Nothing Better

Today we made vanilla wafers. They weren't exactly like the kind out of the box, but still, they're good. Asher "helped" by licking off the spatula. He ended up licking a few balls of dough so I had to take them off the pan. He got to eat one of them and I ate the rest. ;)

taking his job very seriously

Van Maanen Family Christmas

On January 17th Jonathan's family came to celebrate Christmas. It's kind of nice to do it after the holiday rush because you can hit the great "after Christmas" sales...even though I still waited until the last minute to do my shopping.

We had our meal, opened gifts and hung out together at Country Inn and Suites. It was nice to have space of our own. And we could just let the little people run.

Jonathan took Asher and Kristin took Adriana swimming. The water wasn't very warm so they weren't in the pool for too long. I still don't think Asher was ready to leave the pool. Then the ladies put the kiddies to sleep and the guys played games. We had a nice time together.


On Sunday, we went to church together and then we ate leftovers at our house. Some visited and others played games. It's always fun to get together with Jonathan's family. Wish we could do it more often.

You can see more pictures by clicking on the album (in the right-hand column) entitled: 2008 Van Maanen Christmas.

Family Style

Hey friends and family. I know that many of you haven't seen Will and Jaelyn (my nephew and niece from Washington) in a while so I thought I'd post some pictures that my parents took in December when they went for a visit. Of course, Andrea and Jeremiah were there too, but Papa and Nana have more pictures of the kids than of them. And Andrea and Jeremiah don't change as fast as the littles do. Enjoy the pics.

Closing Out the Year

Here are a few more pictures of the boys before I close the 2008 albums. I'll be creating a new 2009 album for each boy so you can look forward to another great year full of pictures.

Here's Asher with the glasses I used to wear when I was in second grade. Pretty funny, huh?!

Here's Asher with a balloon under his shirt and one in the back of his pants. He had fun at Kristi's party with the Henderson kids. The balloons were great entertainment for them.

Here's our hamball in the back ground. So funny how he loves to laugh.

Celebrating Six Years

Yay us!!