Merry Christmas! I am home right now with the flu, which Cameron and Courtney also have. Not fun. We didn't send out a Christmas letter because I think we keep updated enough via this blog. We really enjoy it- it makes it feel like we are a little closer to you guys (like 2000 miles, instead of 2500!). I am glad that many of you have started a blog too- we all love to see new pics. It has been a year of big change for us- new home, new church, new school, new job, new peers... and we are all doing well. Leshia handled the whole move with unbelievable ease, and the kids were too young to really know what was going on. It snowed most of last week, and we got a foot and a half over Chistmas Eve/Christmas day. I chained up the recycle truck and had a great time blasting through all of the fresh powder. Then it warmed up, and the roads were flooded in a lot of spots. Once again, really fun in a big truck! Leshia had a busy week with taking care of sick kids, doing Alica Buiter's wedding flowers, and trying stuff on her new sewing machine. Until next time...

Courntney has to be holding hair to fall asleep, even if it is her own.

The elusive 3 headed turkey.

Our back yard (I took a shop truck home because my van wasn't cutting it)

Courtney's favorite toys: dinosaurs!

From the Archives

Summer 2003

Cameron with CoaCoa, summer 2004

Well, thanks to global warming we are having unusually cold weather here. It doesn't usually get as cold here as in Michigan, but the wind blows a lot harder and you can get five foot drifts from an inch or two of snow. Plus, they don't salt or plow the roads (they plow a couple main ones, but 95% aren't) so it makes work more fun. A lot of people run chains or studded tires (esp. in the hills). Up until the middle of November, it has been pretty close to 50 degrees every day. Lately, it has been in lower teens (maybe single digits?). It is supposed to warm up by end of next week though. I looked at MI's weather today, and sucks to be you.

Cameron lost her first tooth.


Cameron loves singing all of her Christmas program songs everyday at home. However, here's what you get at the program.

From the Archives

Christmas theme this week.

From the Archives

MacKenzie- flower girl at our wedding 2001

Brad, Chris, and I in 19something, somewhere

Funny Stuff

This one struck my funny bone. (memories of mom and dad hauling us to old peoples houses?)

Parade of Lights

Every Dec, Lynden has the parade of lights at dark with decorated trucks, tractors, etc. I spent all day Friday decorating it and drove in the parade with Cameron. It was actually a lot of fun and all of the kids got a kick out of Santa in the trash.

Cameron thought it was pretty cool that she got to ride in the "drivers side".

Hard to compete with some of the big guys. We didn't win any prizes.

From the Archives

Some excellent gift attending at Calvin and Bethany's reception: summer 1998

Courtney: Nov 2005

From the Archives

Cameron and Courtney Nov. 2004

Courtney isn't afraid of Bailey at all the first day.

From the Archives

Cameron around 6 months old

Leshia in Kindergarten

From the Archives

Announcing new feauture of our blog: "From the Archives." Every week we'll put up a couple of random pics from anytime pre-2008. This way there will be at least something to look at every week. Here's Brad and I on Grandpa Miersma's farm around 1985?Here's Cameron getting mad in Sept 2005.

Tiger Report

As requested, more bike pics. I met these two guys from Vancouver (Eastern European accents) and rode with them for a while.

I snapped these 3 pics on my way home from work last week (on the Guide)

These pics were taken across the road from our house overlooking Wiser Lake.

The farm and house we are renting.

Tonight's sunset.

Playing in the Leaves