Catching up...

Seeing as we have an internet connection again and the busyness has kind of settled down, I guess I don't have any good reason not to write a new post...

Boy, I'm loving our new house! It's big and spacious, light and bright and starting to feel like ours. The first week it felt like we were still camping or just looking after someone elses place, but now that it's all been painted and all our furniture is in the right place, it's starting to feel like home, and that's nice. The pest control guy came yesterday and took care of all the creepy crawlies that think this place is their home, and today I'm seeing the effects of all his spraying - lots of dead spiders, cockroaches and flies around the place. Now I just need to clean the windows and window frames, light shades and air con vents and I'll be 100% happy :-)

Our house: 89 Nettleton Road Byford :-)
To the left of the drive is another driveway with a gate which
Rod uses to park his truck securely at the back of the property

Here are some before and after shots from inside

lounge before...
The people before hadn't sealed the walls when they painted it
so we could just peal the paint off in huge sections!

and after...

Dining room before...

and after...

Spare/storage/craft room before...

and after...

Olivia's room before...

and after...

We've had everything painted the same colour for now. If we
want to get fancy and do some feature walls, or change the bedrooms
to match bedspreads or whatever, it can be done later.

Ok, that'll do for now.
Photos of December and January events can wait till next time!

November Notes

Seeing as it's already half way December, I should really knock up a post on things that have been happening last month, so here goes...

First a few odds and sods...All the girls out for dinner for Kaffa's hen's night...

...and then to her and Mike's new house for coffee and cake


Devon learnt to sit properly...

...and to commando crawl -now he's into everything!

...

And some photos from a braai (BBQ) we had at Dad and Mum's before Charlene
left for Melbourne for a couple of weeks

with my gorgeous sister Renee

Justin, Ronald (Willem's friend from SA), Renee and Albert (cousin) roasting marshmallows

Charlene and Willem at it again
"Stop it! Don't! Eeeek" is all you'll hear from Charlene

Busselton
Rod has been working off and on in Busselton for the last 4 weeks. Most weeks he'd be there for just 3 days or so, but one time he had to be there for the whole week, so we decided to join him. It gets kinda lonely at home by yourself, well, especially in the evenings.
We stayed in a self-contained unit that shared a back yard full of play equipment with another unit and was just a hop, skip and jump from the beach. Couldn't have asked for better!

Tuesday was perfect beach weather so that's where we spent the day. Wednesday we looked around town in the morning and then walked to the beach in the afternoon. Thursday we went and visited Annette Bergsma who lives in Bunbury, a half drive from Busselton. Hannah also came down from Perth that day so it was good to catch up with both of them. And then Friday it was time to head home again! All in all, a nice week away from the usual.

beach all to ourselves

The trampoline got well used

An outing to the beach wouldn't be the same without ice-cream!

They are busy rebuilding the jetty and Olivia would've
been quite happy to sit there and watch the crane all day

Rod and Olivia shooting hoops in the backyard.

The other little girl is Leyla from the family that
were staying in the unit next to us.

loving all the action

Enjoying a picnic lunch in the park -
L-R:Damien, Annette, Luke, Hannah, Esther, Devon and Olivia

Esther and Olivia enjoying the swings

3 handsome young lads: Luke Bruning, Devon and Damien Bergsma
Age wise, Luke and Devon are only 2 days apart and
Damien's about a month older

Rod's job site - they're building a multi purpose hall for a private school down there.
They stood the panels last week so he won't be going back down again this year :-)

October Occurences

Another month gone already so time to post again. Yeah, that's about all I can handle, one post per month.

So here goes...

Two cheeky monkeys in the hammock

Devon's found a new use for his playmat...it's much too
boring to just lie under the bars and play with the toys!




One big even of the month was Justin and Annette's engagement party. Sorry, didn't take any photos of the night, but here's one of us with my Aunty Connie who came over from Melbourne to celebrate with us all. If you didn't know, she is mum's sister.
For a few weeks Rod had been working at Champion Lakes, which is 5 min from home, doing concrete polishing on panels for a new toilet block going up there. So of course we popped down there a couple of times to see what he was up to. It's a beautiful spot that mainly gets used for rowing, but it also has a little swimming beach and a foot/bike path that goes right around the lake.
Look what I found Mum!

Big kissable cheeks!

Rod doing his thing

And this is a few weeks later when they stood the panels

Another big event this month was Rod's 29th birthday!
Seeing as his birthday fell in the same week as we had Women's League Day (a Bible study day for all the women of the Free Reformed Churches), his parents came up and had dinner with us, as well as Mike and Kaffa on his actual birthday.
On the Saturday after his b'day we had my family round for a BBQ, so celebrations all round.
Hip hip hooray for Dad - the candles and
party hats were Olivia's idea :-)



~ Till next month ~

Anya and Devon - around 6 months old

Just wanted to post these photos that Ingrid sent through the other day.


Photo shoot with Anya and Devon...hahaha

Anya's smiles disappear as soon as the camera comes out
and Devon just thinks it's one big joke!

I'm bored now...mmm, what's this? Oh yeah,
eyes to poke, hair to eat, someone to play with!

ok, lets try this position...a bit better

September Happenings...

Warning...long post ahead!

Here's a run down of what we've been up to in the last few weeks

4th of September
We took the train to Perth with Annette to check out a wedding dress she liked. Mum and Ingrid and kids were going to come along, but they ended up catching a train back to Armadale because Ingrid wasn't feeling well. The dress was beautiful, but she's found a different one since and it's even more stunning! We had a great day out - as you can see, the weather was absolutely gorgeous. By the way, she's asked me to be her maid of honour with Tineke and Renee as bridesmaids - should be fun!

My little boy all rosy cheeked after his sleep

Every time I tried getting a photo of Devon
smiling, he'd turn his head away and pull some silly face

Yay! Finally a normal one :-)

8th of September
We helped Isaac celebrate his 3rd birthday at his party in the park. Eric had to come up for a work conference and it happened to be in the same week as Isaac's birthday, so Sonja decided to come up as well and have his party with family and friends in Perth. 5 cheeky 3 year olds Kiera Huizinga, birthday boy Isaac Dobbe,
Toby Kleyn, Olivia and Ashlyn Dobbe

Devon and Megan (from Jeremy and Emily) are in
awe of Amaya (from Eric and Sonja) - "wow, she can sit!"

Our two little water rats.
This was the first time he went in the big bath with Olivia; I usually bath him in the laundry trough, and he just goes psycho, arms and legs go everywhere and most of the water ends up on the floor and over me - entertainment every time :-)

Rod surprised me with these one day after work
sweet hey :-)

23rd of September

exploring outside on a lovely spring day

watch him go!

25th - 28th of September

The last weekend in September was a long one so we decided to head down to Albany and see how Rod's parents were doing - his Dad recently had a hip replacement. It was good to catch up with the rest of the family and other friends too. Rod got to go fishing (and caught two queenies!) and play golf so he was a happy man :-) The kids were good little travellers, Devon just wasn't such a good sleeper while we were in Albany...but hey, Pop and Nanna loved seeing them both again, so it was all worth it! Good morning my gorgeous little poppets :-)

Rod with gorgous Sienna from Darry and Kara

Sister-in-laws Kara, Leonie and Viv and Mum sorting stuff out
for Mike and Kaffa's wedding book for the night party

Fritz taking self portraits of him, Viv and Samuel

At the Dome for brekky on Monday morning...can you
believe that we were there at 7:30, thanks to our little alarm clock
Devon. He thought 5:30 was a good time to get up all weekend!

watch out for the tea spray!

Fields of gold - all the canola is in bloom and it
just so beautiful!