Dissertation Completed!

Dean has finally finished his dissertation. After being literally locked in the bedroom with a rocking chair, tray table, and laptop for a week and a half...he has emerged!!! Much to the relief of me and the kids! The paper was due today at 5pm and that is exactly when it arrived at Oakhill!

Dean has been wearing the same pare of jeans the whole time he was working on the paper. (Kind of like a lucky sock.) These are now known as his DJ's - Dissertation Jeans.

It has been a long hard week and a half. But God is good and He gives us what we need...like my Mom being here for most of that time to help with the kids and to take my mind off the stressful situation we were in. I only had to deal with this stressful life for a weekend by myself after Mom left, and that was more than enough for me. It now almost seems like a distant memory! HA!

Toothless

Sammy is now officially toothless. His second top tooth came out on New Year's Eve! The tooth fairy has been working overtime this Christmas!

SPOONS!

Today we spent the day playing games indoors. Dean is working on his dissertation, and it was very cold outside! We had a great time playing SPOONS...we just wish that our American family could be here with us to a a SPOONS CHAMPIONSHIP game. As you can see, Aleah tried to join in our game as well. She certainly would cheer for everyone as they grabbed a spoon.

Dutch Blitz with Grandma

Aleah's new tricycle. It has a wagon attached on the back. Aleah loves scooting through the house on it.

Here are a few pictures of Grandma playing Dutch Blitz with Abby and Sammy. I've got a video of it that I will try and post later. I've added a few pictures of the kids and other stuff. Oh, yeah...and Sammy lost his front tooth!

Cheese! The tooth next to it is loose as well. Soon we will be calling him 'toothless'!

A day out at Kew Gardens with Grandma.

Today we took Grandma to Kew Gardens. For the last few days we have been relaxing indoors, playing games (DUTCH BLITZ) and chilling out with Grandma. But, Dean is trying to write his dissertation and so we thought we'd better get out of the house for a while. Plus, Grandma doesn't get to see a lot of parks, and gardens where she lives in China so we thought it would be a nice treat for everyone. We packed a picnic lunch, said goodbye to Dean, and off we went got catch the bus to Kew Gardens. We had a lovely time. First stop was lunch inside the children's play area 'Climbers and Creepers', then we went exploring through the gardens.

Cheese!

This an enormous pine tree that has branches leaning over so far they touch the ground. It almost makes a cave like house around it. (Not sure what Samuel is doing there?)

This 'tea house' is opposite the bus stop that we had to wait at in order to head back home. It looked VERY inviting. Especially as the temperature had dropped several degrees while we where out. We said that next time Grandma comes to Kew Gardens we will definitely have to make a tea stop there!

Dryden Christmas

Let the chaos begin!!!

Oh, look, a box to play with!

A magic set for Sam, and a Doodle Pet for Abby.

Christmas Pj's!

Here are a few pic's of Christmas Eve, and Christmas Day. Unfortunately, I was far too busy on Christmas morning to get any photo's of our Christmas Breakfast. We had Dean's family over plus a few of the extended family...one of Dean's sisters-in-law brought along her sister, and another sister-in-law brought along her brother from South Africa. So in total, counting children and extended family we had 18 people for breakfast! Later we all went to Dean's parents' house for Christmas Dinner and more presents...there was 20 of us there! Can you imagine the chaos!!! Especially when you realize that there were 5 children, 3 guinea pigs, 1 dog, 1 rabbit, and 1 cat amongst the crew!!!! We had a fantastic time, but we certainly did miss the family members that weren't able to be there! Hope you enjoy the photo's!!!

Slideshow

I have added some more pictures to the slideshow on the right. I will try and add photos occasionally so check back every once and a while. ENJOY!!