Anton's Baptism

Last Sunday we had baptism for Anton along with four other babies recently born in our church. We had a beautiful day to celebrate and enjoyed having lunch with our family and friends.
Here are a few pictures from his special day.

Anton in his baptism outfit.

During the service.

All five families.

Our first family picture after Anton was born.

One with just Mom and Dad.

Anton with his cousin Adalli.

Elijah, Amelia, Ethan & Anton

Kids looking for frogs after lunch.

Grandpa on lifeguard duty. :)

Planting Corn

Last week Mark planted corn around our house. It's so nice to have him working around the house so we can walk out the door and go for a ride!

The tractor and new planter ready to go.

Ethan and Amelia LOVE to change the colors on the monitor!

Funny guys! :)

Anton's 1st Tractor Ride

Saturday, April 10 Anton had his first tractor ride. He was just short of two months old. On this particular evening the kids and I didn't have much going on. We thought it would be fun to ride with Dad for a little while, so we headed to the field with supper. Here are a few pictures of our evening.

Mark and Anton in front of the CAT tractor. Mark was leveling off one of our fields with the chopper harrow, getting ready to plant corn. You may notice a haze of dust in the picture. This is because you have to drive fast (around 10mph) so that the chopper can "chop" up dirt clods and leave a nice smooth field to plant the corn. Going 10mph doesn't sound very fast, but I can assure you that it is! With all six of us in the cab we had lots of "head banging" going on. :)

Another picture of Mark and the kids leveling off.

Group shot.

Anton looks a little concerned. I can't blame him it was a rough ride. :)

Everyone has a spot, I get the buddy seat, Elijah sits behind me, Ethan is on the floor in front of me, Anton on Mark's lap (or mine) and Amelia on the floor under the monitor.

Calling it a day.

GEMS Finale

Wednesday night marked the end of my five year journey as a GEMS leader at our church. I've been with the same group of girls since they were in fourth grade! Wow, how the time flew by! During that five years not only did I get a chance to watch the girls from church grow, but also my family! Amelia was born a month before I started teaching this group and we had Elijah and Anton as well. A very busy time of life for me. :) My co-leader Robbyn also had all three of her children during the five years we lead together. Yes, one of us was pregnant every single year! Even though we were both busy at home we managed to get lots of badges done with tons of fun over the years. I enjoyed my time serving as a GEMS leader but also look forward to having my Wednesday nights free. I've spent the last 9 years serving as a either a Youth Group leader or GEMS leader on Wednesdays. What will I do with my time? :)

Robbyn (my wonderful co-leader!) and I after the finale.

Our 8th grade class. (we have 10 girls, but one wasn't able to come)

The entire GEMS group 4th grade through 8th grade.

A picture of the girls this winter before we went out to eat for our etiquette badge.

Hunting for eggs & daffodils

Last Saturday we went to my parents house for an egg hunt and supper. The kids LOVE to hunt for eggs! Grandma did a great job filling the eggs with little toys, money and a little candy!

Elijah had lots of "helpers" to see what was in this egg.

Elijah happily running to an egg!

Looks like we have a little team effort here. :)

Aunt Ang opening eggs with Amelia and Ethan.

The Van Den Broek grandkids.

Amelia has inherited the love of flowers and gardening from her mom and both grandmas! We were so happy to see a hillside filled with daffodils near my parents house! The best part about the flower patch is that we can pick any flower we want and as many as we can hold!

What's New

Here are a few pictures of the boys in our house from the past two weeks.

Elijah excavating his supper, hamburger looks a little like dirt, right? Gotta love the "cheese" smile that he has started doing when he sees me with the camera. :)

The kids have been playing outside a lot with the warm weather. Here Ethan is working on some sort of acrobatic move. :)

Anton at 6 weeks.

Anton at 7 weeks.

Could this be why I've replaced the batteries 3 times in the last month?

Those of you who know Elijah, know that he doesn't say much, instead he points and does his own kind of sign language. Here is a picture of him letting me know he wants to ride with Dad on the dozer. Update: He has started saying more words over the past week!

Mark building a terrace at our house a couple weeks ago. The kids really enjoy watching him!