Carrie Ann's birthday

Pictures from Carrie Ann's fourth birthday! Her new best friend Riley was there, but I didn't ask if I could post pictures of her... However, it was very fun to have Aria, Nana, and lots of aunties there!
Opening Presents

With Bethany and Nana

With Aria

Reading a story with Kristine

Showing off barrettes

The Tale of the Shy Princess

One of Bethany's first books. I made it into a pdf -- hopefully this will work. Ideally, you should see two pages beside eachother, with the picture on the right and the text on the left.
The Tale of the Shy Princess

Girls

I have some pictures of the girls, with many thanks to those who took the pictures and sent them to me!
Both girls, making cookies with Aunty Kathleen.

Bethany had fun!

Carrie Ann dressing up in Aunty Kathleen's belly-dancing costumes.

Carrie Ann dressing up in Hawaiian clothes at our friends' place.

Bethany dressed up too.

Carrie Ann playing dress-up last May.

Carrie Ann did a good job cutting and colouring her name with a craft kit from the Library last spring.

Christmas tree

Thanks to the generosity of some anonymous friends, we got a Christmas tree this year!

We are very thankful to everyone who gave us gifts or money this year. It has been nice to be around family and friends, and enjoy the season! May God bless you all as you share His love with others and meditate on the miracle of his incarnation and birth.

by the way

By the way, I don't have access to practicadoula anymore, so if you've been trying to email me there please try at: (name of my blog) zero seven at gmail dot com. Hopefully you can make that out better than the webcrawlers that steal email addresses...

Gone again, back again

Hi there! Well, it has been a while (okay, 7 months). Sorry. Quick recap: in June, I could no longer hold together my marriage with Frank, moved to Langley. After a summer of living here and there (thanks to everyone who helped us out!), we now live in a subsidized apartment for single moms. Matthias is living with Frank, and having fun "unschooling." We will see how that goes. When I prayed about what to do with my life now that marriage was no longer an option, God reminded me of the MLE I didn't do 14 years ago. So here I am -- already done the first semester (the "Killer Pack" -- by God's grace, it didn't kill me!). If you want to talk to me about any of this, feel free to call or email (I'll be off email for the holidays, though). Dad and Deb both have my number, and Calvin College, or leave me a comment and I'll call you.
I wanted to be intentional about celebrating Christmas this year, so we sat down and made a list of what Christmas is about. The first thing on our list was "remembering Jesus' birth," and I listed all the things we've done to celebrate His first coming -- playing religious Christmas music, reading the story, attending Christmas plays, programs and concerts. The one thing missing on my list was setting up a nativity scene. So we talked about how hard it is to buy one that matches my mental image. The next thing I knew, Bethany asked for my fabric scrap bag, and she created costumes for all her Barbie dolls and now we have a beautiful "Barbie Nativity." So much better than a store bought one!

Close up

Getting There

Yay! (or as Carrie Ann says, "Woo hoo!") Yesterday, she stayed dry all day -- not y me rememering to put her on the toilet, ut y going all y herself! That is a huge step ahead. Hope it will last, it's aout time! Sorry aout the key after a... the kids got it yesterday.

My ankle is getting there too. I can walk, even on grass, ut still have a limp, and it hurts at the end of the day. Actually, all of oth legs hurt from compensating! I'm very glad to e ale to get around, though!