and Vivian has started getting jealous. But these pictures were actually taken before lunch. I knew Malacai was going to fall asleep so I got his 'bed' all ready and gave him his bottle and she wanted a bed and bottle too. I figured it couldn't hurt but I didn't expect her to actually fall asleep. I took this picture trying to get both of them asleep but Michael bumped me so I just got Malacai.

And then Vivian woke up before I could snap another shot. Isn't she so cute when she's tired?
"Like my new shoes, Mommy?"

Malacai found one too. I like how he only took off one sock since he only had one bag.

This is a picture of Daddy that Michael drew during church a few weeks ago. I thought it was great so i had to snap a picture. (I know it's probably not appropriate durring sacrament meeting but the beeping from the camera wasn't too loud.)

These are the mysterious rashes that Vivian had when she woke up from her nap after church one Sunday. We still don't know what caused them. They would be this bad and then go away in about an hour. She got them randomly for a couple days and then the next Sunday after church but we haven't seen them show up in a couple weeks so we have no idea.

This is Michael new favorite thing to do. Play Kirby on the Wii. It is one of the old NES games that you can download. It is pretty simple and he does really good with it, but he could honestly sit there for hours and never tire of it. I am trying to limit him to 30 minute sessions and it is definitely not every day and usually Daddy is home to supervise. He gets quite cranky when it is turned off and doesn't cooperate very well after it. (One of the reasons I grew up hating video games is because they do this to people.) My dad actually had time to come and play with the kids for a bit on tuesday. That is usually his day to go up to Sacramento for his various jobs and is usually in a rush on the way down but he had about an hour to stay and play and eat lunch this time. It was really nice to have some company and to talk to my Daddy. Even though we live so close I don't get to talk to him much. I love you Dad. Thanks for stopping by, it was way fun!

(Don't worry, I fed him real food after he had his fill of pretend food.)

"Look Mommy, It's the Incredibles space ship." I thought this was too funny. What a creative way to use a slipper.

"Mommy, we're having a Party." "Oh, your having a party?" "Yeah, it's a cushion party."

Vivian was a wall flower at this party, even though she was the cutest girl there.

Hope you enjoyed!

New Hair Cut

2009-02-23T10:12:00.000-08:00

Ok, since I've been married I've only cut my hair a few times. At first I cut enough off to get rid of the permed hair. But after that was all gone, John only wanted me to trim as little as possible. He had this fantasy of long hair and I also wanted to grow it out as well because I thought it would look pretty and I thought it would be fun to donate it. About a year ago I started getting really annoyed with it. Kids pulling it, headaches, lack of creativity, etc. But John really wanted me to keep growing it out. I finally talked him into letting me cut it a few months ago, but the next day after my shower it looked too pretty to cut off. My headaches were getting worse and worse and it would just hang there. I never did anything cute with it, I would just throw it up in a claw or braid it into two braids or just leave it be. To say the least... it wasn't atractive anymore despite what John thought of it. So I made up my mind to donate it but wanted to get it as healthy as I could first. So I used this hair repair mask from our business to help with the split ends and everything. Then a couple weeks ago I decided (unbeknown to John) that I was going to go do it after my doctors appt. on monday, february 16th. Well the Wednesday before that I decided to go to my mom's and let her do it. I had a wedding that weekend and a few business meetings around then too and I wanted to look cute. So I went over there, let her read the guildelines from Locks of Love and it says that the LONGEST layer needs to be 10 inches. I knew my hair was long enough to cover that for sure so I told her 12" off the back and 10" off the sides. So she puts the rubber bands in and starts cutting them off.

Here is my beautiful, long hair.

Here is Michael doing Grandma's hair.

And here are the ponytails she cut off. Yes that does say the longest layer is 15". But oh well. If I had that much to donate, then I'm happy to do it.
However it left me like this...

You see, My mother is not a professional hair cutter at all. She spends most of her time cutting guys hair and growing up she never trusted herself to give us layers. It was almost always, a strait shot accross. But I said, Don't worry about it, just stop trying to fix it.

So I called Sheree Pomana. She is a sister in my ward that told us she had talent with hairstyling, cutting and coloring and it is her cute little guy that I watch everyday. I said, "I have a problem.... Can you help me?" She told me she would look at it when she picked up Malacai and then we'd figure out what to do.
So I went over to her house after the kids were in bed and I put my trust in her. She started mixing these chemicals and I'm like, "What is that?" She said, "Highlights." I was a little uneasy because I've never done anything permanent to my hair color but like I said, I was putting my trust in her. So here I am getting my hair highlighted.

John was alseep when I got home so I had to take a picture myself. I am not ver photogenic either way but here are a few shots of my cute hairstyle after Sheree saved my hair.

I didn't even notice the highlights at first but I love them.

Like I said, I'm not very photogenic, but you get the idea. I haven't been able to puff it up as much as she did but it still looks alright when I don't have time to fix it all fancy.
She fixed my hair this night too when she came to pick up her son. I had a ward activity that night and she wanted me to look really cute for my first apearance. I told her, "You know? I could get used to this."

She did an awesome job. She even dressed me up aferwards. With a new dress and necklaces and brackelets, the whole shibang. I was her lifesize barbie doll. She was loving it and I was loving it, especially since I don't always enjoy thinking for myself of what I should wear and what goes together. Also I don't feel comfortable doing or wearing a lot of things so I end up just throwing whatever is comfortable on and hoping it works. Well, I hope you enjoyed the pics and the story.

PS. John was upset at first, but after Sheree fixed it he told me he could get used to it. Now that it's a week and a half later, he is loving it and actually plays with it more now too. And I am also quite pleased myself. I feel free now and no more ponytail headaches for me (just regular ones now). Let me know what you think.

Aubrie's Wedding

2009-02-19T09:18:00.000-08:00

Ok, I realize I should have posted this 4 months ago but oh well. Better late than never. My best friend from High School tied the knot with her boyfriend of almost 5 years. They got married on October 11, 2008. I got to fly out by myself and leave the husband and kids behind for 4 days (I did miss them though). Doug and Megan, 2 of her other friends from CA, ended up on the same flight as me... yeah that was ironic but made it not so lonely in the airport and easier for Aubrie's family to pick us up.

It was fun to see Aubrie and her family again. I missed them a lot. And I love going to Colorado. Someday I'll live there. Aubrie's mom did such a fantastic job with all of the decorations. She has got some mad skills. She made Aubries dress too. I don't think I got a close up of it but trust me, it was beautiful and took many, many hours to accomplish that beauty. Aubrie's colors were deep red and deep purple and being in October and being Aubrie she wanted a halloween/haunted mansion twist to the decorations. It was surprisingly, very elegantly done. Even if you don't know Aubrie, you will enjoy these pictures. I thought it was best to do them in slide show format to save space on here. So enjoy.

I love you Aubrie. Congratulations!!!

New Glasses

2009-02-13T13:40:00.000-08:00

On January 15th John and I went to pick up our new glasses.

John Before

John After

Ok so his didn't change that much. They are a little darker and the lenses are a little more slanted inwards but not too much different. He says they fit farther away from his face and so there is a bigger gap when he looks up or down that makes it harder to see clearly. But all in all they are fine.

Lorina Before

Lorina After

Lorina After #2

So I wanted transitions but instead chose a frame that had a magnetic sun glasses attachment. They had a limited selection so to fit my tiny face I got "That's So Raven" Glasses. I wasn't too fond of the rinestones but I don't mind them now and they came with this super cool glasses case that looks like a little purse.

Charms and all. Plus a super hip lens cloth and a little pocket for the sun glasses.

Then we let the kids play with our old ones. John was trying to take the lenses out of his so that Michael could keep them but he failed in his attempt. They look so cute.

Michael after John told him he snapped the glasses in half.

He let him try on his new glasses for a little bit instead.

Finally he cheered up.

Hope you like our new looks. Stay tuned for Lorina's new hair style.

Boys will be boys

2009-02-09T11:02:00.000-08:00

So yesterday after church, I was busy making treats to go Visiting Teaching and the kids were playing in the living room. I start to hear what sounds like water running so I go to look and Michael was peeing with purpose on our fireplace hearth. I couldn't believe he would do that. He has been potty trained for over a year but I guess curosity got the best of him yesterday. I told him to go to the bathroom and a few minutes later I had a long talk with him about where pee pee goes and where it doesn't go. Right before I left to go VTing John was giving him a sucker claiming that he was going to watch him with it (as he was yawning and getting comfortable on the couch). So I told Michael, "OK, the sucker only goes in your mouth, It doesn't go on your hand, or on the couch or on the floor, only in your mouth. Just like pee pee only goes in the toilet, the sucker only goes in your mouth." I thought it was great that I was able to bring it up again and make such a grafic description for him. My companion was trying so hard not to laugh.