2008 Year in Review

Happy New Year Everyone!

Auntie Mirjam and Uncle Peter's Wedding

Well, we realize that again it's been a long time since we last updated our blog. Most days are just same ol', same ol', and thus the lack of news from the Breugem 3.
However, almost every day brings something new with Hadassah. She's growing so fast that I'm almost lamenting each day, because things are changing so fast and I don't want her to grow up. I guess the lack of blogging on our part is made up with the ongoing growing of our PicasaWeb Albums...

The latest news is that my baby sister is finally all growed up and married. It was a beautiful day and a beautiful wedding.

Frank

Haddie's Auntie Daphne...

To all those of you who might have an interest in our Hadassah's aunt Daphne, here's some for you...

2007-05-01

She stayed over one night, and got to live in Hadassah's world for a whole day. I guess it wasn't interesting enough though, she didn't stay over again. One night was more than she could take... :)

Our Christmas Card

Dear family and friends,

This year the miraculous birth of Christ takes on a whole new meaning as Frank and I are expecting our own little miracle in February. As we wait in expectation I have to admit that we have many questions and fears about becoming parents. But when we look to the Christ child, and read His comforting words in the Bible we have found great peace. Just like Jesus, our baby will teach us many things. God, in his compassion and humility, thankfully starts these lessons with a cute and cuddly baby that has developed love, anticipation and wonder for 9 months while in the mothers womb. We are very excited to start this journey. Unlike Mary and Joseph, we have wonderfully supportive family, friends and church family who are excited and hopeful with us! Thank you!

Our bundle of joy is expected February 27th. We have been busy getting ready for his/her arrival (we want to be surprised on the gender). In September Amelia quit her job at Stanislaus County Agriculture Dept. to devote more time to her schooling (my goal is to have my masters thesis finished before the baby comes, and now it looks like a reality!). This month I will finish up my last 15 units of classes and will graduate in May. I plan to stay at home with the baby. In October we moved to a beautiful home in Patterson owned by Frank’s parents and located next door to them on the cucumber farm. Now we are enjoying country life again with a great view of the foothills. Frank is still enjoying his job at CNP (California Natural Products) in Lathrop. Now that we are in Patterson he has a better commute for which we are both very thankful. But now our commute to church is 20 minutes long! We are still involved in community life at Westside Ministries even though we live in Patterson. For Christmas we will be traveling to Holland to spend the holidays with Frank’s extended family. All of Frank’s siblings (and their families) will also be going! We will be enjoying the holidays with family, sight seeing and attending family reunions / parties. Well, it looks like I’m out of room. Merry Christmas, and we wish you all of God’s best in the coming year! Love…. Frank and Amelia

Picture Day

Well today was picture day again. We are now at 19 weeks, 5 days... half way there! Baby Breugem is due February 27th, 2007. We took Grammy (my mom) and Oma (Frank's mom) to see the sonogram today... it was so much fun!

Baby Breugem

So, Everyone has been complaining about the lack of updates from the Breugem Family... Well, surprise! We're pregnant! Yes, it's not a joke, it's true. Here's the proof:
















Needless to say, we're ecstatic! We've decided that we don't want to know what the baby's gender is... So, you don't need to ask, we won't know... :)

My Pop

My Pop

Last night we had a lovely evening celebrating my Pop's birthday... He just got back from one of his jaunts out of state with a friend doing "bussiness". It was good to spend some time with mom and dad over dinner at our house. In traditional mennonite manner, I need to tell you what we ate, and that it was "yummy". .. Mom brought a new shrimp and spinach salad with a lemon and vinegar dressing (wow). I just learned how to make fish so we had pesto and garlic whiting fish, sauteed butternut squash and rice. For dessert mom brought four fancy 500 calorie miniature ice cream cakes (graham cracker crust, nutella, coffee ice cream and whipped cream). Went great with the vanilla nut coffee.

We bought him a years subscription to Car and Driver. Mom got him a gift certificate to the Bible Book Store. Funny thing, I ran into mom at Borders unaware that we were both looking for a book to buy for dad's birthday, but neither of us did. After dad opened his gifts and cards he sat back in the reclining computer chair with his arms behind his head and started listing off all that he was thankful for... for being retired and able to do work that is enjoyable and not back braking, he has great health, he loves his wife, he sincerely enjoys spending time with all of his kids (and one in-law), and all of his family is serving the Lord. "God's really been good to me", he says as he nods his head. I have to agree.

Last night

After writing on the computer for 9 hours and Frank getting off work late (because some idiot shot a CHP this morning on the 99 so it took him an hour and a half to drive to work which meant he had to stay late) we got invited out to dinner by Ruth and Derrick (Frank's sister and her husband). I was so happy.

We went to Hungry Hunter, (yeah) and I ordered some great mahi mahi with a fabulous ceasar salad. And for dessert we had an amazing ice cream cake with oreo crust and 2 inches of whipped cream, drizzeled with fudge and roasted almonds. My stomach wanted to explode on the way home but it was totally worth it. And the best part is, Derrick treated!

I take that back, the best part was going to their new home and playing Apples to Apples. What a fun game. It was a very relaxing evening and we had a fantastic time.... thank you Ruth and Derrick!

Well i guess its time for another update...

What have we been up to?

• we are both getting over nasty colds, its been two weeks now!
• we had a lovely weekend get together with Gaby and the girls ( friends from wsm) we drank rootbeer floats and they brought me flowers! I planted them in my window box
• Speaking of planting, my fava bean cover crop is about 5 inches tall. Im excited because the neighbor moved out so maybe now i can take over his garden plot too!
• I bought a book on lasagna gardening, im gonna try it.
• Ive been working steadily on my thesis project. Its coming along.
• We celebrated with friends Dennis and Megan last weekend. A sunny Saturday wedding, it was beautiful, frank was the best man (he was oh so cute).
• Andrew also came home for the wedding, it was great to spend time with him and eat moms good cookin.
  
• Andrew, mom and pops came to church with us, Frank and I helped serve communion so it was my first time ever to serve my family communion, and i got to hear andrew sing for the first time too (at a little family worship time sat. night)
• frank filed turbo tax and we are getting a big chunk of money back...whew! this will help pay back some of what we owe on his new transmission. God provided once again!

The fondue party

New Year's Eve

Also our first... last year I was at a church youth group "lock-in party",(hey is that an oxymoron or what) and Frank was eating fondue at his parents. But this year I also got to dip my prong with the rest... my first fondue party at that. It was great fun... we dipped crab, steak, chicken, shrimp, veggies and all sorts of things unimaginable.... and for dessert we had homemade Dutch delectables; ollie bollen and apple flappen (I know I spelled those horribly wrong but I'm still only on disc one of my begginer Dutch lessons... I love the lessons Esther, thank you again!) After stuffing our faces, all of Frank's sibllings left for parties so we opened up a 1000 piece puzzle in front of the fireplace and worked until it was finished at 1am. Of course we stopped for a 2 minute countdown and a quick swig of apple cider at midnight. Happy New Year all!

The night before Frank's sister and nephew moved back to TX... It was a fun night, but we will most definitely miss them!

Not very good pictures though, my lens on my Treo 650 was dirty...

Weston

We got to see Weston a couple of days ago... Isn't he just the cutest baby ever?! :)

So,... back from Kansas, back to work. Amelia went back to work for the month of December. And me, back at the daily grind... Here are a couple pics.



This is a view from on top of a hill outside Pagosa Springs, CO. It pales in comparison to the actual thing.










My lens was smudged, thus the blue halo effect, but this was our first evening there, eating at "Margarita's", a mexican food place. (Wonderful service!)


That's about all I have time for. Sorry...

Finally one from Frank...

So, we're in Kansas for the week. For Thanksgiving of course... what else would one do in Kansas, other than visit family, right??? Amelia's extended family lives in the Hillsboro area. I guess, coming from the Turlock area, and not knowing anything about Kansas, I had expected it to be somewhat different than what it is. But it is beautiful in its own right. When we get a chance (When I get Cingular coverage...) I will upload some new pictures of the area. It's been a fun trip so far. But then, what's not to love about spending some much needed time on the road with only your new bride and thousands of miles of undiscovered (by me) road ahead right? We've had a LOT of fun so far! ;-) Can't wait to post some more news in the future!

These are our only nephews, Jonathon and Weston.
Aren't they precious?

Had lunch today at aunt Joy's house. She made sour kraut and pork chops with mashed potatoes and corn. For dessert we had moms coconut cream pie! We were celebrating uncle Howard's 60th birthday. It was great fun, but I felt bad when I found out that no grandkids were invited.... I found this out on the way there, after I had just invited myself. What a rotten person I am! It's a good thing Frank still loves me..... you do..... don't you honey?

The previous pics were from Frank's brother's (Mark) wedding, which was on 7/3/2004.


The next few are from our wedding which was 5/30/2005.

This could quite possibly be one of the happiest moments of our lives.
















This is Frank's Best Man, Dennis (His brother is in the Army and couldn't be there) and Amelia's Maid of Honor, her sister Daphne.
















We had an absolutely AWESOME time in Maui!