Jayla 5 months

Hello Friends
Here is a quick little update on the Howletts. Josh is in his 3rd year of seminary. He is busy taking classes on the language of Hebrew, Pastoral Leadership, Church History, and Preaching. He is also watching our little girl Jayla on the days Jenny works. Jayla loves her time with her daddy! Jenny is back to work full time as a nurse working 3 twelve hour shifts and then soaking up her days off with lots of time with Jayla and Josh! Jayla is now almost 5 months old. She is a super happy smiley baby and thankfully pretty easy and compliant. Here are some pictures from the last couple months.

Josh holding Jayla in her Halloween Bunny costume.

Dressed up a like a little Bunny

Jayla is very active and loves playing in her exersaucer

We love our little girl!

Josh and Jayla

Jenny and Jayla

Jayla at our Dallas Arboretum pumpkin festival

White Rock Lake

Josh's mom, Robin, came to visit for a weekend!

Go Buckeyes!

Jayla now loves to talk making sure we never forget she is in the room. :)

Jayla

Jayla has been such a blessing to our lives. Everyday we just thank the Lord for such a sweet little girl. Jayla is growing up fast, now 6 weeks old, and has already gained about 4 pounds since birth. The chubby cheeks and rolly legs are starting to pop out and we are starting to see more of her sweet personality. She is sleeping 4-5 hours straight at night and her momma is thankful for the extra sleep at night too. Jenny has recovered well from delivery and the doctor has given her the okay to start exercising again! We are just enjoying taking life slow and soaking up all the time we can with our little girl. We have been so blessed with all the family and friends that have come to visit over the last 6 weeks and are excited for more family later this summer. Here are some pics of Jayla and the family.

Grandpa and Grandma Higgins and Uncle Chandran with Jayla when she was 4 days old

Uncle Terry, Aunt Nina, and Great Grandma Elizabeth came to visit
when Jayla was about 2 weeks old

Great Grandma Elizabeth loving her Grandbaby

Jayla already has lots of friends to play with

Dressed up for the 4th of July

Such a smiley little girl

Sleeping with Daddy

Jayla has lots of funny faces

The Chubby cheeks are coming

One of Jayla first smiles on her play mat

The Howletts came to visit when Jayla was about 5 weeks old.
Jayla with her Grandmommy

Aunt Brooke, Daddy and Aunt Mandi

Jayla and her Pops

Jayla's first rodeo ( She is now officially a Texan)

Aunt Mandi and her cousin Holden

She's here! Jenny labored 22.5 hours for this sweet little girl!

New Arrival......Jayla Elizabeth Howlett


She's still growing into her skin, hence the wrinkles.


What a soft full head of hair.


The expression that babies put on their mother's faces.

The expression mothers put on their baby's faces after a good feeding.


The expression baby's make every time their dads walk into the room.

Love ya'll! Enjoy the pics! We do.

Baby Girl on the Way

Well we are officially on the countdown till Baby "J" is born. Only 4 weeks left!! We are getting very excited as we see the end of the road. We have been blessed beyond belief with 5 baby showers and so much wisdom and words of encouragement from friends and family. Our nursery is just about complete and Josh and I just finished our birthing classes. He has finals this next week and then will be off of the summer. I plan to work up until the due date, but will have 12 weeks off with the baby. We are looking forward to a nice relaxing summer and hope for a lot of visitors. If you don't have much going on and feel like visiting Texas we would love to have you!! The next post we make will probably be once she is born so keep a look out on you email which we will also be a sharing Baby "J"s name. We love you all so much and thanks again for all your gifts, encouragement, and support we have received from all of you. Here are a few pics from some of the baby showers and my pregnancy.

Ohio Baby Shower at my Moms

My little nieces and nephews

Woodville Grace Brethren also had a wonderful Baby Shower for us

Shower at Woodville

Guys from Josh's work had a diaper shower for us

We were also blessed with friends and family in Dallas and my coworkers who also had baby shower's for us which I unfortunately forgot to bring my camera to. :)

A friends here took a few pregnancy pics of us

She's getting big!!

Our nursery is just about complete!!

We had so much fun shopping for bright colors!!

Sex

What were you thinking this would be about?! Yea...well it's not about that. It's about our baby! We're having a little girl! Pretty pumped. Thanks for being happy with us! We are so blessed! Love you all!
Josh and Jenny

P.S. - any ideas on "J-names" for the lil lady?

Merry Christmas! Happy New Year!

Hey ya'll (Yea we're converting to southerns)! Hope you're all doing awesome. We miss each of you and hope to see you soon!
Things are changing in big ways these days...mainly Jenny's belly that is. Jenny and I are doing all sorts of stuff to get ready for this little baby to come into the world. We're excited!
This past October I (Josh) got a part time job working for a company called Booster Enterprises (www.funrun.com). It was so cool how God provided this opportunity. The day that we found out that Jenny was pregnant this job opened up. God's so kind to us. The company is super-big on developing leadership skills in young Christian men. They also paid for me to go on a cruise to Cozumel, Mexico. Pretty sweet deal!
The first trimester of Jenny's pregnancy was not terribly enjoyable for her at all. Nausea was an everyday/ twice a day thing for her. She really rocks though! The attitude that she maintained through those gray days was very encouraging to me. I do however remember her referring to painful pregnancy as a curse of the fall a number of times. I would just simply say "You shouldn't have picked the fruit darling." (NOT!)
After we pulled out of the 1st trimester tailspin we partied like there was no tomorrow. From work parties, to parties with friends and families, this Christmas was full of good times!

We really enjoyed spending time in North Carolina with the family. The Howlett house is always a place full of surprises around Christmas time. Our time there was filled with meaningful conversations, incredible food (Thanks so much Mom!), and plenty of time to just play and have fun (snowball fights, and great hikes). Also, Josh's home church, 1st Alliance, always goes above and beyond to show their love for us! We really enjoyed visiting with you all!

As we begin the new year, we've got one goal. We want to be people who are yeilded to God each day. If we can do that, he'll bring about better resolutions than we could ever think up ourselves. We hope you guys are doing the same! He's good and following Him is quite the adventure!

Mandi (Josh's younger sister) and Jenny

Josh, Grandma Howlett and Mandi

Tacky Christmas Party with Josh's work

DTS Friend's Annual Tacky Christmas Party

Top of Hanging Rock Mountain in North Carolina

Jenny, Josh, Robin (mom), Mandi, Uncle John and Aunt Mei

Aren't we starting to look like Texans?

Surprise

We've got big news as of right now. No, Josh did not flunk out of seminary...Jenny didn't get fired from her job...our identity hasn't been stolen as far as we know. Our big news is, we're having a baby! Jenny is currently 9 weeks pregnant and eating everything in sight. We had our first sonogram last week and saw our little peanut has a healthy heart rate (176). Jenny's due date is May 3oth. We are so thankful to God for blessing us!
This summer God made it really clear to us that He was ready for us to start a family. So...we were planning on getting pregnant. We are excited about this next adventure...also excited to enjoy the next 7 months of sleep.
For all you Ohio folks, we won't be making it home this Christmas, but hope to be there in March. We love you all and are excited to share this news with ya'll! Hope your lives are going great! We love you and look forward to the next time we'll see ya.