A little reading time

After putting our middle son down for a nap, this is what I found downstairs.
:) love my boys...

Happy Birthday Grammy!

A Happy Birthday Heart Attack!

We love you and hope you had a wonderful day!

Learning the ropes with Daddy

I've got to say, The Big Guy Lowe is my best friend. He is the person that I would choose to spend time with--any time with. He's the person that best understands me and knows how to help and love me. There's never a question in my mind that he is doing his best for our family. He is truly the most amazing person that I know, and I get to be married to him; we get to be partners for time and all eternity. That's a pretty awe inspiring thing to be able to say. While I can ponder on these things, and even get pretty emotional as I feel such intense gratitude and love for him, I wonder what the Little Guy Lowes think. They are never left out. Just a few examples of their time with Daddy from recent weeks~

While at the playground, our oldest asked Daddy if he would "time him" while running. That started a running/racing boot-camp that the boys ask for every time we are at the playground now.
"On your marks..."
"Get set..." (you've got to love the squat, er, racer stance)

Then a big team cheer when we were all finished!

Then there was the day the boys were asking about baseball. The Big Guy Lowe bought a beginning bat and for the next few hours we all played outside as he gave instruction. A tee-ball instruction for our middle boy--the 2 year old,

and hitting from a pitch for our oldest--the 6 year old.
Nope, couldn't leave the 1 year old out of spring training!

There are more pictures of Lego building, cleaning, golfing, dancing, reading, relaxing and snuggling that show how The Big Guy Lowe loves his family, more than I can include in just one post.

Is it obvious that I love how The Big Guy Lowe loves our family? He tells us and he shows us. He works hard to provide for our family. He serves at church and provides a wonderful example for his sons. He is a part of keeping our home in running order. He is the best Daddy that these boys could ever want.

In case you Little boy Lowes ever wonder, I love your Daddy completely.

One, two, three, eight, nine, thirty-four...

This past Christmas our oldest received a money-counting bank from Grammy and Grandpa HB. This "bank" has been used quite a bit since December, but today was the first day it was ever used for the purpose it was made. Most recently it had been used as a bug home for unsuspecting insects whose paths crossed with our oldest bug catcher.

Today however, our oldest brought it downstairs (I don't remember when it was brought inside--so very likely there are stray bugs running amuck in our house! Just a day in the life of a Lowe...) accompanied by his piggy bank. Our oldest gets a weekly allowance from which he is learning how to pay tithing, how to save for a mission , and how to save for other important things such as Pokemon cards, Star Wars Legos, etc.
This amazing little contraption can tell the difference between all coins, showing the value of the coin after it has been pushed through the lid,
And then keeping a running tally of the contents of the jar.

The best part for me was that our two oldest boys were working together and taking turns. I love seeing them do things together! They were working together so well and were both so interested in what they were doing that after 15 minutes I was ready to write a letter of gratitude to the makers of the bank; pictures of the cooperation it was instilling in our boys, teaching beginning lessons in finance--my excitement was building with each minute they were busily working together. When the bubble burst and they began arguing over who would insert the next coin and who had contributed most to the contents of the jar, I just had to smile.
Those 15 minutes when they were working so intently together make me happy even now. I like looking for reasons to smile...sometimes smiles comes from the most interesting places.

I spy, with my little eye...

Our family loves to play the "I spy" game. While we thoroughly enjoy the books, we especially love playing while we are in the car. We play it spying for colors, shapes, letters, sounds of letters... There is always a way we can play.

While in the car a few days ago, our middle son began
"I spy, wifmyliddle eye", then he paused followed by "a cute mommy!"

My heart melted.

How happy are Happy Meals? Just ask me!

Today was one of those days.

How did I achieve those calming moments of peace?

It ended up not being that hard to do. In fact, the idea came to me with such clarity that I knew tonight was going to be a good night. I knew I would have that extra help just before getting the boys into the bath and then to bed. At that moment I had hope that all would be well.

Happy Meals.
All I had to do was pack my kids into the car and drive to our closest McDonald's for Happy Meals. Ahhh, I'm still basking in the peace of those precious moments. For any of you nae sayers out there--a little background into our day...

Late last night our youngest was running a HIGH temperature. Nothing more, gratefully, he's just been extremely miserable throughout this entire day. He woke up in the early morning hours very unhappy and has had a rough day. I made one of those calls to the pediatrician's office to see what recommendations they had for 105 degree fever in a one year old. I was told to control with the regular medications and if that didn't get the fever under 102 to call back after a sufficient amount of time. It worked and we have been fine for the most part, miserable, but fine. To add to our day, the Big Guy Lowe had an early morning flight to CA with a full day of work followed by a late flight back tonight. Gratefully it is just today, but today has seemed extremely long. With our youngest being sick, the boys and I haven't had any of our normal outings and I have been pretty wrapped up trying to soothe our little guy--resulting in not much playing with our other boys. Basically, a bummer day for everyone. Really.

But, a drive-thru keeps germs from spreading to others outside of our family--I'm responsible. It gives us some time outside the walls of our home--I'm adventurous! It makes it possible for the boys eat yummy(?) food that they generally don't get--I'm fun! I am saved from trying to make dinner holding/soothing a sick child--I'm relieved! And I get those precious moments of much needed blissful silence--I'm rejuvenated to lovingly finish our evening.

Thank you McDonalds. Let me tell you, while I may not say "Super-size me", those happy meals had to taste best to me, and I didn't eat a bite! This was a good ending for us tonight. Ahhhhhh. Sometimes silence is priceless.


And really, could anything this happy not be completely good for you?

Happy Birthday to the Youngest of the Little Guy Lowes!

It's happened!! He's a big one-year-old! I'm not quite sure how this year went by so fast, but we are so happy that we have our third little guy Lowe!

Happy 1st Birthday!


After a big dinner of Grilled Burgers and Hotdogs with all the toppings, it was on to the cake!! Just a little background, the cake is a combination of Lowe & Hornberger family traditions. The 4 layered cake with whipped cream frosting and animal crackers for the 1 year old to pick off and eat! (Have you picked up that I like traditions??)

Here he's inspecting his first piece of cake, but don't let this picture fool you. He didn't eat any of it. After a bit, I decided to take the cake away and see what he would do if I just put some pieces of unfrosted cupcake in front of him. That did the trick! I wasn't surprised by his reluctance to eat his own birthday cake--neither of his brothers would touch their first cakes either and if the truth be known, my favorite way to eat cake is warm from the oven without frosting too! A tradition in the making? Noooo, it's too fun to decorate cakes the older they get!

After the food was finished we moved the fun outside where the cousins had races and games. Jamis had a backyard-side seat to watch the fun while he finished eating!
How fast can you do the crab walk?
Then we headed back inside for presents.

Thank you to our friends and family that helped us celebrate such a wonderful day!!