Koot Blog: December 2005

... I thought I'd better write one last post for 2005. Let's start with a quick news catch-up:

As all of you probably know by now, opa and oma Blom have both passed away within 2 months of eachother. We're all so very happy for them that they didn't have to be separated from eachother for very long and that they can now enjoy their time together free of all mortal limitations. We do miss them however. We think and talk of them often.

opa and oma.. till we meet again!

One very positive thing that came from opa's passing away was that Michael was granted a few days leave from Iraq so he could be with us. He quickly arranged for Kate to fly over as well and we all had some time to spend together. Luckily Michael's time in Iraq was almost over as it was, and as of today he is safe in Utah where he and Kate are spending every waking minute getting ready for their wedding beginning of Febuary! We quickly bought airplane tickets when we found out what the definitive date would be, so we're flying over in the last week of january. Only 3 more weeks! I'm soooo excited.

Mike&Kate, Leiden, Sept. 2005

Big news for the Kootjes: We bought a house!!!
We'll be getting the keys on January 10th.. so we have a busy month coming up. A lot needs to be done do make the house fit to live in. It needs a new kitchen, bathroom heating, and new electricity all over. We have our work cut out for us... but I love having a blank canvas that we can turn into exactly what we want it to be. I'll post some pictures of the house as soon as we have the key. What I can tell you now is that we'll be living about a stone-throw away from mom and dad, and Lara will be getting a room overlooking a playground (her favorite thing in the whole world). The house has a total of 3 bedrooms, one small bathroom and kitchen and a good size living room. Unfortunately we'll have 2 sets of stairs to climb to get to it, but since we're born and raised dutchies, stairs will not be a problem!

Let's see, what else. Oh yes. Birthdays! Sander and Lara both had a birthday. Sander turned 26 on October 28th.

Sander, October 2005

Lara had her 2nd birthday on December 17th. She was spoiled very much, especially by her grandparents. She got a super deluxe play-kitchen from grandma Marianne, uncle Maarten and great-grandma Koot. From grandma and grandpa Blom she got a cute little table and chairs, a magnetic drawing board and a new carseat. From us she got a dollhouse and a pretty Christmas dress. She is starting to get into the "terrible two's".... meaning she answers every single question with 'no', refuses to eat anything you offer her, will only eat whatever she isn't supposed to, she likes to draw on everything she's not supposed to draw on (those bath crayons were the PERFECT gift Marissa!!) and she loves to poke her little sister in the eye. Her vocabulary is growing by the minute, but her favorite phrases remain 'oooh mama/papa stout!!!' (meaning 'oooh mama/papa naughty!) Here are some recent photos of her:

pleaaase mommy?

Silly nilly willy ol' bear

imprisoned :)

Thanksgiving '05

mmm, Jell-o!

Sinterklaas presents

Now the news on our cute little baby Julia. She is the chubbiest and sweetest little girl we've ever come across. She is so content and quiet that we are now completely convinced that we will have some extra rough teenage years ahead of us to make up for all of this sweetness. Her operation hasn't bothered her anymore but she hasn't been completely healthy. In the past four months she has probably had 1 week where she wasn't coughing. She's also had a stomach flu and had to have special re-hydration fluids because she wasn't getting any milk. Despite these annoyances she hardly ever cries. She does however, love to GRUNT! She grunts like there's no tomorrow and she has a grunt for every occasion and/or emotion. It cracks us up! She is now 5 months old and we can't wait till we get to show her off to our friends and family in the USA. Again some photo's, this time of Julia:

I can't move mom!

huh?

I've got my eye on you!

yay! more photo's!

Nijntje

Of course we all celebrated Christmas. Anneke, Jiska and Milenna came over for a couple of days to share in the Holiday Festivities, but I'm afraid we just made them sick. The same stomach flu bug that had started with Julia quickly passed on to everyone, including our visitors. Poor Milenna was sick as a dog on Christmas day, and the rest soon followed. We still managed to enjoy our time together and the special spirit of Christmas.

Mr. and Mrs. Clause

Santa's

Milenna & Anneke

Reighndeer

Presents!

Christmas Koots

Anneke & Julia

Xmas music maestro

Xmas bath after vomiting all over myself and mommy!

In Holland we have what we call 'Second Christmas Day'. This is basically a day we take to officially have a day off to recover from Christmas and eat all the left-overs. It is also often used to make sure not one side of the family is left behing... so we used it to visit Sander's family in Dordrecht. First we had a nice Second Christmas Day Breakfast though!

Xmas breakfast

Then we were off to the home of aunt Ada and uncle Piet and their daughter Nicole, where we had more delicious food!

Oma Marianne

Nicole

Feeding time!

Piet and Ada bring in the food

As you can probably tell we've had a wonderful Christmas. It was filled with happiness, family, wonderful food and the reason we even have this special day: the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. How blessed we are!

And now here we are, January 1st, 2006. Another year is over, a year filled with experiences, blessings, hardships and most of all, Love. We have so much to look forward to in 2006: a new house, and Michael's wedding to begin with. I hope all of you have a wonderful new year. We love and miss all of you and can't wait to see you in 2006!! Some photo's of the four of us, in case you haven't had enough of us yet *wink*