Happy St. Patty's and BIG News!

Wow I have really neglected the blog lately! We finally got a new computer, yeah!, and I am motivated to get on the computer now because I know it won't take me 2 hours to check my email or download photos. Anyway, this is our first St. Patrick's Day with a child in school, and my it is different. It was a must that we all wear green, and Emmary was very insistent on making a trap for catching a leprechaun last night. Tim took the "treasure" and made a cute response last night- but forgot to take a picture of her trap first. Use your imagination- there were lots of coins and notes and necklaces to entice the little leprechaun in. Oh, and our big news is that we are having another baby! I am 14 weeks now. This baby is a surprise, but we are very excited and can't wait! Well, I can wait, but I know that doesn't make a difference, so I will just say I can't wait! I am due Septwmber 13 so that will put our two babies 16 months apart. Whew! Good thing my parents live around the corner, is all I have to say:)

tim's note from the leprechaun. I was asleep in bed while he did this because I am useless in the evenings and am asleep by 8:30 every night now.


footprints. Kids will believe anything they truly want to believe. Why would a leprechaun leave paper footprints? She didn't even question it!

We even got the world's prettiest rainbow a couple days ago. It was so beautiful and there were 2 but it was faint so our camera didn't pick it up.

Just another shot of the rainbow:)

Hillarious!

I know this post is from Christmas day, but this was too funny to pass up! Christmas morning Emmary woke up with pink eye. So, after opening presents my mom and I set off driving around the valley trying to find an open insta-care. Once we found one we waited for 3 hours. While we were gone, Tim stayted at my mom and dad's with Juliet and Davis. Before we left my mom laid Juliet down for a nap on the guest bed. Up till this point, Juliet wasn't rolling around so it was safe for her to be on a bed sleeping. Eventually, Tim heard her crying and went in to find she had rolled over and devoured some plants my mom had brought inside and left on the bed. The poor thing! Of course, there were only men in the house, and they weren't quite sure what to do with her, but she survived!

Her poor eyes were red from rubbing the dirt into them. Also, there are little sticky traps in the plants to catch little bugs and Juliet had managed to get that in her hair! When I got home I could still see dirt in the corners of her eyes and I had to pin her down and dig it out. She was happy and laughing and seemed to hold no hard feelings! Lesson learned: if you leave a baby alone with a plant, they will attack:)

October

Well, our October has been a month that I never want to repeat in some ways, and in others I wish it could have gone on a lot longer. We started out the month with the news that the cancer Tim's dad had been fighting for the last year was terminal and all we could do was make Mark comfortable. This was incredibly overwhelming do deal with. Add to that the moving. We moved out of the small rental we were in by the 1st and put all of our boxes on that patio, and moved all of our furniture to the new house (next door) patio. Then we packed up our suitcases and stayed at my mom's for 2 weeks. Add to that us traveling to St. George 4 weekends in a row to spend as much time with Mark as we could. This was precious time that I wish we could have had more of. We even had a weekend where Mark had all 6 of his kids together to spend time and get some last council and comforting words from him. Add to that Tim studying for his Professional Engineering exam. He studied 10-15 hours a week on top of working 40-50 hours a week- making me feel like a single mom. Add to that moving into the new house- which has been wonderful! It feels so good to finally be in a home that we can grow into! All of these things added together in one month have put me close to losing my mind at times, but I have managed to pull through. The day after we moved into our house we got the phone call that Mark was going back to Heaven quickly. I had to run over to the Stake Center bawling and pull Tim out of a meeting so that he could call his dad to say goodbye. Mark was not very responsive by this time, but we did find out that he said Tim's name when he got on the phone and said, "I love you." We jumped in the car again and made it to Nephi when we got the call that Mark had taken his last breath. This experience has been so sad for our family, but we have a firm testimony in the Plan of Happiness. There have been far too many spiritual experiences in the last year to be able to deny that Heaven is real, the Savior lives, and we don't just go to sleep when we die. We go back Home and we know that is where Mark is now. We know we will see him again, but we miss him a lot still. After the funeral I realized how lucky I am to be married to man who was raised by Mark Fowers. Tim has so many characteristics like Mark and I am so blessed to have him for a husband and the father of my children. Mark's example has made us want to be better people and has made me be a better wife and mother. A week after the craziness of the funeral, Tim took his 8 hour test. One of the last times we saw Mark he gave Tim a blessing and said that he would be successful with this test. Tim could feel that strength during the test. We know that Mark was aware of what Tim was doing that day and was proud of his son. Mark was only 64 years old- not even old enough to claim Social Security! We know that our Heavenly Father needed him more than we did. That knowledge has brought us comfort that I can't even begin to explain. I posted some pictures here, in no particular order, of what we have been doing the last month.

Halloween. Juliet- ladybug, Emmary-witch, Davis-dragon

Mark's casket. The only picture we took during the funeral. Tim's sister took a lot, so we can get copies later. It was weird how that didn't even cross our minds that day.

St. George at Tim's parents.

7 days before Mark passed. I know it is sideways, but I didn't upload it from Picasa. Oh, and I am brunette now. Davis has a giant piece of candy in his mouth.

The same day as the previous picture. I was trying to get Brinley, Emmary and Juliet, but Juliet just wanted to look at Mark. When you zoom in, they look so cute just the 2 of them. It is hard for me to know that I will have to show this picture to Juliet one day and tell her about her Pappa Mark because she won't remember. But for this one moment they had a special connection.

A great picture one week before Mark passed.

Davis at Grandma Charyl's.

Juliet and Mark the beginning of October.

Davis at Grandma Charyl's pool

Tim, Emmary and I at Tarzan. The show was awesome! But we were emotional already and it was sad when the dad gorilla dies:(

Juliet's first swim- she loved it!!!

The Lion King

Of course, I'm a week late doing this post, but better late than never! We were so lucky to be able to see The Lion King with some great friends last week. We started with dinner at the Blue Iguana-yum!



I think I only have 2 pictures of me and Sarah together, even though I see her everyday and talk to her mulitple times a day!

Me, Sarah, and Christina in front of the theatre. It was beautiful weather.

Our group- minus Greg because he took the photo. We had awesome seats in the orchestra section so we could see the bongo drums and had an awesome view of the stage. We could see all the animals coming down the aisles too. The show was so good. I wasn't super hyped for the show like I was the 4 times I saw Wicked last year, but I was so entertained! The costumes were phenominal-especially the scenery costumes. My favorite was the Mufasa scene in "He lives in you"(if you've seen the show you know what I'm talking about!) Overall, we had a great night out with wonderful friends:)

First day of school!!

Call me crazy if you want, but whenever my kids watch Nemo I skip the first scene where Coral and the babies die because I think it's just sad. So according to the Fowers family, Nemo begins with little Nemo shouting, "First day of school, first day of school!" I have been waiting for years to be able to run into Emmary's room and wake her up saying that- our day arrived on Friday. She was so excited and I was so excited and happy for her. She is so very ready to be learning again and socializing with friends. I knew I was going to miss her, but I didn't feel sad about it at all. When the day finally came we got up and I made Emmary's favorite breakfast of French Toast with Coconut syrup-yum! It is my new goal to make a hot breakfast every school day and I think it has made a big difference already. Because I get up early to make the meal, we are ready to go with no fights and no running late. At the last minute I insisted that Tim go with us to take her to kindergarten and he resisted, but he finally agreed. After giving Em a blessing we were off.



As soon as we got to the school Em found Kiya and Melody so I knew she was not going to be friendless! Watch out Mrs. Selk is all I have to say:) I just need to say that it is the weirdest feeling sending my child to the same room I went to kindergarten in. How did this happen and how in the world do I have a child old enough to be in school?

The bell finally rang and the kids lined up and refused to open their eyes in the bright sun for any more pictures. It was at this point that I thought, "Hey, I might get out of this without crying!" until I made eye contact with Pam who was tearing up. I lost it. I practically had to run to my car holding my breath. Once safely inside I exhaled and let myself have a good strong cry for a minute. It's not a cry of sadness, it is just an emotional transition in life that i have entered. For the next 25+ years I will have a child in school and will be involved in PTA's and homework, bakc to school night, and helping out in classrooms. Fieldtrips and school programs. Our lives will revolve around
summer vacation and spring break. I cried it out and felt much better:)


After school Shona and I took Emary to lunch at her favorite- and mine- Red Lobster! It's so fun having such a big girl around. I love this girl so much and couldn't be happier that she is my daughter.

Juliet 4 months

Juliet just hit her 4 month mark and we took another trip to the doctor to get her checked out. Luckily her pneumonia is all cleared up and the dr. said she sounds healthy as can be again- whew! Juliet is 16 lb. 1 oz. (93%) and 25 1/2 in. (90%)- basically she is thriving and growing like a weed! She is gettting so strong at sitting up and holding her body up.

Yes, I know the hair is wacko- she just had a bath but it was in a pony the day before and it didn't want to do anything else! She doesn't love tummy time, but she does love chewing on her fingers constantly!


This picture is a little blurry because she obviously isn't interested in sitting still while in the jump-r-roo. I was hessitant putting her in it this young, but she just loves it and is ready to be playing instead of laying and watching the big kids play.

I just love this girl:)

Some Firsts

We've had some exciting firsts around here this week. Juliet got her first pony tail. She looks so big with her hair done up, but she looked so cute!

She just wants to sit up so bad. She is just holding onto one of my fingers and is holding herself up.

Worn out after the photo shoot.

Our next exciting thing is that Emmary lost her first tooth! She is only 5, but her tooth started feeling loose a couple weeks ago and she would not let us touch it. This last weekend it was just hanging on by a thread. Sat morning she came in and said she pulled it out and put it under her pillow and wondered why the tooth fairy didn't come. OOps!

What's weird is that Em's tooth started growing in already where the baby tooth fell out. Also, we can see the tooth next to it coming up, even though that tooth hasn't fallen out yet, but it's a little loose. I hope she gets my teeth and not her fathers!