She leaves a trail....

I remember my dad saying that whenever I was around, you could trace exactly where I had been by all the things I left behind. I guess I have 'one of those' kind of people too.

she started in the kitchen....

through the family room...

to Asher's bedroom!

Helping with Laundry

My little worker...wondering if she was done changing loads this is what I found. Where, oh where does she get her notions? Always a laugh around here.

Happy Valentine's Day

Hope ya'll had a Happy Valentine's Day. Cor surprised me with my favorite flowers and a beautiful card. I on the other hand, did not buy him a card...until 8:00 last night, and did I give it to him?....No, it's still in my purse!

The balloon in the picture was not purchased...it was free. A little bonus for buying a card that late in the day.




Julianna's cute little Valentine's dress. She wouldn't pose so this is the best I could do.

No explanation needed!

no explanation needed, other than the last name

Driving around

If you know us, you know we love to go for drives, generally with no real destination in mind. This Sunday afternoon we ended up in Georgia. The conversation in the truck went something like this:
Arianna: "Hey Dad, where are we going?
Cor: To Georgia
A: Georgia, ohhh!
C: Have a problem with that?
A: Ya, I didn't take my pillow, or my book, what am I going to do?
C: Arianna, read this sign
A: Georgia 13 miles
C: that's not far Arianna, you'll be fine

A family of goats on the side of the road...only in backwoods Georgia.


We really enjoyed the drive and plan to go back and take a boat trip across the intracoastal to Cumberland Island. You never find out things if you don't explore! Next time you come to visit we'll take ya'll there too!
A beautiful sunset to let you know how late we stayed.




Cor relaxing on the back porch. I think this is a great picture of my man!

Nap Time

Not sleeping, but being a very good mommy, all her babies are sweetly tucked in. I thought this was precious.

Among the Snakes?

Yes, with the snakes. They are around, poisonous ones too. Not a concern when we lived in Canada but a real concern here. We found a pygmy rattlesnake in our garage! Whenever the kids go outside to explore the woods, or build their fort, my mind sees snakes and my soul reminds me of the providence of God. I always remind them to keep an eye out for them though. They don't seem too concerned (actually not at all concerned) and they have so much fun playing so... outside in the woods they eat their lunch and play.

eating lunch outside yesterday, the last warm day? Almost 80 yesterday, today its 50!
Nasty, I guess we didn't move 'south' enough

the fort now has a roof, our Christmas tree and a neighbor's tree

they have chairs in there and everyday more household stuff gets added

Taking down the lawn ornaments- Can you help me?

This is how we decorated our house this year. We didn't use an air pump either!




I have never seen anything quite like it. The yard was jammed full of those expensive, tacky inflatable things. (now you have my opinion on the subject). Here is the view of the sides and front of the house, the back of the house was full as well!
Where do you store all the stuff? ...maybe they leave them up all year.

The Finished Product!

The girls Christmas dresses are finished. The pattern I chose was not very difficult, (at least that was what I was told) but the pattern assumed that one was an expert at sewing. I couldn't go to my sister's for help, and my neighbor moved away, so I was left alone. Thankfully the shop where I bought the material offered some help. She helped me understand the pattern and gave me many helpful tips. It only took a week to make both dresses.

Arianna is very proud to be matching Julianna. She has wanted me to make matching dresses since Julianna was born. I always said, 'wait till Julianna is walking", well she's been walking for a bit now!

The pictures are the best we could do before church. It was hard to get Julianna to cooperate.

Happy New Year

We wish ya'll a Happy New Year. Today we decided to take advantage of the beautiful 74 degree weather, so we packed a picnic and our bikes and enjoyed the great outdoors. The park is so beautiful. As you can see there are leaves on the ground...so I guess we do have seasons!

dear husband and children

You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy, at your right hand are pleasures ever more. Ps. 16:11

Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy, they will sing before the LORD, for he comes, he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his truth. Ps. 96:13

"two are better than one because...

...they have a good return for their work." Ecc. 4:9

crashing out after an afternoon of fun

Asher wanting us to take the quickest way home...but it didn't matter

Christmas Weekend 2006

Highlights of the weekend:

• Cor being home for 4 days in a row
• worship on Sunday morning and a special Christmas Eve service at 10:30 p.m.
• spending time with friends
• opening our Christmas gifts
• chocolate letters from Oma
• Arianna thrilled with her Bible and American Girl doll, Kit
• Asher playing with his remote control truck and pistol cap guns
• I love hearing those words, "This is just what I wanted!"
• Julianna playing "mommy" with her new baby doll
• enjoying our new computer with a beautiful flat screen monitor
• rearranging our bedroom furniture
• playing with our new games, Zingo and Whoonu
• enjoying a wonderful meal with Bernie and Patricia and family
• having a blast playing games with them
• kids playing outside all afternoon building a fort in the woods
• reading a good book, actually two
• anticpating the arrival of more family later this week

Calvin, Arianna, Asher, Matt, and Gab, making a fort out of a sod pallet

using the picnic table as a raft in the pond

enjoying Christmas Dinner

boys will be boys

Christmas morning, new pj's (Asher already changed!)

Santa's helpers, Arianna and Missy

We had wonderful Christmas, and we wish ya'll a Happy New Year and the Lord's richest blessings.

"Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands." Ps. 90:17

Gingerbread Houses

This is our second year making gingerbread houses with our friends. I make the houses, (yes from scratch, using the Pampered Chef mold), and our friends bring the candy. They are a lot of work to make but the kids look forward to it and have a blast decorating them. Cor assembled them for me this year, which I think is more work than making the mold. It involves more patience.

finally free standing

sorting all the candy, eating a lot of it too!

carefully designing it

the finished product

It is a beautiful centerpiece for our table, we are resisting the temptation to eat it before Christmas.

Our Resident Clown

She rivals her brother, only needs a little encouragement, and we all laugh. That's her idea of a good time. She is very humorous. She definitely has our attention, and yes, she is a very messy eater! ...(we're working on that)

Little bit of this, little bit of that

decorating Christmas cookies

I got smart this year, and kept the mess outside

can't believe I didn't think of that years ago

mixing the red and green sprinklesAsher diligently doing his school

(aren't you surprised he's not hanging from the ceiling?!)

the right of passage, Asher lost his first toothoh, an itchy eye

loving that spaghetti!