Reading

Dustin READS!!

He has been very interested in simplifying our lives because we are really surrounded by too much stuff.













This is the book that he has been reading and because he has taken such an active interest in decluttering, we have cleared out a lot of clutter in our house and taken lots of trips to the DI. It's awesome! I come home to such a clean house. I probably leave too much clutter (much to Dustin's dismay), but I love it.

Hale Theater

I am one lucky girl! My parents have always had season tickets to Hale Theater but when Poppy signed up to work at the Temple on Saturday afternoons, there were some extra tickets available. So she invited me!

We just started our 2nd year of going to Hale Theater together and it's great. Marianne even comes with us too. Usually we go to Costa Vida, which is across the street, for a late lunch before. I love my Girl's Afternoon Out!

This month the show was The Game's Afoot which took place in 1936 in a country mansion on the Connecticut River.  Family and friends gather… an hilarious, mystery thriller ignites!  Is it the Inspector, the actor, the fiancee, the sweet young thing or the aged mother?  Sherlock Holmes to the rescue!

Sleepover

Luke had his first ever sleep over at our house this weekend. We invited Andrew and Tyson over to stay the night and the boys had a blast.

Of course no sleepover is ever complete without treats. I talked Dustin into making Rice Krispie treats with a little PB mixed in. Super good!!

When Andrew first arrived, he wasn't too keen about having the dogs around but after the dogs calmed down, the boys wanted them to play with them. The boys watched a movie and of course the dogs "watched" the movie with them.

We are reading the Book of Mormon right now and Luke is adamant that we read every night, no matter what. So the boys enjoyed a reading from Alma by Dustin.

And strangely enough - they wanted the dogs to sleep with them too!

But then they decided that the ground was too hard - so they ran to the guest bedroom and jumped into that bed. Of course they had to have another story - this time a fun one. Dustin was only too happy to oblige. It really took awhile for the boys to fall asleep, it was definitely after 10 pm before they finally fell asleep.

I finally woke the boys up at 9 the next morning. We had chocolate chip pancakes and eggs (super good). They had played some more after breakfast and so we didn't have time to get dressed before Uncle Nathan came to pick them up so they went home in their pajamas. Oops!

But we had so much fun. We definitely have to have another one sometime soon!

WILD WEDNESDAY at the Zoo

The last Wednesday of the month during the winter is free day at Hogle Zoo. Since pretty much everything we do is either free or really inexpensive - of course we went. I took a really long lunch and went with the boys. As soon as we arrived, Luke told us several time, "I want to see the snakes. Let's go see the snakes."

The snakes were pretty cool and my favorite part was the fact that they were behind glass. We also saw the coolest squirrel monkey. It was looking straight at Luke, he thought it was so cool. We watched it eating a bunch of fruit and vegetables.

I was wondering why everyone kept staring at me and then I realized that it's not me - it was Grant!! I guess he just really cool in his sunglasses!

The Bowers Boys

Luke and I debated for a minute wondering if the goats had built this snowman. Luke didn't think so because they don't have any hands!

Grant was pretty intent on staring at the giraffe's. He must think they are pretty cool.

ZELMGID and FHE

This is a ZELMGID. For FHE we read a story about zoo animals that heard they were getting a new animal. When they finally saw the new animal they thought he looked so strange that they weren't sure they were going to like him. So they didn't talk to him at all and they hid in their cages. Pretty soon no one wanted to go to the zoo because the zelmgid was always crying because he was so lonely and the other animals were hiding from everyone.

After awhile  the other animals decided to give him a chance and discovered he was pretty awesome after all. If only they had given him a chance in the first place instead of judging him because he looked so different.

I hope that we all can remember that we are all God's children and he loves each and everyone of us. I myself have be guilty of doing this only to find out I have missed out on knowing some really nice people. Everyone has something to share if we only give them a chance.

Luke is a really great helper and he loved putting the pieces of the ZELMGID together. Such a fun family activity.

Our FHE fun!

A Barrel of Laughs

Dustin is one lucky guy! For Christmas he received tickets to see Brian Regan at Abravanel Hall from Santa Claus and it was a great show. (He invited me to go with him.) First we went to dinner at Cafe Rio and then we splashed our way to the show - it was raining a lot. Anyway, the opening act was a guy named Joe Bolster - who I thought was hysterical. I was crying I was laughing so hard. :) Not that it should be funny but he had a lot of jokes about his recent battle with cancer and he started out talking about his new scar. So funny. Unfortunately, I have been exhausted lately and so I had a hard time staying awake during Brian's show. Yes, I did fall asleep during a comedy act. Dustin kept poking me in the side but I could NOT keep my eyes open. Dustin thought the show was great though and he managed to stay awake. (He never falls asleep anywhere though so that's not saying a lot.)

The art in the lobby of Abravanel Hall was pretty cool. A lot of people were taking pictures.

Snowflakes for FHE

We had FHE is Luke's room on his new bed. It had snowed and so Dustin went to help out Ryan with plowing and salting or whatever it is that they do. We missed him for FHE but there will be 50 other family nights to plan and enjoy so we excused him tonight.

Today Luke had a big day at preschool. He came home with a couple things. The first was a worksheet that said "I Have a Dream" on it. He kind of blew over it when I asked him about it because he was so excited about his snowflake. Miss Jani taught them how to cut out snowflakes and he described in great detail to me on how to make one.

While I was looking at his snowflake, it started me thinking about how there are no two snowflakes the same, they are all different. Each of them are beautiful in their own way. People are like snowflakes, we are all different and that's okay too. We don't have to be the same.
I found a picture of Martin Luther King, Jr. and showed it to Luke. I tried to explain to him who this man was and what he stood for. It was a little hard trying to explain it to a 4 year old about the Civil Rights Movement but I just said that a long time ago, black people couldn't do the same things that other people were able to do. And this man wanted to change that.

Then we talked about how everyone is different.  Just like these snowflakes, we are all different and that Heavenly Father loves us no matter what. It doesn't matter if we are black or white, a boy or a girl or whatever, Heavenly Father loves each one of his children and he expects us to treat them the way we would want to be treated.

Then we made our own snowflakes. Our paper was thicker than Miss Jani's paper so it was hard fro Luke to get through all those layers - I helped a lot. We had a good time working on them together.

Luke's New Bed

Luke is a big boy now! We finally bought him a real bed since he was sleeping in the crib/toddler bed (poor Grant was hanging out the sides of the cradle so it was time). Our plan was to throw the mattress down on the floor in Grant's room but when Dustin and Luke were talking about setting up the bed, he informed Dustin that his new bed was going in his new room. In the basement. Where he would sleep by himself. We were very surprised. Dustin slept downstairs in the guest bedroom for 2 nights to make sure Luke didn't wake up confused and screaming but Luke made it. Yay Luke!!

Notice that Luke is not sleeping alone - he has a ton of stuffed animals in bed with him.

Grant

Grant is 8 months old today. He's growing so much and he can do lots more than he used to be able to. He tries to drink out of a sippy cup and he can feed finger foods to himself. He's a really big picky eater though - there isn't a lot that he will eat. Bananas are his favorite with green foods (spinach, peas and green beans) close behind. Such a funny kid.


Grant is definitely a mover. He's hard to keep on your lap and he never stays in one place anymore. He's always on the move. He's close to crawling and is really good at scooting. He is constantly trying to stand up and has succeeded in pulling himself up a few times like in his crib and on our bed.

 Grant loves to play with his brother. He thinks Luke has some pretty cool toys. Grant has started playing with cars too so cars and trucks might be something they enjoy playing together.
(This could be a good thing or it could be a bad thing - we'll see what happens.)

Oh Grant! You're so cute!

Cutest Kids Ever!!

Don't you think?

Dustin was working in the garage and the kids were playing out there with him. Luke was in the mini and Grant in the Power Wheels truck.

WATCH OUT! Here comes Grant

Candyland and FHE

This week for FHE we decided to have a game night and Luke decided that we would play Candy Land. You know what they say - the family that plays together, stays together!

Of course Luke won but I wasn't far behind. Dustin says that Candy Land is basically a game of luck because it completely depends on the cards that you draw on how well you do. (Of course he was losing when he said that.) We had a lot of fun though!

Snow Day...At Last

AT LAST!! It snowed. Luke was very excited to go out and play and I let Dustin take him out. I had to stay inside with Grant (someone had to do it!)

Of course they built a snowman and found some stuff around the yard to make a face with. I provided a few other things such as a hat, scarf and a nose but the eyes are pretty unique! The hair was pretty funny.

Luke LOVES playing outside and especially in the snow. I can't wait until Grant is old enough to go out with him. The fun those two will have.

I think Gwyn wants to eat his nose.