thanksgiving at the farm...

this year we spent thanksgiving with my family at my parents farm.  it was an extra special year with my family because my dad's entire family was there.  his brother and his family traveled all the way from florida to celebrate with us.  and his middle brother drove up from houston.  it was very special for my grandmother to have all her boys and their families all together.  however, we did miss my mom's parents.  last year both of them were seated at the thanksgiving table and this year they are in heaven.

our long weekend was spent hanging out at the farm and loving to chance to spend quality time with family.  we even convinced them all to take a family picture.  (yes, this group takes some convincing to smile for the camera.)

we also...
watched some football.  go cowboys!!  (mark and aunt laura were happy.) sorry lions! (uncle pat and timmy were not so happy.)

prepared three turkeys for the thanksgiving meal (baked, smoked, and fried) along with tons of yummy sides.  all the turkeys were delicious, but my favorite was the fried. yum!!

uncle sean (the professional chef) did some cooking as well.  he makes the BEST green bean casserole and some really good gravy too!

jack loved dessert- and there was plenty of it.  his favorite part was "helping" beat the whipped cream for the pies.  the boy loves dessert!!!

oh, one of the most exciting events of the weekend was one of my dad's cows gave birth to a calf on thanksgiving!!  my dad named her "pilgrim" but the kids and i are calling her "cranberry."  we think that is a much cuter name. ;)

most of all, i loved having a break from our routine and getting to spend lots of time with these two (and mark)...

this thanksgiving we had so much to be thankful for, but here are a few of the specifics... the chance to spend time with extended family, a table full of delicious food prepared with lots of love, laughter, friendly competition at the shoot range, cool fall weather, friends that we consider family who were able to gather with us, good dinner conversation, gram lois' homemade rolls, smiles for the camera, time to relax, and for the chance to thank god for our many blessings while praying together as a BIG family.

a week of awards...

and it is only wednesday!!!  her birthday is over, but we continue to celebrate olivia this week.

monday night, her soccer team had a team dinner to celebrate a great fall season.  at the end of the dinner each of the girls were presented with a trophy and the coaches told them what a good job they did this season.

christman telling her how proud he was of her and the way she played all season.

coach john, o, and coach christman- the best coaches!!

first good look at the trophy!!

our last game is this saturday.  to be honest, i am looking forward to a break from weekly practices and games, but i am going to miss getting to see olivia shine on the soccer field.  i am also going to miss all of her sweet friends and their parents.  hopefully team lyon will be back together in the spring for more soccer fun!!

but wait, there is more!!!  yesterday, olivia's school celebrated all the achievements of the second six weeks of school at their award assembly.  jack and i were there because last week ms. pattillo sent me and email saying that olivia would be receiving the principal's award.  this is a BIG deal!  only one student from each class is chosen to receive this award each six weeks.  ms. pattillo said that o was selected because "she always works very hard and does her best work AND she is very helpful to other students in our class."  to say that i was proud of her is an understatement.  :) (sadly, mark had an important meeting and couldn't be there.)  sorry for the poor photography- forgot the good zoom lens.

her name was called!!

ms. kirpatrick giving her the award.

her teacher, ms. pattillo, o, and her principal, ms. kirpatrick

what a fun week!!  so proud of you o!!  we love you and it brings us such joy watching you accomplish great things!!

the rainbow art party...

i promise the birthday posts are about to end, but you can't turn 6 without at birthday party!!!

olivia started asking last year for an art party.  she LOVES art!!  last year i talked her out of having the party at our house and doing the american girl store with the women in our family.  that was a blast, but o has not forgotten that she wanted to have an art party at our house.  i decided that since she had been asking for over a year that this was the year for the rainbow art party.  it was so much fun to plan because olivia was very involved.  she helped decide on the projects we would do, the food we would serve, and she even created the game we played all by herself.

we prepared everything for the party...

the invitation

the food table

the party favor bags & game notebooks

the welcome sign to direct our guests to the party

rainbow cake in mason jars

5 minutes before party time our first guests arrive...

abby, the birthday girl, and kk

as we waited for all the guests to arrive the girls were busy coloring, drawing, and making jewelry...

next it was time for the main event, let the owl painting begin...

 then it was game time and a group picture in the backyard...

 and finally... happy birthday, cake, and ice cream!!

love this smile while everyone was singing to her!

making her wish...

baylor homecoming is...

friday night bonfire with family...

o, kk, j, and abby.

jack and pop happy to be together watching the bonfire.

our whole family.  not a great picture, but had to include it.  :)

early saturday morning snuggled up together at the parade...

so fun that it was cold this year and we could all snuggle together under our baylor blankets waiting for the parade to begin.

sarah, christman, and me.  we are waiting for the parade to start too!

photo opts after the parade on the beautiful baylor campus...

our future baylor bear?  love this pic.  the building behind her are where i spent most of my college days.

our little family.

taking a piece of the parade home with us...

the girls were so excited that they were given a piece of one the winning floats from the parade.

a high-five and picture with bruiser...

the kids always love the chance to talk to bruiser and pose for a pic.

cheering on the bears to another victory at the game...

hate that this one is blurry because it is such a cute one of o and mark.

"sic em BEARS!!!!" says jack with his foam bear claw.  thanks pop for the bear claw.

baylor homecoming is one of the most fun weekends of the fall for our family.  we love seeing friends from our college days, running to familiar faces everywhere we go in waco, and we LOVE make lasting memories with our bowlin/fifer family.

state fair highlights...

our trips to the state fair are becoming some what predicable, but they are still so much fun!!  this year we went with b & pop (we missed the fifers-- sniff, sniff) and headed down to the fair grounds one afternoon right after we picked up o from school.  the weather was perfect, the crowds were small, and the corny dogs were delicious.  here are the highlights from our trip to "the great state fair of texas" (that is what olivia calls it!!)

o's first choice at the midway- generic dumbo ride.  she loved it just as much as she did in disneyworld.  :)

next up-- o and j in the miller lite bumper cars.  this pic was before the ride really began.   once it started they were both giggling and laughing the entire time.

the guys rode the log ride- jack, mark, and pop.  olivia is not a fan so b, olivia, and i just watched and took pictures.  :)

finally time to eat!!  pop and o enjoying their corny dogs soon followed by the best cinnamon roll ever!!  later a fried moon pie for mark and a carmel apple for me.  i am pretty sure the kids ate something else too, i can't remember.

no trip to the fair is complete without a picture in front of big tex.  say "howdy!!"

our car-loving jack could not get enough of the car show.  o loved climbing in and out of the cars too.  what is it about being a kid and pretending to drive that is soooo much fun?

then off to owen's farm to feed the animals.  always a highlight for the kids.  i just hate the smell and feel so dirty when we are done.  :) 

and of course we had to go on trip to the "little hands farm." the kids worked hard on the farm-- picking fruit, milking the cow, feeding the animals, and planting some seeds.  

after all that we headed back to the kiddie midway to spend the rest of our coupons on a few more rides  then we waved good-bye to the big ferris wheel, said "see ya next year!" to big tex and headed home.