Our New Pets

Yesterday Chris brought a home a pair of female doves to be our new pets. Andrew is thrilled! Right now we are trying to pick out names. Chris doesn't like my suggestions! Please help!

This is Lizzy....





and this is Jane. Now all we need is a Mr. Darcy and Mr. Bingley and
we're all set!

Pittsburgh Trip

During the last week of July, we traveled to Pittsburgh, PA, with Chris's brother Dave, his wife Cindy, and their daughter Adrienne. Here are some pics of our trip.

We stopped in Akron, OH, on the way to visit the Goodyear Tire Museum. On the way out of Akron, we stopped to take a picture of the building that houses the Goodyear blimp.


Here is Chris, Andrew, Adrienne, and Dave by the sea lion exhibit. The zoo also had a very large aquarium with a large selection of aquatic life, and a petting zoo for the kids.

Here is Adrienne, who turned 2 that day, and Andrew petting the deer at the zoo. There were also sheep and goats to pet.

We rode a cable car up Mount Washington in Pittsburg and had a great view of the city from the top.

Here's is a view of the city of Pittsburgh from Mount Washington.

On the last night, we stayed in Cleveland, OH. Here is a family pic on a fishing pier on Lake Erie.

Congrats!

Congratulations to Suzanne and Gerrit Kleyn on the birth of their son, Levi Hendrik Kleyn, born on July 30, 2006!

Our Little Garden

This if the first year we've had any type of garden, and yesterday I discovered little tiny peppers and tomatoes!

Andrew the Scholar

Andrew already shows great promise of being as great a scholar as his daddy. although he is leaning towards paleontology as his choice area of expertise. He's getting a head start by reading this book about dinosaurs. No little kid books for him! :-)

Medieval Boluyts

Caleb, Cassidy, and Karsten came over on Thursday to play with Chris's woodpile in the barn. They spent a lot of time rooting through the mountain of scrap wood and building weapons and other useful implements. Here's Cassidy with her shield and sword.

Karsten is checking his sword to make sure the glue is dry.

Leb helped Uncle Chris with the yard and then spent time in the barn. Aim, can your kids come over every week to help get rid of our wood? :-)

Sweet Little Andrew

Chris took a picture of Andrew after he fell asleep a couple of nights ago. Isn't he cute? :-)

Window Boxes

Chris made me some window boxes out of scrap wood to hang outside my kitchen windows. I never knew I had such a resourceful husband!

Anijah and Andrew

Bathroom Remodel Update

Here are some pictures of our bathroom remodel, plus a few cute ones of Andrew helping out. Within the next week, total remodel should be complete, thanks to my Dad!

Filling in the Hole

This week we got a large load of sand to fill in our bomb shelter hole. Even without grass it already looks better, and Andrew's got a huge sandbox!

Random Pictures

HAPPY 31st BIRTHDAY, CHRIS!!

Andrew and Friends

Smash Saturday

Last Sat, April 8, we had a bunch of family members over to smash our bomb shelter, the hideous cement monstrosity in front of our house. Chris had used a sledgehammer to pound down most of the roof but the walls ended up being a huge job. We rented a jackhammer, but most of the work was done with sledgehammers and some kind of drill. We still have a lot of work to do on it, but we're glad we got started and we are very appreciative of all the hard work our family did for us.

This is basically what we started with, four very thick walls.

We used a truck to pull the top off, here the walls are beginning to crumble.

This is when the walls were down. John and Alice stayed to help some more.

Levi being a big helper after he ate all his meat!

Bathroom Remodel

About three weeks ago I started remodeling our bathroom. First, I scraped up all the ugly tile on the floor. That job wasn't so bad. My dad helped me take out the vanity and mirror which cracked into a million pieces when we took it down. Behind the mirror was a huge hole for a built in medicine cabinet and behind the vanity were two holes by the plumbing. Chris' dad did the electrical and also patched some holes for us. But this as far as we are. Hopefully it will be finished up soon.

Here's a picture of the floor after I removed most of the tile. Those of you who have used our bathroom this winter will know why the space heater is next to the toilet!

This is where Chris's dad patched the whole behind the mirror and where we exposed the holes behind the vanity. Fortunately, we're putting up wainscoting so the lower holes don't matter as much.

Applebee's and kids

Today my friend Kelly and I decided to go out for lunch at Applebee's to celebrate our birthdays which fall exactly one month apart. Not a good idea. Kelly has two kids who are reasonably well behaved. I have one child who is...kind of well behaved until he needs his nap. The fun started even before our lunch arrived. Andrew would have none of his snacks and threw his pipe on the ground about a million times (slight exaggeration). So we decided to ask for boxes and go back to my house to eat our lunch in relative peace. However, our waiter was doing who-knows-what in the kitchen and it was another fifteen minutes before we could get our boxes and pay for our meals. When he finally comes out of the kitchen, he waits on about three other tables first, continually glancing at us. We both had our coats on and were frantically trying to keep our kids from pulling dishes off the table. Unfortunately, the carpet under that table will never be the same. Too many smushed pretzels and cheerios. Anyway, lesson learned: Next time, its take-out.


(Pictures next time, I promise!)

Finally, an update!

I've finally gotten around to updating my blog (here you go, Kate)!
So, Andrew turned one about a month ago and he had two birthday parties and got to smash chocolate cake all over the place twice! Plus, he now has more toys than any child I know and his room looks like a toy factory exploded. But of course, he doesn't play with any of his toys, he just gets into all my cupboards and makes a mess! Oh well.
It was so nice seeing all my friends and family over Christmas, especially my good friend Kate. I hope she decides to stay in GR when she gets back home from the Netherlands, since now her plans are to go to California when she gets back. We also visited my grandparents in Canada which was really nice.
Chris enjoyed going back to school after Christmas break, and I actually got to sub twice this week which was great. Part of me really wants the experience of being a regular teacher with my own classroom, while the other part wonders why I would put myself through that. Maybe someday. Right now I'm trying to fix up our house. I painted the ceiling in the laundry room yesterday, and tomorrow I'm going to use the new drill my parents gave me for my birthday to put drawer pulls on the drawers in Andrew's room. Oh, and tomorrow is also my 23rd birthday. Not real momentous, but still fun.

Engelsma Christmas

Yesterday was the big Engelsma Christmas party which also coincides with Grandpa E's birthday. Roughly estimated, there were probably eighty people present. Everyone brings a hot and a cold dish and if there is anything Engelsmas know how to do, its cook. So there is always plenty to go around. After dinner, we sang Christmas carols and the kids got to open their gifts. This was the first year Andrew got to participate, not that he knew what was going on. His cousin Levi had his name and he received a Mother Goose book and also a pop-up book about big machines. We'll have to put those away for a few years!