Max's First Day!

Yesterday Max started his first day of school at Wiregrass Christian Academy. Rob and I were curious how his day would go since he mostly only speaks Dutch, but it didn't surprise us at all that he fit right in with the rest of the class. His teacher, Miss Amy, even said he was the best behaved in the class!

Unfortunately he wasn't in the mood for pictures before school, but I did the best that I could!

All ready to go!

Showing off his new backpack

Finally at school after a million pictures!

He even has his own desk!

...Wishing Mommy would hurry up and leave!

Lucas wanted to stay and play

Max and Miss Amy :)

Hopefully Max will continue being so enthusiastic about school for the next 20 years!

Playing Catch Up

The last two weeks have been slightly insane, a bit wacky, and are thankfully over! We've been living in our new home for a week now and are absolutely loving it here. And despite the fact that we've been running errands all day everyday, we have definitely gotten enough pool time in lately!

Since so much as happened in the past couple of weeks I'll tell our story through pictures. Because I know how much you guys love my photography. Because I'm too lazy to write a 10 chapter book!

After our house was emptied we went to Het Vennenbos. It's a bungalow park filled with activities for familes and kids. While we were there we:

Played air hockey

Went bowling

Celebrated Oma's birthday (for more pics click here)

Took a short trip over to the Efteling

And enjoyed cotton candy because Max Mommy insisted!

After a few days in Het Vennenbos we headed over to Schiphol airport where we stayed a night in The Sheraton and enjoyed a nice view from our room.

The next day we boarded our plane after some tearful goodbyes. Thankfully the kids were fabulous the entire trip, though I guess that can be expected from a 3 year old who has been on 30+ flights and a 7 month old on his 5th flight! And no, our sweet boy isn't crying in this picture-- he just didn't appreciate a large flash in his face! Too bad for him, he'll have to get used to having the camera in his face! ;-)

We were all ready to crash when we landed in Dothan (a town right outside of Enterprise), but even after more than 20 hours of traveling, there was no stopping this water rat from springing in the water!

Three days after our arrival Rob and I took a road trip to Tennessee to pick up our new car:

After we picked up the Passat we headed 2 hours East to pick up our second car- a '66 mustang. 

Unfortunately the car wasn't exactly in the same condition the man had described and we decided not to buy it. Rob was a bit disappointed that we didn't go home with 2 cars, but I know he is secretly thankful that he didn't have to drive 8 hours home in 100+ degree weather without air conditioning! 

Aside from taking care of the important things, there has been plenty time for swimming, mowing the lawn (that only took my poor husband 4 hours!), and Rob's new interest-- the hummingbirds around our house. 

Tomorrow begins a new day, and a very important one for Max- it's his first day of school! Today we went for orientation and he got to meet his new teacher and classmates. We are quite impressed with the school and Max can't wait to start! But that's for another post...

We've Come a Long Way, Baby

When I was 19 I waved goodbye to my parents and boarded a plane to Holland. With only 2 suitcases in my hands, a small Max in my belly, I sat in that plane for hours hoping I was making the right decision. But once you are hanging over the Atlantic Ocean at 35,000 feet, there is no going back. So off I was to start my new life with my, then, boyfriend of only 10 months.

After living with my in-laws and getting off to a rocky start in Holland, we finally got the keys to our house in June of 2006. I was a bit shocked when we walked in our house to see that there were no floors, bare concrete walls, and no toilet in the bathroom. With only a little bit of money, quite a bit of debt, and only a few months until Max was scheduled to make his grand entrance, I had no idea how we were going to make that house a home.

For months we ate from his sister's patio furniture in our bare living room, we sometimes struggled to make ends meet in the middle of the month, and sometimes when everything came pouring down on us, we also struggled to work things out without screaming at each other. But thanks to some pretty amazing people, we did it. By December of that year we had a house filled with second-hand furniture that I loved, a stronger relationship, and a beautiful baby boy.

Although 2007 was easier than 2006, we still had our trials, and most importantly, tribulations. After Rob's first deployment that Spring we finally tied the knot in August. Our (very tightly budgetted) wedding was one of the best days of our lives. I don't think I have ever laughed, danced, and ahem drank so much in my entire life. As with everything, all good things come to an end and Rob was back in Afghanistan 4 months later.

2008 through 2009 is a blur of deployments. Between the deployments we made a couple of trips to America, I finally found a job, we took an amazing trip to Italy, Rob got a job offer in Alabama, and we expanded our family with the birth of our little Lucas.

And now, after 10 long months of preparing for our move to The States, WE MADE IT! The next few months, as the next 100 years, are sure to promise more trials, tribulations, and a whole lot happiness. But for now, we're taking it one day at a time and hoping our container gets here soon!

It all sounds a bit crazy looking back on it, but falling in love with the most wonderful man in the world was worth every bit of...well... everything.

PS- More updates on our last week coming soon!

How to Move a House in Two Days...

Thursday morning the movers barged in our house like commandos on a mission. Within 6 hours our house looked like this:

Since they were done at 2pm and we didn’t have much else to do that day, we walked to the center and treated the kids (and ourselves!) to an ice cream. 

That evening we dropped the kids off with Oma at our bungalow house so we wouldn’t have the kids in the way on Friday. And Friday bright and early the commandos stormed in our house again to finish packing last minute things. Shortly thereafter the container made its way to our house and they began loading. They amazed us again when they popped open a beer and called it a done job at 2pm again!

Luckily we don't live on a busy street! 

Why bother dragging all of the boxes down the stairs when you can throw them out the window?!

The container made it after a bit of off-roading in our neighbourhood

Bye bye! Now we just have to keep our fingers crossed that we see that same container on the other side of the ocean!

Currently we are living in a bungalow in a vacation park about an hour away from our house. After a chaotic, but fun day on Saturday with the whole family, we are now fully enjoying having a tropical swim paradise, a bowling alley, playgrounds, and much more within a 5 minute walk from our house.

Tomorrow we are taking advantage of our Easter gift from MiMi and Opa and are headed back to the Efteling!

Afscheidsfeest

Monday Max enjoyed being the center of attention during his afscheidsfeest (goodbye party) at his school.Even though it wasn't his birthday, he still got to blow out candles, sing songs, and treat his classmates to a yummy treat! 


Max misses school already, but it's only 2 weeks before he begins his first real school year at Wiregrass Christian Academy!

The Party Boy!

Singing with Juffrouw Toni

Max's classmates cheering for him

Everyone wished him well in the coming months

And Mama made treats for him to pass out 

Dag Dag Turfjes!! 

Sweet Summertime Swingin'