MAMA and the windshield wiper, the Coyote, and the orange cream shake!

So I have not posted in a while and I am not sure I like how blogger has changed.
Last week end I got to fly up to Minnesota and visit my mother! It was fun, short and full of laughs and funny things.

One awesome story was it started to rain on sat and her windshield wiper was broken and it was raining hard. We had to get it fixed. Well do you think that is what I wanted to do on my short time there. No, seriously I got their on friday night and left sun afternoon. I did not want to sit in a car shop. So we pulled in to this small auto shop and I walked in and told the guy what was wrong. He came out and looked at it. He tightened the bolt and fixed the whole thing for free. My mom and I squealed with delight and thanks. He left with a big smile on his face. We were super excited it was a fast fix.

We went to DQ to get an ice cream on sat. As we sat in the drive thru a coyote chased a rabbit and caught him. Then proceeded to kill him 5 feet from my window. Argggggggg! This freaked us out, I mean for gosh sakes we are in the middle of the city. We screamed like little girls!

On friday night when mom picked me up it was like 11:30pm we were hungry so we drove thru at Arby's. She wanted the new orange cream shake so we tried it. It was pretty good by the way. Well everything seemed normal until the next day. Lavonda (my sister in law) said you know you called me and I listened to your whole conversation. Good times at Arby's! LOL we died laughing!!! Good thing we were not talking about her! Ha Ha!

We had a great time and I will take the kids to see her this summer a few times. She is coming for thanksgiving, so excited!

It was too quick but I got her signed up to facebook so we can all keep in better touch with her.
 Love you MAMA!

Easter 2012

I made the kids Easter attire. I did Emma's dress and coordinating sash and Spencer's bow tie.
It was lots of fun and very rewarding! Love my babies!
Happy Easter All!

A few things we did while dad was gone

Steve was in Denver all week last week and we missed him. The kids wanted to wash his car. And we also made homemade personal pizzas one night. We were glad to have him home. Last Thursday Emma had her open house and Literacy Night at school, I forgot to take pictures but it was a fun night!

10 year anniversary

We went to IKEA last saturday and picked up this for our bedroom. Steve made me the jewelry box (above) for our 10 year anniversary which was in January. After the jewelry box was complete we realized there was not a great place in our room to put it. Our dresser was the only place, but it was too high up. So we found this awesome table that is also doubling as our night stand. Love it! Is he talented or what. I love my jewelry box it is awesome!

Chore chart idea

Don't you just love this chore idea. You can even leave off the $ if you don't do money for chores. That is what I am doing. I am going to make this for my family. Funny, I just noticed that the kids initials are the same as my kids! Love it!

Field Trip to Cici's Pizza

Spencer is in Preschool and they took a field trip to Cici's Pizza. They got to make their own pizza and eat it. They also got a tour! It was fun! And yummy. Funny cause I grew up on Cici's and it was never all that good, well this was great!

To skim or not to skim, that is the question

Do you skim? Or do you savor each word, feeling like you are cheating if you don't give the author your complete and full attention. Or does it just depend on the book?

I previously had thought that I was a die hard Savorer (if that is even a word, I am sure it is not). What I mean is that I thought there was no way I could even say I had read a book unless, I completely read it, every single word. But the last book I read, Extras,the 4th book in the Uglies Series by Scott Westerfield, I was bored with it. It drug on forever and I thought I would never finish this book. So the last 175 pages or so I skimmed. My husband talked me into it. I said, "I wish I could read faster, like some of my friends, cause I have so many books I want to read"
He said, "well most people skim"

So my question is DO YOU SKIM?
have fun!

Emma and Kathy compare

Is this funny or what. The first photo is of Emma last year (before we cut her hair).
And the bottom photo is Kathy at the same age (roughly).
By the way we have decided to grow Emma's hair back out. I miss it long.

Emma's birthday trip to DC

Emma finally got her birthday trip. Her birthday day is in Dec near Christmas, so as you know that is a busy time of year and this was the first week end we had free. Steve took her to Washington DC. GG Fowler drive down to be with them. They got to see many things including the White House, the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, Air & Space Museum, Natural History Museum. They had a blast and she loved the hotel and getting first class on the plane ride back. All in all I would say it was a good birthday and even better memories! Anyways that life is about right, MAKING MEMORIES!

Spencer's first basketball game!

2nd Annual Jingle Bell Jog

In December Emma and Steve ran the Jingle Bell Jog for the 2nd year. Last year Emma got 3rd place in her age division. This is a video of her crossing the finish line. She got 3rd place again! We are so proud of her because she never gave up even though it was hard! She also shaved like 9 minutes off her time from last year!

Spencer's first birthday Trip

This little guy turned 5 years old.
Instead of a party we do birthday trips at 5 years old. He wanted to to go here! The Museum of Ancient Life in Thanksgiving Point, UTAH!
Because he loves the these things. DINOSAURS!
We also got to go down and see the MTC and the Provo Temple.
It snowed day 2. It was so beautiful!
We stayed with my cousin Allyson and her family. We had a blast! My Aunt Kay & Cousin Lauren also got to come for breakfast.
Allyson's youngest, Addy, is Spencer's age. (like 2 weeks apart) They hit it off and became fast friends.
We got to have lunch with Steve's sister, Spencer's Aunt Kristen. We also saw his other Sister Ali, JL & her two boys. They were adorable. I think I forgot to take a picture cause I was so frazzled with Spencer throwing up right before we saw her. We had to have them come out to the car and Spencer stayed in the car with the window down while we talked.
Our celebration at home. Emma and Spencer were so excited to see each other when we came home from the airport. It was cute!
Spencer opening his presents.
It was a great birthday!

Emma's gymnastics

This was not Emma's first time to do gymnastics but it was a different venue. It was at the local highschool with the highschoolers teaching. She had a blast during the 2 month session!

Fowler Christmas Card

This year full of excitement and joy for the Fowler Family.

The year started with a big (for us) snow storm, with the snow turning into ice, and the ice staying around for what seemed like forever. In March, Kathy and Steve went to London; Steve spent most of his time at the conference he was attending for work, while Kathy got to be a tourist. In May we got new kittens, Sadie and Annie have been fun additions to the family. We survived the record heat during the summer, with Kathy and the kids spending most of their time outside at the pool. With Steve’s parents, we went to the State Fair of Texas (first time for everyone besides Kathy), enjoyed funnel cake, rode a few rides, tried fried cookie dough and fried pineapple upside down cake.

This has been a year of traveling for Steve. Besides the trip to London, he went to Santiago, Chile in June, two different day trips to Chicago, two trips to Denver, and a weeklong trip to Las Vegas for VMworld 2011, all for work. He is still working for American Airlines, in the IT department, and enjoying what he does. For the third year in a row, Steve ran the Dallas Susan G. Komen 5k. He recently got a new calling at church, serving as the 11 year old Boy Scout Leader and he is still serving as a teacher in the ward’s High Priest Group. He is excited about this new growing experience with scouting.

Besides the London trip, Kathy has also been busy travelling, taking a solo day trip to San Francisco, taking Spencer to Utah, going to Austin with the PTA, and two different trips to Minnesota to help her Mom move. During a family bike ride in the spring she also took a short trip down a small hill, without her bike, thanks to some loose handle bars. Thankfully, she only had a few major bruises and scratches, and she still likes to go biking. After watching the LSU football games this fall, Kathy has finally confessed her love for college football and is going through withdrawal now that the season is over. She is still serving as the ward Primary president soon to be going on 4 years. She continues to be blessed and taught by those little children and teachers all the time.

Emma ended last year by getting her tonsils taken out, so she spent the first few weeks of this year recovering. She graduated from Kindergarten, getting many awards, including the Principal’s Award. She started First Grade this fall and loves her teacher; she is doing well and is at the top of her class. During the year she had her long hair cut and donated to the Locks of Love. During all of the trips to the pool this summer she taught herself to swim. She turns 7 in a week or so. Emma has a strong testimony of our Savior Jesus Christ and loves to share it in church. She also loves to play “Primary” at home with little brother.

Spencer started pre-school this school year and loves his teacher and new friends. He turned five years old and is learning to read. He went to Utah with mom for his birthday trip. They chose Thanksgiving Point for the huge Dinosaur museum. Spencer loves Dinosaurs and can tell you anything you want to know about them and more. He is starting basketball next week and is looking forward to it. He is such a sweet boy and often wants to be the one to say the prayers. He also loves singing along to the Primary songs.

We hope your year has been a great one! Merry Christmas to all! We love you all!

Love, The Fowlers, Steve, Kathy, Emma & Spencer

Updated photos of the children

Fifties DAY!

It is the 50th day of school, I can't believe the time has flown by!