Christmas Letter

It's the most wonderful time of the year. . .

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone during this blessed season. We have enjoyed a very nice year and look forward to the coming year with anticipation.

Updates on our family:

Adam: Still working for Freedom Roads, telecommuting from an office in Blaine Jensen RV in Kaysville. The option to move to Chicago is still out there apparently, but we're not really interested. Serves as secretary in the EQ and teaches priesthood, too. He is really good at being Mister Mom in the evenings when I'm at work. It's been a great lesson for him to learn patience and humor at the hands of our three children.

Wendy: Still working for the Postal Service part time and teaching 6 piano students during the day. Oh, and raising three kids on the side! I serve as pianist in Primary and like not having to stress about my calling. (I figure the Good Lord knew this is all I could fit on my plate right now!) I volunteer in Sabrina's classroom once a week and teach Moira pre-school at home.

Sabrina: (5 almost 6) Started Kindergarten this year. Loves school and her teacher. Has had some difficulty with finding consistent friends, but we're trying to teach her to be an independent soul and not NEED someone to make her happy. Out of 23 kids in her class, 7 are girls so she plays with boys a lot. She is reading up a storm and excelling at math and science as well. Very smart kid. She is also enrolled in dance classes but keeps telling me that she'd rather play soccer. I tell her that we can sign her up for soccer after she completes a full term of dance. *grumble grumble*

Moira: (4) Is learning to read and write this year from Mommy and looking forward to starting Kindergarten next year. She loves to sing and play by herself (despite Brayden's invasions) and LOVES dance classes. She can't understand why Sabrina doesn't LOVE dance too. She is a very loving little girl and keeps me company with her precocious conversation. She grew out of her toddler bed this year so we got her a regular twin bed and she thought it was an early Christmas!! She is very grateful for all the wonderful things she has and tells us so repeatedly.

Brayden: (almost 2) Has made great development strides this year. He now has a vocabulary of about 30 words or so. But he makes up for it in being able to out run, out compete, and out maneuver everyone else in the family. He is a true boy and loves to throw balls all around the house, climb and jump off of EVERYTHING and tease his sisters to no end. Just yesterday he split his lip on both sides (in and out) and we were afraid he'd need stitches, but not quite thank heavens. Then this morning he climbed four shelves in my pantry to get at a crystal bowl that holds suckers and dropped it on the floor. It shattered of course, very sad since the bowl had been a wedding present. We are looking forward to Christmas with him since it will be the first one he is really aware of. !! How exciting!!

We are grateful for our testimonies of the restored gospel and of our Savior Jesus Christ. We wish His peace and love upon all of you dear friends and family this season and throughout the coming year.

LOVE, the Bowers

Have some Christmas cheer. . .

Our ward party was last weekend, (much more fun than last years!) and I signed up to bring a jello salad. It had been one of those days, hauling three cranky kids to three different stores to get everything that I needed and finally getting them home for lunch and down for naps. I didn't feel like it but I went ahead and started my jello salad and as I was putting it in the fridge I realized that I had to rearrange a few things to fit the 9x13 pan in. I grabbed the pickle jar and was moving it out of the way when pickle juice started pouring into my jello! AUGHGHH!! I confess that I dropped a few choice expletives at this point. And I was on the point of pouring the whole pan down the drain but remembered that I didn't have any more jello and I would have to go back to the store to get some more (Heaven help me, not another trip!). So I did what any slightly insane, sleep deprived mother of many children would do: I tried it! And I could only sense the faintest hint of pickley something in the background so I said "good enough" and popped it back into the fridge. I eventually added canned fruit and topped the whole thing with cool whip. Voila!!! One lovely-looking jello salad that noone would suspect of hiding other flavors! And the best part, people actually ate it! So there, who says we can't mix vegetables in with jello salads!

Happy Holidays everyone!