thank you card sneak peek.

so excited to have my kids send these to all the gifters after christmas! they helped me make the card. their favorite part was making funny faces inside the card. i think this will be a new holiday tradition for us :)

Many Memories Snowflake Holiday Thank You 3x5 folded card

Turn your holiday photos into holiday cards with Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

Christmas gift tags. finally!

for the past couple christmases, i have sworn i will do it.

i will make some just like kristen, my super spectacular sister-in-law.

then...

i forget.

not this year!

oh boy!

oh boy!

look at me go!

CHRISTMAS GIFT TAGS!

i'm so excited to finally make me some super easy homemade gift tags. kristen tells you how to do it on her blog.

in other news:

i have a cute christmas card. and that's all i have to say about that :)

i left all the work to nana picking a great photographer and i found a card design i love at minted.com. needless to say, it was a lot less stressful compared to previous years.

i didn't like the card process so much though. too many hoops to jump through. i think i will just stick to designing my own next year. i'm just glad it's done and they're in the mail.

(cue handel's messiah please)

my mantra for the past couple years has been to "simplify" so i ordered/sent HALF of what i normally do. it was hard because i want to send a card to EVERYONE (who doesn't love to spread a little Christmas cheer), but i had to do better this year at allowing myself TIME to enjoy the reason for the season.

and ponder.

and keep all those things in my heart.

i wonder if mary ever pondered about why one musn't leave a certain 3 year old in the same room as several boxes of BRAND NEW plastic baggies?

ok,

maybe not plastic baggies but i'm sure they had plenty of burlap baggies. maybe?

you so pretty.

"i noticed mckay looking at me quiet and thoughtful as i was putting his shoes on this afternoon. it's a rarity to find either one of the twinnards* quiet and still at any given moment so i asked him what he was thinking.

while twirling his hair with his finger, he said very sweetly, "mom, you are pretty."

after melting all over the place, i thanked him with a big hug and then he giggled and said, "yah. you look like hannah montana."

good feeling's gone.

stinker :) i just love that kid.

*new name for the 2. i thought it would be better than mcjack.

these are the days of our lives...

there are days--strike that---SEVERAL day where i'm cleaning boogers off the walls and i'm thinking, "self, you really should blog about this". and i promise myself that i will.

and then i don't.

and then i forget the joy that comes from cleaning boogers off the walls.

(everyone says that i will be sad about the days of yesteryear, cleaning boogers off the walls.)

today was like those days. and so i shall share, with gratitude in my heart bursting at the seams, for the moments i have each and every day raising my beloved children.

jack got in a fight with my mascara and...no..he didn't lose. i'm pretty sure he enjoyed it.

then, on my way to throw the makeup remover tissues in the trash, i entered my room and found mckay peeing on my carpet. with a big smile on his face.

"look mom! i peed!"

no picture of that so instead i'll show you the picture of what i found in my kitchen when i ran in to find the cleaning-pee-out-of-your-carpet products:

then hollynd came in and gave me a hug. because she knows i can't swear out loud if she's giving me a hug. that's why.

then we laughed because mckay ran by totally nudie, riding on his stick horse, flinging around a pair of addie's underwear that he found in the laundry room like it's a rope, chasing an imaginary steer. or something.

bet you wish i had a picture of that, don't you?

then, i had to go to the bathroom. like right now. because i always hold my bladder for a long time because i can't leave certain children unattended for even 30 seconds because i might find something like a box of cereal emptied in my sock drawer. or something.

knock on wood.

----

and don't you love it when the doorbell rings while you're using the bathroom? hollynd answers it. yes, i know the safety issues but she thought she was helping. thank goodness it was the ups man. oh happy day! the ups man has saved us! picture delivery for rob & mandy taylor. birth announcements! yippeee! an excuse to leave the house!

forget duct tape, i can strap the boys into their car seats! justifiable containment. no escaping! an excuse to sit down and relax.

let's go make a delivery kids!

we go to granger orthodontics to deliver the goods to our dear friend, dr. rob. ever taken 4 kids on a field trip to an orthodontist's office? ya, we were only there for about...seconds.

then, i was faced with, do i really want to go back home? no. what can we do for free?

hey look! a skywalk over bangerter highway!

hey kids! have you ever walked on a skywalk??

sheer genius. they made this skywalk just for us. did you know?

you would've thought i just took them to disneyland. and it was free. i should be a mom aaaaaand a party planner.

next: dinner.

hmmmm...home? ya' right! like a feel like cooking after just coming off the high of walking over bangerter highway in flip-flops. wooo hoo! call me crazy--

LET'S GO TO IHOP!

put your hands up high and your feet down low that's the way we wig-a-low!

that red stuff on my shirt?

oh...

that's not ketchup. that's blood. yep. blooooood.

battle scars from ihop.

2 seconds after i told mckay in a very nice way that if he didn't sit down he would get hurt.

BOOM

ran right into the table behind us.

SCREAM!

fat lip.

blood on the shirt. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6....

waiter at our table handing out a whole box of free gogurts to get us to be quiet.

looking back, i'm pretty sure he was bribing us to hush up so we wouldn't sue them for putting that table there. i mean, it totally jumped out of nowhere and hit mckay right in the lip. totally their fault. i should be a mom aaaaaand a lawyer, don't you think?

maybe not a lawyer...i'm kind of a push-over. after dinner, the kids talked me into going over to the jordan landing commons area so they could explore. we walked over and found some bear statues that kids could climb on. random.

yes-- my kid has one shoe on. and the other one prefers to roll around on the ground instead of playing on a perfectly good bear statue. at least addie is normal. i think. sometimes i wonder. for instance, i found this on my phone when i was going through some pictures:

she photoshopped that herself on my phone. nice.

all in all it was a good day. a typical day in the bowler family.

we ended up at the park at the end of the day--thanks to a call from kristen-- and my kids got to beat up on uncle shayn.

thanks shayn :)

the end.

dear kd,

YOUR talent disgusts me and i am coming to steal your elephant mobile. love ya :)



do you read my sister's blog?

if you do, you know she is about to pop. i just wanted to take minute to reply to her baby posts as of late...

i'm telling you, "gary" would be a freaking sweet name.

by the time you have your 4th (possibly 3rd child), you won't even think about re-washing the clothes that you are getting out of storage. true story.
and
you will just lick off their binky when it falls on the floor instead of running to the nearest sink to rinse it off. true story.
and
you will buy all their new toys at garage sells and wrap up their old toys to give to them at christmas.
and
having them sleep in the same clothes they wore for that day is cause for celebration.
and
flashing booby in public so you can feed your child becomes so 2nd nature, it's like blowing your nose.
and
remember, nothing is wrong with giving your toddler a chicken drumstick to play with while you are tending to your other child.

you so pwetty :)










the end.

mooo.

the family is ready to butcher some cows. check out my sister-in-law's blog if you are interested in beef. pricing depends on how many people are interested and how much is wanted.

what is so great about getting beef this way instead of buying it at the grocery store??
watch food inc. (view trailer here):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eKYyD14d_0

our mini holiday.

I lift an eye
I cry a smile
out of home
peace a while.

[i have a picture. it will go here when i upload it from my camera. too lazy to go get my camera right now.]

eta: ok--here it is

lynn gifted me a weekend getaway for christmas. a stomach virus slapped me upside the head and kicked me in the gut when we originally planned to go last month so we went last weekend instead.
since we're cool like dat', we drove the incredibly long journey to downtown salt lake city to go on our little vacation. even the lady at the front desk of little america lifted her eyebrows when she noticed where we came from.
"don't get out very often, huh?"
she must have felt sorry for us because without a moment's hesitation, she upgraded our room for free and we were able to stay up on the 17th floor in "the tower".
maybe it was my baggy eyes that gave it away?

[we pause for a moment of "ooooooooooooooooooooooooooo, aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh, the tower...."] thanks little america front desk lady. i love you.
i love olive garden too.
have you ever noticed how good their salad is?
i know...
i don't get out much.
speaking of not getting out:10 1/2 years is way too long to go back to the temple you were sealed in to do an endowment session. i know, i know---i couldn't believe it has been that long either. been there for mucho weddings, done initiatory, baptisms...no endowment session. jordan river temple? yes. santiago, chile temple? yes. mexico city temple? yes. manti temple? yes.
salt lake temple? no.
[insert beautiful poetic description of experience here. don't know what to write because words can't describe sufficiently the beauty of the salt lake temple and how i felt to be there with my sweetheart, hotstuff. will come back later and fill in when i come up with something.]

seriously, go there now.

i want to go back. not that i don't love my life & not that i don't miss my kiddies. i just really love my husband.
and room service.

these are a few of our favorite things.

running the chutes is our favorite thing right now.

we like lots of other things too. like...

defrosting the freezer and finding these hum-dingers
(nothing like digging up treasures from the past):

sharing diaper ointment to the brother of the same mother.
on the head no less.
sharing is our favorite thing right now.

iphones.
we love iphones.
mostly because we can steal them from our parents and watch the kee-chow show on it.
and not making beds.
that's our favorite thing too.


making dresses out of the left-over christmas wrapping paper.
right off the runway, that's my favorite!



polaroid make-outs.
mmmmmmm....
now, that's a FUN favorite :)

because there's nothing else to do around here.

like laundry

i know, i know
i'm lying.

but my favorite thing is joking
:)

and stealing candy from the candy jar.


[the end.]

help for haiti babies.

a friend of mine told me about a friend of her's who has been going through a very long process famously known as "adopting kids from haiti"...and then the earthquake happened. since the earthquake occurred in haiti, they have been going crazy trying to locate all the kids who were in the orphanage. there is a lot more to this story which you can read about here:

http://countdowntohomecoming.blogspot.com/

long story short, in light of the recent earthquake, they have been granted permission to skip all the adoption hub-bub and are able to go straight to the embassy, file paperwork and get the kids here. however, as you may all know, there is utter chaos breaking out in haiti right now.

through the help of the lds church, the church of scientology, and several others, she is in the process of locating a plane and obtaining enough money for jet fuel (about $10,000). they have found a plane but are in need of funds.

if you have an extra $1 laying around, please donate it to this family. i can't imagine what it would be like being seperated thousands of miles from your babies and then have an earthquake happen.