Friday, December 31, 2010

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)

Thursday, December 30, 2010

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!)

Sunday, December 26, 2010

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!

Saturday, December 18, 2010

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!

Thursday, December 09, 2010

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.