looking forward to valentine's day...

even down to her little toes (JUST moved into size 3 shoes - still so tiny)!
our little monkey is holding a monkey of her own!

below she's showing off some new "skeels" (as daddy would say) - putting her own shoes on!

i can't handle this flash anymore!!

Buckeyes BCS Bound

This is what you feel like when you lose a friendly bet (or wager if you prefer) about the big game. Thats right, I'm talking OSU vs. Michigan-the annual Big 10 showdown of conference heavyweights. Living in Michigan is difficult for an OSU fan to put it mildly. My friend Jason Elwart and I had a bet going on the outcome of the game. Whoever lost had to wear the paraphernalia of the other team with pictures posted on both of our blogs. I'll leave it to you to figure out who got the better end of the deal on this one. Thanks, J, for being a good sport.

Genuine air-soft pellet gun-perfect for settling those pesky workplace disagreements

Finally seeing the light? Probably not.

Did they even watch the game?!?! Did they even know it was on?!?!?!

The aftermath wasn't too pretty

Stella knows where its at-even at a young age.

If you're interested in Jason's blog check it out here

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving this year took on new meaning for our family. As most of you know by now, we went to the doctor on Monday (11/20) for a routine ultrasound and to find out the gender of our baby. The technician was unable to find a heartbeat and we ultimately found out that we had lost the baby sometime since Erica's last appointment (between her 13 week check-up where she heard the heartbeat and the 17 1/2 week ultrasound). While this has happened to many couples, it doesn't necessarily make it any easier to go through. The ensuing hours and days seem like a blur now, but the fact that it was "thanksgiving" week was a constant reminder to us that a very important aspect of the Christian worldview is the recognition that we rejoice and give thanks to God even when things happen in our lives that we would not have chosen for ourselves. In other words, Christians don't (or shouldn't) change their tune about how great God is when things like this happen. We recognize that God still does all things well. Some might call that blind faith, but it might be better termed "complete" faith since believers are expected to have the kind of faith that doesn't reserve the right to call God out when we think he messed up. That's not to say that either of us did this perfectly, nor does it mean that we will never falter in the future, but, ultimately, it's good to know that none of our changefulness will negate the character of God.

Reflecting on the past two weeks, there are a few verses that have come to the forefront of our thinking on several occasions. Erica had been working on memorizing the first chapter of James since that is what her Bible study group at church has been studying. I had been thinking these verses in the wake of the news, and several people have written them in cards. The verses come from the first chapter of James (vv. 2-4):
"Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4 Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."
Sometimes, we want to know why, why, why-what is the purpose? Why did this happen? And while our minds can come up with possible reasons, we have objective revelation that tells us simply that trials produce perseverance. So we're going to stick with that and try to persevere.

These words are reflective of the attitude we hope our hearts "choose to say":

Blessed be Your name
When the sun's shining down on me
When the world's all as it should be
Blessed be Your name

Blessed be Your name
On the road marked with suffering
Though there's pain in the offering
Blessed be Your name

You give and take away
You give and take away
My heart will choose to say
Lord, blessed be Your name

an exciting surprise

In our circles, what married girlfriends don't think it would be fun to be pregnant together? Charisse and I are no exception! We were totally taken by surprise when we found out back in August we were both expecting and even due within just 5 days of each other! How fun! (Not sure how fun our husbands think it is though since now we have even MORE to talk about when we're together!) She is due April 30th and I'm due April 25th. We have had so much fun sharing pregnancy notes and counting down the weeks together. Within the next few days we both (if our babies cooperate) get to find out what we're having. So stay tuned to see who the new Owen co-star of Stella's blog will be! (The above pictures were taken at the end of our first trimester back in October. Still not showing, but we know our days are numbered! And yes, we are wearing the same orange shirt, totally unplanned!)

Apple Charlie's

About a month ago my Mom and Step-dad were up for a nice long visit. One of the stops we made was Apple Charlie's Orchard and Cider Mill. Stelly was less than impressed w/ the animals in the petting zoo area. You'd have thought she sees llamas everyday! It was a fun afternoon though and made extra special because Grandma and Grandpa were here!

Happy Reformation Day

It's only right to remember that important day in church history when Martin Luther nailed his ninety-five thesis on the door of Castle Church in Wittenburg, Germany. Today our hearts are drawn to worship the Lord afresh for salvation of grace ALONE, by Christ ALONE, thru faith ALONE, based on the Word ALONE, all for God's glory ALONE.
God used a particular writing of Luther's my junior year of college to help start a Reformation of sorts in my own heart. Since becoming a wife, I have learned much from reading and hearing about his dear wife and her own commitment to God and thus her husband and his ministry.
We are thankful for saints like Martin and Katharine whose rest is won (although they have not yet received all that has been promised them - Heb 11:39, 40), but with whom we still have mystic sweet communion...who like, Abel, though they are dead, by faith they still speak (Heb 11:4).

Happy Halloween

For those of you who have been asking for some video, here is a clip of Stella in her Halloween costume for the annual Jackson Dawson Halloween party. I explained Halloween to her tonight-I told her its a fun time every year where you get to dress up and get candy for Daddy. She seems agreeable to that arrangement...

for not having much hair...

it sure can get messy! maybe the tossing and turning shown in the previous post is to blame!

i was wondering how we would tame the mohawk since stelly just had a bath yesterday and wasn't due for another one until tomorrow. i thought maybe some pine tar would help. or then again, maybe a "clump of dirt" would work just as well - yeah, right. (sorry for the slam, kenny. go tigers!)

sleeping beauty

the past few nights we've taken pictures of stelly sleeping when we go in to check on her before we go to bed. isn't there something so sweet about watching a baby sleep? stelly has been in some strange positions lately. last night she was on all fours with her bottom way up in the air! the other night she was kneeling again, but a little more comfortably. then a few nights ago she was all sprawled out as one would expect. so funny!

Windy City

we were in chicago from thurs eve - sun last week. the trip wasn't quite what we had planned. by some it might be considered a comedy of errors from car-sickness to a large rear dent (pun intended, will) to a flat tire to seeing hole in the wall apartments, but hey -- God's preparing us to be urbanites and to remember His control over all things. one thing we did accomplish was getting a few good shots for our prayer card. i didn't include the actual shot we selected for printing but here are some shots along the way. we are so thankful for the generosity of phil and julie e. for allowing us to borrow their vehicle. it was nice to be able to ride together in a vehicle where 2 carseats and 4 adults fit (2 of those adults are pregnant too)!!

one of the better shots. this is in millennium park. note the reflections in the metal ball of the glories of the city.
the reality of taking pictures with kids...haddon is looking who knows where and stella is screaming her head off.

haddon being a "big brother" and looking out for little stelly to make sure her hood stays up.
this is one of the first pics we took. matt said stelly looks like the kid in a christmas story whose mom had him so bundled up he couldn't walk. it was after that comment i decided to remove her toboggan.

stella sure is excited!

i wonder why?

Chicago - It's our Kind of Town!

Most of you know we're planning to do a team church plant with Will and Rachel P. in the Bucktown/Wicker Park area of Chicago. The area is an artsy, up-and-coming area that desperately needs God's fame to be proclaimed! There are countless details still in the works, but we are making progress. Here are a few pictures of the kids from our Labor Day trip (taken by our then resident photographer Joy M.). Lord willing, we'll be making another trip there next week.

You can't walk behind Stelly w/o her thinking you're chasing her!

Poor Haddon and Stelly both got sick during the trip. Here Haddon is running a fever and not feeling well at all, but is still as cute as can be!

growing up

stelly ate with a spoon for the first time this morning! she loved being independent and feeding herself (although she still needed some help "scooping")! oatmeal was a great food to start with since it sticks to the spoon so well. can't believe she'll be 14 months tomorrow!

baby bling

stelly got her ears pierced this weekend. i'm not sure you can classify 3 mm diamond studs as real bling, so we'll call it baby bling. it was hard to photograph the earrings b/c they are so small and getting stelly to pose for a picture is impossible b/c she is such a mover! here's the best i could do. (the last pic doesn't even show the earrings but it was still a cute picture!)

pearly whites

stelly went almost a whole year with no teeth. now she has EIGHT that have popped

thru just in the past month and 1/2! here she is brushing away so she won't need

crest white strips down the road.

if i weren't a mom...

i would still think my favorite dessert in a springform pan is cheesecake,

and that strainers were used only to drain pasta.

The Big 1

Everybody loves a birthday party. We celebrated Stella's this past July 28 (put that in your calendars and send cash in the coming years; we'll see that she gets it...) Erica had a ladybug theme (I mean if we did her nursery in ladybugs then we simply MUST carry the theme into the first birthday party, right?) and we celebrated in Ohio with both of our families together. Seriously, though, we recognize that children are a gift from God and we are grateful to him for blessing us in this way. Below are some pictures with little commentary, but then again you aren't on this particular blog to read anyway, are you?

You can't have a birthday without mass quantities of cake. Not bad for Erica's first attempt. I, assuming I could decorate a cake having watched it done once, thought I would tell Erica the best way to ice it. She rolled her eyes but handed me the icing-bag-decorator-thingy (those of you in the cake biz know what I'm talking about). Not only was I completely incapable of creating a dot of icing, but I also managed to smear black icing all over my shirt is I leaned over the cake. Leave it to the experts.
Here is a moment of great anticipation.

And this would be a moment of great satisfaction. You can't see her other hand but she has two fistfuls of cake. She seemed genuinely shocked when we finally took the cake away from her before she had finished the entire thing.

Of course she had a little version of the ladybug for herself but still, it was a pretty large piece. This shot captures the calm before the storm. She has just now realized that she can bury her entire hand in the cake and we're actually letting her do it.
Last but not least, no first birthday is complete without a cabbage patch kid.