My Husband's Birthday Today

Today is the day that, 34 years ago, Nate Navarro was born into this world. That might top my list of things I am most thankful for.

Here are 34 things about Nate that make him, well, Nate:

1. He is kind
2. He is humble
3. He loves the Lord
4. He is gentle
5. He is an amazing father
6. He is a great leader, in our family and in our Church
7. He is a natural at drawing people into community
8. He listens to you when you talk to him
9. He has a HUGE heart
10. He loves Texas Football
11. He is sensitive
12. He is a walking example of God's grace, which encourages a lot of people
13. He likes Mexican food
14. He is serious about his job
15. He is good at leading people into worship
16. He writes good sad songs
17. He is a good friend to his friends
18. He is funny when he's not trying to be
19. He's scared of bugs (roaches, to be exact)
20. He likes good wine (well...he likes cheap wine too)
21. He couldn't care less about material things
22. He has a soft touch (this is not sexual...this came from Geoff and Luke when playing the bean bag game)
23. He is great at saying "thank you"
24. He's even better at saying "I'm sorry"
25. He has a great laugh
26. He is a gentle disciplinarian with the girls
27. My parent's think he is the best son-in-law in the world, despite my dad's speech at the wedding
28. He has a gift of being able to relate to people
29. He has a MAJOR sweet tooth (his weakness is chocolate chip cookies)
30. He loves Pete Yorn
31. He is the most unselfish person I've ever met
32. He is addicted to Thunderbird coffee
33. He is just really freakin cool
34. He doesn't realize that he's just really freakin cool

Happy Birthday Nate...I love you!!

Repeat Offender

This Sunday at ACL, we talked about the gospel and justification. It was a powerful message.

We, as Christians, make it so difficult sometimes. We try so hard to get right with God by following rules and being "good". We trust in ourselves to get us there, all the while getting so frustrated with ourselves that while following all of the rules and trying so hard to be good...we're still not good. Here's the catch: we fall in love with Jesus first, we rely on him, we meditate on him...the righteousness follows. We want to be missional. We want to love our neighbors. We want to follow God. We want to look like Jesus. And...we begin to.

Really...it's so simple. Jesus.

Yet...I am a repeat offender in pride, jealousy, gossip, lust, acceptance in what others think of me, etc. The grace in it for me is that I even get the opportunity to change these things in my life. By the grace of God, these traits become less of an issue in my life. They creep up from time to time, but I see much, much less of them. I attribute this to falling in love with Jesus and therefore, seeing him begin to change my heart. I feel myself wanting to do things, not to follow some rule, but because I love Jesus.

I am beginning to find perfect acceptance, love and justification through faith in Jesus Christ. Amen.

Creative Vegetarian Diet

So, I have been a vegetarian for 5 months now. Or at least, up until taking a bite of Green's sausage the other night. Before that...not one bite of meat in 5 months. Now that I am pregnant...I've been thinking...maybe I shouldn't be depriving this child of meat. Maybe he is going to be the next quarterback at UT. Maybe good thoroughbred quarterbacks need meat. Maybe this is all just selfish of me. For those vegetarians reading this who are thinking "you traitor. you are weak.", please understand that the smell of Green's sausage is like Satan on a vegetarian's shoulder. I smelled it as my entire family (Matt, Jessica, Ava and Nate) ate it in my living room and Satan told me I wanted a bite and I gave in to temptation and ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

I have a friend who once was a vegetarian except ate sausage and bacon:). I think I might try that out. Totally for the baby's sake, of course. This is all for the baby.

Mother's Day Weekend

I had the best weekend for Mother's Day. Matt grilled out Friday night and had friends over and the girls love it when there are a bunch of people at the house like that. They were both up playing washers with the guys until like 1am! I have some little partyers on my hands!

Saturday morning we woke up...I went on a nice walk and came home to get ready for the UT baseball game. Dad got us all tickets in his friend's suite and we had a blast. Air conditioning, food, beer, pictures with BEVO and a series win against the Aggies (doesn't get much better than that:)

Saturday night we took the girls to House Pizzeria and afterwards bowling at Dart Bowl. We rarely do "just family" nights but when we do, it's such precious time with each other and the kids. Makes me want to do it way more.

Sunday, we learned about the gospel from Jonathan and reflected on what the cross means in our lives. The cross means so much to me in so many different ways and so this was a great message for me to hear because I forget sometimes and need to be reminded. The music was great and led me into a great time of worship and reflection.

After Church, my Mom, Gran and Dad came to the house and we ate a good 'ol Southern lunch: smoked turkey, homemade potato salad, corn on the cob, baked beans, buttered bread and three choices for dessert (apple pie, blueberry pie and chess pie).

This was such a great weekend for me...time to enjoy my family, reflect on the cross and what Jesus has done in my life, and think about my role as a mother to Jessica and Ava and baby #3!

Miracle

So every week I get an email from babycenter.com, which I'm sure is old hat to most of you but, I've never subscribed with my other pregnancy's.

It is blowing my mind to read how this baby is forming. It is the most amazing miracle.

How your baby's growing:
Deep in your uterus your embryo is growing at a furious pace. At this point, he's about the size of a sesame seed, and he looks more like a tiny tadpole than a human. He's now made up of three layers — the ectoderm, the mesoderm, and the endoderm — which will later form all of his organs and tissues.

The neural tube — from which your baby's brain, spinal cord, nerves, and backbone will sprout — is starting to develop in the top layer, called the ectoderm. This layer will also give rise to his skin, hair, nails, mammary and sweat glands, and tooth enamel.

His heart and circulatory system begin to form in the middle layer, or mesoderm. (This week, in fact, his tiny heart begins to divide into chambers and beat and pump blood.) The mesoderm will also form your baby's muscles, cartilage, bone, and subcutaneous (under skin) tissue.

The third layer, or endoderm, will house his lungs, intestines, and rudimentary urinary system, as well as his thyroid, liver, and pancreas. In the meantime, the primitive placenta and umbilical cord, which deliver nourishment and oxygen to your baby, are already on the job.


Anyway...I am just getting my mind blown...this is amazing! My baby's heart starts beating this week and the brain starts developing!

...crazy.

Mid Year Resolutions...

I have been thinking lately about how the gospel affects EVERY area of our lives. Some of my life is "all good and cleaned up" and some of it is just messy. Like, literally...messy. Chaotic. Unorganized. A plethora of mess.

I don't spend my time wisely at home and I don't give my kids the attention they need at night and in the mornings. I am completely content sticking them in front of the TV or at the computer to play games so that I can unwind for the day. They don't get baths every night and half the time we can't find anything for them to wear in the mornings because I haven't had time to do laundry. So...since I haven't had time to do laundry, that stack is piling up on the stack from last week which was really from two weeks ago. Get my drift? My bedroom closet is microscopic so the clothes I don't have room for are in a stack on the beautiful red velvet chair that no one ever gets to see...because of the clothes stacked on top of it. I don't have room in my kitchen for a junk drawer and so there are nick knacks stuffed in every drawer in the house. Our laundry room has had a revolving stack of laundry in the basket since we moved in. And...on and on.

How would the gospel address this? I don't really know the answer to that yet but...I know some practical things I want to do to get "cleaned up". This is going to literally be a life-change but I am committed to doing it.

1. Weekend projects starting this weekend and continuing until I have finished every room in the house. Starting with our bedroom. I mean...top to bottom...every single room. (Except for Matt's) Then, keeping that maintained so that I don't get behind again.

2. Going to bed early and getting good rest.

3. Getting up early to work out, read the word with Nate, make the girls breakfast and pack their lunches.

4. Tidy up every night.

5. Wash dishes after every meal.

6. Do laundry every Saturday.

7. Go through the girl's back packs every day so that I know what is going on at their schools.

8. Have nightly prayer time with the girls when we tuck them in.

9. Clean up the front and back yards.

10. Make Sunday a day of rest with my family.

11. Clean out my car and keep it clean.

I know that it is not realistic to think that all of this will be done perfectly, every day because I am only human and I work all day long BUT...I need some organization. I don't need a schedule (they drive me crazy because you are then confined to that schedule every day.) I just need my life to be a little more organized. I'm praying that God gives me strength to ease into this new lifestyle.

I mean...if Jesus showed up right now at my house...he'd have to sit on a pile of laundry on my couch!

I'm looking forward to this new way of living!!

(if any of you have any suggestions, advice, organization tips, etc...bring 'em on!)

5th Addition to the Navarro Family...

So...I know this is SO early but...we are adding another Navarro at the end of December/beginning of January. I am about 5 or 6 weeks pregnant and we tried to keep it a secret but...the secret's out(Mom)! No, not really. We told a "few" people and our city group and it spread like wildfire. I think I might have had 4 people come up to me at Church on Sunday and say "I heard a little secret"...

So...we are just going to go with it and announce that baby Navarro will be here in close to 34 weeks.

Ava and Jessica are really excited...it took Jess a little longer to get excited but knowing that she is moving over to the other side of the house and will have her own bedroom, living room and bathroom has sealed the deal:)

The reason for the picture is that I took a couple of tests a couple of weeks ago that had a VERY faint positive line on it and so neither one of us were willing to believe I was REALLY pregnant. So, I gave in and bought the (more expensive), digital test and it was a big fat digital YES+.

We are really excited and will continue to post updates on baby Navarro for the next 34 weeks.

I've thought about posting a picture of my stomach and ankles every week for the next 34 weeks...I might also consider keeping my dignity though. We'll see.

Our Bedroom Needs Some Lovin'

This is going to be incredibly boring to those of you who get on here to read my super deep, intellectual, wise thoughts on life in general. This is a decorating post...intended for the girls.

I'm not sure if any of you are this same way but...our bedroom is the last place in the house to get any love in cleaning or decorating. It's more important to keep the areas in the house most frequented...clean and tidy and spruced up. That would be our living room, kitchen and bathroom. These are the rooms where guests hang out the most. So...they are decorated and clean (some of the time, at least). Our bedroom, on the otherhand, doesn't have one thing on the wall and has had an old comforter on it, whose stuffing is lopsided, for the last two years.

So...I ordered new bedding from Target and am super excited about it! Here it is:

http://www.target.com/Studio-Target-Foliage-Bedding-Collection/dp/B001OO8W7O/qid=1241539752/ref=br_1_16/191-4446264-8919755?ie=UTF8&node=404152011&frombrowse=1&pricerange=&index=tgt-mf-mv&field-browse=404152011&rank=pmrank&rh=&page=1

The other project for my room is already half completed. Here it is:

http://tarawhitney.com/justbeblogged/2008/06/opam-may-08-photo-wall-in-living-room-after/

I already have all of the prints for the photo wall. They were all taken by Jen Cota and I ordered them just like these photos: some black and white and some color and with the same affect on the photo. The affect is called "through the lens" because it looks like it was taken with an old camera and like you're looking through the lens (hence, the name "through the lens"). All I'm needing now are the frames. This will require a trip to Ikea, which I'm planning on doing this Saturday.

The last thing I'm going to do is spruce up the nightstand (which right now has books and dust and an empty cup on it). It will look something like this:




I'm looking so forward to our "new" room!