The Tale of the Tape! (or scale…whatever.)

Ok, so Friday will be 10 weeks since Jessie Rose showed up. We’ve been noticing considerable changes in her with each passing day. It’s amazing how fast she’s growing, and how much she’s already seemed to “grow up”. We had our 2 month checkup today, and discovered that much to our surprise, she’s even grown more than we thought.

Here’s the story.
Born: August 19th – 7 lbs. 12 oz. 18.5 inches

Today: October 25th – 12 lbs. 9 oz. 23 inches

Yeah, so she’s definitely taking after her dad!

Today was Norvell day.

We drove over to College Station, for a family reunion of sorts. Mom and Dad came down for the weekend, and we all met up at my older brother Thad’s house for some good old fashioned Norvell family fun. Thad and his wife Amy, have a 3 year old named Aiden, and a daughter named Ella Grace who is a month older than her cousin Jessie Rose. My younger brother, who now is the beloved Uncle Britt was also there to complete the family tree.

The day was a lot of fun, complete with a trip to the pumpkin patch, and 2 cousins dressed as “2 peas in a pod”. Aiden is a super cool kid, and he spent the afternoon as a “black eyed P” who really got a kick out of having his eye painted.

It was a beautiful day, and reminded me once again that I’m a full on “family man”.


I LOVE IT!

So I’ve spent the last few weeks under an interesting attack. Friendship. I’ve perpetually struggled with a list of about 5 main “demons” over the past years. It seems as though at any given time, I can count on having a few rough battles here and there. Friendship wasn’t an enemy I was prepared for. I’ve never thought that friendship could be so dangerous. Whatever happened to shooting lizards with BB guns on motorcycle trails (which I guess was indeed dangerous. At least if you count the time I had a BB embedded in my leg by my friend Bradley Pettit.), or riding bikes through flooded streets (avoiding only the one puddle laced with little brothers liquid waste)? That’s the friendship I grew up knowing. It’s just not that simple anymore. Now it involves putting others first. It requires being honest in word AS WELL AS action. It demands that love be shown, even when it doesn’t seem to exist. Honestly, I don’t seem to struggle with possessing these ideas myself (feel free to object…), but I do seem to give others a free pass on these standards. I’ve seen a few specific relationships that I really treasure, fall into gaps of dishonesty, disloyalty, and just plain selfishness. I guess being a few years older has caused me to see the beauty in just being truthful in all things, and not allowing grown adults to slide through the cracks of excused bad friendship.

Let me take this time to let you know, that if you received a link to this place, it means that I treasure you, WE treasure you. You have been, and are great to me (us). I (we) love you and thank God for your loyalty and love.

Continuing the friendship topic…
We spent an encouraging evening with our new friends William and Kristen Groves. I’m realizing more and more each day how blessed we are when it comes to great friends here in Temple/Belton. We don’t even know William and Kristen very well, but this evening allowed us to take a step in changing that. They have 3 great kids, one of whom (whose name is also Will) was in Beth’s class last year at CTCS. Will is a true big brother who loves his sisters in a way that makes me feel closer to Jesus. They have a beautiful daughter named Emily, whose sweet little face seems to always be shining. They too, have a new addition in a precious little girl named Mary Claire, who came into this world only a few months before Jessie Rose (but somehow weighs considerably less), and will probably be her first same age girl friend in town. That idea gets me excited. My friends are cool, but looking forward to seeing Jessie making friends just seems so overwhelmingly cool. That’s my new “Dad Thought” today. I hope I can demonstrate and encourage characteristics that cause my Jessie Rose to be a true friend. Lord, please bless my daughter with the attributes of authentic Christ-like friendship. Please give her loyal, truthful, loving, believing friends, whose passion for Kingdom “things” causes her to understand Your love in new and life altering ways.

So tomorrow, our cool girl Jessie Rose will be 9 weeks old! That’s pretty flipping crazy. She’s been here for over 2 months! Our lives are so different, and so much more exciting. She’s grown over 3 inches in these 2 months, and probably gained around the same number (or more) in lbs. Every day offers new insight into the joys of life. It seems like she’s growing up more with each minute. How did we ever start taking all these “life” things for granted?

Beth already looks like she never had a baby. She's more beautiful now than ever, and I'm enjoying her sanity again after the 9 months of craziness. She has officially been back at work for 3 weeks now. Her class is really cool, and she's already fallen in love with each kid in thier own way. I on the other hand am getting to experience time each day with my daughter that most dads never get. The Mr. Mom Mornings have become the highlight of my day. We spend our time eating, swinging and playing. Dad also gets lots of laughing in while Jessie Rose makes funny faces at all my crazy sounds. As if there was every any question, I'm VERY happy to be a dad!

As of last week, Jessie has discovered her voice. She just blahs and blahs sometimes just like her dad. She loves music, and loves to sing (go figure). She also loves to eat…as you can see by the pictures. With all the sweetness, and even a little un-sweetness, she’s definitely doing a good job of wrapping her parents around her sweet little chubby fingers.