THANKSGIVING 2013

Where to start??!!! There is so much to write and I am hoping I can express the way I truly feel at this time with all thats gone on. I have so much to be thankful for and I knew I would regret not writing on this blog in like FOREVER!!! Im hoping to go back and fill in the blanks with some memorable times. But I'll go ahead and start with this month and time of season. This Novemeber our oldest most handsome little BIG BOY made the decision to be baptized!! This day seemed like it would never come... Well not never, but it seemed like it would be a WHILE! And it here and its passed!! :( Can you believe it?? Our oldest boy is already 8 years old and is old enough to ride his bike and read, and eat all by himself. He's able to wipe his own tush without any of my help (that I'm grateful for)!!
  So this month is a pretty special month to me and get my emotions stirred up every year!! I LOVE Thanksgiving! I would say its my favorite holiday of the year because it really gives us time to think about ALL that we are grateful for and all that we have! I was blessed to give birth to our first born 8 years ago this month and he has been such a joy.... for the MOST part! I'm not going to lie and say he's a perfect little man, but he's "our" peferct little guy for the Howes Fam Bam!!   Owen has been such a great example to all us. He's so honest, sometimes too honest, he's a loving, caring and protective brother who loves sincerely! He's so imperefect but yet so perfect for our family. So I want to write Owen a little note:

Owen, 

  I love you Owen Robert Howes. Mommy loves you with all her heart and I have such a strong desire for you to keep making good choices in your life that will bring you happiness and bring joy to your heart. This has been your first step to return to our Heavenly  Father who loves you more than you can imagine. More than me... ( I don't even know how that is possible, but it is) He is beyond happy for this great decision you have made today. Please remember that we are not perfect, and it okay to make mistakes. That is what the Atonement is for and though you might not understand fully what that is, know that it is there to help you recover and help you through your life. Make sure you try and learn as much as you can about the gospel.  It is the ONLY way that we can feel happiness in our lives and make sure to apply it in your life. During your baptism, I was overwhelmed with joy and gratitude towards my Savior! I felt the Spirit so strong as Daddy babptized you in the name of Jesus Chirst. To see your Daddy be ba worthy priesthood holder and have the authority to baptize you was such a joy. I'm grateful for a husband that is able to perform that ordinance. I love you and hope that you know Heavenly Father does too! 

Love, 
Mommy 

This month is a month of grattitude and yes I know I shoulfd ALWAYS be grateful for everything ALL the time, but I love that we have a holiday to celebrate that. It really invites the Spirit into our hearts and into our homes when we have an attitude of gratitude. This month we were able to talk about being grateful and decided that every night before our family prayer we needed to name something that we were grateful for. Their answers were as simple as beds, food, healthy bodies, to church, families, and materialistic things as well. I am grateful for all that the Lord has provided for my and my family. I am gratedul that I am able to bear children and to have each one of my 5 children with me and stay home and take care of them even when I think I'm going to literally go cRAZy!! Yes... I feel like that often but I LOVE all my little rascals still..... How is this possible? I truly feel blessed to have a loving, passionate husband who I secretly still love to get jealous and he lets me be crazy when I feel like I need to be. He's extrmely patient with me and is so understanding of me. He is always willing to step in and take charge of the kids when needs be, and he NEVER complains.... NOT even when I'm acting CRAZY! 

JANUARY 2011.... HERE WE COME!

I know I've said this time and time again, but I am seriously going to try and post more regularly so that one day when I get a little older I will be able to look back and laugh at some of these things or cry, or smile, or feel grateful for these times, especially in these years!! The past few months have been a little rough for our little family, but nonetheless, adventourous and busy as usual! We are still living in Las Vegas and Ryan and my brother-n-law started the pest control business out here. Ryan also got a job with At&T and has done well with that. Owen and Isabela started preschool this past September and love it MOST of the time. Jacobs thinks he should be able to join them too. Little does he know he still has a couple years to go till he leaves his mommy! :) Halloween was a blur. I can't even remember what the kids were for Halloween unless I take a minute to figure it out, or look at a picture.. haha!! We had a nice quiet Thanksgiving here in Vegas with Ryan's parents!! All I remember was that dinner was DELICIOUS.... or as Isabela would probably say, "It taste like delicious!!" It was a pretty relaxing holiday for us and we were glad we could spend it with family!!

December this year hit the Howes family pretty HARD!! We all ended up getting sick around Christmas time. THe kids got sick with the flu the week before Christmas, and lucky me got sick on CHRISTMAS DAY!! :( .. It stunk!) Luckily Ryan was there to save me... HE took over the kids and I got to sleep in all day after we opened presents at my mom and dad's place! We got back home and the kids were getting better and then BOOM!!!! IT hit us again!! I was likw.....REALLY??!!!! You have got to be joking. So as of tonight, we are still trying to recover from all these sicknesses!! Slowly but surely we are getting better, I just wish it would get better NOW!!

The start of a year is always so refreshing! I love it! We get to start off nice and FRESH.... CLEAN!!! I think we all make some goals for ourselves and some of those goals are always on the list year after year! But the beginning of the year is always so motivating and exciting!!

Here are some of our family goals for 2011:



1. Continue to do Family Home Evening on a weekly basis!

2. Read scriptures daily as a couple a:nd individually ( this one is on every year!)

3. Read the Book of Mormom for Young Women

4. Lose my pregnancy weight or at least get down to ___ lbs. ( Only I know that number :)

5. Have a better outloook on life and better attitude

6. Apply and start to take classes to finish my degree ( fingers crossed)

7. Make an effort to be more social and friendly to others

8. Read a book and put kids down by 9:00 pm.

9. Adding to our family of fivc... shh Ryan doesn't know thats one of my goals

10. Be happy and for what I have and RECOGNIZE it!!!!!

SO these are little details that are important for me at this time in my life and in my family's. Well at least this is what I feel will help our family and of course ME happpier!! I hope that we can accomplish this together as a family and have fun with it too! I know goals are not easy and require alot of work, prayer, and faith, but with all those things, we can accomplish GREAT things! I hope whoever reads this can understand this! I know my Heavenly Father loves me and with his help and my efforts, I can be happy! I just need to pray for his help and guidance and remeber to be patient or ask him to HELP me be patient!!
So 2011, here we come! We are ready and excited for what this year may bring to our family and are ready to take it on!!

Attempting a Gingerbread House!!

A few days before we went to California, the kids and I thought it would be fun if we all did a gingerbread house. I didn't think it would be too complicated or hard. I bought the kit from Walmart on clearance for $5.oo!! So I was pretty excited and so were the kids until we started TRYING to put it together with the frosting!! I don't know about everyone else, but I got frusterating the first 15 minutes and threw the towel by 30 minutes!! I don't think I would do very well in construction! :)
Isabela and Owen started feeling frusterated as soon as they figured out that I wasn't going to be able to build them the "house." I have to say though we did have lots of fun "eating" the whole thing. Well at least the kids did. I think the candy they sell are gross!!

Here is Owen and Jacob trying to open up all the pieces.

This is sort of a random picture, but this is how Isabela's hair is when she wakes up every morning!! :)

Here is the three of them eating all the "yummy" gingerbread house before it was even constructed.

'Hhhmmmm.. what to eat? "

I think one of the jely beans got stuck in Bela's teeth!! :)

The other night, I made dinner and served the kids first, as usually that is the daily routine, nothing new.....Kids eat first, then mom and Dad get to eat our "cold dinner." I hate it when my food gets cold or when the food is uncovered when it should be covered to stay warm. I usually end up putting it back in the oven or in the microwave to make sure it is extra hot and ready to eat!! Anyway as I was eating dinner, the kids were finishing up and they know the drill.... when you're finished, put your plate in the sink, wash your hands, dry your hands, and you can go play! Well this is what I found when I turned over to see who was washing dishes.......

*Note: Idid NOT teach her or tell her she needed to wash dishes this early in her life!! I am sure she will have plenty of dishes to wasj in the future :)

This is when I finally, got her attention and asked what she was doing. She replied, " I'm helping wash the dishes mommy!"... I couldn't resist, I replied back, " oh mija, that's great.... you have about 20 of them left!" haha.. jk

I love my little Isabela! She is seriously such a great helper. She loves to clean. I'm not sure why because I am not the type that is cleaning all day, but I am so glad that she enjoys helping me with these sort of things. One can definitely not mistaken her for being a little boy. She is so loving and nurturing with our family. She always makes sure that her brothers are okay and that Dadddy is well taken care of too. I hope that she keeps those gestures with her always. She is the BEST little girl!

PRESCHOOL STARTS AND MOMMY IS SO EXCITED!!!

Here is Owen and Isabela before we headed off to school!!!
.... And Jacob thought it would be nice to pose with Owen and Isabela

Okay, so I know that I should be super sad to have my kids go to school and all, but honestly, I am super exxcited!! Is that bad?! Haha!! I'm just kidding! I am a little sad but excited at the same time. Owen and Isabela started preschool this past Tuesday and they went for a couple hours. Owen was super excited and so was Isabela. It's a joy school that I am a part of in our church ward, and it seems like the kids are going to have fun. All the moms take turns teaching and so it is a great oppurtunity to meet new members from our ward and have my kids make friends from our ward as well.... and of course they are learning social skills as well as academics!! :) Owen has been to preschool before, but this is the first time for Isabela!1

She was so excited to go. We left just a couple minutes before 9:30 because the house was just around the corner from us. At first when we got there, she asked me to stay with her.... she seemed a little unsure, but within 5 minutes she turned to me and said, " Mommy, you can go now.. I'll be ok!"It was so cute! Owen was there with her and she was all smiles :)

SO SORRYFOR THE LATE POST........

Okay, so I haven't been too "on it" with the journaling and posting! There are not too many people who look at this anyway, but it makes it more overwhelming when you want to remember all these memories with your children.. (yes including the bad too.) But hopefully, I can remember some of the events that have happened these last few months. I will do my best to write in detail some of our past adventures! :)

ANGEL GAME..... FREE TICKETS!!

I know, I know it'a been a While since I've written on our family blog! There are no really good excuses other than I'm just being lazy and procrastinating! Not much has happened anyway. We have been hanging out at home. Owen has started preschool EVERYDAY right smack in the middle of the day which leaves all of us stuck in the house all day, and three crancky kids at 2:00pm because that's nap time for ALL of us... yes, I'm included in that bunch! I need my naps to function.
Owen started back in January and ends in the middle of June. He is already complaining to me that he doesn't like school!!! I'm like... "WHAT???!!! You still have at least 12 years ahead of you, so you better start liking it!" Crazy boy! Owen is a very active little boy and has energy enough for all of our family and more. He is constantly on the go and is always asking questions, so school has taught him to be a little more structured and feels a little "bored." But it has helped him tremendously. Everytime we drop him off , Isabela wants to stay at go to school with him. At least one of them is excited for school!! She is so cute!!
Recently, we had friends from our ward who were cool enough to give us FREE tickets the Angels game vs. Oakland Athletics?! The game was so much fun and we were able to go with Nat and her little family!! They ended up winning the game and the kids thought the best part was the fireworks at the end which lasted like 30 seconds!!!

Jacob and Isabela posing

Cousin LOVE!!

M.I.A. Owen and Ryan were not able to make it because they were in Vegas. Owen let Ryan know how upset he was that we went to an Angel game without him and that we should have waited until he got home :)

HAWAII 2010

This January I had the opportunity to go to Hawaii with my family. Well it not all of us made it. We were missing Teri Lisa and my Dad :( . But we had a great time. We all sort of just invited ourselves but it ended up being a super fun trip!!! The weather was great compared to California that week. We were lucky enough to miss the whole week that it was pouring in January. My mom and Steph made it out there a couple of days before the rest of us got in. We left early Wednesday morning and Stephanie's companion's dad was nice enough to get our family really good prices on the flights. We fle into Honolulu and went around the whole island. We got to visit Byu- Hawaii, the temple, the Dole Plantation, and lots of other little areas around there. Our first day, it was raining so we just drove by the island and stopped by the Laie Temple. It was so beautiful!! We forgot to take a picture of it!! :(.. Overall, the trip was awesome and I had a lot of fun with my family. I definitely would love to go back there with Ryan one of these days... Hopefully soon!!!

This is somewhere in the North Shore. We stopped and took a picture because of the vies, minus the construction fence in the background :)

We went to visit the Dole Plantation and got to ride on a little train that explained how they grow the pineapples and the history behind it.

Okay, this is Kiki trying to be "cool" riding his moped:)

And of course this is my little brother also trying to be "cool"

GIRLS: Day at the Beach!!! So beautiful

CRAZY DECEMBER

Well the holidays sure do go by super duper FAST!!! Especially when one is having fun! Thanksgiving seemed like only a few days ago and Christmas is next week.... AAAHHHH!! We have been keeping busy with our everday life routine and Christmas. We've been doing a lot of "park days" since the weather here in California is "perfect." We are having a lot of fun and are so much happier now that we get to see Ryan more. I haven't been in "camera mode" just because I haven't even remebered to have it with me at ALL times. But I will have to post pictures when I get a chance.
A little update on how everyone is doing:

Owen: He is such a little smart boy! I know as mothers we all think so, but he REALLY IS!!! He is always on the go and has so much energy to do just about anything. He loves helping us out and is always asking so many questions. He is such a "big brother" although recently he has been telling me he has a big sister. I ask him who she is and he replies, " I don't know her yet." I'm wondering if he is receiving revelation...... I know I'm not pregnant ;) He is such a funny boy, that's for sure. He still loves playing all types of sports and is always interested in fixing things right now. He is enjoying Primary even though I still think he is a baby. He just started going to his Primary class all by himself and helps this Primary presidency erase the board at the end of church.

Isabela: SHe is such a sweetheart. She really is the "girl" of the family. She has become so danty and so girly! I am not sure if that's a good thing or not. She is now completely potty trained through the night and during her naps. I am so happy, even though she sometimes has accidents. She is so sweet to everyone and she loves spenind time with mommy. She loves strolling her red teddy bear everywhere.

Jacob: He is such a little man! He has recently started to talk more and copying a lot of words lately. He reminds me of that commercial that the little boy is constantly saying, Mama, mama, mamma...." When I finally repsond to, "WHAT?!!!, " he has a smirk and mumbles. He is still a good sleeper and has recently become a daddy's little boy.

OWEN TURNS 4!!!

Happy Birthday Owen!!

Oh my goodness, my oldest baby turned four this year!! I cannot even believe it! I remember the day I was in the hospital in labor and how I thought I was going to die after pushing for a couple of hours. I remember asking the doctor to cut me open because there was no way I had the strength to push anything out of my body at that moment and somehow, he finally came out! I remember hearing just ONE cry, " WHAAAAHH!!" And that's it! He was staring at me and at the room the rest of the time. I was thinking to myself, "Is there something wrong with this baby?" But let me tell you, this boy is as active as a boy can really get. If I had to describe Owen in a few words, it would be a ball of energy!

He has such a strong, confident spirit and is not afraid to be outgoing and learn new things. This year he has mellowed out a little and has been such a great big brother to Isabela and Jacob. He even loves all of his cousins as well and is always excited to see each one of them. This was his first year in Primary and he is a Sunbeam. He has loved it up until he had to say his part in the Primary Program this past OctoberL. My poor baby was so nervous when the day came and he started to cry before going up, but somehow he pulled himself together and said his part perfectly. And to make things worse, when moving into our new ward, the Primary had not yet had the program yet, and "lucky" Owen got to stand up again in front of the congregation and say his part yet AGAIN!! He was a lot more prepared this time and enjoyed a little more the second time around.

This past year, he has grown so much as of course speaks clearly and has some of the funniest comments. Here are some things I can remember him saying this year:

"Mommy, don't hit me…… Just talk to me Mommy, just talk to me, ok?"

On another occasion, I was so frustrated with him one day and told him, "Owen, why are you being such a…… such a bad child?" And his response was, "I'm not a bad child mommy, I'm a Child of God." I tried to keep a straight face, but it made me smile just hearing him. He really is such a sweet little bot. He is willing to help me with most things and wants to be a "handy man."

Here is Owen eating ONE of his many cupcakes on his birthday. I put an apron so he wouldn't get dirty!

 

One of his presents this year was cars, of course! You can never go wrong with getting a boy CARS!! Even if they are 28!!!

random pics

Here are some more random pictures from Fabio and Stephanie's wedding

FAMILY WEDDING

On Saturday, November 7th, my cousin Fabio and Stephanie celebrated their marriage. We had a great time. You get food, dancing and family together, you're guaranteed a good time. Teri and her family came down for the special occasion and it's always nice to get all the cousins together as well. They had so much fun dancing and hanging out.

Here are the 3 girls: Sydney, Isabela, and Olivia holding hands, showing their dancing moves. They all loved the music and you know how little girls like to dance together!

Here is another attempt at getting a descent family picture, but failed miserably. And that's that we were all wearing Christmas colors :( We tried taking them at home before the party.... no use!

"mommy and me" picture

Sibling Love: These two are usually together. Whether it's fighting and taking toys away from each or playing together and looking after each other.

I am proud to day that these are my little babies! They are growing up so fast. I found myself shopping in the bigger boys section for Owen today :(

Overall, we had a great night. Stephanie and Fabio looked very happy and it is always nice to get together as a family.

NEVER LEAVE A 2 year old unattended!

Okay, I have always heard this statement! Well it's pretty much goes like this, " DONT LEAVE CHILDREN UNATTENDED!" And of course I get so distracted doing things around the house that I begin to think that because my kids are being quiet, they are being GOOD....... YEAH RIGHT! Why do I always fall for that trap?! I was downstairs getting ready to make dinner and Ryan comes walking in and asks, "Are the kids still sleeping?" I told him I hadn't put them down because they were being good and there wasn't really a need to. So he goes upstairs and this is what he finds:

She thinks she can put bright red lipstick on since she got to put it on for Halloween!

Beauty is PAIN

She looks a lot better NATURAL!!

Halloween 2009

Since Halloween was on a Saturday this year, the whole family went out for Halloween. Ryan didn't have to work which was really nice and the kids took a nap right before going so they were in a good mood the whole time!! We even had dinner for them and were out the door by 6:30p.m. WOW!!!!! I was pretty impressed. We first went out to the elementary school near the house which was only a few blocks away. I guess this is their 2nd year doing a little Halloween Carnival and it was great! We stopped by a few houses on our way over to the school to get some candies. When we got to the school, it was jammed packed!!! But it was so nice becuase the neighborhood had cars parked all over (trunk-or-treat) and we were able to collect candies in a matter of minutes as oppose to having to walk door to door. I know, I've gotten lazt over the years! :) Anyway, they had a little jumping maze for the kids to play in and of course Owen was eager to go in it. We met up with Dain, Nat, Sydney, and Baby Noah and they even has cotton candy, popcorn, and drinks for FREE!! We were all over that! We ended up waiting in line for all the goodies longer than "trunk or treating."
Owen dressed up as our little "scary" skeleton man. Isabela was our little tinker fairy. She has been watching Tinkerbell and loves it! Jacob is still too young to even care what he would be for Halloween so we bought him a Kung Fu Panda costume that was on clearance. He was enjoying his sucker pretty much the whole night!

Howes Babies!!!!

Kung fu Panda

Daddy and the kids

my princess fairy

Jacob with his lolipop

cousins

Isabela trying to be Noah's mommy

Here are just some ransom pictures that I have taken in the last few weeks. I subsribed to a new program called picknik.com and they have some pretty neat tools to edit your photos.

Mommy and Isabela!!!

The Howes Clan

Isabela decided to try on her boots from last year with Daddy's black socks. Owen decided to join in on the fun!!

And of course the Baby of the family...... Jacob :)

Halloween 2009

I know I've been slacking on recording all these fun things that have happened in the last few weeks. It's been crazy but I will summarize everything in a "nutshell" and try to be better at recording all these memories! Our little family has been quite busy. Ryan has found a new job in California and has been working in California for the past 3 months! And the kids and I have been living in Las Vegas all that while. We finally had the opportunity to move to California this past week and we have been living in "chaos" these last few weeks. AAAHHH!! But we are all doing well and are always chaotic anyhow. We will miss our friends and family in Las Vegas but are definitely excited to be close to family and to be back "home." Owen, Isabela , and my baby Jacob have kept me super busy and by the end of the night, I'm pretty exhausted. We are definitely not ready for Baby #4 yet, nor will we be in the near future!! As crazy as it might sound, no, we I am NOT expecting! Pretty weird, huh? Anyway we are all doing great and I am excxited to start our new advventure in California!

Crippled!

Okay so for those of you who have been thinking that I've been MIA.... I have been. Let me just say, it's been a crazy few weeks. I threw my back out!! I 've been crippled for the last couple of weeks and let me tell you I've been MISERABLE!! Luckily Ryan has been helping me out through out the weekends and my family has been a great help a well. So anyway, I'm pretty much stuck in California for another few days.

TIME FOR A HAIR CUT!!

Okay so this is also a late blog entry but I wanted to post it anyway. I have been feeling pretty lazy the last few weeks about cutting all my boys hair. I just hate cleaning up afterwards as if I don’t already do that with everything else at home but I just was not in the mood to be cutting hair. Well I finally got the energy to just do it and here are the results. I love “clean cut” little boys and so this will serve as a motivation to keep me on schedule with their regular haircuts.

My "little" surfer!

UTAH TRIP

I know it’s been a while since I have been able to write again! We have been so busy the last couple of weeks. We had the opportunity to go out to Utah and visit with some family and my sister Stephanie who is currently serving a mission in Temple Square. Although packing is my least favorite part of the trip, we ended up having lots and lots of fun. Besides me being stressed out 24/7 for EVERYTHING, we managed to do some fun things. I drove up with my mom and we had a total of 5 little toddlers plus the two of us in one car! Crazy right, but we got there! It took us about 7 hours and we managed to squeeze a little McDonald’s meal in too! When we got there, Feudy and Sofiya were up waiting for us. We hung out there the week and just relaxed. They have a yard the size of our house and so Owen and Isabela were in “heaven” running around. They also had a little playground where they spent most of the day at. We also got a chance to go see Stephanie at Temple Square. She looked great. She said she felt a little weird. I think it was because she was still adjusting to being back from Pennsylvania. Plus she says she’s been stuck all day in the office. So she got to take us out on a tour and have lunch with us one of the days. And one night my mom and Feudy offered to take care of the babies so we can go out on our own which you know I will always take anyone up on that offer. We ended up just going to Wal-Mart to pick up some things we needed. Anyway, we had a lot of fun being there with her and being able to see her. Here are some of the many pictures we took while we were over there.

In front of the Garden Place next to the Temple
In front of the Beehive House

Sister Clavel with "most" of her nieces and nephews

I had to post this one. I thought it was really cute:)