Happy Birthday Jade continued

Birthday lunch, bananas, mango and cheese...yum!

The four of us

Jade's birthday cake...gluten free cake, with cream cheese honey frosting and blueberry juice as food coloring! I was pretty excited about this cake, I enjoy trying new and different things so this was tons of fun to make!

One year old pictures on the couch!

Cake time...

This is as messy as it got. For a really long time she ate it with one finger, then she picked it up and put it down again. With every lick she did say "yum". I think she had a very Happy First Birthday!

(for more pictures check out facebook)

Happy Birthday Jade

This was me a year ago...hard to believe ones body can get this big, I measured from my hip to the front of my belly and it stuck out 12 inches!

After 12 hours of labor, no drugs of any kind Jade Noel Quast arrived!

Jamen was and still is a proud big brother!

We were shocked when we saw the birthmark Jade was born with, but so thankful for health baby! Its been a journey of surgery, biopsies, an MRI and many visits to see an dermatologist to help us understand more about this large congenital melanocytic nevi that covers 1/3 of her body. Jade has no neurological problems or physical problems and we praise God for her and all that He has taught us through her birth! It is still a journey, her birthmark needs monitoring to make sure nothing looks suspicious...aka cancerous...but in the mean time we live day to day enjoying her growing up!

Happy Birthday Jade!

(first birthday cake and party pictures to come!)

Christmas

Well, it wasn't a white Christmas this year, but it's a white day after Christmas! As I type the snow continues to fall, far we've got about 7 inches! Its a nice way to spend the day, all snowed in and playing with new toys. The kids a great day, here are some highlights...

This year was Jade's first Christmas and she loved it! Here she was taking things out of her stocking. Being she's a little young for lots of stocking things I just put in some silly puddy which she loved but then I promptly took it away.

She got a baby doll, which she loves! She even says "baby"

Jamen holding the classic Winnie-the-Pooh stories. We've already started reading it together.

What's Christmas without more cars to play with! And no I didn't make him pose for every picture, just a few:-)

It did take Jade a little while to figure out what was going on but Jamen helped her out.

We had a great Christmas with family! Hope you did too, Merry Christmas!

Speaking Tomorrow

Christmas preparations are well underway, the tree is up and decorated, the house is clean, Jade doesn't need dentures for Christmas (cut her first tooth the other day!). The cookies are baked and awaiting frosting, Jamen is looking forward to that part! Just need to wrap a few books for Jamen and we are ready! But before that happens we will travel 3 hours south tomorrow to speak at a church to share with them the work that is going on in Paraguay. Please be praying for our visit with them, for encouragement to their hearts and what God would have them do...pray for us, support us or just be aware of the lost people of Paraguay! We'll let you know how it goes!

Here is Jamen helping to decorate the Christmas tree!

Weddings...

The has flown by since our last post and much has happened. First off, we enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving with my family, it was great to be with my two brothers and sister one last time for a while.

My handsome brothers and beautiful sister!

It was also hard to say goodbye, many tears were shed as we left NH. But we rejoiced in the fact that we were able to stop in and see both of my grandmas.

Great grandmas with the great grandkids

This was the first time either of them had meet Jamen and Jade, they were very excited to see the great grand kids. After a quick stop to see great grandparents, we continued our way south.

When we arrived in VA we immediately started to help out with Jon's youngest sisters wedding.

Weddings bring family together for a time of laughter, tears, a little stress but ultimately a good time and a new family gained.

However it was very busy here at the Quast house, with dress's to be altered, centerpieces to be made and food to be cooked for the reception.

The tables at the reception. I did all 20 centerpieces by myself, I'm just a little proud of them. It was fun getting all dressed up for the wedding.

Aren't they cute!

Despite the busyness we really had a good time at the wedding and Jamen really liked his sunglasses!

Jamen was the ring bearer and his cousin Elizabeth was a flower-girl, they were so cute all dressed up.

Jade got to have her first father daughter dance and I enjoyed seeing the family all together and taking tons of pictures.

Fall Memories

This week was full of new memories made. Jamen showed Uncle Ben all his cars and together they played.

Jamen iced Grandpa's head to help his headache

Jamen painted for the first time and Jade watched very intently

Jade and Grandma played with toys I played with as a kid

Jamen and Grandpa played blocks together

We took walks with the dog and Aunt Allana enjoying the warmer fall weather

I showed Jamen and Jade the soft silky milkweed seeds and how much fun they are to play with

We took a trip to Maine and enjoyed the ocean view!

While in Maine we visited Grain Surf Boards, which was very exciting for Jon!

Throughout this week the Lord has continued to encourage me. He has encouraged me through people giving us fresh eggs and milk to enjoy and by the little things that I enjoy doing, baking and making homemade remedies to ease colds for my sick kids. I've been encouraged by showing Jamen all the fun places I use to play, trees climbed and little rivers to throw rocks in. Our time here in NH is not over yet but already I've been able to come to a peace about saying goodbye to the things I've held dear to my heart. I don't know when we'll be back here but I am glad for new memories and old ones that I will always treasure!

Life on the Road

I've decide its high time to write a little more about our life each time I post pictures. So today I wanted to share that we are now completely done with missionary training! Jon turned in his final paper yesterday and we are now officially en-route to Paraguay! We are planning to be in Paraguay in April but to do that we must say goodbyes to family and friends and continue raise support. The first of many stops was to visit Great Grandma and Grandpa in NY.

Jade and Gigi

Jamen and Jade playing in the NY leaves!

Jamen helping Bompa with all the leaves

Currently we are in NH visiting with my family. Its been two years since we've been back to NH and 10 months since Grandma and Grandpa have seen the grandkids. Its been good for me to be back here as well to really say goodbye to all the places I have grown up with.

But its not goodbye yet, Jamen is loving the time he has with Aunt Allana...he miss her when she goes to school and asks to go with her.

Allana reading a bedtime story to Jamen

More stories with Grandma and Grandpa

Jade being cute as ever!

Please pray for us we say goodbye, pray that we will be diligent as we continue to organize speaking engagements. Pray that we will do things in the Lord’s timing. Pray that God’s people would be moved to support this ministry. And pray that the gospel would go out where it has never gone before as a result of our collective obedience to the task of reaching this world for Christ!

To read more about what we are doing please visit here...

Done in OK

After a 5.5 hour car ride from OK to MO we are once again settled for a short time. Our time in OK went fast but it was a great growing experience for both Jon and I. The Lord really taught us a lot about being content with where he has us, loving others and loving each other. We will be MO for a few weeks while Jon does his write up of the Cherokee language. We will also be taking care of some last minute things before packing up and leaving MO for the last time! Below are a few things that took place over the last month since our last post.

Jamen has discovered he is now able to climb and bike without help. He is also talking in FULL sentences and today he only stopped when I told him he couldn't talk with food in his mouth. I really am loving having a 2.5 year old...it hasn't been terrible!

Our time in OK had a lot of firsts for Jade...

We had mother daughter time and painted our toes,

she wore her first frilly dress,

and had enough hair for a first pony tail!