January and February

We had a great New Years. We spent the morning being very lazy. The boys practicing their art skills and me chilling on the heater watching them. With daipers all over the house for some reason.

That night we went to their house

and had a killer time playing the butt game. It's a family favorite. Here is Jared spelling out a difficult word. Like e-g-g-n-o-g or something with his booty. So hot.

My dad with his 2 tag-a-longs :)

Here is part of the fam. that was there watching all the butt spelling. My mom must have been too embarrased to look :)

This is how we survived January. No offense to you Swens, but we don't really like January.
Tage played a lot of dress up,


Lot's of inside games like hide-n-seek. Jared got suckered into playing for the 100th time with Parker and found himself stuck in this uncomfortable spot. It was a good one though!

again entertained ourselves with Tage's crazy hair do's.

Poor baby has asthma and the inversion was killing him. He was so patient and learned to just sit in his high chair and hold his medicine in his mouth. So cute and so sad at the same time.

And this kid is now in nursery at church! Look how proud he is :)

We did a lot of baking in February. It's a good thing I had such a great little helper! And that he wore my grandma's old apron so that he didn't get dirty!

Pink sugar cookies (i think we ate these all month long)

On Valentines day this year we had Stake conference. So I celebrated Valentines day with my 3 Valentines the Friday before. I made shrimp scampi and steamed asparagas. Then we had chocolate dipped goodness for dessert. We love to dip stuff in chocolate :)

Haunted...

This stupid blog! It just won't leave me alone. It haunts me while I'm sleeping, showering, running, playing army/soldier with parker, sitting in church, and in everyday conversation with people I love (some of you won't give me peace until the blog is updated. Geez, relax). Just kidding. Kind of. So I think I'm back. For now anyway. The problem is that I want to be a good blogger. It helps me to keep tabs on my life and forces me to remember the little things each day that make me happy/sad/frustrated. One of my goals for this new year (3 months ago) is to focus more on positive things in my life. I figure there is so much negative around us, everywhere. And though it's important to be aware of what's out there, I'm going to try, especially on this blog, to focus more on the positive parts of being a mom, wife, and woman in today's crazy world. One of the saddest parts of my neglect to the blog is that you have missed this

turn into this


And he was so much fun to watch grow up.

So I've decided to still post some highlights from the past several months so that they can be documented. It's going to be REALLY, REALLY long. Here goes! (the most recent will be posted last so scroll down to see it in order :)

October thru December

Happy Halloween! (It was only 4 in a half months ago. I'm doing pretty well!) For some reason I don't have any pictures of my boys together on Halloween. They were both little army guys and they looked adorable. I can't bellieve I don't have a picture of little army Tage :( This will have to do.

I talked Parker into using a marshmello gun instead of a "real" pretend gun. He thought he was a tough guy.

My mom finally retired! Hooray. She has done hair for over 35 years and her body is falling apart. So we had a last minute surprise retirement party the day before Thanksgiving since my brothers were in town.

We invited a few of her long time clients (as many as we thought would come on short notice)

Then each of her 6 kids put together a skit based upon what our lives were like growing up in the beauty salon and memories we had of my mom at work. I don't know if I have EVER laughed so hard in my life. I thought I was going to pass out when Tobes came running in with those hedge clippers. Oh man. THAT was funny. Here's my brother Andy demonstrating what he used to do in front of the mirror every morning :) Don't tell him I said so, but he would have made the best "drama nerd" :)

My mom with all of her grandkids (except for the one in Daiana's belly)

Some of our favorite winter activities include:
sitting on the heater with blankies every morning,

eating banana snowmen,

and playing in the snow! Well, not my favorite, but that's ok. We finally had a chance to enjoy all of the snow. It was Tage's first experience and unfortunately for me, he loved it. He wants to be outside constantly now.

Parker and his daddy built two enormous snowmen in our back yard. They were both festive (with Christmas candy for eyes and mouths) and also very multi cultural.




My parent's are going on a mission next summer, so for Christmas they wanted to do something more than just give gifts to their grandkids. They wanted to give them a memory! So they (along with my cute sister, Wendy) hauled all of the older grandkids up to Heber City to ride the Polar Express. Parker is still talking about it. What a fun idea. We will sure miss grandma and grandpa next year :(

Parker had his preschool Christmas program with Ms. Hilary. He had a lot more fun than it looks like in this picture.

He was so funny. He knew all the songs and actions perfectly but he got a little nervous and stood there with his hands in his pockets most of the time. but when it came time for him to give his part; "Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring not even a mouse. The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, with hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there". He said it loud and clear. I was just glad he didn't dramatize it like he did when he practiced it at home. It was hillarious.

Wow.

Each year we have a family sleepover by the Christmas tree the day before Christmas Eve. Parker LOVES it.

We had Christmas Eve at the Bowcutts house. Here is all of the caos to prove it :)

Parker is such a gem to pose so nicely for the annual Family christmas tree picture. Now he'll know what a goof he was at this age.

Ahh, Christmas morning...

Parker's favorite gift from Santa was bionacles!

Tage's was a mini basketball hoop to hang from his crib.

and an orange :)

putting bionicals together. It's a good thing he has a good dad! I took one look at that and started hyperventilating.

Christmas breakfast. Why is it that my favorite part of any holiday is the food? That's messed up.

And what kind of a Christmas would it be without Tage's crazy hair?

We had Christmas dinner with my family. It's just not the same without the Cedar/St. Goerge Springers. We sure missed ya.

And of coarse, the classic Santa picture.

FIVE!!

The day finally came! (for Parker atleast) This kid counted down the days until he turned 5 for 365 days before it actually happened. Why is it that they want to grow up so fast? He was wishing he was 5 in a half 2 days after his birthday! Wow buddy, slow down. I keep thinking I'll be able to embrace each birthday, but I just can't get over how fast my babies are growing up :(
After opening presents and having a mini dance off to Monster's vs Aliens, we headed to IHOP for football french toast. Yum.

Parker's preschool class had a field trip to the pumpkin patch. What a way to spend your birthday!

As if it couldn't get any better than that, Parker's only request on the night of his big day was to attend a Jazz game. I don't think Jared or I have EVER been so proud :) This kid LOVES the Jazz. He follows the game and impresses everyone around us with his basketball knowledge. He jumps up when they cram it, talks trash to the other team, and is OBSESSED with the score (a little annoying I might add). We may have created a monster. But we had a blast and he came away with some souvenirs.

Parker had his first "real" birthday party this year. You know, the one where friends get to come. I guess family ones aren't very cool. He's been planning it for a year now. He wanted a Utah Jazz party (once again, so proud!) So we decided to have Jazz training camp to get ready for the upcoming season. He requested that everyone in attendance wear a jersy and we had a bunch of drills and exercises that would help improve basketball skills. It was hillarious. Here they are practicing shooting blindfolded.

A push up drill led by cousin Connor

Don't forget that basketball players need a strong core!

He was seriously in heaven being the center of attention for that long. Parker is such a fun, smart, social, sensitive little boy. We love him so much and would have the most BORING lives without him.

30 is HOT!

Jared turned 30 on September 12th! Looking good babe!

He was feeling quite old at his birthday celebration with his family, so he did what any old "macho" man would do. He challanged his athletic, 14 year old brother, T.J. to a race in the back yard. Marshall and Angela got in on the action as well (they are also old :)

And this was the end result! Nice try sweetie, you were SOOO close! I'm just glad you didn't pull a hammy :)

Even Papa got into the race! Here's Jared's dad racing the grandkids. What a fun Papa they have!

We had a little surprise get to gether at the park on Jared's actual birthday where I made Jared wear this rediculous birthday hat :) I used this surprise as a decoy for his REAL birthday surprise which was a week later.

I was so sneaky. I showed up to Jared's work on a Tuesday afternoon and told him we needed to leave. He was kinda irritated with me because he had customer's he needed to attend to. His brother knew about my plan so he shewed Jared out the door. Little did he know I had our bags packed, kids with Nana, and we were headed to the airport. Jared absolutely HATES the unknown. He was going crazy out of his mind not having a clue where I was taking him (that was the best part. ha ha!). So he figured we were flying somewhere, since we were at the airport, and as we were waiting to get on the plane I pulled out his Yankee hat and told him he was going to need it tonight. He's a smart guy so he was only confused for a second before he freaked out :) It was so much fun surprising him! The Yankees were playing at Angels stadium in Anaheim so we went to 2 games. we were only gone for 2 days so it was a very fast trip, but so much fun! I was so happy that all those months of lies and sneaky-ness paid off. Surprises are hard work!

HELLO DEREK JETER!!!

(No, our seets were NOT this good)
My birthday is also in September, however I am not quite 30 yet :)

Parker picked my "birthday activity" which was going for a family jog to Walmart and back. It was seriously so funny! Walmart is just behind our house and he literally made us run up to the Walmart sign, touch it, and run home. What a great activity right! It was a great way to celebrate my birthday.