Brown Eyed Beauty

I had to share this photo of Dakota that I snagged off of facebook. The picture was taken on Aaron and Trish's Sunday School camping trip last weekend. Is this not the most prescious picture you've seen?!?! She has the biggest brown eyes and the sweetest little red lips. :) Enjoy!

Best Day!

The sonogram today was amazing! The baby is growing and developing normally. The lady doing our sonogram was great...totally on board with us not finding out the sex of the baby. I was put at ease when she squeeled with excitement at finding out we did not want to know boy/girl. I was kind of expecting her to give me a hard time.

I think Cliff and I were both floored watching the baby on the screen. It has a perfectly rounded forehead...well, pretty much everything about it is sweet to us!

Just had to share what a great day it has been so far. I think I'll be able to make it through three hours of boring class without griping once today! We'll see about that one. :)

Just pressed Send

Well I just pressed send on an e-mail containing an attachment of my big final paper of grad school. Thankfully, I will have an opportunity to revise it if I am not happy with the grade. O how I wish to be happy with the grade...sadly, only an A will suffice and I'm pretty sure the paper I sent isn't really A material. These things are subjective though so mayby the prof will be in a great mood when she grades it....or maybe she'll be so busy she just can't spend much time ripping it apart.

I will have up to two weeks before I get the verdict. Either way it goes I am so glad it is in her hands now. I'm sick of thinking about it and trying to type stuff.

Tomorrow is the big sonogram day and I'm just now allowing myself to get excited!! Can't wait until tomorrow at noon. I'll post when we get back to share the experience with all of you friends and family.

3 Years!

Today Cliff and I celebrate three years of marriage in different towns: he's in Arlington and I'm in Amarillo. Three years! I can hardly believe all that has happened in our three short years of marriage.

Just to recap:
-Amazing wedding day on Oct. 14, 2006
-Summer 2006 we both begin new full time jobs (Cliff at FBCB and me at ECI)
-Bought our first home...the home I will love forever!
-In three years three new neices were born bringing the grand total so far to 4
-Loved on our Brownwood family
-Received God's call to move....agreed to go after lots of wrestling with God
-Sold the house
-Moved Aug. 2007
-Jess starts grad school Aug. 2007 at WTAMU
-Cliff continues seminary with BHCI
-Lovely memories of the 1 bdrm apartment
-Jess gets fit
-Cliff gets comfortable and thrives in his new position
-New home bought Fall '08
-Summer '09: Find out baby Cary will make his/her appearance in Spring 2010

God has been so faithful to us. I look forward to the years ahead that will be marked by very different milestones. Happy Anniversary Cliff. I love you!

Cliff in Arlington

As the title of the post suggests, Cliff is away at a children's ministry conference in Arlington. You may be asking why in the world I didn't take the chance to go with him considering it would have meant 4 days with my family? I'm asking the same question...ha! Well kind of. He has planned to go to this conference for many months now and I just couldn't get away from work and school again. I took a week off when Aleigh was born so that counted as some really good family time...with both sides! While I'm a little bummed, it has been a busy week so far.

For family and old friends...guess who is helping to run the conference??? Laura Fillingim! She works for Lifeway up in Nashville and came to TX to help out. I told Cliff she was going to be there and told him to say hi and be really nice since Laura is one of my oldest friends and since she came all the way from Georgia for our wedding! Cliff says he's gotten to say hi and chat with her a few times...although he called her "Audra" when he first saw her. HAhahah! That must have been awkward.

Anyway, yesterday I had work and school all day until 9. Also, my HUGE paper is due on Monday. I am totally stressed about it. It is sort of like my thesis for graduation although not quite as long as a traditional thesis. This one paper has challenged me more than anything else from the past two years, which is pretty annoying considering I just want it OVER with and for December to be here.

Tonight I get to go hang out with my friend Emily and her two boys! I'm looking forward to spending time with them and getting my mind off this paper.

Tomorrow is work and church till late and then Cliff will be home on Thursday!

No baby news really. I'm feeling great and the baby appears to be growing. I have a sonogram on Monday! Can't wait to see the first pictures! I'll throw this in though for all of you who might be wondering...Cliff and I decided not to find out if it is a boy or a girl. We're shooting for the big surprise at the end!

Cliff Sr.'s Birthday Surprise

To conclude the awesome week that I had in Arlington with my side of the family, we went to the land to surprise Cliff's Dad and celebrate his birthday! Mom and Trish along with three silly girls, Lerin, Robbyn and Dakota, drove me to Brownwood where they dropped me off and met Cliff for dinner at Prima Pasta. Cliff loved getting to love on the girls for a little bit! We were able to have the place to ourselves at the land that night since the rest of the family wasn't coming until Friday. It was so beautifu land peaceful out theree!

Below are some pictures of the festivities. Cliff Sr. had no idea that Cliff and I and Kimberly and her boyfriend Alex were there. He only expected to see Grandpa and Kenneth. They didn't get in until around 8:30, but we saved dinner and cake for their arrival.

Nana couldn't make it out to the party weekend, but she definitely made her prescence known by making two delicious German chocolate cakes! One with coconut and the other without.

Below is Cliff and Alex, Kimberly's boyfriend. This was the first time we got to meet him and they have been dating for two years!


Grandpa and Kenneth enjoying life!

Aleigh Elizabeth's birth event!

Aleigh Elizabeth Aquino was born September 28, 2009 at 9:20 PM. She was 7# 1oz and 20 inches long. She was alert and wide eyed. Aleigh is a beautiful little girl! She has the perfectly rounded head just like her two older sisters. I think she looks a whole lot like her Mama. She has a long neck, small dimples around her mouth and the most adorable puffy cheeks. Leigh did great. She was induced that morning and labored all day. She didn't make much progress until the very end when Aleigh decided to come all of a sudden! Mom and I missed being there for the actual birth by about 10 minutes!

Below you can see Lerin's version of holding Aleigh. She was kicked back with a baby on her lap watching cartoons on the TV. Miss Aleigh is definitely going to have to be one tough little chick!

There she is just minutes after her birth! Wide eyed beauty!

Here is Dakota playing outside the day of Aleigh's birth. The three couins had a ball playing outside finding sticks and helping grumps kill all of the fire ants! Notice Miss Priss and her bracelets on each wrist!

Lerin and Robbyn excitedly anticipating the birth of their new baby sister!
Robbyn holding Aleigh for the first time. Robbyn said, "She's an angel!"
Proud Mama loving on her baby!
Aleigh already trying to talk minutes after her birth. Definitely a part of our family!!