Brandon, Jane and I went down to George West, Texas to visit his family for Thanksgiving. It was our first time flying with Jane, and she was able to meet her Auntie Rachel, Uncle Bret, cousin Luke, Uncle D, Granny, Oma, and Opa! We had a restful, refreshing few days, enjoying family, friends, and God’s beautiful creation. It is one thing to enjoy nature alone, but when you are around other believers who also marvel and praise God for His creations…well, then it is really glorious.

Here are some pictures from the trip:

Jane was a champion flyer…a real answer to prayer…she did SO well!!

Grammy with Jane.

Big boy, Luke, being so sweet…he is so precious!

My faithful puppy, Chaz.

Rachel and I catching up…I am so thankful that God has her in my life.

Dalton wielding an impact wrench…and, yes, I did have to ask Brandon what it was…

Luke is such a big boy, riding on driving the tractor with his Grampa.

The Rogers men making some yummy food.

Jane with Oma…can you believe she is a great-grandmother?!

Jane’s enjoying a cuddle with Granny.

So wonderful.

Allen and Kellie BUILT this cottage to house their family and friends…and they are turning it into a B&B! Namely, Rolling Oaks Bed & Breakfast…I highly recommend it!!

I love them!

The BLR (coincidentally, also my initials)!! Lauren and her sweet baby Evangeline were able to come for an afternoon play date…so fun!! I am so thankful for these two women…they have walked with me through so many transitions and phases of life. They are faithfully loving and gracious…and they speak truth into my life. Thanks ladies!

Cute, cute, Evie!!

I think Evie is trying to show Jane how to hold her head up like a champ!

the BLR 2.0

Okay, last picture…the family picture.

Thanks everyone for making our trip such a blessing. And, most of all this Thanksgiving, I thank God my Father, who has graciously given me life in Jesus Christ…when I deserved death. Praise the Lord.

A few weekends ago my mum, known to Jane as Mumgu, came to visit.  It was such a fun time as Jane is much more interactive than she was at one week old!  Here are some pictures that my mum took and a video of Jane making fun noises.  Disclaimer about the video, it is kind of long, so if you get bored don’t feel guilty about shutting it off!!

Mumgu and Jane

Jane is wearing the outfit Grammy and Grampa gave her!

Jane being super cute and smiley.

…now for the long video:

In other news, Jane recently had her 2 month check up, and she is doing really well! She is 11.2 lbs and 22 1/2 inches. Both her height and weight are in the 50th percentile, but her head circumference is in the 90th! The doctor kindly informed that head size is genetic, and Brandon claims that he has a small head…so, I guess I have a big head!! Anyway, Jane is making loads of fun noises, squirming around, and sleeping through the night. She reminds us all the time of God’s grace in blessing us with such a wonderful child. While life does not exist without trial and my days sometimes feel like a roller coaster of emotion, we have been reminded consistently that God is faithful and gracious in the easy and difficult times.

Oh, and she is also working on holding up that slightly-larger-than-average head!

Okay, so I will be updating my blog soon with some pictures from my mum’s visit this past week, but in the meantime…some funny videos.

I have never seen Scrubs, but I am delighted by both of these videos.

This song brings back fond memories of driving with my dad and siblings, all piled into his two-seat sports car, listening to this song too loud for our own good.

This song just makes me smile…and I wish I could dance like this.

Our good friends, Lindsey and Drew, just had their baby girl, Stella, on Thursday. She is absolutely precious, and her parents are doing splendidly. When we went to the hospital to visit them, I stayed in the car with Jane because I had a cold. I asked Brandon to document the visit so that I could get a good view of little Stella.
We are so thankful for Lindsey and Drew. I so appreciate the transparent friendship I have with Lindsey…she is sacrificial in her love and gracious in her speech. They bless our lives immensely!

Here are some pictures of their little baby:

Look at all of that adorable hair…so cute!!

This one is my favorite!!

We love you already, Stella, and Jane can’t wait to meet you!

Our baby Jane is six weeks old! My goodness, I cannot believe it! Brandon and I enjoy her more and more each day. She is wonderfully content, which is an answer to a prayer I had been bringing to the Lord throughout the pregnancy…and will continue to pray for years to come! She has recently started smiling, and occasionally we get a funny little laugh out of her!
The Lord has used Jane to humble me in so many ways. This week I was dealing with mastitis for the third time in four weeks…what the what! I will say that it causes me to view sacrifice and suffering in a new light, and in doing so, has taught me loads about the grace and faithfulness of our God.  While breast feeding has been a surprisingly monumental challenge, Jane has been a marvelous blessing.  Our hearts overflow with love for her!
Here’s some pictures of our little one and her smiles.

On a side note, this week I noticed that Jane started sweating…which is wonderful because she had been getting a pretty fierce heat rash on her face and neck. You may even be able to notice in these pictures the difference in her complexion once her body figured out how to release the heat. I probably was bundling her up too much!! It is amazing how intricately God created our bodies to work…it is all so interwoven. Yay for sweat!

This post compiles some of the happenings around here for the past week or so.

1.  Our wonderful friend, Lauren, came up to visit us a week ago!  When I say that she is a wonderful friend, I mean that she is faithful, sacrificial, transparent, helpful, and just plain fun.  I am so thankful that she was able to come and see Brandon and me…and, of course, Jane.

Jane, milk-drunk after a feeding…I love the out-stretched arms!

While Lauren was here, we took our annual trip to Hubers to pick apples (and to eat pumpkin and apple cider donuts…delicious!). I love taking this trip; I love picking more apples than I can actually eat; I love coming home and facing the dilemma of what to do with all of the apples…I just love it.

Jane is sporting the cute hat her Aunt Rachel made her…adorable and warm…lovely.

Apples!

We picked a Jane-sized apple! Also, I believe that I saw Jane doing the Rekerdres eyebrow the other day…Hurrah!

The apple bounty.

2. So, what do we do with our apple bounty?…Make apple butter! Brandon led the way through this whole process, as I was periodically feeding, changing, and putting Jane to sleep. However, I reaped the yummy benefits. Also, Brandon’s dad, Allen, told us how to vacuum seal the jars, so now we can preserve them for later in the year…fantastic!

The first batch we put into pint size jars. The second batch we put into half pint jars that I will give away at Sojourn’s annual Christmas gift exchange.

3. Now, I am sure you are wondering what is one way to ruin a lovely evening? Two words: Spider cricket.

I had a difficult time just inserting that into the post…just clicking on it…shudder. Saturday was Sojourn’s yearly Fall Festival…so much fun! Brandon worked the “Family Photo” booth, and I came up for a few hours with Jane to check out the cute crafty items that people had made (and purchase some super cute onesies for Jane!). Afterward, we were beat, so we came home and cuddled up on the couch to spend some family time. I was cozy next to Brandon with the blanket LD made for us. Wonderful.
Then, I felt something on my arm, and as I turned my head, all I could see over a ripple of blanket were those foul antennae and pointy legs…ah! I jumped off the couch and started screaming and pointing and fumbling with words to try to explain to Brandon what I wanted him to do…kill the bug that has now jumped into some strategic hiding place.
It is incredibly disconcerting to have seen a bug and know that it has disappeared but is not dead…it is just waiting to scare you again. And that is exactly what this spider cricket did. Just a little while later, I was sitting on the couch again, felt something on my arm, turned and saw this same cricket sitting next to me on the couch…mocking me…to my face (shout out to the SNL digital short with John Malkovich…anyone?). Thankfully, this time when I jumped off the couch, and exasperatedly (I am pretty sure that I just made up that word) called for Brandon, the cricket didn’t move. Brandon, my heroic and fearless husband, killed the cricket with the swipe of his hand (whilst rolling his eyes at my over-dramatic reaction).

And that is one way to ruin a lovely evening. However, for the record, the evening regained its loveliness after Brandon killed the cricket.

Jane is six weeks this week, and we finally captured some pictures of her smiling…

Okay, so I finally have some one month pictures of Jane; however, as of today, she is five weeks! Brandon and I enjoy her so much; she really is a gracious gift from the Lord. This past weekend Lauren Davis came up to visit, and we took our last apple picking trip to Hubers…it is crazy for me to think that this is our last year in Louisville. wow.

Sorry.  Moving away from the Debbie-downer, and back to pictures of baby Jane!

Oh, and there is a post in the works from the past weekend.

So, I really will get some one month pictures of Jane up on the blog soon…but in the mean time, here’s what happened tonight.

The Rogers were in town last week! We really enjoyed the time we spent with them, the many outings to Quills, the yummy food that they made…they are a HUGE blessing! Here are some pictures from the visit.

Grampa and Grammy

Baby Jane…she loves stretching!

Some of the yummy food…chicken, onion, and jalapeno, wrapped in bacon and grilled…wow.

Jane will be a month old this week…My oh my how time flies!! We will work on getting some one month pictures up here soon.

This blog is about to change a bit…mainly because my life is changing a bit.

Baby Jane has arrived!  Brandon and I are so thankful for God’s grace through the whole labor and delivery process.  Jane is such a blessing!  The Lord is using her to bring joy to our hearts and to make us more dependent upon Him.  Brandon and I are humbled by our inadequacy  and God’s grace.

So, I am going to guide this blog in a bit of a different direction.  Instead of this being strictly about recipes, it will now include Jane updates (probably far more appealing that recipes).   I will keep the recipes pages and maybe add to them periodically (we’ll see how that goes!).

I am going to try not to change the title too much, since I can’t change the url anyway…so the name of the blog and its content will be a little confusing, but oh well.

Here are some pictures of our Jane!

My mum, “Mumgu,” (Welsh for grandmother) with Jane.

Our family of three.

Brandon’s parents are coming up tomorrow, so we will have more pictures to come…and some flip videos when I figure out how to do that!