Past couple of weeks

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!!!

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

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.

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

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

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

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: