One month later!

One month later!  How time flies!
Lana's growing well and loves to smile.  Grandpa knows how to coax them out of her quite well, as we enjoy little visits from him most days :)

 

The bigger girls have adapted to life with another sister and love her to the moon and back.
Brynlie has to be reminded to give her some space some days!

 A few more of life around here...

A skiff of snow and ice meant some time wondering our frozen backyard...

Daddy trying out his newest toy on the Ranger...

Brynlie helping with Christmas mailout...

if your return address is in a funny spot, it's her doing ;)

Some of the beauty of winter, right out the backyard!

To add to the busyness, Leanne and Willetta have been busy with SisterMade
 designing - both custom orders like this board and digital designs for 

Christmas, weddings and birth announcements!

 The beauty of crisp winter sunny days sent us outside for some walks.  Who can resist!?

 A ride in the local Popkum fire truck when they came around collecting food bank donations

Dear Auntie Shelly,

we miss you so much we made hair-do's like yours!  Like them?   

:D:D  Big hugs, Chelsie and Brynlie

Another beautiful addition

We have the joy of announcing another beautiful addition to our family.  Although she is due tomorrow (November 18), Lana Paige Maljaars came on November 12, 2013.  She weighed 8 lbs 11 oz and is also welcomed by her two sisters, Chelsie and Brynlie.

We're adjusting to life with a baby again, and enjoying plenty of snuggles.

PS  We moved last Saturday, just in time for Lana to come home to our new house!  If you need our new address, let me know :)

Quotable quotes

Quotes of the week from Brynlie:

Yesterday: 
Mom, Ivan wanted to cut my hair so I told him to make it shorter.
me: Why?  It doesn't look pretty! 
  {She has some new sideburns - I'm thankful most of it was in a ponytail and wasn't touched}
Brynlie:  That's okay, Mom.  I have a lot of hair still.
me:  But it doesn't look nice, Brynlie.
Brynlie:  But God will make it grow back.

Today:
I love you, Mom.
Why?
Because God made you.

:):)  Enjoy your day

Another year gone by

Another year has flown by...

Another birthday for Chelsie

Who's reading some more every day

At age six, she's growing up quickly!

We love her to bits and are thankful

for health and growth this year

Thank you, Lord, for our special Chelsie!

To us she is so very dear.

And, as requested, a few pictures of our house, which is quickly being built :)

While we build and enjoy that, God's busy painting our beautiful valley with the most amazing colours!  Who can compare to His artistry!?

 

Enjoy this beautiful fall day!

It's not every day...

It's not every day

that you see this outside your new home

 

 and find this inside your new home (actual picture with clear lens :( )

that your mom lets you stay up later on a school night

 that you declare how 'neat' and how 'cool' it is to see fire trucks outside your new home-to-be

that you allow the local fire department to practice in your house

that you meet neighbours worried about what's going on

 

Yes, it was a practice.  

Yes, it looked cool with 'smoke' fogging up the house and coming out of the chimney.  

Yes, they really used water to spray the hedge.  

And yes, it was SO cool, as Brynlie put it, to watch :)

 

Summary of summer

 

As we go back to routine and back to school 

(as much as you can be 'routine' when building a house ;) ), 

here's a quick summary of our summer.

We spent hours on hours here at Berry Bounty Farms in July, picking, 

eating and selling blueberries and raspberries!

 There was a lot of swimming, including 2 weeks of lessons in which both girls soared through a level :)

 Our annual trip to the waterslides gave me the chance to take pictures instead of sliding

 There was a lot of time together, 

reading...

 dressing up...

 watching the action as the house next door was finished,

 playing at the sand pile at our new house...

 jumping around at the Chilliwack Corn Maze at the vandenBrink family reunion,

 and riding on the train from Jumping Joeys

One more post of our summer to come - we finished it off with a

 lovely and relaxing camping trip.

Off to Grade 1

With a huge smile on her face :)

She was very excited to hopefully sit in a different bus seat and was reminding herself to 'turn in the hallway' instead of going straight to KG!

First day of school means even Daddy joins us going to the bus stop :)

 We'll see how the smiling little sister does without her best friend - it will be quite an adjustment to have Chelsie gone every day!

She was so excited to go she forgot to turn around on the steps and the bus driver reminded her so we got this 'peeking' picture :)

Enjoy your day :)