A Friend's House by Natalie

Story in quotes and pictures by Natalie, introduction by Mommy, typing and translating by Mommy too.

The house on the right is Natalie's house, the house on the left is Ewan's house. This is a picture of the apartments, with the neighbors downstairs. "Natalie went over to Ewan's house and said that, "I want to go somewhere with my friend, Ewan." "
"Me and Ewan were playing dress up and I was playing my Mom's dress up and Ewan was playing his Dad's dress up. I love Ewan"
"My Mom taked me to the park, and we had a lot of fun, and I climbed on the slide, and then I went on the swings [on the upper left] and had a lot of fun. I love Mom"
"And then there was flowers, that are really pretty, and I made a rose for Mom, because it looks so pretty, and I made a sunflower and a daisy. I love Brady."

A week or so ago Natalie drew me this cute book, and the elaborate story she told was so cute! Of course the story has changed a bit (not as looong), but the same principle and main characters are there. I love scanners!

Ponderings

*Updated Below* with super cute pictures that Sarah snagged on her camera! Thanks Sarah!!


So today was $1.50 cheesecake day at the Cheesecake Factory (anyone else go??), and the kids and I met up with Sarah, Bella, and Ki (a lady from work) after lunch to partake in the cheap goodness. We were meeting up after lunch which is exactly when my kids go down for a nap, so I knew when setting up this activity that my children might be tired during the process (and when I say might I mean would be tired/cranky/whiny/restless for sure). Now if you have been around me and my children in any sort of social setting you may have noticed that I don't handle stress very well (don't know where I got that trait...) and normally kind of start to freak out when the kids start to exhibit any of the aforementioned behaviors. I also think I just want my kids to be extra good around others for some reason, mostly because I am worried about the others getting annoyed with things I am getting pretty good at ignoring. Well, of course both kids were super tired, but I think any major meltdowns were pretty much avoided. Natalie has been working on not breaking down into fits of tears over everything and I was able to keep that mostly in check with a few ear whispered reminders (yay! not screaming or even raising my voice!). Brady on the other hand turns into a completely different, annoying child when we go to a restaurant, Keith and I are completely clueless as to why this is but it drives BOTH of us nuts and mostly makes me want to tear my hair out and stomp my feet! So other than the HUGE cup of ice water he spilled under the table, the fits he threw over not getting to have ALL the silverware, the whining because I wouldn't let him have the cup of ice to play with, the crying because he didn't want his cheesecake, the crying because he DID want his cheesecake, and the crazy, loud obnoxious behavior he was pretty good! (catch my sarcasm there? just checkin.) But, the reason I even wanted to post about this, is because literally as soon as we started walking to the car he turned back into Brady. He wanted me to carry him, he was patting my back and giving me kisses, and once we were in the car he held on tight to his Cowboy's truck and played along with Natalie and I as we hunted for the letters of the alphabet (a sweet game that keeps them AWAKE until we get home, we don't want any cat naps in the car to ruin nap time). It is the strangest thing. So all my friends, and family for that matter, get to see me in all my best when my kids act like total strangers around other people. I just don't get it. And I am hoping it is phase and that is why I wanted to write it down.

Do anyone elses kids do this? Act completely different around others, thereby making YOU look like a totally different Mommy than you are normally? I am thinking it is just me and stress management, but I also suppose that we all have our "things" that we have to constantly work on, and for me this is mine. If only it was as easy as recognizing the problem, and it would never be an issue again, but if it were that easy we would all be perfect!

Changes

Natalie has now on more than one occasion informed both me and Keith that she no longer wants to be a Builder when she grows up. She wants to be a Mommy now. I know that this is normal for a 4 year old girl, they are really in to playing house, and dress up, and princess (her princess name is Caramel right now), but I miss my little girl who so adamantly wanted to be a builder/hammerer/construction worker! It was just so sweet and different, though I am glad she still wants to be a Mommy even though she sees how awful I am sometimes!

True Love

Today after naps Brady and I were snuggling on my bed watching Cars. It was such a sweet and tender little thing. He was just laying there, letting me kiss and tickle all his sweet, soft skin, and he rolled over and looked at me and said, "Mommy, you're my friend." I hope I am always his friend. I will always be his Mommy, but I know there will be times ahead where he doesn't like me very much, and I am sure there will be times when I don't like him! But right now I love that he still loves me even if we had a rough patch just hours before. That is one of the sweetest things about kids, they forgive us all our weaknesses, no questions asked, and they love us unconditionally.

My favorites!

So Missy did a post about So You Think You Can Dance and it got me looking and looking and looking some more and loving all the old routines. Here are my favorites. I love this show, it was SO good this season, I am so nervous about how it is going to end up! All the dancers are great at this point (except Comfort) and I will be sad to see anyone go!

This one got me hooked on the show, and Chelsea and Mark!


and this one! I LOVED these two together!


and this one was CRAZY GOOD! Smokin'!


Jessica and Will had some REALLY good ones too!

I love Tyce's work, all of his are fun, even the Broadway ones!


and of course there are lots more! What do ya'll think of this season? I think it ROCKS!

My Mosaic

I have seen these flickr mosaics floating around and Caroline finally did one too that inspired me to do my own. I love how it looks. What you do is type your answers to a set list of questions on Flickr and you create a mosaic that is all about you. (better instructions below) Here is mine:

1. Sunset Over Peninsula Malaysia, 2. Hot Potato II, 3. US Navy F-14D Tomcat, 4. light aqua, 5. milo ventimiglia, 6. wham:a different corner, 7. Capri, 8. Double Chocolate Cheesecake, 9. "Are we not like two volumes of one book?", 10. Raccoon Family, 11. be SENSITIVE, 12. Manly's Fairy Bower Pool


The questions:
1. What is your first name? Shannon
2. What is your favorite food? Potatoes
3. What high school did you go to? Cheney High School
4. What is your favorite color? Aqua (really it's blue AND green, so I mixed the two!)
5. Who is your celebrity crush? Milo Ventimiglia
6. Favorite drink? Water
7. Dream vacation? Capri, Italy
8. Favorite dessert? Cheesecake
9. What you want to be when you grow up? Mommy
10. What do you love most in life? Family
11. One Word to describe you. Sensitive
12. Your flickr name (or your blog name or handle or whatever). ksnbowers, but that didn't work so I did Bowers

To make your own:
a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker.
d. When finished, save to your computer to upload to your post.

The Family Fake-ation

Since we weren't able to have a real vacation this summer (one day...) Keith took 2 days off and we used those to plan some family activities that we just didn't want to cram into one Saturday. The main event was a trip to Hawaiian Falls, at smaller water park not unlike NRH2O or Hurricane Harbor. We were really pleased with it! Our original plan was NRH2O, but Hawaiian Falls was a bit cheaper, I think we saved $20, and since we didn't have very many adults (Only me Keith and Erin) we didn't really need to go to a place with lots of larger water slides. Hawaiian Falls was perfect if you just have your kiddos and want to only do things for them! We played in the wave pool, lazy river, the fountain area (where the water spurts up from the ground), and the large kid structure with the little water slides and the obligatory HUGE bucket of water that dumps down on you every 3 minutes or so. The kids had a blast, Natalie LOVED to go down this little red water slide they had (all by herself, NO help!), and Brady was having the time of his life playing in the fountains. I am sure we will at least TRY to get back there before the end of the season, especially since it is SO close and VERY easy to find! I do suggest this place for anyone with small kids, and no real desire to ride a bunch of huge slides (they do have some, and those were fun!). And the best part is you can bring in your own food!

Since there was no way I was taking my good camera, I only snapped a few pictures during lunch time. The LOVED the Doritos...I mean chips!

First Day of Preschool

Wow, wow, wow! I was looking through pictures and when I saw these I started crying! I can't believe how much Natalie has grown in such a short time! I remember her being SO EXCITED that first day of school, and now so much has changed! She is a little girl now, and she reminds me of that every day! Life needs to slow down! It is going way too fast.

Movie Review: The Dark Knight

Well, I haven't gotten to see Mamma Mia! yet, but last night Erin stayed the night and babysat so Keith and I could go see The Dark Knight. It was good! I really truly enjoyed it! Batman is my favorite of all the super heroes and so I knew already that I would like the movie. I had my little moment when Heath Ledger first came on, but he was SO AWESOME as the Joker that it barely even seemed like the Heath Ledger from all of his other movies I have seen. I could barely keep my eyes from his character when he was on screen. I am a HORRIBLE movie reviewer except to be able to say that it was really good! And I recommend seeing it, you won't be disappointed...I think, LOL!

Money, Money, Money...

...all the things I could do! If I had a little money...

Oh, dear! So, today is the second day of our "fake-ation" and we decided to get a bunch of the chores that we have been putting off, and off, and off done today. First things first Keith took my car to get the oil changed. As a little back story awhile back we took the car in because the "check engine" light kept coming in. They didn't find anything wrong and sent us on our way saying all was OK. Well, Keith calls me from the shop this morning and says "well, there's a hole in the exhaust manifold and it causes the pistons to misfire when we are idling (which was making the check engine light come on and the car chug at red lights), soooo...it's gonna cost $610 to fix it." Wha? Whu whu wha?? Are you stinking kidding me? I don't even have ANY idea what he is talking about, all I heard was $610! Apparently this problem isn't super dangerous, until it becomes dangerous...nice, huh? So we don't NEED to fix it, but why take the chance? Luckily we have been customers at this place since we moved here so they took it down to $525, but STILL? We are so not in the place where we can just toss 500 bucks into my car! Oh, well...at least my car is getting vacuumed out, right? Right.

I am thinking I need to start listening to the radio more so I can win one of those $1000 giveaway thingys that they do in the summer time.

And this is just because I can't WAIT to see this movie, plus I have been singing this song ALL. DAY. LONG. and I want you guys to have it in your heads too! Muahahaha!!

Face lift

Though I love my header that I have had, I have been wanting for awhile to give my blog a face lift, so forgive any wackadoo color schemes you may see. I am working on finding the perfect one for me, created by me.

*Update* Well, this is it, for now...what do ya'll think?

A new discovery

Natalie has been having a blast talking into my oscillating fan for the last few days. She will sing and sing and sing herself to death listening to her funny voice. I remember doing that as a kid too! And who hasn't seen the classic scene from Tommy Boy...gets me every time! I tried to find the clip on youtube, but no dice. :(

Only a Parent...

...would get sad over the fact that today we tossed the highchair that both our babies used...even though the backrest is broken and doesn't stay upright.

You were a good highchair, a steal in the clearance section of Fred Meyer, a fixture in our dining room for the last 4 years. We got you messy and cleaned you up, you provided hours of entertainment, you were always there when a baby needed to be contained or distracted. Thanks for the memories!

Bowers Baby Highchair 2004-2008

R.I.P.

Family Time

Wow! I was looking back through my front page and it has been a loooong time since I have posted pictures of the kids. I am learning that when I don't work, I just don't get on the Internet that much! I am behind on reading my seriously long list of blogs, and I just haven't posted anything of much importance. That is because when I am not vegging out, catching up on missed TV, playing with the kids, running errands or napping...the only Internet time I have is normally spent downloading free "scrapping" material offline and then organizing my ever expanding folder of scrappy stuff.

We normally try to have Family Home Evenings on the Mondays that I don't work and this week was no exception. We gave the kids a choice between finger paints and ice cream, and to our surprise they chose finger paints. It was messy, but it was worth it. It seems like when I work we just don't spend ANY time together as a family, and even when I DON'T work we rarely do either because I am always running around doing things at night that I don't like to do with the kids, from grocery shopping to craft nights to church stuff to just plain Mommy time!

I had bought these paints ages ago because I loved the colors of them! Teal, purple, green and burnt orange from Crayola! I couldn't pass them up!

"Look! Mom's letting me get messy"

"Let's try some arm painting too"

"Um, now what?"

Duuuuude!

Why didn't anyone tell me that Big Brother 10 started???? I totally missed it, and just set the series to record tonight! Who knows how many episodes I am going to have to watch online! Looks good (from the 30 seconds I saw!! LOL). I am SO excited, but not as excited as I will be once I see the first show, that is always the one that gets me pumped up! Keith is the one that caught it and he said form the living room, "OK, I am going to feel guilty if I don't tell you this but.....(insert me getting a teensy bit nervous).....Big Brother has started and it's on right now." He cracked me up with his dramatics, he really doesn't like that show!

Oh Brother

"Dad if you let me take my clothes off I'll be happy. If you don't I'm going to go to bed forever and ever and ever and not get up."

Um, can I pick option number two?

P.S. Taking her clothes off means getting to run around in her undies to be like Brady who prefers to be in just a diaper when it is hot.

What a day!

Though Wednesday night didn't end like I had planned due to me having to work until 10 rather than 8. Thursday went well and I am so glad! The kids and I were out the door and running around by 9:15, and they were such troopers! After shopping (we got Brady a blue doll stroller, some golf balls and such for Keith, and a new puzzle for Natalie...stinkin' Christmas in July!) we headed over to the potluck, and then after a brief incident with a D-R-Y contact lens we headed home early to fix my scratchy eyeball, and get the kids in bed. So after a somewhat pleasant afternoon I met up with Sarah for some Chinese Buffet (woohoo!!) and some chatting. It is so nice to be able to get out a complete sentence without being interrupted every other word! After eating WAY too much we headed back to Sarah's to start making some ABC Quiet books for church (Sarah finds the BEST crafts). They are looking REALLY cute by the way, WAY cuter than the example, no offense! Anywho, so we talked and crafted, and then other ladies started to trickle in! Julie, Bonnie, Haley, Betsy...by the time we were all done it was 1 O'CLOCK!! Holy Cow! Where did the time go?? I have no idea, but it was SO NICE to actually get a real project going, and to just RELAX! Which I have really been needing to do! A very long day, but a good one, and one I wanted to document! I need to remember to write down those fun days to remind me that life isn't always hard! LOL!

And I will post pictures of the final book when it is done, my goal is next Sunday to have it laminated and bound. We shall see about that!

Right now....

...my kids are GLUED to E.T. the Extra Terrestrial.

...I am anticipating getting off in 40 mins. due to being sick and tired, literally and figuratively.

...I am looking forward to a restful night that might possibly include a chocolate milkshake and some seriously old "new" episodes of LOST that we STILL haven't seen!

...I am looking forward to tomorrow. A day filled with brand newly restocked Tuesday Mornings, a potluck lunch at Betsy's, a restful afternoon, and then dinner and crafting with girl friends! A jam packed day, but packed with all my favorite things! Talking, shopping, eating out, and crafting!

Over time

Looks like I am going to be working some extra hours over here. So we can get us one of these babies! You know you want one.

P.S. We are seriously doing it! Hurrah!

I can't wait...

...till the weather cools down so I can take the kids outside without turning into a meanie sweat monster.

...till we have our very own yard to play in.

...till I don't have to be working anymore (who knows when that will be!).

Other than that life is good. I haven't had any sad days in a long time. I have been overly emotional for the last week, but that is probably hormones! LOL. The summer is whizzing by, and I get so afraid that I am wasting it, but then I think I am doing all I can! I play when I can, relax when I can, work when I have too, and squeeze in tender moments as often as possible. There is just not enough time in the day to do all I want, but I am learning that laundry will wait, naps will wait, vacuuming and dusting will wait, email will wait. It will all wait, but my kids get older every second, and they change and grow faster than the eye can blink so I need to appreciate it NOW. And I think I am doing that, at least better than before. Hasn't been any screaming from this Mama in a long time. I love that!

The mail delivered...

...and it was good! Oh my gosh it was good! I have to first give a shout out to Kelli for first showing me the wonderfulness that is Anthropologie! I am honestly not sure how I had never heard of it before! I ordered the catalogue ages and ages ago. I got my first one last time and it was eh...This one! Oh my goodness, I want to WEAR the catalogue! You guys, this is like the most wonderful collection of gorgeousness clothing I have ever held in my hands. I want EVERY SINGLE THING. All I need is a new body to go with them and all those cute cinched waists! Here are some of my faves, just for documentations sake.

Starting with these shoes and tights. The outfit is pretty cute too, just not me-ish. She looks fab though.
This shirt, and this one, and I found this one while perusing the site for linkys. All the clothes are so pretty and girly, I can't tell if they would only look fabulous on those pretty and girly models, but dang!

And this is the BEST part (other than those red shoes! I LOVE those shoes!) I want this bed and bedding and even that toile chair!

Seriously peruse that catalogue yourself here, and see if you don't fall in love! And the shoes! All those pretty, pretty shoes!

First Sting!

Friday night Keith took the kids to a Fourth of July gathering with some friends of ours, and it all seemed to go off well without a hitch. Except for the fact that Natalie got STUNG. BY. A. WASP!!!! My baby girl! I may have overreacted when Keith called me, but that was more from the fact that I couldn't be there when I knew she was in pain. Keith said she took it like a trooper and after the initial cry fest from the sting stopped, that she was fine! Some anti itch stuff and a magic bandaid later and she didn't even look back! She surprises me with how she handles things, it shows me I need to not overreact too much because she will watch me and learn how to cope. Luckily I wasn't there to make it worse.

First Parade!

Well, last night we made a rash decision to brave the parade this morning...and I am SO GLAD we did! This was Brady's first parade, and Natalie's first that she really would remember. Everyone told us to "get there early", but we had no idea how early to go! So we left at 7:45 and got some stinkin' awesome seats! We were sitting right in front of the house where some funny guy named Allen was announcing all the floats, and they had music too, which the kids enjoyed dancing to while we waited for the parade to start.

Prime real estate. (oh yeah, we were in the shade the WHOLE time! Cha ching!)

The kids were THRILLED upon THRILLED when they got some free flags! They waved those things like they were going out of style, and it was SO cute. Just constant waving...
...and waving... ...and waving! (and I have a MILLION more pictures of the waving!) Oh yeah, and Brady was being SO sweet! He just kept raising his flag in the air. I don't think he knew what it meant, but it was so touching. Kids just know to love the flag! I love the flag too! It is so beautiful! And this one too. It pulls at my heartstrings, and of course I cry. (I love you Grandpa!)There were not enough horses in my opinion! But the ones they had were gorgeous! My favorite part! Keith liked the Elvis's on the mini bikes. They were kinda crackin' me up. Brady and Natalie were waving at everyone. After a while he started getting tired, so he rested his elbow on his knee and waved like that. Oh my goodness, it was hard to capture, but it was SO funny. Just this lazy wave...So the kids were just thrilled with the whole thing. The only complaint I had was NO CANDY! What is up with that??? Anyone from town want to tell me why the floats weren't tossing candy? This was the first parade EVER I have been too where there wasn't candy and coupons and pencils and all other sorts of goodies. Yeah, you can tell I was a bit miffed! But, I am SO glad the kids had fun. I mean, they absolutely LOVED it! More than I was hoping for, and they were SO good, just sat and stared the WHOLE time! I love when they do that, just up and surprise you with being FABULOUS!

I love America!

Happy 4th of July everyone! I hope everyone is able today to find a way celebrate this wonderful country that we live in. I truly am SO proud to be American! I love this day so much to be able to get together with friends and family and celebrate summer and freedom and independence! And who doesn't LOVE fireworks! I know I do! I won't be seeing any fireworks this year (I know, poor me! LOL), but we are going to try and hit the parade so I am really excited about that! It will be Brady's first and Natalie's first that she remembers!

I LOVE this song! I really do. I learned it in 5th grade for a little choir thing we did, and I felt the strong spirit of this song even then. I remember feeling SO PROUD to be singing it. It brings me to tears and gives me shivers every time I hear it. And you can bet I belt it when I hear it on the radio!


And I love me some Celine Dion, I know she is Canadian, but MAN can she sing! This is one of my favorites!

EEEWWWW

Shannon's Thought of the Day: Don't forget to write it down if you offer to cover someones shift at work.


Working is not fun, when you THOUGHT you had the night off. Just saying.

Baseball and burgers

On Saturday morning we had an Elders Quorum activity at the park. It was to be 2 hours of baseball with burgers and hot dogs for lunch afterward. I was excited when I learned it was going to be on Keith's birthday weekend because I knew he would have fun, and it was something different and not something that we could ever do on our own. The men had fun playing ball (and a few women!) while the rest of us sat around in the shade watching the children play. Luckily it really wasn't that hot, so it didn't start to get unbearable until all the kids started getting starving! I didn't get to see them all, but I was told Keith hit 4 in park home runs! I did see one of them, and it was fun! He brought his team to victory with all the runs he brought in. Hurray for the birthday boy! I had fun trying to snap some pictures while staying out of the hot sun.



Brady's new favorite hobby. Enjoy it while you can bud, because we WILL break you of this one! LOL
Keith hitting his home run.
Cuteness all around.



The party planner himself.
There was a plane with a Geico add trailing behind it and the kids would freak out every time it came into view. "The Flag!!!! The Flag!!!" Brady especially had fun looking for it...when he wasn't picking his nose!
Good times were had all around. The burgers were out of this world, and the baseball was great! I love when church activities have a good turnout, and this one did!