Dan & Laura's Journey

supper entertainment

2012-01-27T10:46:00.000-05:00

summer hilights

2011-08-26T23:04:00.000-04:00

I've been pretty bad at posting lately. I just don't feel like I have time for any of this stuff anymore...but I thought I could handle a quick post with some of our summer hilights :) I'll do it picture-style :)

Sweet sleeping baby

Camping in Traverse City, Michigan during the Cherry festival with our friends the Loberts :)

beachin'

spent most of his time while we were camping on his bike :)

African Lion Safari with Grandpa & Grandma

The last tractor ride with Papa on the farm! The next time we visit they will be moved!

A nice visit with Grandpa & Grandma...

...and Nana & Papa!

...and Taden!

ahhhh, CAMP!! (translated: "cottage" for non-Northerners)

a visit from cousins Auna & Weston (and Adam & Ang too!!)

First time to the movies! Winnie the Pooh. Sweet memories!

Best friends! (or, that's what I tell them they are anyway!)

Remembering Mya on her 4th birthday

a new-found LEGO lover!

My boy is 3!!

a new guitar for our little musician

natural de-gunker recipe

2011-08-09T10:42:00.000-04:00

I just spot-cleaned my kitchen floor using this recipe and while I was doing it, I was thinking..."i have to tell my mom friends about this!!!" So here it is:

De-gunker
Put these ingredients in a spray bottle:
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp Borax
1/2 tsp dish soap
2 c hot water

My favorite way to use it is for my kitchen floor. I just spot clean - spray everywhere that has dried on dirt, food, etc... and wait a couple minutes (it doesn't take long!) and wipe up with a warm cloth. It comes right off with no scrubbing!! No more mopping for me! Spot cleaning it is.

ps. what's even better....it's natural!!

my baby in a year

2011-06-30T16:00:00.000-04:00

I can't believe my baby is a year old!!

Jada is such a joy in our lives. She's got a spunky personality and we're starting to really see her sense of humor.

Some quick Jada facts:

she is still not crawling, but gets everywhere quickly by bum scootching!
she loves to cuddle
sucks her thumb when she's tired or if something's bothering her and no one is doing anything about it
She ADORES her brother
loves to give big open-mouth kisses and has recently learned how to "zerbert"
loves shoes and pretty things (oh no...)
loves to eat what other people are eating
loves to rub her bare belly while she sucks her thumb
and many more, but the dear one herself is sitting on my lap typing for me, so that's all for now :)

Here...you can watch my baby grow up before your eyes:

birthday girl!

first date

2011-06-20T23:05:00.000-04:00

Lately I've really been missing one-on-one time with Jaxon. It seems like we've been in a state of go-go-go for the past while and I have been noticing that he's needing some good quality time too. When it's all 4 of us it usually ends up that Dan cares for Jax and I care for Jada. Often it's more practical that way. And I love my Jada to bits, but sometimes I miss that time with Jaxon.

It was actually during a speedy walk through the grocery store, headed for the potty, when I realized how much I really miss having time with just Jaxon. The four of us were there and Jax had to "go"...so I held his hand and him & I sped to the back of the store where the public bathroom was. On the way back to find Dan & Jada I realized how long it had been since I was somewhere with just Jaxon and only having his hand to hold. It was nice. So today, we went on a date.

It was sweet actually, when he was telling Dan about it he said to Dan "and you can come too! And Jeeda". And the hour before we left he kept asking if Jada could come too. He told Dan that he was "so sad" cause Jada couldn't come. Later on while we were out I asked if he was still sad that Jada wasn't there and he quickly said "nope!" so that's good.

We had a good time. Only one meltdown cause we went to McDonalds too early and they weren't serving fries or ice cream for another half hour, and I didn't have socks for him to wear in the play place. Thankfully the tears didn't last long and we found something else to do in the meantime.

I feel a little more bonded with my little guy again. He's so precious to me, and I'm sad how fast he's growing up.

Hopefully this was the first of many dates to come!

there's nothing more precious...

2011-03-11T10:58:00.003-05:00

...than the sound of baby giggles, and seeing your kids love each other.

if mama ain't happy...

2011-03-02T22:01:00.004-05:00

You know that saying we joke about "if mama ain't happy, nobody's happy"? The one that Dan likes to use around here (mostly joking) is "Happy Wife, Happy Life". We joke about it and I kinda roll my eyes when I hear it, but I've realized that there's some truth to those statements, sadly!

I have noticed in my own home that my mood plays a HUGE roll in the moods of my kids and my husband. There was one week in particular where Jax & I seemed to clash. The first day I think it was a combination of him waking up on the wrong side of the bed, and me letting his disobedience get the best of me. The next day, I was still a little grouchy from the day before and Jaxon was having another bad day as well. Or so I thought. After I realized that I needed to get a grip and make the decision to change my attitude, I saw Jaxon's attitude change dramatically as well. I think the only reason he was being bad that second day is because I was being snappy and he was feeding off of that. It actually made me sad!

The scary thing is that moms/wives have a huge amount of influence on the mood of the whole household. Apparently, we set the tone. This article said it well:

"...The truth is that Mom does set the tone for the home, and we have tremendous influence over the moods, actions and lives of everyone who enters our door. And that influence is a fact we cannot change - no matter how much the pop culture tries. In fact, in national surveys of teens, when asked who has the greatest influence on them, the majority of teens say, "my parents". This, even though many kids are now consuming up to eight hours of media a day..."

"You have no choice about whether or not you are an influence - the choice is what type of influence you will be. Your actions and words will either shape your children for good or for bad. And your silence also speaks volumes: when you are too busy or too tired to take the time to talk to your children, the message that comes through loud and clear is that they are not important..."

(Never Underestimate the Power of a Mother - Rebecca Hagelin)

On that note...I have recently learned some ways to being a less easily annoyed, more patient, more fun, more creative, more intentional, and more loving mom. I am NOWHERE near being perfect at it, but I'm realizing what makes it a bit easier.

These are a few things that help me to be a happier mamma :)

1. Go to bed on time - I find this to be a hard one. My evenings are my "responsibility-free" time that I get to do whatever I want, and spend time with just Dan. I often procrastinate going to bed on time (10:00 is my goal). But I can tell you (and so can Dan, lol) that I NEED my sleep. Lack of sleep makes me irrational and moody.

2. Give myself enough time before going places that I don't have to be rushed . I'm a bad mom when I'm in a rush. There's no reason why my toddler should be scolded for observing a "neat" piece of gravel from the driveway on our way to the car.

3. Ditch my "to-do" lists. Having things on my to-do list that are un-done makes me crazy. I feel like I have to get them done ASAP and then I get grouchy when I feel like I don't have the time in my day to get them done. Then I also rush getting the routine things done with the kids and I hate that. Now, I'm not saying that I'm ditching to-do lists all together. Goodness, if I didn't have lists I wouldn't remember anything. I just have to stop being so busy with {good} but not priority stuff. Before Christmas I put way too much stuff on my plate, and my to-do list drove me crazy. Before I make something a priority I am trying to ask myself whether it's really that impotant or not.

4. Don't count on getting a nap. Or "me" time in the day. If I count on it, I will be frustrated if it doesn't happen. And again, I'll be rushing the routine things so that I will have time to fit it in.

5. Spend more time playing with my kids, even if I'm in the middle of something. I have to keep reminding myself that these days of Jaxon WANTING to play with his mommy are not going to last forever. These are the days where our relationship is being built. His brain is registering whether the things that matter to him matter to his mom. I think the way I respond to him now are going to impact how he responds to me when he's a teenager.

Most times when Jaxon wants me to "play guitar" with him, or sit down and play cars, or help me cook in the kitchen, my first thought is to tell him I can't because I'm busy doing something. But the times that I do actually drop what I'm doing and play with him I am SO glad that I did. It is rewarding to spend that quality time with my kids doing what they want to do.

6. Go out on regular dates with Dan (and dates by myself!). It makes me feel refreshed and have more mental energy to deal with the everyday things I have to do. We've started budgeting for a date night every-other week. And sometimes I'll just go out by myself for an hour after the kids are in bed. Do you remember how nice it is to go shopping by yourself!!?

7. Step outside the picture. When I step back and look at my life and realize how fast my kids are growing, I realize how good I have it right now and that these REALLY ARE some of the best days of my life. I do not want to be 60 and look back regretting that I didn't make more out of these years.

After realizing these things about myself, and trying to follow through with the solutions, I'm finding myself ENJOYING my children even more than ever. It really is too easy for the joy of motherhood to be stripped away.

I'd love to hear your ideas on how you set a positive tone in your house. What is God teaching you?

(I apologize for the scatterbrained-ness of this post...I'm feeling some real "mommy brain" in the communication department lately.)

a labor of love...the quiet book!

2011-01-24T21:40:00.007-05:00

It's done! The quiet book is finally done. I managed to finish it a few days before Christmas, just in time for Jaxon to open during our own little family Christmas.

Before I go any further, I must tell you that a LOT of these ideas came from other people's quiet books that I looked up online. Some of my favorite blogs that I got ideas from were Sew Can Do, Leafy Treetop Spot, and How to Make a Quiet Book. I also got a lot of ideas just from searching "quiet book" in Google images.

I had a lot of fun making the book. At times it was hard to focus on the "more important" motherly duties because I was so motivated to get this book done. Normally I don't like to do big projects for that reason, but it helped that I could at least finish a page at a time.

Jaxon's first unhindered glance through the book (he got sneak peeks while I was making it)

the cover

Shapes that snap off

This is by far Jaxon's FAVORITE page...

the lock comes undone and there's a picture of all of us inside.

...counting....
I have a few of the soccer and baseball beads leftover and Jaxon carries them everywhere! They are a favorite.

fridge (for the next page)

what's for breakfast? (the food velcros off so you can put it in & out of the fridge)

buckles! Jaxon's #2 favorite page.

clock

it's carrot-pickin' time!
there's a funny memory that will always go with these carrots...while I was sewing the carrots, Jaxon was playing in the same room and I had given him one of the finished carrots to play with for a few minutes. He gave it back to me and it was soaking wet. Like soaking. After smelling it and examining it I had thought he had put it in his mouth so I asked him if that's what he did and he said "no"...I thought he was lying so I was lecturing him about lying...then I saw a puddle by his feet on the mini quad he was sitting on. Yeah. That's right....it was soaked in pee. I sat there for a few minutes trying to think of any way that I could restore the poor carrot...then soon realized I would just have a make a new one. So, I'm pretty sure I will think of that frustrating but now funny potty training moment every time I look at the carrot page :)

tent...
I got this idea from Homemade by Jill. (Jill, in case you are reading this, I like yours way better! ;)

with a bear inside :)
Jaxon loves campfires so this page is fun for him. It usually gets him & I talking about the campfires he helped daddy build in the summer.

...finally found something useful for those ripped but favorite old jeans!

So there it is! I'm really happy with how it turned out. I plan on making a couple more pages each Christmas. It's really neat to watch Jax enjoy it. It actually worked this Sunday in church...it actually kept him quiet when he was supposed to be quiet! :)

Time for bed....half an hour ago!

Good night

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-22T21:44:00.005-05:00

Merry Christmas!

new blogger layout settings

2010-11-01T22:29:00.003-04:00

Help! My blog is doing weird things. Ever since Blogger "upgraded" their layout options I've been having a hard time with my blog backgrounds. Has anyone else had this problem, and found a solution? I don't know how to get it to stop interfering with the blog backgrounds I choose from a website other than Blogger.

The biggest problem I'm having is the big blue strip across the top of the page....why won't it go away!?

Contagious Giggles

2010-10-30T11:51:00.000-04:00

It's been a long time since I've posted!
Here's a video to give you a glimpse at where the kids are at now :)

The other day I bent over with Jada to let Jax give her a kiss before her nap. One of them started giggling and the giggling continued! SO funny. It made my day!

birthday boy!

2010-09-05T15:34:00.004-04:00

Jaxon is 2 now!!

What fun to celebrate a 2-year old's birthday! He's been around enough birthdays now to understand what we were talking about when we told him that his birthday was coming up. He helped me bake his birthday cake and for a couple days afterward he would randomly talk about his birthday cake.

We were out at a friends' cottage for the week during his birthday so we had some friends out to celebrate with us. Here are a few pictures:

While we were at the cottage, Jax got a tick in his neck! Gross!!

...an up-close picture. We pulled it out with the tweezers and thankfully got the head out. PRETTY disgusting.

To see more pictures of our summer, you can look at my Facebook album here:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=207655&id=643215447&l=845fb9ef40

mamma of two

2010-08-14T12:38:00.008-04:00

wow, it's been a while since I've posted! We've had a crazy summer...lots and lots of company which has been awesome. We haven't had to travel anywhere for holidays this year because everyone has come to us! :)

The kids are doing great...Jada is smiling now and sleeping 8 hours at night, and Jaxon is talking up a storm and is learning his colors, shapes, and his favorite songs ("wittle star", "me" {Jesus Loves Me}, and the ABC song). It's a real joy to see him learning. And he loves his sister SO much. He's gotten really good at being gentle with her (though I still don't trust him 100%), and when he hears her cry he says "no cry, Jeeya", or runs and brings me her soother. He also loves to come into her room when I'm laying her down and sing his bedtime songs to her (with my help of course). Yesterday I caught him signing "I love you" to Jada and saying "uv you Jeeya".

I am of course loving having Jada around but it has definitely been an adjustment. I was very spoiled with how independent Jaxon has been the last 6 months or so...being able to trust him in another room by himself while I do stuff around the house...running errands just the 2 of us...picking up and just going somewhere fun together...having as much one-on-one time with Jaxon as we wanted...him feeding himself meals...etc...parenting him got to be quite easy. So going back to the newborn stage was like "oh yeah...I forgot about all this" :).

I think the hardest part is figuring out how to be able to give one kid my full attention while not being neglectful to the other. There's many times that I'll be feeding Jada and Jaxon will need me for something (potty or food or to clean up a mess or to get him out of the fridge or get the phone [that he so kindly answered for me] out of his hands...). Or vice versa...those days that Jaxon's bedtime routine gets dragged out (a toddler specialty I'm sure!) and poor Jada's crying on the couch waiting to be fed.

I think it will keep getting easier as we adjust to our "new normal". Having a kid is a big deal...it really changes the dynamic in the house and it takes time for everyone to figure things out.

I feel like I was majorly rambling...and I feel like my mind is in major "mommy brain" mode right now so forgive me for being all over the place. Unfortunately I'm not quite as smooth a writer as some of you. :) But I say all this to give my honest perspective on going from 1 kid to 2.

And despite all the adjustments, I am loving being a little family of 4. Well 5, really. Truly there is no better job in the world than being a mom. I am so blessed.

to see more pictures, check out my FB album here:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=198876&id=643215447&l=4ab65ebc1a

2010-07-12T21:24:00.002-04:00

It's been a hot week around here...so this is where the lucky guy get to hang out :) He loves his little pool. Even though it's tiny, he manages to have lots of fun in there. Today he discovered what I call "butt flops". Pretty funny.

Little Jada about a week ago

canoeing on the lake. We got a great deal on a canoe a few weeks ago which is exciting for us...I love it that Jax can be used to a canoe so young. I'm sure this is just the start of many adventures with his dad.

Jada at 3 weeks.

Things here are going pretty good. I think Jada's working on her 3-week growth spurt right now. I had my first day alone with the kids today and it went okay.....but it seemed like both kids were having meltdowns at the same time, and when I was just about to get to nap, Jaxon woke up (early) from his nap. Plus some other minor things that added up and made me a bit grumpy. So I'm thankful for coffee and hoping tomorrow goes better.

To see more pictures, check out my facebook album by clicking HERE.

Dan's race

2010-07-12T21:18:00.002-04:00

At the beginning of June Dan ran his first race...a 5km in Soo Michigan. I was so proud of him for doing it. It was a lot of fun watching and waiting for him to cross the finish line. He did really well...his goal was to make it in 27 minutes and his time was 24:47! Way to go Dan!

Happy Canada Day!

2010-07-01T11:46:00.002-04:00

Introducing...

2010-06-18T21:24:00.005-04:00

Jada Reese!

born Wednesday June 16th @ 8:53 am

7lbs 14oz 21 inches

(for some reason this picture won't fit in the screen but if you click on it you can see the whole thing. I LOVE the look on Jaxon's face here.)

To see more pictures, click here.

We're home now, and things are going well....Jaxon is getting used to the idea of having a little sister. Breastfeeding is going SUPER and that is such a blessing...breastfeeding Jaxon took a LOT more energy (and pain!) at first so this is so nice!

We are so thankful for these gifts God has given us (or more like is lending us!)

labor pains?

2010-06-04T20:23:00.002-04:00

As I sit here with what feel like labor pains (for the 3rd time in the last few weeks) I'm curious to hear what YOUR labor pains felt like. I've never had real labor with either of my other two pregnancies so I really don't know WHAT real labor is supposed to feel like. And I know that lots of women feel it differently.

I know it's probably nothing what I have right now. But I'm a little on the paranoid side about being in labor because my doctor said it wouldn't be good - since I have a t-incision in my uterus from Jax's c-section. Apparently the labor could cause my uterus to rupture. And that would be no good.

The last 2 times I thought I may be in labor I made my way down to the hospital and wasted 2 hours while they did a non-stress test only to find out that they were NOT contractions...which made me even more confused because they felt like what everyone described as labor.

So, tell me - what did your contractions feel like?

bye, bye tv

2010-06-02T19:55:00.004-04:00

So the other day Dan comes home from a run and told me that if I was okay with it, he thought we should disconnect our cable...

...he went on to say how he realized how much time he spent watching TV, and most of all, how much time Jaxon watches US watch tv...how how he's going to follow our example. Plus, there are MUCH better things to be doing.

My initial thought was that I would think about it and see whether I thought I could live without TV or not. Then I realized that was a dumb idea - I knew it was the right choice to make - whether I would like it or not.

So...today was our first day with no cable! When we saw the cable guy in the driveway today we both kinda thought to ourselves "crap...what'd we do?" but really we know this is the right thing to do.

I think the 1st month will be hard because we'll have to change our habits. But after that I think we'll wish we'd done it sooner.

So, ladies...any suggestions on any good books I could read? Right now I'm reading Shepherding a Child's Heart and my next one will be Everyday Talk, but I'm thinking I could probably use some good fiction now that I won't be killing as much time watching tv. Too much non-fiction will make my brain hurt.

a sun-filled weekend!

2010-05-26T10:22:00.005-04:00

This weekend was by far the hottest, most summery May long weekend that I can remember. And we took full advantage of it! We swam in our friends' pool after a BBQ lunch on Sunday, followed by an afternoon at the park, on Monday we went to the beach, and Tuesday we went to our friends' camp for the afternoon! Loving it!

oh yeah....Jaxon also filled up the kiddy pool in the back yard.

BEACH!!!

Campbell's camp :)

the water was 70 degrees!

And just a cute picture of Jax this morning. I know boys don't typically wear night-gowns, but I think this one was made for boys...I can't help but find it stinking cute!

the rooms are DONE!

2010-05-14T18:26:00.003-04:00

The most exciting thing that happened in our house this week is that Dan was able to 100% finish Jaxon's room and the baby room. He's been slaving away during all of his free time for quite a while now, doing some fixing up and painting in the kids' rooms. And now they are DONE!! Yay!

Jaxon is VERY excited to be into his room again, especially now that he gets to play in there whenever he wants (it's now child-safe).

Here's Jaxon's room:

Amazingly, the transition from crib to bed went SUPER well. We were expecting a hard week (at least!) as Jaxon got used to the idea of sleeping in a bed. I was worried about him not taking bedtime seriously now that he has the freedom (in his mind) to get out of bed and play in his room. Also, his room looks totally different now than it did when he last slept in there - so really it's like a totally different room to him. We were sure that all these adjustments would mean a few sleepless nights - but he did so great. We made sure to keep showing him the progress in his room as Dan was painting it, etc...and talking about his new room with him. We're starting to realize that he really does get it when we explain stuff to him - and it seems to make things go smoother.

The first night he was to sleep in his new bed I took Jax to his crib and we took the blankets that he used in his crib and I explained to him that we were going to put them in his new bed because that was where he was going to sleep now, and when we layed them down in his new bed he got all excited and layed down on them and cuddled up on the bed. It was funny :) Dan layed him down like normal that night, Jax said "bye!" and off to sleep he went! We were both like "what? That's it!??" Thank you Lord!!!!!!

His nap the next day didn't go as smooth - he was quiet for about 10 minutes and then started calling me and after I went in and out again he was quiet for another few minutes but then started talking again. He may have had a 20 minute nap and that was it. But the next day he napped like he normally does.

Here's a pic of Jaxon sleeping his first night in the new bed (it was dark in his room - the flash just lit it up!)

And here is the baby's room! All done!! Yay!

some stuffies I made for the shelf. The elephant has a hard time standing on his own so he gets to be friends with the owl.

not a baby anymore!

2010-05-09T15:37:00.004-04:00

Well - last night was Jaxon's last night sleeping in a crib. We plan on him sleeping in his new twin size bed tonight - in his newly painted room! He LOVES being able to play in his room now...I'm just hoping he'll be just as eager to SLEEP in it. Any advice for me??

Before I went to bed last night I checked in on Jaxon and got a little nostalgic as it clicked that this was his last night in a crib and that it was one more step toward growing up for him. I got a little sad and decided I should take a picture of his last night in a crib.

So precious! I told myself that he'll look just as precious sleeping in his big bed.

29 weeks!

2010-04-10T14:51:00.004-04:00

Here's my latest belly picture. I'm exactly 29 weeks here.

Feeling pretty good....I found out my iron WAS low...so the iron pills have been helping me have some energy which has been so nice. I'm finally into nesting mode (just the beginning stages...not "clean under the fridge" nesting quite yet).

I'm feeling quite large and low but high at the same time. My belly is tired by the end of the day - it feels like my skin is being pulled down (which I guess is true) but I'm still feeling quite good compared to what most women experience during pregnancy, so I'm thankful for that.

25 weeks

2010-03-19T10:14:00.003-04:00

Here's my 25 week shot...getting bigger! And feeling bigger too.

For the most part I'm feeling really good. I am still very tired by the end of the day but if I think back, it HAS gotten better since the 1st trimester. This little one is very active (which I'm so thankful for!). I think she must be facing out because I feel lots of detailed movements (if that makes any sense) - like little swipes of the hand or foot or whatever it is. She is already a little violent with her brother when he cuddles with me...maybe jealous already? No, just smushed. :)

We have a date for the c-section now for June 16th. Having a date makes it suddenly feel realistic that "oh, I really AM pregnant!" Just to be cautious, my doctor is giving me regular ultrasounds every 2 weeks till the end, and weekly non-stress tests starting at 28 weeks. This will make for a lot of appointments, but I'm glad she's being cautious.

Now for a few pictures of my favorite boys!

let's celebrate!

2010-02-25T10:05:00.002-05:00

it's Jaxon's 1 1/2 birthday! :)

I might not have done this if I wasn't pregnant...I'm not quite sure :) What pregnant woman can pass up an opportunity like this to have chocolate cake!?

I think the cake made his day. He wouldn't stop "talking" about it afterwards ;)

finger painting fun

2010-02-19T08:36:00.005-05:00

Jax and I were bored yesterday morning and decided to dig out the paint! Since Jaxon's still pretty young I didn't know what I would be getting myself into but he actually did REALLY good and we had SO MUCH FUN! I am still amazed at how much fun things are when you have a kid. Things that I never in a million years thought would be fun. Especially when it's their first time. It's exciting to see them learn and develop and have fun with things.

Anyway...here's some pictures.

And, just FYI - those tubes of "water based" acrylic paint....that paint doesn't wash out of clothes :( Unfortunately I didn't wear old clothes since I really didn't think I would get dirty. Wrong! Oh well.

Jax was amazed when I showed him that he got to put his fingers in the paint. He looked at me and said "Whoaaaa" with a half smile on his face.

he concentrated pretty hard the whole time.

...and one more picture that has nothing to do with painting but I thought was super cute. Dan's parents brought some of Dan's old dinky toys with them when they came last weekend and Jax loves them :)

Jaxon's going to have a little....

2010-02-11T12:21:00.004-05:00

SISTER!!!!!!!!

We had our ultrasound today and found out that we're having a GIRL!!!! We're so excited. We were both really hoping for a girl, but were trying not to get our hopes up and were sort of expecting the technician to say "boy". So when she said girl....we were both so happy! Not that we wouldn't have been thrilled if it was a boy.....but you know. We were told by our doctor that "girls" sometimes hide "parts" during an ultrasound so I guess there's a TINY chance that it could still be a boy, but the tech said she was pretty certain that it was a girl.

Okay ladies....you know how you have to have a full bladder before you go in and you're supposed to drink a certain amount of water an hour and a half before your appt? Well I've learned that I don't have to go that crazy - I just don't pee for a while before the appt and I'm fine. So this morning I'm telling myself "you can't go pee......don't go to the bathroom.........you can't go pee......you can't go pee" and what did I do?????? I went PEE 45 minutes before my appt! I mindlessly went into the bathroom and went pee not even thinking until I was done. Thankfully the 2 litres of water I chugged after that filled my bladder fast enough :)

19 week belly

2010-02-03T09:55:00.003-05:00

Well it's been 8 weeks since I've posted a belly picture so I figured it was about time to update! Here I am at 19.5 weeks.

I'm feeling pretty good, other than REALLY tired...still. I was hoping for that second trimester burst of energy but it never happened. I guess I might as well get used to a constant state of being tired since I'm not expecting much rest once the baby comes :) It's all worth it though!

I think it was my 17th week that I was SUPER hungry ALL the time and even more tired than usual - and I figured the baby must be going through a growth spurt. Well that Friday I all the sudden felt like my belly was harder, bigger, and more noticeable when bending over and stuff. So I guess something was happening!

I'm feeling LOTS of movement which is really cool. I don't remember feeling THIS much movement this early - must be an active kid. :)

gotta love those navels.

2010-01-18T20:58:00.006-05:00

....navel oranges that is....

One of our favorite pass-times these days....sharing an orange. They're so good right now!

(this picture shows a better "after" look at his haircut than the pictures in my last post)

no more baby hair

2010-01-18T20:12:00.010-05:00

For a few weeks now I've realized that the time has come...my sweet Jaxon's baby curls need a trim. I've been procrastinating booking an appointment, knowing that giving Jaxon his first haircut will take my sweet little baby one more step out of "babyhood" and into "boyhood". I love that he has those precious curls at the back and I didn't want to let them go - but he was starting to look like a homeless man. About half the time - the curls would behave and be curly - but at the worst of times - it was BAD.

Here's a BEFORE picture on a okay hairday:

Here's a couple BEFORE pictures on a VERY bad hair day (an hour before his haircut):

So on Saturday we went to see Cherie for a little trim :) I forgot to take pictures during the cut but Jax did VERY well...as long as he got to hold the comb Cherie let him borrow.

Here's Jaxon and Cherie after his haircut. Jax would rather be the photographer than the poser...he's not too happy.

Here are my attempts at the AFTER pictures. He obviously wasn't in the posing mood then, either (last week I made the mistake of letting him take a picture with our camera and now that's all he wants to do when he sees the camera....Oops.) These pictures actually make me laugh...even though they're all terrible.

"ghhhhhhhh!!"

"Mommmmmmmmm, let me go!"

"fine....I'm leaving!"

His shorter, "big-boy" hair-do has taken a couple days to get used to - but I do like it. Cherie did a great job - and the back still gets curly so I think I'll be okay. :)

Merry Christmas to you!

2009-12-23T21:29:00.003-05:00

Merry Christmas friends and family!

I can't believe it's Christmas in only 2 sleeps. I wanted to wish you all a Merry Christmas...we are going to be spending some time with family starting on the 26th. We're looking forward to having Christmas morning here at home just the 3 of us. Now that Jaxon is older, it's so much fun watching him open presents and explore his new gifts (and the boxes they came in!).

It is our hope that this Christmas is a time that you find yourself pondering the birth of Christ - and celebrating it. It's pretty easy for me to get caught up in all the traditions and "feel-good" Christmas-y things that we do - and how that dictates whether I feel I've had a good Christmas or not. While those traditions are okay - it's important that I remember the true reason for Christmas, and that in my heart that purpose outweighs the satisfaction I look for in the Christmas traditions.

Here's a few of our latest and favorite pictures. Merry Christmas!

I found Jaxon playing with his Nativity set one day last week - it appeared that the Wiseman was kidnapping baby Jesus! LOL...

belly picture # 1

2009-12-11T07:14:00.005-05:00

Where did the month go? I just read that the date of my last post was November 3rd. Crazy!

Here's my first belly picture for baby # 3. I can't believe I'm showing this much already. My belly actually started popping around 7 or 8 weeks (although it helps that I had some leftovers from Jaxon that came with it ;o)

Here I am at 11 weeks.

This pregnancy seems to be different from both of my last pregnancies. The other two were pretty predictable about what time in the day I would start feeling nauseous and for how long - and what kinds of foods I liked/disliked. This time my nausea is very unpredictable - and thankfully not all that bad, especially compared to what some women experience! And food-wise, it seems like it depends on the day what I crave or gag over. Surprisingly - I do have an increased desire for pickles :)

I would say my biggest struggle this trimester has been fatigue. Usually I can make it till 5pm and then it takes all I have to be able to clean up supper, get Jax ready for bed, and tidy the house. Often I'm in bed by 9:30. So I'm hoping that my energy returns sometime soon. At the same time though I'm thankful that I don't have it worse.

a few of my favorite {baby} things

2009-11-03T20:42:00.000-05:00

I was thinking the other day about some of the baby/toddler "accessories" that we've found that have made life so much easier for us...and I thought I'd do a post about it! Here I am doing free advertising...I should get paid for this! Oh well. :) If I can help some of you out by letting you know about these things, that's pay enough for me.

Here's my list:

1. Mirrors for in the car! This is one of my FAVORITE favorites. It's SO nice to be able to see Jaxon in the back seat while I'm driving. I can tell if he's sleeping, getting into trouble, etc..and you can make faces at them :) I love it.

This one is for when the baby is rear facing.

The one below is for when they go forward facing - it attaches to your rear view mirror. We are using this one right now (I think ours might be a little bit different - I'm not sure if this one actually attaches to the rear view mirror). Jaxon often looks at me in the mirror and I'm always checking him out :)

2. Car Seat Bunting Bag - this is a MUST for the colder weather. I LOVED this thing. I didn't have to put a coat on Jaxon the entire winter because it. I just put a warm shirt on him, tuck a warm blanket inside, and zip up the cover. When you come inside and the baby is sleeping....all you have to do is unzip the cover and viola! the baby can stay asleep. And we all know how important it is to keep our babies sleeping as long as possible ;)

***if you look for one of these to buy - I would suggest that you get the kind that doesn't wrap around the bottom of the car seat. My friend had one of those and it wasn't as cozy and warm and as soon as the baby's legs got longer, it wouldn't fit anymore. The brand that I have is Gagou Tagou. ***

3. Nursing Cover! You can get these online....or I can possibly make & sell you one if you're interested. The top has boning in it so that it stays open for you to see the baby. It also has an adjustable strap to go around your neck.

4. Leather slippers. I'm sure most of you have used or at least heard of these before. They are AMAZING. They are seriously the only thing that would stay on Jaxon's feet. The most well-known brand is Robeez....but I recently found a company called Lil Jo's that makes them in Canada - and they are only $22.99. The ones pictured below are Lil Jo's.

5. Teething Tablets. These are tiny little homeopathic tablets that dissolve on the baby's tongue. They help take the edge off teething and they really seem to work well to calm Jaxon when his teeth are really bothering him. For us, they haven't necessarily replaced Motrin or Tylenol when teething is really bad, but they kick in fast and do the trick when he just needs to be distracted from the pain or to buy us time until the Motrin kicks in. You can get them at WalMart in the States (I haven't seen them in the Cdn WalMarts) or at a health food store. Jaxon loves taking them.

6. A wipeable, flexible, durable bib with a pocket that has snaps! (This brand is a Dex Dura-Bib). I didn't really use this until Jax started eating finger foods...and now it's the ONLY bib I use. And you only need 1. It's great. It catches everything, and all you have to do is wipe it off and it's ready for the next meal. And the snaps on the pocket make it very easy to get all the junk out of it - all you do is undo the snaps and the pocket unfolds, making it all flat. Thanks Amy for giving this to us!!!

...maybe this will give you an idea why I love it so much :)

It's helped me "let go" of the desire to feed Jaxon just so there would be less mess....now I don't really care (although he still gets food in his hair but oh well...) and he's actually feeding himself really well now, with way less mess.

Every time I take the tray off his highchair to clean him up, Jax loves to peek inside the pocket to see what kind of goodies are in there :o)

7. (Somewhat) Spillproof Snack Cup - This thing is one of my MAJOR favorites. It has been a life-saver for us numerous times. The lid has slits in it so that your toddler can stick his hand in, grab a few Cheerios, and pull it back out without dumping the whole cup of Cheerios everywhere. This is an essential in my purse whenever we go anywhere. Great for the car, shopping cart, church, and stroller (to name a few).

It took Jax a couple days to figure out how to get the Cheerios out, but he eventually got it and he quickly became a pro.

It IS still possible for Cheerios to go flying (like when Jax was trying to figure out how to use it and ended up holding one of the slit things open and shaking it upside-down) but really - it still gets 5 stars from me.

You can find these at WalMart for under $4.

And of course - some of the more normal things like:

Wireless baby monitor (so you can take it outside with you while baby is napping)
Car Seat/Stroller combo (where the car seat snaps into the stroller - very handy for transferring from the car to stroller, or for walks in the winter, or for taking a sleeping baby inside).
Double-sided flannel blankets for swaddling (Jax slept way better swaddled from the time he was born until he started standing up in his crib).

The list could go on and on but I think I'll leave it there.....anyone have any awesome kid stuff that I don't know about??? I'd love to hear about them!

H1N1 vaccine...update...

2009-10-30T20:18:00.006-04:00

First of all....thank you all for your comments on my last post. They DEFINITELY helped me make my decision about what I am going to do about the H1N1 vaccine.

Today, I realized I finally feel confident in not getting Jaxon & I the vaccine.

It's not easy making the decision. Of course - the media and most medical professionals are advising people to GET the vaccine, and there is a ton of anti-vaccine stuff on the internet - but of course there is so much junk on the internet it's hard to know what's true. I found myself VERY torn, confused, and paranoid about BOTH options.

I prayed about it and asked God to give us confidence about what we should do...and today I realized He did that!

We've decided NOT to get the vaccines. As scary as that is! Yikes.

My friend Ashton is 3 months pregnant and got very sick with the flu this past week. The doctors were treating it as if it was the Swine Flu. She said that from her visits to the hospital and talking to 4 different doctors she learned a lot about this flu....

the symptom that you have to be most worried about is shortness of breath. The other symptoms should be given attention - but they won't kill you. If you have shortness of breath you need to get to the hospital ASAP. And you will have time to get it under control if you get to the hospital right away.
3 out of the 4 doctors she talked to were under the belief that the anti-viral medications they give H1N1 patients (Relenza and Tamiflu) are ineffective, and a Pharmaceutical ploy. Also, that there are side-effects with those.
Those three doctors were also NOT in favor of the vaccine.

This made me feel more level-headed about the whole thing - YES, it's serious - but if you watch for the symptoms you will have time to get treated and you will be okay.

So....what I AM doing is this:

taking Probiotics (Jaxon is too - you can get it in a powder form and put it in yogurt or whatever you want)
Taking Vitamin D and mulitivitamins (for Jax we have liquid multivitamin with A,D and C in it)
I bought some Sambucol (black Elderberry extract) from the health food store to have on hand in case we start getting flu symptons. It's a super flu fighter and is supposed to reduce the length of a flu by 4 days, and it's safe for pregnant women and children (just make sure it's the Original kind with no Echinacea). Thanks to Andrea for this tip!!!!
staying home more
not hanging out with sick people :(

I'm relieved to have finally made a confident decision. And for those of you who have decided to get the vaccine - or plan to - I totally respect that. I know it is a really hard decision and there are pro's and con's to both.

to get it or not to get it (the H1N1 vaccine)

2009-10-26T10:39:00.004-04:00

I know this is yet another VERY controversial topic...but I'm very curious what you think about this.

As you all know, the H1N1 virus is something that a lot of people are talking about - and it is apparently very serious. I've heard on the Dr. Oz show and The Doctors that it's expected to get worse this winter, and that it's very important for especially pregnant women and children aged 6mo to 19 years to get the vaccine.

Before watching The Doctors this morning, I was convinced that I wasn't going to get the vaccine - as scary as that is - because I felt that it was too new of a vaccine and I couldn't trust that it has been researched and tested well enough, especially for long-term side-effects.

According to what was said on the show this morning, there are many people who are leery of getting the vaccine, for the same reasons I am. They went on to point out that the vaccine is not really a NEW vaccine - it's basically the same as the regular flu vaccine, just with a different strain of the flu in it. And of course - the line "the benefits outweigh the risk".

Now, being pregnant, I know it's not just about me anymore - and me getting the H1N1 flu could be very dangerous for the baby and me. The show also said this morning that the swine flu is very dangerous for children.

So here I am, once again, torn about what to do.

Let me know what you're planning on doing...I'm curious to hear. But please, be nice :)

ps. for those of you who remember me writing a similar post about getting Jaxon immunized - we have decided to go ahead and start getting Jaxon immunized - one at a time. We're not giving him ALL the vaccines...we're sticking with the tried and true ones that we got as kids. So far he's had his first does of the 5-in-1.

Hmmm....

2009-10-25T15:16:00.002-04:00

I'll let you guess why Jax is looking at these books ;)

No-Knead English Muffin Bread

2009-10-20T18:17:00.010-04:00

If you like English muffins, and you are scared of the kneading part of making bread, this recipe is for you! :)

I've made this twice now and it's SO easy, and SO yummy. You eat it toasted. We love how it gets so crispy when you toast it, just like English Muffins. Try it out! Here's the recipe:

English Muffin Bread
cornmeal
6 cups flour (I used 2 cups brown and 4 cups all-purpose)
2 packages active dry yeast (or 4.5 tsp)
1/4 tsp baking soda
2 cups milk
1/2 cup water
1 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt

1. Grease 2 loaf pans. Lightly sprinkle pans with enough cornmeal to coat bottom and sides; set pans aside.

2. In a large mixing bowl combine 3 cups of the flour, the yeast, and baking soda; set aside. In a microwavable bowl (I use my 4 cup glass measuring cup), combine milk, water, sugar and salt and microwave just until warm.

3. Using a wooden spoon, stir milk mixture into flour mixture. Stir in remaining flour.

4. Divide dough in half. Place dough in prepared pans. Sprinke tops with cornmeal. Cover and let rise in a warm place until double in size (about 45 minutes).

5. Bake in a 400 C oven about 25 minutes or until golden brown. Immediately remove bread from pans. Cool on wire racks. Serve toasted.

(recipe taken from my Better Homes & Gardens New Cookbook)

oh fall....how we love you

2009-10-12T21:19:00.006-04:00

Fall....I love fall. I'm always a little sad when the trees START to turn color, because I'm never quite ready to say good-bye to summer, but it doesn't take long for me to love that cozy feeling that comes with the cooler, fresh air outside, wearing slippers in the morning, burning candles in the house, cooking soups and stews and lots of other warm comfort foods, and of COURSE, the bright beautiful colored leaves (to name a few).

Last week Dan, Jax & I started our 1st annual fall tradition of going to pick out a pumpkin at a pumpkin farm. These are some pictures from that little outing as well as some other fall pictures :)

great deal!

2009-09-23T09:03:00.003-04:00

Hey my Canadian friends! I just wanted to fill you in on a deal I found!

If you're like me and you don't print pictures for a year at a time....and then realize that it's going to cost you a fortune to print your pictures because there are so many.

A few weeks ago I sorted through all the pictures from the last year and decided which ones I wanted to print. I realized I had FIVE HUNDRED pictures to print.

So.....guess how much this box of pictures cost to print?

.......there's over 500 pictures in that box and it only cost me $39.95, including tax and shipping! I saw an ad on the internet for kwikpix.ca and thought I'd check it out....and they have a promo right now that you only pay $0.05 per picture for your first order! Yay for me. After your first order pictures are $0.10 per picture.

At Wal-Mart for $0.19 each, it would have cost me $95. Yikes.

So....check it out! Save yourself some money. :)

quite a scare!

2009-09-18T11:04:00.007-04:00

Jaxon has a peanut allergy!

About a month ago, he had a bite of the chocolate part of my Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup ice cream, and a few minutes after got red, puffy eyes, sneezing, and runny nose. It cleared up in about 2 hours. The same thing happened 2 weeks ago when he had 1 bite of my PB & Jam toast. So then we knew it was the peanut butter.

On Wednesday, Jaxon had 1/2 a piece of Chex cereal snack mix at youth group, and as soon as he ate it I realized it had PB in it! So I watched him carefully and he only got red splotches around his mouth, nothing else. I came home and put him to bed, and he woke up about 15 minutes later coughing. He has a cold so I went in and gave him a drink of water and for "some reason" decided to take him and let him lay with me on the couch. Then I realized he had the red puffy eyes and red face, and hives on his belly...and his breathing was a bit wheezy.

We headed for the hospital right away, and within 2o minutes we had 3 nurses and a doctor standing around us, giving him Epinephrine, Benedryl, Ventalin, and Prednisone. Crazy!!!!!!! Things cleared up pretty fast after all the drugs, but they wanted to keep him overnight incase of a rebound after the Epinephrine wore off.

Thanks to the Benedryl, Jaxon fell asleep as soon as we got to our room, and slept until 4am. He woke up chipper and chatty and curiously examining the wires attached to him. :)

So, we are now the parents of a child with a peanut allergy! We have to become quite familar with an Epi Pen....especially since his allergy seems to get worse each time he has PB.

Jaxon's room :(

Future doctor maybe?

Dr. Kristina....we found out while we were there that she was with us in Sudbury with Mya! She did CPR on Mya for 9 minutes and said she still thinks of Mya often.

It was such a blessing to meet her and talk about Mya with her.....and it was so ironic that she was taking care of Jaxon here in the Soo! Especially since she's only up North once & a while...she normally works at CHEO.

Obviously feeling better!

...And just for fun...a classic spaghetti face picture :)

ps. THANK YOU to everyone who gave me advice for weaning! It was so helpful to read your ideas. As of now, we're still having 3 feedings a day but I think we're getting ready to drop 1 more. I bought a straw sippy cup and he's starting to get used to that, but is still not drinking tons of milk out of a cup. I've decided to go to the women's retreat....Dan is set to brave the weekend by himself! :)

weaning tips, anyone?

2009-09-12T16:07:00.003-04:00

So....Jaxon is 1 year old now and I'm thinking it's time to get him off the breast. There's 2 weekends in October that I have the opportunity to go away without Jaxon (Wonderland with the youth and a Women's retreat) but I really don't see Jaxon being done with me by then.

In those first days of breastfeeding, I never thought I'd get to 6 months, let alone 1 year! Well here we are and I love it and Jaxon loves it. But I didn't think it would be this hard to wean him! He has shown no signs of wanting to be done with it, in fact...he's starting to come to me signing "please, milk!" which is so cute and so hard to say no to! However......it's TIME! I told myself that when my kid starts to be able to pull up my shirt and ask for it, it's time to say bye-bye to breastfeeding. And I'm afraid that time has come.

We've successfully gone from 4 feedings a day to 3 in the last five days, but I've had to distract him quite a few times this week after he signed "please milk" to make him forget....so I don't see dropping 3 more feedings in under a month to be possible.

The biggest issue for me is that Jaxon doesn't really drink enough milk from a sippy cup (and he won't take a bottle at all..never has!) to replace his milk feedings. Since getting rid of the 12pm feeding, I've been offering him Homo milk in a sippy cup. He'll take sips but definitely not enough (or so I think). He's also not eating a ton of solid food right now so I worry that he's not getting enough. What are the milk requirements for a 1 yr old?

Any advice?? Should I just prepare for a tough 2 weeks and eliminate the feedings one-by-one, hoping that he'll eventually drink the homo milk or should I give up on the idea of going away in October????????

Thanks for your advice!

ps. any moms out there have any tips for picky eaters? It seems like we have to pretty much force feed Jaxon his meat & veggie meals. He's pretty picky with his finger foods too.

visiting the cemetery

2009-09-07T13:58:00.005-04:00

We were glad to be able to visit the cemetery where Mya is buried while we were in Goderich. Especially since her 2nd birthday, we were really wanting to go and visit her grave site. We always go there hoping to get some feeling of comfort or feel close to Mya, but we usually get there and just see the stone in the ground and realize that it's really just her body there. We know that she is far from here...rejoicing and having a grand time in Heaven with Jesus.

This time though - I think because it was the same time of year as her funeral - memories of her funeral and the time surrounding her death flooded back. I looked over to the tree that we set her tiny white casket under and remembered the feelings of numbness and disbelief combined with the feelings of torture.

There is a picture that I will always have in my head - the picture of Dan carrying her casket from under that tree to the place that she would be buried. We had a ton of people walking behind us, supporting us and crying with us. Whew. What a dark time that was.

On a lighter note...our visit this time was somewhat of a blessing. It was a beautiful day...the sun was shining and the big leafy trees were shading us and blowing in the breeze...we were looking forward to taking Jaxon and sitting by Mya's grave. Dan and Jax went ahead and I took a couple pictures.

This one blew us away:

Just one ray of sun shining on Mya's grave. We're not the kind of people that say "oh...it's Mya looking down on us"......but we do feel that it was a little blessing from God saying "it's going to be okay, she's safe here with Me".

The entrance to "babyland". I wish I had a "before" picture. It has come so far. Dan's parents really took ownership here and got things into shape. Before there was no flowers or plants, there were tree stumps sticking out of the ground, there were ugly white pillars, sparse grass (or should I say WEEDS!), and it was just not a pretty place. But now, there are beautiful flower beds, trimmed trees to let the sun in, and green lush grass. It's a much nicer place to visit, and it feels like a better more tranquil place to be.

a visit to Goderich

2009-09-07T12:02:00.003-04:00

Last week we packed up and headed to Goderich for a quick visit with our families. It was so nice to see everyone again - we had a really nice visit. We brought our bikes which was great....the weather was PERFECT so we were able to take advantage of it. Here's some pictures from our visit!

We had a birthday party for Jaxon so our families could celebrate with him too!

A new favorite picture!

I love my sister!

We visited my Grandma on the way back! We brought her KFC which she was thrilled about, and played Skip-Bo. :)

The zoo with Ange

Jaxon is 1!!

2009-08-26T05:20:00.003-04:00

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

2009-08-15T11:45:00.009-04:00

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

2009-08-09T13:30:00.005-04:00

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"

2009-08-01T11:08:00.004-04:00

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

2009-08-01T10:53:00.005-04:00

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!

it's been a while!

2009-07-15T15:27:00.004-04:00

Today I realized it's been a while since I've posted anything!

We have been thoroughly enjoying our summer. It is by far our favorite season. How come it's the shortest one? :)

Here are some highlights of the last month:

We had a heat wave that lasted a couple days so Jax was happy to spend time cooling off in his little pool. He seemed more interested in the grass though :)

Dan was away for my birthday so my parents came for a quick visit!

Canada Day party!

We were blessed to be able to spend a few days at our friends' camp with my sister and her family. We spent LOTS of time in the hammock. Jaxon even enjoyed sitting still and rocking back and forth in it.

We woke up one morning and the lake was as smooth as glass. So incredible.

Soaking up some sun on the dock!

Karen, Steve, and the boys!

homemade chemical-free cleaning recipes

2009-06-25T14:25:00.005-04:00

Last week my mom sent me an email with these recipes for homemade cleaning products. I thought they looked interesting. I'm making up a batch of the de-gunker today.

ALL DUTY DE-GUNKER

In a spray bottle, combine 1/2 tsp. baking soda, 2 tsp. borax, 1/2 tsp. liquid dish soap and 2 cups hot water for chemical free clean! Make sure you label the bottle. I put the ingred. on it and they suggest you put the purpose of it too, but for this stuff it is self explanitory.

SLICK-FREE FURNITURE POLISH

Mix together 1/4 cup vinegar and a few drops of olive oil for a homemade polish that gets furniture gleaming.

BREATHE-EASY OVEN CLEANER

Combine 1/4 cup baking soda, 2tbsp salt and enough hot water to make a paste. Rub the paste inside the oven, keeping of wires and heating elements; let sit for 5 minutes, then wipe to reveal a shining oven.

I used this in a ladies oven and it did a good job, but didn't get everything off. Some of the black marks wouldn't come off. But she was very happy with the results. It is sort of hard to make the paste stay on the sides, but you can figure it out.

NO SCRUB TOILET SPARKLER

Sprinkle 1/2 cup baking soda into the bowl, then pour in 1 cup vinegar. When the fizzing stops, just swirl around with a toilet brush to leave the bowl shiny.

pneumonia and visit from grandma & grandpa

2009-06-23T10:42:00.004-04:00

What a weekend we had! We were looking forward to a nice visit with Dan's parents - they came on Friday and stayed until Monday. But on Friday night Jaxon had a terrible night followed by a terrible day on Saturday. He was feverish, had a hard time breathing, and was very sleepy all day, along with all the regular cold symptoms. Because of the breathing, I was worried that it could be pneumonia.

We ended up taking him in to the hospital on Saturday afternoon. That doctor said he thought it was bronchilitis, but told us that if the breathing got any worse to come back in. They did a Ventalin treatment there (I've never seen Jaxon cry so hard in my life!). Saturday night was even worse than Friday night. He was waking up every 15ish minutes so I ended up sleeping with him on the couch. I noticed that his breathing was getting even worse so at 4:30am Dan's mom & I went back to the hospital. They decided to do a chest x-ray. I hope none of you ever have to experience your babies having one of these! Thankfully it was quick, because my poor baby was panicking and screaming like you wouldn't believe.

This is a picture of what the contraption looks like that they strapped Jaxon into for the x-ray (that's not Jaxon in the picture....I found it online):

The x-ray showed that it was indeed pneumonia....so they sent us home with some ventalin and an aero chamber and some antibiotics.

He hates getting his ventalin treatments too but they really help. We're trying to get him to make friends with his aero chamber (you can tell he just had a treatment here by the redness of his eyes! :)

Our sad little sicky boy :(

Having a bottle with Grandma

Trying to cool him down in the sink!

By the time Grandma & Grandpa left he was feeling much better. He's still not 100% but he's doing way better than he was on the weekend!!

food combining

2009-06-05T09:45:00.006-04:00

Have any of you heard of food combining? I first read about it a few years ago, and have tucked away tidbits of it in my mind over the years, but just recently started being interested in learning more about it. To me it makes sense, explained as it is below. It's actually quite interesting.

I don't know that I would be willing to switch my diet to obey the proper food combining 100% (you know...I can't give up eggs & toast, sandwiches, dessert, etc.........), but I do try to eat fruit on it's own when I can.

Here's an article that I found online that I felt explained it well.

Nine Rules for Proper Food Combining

By Dr. Herbert M. Shelton
Reprinted from Dr. Shelton's Hygienic Review

There are sound physiological reasons for eating foods in compatible combinations. In other words, some foods, if mixed in the digestive system, will cause distress!

The principles of food combining are dictated by digestive chemistry. Different foods are digested differently...

Starchy foods require an alkaline digestive medium which is supplied initially in the mouth by the enzyme ptyalin;
Protein foods require an acid medium for digestion- hydrochloric acid.

As any student of chemistry will assure you, acids and bases (alkalis) neutralize each other. If you eat a starch with a protein, digestion is impaired or completely arrested!

The undigested food mass can cause various kinds of digestive disorders. Undigested food becomes soil for bacteria which ferment and decompose it. Its by products are poisonous, one of which, alcohol, is a narcotic that destroys or inhibits nerve function.

It plays havoc with nerves of the digestive tract, suspending their vital action such that constipation may well be a result! As set forth in Dr. Herbert Shelton's FOOD COMBINING MADE EASY these are the salient rules for proper food combining.

The Nine Basic Rules of Proper Food Combining:

1. Eat acids and starches at separate meals. Acids neutralize the alkaline medium required for starch digestion and the result is fermentation and indigestion.
2. Eat protein foods and carbohydrate foods at separate meals. Protein foods require an acid medium for digestion.
3. Eat but one kind of protein food at a meal.
4. Eat proteins and acid foods at separate meals. The acids of acid foods inhibit the secretion of the digestive acids required for protein digestion. Undigested protein putrefies in bacterial decomposition and produces some potent poisons.
5. Eat fats and proteins at separate meals. Some foods, especially nuts, are over 50% fat and require hours for digestion.
6. Eat sugars (fruits) and proteins at separate meals.
7. Eat sugars (fruits) and starchy foods at separate meals. Fruits undergo no digestion in the stomach and are held up if eaten with foods that require digestion in the stomach.
8. Eat melons alone. They combine with almost no other food.
9. Desert the desserts. Eaten on top of meals they lie heavy on the stomach, requiring no digestion there, and ferment. Bacteria turn them into alcohols and vinegars and acetic acids.

Here's a handy chart I found here that helps us understand what goes together and what doesn't

All foods in touching boxes combine well. Foods in boxes not touching do not combine well.

first bike ride & chicago deep dish pizza

2009-06-01T12:57:00.006-04:00

Last weekend (the one before this past weekend) was such nice weather so I was very eager to get out on our bikes...and try out Jaxon's bike seat for the first time. We were a little nervous about the whole helmet thing...it's almost impossible to find any helmets for kids under the age of 3. But thankfully my sister Karen had a helmet from Sam that she gave us. It fits Jaxon perfectly. We thought he might hate it and try to take it off but he really doesn't mind it.

He LOVED our bike ride. We were gone for about an hour (Dan came too!) and even braved the Pine street hill (yikes!). For the first little bit we didn't hear a peep out of Jaxon and then he started singing and talking. We've been out a couple times since and he is very content to get his helmet on cause he knows what that means! I love biking.

Once & a while Dan will get inspired and decide to create something in the kitchen. He spent the week before in Chicago (for the Moody Pastor's Conference!) and got a taste of the REAL Chicago-Double-Crust-Deep-Dish-Pizza. He came home and decided to try and make it for me and viola! Here it is. He did an amazing job. I must say, I was a little skeptical about the "double crust" idea. I thought for sure it would be too doughy....but it was DELICIOUS. Way to go, honey.

oh yeah.

our new fun thing to do. Jaxon loves being chased down the hall on his daddy's shoulders.

jaxon's first camping trip & a visit with grace

2009-05-22T14:46:00.004-04:00

Last weekend we went camping with the youth group. Jaxon & I stayed in a trailer which was wonderful....since it POURED early in the morning (and all the next day!). Jax & I slept in this bed which was super comfy. We both slept really well!

Dish duty :)

Since Dan's been gone all week....I tried to keep busy. On Wednesday it was SUPER nice outside...I think it was 25c which was amazing. Jax & I went to visit Grace & Marissa.

Jax loving the swing with Marissa :) He loves outside, just like his mamma & dad!

He would have LOVEd to go all the way in. He wasn't timid about the water at all.

a lesson on appearances

2009-05-15T12:25:00.004-04:00

I admit it, I am the kind of person who judges a book by it's cover. I know that's a bad thing, but it's so true! I somehow believe that a book with a pretty cover and nice artwork, and a good font means that what's inside is better than a book with a boring cover with bad artwork and a lame font.

This also applies to restaurants. To me, it seems like the food tastes way better in a restaurant with a nice atmosphere. Part of the whole experience of eating out for me is enjoying the surroundings.

Where am I going with this? Last weekend when we were away for our anniversary we stayed a night in Mackinaw City in a hotel. We all know that websites make the hotels look way better than they really are. We were surprised to find that the "hotel" was set up more like a "motel" with all the entrances to the rooms on the outside of the building. When we went into the lobby to register, the employees were wearing jeans & hoodies. The decor was 70's with a twist of "antique".

Then we get into our rooms and see that nothing's been updated for about 30 years. Oh boy. Did I mention that I also have a bit of an issue with hotel rooms? The first thing I do is rip the comforter off the bed (you know, since they only get washed about once a year and who knows who has done what on it!) but thankfully I decided from the start that I was going to have a good attitude about it and just make the most of it. One cool thing about the room was that there was a GIANT jet tub. It was the biggest bathtub I've ever seen. So we skipped the pool and just had a "swim" in our tub. :) Jaxon thought that was great.

It was close to supper time so we decided we'd check out the "buffet" restaurant that was right across the street from our hotel. We were excited about the thought of a buffet....we've been to some amazing buffets in Michigan that have just about every kind of food you can imagine and leave you extrememly full. Well as soon as we walked in I had to chuckle to myself. It pretty much matched the theme of our hotel room. Very dated and retro. Hickish would be a good way to describe it.

I was leary as I walked up to the buffet counter to get my food...as it was the most retro buffet counter I've ever seen....and it seemed as though the standards for cleanliness weren't quite as high as I was used to. At this point I was still disappointed about our choice of restaurants but I bravely scooped some stuff onto my plate. When I got back to our table Dan and I kinda laughed about it...how it was nothing like what we expected and how we were kinda scared to eat the food. Thankfully we both had good attitudes about it and just decided to have fun with it.

Throughout the meal we realized how surface we are, and how bad it is how much we base on appearance. The food was actually REALLY good. It was home country cooking and was delicious, it just wasn't presented the way we expected it to be. The host and waitress were SOOOO friendly and kind, and that made us feel a little guilty for the attitude we had coming in. We left the place satisfied and realizing that we need to work on not letting appearance affect us (especially me!) so much.

I pretended I was taking this picture of Jaxon but really I was taking a picture of the fancy buffet table behind him. :)

5 year anniversary!

2009-05-13T16:26:00.005-04:00

On May 8th Dan and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary! In some ways it's hard to believe it's already been 5 years, but in other ways it does feel like 5 years have gone by. When I think back to what our first 5 years of marriage has held for us, it makes me wonder what God has for us for the next 5 years. And the next 5 after that.

We decided to take the weekend and get away somewhere. We have friends (Scott & Amy) that live in Michigan that we're really close to so we decided to go visit them. On the way back we stayed in a hotel in Mackinac City....which I'll post about later ;)

We had a great time visiting with them. They are great friends and it's neat that Amy & I are friends and Dan & Scott are friends....so it usually ended up being Scott & Dan off doing their thing and chatting and Amy & I doing our own thing and chatting. They have a little boy Taden and it was neat watching him & Jaxon interact.

While we were driving we were talking about ways we can stay connected during these parenting years. You hear of a lot of couples who's kids grow up and leave home and then the mom & dad realize they don't know each other anymore. I can totally understand how easy it would be to let that happen with the busyness of everything and the attention and focus that kids take...and that scares me! I really don't want to be one of those couples. At this point Dan & I are best friends and I really hope to be able to say that in 20 years.

One thing we decided to do is to go on a date after Jaxon goes to bed once or twice a month. Even if it's just for an hour or two.

Another thing we want to try is have "couch time". I found this in a book. The idea is to commit the first 15 minutes that Dan gets home from work together on the couch, to talk about our day...free from interruptions and distractions. Once the kids are old enough to understand, we'll explain to them that that time is our time and they can play with Daddy when we're done. I think this will be hard to get into the habit of, since I'm usually making supper and/or feeding Jaxon when Dan gets home, but we really like the idea and we're going to give it a try. I don't know about you, but habits (good ones) are really hard for us to implement so we'll see how it goes :)

havin a little nap in the car

Jax chillin' out with Dad. He was so content to just lay on the couch (watching sports of course).

they're special.

little buddies :)

Jaxon's first bath with a friend!

visit with the Otts

2009-05-13T16:20:00.003-04:00

Last week we were so blessed to have my sister Karen and her family come visit us. Even though Karen & I are 9 years apart in age, we have grown very close as friends. I miss seeing her regularly and just hanging out. We're the type of friends that can just be ourselves around each other and be honest and even chat about just about anything. I'm so thankful that we're sisters! Here's some pictures from our visit:

the boys playing together. They were so good with Jaxon, and Jaxon LOVED them. He enjoyed having constant entertainment.

We stopped by our friends' cabin that we'll all be staying at this July!

teething necklace

2009-05-07T13:53:00.004-04:00

Last week we received our amber teething necklace in the mail. I heard about them from Stacey's blog a while ago and after Jaxon's rough week teething 2 weeks ago I decided to give it a try.

They can be very expensive, but I found one on ebay for $12 so I was pretty happy about that.

So far it seems to be helping! Jaxon just cut his 4th tooth (upper front L) and his teething symptoms weren't near as bad this time. He hasn't tried to chew on it or pull it off yet so that's good. We try to keep it tucked under his shirt so he forgets it's there.

If you want to know more about how these work, I copied & pasted some info below.

a good view of his 3 teeth!

I found the information below at this website.

"Amber is a natural analgesic and when worn on the skin, it releases healing oils that helps babies and young children to stay calm and more relaxed throughout teething. Amber necklaces are a great natural remedy and can eliminate the need for over the counter drugs.

Worn close to the skin, the body's heat helps release minuscule amounts of oil from the amber, which is then absorbed into the blood stream.

Baltic amber has be known to reduce acidity in the human body in a totally natural way. By having the baby wear the necklace everyday it helps reduce the common symptoms related to teething such as; redness in the cheeks, swollen gums, diaper rashes and fevers."

it finally came!

2009-04-29T08:55:00.002-04:00

the tooth is finally here! We have our boy back! It must have REALLY hurt coming through because Jaxon was not himself at all last week. Hopefully the one beside it won't give him as much pain coming through!

grandparent journal

2009-04-27T21:38:00.004-04:00

A couple weeks ago Dan was talking to an older couple at our church. They were telling Dan about a book of questions their grandkids sent them to fill out about their lives and return to them. They thought this was a great idea and so did Dan & I. What a neat way to record & remember memories from our parent's or grandparent's lives that we may not have otherwise known about.

Off I went searching on the internet for ideas to make our own books of questions to send our parents (for Jaxon to have down the road). I finally finished it tonight.

I was planning on posting the file for the journal I made in this post, but apparently you can't post files. So if any of you are interested in making your own, I wouldn't mind emailing it to you. Just leave a comment with your email address or email me at danandlauracollins@gmail.com and I'll send it to you.

just for fun...and cause I love cake

2009-04-22T22:07:00.003-04:00

Today I found a reason to make a cake. You see....I love cake. I could eat cake every day. Doesn't matter if it's chocolate, white, lemon, rainbow chip, I just like cake.

I have friends coming over tomorrow, so I used that as an excuse (and to celebrate Spring, of course! ;o)

My "butterfly" is a little warped, but it's cause I just started making a shape and then decided as I went that it would be a butterfly :)

Another excuse was that I got this new cake decorating set given to me by Darlene...a sweet lady from our church. It's from Pampered Chef and I wanted to give it a try. It's neat. It was surprisingly easy to do the writing. That's always the hardest part for me, but it was so easy!

blue gums

2009-04-22T13:47:00.004-04:00

here's some new pictures of Jaxon's teething progress. I just discovered that the gums that are covering his top left tooth are BLUE! Poor boy. Must be painful. I'm thinking about buying an amber teething necklace. Apparently they help quite a bit. Right now I've got Jaxon on either Tylenol or Motrin at all times. As much as I hate giving him medicine, it's horrible watching him in so much pain (and I needed some sanity!).

Dan's feeling much better than he was on Monday, but still not 100%.

this is a picture of Jaxon's fancy work with his tongue. It's quite hilarious. He just started this 2 days ago....he can almost flip his tongue up-side down!

the flu & teething

2009-04-20T12:43:00.004-04:00

Well....today I'm a nurse to both my boys. Poor Dan finally had a day to veg today and woke up with the flu :(. And Jaxon is really working hard bringing in his top right tooth so he's not the happiest either. They're both in bed right now so here I am blogging...

...he wasn't too happy about me taking his picture...

you can see almost the whole tooth through the side of his gums. It's very close!

Thanks for the advice on discipline! It was good to hear what other people's ideas are and it's nice to know I'm not alone! :) I will still happily take more ideas if you think of any more.

does discipline start now?

2009-04-11T12:02:00.002-04:00

So I'm thinking it's time to start thinking about discipline and I'm curious to hear any good tips from you moms out there. Dan and I want to be intentional parents and to have somewhat of a plan of how we're going to discipline BEFORE we find ourselves in a situation that needs discipline, to avoid just "reacting" with the first response that comes out.

This week Jaxon started doing a fake cough when he has food in his mouth, resulting in food spraying everywhere. He also sticks his tongue out and spits it out that way. At first I thought he might be doing this because he's full or not hungry, but now I know that's not the case.

Does he KNOW this is bad or is it just part of him exploring the world of food? How do I react to this? Today I tapped his lip and said "no" firmly, and he gave me such a sad look and I felt so bad. Should I just say "no" or should I ignore it or what should I do????

Any creative discipline ideas would be appreciated!

my new (oops) look

2009-04-07T15:06:00.003-04:00

Me and my hair these days......I tell you. Last Friday while our family was here, I got Ange (Dan's sister) to dye my hair for me. I already had the box of dye here. I had decided to go a shade (or 2) darker than last time because the last time it had a bit too much red in it for my liking. Well it turns out I'm not too smart because this is what my hair now looks like:

yeah. It's about 5 shades darker than I was expecting! It's pretty much black. Oh well. I am getting used to it. It WAS even darker than this. We went to WalMart after we rinsed out the first box of dye and frantically got another box (a few shades lighter than I want it) to try and get it lighter, but this is as light as we got! Lesson learned: just stick with what worked the first time :)

this is the color I got the first time (a couple months ago):

and this is the one the turned my hair BLACK!

he's yours, God!

2009-04-06T15:55:00.005-04:00

Yesterday Dan & I had Jaxon "dedicated" .......a commitment that we made as parents to raise Jaxon in a way that would honor God, and also "letting" Jaxon go for the purposes God has for his life (when that time comes!). I'm guessing that this is something that we're going to have to do on a regular basis...mentally giving Jaxon back over to God. As a parent it's so easy to constantly be worrying about one thing or another, and there's always the temptation to hold him close and protect him and keep him under our arms of protection. But as we know....our "arms of protection" are not even CLOSE as strong as God's arms of protection.

We were blessed to have both of our parents come for the weekend, and Dan's sister Ange. It was a full house but a good time. Jaxon enjoyed being doted over for all his waking hours. Although he seems to be enjoying playing on the floor again today ;). He didn't see much of the floor this weekend! :)

Here's some pictures of the weekend.

fun with nana

Grandpa & Grandma

This is crazy. Bill (a guy from our church) can hold Jaxon by his feet in the palm of his hand. Jaxon just stands straight up, balancing. It's amazing. Bill says that every baby can do it.

all-you-can-eat brunch after church! Boy was it good!

...and of course after every big meal, sleep in inevitable!

Mmmmmmm.....homemade buns for supper!

I know how to pick 'em! :)

How many grandparents does it take to get Jaxon in his Jolly Jumper?

modesty survey

2009-03-27T16:43:00.002-04:00

For our youth Sunday School, we are doing a guys/girls split right now.....I'm doing the book "for young women only" by Shaunti Feldhahn with the girls and the guys are doing "for young men only". When I was getting ready for this sunday's chapter, I came across this survey online ...it's very interesting girls. Check it out if you have some time.

to vaccinate or not to vaccinate?

2009-03-20T13:13:00.004-04:00

Jaxon is now 7 months old and has had none of his vaccinations yet. I'm very torn whether I should get them done or not. I'm scared to get him immunized, and I'm scared NOT to get him immunized! There is conflicting opinions out there about the safety of vaccinations and their link to autism, especially in boys.

I have found this website very interesting and helpful - it's Jenny McCarthy's website on autism.

One of the things that REALLY surprised me is the number of vaccines that are given now, compared to the number that were given in the good ol' 80's when we were kids. Look here to see the comparison. In the 1980's autism was known to affect about 1 in 1,000 children, but now the National Institute of Health estimates the number to be 1 in 150. Hmmmmmm....

I can't stand the thought of my precious, sweet and smart little boy developing autism if it was completely preventable in the first place. But at the same time, I also can't stand the thought of him developing something like measles or Rubella because I didn't get him vaccinated!

Just FYI - we DO plan on eventually getting Jax immunized. Jenny's site has an alternative vaccination schedule on her website. It suggests to wait until your baby is 18 months old before starting the vaccines, and she's got a whole list of other precautions to take when you do get to that point. It also suggests that you get no more than 1 vaccine given at a time, which is an issue here in Canada. You can't get the "5-in-1" shot separated, because "that's how it comes". Grrr.

Generation Rescue did a survey that revealed some interesting facts.

"We surveyed over 9,000 boys in California and Oregon and found that vaccinated boys had a 155% greater chance of having a neurological disorder like ADHD or autism than unvaccinated boys." - Generation Rescue

All vaccinated boys, compared to unvaccinated boys:

Vaccinated boys were 155% more likely to have a neurological disorder (RR 2.55)
Vaccinated boys were 224% more likely to have ADHD (RR 3.24)
Vaccinated boys were 61% more likely to have autism (RR 1.61)

It's pretty hard to get a clear answer from any medical professional. They basically say that "there's no evidence that vaccines cause autism".

I guess I need to keep researching (and praying!) till I feel peace one way or another. I'm sure this is just one of the many confusing decisions we will have to make as parents!

Any (kind) input is welcome.

I've been tagged!

2009-03-10T14:39:00.005-04:00

I've now been tagged a few different times, by a few different people...and I have procrastinated doing it! So...here I go. I will go find my 5th folder and post the 5th picture...........

here it is.....

Ironically, the 5th folder is my compressed "Blog Pictures" folder, so this picture is very recent! I think it was taken 2 weeks ago. This is the new haircut that has taken me a LONG time to get used to. Since I was about 12 years old, my sister Karen has been my hairdresser. She always does a great job and she knows how to deal with my hair. Now that I live in the Soo, Karen is 8 hours away so it's not as easy for her to do my hair anymore. And when we are together, I don't want to waste our precious visiting time getting a haircut. So last week I finally got the nerve to go to a salon here in the Soo to get a much-needed haircut.

My friend Penny got a really cute haircut about a month ago which I loved, so I thought "oh good....I'll just go where she went" - thinking how easy that was to find a hairdresser that I could trust (I like to find hairdressers by asking people who's hair I like where they go)so I booked an appointment with her. She was even the sr. stylist in the shop so I thought - "Oh good! This will be great."

I brought some pictures along of how I wanted her to cut my hair, and made sure that the sides would be longer than the back. She seemed to understand exactly what I wanted. I tried not to say anything while she was cutting it but I should have because it turns out she was thinking something very different than what I meant. sigh. SO, this is my new haircut. Choppy, short, short, and short. And the sides are shorter than the back. Grr. Oh well. The good thing about hair is that it grows back.

This happened to me in Nipawin too. Thankfully with that haircut though, it wasn't terribly short so I just went somewhere else and got it re-styled. With this haircut, there's no way I want it any shorter! I think I might stick with my sister from now on. Or have a big long chat with the hairdresser before we start cutting.

I think I'm supposed to tag 5 people now. If you've already been tagged by someone else...no worries. I tag...

- Joelle
- Susanna
- Erin
- Valean
- Karina

first tooth!

2009-03-10T13:56:00.004-04:00

Jax got his first tooth this morning! I'm not sure if you can see it or not (I can see it because I know it's there :) but it's his bottom left. I'm thinking the second one is coming soon too....I actually thought his right one would come first because of the way it felt! We'll see.

I'm quite surprised I managed to get a picture this clear. It's pretty tricky to get a view of his bottom gums but I only had to take one picture!

look what I found at the grocery store!

2009-03-02T20:41:00.004-05:00

...a sleeping baby! I think I'll keep him.

tired and confused

2009-02-28T22:02:00.002-05:00

Our boy just keeps us guessing all the time. Just when we think we've got him figured out, he changes :) At 11 weeks, Jaxon started sleeping 12 hours at night...from 8pm - 8am , with no interruptions in between. Then, before Christmas he got a cold and that was the end of wake-less nights. It seems that between colds, teething, and growth spurts, there's always an excuse for me to feed him in the middle of the night even though he's definitely old enough now that he doesn't need extra calories at night. I admit, I can't help but melt when I pick him up out of his crib to calm him at 2am and he wraps his arms around my neck and latches onto my cheek.

Two weeks ago I went to bed one night totally prepared to do the 5-10-15 thing that night in effort to try and get him out of his nighttime waking/feeding habit. I was dreading it all day but Dan and I agreed on a plan and we were prepared for a tough night. He must have heard us talking that day because he slept till 5am that morning! Since he went 10 hours, I fed him and put him back to bed and he slept till 8:30! It felt like heaven. It's so great to wake up before your baby.

He continued this wonderful pattern for a week and I thought that was his new little routine. He lasted 6 nights and then he somehow fell back into his old routine. I think he might be going through his 6 month growth spurt right now so I'm going to give him a few days, and then attempt the 5-10-15 thing again. Lets hope it works! :)

the italians would be proud

2009-02-23T13:44:00.005-05:00

Gwen, a very thoughtful and sweet lady from our church heard me say that one day I would like to find a pasta machine to make my own pasta, and at Christmas time she handed us a nicely wrapped box with a brand new pasta machine in it!

So this morning Dan and I decided to play around with it and make lasagna noodles for our lasagna tonight. It's actually quite easy to make your own pasta, and so much fun!

After we got bored making lasagna noodles we decided to try some spaghetti......I felt like a little kid with a play-dough machine....very fun. I would like to think that the thousands of Italians in Sault Ste Marie would be impressed.

happy vawentines

2009-02-13T15:59:00.003-05:00

to my mommy's friends
mommy thinks I'm napping wight now but I just had to sneak into the office to put these pictures on her blog and wish you all a happy vawentines day tommowow.

I better get back in my cwib before my mommy catches me!

wuv,
JAXON

first food & visit to Goderich

2009-02-09T12:47:00.005-05:00

After realizing how good Jaxon was at drinking a sip of water from our cups, we decided it might be time to try giving him some rice cereal! It was quite fun introducing him to his first real food, and he did pretty good! He knew what to do right away, but it was a bit messy........ :)

he's also teething off & on right now so he's doing a LOT of chewing.....
I thought this picture of him in the car seat was so cute....his teething buddies in each hand.

Last weekend Jax & I had the awesome opportunity to get a ride to London with Brian & Carol since they were going anyway. And it just HAPPENED to be my sister Karen's birthday that weekend so Jax & I surprised her! It was so much fun. We stayed with my parents and had a nice weekend together.

stretch time in the van!

Happy bday auntie Karen!

great resource

2009-02-04T14:35:00.002-05:00

Hey moms out there........I found this really interesting website for parents with ALL KINDS of resources you can use. Check it out : http://www.familyeducation.com/home/

to the cabin

2009-01-17T10:10:00.003-05:00

On Thursday we went to our friends Brian & Carol's cabin for lunch! It was sooooooo beautiful out there. It was about -25 that day but everything was so white, crisp, sparkly and beautiful that it was worth braving the cold to get there. We enjoyed the heat of the wood stove once we got inside and stayed nice & toasty. After being in the city for a long period of time, it was so nice to get out of the busyness and into the peaceful woods!

did you know??

2009-01-15T11:48:00.001-05:00

Did you know that kiwis have more vitamin C in them then oranges? I've been eating lots of kiwis these days trying to get rid of this cold! Just thought I'd pass this along since it's definitely cold season!

this & that

2009-01-14T15:41:00.003-05:00

Jaxon is LOVING his jolly jumper now. We started him in it about a week ago and at first he would just hang out in it and bounce the odd time. Now he's starting to figure out his rhythm and he's getting better at bouncing. He gets so proud of himself when he has a really good bounce.

Dan walked out the door for work one day last week and saw this! haha.........we were pretty sure we knew who did it and it was confirmed when pictures showed up on Facebook! We had to laugh. Our poor neighbor called me that morning concerned that something had actually happened.

Jax helping dad fold diapers :)

We've found something that helps us get through Jaxon's evening fussy time..........massages! Actually, I think he just likes being naked and the massage is just a bonus. He'll be all fussy and as soon as I lay him down on that blanket and take his clothes off he's a happy boy! It's definitely his favorite time of the day and it gets him through till bedtime!

A question for all you moms out there.........how do I keep Jaxon's little arms warm at night? I put warm sleepers on him but he doesn't keep his arms in his swaddle and they get kind chilly at night. Any ideas?

finally some Christmas pictures!

2009-01-14T15:11:00.005-05:00

I'm finally taking a few minutes to post some more pictures! These pictures were taken by our lovely friend Grace at the end of November for Jaxon's Christmas photo shoot. These are only a few out of many!

thank you Grace!

Here's some pictures from our time in Goderich. We were there for almost 2 weeks. It was very busy but good to visit with our families.

Jax discovered that it can be fun to stick his finger inside his soother :) so cute.

Christmas morning at Dan's parents. We're all looking a little tired. Jax is sporting his Christmas outfit from his Grandma. He doesn't look too impressed. :)

we were able to spend some time at the pool so we could get Jax in the pool for the first time! I think he liked it but his lips spent a lot of time quivering so we didn't keep him in there too long.

mom & baby class

2008-12-19T22:43:00.003-05:00

For the past 6 weeks I've been going to a mom & baby program at the health unit here every Wednesday. This week was our last week and we took some pictures. It was really fun to meet other moms with babies pretty much the same age as Jaxon.

some babies having meltdowns........Jaxon held it together till the end and then started to cry :(

this poor baby is getting beat up. It's sad but funny.

who did I marry!?

2008-12-18T09:32:00.003-05:00

I was asking myself this question as I woke up Monday morning and looked over at Dan.......remembering that we "styled" his hair the day before.

Dan starred as the Mayor in our Christmas play at church.........and he went all-out to help him look his part. Sunday afternoon we sadly said goodbye to his nice long hair. Check this out:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Needless to say..........he is now completely bald. We took care of that first thing Monday morning.

It was all worth it to hear the roar of laughter when Dan stepped on to the stage.

thumb sucking

2008-12-03T12:43:00.003-05:00

I managed to get a video of Jax sucking his thumb.......so cute! It's actually been quite nice because when we lay him down for naps he just soothes himself now. He hardly takes the soother anymore.

appetizers?

2008-11-21T19:09:00.002-05:00

Next weekend our church is having a "progressive dinner" and we're hosting the appetizers. Anyone have any ideas of what I should make? I'm trying to think of something that doesn't look half devoured for each group that comes after the first one (I'm not sure it would be so appealing to dig into a half-eaten cheeseball.....???)

yummy thumb

2008-11-17T22:11:00.002-05:00

last night I went in to check on Jaxon and he was sucking his thumb!!!!!! So adorable. He had his thumb in his mouth for a few seconds right after he was born but he hasn't done it again until now. Hopefully his thumb sucking won't turn into a hard-to-break habit down the road...but for now it's just way too cute to put an end to! :) These pictures were taken tonight during our little evening cuddle.

blow out

2008-11-14T12:22:00.004-05:00

Bath time came early yesterday morning....Jaxon has a major blowout in his diaper while he was sitting on my lap. It wasn't pretty. He got to wait in his seat till I got the bath ready.

9 week photo shoot

2008-11-02T19:10:00.004-05:00

Our friend Grace gave us another photo shoot of Jaxon the other day. In these pictures he is 9 1/2 weeks old. It's amazing how fast he's growing. Here's a little bit about Jax:

loves to look at the ceiling. No matter how exciting anything else may be, if he decides he wants to look up, there's no changing his mind. He arches his back and neck just so he can see up. It looks very uncomfortable.
he does lots of smiling and he tells us stories now too. He also tells his toys stories.
the last 2 nights he has slept at least 8 hours at a time! Woo Hoo!!!! I'm trying not to count on it to continue so I'm not too disappointed if he changes his mind about it.
he just got a swing and he loves it.
he doesn't want to miss anything. If we're out and he needs to be sleeping, I have to hold him and put a light blanket over his head so he can't see anything, then he falls right to sleep (don't worry, I always make sure he can still breathe :)
he really recognizes Dan as his daddy now. He smiles right away when Dan talks to him. So sweet.

looking up up up

getting chubby!!

cloth diapers, here we go.

2008-10-21T13:04:00.004-04:00

Well...yesterday was our first day using only cloth diapers! I must say, on Sunday night when I was putting together all the diapers after they were washed, I was a little scared and wondering what I have gotten myself into. I was scared about all the extra laundry and time spent re-stuffing the liners into the diapers and scared about how they would fit Jaxon...but with one day under our belt, I can say that it's going to be okay. The little bit of a diaper rash Jaxon had cleared up within the first 2 diaper changes with cloth, and they seem to be pretty comfy for him. They stay dry as long (or maybe even longer) than disposables and nothing seems to leak out. Jax even had a explosive sounding present in his diaper this morning and it stayed within the walls of the diaper! Phew. So I guess using cloth diapers isn't that scary. It is rewarding to know that we're saving major money (our diapers cost $500 compared to a MINIMUM of $1500 per child using disposables) and helping the environment.

We decided to go with Bumgenius diapers after I did a bunch of looking around and reading reviews, etc...they seem to be very well liked diapers and so far I am liking them too. Here's a picture of Jax sporting his new style.

our sweet neighbor let me use her clothesline this afternoon since we don't have one yet!

smile & thanksgiving

2008-10-20T08:21:00.003-04:00

This is the first picture we got of Jaxon smiling. It was actually such a long smile that I got like 10 pictures in a row of him smiling! What a cutie. It's so fun that he's now smiling. He's really starting to "talk" more now too. Having him be more interactive is so fun.

Dan was able to take some time off so we could go to Goderich for Thanksgiving. We were a bit nervous about the long drive (7 hours without many stops) with Jaxon but he did soooo great. He slept the whole time except for 2 feedings. As you can see we had a GORGEOUS view as we were driving. It couldn't have gotten much better.

Burp time at a rest stop

Thanksgiving walk with my family

Us with Dan's parents

Jaxon says he loves fall too.

We stayed at my sister Karen & Steve's house. One morning Noah, Max & I made breakfast before everyone else got up.

I thought this was a spider or something b/c I only saw it at the last second before it was about to hit me in the face. Turns out it's a floating leaf....hanging by only a spider web! So cool.

sisters :)

our friends Scott, Amy & Taden

fall

2008-10-04T11:52:00.004-04:00

Last weekend Dan went on a Wonderland trip with the youth group and on Sunday the Loberts took Jax & I to Hiawatha Park. It was such a beautiful day and we thoroughly enjoyed soaking up all the colors. Oh how we love fall! This year I have seen vibrant colors like none before.

this morning we tried giving Jaxon his first bottle. We thought it'd be fun for Dan to be able to feed him sometimes so we gave it a try. He didn't like it too much. He hasn't quite figured out how to do it yet. That's okay...there's no rush! :)

baby shower

2008-09-18T11:22:00.003-04:00

Last Sunday night the church had a baby shower and official welcome to us. Once again we were hugely blessed by these people. Jaxon got LOTS of gifts and we got enough money to pay for the poor guy to get circumcised and get some diapers!

The cake is supposed to be in this picture but I guess it didn't make it in. :)

tons of gifts! and a sad, tired baby.

...more of Jaxon

2008-09-11T20:44:00.003-04:00

here's some more pictures of our sweet Jaxon...we got to have another photo shoot with Grace so the first 5 pictures are from her. They were taken when he was 1 week old.

studying his hand....so cute!

mommy & jax

such cute little feet!

Jaxon LOVES his baths. He doesn't cry at all...only when he has to get out. Then he usually pees and I have to dip him back in again. Maybe that's his tactic to get more bath time :)

my mom and sister, Karen came for a few days, they just left today :( we had a wonderful visit....they waited on us hand and foot!

Jaxon's Home

2008-08-28T06:55:00.005-04:00

hey all! here's a few pictures of Jaxon and us....we are all home now and doing great. Things are going pretty smooth - feeding is finally going well and Jaxon sleeps really good between feedings. Speaking of feedings, I have to go because jax is hungry!!! I'll write more details later. Oh yeah, click here to see more pictures. They're on our Facebook page and you can see them even if you don't have Facebook.

he sleeps with his arm up just like his daddy :)

so far he likes the sling! :)

finally going home!!!

Jaxon Daniel Collins

2008-08-23T21:35:00.004-04:00

Well here it goes. I don't ever do this blog thing, but I am going to give it a try for my wonderful wife. She and I would like to introduce you to our son - Jaxon Daniel Collins. He was born today at Sault Area Hospital in Sault Ste. Marie at 9:01 am. He weighed in at 8lbs, 8oz and he is almost 22 inches long. He's healthy and doing extremely well. Mom is doing well and recovering well. We feel extremely blessed by all your support and prayers. Laura will put some more pictures up soon.

last belly pics

2008-08-20T20:59:00.004-04:00

We got the amazing offer to get some pictures taken by a wonderful woman from our church, Grace...she takes professional pictures from her home. We went this morning and these are some of our favorites. As of today I'm 38.5 weeks. These are the last pictures you'll see of the baby before he comes out!!! (2 more days, 3 more sleeps!)

Mya's 1st Birthday

2008-08-16T04:23:00.006-04:00

A year ago at this time we never would have dreamed we'd be celebrating our baby's first birthday without her.

In some ways it's hard to believe that a year has gone by already, and in other ways it feels like it's been longer than a year. Looking back to those first days, weeks and months without our Mya, I shudder thinking about how dark of a time that was. We were so lost and so aching to hold our sweet baby. Kiss her and smell her just one more time. There were many hopeless days and nights that felt like I would never feel free and happy again. Times when I thought I would never be able to look at another baby again. Hopeless is a pretty good word to describe how we felt for a while.

Now, a year later, looking back and connecting the dots from that dark time to now, it's obvious that it's been God that has gotten us from there to here. We still have people coming up to us telling us that they're still praying for us, and I truly believe that it's those prayers that have kept us going, and have gotten us where we are today. God has been so good to us and has truly helped our hearts begin to heal. He helped us through those "first times" that were so hard, and by His grace, those second and third times got easier to bear. Looking back, we can really see God's timing in preparing us for what was about to happen to us, and how He already had everything figured out.

There's been lots of questions that Dan and I have asked God in our minds in the last year, and many of them are still not answered and some that are still not worked through. I am personally still working through learning how to find comfort in saying "I trust You, Lord", because I now know that trusting Him doesn't necessarily mean that the people I love are going to be safe. It sure doesn't mean that there won't be hard times ahead. I'm learning that it means "I trust that You will uphold me through whatever happens"...but somehow that's not quite as comforting. I suppose I can be thankful that God is making my faith more real and helping me understand how it really is.

Many times we wonder what it would be like if Mya was still here. What would her smile look like and how would her giggle sound? I try to picture how her face would light up at the sight of her mommy and daddy. I wonder if she would be walking by now and if she would be saying words. Would she have curly hair or straight hair? Would it still be dark or would it be blond? What is she doing in Heaven right now? Is she celebrating her birthday there?

To all of you who have supported us in any way, thank you! We honestly have experienced the Body of Christ in the way that God intended it to be through this year. People have been the hands and feet of Jesus to us and we have many times been in awe at that.

Here are some pictures from our short time with Mya:

Such a good daddy.

Trying to soak up everything about her

Her cute little face. So perfect!

36 weeks

2008-08-03T17:29:00.004-04:00

This is 36 weeks! Don't I look huge!? When I saw the picture after I took it I was shocked at how large that belly is! I'm not sure how my poor skin can stretch any further. Good thing I only have 3 weeks left (I'm having a scheduled c-section on August 23rd).

to compare, this is a 37-week belly picture from when I was pregnant with Mya:

yard sale

2008-08-03T17:17:00.003-04:00

On Saturday we had our first ever yard sale! When we unpacked all our stuff that we hadn't seen in a year, we realized there were things that we really didn't need anymore. It was good stuff...we just didn't need it. SO we had a yard sale! We really weren't sure what to expect as far as how much money we would make or if people would want to buy our stuff...but we made $150!! And I have to tell you - God is so good. Last week we needed to get something fixed on our car (that we weren't expecting) and we really tried to just leave it in God's hands, knowing that He knows our needs and He would provide. Well the car repairs cost $130 and we made $150...so we even had enough to buy a palm sander that we wanted from Canadian Tire :) Thank you God :)

near the end of our yard sale when things started to slow down, Dan got motivated to "install" our firepit in the backyard...followed by a fire with junk from the front lawn

our house

2008-07-23T11:01:00.006-04:00

Well we're pretty much unpacked! It feels so good to have our home set up...it's really starting to feel like home. Here's a few pictures of our place.

we're not quite sure what to do with this piece of "art"...apparently it was an art project of hers...we think it's quite atrocious.

our living room BEFORE

living room AFTER

our bedroom

the kitchen...the flowers are from our sweet neighbors!

the bathroom

moving

2008-07-15T07:27:00.003-04:00

it only took us (them :) an hour to load our stuff into the truck! I was ordered to stay in the green chair.

don't worry, we didn't fill this huge truck all the way! Maybe next time.

Dan the man

The night we got there, we stayed at Ryan & Amanda's - a couple about our age who go to the church. This was waiting for us in our room when we got there. How sweet!

The exciting moment of going into our house for the first time!!

girls from the youth group helping clean the kitchen.

The church people collected food to stock our empty cupboards. Isn't this amazing!? This isn't even all the food - there's probably another bunch 3/4 the size of this that they gave us the day before and I didn't think to take a picture before I put it away. This is a huge blessing to us!

painting!!! Last night we got started with mission "bye-bye blue". It should be completed by tonight.

Well that's all for now. I will post more pictures once we get all unpacked!