The Holiday Hat Trick

We are so excited to be celebrating our first christmas together with Pryce. Time is just flying by it seems like. So we are desperately trying to saok in these moments. Last weekend we took the trip to the sticks to celebrate our first round of Christmas with Grammie and Grampie. It was a fantastic time.

We had a house full and the gifts were a plenty. We began by letting the kids tear through their gifts which took no time at all. Of course Jackson had to be in the center of it all practically opening everyone's gifts before they even started. Grampie handled it like a pro. Then we had a White elephant exchange for the adults. So much fun. appropriately enough Meredith ended up getting 2 gifts since the one I selected just happened to be a bag full of girl crap. It's like a metaphor for marriage. What's mine is ours and what's ours is hers. LOL!!! Jackson and Pryce were doted on the entire time by their grandparents and as usual cried when we left. Nice.

Today Mert spent the day cooking with Pryce while Jackson and I went on a Daddy Day Out. We went to work for a little whie, got haircuts and then saw Alvin and the Chipmunks. It's a day he may not remember, but I will never forget. We have become quite a pair.
Now we are on to round 2 with the Trawicks. That means lots of treats, eats, laughs and loud voices. We are a vocal bunch. We are making a schedule change and letting the kids open their gifts tonight (Christmas Eve), but the grown-ups (a term used loosely) will wait until tomorrow morning. Oh and the best part... we may have a white Christmas. That would be AMAZING!
Then we set-up for round 3 with Dad, Kelley, Matt, Nikki, Brooke, Josh, Amy, Brianne and Lucy. We have a few great gifts for those festivities as well. I guarantee Dad cries.

As we get closer to wrapping up 2009 I have to say it was the toughest and most rewarding year of my life. I can't wait to look back on it years from now and remind the kids with this story just how special this time of year can be.

Awesome Anniversary!!!

One year ago today our lives changed forever. This is the day Meredith and I joined forces as a married couple. We fell in love a year before that practically skipping down the aisles of a Sam's Club (long story). We had to break the hearts of our significant others at the time, she quit her "dream job" and we completely sent our worlds into an uproar, but we knew we were meant to be. When everyone else seemed skeptical we never wavered. It has been the single best decision of my life.
To celebrate this magical union I surprised Mert with an overnight stay at the W Hotel in Dallas. It was AWESOME. Grammie and Grampie entertained the chillens while we proceeded to an unforgettable evening (Don't worry I'll leave out the bomp chicca wah wah details).
We started out being treated like royalty receiving with hot towels dipped in eucalyptus while checking in. We were then escorted to our room which was prepped with bottle of champagne and chocolate covered cherries from the management. Freaking SWEET! We casually lounged in the room while life's worries went out the window, which had a great view of the skyline by the way.
Then we got all gussied up and treated ourselves to what had to be the best dinner we have had, ummm EVER. We were wined and dined by a waitstaff who would burp you after your meal if you so wished. The chef sent us treats and we gorged on 4 courses. Don't judge us. After dinner we shared another drink in our room, then (CENSOR HERE, talk amongst yourselves)then we made our way to the 33rd floor and entered the infamous Ghost Bar. It was nothing short of fantastic. We danced, had drinks, befriended perfect strangers and agreed that the DJ was some sort of music mixing savant. The entire night was perfect.
More than anything we just enjoyed one another and got a chance to see everything for what it is. We are extremely lucky. We are so proud of our little family and we understand more than ever how good we have it. I love my wife and she loves me. We are confident that will be the success for us and for our kids.
They say the first year is the hardest... we definitely made it interesting. Now we can't wait to find out what the good Lord has in store for our future.

How to get to Sesame Street...

This weekend we showed jackson exactly how to get to Sesame Street! He had the time of his life. It was Friday night and we all loaded up for a trip to the Oil Palace to see "When Elmo Grows Up". Jackson was in awe as the characters came into the crowd handing out high fives and plenty of hellos to all the kiddos. It was fantastic!
Jackson got so many treats like hot dogs and popcorn and even a little toy to take home, but most of all he got a night all to himself. So much attention has been going to his baby sister for the past few weeks we thought it was high time that the J-man take center stage. So Mimi and Duke were kind enough to watch Pryce for a few hours while we headed off to the show. Of course Jackson was very sweet and insisted that "Baby Pryce come with us", but we told him this was his BIG night. He didn't argue after that.
We were so impressed with our boy. It's funny when you're around so many little ones you get a much better picture of the well behaved versus the little hellions. Fortunately we have a very good boy. While we saw some kids screaming at their parents, running around out of control and generally being a pain in the you know what... there sat Jackson just watching the show. Thank the LORD!!!
Afterwards we headed back to Mimi and Duke's to reunite the family. Since Jeremy, Cha,na and Colin were in town Jackson got to stretch out the evening a little further playing with his cousin while we watched some Trawick family moments (caught on tape). Thank you very much for that Duke.
It was an awesome night.I know Jackson was thrilled because he woke up the next morning begging us to "go see Elmo again". You gotta love that.

Time flies...

What happened? I look up and it's November. Pryce is 2 months old, Jackson is a little taller and we are moving into week 3 of P90X. I mean seriously. You know you're getting older when everything becomes about plannning. I was talking to one of my best friends this week about getting together. The conversation used to go like this... "What are you doing? Watching the game. I'll be over in 10 minutes". Now it goes like this... "Let's try to get together soon. Well, we have plans every weekend in November. Yeah, then it will be Christmas. What do you have going on in January"? When did this happen? When did we transition to calendars for a weekend of hanging out? It's really funny how priorities change and life goes in a different direction. I've started having those moments that my parents promised would happen, "You'll understand when you're older". Well, I understand. I get it that with all of the bills and the stress and the work that things are inevitably going to change. Thank GOD it's all worth it. I see that life just sort of takes over. Things change or become different and it is all for the better. Sure it sucks to be a "grown-up", but would I want things any other way? Absolutely not. I read the other day that not knowing what the future holds is part of the fun. It's so true. What I do know is that the way time is just flying by I will look up and another year will have past and I will be saying the same thing... What happened? Oh, well. That's life.

Battling the Bulge

After 11 months of stuffing our faces with anything and everything we could find at an obscene rate we have finally surrendered to a health plan. That's right, we are making a life change because frankly, we got OUT OF CONTROL! The other night we took before pictures and it was rather depressing. Don't get me wrong Meredith still looks great, but I am apparently giving birth to our next child. I mean seriously, what a tremendous GUT! I am convinced people have been pointing and laughing at me behind my back. "Did that guy eat Jerry Mathers"? "Oh look Ricky Gervais put on more weight". That's fine I put myself in this situation. So now it is time to get out of it. So Meredith and I are taking on P90X. HOLY FAT SHREDDER BATMAN! This thing is no joke. We just completed week 1 which is 6 days a week of working out and a fantastic nutrition plan. Mert has been cooking 3 meals a day while taking care of the kids, no easy task considering we went from 0-60 flat. She is a natural in the kitchen by the way. Everything has been soooo good. It's amazing the effect it has on you. Suddenly I don't wake up tired or need to take a break mid-way through getting ready for work. Granted we still have like 83 days to go, but we are loving it. Hopefully we will get back into the clothes in our closet that somehow don't fit anymore... As important as that is to us, it will be much better for the kids. There is no reason why Jackson should not be able to play cars with me in his room because I get exhausted from bending over. I don't want to miss playing catch or teaching our little girl to ride a bike because the family has to bring me after meal snacks on a tray table since "Daddy can't get out of his chair".
So we are committed to this plan and really excited about it. Hopefully there will be a noticeable change very soon. If not we will just have to keep working at it.
So, Farewell Gutty McFatso... it's time for a change.

Important to Remember

For the last 6 days the Bowler's have been on a complete roller coaster ride. As expected it has been full of those life experiences that really define a family, which makes it all the better.
It began with the build up of an emmy nomination for some of my work that had us on cloud nine hoping to bring home the award. In order to ring in the night we packed up baby Pryce (while Jackson stayed with Jonathan) and turned her over to Grammie for a full night away from her folks. Grammie put up a BIG fight, literally grabbing her from our arms and announcing we were free to leave at anytime.
Unfortunatley we were not recognized with the statue, but it was an honor to be nominated. There I gave the cliche loser speech. Now someone please punch me in the face. IT SUCKS TO LOSE!!! All in all it was great for us to take a time out for ourselves, so I can't complain too much.

IMPORTANT TO REMEMBER: Your days of late night drinking, sleeping in and then hitting
some grease pit to recover are over. O-V-E-R. Don't be an idiot. LOL!!!

Returning home on Sunday we were still on a high from our little getaway, but reality would quickly kick in...
We got news Monday morning that Meredith's Uncle Dave had passed overnight. It was devastating! We knew the family would be gathering in his honor which meant we had to act fast. Meredith and her sisters knew how improtant their Uncle has been to Chalna and we all knew she needeed us to be there. It was a no brainer decision. So once again, only a few days later we packed up our newborn, Jackson and ourselves for what would be a family journey across TEXAS.

IMPORTANT TO REMEMBER: Don't kill each other.

I was proud to see how our family responded as a unit. Jackson was amazing. He watched some shows, played quietly in his seat and always let us know when his little sister needed something. Of course she handled that pretty well on her own. To be honest she was pretty impressive as well. We could only count a handful of cries.
Meredith and I switched off driving duties and never disagreed about the music, so that's a bonus. Right?
The real lesson however, came when we arrived. While we were there because of a death, Uncle Dave insisted that we celebrate his life. If that doesn't scream from the heavens what kind of a person he was, I don't know what does. His only wish was for the people he loved (and those of us, like me, lucky enough to be invited) to have a beer and some food in Lukenbach, Texas in his honor.
I was overwhelmed by this gesture. From what I could tell, it was exactly what his family needed too. Isn't that something? For a man to give his family exactly what they need exactly when they need it.
So here's to you Uncle Dave... a man I never met, but who somehow helped me discover some of life's greatest lessons after he was gone.

IMPORTANT TO REMEMBER: Life is always worth celebrating!!

All in all it has been a trying few days, but those are where the lessons in life come from. We are exhausted from it all, but mostly we are grateful.

Now, New and Next

Well, it has been a wild couple of weeks. We have contemplated so much. Where will we live? What will we do? How will these decisions impact our family? It has been a whirlwind! In the last 2 weeks I have been in 4 different states traveling and checking out possibilities for new challenges. It felt like we were on a decision making see-saw. It has been emotionally and physically exhausting. In the end we trust that what's "Now, New and Next" for the Bowler family is completely in GOD's hands.
We will not be leaving Texas anytime soon. It just wasn't in the cards for us this time. Right now we are thrilled to be close to our families. It would be so difficult for our family to spend anytime apart right now. I could not bare the thought of missing Pryce crawl for the first time or take her first steps or hear her first word. We know that Jackson needs some time with his Daddy Cory (otherwise Meredith will fill his mind with Rachel Ray and Big Lots). Most of all Mert and I discovered that spending a few days away from each other was hard enough. It would be monumentally more difficult to be apart for what could be weeks at a time. Although it would be temporary we would not be able to control the timeline.
What's new? Well, we are considering all possibilities which is very exciting. Anything is possible. We hope that we remain in your prayers and we can't wait to tell you what we take on next... Of course first we will have to find out for ourselves.