Big boy

So, Keith and I are really mean parents and we haven't really let Brady feed himself food with a utensil very often. I think the main reason we haven't is because we live in a rental, with carpet that we don't own, and Brady has shown himself to be a pretty messy eater. I was looking through pictures and I saw some of Natalie at 17 months feeding herself yogurt, so I decided it was probably time to bite the bullet and let Brady try it out. He did surprisingly well! Of course, he was under my watchful supervision so any attempts to fling the food, or throw the spoon were stopped before they got anywhere.

I tried to get some pictures of him eating, but as soon as the camera came out he started "smiling" for me. I finally got him to ignore me and take a few bites for the camera. What a cheeseball!


P.S. I was just looking at the images I posted and I noticed that in the 5th one Brady is totally eyeing that little spill of yogurt! This cracks me up because as soon as I went to put the camera back he totally went for it.

Update

This morning Natalie officially stated that she will no longer be known as "Shoe Fix". She told us that she isn't Shoe Fix anymore just "Princess", hmmm...I am not sure how I feel about that one.

"Princess"-15 months

Greys Anatomy

Thoughts? Concerns? Lexie-like her or hate her?

please comment!

Jail Time

Yesterday Brady was naughty *gasp* and he broke one of Natalie's little toys. So he ended up in a time out. I got some pretty funny pictures of him making his squinty face.

Behind bars!

I tried to catch him making the face on video, and instead I got the BEST little movie ever! I call it "B-O-Y". It is an instant classic, from the beginning "response" to my question to the ending "farewell" grunt, a little piece of work. We love our silly boy!

a new hair do...

At lunch I noticed that Brady had a horrible case of puffy bed head.

I got out the spray bottle and tamed it down. He looked so handsome!

Then he pulled the move that I know he will be doing for years to come...he messed it up!

I can just see him now as a little boy going to school mussing up the hair I so lovingly combed down. It truly brings tears to my eyes! I am such a sap I know, but he is growing up so fast!

And of course Natalie wanted to have her picture taken too!

TV Talk

Yay for the new season! I was working last night so I wasn't able to watch my shows until this morning. As soon as Brady was down for a nap and Natalie was settled down with an activity I plopped my bum on the couch to settle in and begin watching. This mornings line up for me was How I Met Your Mother and Heroes.

I watched HIMYM first and was not disappointed! It was hilarious! I am so glad they didn't cancel the show. I was afraid they were after the season finale last year, but no they didn't and it was just as funny as always. I loved the beard shaving segment for those of you who watched.

Next up was Heroes. It was SOOOO good! I have to admit I have not seen every episode of this show that way I have of some of my other favorites (LOST, Grey's, Ugly Betty), but I started watching it after Mindi's recommendation. I am so glad I started. This is such a good show, it takes the place in my "sci-fi" genre of my long lost favorite X Files. It was a pretty good episode, but what through it into awesome was the ending!! I love those type of leave you on the edge of your seat endings!

I can't wait to see what the next of this week hold for me! I admit I am a TV junkie. Feel free to share your thoughts on your favorite shows too!

P.S. That guy that played the Japanese "hero", David Anders, well he was born and raised in my home town! Good old Grants Pass, Oregon. I only know of him, but my Grandma babysat him, and my sister knows him (and his family?). Anywho, I think this is pretty cool and I love when I see him in something new (he was in Alias).

Internet Swaps

Some of the blogs that I have started reading have mentioned "swaps". I finally found one that took me to a swap page so I could learn about what the heck they are. To give a brief summary what you do is find a swap that interests you and then you sign up and this website will issue you a partner. You then must fulfill the swap obligations by making a craft, or recipe, or even just filling out a postcard,(what ever the specific swap is about) and then send it to your partner. You in turn will receive something back in the mail from someone else. I think this sounds pretty fun, a great way to get cool mail (and who doesn't love mail!) so of course I signed up to give it a try. We will see if I like doing it. There is such a huge variety of swaps to choose from, they range from huge packages to postcards. The first one I signed up for is a matchbox decorating swap it seems simple enough for a beginner so we shall see! I will post a picture of my completed matchbox and then one of the one I receive when I have them. Here is a link to some completed matchboxes (this link goes to one of the creators of the swap-bot site so of course they are awesome and super cute).

More football ramblings...

So this week a wise man told me never to trust the Cardinals, the Browns, or the Lions. I should've listened as two of those teams cost me the Bowers Bowl this week. The only other game that Keith and I chose differently was the Bears v Cowboys game, and without fail if I pick against the Boys then they win (the last time I picked against them it was vs. the Colts and the Cowboys pulled out a win then too)! So needless to say I am not too horribly disappointed that I lost this week. What I saw/heard of the Cowboys game was pretty awesome. I have to watch the full thing today because I was working last night (this is the only downside of my job--thank goodness once again for DVR).

I love commercials, especially ones with Peyton Manning! I found another cool site with him. It is more football trivia, but even if you lose it is pretty cool. To get your butt kicked by Peyton click here. For old times sake click here. Ah, Peyton, oh how you make my heart go pitter pat!

Craft Ladies

Because of the fact that I work 8 hour shifts in the middle of the night I have the tendency to get bored while sitting on my bum in front of the computer. To ward off boredom I have taken to "blog surfing", this consists of going from blog to blog by links that the authors have put on their sidebars. In my recent "travels" I have come across a bunch of these superly awesome crafty women! A few of them sell stuff on ETSY, and they all post about random crafts or neat new bits of material or things that they pick up. Anywho, I like reading their blogs, so I have linked some of my favorites under "other cool sites". I just thought I would give a little info on who the heck those people are! I have no idea, but they are creative and it inspires me to make more time for creating my own stuff!

Things that make me smile

Nothing life changing has been going on around here, so I thought I would do another list.

1. Brady standing up in the bath tub, farting, and then sitting back down.
2. Making cookies with Natalie. (recipe in another post)
3. Keith and Natalie watching Star Wars together.
4. Brady rocking (and rocking and rocking and rocking) in my Grandma's chair.
5. Finding steals in the clearance section.
6. Natalie hitting that stage where she wants to wear a dress/skirt EVERY day.
7. Keith getting to play basketball again.
8. Good books (thanks Sarah!)
9. Brady laughing with glee when he sees his blankie.
10. My sister Erin really and truly coming to live with me!!

Peanut Butter Fudge Cookies

These cookies are SO easy! I got them from Sandra Lee Semi-Homemade Desserts (I found this for $5 at a book fair!). There are 3 ingredients and they came together so fast.

1 pkg (18 oz.) refrigerated sugar cookie dough, room temperature
1/2 C. peanut butter
1 can (16 oz.) chocolate frosting

**special equipment-mini muffin tin (I just rolled them into small balls and they turned out fine)
1. preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray mini muffin tins (if you have them, I used a nonstick cookie sheet and didn't spray and they didn't stick at all.)
2. Mix cookie dough and peanut butter just until swirled. Press 1 tsp into each muffin tin (or make walnut sized balls). Bake for 12 minutes or until cookies are slightly golden. Let cool slightly in pan (or on sheet).
3. Remove cookies from pan (or sheet) and place on cooling rack (I use tin foil). Make a slight indentation in the center of each cookie with the back of spoon (I used a measuring spoon-nice and round). When cookies are completely cool place about a tsp. of frosting in the center.

**For placing frosting I used a trick I learned off food network and make a pastry bag from a Ziploc. You just put the frosting in the bag and snip off a small corner and there you go! Instant piping bag! This made it a lot easier for Natalie to help frost the cookies. :)

I did it!!!

I really wanted to figure out how to get a small video of the kids onto my blog, and I did it! All I had to do was take the movie with my camera, duh! So here is the first one of sweet Natalie singing her rendition of a "How Great Thou Art" and "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" medley. Enjoy! **Before you watch it be sure to mute my "soundtrack"!

New Tenant

In about 4 weeks life in the Bowers household is going to get a LOT more crazy. My little sister Erin has been wanting to move down here to Texas for quite awhile and now it is official! Keith's brother Jason is going to fly up to Spokane and then help her drive down here. Should be quite a trip for those 2! Well, needless to say we are getting very excited. We know it will be hard at times, but it will be fun. Yesterday we ordered some new bunk beds (poor Erin is going to be sharing a room with TWO babies) and now we are anxiously awaiting their arrival. Natalie can't wait to have a "bouncy" bed. I also found her some super cute Tinker Bell sheets at Ross to match the quilt that I have had in my closet for almost a year. Anywho, I love any excuse to decorate or organize, so I am having a good time trying to figure out how to make it work so that Erin can have her own space and not feel crowded by the kiddos.

P.S. I got the kids Halloween costumes, they are SO cute and funny. I was going to keep it a surprise, but my big mouth keeps telling everybody. I will restrain myself and not post pictures of them in their costumes until Halloween though. So, all you far away family and friends will still get to be surprised.

They think they are SO funny...

So Brady was supposed to be in bed sleeping, and after at least a half an hour of quiet we start to hear a little voice coming from the bedroom. Keith and I were like, what the heck! I totally though he was asleep. Little did I know he was in there having a grand old time, playing happily and trying to get undressed! HA! That shirt showed him! The funniest part was that I knew that Natalie had done this same thing awhile back. Sure enough I looked through my pictures, and what did I find! I even did the math and they are the SAME age in the pictures! Crazy!

Brady-19 months

Natalie-19 months

Let there be music!

Turn down your computers! I figured out how to have a soundtrack to my blog...it is all the way down at the bottom if you want to turn it off. I will see how annoying it gets having it on there. It may get annoying when I am working, we shall see!

Well, you guys read the blog, so you tell me what you think...

Bubbles (part 2)

We went to the rec center to pick up Natalie's membership card (she is taking a "tumbling tots" class in October) and we decided to walk over the the park area and have some more bubble time. I don't know what it is about bubbles, but our kids would play with bubbles until Mommy passed out from blowing so many. They love bubbles! It was a pretty uneventful trip except that I got some pretty good pictures. I love the way the pictures tell a story as you scroll down...

Trying to eat a bubble

On the way home...

How pathetic are they?

Just...can't...make it...

So, one of the (many) things that Brady has been doing lately to drive me and Keith crazy is not sleep long enough. He fights us for naps, and then only naps for an hour or so, and then doesn't want to go to bed, and then he wakes up in the middle of the night, and then gets up for the day around 6:30 or 7. This pattern got very old, very fast! Yesterday Brady pulled his normal trick of waking up after only a short 1 hour nap. (I should also mention that after every period of sleeping the first thing Brady does is toddle over to the rocking chair and "rock" for at least 5-10 minutes, by banging his head on the back of the chair so hard that it creates motion.) OK, where was I? Yeah, the 1 hour nap...so, he woke up from his nap and went over to the chair for his routine rocking. Well, the little guy just couldn't hold out any more. The lack of adequate sleep finally hit him and he "rocked" himself to sleep. Keith got pictures of him sleeping there, but the best is that Keith got video of Brady sleeping and every so often (like a kid on America's Funniest Videos) he would rouse just enough to "rock" a few times while his eyes were still halfway closed. I wish I could post the video on here, it makes for some good T.V., but for now the pictures will have to suffice.

Nothing to say...

I really hate to post if I have nothing interesting to say and right now I really don't. Today was my first day of my "off" week and it was nice to not be rushing around getting all that I want to get done before 7 o'clock. It has been pretty uneventful in the Bowers house the last few days. I have gotten some cute pictures though. So, at least I can share those!

Natalie looking coy for the camera.

Natalie's new Cowboys sweatshirt

He's doing IT again!Natalie's rainbow.

Funny...

OK, now I don't know how many of you ever saw that weird commercial for Starbursts a while back with a crazy guy asking for Berries 'n Cream? Well, I had forgotten about it actually. But then I was reading a friends blog (thanks Jared) and I came upon this video. It was just too good not to share.



Anywho, when I watched it I was wondering where it came from and it turns out it is from the previous mentioned commercial. Enjoy!

YAY!!

OK, so I can't really promise that I won't comment each week on the Cowboys game, but I HAD to do a post on last nights game because it was AWESOME and because I know half of you didn't watch it and the other half of you were watching Britney crash and burn on the VMA's (poor Britney, it sure is scary seeing what having too much, too fast in your life can do to a person).

Anywho, the Cowboys won their first season game AND it was a division game so that made the victory that much sweeter. I was working last night , so initially all I heard about the game was the "YES's" or the "OH NO's" coming from Keith in the living room. I finally got a chance to watch the game over the course of the day due to the magic that is DVR. As I was watching it I had to laugh because I could tell which parts of the game were the ones Keith had cheered or cringed for. Instead of going into all the details I will just put a small list of my favorite things about the game:

1. Jason Witten. He is my favorite player and has been for a few seasons, so it was cool to see him do so well.
2. Tony Romo's first rushing touchdown of his career.
3. T.O. showing us what he can do.
4. Sam Hurd (who isn't even a starter) making a final T.D. to put the final score at 45-35.

I tried to post some pictures from the game, but I couldn't figure it out. So click here to see some great highlights.

At last...

...the face behind the camera. Against my better judgement, here is a recent picture for all of you who were asking. Happy now?

Nothing sweeter...

...than a sleepy child in the middle of the night. With those heavy eyelids and those soft cheeks. One of my favorite things is to be able to see my babies drift off into dreamland. Brady has been waking up in the middle of the night lately with a diaper that has leaked or wanting milk. This is not fun for any of us, but after we get him calmed down, fed and/or dried he is just the sweetest little thing. When we lay him back down he doesn't even fuss and stares at me with those puppy eyes and the annoyance I felt just moments before melts away. Oh, the small and simple pleasures to be found in parenthood!

Of course I have no good pictures of Brady sleeping, but here is my last attempt to catch him in that in between stage, but of course the no flash pictures are too dark and the flash attracted his attention.

Swoon

This is just too good not to share. Follow instructions, sit back, and let your heart go all aflutter! Click here.

Treat

Dinner conversation with Natalie:
"Mommy can Ewan be my treat?"
"What?"
"Can Ewan be my treat after dinner?"
"Huh?"
"Can he come over to play after I am done with my food?" (You could tell she was thinking we were idiots for not getting it)
"Oh, I see, no sweetheart, Ewan can't be your treat, sorry."

Starting off with a BANG...

Thanks Kelli for title inspiration! So, football season has officially begun and it was awesome! I have to say the Colts were in fine form as they smashed the Saints last night! I promise I won't post a million blogs about football, but that game was SO good. Plus if you watched it you got the added benefit of seeing Peyton in all his million commercials, and if you are really lucky you saw the new Pepsi commercial starring our very own Cowboys! I remember hating seeing Donovan McNabb in the soup commercials, but for some reason Peyton never gets old...

Some explanation

OK, so awhile back, my friend Kelli posted this and I thought, "why not"? A few days later she posted this to get those of us participating started. then today she posted this and I think this is a VERY good idea. Because of the fact that I know my friends and family read this blog I am thinking I may (stress on the may) be more inclined to watch what I am eating to spare myself any embarrassment. So, starting tomorrow, I too am going to add to my side bar a daily menu and we shall see if anything comes from it!

Are you ready for some football?

Football season is officially here with the season opener played by the Colts and the Saints going on as I write this. This means that is time for Keith and I to start the 2nd annual Bowers Bowl! We are very excited in this house for football season to begin. The Bowers bowl consists of me and Keith each picking our wins for all of the games each weekend. The person who gets the most correct after all the weekends games have been played (with the monday night game score as tiebreaker just in case) wins a small prize. Last year was the first year we did this so the prizes were all little things like a bag of candy or no doing dishes for a few days, with no over all winner for the season (it would've been me!). This year we have decided to take it up a notch, so to speak.

Each week we are putting $10 into a jar, this is going to go to the person at the end of the season with the most correct picks over all. We are also doing small weekly prizes like chores and things so that there is some instant gratification for the weeks winner. I am very excited by this "grand prize" of sorts for the end of the season. It will end up being $200 or so. That is a LOT of money, but we figure if we take it out each week it won't be such a huge dent all at once to the pocket book! So I will add a little score keeper to the side bar and we can all keep track of who is going to walk away with the winnings. This should make football very interesting, considering that I am a VERY competitive person (and I really want a KitchenAid mixer!)

P.S. GO COWBOYS!!!

Finally...

...I am posting something. I just haven't much felt like writing anything and when I am not working I just don't feel like spending any time on the computer.

...Keith and I went on a date! I got the idea in my head and I decided better now than never! So, I called Kelli (thank you thank you thank you!!!) to babysit and she said yes. So after much debate, and figuring which movie and where to eat and what time to go, we had a plan. Keith and I were about to embark on our first "whole" date (dinner AND a movie) in I honestly can't remember how long. So Keith and I decided to go out to eat somewhere were we can't really take the kids so, of course, we had sushi. Now this is a HUGE treat for us, because it can get expensive, but we love to have it so much and it really takes me back to when we were first married and we would go all the time. Now no one get alarmed, I don't even touch the raw fish! Sushi is the best for me when all things that were once living have been cooked. No slimy fish for me! Anywho, we had a great time and it was nice to not have to worry about Natalie eating her food, or Brady spilling the water and just enjoy one another. After dinner it was on to the movie, we ended up seeing StarDust. It was SOOOOO good. I really liked it and the soundtrack was good too. Some of the guest appearances were hilarious. I encourage anyone to go see it. Not a good movie for little ones, but I enjoyed it and so did Keith so this is a good sign that both men and women will like the movie. So if you are headed to the theater and don't know what to see we both recommend StarDust.

...Natalie wet her pants. I couldn't think of any thing else to start this paragraph that worked with "finally..." so this is what we've got. Anywho, Kelli said the kids did pretty good over all at being babysat. This really was the first time that we have left Brady for a significant amount of time at a different house without us there. The only "major" crisis is that, of course, Natalie gets too caught up in playing and doesn't tell anyone until the last minute that she has to pee and then it's too late and you have a little girl screaming like you are going to cut off her thumb because she accidentally wet her pants. We have tried, to no avail, to tell her that it is OK if she has an accident (well not OK, but not the end of the world) and that it can be cleaned up and taken care of. No matter how many times we tell her this she still FREAKS out when she wets her panties. So, I have to publicly say sorry to Kelli and Bryce for having to deal with my maniac daughter during one of her meltdowns!

...there is Brady, Brady Brady Brady, that kid is just too much sometimes. He is the most...sensitive kid I have ever seen. If you tell him no, even in the sweetest voice, he gets so...offended that he bursts in to tears (with a delayed reaction because it takes awhile for his face to get into the right pouting sad face position for the tears and noise to follow). The kid is absolutely nutty. I was being nice when I said "sensitive" and "offended" really it is "stubborn" and "ticked", he HATES having things taken away from him. It also sounds like the fact that Mommy and Daddy weren't around AND he was being told no was just too much for him to handle. So another thanks is in order for dealing with my little baby boy. P.S. He really is sensitive because one of the first things he did when we got home was he grabbed a blankie to cuddle and wouldn't let go of it for the rest of the bedtime routine. I have no idea where he gets this blankie fascination, I really don't...

...Keith caught a fish (two actually)! So on his fourth trip down to the lake (we looked it up on Google Earth and it is a lake and not the Trinity River as we thought before) he caught some bass. Keith has been trekking down there as often as he can only to come back with muddy shoes and not much else. On his last trip down there he decided to try something new and went in the evening. He said that as soon as he cast out his line he had a bite and the next cast he reeled one in. So, YAY for Keith he now has a good hobby that he can do for free right in the back yard, so to speak. I am still unsure on how I feel about this tromping down to the lake, but I figure will probably never have another set up like this so he should get to enjoy it!

...this post is over. Did any of you actually make it through? I guess this is what happens when you are too lazy to get on the computer. Well, no pictures with this one, but there are sure to be more soon, and if we are lucky we will get a picture of a fish!

Family photo op

The family looked so nice this morning for church I wanted to get some pictures. They turned out pretty...funny. Some of them seem to be a foreshadowing of things to come.

Brady "smiling" for the camera! How many

of our family pictures in the future will look like this I wonder?

Are we done yet Mom?

My girly girl. She looks pure Texan!

My B-O-Y! (He isn't crying, that is what he is doing when we say "smile for Mommy")

This face just doesn't get old!

Girls night

So last night was the "girls night". It ended up being really fun. As we were sitting around the table at On the Border (hyperlinked for those of my family and friends who have never heard of the best Mexican place around-be careful! It has music!), I realized that we were having our own little BlogHer (hyperlinked because I am not sure how I even know what that is so I doubt anyone else will-basically a bunch of women bloggers). I thought this was pretty funny. It all started with Missy, then Kelli wanted to begin writing again, and then one night at work Sarah and I thought, "Why not!". I think we all have a lot of fun writing and updating about our lives.

Anywho, we had a good time yakking it up and we didn't even really talk about the kids! So, we missed the movie, but it was fun to walk around the mall. I will speak for myself when I say it was fun to walk around the mall without having to say "don't touch that" or "come back here" or "no you can't have that ridiculously expensive toy"! Much nicer to look at a dress for Natalie and decide if I want to buy it by myself with out this little munchkin next to me saying how pretty it is a NEW DRESS! Much less guilt when I put it back because I am not buying a dress for $20 no matter HOW cute it is.

P.S. thought I would keep it interesting with all those hyperlinks!