Bear hats

The boys got some awesome winter hats from my parents. Here they

are in all their glory.

Little bud's first haircut

Austin's been rockin' the 'front rat tail' look for a while. When he was born he had short hair, and two REALLY long hairs! They were like 4 inches long.Well, we went as long as we could and after Christmas we evened out his front. It looks so much better.

*and he loves to clap- as seen in both pictures :)

Fowler fam

For Christmas this year we got to go skiing with my (Lori) side of the family in Vail.

My parents have spent the last 12 weeks in Korea for my dad's work so it was nice to get to spend time with them.

Papaw and Gr'Anna on the shuttle to watch the ice skating show

'We're in order!'
Th Fowler siblings
Ladies- the boy is at BYU and available!!!:)

Did I not mention that? ;)

Ya.... My husband works for BISSELL.

Count 'em.... There's 9!!! And we have the garage pro mounted in our garage.

12.7.11: Santa at Bissell

Santa came one evening to Matt's work and the boys were able to deliver their letters to him and decorate cookies afterwards. I can't find our family picture with Santa but the boys were glad to see him one more time to remind him of the things they would like.

Visiting Santa

We got season passes to a local art museum/sculpture park/ really neat place!

For Christmas each year they decorate Christmas trees from different nationalities. It was so neat to see how people decorate trees all over the world. On your way in or out Santa is waiting to see the kids. Thankfully we didn't have any criers this year!

SpiderMan-in-training

Taylor thought this was hilarious...Austin wasn't so sure but he sat there and took it.

12.3.11: Cutting down the tree

Cutting down the tree has become of our my favorite Christmas traditions. Matt's family always had a real tree and my family always had a fake tree. While I want to have a nice fake tree one day- when that day comes, we'll then just have two trees because this is too much fun to pass up! 

There was a tree farm just 5 minutes from our house that takes you out on a wagon ride, you pick and cut your tree and then load it back up and take the ride back to your car. The boys loved the tractor/wagon ride and it really gets our family in the mood for Christmas.

The tree of 2011



Matt teaching Taylor how to saw the tree trunk



In the end... Matt did all the work



Proof I was there... sporting my fancy,warm winter boots



Austin supervised the work



And Bray... well... he was Bray- being silly and entertaining us the whole time



11.24.11- Thanksgiving

Every year for the month of November we try and start our Thankful tree and add a few leaves (and this year pumpkins and acorns) with things we are thankful for to it each day. Here's how our's turned out this year.





For Thanksgiving we were lucky enough to have my sister, Amy and her little boy Rex come up for the week. We weren't all that exciting as Taylor had school a few days and Austin was sick the whole time- but it was SO nice to have them here with us!

 The cheeseball- one of my favorites!

 The turkey turned out pretty good and all the rest our spread was delicious. It was fun to be in the kitchen again with my sister.

Me and 'Rexy-boy' as Bray and I call him. He's the cutest little kid
and only 5 days younger than Austin so it's already been
decided they're going to be the best of friends.
*And of course I'm the favorite aunt... right Rex!?:)



It's as easy as riding a bike

For Taylor it is...



I wanted Taylor to learn to ride his bike this summer... due to our living arrangements (and the fact that his bike was in storage) it didn't happen but we quickly remedied that two weeks after we got here to Michigan. We took his training wheels off and after about 3-4 minutes he was riding. About a week later he mastered starting himself. He loves riding his bike and doing his 'loops' in the street.



Brayden 'upgraded' to Taylor's old bike



Date Night: Haunted Corn Maze

I found a groupon for a haunted corn maze and thought that it would make for a fun date. It didn't disappoint. Marie and I were 'spooked' while standing in line! Matt was a wuss- but he warned me he would be. He doesn't do scary, creepy stuff. It was a fun night out taking in the Halloween season with some new friends!

Date Night: ArtPrize

Proof that Date Nights still exist :)

I've missed our baby-sitting swap group SO much! (for

multiple reason- great friends for both me and my kids!)

We enjoyed a night out on the town with just our baby- who was pretty

good the whole night. We had some good, not great, Thai

food and walked around downtown GR for more ArtPrize.

We went as a family for FHE (another post coming next) but didn't get too

far with three boys in tow. It was a fun night out with Matt.

No one called us 'mom' or 'dad' for 4 amazing hours-

thank goodness Austin can't talk yet!

Productivity

So far:

- Ran (we don't have to talk about what measly little distance!)

- Ab workout

- Made breakfast for the boys

- Made 2 dozen breakfast tacos (with bacon, sausage, potatoes and onions- yum!)

- fed my baby

- cleaned the kitchen

- finished writing 3 blogs posts

- clipped Sunday paper coupons

- steamed and pured 7 pears for Austin and put them in the freezer

.....and it's only 10:30 am. Pretty sweet. How come when I'm productive, I'm REALLY productive, and when I'm not, I'm REALLY not- as in we don't even have a decent dinner on lazy days. Crazy!

little man eating his pears slices from a mesh bag- LOVES it!

9.18.11: Let's Go Fly a Kite- Or Not

First things first- this kid is Adorable!!!

It was pretty windy the other day after a family bike ride so we got the kites out. It's been a while and we were a little rusty... and I guess there wasn't enough wind but we had fun running to keep them up!