REVolution

Ruben and his best friend Jens.

can you tell they are best friends? really since day 1 in Kindergarten they are attracted to one another. but they seriously can act like a married couple. they fight like dogs. they yell. they scream. they are drama queens.

but they LOVE to play with eachother. they have so much fun together. they are on the same level of stupidness and jokes. i love their friendship. 

lucky for me, Jens' mother is becoming a real great friend to me too. we live only a few houses apart, who knew? 

life is good. get muddy feed in Tulips fields is even better. Thanks Kirsten.
rev 

uhm. hello.

hello my lovely & sweet friends. i just wanted to let you know that slowly, very slowly i'm feeling a bit better every day. i can see some light at the end of the tunnel. there are some days there's no light at all. it pretty much is dark and i just 'feel' my way through the day. but lately, the better days are winning from the darker days. and that's pretty rad.

i want to thank all of you sweet crazies for sending me cards, gifts, flowers and the most lovely messages. wow, do i feel loved!

don't worry, i won't overdue my feeling good. i take my time. relax. chill. take it all in. and breating it all out. and these 2 uber crazies are helping me dearly.

{new game before sleep. in their pyjama's. imagine that}

so i just keep making cute stuff with my feet up. i've made a new crochet blanket (to die for, seriously), a lot of cute crochet animals (orders from my muppets, who will not give in), i'm doing a cute make over for Sanne's dollhouse (i play secretly while doing the make over ssst), lots and i mean LOTS of canvasses mixed media, scrapbooking and a few new patterns for a cute crochet doll. let's say these hands were pretty busy but they are my blessing. they drag me through this.

life is good. and it's getting better and better every day.
rev

snow freaks.

they really are snow freaks.

loving the walks with the sled and soaking up the good stuff.

life is good. snow is a bonus.
rev 

our summer holiday at the Beekse Bergen

our summer holiday at the Beekse Bergen (in the Netherlands) was fabulous! we had such a good time, and we were very very lucky with the Dutch summer weather (sunshine all week!). 

about a week before we went away i figured i wanted to do scrapbooking-on-the-road so i purchased this lovely tutorial from Ali Edwards. And that was just perfect. Lots of fun video's to watch, stuff to think about, and limiting myself with what supplies to take :). so i only got a small box of products and i was good to go. i didn't prepare the mini album, i made it all at night when the kids were sound asleep.

i was lucky to get some help painting the covers!

and it really felt so great to get my notes out at night, when my memories were still fresh. like i seriously forget the next day some of the most fun things the kids said or did. happy to record it all!

and the little girl got the at-night-scrapbooking-vibe-too. so cute how she made a page about 3 small ducks she saw that morning. she wrote "i saw these ducks on our holiday, i think they were 1 year old and that they were triplets, they were very cute". seriously, sweets, triplets? haha. so cute.

the 3 above pictures were taken with my phone. here's the album completed:
 

i so love shots from above for mini-albums. it just makes them extra yummy!

same goes for side views. ahhh the thickness...

i really used only the products i had on hand. the pictures were taken with my lovely Fuji Instant camera. perfect for this use! i used a maya road album, but ripped the sides apart so i could open it and make it extra chunky (it had standard binding). i simply wrote on the papers that were in the mini album.

i had to get used to the Fuji Camera though... this was a picture from the car of a gorgeous bridge. right. it's just white, but it's in my album anyway, cause that's how i roll. it simply belongs there. i still remember the view of the bridge, and that's what counts.

i added cards i bought at a local store. just to have som e more shots, but also to journal on the back.

added vouchers and brochures of the park we were at.

that tape makes it very lovely. and see that giraf?? see it??

seriously. when we did the Safari-tour it was (together with his friends) licking our car! the kids were laughing their heads off. so much fun to watch those dudes.

the picture i took of them in the lake after our dinner are more gorgeous than the ones i took with my digital camera. the atmosphere simply is more gorgeous when it looks 'older'.

i saved the receipts from stores and put them all in a lovely green envelop. i think that's fun to see in a few years from now. how much things will have changed.

Ruben took some pictures too. obviously. love the one he shot from Sanne near the lake.

 

Sanne rushed to us when she was in the water. she said she saw small fishies. she wanted to catch one with her hands. we laughed and said: sure, go ahead. big surprise, there she was holding that itty bitty fishie in her hand. i shouldn't have been so surprised. she usually pulls off stuff like that...

lots of words, but that's what this album was all about for me. getting it all out in detail.

life is good. jot it down!
rev

canvas love.

remember Corinne took some uber fabulous pictures of my muppets for Arjans 40th birthday? well. these canvasses are hanging quiet a while now and it was about time to show them off. they are sooo gorgeous. everybody who walks into our home is immediately drawn to them. gotta love that!

sorry i couldn't get a better shot. love it that my little clumsy muppet is in the shot there too though :). he's doing great by the way. he's totally used to this heavy arm with the plaster on it. hopefully tomorrow he will be released of the bugger and everything goes back to normal. if everything was normal in this house. ha.

life is good. show it.
rev

the dude. and his clumsyness...

we went to his favorite playground nearby for the sunday afternoon. they had a blast. arjan and i sat in the sun enjoying their laughs & giggles. and then ruben thought it was a great idea to jump of the climbing frame (klimrek) and he fell about half a meter. not much but he landed so unfortunately on his elbow/upper arm. i saw he landed yucky. so we ran towards him. he cried louder then normal. he could move his fingers and arm, so we thought everything was okay. we walked home but he started to cry again. and moan a bit.

when we got home he wanted to lie on the couch with a blanket. but he kept crying and moaning and his arm was getting a bit thicker. we called the weekend-duty-doctor and Arjan went to the emergency room in the hospital after consulting the doctor. i was about to prepare dinner (they were there at 5.30 pm) and i thought it would be nothing and he would be home in half an hour. 

but in the hospital they took x-ray pictures of his arm. and there was this swelling that meant (and was visible) a little tear in his bone. he was in pain and just to be sure and to fix it they decided he needed plaster. 

he was happy he could choose blue plaster! he was such a trooper arjan told me. really talkative with all the doctors, telling himself what happened and how he felt. love that dude.

they got home around 8 pm! and now he's lying in our bed, watching tv, chilling a bit. dude. what a thing to do in your summer holidays!! luckely we had our week away and we went to Movie Park Germany last friday. 

life is good. don't jump off climbing stuff.
rev

one very comfortable way...

to pick your nose!

he he. just like mommy daddy.

yesterday was extremely hot in the Netherlands. today starts even more hot, but we will be punished for that with thunder & storm any moment. can't wait actually. hot is not my thing. at least, for the weather that is. ha. Sanne is home with a bad cold and sore throat. tomorrow we were supposed to celebrate her birthday party with her friends. movie tickets are bought. let's keep everything you have crossed and hope she get's well in just 1 day...

life is good. get comfortable.
rev 

fathersday

the best part about fathers- and mothersday is the handmade stuff from the kids. and especially when there's an interview from teacher-kid involved. which reminds me i need to take those little interviews way more often! the answers are hilarious!

Sanne made 2 fun coasters for daddy's beer. he doesn't drink beer, but i like her thought.

Ruben had a flat package whith this lovely drawing on top! i guess his first real 'human' drawn, with hair and hands! he tried to memories the lyrics of this rhym, and with daddy helping he knew a lot of the words!

and this little interview his teacher had with him, made me laugh so hard! it's in Dutch:

my daddys name: arjan (true :)
his age: 30 (well... huge compliment there dude, he's 40 already!)
daddy is really good at: kiting and cleaning windows (hmmm haven't caught him doing that!)
he doesn't like this food: broccoli (well, he loves it, we all love broccoli)
he loves this food: potatoes and meet (true)
daddy loves to watch on tv: car race (so true!)
you know what he does secretly?: smashing the window and steal cookies and candy's (well, also haven't caught him doing that, but i'll pay attention now!)
his eyes are: grey with blue (true!)
on his job, daddy goes: working with computers (which is funny, cause on the office i'm the one on the computer usually and daddy is managing printers, machines and inserters which Ruben loves!)
his favorite color is: white with grey (sure...)
he goes to his work by: airplane (dude, he had to make it more exciting i guess. by car is boring right?)
daddy helps me at home with: make a home for our bunnies (true!!)
i love to do with daddy: fly to his job with an airplane (the imagination is king :)

so. i'm planning to repeat this again with both kids. such a cool inspiration for scrapbooking!

i got him this fabulous wallet, the same as Jules in Pulp Fiction. Even the whole passage from the prophet Ezekiel is in there, in case someone is bothering you.

life is good. let the summer begin PLEASE.
rev

fluffy heaven

friday we finally bought 2 of the cutest little bunnies i've ever seen. the breed is " Teddy Widder" and they sure look like alive stuffed animals! they are already very very tame. they come to you, want to sit with you and love it when you pet them. so. the perfect little buggers for our muppets :)

this is "snuffie" (i know in English this may sound a bit weird, but believe me it's more like "little sniffer"). it's a girl and she's very very relaxed and calm. exactly like Sanne. she immediately crawled onto Sanne's lap and laid her paws like this. i say hilarious.

and meet "Kuffie". that's actually something Ruben made up. and it makes me laugh. Ruben was a bit hesitate with Kuffie. Ruben was also very very tired after a long hour drive (1,5 to get there, and 1,5 hour to get back). we simply are not used to drive that long, so he was pooped... but Kuffie is very very nosy and already jumping around happily in his "cage". he's exploring everything. so his personality is exactly like Ruben. the fun!

 

so they sit here most of the day. petting, loving and talking to their 'babies'.

they both love to sit like this. for. like. evah!

and they are more the exploring kind. so fun to watch Ruben interact with his pal!

but this little lady seriously is too cute to be true. she really comes to Sanne and than crawl into her lap. i so hope they'll have this longlasting friendship!

and me? you simply have to forgive me for taking a gazillion pictures and posting them! i feel in love. with my 2 muppets & my 2 new furry friends.

life is good. lets hug!
rev

4 years, have flown by...

2007

just 2 days before the BIG bang. everybody was asking if i was sure it weren't twins... well. after all: i did gave birth to a twin, just the weight of a twin in 1 baby that is!

hello dude. first thing i yelled after he was born? "HE ISN'T WORKING, HE ISN'T WORKING! (HIJ DOET HET NIET!)". haha. i needed to hear him cry. so the doctor shook him up, just gently, and i heard him and relaxed. hello Ruben, i LOVE you to the moon and back!

of course i remember every second of his birth. it was a crazy birth. i gave birth on the big extremely big boy on 27th of April, 2007. and seriously he was HUGE. 5100 grams, 11.2 pounds or 0.803 stone as you wish. ouch. OUCH. it was a speedy delivery. and a home delivery. he was thrown with a loop into this world in 2 hours and 10 minutes. i still am in a bit of shock my body could seriously do that. my doctor was too. ha. he told me later on Ruben was the 2nd biggest baby he ever (in 25 years!) had delivered at home. ha. first kinda record set :)

Sanne was picked up by grandma in the night, so we i could yell whatever i wanted during labour, but it was so short, she could have stayed. grandma brought her home in the morning and she was soooo curious to her new baby brother. the cutest sight. **look at the roles of fat in his neck. tee hee. we called him bully"

she was doing everything we were doing. so cute to see her that little! my sweet little muppet.

chubby all over. everybody just wanted to touch his cute cheeks.

browsing through these pictures bring back so many good memories. i just loved to lay next to him. smell his newborn smell (nothing better than that), touch his soft skin, listen to his breathing and baby sounds. sigh. (noooo not going for nr. 3 :)

the click was there immediately. look at her proud face! and look at mr. Chubby!

haha. we couldn't make her happier than asking her if she wanted to give Ruben his bottle.

he was such a michelin dude, look above his nose. haha. loving chubby babies!

he was quite the attraction when walking outside. he nearly fit his strawler. 

2008

turning 1. and having such a lovely, sweet & deep connection with his big sis. playing together every singel day.

being very very fun just to look at.

playing, giggling, loving. those days were pretty amazing.

loving his bath. but for about a year (from 1-2 years) he was hysterical about it. one time we accidently hit the massage/relax bath and the bubbles started. it scared the shit out of him, and he refused to bath after that. it took us a year (no pushing) to get him gently into the bath tub again. it was Sanne who got him in with jokes and games!

he didn't only adore Sanne, but everything that was hers, was automatically his favorite. this is her favorite stuffed animal.

hehe.

he has such a sweet and contagious smile.

 

he loved her dolls, her barbies, her stuffed animals. anything "Sanne" got his LOVE.

mwah!

becoming quite the dude!

2009

we could walk for hours outside. i did that with Sanne, and since there are almost 4 years between them, i could walk that many hours with him also when Sanne was in school. precious times.

monkey dude.

 

at 2 he also got scared for quite a few things. he just loved to sit with me. made him feel safe i guess and i just loved sitting there with him, holding him, loving him, letting him feel all will be ok.

got in love with air planes and loved to point them out. loudly.

and their connection only got better and deeper. they just adore eachother.

2010

turning 3. made him a lovely airplane cake. he was thrilled!

he love to cuddle, play, laugh and act silly. with this face? hard to refuse.

and there was the anxiety of attractions. this was actually one that turned around real slowly, but he got freaked out. that' just how he roles. and that's ok.

anxiety but funny

very happy when he noticed this was something he wasn't afraid of and than he was all mr. Giggles.

2011

*picture taken by sweetiepie Corinne Delis, Delis Photography.

and now he is 4. four. he's funny. extremely funny. he's strange. he loves the ladies, especially the boobs & bottoms. yup. he adores Sanne's barbies (even got him one of his own :), when he's enthousiastic you can't hear a word he's saying, when he laughs everybody laughs, he can get you to say YES to anything in the blink of an eye, he's pointing out letters & numbers, recognizing them, he LOVES to eat, but has the same 'problems' as mommy (calle chocolate and cookies), his favorite color is blue, his favorite tv is cars or anything sanne watches :), he loves to cook or help me do it, he can ride his bike without the training wheels, and just like Sanne, he taught himself how to do it, he's allowed to play in the playground in front of our house by himself (i watch him from a distance :) and he can dance like michael jackson.

he's quite the dude, our little man. we love him to pieces and we are ready for this new chapter in our lives. the new chapter with more regularity. the new chapter with no more diapers, no more strawlers, no more preschool or daycare, no more Teletubbies (YES), no more toddler stuff.

2011 is quite the year i tell ya!

life is good. remember it daily.
rev