We are still alive.. (I just suck at blogging)

So, here's the scoop. Since May a lot has gone on. We had a nice month of vacation in America road tripping and seeing family. It was so much fun, but so hard to leave everyone again. We got to meet the newest members of the family, Nolan and Brooklyn. My super cute 3 year old nephews were a blast to see. The highlights for me were Royal's rock dance (he found a rock and was so excited about it that he started dancing around and holding it in the air and saying "Rock, rocky, rock rock...), Ike's backyardagains dances (he know all the shows by heart, and little Linthorst boys sportin' the Netherlands national soccer team jerseys. I can't believe how big Lucy and Soph have gotten, and Spence and Owen are totally 2 little dare devils. We are looking forward to another new Linthorst any day now!

After vacation, school started up. Richard is in his final year of his bachelor study and will be done in February. I, on the other hand, just started my bechelor study. I feel so blessed to be able to do what I am doing. I learned Dutch so fast, past the language exams in the beginning of the year (so that I could be eligible to go to school and follow a degree taught in Dutch), and I am getting financial aid (that I don't have to pay back... unless I don't finish my bachelor within the next 10 years) because education is funded/subisidized by the government. School is going pretty well at this point. I am nervous for my exams in 2 weeks, I just hope that I will ge the right amount of studying in and that all my presentations and reports go well.

We are finally finishing some things off in our flat. Richard covered the pipes in our hallway, we finally got some things hanging on our naked walls, we ordered curtains for the dining room, and we are finally finishing what we started with the trip/molding in our living room.

We also got a new nephew in September. He is too cute! His name is Jipster (said: Yipster).
Here are some pictures. (If you want to see pictures from our vacation, look on facebook).

I miss celebrating Halloween in the states soooo bad! My friend Suus and I decided to do something about it. We found some pumkin marshmellows and skull-shaped black licorice at a chocolatier (it was €8 for just those two little bags of candy!! That's all we could find though), Richard got some pizzas and picked up a couple pumpkins for us to carve, Suus's mom found some fun Halloween chocolates at a grocery store (you have to search far and wide to find that... every store isn't decked out with Halloween treat here like I'm used to at this time of year), and we had home made hot chocolate. It was fun :)


We love our new giant clock! This was the first thing hung on our wall since we moved in!

When we went to buy our clock I saw a painting that I really wanted to hang in our diningroom, but we thought we should just buy one thing at a time and we could buy the painting or whatever else we wanted next month. Richard surprised me one day with the painting anyway. It was hanging on the wall when I got home from work one day. I also bought these mirrors to finish of the diningroom walls. It's amazing what a few little touches can to do make your house that much more of a home!

Proud parents Marcel and Biance (Richard's sister). And the stud himself, Jipster.

Jip loves laying comfortably in Richard's big, long arms. (Me too, haha!)

Richard did such a good job in the hallway. He is also proud of his handy work :)

All in all, we are feeling extremely blessed and thank God for our good health, our family, and our great lives.