Jaxon is 1!!

On Sunday our little baby boy turned 1!!! We had beautiful weather - perfect for our pool party at the Loberts. We had such a fun party - Jaxon had a 2 hour nap right before the party started so he was in a fantastic mood. He loves being amidst chaos so he had a great time. I think Dan & I were having as much (or maybe even more) fun as Jaxon was :) I am constantly amazed at how much fun the simplest things can be when it's your kid.

Jaxon got incredibly spoiled with love & gifts from the special people in his life here. He'll get more of that next week as we make the trek to see our family and have another party there!

Thank you Grace & Carol for taking such wonderful pictures! To see more pictures, click here to see my album on Facebook (you don't need FB to look at them).







enjoying his FIRST piece of cake!










blowing kisses! (he does that now when you say "I love you" or "bye bye")

happy birthday Mya

August 16th, 2007 our sweet baby girl arrived. She was 8lbs, 5oz of pure cuteness. The fact that she was a girl surprised us both - we were SURE we were having a boy. :)

We never dreamed we would only get to hold the baby we instantly loved and adored for a short 30 hours. To read the rest of Mya's story, click here.

We still miss our sweet Mya...most days it feels very unrealistic that Mya was taken from us and once and a while it feels painfully real. God has blessed us with His grace & healing, and has given us a new little miracle in our 2nd child, Jaxon (who already knows lots about his big sister!).

If Mya were alive today, we would definitely be partying....there would probably be a lot of pink involved...a pretty cake in some kind of neat shape with lots of icing....dolls...cute hair clips....all that fun girl stuff. But I guess none of that can beat the party she's having in Heaven. I'm so thankful we have the hope that we DO get to see her again someday! Thank you Jesus.





taking in everything about her!


daddy lovin' on his girl










cuddling with Jesus
Our friend Bethany Davidson drew this for us...beautiful.

baby cookies

I found this recipe for homemade baby cookies on a website and thought I'd share it...Jaxon loves them! I don't feel quite as guilty giving him a cookie knowing that they're healthy. There's no sugar or butter in them so I think they're pretty good. Enjoy!

Oats & 'Naner Drops
1 c quick oats
1 c ground oats (grind oats and make a coarse oat flour)
1/4 t salt
1/4 t cinnamon or ginger or cardamom (we'd try it with all 4 spices.)
1/4 t nutmeg
1 t baking powder
1 c (~2) overripe bananas, mashed
1 t vanilla extract
3 T oil of choice (I used Olive Oil)

Mix dry, mix wet, add wet to dry. Drop by the spoonful onto parchment paper or greased baking sheet. Bake 12-15 min at 350.

And I had to throw this picture in here too....it's one of my new favorites.

"teethifier"

A couple weeks ago I found this interesting looking teether. It's supposed to be able to reach their molars so I thought I'd give it a try. Jax seems to like it so far! It's called the "teethifier". I bought mine at Once Upon a Child if you're interested in buying one.

a great holiday

It actually happened! Since we left NBC we talked about how in the future we would have to meet up for holidays with our good friends Lindsay & Amanda and Kyle & Kassy - since we are now so far from them (they live in Alberta & Saskatchewan!)...and you know how it goes - you have big ideas and dreams but realistically...it usually never happens. Well this summer we actually did it! We planned a vacation together at a half-way point (Falcon Lake, MB) and rented a cottage together last week.

It was such a great time for all of us. The guys are all in ministry positions so it was a really good chance for them to air out their ideas, ideals, dreams, visions, frustrations, etc. to each other and of course play some Playstation and drink coffee. And us girls enjoyed relaxing together and chatting about life and kids and God and a bunch of other random things.

We're so thankful that God has given us such amazing friends and we miss them so much already!


To see more pictures of our time, you can see my Facebook album.

Jax playing with Liam & Libby. He LOVED having other kids to play with.


the guys


the girls!