Rainy Dayz

Playing Clubhouse Disney online.

Yep, they refuse to war clothes even though it is freezing.

Bored

Hanging out in the kitchen with mom

Oops, she caught me. The boys have been going stir crazy lately because it is rainy season and I won't let them outside everyday to play in the mud. I can only handle one day a week in the mud because after I wash all of the mud off of their shoes it takes that long for them to dry again.

So we have been trying to come up with things to do in the house. Mostly tearing up the house in a destructive manner is their specialty but movies and computer games have helped with my sanity. I can only keep up so much and then I crash on the couch and give up until Matt gets home. I am sure that he thinks that I just sit around all day but it is usually clean until about 3 pm. Then I give up. Especially since Jared and Tyler have stopped taking naps. Every once in a blue moon I can get them to crash but not as often as I would like. Lately I have resorted to just taking a drive so I can lock them up in their car seats and they sometimes fall asleep that way. Oh how I wait for the day that I can get a nap during the day and not wake up startled wondering what went on while I was passed out.

Christmas Weeks in a Nutshell

The week leading up to Christmas and the week after Christmas was jam packed full of things that we did. My mom, in her organized way, made a schedule where someone was in charge of breakfast, lunch, and dinner...a person was in charge of a nightly devotional (that kind of died off at the end) and an activity everyday. It was crazy fun and really, REALLY busy but when everyone left and things went back to normal I was having withdrawals not knowing what to do with my self. My sister Natalie and her fiance came for the holidays and Ashley and Kyle came after Christmas. Ben, Natalie's guy, got the privilege of staying with us and I wonder if he was regretting that placement. Being in their lovey ways he wouldn't get to our house until about 12:30pm or 1am every night and since my boys gave him a bright and early 7am (which is late for them) wake up call I am sure that he was anxious to go back to college and get some real sleep. Thankfully he could hear them running down the hall so he would get a little bit of a warning before they tackled and jumped on him. He was a really good sport about it and when I would find them all piled on his bed he would normally be reading books to them. (I think that he got my vote for joining the family.) I am also willing to let him stay at our place anytime. He was clean and quiet, I never heard him come in at night. He might not want to once I let it slip that I found Andrew sucking on his toothbrush one morning while he was in the shower. (One of those minor details that I feel are better just left unsaid) Maybe I'll tell him in a few years. hehe! This is our usual Christmas Eve dinner. One year I had a Hot Dog Bar on Christmas eve while spending time with Matt's family and then got a really nasty case of the flu. Never going to let the cook live that one down. I look forward to this tradition the most. Maybe because it is fabulous food.(Yes there are hot dogs in this picture but they were one of the meats that we cooked, not the main course) I own two of the crock pots and have done fondue a couple of times during the year but it is just never the same. Maybe because I have to do all of the work and I am too burnt out to enjoy it once it is ready.

This is Natalie and her fiance Ben. He proposed to her while they were here for the holidays and they have set their wedding date for April 10th. One day after her birthday. We are all sad that Ashely probably won't be able to join us since she is due with her first baby 5 days later. They are both really happy and into each other.

Here are my sneaky little Elves. One night we had one of our themed dinners and Ben and Natalie were in charge. They love the movie 'Elf' and so we dressed up like elves with hats and crazy socks and made sugar cookies and then went caroling. I think that this was my favorite night out of the two weeks. We met up with a group of people from church (about 41 people) and went caroling to some families in our ward. It took us about 2 hours to go 7 places but everyone really enjoyed us coming and I think that we startled a few. It was probably the size of our group. We got really good at loading and unloading all of the kids in the car. Thankfully there were other families with kids there with us so we weren't the last ones to the houses every time. I am hoping that we can make this a yearly tradition.

Grandmas 83rd birthday was on December 22 and she just had knee replacement surgery so when we were done caroling with our big group we went to her house and caroled to her. We brought her a birthday cake(which she is still eating) and some presents. She is doing very well and can walking around the house without her walker. In this picture she is talking to Ashley and Kyle on the phone.

Christmas day was fun as usual and the boys were spoiled beyond belief. Matt and I knew that they were getting presents from my parents and Matt's mom and so we bought light this year. I am glad that we did otherwise they would expect a Christmas like that all the time. Santa brought Jared a razor scooter and Tyler a easel with a chalk side and a white board. I finally surprised Matt with a gift this year (he always knows what he is getting) by making him a fly fishing shirt. I had started it 3 years ago and finally decided that this was the year to finish. It helped to have him gone till Midnight one night to a board meeting so I could sew while the kids were sleeping. Since Matt has been so busy I ended up buying myself all of my gifts, actually they were things that I got for free or close to it by couponing. That way I got what I wanted and I even wrapped them. So it was a surprise to Matt to see what I got. I still need to cash in on the present that I told him that I wanted. A FULL nights sleep, not being bugged by the boys. Yes. we still have little ones up at least twice a night every night. No wonder I always have bags under my eyes. They are worth it though. I wouldn't give up my boys for anything. The big one and the little ones. A few other things that we did after Christmas was that my Family took Jared with them to Alcatraz and he LOVED it. Apparently he really enjoyed the audio tour since he got to wear his own set of earphones and my mom said that the tour was really good. Jared told me later that the bad guys are all dead now and that they had to wear earphones while they were locked up. (This was how they were able to listen to the radio while incarcerated.) His favorite part though was riding the ferry. He loves boats and is always asking when we can go on a big boat again. He remembers the cruise that we did a few years ago.

Another day we met Ashley and Kyle in Sacramento and we all went to the train museum. That was really neat. I had never been and it was cool to see all of the old time locomotives. Then upstairs they had a kid station set up with a bunch of Thomas the train sets linked together to make one big station. The boys played with that for a bit while we waited for the rest of the group to tour the place.

We had a fun holiday and I was grateful to have all of the family here for one time or another. I am realizing that once all of my sisters marry off it will be harder to get all of the family together at the same time for the holidays. I am enjoying it while I can.

Family and Ward Christmas Party

Playing Jingo. Bingo Christmas style.

Cousin Felicia with Tyler. She was fabulous with him.

Most of the Cowley Family.

On saturday the 19th. We had our annual Cowley family christmas party. It is my mom's side of the family. The boys did fairly well on the drive to Sacramento and we went to their church building. A vollyball net was set up for the older kids including adults and a jump house was set up for by boys. Absolutly fabulous. They are always bored to death with the coloring on the tables cover with paper so they jumped until they were exhausted.

We had homemade pizza and then played a few games. It was fun to reunite with all of my cousins and Aunts and Uncles. Most everyone showed up.

Then we went to our ward Christmas party. It is usually something that I don't enjoy going to but this year was entirly different. I was much more organized and the program wasn't too long. I hope that they repeat it again next year. Then santa showed up. A man in our ward grows a reall beard for the occasion and the boys took to him alot better than the one at Jared's preschool. We even got a smile and a wish list out of both boys.

Santa at Preschool

Tyler did not like Santa so Jared is trying to help him look at the camera and smile.

Finally looking at the camera

He kept his head down like this the entire time that he sat with Jared and sang songs and waited for Santa Clause to call them up.

Santa Clause visited Jared's preschool on the last day before his break. He was so excited and every day that he went to preschool in December he asked if 'today was his party'. The parents were invited to come and see the kids and Santa and the kids sang songs to us. Jared was so darling. I was very proud of him. He waited his turn and then once he got the gift that Santa gave him, one that I snuck in earlier in the week, he waited until everyone got their present before unwrapping the gift. I was glad that I put two jars of play dough in the bag so Tyler would not feel left out. Jared was very willing to share with his brother.

They have days where they are the best of friends and then those other days when they are mortal enemies. Thankfully the good ones are more often than the bad ones.

Our first Remodle

Even though we are just renting the home that we are living in right now we asked the owner if we could repaint the bathroom. We think that the previous tenants painted over wallpaper and it was peeling really bad. And since we plan on being here for a couple of years we decided to make it look nice and enjoy it while we are here. I picked out a light gray to go on the walls and then pure white to cover the ceiling and trim and doors and baseboards. We had cheap labor. Matt and my dad patched the cracks in the walls and my dad textured the walls one night. (A little added bonus. I wasn't going to texture the walls but I am so glad that we had it done. It adds so much more.) Then a couple of late nights Matt and I painted the two rooms to our main bathroom. We had to wait until the boys went to bed and then let it dry overnight. It was a bigger project than I expected but every time that I walk past or go in their I LOVE it. No matter how much I cleaned that bathroom it always felt gross and grungy to me. Now it feels like a totally different room. It is amazing how much a coat of paint can do to a room. The pictures don't give it justice but here are few pics of the process and the final project. The texture before paint.

The nasty wall paper behind the mirror. Final gray.

I need to get some pictures up and them it will be totally finished.

Getting the Tree

The weekend after Thanksgiving we went to Home Depot and grabbed a Christmas tree. Jared was excited to pick one out and Tyler did his usual thing where he didn't care what we were doing. He just wanted to run away and hide in the trees to drive us nuts and be cute all at the same time.

When we got home a BYU game was on so we had to wait a bit to set it up. (Heaven forbid we do something while the game is on.) Setting up Christmas with the boys gets more fun each year that they grow. I was expecting Andrew to be difficult with the tree and all of the ornaments but I had the most trouble with Tyler. He was the most curious this season.

Thanksgiving 2009

For Thanksgiving we decided to have it at our house. Thankfully I didn't have to do most of the cooking. My mom took over that part of it and we divided up the rest of it so it was basically at my house with all of the perks like all of the leftovers.

We had 14 people in total and it was nice to have the whole family here (minus Natalie). My grandparents on Moms side, who drove down from Sacramento came as well as my grandmother across the street and cousin Shelby. We had so much food it was crazy. Thanksgiving has got to be one of my most favorite holidays. I LOVE FOOD! (It is obvious lately. Time to start running again)

Jared and AJ were in charge of the decorations and they did a fantastic job. After dinner the majority of them went to go see a movie and Matt and I got to take a nap because the boys passed out once it quieted down.

Then we made a trip to the church. This was probably the highlight of the night. We all brought scooters and basketballs and skateboards. Kyle and my dad played soccer on their scooters and it was so funny watching them try to stay upright while trying to kick a ball while riding a scooter. Jared begs me everyday if we can go to the church to ride scooters and play soccer. It was a great day!