Bremer Bay 2011

We had a fantastic week in Bremer with all the van der Veen's. Did lots of relaxing, swimming, 4WDing and enjoying each others company, especially brother Paul who had come over from kikkerland for a couple of weeks :)

You're all welcome to join us next year!

Dad and Mum's hired camper to the left and Paul and Ingrid's
camp to the right. You can see our stripey annex behind Dad and Mum's there

Tuesday...

our set up for the day at Little Boat Harbour beach

Olivia burying uncle Justin

Wednesday...

down at beautiful Blossoms Beach for the day.

Renee getting some driving practice with Paul in Marcel's car

Thursday...

bit of an overcast and windy day after having thunderstorms over night
so we just took it easy and went for a bit of drive and ended up along Dillon Bay

Then later on we went with Marcel into the dunes and had a bit of play around...fun fun!

poor Marcel just couldn't get up this hill!

jumping for joy!

and with Olivia

aaaww, we love you Paul

Rod getting some air!

relaxing back at camp

Friday...

part of the amazing coastline... oh, and us with the mighty troll :)

Olivia bivia bubbles ... as Rod likes to call her

another beautiful day down at Blossoms

does the colour look familiar Marian?

having fun in the hole that Justin dug

love my family!

Devon and Anya sharing chips and some love

dinner on the last night

and this is what we came home to!
Dark skies and windy weather!
Forecasts of the possibility of a cyclone crossing the coast near Perth.
Thankfully it all fizzled out and all was good.

January 2011 so far

I was trying to get this posted before we went on holidays but that never happened, but anyhow, here are a few photos of what's been happening here this past month...

On the 2nd of January we could witness the baptism of Damon Arien Veenendaal. Proud Opa was allowed to hold him in church :)

the beaming parents

with the sisters

and a good opportunity to try and get an updated
family photo ... mission impossible I think!

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We had a very exciting event early in the month...

our first egg!

anymore in there?

Out of the five chooks we're getting one a day, so hopefully the others start laying soon too.

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I've been giving the sewing machine (and my sewing skills) a bit of a work out the last few weeks, sewing new curtains for the camper. Sewing 4 seams on 10 curtains takes longer than you think.

Or maybe that's only if your name is Erica van der Schaaf...

But it was a good learning experience for me :)

measure, fold pin, sew, measure, fold, pin sew...

with my little supervisor


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Cooling off with a swim and some watermelon

holiday pics coming soon...

baby!

It's a boy!

Yesterday afternoon, Justin and Annette were blessed with the birth of a healthy baby boy whom they have named Damon Arien! He weighed in at just over 3kg (7lb 2) and was about 51cm long. He looks just like his Dad I reckon :-)

Of course we had to pop in at the hospital this morning for a quick cuddle. Olivia would've taken him home I think and Devon just kept saying 'baby, baby, baby' - will try to post a little video clip.

pat pat pat

If you pop over to my house and can't find me, you'll probably find me in... the laundry!


Ok, that's not quite true, but now that the new cupboards have been fitted I do like to stand in there and admire it, and do the washing too :-)

thanks John for fitting it all...and Rod for helping him

before

ta da!
so much storage space!

showing the in-built laundry basket and huge 'broom'
cupboard that stores the vacuum cleaner, ironing board,
mop and of course the broom.

Notice the black hose on the floor? Well, the laundry was kind of fitted in stages because the guys down at the cabinet makers didn't quite get the order right, so the trough went in later. In the meantime, Rod hooked up this hose for me so that I could still do my washing, all I had to do was stick the end outside on the lawn or in the garden. Well, you guessed it, one morning I threw in a load and went off on my merry way, only to come back a bit later and find the laundry and toilet (which comes off the laundry) flooded! The drain in the floor didn't help much...

Later that same week I was mopping the kitchen floor and promptly tipped over the whole bucket of water, right near the doorway into the lounge!

Not a good week with water...

Just a few pics of what we've been up to the last few weeks...or maybe that should be months.

5th of November
We had a birthday party for Rod at the beginning of November to celebrate his 30th! His brothers Darryl, Glenn and Fritz and friend Eric Dobbe definitely made the evening for him by driving all the way from Albany to surprise him :) His Dad and Mum also ended up coming - they had planned on coming on the Saturday, but also surprised us by popping round on the Friday night.

Fritz, Dad vdS, Rod and Paul Byl having a chin wag

Enjoying a beautiful summer's night
L-R: Evette, Marleen, Ingrid's head, Annette's nose, my Aunty Yvonne, cousin Albert, my Uncle Jaap, Dad, Eric, Justin, Mum vdS's grey head and Kaffa's head

Justin, Hanna, John, Mum holding James from John and Hanna,
Mum vdS and Kaffa (and bump)

9th of November

Olivia had her friend Melissa over for the day and here they and Devon are, celebrating Caitlin the doll's birthday with a tea party outside

"Happy birthday to you..."

blow out the candles!

He'd fit right into English society

17th of November

I also took the kids and Courtney and Renee to visit Annette on her last day at work. She was an enrolled nurse at a private hospital in Perth. After wards we went to King's Park (a huge park in the middle of the city and right near the hospital) so the kids could have a run around.

isn't he just the cutest!!!

aren't they all so cute :)

gone are his golden locks :(

On the 20th of October, Dad and Mum's dog Shelby had 9 puppies! They are now 6 weeks old and ready to leave the nest. They're all sold, but not all have been picked up yet, so of course we have had to visit Oma lots so that Olivia can baby the puppies as long as possible; she just adores them, but when they're this cute and cuddly it's hard not to.

And finally, Rod got stuck into the backyard a couple of Saturdays ago and ripped out all the bushes and bottle brush trees that were growing near the house..it's looking very bare now. Saturday just been, he dug the footings for the limestone wall and that's what he's busy with on the photo below