Welcome 2013!!!

We welcomed 2013 a little differently than we have in the past.  I love New Year's eve.  I love celebrating the past year and everything that happened and looking forward to exciting things that WILL happen in the coming year.  So, normally, we love to do something fabulous like cook an awesome dinner with friends, go out in downtown, go to a concert, etc.  On NYE 2012, we stayed in downtown Fort Worth and went to Pete's Piano bar with a big group of friends from Big Spring.  Well, this year, having a 4 day old sure changed our plans. The first few days home, we would run and jump into bed the minute we thought Stella was sleeping so we could salvage as many minutes of sleep as we could.  This year, our plan was to watch the east coast's NYE celebration and then head to bed.  Well, I didn't know that DFW doesn't show the east coast celebration! We ended up staying up until midnight.  Then, as we were ready to go to bed, Stella was ready to eat and was up qutie a while.  We didn't sleep much that night!  We have so, so much to be thankful for in 2012 and SO, so much to look forward in 2013.  God is so good!

Here are highlights of 2012:

January 2012
We got to catch up with several of Jarrett's childhood friends on New Year's Eve. 

February 2012
Gus turned ONE!

 March 2012
Julee and Blane got married!  I got to fly to Beaumont over my spring break for an entire week of fun before Julee's wedding.  We had a blast.  They got married in the hill country at an awesome house on a dandilion farm.

April 2012
 We found out that Stella was on her way on April 21, 2012.  And, Jarrett celebrated his last birthday as someone in their twentys.  He turned 29 on April 4th.

May 2012
On May 20th, we decided to make this pregnancy "official" and announce it on facebook.  Stella had 119 likes, 60 comments, and 1 share.  :)

June 2012
We went to Guatemala with Next Worldwide on a mission trip.  It was seriously life changing. We went to Guatemala City to help plant a church in a rough zone of the city.  We met some great people while we were there.  When we came back from Guatemala, Jarrett began his new position with Polaris.  I am thankful everyday for Jarrett to have a job that he loves and where he is successful. 
I remind myself of this when I gripe and complain about his motorcycle and our lack of space in the garage. 

July 2012
Courtney and Cody got married! They had a beautiful wedding in Houston on July 14th.  I was 16 weeks along and sporting a new baby bump in my bridesmaid dress.  I also turned 26 on July 19th.  Also, we found out that we would be having a GIRL! 

August 2012
I began my new position (still in Irving) as a second grade teacher.  Since I began teaching, I have always been an itinerant teacher.  I have always loved itinerant teaching and working with students one-on-one.  Being in the classroom has been a great experience.  I am in a general education classs that is co-taught with deaf education students in there 100% of the time.  It was not something I chose to do, but I don't think I would go back to itinerant! I love it.
Also, we went on our BABYMOON! We went to Fort Lauderdale, Florida.  We were so busy with our new jobs and preparation for Stella!  We went to Florida for a long weekend and did absolutely nothing but lay on the beach, read, and eat fresh seafood.  I will post pictures of that eventually!

September 2012
Baby mode... we began (finally) putting Stella's room together.

October 2012
My sisters and Julee, Emily, and Courtney threw us a fabulous couples' shower.  Emily, Courtney, Julee, Cindy and Brooke all came and we had a whole weekend to have girl time and catch up... minus the hours they spent preparing for everything!   We are so thankful for our friends.

November 2012
We layed low in November and decided not to travel much.  We had a low key Thanksgiving with Jarrett, myself, and my parents.  We put the final touches on the nursery and ate Thanksgiving dinner at Cracker Barrell.  My mom and I shopped all night long.  We began at the outlet mall in Grand Prairie at 10 pm.  We walked and walked and shopped and shopped until 2 am. 

December 2012
Stella finally made her arrival, fashionably late on the 27th.

Thank you, Lord, for a healthy and happy 2012.  We are so thankful for our families and all they do for us.  I can't wait to see what He has in store for us in 2013.