Long time no blog!

It's been a long time since we've blogged! A lot has happened, including...

Summer's here!... apparently... Above you can see our summer holiday destination: We spent a week in Wales with Bec's mum and dad. While we were there we visited Castles, got rained on, went to a petting zoo (where Cara fell in love with the lambs), took a trip on a little steam engine (the inspiration for Thomas the Tank Engine), and sang lots of songs to keep the kids happy in the hire car. Below you can see some holiday snaps...

While Bec's parents were here, we also enjoyed the opportunity to have live-in babysitters, and went out a couple of times to experience dinner for two! We've also had a visit from Bec's brother Andrew and his fiancee Bre. It was great to get to know Bre, and we look forward to their wedding in September.

Matt's study has been going well: He recently spent two weeks in London with another Nottingham theology student, doing an intensive German course, which should help with his reading of academic texts. Last month, the university decided to upgrade Matt's research from M.Phil (Masters) to Ph.D (Doctorate). His supervisor, Anthony Thiselton, continues to be pleased with Matt's progress, and has been warm and constructive in his supervision.

We are now officially members of Beeston Free Church, and have continued to enjoy our involvement there. Lately this has included Matt leading a service, Bec helping run an evangelistic Bible study, and the kids taking part in Sunday School and the Summer children's outreach programme. Over the holidays, some of the church activities have wound down, but Bec and the kids have enjoyed regularly catching up with other mums and kids.

Luke is now walking, and is saying about ten words. He had his first haircut a few weeks ago, and he is now looking like a little boy, rather than a baby.

Cara has really enjoyed going to Nursery (pre-school) and settled in well. She can now write her name, somewhat legibly. She had a trip to the emergency department of the local hospital recently, with a "bent arm" (her words). It wasn't broken, and she spent the next few weeks at prayer time wanting to say "Thank you, God!" that her arm was better!

In amongst all this, our computer completely died, and so we are writing this blog post on a new computer. We lost a number of photos, documents, and - unfortunately - the diaries that Bec has been keeping about the children growing up. All of Matt's university work is well backed up, so there was no problem there - but other things have unfortunately gone for good.

But God has been blessing us... and yes, there has actually been some sun! We've been enjoying BBQs, picnics, and time playing in the back yard.