thanksgiving day...

we spent with the bowlin side of the family. that means that there was a whole big bunch of us all gathered together at marsha and danny's new house. their house was a perfect spot!! there were almost 30 of us, 3 generations, lots of family- and to me that is what thanksgiving is all about!

the day in a nutshell...

cousins playing together...

abby

eden

jack
kingsley
drew

some good ol' southern thanksgiving food!!

and the "kids table." every good thanksgiving celebration has one. :)

we have so much to be thankful for and i love that today i was surrounded by so many of the blessing in my life. happy thanksgiving!! count your many blessings.

olivia takes the stage...

this time not as a darling ballerina, but in her first choir concert. olivia joined the 4 year old childern's choir this year and has been loving it. she has been going to rehearsals each sunday evening practicing songs and learning so much about music. she was just as excited as the rest of us to attend her first concert. our WHOLE family was there to support o-- nana, gramps, b, pop, rara, christman, abby, kk, and of course mommy and daddy. as mark says, "we leave a large footprint everywhere we go!" we might seem crazy to most people, but i love that we all support eachother in so many ways, plus it made olivia so proud!!!

olivia did a great job!! her choir (the 4 year olds) sang several songs. they sang all about the things that god has created and how we praise god with our voices.

cherishing family time...

my grandparents are amazing!! i have been so blessed to be close to them for so many years. i was thrilled when they moved from michigan to texas over 7 years ago so that my children would get to have a special relationship with them as i did. over the last year, my grandfather's health has been failing and it is getting harder and harder for him to get around by himself and care for himself. my mom has carried the burden of helping them for so long and a few weeks ago hired hospice to help since we are not sure how much longer he will be with us. when hospice was hired a precious lady, angie, was one of the many blessings that has come with hospice care. angie's official title, is director of bereavement counseling, or something like that, but to our family she is a friend and indescribable blessing. she bonded immediately with my grandparents and has loved them so well. she has been such a strong shoulder of support for my mom and i know that she will continue to be a source of wisdom and counsel as my grandfather gets close to death. angie decided that we needed to all get together and surprise my grandparents with a big family dinner at one of their favorite places, red lobster. it was an evening filled with precious memories, lots of smiles, and i know meant the world to my grandparents. here are some of my favorite pictures from that evening and our time together as one big family...

mom with her mom and dad.
gram lois (my dad's mom) and olivia
gram millie and jack. they sure love each other!! jack was teaching her how to play him game on the iPhone. it was so cute to watch. :)
olivia getting some love from her biggest fan- papa.
then it was jack's turn. papa calls jack happy hooligan because jack always has a smile on his face!!
all of us, except sean. :( sean missing was the only part of the evening that was not perfect!

i am so thankful for the family that i have the constant love that i am surrounded by. there are many times when i may seem that i take it for granted and i guess on some level i do since i have never known anything else, but i truly cherish my family and all the gifts that they pour into my life.

trick-or-treat...

we ended our halloween with some good ole fashion trick-or-treating in our neighborhood. it was really fun and the kids LOVED it!! b and pop came over to see the kids in their costumes (sorry no pic of that). they even walked to a few houses with us! o and j were really into going up to the houses "all by themselves", ringing the doorbell and of course saying those magic words "trick or treat."
the smiles on their faces when they would come running back down the sidewalk was priceless.
jack didn't last long, maybe 5 houses. he was tired and had had enough of his costume. he went back home to help mark pass out candy while olivia and i continued walking around the neighborhood. it was just the two of us and we had a really great time. of course there were other packs of kids walking around and every now and then we would get in one of those, but it was really nice to just walk and talk and go where ever we wanted.

o loved this inflatable decoration. one of the last houses we went to.

i am not generally a huge fan of halloween. i could do without the scary stuff and of course the massive amounts of candy that i have to secretly get rid of in the days following, but this year i truly enjoyed it. i loved walking hand in hand with my precious 4 year old (almost 5 year old) through our neighborhood and experiencing this silly holiday through her eyes.

the pumpkin bash...

at our church was a family affair and so much fun!! the kids got all dressed up in their costumes once again.
i decorated our car in all our baylor garb to participate in the 'trunk or treat' part of the event. even i got tired of hearing "that good ole baylor line" and the fight song that was blaring from our car. :0)
mark was the photographer and daddy extraordinaire!! he took the kids around as they loaded up their buckets with candy, petted the animals at the petting zoo, and played some games.
we were also lucky enough to have our "support staff" on hand- chrissie and nana. we loved having them there too to share in the fun and chaos.

we were all hot and tired, but that was not end of our halloween...

celebrating kristy & drew...

i have prayed for my dear friends, kristy and steve, for years as they have tried to get pregnant and start their own family. god has taken them on a roller coaster ride over the last 3 years, but He has blessed them with a baby boy who is due in december. we {all her friends} are so excited to meet this little guy that we have prayed for so many times, but first things first- a baby shower to get these sweet deserving parents prepared for their new little one!! the saturday before halloween we celebrated kristy and her lil' pumpkin, drew.

all the mama's to-be- ashley, shannon, and kristy.

our friend, catherine, opened up her home to host this quaint little party and it was the perfect setting for our fall inspired shower. i loved all the details that we were able to add to reflect our "pumpkin/fall" theme to celebrate kristy and drew.

adorable leaf garland {made by catherine} and themed baskets of gifts
diaper cake and lil' pumpkins
yummy food- the pumpkin muffins were my fav!

i thought the party was lots of fun and my hope is that kristy felt all the love that we have for her and drew. can't wait to meet this sweet little boy and tell him in person how dearly he is loved by so many people, especially me!! :)

trunk or treat, ccdc style...

black cat, ladybug, daphne, and spider

our first costume affair was once again the "trunk or treat" event at our preschool, ccdc. for those of you who might not know what "trunk or treating" is all about, it is basically like trick or treating expect there are a bunch of cars in a church parking lot with their trunks decorated and nice people ready to hand out candy. i love this little event because we get to wear our costumes, take some cute pics, spend a little time with our favorite cousins, and it is short (only takes about 30 minutes) and sweet (we get some candy, but not too much). sounds pretty good right!!

the "bugs" right before the candy collection begins!
"trick or treat!!"
daphne and the cutest black cat in town posing for a picture.

one halloween event down just a few more to go!!

BAY-LOR, baylor bears fight!

this past weekend we headed down to waco for one of my most favorite weekends of the fall- baylor homecoming!! it was a jam-packed weekend full of fun events, friends, and family.

mark and i were honored to start the weekend, on thursday, with an invitation to a "fancy-shamancy" dinner honoring our dear friend, katie. she received the "young alumnus of the year" award for her and ben's work they are doing in haiti. it was a really beautiful evening complete with incredible decorations, lovely dinner, a video tribute, and award presentation.

the beautifully set tables.

mark, me, katie, and ben

friday we spent the day just hanging out with the herridges (our favorite waco residents). that evening it was time to head to the bonfire. this has become such a fun event for our whole family to attend. in years past, it was just a pep rally and bonfire, but now it is so much more. this year my favorite was the book signing for a new children's book, B is for Baylor. it is a darling book about the traditions of baylor, so of course we had to get one!! :)

there was a cute bear that looked like the bear in the book that jack posed with.

after the the band, cheerleaders, hearing from the coach, and the captains of the team it was time to light the bonfire. it was windy this year so it got really big really fast!!

saturday morning is the parade. my husband would probably like me to mention that it is the "largest collage homecoming parade in the nation." it really is very fun!! we got to see katie again on her float. we also had some other favorites...

bruiser!!
the baylor bear balloon
and jack LOVED the BIG basketball balloon

and my favorite part is getting to watch the kids sit on the front row watching the parade march by and catching all the candy being thrown at them. :)

grant,o, abby, jack, kk

when the parade is over we went to take a closer look at all the floats and then tried to get a few family pictures with the beautiful backdrop of the rose garden and pat neff...

my baylor lovin' bowlin/fifer family

game time!! but first we must tailgate at the greatest BU tailgate ever!! yummy food prepared by this guy...

steve-o and his custom BU grill!!

and the chance to visit with dear friends...

some of my sweet baylor friends- kandy, baby sophie, me, kristy, ashley

it was a rainy afternoon that included a rain delay at the game and some very tired kiddos, so the kids and i headed back to the hotel for a little rest before the rest of the evening's activities. mark, christman, and danny all stayed and cheered on the bears to a homecoming victory!!! yay!! we ended our homecoming this year with pigskin. it is very hard to explain but basically a show with 8 organizations that perform an 8 minute mini-musical. it is so great!! we took the kids this year (minus jack) and they loved it. so did i!

the weekend is over, we are all exhausted, but won't trade all the memories we made for anything. sic em bears!!

arborteum pumpkin patch...

is a fall tradition for the kids, my mom, and i. we make a trip each year to play in the pumpkin patch, snap some great pictures, tour the pumpkin houses, enjoy the beautiful fall weather, and of course the kids have to stand in the extremely long line to get their faces painted. i love every minute of our morning at the arboretum. i also love that my kids and my mom love it just as much. this year we had a great time and we had perfect weather for the occassion.

olivia is FINALLY into posing for pictures and she LOVES pumpkins so getting some cute pictures of her was easy this year...

jack just wanted to climb all over the piles of pumpkins or pick them up to show off how strong he was...


i love watching my mom (nana) make memories with my kids all while giggling and laughing...

and like i said no trip to the arboretum is complete without the face painting. so here is my beautiful, sparkly butterfly and handsome, brave bear...

happy fall y'all!! it's the most wonderful time of the year!!