Happy New Year!!!

From my family to yours, a very Happy New Year!  Enjoy your celebrations tonight, and may God bless us all again richly in 2012!



Here's a cute little video to make you smile today:

Harsevoort Sinterklaas 2011

We had a great time, as always, but really missed Stu & Sherri and boys this year :(

Deanna and Kylie on the piano

Aunt Marg & Simon

Aunt Marg, Uncle Harpert and Simon HARPERT!!

What's a family gathering without a rousing Dutch Blitz game?

Uncle Brian & Uncle John teaching the little ones about betting...hmmm

Some serious conversation

Micah Is Cute And Huggable

so is B, of course!

Joshua, don't let your mother see you up there!  Get down - right after I take your picture

Look up, look WAY up

Stick em up!

Hey Micah, let's see your funny face!

How lovely are these two???

Jeremy organizing a game

Oh Simon, I love your hair

Wow, piano for 3?

Puppy Udpate

Well, Lincoln has been here for 2 weeks now, and he is settling in nicely. As you can see, he feels quite comfortable here :)
He is still pretty calm, but loves to rough house with Tim or Art.  He's pretty gentle with the girls, usually.  He likes to bark at squirrels, but otherwise is fairly quiet.  He stays in his crate when we are not home, and is always happy to see us!

Last Saturday, we put up the Christmas tree and decorations.

 I just love the colour of this poinsettia!  It is much more red than it looks in the photo.  I've never seen one with variegated leaves like this!

Hope you are all preparing for a very wonderful Christmas too!

Meet Lincoln!

Meet our new family member!  The kids have always wanted a dog, and so this year's Christmas present is - Lincoln!  

We adopted him from a dog rescue organization.  They estimate he is about a year old.  He and his two siblings were found wandering by the side of the road in Ohio.  They went to a pound there, and the other two were adopted.  Lincoln was scheduled to be euthanized, but happily was rescued before that happened!

He spent a couple weeks at a foster home here in London, got all his shots, was micro-chipped, and now he lives with us!

The kids are so happy - I think he will be a very spoiled puppy for the first little while anyway.

Tim says his childhood is now complete!

He's just the perfect size 

Natalie is in love

Tired after today's excitement..

Feel free to come by and meet him anytime!

Hint

This is where he will sleep

So... We Have an Announcement...

... stay tuned for details on a cute new addition to our family :)

Don't Worry.... Be Happy....

Tim asked for new "lounge" pants.  His are all too short... hmmmm.  Well, I could go shopping, but the store-bought ones are all too short too. Sound familiar, Stu?
Time to dust off the old sewing machine, and a trip to Lens Mill Store.  Since Deanna was home sick today, I thought it was a good project for the day.
I saw this fabric and had to get it:

 And something a little more masculine:

Family Fotos

Since our last family pictures were taken in 2008, we thought perhaps it was time for an update...

A talented young lady from our church took these.

It's possible one of them will be on our Christmas card this year.

YES, Tim is smiling.  He insists he is smiling.  Honest.

In the soybean field.  Sorry, Mr. Farmer, for the beans we trampled

Tim's happier now, I guess.  

I thought this was a cool shot..

10.10.10. Part 3 - The Grand Finale (Dinner at Grandma's)

Back to Mom and Dad's for dinner.  The weather was absolutely gorgeous!  We enjoyed a delicious pork roast cooked on the barbecue rotisserie, and we could even eat outside!

Lots of good serious conversations were happening:

 Birthday cupcakes for dessert:

 And a bonfire to complete the evening...

The only thing missing was the Alberta family :(  But we did enjoy talking to them via Skype on Piet's computer!

Much to be thankful for once again this year! 

 Great is thy faithfulness, O God our Father!

10.10.10. Part 2 - Eramosa Karst Hike

Today is actually Allison and Amanda's 10th birthday, so it started in the usual birthday tradition of giftwrapped boxes for breakfast...

 After lunch, we drove to Hamilton and met some of my family for a hike at the Eramosa Karst, which is around the area where my Dad's family lived when they first moved to Canada.  He and his siblings spent much time playing in the Karst, which is now a Conservation area.
Starting out on our walk:

The area is full of limestone rock.  A "karst" is a cave that is formed when water wears away the rock.

 Tried to get a nice shot of our kids.  Sigh.

 This is the Karst Window.  It's one entrance to the underground cave.

 Continuing on to the actual Karst Entrance...

 Which was pretty cool!

 There are 3 long, narrow entrances.  The kids were climbing out the back entry

 Tim's going to check it out!

 Not a lot of headroom in there...

 I went in too!  And got back out!

 Gorgeous fall colors...

 and some pretty young ladies....

 Bethany, Deanna, Natalie

 Amanda joined them for a silly shot

 OH NO!! Bethany fell off the edge!  Grandma to the rescue...

 (Great) Aunt Marg and Grandpa helping Benjamin

After a lovely hike, we headed back to Mom & Dad's for Thanksgiving Dinner