Guess who came?!

Nan Pops and The Byrds surprised us on Sunday! (as in 11/28/2010)
They just hopped in their car and came out!
Aww, It was such an awesome surprise. It was so cool for us to get to introduce them to Elliot.The boys played plenty of golf, the girls did plenty of shopping. We had some great play time and we all ate our hearts out. It was a super fun week. Degan and Kodi Lynn came up from Round Rock so it was super cool to have all the little boys together.

The fab five as it were.

and the terrible twosome.

J/K that was D's mess. and I can't really talk because a couple weeks later I spilled a whole box of Trix and had Ezra and Rowdy help me clean it up

Yay for Letti's pics! She is so good

and Yay for Letti the baby whisperer.
She always makes us feel so loved

Thanks for the fun surprise Bowler/Byrds. We love your guts

The Golf Course in Round Rock

We followed the Byrds and Nan and Pops down to Bobby and Tiffany's house at the end of their week here in Texas. It was good fun hanging out and playing on the golf course behind Bobby and Tiff's house. Cole busted out his pro-minis and the kids tried to hit. Rowdy was mostly just wanting to do his thang and didn't want help. Ezra and Paisley were loving the sand. and the big Boys were out looking for golf balls. Letti had Elliot and it felt so good to run around and rough house with he little boys.

After this we went to Genghis Grill, a Mongolian BBQ, and Cody and I pretty much decided we won't be eating out for a while. (and one kid was even asleep the whole time!)

Thanksgiving Week

The kids with Dad. The kids with Yaya

My mom flew in on Nov 20th because Elliot's original due date was November 22nd. So anyway Elliot had been here for a week already and we were all getting used to each other. Elliot has been such a good sleeper from the start. Which just blows my mind because that sort of thing only happens to other people. So we were all feeling pretty good. We had been well taken care of by our siblings and our friends the week before. It was such a nice relaxing week. We just hung out around the house, recuperated, played and cooked and dabbled in a few more nesting projects.
Cody had cut some windows in a big ole' box for the kids to play in and color on. and it was only a moderate hit until my Mom started playing the three little pigs with the boys. Then it was AWEsome! We had hours of good fun with that box.

Here is the boys room before

and here is my mom in front of a green screen about to report on the weather or something

The other color is a really light blue so we put the kids prints in the corner

Fun!
Hopefully we will get some tie the room together pieces up soon.

I love this little polar bear.
and as a side note Elliot had a big chubby swollen face when she was born and after two days she had a skinny minnie face. She looks a lot like Rowdy when he was a wee baby.

The weather was pretty nice while my Mom was here she treated the boys to Mr. Frostee our ice cream man.

Ezra ate until he was too tired to eat anymore

Yaya did a ton of fun baking projects with the kids. My personal favorite was the gingerbread men they made and then we told Rowdy one ran away and he ended up finding him at the park down the street where we gobbled him and his friends up.

We spent had Thanksgiving dinner at Tad and Amelia's house. It was a really nice day. And there was obviously much to be Thankful for.

New babies are a good excuse to slow down. It was nice for me to actually have the boys on my lap too. I felt really good. Except you know when you lay on your tummy for the first time or something like that and it just feels odd and squishy like all your organs are remembering where to go.

It was such a nice Thanksgiving week. and Having friends and family around to celebrate Elliot's birth was a great reminder of all we have been blessed with.

Here are more pictures of Thanksgiving week

Cody and I came over for Thanksgiving dinner at Tad and Amelia's in our wetsuits. To grace their new pool with our presence. good thing there was no water in. It was cooooold outside.


Horses down the block

captivated

Miracles

I'm going to try to remember all the things that helped Elliot get here.


- Bobby got the short end of the stick from BNSF. Lucky for us Bobby got RSIA'd and was forced to take three days off. All because of 5 minutes. Which coincided with the birth. Tiffany was also able to get off and they drove up to help with Rowdy and Ezra. (RSIA is something forced upon the R.R. by the government that forces us to take time off. Too hard to explain here.)

-Lynda was planning on leaving to CA at 4:00 am but was interrupted by some breaking water and a subsequent phone call from her little brother at 2:36 am. The call went something like this:
Cody: Lynda, are you awake?
Lynda: No, what do you want?
C: Celeste broke her water.
L: no she didn't
C: yes she did, I promise. I wouldn't call you right now if she didn't
L: honest to goodness?
C: yes
L: are you crossing your fingers?
C: she really did. come down here.

and she came and helped out so much. With our two boys both our mothers were able to be at the birth but were unable to this time. Lynda stepped in and performed beautifully. and then left to CA at 11:00 after a quick visit with Elliot. Lynda, I owe you a coke.

- Paige and Zoe coming over at 3:30 am to watch the boys.

- Tad, Amelia, and Deedee interrupting their visit to takeover for Paige and Zoe

- Work. I got in from Temple at 10:30 pm and was promptly told by Celeste to stop going to temple because Elliot was coming soon. Celestradamus was so right it's scary.

- more to follow

Elliot Kays Bowler

She came!!!
After many miracles with timing, family, and temple trips, she's here. Here's her stats:

D.O.B. November 13, 2010
Time 9:37 am
Height 20.5 inches
Weight 9lbs 8oz

You read that correctly. Elliot is perfectly healthy and perfect. Here's some pics.

Don't be fooled by the mask

Rowdy calls this his Nacho Libre mask. This boy loves to wrestle.
Ok, So I will start with the mischievous story and move on to the churchy.
When we were babysitting Dominick the boys were getting a little excited at the table. We were having macaroni and cheese. Rowdy and Dominick just kept egging each other on to be silly and loud and not eating. In the mean time I am sitting next to Rowdy, feeding Ezra and realizing I probably didn't divvy out a big enough portion for Ezra. Anyway I asked Rowdy if Ezra could eat some of his mac n Cheese since he wasn't eating it. And Rowdy was still being a little crazy and says loud, " Ezra will NEVER eat any of my food!" and I just laughed at him and said in the disapproving mom voice, "Rowdy." and my hand continues over there to grab a few spoonfuls of mac and cheese and Rowdy... Stabs me with his fork! I was a little surprised and had him sit on time out. When I went to go get him he was teary and sad and I asked him why he was on time out. I am so glad we were hugging and he couldn't see my face (cracking up) when he said, " because I stabbed you with my fork". Awww it was so funny sad.

Rowdy has been in the rush mode of saying prayers for a long time now and just asking for the same things. So a few months ago we reminded him he needs to be saying thank you instead of just asking. So the past few months his prayers have gotten a little evangelical. Its still the same prayer he has had for most of the year but now it goes... "Dear HF, please bless the food. and THANK YOU (with gusto) for blessing the food. please bless Mom and Dad to come home safe and THANK YOU for blessing Mom and Dad to come home safe...."
and last week it was raining and rush hour when I decided to take the boys to McDonald's for the playground. I asked Rowdy to say a prayer we would get there safely, so now "bless McDonald's" is a staple in his prayers.

Then Last night it was so cute I couldn't find my phone and Rowdy said. "Mom we should say a prayer" awww. That made me happy. So he said the prayer. "DFH, Please bless Mommy to find her phone, and I KNOW Daddy gave it to her." :) Then I found the phone and Rowdy said a Thank You prayer "Thank you for Helping Mommy to find the phone and I KNEW Daddy gave it to her" :)

We have the Primary hymn book up on the piano and Rowdy makes up songs by looking at the pictures. For Example, " I like to pray to Heavenly Father, on my knees by the window because I can see the mountains and the flowers and I know he loves me."

We have been trying to read a few verses of the Book of Mormon daily with Rowdy repeating the words. He totally loves it and he is reminding and asking us if he can read the scriptures now. I have a cute video I need to get up, but if he opens them up he will pretend to read to Ezra. He has totally picked up on "And it came to pass" and rubbing his finger along the page so he can see where he is reading. He always talks about the prophet "Almi". as in Nephi and Alma. I was so surprised when the missionaries came over tonight they asked him if he knew what Captain Moroni did and Rowdy said, " He ripped his sweater and wrote on it"
This kid has a memory.
If I had a memory like that I wouldn't have to write such long posts.

And I am sure this was inspired by the book with the nut brown hair where they say "I love you to the moon and back". but Rowdy used to play a game where we would say I love you over the river and over the trees and the road..." and now he has just summarized it and it makes my heart happy, " I love you over everything."
and We love you over everything too Rowdy.

Boca

So Ezra was a little fussy tonight and I thought, "Oh, maybe he is about to push more teeth through." So I planned on touching his gums to see if he would wince or not just because he won't open his mouth open for very long. He let my finger right in and I discovered 2 top molars! They have been there for at least a week they are mostly pushed through. What a little trooper.. and negligent parents. and that is a total change in my tune from last week I was thinking Rowdy wasn't this sensitive when he was teething, but two molars and a front tooth!? What a studAnd Ezra can feed himself but he definitely adopted the Anderson gene for that task ;)
The tooth count is now at 10


and on a side note. I am about to pop. I can't sleep. Laying down is kind of a bummer. Dr. Wai said I am allowed to have baby girl any time now.
I have been craving junk food and Asian noodles with this baby :)
Lynda surprised me earlier this week with lunch at a little Chinese restaurant called. I Heart Noodles. That was fun.
On Wednesday Cody watched the boys and a friend's kids while we went and got massages. Thanks Locke and Katie for the Birthday gift. It was super nice. Then later to repay Cody we went out to eat but with no time to grab a babysitter. We realized we didn't really talk at all at dinner. We were both consumed with helping the boys. We might have to take a family break from eating out for a while ;) at least at the nicer establishments.
Then on Friday I went to the football game with Sharon to see a bunch of our YW who are in band and color guard. Also very fun until I learned that Rowdy and Ezra were literally "stinkers" for Patrick and Lynda. Sorry guys
Saturday I thought Cody was going to be home all day but got called after only 12 hours home. That was a bummer. Super Saturday was fun though and I got a lot of YW stuff organized today just in case I am with child sooner than expected.
Its been nice to pause and realize all of the good people I am surrounded by, many unmentioned. Thanks for the love.

Change of Weather

The weather is so lovely and fall-ish. It seemed like it would never get here. Now its finally here and I have all these half naked end of summer memories of my boys I haven't recorded. So without delving too deeply into summer, because that's probably going to be a long old post . Here are a few remembrances.

Rowdy inspired by his California adventures but lacking the natural resources, resorted to surfing on diapers. I did pretty good with the sunblock this year!
And embracing his role as a big brother figure Rowdy helped a friend, Dominick who I babysat for about 2 months, put on his sandals every time we went outside. These two got along great. Rowdy would even look forward to Dominick coming over and waking him up in the morning . Dominick's mom was a sub and would come over pretty early for the littles. The only way Dominick wouldn't cry to leave her was if he had one of the other boys to distract him. So it became a funny little tradition to wake one of them up. All three of the boys seemed to love it. Eww! its supposed to be cold when it rains!
Sweaty mornings helping Dad in the garden

and all the good helpers got the much sought after JB. Ezra inhaled these capri-suns faster than Rowdy, which is kind of crazy.

Front yard obstacle courses

So much for calling him the music man.
and Yes our ice cream man does soft serve!? I kind of miss the ghetto vans (cheaper:)and the number one thing to remember about heat mixed with humidity...

sometimes it stinks