First Day of School

Julia went to her first day of Mother's Day Out this morning, which we're calling "school". I felt fine up until about 30 minutes before I needed to drop her off, and then I started getting anxious. I knew she'd enjoy the new toys and friends, but our sweet girl has a pretty rough time napping outside of her own crib. Jarret and I prayed for her last night, this morning, and then again around the time when she'd need to nap. Finally, it was time to pick her up...I was very excited to see her again! They said it took her a while to settle into a nap and required a little bit of back patting and the like, but she finally gave it up and napped for over an hour. That was a huge praise, considering I was entirely prepared to hear that she didn't nap at all. And on top of that, she was in a fabulous mood and all smiles when I picked her up. Yea!!

I tried to get a picture of her this morning, but she wouldn't stand still. So I turned on the TV to PBS, and she was glued to Curious George. That's what she's staring at in each of these photos.



Outside her class, with Elsie in hand and ready to go. When I picked her up, her teacher said that Julia had Elsie with her the entire time except for about 5 minutes out of the whole 5 hours! Attached much?


Julia and her teacher Mrs. Melody, at the end of the day when Julia was super happy. Getting a morning photo was not about to happen because Julia still wails when we drop her off. Luckily, we continue to get reports that the wailing lasts all of 30 seconds. Happy that she's happy, but are we really that forgettable?!

Julia, you are such a big girl and we're so glad you had a great first day of school. We love you more than you know!!

Adults Only

This past Saturday our community group (aka church small group) got together...with NO kids...and NOT at one of our houses. I'm pretty sure it's the first time we've done anything social together like this since Julia's been born, meaning it's been at least 15 months. With all the children in our group, we're usually at someone's house so the kiddos can sleep without us all having to get babysitters. This was such a treat to enjoy dinner and ice cream just us adults!

travis, andrea, jarret, katie, karla, dustin, jill, & aaron

Lake Getaway

We just spent an amazing 4-day weekend at Lake Palestine with Jarret's family. Their extremely generous family friends allowed us to use their lake house while they were vacationing! Their lake house is amazing, with tons of room for all of us to spread out, a great dock for fishing and keeping our boat there for immediate access, and an amazing view of the lake! Look how calm the lake was in the morning and how pretty with the early sun coloring the sky and water.

We played hard on the water, but relaxed too. Jarret and I managed to nap two days while Julia was napping, we raced the kids in Mario Kart, and played our beloved game of Rummikub. We laughed a lot and had stories to tell of Jacob falling off the boat dock and into the lake (thank God he was wearing his life jacket) and Julia giving her lovey Elsie (a pink stuffed cow) a very thorough "bath" in the toilet when mom and dad had taken their eyes off her.

All the kids rode the jet skis and the tube. Julia seems to have no fear of anything water-related yet!
Wildlife! When you don't have pets of your own, I guess it's extremely exciting to see someone else's.
The kids loved riding around on the golf cart (it's a lake community that's also on a golf course, so everyone drives their personally owned carts when they're driving throughout the neighborhood). Kendall, Caden, and Jacob all take turns driving the cart. We nearly fell off the road only a handful of times, especially when Uncle Jar Jar decided he was going to actually trust Jacob to steer. Hello? He's not even 2.5 years old yet!
Down by the dock (you can see their big house in the background)

Kendall loves holding Julia. Jarret and I both remarked about how wonderful it was to have Julia entirely entertained by Kendall, Caden and Jacob and how much she adores playing with them.

Julia enjoyed playing by the windows that look out onto the porch balcony. Aunt Erin was sitting out on the porch, while Julia was indoors. Julia walked up to the glass to "talk" to Aunt Erin, she pressed her face up to the glass, and then I see Erin hysterically laughing and telling me to grab my camera. This is what it looked like from Erin's point of view:

Undoubtedly, the worst picture of our child
Ah, back to our sweet baby girl!

The adults and kids alike enjoyed all sorts of junk food. Julia had her first powdered donut on the first morning we were there, and then she wanted them each morning for breakfast. She would spot the big bag of donuts and would carry the entire thing over to us. She also enjoyed a couple of cupcakes, as you can clearly see!

Could her eyes be any bigger?!

On our last night there, we took an evening sunset cruise around the lake which was so relaxing to just sit and enjoy, rather than beating up our bodies with water sports.

Julia with Jacob, who was her best friend all weekend.

The cousins riding up front

A great picture of the sunset; a not-so great picture with my hair flying all around with the boat in motion.

A little better of me, but you can't see the sunset as well.

On our last day there, we tried to get a couple of group shots. With all the kids, it's extremely difficult to get one where everyone is looking at the camera. This is the best we managed to get despite the insane number of pictures we took!

Random Photo Time

Julia has fallen in love with the concept that someone can point this camera-thingy in her face, push a button, and then she can run around and see herself on the screen. So on Monday night we had a fun family night of taking random pictures for the sole purpose of seeing Julia's sweet smile and silly laugh once she viewed the picture. Well, several of them actually turned out cute or funny enough to share.

This started a series of hilarious photos. Jarret claimed his eyes were open, but I said we needed to try again:

So we tried again. Still no luck.

I say, "Jarret, you have to keep your eyes open!" He most certainly did. When I saw the picture, I laughed so hard for so long I was literally crying. Julia liked the picture but she didn't understand why mommy and daddy were in hysterical laughter.

Julia being uber sweet and laying down on me. This is about the only way we ever get any form of a hug that she initiates, rather than us forcing out of her.

Hmm, hug time is apparently over because she realized it would be more fun to hit daddy on the head.

We tell her no hitting and I show her how to touch gently. So now she is ever so sweetly stroking daddy's head instead!

July

I was blessed enough to have a contract job during the month of July, which meant I've not made the time to make any blog entries. As it turns out, I did a horrible job of taking pictures so there's not much to show!

On July 3rd, we joined Nate, Melissa and Pierson at the Frisco Athletic Center splash park. Somehow I ended up with multiple pics of them, and only a couple of Julia which weren't even good pictures. She's not quite ready for running back and forth under falling water, but she had a blast regardless, especially with her daddy's help of going down the slides.

We made a Tuesday afternoon visit to the Dallas World Aquarium with my folks and with Jarret, who took a long lunch break to join us since he so luckily works downtown!

Doesn't she look like she's pretending to be a monkey?!

During a recent conversation with some of my girlfriends, I was advised by Andrea and Chelsi to let my child practice using a fork and spoon and to not be afraid of letting her make a mess. They imparted this wisdom to me because they believed their first children still needed help with utensils because they didn't allow them enough practice early on. Well, I followed your advice. Unfortunately, I turned my back for one second and then next thing I knew, I heard the sound of something dripping down her high chair and all over the floor...

We also enjoyed our first weekend getaway EVER with my parents. The only time we've traveled with my folks is to visit our relatives in Tennessee for Thanksgiving, so it was long overdue that we take a mini-vacation as a family. Of course, I got ZERO photos. We hauled the boat and stayed with my parents' friends at their home on Lake Cypress Springs (east Texas). Their home was beautiful with a massive porch that looks out at the lake. So when we weren't boating or wakeboarding, we were typically found outside relaxing. Thank you Lord for the unusually cooler weather that weekend - what a treat! Thank you Robin & Eric for so generously opening up your home to us!

Over the course of the last week, and especially because it included all my birthday celebrations, I think I've gained 10 pounds from my disgusting eating habits. Coffee and dessert with a couple of girlfriends, La Hacienda fajitas, Freebirds, Via Real (my favorite mexican restaurant which is in Las Colinas down the road from my old job), and Krispy Kreme. Like I said, I've done a terrible job of capturing it on camera, so KK is the only place we got pictures. Julia LOVED her donut, as did mommy! A KK donut hot and fresh off the conveyor belt simply cannot be beat.

And last but not least, Julia made a new friend this past weekend: