Tuesday, February 05, 2008

Family Pictures

Here are Emma's first pictures with her grandparents. It was so great that they could all be here at once. It was busy, and I think I only saw Emma at night when I was feeding her! Even then Karen, Peter's sister, stayed with us on the last night and held Emma when I was done feeding her...I think Emma will miss very much having so many family members around.



Sunday, January 27, 2008

fun pictures

Here are some fun pictures that Peter took. She is so cute to watch as she wakes up. She makes the best faces, and grunts and groans so loud!

More pictures of Emma

So one of the coolest gifts we have received is from my friend Michelle who I met in Amsterdam. She sent (from America) us a box of M & M's which you can see above...They are so cool. When I opened the package I thought, "neat, Michelle sent us pink M&M's." Then I realized they actually have Emma's name on them! Amazing...
Here is Emma on her first walk...which was about 2 1/2 weeks ago! I had meant to post these earlier, but our computer has been acting up a bit!! We really bundled her up because it was so cold...She slept through the entire ordeal!

Here she is again...we have offered her a pacifier when she gets a bit fussy, but she hates them! She closes her mouth so tight and won't even let you try to put it in!!! she is so funny!!

Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Emma Adriaantje Brokaar

Well, here are some more pictures of Emma from the hospital time. She is so sweet and already changing...I hope that means she might figure out the sleep is for night! Actually she is very good, and does sleep for longs stretches at a time...we are glad for those moments to sleep as well. The above pictures is her on the final day in the hospital, Daddy Peter bought her first pink item, her friend the bunny...it is very very sweet to see Peter so excited for his daughter.
Our first family photo! This was taken on Januray 3rd...the evening Emma was born.


This is the best picture to see her hair, which already seems to be a bit changes. At the hospital, it looked strawberry blondish, but now it is looking more and more just blonde. We shall see!
I hope to add more pictures soon, but as some might guess, we are a bit busy here at the moment. We did have our first ride in our stroller yesterday, and Emma already lost her umbilical cord, which is nice not to have to worry about that! Thank you to every one for your e-mails and encouragement...we think she is pretty special and look forward to showing her to you all soon.
Luv to you from Peter, Liz, and Emma

Sunday, December 16, 2007

My Baby Shower

What an amazing group of people! The Blairmore Team has gone out of its way to encourage and support both Peter and I during this pregnancy. Erica and Lindsey organized a surprise Baby Shower for me last week. It was amazing to see people from work together with a few ladies from our Bible Study get together and give an America Baby Shower. They do not throw them in the UK, so they had to get the details from my mom...it was such a special night.
This is a beautiful blanket that my sister's mother-in-law made for us...Ellie Kinne...It is the sweetest thing!
You can see I was very blessed...even got a Dopey Doll...

So cute, we got these little Tartan booties!!! so funny!

Alysa sent a package which contained EVERYTHING we would need in a diaper bag plus the the most amazing bag as well...I have it packed a ready to go...


In all, this was such a fun evening...I love surprises. I felt so blessed to have all these ladies there for me...God is so good.

Our Christmas Celebration

On Friday, the team here at Blairmore went out for a Christmas lunch before people started to leave for the holidays. It was a fun time of eating, exchanging gifts, and sitting in front of the fire. It was a long day for me as I am getting bigger and bigger, but it was so nice just to relax with the team and not have to do any work!
Here is a good view on my belly. I am 38 weeks today, so even my maternity clothes seem to fit tight now. It is strange to see pictures of myself because I don't feel that big, but I can see a major difference between these pictures and even a few weeks ago...
Peter...what a funny guy...hard to get him to smile nicely! This is our friend Pablo, in his kilt! He was born in Argentina, and lived in a America for 10 years. It was actually very cold this day, but I am now ALWAYS warm...and none of my shoes fit, so I have to wear flip flops!!! not so nice eh? Below are three of the girls who work here, Erica, Jess and Jenny...Nice to show you who we work with!!!

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

34 Weeks!

Well we are down to 6 weeks and I can't see my toes anymore!!! We had our 34 week checkup today, and everything is going well....the baby kicked quite a bit when the midwife pushed and poked to check out the baby's position. I now go every 2 weeks, and I guess I need to start packing a bag just in case!!! A friend of mine keeps telling me I need to do that because her little girl came 5 weeks early!!! We shall see...Luv to you all from Scotland

Sunday, November 04, 2007

Two big boxes....

About 2 months ago, my family and Peter's family each sent us a massive box full of baby items. Peter's parents sent over alot of cloths from his cousin, and loads of sheets, blankets, diapers, everything you'd need for a crib. My parents sent of a second hand car seat and each of my siblings added their own little gift.
A friend of ours 'stole' these boxes and surprised us one evening when we went around to play games. We did not play any games, but we spent over an hour opening these two boxes. It was so fun, but it also made me miss my family SO much. I am so blessed, though, to have such great friends here who were swilling to sit through an hour of us opening all these gifts. It was great and we laughed so much.
What baby is complete with out some U of I clothing? You can see I am still a big fan of the Bears and the Fighting Illini!!! Go Illinois!
This bib was by far Peter's favorite, it says 'All American Baby.' I can't even tell you how hard we laughed. We got another bib from South Dakota with this catchy slogan 'South Dakota, closer than North Dakota.' Seriously, who sells these things....
We got some really nice, really warm outfits for the baby..which is good, because they are predicting a snowy, cold winter. I can only hope!!!
You can see the massive pile of clothes we received from the Netherlands. It was interesting putting away all the outfits, we have Dutch, American, and British sizes...they are all different!
Some cute little outfits from America....
I couldn't help but show this pic, even though I look like a major dork...this was the other bib...Ski Illinois with a person skiing behind a cow...too funny! Below is another favorite of Peter's. My brother and sister-in-law live near Holland Michigan, and Alysa sent us a pair of wooden shoes with 'Baby Brokaar' written on them, along with some real delft made in China magnets. Again, we laughed so hard!

Thursday, November 01, 2007

Week 31, climbing Benn Rinnes

A week or so ago, Peter and I decided to go for a long walk on one of our days off. I am try very hard in my final months of pregnancy to keep walking, so I don't completely fall off the scales. So we decided to climb one of the local hills, Benn Rinnes. It normally takes Peter about 45 minutes to climb up the hill, and I had never been up, so I thought, this should be fun. Well, it was a beautiful day, and a beautiful walk, but we did not get to the top...it is so steep!
The nice part is that the walk is divided into three part, with a flat bit at each part...nice for picture taking. We walked up to the first part, which was not too far, and decided to at least to the second section as well. These pictures were all at that part. It was beautiful, because at that point, you are above most of the other hills, and you get this amazing view of the Grampian Mountains in the distance. Of course the picture don't do it justice!




Here is a better view of my belly at 31 weeks. It is a bit different doing hill walking with such a belly! It was fun, and so beautiful. we took our time and really enjoyed the views.

Lydia's first day of school

Lydia, Allison, and Molly with my brother Joel...on Lyd's first day of school. I can't believe that she is old enough to ride a school bus on her own. I think she really likes it, and you can tell she is ready for it...what cuties!


Thursday, October 04, 2007

My bump at 27 weeks

Well, here it is, my ever expanding belly! I am now at 27 weeks, and things are starting to come together as far as baby supplies...we have our crib all set up, complete with the mobile that I had as a baby! It has been fun, but tiring, working in our days off and evenings trying to get our new room ready to go...Luv to you all...

Wednesday, October 03, 2007

Alec again...

These are such cute pictures, I could not resist putting them on the blog. This is my nephew Alec, who is about 3 weeks old. My parents are out in NY now seeing him for the very first time.


Sunday, September 30, 2007

our car

I am sure some of you have heard stories about the car we owned when we lived in the Netherlands. It was a 1986, mostly white (one gray door) Suzuki Alto which had Bugs Life Movie stickers all over the windows. Well, that car lasted 9 months, and unfortunately, we have no pictures of it! sad...
Well, when we came to Blairmore, we had no car, so we used the team car. This was fine, but got a bit difficult since we shared it with 6-7 others. So when a friend of ours offered us her old car for free, we jumped at the chance to have our own car. So, here is our little car-a Ford Fiesta! This one is completely white and runs nicely...plus it has heat, which our other car did not have!
I realize this is not very exciting, but hey...oh well!