Update

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

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

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

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

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

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.