Happy 1st Birthday Quinn!!!

Yeah, our little girl is ONE year old!
Our baby turned into a toddler today. What a milestone. And hard to believe that it has been a year since the day she was born. I remember it like yesterday.

HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY SWEETHEART!!! 

The day started out with......presents. Quinn LOVES presents. She starts smiling and knows exactly what to do with them: rip that paper off.

Cousins Tess and Luke are "here" to wish her happy Birthday as well and watch her opening her presents. That is, on the computer screen of course.

Quinn is going to check it out. Even though she likes her present, the computer is still more interesting, especially when it's on the floor, within reach.

Tess and Luke and uncle Arjan and aunt Aafke also had a present for Quinn, so we opened that while they were watching.

A beautiful tea set. We can have tea parties now! How fun. Thank you so much.

And then there was a present from my cousins Karin, Martijn and Wouter........

.....which we opened while aunt Lia and uncle Kees were watching us on skype.
It's awesome that with skype, we can bring our family and friends from across the ocean closer to us in our home like this.

Quinn playing with her new toys.
The tea set.....

....and the keyboard that mommy and daddy got her.

The day was filled with unwrapping presents. What a blessed little girl we have.

We had a little party for her in the afternoon, so we warmed up the sun room....normally it's way too cold in there for Quinn to play in, so this was the first time since she probably remembers she was in there. First thing to check out: the pool table. How fun is that!......Her cousin Tess is probably a little bit jealous right now, because the pool table was her favorite when they visited us last May. She still asks about it all the time. Now that Quinn has 'found' it as well, I'm sure that once it starts to warm up and the doors to the sun room are open more often, this is where we will find her a lot! 

The hot tub is pretty interesting also. It didn't take much for her to climb on top. Now we have to wait for daddy to fix it, so we can go swim in it!!!

Back to the pool table, on top of it this time.

More presents when a few of our friends came over. Even though we kept it small, it was pretty overwhelming for her.

The icing on her big day was the Birthday cake. I had it made by uncle Mike's and they did a great job decorating it with her favorite character: Nijntje.

Not too close, but close enough for her to stick her little fingers in it and taste it.

A few bites from mom's piece of cake. Yammie........

What's going on at 12 months old:

* still the same four teeth, we're patiently wating for more to come through

* there are some days here and there on which her morning nap is skipped, but normally she still sleeps twice a day: from about 9 to 10am and from 1/1.30 to 3.30/4.00pm

* night time sleeping is off right now, she has the tendency to wake up a few times a night. Hopefully this phase passes soon.....

* her 12 month wellness stats are:

- weight: 19 lbs 2 oz (8700 grams)

- height: 29 inches (73,6 cm)

- headcircumference: 46,5 cm

* she is standing by herself and has a very proud look on her face when she does.

* she loves it when you chase her

* she babbles story after story. No specific words yet though except for mama and dada.
* she is always full of smiles and just a very happy little person.
I can't say it enough but we're so blessed with her. She fills our hearts with love and we enjoy every little moment with her.

Opa and oma are back in town

Just in time for Quinn's first Birthday, opa and oma were back in town to stay with us for a few weeks.

Even though it had only been three weeks since we last saw them, it was so nice to have them over. Especially with me not feeling up to speed, it was great to have a few extra hands available during the day.

Thanks for staying with us mom and dad and for all the help.
Can't wait to see you again (in real life) in August.....

Baby Everson # 2 is on its way!

Today we went to the doctor to get our first visual on baby Everson #2. Yes, after weeks of knowing we are expecting again and feeling pretty nauseous all the time, it still wasn't completely real until we heard that little heart beating at 170 bpm and seeing that tiny person on the ultrasound screen. What a miracle again. We're so blessed and excited to become parents again and for Quinn to become a BIG sister. August 16 is our due date, so we're up for one heck of a Summer.

Back home

Four weeks went fast and on January 5th it was time to go back home again.
After a long long trip with hardly any sleep (Quinn only slept for about 40 minutes during the entire trip, starting at 5am in the morning until 1am the next morning), we were finally home.
Not much interesting to say about the first weeks home. It took a while for Quinn to adjust back, she got sick with a cold, cough and fever and only wanted to sleep in our bed with me and I didn't feel too good myself either.......we were going through a rough patch for a good two weeks. But once she felt better, she finally accepted her own bed again :-). And daddy could come back to our bed again......poor guy slept on the couch for some nights.  

Visiting Neeltje Jans / the Delta Works

I thought it would be nice to head out with Ryan for a day and show him something of the beautiful country of Holland. Quinn was with opa and oma and I knew she would be in good hands.
So we headed west to the province 'Zeeland', to check out the 'Delta works'. The Delta works is a big construction project of storm surge barriers made to protect the lowlands from the water, because most of Zeeland is at or under sea level. In 1953 the dikes were in poor condition and too low. A major storm caused the dikes to break and the country got flooded. Many people died. Thanks to the storm surge barriers the risk for this to happen again has been reduced to less than once in 4000 years. 

The storm surge barriers act like an open dam. When the weather (and the water) is calm, the barriers are open so that water can flow freely. When there is a storm, the gates close and the water can't get through. Because of this construction, the environmental life in the water and around it remained the same. (If they would have closed off the gates completely, the salt water on the other side slowly would have changed and also the flora and fauna in it).  

The barriers are connected and on top of it is a road, acting like a bridge between the different land parts.

The part of Holland that got flooded in 1953 and the different dams that are build afterwards to prevent another catastrophe like that.

You can actually go into one of the storm surge barriers to see how it is build (above water of course). The major construction that is under water got explained in detail by video and pictures.

A lot of concrete got used to complete the Delta Works. If we only would have known about Martell.......