Asher's teeth...years of progress

Baseball injury July '08

Asher has all his baby teeth including an extra one

Sept '08

goodies from Holland...last picture we have with

Asher having all his teeth

Nov '08

missing (R) central incisor

Nov '09

still missing same incisor and left and right cuspid

and left lateral finally coming down but not really noticeable beside

that HUGE central!

May '10- very nice progress already

braces and left lateral down nicely proportioned to the central

(thank you orthodontist)

June '10

surgery to open his gum, attach a bracket and chain to his central incisor, and extract 2 extra teeth. He handled the surgery quite well. His central incisor was way up high, almost in his nasal cavity, and projecting straight out. So surgery was our only option. The orthodontist later attached the chain to a bracket and gradually started pulling his tooth down. His monthly visits were very painful.

Sept '10

tooth coming down

Dec '10

tooth down and lined up properly!

It's been a journey. It's been a long time since we've seen Asher with 2 front teeth! We really can't believe how different he looks now. It's amazing what all the payments have done!! He's always had his dimples...what a cutie pie!

"Camping"

It's one of our family's favorite thing to do. (Just for the record, we call living in a trailer that is fully equipped with every thing that you need camping). We again were privileged to use a friend's trailer. We enjoyed the fire, relaxed, biked, hiked, ate s'mores and played games. Best of all, we enjoyed being together as a family and exploring our great state! Love, love, love living in Florida.

Football 2010

Number 11 is my boy! How I love him.

So we did it! We signed Asher up for football. It is a crazy, great sport, (much better than hockey y'all!) He loved every minute of it. Some 5280 minutes of it. That's just practices, add another 1200 minutes for games! Practices were Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday from 6-8 with a game every Saturday. The coaches had them moving for the entire 2 hours. Asher would come home so pumped and hungry. Because the practices were so intense, he had to eat no later than 4:30,(we learned that after the first practice...gross) and then he would want to eat again after practices. He played offensive right tackle. We really enjoyed watching him play. Now when we watch football, Asher explains all the plays :)

Birthday Girl

Words cannot express the joy Anna Grace has been to our family. I celebrated her birthday with many mixed feelings. I'm so thankful for her life, her health, her smiles, her development, but a little sad how fast this year has gone by. I really want time to stand still, I want to redo this whole year again. I loved every, every minute of it.

But I can't and so we celebrate!! We had 2 parties for the princess. One on her actual birthday (Sept. 14) and another on Sat. so daddy could celebrate with us.

her first birthday cake...Sept 15, 2009

(one day old)

one year old

the kids were so happy and excited

how the kids have grown in a year!

Anna Grace digging in...I made a pound cake recipe, so it was hard for her

to actually grab the cake

Oma came to visit and celebrate. I am always amazed how

excited she is about her grandchildren. She has the same love for her first

grandchild as she does for Anna Grace (her 37th).

Her Saturday Birthday cake

celebrating with our good friends the Gosherts

her own smash cake, licking the icing just to make sure

Julianna and Grace with Trevor in the background

still enjoying....

and finally crashing! "I've had enough already!"

our sweet, sweet baby doll.

Oh, we all love her so!!

Summer Time 2010

It's gone! We are starting our 3rd week of school already.

We enjoyed the time off from school, played around in the pool, organized closets and cupboards, and prepared the house for tile and trim. And because we didn't have baseboards, we decided to give our home a new look by adding some color. I asked Cor if he would paint, he said yes, and I quickly ordered the paint before he changed his mind! A sweet deal for me, for sure. Our tile is finally installed in our kitchen/breakfast nook, laundry room and the bathrooms, and new baseboards are up throughout the house. Home renovations take so much time and energy to prepare for, complete and clean up afterwards. My house is now back in order, clean, and organized. And I couldn't be happier. If you have been following our blog, you will know that Cor and I ripped up all the carpet and baseboards, in Nov 2008. So this little project has been a long time coming. Hats off to all the women out there who live in continually home reno projects.

This summer we also hosted Adventure Clubs at our place, spent a week camping at the beach, had numerous sleepovers and swim parties and trips to the zoo. Here are some pictures.

our group at our place

AnnaGrace and Cor

always up to something fun

my 4 water babies

Anna Grace in arm floats...she likes the independence

"camping" in style. A 26 foot, 5th wheel truck and trailer

we were privileged to use from Arianna softball coach!

"Americans and their dogs...." ~Cor

Just of few of our favorite sayings....

..."shoot me if I ever have to stop to take a dog pee, I hate stopping when the kids need to go"~Cor (while driving on the interstate passing vehicles pulled over to let the dogs go pee)

..."I'm never having a dog, I spend enough time training children, I'm not training a dog"~Marlene

..."You can have a dog, when you can afford to feed and pay for the shots and possible surgeries"~Cor

..."We'll get a dog when we get wood and tile" ~Cor

And then, Greg and Corrie came to visit and we fell in love with their papillon named Bella.

So, without further ado, we welcome Tucker, our 4 month old Papillon. He's a great dog and we love him already.

comforting Asher after his recent surgery

fast friends with Julianna

Anna Grace's playmate

Arianna loves him

ready for action

And this was the best statement "I thought I was not suppose to be responsible for the proper care and feeding of that dog, and now you laugh as I carry the burden of it!"~Cor