Year In Review

We begin with Missy's visit east with her kids from approximately one year ago:






The start of Fall and Kris's trip to Cali to visit Colleen, et al.:






Our first Halloween in Hamilton:






Another great Thanksgiving in Vermont:





And a White Christmas at home with the kids; Claire and Ollie were both sheep in the church play:






Next post will include pictures from the current year!

Haven at One

S'mores at the lake

Hopefully a tradition that will continue each summer.

This Little Piggy

Claire loves playing "this little piggy" with Haven.

The 4th, the Indians, and the Flower

Each year at the Lainesville 4th of July, Claire tends to be the only Veenema who really gets in on the full experience. This year, she was a little out of place from the Ferguson-Sauder native american theme, but she was committed to having a costume nonetheless.

Claire's Ballet Class

Claire took ballet this summer and loved it. This is her participating in the "bravo" that followed each "plie" and "sotay" they did.

The Big H

Road Trip 2009

For our first road trip as a family of four, we decided to rent a mini-van - a Kia Sedona. We went down to New Jersey for Jeff and Liane's east-coast wedding celebration, which included a tour of a local firehouse. Claire loved it, and continued wearing her fire hat around well after we returned home. Here she is on the hook-and-ladder:

Easter Dresses

Will and Kim came and stayed with us over Easter. This was Claire and Sienna on Easter Sunday. After church, we went up to Gloucester for the annual easter egg hunt at the Browns, which was followed by Easter dinner at Meg & Tim's. The only wrinkle was a minor fire in Meg & Tim's oven that smoked everyone out of the house, and brought a fire engine to the door with sirens wailing. An unfortunate end to an otherwise great day.

In like a Lion

The second day of March brought yet another foot of snow. Claire was raring to help shovel.

3 shots of Claire

H-man

More of Haven...

The Mush Man

Just a few pictures of Haven at a super cute stage. We can't stop mushing those cheeks. He'll be 9 months in March.

The Artist as a Young Girl

This easel is easily one of Claire's favorite Christmas presents. So far, whenever we have asked her what she is painting the answer has always been the same: a snake.