Happy 3rd Birthday Lizzy!

Today Lizzy is 3! What a fun, spirited, lively, sweet young girl she is! Here is a little video I made of her last year of life...it is to her current and long standing favorite song "O Praise Him" by David Crowder Band. You may want to pause the music on the side before you watch the video. I will share more about our celebration later!=)



Happy Birthday Sweetie...we LOVE you A LOT!=)

A Pirate Party

Well, I am happy to say that Sammy's party was a BLAST! He was so encouraged and had a great time with friends from the Swiss Tower. Here is a video clip highlighting the night...

Happy 36th Birthday Brent!

Today we celebrated my man's 36th birthday! It's truly amazing to see how God has changed our hearts and our lives. Thank you Brent for being a loving, kind, hard working servant of the Lord. We love and appreciate ALL that you do for us! Happy, Happy birthday my dear, sweet, man! I hope we celebrate many more together!=)

Birthday Dinner at Chuck E Cheese's

On Wednesday night, Sam took us all out for a fun birthday dinner at Chuck E Cheese's! He used some of his birthday money and treated us all to pizza and games! We had a fun time together as a family. One of my favorite memories of the night was Sam playing Skiball...be on the look out if you are around this little guy...I'll let you see for yourself...
Oh did this make me laugh! And I did have to have Brent keep Abby FAR away!=) We also have a little video clip of singing Happy Birthday...we are saving his BIG cake for his pirate party on Sunday...
And here are some photos from the night...





What a fun time we had! Thanks for taking us out to Chuck E Cheese's Sam...We LOVE you MUCH!

Happy 6th Birthday Sam!

WOW! Sam is SIX today! What a wonderful, caring, loving, forgiving, and handsome boy the Lord has blessed us with. Here is a little picture video we put together of some of the highlights of his last year of life. The song "Made to Love You" by TobyMac is his current favorite...so you may want to turn off the music so you can hear it!



Sam, it truly is a JOY to have you as a part of our family. We love you and look forward to celebrating the rest of today and on Sunday with your friends! Happy, happy birthday my dear, sweet Sam!

A Visit From Grandpa and Grandma

Last week my mom and dad were able to come and spend 6 days with us! We had a fun time playing and spending time together. Here are some of the "highlights"...








These are just a small sampling of the time we had together. We went to the Arboretum, the Science Museum, and the Rainforest Cafe to celebrate the November Birthdays. We played baseball, Doodle Dice, pool, and lots of Yahtzee. We also shared a cake for the 4 birthdays we celebrate in November! We had a very nice time and look forward to when they will come back again!

Thank you dad and mom for your love, kindness and generousity. We LOVE you much!

Family Pizza Night!

Friday is Family Pizza Night at the Jackson home! In the summer months this usually involves Swimming, but it the fall and winter months it becomes our game night. Tonight the game was Yahtzee and Abby was the life of the party around here. She just LOVED rolling the dice and she had all of us "rolling" laughing watching her! Here is a little video clip of it...


We had fun making funny faces too...





Wow did we laugh tonight and did that ever feel good. I so ENJOY my children. They are seriously too much fun. And it was fun watching them ENJOY each other tonight as well. We definitely need this in our life! Thank you beautiful family for the great fun we had together tonight! I LOVE YOU!

And thanks to those of you who wished me a Happy Birthday! Maybe tomorrow I will get a chance to post some of the pictures from Wednesday!=)

Celebrating 12 Years of Marriage...A Testimony of God's Faithfulness

The following is a video that I made about a year and a half ago. It went along with a testimony that Brent and I gave at Faith Evangelical Free Church for a Valentine Banquet.



WOW! Has the last year and a half brought even more change, trials and joys to our journey in life together. We moved from our home in Grand Forks, sold about 85% of what we owned, had our 4th baby Abby Grace, moved across the country, faced our 4th neurosurgery, have had huge financial challenges and are trying to balance life and seminary! And God has continued to carry and sustain us every step of the way. It is only by His grace that we are celebrating our 12th Anniversary today.

I truly want anyone who reads this to understand that without the Lord Jesus Christ changing our hearts and our lives we would not have much to celebrate today. We stand in awe of our King who has transformed our lives and is currently in the process of turning a marriage that was once filled with pain, deceit, idols and addictions into something truly beautiful. We have great HOPE for the future...because God is not finished with either of us yet. As I said we stand in awe of our King. And what Paul said in 1 Timothy 1:15-16 is certainly true of Brent and I...

"Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners--of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus, might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe one him and receive eternal life."

And we are SO very thankful. Thankful that God intervened in our lives 6 years ago, forever changing our hearts and the legacy that we will leave to our children. Thankful for our dear friends at Faith Evangelical Free Church that reached out in love, that taught us the truth, and that supported our family in the medical trials we have faced. And thankful for all of our family and friends that have prayed for us, loved us, encouraged and supported us over these last 12 years. We are so very grateful!

And now 1 Timothy 1:17 goes on to say...
"Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be the honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen."

Amen indeed. And I also want to tell any of you who may read this that think your marriage is hopeless...I have been there. And I have seen God work a miracle in my marriage. He can do the same for yours. I am by no means saying that it won't be painful, it has been hard work talking and walking through the things in our past. It often still is. But I believe it will be worth it and I have seen that our marriage is stronger now than I ever would have though possible. Pray, pray, pray and trust God and watch Him work a miracle in your own life...in His perfect way and His perfect time. I hope this gives you HOPE. Jesus is our Rock...He can be yours too!

Happy Anniversary my dear, sweet, man! Thank you for the beautiful and delicious breakfast you made for me this morning. Thank you for arranging childcare and for borrowing the beautiful linens. I love you. I look forward to the rest of the years the Lord gives us together. I am looking forward to our dinner together tonight too! Thank you for making it a special day.

"Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be the glory..." Ephesians 3:20

Thank you Jesus!

A Pitcher, a Pirate, a Princess and a Piglet

There they are...our pitcher (for Boston of course), our pirate (Captain Jack Sparrow Himself), our princess and our little Piglet!

Halloween is one of our favorite times of year...I mean who doesn't love to dress up and get loads of candy!!;-) We started our day with painting and carving our pumpkins...




We then joined the other kiddos of the Swiss Tower for the annual costume parade around campus...









A little later in the evening we trick-or-treated around the building...




And our last event of the day was the Fall Fun Fest at our church, which I am bummed as I look...we just weren't taking pictures there I guess. We had two busy girls to chase after. We played on slides, in bounce houses, had tons of games and yummy "fair" type fried food...and the only pictures I have of any of it is Lizzy enjoying and dancing with her cupcake from the "Cat walk cupcake game" and Abby standing in the middle...



All in all it was a great day. I was super tired, so I didn't have my usual energy...but I think that all of the kids still had a great time...and I am probably the only one who noticed (well maybe Brent;)).

I hope that you had a Happy Halloween as well!! Until next year...