Christmas Time is Here!!

The Christmas festivities have already begun for us this year! Seth and I exchanged our gifts Friday...then we did Christmas with his family Saturday. Such a good weekend! :) Here are a few pictures from the Bowen Family Christmas.

Eli was more than ready for us to open presents!

HE only sat still holding his present...waiting patiently...for a few minutes. Then he was up running through the house: "C'mon e'rebody!!"

Myles was also ready to get in on the action!

Silly boys :)

Christmas also brings family picture time. It is rather difficult to get good pictures with the crew! I think we did manage to get a couple though!

And, yes...Mama J did get us all matching shirts to wear for the occasion! :)

Bargaining for Presents

As usual, November brought no shaving to the man in my house. I do have to admit...I don't mind Seth's beard at all...at least until it gets totally scraggly looking. And I usually don't bug him about shaving it until it gets to that point. Well, this year I didn't have to bug him at all...his mom took care of the beard for me! We were sitting at their house on Dec. 1st and she said: you know guys, it's not November anymore! The little mischievous wheels in Seth's head starting turning automatically. His response: Okay, I will shave it...IF you give me an early Christmas present. Janet jumped up out of her seat and went digging through her Christmas presents...Deal! :) She pulled out a He-Man cartoon dvd...Seth's favorite cartoon growing up. So...we went home so he could shave...

Little did I know that the wheels in his head were still turning...."Mom didn't say how much I had to shave." Ugh. Therfore....this resulted...

Yes...the dreaded mustache. So, he starts bargaining with me....I'll shave the rest of it if you give me an early present. Clever boy. So, I go digging in my box of presents. Of course, there's no way I'm giving him anything tooo good! So, I pulled out one of his stocking stuffers...and a deal is a deal!!

Away went the mustache!! I love my handsome, clean-shaved man!!

50 FREE Shutterfly Christmas Cards?? Yes, please!!

This will be my and Seth's third Christmas as a married couple. We have already developed a lot of our own traditions, but there is one thing I really want to add to our that list this year. I have wanted to do picture Christmas cards every year, but I just let it slip to the bottom of my list of things to do and we never get around to taking a good Christmas picture to send out. I always LOVE getting picture Christmas cards to set up on the mantle during the holidays...seeing how our friends' families are changing and growing! So, this year I told myself would definitely be the year that I would send some of our own out!! And then, like magic, I start hearing about how I can get 50 FREE photo Christmas cards from Shutterfly! Woo-hoo! I started looking through all of their 2010 card designs and I have no idea how I'm going to pick one! There are tons of cute ones!! Here are a few of my favorites....

I have looked for cards on other sites before, but Shutterfly, by far, has the cutest and biggest selection to choose from!! They also have other items that we could have our picture put on and give it out as Christmas gifts! Because, let's face it, what parents/grandparents wouldn't want a calendar with their kids/grandkids' pictures in it!! Here are some links to some of Shutterfly's products:

http://www.shutterfly.com/calendars

http://www.shutterfly.com/home-decor/canvas-wall-art

http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/thank-you-cards

So, what are you waiting for?! Click on this link to learn more about the awesome Christmas cards that you can get from Shutterfly!!

http://blog.shutterfly.com/5358/holiday2010-blog-submission-form/

Have a wonderful holiday season!!!

Turkey Day in Tennessee

We have so much to be thankful for this year! We have steady jobs, a safe home, loving families, a great church family, good health...and sooo much more! I am very thankful for my wonderful husband for taking me to spend Thanksgiving with my family in Tennessee. I am also very thankful for my in-laws not minding that we spend Thanksgiving up there!

We had such a GREAT time with my family!! We got to see our favorite little Tennessee boy! He is growing so much and is sooo smart!!

Who couldn't love that sweet little smile?!

We spent some time with my grandmother on Dad's side later Thanksgiving day and helped her get her tree put up.
The rest of our visit was spent relaxing, eating more, playing games, still eating, and ... SHOPPING!! Usually, Seth and I will get up on Black Friday and do a little running around at about 8am. This year we decided we would get up at 4AM to try to score a TV at Walmart. Well, we drug ourselves out of bed and got to Walmart by 4:30. We got a lot of good deals...but NO tv. Little did we know that you had to be there at 2AM to get a wristband that you could turn in for a tv at 5AM. That was NOT in the ad!! Since, we were wide awake at this point we went to 5 or 6 others stores before we went home.

Later in the day, Seth noticed that Walmart had more tv's on sale Saturday morning at 6am....but thankfully decided we really didn't need to go. At about 4:30 Saturday morning, Seth woke up to the sound of something downstairs...I told him it was probably Dad and to just go back to sleep. Five minutes later...."Jill, I think I'm gonna go to Wal-Mart." Whaaat?? I was still half asleep...so sure enough, he left and came back about an hour later with a tv! He was very proud of his score!

Anyway...that's our Turkey Day/Weekend in a nutshell! I'm very thankful for all that God had blessed us with this year!

Happy Birthday!!

The month of November is a big birthday month for the Bowen family. We have Eli, Caleb, and Myles all within a week of each other! We went over to the Norris's to celebrate as we usually do.

Eli is at the age now where he is really into the opening presents thing! He was even kind enough to open some of Myles' gifts for him. :) Here he is with the Handy Manny toy that Mama J and Daddy J gave him. And might I say, this is one pretty cool toy! We were very impressed that Eli knew what most all of the tools were used for!

I think Myles enjoyed himself too, but it was a lot for him to take in! Here he is opening some of his presents.

He was not shy at all about eating his birthday cake. HE started off a little slow but it wasn't long before he was double-fisting it!

Eli...very excited about ALL his new toys!

Myles...being his sweet little self...is he not precious?!