Bumps

Sorry once again for the very long silence , but here is our latest most exciting bit of news:

We are expecting baby number 3 at the begining of June 2008. Here is a pic of the scan we had done. (13 wks old)

Humpty dumpty sat on a wall

Last Friday Joshua was having a go at the small climbing wall at our local park but managed to fall off and land on his right arm. This caused him quite a bit of pain but as there seemed to be no bruising or swelling we didn't think to much of it, Joshua was also reluctant to tell us how much it hurt as he did not want to have to go to hospital. However when he went to bed he woke up at about 10pm in pain and couldn't get back to sleep, so Chris took him down to the local Emergency room at about midnight. They had an X-ray taken to find that his lower arm had dislocated at the elbow. His arm was put in a sling and was told it should go back into place by itself.
On Wednesday morning - the first day of term - Josh woke up to find that he could now move his arm around but was still quite tender, which at least made his first day back at school a lot easier. He has a check up at the hospital tomorrow to make sure everything is where it should be. So hopefully everything will be fine and he will be able to start using his arm normally again soon.

Pictures

Summer Holidays

Well here we are already near the end of the summer holidays - but where has the sun been?

Although saying that we did have a lovely day for Joshua's Birthday party which is just as well as I had planned to have it at the park.

It was a fairly relaxed party with a few games and some nibbles and basically letting the children run around and wear themselves out. It was great to have so many of joshua's friends come - thankyou so much to everyone for coming and also to those who gave a gift.

Not long after the party Chris had some time off, in fact 3 weeks off which has been great over the summer. We spent most of the time in London just catching up with friends and doing the usual zoo and museum trips.

Then for our final week we went with some good friends camping in Devon. And although big storms were forcast, they managed not to hit us and so we managed to hang on to our tent.

I had been worried about how the boys would sleep in a tent, but I think all the fresh air and running about used up all their energy during the day - so I had nothing to worry about.

Just under 2 weeks left before Josh starts school now, he will be going into year 1 and will be in Crystal Class. But before that we have a trip to lego land planned as a final activity before the hard work starts :-)

Our next 'big' event is that we are getting a new lodger on Tuesday. She arrives from Singapore early in the morning, so Chris is going to pick her up from the airport. We are looking forward to meeting her.

So here is Joshua's first school picture.

Doesn't he look so grown up!

Sorry for the LONG silence

Wow, it really has been a long time since we updated this! Well what can I say... what has changed and been happening in our lives for the last4 or 5 months?
Well, I have started working a little bit, just looking after a neighbours children 3 afternoons a week although we are both fairly flexible dending on what's happening in our lives. They are the same age as our 2 and they all seem to get on fairly well most of the time which is a bonus.
Due to earning that bit of money I have siezed the opportunity to start driving lessons (aahhhhggg, watch out London!) I have so far had 5 lessons (2hrs each) and have been quite pleased with my progress. So watch this space...
My sister Ruth has had her 3rd baby boy and he is called Jadon. So that makes me an aunty for the 10th time now. Christmas is going to be a busy time!!!
Josh has settled well into school and has a good group of friends. His birthday is coming up in a few weeks and I am desperately trying to plan something for it. He has had his school pic done which I will try and put on the blog ASAP.
Chris and I have joined facebook.com and managed to catch up with a few old friends which is always a nice thing to do - I recommend it!
The last couple of weeks we have been ill. Reuben had quite a bad cold and was complaining of his ear hurting, I then got the flu and was in bed for a few days, then just as I was recovering Chris got! the following day I had to pick josh up from school at lunch time because he had been sick. I'm kinda hoping now that we've all been ill that will be it for a while now.
Anyway, I've probably rambled on too long now so will stop and try to write again soon.
Helen

Saved 2 Serve and Golf!

This Saturday was the Saved 2 Serve event at church. I have been part of the organising committee since the start two years ago. This is now our third conference. It is aimed at inspiring young Christians and giving them a chance to see the different ways they can serve the Lord. We want to be strong on the understanding of Christian motivation - because of the love God has poured onto us so we serve him because we love him back. It is too easy to get religous; try and earn his love, or think we are paying him back for his love - neither of which are possible. So it was great to have my friend Marcus Honeysett give us a bright glimpse of the extent of his love at the start. All in all it was a very encouraging day.

Meanwhile on the golf course! (Well some of time on the course, some of the time just along the edge!) One of the guys I was playing with said as we looked at the 17th fairway. Such a nice wide fairway. Shame it is so difficult to hit! Which I then proved by hitting my tee shot into a ditch! Still got round in 100 for the first time today and even hit my first ever real life birdie! I must be getting better - though my tee shots wouldn't suggest so. Hope you are all well. God bless,
Chris H

A bunch of news!

Our biggest news is the immanent departure of Chris's sister Jenny and her family to Peru. They are leaving a week today for 3 years initially. It is very exciting, but sad as well, to think that we aren't that likely to see them "in the flesh" for a long time now. We will see them briefly tomorrow, but not again until they come back, or we go out to see them!!!

Joshua is much more settled at school now. Tofic and Amon seem to be his most common playmates. Meanwhile he is starting to learn to read, which is very exciting. He's developed a temperature today though, so he may miss a day of school tomorrow.

Reuben hasn't been sleeping so well again. He goes through patches of sleeping well then not. Although the last sleeping well patch didn't last very long! Helen is understandably tired.

This week see's a lot of preparation before me. We are starting the Bible Class on Exodus this week, plus I am preaching once Saturday and twice Sunday!!! At least I have a bit of a head start on the Sunday PM sermon.

Our love and prayers to you all, and please do get in touch if you can and let us know how you are.
Chris

School and snow

Josh has started big school. It was hard to start with but is getting better daily. The first few days were very hard for us all. Josh has gone from a nursery of up to 10 children to a class of 30 in a year of 60 in a school of 400! And he doesn't know anyone. We were told that Helen would be able to stay with Josh for the first hour or two, but she wasn't. We had told Josh that she would, so obviously that was very upsetting for everyone. Dealing with the reality of break time for the first two days was har as well. It is very difficult to do anything when the dominant picture in your mind is your son standing in the school playground feeling sad and alone while everyone else is happily playing.
Still it doesn't last too long. Josh has fairly quickly been making friends and getting to know more names. He's done his first wee at school (hurrah!) and comes home with stories about what he's been up to.

Meanwhile yesterday morning he had snow to walk to school in. He and Reuben were both very excited. The pictures are of our house and our road. Hope you are well. Do get in touch and let us know how you are. God bless,
Chris

That'll be Christmas and New Year out the way then!

I must start with an apology. We didn't manage to get our Christmas news out in time - it will follow next week! Sorry. We hope you have had a very happy Christmas and New Year, and known the Lord's blessing on you and your family. I know some of you have, and others less so. Ours has been very busy and isn't quite over yet. We a little trickle of visitors on Christmas day! We started with perhaps 8 people and ended with 15 or so! We must have caught a few people out by starting 15 minutes early!
After that we charged off to my family who were gathered in Buckinghamshire. (We had to hire the village hall in my sisters village!) Still it was great for us all to get together.
We spent the night in a travel lodge and then (after a little chef breakfast) drove off to spend boxing day with Helen's family who were gathered in Bradford-Upon-Avon. Again we had a very jolly time.
The day after, we spent a little while shoppingin Bath, then drove up to Welshpool to spend a few days with Helen's oldest sister Ruth and her family, before landing back in London sometime towards the end of last week!
We only had a week of charging around, but the benefit of doing so much is that it feels like much longer. The down side is you come back very tired!
Both the boys have got rotten colds now though. Helen and I are trying to fight ours off. On into 2007...