The Face

Don't we love birthdays? This is the classic "what do you mean it's not my birthday?" face.

Birthday Production

I told Emily she could have two friends over for dinner and cake, and that she could pick the dinner. She, like any self-respecting five year old, chose Kraft Macaroni & Cheese, ham cubes, peas and peaches. She chose Addison and Bailee Southam as her friends. Scott and I were honored to be the audience of their birthday production. It was kind of like Cindrella with a devil/power ranger and a mouse. It was creative to say the least.
I love the picture of everyone on the stairs.
Then there's the picture of everyone anxiously anticipating cake. Don't we all? If there was cake here today I would be eating it, that's why I still have 25 pounds to lose.
Last but certainly not least is poor Haddie valiantly attempting to entertain herself during the festivities.

Emmy's Birthday

Here's the cake I made. I had glorious visions of what it would look like. I severely over-estimated my abilities. The finished product is a far cry from what I imagined. I had to rip the poor dolls legs off so she'd fit in the cake! And the only way I could get her to balance was to shove her hands into the cake, one in front of her and one behind her!
The next picture is of the balloons we brought home for her since we had the audacity to go to the temple that morning! Yes, we abandoned her on her birthday!
Then there is Emmy playing with her birthday present from Grandma Matthews. Yes, I know, her bangs need a trim, no need to point it out over and over and over. (Scott tells me everytime he sees her that her bangs need a trim.)
And last, the glorious stack of presents!

more snow pictures

Here are the last of the snow pictures. Ben's actually wearing gardening gloves, so his hands were probably freezing. But I talked at him until I was red in the face about wearing his winter gloves to no avail.
Ryan and Ben had lots of fun throwing chumks of snow at the windows.
The last picture is the snowman Ryan made all by himself!

Happy 5th Birthday Emily!

I've spent the day reflecting on the five years that we've had Emily in our family. I feel very blessed to have known her. She's calm and content. She doesn't need much to be happy. She's more concerned about other people than about herself. She loves Heavenly Father and Jesus. When I think about the scriptures where Christ tells us that we should become like little children, I think about Emily. I want to be more like Emmy when I grow up! We are SO glad that you are a part of our family. Happy 5th Birthday my little Nutter Butter!

A poll

I decided to take an informal poll. My hair at present is just absolutely unacceptable. I don't usually look cute or nice, unless I'm going to church, that seems to be the only time I actually style my hair. I'm thinking that I'm going to have to go back to short, because when it's short I actually style it everyday. Although, I really like how long hair looks. So, here's my question to all of you ladies and devoted friends out there who read my blog: what should I do with my hair?

Do I go and have it cut again to look more like it did in the pictures above? Do I leave it long and cut bangs and add layers and highlights? What do I do so I can feel like I look more presentable? What do each of you think would look best? Thanks for the input! I love all ya'll!

A new cousin!

Oliver Brian Bowles was born to my little sister Angela and her husband Brian on Monday March 3! We are SO excited to welcome "Ollie" to the family! We only wish we could be there to give him snuggles and kisses! I miss you already Ollie!

Alternate Reality?

Yes, dear blog readers, we still live in Texas. What is this day? Some kind of alternate reality? It is snowing and snowing. Snowing so hard that even a Utah storm would have to give this Texas storm some respect.
The most infuriating thing is that yesterday, it was 60 degrees here, a beautiful spring day. AAAHHHHH! I hate snow! But our kids are sure enjoying theirselves!

Kids in the Snow

Here they are, glorying in this rare opportunity to play in snow! With the exception of Benjamin who was in the bath tub. Now he's out there though, so I'll post those pics in a minute!

Swinging

Haddie loves her swing. She especially loves when the big kids come over and talk to her while she is swinging. Sometimes she tells the rotating fish from the hanging mobile about all her troubles. I think the fish are some of her best friends at present. They're always there for her when she needs a listening ear!
The picture below is me trying to take a good picture to show my friend Kristie how big Haddie's gotten, but I think the rolling over picture actually depicts her growth a lot better.

Morning Devotional

Here we are doing our morning family devotional. We love to sing a song, read our scriptures and then say a prayer. It cracks me up! Right as whoever is saying the prayer says amen, they all take off in a heated race to see who can get to the breakfast table first! Inevitably it ends in tears as everyone wants to be first to the table. You think they'd stop racing!
Ben went a little astray this morning, reading the instructions for one of his Thomas track sets instead of his scriptures. Usually he just intermittently points out the picture of Jesus in the front of his scriptures. He's a funny duck!
We are feeling well-pleased in our accomplishment. We have now been reading from the Book of Mormon for just over a year and we are now. . .duh-dadda-dah. . .in ALMA! Can you believe the break-neck pace we are setting? I can't either!
I can say though, without any sarcasm, that reading the scriptures as a family every morning has been the best thing we've done in terms of helping our two oldest children improve their reading. The spirit really is the best teacher. As they've started reading more and more verses, their reading skills have improved rapidly!

She's almost got it!

Haddie's new favorite thing is to roll onto her side. She's getting so big, she's SO close to being able to roll all the way over. She loves this litte Winnie the Pooh teething book that I bought her. It's by far her favorite toy!

TV watching corner

Ben has been a mite bit cantankerous lately. He's always kicking Emily out of the TV. So, Emily and I made her a little TV viewing haven in the Family Room. And wouldn't you know, that once we got her all set up Ben didn't want to watch the big TV upstairs anymore, he wanted to come down and join Emmy. Silly brother!

Silly Mommy!

Like a silly mommy she left all of our baby things, with the exception of our crib, in Salt Lake when we moved. Mommy has yet to buy any cool toys for me. SO, my silly Mommy rigged this up using the cushions on the couch and Ryan's scriptures. Even though it was a little goofy, I liked it.
Here I am (bottom picture) trying to tell mommy how goofy she is, but how much I liked her idea anyway!

Bear hat

Scott and I crack up every time I put this bear hat on Haddie. She looks adorable in it.
We all went outside one night to look at the moon. It was huge! I know it was some sort of eclipse, but I can never remember which one is which. We put Haddie's hat on so her head would stay warm. You can tell it's not exactly her favorite thing!