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

new dientes

Ezra was crying today and I noticed a gap in his gum where a new bottom tooth is starting to push through. Maybe it wasn't just Halloween.Ezra loves phones. He will walk around the house with a cell phone to his ear and just say "hi" "hi" "hi!" but then he starts pushing the buttons and editing contacts and whatnot. So I pulled out one of the old cell phones for him. Not as tempting as the real thing. Then last night he found a domino and was pretending that was a phone. Walking around with it up to his ear saying his "hi"s. ...?Whatever works.

Rowdy reffers to the shirt he is wearing as his "Count Down Dracula" Shirt. I love hanging out with him and hearing all the connections he comes up with. (which are a lot harder to follow if you don't hang out with him)(Even though 80% of his conversations begin with "Remember when...?" even though the conversation-ee would have no earthly clue what he was talking about.)

An October family project we had was to re-grout.. or put new cement in our flagstone patio. We just wanted to seal it but it was so flaky in spots when it would rain it was knocking out chunks of the old cement/grout/ I don't know what its called. We dug out the old and after a few weeks and sessions of cement got the new put in. The best part was the boys were totally into it. Rowdy would ask can we work today? Can I have my tools to work? even Ezra would bang the cement with an old screwdriver and put the rocks into the bucket.

It made me happy.

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween from Mr. Fredricksonand Russell

Mr. Fredrickson and The Hulk, Miles, discussing the events of the evening.
I love this picture

We had some friends and family over to have some soups. I didn't get good pictures of anyone else so I am just randomly inserting this info in. The Carmacks & friends, Jason and Kellie family, our new neighbor and Brian B and girlfriend came over. It was a nice time.

People kept oohing and awing over Rowdy. A couple people thought he was a mad scientist but pretty much everyone knew he was from the movie UP. and they would call back into their house for the rest of their family to come check him out. We were pretty stoked we only had to buy hair makeup and stuff for the caneEzra was good to trick or treat for like 4 houses. as in just accompanying us. He was pretty antsy and agitated for most of the evening. There must have been too much sugar and too much stimulation. But he's so cuteWhen Rowdy would walk to a door for the first block he would say "Trick or Treating."
This is our next door neighbor Jaime.I am already about to pop with this big ole' baby inside of me. And then there was yummy soup, yes I had a little bit of candy but..Cody made homemade root beer and it was sooo good. and then it got all slushy and and I had to drink that too. anyway I seriously couldn't breathe for a good half hour.
Here is me and all of the kids :) Hi Baby

Getting ready

We invited a few friends and family over to hang out and eat soup on Halloween, so yesterday we cleaned out he garage and carved some pumpkins.
Ezra is actually a great helper. If you show him a simple task he will imitate it. He is a good cleaner upper for this reason. He and I gutted a pumpkin together.

and then he took the spoon over to help Dad

Here he is in the zoneRowdy was so excited to carve his pumpkin and Cody helped him get the big chunks out and then basically handed him the knife
Sometimes it is just better for Mom to leave the room when Dad has a project with the boys. Ezra, mowing the garage for our guests Rowdy not to sure about the slimy pumpkin gutsRowdy is a great big brother. He had Ezra cracking up on the swing, while we did some deep cleaning in our garageToday, Halloween, we made some Root beer. ooooooh love the dry ice.

smatterings of October

I always love Cody but October brings out the magic in him. It cracks me up to see him blog surfing for crazy halloween crafties or ideas to do with the kids. Its been fun to have a bunch of family projects together...when he was home. He worked on the road a lot this month. Here Rowdy is with part of the skeleton they made out of milk cartons. Ezra chowin' down on some blood worms Cody made with the Carmack girls. They weren't bad once you got past the weird texture. Ezra was probably the only one who didn't mind. They were basically just jelloand speaking of texture :)
Rowdy has been going to preschool with "Miss" Lynda on Tuesday and Thursdays. They invited Ezra and I to a little Halloween party. They sang some Halloween songs, did the pledge of allegiance and Lynda made an awesome Halloween lunch. The "brains " on the right were clear Asian noodles cooked in chicken broth with a little green food coloring. They were good but the texture was a little funny. Rowdy ate the first bite no problem and then I think Lynda and I and the boys just kept referring to them as "brains" "brains" "brains" . anyway the next bite Rowdy took of the noodles his face turned kind of white and he got that look. I call it the sushi look... like oh no! ...I can't handle this. It was so funny/ sad. He was totally gagging.. and loud! I couldn't even help him I was laughing so hard. Sorry little buddy. Last Saturday the 23rd was a busy day full of fun things. Cody was of course out of town on such a day as this. The boys and I had gone to bed late because of nickel auction, which was very fun. and then of course they still woke up at their usual time. Anwyay I had to finish off their costumes for the trunk or treat at the church at 5. and Cody had started making Livee's costume which needed a lot of finishing also. Lynda and Amelia threw me a baby shower from 1 to 3. It was a crazy morning. Ezra liked the way the baby food felt and was massaging it all over himself. Gave the boys a bath wringing my knuckles about making it everywhere on time. Rowdy was into everything, being very independent and opinionated. It was pouring rain. I asked Rowdy to play with Ezra while I just rinsed off in the shower. Came out like 3 minutes later and Ezra was soaking wet. Rowdy had let him out the front door. Luckily Ezra was good sensed enough to come back in.
The baby shower was perfect. Lovely, cute and good people. It was a vintage back to school theme. I need to steal some pics from Lynda. It was just really nice. Thanks to Paige for being my on call baby sitter this crazy weekend. Made it home just in time to finish Livee's costume. and I seriously debated just not going to the trunk or treat but we went anyway and it was fun but we only made it to the last 15 minutes (Our church is 30 minutes away) Then we ran home grabbed dinner and Paige and I went to go chaperon the youth dance (30 minutes the other way) I think I missed Cody getting home by 20 minutes and then had to wake up early for 8:30 church. And then Cody got called in to work right as we were getting in the car! Whew!
It was crazy but it was fun.
Here is Livee, the Lego girl and Mr. Fredrickson

Mr. Fredrickson and Russel from the movie UPLove these little stinkers

quick interviews with Ezra

Ezra is in the sponge and repeat stage. He learns like 10 new words a day... and forgets by morning :) its so fun to hear him repeat sounds and finally he is starting to do sign. Like "More" and "apple" and well... he has been doing "milk" and saying "bot"(as in bottle) for like 3 months now. but if you aren't in tune with his non annuncuiation I guess its good to know the sign anyway. He has been folding his arms for prayers for the past month. and he is great at following instructions like "get in your chair" he will go over to his high chair. and if you ask him, he will throw things in the trash, like his diapers (Yes we use disposable and cloth).
My 2 recent favorites are. "Hi!" his eyes get all big and he gets so proud of himself. 2 weeks ago he linked his first two words together. Cody had just walked in the door and he toddled to him all excited saying,"Hi Dada!" awww it was awesome. and I love when I come to get him in the morning he always tells me "Hi".
My other favorite is similar to his first word.... remember dog?! how he would hear one and point and his eyes would get all big and alert everyone that he heard a dog? Well now he does that with the train. He says "choo choo" with cute big ole' lips and the wide eyes and he tugs his arm in the air. We get to see that one plenty since the train tracks aren't far.


and i seem to be getting my movies cut in half anyone know why? you might be able to click on it and see it better on youtube or something?

The Walking Montage

Here are some pics of Ezra cruising around for you Californians. Enjoy Rowdy's background commentary. But also this footage is significant because it has been about a month that if Ezra has anything in his hand he will tip over. Check out the balance!


check out the soccer skills... and the vocab skills :) dog, ball and dad are always a sure fire way to distract Ezra's attention or get him talking. and really this boy will dribble a soccer ball around the house and even pull it back with his feet if he hits a dead end! and thats self taught. We love soccer but we are not dilligent about our skills. Rowdy is in more of a pick it up & throw it phase.


This is Ezra in front of our house. I love the toddle... With the arms up. Ezra loves to go outside especially in the front yard. and he thinks its hilarious to take off towards the neighbors and have us chase him. Usually he is really good if we are at a park or something and use the verbage, "Ezra Come Back" he will turn smile, take two more steps and then come back (thank goodness). I will try and get some chasing footage (from indoors) He screams and giggles if he knows you are chasing him. I wouldn't really call it running yet but he will pick up his pace. AND these past few days of October he has started standing up himself! as in not pulling himself up. All you skinny baby people are probably like oh yeah whats the big deal j/k.
Ezra also has these big ole' trunks of legs that come right into his feet and the way he stomps around I keep trying to resist the desire to make him Frankenstein for Halloween. He's too cute.

a good offense

Ezra catches on quick. You've got to be able to defend yourself in this family. He started tickling people around July so he was... 11 months old. He would do it on command or if you were teasing/tickling him, or sometimes just out of the blue. But its so great because not only does he have the tickle fingers going, he scrunches up his face and has a distinct tickle laugh to accompany.

Ezra's first steps

In the middle of August right after we got home from California Ezra started taking steps and walking. He was loving walking with help for several of the previous months. (and steering the helper). We thought he might just take off on his own but we had to get down on our knees, and beg him, (oh and bribe him) before he got brave enough. I think in all of my letters and notes to people I was saying. I want him to walk! so he can be nice and stable by the time baby sister gets here.

Whole new beast

This was in California probably in July, but its funny. Watch for the sneak attack pounce

gotta start sometime

I've been on computer vacation lately.. well a lot longer than lately. I keep thinking I am going to forget all these sweet little boy milestones and fun family memories and ...sure enough I have. I keep scribbling down lists of memories I need to permanently record and then misplacing them. I decided I better just post a post and hopefully it will be a motivator for me to get all caught up. Ezra is getting bigger and walking all over now but this picture does make him look a little older so don't freik out all you far away relatives and friends. Its just the only one I had on my computer of the two boys together. They are both in love with balloons right now. That one looks more like Ezra. Both of the boys love the find-y books. Ezra can also spot all of the circles within a miles radius. They are all "ball""ball" not to mention all of the dogs... "dog dog" and anyone who looks like Cody "a Dad a Dad"

OK.. here's to hoping this sticks ;)