Chillin', Craftin', and Bakin'

We spent the last week at home pretty low key.  I've been trying to get things in order for Christmas, which takes considerably longer when you have a 2-year old and a 6-week old!  But we're slowing getting it together. 
When Kaelyn is sleeping I've found that I really have to make an effort to do things with Anneke, while also trying to balance getting things done around the house during that limited time.  But Anneke and I have been doing a bit of crafting.  Here's what we've come up with so far (thanks pinterest!):

 Anneke put the cottonballs on the snowman.

 We used Anneke's fingerprints to make the candy cane.

 Baking with Anneke is proving to be a bit of a challenge.  Yesterday, within minutes of starting, she had put her whole hand in a cup of molasses and stirred the flour so that it went all over.  This morning we had a funny moment though, I was reading the recipe and pointing to the things we needed, so she started reading and pointing too!  It was hilarious!

 And Kaelyn is still growing like crazy!  She's starting to have a few moments in a day where she's just content to hang out.  I'm looking forward to the days when those times become a bit longer!  Here's one where she's staring at the Christmas tree.

And here's one of the two of them laying on the couch.  Anneke likes to lay beside Kaelyn when Kaelyn is laying on the couch.

 

Kaelyn's Baptism

We had a great weekend with lots of family and friends celebrating Kaelyn's baptism.  What a special day of giving our daughter to God and being blessed by all those who support us and love us!  Here are some pictures that show some of the special moments of our day (and a few from later in the week too!):

 Meeting Pake and Beppe for the first time

 Talking with Great-Aunt Sylvia

 Anneke wanted Pake to help her with her soup

 Hanging out with Uncle Nan, Aunt Rachel, and baby VandenDool :)

 

 In the beautiful dress that has been worn by her daddy, uncles, and cousins.

 Anneke saw all the goodies on the table and pulled her chair right up!

 At the front of the church.

Meeting cousins 

 Enjoying a yummy Christmas treat from Sinterklaas!

Chilling out in the swing for a bit.

Beautiful Eyes

It's been hard to catch a glimpse of Kaelyn's eyes because she's been sleeping pretty steadily.  But we finally got a picture of them!

Welcome, Kaelyn!

Well it has most definitely been a whirlwind of a week! 
It's hard to believe, but last week was my last week of work.  And while I didn't quite make it to the end, I made it much further than I did when I was pregnant with Anneke!  Friday was supposed to be my last day of work, but someone else had other plans!  So needless to say I didn't get done all the things I planned to around the house before the baby came!
Friday was a pretty crazy day.  The midwives recommended I not go to work since, even though they weren't convinced it was the real deal, I hadn't slept much the night before.  Dave still went in, but I called him at 11:30 and told him that he needed to come home.  Luckily he left right away because things progressed really quickly.  We made it to the hospital for 1:00 and Kaelyn was born at 1:52!  She was 7lbs 10 oz and 20.5 inches long (almost the same as Anneke who was 7lb 12 oz and 21 inches long).  We were home by noon on Saturday and since then we've just been trying to figure out a new routine and adjust to having our new little girl!
Overall everything is going well.  Anneke loves her new baby!  Every time she hears Kaelyn make a noise she says "Happy!", we're not sure if she thinks that Kaelyn is always happy or if she wants Kaelyn to be happy all the time....but it's cute!  Anneke likes to hold her and makes sure that Kaelyn has all the things she needs (her blanket, elephant, hat, etc.). 
So here begins our adventure with two little girls!  Here are some pictures of Kaelyn, enjoy!

October

Wow for me--two posts in two days!  Gotta get caught up sometime and what better time than when I'm procrastinating with my report cards!  Oh boy. 
Well, October has been pretty crazy here--lots of meetings, parent teacher interviews, Thanksgiving, getting ready for baby (lots of laundry!), and who knows what else.  And with 5 days of school left I'm feeling the pressure of a crazy week and looking forward to being done! 
So Anneke has just been tagging along this month.  She's still doing great at the babysitters, loves playing with her friends.  She's still growing like crazy!  She's putting together a lot of two-word phrases, with the most recent being "No, Now!".  But it's fun to hear all the new words she's learning and copying.  She's continuing on with her stubborn streak (I can't imagine where she gets that from) and when she decides not to do something, she won't.  For example, she is currently refusing to sit on any kind of a booster seat at the table (only at home, of course, at the babysitters there's no problem!).  She's getting into drawing lately--or rather having us draw the things she dictates, which lately is involving hearts, apples, and circles.  But she did pretty well on her own circles today!
Here are a couple of pictures from this month:

 Licking off the beaters after Mommy made some pumpkin spice bread.

 Playing with "Bear" and her car.

Saying hi to the baby and she was also giving it kisses, but Dave wasn't fast enough to catch any of them.....
So the next month will be a whole new ball game!  Hopefully everyone adjusts well, but we'll see what it brings!

Our Pumpkin Turns 2!

So being way behind the times here I figured it was time to update the blog....Here are some pictures from Anneke's second birthday:

On her actual birthday we celebrated with Grandma who was babysitting Anneke that week.  She also spent the morning "celebrating" with her friend Jolene, which didn't go that well.  It turns out Anneke doesn't like sharing her own toys....she's fine with sharing Jolene's everyday, but not her own.  So Mom said there was a lot of crying on Anneke's part.  We'll have to work on the sharing thing.....

 We had some cake with candles, which Anneke really liked this year.  She blew them out all by herself!

 Then on Saturday we had a little birthday party with Grandma and Grandpa, Oma and Opa, and Uncle Nan and Aunt Rachel.  Anneke had a great time spending time with everyone and playing with all her new toys.  Dave and I got her a train set which she is still playing with, thankfully!  She opened some of the trains first and had to drive them all the way around the table before opening her next present!

 We tried a sparkler on her cupcakes which she was not such a fan of.  After the sparkler we put some candles on one and she liked that a lot more.  Unfortunately she was not at all interested in eating one of the Minnie cupcakes that Mommy made for her!  She was too full on M&Ms, jelly beans and chips with dip-dip!



And here's our big two-year old!  Anneke we are so proud of you and can't believe all the things you've learned this year!  You've learned so many words in the last year:  animals and their sounds, colours, and so many others.  You've learned to run and jump and dance.  You love to play outside and have been such a big girl at your friend Jolene's house everyday!  You've become such a big girl!  We love you as big as the sky, our princess pumpkin!

August

So again, it's been a while!  August ended up being quite busy for us and updating the blog clearly wasn't on the top of our list! 

We started off the month with some visitors.  Grandma and Grandpa came for a few days and Oma and Opa came for a few days.

 We went to the Toronto Zoo for a day with our good friends, Tom and Sarah.  It's a good thing we had four adults to chase after one almost-2 year old!  Anneke loved seeing all the animals and making their sounds!  She also loved running all over the place!

 Then we went to a cottage for a week with Mom and Dad V.  We had a great week!  Anneke loved the water and going for boat rides in all the various options!

 And an early Halloween picture:  Anneke figured out how to open my mascara and came downstairs looking like this.  What a little mischevious face!

And now we're back at school and whirlwind has begun again.  I'm only back for 8 more weeks, which makes it a little easier to drop Anneke off every day knowing that it won't be for the whole year.  That's about all we've got going on for now!