Happy Birthday Derek & Corina

Congrats twins!  22 years old today and looking absolutely great! 

Derek... Mr. Humour who generally has the crowd happy - you are energetic, competitive, very loving and sensitive.  Pursuing an electrical career while holding dear the woman of your dreams.  You are super awesome with the kids and very passionate about the firehall!  You are loved very much!

Corina... You are much loved - especially as you go through this time of trying to decipher where you want to go, what you want to do, etc. etc.  You have very dilligently worked on getting your EMR (emergency medical responder) certificate [remember you did not even want to come for dinner with us when we came out to Vancouver to see you!!! all good :)]  You have been sidelined from one of the things you enjoy the most, soccer, and you are taking it all in stride!!  We appreciate your organized, energetic, competitive, dilligent, and lately (just kidding), even helpful nature:)  We love you very much!

A few pictures of you guys :)

We hope you have a great day and a blessed year ahead!!

Love you!

Arrived and going...

It feels like Fall has just arrived and is planning on going already!  It is starting to get pretty cold outside and yesterday we had the first frost for this end of the valley... time to harvest my grapes and make some juice and jelly!  Looks like we are going to have another beautiful day today!

Ranen has really enjoyed being with Daddy in the tractor this year - we buckle her car seat into the second seat and off they go!  Most of the field work is done for the year (even though some things didn't get done like they wanted to, they have run out of time in this late year!)

No Mommy, you are not coming to take me out right?  I want to stay!!

We are enjoying the fall - I do love this time of year and hope that it will hang around a bit longer!

Great Opa and Oma Lindhout stopped in for a minute on Monday - while taking a drive down memory lane in this neighbourhood!  Oma grew up in Greendale and they owned property here where they would go logging in the winter....  Ranen sure loved Opa!

On the picture on the right she is showing Opa what the gorilla does!  Ranen loves animals (and that is an understatement!) and if I tell her once what an animal says or does it usually sticks!  For the gorilla she starts hitting her chest and says "WAAAA" :)

Last week we celebrated Ben's sister Annette's 40th birthday!  Congrats :) She sure is looking good for 40!  They just recently had family pictures taken at Kristy Klaassen Photography and wow, what a beautiful family!

Also, October 25th was Cathrine's birthday... I surprised her yesterday with an orchid!(which she says she will try to keep alive!)  Cathrine does extremely much for me and really I don't know where I would be without her!  Every Tuesday we spend together working on printing stuff and then if she is bored she still comes here other days to give me a hand!  What a GEM!!  I love you Cathrine -you are one of the most beautiful ladies I know - inside and out!!!  And Cayden and Ranen really benefit from some sharing and caring time!!

I hope to come back tomorrow to let you know who's birthday it is then!

We have been also very busy with doing photo shoots for customers... here are some proofs of that!

These first ones are from Ben's nephew and his fiance!  Just engaged:)

This I do believe is one of my all time favourites!!

These next ones... you may remember that a posted a couple of this family back a while... now they have a beautiful baby boy!

Another favourite... big time!!!

And we had one other baby shoot...  an 'uncle' and 'aunt' of mine were blessed with this beautiful boy:

Thanks everyone for the oppotunity to take pictures of you... 

Hope to be back tomorrow!!

Happy Birthday Oma!

Congratulations with your birthday Oma... although you live a province away from us we think of you often and wish you the best as you celebrate your birthday today!

Oma is a sweet, caring, beautiful woman who loves to garden and enjoys making others happy...  here are a few pictures of her...



About 23 years ago...  Opa and Oma with me!





Opa and Oma with the 5 oldest from our family





Oma, you are a wonderful person...  wishing you a great day!

Mix and Match 2

First ...  HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!  Wish I could have done this yesterday but you know me... always procrastinating and running out of time!  They say - better late than never! 

Thanks for all that you do for us...  especially lately when you have taken Ranen for the day so that I could accomplish some much needed items on my to-do list...  I appreciate it!  You had a busy life being a Mom with 7 children to take care of - and it's not like we were always well-behaved or submissive niether, and you did it well!  Thanks for all you have done :)

A few pictures from over the years...

Well Mom... you were always taking the pictures... in my baby album (up to about 2 years) these are the only 2 pictures with you on it!! 

Here are a few other snaps shots from the last few weeks:

Ranen witnessed her first calving the other day....  see her pleased look!

Gardening with Daddy!!  What a fun Saturday we had together...

I know the focus is off but I love this picture because Ranen is in love with the dogs and the dogs are so good with letting her do stuff to them... the day we were gardening Ben got a picture on his phone of Ranen bouncing on Jessie...

It's only a good day if we get into atleast a little trouble....  it is a good thing there was not much left on the toilet paper roll or it would have been all over the house!!

Enjoying my walk with Mommy!

Literally every morning, Ranen will climb on my lap and point outside saying "Daddy" and "tractor" so we generally try to make a trip outside to the farm...  here are some pictures from one of our excursions!!  Ranen is totally a farm girl - so happy when she is out there!!

I absolutely ADORE my Daddy!

Not one bit afraid!!  ... the cows are more afraid of me than I am of them :)

Taycin came to visit the other day....  she is such a happy, beautiful girl :)  

 Loving the airplane rides my Mommy gives me... this one was a little scary though because she let go with one hand to take the picture!!

Cayden and Ranen get to practice their sharing skills once a week when Cathrine comes to help out with printing stuff... they are generally pretty good together!!  This box was a form of entertainment for a few days for Ranen!

 On Thanksgiving Day we had Opa and Oma Korporaal and Auntie Joanne and Uncle Doug over for dinner...  we had a good time and Ranen enjoyed the one on one attention with her Aunt!

Hope you enjoyed...

(Would love some comments so I know you stopped by and caught up with us again!  - just select Anonymous as the type of commenter and then leave your name in the actual comment!!)

I Heart Hands

I Heart Faces has a special photo contest this week focusing on hands rather than faces...  this week there does not need to be a face in the picture.

As soon as I saw the subject for the contest I thought of this picture...  It means so much to Ben and I when we think back of our mission excursion to Africa...  With our 2 pairs of hands we were able to accomplish much and it really feels good!  Would love to do it again :)  Maybe one day!

Head over to I Heart Faces to check out more entries...

Will try to get to posting some more soon!!