Mom & Enoch's Date

Enoch has been feeling a bit out of sorts lately. I think he is still a bit sick and feeling neglected because Kate has been teething and is quite onery and getting all of Mom's attention. Greg and I decided that Enoch needed some one-on-one time with Mom or Dad. After talking it through we made plans to go on a 'date' with the boys each month, alternating months.
For Enoch's date tonight, he decided he wanted dinner at McDonald's and to go swimming at the Legacy Center. He gets to choose and I get to not complain. Actually, I had a lot of fun. Over our Happy Meals, I found out some fun facts about Enoch.
1. Enoch's favorite thing to do at preschool is play kitchen. He likes to make pickles for all his friends.
2. His favorite friend to play at preschool with is Miss Dawn.
3. His favorite friend to play with at our house is Kate.
4. He likes to eat his chicken nuggets with ketchup and his french fries with sweet and sour sauce.
After dinner and playing at McDonald's, we went swimming. The pool was fairly crowded, but it didn't bother Enoch. We played on the water playground, swam around and went through the lazy river a few times. It took him about 15 minutes to get use to the water, then he was everywhere. He would walk out as far as he could and then put his face in the water. We played in the water for an hour and left very worn out. It was a fun night and I'm glad we went. Hopefully, this will be a great tradition that we can keep going for years. Next month is Gavin's turn.

Another Birthday Bash

I promise this is my last birthday post until May. Whew, I 'm tired of them too. We now have four February birthdays in my (Randall) family; Brynnley (10th), Enoch (12th), Kate (19th) and Valerie (28th). We decided to have one big party for everyone.
I really wanted to do more of a girly party for this since it is Kate's and Brynnley's first birthday, but I didn't want to leave Enoch out. I decided on a garden theme party - flowers for the girls and a tractor for Enoch. I had fun making the cute flower decorations and mini pinatas for all the kids.

The cakes turned out great. A huge thanks to Aunt Michelle and Uncle Dave for Enoch's tractor cake. He loved it and we all got a kick out of the frosting turning everyone's teeth green!

We had fun opening presents. Enoch loved his present from Grandma & Grandpa Randall (they left it with us before they left). Also, thanks Grandma & Grandpa for the cute skirt, shirts and books for Kate (I don't know why I can't turn that picture!). She loves the books.


A fun birthday tradition in our family is on your first birthday you get your own cake. I baked jumbo cupcakes for the birthday girls and put a cute silk flower on top (to later be used as a bow). Brynnley took hers home, but Kate was quite anxious to get into hers. She loves chocolate and dug right in. She really didn't get that messy, but she had a lot of fun with her cupcake.

It was a fun night. We misssed Grandma, Grandpa and Uncle Jarom. Thanks to our family for all their support. Happy Birthday!

Our LIttle Pooh Bear

I hear myself asking frequently, "What have you done to the baby?" (more that I should be asking). More often than not, I'm addressing this question to Greg rather than the boys. They all laugh and tell me Kate likes it. I'm sure she does - after all attention is attention, and Kate obviously needs a lot of that. They have fun together and I just try to laugh with them.
When I got out of the shower the other day, this is what I found. Nothing serious, rather cute actually. But why? Why would you tie a balloon to your daughter? Oh well. She reminded me of Winnie the Pooh when he tries to float up in the sky to reach the honey. Kate loves balloons, so she thought it was great.

Miss Kate

As I am sitting here thinking about what to write about Kate, I am getting teary-eyed. I don't know how to describe my feelings about my daughter. I don't love her more than the boys, I just love her differently. There is some connection between mother and daughter than I am now just beginning to understand; it is complex, emotional and wonderful. I can only hope and pray that it continues.
Kate is truly a little girl. There really is a huge difference between little girls and little boys. I noticed it right away, even in the hospital. It is so endearing to watch her, to watch her interact with her brothers, to watch her nurture her dolls, to watch her learn about her world. She notices if I am wearing new clothes and pats them when I hold her. She searches out her doll, Rose, and gives her hugs and loves (even if she does carry her around by her hair!). She snuggles with me when I read her books. She loves pretty things like flowers and pink soft sweaters. She loves to smell clean quilts. She craves physical contact and loves being held and giving hugs. She knows where the M&Ms are hidden and already has an indecent love of chocolate.
Despite how girly she is, Kate can hold her own with her brothers. It helps that she has every male is this house wrapped doubly around her little finger (obviously her mom too). She will get quite angry if her brothers ignore her or take away her toys. She screams, shakes her fist and launches into a lecture. Of course, she isn't actually talking, but the inflection in her voice leads me to believe that she knows exactly what she is saying. She loves to play legos with them (Duplo legos, of course). Her brothers build castles and then Katezilla destroys them while chewing and slobering on the brave lego knights. Enoch and Kate have so much fun playing kitchen together, especially making pizza. Gavin will hold Kate, feed her, change her, play with her. He loves her so much and it is incredible that he isn't afraid to sh0w it even when his friends are over. He will pick her up and give her hugs and talk baby talk to her and Kate laughs with delight. She is so lucky to have two great brothers.

A few random thoughts on Kate:
*I love her big, blue beautiful eyes. Eveyone always comments on her long, curly eyelashes and I love to look at them.
*She loves to play the sock game when I get her dressed every morning. I get her socks out and ask, "Where do our sock go?" She giggles and puts her hands out. I put the socks on her hands and she give me a big belly laugh. She never tires of this game.
*She loves to be outside and could swing for hours at a time.
*Her favorite foods are: grapes, pears, grilled cheese sandwiches, squash and anything chocolate.
*She does the cutest little dance when she hears music.
*Her Grandpa Dee (Fowler) loves to hold her. When we go to visit he greets Greg and I, gives the boys a big hug and then reaches for Kate. He doesn't let her go until we leave. And amazingly, she will sit contently on his lap (usually she is very wiggly).
*She can climb up the stairs extremely quickly. Unfortunely, she doesn't know how to climb down stairs.
*Her first two words were Mama and uh-oh.

I can't believe how fast she is growing up. Growing might be a relative term for Kate. At her 12 month check-up she tipped the scales at 19lbs 1 oz and is 28 inches long (both are in the 10th percentile). Her mind is making leaps and bounds every day and I am amazed at the new things she is learning.
Kate is my joy. I love her more and more every day. I am a truly blessed mother.

Seriously Sick

A short diversion from birthday post to fill you in on the rest of our lives - we are sick. I know, I think most everyone is sick right now. It seems to be a bad year for colds, fevers and the like. We had stayed quite healthy up until this week, no major illness (unless you count Kate's teething, which makes her sick and crabby). We are making up for it this week.
Of course, Greg and Gavin are fine; they usually are when the rest of the world is feeling crummy. They have amazing immune systems. Enoch, Kate and I have caught the cold, cough, fever, ear infection bug going around. Enoch can't stop coughing; literally coughing until he throws up. Lucky for us, he can now carry around the throw-up bucket and we haven't had to clean out our carpets. He gets a random very high fever which makes him miserable, but I think he rather enjoys laying in mom and dad's bed and watching TV all day while drinking juice.
Kate also is feverish (although not as bad as Enoch). I still can't figure out how such a small body can produce so much snot! It is unbelievable. She is also suffering from ear infection on both sides. Once she started her antibiotic, she was feeling better within a few days.
I am the mom, hence I don't get to go to bed, just wander half-heartedly around the house while feeling extremely crummy. You all know the feeling. Actually, Greg has been wonderful. He took some time off work to take care of us, take us to the doctor and the pharmacy. He has been on dinner and dish duty for the last few nights and has done it without complaining. He made an emergency run to Smiths to pick up more medicine and has listen to endless complaining and crying from the three of us. What a guy!
All I can say is that ear infections are MISERABLE! This is the first ear infection I remember having, and they stink! I was up pacing the halls at 1am trying to walk myself to sleep when I finally googled "ear infection pain". I was so desperate I was sticking garlic in my ear. I finally took a left over Percocet from Kate's birth. That did put me to sleep. Even after being on antibiotics for days, I am still suffering; not so much hurting and aching, but so much pressure. I finally discovered that tying salt into an old nylon and then heating up in the microwave and holding it to my ear helped relieve some pain and pressure.
Hopefully this will clear up soon (although I'm not holding my breath on the cough going away any time soon). We are all sick and tired of being sick and tired!

Blue & Gold

I can't believe this is Gavin's last Blue & Gold Banquet! Greg was a bit excited that this would be the last one we would have to go to until I reminded him that Enoch would one day be a Cub Scout too. They aren't that bad and the kids love it. In our ward, the boys and their dads make cakes for dessert. This years theme was American ABCs. Gavin is obsessed with bundt cakes (where that came from I do not know) and so he came up with an idea using a chocolate bundt cake. He made a cake version of Mount Redoubt (the erupting volcano in Alaska). It turned out great and I didn't do a thing. Actually, since Greg was busy taking care of us sicklies, Gavin did all the work. It looked cute and was delicious.

Since most of us were sick, only Gavin and I went this year. We had a picnic style dinner on blankets with hot dogs, chips and homemade rootbeer. It was a lot of fun. The Webelos did the skit and it was very funny, if a little irreverent (but we are at Scouts!).

We have such amazing Scout leaders in our ward and it is a joy to work with them. They make my life much easier and Gavin's life a lot of fun. Thanks to our great leaders!

Kate's Birthday

By now, we are on Feb 19, Kate's birthday. I can't believe my Kate is one! She is an amazing girl and we are so lucky to have her in our family. As you can see, she was also measured and is growing well.




We let her open a present from Mom and Dad and she loved being able to open it herself while sitting in the birthday chair (although we had to keep telling her brothers to back away).

She got a felt purse with some coins, phone, compact and keys. She loves to take everything out and put it back. She has had a lot of fun with it.














The day before Aunt Julie brought over some things that she had cleaned out of Cami's room. Kate now has a Little People doll house and a kitchen. Gavin thinks we are being overrun by girl toys. I love it! Since we are all sick right now, that was the extent of celebration of Kate's birthday. Gavin and I went to Blue & Gold that night and Kate stayed home and played with Dad and Enoch.

Enoch's Friend Party

This year, Enoch had his first friend birthday party and he was so excited. I didn't make a huge deal out of it because I knew that a bunch of 3 and 4-year-old boys wouldn't be much into organized games.
We opened presents,

decorated sugar cookies
and just let the boys play. Gavin led them in a game of hide-and-seek and they liked that for about 10 minutes. They mostly had fun playing with Enoch's new toys and eating cookies.

I bought these cute boxes in November. I knew that if I waited until his birthday to find stuff, everything would be pink and hearts. Enoch loves the penguins (he still calls them a mix between penguins and pumpkins and then laughs at himself). Each boy had his own box with his initial and a helium balloon tied to the box (I've discovered that helium balloons are the best way to entertain kids). The kids decorated their cookies with blue and white frosting and lots of green, blue, orange and white sprinkles. I know that the boys didn't care if it was colored cordinated, but they looked cute and it wasn't pink! It was a great time.

Fowler Family Party

When I found out that Kate was due only one week after Enoch's birthday, I already was worrying. How was I going to make each birthday special without driving me and our extended family nuts with all the parties. Luckily for me, this year Kate could care less about her birthday and I was able to focus mostly on Enoch. However, we still had and are having lots of parties.
On Enoch's birthday (Feb 12), we started the day with our family tradition of measuring the birthday child on our family growth chart. Enoch has truly grown this year. The kids love to see how much they have grown and have contests between each other (sorry, guys, I think Kate will win 'the most grown' award this year!).

Fowler Family Party

Being mean parents, we made Enoch wait until that night to open his presents. He was able to take punch balloons to his preschool classmates earlier in the week to celebrate his birthday, so that helped eleviate some of the birthday anticipation. He was very excited for his birthday and kept telling everyone he saw that he was four now. It was very cute. That night we had tuna casserole, peas and apples (Enoch's choice) for dinner. After that, we invited the Fowler family over for cake and ice cream and presents. We had a hot fudge chocolate cake and it was very yummy and easy for mom.
Enoch received some very fun presents. His favorites were his huge Tonka truck (Grandpa & Grandma Fowler), his Lego castle (Mom & Dad), and his Leap Frog alaphabet toy (Gavin & Kate). What a lucky boy.

We also celebrated Kate's birthday that night with the Fowlers. Aunt Julie defied Greg and got Kate a baby doll - and she loves it. It is a little Cabbage Patch Kids Fairy doll. We named her Rose. Gavin and Greg wanted to name her Mrs. Nesbitt from Toy Story, but I strongly objected. I suggested Aurora because we had just watched Sleeping Beauty a few nights before (and I love that name, it was on my list for Kate's names). Greg argued that Kate wouldn't be able to say Aurora, but that Sleeping Beauty was also called Rose, so we named her that. Kate is so cute with her. We say to her, "Go find Rose," and she will search the house until she finds her. She gives her hugs and carries her around by her hair, but she loves her. Rose was definetely Kate's favorite gift.

Enoch Jon Fowler is Four!

Today, my sweet Enoch turned four. I can't believe it. He has been an absolute joy in my life for the past four years and I'm so incredibly blessed to have his sweet spirit with me. I hoped, wished, prayed for Enoch for five years before getting pregnant. I often wonder why it took so long. I'd like to believe it was because heaven just couldn't let him go. Enoch is my everything.

Ten things I love about Enoch:

1. His smile - when people talk about smiling with your eyes, I never fully understood that until Enoch was born. He smiles with every part of his body.
2. His logic - I usually don't understand it, but I love to hear him explain things.
3. His enthusiasm - Enoch is constantly in motion, constantly talking, constantly learning; he does everything with excitement.
4. His happiness - His favorite phrase is, "I'm so happy...". The other day he told me he was so happy I had bought pretzels. He is happy about everything. He is easy to please.
5. His friendliness - Everyone is a friend. He is not afraid of strangers (scary, I know) and is willing to talk to whomever will listen.
6. His desire to choose the right - Every time we pray he asks Greg or me if he was good (as he tries very hard to be reverent during prayers), he loves to hear stories about Jesus, tries hard to be good in Primary and is always asking questions about making good choices so he can live in heaven again.
7. His love for his family - Enoch is the most essential part of our family's happiness. He is the one who tries to smooth over disagreements, always asking me if I'm happy and then giving me a big smile to make me feel better. He is a great brother. He loves to play with Gavin and Kate. The other day I secretly stood outside of Kate's room and watched them play together. Enoch was 'reading' Kate a book while she sat on his lap. He would let her turn the pages and point out different things in the pictures. He was being so patient with her. At the end of the book he gave Kate a huge hug and said, "Kate, I love you. You are so adorable!".
8. His intelligence - Enoch is my thinker. He has so much common sense and is able to think through any problem. He is so creative in his reasoning. I always tell Enoch, "good thinking" and give him a thumbs up when he comes up with a solution. Now, he is telling me the same thing. It is so cute and rewarding. His mind is amazing. He can't get enough information and is always asking questions (you know the kind, the ones I have no idea of the answer!).
9. His curiosity - Enoch is nothing if not curious. He loves to learn and explore. He is not afraid of new things. He'll try new foods, meet new people, learn new talents and love every minute of it. He is not afraid to explore and learn about his environment and surroundings. He loves the outdoors because there is so much to learn and see. He is definitely willing to get dirty to satisfy his curiosity.
10. He is my son and I couldn't ask for a better one!

I can do hard things!

I can do hard things! That has been my motto for the last week. After years of trying, I finally got up enough courage to conquer two of my biggest phobias - water and swimming suits. This past week I took swimming lessons with my good friend, Winnie Miller. We decided if we did it together, it might not be so bad. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but it wasn't what I got.
My first fear was swimming suit shopping and then wearing it in public. I know, for most people, it's not so bad. For me, I think I have built it up in my mind for so long that it really was a huge fear. I'm pretty sure I bought the most modest swimming suit I could find. In fact, I discovered it was too modest with too much fabric which created drag and was hard to swim in. If anyone knows how to alter swimming suits, let me know!
My second fear is water. I do okay in swimming pools, but I cannot, cannot, cannot go into open water. I've never had a bad experience in a lake or ocean, so I guessing I was just born with this unexplainable fear of water. Having said that, I still really don't like pools. If I don't have to put my face in the water, I do okay, but I knew that if I really want to swim, I needed to get over that phobia. It was difficult, but I kept telling myself that I can do hard things.
I wasn't expecting to play motor boat or blow bubbles in class, but I wasn't expecting to swim laps with side breathing the first class either. Our teacher pushed us pretty hard. We got a great work-out every night (lessons were from 9-10pm). I'm still building up my lung capacity and my strokes need improving, but I can see a remarkable difference in just one week. Now, I just need to do my side breathing and actual breath in air and not water. Yikes, I sucked in a bunch of water this past week. But, I'm getting better and I am determined to keep improving. I am quite proud of myself and I'm actually starting to enjoy it even though I am sore in places I didn't even know existed! Wish me luck!
PS - no pictures of me swimming; you will have to get your chuckles somewhere else today.

Total Bragging!

I know that is post is just complete, unabashed bragging about my incredible son, but I really wanted to remember this, so after much deliberation, I decided to post it. Gavin has always been my smarty pants. He gets it from Greg. Things seem to come so easily to him and it is a challenge to keep him interested because he picks up on things so quickly. Gavin was reading on a fourth grade level at the beginning of first grade. His favorite TV show is NOVA on PBS. For fun he does science experiments. I'm thinking this is not typical, but neither is Gavin. I swear, the kid was born being 35.
This week, at parent teacher conference, we found out that Gavin did very well on his Iowa Standardized Testing. I usually don't put much stock into standardized testing, but I was still very happy with his scores. He scored in the 90th percentile or higher nationally in science, reading, social science and his overall score. We tease him that his math score wasn't that high (Gavin really doesn't like math). I am so proud of him! But, even better, Gavin is a very well-rounded boy. He loves to learn, he loves the outdoors, he is a great brother and friend, he sincerely tries to choose the right. He is an amazing person. I love you, Gavin.