Lydia and Alison!!!

Cousins! How fun is it for me to see all four of my nieces and nephews (on my side) to play together!!!!! Lydia and Alie are Joel and Carmens two girls....Lydia is 4 and Alie turned 2 in December. They are a riot. Lydia is so good on the phone; you can talk with her for 20 minutes no problem. She will tell you stories, sing songs, and ask when we are coming to visit!!! She had me in tears the other day...
Alie is full of life (to put it mildly). She is a bit on the cheeky side, and had to spend some time in the naughty chair!!! But really, she is so sweet and cute.

Sometimes, Leah gets mistaken for Alie's mother!!! They both have that bleach blonde hair!

Hannah Eloise Kinne

Here is Hannah! Patrick and Sarah had a little girl on the 21st of June last year...right after Evan! She is so funny...we got to visit them in Syracuse when we were in America last, and it was a very special time to see Sarah's first home and her first child. Hannah is quite loud (no real suprise after Pat and Sarah!!! I love you Sarah!!!) She is quite the talker when I call Sarah. You can see in the picture below that she does have some wierd bathing habits!!! When they were at a camp in Canada, they had to bath Hannah in thier cooler as there was no showers!!! funny eh?!?

Evan Wesley Huizenga

What a smiley child! Aaron and Alysa had a little boy, and he is so sweet. Unfortunately, I have not gotten to see him enough...the bad part about moving away from home. He was one year on June 2nd...and is funny to hear on the phone. He is so quiet, then all of the sudden he will grunt or breath heavy. Aaron tells stories of how mischevious he is...always getting into things he should not be getting into...a true Huizenga! I thought I would share some of my pictures of my nieces and nephew...I can't help bragging, they are cute!

such cute babies!!

These are our neice and nephew from Peter's side. Nathan is 2 and Rebecca is about 3 monthes old. We got to see them alot when we visited the Netherlands a few monthes ago, and we received these in the mail recently. I could not resist showing them to you...what cuties!!! My favorite is the bath...Look at Rebecca smile! She obviously loves her mom....Edwin and Flora (Peter's brother and wife) live in the Ukriane with these two little ones. They work with a mission doing a variety of different projects. Flora helps with street kids, and one of Edwin's tasks is helping in the local hospital. I wish we had had our camera when we went and visited them last year. It was an amazing place. So very different then any place I had ever been to.
I hope you enjoy!!!

The cutest little lamb

Isn't this the cutest little lamb? They are so cute and fluffy when they are born, but so ugly when they grow up! Lambing season is practically done, so we won't see any more little ones. It was a lot of fun, and different for both Peter and I...
This is an arial view of Blairmore, Peter took this from the top of the hill next to our property. The front part is where the guests sleep. Those rooms are very nice, hand painted and beautifully decorated. Toward the back is the newest addition, which would have contained classrooms during the time when this was a boarding school. We use them also for class rooms as well. Next spring, they will add a second level to this to add more bedrooms. We have quite a few courses that are booked to the full, so they are looking to add more space. Below, this is the front of the house. We have had such beautiful weather!!!

Pretty Flowers

Over the next few days, I will post a lot of flower pictures, as our garden is in full bloom. I enjoy walking through on a regular basis to see what new buds are coming out. I have the entire day to do what I want, as Peter is out helping a friend move today. and guess what I have done so far? Mended a pair of Peter's pants!!! oh well...I know he will appreciate it.
I hope you all have a beautiful day!!

A Tour of the Coast

A few weeks ago, Margaret and Trevor took Peter and I to the northern coast of Scotland to see all the small fishing villages. We went to three or four different towns, and walked along the rugged coastline. It was really beautiful. Unfortunatly, it was an overcast day, but we still enjoyed hiking from villiage to villiage. We started at Port Soy, and ended up on Cullun. In Port Soy, the harbour was built 400 years ago, and was one of my favorite places. It is sad to think that these places are being abandoned as fising is made illegal off the coast. These pictures are from different towns that we saw. Each one was different in its own way... We really enjoyed our day....

Random

I had been thinking lately that I have not written much, so I thought I would add two random pictures, and use this as an excuse to write! Of course, I had to add a pictures of a hairy, scottish cow and baby!! These cows get so big!!! The other day I was running, and a fance had been broken down, and 6 cows were loose in the street! They were not this kind, but 'normal' cows...but they were so big!! I was a bit nervous becuase one had a baby, and kept stamping its foot at me!!!
The one below is a potato Peter found from me in the garden...he is so sweet! The only bad thing, is that it quickly turned green and rotten...but we are not thinking that means anything for us!
In general, we are doing very well. Lately we have been very tired, as we have had some late nights and things here are a bit busy. With the new extension in planning, and a lot of courses, everyone seems to be running around on high, with little time just to be. That said, it has also been a great time of seeking God as a team. We had a couple come to join on staff, but it did not work out. Both them and our leadership could see that there was not a fit, and this was not the place for them. But having come from eastern Europe, it was a bit difficult with communication. I think things were handled in the best way possible, but it is not easy.
Peter and I are running again, and enjoying getting to run in this area, as it is really beautiful with the mountians and streams running. Spring is especially pretty if the sun would just stay out! It has been a bit rainly lately...
Well I think this is enough of me chatting...have a great day!!!

flowers and sheep....

Just what everyone wants to see!!! flowers and sheep!! Aren't lambs cute.

a few more dutch pictures

We were able to see a few of our good friends during out time in the Netherlands. from L to R: Peter , Liz, Lynn, Pauline, and Jan. It was so good to see these guys...they are truly some of the best friends Peter and I have ever had...very challenging and very loving. Plus, when we were in this cafe, a bird landed on Peter's head. It startled him, and he swatted it right into Jan's hair...it was very funny...These two pictures are from a war cememtary near Arnhem. This one was a British cemetary, and it was a very sobering reminder of just how many people gave thier lives. Europe still very much has these reminders of WWII...I found myself reading the names aloud. Most were between 19 and 25.

The picture below is from Zutphen, a small town in the east. It is such a picturesque photo of what a typical dutch town looks like...I like them very much! (note-there is a lot of water!!!)

I have been tagged!

I have been tagged by Katie (Marks) Keyes and I am to tell 6 random things about myself...hmmm this should be interesting....
1. Well the first thing has to do with Isla, the Harris hawk in the picture above. Recently, I 'flew' Isla with a friend of mine here at Ellel. Lindsey owns this bird and is training her for hunting and things like that...it was very cool to have her land on my glove and feed her (that part is a bit gross). She is a beautiful bird!
2. I was born on my due date!!! I am pretty sure that makes me special!
3. The only bone that I have really broken since i can remember is my nose, and I did it sledding when i was 8 or 9...I can still remember my Mom crying 'My baby!!!'
4. I ran on an organized running team (XC and track) for 10 years in a row and that makes way too many seasons, way too many pairs of shoes, and way too many early Saturday mornings for meets.
5. Peter's first thoughts when he met me was 'oh great another America girl.' It was not love at first sight!
6. My dream job is and always has been to work as a grocery store check out person....what is there that is better than that?

Well that is my 6 interesting facts.....feel free to leave a comment with one interesting fact about you!!!

Nathan and Rebecca

From Left to Right: Edwin (Peter's brother), Flora (Edwin's wife), Peter, Liz...Karen Peter's sister is sitting in the front holding Edwin and Flora's new 3 week old girl, Rebecca. Peter is holding Nathan...What cute kids!!! We spent 4 days in a vacation park in the East of the Netherlands and really had so much time to just play with Nathan and visit with the family. It was such a great time and I really enjoyed just being with the Brokaars. My dutch improved, but still could use some help...Here are some more of the kids!

Wedding in the Netherlands

One of the reasons we went to the Netherlands, we to attend the wedding of Reinier and Susanne. Reinier is Peter's cousin and as they are quite close in age, they have been good friends for a long time. Peter was one of the ones who signed their wedding certificate! How exciting...the picture above is (from left to right) Peter, Reinier, Arnoud, Arie and Maarten.
Rosa--Peter's cousin's daughter...she was alot of fun to watch
Reinier and Susanne (Reinier is SO tall, but he is lucky: Susanne is tall too!!!)

Passover Seder

On the Thursday before Easter, two of our co-workers hosted a Passover Sedar. Basically that is a celebration of the traditional Passover. We went through what Orthodox Jews would do, adding the messianic aspect. It was really incredibly eye opening to see how much of the celebration point exactly to Jesus. AMAZING. I felt that Easter was given a whole new meaning. It was a really great.

This is Heather, from Calgary. She has become one of our closer friends. She is alot of fun and kept us fed over Christmas...She loves to cook!
This was our table setting...proper silverware and crystal glasses on linen table clothes...we were pretending to be guests!!! Below was one part of the celebration that really struck me. The item is called ??? and is one piece of linen made with three different pockets. At the beginning of the celebration, three different pieces of unleavened bread (in this case, Matzah) are placed in the three pockets. During the feast, the middle piece is taken out, broken, half is replaced into its pocket, and the other half is wraped in a different piece of linen and hidden called the afikonen. Near the end of the meal, the children are then told to seek and find the hidden piece of bread. When it is found, there is great joy and everyone takes a piece of the afikonen...Could it be any clearer? Three pockets? one piece of linen? middle bit broken and found? JESUS!!! TRINITY!!! yeah...it was so powerful...I hope I explained it so you can get the picture...