July Photos

The older boys came with me to help make the mailbox our own.  Welcome to the Vander Deen's!

View of the house from the driveway

A panoramic view of the property from the corner - so much space for the boys to roam

This picture catches my throat a bit.  They had a great summer exploring together

 A view back to the house from the side yard.  These early July pictures look quite scrubby to me and make me realize how much work we've done since then cleaning up branches and "stuff" around the place. 

The view of the sky has been an incredible gift this summer.  I have probably taken way too many pictures, but the nice thing about digital is that I can take as many as I want.  It's just so beautiful!

"All Creatures Great and Small"  has often come to my mind this summer, with the kids (particularly Aaron) discovering all kinds of creatures.  After this first pictures, Aaron ran into the house declaring that this was the best house EVER because of all the toads he was finding.  I am certain that this is the most excitement the toads have seen in their lifetime.  

And a little tiny one

Not just toads, we have frogs too

Spectacular view from the living room - no neighbours right across the street

 Sarah came with her boys shortly after we moved in.  That's a lot of boys in a row!

Another view of the sky - better get used to them.  I often think of the iconic Windows Desktop when the skies are blue like this

Paint-The-Kitchen day arrived!  It was SOOO nice to paint over that crazy orange! 

An After-picture.  It felt so much more like home!

 Must have been a pretty tiring grocery trip.  I think I probably felt pretty much the same.

Lots of wildlife around - this woodpecker hit a window in the sunroom and spent some time being "oohed" and "aahed" over by a few boys before being placed back in a tree.  

 Opa VD came over shortly after we moved and we had a fun game of Uno together

A Before-shot of the living room.  We had already removed the divider that was beside the door in preparation for painting.  The awesome brown shag carpet is still here, and will be replaced at some point when the levels of (1) Being Sick of It and (2) Finances coincide.  

An After-shot.  I'm so happy with the results! 

So these boys were playing Hatch From the Spider Egg.  Here they are still maturing in their eggs, and shortly after they would hatch and go running around the house all crazy-like.  Just another day in our household. 

When we were preparing to move, I arranged with Canada Post for our mail to be forwarded for a certain amount of time.  I was quite "amused" to receive this letter at our new place from Canada Post - it had to be redirected.  Shouldn't they have our new address already?    

One-year-old, meet Newborn!  The SMan twins William and Sadie arrived near the end of July and we went to visit them and their happy parents in the hospital.  It was a short visit because we had all four kids with us, but so nice to see the little ones and their Mom and Dad, healthy and well.  Really, who is rude enough to visit new parents of twins with four young boys in tow?  Yeah, that would be us.  But so cute!  How could we resist!!! 

A baby for each of us to cuddle!

It was a week of Baby-Waiting, and we stayed at my parents for about a week while we awaited the arrival of Danielle and Timothy's little one.  We spent some time searching for geocaches - one close to Dad and Moms. 

Oma reading with the kids

We were treated to a few fancy breakfasts while there! 

One morning we went to visit with Uncle Chuck and Aunt Carol and had lunch with them.  It was nice to visit and have the kids meet them - they enjoyed reading with Aunt Carol! 

Picture all together

We went for a hike and found a few geocaches near a waterfall that Mike and I spent some time at during our dating years.  What a gorgeous location!

My boys!

I really like this picture - fording the stream

Such vibrancy

Nate and I hung out for a bit on the trail while Mike and the older two searched for a cache in a difficult location

Beauty all around

And our creature-seeker strikes again!  

Hi Mr. Toad

We went to the park with the DeV's while waiting for Baby to make an appearance.  Timothy and Mike were making sure that all the park equipment was up to par, to be sure it was safe before Baby DeV has to use it.  

We enjoyed a great dinner, then dropped the boys off at Mom and Dad M's place and returned for a night of chatting and baby-gender-prediction-testing

I'm not sure how this particular test turned out, but I do remember that after all the tests were done we had a tie for boy/girl.

 At Rehoboth on a Sunday morning, snuggling with two 5-day-old precious twins!  It takes a bit of coordination to hold two little ones at the same time, and I salute their parents and their juggling abilities! 

We took a trip to Ikea to pick up a few things for the new place, and found this cutie in with the stuffed animals

All three have arrived!  We welcomed little Martha and celebrated with her brand-new parents

Close-up of some bark from one of the trees in the yard.  The Lord has an amazing paintbrush

Another sky picture - a few different kinds of clouds in one shot

This ominous-looking thunderstorm came rolling in over the fields.  It looks like it would have some dangerous rotation in it, but the lines just moved across us, not swirling at all.  It was incredible to watch

On the way home from an early morning trip to the ER with Stephen, I stopped to capture this breathtaking scene over the Delaware valley.  It was so beautiful it felt surreal. 

The kids are excited about climbing trees

 Typical for Nate - at least one article of clothing on backwards, if not everything.

 This picture makes us chuckle - two boys up high and Aaron having a fit on a lower branch