Better Luck next year

We went out with Cousin Kellie and Sierra tonight and happened upon Santa and his sleigh. I thought we had better get the picture for the Ezra first Christmas memory. Rowdy was all excited especially about the candy cane and then tonight in his prayer he said, "Dear Heavenly Father I love Santa."

You've come a long way buddy!I am not going to lie these scared kid/santa pictures are some of my favorite thingsMaybe we will have some better laughs next year with Ezra.
Merry Almost Christmas

Santa's PNP

See Rowdy in Santa's book

Rowdy's Ode to Miles

Cutie pie

Ezra is 4 months old!

He has a few new funny quirkies,

-He is getting good with his hands. Except when he is tired he has..."phantom hands." Which is totally dorky to have a name for them, but he will be asleep with a pacifier and all of the sudden his hand will reach up and yank it out of his mouth and he is totally surprised and upset by it. or occasionally his hands will attack his face and have a totally innocent/dumbfounded look on his face. Like who would do this to me?

-He also rolled over for the first time on Monday! Back to front in case any one was wondering.-He has a multi purpose squeal/scream. When it would be appropriate to laugh sometimes he will make his crazy screeching noise. I almost wonder if he tries to imitate all the crazy excited baby noises we are making. But he uses the same screechy noise when he is getting tired. -He also loves him some relatives. Loves to hang out with them, and loves to attack the girls. Lynda will hold him up to Livee, Zoe or Carys and he will get all vicious with their cheeks. Growling sound affects included!

-He gets so excited when you put him up in front of the mirror. He will laugh, dance, and talk-Lately if he is sitting on my lap he will tilt his head all the way back so he can see me and he will laugh.

-He is part French.... and he drools a lot.
-He was blessed on 11/29. It was so neat. Pretty much all of Cody's family was there and my parents got to come out. His blessing was simple and so sweet. I remember hearing again and again service to others and being able to help those in need. It was a really special day. After church we had a potato bar at our house before everyone returned home.
Aunt Toni made his blessing outfit. It came out so cute! She embroidered a little train on the front and his birthday and stats on the back. On the inside jacket it said Blessed by Dad. Loved by Mom friend to Rowdy.

I just love this little man. He keeps getting cuter every day

and he has his Dr.'s appointment tomorrow so I will post the stats of weight and what not later. and I noticed today his legs are hanging off his little car seat. Yikes!

So Observant

So, It has been super cold here. I was putting a sweater on Ezra and Rowdy said, "Mom what are you doing?" So I told him, "I am putting a sweater on Ezra."
Rowdy, "Why?"
Me, "Because its so cold. Ezra's fingers are even cold!"
Rowdy, "Just stick them in your armpits"p.s. This picture was taken before the cold snap hence Rowdy in the tank

What to my wondering eyes!

I was not expecting this here!BRRRR!

Yay for crackling Christmas fires

I guess I should note the snow only stayed for one morning, and luckily did not stick to the roads. But it has been cold enough to snow quite a few occasions this week. I was doing so good running too before this darn cold snap. I am nowhere near being motivated to exercise in this cold.

A bunch of turkeys

Just kidding. We had so much fun this Thanksgiving. The Bowler clan came out for a few weeks and it was so much fun spending time, having big family dinners and FHE -s, watching the little cousins run around with each other , and trying to plan big people activities faster than the opposite sex so we could shuffle off babysitting duties :)

Then my parents came on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. It was also super nice to hang out with them... err watch them hang out with my children :) And then a bunch of us turkey trotted a 5K along with 10,000 other people in Fort Worth thanksgiving morning. That was a lot of fun.. and cold. Dinner was at Tad and Amelia's house. Everyone pitched in and everything was so yummy. It was truly a feast.

We took some family pictures, special thanks to Courtney. Went to Dallas . Hung out a lot with Grandpa Ernie who stayed especially to help bless Ezra on the 29th. He is so sweet and patient with the babies.

Ezra was oozing giggles and smiles from all the attention

and Rowdy was busy as usual. This time there were just more friends

I know it is so cliche to post on a blog. But there really is so much to be thankful for. My head swims just thinking about the many ways we have been preserved and blessed. We have had some neat opportunities to recognize that lately. I hope we, as a little family, can continue to keep that in the forefront of our minds.

Three months old

Ezra turned 3 months old on the thirteenth. and its been so busy around here I forgot to mention it. This is my favorite festive picture of him.He is fun when he is awake too!
He coos and gurgles if you look him in the eye. and he is pretty easy to make smile.
He seems to have gotten over his 7 o'clock fussy time
He likes to be swaddled all snuggly tight to fall asleep. and if you put a little bit of the blanket touching his face he is out pretty quick.
He will take a passifier and likes to chew on his fingers. He drools a lot. He was taking a bottle pretty well until this week:(
He wakes up about twice a night still. It just depends on the night. He still has thrush which has resulted in some hilarious purple faces.(you know that icky medicine)
He likes applesauce;) and Lynda because she gives him applesauce.
and He weighs about 19 lbs!
We are thankful he chose us. Happy tres meses Ezra

The Boys are back in town

We have a Big Bunch of Bowlers here in Justin! (and Byrds and Carmacks too)

Here are the Fab five
From Youngest to oldest, left to right Rowdy, Degan, Grayson, Miles, and Cole

Grayson and Rowdy.

Rowdy's funny face

Thanks for the awesome pics Letti.

Power tool pumpkin

I followed the pumpkin lines with a potato peeler and then used Craig's power tool for the holes. Came out alright.

Haloweenie

Ezra was also a hot dog... an ornery one!
This costume did not last very long on him. He was in a bad moodI was the mustard bottle.
Ezra and I stayed home and passed out candy. It was totally awesome to have a house to pass candy out at! I loved it.

Our Little UPS man and the crazy Alazkan fisherman went

and raided the neighborhoodRowdy would totally change his voice to a charming higher pitched, big eyed puppy dog kind of voice when he would say "trick or treat". Cody would also hold his box in between houses and when they would get close to the next house he would say, "I need a box Daddy". He had such a good time. Our nighborhood was really fun too. A bunch of houses went all out. There was one house though that had a strobe light and Rowdy didn't like that. But on the homefront we had Frito soup and candy for dinner and ended the night by playing the wii and watching Nanny McPhee. This could very well be Rowdy's favorite holiday

and Rowdy is back to using the potty! because I am dispersing his candy one toilet trip at a time!

The S is for...

The S is for spit up.
The U is for Unique
The P is for Pee, yeah you know that I can drink.
The E is for Ezra, you all know I'm the man
and the R is for Rowdy, he is my biggest fan

How cute is this boy?! and the best part is we did not manipulate his pose at all! He totally fell asleep in the classic superman stance and his cape was made out of that soft fleece stuff and stuck to the couch!

The preparation

Rowdy had a good ole' time coloring his pumpkin. While his Dad made a beautiful pumpkin by scraping away at the grooves then using a power tool to drill small holes all over. It came out really neat, but not in any of our photos.Ta DA!The Carmacks came over too and joined in the fun

San Antone

Cody had his vacation this week. So we went down to Round Rock and got to see Bobby and Tiffany's family, which now includes cousin Casey. They were so hospitable and we had a super nice time hanging out with them. Yesterday we left from their house and went down to San Antonio.

We got to visit the Alamo

It had a lot of cracks.

just kidding.
It was really interesting. Once again I had heard some of the story, but going there and having a history buff as a husband made it all come to life and really filled in the gaps. I am sure my kids will be able to tell me all about it too when they have to take Texas history and recite the Texas pledge everyday in school.

After the Alamo we went down to the river walk and took a boat tour.
Here is the crew waving at the people onshore. We had a really good time. And all of the adults got buff carrying around the children. I am glad we made it. Seriously though Casey and I got to roam around quite a bit after missing the exit. Thank goodness for cell phonesThank you Round Rockians for the fun time! We love ya!

Pumpkin patching