Merry Christmas from A winter wonderland!

Winter snow!

Winter Wonderland!

Merry Christmas from a winter wonderland!

As we were preparing for our trip to Ottawa, Canada for Christmas we were getting a little bit worried and even a little disappointed before we even arrived.  Many of the people we were speaking to in Ottawa were shocked about how little snow there was and how strange the winter was this year.  As you can imagine our main goal for coming home for Christmas was to spend time catching up with family and friends but so much of that is just made better when snow is involved. 

The kids had been praying the snow would come.  We were pleased to hear just a couple of days before our arrival that the snow had started, it even got to far as there was a question on if we would be able to land with the level of snow that was coming in (although we were unaware of this from the plane).  It has now snowed almost consistently since we arrived and we are all loving it!

We had a wonderful snow day with family on Christmas eve at one of their homes and now again today we will be leaving in a couple of hours to have a snow day with another cousin again all of the extended family will be there....  photo's to follow i hope! 

We hope your Christmas has been wonderful and you have all enjoyed time with family and friends. 

A Look at 2012

It's funny that as they year comes close to an end we all feel the need to start looking at what we have done in the previous 12 months.  It's a funny concept to me but still I can't stop myself from joining in which the weird little tradition.  Even more amazing is in a few weeks we are all going to try to decide what will happen in our lives in the next 12 months, again as much as in makes me wonder why we do it.... I will be joining in, i just can't help myself!

In light of that thought here is a basic overview of our 2012

January:

Caleb's birthday, he turned 13 this year!

Zachariah arrives, on the 17th we welcomed his arrival. He was our surprise for the year but as I am sure you already know.... A real blessing!

February:

Aaron flew to Atlanta to spend some time with a friend who was in the end stages of cancer, Aaron was blessed to have been able to arrive in time to spend some cherished time with him and then also be at the funeral.

Grandma Renaud left us and returned to Ottawa after 4 months in London

March:

Zachariah's dedication

April:

on the 7th we welcomed Jon Yarrall into our extended family.  He married Kristina, Aaron's youngest sister. They are very happy together and already expecting their first child on July 4th. 

Caleb's Baptism, this was a wonderful day and along side him two Somali believers were also baptised.  We were very excited to see both Caleb and the other two men making a stand to make their faith public. 

May:

Eden's Birthday, she turned 11 this year!

Grandpa Gourlay, Carolyn and two of our nieces Jordan and Grace came to visit.  We had such a fun time and are already looking forward to another visit.

June:

Team Retreat

Queen's Jubilee, we had a lot of fun celebrating with the rest of the country but unfortunately the invitation to join her for a celebratory cup of tea must have been lost in the post!

July:

London 2012 Olympics

we have another nephew!!  Phoenix Amadeus Lawler is born to Luke & Andrea. 

August:

Family trip to France, we went to visit Aaron's sister Phoenicia and her family.  Another one of his sisters Joy and her family also joined us for the trip.  It was great to have so many cousins get together to spend time just being together!

London 2012 Paralympics

We meet our newest nephew. Marc Junior is born on the 16th to Marc & Debbie Lawler

September:

School restarted! 

Eden has now moved to the high school!

Eileen's birthday

House extension starts

October:

Nathan's birthday, he turned 10 this year!

House extension continues.

November:

House extension continues.

Thanksgiving, as a team we hosted a thanksgiving celebration for about 110 people.

December:

and the house extension still continues!!

We are heading to Ottawa for Christmas! we are all looking forward to it so much!

in January we are also looking forward to meeting Joy & Francois' newest little one.  Due on the 29th.  This family just keeps getting bigger!!

so, that seems to be a very basic overview of some of the things that have happened this year!

We are looking forward to see what the next year has in store.

So many LITTLE things!

Zachariah is getting bigger each day, as to be expected! The funny part about babies getting bigger is they seem to become more interested in smaller things! Zachariah still enjoys his fruit and porridge for breakfast but a real favourite part of each breakfast is when he gets his Cheerios!!! It takes him a while but he loves the process of picking each little Cheerio up.

The oldest and the youngest!

I thought this was a great picture of Caleb an Zachariah! Caleb is giving him last cuddles before heading off to MTO in the Netherlands for a week.

He left yesterday and we will meet up with him at Aaron's sisters house on the 20th in France. We miss him already!

Most Improved Player!

This year both of the older boys played soccer with a local team called the 'South Ealing Saints'.  It committed them to every Saturday for practice and then some Saturdays also had games.  They played in sun and rain and even the threat of snow one week.

They had lots of fun and were pleased to be part of the team.  At the end of the year they were both given awards for being part of the team, as all the kids were.  They were excited about them.

Caleb was then surprised to also receive the MOST IMPROVED PLAYER for his age group.  He worked hard with the team all year and really did earn the award and he is looking forward to going back in September and being an assistant coach as this year was his last year to be able to play with the team.

Well Done Kids!

Well, the school year has come to an end and the kids are all off for August.  

Everyone has worked very hard this year and finished with great school reports.  We are pleased with how everyone did and feel they did their best and achieved well.

Caleb ended his year with being invited to do his science GCSE early.  He has been doing triple science all year to be able to achieve this.  For many of you who don't know what GCSE's are the closest i can explain it to be is a basic requirement to graduate high school and everyone has to do some, people vary between 3 and 10 depending on their academic levels and plans.  Being allowed to do one a year early means you are able to fit more in to help get better grades when you leave high school but it also means you are fitting it on top of your normal academic requirements. We are allowing Caleb to do this has he achieved good grades with doing the triple science last year.

Eden has finished primary school.  This is a huge stage as she will be starting high school in September.  She is very excited and looking forward to being at Twyford.  This is the same high school that Caleb is already attending.  Eden struggles with some aspects of standardized testing so we were very excited with her results.  She achieved higher than we had expected and really showed us what she can do.  As far as academics go she is completely ready for high school..... the real questions is, are WE ready for her to go to high school?

Nathan also did great with his school results, showing us what he is able to achieve.  He has always been a good student but this year he managed to cross the line into a high achieving student as we saw his grade levels show an amazing jump.  He deserved the good marks as he worked hard all year and took great pride in his home work and projects.  Clearly his school also felt he worked hard as they gave him the award above.  He is very proud of himself and is already talking about how hard he is going to work on his homework next year.....   We have told him he can probably relax and enjoy his summer before starting to worry about next years homework!

Zachariah enjoyed going out with the family to celebrate the good reports. We were not surprised to see that he found eating the menu much more exciting than the pizza! 

We Love Visitors!!

We love to have visitors come to our home.  We don't have a huge home but we do like it to be open to friends and family, we consider it a blessing to be able to host those who come. 

It is even greater when Grandpa, Carolyn show up with cousins Jordan & Gracie!!  What a special treat.  

Aaron and I managed to keep it a complete surprise from the kids.  They were very excited when we showed up at school to pick them up.

A Welcome basket for Carolyn.
It is all British for her first trip to the UK.
(even the basket is made from wool from
British alpaca's!)

It's Science fair time....

Well, as the title suggests its that time of the year again, Science Fair!!  This year Eden is working together with a friend from her class to show how to make a light bulb work.  They have decided to make 'bulb bugs' as a more unique way of presenting the light bulb.  On their table at the in school science fair they will have many household objects and people will have to try and guess which ones will work and which won't.  You will be surprised by some of them!

Bulb Bug

working together on their project

Look!!  it works!!!

Eden is very excited that the project is a success!!!

A Family Favorite

Banana Chocolate Chip Loaf

A family favorite in our house is Banana Chocolate chip loaf.  This loaf is a bit different to the traditional one, It comes up lighter in color on the inside and in my opinion a lot more moist.  The kiddies love it and it's a great way of using up those over ripe bananas.

Since we enjoy it so much we thought we would share the recipe with you!

10oz  Plain Flour
1 tsp baking powder
1tsp baking soda
1/4tsp salt
4 ripe banana's
4oz fine white granulated sugar
1 egg, beaten with a fork
3 fl oz milk
3 fl oz vegetable oil
2-3 oz chocolate chips

Temperature: 375-400 F
Time: 20 minutes

Enjoy!!

The Lawler Kiddies

We have a friend who offered to take some time and try to get some pics of the kids.  It was a gift for Zachariah's birth, a wonderful gift at that!!!   We are really happy with how the pics turned out.  We can't put them all up (although most are on facebook), we just wanted to share a few! 

All the kids

Caleb (13yrs)

Eden (10 3/4yrs)

Nathan (9 1/2 yrs)

Zachariah (2mo)

Caleb, Eden & Nathan

Eden & Nathan

Eden & Zachariah

Zachariah's Dedication

On April 1st, Zachariah was dedicated at St.Pauls.  We wanted to take the time to thank God for the precious gift of another son and commit to making the choice to raise him up to be a man who follows, honors and searches out God.

Our family, Zachariah's God Parents and our nephew  Brooklyn

The Kiddo's

The Kiddo's

Last month a friend offered to spend some time taking pics of the kids.   The kids had fun and we were given a DVD with loads of photo's but of course, only a few can be uploaded in this post.

Zachariah (2months)

Eden (10 3/4yrs)

Nathan (9 1/2yrs)

Caleb (13 yrs)

A tower of children

The pyramid

relaxing on the grass

bouncing fun

fun together

Mr & Mrs Yarrall

Introducing Mr & Mrs Yarrall

On Saturday, April 7th 2012 we welcomed yet another person to the family.  

Jon married Tina (Aaron's youngest sister).  

The day was a wonderful event.  The weather was crisp but sunny for great photo's.  Bride & Groom both looked great and all 17 nieces and nephews looked wonderful and behaved just as well. 

We started with family photo's in the park and moved on to the ceremony then reception and evening party.  Fun was had by all. 

The week before the wedding was fun but busy, lots of family visiting from both sides.  We are excited for Tina to be part of her new family.  The Yarrall's were lots of fun and seem to be a really great family.  

There are lots more photo's on our facebook if you would like to see more!

Never too young for chess

playing a game of chess

The older kids are all very helpful with Zachariah.  They love playing with him and even helping with those jobs that nobody actually wants to do but, i was very surprised to come in and find them trying to teach him how to play chess.   I guess you really never are too young for chess!

Thank You.... but who???

Since Zachariah has arrived we have been greatly blessed by many gifts for him.  Each has been different and all have been greatly appreciated.  There is one gift that has left us a little puzzled though, it is a really nice little jacket that is so lovely on him.  It arrived by mail from somewhere in the UK, with no return address label or card or any sign for that matter on who it was from.  

To whomever you are THANK YOU!!

I am attaching a photo of Zachariah in this lovely jacket.  Please let us know if it was you who sent it.

Look at my new jacket... it's great!

Hello and Goodbye....

Today Aaron came home after being in Atlanta for almost 2 weeks.  He went to visit a sick friend and to be part of a conference at the US office.  Aaron had felt strongly that he needed to go and visit our friend John who had been battling cancer for some time.  John's health had been going down hill as the tumor in his brain was causing even the simple things in life to be difficult.  Aaron arrived in Atlanta on the Wednesday and John went to be with the Lord on the Friday.  Aaron was extremely thankful to be able to have that brief time with John and to be able to be at his funeral. Please continue to lift up Johns family as they continue to deal with the loss.

Tomorrow Grandma Renaud is going home after being with us for 4 months.  It has been wonderful having her hear and the extra set of hands has been so needed with Eileens many hospital appointments and then with the arrival of Zachariah.  We will all miss her lots but Zachariah might the most as he will lose his favorite bed........

Zachariah's favorite sleeping place!

Zachariah's getting bigger!

Eden was spending time with Zachariah this morning and decided to play with the camera also, she actually got some pretty cute pictures!

Zachariah

oh, i like the taste of my hand....

just chillin

WOW!!  this is a big bed!

everyone needs a stuffed hedgehog!

another eye test.....

So, each three months Nathan has to go back to the optometrist to have his vision and eye muscles tested.  This week was one of those tests.  Nathan was given a new prescription and also is now being referred to a specialist to help him work on his eye muscles.  He is still having issue's that he is unable to make his eye's cross which effects his ability to have single vision when focusing on something. 

Nathan loves having his eye's tested as he likes to get new glasses, this time as he is going to have 6 months between tests they gave him 2 pairs.  He decided on one red and one black....  photo's to come!

Thankfully Nathan didn't decide on this pair for his new glasses!!

The real snowman makers

well, the children got home from school and wanted to rightfully claim their snowman!!

Eden & Nathan with the snowman

Eden

Nathan

Londons First snow for 2012!!

This weekend we had our fist snow of the winter!  Everyone was very excited!!  The kids wish it had snowed Sunday night instead of Saturday night so they could get a snow day.... but it didn't, so while they were all off at school Grandma took credit for their snowman!!

oh no.... another bath!!

Well, Eden loves being a big sister.  She always is asking can I hold Zachariah, can I take him upstairs for you, can I get him dressed. So, it was just a matter of time before she was around for a bath time.  Eden was very excited about this, unfortunately Zachariah was not!  He does NOT like the bathing experience.

Well, at least we got some cute pics right?

Zachariah still shocked from the bathing experience!

Eden helping Zachariah after his bath.