Amazing Valentine's Date

It started earlier this week when I mentioned to Jarret that we had nothing planned for Valentine's Day. He replied, "Yes, we do! I put it on our calendar, but you just haven't noticed." Sure enough, our calendar was marked for Saturday evening: "Surprise Valentine's Date".

I *love* suprises. All I knew is that we were supposed to be somewhere near downtown at 6:45. Dinner reservations, perhaps? On Saturday afternoon, I finally asked Jarret what I needed to wear. He said I need to be casual and comfortable. I felt like what I was wearing already fit that description, but he suggested I get even more casual. Clearly, we were not going to a swanky restaurant. Perhaps some sort of fun activity?

I changed clothes, we dropped Julia off at Gran & Poppy's, and then enjoyed a matinee movie (such a treat!). Afterward, we started our drive toward downtown. Soon, we were veering off on roads I've never driven down, and then I started getting nervous...truly nervous. Where were we? I suddenly felt like we were in a different city, and not the nice part of the city.

As we pulled up to our destination, Jarret gives me the go-ahead to read my Valentine's Day card. In it, he wrote, "I am blessed to serve alongside my 'Miss Debbie' for the rest of my life." That's a reference to the book we're reading, Same Kind of Different as Me. It tells the story of a rich art dealer in the DFW area who, at the prompting of his wife Miss Debbie, begins serving the homeless through Union Gospel Mission and befriends a homeless fellow. Of course, they both end up changing each other's lives. The book has been reshaping our lives.

Since we're on a very tight budget right now and can't afford Valentine's Day in the traditional sense, Jarret decided what better way to spend Valentine's Day than giving our time to serve others. So, we spent three hours talking to these men and getting to serve up some food. It was an incredible Valentine's Day, and I am so blessed to have a husband who thought to do such a wonderful thing! Our goal for 2009 is to become more focused on truly loving and serving others, regardless of whether they can do anything for us. Thank you honey for planning such an awesome date night that was focused toward our goal!

Courtesy of fellow Watermark member Todd's cellphone camera. Thanks Todd!

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. (Philippians 2:3)

For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.' (Matthew 25:35-36)

Heaven On Earth

Attending Dallas Boat Show
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Showing off daugther in wakeboard attire
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Chattin' it up with wakeboard pro Keith Lyman
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Jarret's version of heaven on earth!

JARRET'S EDIT: Great post Honey! What a great moment in my life! haha If you all want to see a small glimpse of why Keith Lyman is one of the greatest wakeboarders on the planet, then check out this video.
http://vimeo.com/2208996?pg=embed&sec=2208996

Birthdays!

My sweet, wonderful husband turned 30 last Friday (January 23). We celebrated with his family at Bob's Steak & Chop!




And Julia turns 8 months old today! At 8 months: -

• She is trying to pull up and loves standing up, but has zero interest in crawling.
  
• One of her top teeth is about 1/2 way in, and she clicks/grinds it against her bottom teeth. The sound is absolutely worse than nails on a chalkboard!


• Her personality clearly takes after her dad more than her mom (hooray!). She is mellow and calm, and she's generally very happy but doesn't necessarily show it on her face 24-7.


• Also like her daddy, she can still sleep like a champ. She sleeps 11.5 - 12 hours at night and still takes two good naps during the day (every once in a while, 3 naps).


• She's a fantastic eater. We'd heard plenty of stories of babies who ate great until green beans were introduced. The child eats them like applesauce. Many times, she has her mouth wide open before we can even get the next bite ready! We call her our little birdie. This is how wide she opens her mouth (yes, we were letting her sip water from a straw):



• She likes to "dance" to music. She'll bounce up and down to music when she's sitting (see video below), but she also gets a big smile on her face when I hold her in my arms and boogie to upbeat dance music.






• Her favorite discovery of this month has been to hold an object in each hand and bang them together. She gets such a giddy grin on her face as she makes "music".

A cute picture of my two favorite people together:

2 Firsts: Taking a Drive, Going for a Swim!

Last week, Julia and I spent some time outdoors at the Self's house while the weather was so nice. Karla offered for Julia and Haley to take turns riding in the red car. Julia went first. Instead of switching off, Haley proceeded to push Julia around for nearly 20 minutes. It was so precious to watch them!

Haley giving sweet (and very gentle!) hugs to Julia.
Karla and I both had the "awww!" face.

The girls on a joy ride; Noah gets rear-ended

We also enrolled Julia in "swim" lessons. Yes, she's only 7.5 months old, but we want her to be uber-comfortable with the water at a young age since we're such lake rats. Only 1 parent is allowed in the pool with them, and Daddy was the winner for this past week. She really enjoys being in the water and splashing around, and she doesn't even mind getting water all over her face.

Fun with Friends and Julia's 6th month

Fun with Friends

Over the past month, we've had several get-togethers with friends and their kiddos. Naturally, that made for several photo ops. All names listed from left to right. Katie & Lee spent the night with us before Christmas, and we got a cute snapshot of all the girls!

Julia, Lily & Grace

Lauren & Stephanie were my closest childhood friends who lived in my neighborhood. We had an amazing lunch (thanks Lauren & Sandra!) with all three generations: us, our moms, and our kiddos. The grandmothers made the realization that WE are now the age THEY were when they started hanging out. Wow!

Sandy, Coit, Stephanie. Sandra, Lauren, Cline. Me, Jewels, my mom (Jane).

Cline, Coit, Julia

Cline & Julia - We love putting anything in our mouths!! On a couple of occasions, Julia smiled and even laughed at Cline. Ummm, we haven't noticed her doing that with other girls. Jarret & I are slightly worried. Honestly Julia, you're only 7 months old. Wait a little, honey. You'll give your daddy a heart attack. :-)

Julia & Grammy - Thanks for the cute dress Grammy. I love it!

Andrea & I went to Karla's house for a playdate a couple days ago. The girls were so cute together! Julia is finally getting to the age where she actually pays attention to other kids.

Paige (daughter of Andrea), Haley (daughter of Karla), and Julia

"Girly Girl" indeed. Precious top that Gran found!

Kasey & I visited Hillary who has a brand new baby girl at home.

Julia, Jacob & Katie (kiddos of Kasey), and Ryan (two-week-old of Hillary)

Julia's 6th month
Julia turned 7 months on December 30th. So what happened during December when she was 6 months old?

Christmas
Julia was so worn out from all the Christmas festivities that she fell asleep on her changing table, all the while never letting go of her feet!

Sitting Up
Starting in early December, Julia went from not sitting up on her own at all to making rapid progress each and every day.

Is this not the funniest face?

Karla's toy
Karla let us borrow some toys, and this one is Julia's favorite of ALL toys. She sits and smashes the buttons and plays with the other parts of the toy, but she absolutely loves standing so this gives her something to lean on. When the music plays, I swear she's already trying to dance!

Exersaucer
Julia can finally use and enjoy her Exersaucer. She is over 7 months old, but still in 3-6 month clothes. The onesies are finally tight, but pants are still so long. What does this have to do with the Exersaucer?! Even at the lowest setting, the child's legs couldn't remotely touch the bottom of the Exersaucer. Miss Petite can now comfortably sit in the toy, though I still have to put a blanket underneath her to make it more of the right height. Poor girl! (Though it's kinda fun that she's staying "little".)