Happy Halloween!

FIVE LITTLE PUMPKINS

 Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate,

The first one said, "Oh my, it's getting late."

The second one said, "But we don't care."

The third one said,"I see witches in the air."

The fourth one said, "Let's run, and run, and run."

The fifth one said, "Get ready for some fun."

Then whoosh went the wind, and out went the lights,

And five little pumpkins rolled out of sight!

Anonymous

Happy Halloween everyone! 

Love, The Acosta-Stones

Fall Fun Weekend

We had a busy weekend spending time at our first ever Halloween party as a family.  I can't believe that it is already time for Halloween.  It seems like just yesterday that we were deciding on our family costumes.  We were the Acosta-stones!

Fred, Pebbles, and Wilma

We attended the 2nd Annual Hayes Halloween Party.  In true Christen fashion, her costume did not disappoint!  Last year, she was Dr. Loftin, President of Texas A&M University.  This year, she was Flo, the Progressive Insurance Lady!

It's crazy how much she actually looks like Flo!

We were glad to spend some time with such great friends, like the Shelburnes...

A "Sleepy Housewife", a Baby Tiger, and 2% Milk!

And the Malnars too!

Snow White, Prince Charming, and one of the 7 Dwarfs!

These two Halloween cuties surprised us by staying up super late till nearly midnight to enjoy the fun.  Thanks Jake and Christen for hosting this fun time!

Jackson and Jilly AKA Happy and Pebbles =)

We have also been to two of the local pumpkin patches!  Isn't she the absolute cutest pumpkin in the patch?!

We also went to the Pumpkin Patch at the Farm Patch.  The weather is still pretty warm here so we were dressed for summer but it is definitely fall!

We met up with the Malnars and Jackson had a great time running around and feeding the goats. 

And then Jilly posed for some cute photos on a pumpkin!

Aren't these two precious?!  I hope they enjoyed their fall fun weekend as much as us grown-ups did!

A Preview of Jillian's 6 Month Photos!

Sarah has done it once again!  Our amazing photographer, Sarah Giles, put out a preview of Jillian's 6 month photos.  Be sure to check them out on her link at Butterfly Chaser Photography! 

Pumpkin Carving Fun

Over the weekend, we had some friends over for Pumpkin Carving (and baking) Fun!

We laid some table clothes and trash bags out in our driveway and got to work.  But after the mosquitos ate us alive, we decided to move the party inside.

At first, carving pumpkins seemed like a good idea.  But once we got into it, and it was messy and a little harder than we thought, each of us at one point said "Man, maybe we should have just put stickers on them'" or "hey, maybe that regular jack-o-lantern face would have been a better design." 

Those moments were short-lived, and once the pumpkins were carved, everyone was happy again and proud of what they had accomplished.

Adriana really is making the same face as her pumpkin!

Here are the finished pumpkins, all lit up. Don't they look great?!

And what party would be complete without baking some goodies.  We made brownies, but demolished them before I could even get a picture!  And here are the cute pumpkin sugar cookies all decorated.  The bottom one is supposed to look like Jillian (with a bow in her hair and no teeth, but still smiling)!!!

We had so much fun at our Pumpkin Carving Party.  And as great as these carved pumpkins are, I think this next pumpkin is my favorite one of all!

How I Met Your Father...

Dear Jillian,
Today, Mommy and Daddy have been together for 7 years!  These past 7 years have been absolutely amazing, and I want to tell you the story of how I met your father...
I first met your dad on October 2, 2004.  It was a Saturday and me and my girl friends were walking to a UTEP football game.  We were walking next to your dad and one of his friends and here is our first conversation:
Mommy: Hey, what's your name?
Daddy: My name is Julian.
Mommy: Hey, that's my name too.
Daddy: No it's not, your name is Amber!
Mommy: thinking to myself "He knows my name??!!"  Actually, Amber is my middle name, my first name is Julienne.
I was really surprised that Daddy knew who I was, but I soon remembered that he probably knew my name because we were both in the UTEP Homecoming pageant that year.  Throughout the next few days, I saw Daddy a lot, at pageant practice, or with some mutual friends of ours. 
On Wednesday, October 13, 2004, during Homecoming Week, it was finally time for the big pageant.  Mommy and Daddy were both really nervous about this night, because we had to strut our stuff on stage, dance, and speak in front of a lot of people.  Mommy has the pageant on video, and some day, when you are older, we will show it to you. ;)
All night, every time Mommy was on stage, Daddy was in the back clapping and cheering me on.  That night, Mommy won the title of Homecoming Princess!  After the pageant was over, all of the Homecoming contestants and organizers were going out to celebrate.  When Mommy got to the location, Daddy wasn't there.  So Mommy did some investigative work and called one of Daddy's friends to make sure they were coming.  Sure enough, 30 minutes later, Daddy showed up!  Mommy was really nervous, but seeing how well the night had been so far, Mommy asked Daddy to hang out with her, and he agreed.  That first night as Mommy and Daddy started dating, we hung out till 4 AM!  When you are older, you will not be allowed to stay out with boys till 4 AM, just FYI ;)  Here is our first picture together ever!

Please note that this picture was taken before digital cameras were popular, so that's why my eyes are half closed...because I didn't know we needed to retake the picture!

And ever since then, Mommy and Daddy have been inseparable, moving to College Station together, finishing college, getting engaged, having the most memorable wedding, and being married.  But by far, the best part of these past 7 years has been YOU!  Yes, little you, Jillian! 
As I think back to that fateful day, I can't help but think of how young we were and how we did not know at the time that starting to date that day would end up with being together this long.  But please know that I have enjoyed every day of being with your Daddy.  He makes life so interesting and fun, he lights up my days, he keeps me grounded and positive, he's just so handsome, he takes care of me and you, and so much more!
So there's the story of how I met your father!  It's been a great 7 years, and here's to 70 more filled with happy times, tough times, more babies, raising kids, grand babies, and most of all LOVE!
Love, Mommy

Things Change...

Inspired by an article I read on Baby Center, I decided to make my own list of the top 10 things that change when you have a baby!  Some are borrowed from the list, but with my own twist on them.

1. You finally know where the sun comes from, and it isn't from the east.  Instead, it's from that little person who lights up your day every morning.  And this is what makes you finally become a "morning person" because who wouldn't light up when they see your baby smiling and cooing back at you.  See this post

2. You understand the depth and breadth of love that your parents have for you as their child, and you love and respect them more for it.

3. Your love for your spouse grows in ways you didn't even know were possible, as you watch him care for and love your child just as you do.  And it melts your heart to watch you child as she plays with your husband, follows him out of a room with her eyes, and lights up when he kisses her. 

4. You reflect back on everything you had or did as a child, and you wonder what memories and traditions your child will reflect on when she is your age.

5. Your heart aches at every sad song, story, or movie because you now look at it from your "mom" point-of-view and everyone is someone's child.

6. You develop a new level of faith and reverence for God, thinking about how He gave the world His only son, knowing good and well what would happen to Him in the process.

7. You look at your baby in the mirror instead of yourself.  And when you do catch a glimpse of yourself, the dark circles under your eyes or the extra 15 pounds all seem worth it with that baby on your hip.

8. You think of someone else before yourself.  And this happens 50 billion times a day. 

9. You find yourself wanting the make the world a better place.  And I have a renewed love of my job and students when together, we all make the world a better place. 

10. You enjoy life even more, you count your blessings, and you live each day for your child and yourself. 

Love you, Jillian Annalise.  You changed everything for us for the better (yes, even my body) ;)

Jilly's First Cowboys Game

Over the weekend, we took Jilly to her first Cowboys game! 

We drove up to Dallas the night before and stayed in a hotel.  Because Jilly slept in the car, and because clearly she was too excited to sleep, we had a rough night.  But after sleeping in a little and a quick breakfast with friends, we were ready to go to Jerry World!

Julian and I were a little nervous about how she would do at the game.  There were going to be a lot of people and it was going to be really noisy!  But I am happy to say that our baby girl was ABSOLUTELY PERFECT...even when her crazy mommy was jumping up and down when the Cowboys scored!

We sat in section 454, which was pretty high up, but to be honest, there is not a bad seat in Cowboys Stadium.  I think this was a great place for us to sit beacuse it was not too loud up there and not too crazy so we got to sit and watch the game.  Jilly spent most of her time people watching and I am pretty sure was clueless about the fact that you were supposed to watch the field. =)

Even though we were high up, we still had a great view of the field.  Here is a shot that we took with our camera of the offense driving down the field.  We were super impressed with the zoom on our camera because we got some great shots of the field, the players...and Julian was able to zoom really close on the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders too! =)

We also took some time to walk around the stadium so that we could enjoy the full experience.  We stopped and looked at various exhibits in the stadium, hung out in the Party Pass area, and went to the Pro Shops.  Here is a cute photo of our little Cowboys girl with a fun helmet on...

...and of course, her handsome Daddy!!!

Despite all the noise, Jillian took a nap during the end of the 3rd/beginning of the 4th.  And thank goodness for that because she missed the Lions rallying back to take the game.  I am convinced that she fell asleep on purpose so that she would not have to bear witness to the Cowboys second half collapse...sigh!!!

After the game, we made our way to the elevator and exit that the players use after the game.  We learned about this spot at the last Cowboys game we went to with our family.  So we waited around and figured that players would not be able to resist this little face!

Considering the Cowboys lost, the players were not in great moods so we really only got to wave at them and shout there names. I took a few pics, but they were not of smiling faces so I will not put them on the blog.  But we got to see Miles Austin, Mike Jenkins, Jon Kitna, Keith Brookings, Anthony Spencer, and a few others.  And the last player we saw was Tony Romo.  Poor guy, he had it written all over his face that he was clearly disappointed by his own performance.  My empathy kicked in and all I wanted to do was give him a hug!

Despite the loss, we had such a great time and thoroughly enjoyed this road trip as a family.  Jillian was an angel and we know that we can take our baby girl anywhere now.  We will never forget all the memories we had in taking our baby girl to her first Cowboys game!

Happy 8 Months, Jillian!

Another month gone by and our little Jillian is 8 months old already!  Jillian reached a lot of milestones this past month and she is definitely a handful these days, but still cute as a button!

Here are all the cute little things Jilly started doing this month:

• Crawling
• Clapping
• Open-mouth baby kisses
• Dancing (on purpose)
• Eating baby puffs (using a pincer grasp)

Her biggest milestone was obviously the crawling.  She started rocking on all fours early in the month and within a few weeks she was inchworm crawling, then army man crawling, and now regular crawling.  She does any of the 3 to get to where she wants to go.  And she is getting quick! 

Crawling has brought on a whole new level of cleaning attention needed.  You see, anything that is on the floor, she will crawl to.  Whether it's Daddy's shoes, a leaf that fell off our indoor tree, even that piece of lint you didn't even notice...she immediately crawls to it, picks it up, and puts it in her mouth!

Jilly is still a really happy baby and she has found a new way to show it by clapping her hands.  She claps for a lot of things, like her food, seeing mommy or daddy first thing in the morning, herself, the Cowboys or the Yankees...basically anytime we say "Yay" she will clap.  It is so adorable!

And truly nothing compares to the first time your baby gives you kisses!  She has started open-mounth kissing, doling out kisses to daddy, mommy, and even her friend Jackson.  Her daddy was not too happy about that one and he had a stern talk with Jilly to tell her that she can't kiss boys...only Daddy!

The other precious thing Jilly has started doing is dancing.  We noticed it one day when she started wiggling to a J. Lo song on a commercial. And then her teachers at school mentioned that when they sing or play songs, she dances.  She won't do it all the time, but randomly, she will bust out a move or two!

Jillian is also more expressive with her different faces.  She has a face for happy, pensive, surprised, or inquisitive.  She has a face to show that she loves her food or hates it (and usually, she loves it), when her allergies are bothering her, when she is in a new situation and unsure how to react, or when she has decided that she does not like something.  Here is one of her many expressions...



"Mommy, why are you still taking my picture?!"

 I am sure she has grown in height and weight as she is still a little chunky monkey.  But I don't have her exact measurements.  Jilly wears size 3 diapers, fits into most of her 6 months clothes still, and has started some of her 9 month clothes (as the weather permits). 

Love you forever, Jilly Bear!