The Zoo and the Temple

By far the thing that the kids have missed the most about living in Phoenix is going to the Phoenix Zoo, so by the skin of our teeth we were able to squeeze in just before closing on our last full day in Phoenix. It was soo much fun and the kids had a blast, I'll have to admit, even I miss going to the zoo with my mom and my sisters, it's a great place with tons of great memories.

Heidi's boyz; Zac, Jeremy, Matthew and Sam Sam, with Jacob and Kailey in "little Mexico"

Heidi being the awesome aunt she is and making shoe tying fun.

Heidi, Grandma, Charity, Ashlie, Jacob, Kailey and I think Em and Zac on the trail.

Grandma and Ashlie looking at the sting rays!

The sting rays are new...well new to us, they opened the exhibit a couple of months after we moved, Jacob and Kailey weren't about to go sticking their hands into a tank full of sting rays and sharks!, but I being the Sea World veteran that I am finally convinced them that they were really sweet and felt really cool, after that they didn't want to leave.

We met up with the rest of the family at (where else) Peter Piper before going to the temple. What have I told you, it's not a Bowler get together without a trip to the Piper! Ha ha

The girls all full of (and covered with) pizza and sugar... and Kailey trying to sneak more from Ash.

That pretty much sums it up for me too Todd!

If there is one place that Todd and I have missed the most it's the Mesa Temple, it's where I took out my endowments and where Todd and I were married, it's home to us. Every year the Mesa Temple does Christmas lights which is a huge deal because I think it is the only temple aside from the Salt Lake Temple that does Christmas lights, it is spectacular and the spirit there is amazing!

Mom and I in front of the Mesa Temple

Todd and the kids in front of the refection pool.

Ashlie pointing at the baby Jesus and calling his name... so cute!

the rest of Christmas

We actually got to spend time with Kathie and Paul this trip, it was just like old times ;o) We miss you guys!!!

We even got to snuggle up in front of a real fire and watch the Polar Express, so much fun!

On Christmas Eve we all made goodies and met up at Heidi's house, cookies, pies, meatballs, crackers and cheese, stuffed jalapenos... you name it we ate it! It was soo yummy, who needs dinner? Then we all opened our presents from each other and the pjs from the grandparents and started the Christmas Eve program,

Jacob was Joseph and Kailey was an angel, Mom and Dad read the Christmas story from the scriptures and we sang carols at the right times, it was so amazing... well the kids got bored and got a little out of control but I love singing with my family and The Spirit was definitely there,

After the story my mom gave us all our presents from her, she gave each of us a nativity and a letter to us containing her testimony, she told us not to read it then but how often to people really listen to their moms? Ha, needless to say there was not a dry eye in the house, it was very special.

We got to stay with mom for Christmas this year which was sooo exciting, here we all are in our matching jammies from Grandma Nancy, Thanks Grandma!!!

On Christmas day we had dinner at John's house which was a blast, after dinner we gave mom the present from us kids, we made her a CD with most of the ten of us singing songs that we thought would be inspirational for her. In this picture she's listening to David sing Annie's Song by John Denver, he did such a good job and most of us were crying (he bolted out of the room the minute he realized it was his song so we had to drag him back so he could comfort his poor mom)

It was a great Christmas, I am so glad that we were able to go down this year!

Okay so I'm a looser

Here are some pictures from a blog I started on the 3rd of February about our trip to Phoenix for Christmas... K yeah I know... I promise not to leave this computer until I've blogged at least through Ashlie's Birthday (almost 2 months ago ha ha!)

Here we are at Mom's house, singing songs and visiting

It's been so long since I've been able to sing Christmas carols with Mom, it was wonderful!

Matchy Matchy Green Squared

Kailey and Grandma snuggling and watching Christmas movies

Kailey built Grandpa sitting in his security booth working, he was so excited.

Heidi has ruined my kid ;o)

If you have read my other posts you know that my sister Heidi loves to paint the girls toenails. The girls LOVE it and will hold perfectly still for Heidi as she does pretty much anything she wants to them I'm sure. So I think I was doing the dishes or baking or something and turned around and there Ashlie was concentrating sooo very hard on "painting" her toenails...

She thinks she is so silly...

Shnow!

We had our first official snow fall this year, we had a few flurries and some rain before this but this was the first time the kids were actually able to play in something. We had a pretty dry fall. Kailey and her friend braved the weather (in the LOW teens, without the wind chill) to play in the snow and had such fun! Our backyard is big so they "drew" tracks in the backyard that looked pretty cool from the upstairs windows, but they wanted to make sure that they left snow for Jacob to play in as soon as he got home from school. The next day was warmer and the kids were able to romp in the back yard. Without worrying about fingers falling off (though the girls stayed really toasty in all there bundlings)

Jacob and Kailey playing with the ice coming out of the rain gutters... I don't want to know how much of it was tasted... yuck!

Later it warmed up even more and the sun came out so we went out front to play with our neighbors Jack and Kaylee...

Kaylee and Kailey

Then we decided to make a snowman with all the snow in the common area, it was melting pretty fast but it made it easier to pack... wooo hooo... we used almost ALL of the snow in the common area. We decided that next time we are going to go down to the park by our house and use up all of that snow... we'll see how big we can make it that time!

Jacob heftin' the "head"


Kaylee and Kailey thought it was pretty cool to push the ball and then fall over the top of it... those girls are pretty silly!



Jack and I workin' on the bottom...


The snowman's crown... pretty darn adorable...

Yea! We did it, we drove around the neighborhood later and realized that we weren't the only ones that had made snowmen that day... but ours was the BIGGEST ;o)

Christmas Concert

Each year at the kids school their music teacher "Brother" Robertson helps the kids put on a Christmas Concert, the kids are adorable and I love the songs he picks out. Last year was fun with Jacob in 1st grade but this year we got double the fun with Kailey in Kindergarten and Jacob singing with the 2nd graders.

It didn't take Kailey very long to find us, waving like crazed fans...

It looked like Jacob knew exactly where we were, he kept makin"eye contact" but alas, he was sad because he didn't see us. Oh, well, we still looked like idiots waving at him!

This has got to be one of the cutest things I have ever seen in my life, I had no idea my daughter had these kind of moves!!! I love that my kids love music and love to sing and dance, music has always been a huge part of my life and it makes me so happy to see my kids getting into it. I had to upload the fuzzy version of Kailey's video because the one that came out clear is also a minute and a half long and WAY too big to upload to anything... You get the idea though... Love IT!

A Bowler Thanksgiving! ...aka CHAOS ;o)

Okay... here we go... Saturday we get in around 2? I can't remember sometime in the early morning... we actually made really good time, a trip that before took us 16 hours only took us 13 this time... good stuff. SO we get to Heidi's sleep and then we go to the "Train Park." It's this really cool park with full sized trains all the way down to scale models, a train station, snack bars out of a caboose, a carousel and of course a mini-train for the kids to ride on... it's really cool actually because it's a real steam engine and everything. So we get to the park, mind you this is Phoenix, the SATURDAY before Thanksgiving... the place was packed, we were at least 45 minutes from "home" we have raw meat and nowhere to cook it. So what do you do? You ride the carousel! It all worked out in the end, my brother-in-law Paul found us some picnic tables next to a grill so we were good. Thank heaven for Paul!

At first Ashlie didn't really like the horsies but in the end I had to PRY her off of them.

It was sooooo good for our kids to get to see their cousins, they were instant best friends, just like we had never left. I love my nieces and nephews!!!

Heidi ALWAYS has to paint the girls fingers and toes... they LOVE IT!!!

Ever since Kailey's best friend Kaylee got her ears pierced earlier this year Kailey has been wanting hers pierced as well. So when Kaitlyn got her ears done we decided to make a date to have Kailey's pierced while we were down in Phoenix... what you can't tell from the picture is that Kailey started throwing up on the way to the mall, not in relation to the ear piercing but she (and Jacob) came down with the stomach flu while we were down there. Poor Kailey threw up all over Kathie's beautiful mini-van so we had to stop halfway to the mall and get her all cleaned up, then Todd and I decided (because we are such great parents ;o) to go ahead with the ear piercing anyway, luckily we brought an extra back with us into the mall because not two minutes in she was throwing up again... so then we (cuz we're so great) ran down to the Piercing Pagoda and threw her in the chair before she could throw up again. She was still very excited and got to pick out her earrings. Good thing Megan and Kaitlyn (and Jacob and Savannah, Abby, Sara, and Jack) were there to hold her hand, she was pretty sad that she had gotten sick.

(a little note... right about now Kathie is leaning over and asking, "She knows it's going to hurt right?" AHHHH!!! Kailey knew it was supposed to hurt but we hadn't gone over that part for a few months... Poor Kailey was so shocked she cried for a good 10 minutes... Poor poor Kailey and her dumb bum of a mom....

Good thing Daddy (and a sucker) were there to make everything better...

and she looks SO pretty!!!

Kailey, Abby, and Savannah all with their new pierced EARS!!!

Yea girls! You are all so brave ;o)

Okay and then the chaos comes back. It's kind of a thing with my family to go to Peter Piper Pizza anytime family is in town, it's cheap and contains the kids so the adults can talk... it can get a little crazy with that many people there though... anyway, I was looking for Ash and I found her with one of her favorite cousins Jeremy looking at what they were going to "buy" with their tickets, Jeremy is SO good with her, I love it!!!

My "little" brother Jeff after a CLOSE game of air hockey... I SOOO had you Jeff!!!!

I love Steve, he's got to be one of the best brother-in-laws ever invented... Of course I'm partial to the three I have but seriously, Ashlie LOVES Steve... It was pretty normal to find her running around looking for him yelling at the top of her lungs "BEEEVE!!!" He's such a goof, what kid wouldn't love him?

Oh and there's Ashlie's hot pink cast she picked out all by herself, it was a toss up between the pink and the green but I think we've got another Kailey (pinky pink) on our hands ;o)

By The Way... we haven't even gotten to Thanksgiving yet....

Thanksgiving with the Bowlers

The Bowlers.... all 59 of us!... I'd give names but, there's just no way to keep it straight

crazy crazy crazy! ;O)

So because there are so many of us we don't fit in any one's house so we have Thanksgiving at our old church building. It's really not too bad, we have dinner in the Relief Society room, there's basketball/whatever in the Cultural Hall, there's a kitchen big enough to handle the hundreds of rolls we make each year and we set up tables in one room for games, movie rooms for the kids, napping areas for babies... it all works out. Here we are getting ready to eat...

My Peeps!!!
Did I mention how much I LOVE my nieces and nephews...
they are the COOLEST!



In the puzzle/game room this year we moved in the foyer furniture and created comfy little seating areas so even those who were tired (my mom was pretty wasted from her latest chemo treatment) or just wanted to chat could have somewhere that was still central to talk, we also set up smaller tables in the corners for more serious gaming. Good call Paul and Kathie!!!

Honestly what is Thanksgiving without the ads, we usually get at least
3 or 4 papers to handle the crowd

Black Friday

This year we skipped the shopping (mostly) and went to get family pictures taken with the original 10 kids... it was a BLAST and the pictures turned out great! This is a picture of the boyz goofing around while getting their pictures taken (since the girls already got ours done in October). Pretty good lookin group I'd say. I'll have to scan the family picture and post it later.

Ashlie waiting at the church for Mommy and Kathie

to get back from pictures with the keys, wooops!

Human Foosball!!! Yikes! What a blast though!

So we didn't get our annual puzzle done on Thanksgiving (thanks to some crazy kids who kept breaking it when we weren't looking) so with 2 hours we decided to "get'er done!" My mom Mrs. Doubting Thomas said it couldn't be done so here we are showing her up... we got it done with seconds to spare... 1000 pieces and who knows how many hands later...

it was pretty Darn CRAZY!!!

The clock is winding down as reinforcements

(who didn't want to clean the church building) were called in to help.

It was an awesome vacation, thank you so much my awesome family!!! It was soooo good to see you all and be able to spend time with you while we were there. Thanks Heidi and Kathie for letting us barge into your homes (and cover them with throw-up) I loved being able to have some sister time! I love you all so much! Can't wait until Christmas when we can see, well, most of you all again!!!