Hannah and her new friend, Ashley

This evening we enjoyed having some friends over for dinner. They joined our branch a few months ago and it was fun visiting :-) They also have a little girl about 7 months older than Hannah. We started meeting on Wednesdays for a play group with some other moms. Basically, its all the girls from nursery - lol (there aren't any boys in nursery). This evening, they started running around, holding hands. It was sooo cute! Looks like Hannah has finally hit that age of more social interaction and it is adorable.

Christian

Just some cute photos of Christian from last night and this afternoon :) He is playing more with the 3D gym, which is cute :-)

Ready for Church!

This morning the kids were all bathed and dressed for church. As is evident from the first photos, I still had to get dressed...but the kids look good!
This was Hannah's first time holding her baby brother Christian. She just loves him and gave him kisses. He is growing very well and is up to 56 cm and 5980 grams.

Hannah's First Horse Show!

On Saturday, I took Hannah to her very first horse show! She started out a bit tired and unsure, but ended up being a very good girl and really enjoying it! It was a fun mommy and daughter activity, while Matthijs spent time running errands with Christian. The weather was great and the horses beautiful! When I asked Hannah if she had fun, she always said "Yeah!". :-))) They have wonderful stables here and dressage is the BASIC riding :-) These stables have large children's clubs, with kids starting on ponies at 5 years old - in dressage :-) When Hannah is that old, I plan to give her a chance to try it out if she wants!! Meanwhile, this horse show, the CHIO, is a regional qualifier for both jumping and dressage for the world championships or the Olympics - depending on the year. Therefore, it hosts the top riders of the world! The horses were amazing! That night, after Hannah was in bed, I joined a fellow horse rider friend and we watched the Für de Musique - the freestyle dressage. We watched the TOP team in the world - the Dutch, including the 3 time Gold medalist - Anky van Grunsven!!! The Dutch riders literally look like they are FLOATING with the horse - its the most impressive riding I've seen in my life. I have some lessons left at the stables (had to stop due to the pregnancy) and I am scheduling a lesson this week! This is my 5th year attending the CHIO event and it is NEVER a disappointment. But, the best part really was in the morning, with Hannah :-)

I almost forgot - guess who was also in attendance......the Queen of the Netherlands! Yep, this is THE social event - hahhaha :-)

Matthijs goes off-roading

These photos were taken during Matthijs' day of "off-roading" in the Ardennes mountains of southern Belgium - since the Netherlands is completely flat - you have to go to Belgium or Germany for any real hills and mountains. This day out was actually my birthday gift to him :-) He had a blast driving a Landrover for the first time. As you can see, it rained hard the day before and so they enjoyed lots of mud and puddles. Of course, now he would love to own his own 4-wheel drive truck! LOL

Growthh Update

After receiving a few requests, I have taken some photos of the kids this morning in order to post them on the blog. Matthijs is in Coopenhagen for a work semina and isnt raround :-( - so hjust photos of the kids. I never did get any photos of Christian while in Florida - sorry. This bottom photo is actually from before we left for Florida. Matthijs was feeding Christian one morning when he was about 7 weeks old. Tomorrow, he turns 9 weeks old and is already so much bigger. He is now wearing some bigger sized clothes than when we left. I think he had a bit of a growth spurt. The best news is that in Florida he started sleeping through the night!!! He gets his last bottle at 11pm and then typically wakes up between 7 and 7:30am - blissful!!!

Hannah is a busy and fun little girl. On July 30, she will turn two years old - time is flying by. We already have some books from us and from Grandma Norma and Grandpa Bench as gifts for her birthday. Mimi bought her a beautiful pink dress (my favorite) which we gave her early so she could wear it on Mother's Day. She looks sooo cute in it! I'll take a photo the next time she has it on :-) Oma and Opa gave her a gift early as well - Crocs - yep, she has joined the masses. I must say, she absolutely loves them and they are easier for her to put on and take off herself.

Hannah is still busy learning the alphabet. I posted some pictures of her working on her letters this morning with her magnetic board. She seems to know them better in English. However, she counts quite good from 1-5 (and sometimes 6-10) in Dutch. She recognizes the numbers in English, but when she actually counts, it is in Dutch. I have some more work to do!

We also got Hannah a Winnie the Pooh coloring book. She loves "coloring" (or scribbling, however you want to call it ;-) ) While doing so this morning she drew the symbol/scribble on the top photo, to the left and said "A"! If you look closely, it could be an A without the horizontal line. Then the bottom right figure is like a larger scribble of the original "A" - she again called it her "A"! I know - cheesey mom, but i can't help but be proud of what she does :-) Finally the u looking shape in the middle she drew and called it "J". She does know the alphabet by name and recognition from A through N - so, its possible she meant that, right? Im claiming it! LOL! This is going down in her "baby book". Today, she also successfully walked (not crawled or scooted) using the bar down the stairs all by herself. She used to try all the time, but suddenly stopped (although she walks up quite well). She has decided to start trying again and did great :-) Let's see, what other developments....On Wednesday we start a play group with some other moms from church. English speaking kids - yay! I am very excited and found a couple 2-4 year old and pre-school curriculum/activity groups for fun short lessons and games :-) I tried one with Hannah yesterday - she had to draw a line from the arrow to the star through a caterpillar's body. Did she do it? Of course not - she didnt have a clue what I was asking - lol! But she had a great time coloring all over it :-) She got a sticker for a great job! LOL

So, thats the latest. Christian is growing and very alert now. He has started playing with the 3-d gym (ie mat with toys hanging) and toys which hang from the stroller/car seat. Nothing major (he is only 2 months) but now watches them closely and hits them. Funny. he is just as alert as Hannah was and also tries to follow sounds he hears and loves staring at bright colored objects. He is an easy going baby, but loves to be held (more than Hannah did). By the way he is growing, I doubt he will be the tallest kid, but he will be stocky like Matthijs and my dad, I bet. We shall see!

I hope everyone is doing well. I am so grateful for the time I had in Florida and to those of you I was able to visit or who helped me. It was wonderful to soak in the sunshine, feel the wonderful humid warmth and simply enjoying eating waaay tooo much of waaay tooo fatty, yummy foods! (I swear I gained weight! - not from pregnancy, oh no, didnt gain anythihng - but 2 weeks in the US and Im porking up!)

New car :-)

Above are the pictures of our latest car addition :-) We are so excited as we have been wanting a nice little SUV and this one is just the right size with the best fuel efficiency of the SUVs :-) Meanwhile, for the past 2 weeks Ive been visiting my family in Florida. Its been fun for them to meet my son Christian. It was a last minute trip for my family and so I wasn't able to visit with all my friends, but I did enjoy seeing my family. The one backyard photo is where my dad put in a fence that allows us to enjoy seeing the unoccupied field behind his house. Its a great view now :-) I didnt have my camara and so have not taken photos. Its unfortunate because during Christian's first trip to Florida he was able to meet my family, spend the night at a condo at the beach (which was great!), sleep by a pool and enjoy the sunshine! I am sad we have to leave tomorrow but it is time to go back to see my hubby and daughter back in Holland :-)