Sebastian is One Month Old!

We Bowens have much to be thankful for today, including the 1-month birthday of our little guy. He's growing so well, and even though he's still such a mystery, he's pretty delightful. Here are some recent pictures of the kids- happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Blake and Mini-Blake

Little Buckaroo

Sebastioni and Grandpa

What a fine looking little guy!

"Just in case you didn't realize I was hungry, Mama, I'll bring you my chair..."

She doesn't wake up well...

Bash loves his papa!

At 4 weeks old, Bud-o finally got his first bath

Oh, Rory and her bedhead

The orange suit is to thwart his blanket-nabbing sister in the car.

Poor boy

We have a friend who is a real live photographer, and he kindly took some pictures of the kiddos. Here are my favorites:

Highs and Lows

High: Rory added another word: Balloon (or "Ba," as she emphatically puts it). She loves balloons so much!
Low: The Canon camera we bought before Rory was born died forever, randomly and unexpectedly.
High: A local hardware store had a "ladies night" last night, with awesome food and wine and massages and music and a Carhart fashion show, and lots of interesting vendors, and a 20% discount on everything in the store, with the purpose of raising money to donate to a woman's shelter here in town. It seemed like every woman in Flagstaff was there, and it was a lot of fun! Most excitedly, my mother in law won a fancy-dancy snow blower in the raffle! The Bowen men were pretty excited- no more shoveling for them! We also got $10 gift certificates given to us by a manager just for being in the right place at the right time.
Low: Our car died for good yesterday, randomly and unexpectedly. Not sure what to do about that...
High: My sister and her family get here in a week!
Low: Blake's stuck with a rotten schedule at work.
High: God is faithful and always provides!

More from the Reluctant Crafter

Being, as I have said before, exceedingly uncrafty, I feel compelled to share a couple recent projects:

 This hairbow holder was basically constructed by my mom, but I found the idea and gave lots of input! Isn't it great? I LOVE hairbows, and this is such a nifty way to organize them. We got the frame at a thrift store and used paint we already had (yes, a wall of my house is painted lime green Japanese Fern). We put little hooks along the bottom to hold the bands (most bow storage doesn't allow for bands). Strips of ribbon are hot glued across the frame to hold the clips!

I made this for my daughter with the hope of winning back her affection after bringing home her baby bro. It's just a colorful tissue box that I stuffed full of pretty scrap fabric squares that I cut out with pinking shears. We don't let her pull out baby wipes, but this is almost as fun! She sits there and pulls out each "tissue" and emphatically wipes her (non drippy) nose with it; apparently she learned something from the cold she had a few weeks ago. Gotta love free presents!

Bash is 2 Weeks Old and Rory Doesn't Hate Me

The title sums it up pretty well. Here are some pictures:

This little guy likes to be cozy!

Sweet Sheep

A horrid commemoration of Bash's first trip to Zip's

The grandmas tackle the hand/footprints for the baby book.

My Sweetest Heart

Bundled Bowens

She gets tipsy from "hot" cocoa.

Church clothes and sleepy face

'kins and her papa

Super Snuggler

Aurora and her lukewarm cocoa

First time playing in the snow!

She found it appropriately magical.

Not sure how to reconcile delight+so cold

Reformation Day Etc.

On Bash's one week birthday, we celebrated Reformation Day! Festivities included an informal get together with a few friends, eating German-y food and playing an awesome board game (wise or otherwise). We spent the evening at my inlaws' house, since they live in a neighborhood with practically no trick or treaters, and I just didn't want to deal with trick or treaters this year. It was a delightful time!

Disgusted

A nod to the Diet of Worms...thanks, Luther!

Lil' Pumpkin

Pobrecito

Sebastian in his sombrero

This is actually not a skunk outfit, but rather a punk outfit, with a mo-hawk! So she's a punk-skunk :)

  In other news, today is el Dia de los Muertos, which means it's our three year anniversary of having friends in Flagstaff! For the first few months of our marriage, we didn't know anyone our age or in the same place in life as us. All we did was hang out with Blake's parents and their friends. Then, three years ago today we were going to eat Mexican food after first service at church to commemorate the fiesta, but the restaurant was closed. So, we decided to go back to FCF for the potluck after second service. There, we met our friend Aimee who introduced us to her sister Laura who told us about an awesome Bible study filled with YOUNG people who could be our friends! We met so many wonderful people at that Bible study, and now we have lots of amazing friends- hooray!

Here are some more pictures of the last few days:

'kins loves to read, which warms our hearts!

My bud-o

New shoes!

My baby doll