Bowling, Piano, Friends

What a week it's been. On Monday I didn't have to work because of the MLK holiday, so we took Jack and Jovie bowling, per Jack's request. We had such a great time, but unfortunately didn't remember to bring the camera. Here is a reenactment of the event. Jack bowled a 60, which I thought was pretty solid for his first time. Jovie just sat in her stroller and watched us, while eating snacks of course:)

One of Jovie's new interests this week is going anywhere she's not supposed to go. The stairs, the dog's water dish, etc. She is enjoying exploring via crawling, and is scaling walls and furniture on foot. A new favorite toy is the piano. We got this piano from my parents house a while back. It's the piano that my sisters and I grew up playing. Hopefully she'll learn how to play too some day.

Finally, here's a picture of my best childhood/high school friends and myself. Yesterday we attended a funeral/memorial service for Natasha's son Case. What an incredible service it was. After the service we were able to have some really nice fellowship with friends, and end the night visiting with Natasha and Reese's families. What a fun night of laughing and talking! Natasha, your family is hilarious, and hopefully we really do make a trip over to Moses Lake to visit Michele:)

Love and Prayers

Just got back from church where our congregation prayed for many families dealing with the loss of a loved one. I emphasize many because it seems as though many people in our community are facing this sort of grief lately. One such family is dear friends of ours, the Heeringa's...Natasha, Reese, and Lane. They lost 5 month old Case this past week, who died from SIDs. They are experiencing a pain that is so deep, there are no words to describe it. Because of this I wanted to post something I took from our sermon today, something I don't normally do because I have grown up to be what I call a "quiet believer" in Jesus Christ. Today we were reminded that in the Christian race to victory, death is not the finish line, but the beginning of everlasting life. To those who are grieving for the Heeringa's because of the loss of Case, I pray that through this hard time you will share with others what God's intentions are, and that our life here on Earth isn't the home that God prepared for us, it is in Heaven.

I also wanted to share some pictures of sweet baby Case, and the friends that loved him during his short 5 months here. These pictures were taken over Christmas by my friend Tory. We had all gotten together to spend time with Tory, who was visiting from Montana, and Natasha, who was visiting from California. When Case was here on Earth, he was sure loved by LOTS of people!

Cardinals and Name Pancakes

What a day! The Arizona Cardinals have officially advanced through the first week of the playoffs with an overtime victory against the Packers. We are relieved and celebrating at the Day household tonight. What a game it was...anyone who was watching knows. Here are the Cardinal's fans above.

Jack and Jovie received a "Kids in the Kitchen" cookbook from their Grandma Day, and we just tried out one of the recipes. Jack and I make pancakes on a regular basis, but this recipe was for name pancakes. To top it off, the name that is featured in the picture beside the recipe is "Jack" so Jack wanted to make it EXACTLY like the one in the book. He even went as far as saying that the syrup had to be placed exactly where it was in the picture! I wonder where he gets these obsessive compulsions from? :)
Anyway, we had a wonderful day!

Birthday Girl

Jovie is 1! The VanDiest Clan gathered this evening to celebrate Jovie's first birthday. We had a low-key party with dinner, presents, and cupcakes. We had "snow on the mountain" for dinner (hard to explain, so if you're curious then you can email me) and cherry cupcakes topped with white chocolate snowflakes. 

Below-the present opening crew.

Jovie inspects, and then dives in :)

Cookin up some trouble with cousin Finnley!

Earlier that day...Chef and Sous Chef

It is so hard for me to believe that the baby is 1! I know people say this all the time, but where does the time go?

New Do

Finally! Jack let me cut that mop of a head of hair that he's been sporting since early fall. I just love that I can see his face again. No more mop or mullet!

Christmas 2009

Round 1, Christmas Eve at the VanDiest's: Jack couldn't be more excited about his Indiana Jones lego sets with matching movies from his VanDiest grandparents. He's also pretty psyched about the new Transformer movie from Finnley. All of these things have already gotten plenty of use.

Jovie trying to get into Peter's present.

Relentless.

Later that night...For two years now Jack has made up a treat and carrot plate for Santa and his reindeer. Many of his Santa questions were answered this year in the form of a couple different movies...the old classic "Santa Clause is Coming to Town" which I had never seen before, and a new Disney special called "Prep and Landing". Both great resources ; )

Round 2, Christmas Day at home: Ahh...the wait is over! Remember when Jack lost his video games until Christmas a few week back? Well, we stuck true to the punishment, and on Christmas morning after all the presents were opened and everyone was fed, he got his video games back, plus a new one from Santa. Here are Rob and Jack trying out Lego Batman.

Jovie's 1st Christmas.

She was up for a total of 45 minutes before she went back down for a nap...crabby and exhausted from the night before I guess.

So, in the midst of all the Santa hoopla and everything else that has nothing to do with the real meaning of Christmas, we did take many breaks and have many discussion of why we (Rob, myself, and Jack) celebrate Christmas. Here is Jack putting together a nativity scene from stickers he got from his great aunt and uncle in South Carolina. Thanks Clyde and Wan for the thoughtful card and stickers:)

Finished product.

Round 3, Christmas at Camano: with Grampa and Grammy Day, Aunt Sara, and a brief visit with Granny, and Cousins Chris, Amy, and Aaron. The theme was food...in every sense of the word. We ate so well...in fact it seems that all Rob and I did was eat. The kids received lots of fun play and real food related things to go either with their new play kitchen or to help mom in the real kitchen. Rob and I received a gift certificate to a quaint little dining establishment in Bellingham called Ciao Thyme. Thanks for all of the neat and thoughtful presents! Also, thanks for putting up with us and the noisy children:) You'll be happy to know that the Jovie's sleeping patterns are back to normal.