summer 2012...

was full of fun in the pool and time with our cousins...

we were able to spend lots of time with sweet friends.

we really loved our trip to the ranch with the herridges and the brischkes.  

and our time with the rogers and haynes was so much fun!!

and probably the best moment of the summer was finding out that we are expecting a baby in january 2013...

the next baby bowlin, around 8 weeks in this picture (6/20/12).  i know you can barely see it, but believe me there is a baby with a little beating heart there.  :)

it has been a great summer.  i am so thankful for the memories that we have made, the exciting news of a new baby,  and the time i have had to spend with my kids, friends, and family.  we are truly blessed.

school, routine, new friends, soccer, baylor football season, and more are just around the corner.  :)

mother's day...

mother's day was a special day for me and for the multiple generations of great mothers that i celebrate on this day.

the day began as most sundays do at our house, mark wakes up SUPER early and gets ready to go to church to begin band rehearsal at 7:00 am. he usually leaves the house around 6:45. later the kids and i make our way out of bed and start getting ready for church too. while we were in the middle of our "typical sunday morning routine" my first surprise of the day-- mark came home with breakfast tacos for everyone!! yummy! then surprise number 2-- he stayed home and helped get the kids ready for church and we all rode in ONE car to church!!! i know this doesn't seem like a big deal, but this was the best gift for me. thanks babe!! before we all got in the car he took a few pictures with kids and i. yay for surprise number 3!! i never think to take pictures WITH my kids. :)

then after church we {our little fam of 4} had a lovely brunch/lunch on the patio. it was a perfect sunny afternoon and so relaxing. the food was pretty good too. i loved being together with all my favorite people. surprise number 4!! (sorry no pictures!)

then we were off to celebrate with my family for the evening. we had a low-key afternoon hanging around the house and then about 4:30 the grandmothers arrived. olivia and jack played in the pool, we sat around and chatted, and the guys {my dad, mark, and my brother} made dinner. i am pretty sure my mom helped with the meal too, but the guys did most of the work.

me, gram lois, gram millie, and mom

my mom and her mom. (i love this picture and all that it represents to me.)

olivia and uncle sean. (just a cute pic of them after o got out of the pool.)

we sat down and enjoyed the yummy lasagna dinner around the big dinning room table. we thanked god for the His many blessing especially the moms sitting around the table. there were 4 of us- me, my mom, my dad's mom, and my mom's mom. i am so blessed to have each of these woman in my life. each of their examples have played a HUGE part in the woman that i am today and especially the mother that i am to my children. what an honor to have them in my life and to celebrate with them today. after dinner there was dessert and a few gifts exchanged to each of the mom's around the table.

what a great day! after we got to my parents house, i stopped counting the number of surprises because there were too many. i am so grateful and blessed. :)

i can't end this post without a mention to my mother-in-law, marsha. we did invite her to spend part of the day with us, but she and danny had the chance to go to the maverick's game so it didn't work out. i am so thankful they went because they were able to witness the mavs beat the lakers in a 4 game sweep. it was a great game!! all that to say, my MIL is the BEST!! i truly feel like a daughter to her, not a daughter in -law. she is an incredible mother. i am so grateful to have her wisdom and example as i raise her grandchildren. she always has an encouraging word to give and you always leave her presences knowing that you are deeply loved. i think that was her secret to raising such great children herself. today i thought about her often and celebrate the fantastic woman, mom, and friend that she is to me. love you b!! :)

to all of my friends that are mothers, i hope that you were pampered, loved, and honored today. to those of you who are missing your mom today, i pray that today was not filled with too much sadness and you were able to recognize the numerous ways that she impacted your life and the person you are today.

happy mother's day!!

spiderman to soccer...

that was about how our saturday went. it was so fun!! olivia and i started off the morning by going to ryan's superhero birthday bash...
it was complete with lots of superhero activities (silly string, facepainting, balloon creations), a real spiderman, and cupcakes of course!! :)

o was more into "flower power" than super powers, but we still had a great time celebrating our precious friend ryan!!

then it was off to watch abby play soccer...

isn't she the prettiest soccer player ever??

she was FINALLY playing a game after all the rain we have been having. it was so fun to cheer her on and even hang out a little while she was takin' a break.
while abby was running all over the field and kicking the soccer ball, jack and kk were having fun playing on the bleachers.

they have a sweet relationship that i just love to watch!

in my opinion it was a perfect fall saturday. beautiful weather, celebrating with friends, some soccer action, and doing it all while being together as a little family. :)

our state fair trip...

was lots of fun, as always. we did miss having b and pop with us and we did get really wet!! that didn't stop us from...

eating some famous fletcher's corny dogs...
riding some super fun rides...
introducing the kids to the "fun house" which turned out to be a little bit boring...
waiting in line for and trying the much talked about fried butter...
working on the "little hands farm"...
feeding and petting the animals...
and snapping one family pic before the rain started...

we're flinging our green and gold again...

yep! baylor football season is underway and we have gone to waco every weekend to watch the baylor bears play. there are so many fun little things that our family does to get ready for the game. we of course get all dressed in our green and gold to show our support for the bears...

we listen to the golden wave marching band as we drive to the stadium and sing all the baylor songs to get us excited for the game. the "fight song" and "baylor line" are our favs... (total nerds, i know!!)

(i am still working on my editing skills and clearly the shooting skills are lacking, but i thought you had to see them in action!)

we go to an amazing tailgate that our friends put on... (so sad i have no pics of them!! i'll get some soon and do a post just about the tailgate.)

olivia finds as many baylor cheerleaders as she can and HAS to get her picture taken with them...

we find pop and the rest of our family...

pop is our family's BIGGEST baylor fan, but he is doing a pretty good job passing his baylor love to his grandkids!!

and finally we make it our seats...

sing the national anthem...

i love the serious expression on o's face and the fact that she uses her left hand for everything!! :)

and finally game begins. and we cheer on the bears!!! (i don't have any pics during the game because i am usually too focused on the game, taking someone to the bathroom, passing out snacks, etc., etc. to even think about getting out my camera.)

the bears have won some and lost one, but we always love the time we spend cheering on the bears and making memories together as a family. sic em' bears!! beat kent state!!

another lake weekend...

no mom, jack is not about to go overboard, just trying to be like the big kids!! :) i let go for just a second for the picture.

"i'd rather be lost at the lake than found at home."

this quote is hanging in our lake house it is SUPER cheesy yet so true for me, especially after a weekend like we just had. our great friends, the herridges, were able to come out to the lake and spend the weekend with us. it was wonderful!! we arrived thursday evening and left saturday night. brad is a pastor (a church outside of waco, tx) and mark leads worship at our church so everyone had to be home for church on sunday morning. actually the timing was great because we didn't have to share the lake with very many people on friday, since most of the world was still working. the weather was perfect and we had such a great time hang out together.

o and grant had soooo much fun together. o believes that grant might just be her husband one day so she is always excited to play with him.

brad and the kids swimming in the lake. how come kids can swim for hours and never get tired or bored??

jack waving on the boat.
(excuse my dress/knee blowing, so ugly!! but a cute pic of jack.)

i love weekends like these where i only have to drive an hour outside of dallas and feel like i am hundreds of miles away. i get to spend time with some of my most favorite people. and i come back refreshed and renewed. thanks herridges for making the trip!! we love y'all!!! :)

easter fun...

we have been having so much fun celebrating easter.

o, j, and i took a trip to the arboretum at the beginning of the week...

i wish i was able to get some better pictures of o & j together, but they were not really in the mood on this particular morning. we still had a great time looking at the BEAUTIFUL flowers.

on thursday afternoon we headed to the lake for more easter fun with the bowlins and fifers. sarah is the designated photographer when we are together, so check out her blog for details. the highlights include family fun, an easter savenger hunt, a big ole egg hunt, and some games.

we came back saturday night from the lake so that we could celebrate easter sunday at church and then with the blanchettes.

a rainy easter sunday morning...

olivia still looks so pretty in her dress.

our little family right after church...

then off to celebrate with the blanchettes...

olivia's easter gifts-- gardening tools and boots to help gramps in his garden.

gramps and jack hanging out before dinner.

olivia posing with easter eggs she found.
then posing with uncle sean after she found ALL the eggs.

it was a wonderful week filled with lots of fun and blessings, but what i am most thankful for is my savior, jesus. his death and resurrection was for me, for all of us! so that i (we) will one day live in heaven with him. but as our pastor reminded us on sunday, the resurrection is also about the present-- because jesus rose on the first easter sunday, i get to have a real relationship with him everyday. thank you jesus for loving me and dying on a cross for me thousands of years ago, thank you for being my best friend and everything that i need today, and for allowing me to have life eternally with you.

hope everyone had a very happy easter!!

simple saturdays...

i love them!! this past saturday we didn't have ANYTHING on the schedule, it was a BEAUTIFUL day, so the 4 of us headed to mi cocina to sit on the patio for lunch. it was so fun to just be our little family...

enjoying some tasty food...



and laughing together!!


i am hoping for some more "simple saturdays" filled with sweet family time, perfect weather, yummy food, laughter, and most importantly-- the kids taking good naps!!

here's to a great 2008...

one of my favorite blogs to read is the howren hangout. my friend becca did this great post looking back on 2008 with a picture or two from each month. i loved it so i am stealing her idea! here are just a few of our favorite memories from our 2008...

january...

olivia having fun on the farm with gramps!!

february...

trip to amarillo to visit granny & papa. we also got to celebrate a late christmas with the amarillo bowlins.

march...

the pretty weather allowed olivia to play at the park more. she loves being outside!

april...

since i was on bed rest waiting for baby jack we had lots of visitors. my grandparents came over one day and played in the backyard with olivia. i just love this picture. i remember my grandmother playing with me and now she does the same with olivia.

may...

we became a family of 4!! sweet jack was born may 21. this is our first family of 4 picture.

june...

olivia took ballet and tap this summer. she loved it and she loved taking it with her sweet friend lilli.

july...

olivia gave up her pacifiers! we put them in balloons and they went up, up, and away! such a big girl.

august...

olivia had another "big girl" moment. she potty trained!! it was so much easier than i thought. i was so proud of her and as you can see from the picture she is pretty proud of herself.

we took nana and tagged along on a work trip with daddy. we had a great time at the lost pines resort in austin, tx. a really fun family trip and we were so glad nana came along.

september...

olivia started her 3rd year at ccdc, but her first year of real preschool!

sweet family trip for granny to meet jack and for us to have some last moments with her.

october...

my little pumpkins loved the fall. we took several trips to the arboretum and enjoyed all the fall fun in the pumpkin patch.

baylor football was a huge part of our fall. the girls enjoyed the games and especially the big red and popcorn at every game.

november...

mark and i lost one of our dearest friends, sweet hopkins. we miss her terribly but are lives are forever effected by knowing her.

i experienced another loss in november, baby emily. her loss taught me about love, friendship, and my faith. i will be forever changed by know her and her precios family.

celebrating olivia's 3rd birthday party with an owl birthday bash. it was so much fun!!

december...

visiting santa claus and talking about him was a fun part of celebrating christmas this year.

what a year it has been! we have been blessed this year, yet have had some incredible loss. the lord has been so faithful through it all. i can't wait to see what 2009 has for us!