Arthur building train tracks

Winter update

Hi there friends and family.

Winter has arrived in IOWA and it is cold but white and beautiful. We had 8 inches of snow last night. For the family and friends in South Africa temperatures this past week has been ranging between minus 30degrees Celsius and minus 10 degrees Celsius. ( BRR) but the house is nice and warm.

Here is a picture of Arthur watching our neighbor removing snow in our driveway. They are so wonderful to do it for us. ( They probably think these South Africans are not use to it so they will do it.) He is a teacher and on snowy days like this schools gets cancelled. Arthur runs to the front door when he hears the snow blower and loves to stand and watch.

Last weekend we went to city park and pulled Arthur in the sled all over the snow.

He loved it and was not very happy when we tried to get him out of his sled and into

the car. Here are a few pics.

As you all know he loves to paint and draw and helped me painting some Christmas cards for

the family in South Africa.

This is him in the car tire ( I accidently drove over the curb and a piece of ice punctured the side of the tire and regardless to say we had to replace it.) Surprisingly Deon wasn't even mad at all.

Athur thought is was the perfect place to sit and read.

We are getting ready for Christmas and will be spending it here in Clear Lake.

I think Arthur is going to love it and I cant wait for him to open his gifts.

I love the stage that he is at now. His language skill are exploding and we

are trying to teach him English and Afrikaans.

He also loves to dance but both me and Deon doesn't think he has a lot of rhythm.

His motions looks a little out of sync but at least he loves it right??!!!!

My Christmas shopping is done and I just have to bake my Christmas cookies

today and tomorrow and I am all set.

We will probably go to church on Christmas eve and then do dinner and gifts afterwards.

Our church does a lovely candle service and I always walk out reminded

of what Christmas really is about.

Merry Christmas to everyone and remember what it is all about.

God bless

Deon, Carin, Arthur and of course Roscoe

Fall.

I have been so bad at not posting anything so hopefully get everyone updated with this one post.

We had a wonderful halloween. The weather was perfect, Arthur looked very adorable and he had a great time trick or treating. It sure was a busy night for trick-or-treater's and definitely the busiest we have ever seen it. ( I think it was nice because this year it fell on a friday and the weather was just perfect too.)

We went to the library in the morning for story hour and Arthur had a ball roaring around at everybody. Here is a picture of him in the little boat.

and here is some pictures of the trick or treating.

Our friend Roshni is still in the hospital so we will be driving down to Iowa city on Thursday to go visit her. She had another procedure done yesterday and is doing OK. We will be spending Thanksgiving there and will drive back Friday afternoon. We are excited to go see her and her parents. We haven't seen them in a month. ( Nalini, Jude and Roshni is part of our extended family.)
Winter has been creeping up on us and it is already very cold. Our days of going for a nice long walk is over and it seems like my child isn't as interested in the stroller as he used to be. I got him all snuggled up yesterday seeing that the sun did shine and we went for a long walk. He did wonderful for the first half hour and then he wanted to stand up and get out. He walked the last couple of blocks by pushing the stroller. It was fun to be outside again. He does pretty well with keeping his hat and gloves on. ( the gloves doesn't stay on as long but the hat doesn't bother him at all.)

Will talk soon - Have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Freaky EYE

I thought I would add my freaky eye picture. They dialated my one eye at the eye clinic this week and I thought that it looked freaky so I took this picture of myself.

Hi there Friends and Family,


I know it has been a while. Here winter is creeping up on us and I am dreading the cold weather and the staying inside. Somehow I think we will be fine though, We have so many things going on during the week that at least we will get out. But there is nothing I hate more than to force a bundled up child into a car seat. Arthur isn't even fussy when putting him in but it is such a struggle when they are so bundled up that you can only recognise the pure little cute face.


We went shopping today with dad and Arthur got a cute little snow suit that will hopefully keep him dry on the days that we play outside in the snow with Roscoe - all we need now is a little pull sled.



Deon was away on business this week and me and Arthur got to hang out again. Beth and Thomas came over for a play date and the kids ( and us) had lots of fun. Here is a short clip of the 2 rowing in the boat.

and a picture of Beth and the 2 boys.

For those of you who remember Roshni ( The little girl who had the heart surgery) - she is doing really well and getting better each day. She has been in the hospital for a month now and they finally closed her chest this past Thursday and all her numbers are holding steady. We can't wait for her to come home. It might be a while still.

Today I am going to help out at a wedding and the rest of the weekend we will just chill. If the weather holds up we might drive down to Austin to a pumpkin Patch. For us South Africans it will be a new experience.

Love you all.

Carin, Deon and Arthur

Arthur washing

This is a short clip of Arthur washing the windows. He loves helping his mamma cleaning the windows ( It's usualy more of a mess than anything else but at least he's trying and it is lots of fun watching him.

This one is from Arthur helping to dust about a month ago.

Roshni

So our friends baby , Roshni had her surgery last Thursday and wasn't doing so well after the surgery she had to have surgery again on Saturday morning at 2 am but because of lots of prayers from strangers and friends all over the world she is doing much better and is stable and her little body is on the mend. Deon went through on Sunday and took Jude's parents with him to visit. If everything goes well we will drive down this coming Sunday to go visit her.

Here is a picture of her and Nalini just before the surgery.

isn't she the sweetest little thing?

On Tuesday Megan ( Arthur's favorite babysitter) came to take pictures of Arthur in the backyard for a photography picture.She did a great job and here is a few of my favorites.

and here is Roscoe of course.

I am on the run again. I am almost done with the nursery at church. I received the new picnic table yesterday and all that needs to be done now is the new carpet and the mural.

Love ya all and speak soon!!!!

busy week

It has been a while since I have posted. I had my first MOPS ( moms of preschoolers) meeting last Wednesday and everybody had a wonderful time. I agreed to be a discussion group leader and wondered how I would deal with the situation but I have a fun group and everything worked out just fine. We made a fun noteboard in activity and had some carnival food (yum!!!)

I have been going to a step/dance aerobics class for the past 3 weeks and I absolutely love it. It is between 10:30 and 11:30 on a monday and wednesday. Arthur goes to daycare there and is starting to say "pay - Pay" ( his version of play) when we arrive in the parking lot. There is 4 other moms in the class that have kids about Arthur's age. He is very relaxed and the caretakers always comment on how easy-going he is. ( yeah right - they haven't heard him when he doesn't get what he wants - guess he is entering the terrible two's at 18 months.)

The weekend we didn't do to much. Deon worked half of Saturday and Sunday to put in the screen door and admitted the he realized it was a much bigger job than what he thought.
But it looks great and I am quite impressed. ( Dit is op sulke dae wat ons Jakob en Sara baie mis want hier is arbeid baie duur en dit wat jy self kan doen , doen jy maar - Ons is nie baie handig nie so dit is nie veel nie.)

We are redecorating the nursery at church and it is about time. I cleaned out there this week. Me and Carol will wash all the toys tomorrow and will paint the walls next week. We will also get new carpet in in about two weeks time. My good friend Marj donated a new picnic table for the kids and they are going to love it. Will post pics of the new nursery when we are done.
I need to go sleep now - Good night!!!!

Our first attempt at Blogging

So after reading blogs from friends over the years I thought I would be good to start one so that family ( seeing that they are thousands of miles away) and friends everywhere could keep up with our lives here in the States. Hopefully Ouma, Oupa , grandpa and all the ooms and tannies can see him grow up through reading the blog

It is Monday morning and Arthur is still sleeping. We had quite the exciting weekend. On Saturday we had an international dinner at our house and we had friends from Mexico ( Marisela and Jose with their 3 kids- Michelle, Roderigo and Meso) and friends from India and Sri Lanka ( Jude and Nalini ) Unfortunately Roshni (Jude and Nalini's 6 month old daughter) couldnt make it. She is getting ready for surgery in 10 days time and she needs to rest out for the big surgery and stayed with grandma and grandpa.( Please pray for her and also her parents for good surgery and a quick and favorable recovery) We had food from South Africa, Mexico, Sri Lanka, India and America. I made vetkoeke, kerrie sosaties and off course Malva pudding.

Good food, wine and friends are always a recipe for a good time. We had such a good time that I didn't take a lot of pictures but here are a few.

This is Arthur, Michelle and Rodrigo playing golf in the kitchen.

Jude and Jose

Deon busy "braai" ing.

Deon had to work the whole Sunday and me and Arthur went to Sunday school and then church. The rest of the day we just hanged out with Roscoe . The weather was rainy so we all had to stay inside. We did attempt a walk in the afternoon with the stroller, Arthur and the dog but only went round the block.
Today we are off to the YMCA for cardio jam and Arthur is going to daycare there. ( Arthur loves playing with the other kids )

Talk soon!!!