Mariana's 8th Birthday!
Our little girl is growing up -- fast! She loves Jesus, is becoming an accomplished reader, still loves school, is learning to play the piano, and has big teeth coming in. Boy, that changes her look!





We started her birthday celebration last Saturday (Dec.1)with a trip to see the movie "Enchanted" and ice cream with Chloe Sylvester, her friend from church. Cute movie!





















Then our neighbor, Christina, and her mom, Pat, took Mariana for lunch and birthday shopping on Sunday.

Mariana's birthday was on Tuesday, December 4th. We started the morning by waking her up with 8 roses...8 roses for Mariana Rose! OK, actually she was so excited that she woke up 20 minutes before I usually wake her up on school days, and I had to send her back to bed so I could "wake her up". Grandpa Bakker stopped by to wish her a Happy Birthday and Grandma and Opa called.

Good morning, birthday girl!

We had baked special cupcakes for her class. She even said a speech to her class. She has to do one per quarter. Her speech was on Maebe, our Boxer. She did a great job. She got to wear a golden crown and the class sang to her and prayed a special prayer for her.







For our finale -- the one with opening presents and cake, we had hamburgers and hot dogs for dinner with the Esmeyer family (Grandpa and Grandma had to go to a class and came over on Thursday instead).

Oh yeah, got money to burn!

Music box from Opa and Oma

Pretty cake

New ugg slippers

Oh, brother!

We love you, Mariana!

Family Vacation November 2007

Our family was given an ENORMOUS BLESSING by some friends - a 7-day cruise to the Mexican Riviera for the four of us! We were blown away! And, of course, we accepted!

Christiaan and I had been on a cruise before, but the kids hadn't. Jack was so cute when we told them about the trip -- he said we should take our fishing poles along, since we were going to be on a boat, and all. We looked up lots of pictures on the internet to help them get a concept of how huge the ship would be...all the pools, food, etc...he didn't bring up fishing again.

We sailed on the Golden Princess, of the Princess Cruise Line. Beautiful. It was SO much fun! We did a whole lot of...nothing! Nothing besides eating, resting, swimming, eating, playing games, eating. You get the picture.

The weather was hot, and so beautiful. That was such a treat! So every afternoon we would hang out poolside with the kids. Nice to maintain a little of what was left of our tans.

We thank God for this unexpected blessing. He is our Provider, and He loves us so much. To give us this treat, not because of anything we did or earned. He just loves us.

Checking out the port as we leaveFather/daughter dessert on the balcony right before dinner - not bad!

Riding the shuttle to go walk around Mazatlan

Check out the name on this boat we saw...same spelling, too!Swimming...obviously

Fun in the sun at Cabo San Lucas

Shopping for stuff

What a long day!

Thanksgiving 2007

We give thanks that we were able to be together with the Bakker family, minus the Stirlings :(. We all gathered at Dan and Crystal's house. We had a great time hanging out, playing games, eating, sharing, holding babies, laughing and joking around! "Scattergories" was our adult game of choice. The kids enjoyed Jr. Monopoly and Zingo.











We thank God for our family! We thank God for His mercy, His goodness and faithfulness. We thank God for His love on our family, that we all share in His salvation and can share in the work that He is doing in our lives.
One of our favorite new traditions is after our delicious Thanksgiving meals (with Dan as master chef), we each write down 2-3 things we are especially thankful for. Then we go around and share those things. The kids are definitely included in this. It is such a sweet time. Crystal, who started this tradition, has kept our cards from previous years, and place them all at our place settings, so we can look back and remember what God has done and the things we were thankful for in previous years. What a blessing!

Since we will not all be together for Christmas, we wrapped up the weekend with "Christmas". So everyone got to open a gift. No complaints for that!




Dan, Jordan and their babies: Owen, 15 months and Morgan, 10 months

Playing at the park
Jack and Andrew

Uncle Jordan giving the kids a whirl

Christiaan doing uncle duty with Morgan

Owen and Morgan

"I love my pretty mommy!"

Dan and Crystal - still cuddly after hosting 14 people for three days!

First Day of School

School started TWO DAYS after we got back from Holland, and the kids did GREAT! Now they are both at Valley Christian School. Jack is in Kindergarten, and Mariana is in 2nd grade.

Jack got Mrs. Bennett as his teacher, and we are so excited because she taught Mariana in Kindergarten, and we love her! Mariana's teacher is Mrs. Handy, and she is awesome! Both kids were excited about school and ready to go (phew!).

Off he goes!

Does this kid look nervous about starting school???











Getting all of Mariana's supplies unloaded and ready to go. 2nd Grade has a lot more to keep track of than 1st grade!

Mariana and Jack's 1st chapel dress day (Friday). You can tell they have perfected that "natural" smile!