Welcome to our imperfectly perfect family!

I started this blog about a year ago, and I'm just now getting around to actually doing something with it. So goes it in the Bowden house. I don't think anyone does procrastination better than we do!

I suppose I should start off by explaining the blog title. Well, you know how there is always "THAT" family? The one with the kids who play outside with no shoes (or for extra points, no shirts either). The one with the frazzled mom whose frequent shouts for peace and quiet can be heard three doors down. The one that occasionally lets their children eat cereal for dinner and M&M's on their pizza. The one with the friendly yet overly-hyper dog that jumps up and excitedly pees on anyone who comes to the door. The one with a rusty bike on the lawn and two mismatched flipflops in the driveway. The one with dishes always in the sink, toys all over the floor and somewhere in the house, a toilet that didn't get flushed.

Yep. That's us.

Life with three busy kids and an even busier husband is incredibly fun, but definitley not a walk in the park! Don't get me wrong - we are very thankful to have been blessed with our children and each other, and we wouldn't trade our lives, trials and all, for anything else in the world. There are days though where it can be physically and mentally exhausting and we question whose idea it was to have all these kids in the first place. I'm convinced that similar families of our size who have spotless houses, perfectly groomed and behaved children, balanced daily schedules and a healthy dinner on the table every evening by six have superpowers. Or they are aliens another planet. Not us! As envious as I am of the super-families of the world, we proudly wear our imperfections on our sleeves, because being normal would be boring. And besides, what is normal anyway?

But here's the deal.

As imperfect as our family is, we truly love each other in our own unique and special ways. Hayley shows her love for her brothers by occasionally letting them sleep with her at night, playing "school" with them, complete with referrals to the "principal" (me) when they don't listen, and by getting them to play dress up in her old sequined dance tutus. I'll have to dig those pictures out sometime! The boys show their love for their sister by asking her to read to them at night, and by affectionately drawing pictures of her with goofy monster teeth, twenty fingers and an eyeball where her nose should be. Pure sibling love.

Chris and I, well....we have a special love and affection for each other that is all our own. We fell in love eleven years ago, and just recently celebrated our ninth anniversary! We both have a weird sense of humor and make each other laugh over the silliest of things. We love to affectionately debate each other, and we can have a conversation without saying a word. I knew I had to marry him when, right after the funeral for my father, he tried to cheer me up by doing a strip tease to Disney's "Bear Necessities" song. Seriously, if a guy loves you enough to go to such lengths to put a smile on your face, you have to marry him. He may reconsider how much he loves me though once he finds out that I posted that tidbit to our family blog! Oy.

Anyhow, I'm really bad at making regular phone calls, so my hope is that this blog will help us stay connected to friends and family, and keep everyone up to date on the latest shenanigans in the Bowden house. While we hope to entertain you with our delightful family tales and humorous adventures, I'm sure our posts won't always be rainbows and unicorns. We might have a really lousy day, and for some reason I may feel compelled to share it with you all. But that's what you'll get from this blog - the funny stuff, the not so wonderful, and everything in between! Chris and I will probably take turns at posting, and I'm sure Hayley will share her point of view now and then. I'll also be blinging the blog up a bit as I go, and adding some pictures and some fun bios of each family member. Stay tuned, and I'll try my best to post as often as I can!