Long Time

It’s been a while, and I’ve been taking too many pictures (again!) but I’ve decided to start only posting my very favorite pictures or the pictures that go along with a particular story/event I want to share. And then not spend so much time talking about the stuff that went on. I’d like to … but my life is probably not nearly as interesting as the pictures are cute :)

I’m going to work more on scrapbooking and eventually I’m going to start printing pictures to hang in our home (this fall… when we have a “home”)

Anyway, life has been very eventful this month. My parents came to visit, we went to the aquarium with them, the farmers market, and did a bazillion other things.

Now we’re getting ready for yard selling and moving and such.

I can’t believe our time here is almost finished.

 

We’ll be moving back to UT on March 1 (well, me and the babies) – but those plans are kind of tentative… they’ve changed at least 4 times since the beginning of the year…

 

Then it will be job hunting for me, graduation for Russ from DLI on April 1 (which I may or may not attend… he said he doesn’t care as much about his graduation from DLI as he cared about his graduation from BYU – I can’t blame him… bachelor’s degree and 5+ languages vs. associates and 1 language… hmm, it’s easy to see which schooling wins in the “coolness” dept for him)

In other news, Joseline still does not walk, I speak more Portuguese at home (and have committed to speaking Portuguese to the kids this summer while Russ is in AZ), Vince speaks Portuguese in the evenings and on weekends when Russ is home, and Joseline mostly just giggles. Oh yeah, and makes the “car” noise. Like every time she sees anything with wheels. Motorcycles, cars, push toys, etc. It’s pretty much hilarious. Her favorite toys are cars, and dishes. Good thing we have a lot of each.

 
And she loves Lightening McQueen. If Vince’s Cars toys are out and she has a choice, she goes for the Cars toys before the Hotwheels. I can’t blame her – they are pretty fun cars.

Vince goes potty almost all by himself and FINALLY puts his undies back on by himself. I just stopped helping him one day. The first few days he ran around naked because he wouldn’t put them on by himself. Then I started taking away toys/privileges if he wasn’t “underweared” Now he just does it himself.

 

Russ is getting ready to take the Chinese DLPT on March 20 (another recent for our early departure). He’s doing pretty well in class, but still hates doing homework. I totally understand though. We are SO much more entertaining than his homework :)

I am mostly hanging out with the kids, marking off my to-do list every day, and SO enjoying my garden which is blooming all sorts of beautiful flowers (the flowers are totally coming with me to UT).

We try to go to the library more often, and I’ve started doing a run/kid swap with a friend – she runs while I watch her 2 year old, then I run while she watches my kids! It’s working out great, and I’ve been pretty consistently working back up to a 10 min mile for 3 miles. I hit it just about on the head on Wednesday, and I hope to do a 4.1 mile loop next week, probably on Friday. With lots of hideous hills. It’s going to be a great run, though. Half-marathon, here I come! I’m progressing, slowly but surely.

The Post Wide Yard sale is on Saturday (the 6th) and my goal is to make $1000!!! Can I do it!? Better bet your bottom dollar I will!! I’ve got lots to sell, and I have the very best spot on the lot, which is going to be all decorated pretty, and I always have a “free stuff” box, which I’m going to place at the BACK of my spot this time, instead of the front, so people have to walk past all my COOL stuff to get to the free stuff :) You’d think I was in marketing or something.

 

  

Anyway, hope you enjoyed the random update and the pictures. Just a few BAZILLION of my very favorites from the past weeks. (Sorry, I wrote “few” before I actually went through my pictures to see how many favorites I had… )

Chompers

As of today, January 11, 2010, Joseline Marie Rowley has erupted her first tooth! Hooray!

I’ve known it was coming for a while. I could see it. The gums have been swollen for the last few days. She’s been fussy (of course) and ornery. But it finally erupted some time while she was sleeping (which was also broken by cries of pain all night :( and we were out of baby Tylenol)

Well, here it is, making its grand entrance! (see the little dark spot on her bottom gums – almost hidden by her lip, but it was the best shot I could get! Obviously she didn’t like me taking pictures of her mouth)

I’m sure more will quickly follow. That seems to be how these things go.

I’m really glad she’s finally getting her teeth. Vince got his at 4 or 5 months old. I think it was actually better for him to teeth when he was younger. I don’t even remember him being nearly as fussy and cranky as Joseline is. It’s like she’s older so she’s more annoyed about the pain.

The first good shot I have of Vince’s teeth, and he was almost seven months in this picture. He’d had these teeth for at least 2-3 months. 

New Posts Index

Check out my New Year 2010 Post

Since I have posted about 15+ posts in the last 24 hours and they aren’t the most recent 15+ posts in my blog (I put them in order where they belong in our lives, for the most part) – since I did all this craziness, I made an index for you, so you can see where all the new posts are. I will keep this as my most recent post.

Don’t forget to add our front page to your blog roll/list so you can see when we update the blog.

• Food-Foot Dance
• Sweethearts
• Army Strong
• Blue-eyed Girl
• What?
• Joseline, etc
• The Next Mozart (new)
• Happiness al a Vincente (new)  
• Monterey Bay Aquarium (new)
• Thanksgiving trip to UT (new)
• McDonald’s Reunion (new)
• they could be brothers (new)
• Diva
• joss in the box (new)
• I am a Builder
• Christmas Part I – Tree Shopping (new)
• Christmas Part II – The Light of the World (new)
• Christmas Part III – D Co Christmas Party, and Santa (new)
• Christmas Part IV – Traditions (new)
• Christmas Part V – On Christmas Morning (new)
• Beach Babies Part I – Sand Sans Sun (new)
• Beach Babies Part II – Happy New Year (coming soon – maybe tomorrow?)

they could be brothers

This semester I got to watch my friend’s little boy while she took some classes at MPC. It was great that Vince got to have someone to play with. Well, let me tell you. These two boys … were a handful. Either one of them are great little boys, but you put them together and suddenly it’s like the world is one big UFC fight!! My goodness. All day long it was “Vince did this…” “Ethan did that…” and crying and fighting and yelling and screaming. They had a good time, though. It was just rough on me!!

We went to the aquarium with said friend and her boys and at one exhibit, Ethan and Vincente were standing next to each other. Of course, two little boys of their temperaments cannot be within arms reach of each other without a little pushing match starting. So inevitably, they started shoving each other. I think it’s because Vince was calling the sea dragon a sea horse, and of course Ethan, being older (and apparently more informed) corrected Vincente, which frustrated him, and then starts the shoving. Some lady standing near by asked me if they were brothers. Ha. I wish. Then I could smack both of them on the head, instead of just my kid. :) Just kidding, of course. But really. Geez, it’s like they never stop.

And then I snapped a few other cute pics on our walk to the park. So here they are for your viewing pleasure.

Does this picture make my thighs look fat?

 

My sweet baby girl  

joss in the box

What do you get when you put a Joseline in a toy box?

A Joss-in-the-box!

Happy 2nd!

Yesterday was the official second anniversary of our family blog. I am pleased to say that I wrote more posts in 2009 than I did in 2008, and I hope the trend will continue. I hope all of my readers enjoy reading about our family and our exciting adventures.

This year is going to hold a lot more adventure, so stay tuned! And if you have a family blog (or any other blog!) that isn’t on my blog list (see the right) please let me know so I can keep up on your family, and comment on your blog, too!!

Oh, and my blog goal this year will be to label my posts. I’ve been pretty bad about that since I switched to Window Live Writer. But I will be better this year!

Happiness al a Vincente

I just love how happy Vincente looks. Pretty much all the time. The kid is in love with life. I think I could learn a few things from him.

   

 

 

 

 

 

Okay, so he doesn’t look particularly happy in this picture. More like confused. I think this was at the huge Rowley family Thanksgiving dinner in West Valley so he was probably looking at some relative he didn’t know. Which was most of them.

Blue-eyed Girl

Just my beautiful blue-eyed girl

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I kneel to pray

Vincente gets so excited when he prays that you almost think he’s not being reverent. It’s not that he doesn’t want to be reverent, it’s just that he is so excited to pray that he kind of jumps around a little, and says his prayer in this high, excited voice. It’s adorable. We’re working on the staying still and reverent, but at least he is excited about prayer.

This morning Vince came into our bedroom to wake us up, as usual. Russ rolled out of bed and told Vincente that he was going to pray. So Vince knelt down next to Russ while Russ prayed. Then Vince was still kneeling and folding his arms when Russ finished, so Russ helped Vince say his prayers.

It was so precious.

The Front Page

Thanks to a friend for her tip to create a public “front page” for my private blog. It’s annoying that private blogs don’t show up in readers, and you can’t get an RSS feed for them, so I have created a public blog that you can add to your blog roll and I will post a “headline” post to that blog when I update my private blog (complete with a link to the new post).

The “front page” blog is here. (http://rowleypolyfrontpage.blogspot.com)

Diva

Joseline figured out what to do with the toy microphone. That was the best $2 I think I have ever spent. Who ever thought a plastic cylinder with a spring inside would be such a fun toy?

What?

Army Strong

I made Russ pose for me on a Class A day (the first Fri of every month, usually, the Army has to wear Class A’s… Russ’s were fitted to him in Basic when he was a LOT thinner, so they are a little snug, but he still looks fantastic!)

Sweethearts

Our house is usually full of hugs, kisses, and sleeping babies. We love the sweet spirit these tiny children bring into our home, and sometimes they just melt my heart!

Vince giving Mamãe kisses during the RS General Broadcast in September

We love the fact that our children are great sleepers. Even more than that, we love that they enjoy cuddling. It’s interesting how children change. Their personalities are so unique and continue to develop every day. We are so blessed to be able to watch their lives unfold. We are so grateful to Heavenly Father for blessing our home with such great kids! They are the best, sweetest, most loveable babies, and we can’t get enough of them! Good thing they’re ours for eternity!

  Vince with his arm around Joseline as they watch videos of whales and sharks with Papai. Joseline loves to be doing whatever Vince is doing, and thankfully, Vince is pretty tolerant of her, and sometimes just downright sweet to her!

Food-Foot Dance

When Joseline likes what she is eating, she kicks her feet.

Like this:

Out with the Old, In with the New

The New Year is upon us, and like many others I feel a need to reflect on 2009, and look forward to what 2010 holds for us.

Reflecting… 2009

This past year has been full of adventure and stability. The two rarely go hand in hand, but this has been the first full year that we have been in one place, doing one thing knowing that nothing was going to change from our plans.

We moved to Monterey, CA just before the first of 2009, and have been here ever since. In the same house, doing basically the same things. We have really been able to just get used to being a family and doing “family” things.

Our family has been studying the scriptures and praying as a family daily this year. That has probably been the biggest blessing in our family. We feel more united, and the spirit is a lot stronger in our home.

We added a fourth person to our family this year with Joseline, and she has been an amazing addition. We love having her to share our lives with.

We made friend with too many families to name. Thankfully, some of these families will be with us again in UT. Others will go off to their active duty posts, but we will never forget them, and we will always keep in touch.

I am back to my pre-pregnancy weight, Russ has been able to score high enough on the PT test to be PT exempt, and Vince has learned how to potty himself (almost all by himself now! – depending on what he’s wearing!).

We have read many good books, seen many good movies, celebrated many exciting birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, and people. We have traveled, stayed in town, visited the sites around the bay, been to Santa Cruz, went on a marriage retreat, and played on the beach.

Looking forward… 2010

2010 holds even more adventure and MUCH less stability for us.

In March I will apply for Utah’s Alternative Route to Licensure program. I shouldn’t have a problem getting accepted. I don’t think it’s very competitive or anything. Then I will try to find a school in AR to take a teaching class I will need for my math endorsement. Hopefully I won’t be too late to find a class somewhere.

Russ will graduate from DLI in April, then we will head back to UT (Russ may come with us, may not – and we may or may not take a detour through Washington state to visit my brother Ross who is battling cancer, and visit with my cousins who just visited us for New Years) Once in UT I will apply to every math teaching job available and try to get a job for the fall. In the meantime, my best friend Jessica will be getting married.

Once all that is sorted out, Russ will head down to Arizona for some more military training, and I will truck the kids out to Arkansas to spend the summer with my parents. While there I will run a half marathon (if I can find one in AR – otherwise it will wait for the fall when I’m in UT), take a math teaching class, help produce the Maumelle Children’s Community Theater’s summer production, help my mom in her gardens, and attend the wedding of my best friend from high school, Megann.

Then in the fall, we will be moving back to UT (probably around the 1st of August). Russ will still be in AZ, so it will just be me and the kids, and our live-in nanny! We’re going to hire a live-in nanny from Portugal (from Russ’ mission) we hope, if all goes well with immigration paperwork. We’re pretty excited. Our nanny will speak Portuguese to the kids while Russ and I are at work. Hopefully that will help with their Portuguese. And hopefully it will help me learn more as well.

Once the fall starts, life should go back to normal again. Of course, it will be a completely new normal, but I’m used to finding my new normal.

I think 2010 is going to be a lot of that.