Happy Valentine's Day!

Written by Daddy:

Happy Valentine’s Day! One year ago today we celebrated Travis’s impending arrival by having dinner with his grandparents and Uncle Mickey.

Of course we had known that Gara was pregnant since the day after Christmas, but we had not yet broken the news to anyone else due to some early-pregnancy complications and uncertainties. Once we reached the eleven-week mark, most of the uncertainties had been alleviated, and we were ready to share the news with our parents. After 5 years of “When are you going to give us a grandbaby” inquiries, we were excited to spill the beans in person.

We planned a special dinner for our family on Valentine’s Day, hoping that the coincidence of the gathering with a holiday would help us hide the fact that the purpose of the event was for a big announcement. Even though we were able to stay tight-lipped up to that point, each of our dinner guests were suspicious.

 Grandpa was the first to arrive on Thursday night before Valentine’s Day. He asked Gara what she wanted for dinner and she promptly replied, “Cheese sticks.” He claims that was his first tip that something was different. Lovey had declined our invitation to travel in from Lubbock for Valentine’s Day, so Gara let her in on the news since she was not expected to attend. But once she heard the news, she couldn’t bear to miss the event with the rest of the family. After the other attendees learned of the guest list, they had pretty much guessed what was about to happen.

Soon after Papaw and Nana arrived (they are usually last because Papaw tends to run a little behind schedule), everyone gathered in the media room for the special announcement. We had been to the doctor earlier in the week for a sonogram, and we played the DVD of the sonogram for everyone to make the official announcement. Once we watched the video of his little body and clearly heard his heartbeat, there wasn’t a dry eye in the room. Several “I knew it!”s could be heard as well. Although we did not yet know his gender, and thus did not yet know what his name would be (we had a boy name and a girl name ready for years), we said a prayer for Baby Hill, and thanked God for blessing the new baby with such a great family.

We then celebrated with a prime steak dinner from Allen Brothers courtesy of Grandpa Sam. Everyone watched closely to make sure Gara got plenty to eat, and we had lots of eager hands to help with dishes.

It was so obvious that day the love that his grandparents and family would have for Travis.  The love has grown and continues to be shown all the time.  Here are some sweet pics from Valentine's Day.

Pepper brought us some dairy and soy free strawberry cupcakes.  Delicious!!!

Alternating between the Olympics and the Daytona 500.

Some of T's Valentine loot:

Nana, Papaw, and Aunt Momo stopped by too.

Angel even got in on the action!

Brandon and I didn't even exchange cards this year (our 11th V-day together).  We try to express our love and appreciation for each other often, and now, with our new Valentine, our love just grows and grows for him and each other.

Hope you had a great one with your loved ones!

Xoxo,
Gara

P.S.  We are so thrilled to announce that we finally joined FBC Arlington today.  Brandon and I had been back row visitors for over two years, but God has put so many new and special friends in our lives recently that we know that He wanted us to take this next step.  We are so blessed to have added many more people to our baby-raising "village".