Van Zee Volumes

Saturday, August 13, 2011

Life on the Farm

Eric's been busy this summer with baling hay, plowing the field, and planting beans. I didn't take any pictures the day that he and some friends and family baled hay, but it was a HOT day that day. We were so appreciative for all the help Eric got in doing that.

After the hay was baled, Eric was then able to till up the ground to get it ready to plant beans. Here's a few pictures.

We spent the first weekend in June (our anniversary weekend!) at my parents' house tearing down this machine shed. My dad is getting a new machine shed, so Eric, along with my dad and brother and a couple friends, spent the weekend tearing down the old shed so Eric can put it up at our farm.

Hopefully sometime this fall we'll have a building that looks like this up and ready to be used!

I don't know where the time has gone this summer! We've continued to be really busy with the house, the farm, and regular summer activities. I'll try to get a little caught up this morning while the little one is still asleep!

Madelyn is showing off her "necklace" of tape that she pulled out of a cassette that she found. She loves necklaces!

Here are a couple of pictures from Tulip Time back in May!

Sunday, May 15, 2011

New House! (Post lots of TLC)

Here are a few pictures!

Kitchen - we didn't do much in here other than get new appliances and paint

Madelyn's room - we moved one of her walls to make her room a little bigger. The master bedroom was very large so we moved one of her walls into the master bedroom.

The dining room and kitchen

The living room

The master bedroom with the closet completed.

We welcome visitors anytime! We have an extra bedroom and plenty of space! Bring your fishing pole!

New House! (Prior to lots of TLC)

The primary thing, other than being pregnant, that has been slowing me down on keeping the blog up-to-date, is that we bought a house!

Shortly after we moved to Newton over a year ago, we found out about a farm that was going to go into foreclosure. Eric was very interested in this farm, as it's a beautiful place with several acres of timber, along with some good farm land. Very long story short, it finally went on the market in February (I think!) and we put in an offer. We took possession on March 23.

We feel so blessed to be able to have purchased this place. We definitely got a great deal, and really believe that the Lord had His hands in it. There are so many little details that occurred in this process that I could go into that are just far more than coincidence!

The house is a ranch with a beautiful 4 seasons porch and very large deck that overlooks the pond. There is also a barn on the property. Because it was a foreclosure, the house definitely needed a lot of love! We spent most every spare minute we had at the house from March 23 until April 30 when we were able to move in. We cleaned every square inch of this place, painted the entire main level, and moved around a couple of walls. We're still in the process of remodeling the master bathroom. We had lots of help from family and friends and we're so thankful for that! We've made lots of progress on the house, but definitely still have lots of work to do on the house as well as on the property. We're very excited though!

So, without further adieu, here are some before pictures....

Kitchen - the window looks out onto the four seasons porch

Four seasons porch

The deck overlooking the pond

The master bedroom. The double doors go out onto the deck (which runs the whole length of the house). The strange looking wall there was taken out (there was a spiral staircase there that went down to the middle of the family room downstairs and we took that out). We turned that little corner into a walk in closet.

Looking from the living room to the dining room and kitchen

The living room which looks out over the pond and to the four seasons porch

Fireplace in the living room

Front of the house

Big News

I am ridiculously behind with this blog! It's going to take me a few posts to catch up and maybe that will explain why I'm so behind!!

Madelyn had some big news to share right around the time of her birthday!

These aren't the best pictures of her, but we sure are excited about the news! Baby Van Zee is expected to arrive sometime around September 4! Being tired and pregnant is just a bit of the reason I'm so behind with this!

Friday, February 18, 2011

Happy Birthday Madelyn!

Madelyn Ann turned 1 on February 14! It's so hard to believe that a year has passed already! She has brought so much joy and love to our lives. We celebrated with a party on Saturday, February 12. Again, I wish I had taken more pictures of the people who were there! Madelyn got to celebrate with her grandparents, some of her aunts and uncles, and some of her great-grandparents. It was a great afternoon!

This is the morning of her birthday at our house while she's still in her jammies!

She's not sure what to think of her cake.

Ready to go for the cake!

Madelyn with her butterfly cake.

We were trying to get a picture of her in her birthday outfit, but she wasn't cooperating too well! She was very attached to those boxes of raisins that she's holding!

Madelyn Ann,

We feel so blessed to be your parents. You have brought us more love and joy than we ever expected. It has been so amazing to watch you grow up from a little tiny baby to an increasingly independent little girl. You are such a ham! You make us laugh with your funny faces and noises! You are smart and curious, always paying attention to what is going on around you. You are loving and love to snuggle, especially in the morning when you get up. You are so loved by not only us, but by your grandparents, aunts, uncles, great-grandparents, and so many others. We praise God for you and the gift that you are to us! Happy Birthday Baby Girl!

Happy New Year and Happy Birthday Eric!

For New Year's and Eric's birthday we celebrated in North Liberty with our good friends the Lindemann's and the Landon's. I wish I would have taken more pictures! We had a great time with lots of chaos! Six adults and 7 kids!