An Update At Long Last

It's been a long while since we had any updates. Julia is now 6 months old, has her first tooth and a second one on the way, is sleeping 12 hours at night, and is making crazy sounds constantly. Jarret & I hosted our first meeting in which we'll be leading a Foundations Group for the next 15 months, we celebrated Thanksgiving in Tennessee with my family, and we saw our first movie in the theater since Julia's birth.

Thanksgiving at the Farm in Tennessee

Each Thanksgiving, the Trimble family (my dad's extended side) holds lunch at the farm where my grandfather and his brothers and sisters grew up. The original house was built in 1901 with several barns around the property. A few years ago, a family member tore down the old house due to its worsening condition, and they rebuilt it with great care to keep much of the look and floorplan the same. It's so wonderful to walk the property and hear old stories of our history!

Trimble family photo

We actually got one with her smiling. Amazing!

Each year, the family takes a walk over the hill to see old sights on the property and hear old stories. One stop is this particular tree that has mistletoe. Dad & Jarret took turns shooting some down!

Jarret & I with our prize mistletoe.

The beautiful walk back to the house.

Took a short hike up the hill to visit the tombstone for my great-great-great grandfather (that would be my dad's great-great grandfather).

One of the old barns - to prove it really is an old farm place!

A view of the backside of the house, from up the hill. Looks so calm and peaceful, doesn't it?

With Grammy & Papa inside the new "farmhouse".

Julia's first time to see real animals other than a dog!

On our plane ride home, we ran into Kim - a friend of ours from the Lake Powell trip where Jarret & I met, who also happens to be an airline stewardess for AA. She let us meet the pilots, and they let us sit in the cockpit to snap a photo. So cool! Thanks Kim!!

How our sweet baby slept on the plane. We love getting snuggle time!

Random Photos

All bundled up. She looked so cute in a little hat and with her furry blanket.

First tooth has made its appearance and we can see the second one already on its way. We started cereal almost two weeks ago, and she actually has done great with it. We've just started other foods. We'll see how that goes!

First day to wear shoes. It made her look so much older to us!

Christmas-time Eubanks family photos

It was NOT a fun three hours trying to get all the different family photo shots, but at least we got a few winners! We got one of just the 4 kiddos, too, but we don't have a scan of that one. Suffice it to say that with their matching outfits, they look like they're straight out of a magazine.

- Katie

Julia's Laugh

Julia enjoyed this game of "Peek-a-Boo" with mommy very much! This is the most she has ever laughed at one time. What a joy!

Marriage

Each year, our church (Watermark) does a "journey" through the Bible. Each year, the "journey" has had a different focus. The first year our church did the Journey, its focus was reading the entire Bible in one year. I couldn't quite keep up! This year's focus is reading through Paul's letters. For each day's passage of Scripture, a church member writes a devotional that corresponds with that scripture. This year, I had the privilege of being assigned Ephesians 5:22-33 which states:

Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord, because the husband is the head of the wife as also Christ is the head of the church – he himself being the savior of the body. But as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her to sanctify her by cleansing her with the washing of the water by the word, so that he may present the church to himself as glorious – not having a stain or wrinkle, or any such blemish, but holy and blameless. In the same way husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one has ever hated his own body but he feeds it and takes care of it, just as Christ also does the church, for we are members of his body. For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and will be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. This mystery is great – but I am actually speaking with reference to Christ and the church. Nevertheless, each one of you must also love his own wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

For just a short insight on how I view this passage, you can read today's Journey Devo. I could have written so much more, but they have a word count limit. I welcome any comments or questions!

Since we're on the topic of marriage, I just want to tell my husband how wonderful you are. You are a complete blessing from the Lord, and I'm so thankful you chose me to be your wife and spend the rest of my life with you. The good times are ridiculously more enjoyable with you in my life, and the hard times are so much easier to endure with you by my side. You encourage me, teach me, and comfort me. I'm eternally grateful for the way you pour out your love for me and seek to put me above yourself. I love you more than words could say!

- Your Adoring Wife

5 Months!

I turned 5 months last Thursday. I smile for Mommy & Daddy all the time, and I giggle when they tickle my side or play airplane with me. But Daddy says I'm like a cat...I don't just turn on the charm for anybody; you have to work for my affection! And Mommy says she gets frustrated because as soon as she pulls out a camera, I stop whatever cute thing I'm doing and just stare blankly at the camera. Grrr, she says!

Let's see, I'm also consistently sleeping through the night now, rolling from my back to my tummy (still can't figure out how to get off my tummy though), and making motorboat sounds. It's so fun to make sounds and I love to spit while I'm doing it...mommy posted a video of it. I've had my first mini-sickness and my first Halloween. It's been an adventurous couple of weeks around here!

Love to all my fans,
Julia

I absolutely love being Julia's mom. Love it. Before and during pregnancy, I thought I'd simply "make it through" the baby phase in order to get to the more fun stages when they're older. God has taught me how clueless I was! I've now had time to adjust to mommyhood and it's become so much easier, and at the same time, Julia has become more endearing and fun. Each day she brings me more joy than the previous day, and I thank God every day for blessing us so richly. Being a parent has had a profound impact on how I see God's love for me. I love Julia to such depths and want nothing but the best for her, yet I'm imperfect and selfish. How much more does my Heavenly Father - whose ways are perfectly kind and good - love me as His child!

- Mommy


Random photos from the last month, in no particular order:

I think she's so cute when she grabs her feet.

Daddy playing airplane. She now giggles doing this!

With Jill, when Aaron and she babysat for us so we could get a
date night.It was Julia's bedtime, as you can probably tell!

With "Aunt" Katie & Lily at PK Lake. So that nobody's confused,
Julia's in my arms but her burp cloth is over Katie's shoulder.

She always covers her face when she eats. Random and so cute!

Julia getting loved on by Poppy.

Julia sucking her thumb while being cuddled by Poppy.

How we now do lake time. Just take her car seat along for the ride!

Grammy getting some sweet snuggle time. Julia didn't feel great Monday afternoon and all day Tuesday, and for once,
she actually wanted to be cradled.

Generic Caucasian Family Thing to Do...

Yep, we went to the pumpkin patch!

And here is out first family pumpkin carving! Not too bad eh? Yes, it took a long time!



-JKE