Yeah, so I've Been Busy

It's been a long time since I've posted but we've been so busy over here that I haven't really had a chance. It feels like we've barely been home! We had a wonderful time visiting in Hamilton at the end of September, when all of my Mom's brothers and sisters were visiting from Holland. Wow! It was an exciting visit and very special, as we have never had them all over and will most likely not be able to enjoy such a visit again. It was hard to keep some of this information secret from my poor mother, but the surprises all worked out very well and we had a wonderful time. Mike and I had an additional surprise to share with them all... we are expecting a little brother or sister for Peter in April next year. (some of you may have noticed the subtle addition to the top of the blog) So far everything is going very well, and we feel very blessed with our little family. It will be interesting to see how having two kids in this little house works out, but hopefully they will be able to sleep through each other's crying fairly soon, as they will be sleeping in close quarters!
On to the pictures... I have some random ones to share...

On September 19, Danielle got possession of her new house!
We helped to pack up her stuff and move it to the new place,
and getting her settled in. It is a cozy little place and it has
been exciting to see it being transformed into a home. Here
she is raising the flag...we'll just pretend it didn't get
stuck at half-mast... Peter got a new helmet
Playing with a flashlight
Mom and Danielle enjoying the sunshine and some of the Dutch
company. Oom Klaas and Tante Willie had already arrived earlier
in the week. I think this was right after Tanani arrived along with
*surprise!* Oom Ruurd and Tante Gerda. Oom Johan and
Tante Tineke came the next afternoon, also a surprise. So much fun!
We didn't figure out what the official name of this game was
but we enjoyed playing it all weekend
Three excited sisters got a hold of everyone's cameras and
were playing with the timer options, haha
We went to the Lord Byron Steak and Seafood Restaurant for
dinner on Saturday evening. These are all my Mom's siblings
together in front of the restaurant before eating.
Heather and Shirley came last week visiting with their little ones,
Emma and Alexander. We had a great afternoon of visiting and catching up.
Shirley and Alexander
Hmmm... it appears that someone has inherited a love of
chocolate from one of his parents...
More Mom? Do you have more for me?
Although not very flattering at all, I think this picture is hilarious...
a look of somewhat gluttonous satisfaction
Finally! I was walking across the bridge and there was some action
at the fire station! Well, I thought there was anyways. I watched
for a few minutes and then thought, hey they'll be here still when I get
back from the library. On my way back from the library, there was still
a truck or two there, and there was some smoke coming from the back
of the building but they were done their fire-fighting practice.
A little disappointing...
But then the NEXT week on another walk across the bridge,
they were practicing climbing up and down the building, which was
kind of neat. They climbed up one side...
...and then down the other side upside-down. Not something I'd
particularly want to try, but it was interesting nonetheless.

The next three pictures were emailed (thanks Mom and Dad VD) so they
might not be as clear as the previous ones. They were taken by either
Mom VD or Karen. Here is Uncle Dave with Robert and PeterA family Thanksgiving Day picture with the lovely fall coloursPeter enjoying the tall grass

Yesterday

For some reason, Peter loves drinking water from the spray bottle...weirdSpiked hair
I find this picture a little creepy .

I apologize for the technical difficulties... for some reason blogger is acting
silly and making everything underlined and double spaced...

Year of Plenty??

Well, this year I decided to try a vegetable garden. I started on a pretty small scale, and had a few tomatoes, peppers, beans, broccoli, carrots, and cantaloupe plants. The beans were the first to be harvested, and I'm still getting lots of beans off the plants, which has been great. Next were the tomatoes, which also are still producing well. I had a few peppers but overall peppers didn't work too well for me. I've eaten one cantaloupe, and there are quite a few more out there but they're fairly small and don't look quite ready to eat yet. The broccoli? What a joke. Never mind the broccoli. Last week I decided to harvest the rest of the carrots - I had previously gotten one meal's worth out of the garden, and I was curious to see how much was left. The harvest was a little dismal...

These are the carrots I pickedThese are the carrots we ate
Here we have an amputee carrot
And there were even some vampire carrots in the mix
Some of these vampire carrots were on a diet
I guess the seed package did say "Baby carrots"
But these "Baby Carrots" were a little ridiculous, barely bigger than a raisin
And here we have a carrot... that isn't even there?

Amusement park...

Yesterday evening after dinner, Mike and I took Peter to the park to do some swinging and sliding. It's so nice to get some use out of the playground, being that it is so close to us! Since school has started again, the baseball games are no longer a source of entertainment for us. It was an enjoyable part of our summer, as they were almost a nightly occurrence. However, when we got to the driveway we discovered a new activity going on in the park: an aerobics class, complete with loud bouncy music and a very enthusiastic instructor. A group of about 25 or 30 ladies spent an hour getting themselves into shape and burning off some calories. We were to the park and back before they were done. Once we got home, we started doing the dishes, but were distracted by a familiar ringing... the tinkling bells of the ice-cream man! He always visited during the baseball games to cool off the hot, thirsty crowd with his frozen dairy wares. However he couldn't be refreshing any sweaty baseball players that night... why was he still around? He cycled down the road, and optimistically stopped directly across from the hard-working aerobics class, tinkling his bell expectantly. Sorry, buddy, your season is over! He didn't have any luck with this tough crowd, although we thought it was an extremely funny attempt at business!

September already?

Peter is extremely proud of himself for being able to pull
himself up... the time was long overdue for us to lower his
crib mattress anyways! Although he's sort of able to do a lurch-crawl forwards, he still
ends up going backwards a lot of the time. (It doesn't help that we
don't have much carpet in our house). This picture turned out pretty
blurry, which is too bad, but I just love his expression.
Spiderweb out on the deck
Up close... webs are just amazing to look at
He LOVES his mobile... when we get him up in the morning,
he's excited to see us but more excited, I think sometimes, about
the prospect of being picked up and being closer to the mobile.
I guess he lays there staring up at it and he just NEEDS to have it!
He was complaining a bit after I put him down for a nap one
afternoon, but he quieted down after a few minutes so I didn't
want to go in there until he was asleep. I checked in on him, and I
was surprised and amused to find him like this. He had flipped onto
his tummy (he always sleeps on his back, and still only rolls occasionally
by accident) and wedged his legs between the bars.
He slept surprisingly well!

End of August update

Cicada molting on the deckPeter has been spending a lot of time like this, up on his
hands and feet. He occasionally scoots his way forward when
he sees something that he's not allowed to touch, but he hasn't
mastered the crawling yet. I'm expecting it to happen any time
soon, and then watch out!!Mom and I went to the classroom last week to help Mike set up some
new bulletin boards and make it ready for the new school year to begin.
Isn't that a nice bulletin board? :D
The washing machine is quite mesmerizing for him
Left alone with a cracker, 70% of it ends up in his mouth,
the rest scattered around the kitchen. My broom has become
my new best friend.
I love to eat Mom!
Strapped into Drop Zone, waiting for the ride to fall...

A coupla more

Mom VD sent a few pictures to us yesterday and I just had to post them up here b/c they were so cute! These were taken the week of the cottage.

Back from the Cottage

After another week of holidaying, we are finally home again. We were gone for a week to a cottage with Mike's family just outside of Rondeau Park, just over 3 hours away from home. Although the weather was a little cool, we were able to get a few beach days in, along with walking, biking, relaxing, and lots of games. We celebrated Robert's first birthday while there, and it was fun to watch the two little boys playing together during the week.
We came back home yesterday to a green lawn (yay for good grass seed!), ripe tomatoes, lots of beans, and lots of laundry.

The two boys and their Moms, showing off their matching sleepersRobert enjoying his 1st birthday cake
Everyone else enjoying Robert enjoying his 1st birthday cake
This little boy loves music!
We had a lot of fun swimming, just like at GrundyPeter was very intrigued by sand and had a blast playing in it
What is this stuff, anyways?
What's a day at the beach without tasting some of the local sand?
The cousins having a bath together after a sandy day
Fishing off the pier at Erieau
Family picture
Mike and Jeremy popping blood vessels trying to
pedal the Rickcycle up the hill
Robert and his Grandma
Sleeping on the long ride home