Julia's Many Faces

Julia 2 years, 7 months
January 16, 2011

Jackson's First Photo Shoot by Daddy

Jackson Keith Eubanks, 10 weeks old

January 8, 2011

Christmas

CHRISTMAS EVE
Christmas Eve day is spent cooking food for that night and prepping food for the next day. Then we head over to Bev & Larry's to celebrate Christmas with Jarret's immediate family.

Move over Betty Crocker! Jarret helped a ton with making our first ever Happy Birthday Jesus cake (bottom layer to represent the dirt of our sins, top layer to represent the blood of Jesus to cover those sins, and the white frosting to represent "Wash me, and I will be whiter than snow (Psalm 51:7):

Kendall, who LOVES to hold Jackson:

Julia taking a picture of mommy. Wow, I feel like a giant from her perspective:

No idea of the context, but pretty funny face!:

CHRISTMAS MORNING
Christmas morning is spent having a couple hours just the 4 of us, and then mid-morning Jim & Jane arrive at our house to open presents and have Christmas lunch.

Priceless! Mom was so excited about her gift, and Jarret snapped the camera and just the right moment:

Julia was not cooperating:

So it ended up becoming a family portrait of just 3 of us:

Julia sitting on her motorized Dora car (which she was scared to ride for nearly a month) holding the one and only toy we bought for Jackson. Little thief, you didn't get enough of your own presents?!

Julia was so excited to say that it was Jesus' birthday. Here she is just before cutting in to the cake:
p.s. We decided that the cake was so ugly that God was using it to remind us of 1 Samuel 16:7, "People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart." Ha!

CHRISTMAS NIGHT
Christmas night we drive to McKinney to celebrate with Jarret's extended family.

December thus far

No specific events in this post; just a random slew of pics from this month so far...

At the Watermark Family Christmas brunch:

At Great Gran's birthday dinner celebration:

Julia loves having Jackson snuggle up in her big girl bed. My two cutie pies:


We had a wonderfully successful dinner out (which is rare) to Chuy's. Their kids meal comes with a dessert: a push pop! It was Julia's first push pop and she thought it was so cool that more ice cream kept appearing with just a push of a stick!


My baby boy:



He has been talking and cooing since he was 5 weeks old, and this is the best I've gotten so far of our "conversations":

A trip to daddy's office. It was Jackson first visit:



My boys:


On Saturday, we went to see both Kendall and Caden play basketball. Jacob and Julia were being cute playing together and hugging, and Julia demanded, "Take our picture!" So I did:


Terrible pictures from my iPhone, but I thought it was cute how Jackson was holding hands with Daddy and Kendall while they watched Caden's game:

1 Month & 2.5 Years Old

Sweet baby Jackson, you are already one month old today. It's amazing how long each day seemed when you were overdue and all-too-happy in my belly, but how quickly the days seem to be passing now that you're here. A few things we want to remember about your first month:

• Your sneezes are beyond adorable to us. After you sneeze, you make the cutest little noise.
• Upon meeting you, people's first comment is typically about your gorgeous long eyelashes.
• You pretty much have two cries: "Feed me" and "Oh my gosh, I'm so tired but I'm going to fight it til I pretty much pass out".
• You love your baths, and never went through a phase of disliking them as your sister did.
• However, just like your sister, you wanted to stay awake for a couple hours in the middle of the night during your first two weeks of life. And also just like your sister, you quickly outgrew that phase but it seemed like an eternity at the time!
• A couple of days before you turned four weeks old, you began having one stretch in the late evening/early morning where you went 5-6 hours between feedings. This meant that I got 4-5 hours of much needed continuous sleep.
• We were given two small packages of Newborn sized diapers as gifts. We had used them all up before you turned 3 weeks old, which was great timing since you had already outgrown them.
• At two weeks of age, you were in the 97 percentile for height.
• You love being held. Many times when you are seemingly sound asleep you'll wake up when we put you down and then protest loudly! Luckily, you are already getting so much better about self soothing and putting yourself back to sleep when you're drowsy. You're doing particularly well at this during the middle of the night, which is fabulous!

Precious always-be-our-baby-girl Julia, you will be 2.5 years old on Tuesday the 30th. You have endured so many changes over the past few months between potty training, transitioning to a big girl bed, adjusting to having a baby brother, going back to school in a new class, etc. You definitely act every bit of a strong-willed two year old, as you test our boundaries and exercise your independence. Sometimes mommy and daddy lose our patience, but there are many many other times where we are amazed at your kindness, politeness, humor, imagination, and learning. Daddy has been taking you to gymnastics all month, and you are a pure natural and love every minute of it.

You've also gotten a lot of Big Sister toys and even had a Big Sister party the day after Jackson came home. You deserve all those presents because you are a fabulous big sister! Here's a few pictures from your party, complete with cupcakes Aunt Katie made for you that spelled Big Sister Julia:

On to the rest of the pictures...

When Julia climbs into bed for a nap or nighttime, she asks us, "Lay on my heart Mommy and Daddy." Then she proceeds to pat her chest where she wants us to lay our heads while we pray for her. Here, she is laying on Jackson's heart to comfort him in the same way we love on her:


She has been so gentle with Jackson and gives him lots of love:

She's a very helpful big sister who is eager to fetch a diaper, burp cloth, or boppy when needed. But her favorite way to help is to try to give Jackson his paci:





After a trip to Chuck E. Cheese with my parents, who have been helping me so much with the kiddos:

Our first Thanksgiving as a family of four (though the house we celebrated at was already decorated for Christmas, so the photo's background is deceiving!):


Our annual Christmas photo session with the Eubanks clan!!! :