The van den Berg chronicles

an average Sunday in " the Crescent"

2011-08-22T06:13:00.000-07:00

more House

2011-08-22T05:22:00.001-07:00

409 DORAL CT

The Back porch BEFORE.

The porch in the back was just half finished. It had wood and glass on the one side and nothing on the other side. The wood was in bad shape and I wasnt a big fan of the glass so we opted for an all new composite railing that finishes the whole back porch off and keeps the kids safe.

before railing

before railing.

railing after

after railing ( they still have to throw the old one away/.

Side of the HOUSE BEFORE

the covered screened porch on the side looked really bad and opted to remove everything. We are going to turn it into a reading room/bar.

very crappy door.

the old screen had holes in everywhere.

after they removed everything it had already looked a LOT better.

The bottom part was built with rocks that Deon got from his new work place (Boral) We are awaiting the windows that will finish off the top.

Trim BEFORE

All the trim around windows and doors was chipped off and we painted it a rust color that ties in nicely with the bricks and the same color as the outside accent lights.

TRIM AFTER

window trim afterwards.

Garage doors AFTER

The garage doors was weathered really bad so we added a more durable treatment.

FRONT OF HOUSE:
the trim and door had to all be redone.

FRONT of house AFTER

the restained and repainted everything for a new fresh look and Deon is busy adding new mulch in all the garden beds.

we have this beautiful open area with lots of trees to the side of the house and we like to sit on the porch and look at all the deer come eat grass. There is a lot of wildlife and bugs here(most favorable but also some snakes-we havent accountered one yet but we have seen snake skins)

Arthur loves looking at all the beautiful caterpillars,lizards,butterflies,praying mantis etc.

Before and After's of the new HOUSE!

2011-08-16T14:15:00.000-07:00

KITCHEN BEFORE

I have promised some pictures of the new house. I will add them as I get finished decorating. I will do before and after pictures. The above is of the kitchen before. Didnt do anything major to it because I love it as it is. I just got some red leather chairs for at the eat in area which I love and using my red elephant planters on the counters. ( o and got rid of the christmas decorations above the fridge and added the winerack)

KITCHEN AFTER

ARTHUR"S ROOM AFTER.

I dont have a before picture. It was very purple. He chose the lilac room because it has a disco ball light and is exactly the same size as Isabella's.

I hate doing franchise type themed rooms but his Mario obsession got the better of me and I ordered some Mario bros decals to add on the wall and some Mario bros. sheets. He loves it of course and spend quite some time during the day in his room playing legos or drawing.

We like to sit at this table and build all types of Lego structures.

ISABELLA's ROOM BEFORE

ISABELLA'S ROOM AFTER

I have to admit that I had so much fun with this room. In real life the colors (lime green and turquoise blue) is absolutely delicious.

The quilt that I made for her when she was born was the inspiration of the room and starting point

I painted all the nursery furniture white ( as well as the outside rocker boat/table) because going through one brother as a crib, toddler bed and then a full size bed added some years to it and now it looks fresh and new.Above her bed I have black and white pictures of our family and also all the Oumas and oupas and Grandparents and some Aunts and cousins. I will add to that.

The tiebacks came all the way from my days on the farm when I started my first day of work. I just repainted them and they are lovely :)

Changing station

Story time and quiet time corner

Her quilt that started it all.

Will keep on adding as we get on.

some pics

2011-08-14T09:48:00.000-07:00

Hi all,

I am way overdue for a blog update and I am afraid today is probably not the day. I know some of my family who dont have facebook have been asking for pics of the kids ( especially for you LiL)

They are currently working on the house on the outside so as soon as that is done I will add some old and new pics of the new house. We are just waiting on the windows that will take about 2 weeks and then they will be done.

We are all happy and realy enjoying NC and our new neighborhood.

Love you all

Carin

Isabella likes to "groom" Roscoe

She is standing all by herself and are taking a few steps by herself.

They adore eachother.

Isabella likes to wake up Arthur in the morning

very curious little girl

Hallo Mommy - OOOOh I see you have a camera

Gotcha!!!!

She likes to wrestle with her brother and the dog and anybody who will let her .

early spring

2011-04-04T06:33:00.001-07:00

Pictures of October through February 2011

2011-03-07T05:13:00.001-08:00

so I finally have some time to update the blog. You have to excuse the order of all the pictures but thats just how it is when you have a dog , a child, a baby and another 30something child :)

Me, Isabella and the Rosenhamer girls.
The week before I had Isabella I was able to go for a nice birthday lunch with my 2 friends Kristin and Janine and all the kids at PF Changs. It was wonderful and all the kids behaved extra wonderful that day.

Arthur and his class during the halloween parade at school.

First walk as a 4 member family at five rivers.

Arthur was Hulk on Halloween..

our last outing as a 3 member family. Beerfest.

we went on a hayride.

Smoky the bear.

Holding her for the first time.

8 pounds 7 ounces.

Deon watching tv with the kids. I am sure here he is thinking of how life is going to be with 2 kids.

I was suprised to get home to a lot of beautiful flowers.

Ready or not here we go.

Sexy >>>>

The end product ( Ginger bread house)

Oops - why is she crying , Mom?

She was a very dark ( little jaundiced ) baby and if I didnt know better would have questioned the father :)

on our way home

sibling LOVE

Me and Arthur started doing the gingerbread house but Arthur ended up just eating the candy and the engineer in Deon fortunately took over from me after struggling to hold the walls together. ;)

Arthur did most of the tree decorating this year.

I was happy with our Christmas picture this year. To get the four of us and the dog in a picture with just 10 seconds of pushing the button is quite an accomplishment in the vn den Berg household.

At the ice rink

Dad and son time. Doing what they do best.

We went to Lake Placid the week before Christmas and was able to spend some wonderful family time in this wintery weather.

At the winter olympic musuem trying out the bob sled.

We stayed at mirror lake inn and what a little gem of a hotel. They had everything beautifully decorated for the holidays.

Isabella loved looking at all the christmas lights while we were enjoying our afternoon tea and cookies in the family room

I want a room like this one day when Im big ;) Awesomeness!!!!

Christmas day we started a wonderful tradition of staying in our jammies the whole day. This was in the morning and we all opened our christmas stockings in bed.

To Deon from Deon

first smiles

We baked cookies for our neighbors.

Dad and Arthur playing games on Christmas eve while mom is cooking some south african food.

Opening gifts.

In her bouncer.

Arthur walking in all the snow and playing while daddy was shoveling.

Pooped after 5 minutes outside in the snow.

Our happy little girl

He was waistdeep in the snow at some places.

We all went to the childrens museum in Saratoga Springs where Arthur had lots of fun. The have a pretend school, fire truck some experiments, a shop and bank for kids of all ages

We had a tremendous amount of snow this year. And from the first of January till March it just didnt stop. As soon as it melts there is another snow storm that dumps about 8 inches of snow. Our neighbor has a tractor and just started helping us out clearing out our driveway which helps a lot.

With Isabella I decided to give cloth diapers a try and I have to say I love it. I was wondering how the washing would go but it seems to work out fine. She loves wearing it and we have had no problems with diaper rash or Roscoe eating diapers.

and they are very fashionable. Great for the environment and also a lot cheaper if you add up all the diapers you would buy in a 2 to 3 year period.

for valentines day all the kids take 14 cards and then they come back with 15 cards from all their classmates and teachers. They also had a valentines day party with treat that all the parents are welcome to enjoy.

Deon and his munchkins.

Arthur can not get enough of Isabella and is very caring to her needs. Sometimes we have issues with too much love but who can complain about that?

isabella has turned in to the most friendsly and wonderful little baby. She sleeps really well and loves to check things out. She is one very determined little girl. She is rolling back to front and front to back with ease. When she is on her belly she likes to pull up her legs to inch herself forward. It also comes with a little frustration to try and do things that her body is not up to yet!

I have added two posts to the blog today. make sure to check out the next one too with beautiful pictures of our visit with the Meyers and Lake Placid.

these are videos of her at 4 month 1 week. She started that morning trying to roll all the way over and did not stop until she could finally do it both ways. ( you can hear she also makes a lot of noise trying.) Her determination was something to admire :)

The Meyers visits Albany - YEAH

2011-03-07T03:51:00.000-08:00

Our good friends the Meyers ( Tim, Beth and Thomas) came to visit us in Albany. We are so blessed to have them in our lives. The boys are the same age and grew up together in Mason city. It was fun to see how both boys have changed in the last year since we have seen eachother. Deon and Arthur went dog sledding in Lake Placid. We chose the right weekend for a winter weekend in Lake Placid.

They were covered in a nice blanket and rode the sled on the frozen lake.

Isabella started using her bumbo seat this month and likes to sit upright and get a good look at the world.

The boys taking a bath together.

Me and Beth.

All of us.

This is the boys after a long fun day in the snow. They went up on the ski lift to go look at the ski jumps and also did some tubing and played in the snow

On the podium that was used for the winter olympic ski jumps.

Loved swimming in the pool at the hotel.

We went bowling in Delmar. a very fun thing for our family since it was the first time for me and Arthur bowling. He still wants to go every night to go real bowling ( He has been playing wii bowling before) He had to make a few tries to throw the ball. Quite a big ball for such a small guy. By the end of the night he threw it with his fingers in the hole. Now all we have to work on is speed. It took a very long time for the ball to reach the pins :)

We had some cupcakes to celebrate Beth's birthday the day before. The boys got to blow out the candles.

spring and Summer 2010

2010-09-29T05:35:00.000-07:00

It has been a while to say the least. I will try and do all of our 2010 news in one post but will probably miss a few things. It has been a wonderful year filled with magical things like finding out we were pregnant in March, Arthur turning 3 in April, some of our favorite people from South Africa that came for a visit in the Summer, Arthur starting preschool and then the birth of our dear Isabella. Travels included Cape Cod, New York city, Lake Placid, Lake George, Long island and Newport(Rhode island)

The biggest change for me(Carin) was Arthur this year. He has come a long way especially in this past year. He went from a toddler to a growing boy with lots of opinions, big words and unfortunately a little bit of a bad temper just like his mom. He is very inquisitive and like to do things that involve thinking. He is very curious about letters and writing and starting writing his name without any help in the summer. He knows the whole alphabet and we spend some time in spelling out words. When he started school he also learned to ride his two wheel bicycle ( with training wheels) and he loves to ride around our cul de sac. He is suddenly interested in more physical things too. ( they have a 45 minute time in school where they ride vehicles out side or play in the gym if the weather is bad outside.) He seems to be very focused with things. he Loves to play wii and his leapster computer and figures how to do things all by himself. One of his more difficult attitudes is that he doesnt want help and gets really mad if we do something for him. I have recently also found out that he is a very sore loser. ( we are not allowed to win if we play wii games and he gets very mad if he isnt nr. 1) But it is a work in progress. We are enjoying him tremendously and 3 is a very fun and sometimes challenging age.

We were worried about how he was going to Isabella but he fell in love immediately after she was born. I do see sometimes it is hard for him not having moms full attention so we try to include him in most everything. Dad has been spending lots of time with him and it does wonders for their father-son relationship.

Deon is still busy at the plant with everyday challenges and victories which keeps our life interesting.

Isabella came into the world 2 and a half weeks early which I was very happy about since I was really miserable and out of energy by the end. The surgery went very well and I was feeling back to normal very quick.

The first three weeks she slept a lot so I could catch up on sleep. Month 2 was more challenging . She and Arthur is like the sun and moon totally opposite. She is also a lot more physical than Arthur was as a baby and have managed to roll from belly to back a few times already (at 2 months) Arthur only did this at 3 1/2 months. It is quite entertaining and marvelous at the same time to see a little human develop for the second time in a total different manner and you realise what a miracle God has created.

I have posted a lot of pictures and will try to tell our 2010 story through them.

This is Arthur in the beginning of spring enjoying some sun after the winter.

We went to see Thomas the Train and had a wonderful time enjoyed by all.

The Rosenhamers moved here from Minnesota( we were friends already in Iowa and Lydia and Arthur is just a couple of weeks apart) and it has been fun having them over for playdates and crafts. Arthur also stayed
them while mom and dad was in the hospital for Isabella's arrival.

we went strawberry picking with the Rosenhamers. Arthur ate more than what he picked but he absolutely enjoyed every bite.

He does like to build things.

Breakfast in Wyndham.

This was the year of the superheroes. Spiderman definetely his favorite but also interested in any type of superhero - Hulk and Ironman was other favorites.

One of our favorite places to take visitors or just have lunch. ( Lake George)

We spend the fourth of July with friends at sleepy hollow lake and went out on their boat to watch the fireworks.

Arthur loves their daughter Lorna and stays with her all the time with her when he can.

his first time swimming in the lake.

Roscoe getting a bath.

Lilian and Ernest came to visit first and we had a wonderful time. We Celebrated Lilians 50th and got a babysitter for Arthur and went out with a limosine and out for dinner. We travelled to Newport, RI and the boys flew out to Idaho for an airshow.

Newport, RI

Breakfast at Woodstock, NY

on the ferry on our way to Long island.

Arthur loved the fountain at this irish pub. They had lots of fishing poles and nets for the kids to catch fish.

Ice cream at Newport beach.

it was very hot.

One of our favorite places here in Delmar is five rivers where we go for walks and visit the nature center.

potty training!!

Loves his bath.

At Addison's 3rd Birthday party

This was taken at 5 Rivers where they had a summercamp program.

We called it Bug camp and Arthur loved it!

Definetely my favorite time last year was having my parents here. Arthur had the time of his life getting all ouma and oupa's attention for 4 whole weeks. He bonded big time with oupa who is definetely his hero after their visit. It was the hardest thing to let them go home. Arthur still talks a lot about their visit and things that both ouma and oupa likes to say

we stayed in a lovely house in Cape cod for a week.

Oupa had to read this book quite a few times to Arthur.

Oupa pulling the wagon to the beach

a lovely breakfast at the hangar cafe at Chathams airfield

Brazilian restaurant.Deon and my dag went deep sea fishing. They both had a good time and Deon still like to reminisce about it

After God 4 of the 6 most important people in my life who I love very very much.

(Arthur did not want to take off the suit)Big day in out lives. Arthur's first day at preschool.

They had to take a favorite soft toy the first day and Arthur took his gorilla.

February through May

2010-05-16T13:50:00.000-07:00

So much has happened since my last post. Time goes too fast and Arthur grows up waaaayyyy too fast and his personality has changed so much since a year ago. He used to be a quiet baby and very lazy - Now he is a very busy young man and about a day after his 3rd birthday he decided he is too big for afternoon naps and we moved from a 3 hour nap to zero which makes a huge impact on mommy's life. But I love to see him different too and standing up for himself ( sometimes too much).

We went to New York for valentines weekend and enjoyed walking around in the city. We took the train down to the city and Arthur loved it. He also took a good nap during the train ride. It was very busy and definetely the city that never sleeps - we stayed in a hotel close to time square and was able to get around very easily. We did a busride through the city and took the ferry out to go see the Statue of Liberty. Food was great. On our last day we went to the wax museum. The were some good wax statues but I think there is better wax museums than the one in NY. It did make us miss our days in Switserland where everybody walks or public transport wherever they need to be.

We came back with a huge blessing and are happy to say that we will be adding another member to our family end of October.

We went away for a few days to Cape Cod in April and had a blast. Definetely one of our favorite vacations. Beautiful and great food. Arthur enjoyed the beach and sand very much and was very sad to go away. There is a few quant towns that is very nice to walk around in. We were there in the off season and there was still so much to do. The room we stayed in was just a short walk to the beach and it was good to see the sun rise over the ocean in the morning. We will definetely be going again.

We celebrated Arthur s birthday the 29th of April and he was spoiled to no end. We were sorry that Deon's dad and Antoinette were not able to make the trip to Albany from South Africa because of the volcano erupting over Europe.

Friends of ours spend the evening with us and we had wonderful weather, barbeque and good company. Arthur loved singing Happy Birthday to himself. It was a dinosaur themed(what else?) Party. ( Dinosaurs is about to take over this household) We dont ask Arthur what he likes anymore. Everytime I go to the store even for groceries Arthur will ask with a sparkle in his eyes " Go shop for dinosaurs?" - No Arthur not today.

We are all doing really well and hope all of you are all doing well too. We pray for everyone of our friends and family all the time and thank God that you are in our life.

We are looking forward having Lilian and Ernest coming to visit in July and my Parents will hopefully come in August and September. We are very happy to have warm weather here and excited to explore the area more over the summer. Arthur will be starting preschool in the fall and he sure is ready for it.

Arthurs 3 rd birthday party

Spike the dinosau r is part of our family now and does lots of fun things. Arthur was too scared to turn him on at first but works the remote as a pro now.

Ouma Lombard sent him some spiderman jammies and he likes to wear the hat and play spiderman.

Cape Cod

whale whatching was amazing. We saw 2 different types of whales very close by.

the view from our room

our little guy was in his element on the beach

father and son with their fishing poles

wax museum NYC

easter egg hunting.

I had to take a picture of the above. I found him like this in my snow boots.

Our new life in Delmar

2010-01-05T04:11:00.000-08:00

Art's Art

( this is for my family who is not here to see all his art)

He loves standing in front of his board and drawing. It all began with these face a couple of weeks ago and he likes to draw trains , robots, his version of spiderman, and the sun.)

his version of a diesel engine out of the thomas the tankengine movie even with the pincher in the front.

His version of his favorite bumblebee robot(transformers)

Our new life:

It has been forever but I am settling back in the recliner and having some time to do some blogging. We are slowly but surely settling in. It has been hard with winter getting out. Life is very much different here than from Iowa. Very much suburbia. Not worse just very different and something I am getting used to. A lot to do especially with the little guy and also a lot of shows and lots of restaurants to try out. Arthur had a really hard time settling in and I had no idea it would be such a hard transition for him ( yet we didn't have a choice it was one of those things that we just had to do.) I am struggling because we haven't found a church family yet. In Clear Lake it made the difference for me from being new to being accepted and settling in , making friends. To be honest it took us about 4 months to find a church in Clear Lake too. The only problem is this city is so big it is a sea of possibilities for schools, doctors, churches etc.

Arthur is doing much better now and has been sleeping and taking naps in his own big boy bed for the past month which has made all the difference. It finally is home for him. Before he would just ask to go home yet we were sitting in our own living room . Clear lake was still home for him until about 6 weeks ago. I found a babysitter which makes life a little easier. She is home schooled and can even come babysit in the mornings if I just need to get out and Arthur loves her. I am hoping to get back to step aerobics too but Arthur didn't do so well at leaving him alone at daycare. Haven't tried it again in 6 weeks and will try to get him slowly used to that again. He did so good in Mason City at mops and ymca childcare that it was strange for me to see me child cry (scream for me) if I left him somewhere.

He is starting to talk up a storm and it is fun to see his whole personality emerge. He is quite the artist and I am amazed at the things like trains, the sun and people that he draw. He likes to cook with me and then loves to play with trucks, trains, dinosaurs and then his new thing is robots. Suddenly I don't have a baby anymore and I can see a little boy. It comes with a lot of problems too which I guess is part of being a mother and part of growing up for him. NO has become his favorite word. It is usually the first thing out of his mouth and then if he thinks the question over it might turn into an ok or yes. I just called his name the other day and he immediately responded with NO. We could only laugh. His new thing is he would laugh and then say " Oh its funny" or my favorite " mmmm--- I like it!"

We have started the brutal thing of potty training. Had no idea it will be so hard. Decided to give it a rest for a month and 2 and then try again. I still have 8 months before school starts and then hopefully he will be trained.

Work for Deon has been busy and he has been working late but spending some quality time with us over the weekends. We try to do a variety of things with Arthur and he is very happy if we are together as a family.

We were very fortunate that our very good friends Beth, Tim and Thomas could come and visit us in November and it made all the difference for Arthur to see his friend again. ( and me too) We did lots of things together and the boys had so much fun playing together.

We are looking forward to hopefully go visit Iowa in the spring. Nalini and Jude ( our friends who lost dear Roshni last February) are expecting a little boy and his due date is on Roshni's birthday. We are so excited for them and hope to go meet baby Joseph soon.

We are thankful for all our wonderful friends and family who we love very much. God has blessed us with an amazing life and strength and grace through our many times of transition. May you all feel blessed and have an amazing 2010

Love

the

van den Berg's

At the firetruck museum in Hudson

dinner with the Meyer's

our little halloween dragon ( unfortunately it rained a lot and Arthur just went to a few houses)

This is our favorite time in front of the fire doing art or read or just hanging out as a family.

At Lake George with his Davey crockett hat

Lake George ( so very pretty there and looking forward to spend some time there in the summer)

My first carved pumpkin

painting his room ( and everything else)

My most beautiful and healthiest birthday cake I received from my friend Beth.

Tim and the boys.

we went to a japanese restaurant and the boys loved watching all the koi fish.

It was fun seeing the japenese chef doing his thing on the habachi (sp?) table.

Me and Beth after shopping having a drink before the boys arrive.

walking around in Hudson.

Our down stairs bar. Deon loves it here and has done a lot of things himself even the painting :)

Having a glass of red wine in front of the fire.

making christmas cookie dough

Deon getting his daily exercise

Deon in front of a shop in Woodstock.

We took a short winter break and went to Hunter Mountain and did a lot of fun things like sledding, tubing and the boys went snowmobiling. We loved swimming in the outdoor heated pool surrounded by snow and watching people ski down the mountain.

We went to go see Disney on Ice in Albany. Arthur loved seeing Mickey and Donald.

One of his favorite Christmas gifts - his own bulldozer

Another favorite.

Their first snow man.

chocolate milkshake out of a big boy glass.

At the winter park at Lake George. We had fun going on all the rides. Arthur was a little scared of these giant cartoon characters and it was difficult to get him for a picture with them.

Arthur and pappa on the train.

Arthur and Roscoe taking a nap. ( they have been taking a nap together in the afternoon.)

We had so much fun at this pumpkin patch.

The moo moo choo choo

his favorite thing!

Friend of ours from Iowa moved to this area and this is all of us on our way to go explore Hudson. Arthur loves hanging out with the girls and it is such a blessing for me that they moved here. Janine and I were three weeks apart in due date when I had Arthur and we compared a lot of notes on pregnancy and raising an infant when they were babies which helped a lot since she already went through it before. They unfortunately moved away when Arthur was about 18 months and it great to reconnect with them yet again. Comparing notes on the terrible twos!!!!

Die Groot Trek!

2009-10-13T05:57:00.000-07:00

These pictures were taken the week before we left Clear Lake by Arthur's babysitter Megan and she did a great job.

It has been an eventful past 2 months. Crazy is the only word that will sum it up but we are safely here in Delmar and very happy in the new house. Deon feels settled ( as much as he is comfortable with) in his work and the house and environment is slowly but surely starting to feel like home. After 2 months of things just feeling like it is some days too much to handle (especially with Deon in Catskill and me and Arthur still in Clear Lake it has gone very smoothly since we have started our journey to Delmar almost 3 weeks ago.

A friend asked me to join her biblestudy group and we started today. I loved that I could be there for the beginning of this session and it is a nice group of woman. They do have nursery for Arthur and he did great in the new environment. Tomorrow I will be going to my first mops meeting and feel like I am starting to fit right into a schedule here. The house is unpacked and we know where most of our belongings are. ( The moving company did a great job at moving us) We love the area and it is very beautiful here. ( It helps especially because I do miss all my friends and church in Clear Lake very much.) It does feel easier to adapt though now that we have a child. It took me a lot longer to participate in things before we had a child. Now for Arthur's sake I just jump right in. Still deciding on a church. Have visited two and like both but will let Deon decide.

Me, Arthur and Mimi in Central Gardens, Iowa

Arthur loved helping me clean

Our last night in Clear Lake at the Meyers house.

(Beth, Tim and Thomas Meyer)

On our last night in Clear Lake Deon and Arthur spend the night in the hotel and me, Roscoe and Amy stayed at the very empty house . We left Saturday morning at 5 am and did 650 miles the Saturday and 650 miles the Sunday. Both Arthur and Roscoe did very well on the trip and we arrived in Albany NY 3 pm on Sunday afternoon. We closed on the house on Monday at 12 while the movers started unpacking. They were done unpacking and assembled all our furniture by 9pm Monday evening. We officially moved in on Tuesday.

On our trip. Picture below is of the boys in the back. Although the box in the middle is marked books it was much more precious cargo. It was all our bottles of liquor(the moving co. is not allowed to move any alcohol) The stepstool was for Roscoe to get in the car. ( lifting a 135 pound dog in the car is not my idea of fun)

We went to a cat auction the first Sunday here. ( It is all cat statues that artists from the area paint and is then auctioned off in October. All these cats are displayed in main street in Catskill during the spring and summer) Very pretty all of them. The cats end up going for between 300 and $7800 dollars .

The picture below was taken of Deon at the cat auction while looking over the Hudson River.

Our first breakfast in the new house.

Deon had last week off and we went to Thacher park and look at all the pretty trees.

They are everywhere even along the highway it is just trees everywhere.

Us at Thacher Park

The front view of the house.

Arthur and the dog loves the fenced in back yard. The soil is a lot looser than in Iowa and they BOTH like to dig in it very much. ( You win some you lose some I guess)

Will post some pictures of all the rooms in the house soon. Deon is currently putting laminate wood floor in the basement and I am finishing painting in our play/sewing room.

Talk soon and Hugs from all of us.

Arthur likes to play in the new house but our sleeping schedule is not going so great. He doesnt want to take a nap in the afternoon although he is exhausted and usualy end up falling asleep on the couch or in the car. In the evenings he wants to sleep in the BIG BED ( like he likes to put it) with mom and dad. I am going to paint his room like in Clear lake with the hope that he will fall in love with his bed again like he used to . The below video is of Arthur being stubborn wanting to watch Arthur and refusing to take a nap.)

2009-08-30T16:37:00.000-07:00

Update for August:

We can finally say where we are going and as most of you know Deon has accepted the Plant manager job in Catskill, NY. Although the plant has many challenges that he will have to face he is up for the challenge and we are excited about the move.

We will all miss Clear Lake very much. We have made wonderful friends here and hopefully the friendships will last forever.

It has been a challenging month because Deon had to start his new position immediately in the beginning of August and Me, Arthur and Roscoe had to stay behind in Clear Lake. There was just too many things to do and the temporary housing in Delmar , Ny does not take a 140 pd dog . But God has been good and we found a house that has everything we want in the area we were looking for. It is in Delmar and Deon will have a 30 minute drive to work but it is better situated for us to do things and socialize. I will post pictures of the house as soon as we are moved in. Delmar is about 2 hours drive from NY city, 2 and 1/2 hour drive from Boston and a 3 hour drive from Montreal. We have not taken a vacation in quite some time because of all the things going on at the plant and are hoping to take a week in October and go explore upstate New York.

I have been training for the past 2 months for a 5k race and was able to finish it in 32 minutes ( no walking.) The bug has bitten me and I am continue training and hoping to run another 5 k before the winter moves in. Here are some pictures of the past month Enjoy them!

Group picture at the Agape church.

My first 5k. I was very proud of myself.

Arthur playing at the splash pad at city beach.

This was taken at the Northern Iowa fair 09. They had\

really fun things to do for kids at this farm area.

BBQ festival "09

This is one of their favorite things this summer. Going for a bicycle ride after work or on weekends. I even join them sometimes and we go up to the lake and have dinner in the park.

Beth and Thomas at Garner pool.

Arthur has a fascination with eggs lately so I let him help me make scrambled eggs in the morning

and he does pretty good. He loves helping me cook

God bless

the van den Berg's

4th of July

2009-07-11T05:05:00.000-07:00

Pictures of the 4th of July weekend:

Summer update

2009-07-02T05:38:00.000-07:00

father and son watching penguins.

A favorite-Elephants ( a shame dinosaurs are extinct)

Ronel seems to think this looks like Deon!

this was taken on the train. The face says it all.

On the Carousel.

family maybe?

Thomas and Arthur outside the butterfly display

Arthur loved the butterflies but wasn't so sure about this one and being so close to it.

Its been a while again. Seeing that Arthur is still sleeping I will try to catch up. We have been enjoying summer but I have to say our weather has not been too warm yet. Arthur loves to go to the outside pool but we have only been able to go once since it opened. Either weather or schedule conflicts. We went to Omaha last weekend and we had lots of fun. We went on Thursday evening. Friday we went to the Henry Doorly zoo and saw lots of animals. We went on the little train and skyfari ( This was very impressive but kinda scary for me - Its like a ski lift that goes over the park and you can see the different animals from air.) Arthur found it so soothing that he fell asleep on it. We spend the whole day there and did lots of walking. It was good seeing all the animals and made me think of South Africa a lot. The dessert display had lots of similar vegetation and birds that we have in the Northern Cape and I thought about the farm a lot. They even had some meerkat's. The evening we went for Mexican food and to the water park at the hotel. Needless to say we were all pooped by 9pm.

Saturday Deon and Tim went to play golf while Me, Beth, Arthur and Thomas went to the children's museum. Arthur was fascinated with all the interactive things they had. We were impressed with the whole setup. Went home for a nap and after the guys came back from their golf ,me and Beth were off to shopping and a wonderful dinner at the Melting Pot (fondue) with some chocolate desert. The guys stayed at the hotel with the boys and took them to the water park.

True farmer milking the cow

He was very intrigued with taking the leaves off and taking out the corn.

Got to do some shopping too.
EAT

DIGEST
POO ( so true but equally disturbing)

He liked this ball contraption - He liked putting in the balls and followed it wherever the wind blew them through pipes.

Beth and Thomas in the sesame street display

On our way back from the museum to the hotel. Both happy boys.

Sunday morning we went for a swim at the hotel pool and packed up. We went to Cheesecake factory for lunch and some shopping and we were back home by 7. Deon went to go pick up Roscoe while me and Arthur just chilled at home. We really did have a good time and it was a good break for us.

Mom and Arthur in the pool.

This was taking at 10am on Sunday morning. Both were exhausted after all the fun of the weekend and just wanted to chill in bed .

Taken at Cheesecake factory in Omaha

At the home front things are still going well. We are still not sure where or when we are moving but will probably know in the next 2 weeks. I have signed myself up for a 5km run here in Clear Lake and have been training 3/4 times a week for it. Pretty excited about it. The other thing I have been up to is making bags. I have sold quite a few and the Clear Lake Arts center has asked me to make a few to put on display there. Deon is still very busy at work. The final close date for the plant is August 12 and it's round the corner. A small team will stay on for mothballing.

One of the bags and diaper wallets I made for the Clear Lake Arts center.

Today we are off to the carnival at noon for some July 4th fun. We are hoping for good weather , so far so good. The weather is sunny and not too hot.

Love you all and be good

God bless
Carin

Past couple of weeks

2009-04-30T04:58:00.000-07:00

I have not blogged in a while but thought after Arthur's birthday it is probably a good idea to blog today and put some pics of Arthur on. Let's see where to begin.

Deon has been very busy at work processing all the changes going on in Holcim. We are still not sure where we will be going or when but hope to get some answers in the coming months. It's funny how I got so used to it that it doesn't feel different to me, I am happy and comfortable and will cross that bridge when we get there. (this is very unlike me cause I can realy freak out about things - maybe I am growing up, maturing even - LOL.)

Arthur is getting so big and lots of good things is happening. Cannot believe the boy is 2 already. But with the good comes the bad - HUGE tantrums. I can sometimes just stare and wonder how can such a quiet boy throw such a huge tantrum. He does recover quickly though ( must get that from his mother.) but just the slightest wrong can ignite a tantrum ( must get that from his mother too.)

We went away to Nisswa a couple of weeks ago for a long weekend and we had lots of fun. We relaxed a lot. Went for some spa. Did some reading. Arthur and Daddy liked swimming in the indoor pool and Arthur liked the swing and walking in the snow.

We celebrated Arthur's birthday yesterday and it sure was a big day. Got up at 6 and took him outside to see his new playhouse. He calls it HIS HOUSE. After daddy went to work we just hung out and did the final things for his birthday party. I did all the baking and most of the food the previous night and I went to set up the Sunday school room for his party on Tuesday afternoon while Arthur stayed home and played with MIMI. After a good nap we went to the party in the afternoon and all the boys and moms had a great time. I am so glad I decided to have the party at our church because it was raining outside and just yucky the whole day.

Then the Mahaffey's came over for wine at our house and the little guy was ready for bed at 8. It is now 8 in the morning and I have not heard a peep out of him the whole night. He was exhausted.

Well and here are some pics:

With Daddy at Grandview Lodge Nisswa

Playing at Nisswa

Got to love this sight. His best meal of the day - Malt o Meal. He wanted to wear his daddy's hat. Notice the two different socks.

His Easter basket on Easter Sunday.

Easter Sunday lunch with friends

Petting the bunnies at the mall on Easter weekend. I have to

say that he was very gentle and loved them. Couldn't take one home though. Roscoe would not have liked it.Playdates with his best friend Thomas

The kids table at his Choo Choo party

His Madiba shirt that Ouma Corrie made.

( he wore the whole day of his birthday and did not want to take it off)

His new play house (Arthur's house as he says.)

The food table with all the yummy food.The Choo choo cake

The favor bags

He kept on sneaking some more icing every few minutes. Wonder if he will have tummy ache today!!!

Have a wonderful day and may all of you feel blessed.

Love the van den Berg's

Will Miss you Roshni!!!

2009-03-15T13:56:00.000-07:00

Roshni Antoinette Joseph

24 March 2008 - 12 February 2009

It has been a month since Roshni passed away. I have a few pictures here to show all of you what a beautifull little girl she is. We know she is in heaven right now smiling at us with no pain and suffering. Nonetheless we miss her dearly and wished we could have seen her grow up.

I had a very hard time at the wake. Although I know and believe that God knows best and that she is free now it was very hard for me to see such a small little girl go. We pray that God's will be done but is still hard to accept when it does happen. Her parents was so strong through everything - They really showed us what total commitment to God really is.

This was their last entry to their carepages( this was a blog that the hospital has to keep family and friends updated on patients recovery)

Roshni died in complete peace on Thursday afternoon, at 2:10. Her healing touch friends Aunty Lisa and Lori spent a lot of time with her, praying for her and Jude and me. So here's how it happened...
After her wonderful wagon ride, she came back to her room and nurse Krista and I gave her a nice warm bath. After that, she suddenly became cold and her pulses were hard to find. We had to put another IV in her to get an accurate blood pressure, and that took a lot of poking and prodding, poor baby. When we did get the IV in, we found that her pressures were pretty low. Her kidneys were not putting out the urine that they had over the last few days and a chest x-ray showed that she had a lot of fluid accummulated in her lungs that she was unable to get rid of.
I called Jude and he was down in Iowa city by 8 pm. We knew it was time for her suffering to end. She looked at us with weak eyes, telling us how tired she was. We told her that it was ok, and that we would miss her, but that we wanted her to be happy and free of pain. We stayed up most of the night with her, kissing and hugging her. In the morning, the priest came to give her her last rites. All the doctors and nurses that worked with Roshni streamed in one by one to say good-bye to her; there wasn't a dry eye in her room that day.
Close to 2 pm, Jude decided he needed a break from holding Roshni and went to eat some food. He gave her to me and she settled into my arms. After his lunch, Jude put his hands into Roshni's, saying to me "let's pray". So we started saying the Lord's prayer, and Roshni's heart-rate and oxygen slowly trended down. At the end of the prayer, we looked up and all the doctors and nurses were gathered around us. We continued to cry and pray -- "Lord, we commend Roshni into your hands." Soon all the alarms on her monitors were going off, and one by one, Nurse Kristin shut off all the alarms. Roshni gave one more sigh, and then she was gone. She looked so peaceful; she felt so relaxed and comfortable in her last few hours with us.

Just Pictures

2009-02-10T07:55:00.000-08:00

Yumm - muffin
He thought my snow boots was just the right size for him.

He loves to play with this garage ouma and oupa gave him last year. He likes to show me that the boo key goes in the boo door and the geen key goes in the geen door.

Thomas came over for a playdate last Saturday and this is the two of them watching jungle book.

Arthur and Mimi at our Church's Western evening.

running the halls in the church

riding a horse with Larry Schaffer

Arthur's choo choo room.

2009-02-10T07:30:00.000-08:00

I have decided to repaint Arthur's room and make it a train themed room . I painted the whole room blue and then did a train mural on the one wall.

I made a new quilt and appliqued trains on the squares, Changed out the curtains for blinds and replaced the drawer knobs with very cute train knobs. He loves his new room and I can hear him go Choo choo in the morning when he wakes up.

Where it used to be a sleeping room he also has some space where he can play while I clean upstairs.

Here are some pictures

He of course had to help and the above picture is his handywork.

I was lucky to find a light with trains and trasport on it and the colors worked perfect

as well @ Target. (yeah Target)

The new blinds creates more space and keeps the sun out while he takes

a nap. Easier to clean too.

The choo choo quilt.

Sledding

2009-01-23T04:45:00.000-08:00

Beth and I took the boys sledding today and did they have fun. It was very nice weather ( the first in a long time and you in South africa will laugh when I say it was about 5 degrees celsuis.- that is what we consider very warm winter weather.) It was a great workout for me and Beth too. Pulling up a dead weight up that hill is not the easiest thing.

Roshni's surgery went well and she is stable. We are just waiting now to see if the purpose of the surgery was successful and will only know that in a few days after she recovers fully from the surgery.

Love to all

Carin and Arthur

Roshni Update

2009-01-22T06:13:00.000-08:00

Today I would like all of you to pray for little Roshni. She will have another surgery this afternoon to hopefully resolve some of the issues that she has been struggling with ( Her vessels is still leaking too much fluid.) We pray that God will heal her and give the surgeons steady hands while they are working on her and for a miracle that Roshni will get well and come home with her mom and dad. We miss them !!!

Galena

2009-01-16T05:48:00.000-08:00

We went to Galena this past weekend and we had a blast. It is a very cute town with a lot of historic buildings. Like a fairy tale pretty. They have all these unique shops with clothes, books, food actually anything you can think of. It is just one long street with shops but it can become an expensive one street. We stayed at the irish cottages and we were all impressed. They have a pub, spa, pool, gym and library in the hotel so lots to do when the weather is cold. The pub was very unique. It was a pub in Ireland that they broke down piece for piece and brought it to Galena and rebuild it. The food is typical irish and good tooo!!! In the evenings they have irish dancers and a singer. Arthur loved the dancers and the singer. ( That is the only way he would be still .) There were great restaurants and I have to say we did not have one bad meal.

( Just Deon who wanted his steak medium-rare and was not there when the waiter came and I ordered it medium. He still liked it but couldn't stop the next day by saying it would have been even better if it was medium -rare - MEN!!!!!)

Here are a few pictures:

Arthur building train tracks

2008-12-29T04:26:00.000-08:00

Winter update

2008-12-19T07:52:00.000-08:00

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.

2008-11-26T04:53:00.000-08:00

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

2008-10-25T14:24:00.001-07:00

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.

2008-10-25T14:10:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-04T09:38:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-02T07:04:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-24T18:50:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-15T05:32:00.000-07:00

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!!!