Toben's Second Movie

30 week belly

As promised, an updated photo. I'm now in my 31st week, meaning that I have 30 weeks behind me. The end is coming closer.

Christmas in Winnipeg Part 2

Before Christmas, Jeremy asked Sarah to marry him... wedding's in August.

The ring

Julian & Andrea, knitting furiously at a (late) Christmas scarf

Lauren & Jie, our Shanghai cousin

Colin, in town from Seattle, Stan & David

Three sisters: Charlotte, Gina & Dorothea (Missing: Lorraine, Herb, Stephanie, Zachary & Hillary... we missed you guys!)

Toben's feline cousin, Nixon, the cross-eyed Kroeker cat

Surprise Sisterhood Shower: (l to r) Rose, Amy, Julia, me, Rachel, Danika, Sonja

Christmas in Winnipeg Part 1

On December 24th, David and flew home to Winnipeg to spend Christmas with our family & friends. Although it was too short, it was wonderful to see everyone and spend time catching up. We had a Kampen gathering on the 26th, and got together with all the Rempels that were in town on the 27th. My Sisterhood girls threw me a surprise shower (thanks girls!), and we were able to see almost everyone we had hoped to. I am looking forward to going back to Winnipeg in May, when Mateo is here and introducing him to all of the Winnipeg people we love so much- Omi & Opa and his (aunt- she doesn't want to be called this, so we have to figure out something else) Andrea, Auntie Anna, and all our other special friends and family.

Surprise layover in Thunder Bay... seriously, a more boring airport than Winnipeg.

Mini Christmas concert for Oma


Keith & Alexander try to take a "serious" shot


Attempt #5: gotcha!

Happy cousins: Melanie & Evelyn

January news

Over the Christmas holidays we decided that we would share both the gender and name of our baby. Since we certainly didn't get around to telling everyone we figured it would make the most sense to post it here. So for all of you who thought it was a girl....you were wrong. It's a boy! And for all of you who thought we would name him Gordon....you were wrong again. I already have two of those in my family. His name is Mateo Josef. Mateo is the Spanish version of Matthew and is a name that pronounceable in English, French, and German. Josef is my brother Gordon's middle name but spelled as it would be in German. We are planning to raise him bilingually (German-French) hence the reason for needing a name that is pronounceable in all three languages.

Pregnancy update: We (by we I mean Christine) are now in week 31 I believe. The nausea started again but definitely not as bad as it was in the first trimester. Christine has been dealing with her new friend back pain but I am sure that she would rather have back pain than nausea. Mateo has become quite the performer it seems. While Christine was teaching her German course one day last week he kept doing flips which, because you can see his movement now, was enjoyed by her students. Speaking of teaching, Christine will be teaching for the first six weeks of the semester and then, in preparation for the baby, will hand off the reigns to her teaching partner. This will then leave her with course work and lectures. Since her profs are, and have been, very understanding we are confident that everything will work out.

We will be posting a picture soon of Christine at week 31 so stay tuned.