happy christmas

God, with us?

"When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity
and took on the status of a slave, became human!” Philippians 2.7

stretching growing building learning

2009 has been a year of stretching, growing, building and learning!

Skye and Joseph had their first horse ride…
…well, Shetland Pony ride!

Mags went with her friend Sarah to LA, Phil had more Norwegian adventures in Stavanger, Tromsø, Bergen, as well as Stuttgart, Germany and Aberdeen, Scotland.




As well as becoming a very top doctor, Uncle Rich got a lesson in spelling and bathtimes – watch out for the invisible lion!





With architects, designs, planning permission and contractors in place the building epic that is our new home finally moved to the ‘bricks and mortar’ stage in May.






Skye’s fairy princess (and frog prince) birthday party was legendary









July brought surprising news – a new baby is on the way!






Behind schedule and over budget, but very pleasing all the same, we moved into our new home at the end of August – the kids loved riding in the moving van almost as much as getting their own bedrooms!







Just a few days later Skye started at her new school, which she is really enjoying.






Phil’s new work took him out of prison and back into engineering, this time (by helicopter) to North Sea oil rigs. It leaves lots time for daddy-day-care, volunteering with church and the prison work (as well as the decorating!)



Joseph has grown in many ways, notably in his love for Bob the Builder (see the hat), Postman Pat, Thomas the Tank Engine and shouting, ‘You Crazy Prawn!’ (err see Uncle Rich for that). In November we had a crazy party for his 2nd birthday too!





A new thing for us is the church community we’re part of – meeting in homes and running kids clubs linked to the local school. Like our advent lunch (shown) it’s very nutritious: local, growing organically, animal (& child & family) friendly, fairly and simply trying follow Jesus in everyday life.

We’re grateful for the support, love and encouragement so many friends and family have given us so generously this year – you’ve carried us a long way, thank you!

With loads of love from all of us

P.S. We’re also on facebook!

what's this all about

so this is what we're pondering as a family and with our church family

a 13 year treat

ok, so anyone reading this blog regularly will notice that we (sometimes) leave big gaps and sometimes backfill with snippets of what we've been up to. well not tonight. oh no, in fact, it was such a special treat to catch up with friends and spiritual heros cassie and esther that it made straight onto the blog in the same evening! changing the worlds of bradford and bristol these ladies were also big uni pals of ours, so great to see them still going all out for jesus, still beautiful, we love 'em and thank God for them - let's not leave it 13 years till the next time we catch up again, eh?

(yeah, ok, so since the last post we also moved home, skye started school, we had almost every family member visit us, planted a new church and phil went to a new job in another country on a helicopter...
we'll get round to posting some stuff about all that soon too)

jojo gets some grandpa time

track!

we went to visit phil's pal john on his farm in wales today.
have a guess what made jojo's day...

taking shape

as you can see the kitchen is taking shape nicely
it's all ready for the floor tiles and the cooker to be fitted next
the big snag is the window will need to be replaced, d'oh!

yet another kitchen piccie

the electric is on and the underfloor heating is down

worktop - woohoo!

from the mouths of babes

a very sleepy skye said tonight, "when I was little daddy,
I was longing for joseph to be born"
"oh", I replied, "did you think the baby would be a boy,
or were you hoping for a girl?"
"I knew he was going to be a boy, daddy.
I thought he should be called flowerdots though."

(so this is what happens after bob the builder goes home for the day...
...the kids come out to play!)

phil the chippie in action

cabinets

the builders have started assembling the kitchen cabinets

dry plaster

the plaster has dried and the electrics are being fitted

wet plaster

here's nigel inspecting the newly plastered kitchen walls

6x rewards

after helping mal and his family move last night, martin had really earned a very special reward...
so we introduced him to the delights of wadworth's 6x at the rose and crown
(I know what you're thinking - we can't take giles anywhere!)

norwegian inspection

martin and anne-marie had a quick tour of the house
the old back door has been blocked up and the plumber has started work

en norske frokost

martin and anne-marie also arrived last night from norway, bringing kaviar and blåbær syltetøy (that's blueberry jam for the uninitiated! or blueberry jelly for uninitiated americans)
hmmmm!

sweden meets bristol

great to see jonathan and susan in such good form!
skye and joseph loved connecting with their cousins

bish bash bosh

the builders are making steady progress on the house, here's the new back door ready to be fitted (you can see the electrical fittings cut into the walls too)

friends

we spent a lovely evening with friends wayne, tracy, mal and chriscelle and their families

can we fix it?

yes we can!
planning permission for the building work on our new house was officially approved today by the local government! woohoo!

little helper

just like skye, jojo loves to join in with whatever is going on - one of his favorite things is emptying the dishwasher!

steel!

the new steelwork is going into the kitchen

scooter

thanks to aunties annie and margaret and grandparents for the amazing pink birthday scooter - what a hit!

birds

a future bono?

more joe cool!

joe cool

focus on the fairy

had a fantastic fairy princess party today...

skye's birthday breakfast

click here for part 2

father and son

opening up

another view of the dining and kitchen area
as you can see, it's still early stages!

said goodbye to olivia today

as she starts a new season working with with glo in burundi

demolition progress

this is where the kitchen will be (once the walls come down...)

finally

got the builders started on the house today! woohoo!

the calm before the (building) storm

so is it just me?

I don't know how I got thinking about it

maybe it's the exagerated speech, the almost-maniacal gesturing, messianic tendancies even...

but were doctor who and robert peston separated at birth? or is that - like clark kent and superman - you just never see him in the same place at the same time?