At the beginning of October John and Andrea (Kylie's sister) and their kids Josh, Siena, Maddy and Caitlin arrived home from the States after being there for 20 months. It has been great having them around again! Their first night back in New Zealand our kids were very excited to have the three girls sleep over at our place.
The next exciting event in our month was finding out that we have been appointed to re-establish the Salvation Army church in Masterton (about an hour from Upper Hutt).
We are starting to get our heads around all that this entails and are feeling a little daunted but also excited about what lies ahead.
We will still be in training as part time students next year as well so it will be a great training year for us. The plan is for us to stay in Masterton after we are commissioned in December 2008.
The weekend after the announcement came out, we headed up to Masterton to have a look around. We had heard about the very cool park with a train so we packed a picnic lunch and had a great day exploring and playing at the park!
In other news this month, Kylie's Aunty Frances was diagnosed with cancer as well as kidney failure. She was given days to live and so all the family made their way to Levin. At this stage, she is still being cared for by her siblings and their spouses at home. It was special to be able to have Dean (Kylie's brother) and cousins Nicola and Stephen and Laura, Stephens wife come and spend an evening with us before heading back to Australia.
Last week Stu took Cody on a hike after school that Cody had been anticipating for a long time. He packed his rope, put on his hiking boots and went armed with a lunch box full of afternoon tea and had a GREAT time with his Daddy!!
On Wednesday night we went to a Saints and Angel party that was put on by three big churches in Upper Hutt. The kids had a great time dressing up, having dinner there, doing craft activities and playing - it was a really good night!
Then just last night we celebrated Guy Fawkes here at College with a BBQ, sparklers and the all important fire works display. It was a bit cold but a great night down at the College park!
(Above is Nay, Corryn and Kendal)
(Monique doing her thing with a sparkler)
(The kids crowding around Simon for their sparklers)
(Sparkly Kendal)
(Naomi had a great time writing her name and making patterns)
So that's our month in a nutshell. The month ahead involves assignments, exams, preaching and packing! This time next month we will be right into our family tradition of the countdown to Christmas! I'm sure there will be plenty of photos to post on our blog from that!!
