Shayna...

Here's our "Little Red" - 9 years old and still as wonderful as ever :)

Braden...

Braden Levi - Five Years Old



Braden is pretty photogenic and is an easy one to take photos of because he loves to pose for me...well, for five or ten minutes and then his patience is up. He'd rather go to the park and play soccer or footy :) which we did after for half an hour. I plan to take pictures of the girls as well (soon) so stay tuned for that :)

Justin - Almost One!

Had a bit of fun outside yesterday afternoon with Justin!



Autum has arrived...the colours are beautiful, the air is crisp and cool (in the morning anyway), the ground is green once again and the breeze stirs the high golden leaves from the tree to the ground. I love this time of year! The ground crunches as we walk along our way.

(click on the picture to enlarge) :)

More April

Okay...it's not always just about Justin :)

Here's a little of what the "rest of us" have been up to:

Gotta love Mr.Whippy :)

We were just finishing unpacking from our camping weekend in Dongara and so we thought maybe we deserved an icecream when we heard the music playing down our street. Yum!

I'll try to post some pictures of our camping trip (forgot to take my camera so I'm waiting on friends). Dongara is about 4 hrs North of Perth...great place to be for beaches, surfing, boogie boarding (in the waves or down the dunes) and relaxing. We had a fantastic time!

Braden celebrated his 5th Birthday on April 20

Hooray for a strong & healthy, happy & loving 5 year old boy!

We are blessed!

A lovely family dinner out in Freo. Can't believe there was one nice one of the two of us...Elyssa just looooooves having her photo taken :}

April

Hmmm...what's been keeping me busy this month...

And so...as a result:

Oh boy...do we LOVE him!! :)

March

So, our company has left and life is back to "routine". For so much of life, routine is good...but to have a break once in a while is even better! We loved having our house full and being busy sightseeing and holidaying. We managed to squeeze a whole lot of activity into three weeks and here are some of the highlights:

Boating on the Mandurah Canals with Graham & Marion:

Lunch and some wine tasting in Swan Valley:

The Tree-Top Walk near Albany:

Biking in Busselton:

Picnicing at King's Park in Perth:

We spent a week going down south to Bussleton and then on the Albany with mom and dad and Heidi doing some wine tasting, shopping, visiting (with John & Darlene and Helen & Wilfred) in Albany and sightseeing along the way. We loved Canal Rocks, Yallingup Beach, Table Rock and of course enjoying the beach. :)

Elyssa & Heidi near Canal Rocks and Yallingup:

At John & Darlenes :)

Lunch at Laurence Winery:

Yallingup:

So many great memories! Here's to great summer weather and family and friends to share it with! Cheers!!

2010...

Oops...I suppose it would have been better to say Happy New Year a while ago :} Sorry to those who do check out this blog once in a while...it is my intention to update much more regularly but...life is busy (...and I think I've used that line before). This is a good thing I suppose and means we're settling well here in Oz and have lots of things keeping us occupied!

Oh, how we miss you "Woods Coffee" :(

As for an update...

We are all doing well! God is good! He has blessed us with so much in the last while. We have wonderful friends, a great church life and good christian school for the kids. After our six week summer break over Christmas and New Years, the kids are back at school again. It's always sad to have holidays come to an end but I can't say I mind the peace and quiet once in a while at home during the day.

Elyssa has started at middle school which means she is up and out the house earlier than the other two. She leaves for the bus stop at about 7:30am and returns about 4pm. She seems to love the new adventure of middle school and is quite happy with having a class of about 55 kids. They've divided it into two homerooms (which I know isn't the Aussie term...but can't think of it now) :) and she is with some of her good friends so...happiness!

Shayna and Braden are back at the primary school with Braden starting 3 days a week at Pre-Primary (which is Kindergarten in N.America) and Shayna is starting year 4. They both love to go...for the learning (maybe) and for the social life :) Shayna just celebrated her 9th birthday yesterday and had lots of fun. Tomorrow she is having a combined party with a good friend of hers that has a b'day 4 days before her. They decided on a Hawaiian Monkey Party theme...for you that know Shayna...I am sure you're very surprised! Hahahaha!

Little Justin is up to no good...just kidding. He's doing great but on his way to no good as he's just starting to crawl :) It's so fun to see him growing and learning...he just loves to discover things right now. He'll touch anything that feels different or interesting and it's so fun to watch him "thinking" about things! He is growing so fast...no real surprise, he's about 21 lbs which is ??kilos and he LOVES to feed himself. Ahhhh...poor me! :)

Brad and I are doing very well...He is loving his work, which continues to be busy and "full on"! I am enjoying the great climate here and spending lots of time outdoors. We've met some great friends and are of course busy with all the things that kids bring into our lives!

We are all SUPER EXCITED about the fact that my parents and Elyssa's "bestie" Heidi are coming out to visit for 3 weeks. They'll be here next wednesday! We have lots of fun planned for them while they're here.

So...until later (which hopefully isn't toooooo long) :)

The beautiful "frangapani" from our backyard tree

The Makings of a Smoothie

Yum - Yum - Yum

Braden decided this morning that a fruit smoothie would hit the spot and so I thought I'd practice some fun photography while he was busy...
Ah, to be a child again...living in the moment...so fun to capture it on camera! Just click on the collage to see it a little bigger if you'd like :)

Last but not least :)

Justin at five months

Braden and his pet - haha :)

Justin again :)

Some family fun at the beach (Palm Beach - Rockingham)

A few more pictures

King's Park at dusk

Mom and Shayna, Mom and Elyssa

Braden waving bye to the girls as they leave for school :)

Here are some pictures I'll share...

Elyssa and Shayna in their summer uniforms:

Mom and I (as taken by Elyssa) overlooking Perth:

The girls in King's Park:

Australia!!!

So, it's been a long time I feel since I've updated this blog. In some ways I'd love to say that not much has changed but that would be very untrue :) We've moved now, a new post code, a new city, a new country...even a new continent!

King's Park

Here we are, in Australia, starting to feel settled after a few months. It's been quite an adventure for our family. We moved out of our house in Lynden at the end of July and were finally in our own home in Australia mid-October. That's a long time for a family of six to be "displaced". However, during that time we were able to enjoy the hospitality of our parents and friends and were very blessed to have had those wonderful experiences. We spent 5 weeks based out of my parents house in Langley and during that time crossed the border MANY times :) Boy, we were kind of glad to be done with that for a while! We had a great summer, enjoying the Pacific Northwest and Beautiful British Columbia and even a little of the Oregon Coast.

Exploring Oregon

We made the trip over to Australia on August 27th and after a fairly uneventful 23ish hours we arrived in Perth, Western Australia. I would say that Brad and I were both thankful at that time that we didn't have to make the trip back for a while with all of us :) We spent the next few weeks house hunting and car shopping and generally getting settled here in W.A. We joined the Baldivis Free Reformed Church and the kids started school at Rockingham John Calvin School. It has been a very busy few months and now I think we can say that we are started to feel like life is becoming "normal" again. A new normal takes lots of work it seems but we're getting there.

Ready for School!

And here are a few shots of our new home:

We enjoyed a visit from my mom already in October. She was able to spend a couple of weeks helping us out and we also enjoyed a few touristy things together with her. We went to Penguin Island to see the sand penguins, we went to King's Park in Perth and we spent some time at a few different beaches. In March my parents are planning a trip together here and hopefully we'll be able to explore some more of W.A. before and during that time. It's a beautiful part of the world!