Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Hello friends and family! We hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas! We were able to see and celebrate with my (Megan's) side of the family already, and are off in about 10 minutes to see Matt's family and continue the festivities. Having a baby really reminds me of how helplessly Jesus entered our world. The King of King and Lord of Lords...completely dependent! The story really takes on a new meaning in light of our new experiences these past few months.

Some new things from the past week or so: Miles is batting at toys, smiling even more than before, putting himself to sleep for most naps (I still let him fall asleep for the night during his last feeding), and possibly teething (it seems early, I know, so we'll see). He is now over 17 lbs, and just turned 4 months old on the 28th.

Before we leave in a minute here, I wanted to post some pictures from the Christmas celebrations we had with my family (notice the difference in picture quality--we got a Nikon D50 for Christmas from my parents. Thanks guys! These are just the first of many memories we will capture with such a thoughtful gift!):

Enjoying Grandma's tickle games

Men's edition of the grab-bag game at the big Visser Christmas party (we rent my childhood school's gym, play volleyball/basketball/etc., eat a potluck dinner, visit with a ton of family that we wish we could see more often, and open presents).

Great Grandma Stob is happy to see Miles!

And play dress-up with Miles using her scarf:)

"What just happened to me?"

The next day we had the Stob-side Christmas party at my parent's house. Aunt Charity tried to soak up as much Miles as she could before going back to Alaska!

My brother Nate couldn't get off of work for long enough to make it out for Christmas, so my mom found a dessert recipe for "Orange Alaska", which we ate "in memory" of him. It consists of an orange sherbet/yogurt/juice mixture on the bottom of a frozen organge-half, topped with meringue, and broiled to a brown which makes it look like mountain-tops. We guessed that is where it got the "Alaska" part of its name.

Matt and my Dad went out for a morning of experimenting with cameras while all of the ladies got together for coffee at my Grandma's house. Here is one of our favorite pics that Matt took.

Blessings to all of you in this New Year! We pray especially for those who have spent days or nights alone during this season, and for those who have lost loved ones around this sentimental time of year. We thank God especially right now for the years we were able to spend with our sister-in-Christ Shari, who went to her heavenly home just a few days ago to celebrate Christmas with Christ himself.

Thank you for the important role that each of you play in our lives! Thank you for all of the great times we will have been able to spend with many of you over the holiday season! Oh, and many of you are reporting that you can't post comments on our blog. We'll try to check into that once things slow down again. Thanks for checking faithfully, and let us know if you are trying to post and can't.

Miles Got ran Over by a Reindeer

I was thinking what gift I could get you and I think I have just the thing... a new post!


This week has slowed down quite a bit from the busyness of the last few weeks. All of the students (for the most part) have gone home, and Megan is on break. That doesn't mean there is nothing to do, with Christmas just around the corner we are just wrapping up our Christmas shopping, but all in all it has been a good week. We also have gotten a few feet of snow over the last week (literally) making travel a little dicey at times, but we have been safe so far and we hope that our travels to Chicago and Detroit over the next week are also safe (The Vibe seems to do well in the snow!)

Here are a few Miles pictures from our family to yours:

Miles really likes our bed. If I need to pick up in our bedroom, I can just sit him up in our bed and he is content for 10-15 minutes. Here is Miles listening to some of his favorite Christmas music while keeping his legs warm under the blankets...



Megan and I get very excited about little things that Miles does, in case you haven't figured that out yet. Though we are usually excited and encouraging about Miles' development, during our not-so-proud moments we actually mock, mimic or just plain make fun of the poor kid. One of our favorite things to make fun of is his obsession with holding his hands close to his mouth. This is probably something all babies do, but we find it funny/ridicules. This video is an example of what I am talking about...


Miles' New Trick from Matt Cooke on Vimeo.

Finally, here is a video we posted last time, but for some reason is inaccessible.... enjoy!

Miles' Fake Laugh from Matt Cooke on Vimeo.

All right, that is all for now. From the Cooke's we wish all of our blog readers a Merry Christmas and a very happy holiday season.

All right, a few quick notes and then a couple of quick videos... well, maybe not quick, but cute:

We are doing well. I feel that we have gotten into a good rhythm with our life with Miles. Like it usually is in December, life is very busy, but things are slowing down and soon we will be enjoying Christmas break!

The last week and a half has brought along a few changes in Miles, which we have caught on film.

The first video is not of something new, but it is funny. While talking Miles lets out a little toot. It is pretty hilarious.

Miles talks ... and farts... from Matt Cooke on Vimeo.

Video #2 is a good example of Miles holding his head up, not a new trick, but one that he is continuing to master. The problem is that he doesn't quite know how to use his arm yet to push himself up, so he overcomes that by using his legs as counter balance to his head going up (you can sometimes make out his legs in the background). He is making this whole situation very difficult, hence the grunts and so forth. However there is a trademark Miles smirk towards the end of the video as he catches sight of the camera.

Miles on his Belly from Matt Cooke on Vimeo.

Finally, Video #3 shows some great giggles and laughs from Mr. Miles. The beginning laughs almost sound like sympathy laughs, but he begins to really get into it towards the end.

Untitled from Matt Cooke on Vimeo.

So there you have it. Hope all of our faithful readers are well and we will post again soon.

A rich life!

Well, this has been a really busy week or two for us! We are excited to be home again and to find a slow weekend evening to" just hang out"...and blog again:)

We were able to go to Matt's parents' house for the Thanksgiving weekend. Miles enjoyed hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa Cooke, Aunt Laura and her boyfriend Stephen, and little Cocoa. He had a bit of a rough time sleeping, but overall handled the trip well. We took out a lot of the Christmas decorations throughout the weekend, including the Christmas tree(s). Here's Miles hanging his own ornament (the whole family has the same ornament with their name on it!).



After being home for just a little while, Miles and I headed off to Chicago to visit my parents. First road trip as just the two of us! We had a wolf run in front of our car on the way there, which was a little scary. The wolf was beautiful, though!

We stayed by my parents Tuesday through Thursday. It was a great trip; I think Miles was a little more used to being away from home. We stayed pretty busy, and Miles rolled with the punches better than expected. We visited a lot of people, had some people come visit us, went and got his 3 month pictures taken at a studio (a four and a half hour event including a mini-nap for Miles in the middle:-}), and did a few photo shoots of our own (my dad takes great pictures!). Here is Miles visiting his Great Grandparents:

Great Grandma and Grandpa Visser (my Dad's 'rents)




Great Grandma Stob (Mom's Mom)

So Miles has been itchin' to sit up on his own, which he cannot do yet. This seat was a present from the VanderLaans, and it is perfect! Miles sits right up in it, and the seat can go anywhere! We pulled this out after getting home from Chicago, and he's been enjoying it ever since!



On a different note, Matt and I got a babysitter last night and went to the Rosie Thomas concert. It was great! It was downtown at the Ladies Literary Club, which is a gorgeous venue. The music was great, the company was great, and the night away was SO great (it was a surprise from Matt)! Rosie's singing voice is so rich...and so different from her speaking voice (for those of you who also went to the concert:))

We look forward to a week that is as low-key and boring as possible. Matt is finishing up evaluations with his RA staff, and I am beginning to study for my LD endorsement test, but besides that we hope to chill quite a bit.

Thanks for checking in on our lives! We hope you are all doing well, and are enjoying the Holiday season. We thank God for his grace and love, for his son, and for his forgiveness.