Valentine's Day

I had a wonderful Valentine's Day this year. I can always count on my hubby to bring me flowers of some sort, and this year was no exception. He also got his little girl something to remember the day. We had a nice, quiet evening at home, and a good dinner. We decided not to go out, since everyone else would be doing the same thing. Mitch got some cute pictures of the day for everyone to enjoy.

We also had Jacey's 6 month pictures taken. It's amazing what a difference 3 months can make. She sat up and smiled at the camera and looked like she was enjoying every minute of it. I can't wait to get the pictures back.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

6 Months

Jacey is now officially half a year old. I can't believe she's here already, and I know I'm just going to keep saying that. She now is a chubby 14 pounds, loves food and her daddy, and wants to talk to everyone. I can't wait to see what the next few months bring.

Last night we had a great time watching the Happy Cowboys/girls basketball team play. The guys are ranked around #1, and the girls are doing well too. I really know nothing about basketball (one of the few sports that I never watched often), but it's fun to sit with excited/nervous parents and cheer their kids on. It's also fun to watch Mitch turn into a kid again.

For some reason this year Mitch and I are really interested in the political scene. We actually find ourselves watching CNN as the latest results come in. (Who knew CNN could be interesting?) I like the competition that is going on. I'm excited to see what the future holds.

Last night we had a great Super Bowl party with the teens. There was a ton of food (2 lb of sausage balls and a 24 inch pizza for starters), lots of people, and lots of fun. About 25-30 people came and went throughout the evening. And most of them were rooting for the Giants, so it was an especially good night.

Sundays are typically very difficult days on Jacey, and thus on Mom and Dad as well. She now wants to be a part of things and is always looking around at what's going on. And as a result she doesn't sleep as much during church, lunch, etc. Luckily 30 kids in the house made her too distracted to be grumpy last night.

Part of her grumpiness is from a change the way she goes to sleep. For the past 5 months I've put her to bed with her legs swaddled, mainly because she slept better. However on Saturday she figured out how to roll from her tummy to her back. When I put her to bed that night, she proceeded to flip herself 180 degrees in the other direction. While being swaddled. So I promptly decided the blanket in the crib with her was probably not the best idea. Strike #1. Strike #2 came because she only can roll to the right. And the crib is only so big. She didn't like having something stop her progress. Fortunately she did go to sleep. Eventually.

It's very fun to watch her roll across the room. I'm still terrified of having a mobile child, mainly because I don't know what to expect. But I've made it this far, I'm sure I can survive. :)

New Couch

Kelly reminded me that I haven't posted pictures of our new couches. We are really loving them. I now enjoy sitting in the living room, when I used to dread it after a while. I don't know if the pictures are clear enough, but the fabric is olive green-ish and the pillows have a lot of nice muted colors in them. Mitch actually slept on the couch a few nights ago because his legs were bothering him, and he loved it. (I don't know if that's a good thing or not.) So (drumroll) here they are:

They make our end tables and coffee table look very small, but it's ok for now. And our carpet even looks good. Who knew?

Roll Over, Beethoven!

Ok, maybe not Beethoven, but definitely Jacey. That's right, she finally rolled over (from back to tummy)! She worked for about two weeks arching her back and looking behind her. She could even do it when she held on to our fingers for a few days. Two nights ago she looked at me, swung her hips over, and tucked those arms in. And ended up on her tummy. I've been worried about going to the doctor for her 6 month check-up and having to tell the doctor she hadn't rolled over yet. But no worries! Now whenever I lay her on her back she'll roll over in a few minutes. It's really quite adorable. The only problem now is that she doesn't like being on her tummy for very long.

She's also loving food. I have to admit I am too. It's so much fun to feed her. I'm also making her baby food right now, and it's a blast. I also thought that baby food was disgusting, but now that I know what's in it, it's not that bad. Personally, I actually think I make really good applesauce. I have a wonderful cookbook that makes it easy to know how to make the food as well. And it's cheaper. So everyone is happy.

Here's a few pictures for everyone:

Jacey usually takes an evening power nap, and it's prime-time cuddling for Mom and Dad.

Yum!

My musical child? She loves listening when we play the piano. She sometimes even dances in my lap.

She loves reading now and looking at the pretty pictures.

Rumbly Tummy

Jacey has now officially had her first taste of food. Yesterday I decided to pull out the carrots and make her some carrot cereal (carrots with rice cereal, yum!). As I was trying to puree the carrots, I realized our blender wasn't going to work, since it was made for larger quantities. So Mitch and I headed to Amarillo last night to shop a little bit, and we came home with a Magic Bullet, which is supposed to change your life (at least in the kitchen). Today I successfully made Jacey carrot cereal, and she loved it. She almost ate 2 servings full.

On our shopping adventure we also stumbled across two new frying pans in our set on sale for $49. Now, we knew we were needing new ones, but we didn't really plan on spending the money for them. However, those pans are usually $129. So we splurged. I figure $25 a piece really couldn't be beat.

We also went to Best Buy, Mitch's all-time favorite store. And we came home with 2 movies (off of a gift card) and a new sound system for the youth room. It's the first purchase of many for the youth room. Someday soon the kids are going to go up to the room and wonder what has happened. Hopefully that'll be a good thing.

An update

Sorry for the lack of updates recently. We've had a busy holiday, and I just didn't have the energy to blog. But now we're home and enjoying a lazy Saturday afternoon, so here's what's been happening with us.

We spent a great Christmas day here at home. It was the first Christmas we've spent in our own home since we've gotten married, and we had fun spending it together. Jacey helped me open her presents, since she can grab things very well now. After lunch we started packing up things for our trip to Nashville. Mitch was so ready for the vacation. I was a little worried about how Jacey was going to do traveling in the car for a day and a half, but she was such a good trooper. Mitch and I decided to just take it easy, and however long it took was ok. We arrived there at about 2 on Thursday.

The last visit to Nashville back in October was very hectic. We all wanted to just take things easy and relax. I didn't see everyone that I wanted to this time, but the family time was priceless. Mitch and I even went on our first date in four months! We definitely did ourselves a disservice by not going on a date earlier, and have resolved to go on one at least once a month now. Christmas with my family was great too. We were spoiled and loved it. Mom and I now have webcams so that she and Jacey can get to know each other even though they're apart. Charlotte got an Xbox 360 for Christmas, so she and Mitch played Guitar Hero III and Halo 3 most of the week. They were a blast to watch. No one plays Xbox with Mitch so well, not even me.

For New Year's Eve Charlotte invited all of her college friends to dinner and a sleepover. They wanted an excuse to dress up (mainly the girls did, I'm sure) and to see each other over the break. She cooked a really good batch of lasagna and peppermint ice cream cake. She also looked great, I might add, thanks to some help from her big sister. We got her a complete outfit in about and hour and a half (jewelry and shoes included!). The next morning we figured out that about 15 people slept over that night, including ourselves.

On Wednesday we headed to Atlanta for the National Conference on Youth Ministries (NCYM) and hooked up with Shawn and Katie Frazier for lunch. It's so nice to be able to see them now that they live in the Nashville area. Mitch and I both miss all of our Harding friends, and look for any opportunity to get together. They are both doing a wonderful job as teachers at Middle Tennessee Christian. That evening we arrived in Atlanta and really enjoyed the next three days. Mitch got some good ideas, but also connected with a lot of people he hadn't talked to in awhile. I love watching him and knowing what a good job he's doing. Jacey's schedule (and her learning that she has a voice) didn't allow me to do a lot of things, but I was able to go to one class on "preparing your daughter for every woman's battle." Basically it was how to prepare your daughter to be sexually pure. Sometimes having a little baby makes you forget about the lessons you as a parent are going to have to teach later on. I learned many valuable things that will hopefully help Jacey and our future children.

By Saturday we were ready to start towards home, so we returned to Nashville to do some laundry and rest up for traveling. We made it home on Tuesday and were so glad to see our beds. Right now we're mainly caught up with rest and taking care of things, but Jacey's having difficulty taking her afternoon nap. She cried for an hour or so both Wednesday and Thursday. She did ok yesterday but today reverted back. She's just not able to put herself back to sleep without a lot of help. I'm not suprised, since she had a stressful two weeks. It's just hard to know what to do and when to pick her up and not create bad habits. Hopefully things will get back to normal soon.

Our big Christmas present arrived on Wednesday...our new couch and loveseat! We are now finally grownups. At least that's what it feels like. They're very pretty and very big. We are loving them. Anything is better than a worn-out old futon.

Well, that's what's been happening these past few weeks with us. Hopefully I'll have some pictures for you soon.