El Sobrinito

I don't much like photos of myself, but Daniel's cute enough in this one to make up for my double chin. He turned 15 months this week, and is such a fun little nephew. I like the way he follows our Josh around like a shadow. He likes everything Josh does, UNLESS Josh dares to us the "n" word on him. He's not crazy about being told "no" by anyone, but especially his buddy Josh. That feels like treason!

I was hoping to add a bunch of pictures on here tonight. You see, in Africa we pre-pay for our time on the internet. So we buy it by the gigabyte. We ran out near the end of the month, and I couldn't just let it wait for the next month because Thanksgiving was in there, and we wanted to call the States using Magic Jack which means it's through the computer and is nice and cheap. But, knowing we had a nearly full gigabyte, and that any "left-overs" get sacrificed at the end of the month, we splurged this evening on the internet. For a bedtime story we watched Tim Hawkins on Utube, and before that we saw a bunch of clips of the Duggars on TLC.com (We're just fascinated with the Duggars. They seem like our kind of people :-)

But my picture adding got thwarted. The pictures I wanted to add are in emails, and I can't figure how to get them out of there into here, and tomorrow we get a new gigabyte which is supposed to last the whole month of December, though it never lasts a month. We always use at least 2 gigs.

Anyway, I also did our prayer letter, and got all the trillions of those sent, so we must have used a good chunk of that gig. Enough so I can now go to bed in good conscience...hopefully to sleep better then last night.

Before I go, let me just tell you about last night. It got wild! A car was stolen to the left of us down the street, and the thief pushed it to the right of us, up the street. The neighbor below us heard noises and went to check (brave guy, Geoff!) He ended up catching the thief and standing on his ankles til the police came! Someone else was standing on his shoulders.

I heard all this commotion and was peering out windows, trying to figure out what was going on. Finally, I went to see, in my lovely blue Chinese bathrobe. Berwick was thrilled to have company outside, so she was right at my side, thankfully, when a policeman walked in our gate.
We always wondered what Berwick would do if...or should I say when...an intruder entered. Now I know! She started barking and heading for the policeman! I got a hold on her collar, but the wind was blowing like the wind blows a lot in Muizenberg, and that blue bathrobe wasn't doing the greatest job, so Berwick got dragged quickly indoors.

Not only the car robbery, but Josh walked in his sleep AGAIN! He's a bit freaky when he does that, talking, smiling, and one time jumping over furniture.

After all this excitement, I was just dozing off, and a pigeon had to have a seizure on our bathroom windowsill! Twice!! I don't know why, and didn't much care at that point, just wanted my heart to stop thumping out of my throat. Maybe the pigeon was just flying, but it sounded like a seizure to me.

So that's why I'm behind on my beauty sleep. I'll see if I can do better tonight.

What a class of cuties! Evangel loves doing crafts with the Ladies' Bible study daughters. From left, we have Joy, Julia, Gabi, Rebecca, and Megan. Josh did a little craft of his own, making himself an apron out of 2 bandannas and 2 belts. Smarty pants!

While on our last trip, in Swellendam, we got to go to the Drostdy Museum. We didn't go look at these sheep, they came to look at us! They were amazed at the boys goofing around on a threshing floor.

There's our 3 kiddos in an old charcoal mill. Swellendam is the 3rd oldest town in South Africa, and is about 2 hours from Cape Town. We could get a feel for what things were like 200 years ago at this museum.

Margie and Amy, my quilting friends, this photo is especially for you!

This floor amazed me. See those little dots? Each one is a peach or nectarine seed! We all decided Josh should make a floor like that if he ever makes a house. At the rate he downs nectarines, it would take him about a week to have enough seeds. :-)

A highlight of Swellendam was picking Youngberries! It was the first time we have ever done it, and we like the fruit of our labors.

Usually in prayer letters I ask prayer that we can bring forth much fruit, but this time it was the literal fruit. We have enjoyed some Youngberry cobbler. Youngberries are similar to blackberries, but are a little bigger. They have prickles too like blackberries.

A few more pics of the Barrydale adventure have to sneak in here. I love to see Paul zipping along in his Sunday best.

And one last photo for Aunt Grace:

Barrydale and Robertson Trip

Isn't Paul dignified looking, 4 wheeling/quadbiking in his Sunday best? We had such a special treat our Sunday in Barrydale. Auntie Christine invited us home to Sunday dinner, and her son and his kids gave rides on their toys. Their Josh and our Josh head off down the road.

Evangel and Chrismarie head out in the go-cart.

Timothy took a turn driving too, with their Josh on the back to save his life in case of emergencies.

We always think of Aunt Grace when we find gorgeous flowers along the way in our travels.

Evangel made friends with a monkey at Birds Paradise in Robertson. The same monkey hit Paul on the head, much to the delight of our kids.

This dramatic Toucan was one of our favorite birds.

Not the greatest picture, but I loved these haystack people and had to try showing them.

Happy Reformation Day

We've deposed Halloween, and replaced it with Reformation Day as a family celebration. This year we joined Peter Hammond at the Huguenot Memorial in Franschoek. The Huguenot Memorial helps us remember the Huguenot people who fled from persecution in France and found a new life in South Africa.

Paul preached behind the Memorial. Josh and Timmy (looking dead behind Paul) helped Paul act out some of his sermon. His board is flat on the ground because the wind was a bit gusty that day.

My camera didn't capture the total beauty of this place, but it gives a hint of it.

While Grace (Paul's sister) was with us, we went to see a rose farm near our house. It's only about 15 minutes from home, but I had never been there. I'm glad she inspired our visit.

Chart Farm as the rose farm is called looks over to the Constantia Mountains. I hope I get to take other visitors here cuz I want an excuse to try their coffee shop--not that I drink coffee, but those little cakes are calling my name. Plus I might need to stock up on roses. You can cut your own for R4 each (about 50 cents in the US).

At the end of October, it was my once-a-year turn to hostess my book club ladies. Our meeting in the living room was pretty normal, but our husbands and sons decided to get together too, so they all crammed in to our bedroom to watch a war movie together. I thought they were move worthy of a picture then our normal gathering in the living room. First time we've done major entertaining in the bedroom, (except for the boys' pillow fights on our bed during ladies' Bible study, but that wasn't "legal" :-)

Josh and Bronwyn (who lives downstairs from us) were a great help getting ready for the event. They liked my little shishkabobs.