bears v. raiders...

saturday after thanksgiving baylor played texas tech at cowboy stadium. it was neat to have the opportunity to go to cowboy stadium and cheer on our favorite team. we went with the bowlins and fifers and started with a little tailgate.


then we headed into the stadium...
to cheer on the bears with the cutest fans...
the bears did a great job!! one of the best games of the season. go bears. so sad the we didn't make it to a bowl game this year, but there is always next year.

thanksgiving...

this year we celebrated thanksgiving with my family. my parents bought a small piece of land right by their lake house several years ago. in our family we call it the "farm," my dad calls it "mike's meadows" and a few people call it a ranch. whatever you want to call it, it is my dad's newest hobby and where you can find him every weekend. he has 2 miniature cattle (sean and matt), a miniature donkey (rico), a vegetable garden, a fruit tree orchard, an earth oven (my dad and uncle built), and BIG plans for the future of this piece of property. there is also a small house that has had some major renovations and if FINALLY livable, soooo mom and dad decided that this year we should celebrate thanksgiving on the farm. it was so much fun!! the whole family came (we everyone who lives in texas) and we had a weekend packed with quality time, laughter, campfires, and making memories together.

on wednesday night, most of the family had arrived so we had pizza. not just any pizza! pizza that is made by my dad and baked in his earth oven.

chef dad tending to his yummy pizzas.

the oven is the latest addition to the farm and it is pretty neat. it is made out of mud (earth) and completely handmade by dad and his brother, mark. they are both very proud. the pizza was delicious and the rolls on thanksgiving were tasty too!

thursday was filled with more fun. my parents thought it would be fun to have everyone decorate a pumpkin to serve as their placecard at the table for dinner. before we glued, glittered, and glamorized our pumpkins, we hid the pumpkins for olivia and she went on a "pumpkin hunt."

daddy and o with all the pumpkins she found.

then we had a little "craft hour" and all decorated our pumpkins. it was fun to see what everyone decided to do. some of us were more crafty and creative than others, but i know everyone had fun in process.

me, chris, olivia, and grandma millie decorating our pumpkins.

after pumpkin decorating my creative juices were still flowin' so i decided to make candle holders out of all the extra pumpkins and those sitting around my house. i think they turned out really cute, if i do say so myself! :) olivia had the great idea to collect fall colored leaves to complete our "tablescape" so we went out on the farm to look for some pretty leaves. we found some really beautiful red ones. jack had fun picking them too!

our table before food. see the candleholders. ;)

my brother had to work on thanksgiving morning, but was able to make it for dinner. so once he was there we sat down to eat our yummy meal. many thanks to gram lois and sean for all their expert advice in making our tasty meal.

gram lois and sean in the kitchen putting the finishing touches on our meal.

jack about to dig in to all his yummy food.

olivia enjoying her turkey and mashed potatoes.even the dogs were excited about some turkey.

the rest of the weekend we were able to just enjoy each others company.

nana and o with the scarecrows.

uncle mark playing and laughing with o & j.

nana reading to jack on the kitchen floor. we do have chairs but jack loves to read on the floor.

olivia had asked my dad to make a fire one night, so of course he did as she requested.
we roasted marshmallows and sat around the fire and talked. it was the perfect way to end our wonderful weekend at the farm!

cashing in on a really great gift...

last year for christmas my chef brother gave mark and i are really great gift- a private dinner party for 6 of our friends. so fun!! well it only took us almost a year to cash in on this great gift, but last week we did and it was wonderful! sean and mark came up with a fantastic menu and i had fun setting the table and getting the house all ready. i was only able to take a few pictures because my camera was still making its way home, but here are a few from our fun night!

chef sean in the kitchen workin' hard.

we ate outside in our backyard. i love any excuse to use my lanterns. it was a little chilly, but i still think it was the perfect setting for a perfect meal!

chef sean explaining our meal.

thank you sean for giving such a wonderful gift and for creating such a special evening for mark and i and our friends. we are hoping for a repeat gift this christmas! ;)

a splish splashin' good time...

was had by all at olivia and kingsley's 4th birthday party!!

olivia's birthday celebrations {way too many this year} ended with her joint birthday party with her cousin, kingsley. the girls wanted a mermaid party. mermaids swim, right! well, that sounds like fun party, but it is november and a little chilly for a swim party! it is chilly, but we still had an indoor swimming mermaid party at emler. it was so much fun!! olivia and kingsley invited all their friends and family and they had a splish splashing good time.

birthday girl #1, olivia

birthday girl #2, kingsley

the whole gang! thanks for coming friends!!

the cake, yum-O

it was fun for the girls to celebrate together since they are born exactly six weeks apart and on most days are the best of friends! :) i think everyone had a great time.

sarah, kk, olivia, and me

i love these little girls more than they will ever know. i love watching them grow up together and sweet relationship that they have. they fight at times, but love and understand each other in a very special way. happy 4th birthday precious girls. i love you!

meet emily...

so as i said in the last post about olivia's birthday, gram lois gave olivia a trip to the american girl store to pick out a special doll. it was a really fun and special day, but i think the best part for me to was watch gram lois pass on her love for dolls to olivia. when i was a little girl i had a special doll at her house that i used to spend hours playing with, dressing, and even making clothes for. those are such sweet memories that i have and they are all spent with my gram lois. so when olivia asked for an american girl doll i thought there is only one person who would enjoy the experience as much as olivia, gram lois. i was right!! after ballet nana, gram lois, olivia, and i all headed to the galleria to the american girl store.

when we walked in olivia and gram lois were in awe of the incredible display of dolls, furniture, clothes, accessories, and even the doll salon!! olivia walked around pointing to everything, while gram lois followed right behind with a big smile on her face. nana and i loved it too!!

after walking around for a while olivia spotted emily!! emily was the doll she had already decided she wanted. she picked her because she looked most like her. it was the sweetest thing when she spotted her. olivia ran up to her screaming,
"here she is!! here she is!! look it is emily!! i found her!!" nana even shed a tear, crazy nana!!

(sorry about the picture being sideways again, i was using my mom's camera)

we took emily off the shelf and i don't think olivia has let her out of her sight since that moment.

olivia and emily both in blue dresses. we didn't even plan that, but olivia made sure to point it out! :)

gram lois, olivia, emily, and nana

after some more looking around and taking in all dolls at the store we all walked over for lunch at nordstrom. emily joined us of course!!

it was a really sweet day and one that olivia nor i will forget anytime soon. thank you gram lois for creating such a special memory with olivia and for passing along a true love for dolls and imagination.

celebrating olivia...

on olivia's REAL birthday, november 8, we got to celebrate with my family and our dear friend, chrissie. olivia and chrissie share almost the same birthday, just one day apart, so we decided to have a family dinner to celebrate them. we had so much fun!!

the birthday girls

mom prepared a yummy dinner and then we ate cake! what's a birthday celebration without cake...

jack like the cake too!!

we all had black mouths and teeth because the excessive amount of black icing on those adorable cakes!! :) made for lots of laughing at each other.

then there were presents, of course...

a princess toy cd player from uncle bob and aunt elizabeth...

sorry for the sideways picture... i tried to fix it! :)

a REAL PINK golf club from uncle sean...

she loves to play golf with uncle sean and maybe one day she will have a whole set of clubs. thanks uncle sean for getting her collection started!!

a really cool BIG girl toy- a fairy princess garden with paper dolls, from chrissie...

it has lots of little parts and lots of details. o loves it, but it is a 'special' toy because we have to play it while jack is not around. he would destroy it!!

a trip to the american girl store with gram lois to pick out her very own doll... (that will be its own post soon!)

so that about wraps up birthday celebration #2! there is still more! ridiculous, i know. who knew that 4 was such a BIG birthday!! we love you olivia and chrissie!!

diaper duty...

i have been changing a ton of jack's diapers, but i have also been making a bunch of diaper cakes over the past several weeks. this has been a fun time of celebrating friends and their new little ones. i of course did not take pictures of all of them, but here are two of the four that i have made in the last month...

this one was for andrew cade wasserman. we used this at the "sprinkle" we had for his mommy right before he arrived.

and this one is for nate florence. he surprised us all and arrived very early, so we got to celebrate his birth a couple weeks ago AFTER he was safe and healthy at home.

i also got to make a really fun girly one for my friend kandy and just yesterday i helped my friend kristen make a diaper cake for her best friend and her lil pumpkin for the shower they are having this weekend. i really do love making them. so easy, but allows me to use some of my creative juices. :)

baylor homecoming celebrates 100 years...

our family had a great time. we were able to continue many of our homecoming traditions like going to the bonfire with b, pop, sarah, abby, and kk...

and the bonfire would not be complete with out standing in a really long line for a ride on the ferris wheel...

daddy and o always ride together and i am the photographer. maybe when jack is big enough i will have to be brave and go with him! :)

saturday the festivities continued, we all got up early and headed to campus to watch the LONGEST college homecoming parade in the nation... (betcha didn't know that!)
jack LOVED the BIG balloons (like in the macy's parade) and the girls LOVED collecting TONS of candy...

"look mommy, see them!!"

we also went to the game where we were able to see our extended family as well. b's brother and his whole family come to all the baylor games as well. it really is a family affair! :) kk and o are the same age as eden, so they always have so much fun together...

our weekend plans had been going along just as planned and then jack got sick...

so olivia got daddy's pigskin ticket (just have to go to baylor or have seen it to understand what that is) and loved it!!! her favorite act was the "crayons" and her second favorite was "the fruit." i was happy that she like the "fruit" since that was my sorority and they won 1st place!!

over all it was a great weekend even though jack got really sick and a few of our plans had to change. after each homecoming on our ride home, it just makes my heart happy to think about all the fun family traditions that we are continuing that have been alive in mark's family for so many years. baylor homecoming was extra special this year since it celebrated it's 100th birthday, but really each and every year it is a special and memorable time for our family. baylor might be one of the greatest places on earth, at least to this little bowlin bunch!! :) sic em bears!