10 years of Beauty

Last friday, 12/19/2008 was our 10th anniversary. It's hard to believe we've been married so long. After all we're still so young and good looking :) j/k You can tell my husband has rubbed off on me. I would have never written anything like that before we were married. He cracks me up. I'm just so grateful for him. We went out to dinner the other night and were able to review the last 10 years and they have been great. Right now so many of the people we know have husbands who are deployed and watching them cope just makes me so grateful that my husband is here with me and is involved in our family. The last couple of months have been wonderful because he has had so much more free time and I have been able to see even more how necessary it is to have two parents. He really is able to reach the kids in ways that I never will be able to. Our roles are just different. He is also just funny. I'm so grateful for his sense of humor. It is so wierd to be at a small base where almost all of the moms I come in contact with have seen him in a professional manner helping with their children. I've gotten so many compliments about him from others. I think I'm pretty lucky to have him. Here's to another 10!

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas!

It has been snowing here for about a week. YAY! After living in Texas for 3 years it is nice to have a really white Christmas! NAthan has been so funny though. It really is his first snow ever and he loves it, but every time we go out he puts his bare hands in the snow and ends up crying. It has been fun to have the snow, but it has been soo windy that every time we go out it is bitterly cold. Every day after school I told the boys they would have to build a snow man before being allowed to watch tv or play computer, but once we get out there and I realize it is 15 degrees out and very windy I relent and let them come in. Today Justin finally got them outside playing and it really was one of the coldest days we've had with a bitter wind blowing snow everywhere. We got everyone dressed in their snow pants and boots, gloves, hats, coats. Then of course, Michelle started crying and I had to take her back in. The others however had a fun time building a fort under the trampoline. The wind had blown a bunch of snow up to the top of the tramp on one side and they just added more snow till they had a little shelter built up that protects them from the wind. It is really pretty cool. There is just something so wonderful about dads. I honestly have tried to get them to play in the snow all week, but when dad suggests building fort, all the sudden everyone is interested and gets all dressed by themselves and plays. I'm so grateful for Justin. He really is a good dad.

Lucky Dog

Here is Lucky modeling her latest pink sweater courtesy of Walmart. Justin thinks it's ridiculous, but I just couldn't resist getting her a little sweater with the weather getting colder and all. I think she looks adorable. However, she has learned to take it off in under five minutes, so I guess she won't be wearing it that often. It does make a nice chew toy though :)

Maia Cynthia Stoker Greene

Well, she really did it! My wonderful, willful, workaholic, sister finally got married! We are so happy for her and her new husband Kendall. They were sealed in the temple on October 18th 2008, and are now living in Nashville, TN. We flew to her wedding in St. Louis just for the weekend and then the kids and I went down to Provo for one of the receptions last weekend. It was a lot of fun. I saw so many people that I had not seen in years! It was awesome. My friend Susie took us in and let us stay at her house. Her kids and my kids had a great time together and it was just nice to be with friends who are glad to see you and aren't worried about how your children are wrecking their house. Thanks Susie, we had a great time!

"It's called trick or treat dad, not Talk or treat!"

That is the quote of the night from John. We had a great time walking around the neighborhood, meeting new people and getting lots of candy. But of course as the line indicates Justin talked waaaaaaay too much at each house and the boys soon were two or three houses ahead of us. The weather was perfect for trick or treating tonight. Not to cold or too hot. Lots of the neighbors were out in front of their houses with a fire pit burning and just enjoying each others company. It was great!
On my camera there is a picture of everyone in their halloween costumes, but for some reason I couldn't get it to upload and then the battery died so I'll have to get it up later. Just in case I don't, Joey was a knight, John a ninja, Samantha a ballerina, Nathan a cat, and Michelle a dinosaur, Justin was high school graduate and I was an old lady trying to catch him.
In addition to Halloween, Justin was honored at a luncheon for being the best group leader something something in his squadron. Because of this he was nominated to be the best best bestest something on the base, but got beat out by the Chaplain. You can't really win against a man of God. It's not really fair, but we're proud of him anyway. Though he did miss out on a really cool trophy that looks like a superman crystal. Sorry I can't remember the names of the awards, but essentially he got an award for being the best company grade medical officer in his squadron which I think is all of the medical officers. He also took the boards this week so we are really excited to see more of him around the house again. No more tests for 7 more years!!!!! YAY!!!!!! Tomorrow he gets to tackle my honey do list:)

Nina Pretty Ballerina

Here are pictures of Samantha's ballet recital back in June. She was beautiful and loved every minute of her routine. Here in Mountain Home she is taking gymnastics which she also enjoys.

All right everyone who thought we fell off the face of the earth, we are finally settled into our permanent home (at least fo the next 3 years). Update for the last 3 months: We got a puppy named Lucky. She is a pointer mix and a lot of fun. We love her a lot. Samantha is still deathly afraid of dogs, but whenever the dog is in her crate she will go over to her and tell her that she loves her and always wants to do lots of things that include Lucky like take family pictures as long as the dog is on a short leash. Michelle on the other hand is not afraid of her at all. She is always chasing the dog and needs constant supervision so that they don't hurt each other. As you can tell from the picture Nathan is not afraid either.



As for the rest of us everyone is doing well making new friends and enjoying the brisk fall weather. We still miss our friends in San Antonio, but are adjusting well here. I'm just excited to be in my new home! The garage is still full of boxes, but it's thinning down out there. For those of you who don't know, our summer was kind of crazy. We stayed in the TLF for about 3 weeks (nice, but sooo boring)Then we were homeless for a few weeks (thanks Maia, Mike and Sarah, the Zaugg family and mom and dad who let us crash their homes for various periods of time.) It was a lot of fun to see everyone. Then we moved into the old officer housing in gunfighter manor for about 6 weeks and finally to our new home on Bear Loop. It's nice to be permanent.

MT. HOME!

We finally pulled into MT. Home AFB yesterday afternoon! We left Texas on the 2nd of July and drove to Carlsbad NM. The next day we went to the caves and explored for the entire morning. Even then we left a lot unseen. It was really fun! That cave was HUGE! I don't think we even saw half of it. After that we were trying to make it all the way to Shiprock, NM that day, but the black car broke down around Albuquerque. We found a mechanic who was willing to work on it the next day (the 4th of July. So at about noon on the 4th we took off only to break down again about 100 miles away. We got towed back to a town called Grants where we found another gracious mechanic who worked on the car on the 5th. Meanwhile we spent the 4th at a casino in the middle of nowhere, NM with a spectacular fireworks display. THere was also a band that was really loud. The fireworks really were some of the best I've ever seen. The 5th we made it up to Provo and spent the night with Tyson, Janae and baby Reid. It was fun to see them. We went to church with them and then zipped up to Logan to see Micheal and Sarah. We stayed there for a few days and let the kids play. It was a lot of fun. Then we finally made our way to Mt. Home. I have to say especially on the drive out to base it really appears to be the land Desolation. There is No visible life on that fifteen minute drive. Not even sagebrush, really just a bunch of dried up cheat grass. Ahhh, home sweet home!

NASA

Memorial day weekend I realized was the last day Justin had off that wasn't a Sunday preceded by a 24 hr shift or being spent in Idaho, so we just had to make a whirlwind trip to Houston to see NASA. It was definately worth it. We had a great time and made lots of fun memories. We went up Monday night (because Justin worked all Sunday until Monday morning so we had to get him a little bit of sleep.) stayed in a motel, and spent all day at NASA the next day. It was really fun, except the sleeping in a motel with 2 double beds and 7 people. It worked fine last year, but for some reason this time I could not get comfortable at all. I had to share my bed with Samantha and Nathan, and Nathan was soooo squirmy. We could not get him to be still unless he was lying across everyone's pillows. It was awful! At least Michelle went down in the crib peacefully. I guess we will just bring sleeping bags for the next motel stay. We'll be making a few here in a couple of weeks. I'm getting really excited to move to Idaho. I think we will make a few stops along the way at Carlsbad Caverns and Moab and then maybe at Mike and Sarah's. There's a small part of me that would like to camp our way up there, but then there is the other part of me that knows that setting up a tent, building a fire etc. can make the whole trip just seem really long. Also, I'm not sure Justin would be up for it. But we might. Especially in Moab. I've only been camping a few times in that country, but it was gorgeous, except when we went camping at Zions and John woke up screaming at 2 am and wouldnt fall back to sleep until I drove him around in the car for a few minutes. Isn't life with small children great! Anyway back to the post topic, NASA was great, I would reccommend it to everyone who lives nearby. You should take the time to visit. There are lots of very kid friendly parts and then some adult interesting things also. Definately take the tram tour if you go.

Dr. Justin Rowberry pediatrician!

Yesterday was graduation and Justin is now officially a "Real" pediatrician. We are so proud of him! The ceremony was as exciting as they always are, luckily I got someone to watch the kids. Then that evening they had a dinner to celebrate and roast all of the graduates. It was a lot of fun. A lot of hard work went into planning and presenting all of the skits and funny awards all the graduates got. Justin got the "Dan Tolson award" most likely to have a show on TLC about trying to build his own choir from scratch. It was pretty funny. We love him and are excited to get to our new home in Idaho. Justin goes next Monday to pick out a place, and we will be leaving on July 2nd to get there! YEAH!

Memorial Day

Here are a few pictures from our flag planting activity for scouts. They actually cancelled going as a group because only two scouts showed up from our troop, but my friend and I still went with our kids. It was a really neat experience. Every memorial day they plant flags on the graves of all the veterans at the graveyard at Fort Sam Houston (which is all of the graves). There were thousands of them, but thankfully there were thousands of scouts and young families from all over San Antonio who went and participated. The kids loved doing it and it only took about an hour with all of the volunteers. The only hard part was that after all the flags were planted, Nathan wanted to pick them all back up and had to be dragged kicking and screaming from the grave yard. He loved putting them in the ground though. The other funny thing is that I took the kids to Burger King after the activity because it was dinner time and they were hot and sweaty and starving. We had been looking for a McDonalds but we found Burger King first. All the kids ran inside and started getting ready to order and Nathan finally looked around and started screaming "This is not McDonalds!!" Luckily he calmed down pretty quick, but I thought it would have made a good commercial.

Mother's Day

Mother's day was great this year. As you can see I got a crown and a bouquet of hand flowers from my children. It was great. The kids also brought me breakfast in bed without spilling the juice on the new carpet. (Nathan did try to eat my cereal though). I even survived the cherry and mushroom soup chicken (with a hint of cinnamin)made by Justin for lunch. Just for future reference be wary when Justin says "I added a secret ingredient". It actually was pretty good, but I like to give him a hard time. Just remember Justin if you are reading this, eggs do not belong in chili.

Father and sons campout

Upon arriving home from the camp out Justin proclaimed, "From now on only kids 5 and up can go to the father and son camp out." I guess Nathan wandered a bit while Justin was trying to set up the tent and they couldn't find him for a while. Justin was a bit upset. I maintain that if he was just a bit more creative and say tied Nathan to a tree, he could still take him to the camp out with no problems. He doesn't agree. Other than that incident it seems that they all had a good time. The boys read a lot of Prince Caspian and had fun with water guns.

Father and Son Camp out

So this weekend is the father and sons camp out for our stake. Justin is going to take the boys so I told Samantha we could do something really fun that's just for girls. She looked at me and said "like go to the mall?!" followed by an excited girly screech you would expect upon hearing that we were going to Disney Land. I'm not exactly sure what she expects. I guess it has been a long time since she has actually gone to the mall. I'm excited. I think we'll go eat and may be watch a girly movied. If we're super motivated we may even paint our fingernails before we go. yay! Move over Disneyland!

Battle of the Flowers Parade

I finally got to go to the Battle of the Flowers parade this year. I've always thought it would be fun, but because Justin is always working, have never mustered up the courage to brave it alone with the kids. Kelly Landin called me this year to see if I wanted to go with her since it was our last chance. It was crowded, but not as bad as I thought it might be. (I was picturing a repeat of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parde in NYC or New Year's at Big Ben in London.) Compared to those events it was practically abandoned. It was a lot of fun and I know the kids had a good time too. Thank you Kelly for giving us a reason to go!

6 days on the market and counting. . .

So we've now had our house up on the market for 6 days and things are going fine. We've had 3 showings so far. It really hasn't been too bad keeping everything clean since they give at least an hours notice, but it is just annoying because I never feel like I can just relax. At the same time, I don't feel like I can do anything very interesting either because all of those things make messes. No little projects to keep me sane, just the same old vacuuming and cleaning bathrooms. Yuck! I'm so bored, but of course always have lots of boring work I could be doing. Since the house has been up I have not really cooked. We've been eating, spaghetti, boxed dinners, stew and biscuits, easy stuff that's quick to prepare and requires little or no dishes. I never realized how much time I usually spend cooking, figuring out what to cook and cleaning up after cooking. It's been kind of nice to have the break, but at the same time that is probably the homemaking responsibility I enjoy most. Now I'm just left with bathroom cleanup.
My agent showed our house today and she said of the 11 houses she showed to her client ours was #2. The client liked my neighbor's house better because it's bigger, but she said ours was really clean! That's always good to hear. The new carpet helps alot with that. It is great at hiding dirt and stuff and we are working really hard to keep everything cleaned up. THe kids have also spent a lot of time outside lately which helps.
Samantha had a birthday party at the park on Tuesday which was great. According to Kethy Holland there was a scary man stalking us, but I was oblivious to the fact. Luckily her husband showed up to scare the man off. As usual I forgot to take pictures, or I would post something here.
Justin emailed Major Long today to see about our next assignment. He said he is working really hard to keep us in Mountain Home so hopefully that is where we will be. We are really looking forward to seeing family a little more.

Waiting, waiting, waiting

Well, we carpeted the entire house, touched up all the paint, planted flowers, raked leaves, hauled off branches and other various pieces of junk, replaced the dishwasher, washed windows and cleaned blinds and our house is now on the market. Just days before all that work (and after all the money was spent) we found out we might not even be moving where we want to go! We want to go to Mountain Home, Idaho, and were told that was probably where we are going, but now we are hearing that we might get bumped and sent to some place on the non-volunteer list. yuck! Hopefully we will find out soon! Meanwhile, we have had two showings and no feed back. One of the showings was on Easter. Who goes house hunting on Easter? Easter was exciting anyway. Our ward choir did a cantada which I was semi in charge of. Justin sang a solo and the whole thing was pretty neat. Then we had dinner at the Landin's house. kelly is so awesome . . . she made blackberry pie, need I say more?

Joey's Baptism

December 8th 2007 Joseph Allen Rowberry was baptized and confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It was a wonderful day. Grandma and grandpa Rowberry came out for the event and the Massengale family also came down from Dallas. Joey was excited. Justin baptized and grandpa Rowberry confirmed. It was great meeting.

Thanksgiving/Joey's birthday

This year was one of those fun years when Joey's birthday was on Thanksgiving. Consequently he got to have Birthday pie, yum! We went up to Uncle Brett's house in Dallas for the big day. It was great! Among other things it was our first close encounter with Tivo. What a great invention! The food was fabulous and the company was too. It even snowed for about 5 minutes! I forgot how much colder Dallas is than San Antonio. I don't think I even brought coats for everyone :0 Here is breaking footage of the blizzard:

Halloween 2007

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

This year the kids and I made wooden grave stones for our yard using the jigsaw Matt and Colleen gave us for Christmas last year. I can't tell you how much I enjoy using that saw! It's so powerful! It was so fun to just randomly decide one boring saturday that instead of organizing and cleaning our eternally messy home we would instead make our grave stones out of random scraps of wood. The kids had a lot of fun painting their own stones and writing things about themselves on them. We all wrote that we were dying on 10/31/2007 which I suppose was just tempting fate to have us all get in a fatal car accident that night (having written down our deaths weeks before) but we managed to survive the night and now have 5 very large tombstones competing for space in our attic. That really was probably one of my favorite parts of this Halloween, but of course there was also the pumpkin carving, ward party, the school party/performance, and actual Halloween night, Not to mention WAAAAAAY too much candy.

That white stuff all over my dresser, that's lotion. I guess it looked a little dry. That's what happens when you think your 2 year old is asleep in bed and really he's not. Actually that is just a very tame incident that Justin cleaned up. He still thinks it's cute enough to merit a picture. In addition to "greasing" up the furniture, he also used some of my perfume that night. Luckily he still knows how to be extra cute when caught doing something wrong.