Dawn and Ed Go USA

Introducing Callan Mathijs

I guess we sort of got busy and forgot that we had our own website that needed updating. Sorry about that.

Callan Mathijs Claessens was born April 1, 2009.

He weighed 7lbs and was 19 1/2 inches long. We have been so busy watching and enjoying every second of him grow that time has just gone by so fast. He is now 8 1/2 months old. He had his first Thanksgiving recently and his first Christmas is just around the corner. He has 7 teeth and is crawling all over the place. He has mastered crawling and was shortly onto pulling himself up standing and exploring everything. He is just a happy little boy.

Hello world!

Callan just a few hours old.

Callan with daddy. Just a few days old at home.

Our sleepy baby boy. A week or so old.

Dawn decided shortly after Callan was born that she wanted to stop working and be a stay at home mom. She started up an in home day care to help supplement the loss of income and quit her job back in July. She currently has five kids in her care, plus Callan. Some days are harder than others, but she is loving staying at home with Callan everyday.

Our handsome little man.

Callan exloring his world.

Callan's first Halloween.

In June 2009, we had a tornado that hit 2 miles from our house. It hit the shopping area near the house and threw some things around pretty well. It uprooted trees and plants, smashed lots of windows, tossed air conditioner units, torn down garage doors and small buildings, tossed a few cars into some buildings, caused gas leaks and lots of scares. With the tornado came a big hail storm and our roof, along with pretty much everyone else in our neighborhood, took enough damage that we had to get a new one. Luckily our insurance company paid for all of it except our $1,000 deductible. The roofing company that we choose got the job done quickly despite the snow and cold weather. Dawn actually took on the owners daughter for day care, so it was a win-win situation. We got a new roof, and they found day care for their daughter that they are happy with. Here are some images of some of the damage that it caused.

Golf ball sized hail

This trailer was picked up from the Lowe's parking lot across the street and landed here next to these town homes.

This garage door was torn down due to the force of the winds.

We are hanging in there right now with the poor economy. We are loving being parents and spending time with our happy, loving Callan. He is growing up way to fast and we don't want to miss a thing. Oh, we are planning a trip back to the Netherlands next year sometime, if we can get our air miles issue worked out. We are very excited for Edmond's family to meet Callan.

I will try to keep up the postings.

Getting closer!

Today is week 32 exactly and we are getting closer for our baby to arrive!

The Crib should arrive Monday and the baby room is almost ready to be decorated. Edmond has been working hard to get the window seat done.

Next to all of this we had some snow, some hot weather and poured a concrete slab for our hot tub in the backyard.

Here are some pictures.

Lilla and Kayla taking a nap next to the fireplace.

Baby in the belly!

Every week is different but it has been a pretty mild winter. One day it's hot and the other is snows.

Concrete slab Edmond poured where the hot tub is going to sit.

Last but not least the baby room in progress. The window storage seat is almost done.

Some catching up....

We have some catching up on things that we have done the last couple weeks starting with Thanksgiving on November 27th. Since we don't have any family here and we have neighbors sharing the same thing we decided to have thanksgiving together. Dinner with a 19 pound turkey, sweet potatoes, roasted potatoes and veggies. Not to forget cherry and dutch apple pie as desert! I finished with a long workout that evening to work off the calories ;-)

That weekend we also setup all the Christmas lights cause as soon as thanksgiving is over you turn on the lights. I made some pictures but it's a bit difficult to see.

Then last weekend we went to Idaho visiting Dawn's parents for a late Thanksgiving dinner and early Christmas presents exchange. Since flights are too expensive around Christmas we decided to go this early. Dawn spend her Saturday receiving presents on her baby shower and I went skeet shooting with the guys. We brought 175 shells which we thought would be enough but we ran out in like 30 minutes! Oh, and of course I got sick again which seems to be my curse when I go to Idaho! It lasted like 8 days this time and now I know why. Not drinking enough water. The doc told me to down 3 liters of Gatorade energy drinks cause they have electrolytes. Still can't believe it but this fixed me up right away!! Go Gatorade!

Alright.. Below are some pictures again and we will keep you guys posted on the baby.
Dawn is now 24 weeks along and only 16 more to go ;-)

Flying by Mount Rainier on our way to Seattle... Yes, we had to take the long route back to Colorado.

Turkey!!

and desert.

Our Christmas lights.

Our neighbors and us.

Front door.

Snow in the backyard.

Here is a short video of our neighbor using my snowblower this evening. It was around 2 Farenheit (-16 Celsius) today. Brrrrrrrr