november iPhone pics...

our favorite moments and memories from november, brought to you once again from my iPhone...

(they are not great pictures, but i am prego and can't seem to remember our good "real" camera anywhere we go!)

jack showed off his singing and musical talent at church one sunday night.  his church choir class praised god with their voices and made beautiful music.  it was precious hearing all the 4 year olds sing from their hearts.

jack waving at his "fan club" sitting in the audience.

part one of the fan club- nana, chrissie, and nana's high school bff, joanne.

part two of the fan club- bowlins and fifers.  b, ra-ra, christman, abby, and pop

thanksgiving chapel at jack's school... 

praying and thanking god for his many blessings. 

our thanksgiving table at the lake with the fifers and bowlins.  love thanksgiving at the lake.

amazing cake balls at blanchette family thanksgiving @ the farm.

my BIG girl who picked out such a darling outfit for school.

we flung our green and gold AGAIN...

at baylor homecoming!  it has become a fun family tradition and one of my favorite weekends of the fall, when we head down south to waco, texas and celebrate baylor with our bowlin family and college friends.  it is a weekend that makes me smile from start to finish and as we drive home my heart is full of gratitude for family, friends, and my college days all bound together because of baylor.  sic em bears!!

first, dinner with the bowlin family and bonfire...

the cousins after a yummy dinner at heitmiller steakhouse

olivia coloring at the tent promoting the new baylor counting book.  it's the cutest book for any new baylor baby!!

this year we were all tired and didn't stay long enough to see the bonfire, but we did run into some good friends, do some shopping at the bookstore, and had a great time being on campus.

next, saturday morning parade...

the traditional cousin picture sitting on the curb waiting for the parade.  love these kids!!

jack with his new bruiser bear.  so proud!

sarah and i.  we are usually the ones taking the pictures so i was happy mark snapped this one of the two of us.  :)

the whole bowlin/fifer fam.

then it's off to the game...

pop and abby ready for some baylor football.

kk and o, faces painted and ready to cheer on the bears.

christman and jack snacking on peanuts and hoping for a baylor victory!

and this year our little family concluded our weekend by walking around campus on sunday morning telling our kids stories, swinging on green and gold bench swings, and of course taking a picture or two...

our cute kids.

can't wait until next year when we can introduce our newest little love to BAYLOR!!

halloween...

was so much fun AGAIN this year.  now that the kids are getting older, i don't have control over the costumes anymore.  sniff, sniff! :(  i must admit the days of me searching the internet to find cute and coordinating costumes were fun, but now it's off to target we go!  this year they decided on a witch and mario (or superman, whatever jack felt like).  not too bad!

first costume op was the pumpkin bash at church.  once again we decorated our car with baylor garb and passed out candy for "trunk-or-treat" while the kids walked around with chrissie and friends.  fun times!!

jack wasn't so sure about his mario costume so he opted for superman pjs.  they still look adorable.  love my superman and little witch.  :)

our "trunk" for trunk or treating.  there was lots of baylor music blaring as well.  sic em!!

then of course, the big night arrived... "REAL halloween," as the kid call it.  we went over to the fifers for some yummy soup and then the kids got all dressed up and headed out into the neighborhood for some trick-or-treating.

the green witch, mario, the purple witch, and a pumpkin

love these two! :)

happy halloween from the bowlins!

pretty typical halloween for us, but it is always so much for for the kids.  i love experiencing holidays with them and seeing the fun and excitement of special days, like halloween!  

october iPhone pics...

a few of our favorite moments of october brought to you by my iPhone and instragram...

an ice cream date with friends at sweet firefly...

jack loving his BLUE kookie monster ice cream

sweet friends enjoying a sweet treat

 a lunch date with my boys (mark and jack)...

the perfect fortune... i have been so reminded of how blessed i am with so many true friends.

 a trip to waco to spend time with friends and cheer on the bears...

grant and jack sporting their new baylor t-shirts.  sic em bears!!

an evening with cody and besty-- games, art, pizza making, chinese food, and lots of good conversation...

cody, jack, and o eating their pizza creations.  yummm!

 going back to church after surgery and having breakfast with these two...

Disney World...

was SOOOO much fun!!

we recently got back from our second fun-filled magical trip to disney world.  this trip was extra special because it was made possible by my grandparents.  after they passed away last year, they were generous to leave behind some of their life's savings to me and requested that i do something special with it.  i talked to my mom about it and we decided that a fun trip would be the perfect way to honor them.  my grandparents LOVED family and traveling.  we decide disney was the perfect spot.  this was a destination that was guaranteed to create lasting memories and a place where everyone would have a FUN time.  i really wanted my parents to come with us.  soooo, we all ended up in orlando, florida for a week full of family and precious memories i will never forget.

here are a FEW of the highlights of our trip...

five steps into the magic kingdom and we got to have a meet and greet with these two famous mice- mickey and minney!  a perfect way to start our magical vacation.

walking down main street usa, taking in the first glimps of cinderella's castle.

jack's first roller coaster.  we even talked nana into riding too!

day 2.  animal kingdom

our little family about to have dinner with cinderella, prince charming, her step mother and the step sisters.  fun evening!

quick night visit to epcot, just the 4 of us.

jack and olivia were thrilled to meet pluto!  he is a fave around here.

gramps FINALLY gets to join us.  our first stop was the magic kingdom.  (you can see jack was not happy to be taking another picture!)

olivia and merida.  be brave!

magical moment for jack.  he met BUZZ!!  he was beyond excited!

the buzz lightyear ride was a family favorite.  i think we rode it 8 times. 

meeting jake the pirate was so much fun!  we are big fans of his at our house.

hollywood studios was so much fun!  we loved the toy story mania ride and the stunt car show.  good times!

late night fireworks at cinderella's castle.

olivia waited a long time, but finally got to meet her favorite princess, ariel.

there are hundreds more pictures that capture the hundreds more smiles and memories we made.  it was truly a wonderful trip.  thanks millie and papa for the BEST family vacation.  :)

a gender reveal party...

was something i had only read about on other people's blogs, heard about from friends, and only considered pinning those cute ideas on my pinterest boards, BUT last night i got to have one of these fun parties to announce the gender of our new little bundle of joy.

for my sake i am going to give the back story on how we got to the decision to find out the gender and do the party, but please feel free to skip all of my ramblings and check out the pictures from our fun affair.  :)
we (well, i) LOVE surprises!  and to me the best surprise ever is finding out you are pregnant and next to that is finding our the gender of your little one.  when we were pregnant with our first child, mark and i decided that we did not want to find out the gender.  there is nothing we could do to change it, and we were just thrilled to be expecting our little one.  it was such a FUN decision.  on our delivery day, it felt like the BEST christmas morning ever.  we would have been overjoyed to welcome either a boy or a girl, but on november 8, 2005, the doctor announced, "it's a girl!"  we were shocked!!  i will never forget that moment.   then we were blessed to become pregnant for a second time in 2007.  this time i had a little girl who was 2 years old and although excited to meet this new little baby, did not adjust easily to new situations.  i couldn't imagine how she was going to respond to a new sibling, PLUS i kinda wanted to know the gender this time, so when our 20 week sonogram rolled around we found out that we were expecting a boy.  that was a really great experience too!  for the next 18 weeks we were able to buy a few blue things, discuss names, and really prepare olivia for her new baby brother.  soooo, that brings us to this pregnancy.  i already have a girl and a boy, and mark and i had decided that we thought it would be fun to not find out again.  well, we told our kids about the pregnancy and they immediately wanted to know if they would be having a baby brother or sister.  we explained that we didn't know yet.  they REALLY wanted to know, so the more i thought about it, i came to the conclusion that a gender reveal party was the perfect way to go.  the kids would get there wish to know the gender early, and mark and i would get the element of surprise that we wanted.   well, in all my thinking about this party i could have never imaged the joy i felt last night.  it was wonderful!

after we left the doctor's office yesterday full of smiles and relief that our little one was healthy, i drove immediately to party city to pass off the envelope to the teenage girl working the balloon counter.  i explained to her that i wanted her to look in the envelope at what the doctor had written, fill the box with either pink or blue balloons, seal it up, and reminded her NOT to tell me what is in the box- it was going to be a surprise for everyone!

then i headed over to the bowlin's house a put up a few decorations...

everyone arrived dressed in their prediction.

there was team blue...

chrissie, nana, abby, and jack

and team pink...

pop, me, mark, b, rara, olivia, kk, and christman

** you might notice my dad and brother are missing from these pictures.  dad DOES NOT want to know what the gender is until "birth" day.  silly, but true.  and brother had to work since it was his first week back after taking 2 months off.  we missed them. **

and then the moment we were all waiting for...

our little family, so excited to open the box!!

PINK!!!!

IT'S A GIRL!!!!!!

i only wished that i would have had a camera in my hand to capture our families reaction.  imagine:  smiles, laughter, and cheering.  it was so much fun!!

i know this will be a memory that i will cherish for a lifetime.  i am so incredibly blessed to have shared this special moment standing right next to my little family and being surrounded by my BIG family.  now we are all praying for this sweet little girl to arrive safely in our arms in january 2013.  we already love her so much and can't wait!!

the evening ended with this beautiful rainbow...

a visible reminder of god's promises.  we are so undeserving, yet he loves us so much.

my heart is so full!  what a happy day! :)