Rylan "Hard-Kour" Is Here!

Top of the morning to ya!

Meet Rylan. This is Rylan in his natural habitat. 

He's an incredible photographer.

Ambitious entrepreneur.

Loves life. Loves people. And he loves the Lord.

He also sends me random parkour videos that he gets of himself.

Hence the nickname: "Hard-kour".

Yes... I came up with that, myself.

He's also seeing how long he can grow his hair... Kind of intimidating

having a guy walk in with hair almost longer than your own.

Am I the only one who looks at this and thinks of "Sunshine" from Remember The Titans???

Rylan is my partner-in-crime. 

But he is also my culinary enemy.

I've recently forced him to work in the kitchen for the remaining 1.5months here

because he is ULTRA picky.

He doesn't even like cheese in his scrambled eggs. Gross.

So here we pose pre-cinnamon roll making. 

(Photos to follow...That is if I can get any before they are pulverized.)

I've been loving my life since he arrived because I now have THREE food photographers for Douceur.

And I take full advantage of their competitive nature because they now race

to take the food photos for my Instagram account. 

This. Is. The Life.

We are all very random. It's amazing to look at him and he remind me of when I used to babysit him and his siblings. 

Now, he's a traveling young man advancing the Kingdom.

The Bruce was quite entertained by the young adults who seem to not be able to overcome the child-at-heart spirit within them. 

But together, we fully enjoy the life God has blessed us with and make the most of our time together. 

"Well... That's all I have to say about that."

A Valid Excuse for No Posts

Top of the morning to ya!

    It has been about a month, I believe. My apologies. Below is a sneak-peek into our month. The Lord has blessed us tremendously! Zach and Kait moved here with their two handsome boys!!!! Anddddd... My long-time friend and partner-in-crime ~Ash~ has also flown halfway across the world to spend March with us.

      Again... My cup overfloweth. :D

I think this blog will begin to get a facelift. Gabbi and Morgan

have been having fun with the camera. I know they will have a heart-attack because

I see their photography through rose-coloured glasses and tend to upload their least

favourite photos. However, here is the lovely Gabbi. 

I think I've seen Big Foot more times than I've seen a photo

of Graham smiling and even making a funny face for the camera. He usually ducks as soon as a 

camera is brought out, so this is definitely my favourite. (We'll just ignore the fact

that this is his mischievous smile because he probably stole that cheese from someone and ate a huge chunk.)

This is my lovely friend, Kait. She exudes joy and radiance! She is passionate

about the Lord, LOVES her husband, and absolutely adores her boys!

Morgan and Gab liked this photo... I don't even remember this being taken.

So, I just love this photo. I didn't find the one where Gabbi played around 

with the exposure and Morgan got 85 likes on the first day. But this is Morgan. Mo. Slo-Mo.

Speedy. Ashleigh... Depending on who you're talking to and where they met. 

She is my best friend.

We ~ Douceur ~ did a photo shoot per request on DIY Pom Poms... The entire tutorial is on Facebook.

When Ash is in town... We take FULL advantage and had to make 

the Woodser-famous cheese blitzen. *moment of silence*

Meet "The Bruce". Highly intelligent. Charming. Handsome.

Hilarious. Curious. Athletic. Loving. Never meets a stranger. TALL for 2yrs of age. 

A miracle and a blessing. I look at him and see God's grace. 

I never would've thought when I was 16 and met his mom that we would reconnect,

she'd be married, and THEN we'd have Bruce and Wyatt joining their parents to live in Africa with us!! God is good.

Wyatt. "Wy-man". 5 months old. He is also tall. Precious. 

Quick to smile. Absolutely ADORES the sight of his brother. Loves coo-ing at us.

I could kiss his scrumptious cheeks all day!!! MMM!!

Ash's dear precious Grandma Long sent a present to me through

Ash from my favourite store: Anthropologie. Made my day! I love her so much!

So... This morning I made her a Thank-You card. 

We also went for a Sunday walk in the Botanical Gardens. 

Tangled is one of our favourites... And for some reason, we girls think

that we have a pretty convincing smolder. So... We tried it again.

It looks more like all the typical teenage girl photos we make fun of. Yeesh!

It has perplexed Mo and me how celebrities can talk and always look 

ready for the camera... I think the airbrush edit must also make their faces

look normal or something.

Graham photo-bombing like a boss.

You know those 50's horror movie poses??

That's what we also tried.  (^^^ Morgan was taking this pretty seriously.)

This one is a little more convincing but I couldn't help but think of this... 

Hold on a moment...

It's probably dumb how much this makes me crack up

every time I look at it.

 

Bruce is such a ham!! And this family is so lovely!

These are way out of order but Ash and I have been to the Food Fundi

so many times now that I can't remember when this was!

Even though we are 21 and 22... We will always be kids deep down inside

and our husbands and children will just have to give us grace. This was our water olympics day in the pool. Ash's splash was just a little too large.

Mom had the excellent idea of a beading class at our new favourite shop!

We had a girls' day making jewelry and it was quite fun!

I like to tease Ash that she copies me a lot...

But in reality, I love love love this girl! She has a beautiful heart and I am so blessed

to have her as my friend. That she would spend money to fly all the way over here just blows me away. I am so excited to see and rejoice with her as she enters new seasons of life. She has been faithful and kept the Lord as her central focus. God be praised!

And finally... For now... The 3hr zip line day as a family with Ash. 

While we waited for Ash to zip her way to our station, we decided to be brave and see if the equipment could really hold 5 adults up as we leaned back over a steep ledge.

I must admit... I felt pretty cool!

"Well... That's all I have to say about that."

It's a Wonderful Life!

   Top of the morning to ya!

   

   It's no longer morning here; but tradition is tradition and I'm stickin' to it! ;-)

   This is the second to last day of a South African long weekend. Sadly enough, they have bought the feminist lie and we are "celebrating" Women's Day... for four days. The great side is that we were able to relax and enjoy great fellowship.

   We had a braai at our place and my photographer (*cough* Gabbi) lost sight of the goal and I am afraid that I cannot show you interesting photos from that. I'll give her some slack, though, because who could resist holding two brand new adorable babies in our fellowship??!! ;-)

    Even though this is primarily a food blog, I want to share our party/fellowship/braai photos and other shenanigans to give you a glimpse into our life here, as well. However, I did manage to take a few photos over the weekend that give an idea of what we've been up to.

Dad was brave enough to teach Mo and me how to drive his manual beastly vehicle... Mo did better than I did. I definitely am thankful for automatic! (I want to conquer this, though.)

I made some chicken and veggie curry Friday night. It was really good, if I might say so myself. I am not a huge fan of curry chicken because I've never really had one that made me just crave it. However, I wanted to make this taste as best as possible and I got good feedback from the fam. :-) Made my day!

I sauteed the veggies in a separate pan and then added the chicken and coconut milk to this. Let me tell you, butternut squash makes an excellent sweet contrast with this!

Pip chilling out on the couch next to me... Too funny!

Gab trying to take all the credit for the brownies. I was taking photos of each step and she ran up. She's a hoot! ... We had to improvise quite a bit since we're using what was already in the house to make everything. This tub-like mixing bowl was a blessing because every other bowl in the kitchen is not meant for cooking for a family of 7. 

These are not ribs... This is the delicious brownie batter. I folded in milk chocolate bar chunks since I have to find this baking store that supposedly has chocolate chips. They turned out to be delectable... Even to our Afrikaaner guests. :-)

Stole this finished product photo from my mom! So glad she took this because I had to leave the house before they were done in the oven and, therefore, did not get a photo.

This is the view once you step out of our back sliding doors. Spectacular... You see all kinds of gorgeous birds, various types of deer, the neighbours' dogs, men golfing, etc. We have one squirrel too. Ha! 

And of course it is the ideal reading spot.  I can't imagine the splendour of Eden, because this is absolutely breath-taking!

Soaking in the winter sun.

"Well... That's all I have to say about that."

Our Adventures So Far...

One of our layovers was in Dubai... My parents took us on a "desert safari" about 45min out from Dubai.  Our guide took us on a 4x4 sand dune ride... Took years off of my life but it was LOADS of fun!

Although it is nice to speak about the experience,  I really do bless the Spaniards for introducing at least Americans to horses. (Mom and Mo with a Nigerian guide)

Very rarely will you catch a normal photo of my siblings and me. I'm afraid we have too much fun together. :-)

When we lived in Moçambique 3 yrs ago, my dad had a vehicle we called "the green machine"... This is our new adventure vehicle - the Defender - and it is loads of fun!

Scary looking, right?? I burned my brain trying to figure out how'd they get it down when someone told me it was empty. Jokes on me.

Sun in the eyes + silly face (Mo didn't get the memo). Riding on some land in the back of a bakki.

My attempt at iPhone photography, which I am afraid you will be subjected to. Craig and I were standing at the highest point of a friend's farm.

No matter how old we get, we will always be kids at heart. This is really only about 10' tall. ( Our friend, Daniel, Graeme, and Mo) 

I will never be the photographer my sisters are... But I am pretty proud of this one. Especially since it looks like smoke is coming out of Craig's head.

One of the cool things about Africa is that you may run into NatGeo people... This guy has been following the wild descendants of abandoned horses for two years.

Dad looking official as he plays with his new NatGeo friend's incredible camera. 

The horses are so used to people and love attention. This one really liked us.

Mo, Gab, and I enjoying rusks and Five Roses as we "baboon watch" from our friends veranda.