Christmas 2011

We had a wonderful Christmas this year (and we aren't technically done quite yet-Dad and Kyra are coming in on Wednesday). It was one of our weekends on duty, so we didn't spend a lot of time out of the cottage, but we were able to head over to hang out with Josh's family for a little bit.

Sophie and Dave had a blast opening up presents.




Sophie smirking at Uncle Josh.









Check out what I got!










Best picture of Dave from present opening. A little rough, but he was very serious about getting into his gifts and didn't look up very often for photo opportunities.












Sophie received an awesome tent/tunnel from her parents for Christmas. The kids absolutely loved it-video of playing in tent.











Dave in the tunnel.










Dave helping my mom work while she was watching him last week. Unrelated to this picture, but here's a video of Dave dancing.











Enjoying his new cars table and chairs set from the Lauers. He has sat at it for every meal for three days straight now.








I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! I will leave you with a video of Dave playing in the bathtub.

Bowyer Family Christmas

Last Sunday we celebrated Christmas at Josh's Grandma Bertie's. Anybody who is available flies or drives in to hang out the weekend before Christmas. We eat a lot and people participate in the annual Family Feud game.





Dave playing in the kids area.









Sophie being tickled by one of Josh's cousins.










We didn't bring Dave a coat, so he had to borrow one of Sophie's when they went outside. I think he's rocking that white pea coat.













Grandma Bertie and Caleb.










Grandkids and great-grandkids.










Sophie and Dave had fun passing out presents. I think many were half opened by the time they made it to the correct person.









On Wednesday and Thursday, Josh and I took a little getaway up to Amish Acres in Nappanee. My mom came over with my stepbrothers Justin and Tim to watch Dave for us.




As part of the package we had tickets to see A Christmas Carol at the Round Barn Theater. They did an excellent job and we had great seats!







We also had lunch and dinner in their restaurant barn. The Thresher's Dinner was crazy delicious with a ton of fabulous food (family style all you can eat). This picture is from our table-it was beautifully decorated.









Mom and the boys gave Dave his Christmas present while they were here-an easel with all the fixings!












Maybe this artwork will be worth a lot of money someday.








Hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas! We have to work, but will be celebrating Christmas morning with Josh's family (our case manager is watching the boys for us).

Trip to Columbus

We decided to go hang out with my mom and Andrew for part of our weekend off. Mom cleverly offered us babysitting and movie tickets, how could we say no?





Dave sporting the awesome IU jacket I found for $1.50 at a thrift store. He totally has Hoosier Hysteria this year.







We mostly hung out with mom on this trip-we were only there from Friday-lunchtime on Saturday. One of the reasons we wanted to get over to Columbus was that the zoo there is open for the Christmas season with tons of lights everywhere.





Kind of a blurry picture, but this is at the lake before it got very dark. There was a light show here every half hour.












Dave absolutely loved it. The entire zoo was lit up, it must have taken forever to set it all up.







I don't have any more pictures of the weekend because the batteries died in my camera. But that was about all we did. A short trip, but very relaxing and we were able to sleep in, love doing that!


Here are a couple other pictures from earlier this week.





Dave loves helping Josh make toast in the morning. His favorite part of the process is getting to hold the knife.











Here he is jamming on Josh's keyboard. Of course I took a video of him. Singing jingle bells.





When we came back from Columbus, Josh's parents watched Dave for us so we could do a little shopping for the cottage (we got a couple of new guys this past week). They took Dave and Sophie to check out the Walkway of Lights in Marion. Have I mentioned that Dave loves lights?

Tomorrow we are heading to Josh's grandma Bertie's for her Christmas party. Should be pretty fun and Dave is pumped about going over there to play with her huge assortment of matchbox cars (and see people of course).

One more video, Dave talking in the bath.

Tis the Season

Dave is really getting in the Christmas spirit this year. He loves all the lights and decorations, and seems less afraid of Santa Claus. I don't think he understands the real meaning of the holiday yet, but he will say baby Jesus on occasion.





He loved the tree so much that we got him a set of lights out to play with. Really, it's to keep him from destroying our ornaments, but he's having a blast regardless.












I taught him to lay under the tree and gaze up at the lights. Since we can't put out presents yet (he's already opened some I put under the tree in the cottage), he has plenty of room to sprawl and enjoy.










You can't see the tree, but he's standing next to it and was showing me all the ornaments. Here's a video. Oh, and at the end of the video you can faintly hear him so "no way!". It's his favorite phrase lately.







We haven't really been doing a lot lately, just hanging out and trying to keep Dave entertained inside. Thankfully, Dave does love to play in his room. We're working on getting him to share his toys with us since he forces us to sit and play with him...not that much fun if we just have to sit there (he assigns us places to sit!).




Here he is enjoying one of his birthday presents from my dad and Kyra. It's a little big yet, but he climbs onto an old ottoman and then can dunk. I see a future Hoosier!









Helping me make eggs for the cottage last Sunday. Check out his awesome Bears jersey from Josh's parents.





And here's a video Josh took of Dave in his room. I need to get the baby


I almost forgot-we decided to skip Dave's 2 year appointment (they never tell us anything important anyway) and weighed and measured him here at home. He is 33.5 inches tall (25th percentile), weighs 24.5 lbs (10th percentile), and has a head circumference of 19 inches (35th percentile).

First Snow of the Year

We put up all of our Christmas decorations on Monday while we were still on vacation. Our house is so pretty with all the lights and Dave loves testing the boundaries of touching the tree.





Family picture in front of the tree. I think it's time to get a bigger one-our ornaments are starting to get pretty crowded.






On Tuesday we had our first snow! I think we ended up with about 4 inches or so. And it was still pretty warm out, so Dave was able to go out and enjoy it.





Love the snowsuit. Dave picked out his shoes of course. He insisted on wearing rain boots when he owns two pairs of snowshoes. Here's a video of his reaction to the snow.









So if you watched the video, you know that Dave was asking for his mower. Here he is mowing the snow.












Super pumped about the snowflakes.








On Wednesday Josh's sister Brittany brought her kids up so I could take some pictures of them for Christmas cards. We had a great time visiting, and I think she had a couple decent pictures to use.





Not from the photo shoot, but look how cute Caleb is!










Here's Dave trying to participate. I wanted to get a picture of the three cousins, but that didn't happen.











Sophie looking adorable. Props to Josh for snapping this picture while Brittany and I were out shopping!





And finally a video of Dave and Sophie dancing. Too funny!

Happy 2nd Birthday!

Dave's birthday was so much fun this year. He seemed to really understand what was going on (at least as far as the presents and cake!).




He woke up extra early to soak in all of his birthday festivities.






We went over to hang out with my dad and Kyra in the morning. Dad made a delicious cheese ball, and Dave just had to help.





Dad started dipping ham in the cream cheese for Dave to eat. Apparently it's a great combination.





Then we all headed back to my mom's to get ready for the party. Dave took a snooze in the car and was still asleep when I got there, so we left him to sleep and just checked on him frequently. He was still sleeping when his party was scheduled to start!





Had to get him to pose for his last monthly picture. I have decided to stop taking them at the two year mark.










Here's the awesome cake that Kyra made for Dave. I didn't get a picture of Tony's (his birthday was on Thanksgiving), but it was great too.









With Dad, Kyra, and Tony.










Mom's side of the family.










After blowing out the candles. He made us sing Happy Birthday to him 3 times. After the first round, he just kept saying "more!". Who can resist the birthday boy? Here's the video of us singing.











Dave "helping" Tony open up his presents.






Overall, a fabulous 2nd birthday! He is talking in sentences most of the time now. In fact this morning he told that he needed his milk out of the fridge. He also used his potty all by himself without prompting yesterday. Baby stepping to potty training! Of course he hasn't tried again, but maybe soon.

I can't believe how much he has changed in the last year! This age is definitely my favorite so far, even if he can be a little difficult now and then. We are very much looking forward to the next year and can't wait to see what he'll be like at three.

Turkey Week

We had a great time hanging out with my family down in Evansville for the week. We were able to spend lots of time with everybody, and enjoyed relaxing and eating copious amounts of good food. Here's a recap of what we did...






Dave spent a lot of time in the kitchen. He loves doing dishes now (hoping to encourage this as he gets older), and was a ton of help all week.










He's also a great taste-tester. Kyra was making a cake for her niece and Dave gave it his stamp of approval. Here's a video of Dave sampling his own birthday cake.








Of course he spent quite a bit of time taking breaks to eat crackers and M&Ms. Everyone was happy to provide him with lots of treats.










Being cute with grandpa Charlie.











A bunch of Kyra's family came in for Thanksgiving. Dave was crazy good with all the new people and made a lot of new friends.











Here he is coloring at Gamma's house. This used to be mine and my brother's when we were little. Here's a video of him using the markers.











Being carried around like a sack of taters. He's much easier to handle like this.





So as you can see we had a blast! Josh and I were able to leave Dave with anyone who was willing and get some shopping done and even go out one night. It is so nice that Dave really gets who everyone is and gets excited to go to different people's houses.

Visits before Thanksgiving

Since we are visiting my family for Thanksgiving, we went around to see everyone in the Northern Indiana area before we left for vacation. This included going to see Grandma Mary and Grandpa Dave (who will be leaving for sunny Florida after Thanksgiving, jealous) and Grandma Bertie.

We had great visits with everybody. Dave absolutely loves playing with the matchbox cars and tractor at Grandma Bertie's and then he goes over to his other grandparents and plays with blocks and a big fire truck. Dave thinks this arrangement is quite awesome.

Here he is having fun with great-grandpa Dave.








We then made a trip over to Cottage 6 (we work in Cottage 1) to visit with the Lauers. They had been very excited to give Dave his birthday presents. I think his favorite present was the fork and spoon set that have wheels that work on the ends. Kind of hard to visualize, but they are awesome and he insists to use them at every meal!




Dave with the Lauers (Mike and Jean Ann). I get stuck in a habit of referring to everyone by their last names because of our job.






Then Josh's parents came by on Friday to hang out with Dave a little since they won't be seeing him for a week. We'll be celebrating his birthday with them when we come back next Sunday.

That's it as far as visiting goes. Here's a couple random pictures of Dave in his sock hat.


























And playing peak-a-boo with his slide.