This is a park near our home, there are ducks, geese, cranes, and lots of trees!! Wendy took this picture on one of her walks.

This was taken in the village of Vossem where we live.
This is the village square on festival day. Lots of Beer tents!!

This is our home in Vossem, Tervuren, Belgium. The address is Hertstraat 3.

This is the street sign for the house we live.

Wow!! School starts in FIVE days!! I am so excited!! Kaitlyn might not be excited, but I am!! She will be in the Fifth Grade. I can't believe it! She is growing up so fast. She has seen parts of the world in her short 11 years then I ever did at her age. The school where she will be attending is very small, someone said it has only 400 students K-12. The school is so small that the graduating class last year was a whole 27 students!! I sure hope she gets a good education and is able to catch up quickly. When she advanced to the fourth grade she was a little bit behind, but that was because her teacher was getting ready to retire and failed to teach everything that they were suppose to have learned. So when we moved back to Utah in December she was even further behind. She had caught up enough by the end of the school year that she was able to pass to the Fifth Grade. She will have to work a little bit harder this year so that she can understand everything, but that's where Wendy and I come in.

I have tried to homeschool all the girls each year to help them through the year. Making sure that they learn what they are suppose to, but also making sure that they understand each concept. It helps me learn as well. This summer I haven't been able to do much homeschooling with Kaitlyn because of the move and all the uphevel we have had in our family. We also try to teach Gospel principles with these lessons. I think this year we will be working really hard.

We are all so bored right now because we don't have any of our things here with us. We have the clothes, iPods, laptops, a few toys, and a couple of books we brought with us in our suitcases. We are so used to having everything we want or need within our reach that this sitting around with nothing to do is driving us insane!! School will at least give us something to do, or at least Kaitlyn will have something to do each night, homework!! I just looked at the email that tells us when our household goods will be delivered by, October 4. What is that, five more weeks? UGH!!!

We miss our Aimee so much!! We have talked to her a couple of times on the phone and chat with her on Facebook and Instant Messanger almost daily. My parents say she is doing a lot better than we all thought she would as far as missing us goes. She is maturing and blossoming right before their eyes, they love it. I'm so glad that she is getting to have that one on one time with them. It's good for her too because she is learning to serve, something that she will be doing a lot of while she is on her mission. She is getting very excited about going to the MTC, learning a new language, and getting out there to teach the Gospel!! I hope she treasures the memories that she is creating with her grandparents, cousins, and aunts and uncles that she is spending so much time with. She was so excited because she went to the grocery store by herself, cooked by herself, and is learning all those homemaking skills that she let Wendy or I do for her. She never had the patience or desire to do those simple things, now she HAS to do them. I knew she could do it!!! Thank you Mom and Dad for supporting her and helping her during this time!!!!

Wendy is so ready to be doing something!! She starts school again next month, so hopefully that will keep her busy, but she wants to be doing other things. I hope that she is able to find those things to do that helps her to be happy. She has said a couple of times that she wants to paint, but everything is not here yet!! It also looks like she will have to return to the US in a year unless she switches schools and enrolls at a college that the Belgian government recognizes. She wants to stay with us until we return to the states, but is okay with having to return if she has to. We just want her to be happy. She wants to be involved with the Single Adults here, so hopefully she will be able to do that.

We will be getting a car this weekend for our use until we get our Belgian IDs. Every person that lives in Belgium must have an ID, in order to DO anything. We can't purchase a car until we have those IDs!!! It takes any where from 1 to 3 months to get those IDs!! We got our pictures taken for those IDs two weeks ago, but the lady that was processing the paperwork LOST those pictures, so we have to go do that AGAIN on Friday!!

The country is beautiful!! We love all the green!!! We haven't been able to see a whole lot because it is quite expensive to ride the public transportation, so we are waiting to get a car so we can go explore. Dave and I have been trying to take a walk every other night after dinner. This last weekend was the village festival. I have no idea what the festival was for, but we do know that it is help once a year in the village square for two days and three nights. We walked into the village on Saturday afternoon and again on Sunday afternoon. It seemed to us that the reason for the festival was for BEER. There are a LOT of beer festivals, breweries, and bars here.

The next three years we will try to keep everyone informed of our doings, trips, outings, and experiences by updating our blog regularly. I'm aiming for once a week, some weeks may be filled with lots of things and others may be filled with very little. In any event I hope our family will enjoy "seeing" Belgium through our thoughts, words, pictures and experiences. We will also try to keep Aimee's mission experiences here as well. Those of our family that read our blog please share with family members that don't have internet. If there are any special requests just email me... pam_crazy4xstitch@msn.com