Princess Peepers

For about a year Abigail was seeing the eye doctor every few months. The doctor detected a slight turn in her right eye that wasn't of too much concern until recently. Abigail started telling me she couldn't see some reds and then she complained about not being able to see the dark TV screen. I talked to the doctor at my visit and he suggested she have her eyes checked again. Sure enough, they had changed enough that she needed to get galsses. Abigail was so excited to finally be getting galsses. She picked out some pretty pink princess glasses with sparkly bows on the sides.

We picked up her glasses and she was excited until just before I took her to school. I was fixing her hair in the bathroom and she was looking at herself in the mirror. She started to cry and say she didn't like how they made her look different. I explained to her that she'll get used to them and soon she'll look different when she takes them off. She went to school and has been okay since.

Finally a Piano!

David and I have been talking for quite some time about getting a piano, but were never on the same page about what we wanted. I wanted a real piano and David wanted a digital one. Well, after David sent me piano shopping I changed my mind and went for the digital. It had been great and the Kids love it. David also is able to practice at night when the kids are in bed because he uses headphones.

Cole and Kell have sarted taking lessons from a lady in our ward and so far are enjoying it. Abigail is excited for her turn to start taking lessons. As for Campbell, he enjoys sitting at the piano playing his own masterpiece. Of all our kids, he seems to be the one that really enjoys music.

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day is not one of my favorite holidays. Why do you need a holiday to tell someone you love how much you love them? As a kid I did like making cookies for the neighbors and secretly delivering valentines (they don't do that anymore). This year I decided to be nice and join in the celebration with my family. I made each of my kids a Valentine's pillowcase and gave them some candy. For David, I bought him a new snow shovel (wish it could've been a snow blower) and some dark chocolate Dove candies (his favorite). David bought me flowers and Hershey's Bliss candies (another favorite). David and I tried to go out to lunch on Friday, but that was changed due to a certain child's illness. We bought Papa Murphy's heart-shaped pizza for dinner (Saturday night), which was not as good as homemade. The kids all had parties at school and passed out there Valentine's. They each got way too much sugar, but I let them eat it all up to get it out of the house.

Super Noma No More

When Kell was 4 he lost his first tooth. This is earlier than most kids lose their first tooth, but Kell was born with a Super Noma (what't that?). As the dentist said, basically it is an extra tooth from God. Alright, so now what? Sure enough the extra tooth came in and the dentist kept checking it at his regular dental visits hoping it would come out in it's own, so the permanent one can straighten and come in halfway decent. Well, at the last visit, still not loose, so today he had it pulled. The tooth is huge, but the dentist said that it was normal for a Super Noma. You may notice a lot of empty spaces in his front teeth, this is because this past summer he lost two bottom teeth and one is FINALLY coming in and the other is slowly breaking the surface. Just last last Friday he lost the other top tooth at school. he was excited to tell me he had lost it when I picked him up at school. We got home and he proceeded to dig through his backpack to find his tooth. My first thought was ,"OH NO, he just threw it in his backpack and now it is lost" (if any of you know Kell, you know what I'm talking about). Luckily his teacher put it in a special tooth-shaped necklace to keep it safe until he got home.

Christmas 2009

Grandpa and Grandma Bowen and Aunt Lisa SURPRISED the kids and flew here for Christmas. They had a lot of fun. Kell had lunch with grandpa and Grandma at school and thought that was pretty cool. Grandma and Lisa made sugar cookies with Abigail. I hope they enjoyed it as much as Abigail did. I really appreciate there patience to let Abigail help, she is always begging me to help out in the kitchen, but I'd rather do it myself. All four kids really liked having them visit, in fact, not too long after they left, Abigail asked David if she could go on an airplane to visit grandpa and grandma.

Grandma, Lisa, and Abigail making sugar cookies.

Christmas Eve

Since we moved far from family we have been trying to make some of our own traditions during the holidays. Every year we try to get together with friends and decorate either gingerbread houses or big snowman cookies. This year we decorated big snowman cookies with our friends, so on Christmas Eve the kids decorated gingerbreas houses with Grandpa, Grandma, and Lisa. another trdition we have started is breakfast for dinner on Christmas Eve. I make breakfast casserole and homemade cinnamon rolls. This works out great for Christmas morning because instead of making a nice breakfast, we eat leftover cinnamon rolls.

Another tradition is the kids ornament exchange. Instead of exchanging gifts, the kids buy an ornament for one of their siblings each Christmas and they get to open it and put it on the tree Christmas Eve. The kids love this, and I really enoy seeing what they pick out for each other. They also get to open there Christmas pajamas, here they are at the top of the stairs Christmas morning sporting there new jammies. We didn't want Grandpa, Grandma, and Lisa to feel left out, so Grandma and Lisa got Mary Jane slippers and Grandpa got Christmas socks. I also got Mary Jane slippers (which I really love), but I forgot to get David some socks, so he'll have to wait until next year.

Christmas Day

We were all very blessed with wonderful gifts this christmas. Cole got an automatic nerf gun, Mario Cart R/C, indoor soccer ball, and a tabletop foosball table. Kell got Star Wars toys, Nerf gun, Toy Story Figures, and a Dragon (he told his class that was his favorite gift). Abigail got digital art studio for the computer, Mulan barbie doll, Londa (18" doll from g-pa and g-ma that she named), and sewing kits. I got Fiesta dishes, shepherds for the Willow nativity, sweater, and perfume. David got a cordless drill (he's already used and loves), cmall camp burner, and a Mario Cart R/C. As a family we got a WII. It was fun to play bowling with Grandpa, Grandma, and Lisa. It was nice to receive all these gifts, but the best gift this year was to have family come visit.

Blizzard of '09

School out early, school delayed, School cancelled, these have become commmon household phrases this past week. In the last week the kids have had ONE full day of school. They are really loving it, and I think they could almost get used to it. After it was cancelled today, I threatened to put them to work.

Last week during and after the BLIZZARD we were snowed in. It took David around 4 hours to dig us out Wednesday afternoon after it had been snowing since Tuesday morning. Plows finally came around 5 pm after a tractor made a path for it to get through. Needless to say it was nice to have everyone home for a day.

Family Pictures

Thought you might like the new kid pics. We finally updated the blog stuff to show off the changes.