I'm on my way!

David and I are trying to change the way we eat and exercise. I found a website that helps in making sure you eat the right amount of calories and easy exercises. Best of all it is all FREE!! It is http://www.sparkpeople.com/. I have lost 7 lbs already and we have been doing this for 2 1/2 weeks! We treat our selves to two nights of sweets or dinner out. That has really helped in not eating sweets during the week. I also drink a lot more water 8 8oz. it is not as hard as I thought it would be. When I lose a little bit more weight I will slowly add the harder exercises in. I just needed to tell everyone how great this plan is. David keeps saying that it is too easy so that must mean it is not working, but it is! In a few months I will need to buy new clothes! Yeah!!!!!

What an exciting day! I know that I will remember it for a long time. I took some pictures of the inauguration on my TV. I got the idea from the book we read in book club last month call The Last Lecture. In it the authors dad take a picture of the Moon landing for his son who was away for summer camp and could not watch it. That got a few of us thinking about this inauguration that our kids would be in school and my not be able to watch it. David & I taped it from prayer to prayer. I also took pictures of the swearing in of both Obama & Biden. I am so glad I did that because it was fun though David thought it was a little weird. I hope everyone enjoyed it as much as I did. I will pray for President Obama to make the correct choices.

Good Luck President Obama!

Life moves on...

In our house no one is still for very long. We have to keep all the doors closed so Samuel does not harm his siblings stuff or himself. Samuel thinks he is a lot older and try's to to the same thing his siblings do. Like climb the built-in-ladder on the girls bunk bed. Yes, he can really do it but is safe? Oh no it is not!! Here is a picture of Samuel after pulling out all my dish towels then, well see....

























For Christmas My parents gave David & I a negative & slide scanner. I am very excited! I started using it and have scanned some of my wedding negitives, from 16 years ago!
Here's one:

I am hoping to be able to scan in more of our pictures of when my older kids were young.

Today, is phase 2 of the house plans. the architect will be looking at the lot we want to build on and see if the house will fit. David & think it will with no problem at all. After looking he will come back to our current house to show us the updated plans. I am very excited, but David told me not to be becouse he does not want me to be disapointed. At this point I don't think I could be.

Our Aunt Pat bought the children the Wii for Christmas. It has been hard to give them equal time. Partly because of skill level and the other part is how cordinated they are. Chloe & Emily have a harder time the the older 3. So I try to give them more time to practice but then the older 3 complain that they don't get enough time. I'm almost ready to hide it! But David & I like to play it after the kids go bed. We found out that I'm a better bowler the him, ;)

Happy New Year - 6 days late!

Better late than never!



I am looking forward to the new year with much excitement. David & I gave each other the gift of house plans for Christmas. We are hoping to build this year if the cost is right. We have already been through the first phase, and we made only a few changes. In the next few days we should be looking at the plans again. We are hoping that in March we can get the ball rolling on this project.



As for my new years resolutions, I have a few thing I want to work on.



1. Lose some weight

2. Read my scriptures on a more regular bases

3. Wake up with my older children (5:30 am)

4. Be debt free except to a mortgage



I'm sure there are more but I can't think of any right now.

It's Almost Christmas!!!

Yes, it is that time of year when we give each other presents for someone else's birthday.

It is really hard to purchase a gift for Christ with money, He does not need anything from the store. What he wants is our time, to become more spiritually awear, to read our scriptures more and with the spirit. I know it is hard to give up our time, but I'm going to improve this Christmas as my gift to Christ.

Well, as a family we are going to have a better week this week that last week. We had to take our youngest to the hospital as he had come down with croup. David & I have never dealt with croup before (which is kind odd considering we have 6 kids). It was pretty scary to see Samuel chest go so far in that we rushed him to the ER. He was admitted for the night because after steroids and a breathing treatment (one big long medical word that I can't remember) he still had something called strider. We were relived that it was controllable and everything would be alright. Samuel & David will be staying home from church to day as we don't want to pass his illness to anyone else.

Merry CHRISTmas

We have been busy!!

Well a lot has happened since I posted last time. we've had a birthday, a business trip and now thanksgiving! As Emily's birthday fell during my business trip, we celebrated on the Saturday after. We went out to dinner and Emily picked the all time favorite McDonald's! Yeah. I am getting tired of McDonald's. We then came home and opened presents and had cake & ice cream.

This is Emily with her Birthday hat from school

She loved all her gifts from her siblings. She was really excited about the new winter jacket from her grandparents Bowen

I was in CA for a week to obtain training to become a better counselor. It was a very good class and I'm glad that I was able to go. I still need to take an exam to become certified. I hope to complete it over the holiday weekend.

While I was there they were filming a play at my hotel called the "State of Play". It was fun to see all the movie equipment, did not see any stars though did see a lot of extras being filmed.

Thanksgiving is now upon us. I have been thinking what I have been thankful for. It was not hard to think of things like my children and my wonderful husband (who looked after the kids while I was gone). What I really was thinking about was what I was spiritually thankful for.

I really a thankful for the gospel in my life and how it has shaped who I am and who I want to become (I take after my father in that I still don't know what I want to be when I grow-up).

I am thankful for the Saviors love and how he loves me even when I have made wrong choices.

I am thankful for the ability to forgive and to be forgiven.

I hope all of you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!!

Oh, Well, again.

I really wanted to write everyday about my family life but that is just not going to happen! It is really hard to find the time to sit and compose when you have a one year old trying to type with you. Yes you read that right my youngest is now a year. It is hard to believe that a year has gone by so quickly.

This is my favorite picture. He did not like the frosting on his hands but wanted to eat the cake, so he eat it without his hands!

Today Brittany is trying out for a part in a play for next tri. It is Peter Pan! She would really like to be Wendy. I'll let you know when we know the results. which should be around the 19th of this month.

OH NO!

I did not take any Halloween pictures of my kids!!! I don't know how that happened, but it did.

We had a great week but very busy. It started on Monday (as each week should) I needed to do the laundry. A total of 6 loads and only a few hours to do them in. a short FHE of decorating our pumpkins, as there was a ton of homework for the second grader and the tenth grader. :(

Tuesday I forgot to help out in Chloe's class (which I have come to enjoy). Then piano lessons for Brittany then dinner and finally Mutual!

Wednesday: I had a counseling session that observed. The Interns that we train each semester seem to get better very semester. It is nice to see them grow and become more confident in their skills. Sarah also did not have school so watch Samuel for me with a friend. Later she had 3 friends over and had a grand time.

Thursday: Food shopping didn't get to finish, need to go home because Samuel woke up and David need to get back to work. oh, well. After everyone was bathed I took Brittany out to finish her costume for Halloween. She was Goth. Emily had a Halloween party at school so wore her costume, she was a pink bunny. Sarah wanted her hair braided so that in the morning it would be kinky. By the time I was done my fingers were stiff and cramped, it was very painful to straiten them out.

Friday: HALLOWEEN! This morning everyone needed my help!I was up @ 5 am to help Brittany with her hair & make-up. I've gotten really good at straitening her hair. With our old straightener is took me an hour now it is half that.8) Everyone finally was off to school so I started the laundry again only 4 loads today! After picking Emily up and having lunch we (Emily, Samuel & me) finished our food shopping. Needed to have an early dinner so we could start trick-or-treating @ 6pm. To make things even more busy Brittany wanted to dye her hair black to be more Goth! I just could not do it. I felt really bad but told her next year we would start the week before and get her completely ready. She left for a party and took the camera with her! So it is all her fault there are no pictures! hahaha ;)

Everyone had a great time. Emily hooked up with friends and went around with them. Chloe tried to find her friends but never did so she hung with her Dad, they tried to scare me when the came home. Sarah was out for 3 hours and has a lot of candy. Michael decided not to dress-up this year but hung out with friends. Brittany went to a party and was out till 10:30 pm. Needless to say we all slept in on Saturday.

The weekend: Got some good sleep. Went to lunch with Grandparent Bensons, had fun and was good to see them. Went to bed without fixing the clocks. had a really good sleep! Went to church, came home and had popcorn & fruit plate, always a favorite. Went to bed and the week started all over again!

The Weekend!!!

Well most of us slept in on Sat. Samuel was up @7am so David took him , as I was up with him in the night. I went back to sleep until 10! wow, I was amazed that I could sleep that long. Then my laptop would not work properly for most of the day. So no post. Saturday was Samuel's Day for news. He is a mover & a shaker. Even when his is asleep he does not stop moving. Out of all my kids he is the most restless. Though he is quick to smile and laugh at what ever happens. His favorite past time is to go around the kitchen table in circles and try to shake the other kids chair (while they are still in it). We are not sure what we will do for entertainment when he grows some and does not wanted to be laughed at any more.
He has 6 teeth now two on top an four on the bottom. If he gets a hold of your finger it will go in his mouth and be bitten. For some reason Samuel will not go to other women very easily but usually not have a problem going to a man. As our daycare person is a woman is it very hard to leave him knowing this. I have been going over with him to get him used to her, so far that seems to be working well.

On Friday we went to the elementary school Halloween carnival. All but Michael went (he wanted to stay & hang with his friends), we had a good time Emily & Chloe dressed up as a Bunny & a Ghost. Played lots of games and Brittany took pictures for her class.

Today, we all went to church and sat in a different pew. It was very hard to listen as all the children (that were not mine) were being very loud and whining. I think we try a different pew next week, maybe toward the front.

Our family book that we are reading is "The Great Brain". So far we are really liking the book. The one we have is Davids old book and on the front it says "SEE THE OSMONDS' FIRST MAJOR MOTION PICTURE THE GREAT BRAIN Starring JIMMY OSMOND" After reading the first chapter I was laughing because the author is a Catholic boy that has to beat up all the Mormon boys, and the main charater is being played by a Mormon! :) Even more fun is that there is one of the Bowen family traditions in the book, it is "Heavy Heavy Hangover thy poor head" and it was game played birthday parties to prolong the gift giving. We have continued this tradition in our family.

More another day!

Book Club

I hosted the book club here in my neighborhood last night. We did something a little different, we went out to eat! It was a Indian restaurant, it was really good. We had such a blast! We were not sure how to pronounce the names of the dishes so when the servers assistant came with the food and asked who ordered "the dish name" we all looked at her with a question in our eyes. We are still not sure if everyone got the meal that they ordered but the food was great. Maybe we will do it again some tine soon.
I look forward to going to book club as it forces me out of my comfort zone of reading. The book was "A Little Princess" by Frances Hodgson Burnett.
As I hosted I was in charge of finding out about the author. This lady was really a go-getter. If your are interested at all here is a source that I used http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frances_Hodgson_Burnett.

Next book we are reading is "The Christmas Carol" it is our Christmas party where we all bring a book to exchange and get a new book for the year!

I'm going to talk about my kids one at one time. Today's turn will be Emily. Emily will be turning 5 in November. She is in Kindergarten and is having the time of her life. I talked with her teacher yesterday and she is moving right along in her learning. Emily is really good at simple addition. She has not yet decided what she is going to be for Halloween as we have not looks at all our costumes. I post pictures when we has decided.

Can you believe these pictures they are painted on someones hands!

First Time

Wow! I should have done this years ago. I hope to have pictures of my family up some time soon. we'll see how this goes!