some pictures from last week

Here are some pictures from last week. Seth had a PD day for 2 days so he spent a bit of time doing his favourite thing....

playing the wii

Ethan had fun playing with "special lego" which gets taken out only every so often

this little girl is so happy and so very smiley!

Ethan being a big helper and keeping his little sister content

Will Chloe suck her thumb (like her mommy did when she was a baby)?? Time will tell, I do see her trying to find her thumb sometimes and this is what I saw one afternoon when she was napping.

A good friend of mine was telling me how easy it was to make bows from fabric and since I don't have fabric, I thought about looking into ribbon bows. I found a tutorial on line and made some for Chloe. I bought the headbands and made them a bit smaller. 4 bows are larger and work with the bigger headbands. The 3 smaller bows will go with smaller bands I bought. It was bit tedious to try to glue things and then do a bit of sewing but it was worth it and she looks cute wearing them!

Since it was a PD day on Thursday and Friday last week, we took the boys and their cousins Joel and Tim to Adventures on Wonderland. They had a blast for the afternoon!

Seth and his cousin Tim

Joel

And who says big kids can't join in the fun?! ;)

Paul had fun too!

And this little girl slept...

smiled....

...and cuddled with her purple bunny!

The boys had a blast with their cousins. Afterwards we went to McDonald's for ice cream and we had people looking at us...probably thinking we had 5 kids. We even had a mom ask us if we home schooled. Kind of funny. Although we didn't have a chance to explain since when we said no, she walked off. It was a good day and we all had lots of fun!

Stay tuned.....Chloe's 2 month photo shoot coming up soon! :)

8 years ago....

8 years ago.....

I married this man....

and I love him dearly!
God has blessed us with 3 beautiful children
and I pray for many more years with him!

Love you Paul!

Chloe's baptism

Yesterday we had Chloe's baptism in the evening service. We are so thankful of God's promises to her and pray that we may raise her in the fear of the Lord! What a task we have to raise 3 children in God's ways. Here are some pictures capturing the event.

Chloe is wearing the gown that my siblings and I wore (Ethan wore it too), we just added purple ribbon to dress it up for her

Auntie Dani had the priviledge of holding Chloe for the service

Auntie Dani with the kids

the boys holding Chloe

Brie Van Dyk & Chloe share the same birthday (born just 1.5 hours apart) and her Auntie Becky who is also a friend of Dani. How fitting that they share a special day of baptism together as well!!

Proud great grandparents

What a blessing to have great grandparents!

4 generations...we are blessed!

My Mom, her Mom holding Chloe and myself

We are all firstborn daughters in our families

Papa and his granddaughter

the yummy cake

the whole DeWaal clan was at the baptism, so we thought we would get a family picture

Papa & Grandma and their grandchildren

What an enjoyable evening celebrated with family and friends. (We missed you: Carol, and John and Betty and your kids)

Thanksgiving weekend

On Saturday we had a thanksgiving dinner at my parents place. It was such a beautiful day that we thought we would attempt taking family pictures and pictures of the boys as well. With kids though, it takes some time to get some good ones, or in our case for family pictures, one good one. :) I was able to get a good one of each of the boys. Pictures of Chloe will come later, once her baby acne clears up.

setting up and getting the position of the camera ready

it's sooo bright!! (says Seth)

the sun is in my eyes (says Ethan)

this works (says Seth)

attempt set up #2

we will leave you waiting of which picture we chose! :) It will be used as our family Christmas card

Seth's 2010 picture

Ethan's 2010 picture

we had a delicious turkey dinner with all the fixings!! Thanks Mom!

Our boys

Kisses from Grandma

Auntie Sue and Chloe

Papa relaxing

The boys played hockey and soccer with Papa and Grandma:

We had a good weekend. We had good messages preached on Sunday and Thanksgiving Monday on being thankful. It was so good to be reminded that we have so much compared to some people/countries, and how we must be thankful. It is so easy to get complacent with life and all that we have, or to grumble and complain of what we do not have. There is so much to be thankful for and I am so thankful for all the blessings that God has given!! May I be reminded of that each and every day, not just on Thanksgiving day. Hope you all had a great weekend!

What's been happening in our home

Just some pictures for the past week here at our house....

We went for a walk last night and saw this beautiful sunset...Paul had to get the camera and take a couple pictures

flowers from my sweet hubby!

Ethan has been experimenting with the word whammer...hoping that he will learn some letters and sounds

Seth has been writing notes at school for us. I am so impressed since last year he didn't even want to try writing and easily gave up. This year he is doing so much better and sounding out words too (as best as he can)

A proud Grandma with Chloe

Chloe's middle name is Margaret and she is named after Grandma (as well as Grandma's Oma as well!)

Mommy and her baby girl

Chloe had her 1 month check up yesterday and weighs: 9 lbs, 15 oz and is 23 inches. So she is growing!

She's 1 month old already

Hard to believe that our baby girl is 1 month old already. It is already October. The month of September just flew by. Chloe is doing really well. She is eating good, I think she is gaining (although we shall find out when she sees the doctor on Tuesday), she is going 4-5 hour stretches at night. She is a big time spitter though! I have to do lots of laundry for her since she goes through so many bibs and receiving blankets. Sometime I just change her into an outfit within minutes, have to change her again since she spit up. Thankful for plenty of clothing for her! Overall she is a happy and content baby. She adores her brothers and has been giving them lots of smiles and listen to their voices. She gives daddy and mommy a few smiles too, but more to her brothers. :)

As for the rest of us...Paul is back to work after being off for some time. It was so nice to have him home for awhile to help out with the boys, to give me extra chances to nap and get back to feeling more like myself after giving birth. So thankful for a helpful husband!!
Seth has completed 1 month of school already. His first week of school was a bit rough, but into the second week, things got better. Now we just drop him off and he doesn't even turn around and look back at us!
We are still working on potty training with Ethan. It is proving to be quite challenging. We know that he is able to hold his bladder. I don't know if he is just being stubborn, or it hasn't totally clicked with him yet. I think part of the problem is us not being consistent enough either. It will come, we are sure of it. As long as he is trained before going to JK next year September, we are all good!
And for me, things are going pretty good. I am getting sleep at nights. Sometimes not as much as I would like, but it will pass. :) This past week, we have been getting into a bit more of a routine. And I have been back to doing my cardio kickboxing workouts! I just love to be able to get back to working out again. I did workout throughout most of my pregnancy, taking a break at the end and a few weeks after having Chloe. Chloe has been more smiley and has been making more noises/"talking" to us. She is such a little blessing to our lives.

Well, that is all for now! I have a crying baby who needs to be fed. Hope you all are doing well! Enjoy your weekend!