Sarah And Daniel (ourtesy Jen) 

The Big Boys (Courtesy of Jen W) 

The Bloggers Fix

So what's been going on, you all ask? I have to dive on here and get my Fix.

Well, over the last week we have said farewell to Jenny, Sarah, Mina and Alex, as they all head back to the 'states. You guys have blessed us something awesome over the last few months, and we are going to miss y'all heaps (note south Carolinian "y'all" slipped in there). Keep the photos/emails coming.

Not much else has been happening, except maybe a bit of Camping was to be had last weekend with Dad, Gideon and Jonathan. We went up the Waipori valley near Dunedin), and found the most pleasant 'no-camping/no fires' picnic ground. After quickly pitching a tent and lighting a fire, we cooked tea and lay in the tent listening to the moreporks(New Zealand Owls).
There is a small bit of video of the whole event here - email Grant for the password.

Go Hard, more news as it comes to hand

More Good Thinking

If you change nothing, nothing will change.
- Unknown

Daniel in his 'David Tua' stance 

Gideon putting Dads' new camera at risk... 

bros in the bath 

chillin' in the bath 

To Choose to Love

"As I stand by the bed where a young woman lies, her face postoperative, her mouth twisted in palsy, clownish. A tiny twig of the facial nerve, the one to the muscles of her mouth, has been severed. She will be thus from now on. The surgeon had followed withh religious fervor the curve of her flesh; I promise you that. Nevertheless, to remove the tumor in her cheek, I had to cut the little nerve. Her young husband is in the room. He stands on the opposite side of the bed and together they seem to dwell in the evening lamplight, isolated from me, private. Who are they, I ask myself, he and this wry mouth I have made, who gaze at and touch each other so generously, greedily. As The young woman speaks. "Will my mouth always be like this?" she asks."Yes," I say, "it will." It is because the nerve was cut." She nods and is silent. But the young man smiles. "I like it," he says, "It is kind of cute." All at once I know who he is. I understand and I lower my gaze. Unmindful, he bends to kiss her crooked mouth and I am so close I can see how he twists his own lips to accommodate to hers, to show her that their kiss still works. "
Richard Selzer, M.D., Mortal Lessons: Notes on the Art of Surgery,1978, pp. 45-6.
The greatest power God has given us, and demonstrated for us, is the power to choose to love.

Be blessed,

Grant & Sarah

Pavlova Recipe as used at Calebs Party

This is a typical recipe for a "homemade" Pavlova - Thanks to Cowells Genuine Pavlova
Check out their history page. It casts the final blow in the "Australia made it first" debate.

1 teaspoon vanilla essence
¼ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vinegar
1 cup castor sugar
2 teaspoons cornflour (cornstarch)
Preheat the oven to 150°C(Gas Mark 2).Beat egg whites and salt in a bowl until soft peaks form. Gradually add the castor sugar while beating. Continue until stiff peaks form. Beat in the remaining ingredients, vanilla essence, vinegar and cornflour. Turn mixture out onto a baking paper covered tray. Shape into a circle approximately 23 cm (9 in) idiameter. Reducece oven temperature to 140°C. Bake for 15 minutes, then further reduce the oven temperature to 120°C and bake for 1 ¼ hours. Cool completely in the oven. Top with whipped cream and your choice of fresh fruit.

footnote: We used bantam eggs, so due to their high yolk/low white content, Sarah kinda doubled the number of eggs

Benaiah(Calebs Cousin) enjoying the birthday festivities 

Caleb changing into his bithday Suit  

Caleb Turns Three

Nothing beats turning 3.......
Yep, Mr Caleb turned three yesterday. after a fairly slow start to the morning, he opened a few presents(including the must have kiwi-kids toy - a 'swingball set'), did kindy, and then got all prepared for the evenings festivities. Dad fired up the BBQ, Uncle Sam, Aunty Karen and the cuzzies came over, as did Jen, Alex and Sarah from the USA......Well, they didn't exactly come over especially for the party, they actually came to New Zealand for the Educational opportunities.......... But while you're here, you might as well check out the kids birthday, right?
The BBQ went off, lamb spare ribs, lamb patties, lamb, venison and chicken sausages, fish fillets, chicken breast, a few veggies....... I'm getting hungry just thinking about it. pudding was the obligatory birthday cake(thanks Jen), and pavlova (recipe to come).
The short story says that the day went off, and Caleb went to bed a tired, happy little three year-old.
The End

Vision

“ A vision is a picture of the future that produces passion.” - Bill Hybels

Gruntas Birthday

Yesterday was Grants birthday. A pretty normal start to the day, got a hard time from everyone at work, except Ruth made me a whole lot of Fairy Bread (bread with hundreds and thousands* sprinkled on it).

Sarah took Grant out to the iconic Speights Ale House restaurant for lunch. G struggled to stay awake at work in the afternoon after a Lamb Shank and a pint of Speights Old Dark Ale.

Home time was a little belated, because G took the wrong bus, but was greeted with the usual screaming kids and exhausted wife.

After tea we started opening presents, the highlight of which was the Pirate Ship/Castle set that Sarah had bought for the kids, but couldn't wait until Christmas to give it to them. G was in the middle of setting it up when Sarahs little surprise was sprung. In traipses Jen, Sarah and Alex from the US, Birthday cake and Middlebury Softball T-Shirt in tow. These kids (as per the last update) know how to make you feel spoilt.

So, Grants birthday was all good. Thanks to everyone.


* Hundreds and thousands are called something different over seas. Jen......What do you guys call them?

Good Thinking

'We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.'

- Stephen R. Covey

The boys with their new friend at Orana Park 

Caleb at Orana Wildlife Park, Christchurch 

Jonathan and Caleb in their PJs 

Lots of Thank-yous

It's been a bit of a humbling experience, becoming new-baby-parents again. This time, more than ever, we relied on a bunch of people who 'carried' us through the months leading up to the birth, and the first weeks after the birth.
So, in no particular order........

Both of Grant and Sarahs sets of parents sacrificed heaps to help out. I'm sure that the older kids spent more time living with you guys than they did with us in the first three weeks of Daniels life.

Two Mums from around our neighborhood are practically beyond thanks. Cheryl and Raewyn fed us, babysat us, dropped us off and picked us up from school and kindy more times than we can remember. I didn't think that non-family members could possibly bless us as much as you guys have. Maybe I've just got a dumb definition of family.....

Work has been really understanding(Thanks Shane).

All the crowd at Elim overwhelmed us with goodies, clothes, nappies. Too many people there to thank.

Lynn from next door fed the chooks, brought in the washing, stopped Caleb from running off down the street, made soup, She basically redifined 'Love thy neighbor'.

Nate, Nicky, Jenny, Sarah and the rest of the Crew who hail from the US of A, also gave the Thompsons a good lesson in how to look after the tired and needy.
Everyone else who dropped off food, gave us more cute baby boy things, etc. We Say Thankyou!

Update on Daniel

Most of you have probably got a few pics of Daniel, but it would be rude not to give him his own blog. All in all Daniel has been a really good baby. Sarah's pregnancy was more difficult than the other three, probably because she also had to chase around 3 other kids, all of whom are renowned for there....erm...'busyness '. The birth was pretty straight forward(from Grants point of view) lasting about 3 hours(Dads aren't supposed to remember this sort of stuff.). Daniel came out weighing 9 pound and, 6 ounces.

Daniel normally waking twice in the night for a feed, but has been a bit more difficult over the last few days because he has a cold.

Feeding was a bit nasty at the start, he took a while to get the hang of it. Sarah definately knows what she is doing, this being her fourth baby and all.

For about two weeks Grant changed is job title from "IT Consultant" to "Lactation Consultant", while he helped Daniel with the finer points of getting fed. It might have been 28 years since Grant last breast-fed, but it's all like riding a bike, really .
We'll keep you posted on his new words, tricks, and faeces stories.

The newest guy. Daniel Mark Having a post- bath hug with Dad 

Daniel In The Bath - 5 Weeks Old 

Caleb at the wheel 

Gideons BMX Winnings

Thursday was a big day for Gideon. He had is first look at some real BMX racing at the local club meeting. His first race didn't go so well, because there are only officially supposed to be 8 starters, but as this is racing for little tykes, they set Gideon up behind all the other kids. Needless to say it made things difficult to get past the other 8 riders. After that race I thought that BMXing and gideon would part company for good. How wrong I was.

Race two saw Gideon get off to a really good start, and by halfway through the race was clear in second place, but not looking like catching up with the 7-year-old in front. Fortunately for the nearly-six-year-old, 7-year-olds sometimes crash too. Gideon swung past him and crusied in for an easy first.

Two Third places later, Gideon found some awesome starting form and blasted out in front of his peers right from the word go. He creamed into the finish in 1st place by about 3 seconds. By this stage, Dad was getting pretty excited about the prospect of having the next Dave Mirra living at his house.
We went along to kiddies BMX practice Yesterday, where Gideon, Jonathan and Caleb had turns practicing Fast Starts, Braking without skidding, and also pulling really big skids. Caleb did all this on his little three wheel push along motorbike.

All good stuff.

Intro-blog

Hi All,
Instead of sending out lots of unsolicited email to you all, we'll update this site on a (reasonably) regular basis. The fun doesn't stop there. We'll dump a few picciies, and when Grant has found a suitable(read 'free') site for hosting video, we'll throw the link in to assist you in chewing up your high speed internet account.