Pinewood Derby

Max was able to participate in his 2nd pinewood derby. Max gets so excited the moment he gets the car handed to him to work on. Max and Nelson worked on it as much as they could. Yes Nelson actually let Max work on the car and did not do all the work.
It is always so fun to see all the boys walk into race their cars. Each of them are so determined and convinced that their car is going to be the winner. Well, atleast Max was convinced that he was going to win.
Here is all of the boys watching their cars race. Sometimes I like watching the dads more. They know the exact time each car raced in etc.. I think the dads love it even more than the boys do.








Max was a little disappointed that his car only took 12th. At one point he even commented how bad it sucked. We had to remind him that it was all for fun and even if his car took last place it is just for fun. He finally decided that it wasn't that bad and hey atleast he got a certificate for an award. His car won the award for the most airodynamic. Here is hoping that next years car will be a little faster.









Max getting his cerficiate and hanging out with his dad.

Blessings/Grateful

I am not sure why at this time of year I end up reflecting more on what I have been blessed with and what I am grateful for. I have been blessed with so many wonderful things in my life. The only thing is, I truly wish I used more opportunities the rest of the year to realize my blessings and reflect on what I am grateful for.

On 10/10/10 I decided to write down 10 of my blessings (an idea I got from someone else) I only wish I would have done it sooner. The day before I was beyond beast of the year, to say the least I had a rough day. As I started to write the first blessing I could feel my grumpiness leaving. By time I hit the second I could not help but feel joy. When you start to write what you are grateful for you realize how blessed your life is. I am so glad for the wonderful things I have been blessed with and do truly hope I do better at reflecting on them year round instead of just the holiday season. Here are the ten things I wrote down:

1. Knowledge that I am a child of God.
2. Family- I belong to the best loving family- my family, my kids, and in laws.
3. Health- I have been blessed with health to allow me to do many things.
4. Friends- I have been given the best friends ever and opportunity to be surrounded and blessed by many people.
5. Gospel- ability to be taught and continually blessed by the gospel.
6. Prayer- ability to have open communication and call upon strength at all times
7. Money- blessed with a home and great circumstances.
8. Blessed to live in the time I do.
9. Knowledge- blessed with opportunity to continually learn.
10. Husband- blessed to be married to a great man and sealed in the temple.
11. Challenges- blessed to face challenges to be strengthened and better my attitude

Why Blog

I have asked myself why am I doing this, Why am I blogging? Well the simple answer is because I need to. I have been married for 11 years and have had kids for 9 of those years. During that time I have been awful at writing in a journal and just as bad at keeping up a scrapbook. I have come to realize that I have a pretty crappy memory. I am sad to think that a bunch of the memories I have- have been lost. That is the reason why I have started this. Not so I can have hundreds of followers but mainly so I can capture the essence of our families.

I do have to admit I am grateful to live in this time of technology to help me do better at tracking what has been going on. I just started the blog in October but have gone back and added a few milestones in our lives I could remember. Already my kids love looking at the blog and reading about what has been going on.

Nelson's new purchase

One of Nelson's daily routines is to check KSL classifieds for bikes. He is in love with bikes and is on the search for the next greatest deal. He has been wanting a mountain bike that is newer than his current bike bought 1995. All of that searching finally paid off. He is now a proud owner of a mountain bike.
He was like a kid when he brought it home. He had to show me how well it went off the curb and how well it rode. Good thing the weather has held out on us so he could enjoy a few rides this fall before the snow hits.
Here is Max & Nelson on the trails above rainbow gardens. They had a great time. Now Max is wanting his own mountain bike (he had to borrow Asher's). Wow I never realized being active could cost so much, it is worth it.

Our Family Motto

Have you ever been in public or around other people that when you left your nerves were completely shot or you thought you were going crazy? Sometimes with two little boys I feel that way. Because of this I decided to come up with a family motto. Keep in mind it is not something we have written in vinyl or put on our wall or anything but something we repeat when we go in public. Our motto is……..

“We are not the Bowen Circus”

Hopefully repeating this enough will engrain in our kids how we act. Hoping that we don’t leave anywhere with people feeling like they have been to the circus. We have not always accomplished this but we sure are trying.

Sleep over nights

A few years ago our kids would either ask to sleep with us or just sneak in our room during the night. Because of this we instituted "Bowen Sleep Over Night". What this meant is that every Friday night the whole family would sleep wherever the boys picked. To our surprise it worked out better than we ever imagined. When they asked if they could sleep in our room we would reply "no, it is not sleep over night." They would leave and get in their own beds, Perfect!!

Sleep over nights have now turned into sleep over weekends (Friday & Sat). We have slept a variety of places but 85% of their time is spent on our bedroom floor. That is where they pick the most. Works out for us because that means we can still sleep in our beds.
Here are some of the places we have slept: on the deck, on the tramp, in the fort, in the living room and yes Asher has slept in the tub.














We have enjoyed this fun little family tradition that was created in desperation, but has turned out to be so fun!

Halloween

Holidays are always so fun especially when your kids get older and love every minute of it. This year the kids had big goals of what they wanted to be. I have to admit I bit off way more than I could chew with their costumes.

Asher wanted to be the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland. We watched a you tube video many times to help us learn how to make it. Asher in fact watched it too many times he had the whole thing memorized of what we needed. His costume took way to long to make, but it was fun. Everywhere we took him we got comments. We had strangers taking pictures of him. It was a little weird all the attention he was getting over his costume. He had a great time.














Max wanted to be a lego skeleton. Life gets a little busy and I did not have all the time to get this costume done. I actually was feeling really quilty about not being able to balance everything. Good thing that Max is such a good, patient and easy going kid. He actually got to be two things. He was his dad 20 years ago- way funny and then his dad went and bought him his own Bronco uniform with helmet, pants and all. He thought that was awesome.

A lot of people have asked if Nelson really looked like that- here is the proof.












Max and his friends getting ready to go trick or treating. They had a blast.