Bat pillow

This black felt bat pillow case is so easy to make! I love it. Get the tutorial here.

Acorn crafts

I can't decide which ones to do first. We gathered plenty of caps and tomorrow we'll see what works out best.

The felted ones are from Betzy White (heart all her creations) If you want to make them from yarn try this tutorial.The tutorial for the fabric ones can be found here.

Happy crafting!

I'm getting ready to make Christmas presents. Seriously. No stress this year.

Getting ready for Halloween

I thought these Halloween apple ideas were great! Thanks, Martha!

A little bit of Panhuyzen summer

It's finally hot and sunny here! And we're loving it.

Laneah has been baptizing several bathtub toys but now it was Sleeping Beauty's turn. 25 times at least.We're outside most of the day: Eliam eating flowers, dirt and grass, Laneah dancing, singing and jumping in the water, me in the way too small pool, blowing bubbles or weeding. I am so glad that we have our own backyard.
This is a picture of our last trip to IKEA. Laneah just loved this bed. Funny how girls can be so girly without ever teaching them to be girly. No gender confusion whatsoever. Laneah refuses to wear pants and introduces herself to other people/children as "princess Laneah". Hilarious.Eliam has been standing at our living room table for two months now. He's a very curious and adventurous little boy and ready to walk on his own and run after his big sister. Any day now he will set his first few steps on his own.

Lately...

...we're spending most of our time outside and LOVING it. No TV, no mess inside, sunshine, water and sand...aaaaah. Good times.

We also went to the temple in Frankfurt and it was a blissful experience to be in the house of the Lord as a family.

My new blog

http://alittleparadiseofherowncreating.blogspot.com/
I'll keep this one of course, but only for family updates etc...
Happy Mother's Day to all Moms!

Favorites

Here are two of our favorite scripture websites for kids:

http://www.bomt.co.nz
http://www.scriptures4kids.com

He might sue me for it

Ha ha...poor kids. What they have to go through when they're young and not able to run away. But he can almost crawl! I'm so excited for him. It's too cute how Laneah cheers for him when he's trying to crawl. She even applauds for him. It's so fun to see them play together.

Big sister

Those two get along so well...that might change once he can run, talk back and catch spiders.

It's been forever

We started this year by going to the temple. The kids had the chance to wait in the waiting room and totally loved it. I feel so lucky to have a temple only a one-hour-drive away.

Eliam's first Christmas was spent in Germany at Opa and Oma. We all had chickenpox or the flu and the second toilet didn't work. I'll spare you the details...it was fun though. A family that vomits together stays together. :)

We just returned from a family vacation to Zeeland. Snow and beach was a new combination for me.

One of my favorite things we did during this vacations were the big rolling bubbles...so much fun. If you ever want to feel like a hamster - try this!

Merry CHRISTmas!

Dear friends near and far,

we wish you a very merry CHRISTmas and a happy 2010!

Love,

Stef & family

PS: We have about 20cm of snow! I wish I could be outside all day long!

Ready for some snow

Eliam is ready for a white Christmas. Now we just need to turn all the rain into snow. Laneah and I got inspiration from Calvin and Hobbes and tried the snow dance - nothing happened yet. We'll keep on dancing.

The future

I can already picture these two causing trouble together. Bugging the girls on family birthday parties, maybe even serving a mission together as companions like their Daddies?

Zip it!

I made this adorable friend for Eliam.

They're getting along just fine.

Be strong!

I made this last night. We're giving our YW journals for Christmas this year. I'm so excited for next years YW theme!!! If anyone wants the picture, send me an e-mail.

Oh so well-mannered

This is how Laneah eats her chocolate.

Here's the mini version of my husband

Zeeland

We just returned from a great vacation in Zeeland, the Netherlands. It was fabulous! Laneah loved to play in the kids pool, Daddy loved to play with the Play Station 3 and Mommy loved to hang in the jacuzzi under the stars. THE perfect vacation.

Eliam is born!

Eliam was born on August 29, 2009 after only 8 1/2 hours of contractions. We are so in love with him! He weighed 4000gr exactly and was about 50cm long. He was born at home and all went so smooth and well. Homebirth is the standard in the Netherlands and I had my doubts first, but the widwives are so well trained and skilled. It was really special to have a baby in our own home.

Laneah is such a big girl all the sudden and she is a great big sister. She loves to hold Eliam and kiss him, but she needs to adjust to not getting all the attention any more. But she'll do just fine.

The latest adventures of Laneah

I'm way too pregnant to sit here and write about all the fun things she does...pictures say more than a thousand words anyway, right? I just hope her little brother will come out soon!!!