Dreaming of a green Christmas...

...that is, green because we're doing a Christmas blog as opposed to sending out Christmas cards. You paper-wasting mongrels...Merry Christmas to you all!

Here are some pictures for you to enjoy. The first of Joel in his Christmas sweater (that's a little too big, but we only get a couple more weeks out of it), and the other a shot of us at the Mars Hill Staff Christmas Party at Hotel 1000 downtown.


Hope all is well everyone. Love you all.

Dustin, Melissa, and Joel

Señor Joel's First Halloween

The day came and passed, and Joel never left the house. He did, however, get to sport his authentic poncho from Grandpa Don. But, as the video below shows, he was more interested in this new toy than he was any costume.

Roll on over, roll on over baby

As mentioned in the previous blog, Joel has been rolling over...a lot. It's pretty much all he likes to do now. And here is some documented proof, though it took some convincing on mom's part.

4 months later, we're still alive and kickin...

If there is ever a span of time when it's OK not update your blog for 4 months, it's the first 4 months of your first child's life. Agreed? Well regardless, that’s our reasoning.

To recap, here’s a list of 10 important things that have happened between then and now:

1. Joel’s first poop
2. Joel’s first smile
   
3. Joel’s first roll over
4. Joel’s first teething experience
5. Joel’s first sleep through the night
6. A Mars Hill road trip to Lake Tahoe with 50 high schoolers
7. Joel’s first trip to Lake Tahoe (via plane), and more importantly, his first meeting of Grandpa Dave (right, getting some chores done)
   
8. The Husky football team beat Syracuse and Boise State
9. Miss Teen South Carolina
10. Our three year wedding anniversary
    

Links, pictures, and videos; they're the new writing.

Joel Taylor Nickerson

On Mother's Day, May 13th, at 1:10 PM, Joel Taylor Nickerson was born to us. He was born a healthy 8 pounds, 10 ounces, and 20 1/2 inches long. Mel and Joel are both doing great, and we were all sent home by the nurses the next day.

We praise the Lord for His exceeding goodness in blessing us with this child!

Pregnant wife, cupcakes, and a Neon Bible

Last Sunday we had a bunch of folks over to warm our new (town) house. An awesome time it proved to be. Mel slaved away to make plenty of cupcakes for the guests, and I had to drive all the way to Starbucks to get some coffee. Whew. As you can imagine, by the end of it, we were both exhausted.

And I think the whole ordeal left us a bit emotionally vulnerable—or perhaps it was the televised Forest Gump we watched on TNT—but it was enjoyable to reflect on this next stage of life the Lord has graciously led us into. Taking a picture in front of our first (town) home, with our first baby on the way, both working our first jobs that had perks like insurance and retirement plans instead of free coffee and bloomin’ onions—it was all a bit surreal.


Thinking of 1 Peter 1:8, “Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible…” This becomes more and more true in our lives, as we struggle even to aritculiuate how good Jesus has been to us. We are living blessed lives, and rejoice in the Lord’s exceeding graciousness to us.

Now, how does a Neon Bible fit into this? Well, the new Arcade Fire album is awesome.



That’s it.

-Dustin and Mel

Welcome

It's official. We've sold out.

Dustin and Melissa = THE MAN.

We have a blog.

Well, I guess it isn't that bad, but it is somewhat ironic as we've been firm advocates against blogs in the past (I mean really, does everyone need to have their own year round, easy accessible, easily manageable Christmas letter?), but hey, it's just a blog. Everyone's doing it. And if that isn't reason enough, here are some other justifications.

1. We have a baby on the way

And we hope to document him well. Pictures, videos, stories, and the like you can anticipate posting on our fancy-pancy little page here. So stay tuned.

2. Sometimes cool stuff happens in our life and we like telling people about that cool stuff

Maybe, for example, like having a baby.

3. I don't know, why not?

Blogs aren't that bad, and there is a certain level of modern sophistication that one feels by being able to hit a button (like the orange one that says "publish" right below my screen right now) and one's words indeed being published for the world to see.

So there it is. Take it or leave it. The Blog of Nickerson's.