It's 2013!!!

And I'm still adjusting to the date change. 2012 flew by, but I have to say it was a year full of blessings and challenges. And I am happy to begin a new year. 

Of course 2012 brought Kaliya and we cannot imagine a life without her! She's our sensitive little sweetie with kind of a sadistic little side lol! And thankfully she is in a better place than she has been for all of 2012. And this week marked a very special occasion...for the first time in her little life she slept through a complete night! 

It was amazing and I realized what a difference it makes on my energy! 

Of course that was only two nights in a row, but after a whole year of failed failed failed attempts at sleep training...and trying every method known to man...we are making progress! 

Yay for 2013! 

----

Kaliya and Farah having some bonding time 

Farah looks like she's enjoying the time immensely 

Shakinah is such a little Mommy and it's so sweet to see how she cares for everything 

Here she was watching a movie and she had to make sure all her "friends" could see the movie too! 

Everyone is happy! 

For Kaliya's first birthday my amazing friend Ruth made a duckie cake for Kaliya

It looked incredible and it tasted better! It was completely eaten within minutes! 

There is a possibility that I was mostly to blame for that ;)

 

1st birthday girl! 

-----

We had a lovely visit by Renger and Mari and their son Ben (Kaliya and Ben are 5 days apart)

And from Jan-Willem (we missed Moni) and Thijs ( Thijs is around 2 months old than Kaliya)

It was so much fun! 

And the girls were crazy about the boys! Uh oh

Here are all our little half breeds:

Thijs (the half German- half Dutch)

(Ben the half Filipino- half Dutch)

And my half American- half Dutch girls! 

(Kaliya was moving too much to be pictured) :) 

The boys! 

What cuties! 

Ruth brought me the most beautiful Roses for no reason and it made me so happy! 

I'm a flower lover...so this is always a very welcome surprise! 

One of them will announce that they have to go to the bathroom and then the other immediately rushes in too. These are the things you use as blackmail later on! 

We have a wild 2 year old! 

She is such a little girly girl when it comes to dressing up and wanting to wear make up and dresses, 

but this girl like to take risks and to run wild! 

I love this side of her and I praise her fearlessness...most of the time.

I have to admit sometimes I am scared to death. 

This time however she cannot be blamed...we were taking a family walk and 

well, we had a little accident with the stroller. 

And my poor baby bore the full force of it. Nothing was seriously injured and all is fine now, but it was pretty gruesome for a good 5 days 

Not so bad right?? 

Wrong! This isn't weird positioning of the camera...her face actually was completely swollen on the left side! Poor baby! She kept calling herself "cool" when she looked in the mirror. lol 

Kaliya got some top teeth! 

But they weren't the top teeth I expected. 

I didn't anticipate my daughter resembling Dracula! 

hahaha

Now if you know Dora the Explorer, you will know the Grumpy Old Troll

Shakinah loves him

and this is her response when she sees him

To give him a hug! 

----

We have had a lot of snow this winter 

And so we had our first sled riding with the girls! 

We went with friends, Victor and Tamara and their three children, Viggo, Yentl and Jip

and it was such a lovely time! 

Johan and Shakinah

Made it down the hill

My pregnant body got a little worn out from all the excitement! 

We also took a walk in the forest

And Johan and Kaliya got a little worn out from dragging Shakinah and I on the sleigh ;)

Look at my 2 year old cutie! 

Kaliya's favourite person is Ruth! 

It's very special to see how attached to Ruth she is!  

Shakinah and Mama made our first cookies together

Oatmeal and Raisin! 

And they tasted good! 

We had so much fun doing it! 

And we'll end with this!

okay, okay...I really liked these Roses! :) 

XX

Bethany