Biology lesson

Rowdy told Ezra tonight: Crocodiles are girls and alligators are boys
Me: Cool. I never knew that
Rowdy: I knew that because I'm scientific


Rowdy doesn't say "gril" anymore

He does say, "Oh! I am so exciting to see you...blah blah blah"

We finally found them!

The LBJ Grasslands. Yes we have tried before but to no avail. But this past Monday Cody knew he wasn't working so we went on a little adventure.

Here is Dad and his ducklings

 

at Cottonwood Lake. 

Hey LBJ, there were way more trees than grass.

 

Oh look theres a little. 

We ran into a park ranger who totally sold us on revisiting. We were sort of blown away by the lack of rules. because in CA they are a plenty. You can camp anywhere for 4$. A couple of areas have restrooms. You can hunt.. (Locke) and fish here as long as you have a state license. & There were trails to hike, bike, ride horses on

 

 and treasure to be found

OK, I was going to include a picture of a fish we found but it was too...dead fishy. but it was a good size catfish. Maybe you could noodle here too Lockelee-roy

We threw a bunch of Rocks in the lake..one of our favorite past times. and then we started back a la casa and saw a sign to Black Creek Lake, also part of the park. Wow. I am so glad we stopped. It was so pretty. There were lots of little peninsulas and places to explore. I can't wait to bring our little boat back.

 Everything was just past Decatur, which had some cool old buildings..

The Courthouse

The Addams Family house

 and a Petrified wood gas station

slash "motorist camp"

Then to top the day off Cody hired Livee and Zoe to babysit and took me out on a hot date.
It was so so nice to be kid free for a moment with my loverly guy.

"On a Sunday Afternoon"

 We have church at 1:30. I have been struggling with fun sabbath day stuff for my family. It has been happening for a while now. Our time, now in the mornings, consists of me letting the kids watch Veggie Tales while I am putting the finishing touches on my primary lessons. Rowdy said in his prayer tonight, "please let us have fun on everyday except Sunday." I think somehow the message is being skewed :)

I liked how, Sunday after church, all the boys had their separate reading material. Cody was singing us Spanish hymns, you know being uplifting. While Rowdy and Ezra read about death and monsters. (All My Friends Are Dead)

 Girls were in the kitchen

 We took church shirts off to eat and thought I should show you how tough Ezra is after his ant pile bike landing. He is posing a sad face but they haven't seemed to bother him as much as I pictured they would

 and my favorite man making my favorite dessert.

AFV

Rowdy and Degan had a lot of fun playing together this week. They came up with all kinds of stuff.

I had to watch when I heard them say,"Let's play America's Funniest Home Videos" :)

They were doing all kinds of acrobatics and running around. They would complement each other too. "Ohh! That was a good one." Of course the involuntary toots were always the funniest.

Pigtail Elliot checkin' out the action :)

(Ezra has been obsessed with sitting in the highchair lately)

Miles and Gray came over a couple days this week too. They all seemed to have so much fun together. (Side note: no one got sent to timeout when all the boys were together! which usually happens with my boys) They were all so good. It helped the weather was beautiful. They were in my backyard most of Friday.

Tiffany drove all the way up after work. Poor thing got stuck in a ton of traffic. I had all these iffy plans of things to do with her, but we just ended up making pizza and a fire and watching a movie, and it was nice. 

 and Ezra was having an issue regarding a marshmallow and his bum. He didn't think he was being funny either. We could not figure out where that came from but it was pretty hilarious.

And then today I am exhausted. but I did finally sell our old desk on Craig's list which funded dinner! Cody did homework all day except for our break to the park. Rowdy is getting good at his bike. & at the end of our park trip Ezra fell in a fire ant pile :( Luckily he's not allergic like Rowdy and Cody but he is still a little swolen. He has 15 or 20 welts.... More homework and me being lazy. and then we went to a toy store to play and Pei Wei to eat. mmm. Nice way to end the day.

Trying to get Ezra to say "No Thank you"..because its cute

Week of the boy

So, Degan is hanging out with us this week. We have already had a lot of fun. 

Degan also has very good manners. He without asking held the door open for me at church. He also knelt down in his primary class for the prayer he gave. He loves to say prayers and always blesses "us to be good" and always asks H.F. to bless his Mom and sister. He is sooo sweet. & he loves playing with Elliot and making sure she always safe and well fed.

So good mannered man that he is, I had to beg him to slurp the kool-aid Ezra spilled off my tablecloth :) I love the outdoor water repellant tablecloth for this very reason. & I love the kids looking at me..."really?" 

I secretly hope it will be one of those random childhood memories for them.

 As always fun to see the boys together. We are missing you Cole. Can't wait for this summer.

Rowdy and Degan have been running away from Ezra these past couple of days. & when he gets tired of chasing them they come up to him and Degan says,"Ezra, what are you going to do now?" and Ezra says,"I'm going to kiss you guys!" and it starts again :)

"overpowered by..."

I was in the computer room and kept hearing a clanging. 

I walked into the kitchen to see.... :)

Everyone got a turn too.

Cody has been working on a palette "craft." After a couple weeks of manually tearing them apart he borrowed Craig's saw. The kids were all excited about it.

 ..or maybe it was the safety glasses they were excited about?

 I love Cody. 

I love how he loves kids and they can feel it. They always want to be around him. 

Even when he makes them work :)

 We found some caps in our junk drawer and the kids took turns hammering their rolls. It was awesome. mmmm... the smell of gunpowder

 I have been loving having the cousins around. They are all growing up into such fun people.

Saturday Cody had gone out of town for work. It was raining and I didn't want to stay in the house all day with the kids, but wasn't feeling adventurous enough for a public arena. So we took a spur of the moment trip to Round Rock to see Tiffany, Kodi and Degan. The road trip with my kids was really nice..& old school. We played games and sang. Round Rock was awesome too.
The Bowlers are always so nice to let us pop in. The kids had so much fun together. Kodi Lynn was a nice babysitter/ hatmaker.

Every once in a while Ezra would let out an ear piercing scream. When Coy, Tiffany's dog, would walk by, if Ezra was by himself he would freak out. Coy is one of the nicest dogs ever... he tries to smile. I guess it would be intimidating to have a dog as tall as you showing all his teeth. It was pretty funny. and Elliot did her usual chase the dog crazy excited, then get nervous.
Tiff was super sweet and did my hair and brought us all yumola cupcakes. We ran a few errands, ate yummy sushi for dinner, and brought Degan home with us on Sunday just in time for church. It was a fun excursion.
Sunday night Livee and Miles came over and we had a boy vs. girl wrestling match. It was Livee and I...& Elliot vs. The 4 little boys. I don't think I have laughed that hard in a long time. Then Lynda Zoe & Paige came over and we watched funny mormon youtube videos and laughed some more.
I had been in a little funk earlier this week and I feel like Heavenly Father just poured in all these fun kids, nice sisters, & a nice husband to help pull me out of it.

Ezra Jay hearts PJ

Ezra as of late has been obsessed with Pajamas! 

He wants to wear them all day. He gets so sad when he has to take them off to start the day. He was very into Spiderman pajamas from Christmas. He and Rowdy were fighting over them every night. After those disappeared he now has affectionately named all his footie pj's. Stripeys, Monkeyman and so on. I told him he needs to be a doctor so he can wear scrubs to work.
He reminds me of Cody, in that he knows what he likes and he sticks with it. He still loves "Super Why", Praise to the Man, & Spiderman.
He has also been so polite lately. I love the way he says "No Thank You." He says it so sweetly.
He and Rowdy love to play together. Especially wrestling or pillow fights (getting old for parents really fast). but he is not afraid to play on his own. He loves books, the park, riding his bike and snuggling. We often unknowingly wake up with him next to us in bed.
Love you Sweet Boy.

Miss-chief

 Here is a common view of Elliot... Taking off up the street.

Elliot is 15 months old now. 

She is coming into her own. 

-She loves playing in the kitchen cabinets and any small space she thinks she can fit into she will clear out and then just sit in it for a minute and move on. Her brother's pajama drawer is another favorite.
-She has 8 teeth now and is inconsistently picky.
-She loves clementines.
-She is scared of loud noises. She will have a startled look on her face and crawl up into a lap, but not cry.
-She loves to get chased by her brothers.
-She finds socks and sticks them under her chin smiles all big...and will start walking. I guess to see how long she can hold it under her chin.?
-She likes to be thrown in the air, onto the love sac, or being squished ie. steamroller
-She is always trying to go in the street. She will even watch us to see if we are looking.
-She likes rides on the Razors
-We try and keep the crazy comments to a minimum but she is feisty and fast! If she doesn't have it her way she will swipe at your face, head butt, or try and wriggle out of your arms. So I guess independent or opinionated would be a more constructive description.
-She is starting to snuggle again though. It melts my heart.
-She loves to grab our phones and walk around pushing buttons then holding them up to her ear.
-She understands a lot but doesn't talk much. She says our names, "up", she loves seeing sheep and saying "baa", and dogs she will bark. Those are her only really consistent words. She babbles, but every once in a while she will bust out. Here are a few of our favorites, "porta potty!", "I do", &"Grandpa" and"H I J K" from the alphabet song :)
-She will push everyone away if Daddy is holding her or even close to Cody
-And she loooves Livee. (she prob wouldn't push Livee away :)
-She likes playing "catch" or rolling balls back and forth to ya
-She loves baths/showers and pretending to wash her self

She is a lot of fun. 

We Love you Munchkin Lady

Handsome Hats

Nan made the kids a book of the Mormonads for Christmas and we had the best time having Rowdy read them to us on the way to church.

"There aren't any princesses, just frogs with handsome hats."

 

"Do not jump on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches!"

 

 "This will not hurt. But this time it will"

Darn there were so many good ones I can't remember. We will have to record them or have him read them to us again.

Red solo cup..

You were filled up, with lots of candy!

It still feel like Valentines day with all of these sweets around

 The kids seemed to have a fun day. Thanks for all the love and valentines.

 Ummm... here are the valentines that Rowdy made that never got delivered...sorry

Lots of Love, 

The C.C.Bowlers

Rowdy Shark doo doo da doo doo da doo

Brave man that he is Rowdy got to go check out the dissected shark at the museum. He was pretty excited about it. and when we asked him what he learned it had something to do with the food going in there and out of there. Way to go brave little biologist.

Littles Mountain

While we were in CA, my Dad snuck Rowdy off to hike Little Mountain, & I figured I would sneak Ezra out to hike it behind them so we didn't hold them back. But trooper Ezra was so excited he was the first one of the four of us to start up the hill. He didn't stop. He was slow and steady and didn't complain. We went up the steep face right behind Blair Park. He really surprised us.

The boys had a blast on their hike w Papa. Guess it runs in the blood.