JONAH'S 1st SNOWBOARDING TRIP!!!

We took Jonah snowboarding for the 1st time the day after Christmas and OH MY GOSH, it was so fun! Not only did we have a TON of fresh snow, it was a blast watching jonah ripping it up! WOO HOO!!! I don't think I have ever been more excited. Watch these videos:


Papa would carry jonah back up the hill, snowboard and all, and then push him back down....
Ryan and I hiked a little bit to try and get some freshy tracks...

Lake Maloney on Christmas Day

Our family went up to the lake by my parent's house for a day by the campfire overlooking the lake. It was so beautiful!

Bike ride up at grammy and papa's house

Jonah got a new bike seat for Christmas from Grammy and Papa! He was able to go on bike rides all week, and he loves it. There are so many beautiful mountain trails up north!

"you are my sunshine, my only sunshine"

this is my favorite thing ever:

6th Annual Thanksgiving on the Roof

Ok, so we had yet another successful Thanksgiving on the Roof, yet this year it was actually Thanksgiving in the Alley. Ever since we moved to Newport we haven't been able to have it officially on the Roof and after trying a couple different places it was decided that In the Alley was a success! With a huge buffet line, twinkle lights, fire pit, ping pong table, kids running around and a bunch of wonderful friends, we all enjoyed our radical potluck dinner as family! Oh yeah, and even the COPS showed up! We are RAGERS!! Here is a quick look at some pics that Ryan put together in a sweet document! Enjoy!

Our 4 year anniversary

So since little Kayle wanted to be born on our anniversary, our weekend plans changed a little. Ryan had planned some meetings up in Santa Barbara, so we were going to drive up there Friday morning, then spend the weekend up there camping. Katie called at 5am Friday morning announcing that Kayle was making her debut! So I told Ryan we would have to celebrate another time, and he left to go up north for his meetings, while I headed to the hospital. I figured I would be there all day (I was in the delivery room with Kate and J) so I just thought that we wouldn't be able to follow through with our plans....but since Katie is such a flipping crazy, birth woman Kayle was born at 845 am!!! I got to hang out all morning, then I caught a train to meet up with Ryan! The train ride went along the coast the entire ride and was amazingly relaxing and beautiful. So we were able to not only welcome our new niece into the world, but spend a romantic weekend together as well! It was so fun!!

Kayle Lily Kyser

Kayle was born on October 24th 2008!!!! I got the call at 5am that morning...I was so honored and blessed to be a part of her delivery. Katie was such a rock star and delivered her after only a couple of hours of labor and NO DRUGS!!! She did amazing. And Kayle and I definately connected in a special way since I was there during her birth.

The funny part is that she was born on me and Ryan's anniversary. She totally killed our romantic weekend in Santa Barbara!!! Just kidding...since she was born by 845 am, I hung out with her in the hospital for a couple of hours then caught the train up to Santa Barbara to meet up with Ryan and we were able to celebrate!

She is beautiful and amazing and we love her!

Jonah is ready for snowboarding!

Ok, so Jonah is SOOO into this particular Burton Snowboarding movie...when we try to put a different one on, he only wants this one...he says, "oh sick!" and "oh my gosh!"...so funny. watch this video:

Acai Smiles Part 2

Jonah is addicted to Acai!
I promise he did this to himself...I did not make it look like a perfect smile...he picks up his bowl and drinks it...

Jonah!

New website!

my new website is up and running! Check it out!
www.jesihaackweddings.com

New Kids On the Block!!!!!!!!!!

ok, so wednesday night was the NKOTB concert with Katie and Jenn. It was the most hilarious concert i have ever attended. We had a blast! The highlight was when Jordan stood on top of the stage with his white shirt unbuttoned and a serious fan blowing at him and ripping his shirt halfway off his body....WOW - dramaticly cheesey!

Jonah sneeking some chocolate

So we were at Aunt Kate and Uncle J's house the other weekend. I put Jonah down in a room to take his nap. I would walk by every once in a while to check that he was ok. So I walked by and peeked in. I noticed that he was sitting up and just hanging out. So I walk away. Then I thought, "That's so weird that he didn't even react to me when I poked my head in." So I went back to take a closer look. Here is what I found:

Our Panama Mission

Our mission trip to Panama went awesome. We ended up deciding about a week before leaving that we were going to leave Jonah at home. Due to a few things changing with our trip, we felt that he would be safer up at Grammy and Papas house. You all should click on the link for their blog to see how much fun he and they had! Here is a quick overview of our trip: check out this site for an awesome video of our trip!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZggHuF6IOM


Saturday - we traveled all day and everything went smooth. We stayed at a hostel in Panama City that first night.

Sunday - we traveled by bus out to Santa Catalina. It took about 7 hours of driving. We played Darren's ipod, though, and it was full of goodies like: Mariah Carey and Phil Collins. Check out the video below:) We got settled in to our little cabins and they were awesome! We were up in the rainforest overlooking the ocean.


Monday - we woke up in our absolutely adorable little cottages, ate breakfast, had some devotional time, worship time and prayed. Then we gathered up some kids from the village and took them down to the beach. We spent some time playing and teaching them to surf. We then walked back to our homebase and ate dinner at the church that we were partnering with in Santa Catalina. The dinners were so good, usually fish or chicken and beans and rice. Seriously amazing food! We sat up on the deck of one of the cottages and worshipped, talked about our day, and then we were off to bed.

Tuesday - breakfast again, devotional time, and worship. Then a group went into the village and stopped in at people's houses to pray for them and give them bibles. I was in the group that walked up on a beautiful hillside to pray over the village. We prayed for the sexual deviance problem (rape and incest), the drug problem, the kids, the church, and for God's Kingdom. Then we all met back at our cottages and ate lunch together. After lunch we went out into the village and gathered up all the kids and we played volleyball, frisbee and baseball with them all afternoon. It was so fun to see how much they loved to play sports.

Wednesday - breaky, worship, devotion....then the two groups that went out on Tuesday switched. This time I was part of the team that went to do the "house visits". This was so awesome. Ryan was able to be a part of it the day before and prayed with a sick man and led him to the Lord. How amazing! Every house (or shack, i should say) we went to they invited us in and offered us their chairs. The community was extremely hospitable. We just talked with them, and asked them if we could pray for them. Most of them wanted prayer for their health. It was definately a humbling experience. Later that night, after dinner, we showed a movie at the church. The church was PACKED! The people of this village never get to see movies, so they were so excited to watch "Surf's Up!"

Thursday - we took a boat out to an island off of Santa Catalina. We spent some time painting with the kids, helping them make bracelets with a story from the bible, reading with them, playing sports with them. I was fortunate enough to be part of a team that taught a lesson on Abstinence to the older girls. We offered them an opportunity to make a promise to themselves and the Lord to commit themselves to waiting for their husband, and all of the girls made the promise! It was awesome! Later that night we showed another movie. It was a surf movie that preached the gospel. Another great turnout, and another great movie!

Friday - we all had the opportunity to go out to the Surflodge, the place that the ministry was supposed to work out of but got destroyed by a corrupt business man, and we were able to help clean it up. The guys loved having a major, physical project to help with and they made some huge progress with the clean up of the demolished building. It started to pour rain and we all just jumped in the ocean. It was so cool.

Saturday - we left Santa Catalina. The kids that had been hanging out with us all week were hanging on our bus and were so sad to see us go. I think we were all a bit more sad to say goodbye. We drove 4 hours to a town that was inside the crater of an inactive volcano. The town was called El Valle. It was breathtaking. It was so green and there were huge mountains all around us. There were rivers flowing through it, and huge cliffs covered in rainforest. Once we got into town, we went out to dinner, then came back and got settled into our rooms, then met for a debrief and a worship session...

Sunday - This was our day to just hang out with our team. We went and walked around the market and shopped, went to lunch and a group of us went on a horseback ride up a mountain in the pouring rain. It was my highlight of the trip!

Here are a few pictures

Here is Ryan and I with two of the most amazing kids! Orlando and Mira
Here is our entire team on the grassy knoll over the ocean...beautiful! We had just finished a worship session...
Here is a pic of all the kids painting pictures...
This is the deck of one of our cottages...where we did all of our meetings and worship...
Beautiful Panama...
Panamanian Baseball....woohoo!
This is a picture of the mission's Surflodge that the boys were helping clear out and clean up...
Here is a picture of what the people lived in at Santa Catalina...

Our 2 days in the Carribean

After our team left Panama, a few of us stayed behind to spend a few more days there. We drove a couple of hours over to the Carribean side of the country. We then caught a boat and went out to an island called Isla Grande. It was amazingly beautiful. It looked like a postcard. There was hardly anyone there and it was a pretty small island. We just hung out, read books, hiked around the island, and the boys surfed in crystal clear waters....oh yeah, we snorkled too. It was a great time to relax after the mission.