Dave is 16!! (and Thanksgiving)

How is my baby 16?? It is wild having such an old kid. Here's a little about Dave right now. He's still playing drums for worship every week, obsessed with golf, and has taken up guitar and is quite good already. He spends lots of time playing video games with his cousins and friends and likes to go support his classmates whether it is volleyball or playing in the pep band at basketball games. Dave is super funny and can be very sarcastic (gets that honest) and is so so close to getting that precious license! Only has to wait 3 short months longer. Really he is an awesome kid and we are so blessed by him!

Josh's mom put together this hilarious gift. A ton of money taped together and he pulled it out of a kleenex box. 

We celebrated both boys' birthdays at Grains and Grill with grandma and grandpa.

Splurged on a fancy dessert. 

I'm including Thanksgiving in this one since his birthday is basically thrown in with it usually anyway.

This was a light year for the Thanksgiving crowd but it was a great meal and we played some games before everyone headed home.

This one is just for me, I loved the way our living room looked for Christmas!

 

Thanksgiving 2023

This year Josh's grandparents hosted us for Thanksgiving-they're usually in Florida but had to stay back this year because of a hip surgery. We really enjoyed getting to spend the day with all of the family and of course the boys were super excited to get some extra cousin time!

Playing switch sports the night before. 

Josh really knocked it out of the park with these turkeys!

Quick family pic before heading to Logansport. 

 

The food was delicious and their house was packed to the brim! Wonderful day to visit and catch up with everyone.

Dave's 12th Birthday and Thanksgiving

We have a 12 year old! Can't believe it's even possible. For his birthday this year he wanted to do something with his friends (that wasn't a sleepover, I vetoed that one!) so we took them to Floyd's Arcade near Roanoke.  It was kind of a random spot but the kids loved it!

After gaming for a couple of hours we came back to our house to swim and then have pizza and cake. 

This year Dave asked for a Texas Sheet Cake (forgot to get a picture of course).  We didn't really celebrate Thanksgiving on the actual day this year since we were hosting Josh's family on Friday. On Friday morning (Dave's actual birthday) I took him and Ike to 50 East for a birthday breakfast.

Dave has been a joy this year! We are starting to get to the disagreements that come along with having a teenager, but he generally handles himself very well and is such a funny, smart, kind kid. He's doing great in school and has dealt with being involved in two extracurriculars (robotics and basketball) very well. His favorite book of the year is one of the Percy Jackson books and his favorite movie was Spiderman: No Way Home. Favorite musician/band would go to Glass Animals or 21 Pilots (both of which we are seeing in concert this year!). He wants to work for NASA when he grows up, particularly in the area of engineering, not to be an astronaut. 

Lots of fun was had Friday when everyone came over for Thanksgiving! Dave started the party by being at basketball but joined in about an hour later.

Once hosting was done it was time for the Christmas decorations to go up! Everyone helped out this year which was really fun!

I love my gnomes, they are so dang cute!

Picture from Thanksgiving of the whole Bowyer/Smith clan.

For my last hosting event of the year we had my friend Theresa and family over to celebrate her birthday. Her one request was a charcuterie board-it was super fun making this!

 

Thanksgiving 2019

Our family hosted Thanksgiving (but on Friday) this year for the Sievers and Bowyers. I think we ended up with about 25 people in total so we had a pretty good crowd and lots of fun!







Brit and the kids came up early so the cousins could hang out.

Gosh the kids' room looks so clean in this picture!

She is so darn adorable!

Some of the guys.

Dave and Ike got Clue Jr. from Brit and fam for their birthdays and they got a lot of play time in!












Everybody but Zac stayed with us that night-he wasn't feeling too well while they were visiting. Saturday afternoon the kids all went swimming.

Dave and Brooke.














Quick visit but the kids had lots of fun as usual. It was great to see almost everybody on Friday and eat some delicious food!