Happy 1st Birthday Charlie!

Today our little guy turned 1 year old.
It doesn't seem possible that he could be 1 already. The days sure do go by quickly and we have enjoyed our days to the fullest with him.

He is a perfect fit to our family and we love him dearly. Charlie is an easy going little guy that enjoys keeping up with his brother and sister. He hasn't started walking yet, but I am sure he will be soon. He walks around when holding onto things and stands on his own in the middle of the room. I can see him processing the thoughts about walking, he just hasn't managed it yet.
He moves at a quick pace in crawling and covers all the territory he desires. Since being back in the States, he has become a champion going up the stairs.

Our family 1 year ago today

He is loved by all, including the children at The Village.

Charlie is great fun, full of smiles, giggles and keeps us running. We are looking forward to another fun year of watching him grow-up. We love you Charlie! 

Birthday Cake Fun

Charlie has his first celebration on Thanksgiving day

with grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles

This was his practice cake for getting messy

Thanks Grandma Susie for the cake!

Today, I made Charlie his 1st Birthday cake 

Charlie dove right for the frosting

you can see that he had both hands in the cake and feeding his face

 We had a fun afternoon watching him eat his cake

THANKFUL FOR THANKSGIVING

THANKSGIVING BLESSINGS!

We are so blessed to be back with our family during this special time of year. Our time back has been filled with so many great events, funny comments from the kids, beautiful memories made with our family and so much more.


This time last year I was very pregnant with our little Charlie boy and we were fixing a Thanksgiving supper with our South African friends. We gathered in our house for a great night of food, laughs and light hearted comments about having the British sitting around our table sharing a Thanksgiving meal with us. We have been blessed that our dear South African friends have embraced some of our American holidays with us. There are many traditions we have given up, created many new traditions with our growing family but have also kept some of those important traditions that we grew up with. Thanksgiving has always been one of those special holidays we have continued to celebrate and have always shared this day of Thankfulness with those that are around us.

But this time, this year, we are here to enjoy our mom's cooking, to sit around the table with our families, to eat a lot together, to enjoy the crazy family days, lots of loud cousins playing together and to embrace our new memories. This year we are Thankful to be celebrating Thanksgiving Day in Iowa.

Lindie making pie with grandma

Indian Hats for Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving lunch with my parents and sister's family

Liam playing with a few cousins

The late afternoon was spent at Brian's sister's house and we enjoyed Thanksgiving

Supper with Brian's parents, Amy's family and Stephanie's family

Charlie had an early birthday celebration

Lindie and Jael coloring together

We Are Back in The States

We have been back in The States for 3 weeks already. Our time has already been filled with so many great memories, good family time and a lot of traveling.

The kids did great flying and we were so thankful for that blessing. Even with them sleeping, coloring and being great travelers both of us were exhausted by the time we arrived. Brian and I both really don't remember our last flight from Chicago to Des Moines, but we must have taken it since we did arrive.

At the Joburg airport getting checked-in

Laurie flew out the same day and helped us get through security. 

That is no small task with 3 kids, stroller and bags

Enjoying the first of three flights

Our first five days back we just spent time with our families, letting our kids meet their cousins and get spoiled by the grandparents. We also needed those 5 days to work on getting over the jet lag that our kids seem to struggle with so much when we make these trips. We continued with our family tradition that started when it was just Brian and me by making our first return Wal-Mart trip at an extremely early hour of the morning. This time we didn't get there until 5AM, so not that bad. Still received those strange looks of "why do you have kids here so early". We just ignore those looks and comments and enjoy browsing the isles of cereal, crackers and picking out a new scent of deodorant. When re-entering the Wal-Mart society you need to go when it isn't crowded so you can shop at your leisure and not be pressured to hurry up when you are in someones way. It is a great family tradition. We also go to IHop afterwards and then usually a early morning nap after that.

We have been able to see so many wonderful friends already and have been blessed with two great church meetings. We have already traveled to South Dakota, Ohio and now we are in New Jersey.

A few great lines from our kids that let us know they are more African than American.

From Liam~ In August we had a team from New Jersey at The Village. Eddy is Liam and Lindie's best buddy. He plays with them every spare minute he has and they spend all their time together. Liam wanted to know when we were going to see Eddy when we went back to America. I was trying to explain to Liam that when we go back to America we will go see grandpa and grandma first in Iowa and then later we will go see Eddy in New Jersey. Liam very seriously looked at me and said " I don't need a new jersey, I just want to see Eddy". For our non-South African friends, we call sweatshirts Jerseys in South Africa.

From Lindie ~ She saw a deer outside and asked me if it was a giraffe. She thought peaches were mangos until she tasted it.

From Liam~ Liam thought a squirrel was a meerkat.

I am sure they will provide us with more great laughs and memories.

Enjoying the Fall, picking pumpkins at Grandma and Grandpa's Farm

A little bit of fun with the family at the zoo

Fall fun picking up BIG leaves with Aunt Mary in Ohio