The last few days

We have had a wonderful week, and I've enjoyed how the rain has slowed us down some. Lots of random photos to share.

On Thursday, we finally closed on refinancing our house. Hooray! Our new fence was also completed (that's a separate blog post to come once it stops raining long enough to take the "after" photos). I also had brunch and a pedicure with my wonderful friend Melissa while our kids were in Mother's Day Out, but I failed to get a photo of us. :-( Later that afternoon, I took Julia with me to get my sunglasses repaired. Now that she's finally mastered getting down from the couch or a chair, she enjoys sitting up in a big chair more than ever. Here she is just hanging out with me while we wait on my sunglasses.



On Friday night, we kept Noah and Haley (the Selfs' kids) while their mommy and daddy went to a work party. I grabbed my camera for a quick pic when I saw that all 3 kids had climbed up with J to read a book.


Watching the rain during the wonderfully slow, lazy weekend.


On Saturday, my sweet husband had daddy-daughter evening while I went out with my dear friend Kasey for dinner and shopping. We went to the Watters Creek area in Allen, and we had a great dinner at Brio's Italian and shopped at some new stores I'd never even heard of before. We had a blast and thoroughly enjoyed talking without being interrupted by any of our kiddos.


On Sunday's ride to church, Julia rode forward-facing in her car seat for the first time!

On Monday, we'd finally had enough of being cooped up inside due to all the rain. With Julia's new desire to climb on the furniture and fireplace, I thought she might enjoy the playground at Willow Bend mall. Everything is super soft and many of the objects are at the right height for her to practice her climbing skills. She hesitated to move for the first moment, then she'd run off a short distance to play briefly before running back to me, and then after a while she nearly forgot I was there because she was having such a blast with her freedom!

This video captures that precious little toddler "run" I love so much with her arms back as if she's an airplane about to take off. It also shows how much fun she was having. I loved seeing that sweet smile as she'd run back over to me.


This video is simply documentation of when she began trying to climb things.

And lastly, we wanted to show Julia's dark side. About a month ago, she began making this crazy face to us. When Jarret first saw the look, he honestly thought something was very wrong with his baby girl and even asked if she was possessed! Since then, he's come to find it hysterical. He calls it the "evil eye" and she can now give it on cue:

Lake Fun

On Saturday we spent the morning at Lake Lavon with the Self family, with the hope of thoroughly entertaining the kiddos with all sorts of lake fun. I'd say it was a success! The kids enjoyed each other's company, and Noah and Haley both had some fun firsts with swimming in the lake and riding the Ski Bob (though poor Haley was not convinced that the Ski Bob was fun). Noah even wakeboarded with Jarret! The day could not have gone better as far as the beautiful weather, the calm lake, and very few boats around.

Julia often gets so mellow on the boat:

Julia and Haley enjoying the Motor Boat song:




The kids splashing around on the swim deck:


Way to go Noah!!!

Yes, you ARE cool!

Riding the Ski Bob - Noah having fun, Haley not so much:





The lake makes everyone hungry!:

First Movie

Let me first say that Julia did great again at school on Thursday. Played well, slept well, ate well. She was in such a great mood with a big smile on her face on both days when I picked her up. In my opinion, we couldn't have asked for her first week to go any better!

On Wednesday though (in between her two school days), I wasn't quite sure how to keep Julia entertained all day. We went to Breckenridge Park that morning to feed the ducks, but otherwise we had no errands to run and no particular place to go. So I decided to try her first movie.

I laid out blankets and pillows, and we even had snacks. She was enthralled for the first 10 minutes, but afterward would move between playing with her toys and watching. Either way was great with me, as she was mostly entertaining herself so long as I was simply in the room with her. And with Toy Story being the movie of choice, I had no problem sitting happily with her watching the move while she played.

While we were watching the movie, she crawled up on an object for the first time ever. I happened to have the camera by me, so I managed to get a pic of her scaling the fireplace. Guess we're now entering a new level of baby proofing, huh?

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!!