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?

big (and overdue) review

so here's our big christmas review and news update!
we've gone back to may 07 when we left america and landed in the green and pleasant land of bristol, england...
wishing you a very merry christmas and happy new year!

(do email us or catch us on facebook for more)

december 08

house! woohoo!

november 08

a fantastic ministry trip to norway!

october 08

we love our kids! they love each other!

september 08

we enjoyed a fantastic family break in the mountains of norway
along with our friends kari, geir, andreas and christopher

august 08

we spent our summer vacation in yorkshire
we learned about traditional 'kissing gates'!
(after this phil had a weekend adventure in the mountains which ended with a viral infection and 3 days in hospital with vomiting and diarrhoea, ooo)

july 08

the fantastic year team bristol group graduated! well done everyone!

june 08

we had an amazing time in india seeking God and learning loads, as well as joyfully reconnecting with our beautiful friends francis, esther and jean in bombay!

may 08

we moved out from the city to the countryside!
here's mags and jojo in our cute farmhouse style kitchen

april 08

jojo and booboo! the smiles say it all

march 08

we made a trip to visit friends at a church in northern ireland
they're challenging us in a lovely way by taking God's love out on the streets and praying for healing with the people they meet

february 08

since arriving in bristol we have made (and deepened) some wonderful friendships! here are our big pals greg and sophie
they've taught us lots - including the game they call 'boygirl'

january 08

the year team hit home/six runs in ministry in norway! flott!

december 07

here are some the good people involved in the volunteer mentoring scheme that phil coordinates in the local youth prison
the aim of the scheme is pretty cool - to support young men, help them get their lives back on track and stay out of trouble when they are released from prison

november 07

our man of the year! joseph! woohoo! praise God!

october 07

lots of good things started this fall/autumn...
here's one of them - the year team bristol discipleship group, small but powerful!

september 07

by the grace of God (and the owner) we began to meet in an amazing historical house, which has become our base for prayer, retreat and training
the house was built more than 370 years ago, making it older than the usa!

august 07

so this is bristol! a small city with 400 000 souls
it's important as the regional hub of south-west england
bristol is home to europe's largest balloon festival and the world's first
suspension bridge, pictured here spanning the avon gorge at clifton
(can you spot the rock climbers?)

july 07

the adventures continued through the summer...
phil and mason visited yellowstone national park and climbed the grand teton in wyoming – a beautiful mountian known as the matterhorn of north america

june 07

we celebrated skye's birthday as we moved into a fantastic spacious shared house in central bristol - affectionately called 'the ark'

may 07

after leaving south carolina and before landing in england we spent a few very happy days with our fantastic friends eric and jill in washington dc
here's skye and mags (and joseph - can you spot him?) at the capitol

mmm

häagen-dazs pralines & cream is surely the finest ice cream on earth!

new house

woohoo! our big news is that we bought a house today!
we have lots of building (remodeling) work planned so it may be a while before it becomes 'home'
we're really pleased and thank God for His provision and blessing