Saturday, 9 February 2008

Playing catch-up...

It's been so long since I updated our blog, that I couldn't even remember my password... Anyway here goes, I'll start where I left off and share some pictures from christmas with you. My sister put some on her blog as well (http://www.benandnadja.blogspot.com/) as we were together for christmas around my parents, so I won't double up on hers as half the family already see her blogspot.
Anyway,like I said we were meant to be at my mum and dad's for christmas, but just as we had packed the car and emptied the fridge, they called to say that everyone was really ill, so we decided to wait for a bit rather than hurry down there just to catch it as well. It did however mean that we had no food in the fridge at christmas and the shops would all be closed for a few days. But as soon as we went to church and people found out, we were invited to spend christmas eve with three different families (we told you our branch is amazing...;-D)
So in the end we spent christmas eve with Janne and Mikkel and the kids and then drove to Germany the next afternoon.




Erin and Gabriel lighting the christmas candles. Erin says she wants to marry Gabriel when they grow up, because he's the funniest boy she knows.




Theodor and Joshua checking out the presents under the tree... Cheeky little boys!








The kids are now old enough that they are really easy to travel with and the trip to Frankfurt was a pleassure. They napped when we told them to and Erin has this thing where she puts one of our coats over her head to fall asleep in the car. Only thing is, her hair is crazily static...













Erin and the best auntie ever... playing with beads on Boxing Day.











The boys playing with their new toys. Mainly Zak's new remote control helicopters which were a fascination to both the little and the bigger boys...











Ben was so brilliant with the children. He must have read them a gazillion books over christmas. What a lovely and patient uncle he is!




We went for a day out to an organic farm. The kids loved it. Here's a cow smooching Ty...



...and sniffing Joshua's boot.









After that we went to see a natural spring close to where my parents live.










After the spring, we went to a viking themed park to play. (Sorry, Nadja, but I had to put this picture in, it's my absolute favourite... we won't reveal how many hoops Nadja made, but from her pose you may have a guess...)






The children loved this swing, I think we could have stayed there for hours...





One day my parents took all four children to a dinosaur museum and to McDonald's. The children had a wonderful day out with mormor and morfar and Ben, Nadja, Quentin, Zak and I went into town as well and went to a museum and out to lunch. Afterwards we went window shopping and the guys thought they were incredibly clever, when we split up (for one of Ben's toilet-breaks...) and they had all the credit cards and Nadja and I had none. Very funny, guys!

Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

Crabs and Star fish

Crabs and Star fish
One of our most favourite things to do is to go to the beach at the end of our road and catch crabs and star fish. Erin and Joshua are little pros at it now. They both crack open their own mussels, attach them to the line and drop the crabs in the bucket. The girl in the blue dress is Erin's friend from church. They love playing together and are so similar, both in looks and temperaments.


Views from around our house

Views from around our house
We love the area we live in and Quentin can't stop taking pictures of the harbour whenever he walks across the bridge, we must have a million and in fifty years time, Sønderborg city council will propably contact us about copies for their records of the city... This was taken with our mobile.

The beach at the end of our road -we feel very lucky!

Welcome to our blog

Well, we've been in Sønderborg for a year now and time has really flown by!

We've bought a house in Augustenborg, which is a village 8 km from Sønderborg. It is also right near the water and is on the island of Als. We can't wait to move in on May the 15th.

Joshua will be starting preschool in Augustenborg when we move and for the first time he'll be going without his big sister to look out for him. He clings to her quite a bit, so we're happy that there's a little boy he knows from church starting at the same time. Hopefully he'll settle in well and make friends of his own quickly.

Erin will be starting school after the summer holidays and all the children starting this year, will be spending the summer at the school (in what's usually the after schoolclub -SFO) so that they have a bit of time to get used to each other and the school. It's very good timing for us as they start there in May, -right when we move anyway. It saves Erin a move or us driving her from Augustenborg to Dybbøl every morning.

The kids are growing so fast it seems at them moment and they are really looking forward to spending some time with nana and grandad this spring (we're looking forward to them brushing up on their English too...) and to going on holiday to mormor and morfar's on their own this summer.

Quentin is still enjoying working as a physio and still travels to Aabenraa every morning. He is also the branch mission leader and the nursery leader. The primary president loves him and thinks he is brilliant in that calling... He is incredibly creative in the way he teaches the children and they all love him and their lessons. He says he loves teaching a class where the students' vocabulary doesn't exceed his own:-)

I am the primary president and am still enjoying that very much. I have an amazing councillor who makes my calling a breeze and the children are (mostly) just lovely.
I am working night shifts at the old people's home, which I do enjoy, but I keep looking for other, more creative work and would love to do something else.

Apart from that, there's not much going on in our lives and we quite think it's plenty, really...

We are looking forward to you all coming to visit us in our new house when we've settled in.

The historic hills behind our road by Dybbøl mølle (mill) are the perfect place to fly kites before bedtime... Afterwards we like to roll down the hills -All except Quentin who usually ends up feeling queezy.

2007

As you may know we moved to Sønderborg, Denmark earlier this year. February to be exact.
Quentin had just finished his MSC in physiotherapy in Southampton and with it being so hard to get jobs in England because of all the NHS cutbaks, he also applied to one here in Denmark. We'd always thought it would be fun to move here for a while and thought there'd be no better time than now while the children are still small. It was still a hard decision though and one which involved lots of praying.
We are so happy to be here though. We had originally said we'd "give it at least two years", but Quentin keeps extending that lol. I think that must mean he's happy here:-)
He's working hard at a private clinic and is doing really well there. I am so happy that he is able to do the job he has always wanted to do.

He also takes Danish classes twice a week in the evening and we are all impressed with how quickly he is learning. I'm sure it has a lot to do with his perseverance in speaking Danish even to people he knows speak English very well.
Apart from that he is the branch mission leader (okay, the meetings with the elders are in English for the moment being...)

The branch here is tiny (when we first walked into the sacrament meeting Erin thought it was Primary) and we were a bit worried about that, having always belonged to big wards. It is a very different experience and we have to give lots of talks etc, but we actually really love it. The branch is made up mainly of young families and a few elderly people. The children have made some great friends at church and so have we.

I have been working part-time as a home help, but stopped a couple of weeks ago. I would really like to do something creative and somehow utilise my education, but for the moment I am just enjoying being at home with the children and having the time to do the things I want to. I do start working as a substitute next week, but that means I can choose my own shifts and with the shift hours I still pick the children up between one and two. I am also the Primary president at church. We have about 12 children who come regularly and they are so good to each other. The older ones always play with and look out for the little ones, so being the Primary president is a pleasure.

Erin and Joshua go to the same preschool (børnehave) and love it. Joshua likes having his big sister with him and mainly play with all the "big girls". They also go to gymnastics, which seems to be something everyone does around this area, so we see all the children from preschool there every Monday night as well. They really enjoy that too. Erin chose an all pink and shiny gym outfit, which happened to be the same one half the girls had chosen too, so they all run around as chubby flashes of pink and think they're ballerinas. Joshua keeps telling me how fast he runs at gymnastics and loves going so much. They both think Mondays are the best because there's preschool, gymnastics and then Family Home Evening.