6 months old

Yesterday was Jack's 6 month birthday! Unfortunately, we celebrated by getting shots at the doctor Never a fun experience. But I would like to comment on how fortunate I am to have a husband that will go with me everytime and help hold him down during the shots. I am the weak one of the two of us and I always turn around and sing a happy tune in my head. It's so sad to see them stick needles in his chubby little legs and see him go to an immediate "mad" cry while his face turns bright red.

His new stats are:
Weight - 17 lbs. 10 oz. - 50%
Height - 27 3/4" - 90%

I couldn't believe that he was in the 90% of his height. My chubby son is slimming up!

We didn't take any great 6 month old pics yesterday (I know - that's unlike us) so I'm hoping to get some today. Here are some we took the day before that are pretty cute....

Hopey

Today I had a suprise visit from my old roomie, Hope! Hope and I were roomies our last year of college with 4 other girls and then we also lived in Little Rock together right after college. I was a graphic designer at a small advertising agency and she was a teacher at CAC (Central Arkansas Christian). We had some fun times together. I love how Hope is so worry free and can be anything she wants to be. Notice I said she "was" a teacher. Well, one day Hope decided to be a midwife - so, she ups and does it. Now she just graduated from midwife school and got a job being a midwife at a hospital in Rogers! She decides to do something and she does it -- something I always wished I could do. Some fun memories with Hope would be how she could fall alseep in 1 second or less.... How her family taught me to speak in "ners" (hopener, lovener, hiner) .... the time I tried to tell her that Brent and I were "just friends" but somehow she saw right through that... going to my first Hogs game and teaching me the ins and outs of Hog football! Now I'm a fan for good. People think it's because I married a UA graduate - but really it's the Huckeba family that showed me the Hog life. :)

Here is a photo of Aunt Hope and Jack together ....



Here are a few photos of Jack being absolutely adorable while watching Brent work outside....

Game Night

Last Saturday night we had a game night with our friends from Silver City at our house ... the Meyers, Martinezes, and Davises. We played Cranium and Scene It and the girls won each time! We had so much fun hanging out with friends.

The whole group posing for a photo



What we really look like ....

Breakfast

For breakfast this morning we had sausage biscuits with homemade strawberry jelly. I love it when spring rolls around and I can make jelly with fresh fruit! These are some photos from breakfast this mornng. Jack was being extra cute!

New Lens

Today we recieved our new Nikon lens and Brent tried it out on Jack. It's a 50 mm lens that stops the aperture down to 1.4... which means we can take a photo of someone and the background be way out of focus - but they look SHARP! Or in the case of these photos of Jack - if you get his eyes in focus, his ear and nose are out... that's how detailed it is. We're excited about it. I went to Little Rock today and bought some fun things for Jack at Babies 'R' Us while Brent and Sunnie (Brent's mom) watched Jack all day.

Photography Studio

As most of you know, we have been shooting photos out of our house for the last three years. Finally, we have begun the construction on our new studio!!! I can't tell you how excited I am to have my house just as a "house". It's getting hard to keep it clean everyday for photo shoots and proofings. My brilliant husband is building the studio completely by himself (or with someone if they want to offer to help) :) Here is the first picture to note the beginning of the construction. I've got to admit my hubby looks pretty good!

Backtrack - Texas Trip

Jack & Katie - Cousins

I thought I would post a few photos from our trip to Texas that we took last month. Brent went to Mexico with our church - Silver City - to build a house for a family there while I stayed in Texas with my family for a week. I had so much fun hanging out with my new little niece, Katie - born 4 days before Jack - and seeing her and Jack interact. It was also wonderful to be with my mom & dad and sis-in-law, Tiffany. Mom & Dad spoiled me, of course.... and Tiff and I had a blast hanging out all week. I also got to go out with Tiff and my other great sis-in-law, Amy, to IKEA (a HUGE furniture store outside of Dallas). It was so nice to be "kid-free" for a fun girl outing.



Jack getting a kiss from Granny!




The Silver City group on their way home from Mexico

Brent's trip was very productive and a blessing to two families in Mexico. Every year our church has gone to Juarez to build a house. I have gone for the past 5 years and this was my first year to not be able to go. I was so happy that Brent was able to make the trip because he headed up a site team this year. Usually we just build one house, but this year the group built two houses! Praise God for the work they did there! I'm sure I'll write more on Silver City in the future - our church family truly is "family" to us ... I'm so thankful for everyone there.

First Post

This is Jackson Brent Ruple - our son. We take photos of him daily. He is our gift from God that came (a little early) on October 24th of last year. He is 5 1/2 months old now. We've never blogged before - so we're going to do our best to keep up with this site and show you photos of Jack and our new family adventures. I was hoping this would be a good way to keep in touch with our family and friends. So, please comment on anything - I love hearing feedback! God Bless!