On Sunday we could celebrate Olivia's 5th birthday! What a blessing to have a happy girl who loves to sing songs (learned ones and made up ones), who loves to know and learn new things and who has funny comments about the ordinary things in life. We love you Olivia!

We celebrated with the van der Veen side of the family - Mike and Kaffa forgot all about it, but I suppose they have the excuse of still being in that fuzzy world of new born babies and first time parents :-)

happy b'day hug from Devon

the beater cleaner

hooray!!!

xoxo

what could these two cheeky monkeys be up to?

the kitchen was an early b'day present from us

Devon, I think you're a bit outnumbered.
And I thought I had 4 sisters...guess who's missing ;-)

Damon all smiles after his sleep

Birthdays...

Birthdays are a special, fun and wonderful way to spend time with family and friends, so here are a few photos from my 29th birthday! For a change I had my lady friends (and Dad) over in the morning instead of at night and it was very enjoyable :)

Evette, Aunty Yvonne, Mum, Janneke with Heinrich, Dad,
Bertha, me, Charlene and Marleen

Dad, Bertha and Kelsey, me, Charlene and Marleen
and her daughter Caitlin sitting in front of her

The kids!
Charlene took so many photos trying to get a good one...and even though they're
not looking, I like this one the best because they're just being themselves :)
L-R: Corey and Tegan (from Evette), Kiera Huizinga (from Sarah), Courtney, Elisa (from Marleen), Olivia and Devon and in front in the blue is Grethe (from Janneke)

The clock, table and floor lamp were from Rod

and the kids and the butterfly hooks were from Bertha and Janneke.

From the van der Veen side of the family I got money to put towards framing a picture I got from Charlene when she came back from South Africa and from the van der Schaaf's I'm getting a years subscription to Better Homes and Gardens magazine :) Very spoilt! I've set up the table in our spare room which got a huge clean out the other day, so now my craft stuff can stay out and I can be as creative and productive as Marian ;-)

Rod was home nicely on time that afternoon so we headed down
Joe's Fish Shack in Fremantle for dinner...

... and then to the wharf to watch the boats....
by the way, the dress Olivia is wearing is one I used to wear when I was 4 - she loves it :)

... and we got to see the Leeuwin come in!

On the 22nd of February we could celebrate another birthday! We (finally) got a happy phone call from Mike to say that him and Kaffa had been blessed with a healthy 8lb 8 baby girl whom they named "Elizabeth Marie"! And she's beautiful :)

Olivia so happy to have another girl cousin!

proud parents on baptism Sunday

Proud Pop and Nanna

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...