More van Bredas

Sleeping Faces

Surprised Faces

Tongue Faces

Serious Faces

Silly Faces

Beautiful Ladies

Happy birthday Nadine!

Tuesday's Storm- A Tour Around Our Block

Tuesday's Storm in Stratford- A Tour Around Our Block

Super Nadine!

Reuben on the Wii

We rented a Wii this weekend, and Reuben got quite good at it! In this game, he got 5 spares in a row and then a strike! He beat me by 26 points.
I beat him the next 5 games.

Here's the rest!

More to come later....

Darren!

Darren with the flash...

Darren without the flash

Another beautiful addition to the Family van Breda! Way to go, Marya and Eric!

Judah takes a stroll.

Batman's True Love?

Every wonder why Batman doesn't have an enduring love interest? Spider-man has Mary Jane, Superman has Lois, Green Lantern had Carol, and on and on.

Reuben has been growing in his seemingly insatiable hunger for super-heroes, and we recently picked up a bag of them at Value Village. Among them were a couple of Batmans (Batmen?) and a large-sized Wolverine. It didn't take long for one of the Batmans (resplendent in a yellow and black costume) to notice this large and very manly man. Perhaps it was the similar ears. Perhaps it was the colours. Perhaps it was sympathy for Wolverine and the claws missing on his left hand. Perhaps it was just one of those beautiful mysteries.

Regardless, by this afternoon, not 24 hours after receiving these action figures, Reuben had these two walking hand in hand, was asking Sarah "Mommy, do you think that Batman would cry if he loved somebody?" And by bedtime, Wolverine and Batman were tucked in nicely together.

Scrapbooking!

Rained In

So Brian and I headed to Sarnia yesterday afternoon to spend some time with Shanna, who is in Ontario for a week from BC. This morning right after church it started raining, and, since the temperature was -5, it proved to be quite messy - and it is continuing to be messy. So, we're camping out here overnight again and I'll go to work at noon tomorrow - no sense in attempting to make a slippery 5 hour drive just to be at work on time in the morning!

A Happy Birthday Weekend

My Cool Backyard Sledding Hill

The Snow Continues.... 8:38am

Walking home from girl's night last night I went through snow that was half way up my knees - it was pretty fabulous (but would have been even more fabulous if I had've had winter boots...). The ironic thing is that Redeemer closed yesterday at noon and is still closed today - so if I wasn't taking my vacation this week, I still wouldn't be at work anyway!

The Snow Begins... 8:29am

The weather people say that we're supposed to get from 30-50cm in the next 24 hours here in Hamilton... And apparently the snow that's coming down right now isn't even the "big storm" that we're supposed to get - that's supposed to move in between 2 and 4 this afternoon. I expect that the school will be canceled tomorrow, which makes me a little sad since I'm on holidays this week...

Keeping Grandma Busy in Stratford this Weekend!

 

Spiderman!

'Nuff Said.

Ready for school...

I know I sent this in an email, but I thought the blog needed some updating.

Brothers?

Christmas kids...

What cute little kids. Evan is now talking about "Dadine," "Biben," and of course, Grandma and Grandpa are Baba and Bapa (we think he may be speaking Fries and saying Beppe).

Ere zij God

For those of you who missed church this morning, this is for you

Brian's Gifting Interests

hey all!

Brian just received a fabulous 30GB iPod Video from his beautiful wife. In light of this recent acquisition, and in light of his ongoing Blackberry obsession, related accessories would be very fitting.

1. Blackberry Holster
2. Bluetooth anything
3. iPod case
4. iPod car holder
5. iPod anything else

Any related item - especially automotive related would be a very keen addition to the collection.

Addition to Jenn's List

a pair of rubber spatulas

Jenn's List

1. Mexican Train Dominos
2. Flinch
3. Any season of Seinfield or How I Met your Mother or Season 1 of Lost
4. Scrapbooking corner cutter - just regular rounder
5. Creative Memories Square Punch (large) (you can find it online if you don't know someone who sells it)

That's all I can think of for now. Thanks!

What a great Christmas Present!

A forest of real trees in our bedroom, and....

Stuart McLean live next Tuesday night!

Oh - and:



Happy 27th Birthday to the stylish boy in the sunglasses!

Nadine Follows Reuben

A couple of weeks ago Reuben had Nursery Rhyme Day at school. Mrs.Mountain was Mother Goose. The students had to dress up as a Nursery Rhyme character and recite a poem. Reuben chose to recite "Humpty Dumpty."

He recited his poem very well. He was clear and concise and had good intonation. He wore the British police helmet and was carrying a hobby horse. We all applauded his success.

Mrs. Mountain then asks who would like to go next? Nadine stands up, walks to the platform and recites a poem as well. It was SO cute. She says the first line of "Humpty Dumpty."

A mother of another child is videoing this as her son was next to say a rhyme. She was sorry that she didn't get Reuben but it is true that Nadine stole the show. I think that she just figured that if Reuben did it, then she could and should, too.

Eric's list for vanBreda Christmas

David (and anyone else who can read) here is my Christmas list:

1) bubble wrap from everyone else's Christmas gifts - fun to pop

okay. serious now. it's game time. game faces people

2) Crash Rickshaw - CD (self-titled) a rare CD. e-bay is your best bet.
3) Planet Simpson - How A Cartoon Mastermind Defined A Generation. BOOK - on sale now at that big conglomerate that sells books and Starbucks Coffee (aka Chapters/Indigo.)
4) a 3' X 5' Edmonton Oilers flag - either their first logo or the third one - David knows which ones I mean. e-bay is your best bet again.
5) a 3'X5' Dutch flag

Another Christmas List

My Christmas list is beginning to take shape. Here's a start:
--foot bath/massager
--calendar (PineRidge) for my calendar holder
--Vanilla Fields lotion, etc
--a goat (or anything else from the CRWRC catalogue)
Stay tuned for more!

Just thought the Blog needed a Picture.

Happy Winter! 

My List

Scrabble game (It would be a good teaching tool to bring to Korea)

Books:
Freakenomics
Tipping Point
Blink
My Tank is Fight (Deranged inventions from WWII)

That's all that I can think of for now. Check back for more updates as I'll edit this list.

My second first list

Now to remember everything I deleted...
-gold and silver "paint" pens/markers (the messy ones with the liquid inside)
-game: Apples to Apples
-terry cloth bath robe (blue, white or green)
-

I'm going to have to come back to this list and add to it...can't remember the rest!
Marya

Stephen and Sarah's Lists....

Steve
-Neodymium (rare earth) magnets-- they're small, and about a buck apiece
-Gift certificate to Lee Valley (boring for you, but very cool for me...)
-An OED
-hand crank LED flashlight(optional)
-a decent quality thumb piano
or

- Graphic Novels (you can get'em used on Amazon.ca)
- The "Bone" series by Jeff Smith
- New X-Men, "E is For Extinction"
-"Daredevil Visionaries" by Frank Miller (or pretty much anything by him, Sarah can tell you if I have it or not)

-Video Hound Movie Retriever (2004 or later)

-CDs
--***"They Might Be Giants" (the name of the band) Flood (the name of the album)***
--Trans-Siberian Orchestra (Dave can tell you what's good...)
--Orchestral Game Concert IV (info found here) (it's actually unavailable in Canada, Jenn's the only one with a chance of being able to pick it up, as it was only released in Japan....)
--Pretty much anything by Bruce Cockburn. His Christmas album is nice.
--- MIESKUORO HUUTAJAT (Men's Choir Shouters) (hard to find, but it'd be great to have...)
"was formed in 1987 in Oulu, Finland, by a group of young men who clearly had nothing better to do." The choir currently consists of about 30 people in black suits, white shirts and black rubber ties who shout some of the most beloved tunes in the traditional Finnish songbook. Their version of The Star-Spangled Banner sounds like Aki Kaurismäki directing a choir of Marines. Truly odd


Sarah

- Traveling Mercies, by Ann Lamot
- a really good baking/egg timer. One of those cute ones that you have to wind up.
- Rediscovering Birth, by Sheila Kitzinger
- 5x7 matted (black) picture frames.
- gift certificate for Ikea, Micheals, or Chapters.
- fancy dancy orchid. (I have the white ones already)
- haircutting scissors
-fancy dancy loose tea and one of those loose tea scoopy and swirl in boiling water thingys. OR if you can find one (I have only seen them in Stratford), one of those loose tea teapots. Ask Steve.