Life in the Dryden household

Life seems pretty busy here, and I know many of you want to hear what's going on so here's your quick 'what we are up to' note. We have recovered from our recent church holiday - we went to a Bible Conference - New Word Alive with some other members of the church. We had a great time! The kids enjoyed their Bible clubs and all the fun activities that were around (swimming/beach). We came back with lots of laundry and a cold/flu that we seem to be passing around. We had a lovely visit from some old friends of mine last weekend. I used to babysit their 2 girls when they were toddlers - 1st grade, they are now in there early 20's!! YIKES!!! I am starting to feel my age now...especially when I was reminded that my 'baby' brother will be turning 30 on Saturday!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ROBBIE!!!there is a card on its way!
Dean is still currently working 2 jobs, (for the church and the local council) but we have had a huge answer to prayer about this. The church has voted to take Dean on full time starting in September. This is great, it means that he can really focus in on ministry.
I am at home fulltime and continuing to organise the family/house so that it can run the best way possible. I am still overseeing the Children's ministry and Friday mum's and toddlers playgroup.
Abigail is almost finished Year 5. When she's not in the classroom she is busy with piano, violin, Jazz (street) dance, and when able to she enjoys shopping.
Sam is almost finished Year 3. When he's not in the classroom he is busy with piano, building things, making his baby brother laugh, and when he can he loves to swing a golf club with his dad.
Aleah is hoping that everyday is her turn to go to school. She would be quite happy in a nursery classroom but for now will have to be content dong stuff with me! As I finshed typing this I opened a letter from the kids' school which informed us that Aleah has been given a place in the nursery class in January 2010! Praise the Lord! It is very difficult to get into the school so this is really exciting news!! She loves all her friends (which pretty much includes everyone in the world!) She is recovering from a pretty bad case of tonsillitis this week! (pray that she hasn't shared it with Levi)
Levi is growing fast! He is 4 months old and we are really starting to see his personality shine through. He is very laid back, and happy. He is starting to give us great big belly laughs when he finds something funny...usually his big brother Sam is involved!
That is what we are up to at the moment. Hope you have enjoyed reading about us!!

Christ is Risen...Hallelujah!

 

Happy Resurrection Day!
We hope that you all have enjoyed the day celebrating the Risen Lord!
We had a great day with the fellowship here at Twynholm, then we went to Dean's parents' house for food, fun and fellowship. We even got to speak to my mom in China, and Dean's brother and sister-in-law in Canada. I tried skyping a few others but you weren't answering!! Hope to talk to all of you soon!
Here's a few picutres of the kids...I finally got all 4 of them together - next task is to get them to all smile for the camera ...together!!!

 

 

Happy Mother's Day

Today is Mothering Sunday in the UK. Also known as Mother's Day. I was woken by the scufflings of some excited children being organised by their father. A little while after a few discussions of who was going to carry what, they all walked into the bedroom to wish me a very happy Mother's Day. Abigail had made me a card and a cup of tea (I love that she is old enough to be able to do this without fear of hurting herself), Samuel buttered the toast, Aleah helped me drink my orange juice, Dean 'made' me flowers (and gave me a gift card to one of my favourite stores),and Levi smiled and cooed. It was a lovely way to wake up.

We went out for lunch after church with Dean's family, and throughout the day my children expressed their love for me in various ways. I received many kisses and cuddles from all of my beautiful children. What blessing they are!

Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward. Psalm 127:3

Catchin' up

Hey guys!!! It's been a while hasn't it!?! Yep, I've been busy doing STUFF, and other STUFF. I've also had problems with my memory cards and I think that little hands (and maybe not so little) have hidden and or dropped one or two of the memory cards down the floor boards of our front room! How frustrating!! I'm quite sad about it because not only do I have to get a new memory card but I wasn't able to get all the pictures off before the card(s) went missing!!! :(
So, to keep those of you who want to see recent pictures of the the kids here are a few snaps of Levi and Aleah in the the bath, Sam dressed for 'Red Nose Day' at school, Abigail showing how she feels that her class had to go on a trip on 'Red Nose Day' and therefore had to wear their uniforms when everyone else was doing fun things.

Friday Fun

Today there was a book signing at a local bookstore by one of our favourite children's authors, Julia Donaldson. Her most well-known book is 'The Gruffalo'. I decided it would be fun to get our copy of the book signed by her. I picked up the oldest 2 from school and off we all (the little ones as well) went to see if we could meet the author. The bookstore had also advertised that 'the Gruffalo' would be visiting the store as well. There was quite a line waiting by the time we arrived. I wasn't sure about waiting in a LONG line with 4 children, and Levi was needing to be fed as well! But, I decided to go for it. Thankfully, I had arranged for Dean to meet us at the shopping center when he finished his afternoon job. Anyway...just shortly after I started feeding Levi his bottle, back-up (Dean) arrived and we managed to keep everyone calm as we waited for an hour and a half. I am pleased that we did wait, because the illustrator, Axel Scheffler, was signing as well. They were both very formidable and Axel drew a little picture in each book. Sam was quite impressed with the speed of his drawing, and that it looked exactly like the characters in the book.
We were able to have a little photo op with 'the Gruffalo'. Aleah wasn't too sure about this character with ...knobbly knees, and turned-out toes, and a poisonous wart at the end of his nose...As you might be able to see from the photo, she did not want to take her eyes off this guy for one second.

Pancake Day

Make a Smilebox postcard

More Birthday Fun

We survived another sleepover! Samuel was allowed to have a few friends sleepover for his birthday - his first sleepover! It was actually easier to have a BOYS sleepover than it was to have a GIRLS sleepover. I think it's all down to my fantastic husband whose job was to entertain the boys. Play a bit of football in the church basement, watch a movie about cars that transform into robots(carefully edited by Dad), wake up and play some more football..oh yeah and eat every once in a while. Abigail went to Dean's mum's for the night and Aleah joined in with the festivities! Sam is busy at work on a TRANSFORMER that one of his friends gave him as a gift. He would have been quite happy to be left alone to transform it peace. We got him to at least look at the camera this time! Sam's pirate cake! Which I am quite proud of...I made everything from scratch (cake, icing) except the sweets that we put on it!