easter sunday...

was packed full of church, family, food, easter baskets, and egg hunts OH and a few pictures to capture and remember all the fun we had!! here is our easter sunday...

easter baskets before church...

celebrating our risen KING, SAVIOR, and LORD at church with our family plus nana...

our little family

olivia, nana, and jack. we LOVE that we get to see nana at church on sunday mornings now.

then it was off to b and pop's house to celebrate with the bowlins and fifers. lots of fried chicken, easter baskets, sweet cousin pictures, and an easter egg hunt in the backyard. a really great afternoon...

uncle christman and jack. pop is back there too!

after the egg hunt picture. you can't tell but they had full baskets.

sweet cousins dressed up in their easter best.

the fun wasn't over yet! we loaded up and drove out to allen to celebrate that evening with the blanchettes. we had more yummy food. more family! more easter basket surprises! and one more egg hunt!

olivia and gram lois.

gram millie and olivia.

olivia with her third basket full of easter eggs for the day. she was LOVING it!!

jack and nana counting and checking out all his eggs.

what a wonderful day filled with so many reasons to be thankful. most of all i am humbled and grateful to know Jesus Christ personally. i am so grateful He desired to have a relationship with me so He lived a perfect and sinless life on earth, died on a cross, was buried, and rose again so that i might have life abundantly and eternally with Him. HE is what today is really all about and the reason we celebrate. to HIM be the glory and honor for all that He has done and for all the blessings He pours out to us. hope you and your family had a special day celebrating today. happy easter!!

introducing...

my newest favorite thing...

my new iMac!!!!!

she doesn't have a name yet, but i love her all the same. my last computer was "honey." she was named after my favorite type of apples- honeycrisp. i'll let you know when i have given her a proper name, but until then you (mom and uncle mark- the only two people who are still actually reading this) can read all the new blog post i have been writing to try and catch up.

oh, and if you have any name suggestions, i'd love to hear them.

in and out again!

poor little jack had to have surgery again!! in october 2009 jack had ear tubes put in and his adenoids taken out. that was a successful surgery, but since then the tubes in his ears fell out the fluid in his ears has returned. :( his ent has been monitoring the situation for a while and feels that it would be best for jack to have a second set of tubes put in his ears. this will allow him to get off of the medication he takes on a daily basis as well as allow him to hear more clearly (the fluid was minimally affecting his hearing). during our last visit to the ent, right before scheduling the surgery, she mentioned that she thought his adenoids had enlarged again as well. so those have to come out too! that all happened about a week ago, and today was the day for surgery.

we woke jack up early this morning, put him in some cute jammies and headed for the surgery center. he had no clue what was about to happen and was loving the waiting room filled with toys, places to climb, and movies to watch.

soon we were called back to see the doctor and meet with the anaesthesiologist. after a brief meeting with each, answering the same series of questions about 5 different times, they brought jack in the "silly juice." within minutes he was "drunk" and very relaxed. hilarious!! :)

dr. coffey, his ent came in and carried him back to the operating room. about 30 minutes later she came back and told us everything went perfect and that jack did a great job. relief! a few minutes later we were able to go recovery to see him and hold him. relief again!

jack did so great coming out of the anesthetic this time, so it was not long before they were pulling out the iv and we were loading up to come home. nana was waiting for us (she took olivia to school for us). jack was happy to see her and i was happy she was willing to stay for the day and help me catch up on laundry and organize a few things around the house.

we are thankful that jack did so well in surgery and hopeful that this will make him stay healthy for a long time! we go back soon for a follow up visit and expect a good report!!

once again, we were in and out of the surgery center in a few hours AND and jack has new tubes IN and the adenoids are OUT!!

a budding artist...

if you were to ask olivia on ALMOST any given day what she wants to be when she grows up, she will say she wants to be an artist. she always reminds me that the special gift god gave her was to be a really great artist! i couldn't agree more. :)

last week at school her class has been learning about all different famous artist while they have been studying the letter A. while learning about these artist they have been creating their own masterpieces. the parents were invited to an "art walk" at the end of the school day to see all of the art on display. it was so neat to see olivia's art. she was so proud to show off her work.

i don't remember all the artist they studied. clearly, i don't have a true appreciation for REAL art, but i am a HUGE fan of olivia bowlin!! here are a few of her masterpieces...

not sure which one is hers, but she said this one was really fun to make.

this is a monster! made with watercolors and crayons.

olivia's most favorite medium to create art- markers and plain white paper. the girl LOVES to draw. these were some of the pieces she was most proud of.

i loved comparing olivia's piece to the other students in her class. it fits her personality perfectly. her art is very organized and the only one like it on the whole wall.

disney on ice, toy story 3 style...

was so much fun!! both of the kids love toy story (it is the best gender neutral movie ever) and so i was pretty sure they would love this live show on ice. pulling in the parking lot at the american airlines center always means that fun is waiting inside. the kids are fortunate to have seen the circus, a past disney on ice show, and some basketball games there.

nana decided that she wanted to go and see the look on jack's face as he saw woody, jessy, bullseye, and the rest of the crew skate right in front of him. his reaction did not disappoint. he was pointing and yelling in excitement for most of the show.

we watched the show with friends sitting on all sides of us...

mickey and minnie opened the show. who doesn't get excited when they see mickey and minnie and all their friends- goofy, donald, etc. ...

jack's favorite part was the "evil zerg shooting at rex and buzz saving rex."

olivia thought ken and barbie's skating was the best! they did some impressive tricks.

i always laugh at spanish buzz and ken's fashion show.

friend heather organizes ordering masses of tickets so we can see fun shows like this when they come to town for a super discounted price AND go during the day. she is the best!! it was a great day and an event my kids are still talking about. :)

daddy daughter donut date...

olivia made daddy this very fashionable invitation to a very special event at her school-- donuts with dads. notice the rainbow colored tie daddy is sporting. the invitation is glued to the back!:)

olivia is always thrilled to have a special date with her daddy (yes, they do it often), but she was SUPER DUPER excited about this one because she was the one doing the inviting. :) she also loved that daddy was going to get to take her to school, meet her friends, see her classroom, and meet her teachers. sounds exciting, right! :) the few details i got from the morning go as follows-

olivia's version: "mommy, we ate donuts and drank juice. i got a plain one and daddy gave me water, not juice. daddy had a donut too. we sat by kk and christman."

mark's version- "it was good. we ate donuts and had juice. then olivia showed me her art work. she is the best artist in her class!"

mark's last statement makes me smile. i love that he truly is blind that other children in the world might be more talented or more special than his own children. but i think that is just the way it is supposed to be. :) and honestly, olivia feels exactly the same way about her daddy- no one in the whole wide world has a better daddy than she does!! as i took their picture and sent them off on their morning date, i thought about how great their bond is and how thankful i am that olivia has a daddy who loves her unconditionally, that is her biggest cheerleader, and that understands her in a way no one else can- their personalities are SOOO much alike. he always knows exactly how she is feeling and exactly what she needs to hear to be comforted, encouraged, and feel loved. one day olivia will be able to look back and be truly grateful for her daddy and the unending ways that he was there for her, but for now just thinking that he is the BEST daddy in the whole wide world is more than enough thanks and gratitude and one of my greatest joys to watch every single day!!

san antonio trip, again...

last year about this time we took at trip to san antonio with our friends the herridges and it was a complete success (click here to see that post), so we decided to try our luck again this year with a similar trip. most of the elements were the same- we stayed at the herridges house (brad's parents), plenty of downtime to just hang out, good conversation, delicious mexico food enjoyed on the patio, and a couple nice dinners out with babysitting provided by mama merle and grandad (brad's parents). doesn't it sound great? it is! some of the highlights for our little family were...

lunch on the fabulous patio of la fonda...

yummy and so relaxing.

followed by cupcakes from the cutest little cupcakery down the street...

olivia loved her neapolitan cupcake. mmmmmm!

jack really enjoyed his too, but only AFTER he got over his fit from us not buying him the GIANT cupcake he had his heart set on. we are mean parents, what can i say! :)

and on saturday we decided to try fiesta texas with the kids. last year we had a great time at sea world, but didn't really want to do that again. we had a really great time and the kids had a blast!!

greeted into the park by tweety bird. a great start to a fun day!

olivia, jack, and grant on the teacup ride. the very first ride of the day. :)

not sure the official name of this ride, but it was olivia's favorite.

grant and o loved the kiddie roller coaster. this was HUGE for o! we were so proud of her for giving it a try. of course, she loved it!!

we all rode the carousel. jack especially loved the ride and the horse he picked out all by himself.

jack and grant on a kiddie version of the "cliffhanger." i love this picture of the boys. :)

and i finally, the most hilarious picture of the trip...

yes, we were suckers and bought this, but we were all laughing so hard we couldn't leave without it. you can't really see everything that is going on, but basically i am terrified that jack might fly out of the boat (notice his arms trying to grab onto something), mary is holding on to him for dear life. olivia is screaming in terror because this ride was pushing her low risk-taking limit a little to far. mark is trying to have fun while comforting and reassuring olivia the entire ride. and brad and grant are just loving the ride and have no idea all that is going on behind them. i am sure it will only be funny to us, but even today it can me LOL. :)

it is weekends and get-a-ways like this that recharge my spirit. we left san antonio, driving north on i-35 energized, thankful for deep friendships, and grateful for the chance to get away to laugh, enjoy one another, and make memories together.

**i took a bunch more pictures, but my camera computer are still not getting along so not all the pictures made it onto the computer. camera and computer are currently in remediation for their issues, and we are hopeful that soon they will be best friends again.**