So Happy Together

There's someone i'd like y'all to meet!

2011-08-05T21:38:00.000-06:00

Introducing BRONSON JAY BOWCUTT!!!

Born July 5th at 7:13 pm. Weighing in at 7 lb 3 oz and 21 in long. If I would have know he was going to be born that close to the 4th of July I would have gone for a jog or something to have him share a birthday with America. He does share a birthday with his cousin Jasper though! So that's good enough :)

The story...

Please do not click on this picture to make it bigger. Your computer monitor may break! Yes that is my real stomach, no I was not pregnant with twins, yes I was aware how huge I was, no I did not need help holding my belly up, yes I was aware I still had almost 2 weeks until my due date. I was so sick of answering these questions EVERYWHERE I went that I almost made a T-shirt that had all the answers on it to wear when I went out. I know I look like a freak, but the comments I got from people were hilarious. Seriously, I could not go out in public without people stopping me. And it had been going on for months! The look on some of their faces when I would tell them I still had 2 months to go was priceless. Anyway, with my other 2 boys I went almost a week past my due date and never dilated past a 1. With this one, however, I was dilated to a 2 the first time I was checked. Every appt. after that I kept getting further and further along.

I had been so busy with young women stuff all summer that I was kind of excited to relax for the last 2 weeks and enjoy the summer with my boys. I was totally fine with the idea of going past my due date. I just planned on it. I had been feeling mild contractions for several weeks but nothing that took my breath away. About 4 am on the 5th some contractions woke me up. They weren't bad so I didn't panic, but then I started thinking of how unprepared I was to have a baby. We still needed a carseat and a few other things for the baby, plus I had loads of laundry to do and bathrooms to clean. Thats when I panicked! By the time the boys woke up the contractions had stopped. I didn't even tell Jared about it cuz he had a very busy week at work. Plus I had a dr. appt. that day so I thought I'd wait and see what she said. I was dilated to a 5 and the doc asked if I wanted to go to the hospital. I wasn't in labor, and I really didn't want to have a baby until at least Thursday, so I said no. She told me not to wait long to go in even if the contractions weren't regular. I called Jared after my appt. but told him not to worry because I wasn't in labor. He was waiting at our house when I got home :) I tried to get some things done around the house but every time I moved I started having contractions. So he decided we better go in. I secretly went and fixed my hair and changed the laundry. I knew they weren't going to let me eat anything at the hospital so we tried to stop for icecream on the way but couldn't find anything that looked good. Plus i was starting to get uncomfortable. The ladies that checked me in at the hospital looked at me with a doubtful look like "girlfriend you're going to be sent home". But when they checked me I was dilated to 6! It was so crazy that I was still not in a ton of pain. This was so different than my other two experiences.
From there it all went so fast. My contractions definitely got stronger and then I knew it was for real. My doc said that after she broke my water he would be born soon after. And he was! Less than 2 hours after we got to the hospital little Bronson was in my arms. And he is beautiful! I know all mom's think their baby's are beautiful, but i'll be the first to admit, my newborns are usually kinda weird looking. Of coarse I love them, but this baby is by far the best looking newborn we've had :)

This is one PROUD big brother!

One scrappy, mischiveous, excited, big brother. Who ALWAYS has bed head :)

One sweet daddy. He loves these boys. I'm terrified at the thought of how much he would spoil a little girl!

And one tired, exhausted, tired, exhausted, tired, extremely happy mommy!

A lot happened in the year I took off blogging. New job, new house, new baby. Truthfully though I didn't really take a year off. I just counted and I have 22 posts that are done they just need to be posted. I was waiting to get all caught up before I posted them but who am I kidding right? With the pressure I was getting to see updates of this darling baby from certain family members and friends who are far away, I decided to jump ahead. So if I end up posting those other posts from the year (and hopefully I do cuz there is some good stuff; Parker's first day of Kindergarten, Christmas in Utah, a trip to Costa Rica, stuff I don't want to forget) I will refer back to that date. But for now, look at this cute face!

This baby is so, so, loved :)

More to come...hopefully haha!

The day has come...

2010-08-23T11:47:00.000-06:00

I just sent my first born away to school for the next 7 hours...that's a long time for a little kindergartner! He of coarse could have cared less about any of us and couldn't wait for us to just leave him alone in his classroom. In fact, the last thing I saw was him taking over in a group of 4 little boys and telling them "ooh guys, I'm really good at these, watch me." He didn't even glance up at us to see if we were still around or not. Jared says I did much better than he thought I would. Not a tear shed. Some large "gulps" but no tears. Because truthfully, I am so excited for Parker to embark on this journey. I loved school when I was young. And he is so dang bored with me that we both knew it was beyond time for him to get on with it. My problem is not with him starting kindergarten, it's the fact that he now will be under the influence of so many more people than just me for the majority of his days. And that down right scares me! And I know kids will make fun of his whole wheat, no chips included, tons of veggies, lunch that I send him. I mean how long do I have before he starts chucking it and bullying his friends for thier snack pac? I remember the things I learned from friends in elementary school, and I am not ready for my baby to learn those things. Plus, there is no going back now. He will be in school for the next 13 years at least. This is the beginning of adulthood. He may as well be going off to college because as soon as I blink my eyes he will be. Ok, maybe that's extreme. It's just so crazy how grown up he is now. I hope he makes some good friends at his new school and has someone to play with at recess and sit with at lunch.

Walking to school with his buddy Cameron

This is Parker's good friend Cameron Haynie. Parker is a giant next to him! His family is in our ward and they have become some of our best friends!

I can't even stand how handsome my little kindergartner is.

Showing the boys how it's done

Scrappy is sure going to miss his "bubba" :(

More summer fun

2010-08-10T11:49:00.002-06:00

Here's some fun pictures showing how we spent the rest of our summer...

Tage has entered the Superhero stage. I love it because he mixes all the superhero's up.He'll take part of one costume and part of another and make up his own superhero name. He hasn't quite figured out that the superhero's job is to save people though. So he usually just tries to scare us.

We are all pretty terrified around here :)

Tage got lots of playing time with his best buddy "Toopa" (Cooper Krewson). These two are only a day apart and so dang cute together.

I got sick of Parker bugging me every second to play the wii or go play outside with the neighbor kids. (our apartment isn't the ideal place to let kids wander around by themselves). So Jared and I started reading the Harry Potter series with him. I thought it would be a little over the top for him but I was totally wrong. He loves it! We do have to filter a few things but Jared and I like it now too. We've never really gotten in to the Harry Potter craze but now we fight over who gets to read to him.

These boys are so goofy. I love their imaginations at this age. And they are finally at ages where they will play together. Here they found a case of water bottles on the floor and pretended they were taking naps while the other one went hunting or something like that. So cute.

The elementary school is just down the street so when it cools off in the evening we like to go shoot hoops. Or at least try :)

Cooling off with a refreshing dinosaur shaped, watermelon popsicle.

And life wouldn't be fun without hanging on to daddy's legs and making him walk around the house. So we can definitely check that one off of our summer fun list :)

Jared is such a good sport. Pretty sure he likes this stuff more than the kids do.

VISITORS!!!

2010-07-31T12:36:00.001-06:00

We had visitors come to Texas!!! Nana, Papa, and uncle TJ came to see us after having a Flooring America conference in Houston. Too bad is was only a week after we had been with them in Utah, but we'll take em when we can get em! We had so much fun and were finally able to get out and have some good ol Texas fun.

(The boys were obsessed with TJ's i.....something. One of those "i" things)

We went and took a tour of the new Cowboys stadium. Holy crap. They are not kidding about the size of that screen! I can only imagine what a Garth concert would be like at this place....

Playing on the field

Fun in the end zone!

Jared wishing he was a skanky Cowboys cheerleader

Trevor, Jared, and Parker in the player's lockerroom

They boys holding a press conference after the big game
We also braved the insane heat and spent the day at 6 FLAGS!

It was soooo hot!

This kid is fearless on the rides! He was so sad that he was barely too short for some of the rollercoasters.

He somehow talked his dad and Nana into riding this one with him. This is when they started out. Notice their smiles?

A couple of seconds later....not such a good idea after all :)

And Tage was heartbroken because he was too little for that one. So sad.

But daddy saved the day and won these...

By doing this!...His kids were so proud!

It was so much fun!

Nana, Papa, and TJ left 2 days before Tage's 2nd birthday so we had a little celebration before we sent them off.

He's so funny

We'll miss you guys! Hopefully next time you come you won't have to sleep on a couch in a tiny living room!

The journey back home

2010-07-15T22:27:00.001-06:00

Here's some advice. Don't EVER fly stand by, husbandless, with 2 small children, in July. Just don't do it. Save yourself the stress, grief, and sweet, precious, TIME, and buy a regular old ticket. It's just not worth it. A big shout out to our wonderful family for letting us crash at their house for a few days (Lesha), and for driving us to and from the airport several days in a row (Wendy and Brenda). That's right. We spent THREE long days in the airport before we got on a flight home. The good news: we had someone to pick us up at the end of each day and take us to a comfortable, free, place to sleep. The bad news: Our luggage made it back to Dallas on the first day with all of our clothes. Sooo, we had to wear the same clothes for 3 days in a row :) I actually don't think I've worn the pink dress I had on since. I look at it and shudder at the thought. Luckily I had extras for the boys in my carry on. But I was stuck. In the same pink dress for THREE long days. Not sure what I was thinking.

(Wish it could have been me taking the nap)

Looking back now I can kind of laugh. But at the time it was devistating. I missed Jared, the kids hadn't seen their dad in 3 weeks, I had a stroller, 3 heavy carry on's, a toddler who wouldn't stay by me, and a very, very bored 5 year old.

I was done being a single mom and we all needed the comfort of our own lives back. And for any of you wondering, crying does not get you your way. I am not an emotional person, at all. But I think I started bawling every time those dang gate checkers denied me. I was an emotional wreck by this point in our vacation and so, so ready to be done. On one of the days I refused to pay the $4 to use the luggage cart (seriously, what a rip off!!!). The carry on's were too heavy for Parker and we had left the stroller in Nana's car. So I was carrying 3 heavy bags, gripping Tage's hand for dear life, and trying to rush around the airport from gate to gate giving my sob story to anyone who looked like they might have sympathy and get me on a plane. No luck. I was at my worst. So I threw my bags down, threatened the boys with their lives if they moved, slid into one of those old phone booths, and cried like a baby. I couldn't believe that I was the freak show that everyone was watching. You know how the airport is usually fun because you can people watch and make fun of all the crazies you see? Ya, I was the crazy. And nobody ever offered to help me (probably because they were scared). They just stared.

(Watching a movie)

(I chased him all around the airport while he pushed an empty stroller. But it kept him from screaming!)

We finally got on the last flight on the 3rd day. We were just a little more than excited.

And the boys were even more excited to see their daddy!

Texas has never been so welcoming :)

Saying goodbye

2010-07-11T21:21:00.000-06:00

(Mom and Dad, I hope this post doesn't make you sad. Since I am actually posting it loooong after you've already left on your mission. We miss you :( You're really the only reason I'm still blogging so hopefully I'm caught up with our current lives before you get home)

Saying goodbye to my mom and dad was a very strange thing. Since we would be going back to Texas in a few days, we were saying goodbye to everyone. So it was hard for my brain to wrap around the idea that it would be a really long time before we would see my parents. And that they would be so far away. Sitting here writing about it now makes me cry big, sad, tears, but at the time we were all so excited for them. I'm so happy I caught this on camera. This is Parker showing his Grandma how tall he will be when she gets home.

And I LOVE this picture of Tage and my mom. Messy face and all.

These boys will sure miss their Grandma and Grandpa.

And my mom will sure miss these dogs.....and her grand kids :)

Thank you mom and dad for setting this example for us. Your entire lives have been dedicated to serving others and our family has been, and will be blessed because of that. I have a feeling your service in the missionary field has only just begun.

Nordfelt reunion

2010-07-10T22:00:00.002-06:00

We were lucky enough to still be in Utah for the Nordfelt reunion in Moab! This is my mom's side of the family and they never disappoint in the entertainment department. We ALWAYS have a good time with these guys. No matter what. Plus, my uncles feed us like royalty, so how can we not enjoy ourselves?
However, the Springer's would not be Springer's without bringing a little drama. The majority of us (Norm, Dana, Wendy, Ben, Lesha, Lake, Kenzie, Sedelle, Freeman, Jill, Parker, Tage) decided to rent a huge stinky van that smelled of cat litter, and a big RV to pull up the mountain so we would have a home base while camping. The other's (Andy, Kelly, Hayden, Cole, Hudson, Casey, LaTisha, Jared, Daiana, Leila, Conrad) met up there. It's a pretty good climb to the camping spot, but we were assured that the van pulling the RV would for sure make it. No problem.

(Parker asleep on the way there with a super unsafe seat belt job)

Well there was a problem. Half way up we knew we would not make it. We were barely moving and getting slower. The dirt road was very narrow with a good size slope on one side. Nobody really wanted to tumble down it with the massive RV on top of us.

We started to get quite the line of cars behind us since they could not go around. Nobody was very happy about this. We knew the campsite was close but not exactly sure how close and we couldn't get a hold of any of my uncles to come give us a boost. So I was volunteered to run up the hill and find someone at the campsite to help. Since I had just done it at the Wasatch back it should be easy right? Wrong! Running up hills is apparently not my thing. Not sure how far I had to run, but uncle Craig picked me up about 100 yards from my destination and drove me back down to get the others. They were able to pull us free and we made it to our spot, happy to be alive :)

First things first, wrestle uncle "Superman"! (Kirtly)

Next on the list was to get rid of as many cow pies as we could. My dad was really good at this.

Here is our home base. Stinky or not, it was sure nice to have.

Most of the group around the fire,

It was a little difficult to be there as a single mom without Jared. I have a bit of a dirt phobia. So when Tage was taking "dirt baths" ever other minute, I got a little stressed. I know (insert Casey's pretend Mom voice), "He's a boy, let him play in the dirt for goodness sake!", and , "You're camping! Everyone is going to be dirty!". Heard it the whole time we were there. But seriously, look at him!!! He was a disaster. However, I don't know that I have ever seen the kid so happy and content. He could have played in that tiny dirt pile forever. Good thing Grandpa scooped up all those cow pies!

Hudson got in on the action as well

Besides scooping up cow pies and taking dirt baths, here is how we spent our days,

Flag football & baseball for both young and old (check out my cute niece Sedelle with all of those boys!)

Ate delicious food cooked by our chefs (my mom's brother's), Kirtly, Craig, and Dennis

Rafting down the river (Katelin, Sedelle, Parker, Cole)

Kelly Springer and I stayed at camp with the munchkins (Tage, Kanyon, Hudson) and went for walks,

Saw some deer,

rode in the ranger

And took naps. (even Kelly and I. Sweeet!)

Went hiking through "dangerous Indian territory"

Tage fell asleep on my shoulder so I had to carry him the whole time.

Saw dinosaur tracks (Kenzie, Sedelle, Hayden, Parker)

Visited "John" (Don't worry Wendy, the person in this picture shall remain anonymous)

Went fishing (Cole, Lake, Hayden, Sedelle, Kenzie, Parker)

Went on 4 wheeler rides with uncle Urb (Jared, Cole, Parker)

And ranger rides with...everyone (Freeman, Sedelle, Kenzie, Tage, Leila, Daiana) I love this picture.

And this one :)

Attacked uncle Homer every chance we got (Casey, Tage, Freeman)

Relaxed (Tage Hudson, Freeman)

Jill, Wendy, Casey

Maybe a little too much relaxin. Haha! (Lesha, Casey, Dad)

Consumed hundreds of smores

Listened to Dad sing "the missionary song", "the other day I saw a bear" and many more classics around the fire

Did a little campfire snuggling. Please don't judge us for our appearence. Not only do we play in the dirt while camping, we also wear mismatching clothes. It's cool.

Tish did some last minute hair cut jobs for the soon to be missionaries,

Saw some amazing scenery

Spent some much needed time with our wonderful family. Here are all of the Springer cousins piled in the ranger for a terrible cousin picture. Sorry mom, we tried :) (Back row: uncooperative Freeman, helpful Kenzie, Cole, Parker. Front row: Leila, Tage, Hudson, Hayden, Lake, Sedelle. Not pictured: Conrad)

And many aunts, uncles, cousins, and cousins kids. Wish I would have gotten more pics of everyone. (Dad, Craig, Mom, Dixie)

One of my favorite parts of the week was when uncle Kirtly presented his "Indian hunting leaders" with special surprises...which just so happened to be knives for the younger kids, and full on swords for the older ones. Real ones. I was a little nervous about my 5 year old son having a pocket knife until I saw my 11 year old nephew with a sword. Yikes! Holy cow the looks on these kids faces when he called them up one by one for their "brave acts" in leading us away from the indians was the sweetest thing ever.

Another sweet thing was watching my parents say goodbye to everyone before we left to go home. They were leaving on their mission 2 days later so they knew they weren't going to see anyone for a while. This is a picture of my mom and uncle Larry. He passed away from cancer 2 months after this was taken.

It was a great trip. But we were happy to be home to soft beds and showers. This last picture of Sedelle pretty much sums up how we all felt...Thanks for the good time Nordfelts! Hopefully we'll see more of you here in 2 years!

Independence day and backyard fun

2010-07-07T21:32:00.000-06:00

We spent the 3rd of July at Jared and Daiana's beautiful new house with some friends and family.

Tage was not a fan of the fireworks. Luckily Grandma has more sympathy than I do.

The next night, on the 4th, he was much braver. We spent Independence day with most of Jared's family. Tanyon, Tage, Maddie, Parker, Connor, Ava, Nate. (Not pictured is Hallee and Porter. Not sure where they are)

Nana & Papa

Dusty & Breck

And the nerds, Dusty, Lynette, Nate. Loving their new phones.

I LOVE this holiday. Warm weather, family, freedom, bbq, potato salad, juicy watermelon, baked beans, fresh fruit and veggies...I could go on and on. I'm proud to be an American!!!

Speaking of warm weather, uncle T.J. has the best ideas when we need to cool off. (Lexy, Ana, Parker, Tanyon, Tage, and Addison)

WATERFIGHT!!!

Addison and I both agreed. This was a lot of fun to watch. As long as we weren't the ones getting wet :)

Utah part....?

2010-07-05T14:56:00.000-06:00

Because we were in Utah for a month, we were able to see and do so many things with some of our favorite people. Here is a travel log of some of the fun we were able to have...

My good friend Tracee starred as "Wendy" in "Peter Pan"! It was so much fun to see her in action, and flying through the air!

Saw the new Twilight movie with the girls (Miles, my mom, Wendy)

Helped the folks move out of their house of 23 years. Don't let the smiles fool you. We were all so exhausted and it was a very sad day. (Ben, Bernie, Dad, Wendy, Mom, me)

Here are the hand (Wendy's foot ) prints of all 6 kids from when we moved into the house. Kind of hard to see, but I'm so happy they are still there.

Swam at our old neighborhood pool with some of our old neighbors! (Cole, Ethan, Parker, D.J.) They acted like they had never been apart!

and some of their moms (Brittani, Megan, Jill, Mindy) Not sure why I didn't get a pic of all of us!

Hung out with our favorite girls, the Johnsens! (Parker & Brynleigh)

Witnessed a sad, sad, day as my mom and Wendy opened up their last bottle of Winder Dairy milk. Tragic...

Tage spent lots of time tormenting the dogs (Bernie, Chester). I'll never understand why they don't just stay away from him!

And last but not least....welcomed baby Jasper into the Bowcutt family!! I prayed and prayed that we would still be here when he was born. He was due the day before we were supposed to leave (I think). But he listened to his favorite aunt and came early :) But then we had to turn around and leave when he was so tiny, only to have to wait until he was grown up to see him again :(

Now that is the smile of one PROUD daddy!

Utah part 3...kind of

2010-06-26T22:27:00.001-06:00

Reason # 7 that we made the trip to Utah was so that our wonderful family could watch our wonderfully crazy kids while Jared and I went on our final Bowcutt's Flooring America trip. The destination...

St. Johns Virgin Islands. W.O.W.

I thought I would get claustrophobic because it's such a tiny island and everywhere you turn you're surrounded by water. The only transportation to the island is by ferry. Sooo, I was a little nervous. But when our boat arrived I was in shock at how lush and green everything was! They literally cut chunks out of the mountains and threw in houses and tiny narrow roads. It was crazy. There would be a chunk of enormous mansions and across the street is a little house with goats running around. Nuts.

(Miles, we named this little guy after you). These creepers popped up everywhere. This particular one had a thing for Jared and would not stop staring him down. (that has nothing to do with why we named him Miles. He just reminded us of you)

Unfortunately it rained every day we were there so this was our best view. It was still beautiful but disappointing that we couldn't see any islands beyond our own.

This is "Trunk Bay" rated one of the 10 most beautiful beaches in the world. You gotta see it to believe it folks.

Jared and our friend Mike started up a friendly volleyball game with a bunch of kids in the pool. Lets just say it wasn't hard to spot either of them.

On this rainy day we sailed over to Foxy's. This is actually on the British islands, but apparently it's world famous for New Years Eve party's for the rich and famous. My battery died right when our boat docked so this was my only pic. But I did get some great video footage of foxy himself chatting with us. He's like an old bum that is filthy rich but you'd never know it. We also stopped at the "Soggy dollar Bar". The water was like super salty bathwater. Seriously it was amazing. Minus the salty part.

We were promised that the sun was going to come out for a few hours on our last day, so we rented this little "dingy" with our new BFF's, Mike and Leslie and headed over to Trunk Bay to see it up close.

Almost there! See how the sun is starting to shine! Wahoo!!

Words nor pictures will ever do this place justice when the sun is shining! The sun completely changed the water and it was the most glorious color I have ever seen. I want to paint my house in this color. All of it.

The water was completely clear and the same temperature as bath water. You could see everything on the ocean floor. I have never been in an ocean, or any body of water, where you can just walk into the water and not feel the shiver up your spine for a second. This is my kind of ocean! And I wanted to eat the sand because it looked and felt like brown sugar :)We stayed here for a few hours until I was attacked by a seagull who wanted my sandwich, and it started to rain again. But those few hours of sunshine made this trip totally worth it.

Our last night, last fruity drink, and last sunset by the ocean. Ahh, it was awesome.

Farewell Elder and Sister Springer!

2010-06-20T13:37:00.002-06:00

One of the most important reasons we took this trip to Utah was to be there for my parents' mission farewell. There were so many things about the farewell that I never want to forget.

Seeing Luke and Ruthie hanging out at the after party...This still makes my heart smile :)

The Brockbank family,well, a few of them (Lori, Jillybean, Carlie). Some of my favorite people :)..

The Westbergs were in town! (Todd with Drew and Jared)

Hanging out with my mom and sis and taking maybe the only mother/daughters photo in the history of us being mother/daughters....

Seeing Parker interacting with the cousins he misses so so much...

(Cole, Parker)

um...not sure what to say about this except that Andy hasn't changed much since he was a 10 year old boy...

Getting our ENTIRE family together for a pic in front of my parent's house

And finishing off the evening with a game of "hot box". We used to play this on Sunday afternoons as a family in this exact same spot. Oh the memories...

(Parks, Hayden, Cole, Casey, Jared. I'm sure Lake was there somewhere)

On a more serious note, some things I really hope to remember for a long, long time, is *seeing the amount of support my parents received from friends, family, and ward members. I always knew they were awesome people, but it was so cool to see how many others have been influenced by my parents as well. *The musical number during sacrament meeting...they had the whole family, kids, grand kids, siblings, nieces, nephews, great nieces and nephews, everyone there who is a family member in some way to my parents, get up and sing "I'll go where you want me to go". It was an emotional site to look around and see the choir seats overflowing with people my parents love and who love them, aunt Rose leading the music, aunt Gay playing the piano. It was amazing. *Hearing my parents bear testimony in Norwegian (their new native language) even though they have only been learning it for a very short time. *And finally, seeing my dad get emotional. In my 29 years of life, I can not recall one time where I have seen my dad get emotional. Not one. It was funny to look around at my siblings faces and see the same look of shock that I felt on my own. And the sweet part was he didn't get emotional when he talked about leaving all of us behind, it was when he talked about my mom.

Thanks mom and dad for your love, support and example. I want to be just like you when I grow up :)

Utah part 2...Wasatch Back

2010-06-19T17:16:00.001-06:00

This is one of my favorite races ever. I can't really explain why. To most people the thought of sitting in a van full of sweaty, stinky people for more than 24 hours, running all through the night, and getting no sleep doesn't sound like much fun. But to those who do it, for some reason it just is!

For this race you run from Logan Utah to Park City in a team of 12. Six runners in van 1 and six in van 2.

This year we were on team "Wolfpack". Our good friend Phil had asked if Jared and I wanted to run on his family team several months ago. I of coarse said for sure! And talked Jared into it. Then we moved to Texas and plans changed. So I talked my cute little sister Wendy into filling in for Jared. Let me just say this...those Wolfgramms are extremely entertaining!!! We had a blast getting to know their family and sitting in a sweaty, stinky truck with them (except for when it was our turn to sit in the back of the truck to air off :))

I'm really, really, missing Utah's breathtaking mountains in Texas. So I may have gone a little overboard on my scenic pics. But I just couldn't stop staring at them! They are so beautiful. And we ran past some gorgeous scenery. I get chills just thinking about it.

Since we were in van 2, that put us running in the middle of the night. I think we started our second legs around midnight or so. Here's what our van was looking like at this point, me trying to get some shut eye before my 9.6 miles at 2 a.m.

And psycho here who is used to no sleep wide awake and wired! It reminded me of all those Christmas mornings where we had to tell Wendy to go back to bed.

I think this is Jordanelle reservoir

Ugh, this hill almost killed me! Have I mentioned how FLATTexas is? The hills I trained on in Texas were nothing compared to this monster. I was runner 9 so I ran the first 3 miles or so up the "Ragnar" hill. At first I thought, "3 miles? I can do anything for 3 miles". Boy was I WRONG!About half way up I told my sister to break my legs for me so I could quit. Just kidding. But for real. I'd rather run a marathon any day than this. (part of me secretly wants to go back and conquer that hill though. Now that I know what I'm getting myself into. What's wrong with me?)

This is me FINALLY passing the bracelet to Phil who had to run the rest of the way up the Ragnar. I looked/felt like death and he was all chipper and fired up. Good ridden Phil!

Wendy running among the beautiful trees. There was still snow up there!

Wendy's final run and water break. This is where I broke the news to her that they had changed her leg last minute. Due to coarse obstruction, they added another mile or 2 (I can't remember) to her leg. Ha ha! Poor thing.

Since they let WAY too many people run this dang race, we didn't even make it to the finish line to cross with our team or to see poor Geoff finish. So this was the only after pic we got. We were tired, hungry, and stinky. But it sure was fun! Ha ha! Anyone up for trying this out next year?

Utah part 1

2010-06-16T13:48:00.001-06:00

Well, It may take a year or so to post about our month long trip back to Utah because I took around 550 pics while we were gone. And I am determined to post every single picture! Kidding. We had such a great time though and pictures is what keeps my memory alive. So It will be super, duper long. Here's how it started. The 2 little one's and I flew in early in the week because I had to be in Utah for a race that started on Friday. Jared couldn't miss that much work, so he flew in on Saturday in time for my parent's mission farewell. The boys and I made a bad decision to fly stand by (in July. DON'T EVER DO THAT!) so we were stuck in the DFW airport for over 7 hours. Even better, we had left the cord to our DVD player home :) So...we were bored.

Tage is always happy though.

I had wrapped little presents/surprises for the boys to open randomly during the flight to keep them entertained and so they wouldn't bother other passengers. Unfortunately all the surprises were opened during our 7 hour waiting time. Parker got little Star Wars guys and he instantly made a new friend in every gate we waited at. So that took up a few hours. We did a lot of walking around (Parker pushing Tage in the stroller, and me pushing a luggage cart with 3 heavy carry on's). And I even let my kids play on the nasty airport toys. I was desperate people.

We finally made it on the last flight of the night. Phewww. The boys were so much fun to watch as the plane took off. Parker didn't take his nose from the window the entire flight and kept yelling, "Mom look at this"! Tage on the other hand was terrified of falling out.

First things first, we had to meet this new little guy! Our new nephew/cousin Conrad! He was about a week old when we met him and the cutest little thing.

After meeting Conrad, we took Leila back home to Grandma's so her and Tager could play. Do you think they missed each other? (click to see true facials. It's adorable)

So maybe it was a little one sided on Tage's part. He could not stop hugging her!!! And thankfully I was in the right place at the right time!

This one makes me cry laughing every time I look at it. He's just so happy and she's like,"get off me you psycho!"

Next stop was Porter's one year old birthday party! Can you believe his cake? I must note that this is the one he got to DESTROY! His mom spent all that time and effort on a cake that her 1 year old would rip apart. She's amazing. Props to you Breck!

Ok, so maybe his cousins helped him destroy it a little.

My baby is getting big!

2010-06-02T21:08:00.000-06:00

Parker decided to grow up this summer. Even though I begged him not to. He has had so much fun learning new things. It has been incredible for Jared and I to watch our first born accomplish so many little things that he's so proud of. His joy is so simple. You should have seen his face when he got his snap down perfect for the first time. He was so happy! He had practiced it for days and one day it just clicked. I wish I could remember the day I learned to snap.

He also learned to swim in the deep water. He could swim last year but he never dared swim in deep water because he knew he couldn't touch. He saw one of his friends out here doing flips off of his diving board and the very next time we were at the pool Parker told me he wanted to swim in the deep water so he could do flips like Clark. And away he went! I kinda freaked out and got ready to jump in in case he panicked, but he swam across the pool then looked up at me with the biggest grin. He can now do flips off of his friends diving board :)

He's still working on the tying of the shoes, but that's ok. He's too impatient (wonder where he gets that from?). Plus who wears shoes in the summer anyway!

But none of these came close to how bad he wanted to learn to ride his bike without training wheels. Oh my goodness the kid was obsessed.

He started out with help from his daddy, but then they both lost patience. So he practiced on his own until he got it! He's actually quite cocky about it. He was bragging to me one day about how his friend who is older than him still has training wheels.

We're still working on his humility.

Sweet life of summer time

2010-06-01T20:29:00.004-06:00

We LOVE summertime at our house.

Here are a few things we did before we took off to Utah for a whole month.

We spent a lot of time swimming. Here we are on Memorial Day at our Bishop's house. Nice backyard for a swimming bbq right?

We seriously swam almost every day. Sometimes twice a day.

Tage just likes to dangle his feet :)

Parker woke up one morning feeling like doing a little Yoga. For real. He woke up, said, "ahh, I think I'm going to do some yoga." Got out my mat and a DVD, and followed it for about 10 minutes. Then said, "I feel much better now."

I think he learned this from his uncle Homer (Casey). It's just a matter of time before he starts the "3 stages of drying and lathering" when he gets out of the shower.

Because we were so ~~lazy~~ relaxed this summer, and because it got so hot we couldn't do anything but swim outside, I had to get a little creative. Parker thought he needed to be surrounded by his new friends every waking moment. And I tend to get a little jealous. So one day I held his attention for about 30 min. while they colored themselves on paper.

If you look closely at Parker you will see that one of his eyes is different colors. The top is a greenish blue color and one section at the bottom of his eye is totally brown. It's crazy. He calls it his "Tiger eye" and he really believes that it gives him super powers. For example, he truly thinks he can see better and further away than anyone else because of this eye. I don't know, maybe he can! I loved how he captured his "tiger eye" in his self portrait though. So cute.

I promise my children do wear clothes. Just not very often. Tage's pants don't stay up, and Parker thinks it's too hot to wear a shirt. In fact none of his friends wear shirts!

See!!!

Here's to the rest of a great summer! (and more freshly squeezed lemonade). Cheers!!!

A day at the beach

2010-05-15T21:27:00.000-06:00

Remember all of that rain that cancelled the father's and sons camp out? Not only did we get to enjoy this beautiful rainbow out our window, but after it stopped we also got to play at our own private beach!

OK, maybe it was just the sand volley ball pit in our back yard that was full of water. But still. It was hot, sandy, and we were the only ones there! Sounds like a private beach to me:)

What started out as a friendly stroll to the park, turned into a full on immersion in the sandy water. Jared was horrified when he came home and saw Tage out there in just his diaper. "White trash"! he was calling us. But guess what? He doesn't do a lick of laundry around here. And one set of sandy filthy clothes was enough for me.

It actually was quite fun to watch.

Father's and son's. Bowcutt style!

2010-05-14T23:09:00.000-06:00

Well, not really. But we didn't have a lot of options.

The father's and son's camp out was cancelled due to severe rain storms. The storms here in Texas are much more terrifying than in Utah. Maybe it's just because I'm waiting for a tornado to hit. Either way, I was ready with my bottled water and helmets just in case those warning sirens went off :) Parker was absolutely devastated he couldn't go on the camp out with his dad. So I had this bright idea to stick the tent in our living room. Just to give him something fun to do that night. The thing I didn't think about was that the tent and the living room are about the same size! After re-arranging some furniture we were able to make it work.

So we grabbed pillows, blankets and couch cushions, popped some corn, and watched "Astro Boy". Then we proceeded to sleep in the tent. I feel like I gave it a good effort. I lasted about 10 minutes and thought, "forget this! This is father's and sons and I have a very comfortable bed 10 feet away!" Jared was a trouper and Parker had a blast :)

Playin it rough.

2010-05-12T20:43:00.000-06:00

It's beginning to look a lot like summer!! (I guess bruised legs is better than holy jeans, right?)

(Parker and his friend Ethan showing off their sexy, bumped up legs. May, 2010)

Family home evening

2010-05-10T23:03:00.001-06:00

We may not have a yard, but we have a heck of a field behind our apartment that is perfect for a little FHE baseball. We were told to enjoy being outsided while we could before we melt in the hot sun.

And so we did :)

Mother's Day 2010

2010-05-09T23:00:00.000-06:00

Mother's day weekend was so much fun for us. We started off on Saturday running a mother's day (actually i think it was called Triumph over pain) race in Mckinney. It was Parker's first official race where he was signed up, got a shirt, medal, and an "on your mark, get set, go" at the beginning. He made sure to stretch really well before the start. This particular stretch is one he made up himself. He actually makes sure I do this after my runs also. But I don't think my tongue is hanging out quite as much as his is.

Check out that beautiful Texas sun beating down on us!

I'm pretty sure he smiled like this during the entire race. He was so excited and ran the entire time! He finished in under 10 minutes which I thought was pretty good for a 5 year old! I was one proud mother.

I ran the 5K after he finished. He said he was proud of me too :)

Later that night we went to the FC Dallas soccer match. They are the professional team here in Dallas. Our neighbor works for the team so he's given us a bunch of free tickets.

Jared actually pulled off the breakfast in bed thing for real this year. He tries every year but I'm usually already up and showered before he gets around to it. Then I have to get back in bed and pretend I'm just waking up for Parker to bring me my breakfast. But as you can tell from my appearance, I truely did wake up to breakfast in bed. And what a feast it was! I'm not sure who Jared thinks I am but here is what they brough me: 2 waffles with strawberries

toast

bacon

sausage

eggs

a bowl of fruit

orange juice

chocolate milk

I mean, i've been known to pack it in, but this was serious! Luckily Tager was there to help me eat it! My boys wouldn't let me do a thing all day so it was lovely. Thanks boys. You make me so happy!

splishin' and a splashin'

2010-05-06T22:00:00.000-06:00

Since spring/summer starts earlier in Texas than it does in Utah, we were able to enjoy the hot sunshine shortly after we moved here! What a blessing! (notice how pasty my kids are next to the others)! We went with some of our new friends to a super cool splash park in Allen. Here is parker with his new buds Cameron and Clark. They are both going to be in kindergarten next year also! And can you sense the instant connection? Weapons and imaginations only a 5 year old can have=instant BFF's for Parks.

My cute, happy, baby hiding from me in a tunnel

See how pumped Tage is watching from a distance with his hair blowing in the wind? 2 seconds after I took this picture, water from a big bucket directly above his head landed right on top of him. He freaked out and I'm pretty sure everyone there thought he had just gotten one of his limbs cut off. Awesome.

Life in Texas

2010-05-02T21:12:00.000-06:00

Once the rush of unpacking and trying to squeeze all of our belonging into a 1100 sf. apartment settled, we needed something to do. So here is how we spent our first few weeks in our new home. Parker kept busy making friends with anyone he could make eye contact with, while Tage and I stayed inside and played with the toys he hadn't seen in a month or so.

I still can't get over how incredibly nice the people here are. Our ward has welcomed us in like we are old friends they haven't seen in a while. Within a week of being here i joined a group of them to run with every morning, we were invited to dinner by 2 different families, to the park for a play group, and to the Frisco firestation for another one. Us Utahn's have so much to learn from these people. get out and meet your neighbors!!! Who cares if you don't know them or don't think you have anything in common. Or if you think you don't need to invite them because they have family around. I realize now how much time I wasted in Riverton not getting to know my neighbors better. It makes me so sad to think of peole who could have really become my friends and taugh me valuable lessons.

We also went on walks to become more familiar with our surroundings. This beautiful pond was stocked with colorful fish, and lush greenery. And it was in a neighborhood! (not ours unfortunately).

And last but not least, we spent much of our time watching the Jazz lose in the playoffs. Just like we do every year. Bummer. This picture was while they were winning obviously. We don't have our t.v. hooked up (and I'm not going rush anyone into it. It's great!) But it made watching the playoffs difficult. We had to watch it on the computer in our room/office.

So far we're fixin to have a good ol' time in Texas! (I've always wanted to say that).

I'm a tall, tall Texan...

2010-04-18T21:00:00.000-06:00

(this post is in honor of my dad. Who is far, far away in Norway right now)

We're all settled now. And time to update :) It was quite a challange trying to squeeze so much crap into a 2 bedroom apartment. I think my mom wanted to cry when she saw how much stuff we had to find places for. And I think I actually did cry.

First things first, If we were to get anywhere in the unpacking process, we had to trap

Tage. This make-shift trap worked great for about 30 seconds.

Then we moved on to bigger and better entertainment and put on a show. Ahh, brotherly love, Isn't it so sweet!

Luckily we moved fast with the help of some nice neighbors and my poor parents. So we were able to spend a little bit of time goofing off with Grandma and Grandpa before they flew back to Utah.

The journey begins

2010-04-16T07:11:00.000-06:00

The 2 in a half day drive to Texas wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. We were very lucky to have my parents with us or we would never have made it. Jared drove the enormous moving truck, my mom and I rolled in the sweet mini van, and my dad got my white Toyota all to himself. We were supposed to get a trailer to pull the Toyota but of coarse they didn't have one like they promised. So we had to drive 3 vehicles. It worked out though. And I was quite a bit jealous of the alone time and silence my dad and Jared experienced. It was also weird to think that everything we owned was either in front of me in the truck, or behind me in the Toyota on it's way to Texas.

Luckily there wasn't too much of this...

but lot's of this...

We stopped in Moab on our way down to visit my Aunt and uncle. It's always an adventure when we visit Bonnie and Larry :) The boys went on a little walk to stretch their legs.

Then we stopped for a special surprise to see my mom's old "Dairy Freeze"! This is the business my grandpa Nordfelt built when my mom was a kid. Her and her siblings grew up working there. Of coarse it was in MUCH better shape back then (my grandpa was a carpenter and everything he ever built was beautiful). We have heard stories about it our entire childhood. No fast food restaurants around will ever compare to "the milk shakes and french fries made out of REAL potatoes" that my mom used to make at the dairy freeze :)

We absolutely COULD NOT continue on our travels until we celebrated Parker's half birthday. He had been reminding me about it for weeks. But how much can you celebrate when your in the middle of nowhere? Really. Good thing there are more McDonalds than anything else. Even in the middle of nowhere.

I wish you could have seen what this looked like in real life because I'm telling you, I have never seen anything quite like it. That's what 2 days in the car and a couple of nasty hotel rooms will do for ya I guess!

We finally made it into Texas on the 16th. And it wouldn't be Texas without a Texas shaped waffle. It just wouldn't. I expected nothing less from these proud folks.

Next post: Our new lives as true TEXANS!!! Stay tuned ya'll.

What a disaster

2010-04-13T12:03:00.000-06:00

Moving seriously sucks!!! I'll never do it again (until I have to move out of our apartment in a year). It was an absolute mad-house trying to get out of our house in time.

We went from this...

To this

To this... in 8 days!.

With a little of this in between :)

I hated every minute of it. But in the end it actually turned into a great blessing. My brother Ben described it like ripping a bandaid off. It stings really bad at first but when it's done, it's done. No reason to prolong the pain. We had no time to really think about what was going on because we had to be out so fast. Then we were able to spend the 3 weeks or so before we left for Texas saying goodbye to our friends and family. So although it was a huge pain to get out of our house so fast, it would have been worse trying to pack and say goodbye at the same time.

Here is a little picture log of what went on while living with Jared's parents, T.J, Dusty, Breck, Tanyon, and baby Porter for 3 weeks:

Tage ~~wrestling~~ loving Porter, (this happened every 2 minutes)

building forts/destroying Nana's house,

playing at the park,

Riding scooters in style

Lot's of Wii time,

Attempted to get a cute Easter picture of my boys in their matching ties. Not so successful.

Again destroying Nana's house. This time building "houses" in the pantry as Tanyon would say.

Celebrating my 8th wedding anniversary with my sweetie and some good friends (Val, I need a copy of that group picture!)

~~Playing~~ going to Dallas with my good friend Marti to find an apartment. And to enjoy Blue Bell ice cream (yes that is all for just the two of us) and the American Girl store, (which is why I need a girl someday. Adorable!)

Enjoying Leatherby's one last time after the General Priesthood session with the Springers (some of them)

Playing "fire ball" with cousins and aunt Wendy

Flying kites on the golf coarse with Breck and Tanyon

Lunch with my oldest friends, Stacy and Emily (the other Emily couldn't make it. Because she's the lucky one who lives in Florida). But we sure missed her! We have been friends for over 23 years! That's crazy!

Stacy and I have actually been friends for longer than we can remember. When we were in like 3rd or 4th grade we had matching"bests friend" shirts made. Mine has her name and hers has mine. I found mine in my hope chest while i was packing and somehow stretched it out enough to fit me so i surprised her and showed up with it on. (I must note that these shirts were HUGE on us back in the day).

Watching uncle T.J. play baseball for Bingham high. (Don't worry fellow WJHS friends. I only cheered for T.J. not the miners)

Last play date with the Bowcutt cousins.

Here are all of the cousins except for the one in Ang's belly!

Cute Conner helping Parks fly a kite. We sure miss these kids.

Had a baby shower with my friend Brittani for this tiny princess

And her cute mom :)

Bought myself a mini van! finally! Jared swallowed his pride, but it was the best day of my life :) Our only requirement was that it wasn't blue. Ha ha. I guess price comes before beauty right?! I love it!

Dinner with our friends the Davis's, Springer's, and Behle's

Saying goodbye to Tracee, Brooks and Ellee (Tracee is another friend I've had for 20 years! Seriously, I have the best friends) and as you can tell, Parker loves Brooks.

Jared saying goodbye to his other sweetheart, Gracie. We love this little girl. Her whole family actually.

Watched them open their mission call!

They are going to the Norway, Oslo mission!!!

And as you can see from the two awkward hugs pictured below, I am no good at saying goodbye. There were several times I forgot to take my camera out while we were saying goodbye to good friends and I'm so sad about that. But you weren't missing out too much because I'm a terrible hugger :) We miss you all!