Our Nana...

I have been missing her terribly. I thought I would share some of the photos I was looking at. She was a great lady...a one of a kind in fact...and I miss her each and everyday she is not here with us. Everyone says it will get better with time. I know that to be true, however, it doesn't seem to be making it any easier for me now. I hope you look at all of these photos and remember how truly special she was...she was one in a million.

FINALLY!!!

I know...I know...I haven't kept this up very well at all lately! I am going to try harder on that!

I have one video below of Taylor's first volleyball game. I also have a link below where you can view the other video I have of her during her first volleyball game. Mike was nice enough to help me get that one uploaded to YouTube, however, I can't figure out how to share it other than displaying the link. (Mike, please get with me on how to do this as an actual video clip on my blog site)

Anyway, we have been very busy here with volleyball (Taylor) and soccer (Kaylee) going on. I have been keeping myself pretty busy also. I have starting going to exercise classes at the Eldridge Fitness Center. I think I am addicted to them! So much that next week I am buying a membership because it will costs me more to pay per class than to just buy a membership and all of it will be included. There is about 5 of us going now from work. We don't even go home, we just head straight for the gym after work...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gz2FuFuVYDk

Bowers Vacation 2009 ~ St Louis, MO

We headed out on Monday to St Louis, Mo for a little family vacation. Monday was spent traveling, checking into the hotel, going to Union Station, eating at The Hard Rock Cafe and swimming. The hotel we stayed at was The Millennium Hotel. It sat along the river literally across the street from the entrance to the arch. We called the 26th floor home sweet home for the next 4 days. We had quite a view of the skyline at night ~ especially with the floor to ceiling, extra large window.



On Tuesday it was time to conquer the arch (UGH) and sweat our @$$ off!!! I HATE heights and sweating!!! Needless to say I was about to do both of them to the extreme today!!! When I booked the hotel room I bought a package deal giving us "All Access Passes" to the Arch. This included a movie on how the arch was constructed, entrance to the top of the arch, lunch at the Arch cafe, one hour sightseeing boat excursion and of course 10% off at any of the souvenir shops. Oh, and did I mention that it ended up being 105 frickin degrees. Why do we always seem to go on vacation when summer decides to come out full force???? I'm glad we did the whole arch thing, but I know I don't ever want to do it again!! Tony and the kids, however, loved every minute of it and making fun of me. At one time at the top of the arch I had one of my kids on either side of me "helping" me walk to the middle of the arch. How sad and embarrassing do you think that was??? That was of course after they coaxed me to let go of the metal beam I was helping to hold up. Once I got to the top, I just froze and couldn't move. After all of that it was back to the pool to swim.



Any hoo...On Wednesday we tackled the zoo. It was awesome!! the animals and all of the exhibits were great! The only thing I could say that was a little bit of a downer was it was 107 frickin' degrees out and some of the animals wouldn't come out of their homes. Although I can't really say that I blame them...It was HOT!! We had a lot of fun seeing all of the different animals and stopping in at the Build A Bear store. Yes ~ I said Build A Bear. The zoo had a shop their and all of the animals that you could stuff were animals they had at the zoo PLUS you could buy the matching baby. Of course all they had to do was bat their beautiful little eyes at us and we were blinded (once again) by their cuteness. The long day was a great one and we all enjoyed ourselves. After all of that it was back to the pool to swim. I posted a lot of animal pictures for my nephews. I know Jackson really enjoys his animals, and maybe there might be one that he doesn't know...probably not.



On Thursday it was time to eat our complimentary breakfast buffet and head for home. By this time we were all ready to get home especially the girls. They were really missing the dogs and couldn't wait to see them. We got back home about 2:30 and once we unpacked I went and picked up the dogs from Sherry & Dick's house (a.k.a. Disneyland). My mother in law graciously agreed to take Shelby & Annie to her house while we were gone. Thanks Sherry!

Happy Father's Day 2009!!

Happy Father's Day to all of the father's!!! We had fun making Tony work for his present...We sent him on a scavenger hunt! We had a list of items he had to find around the house and bring them to the kitchen table (see pictures of the list). It was Taylor's job to make sure he got all of the items in order to move on to the next phase. Kaylee then handed him a "Grand Finale Question". It was a math problem that made him add the kids' birthday's together. It was Kaylee's job to correct his work to make sure his answer was right in order to go to the next phase. Once he got the answer correct (comes from a good education ~ HAHA) Kaylee handed him the prize...A re-creation of his motorcycle license plate. He went out to the garage where it was parked and saw a new Kawasaki Vulcan jacket. He was quite pleased with it!



P.S. I LOVE YA FA-DUDE!!!

Nana's Cream Filled Cupcakes ~ YUMMY!!!

If any of you were ever lucky enough to have eaten one (or many) of my Gram's cupcakes, you know what I am talking about!!! The cupcakes are filled with homemade cream filling and are frosted on top. They literally melt in your mouth! These are also the famous cupcakes I used to have her make me every year for my birthday and my kids requested to bring to school for their birthday's. Even Tony gets into the act as he just can't eat one of them...Yes...they are that delicious!!!

With Gram having some health problems and her moving to Wisconsin, the kids and I thought we should carry on the baking of her famous cupcakes. Taylor and Kaylee both have made them before with Gram, but I never did. Taylor guided me through the steps as we followed her recipe. It helps too that I currently house Gram's recipe box and her "shooter". The "shooter" was the tool she used to fill the cupcakes. Boy it's old, but it still works like a charm!

Enjoy the pictures as we embarked on our cream filled cupcake baking spree...