Winter 2011 in Pictures

Life in South Africa

Okay Danni is almost 4 and Liam is turning 6 this Sunday. I realized I have not blogged for 2 years. Well, a lot has happened since the last blog. We moved back to South Africa in May 2009. After almost 2 years back, we are settled. Kids are in a good school and Wilem and I are happy with our jobs. We survived the Soccer World Cup 2010 and even went to see some games at the Cape Town Stadium....awesome! We've enjoyed 2 Christmas summer holidays with our families already. We also live the real SA life with having a maid 3 times a week. She is also ready for babysitting whenever we need it. All is great!

Danni is 2

Today is Danni's 2nd birthday. She has grown so fast. She started potty training a little over a week ago and is doing great. She is starting to walk to the potty or say "yes" when ask at the right time. She is great with demands: "Go, Mom"; "Stop, Mom"; "Wait, Mom"; especially "NO, Mom!"

She knows her alphabet letters and can even sound them. She knows a few numbers, shapes and colors too. She is still as busy as a bee and never sits still. She loves to play with her Leapster 2 and is figuring it out all by herself, since she doesn't want much help.

She got her 2nd haircut last night. The 1st was just her bangs, but this was getting about 6cm's off all around. She looks great.

Liam still draws pictures when inside and catch bugs when outside all day long.

April 2009

It has been a while since I last blogged. Willem and Amanda managed to get their US Citizenships recently. Willem has accepted a full professorship at Stellenbosch University, beginning June 1st, 2009. Currently we are getting organized for the big move to South Africa. We also decided to try a 3-day potty training method on Danni this past weekend, starting April 18th. So far so good, except for the fact that it is already day 4, but lots of progress so far. Definitely not flawless as the book described it. Maybe mom didn't follow it to the "T". We are experiencing record temperatures for this time of the year, 97 degrees F. Last time we had temps this high was in 1906.
Thank God for AC's.

We recently went sailing from Sausalito to Angel Island on Aegea, Kagan and Irem's sailboat. The kids loved it and we had a great time.

We also sold our first house recently and other than being in a terrible economy, we feel pretty good about it.

Soon we will celebrate Danni's 2nd birthday and Liam, our big boy, is already 4!! Time flies....

Sausalito - Tumers

We went to visit Kagan and Irem in Sausalito on the 5th and 6th of July. Kagan has a new sailboat, Aegea. Liam loved the boat and wanted to be on the boat all the time. Liam also wanted to find jellyfish and got stung by one (that is what he told us, anyway). Danni just enjoyed mom's beer and didn't have a care in the world - the beer was luckily empty by the time she tried to take a sip:)

4th of July party

We had a great 4th of July party in our close knit community. All the big boys run, played, splashed and ate like maniacs and the girls did their own little mini crawling, running, splashing and eating. Here are some pictures of our last 4th of July in America.

Becoming a stay-at-home mom

I decided to quit my job at Epic-Wines to become a stay-at-home mom. I will be working until June 20th. I'm part nervous and part excited about the big decision. The kids are a lot of work, but I'm up for the challenge. I now have too many responsibilities and cutting one will hopefully make my life a little easier. Daycare cost plays the biggest role in this decision and it is best to not even mention what that costs us a year for the 2 kids....gulp! I just need all the luck I can get right now and the rest will be taken care of:)

Danni's 1st Birtday

Danni had her 1st birthday on April 28th and we had a small party for her on Sunday the 27th with just close friends and babies. We had muffins and fruit instead of cake and Danni loved her 1st muffin.

She celebrated her 1st birthday on Monday at the Daycare and had more muffins to eat. She started walking a few steps here and there a few weeks before her birthday, but fully walked right on her first birtday.

SA Trip

It's been awhile since I've blogged. In March we went to South Africa for 3 weeks. The flying was a trip from hell, since we had to take an extra flight and was delayed for 9 hours, but once there we had a lot of fun.

1st week we spend in the Strand (Cape Town). Liam and Danni went to the beach a few times. Liam loved catching little crabs. We also went to Spier to show them Cheetahs and big birds..they loved it. We also celebrated Oupa Vissie's 80th Birthday.

The last 2 weeks we spend with our family in Klerksdorp. We had numerous "braais" and went on a few game drives. Liam just couldn't believe his luck with seeing all these African animals for real. Danni turned 11 months and was everyones favorite little baby. The cousins played non-stop with each other and that made things very easy for us as parents.

Our flight back was again delayed, this time only 6 hours:(

Jetlag takes about 5 days for a 3 year old. We were very tired after the 1st week back, since we had to get up at 3am every night for these wide awakened kids.