My little man and big man at sunday service.

We are moving to north west london next month...new beginnings, getting excited. Hopefully I'll have my operation soon and get healthy again. Matthew finishes his exams soon - I think I'm more nervous about them than he is. Many plans and things we want to do. So much is happening, life is never dull.

Just thought I'd post some pictures of my cheeky little man - David :)

He's really growing up so fast and is developing a big personality. He's stubborn and head strong like his Dad and he's nosy and cute (like me of course).

  This one is of David praying at the dinner table (or maybe he's just studying the pattern of the table cloth really hard!?)

We FINALLY managed to get the whole HUISH family together. 3 brothers (Matthew, Michael, Steven), 3 wives (me, Corinna, Susie), the grandparents, Hannah and our David.

It's been a nice long summer and so much has happened.

We celebrated David's 1st birthday on the 6th June (it's amazing how quickly one year of his life has been fulfilled already). A few days before that, we went to a 1st birthday party for Matthias Herzer (David's little friend from birth) It was a nice week filled with happiness for and celebration of the little ones in our lives.

From the time Matthew finished his first year exams at university, he has been helping out with an STF team who came over to help in preparation for TM coming in July. Emma-Louise and I went to Dublin for the event there on the 13th. It was nice seeing KJN, I've never met him before. In August Matthew, David and I moved house from Lewisham to my family in Orpington. We will be there for maybe 2 years until Matthew finishes his degree and my parents will also move house then. David is loving it, having his grandparents around all the time and having two aunties to play with.

In September we flew to South Africa to visit my Grandmother in Pinetown, Kwazulu-Natal. It was a wonderful holiday meeting up with cousins and family I haven't seen in many years. My grandmother is now 87 years old so we really wanted to make this trip in case we wouldn't be able to go at another time before she passes away. She was so happy to meet and get to know her first great-grandchild. We spent 12 days together in which time we also visited Umhlanga seaside resort and 'Tala' a private game reserve. Amazing!

So now it's back to life in London. Busy, busy, busy.

Hope you are all fine and happy. Good luck to all those doing the STF programme this year (my little sister included) and any other things like Jr. STF, SET and WAIT.

Sitting in a mango tree

David's great-grandmother (my mum's mum)

Having fun splashing around in the indian ocean and being buried in the sand

Spotting animals from our Land Rover

We know it's a giraffe, to David everything was "ba"!

David's favourite person while on holiday - Papa

Watching a family of hippos in a lake

A picture of a part of the retirement village where my grandmother lives. It's called Doone Village (there's a great picture of it on google earth)

There's a lot happening as usual. Brothers and sisters in our house are either wading through their exams at the moment or have finished for this year and are making plans for their summer. Matthew is tutoring almost every day which is really good as he is able to help all those 2G with their upcoming AS/A levels. Hopefully they will be able to get their best results ever. I'm taking care of David who is not a happy bunny at the moment because he has a chesty cold and is on and off constipated. Don't worry - mum has it in check! He is taking his first really confident steps by himself now. It's very exciting to see him growing up so fast and discovering many new things every day.

Looking through my xanga subs. I read their are a few sisters expecting their first or second babies already (you know who you are...and many CONGRATULATIONS to you!). It always puts a huge smile on my face when I find out someone is expecting a little 2G or 3G. Heavenly Father must be feeling so happy and proud and so hopeful for the future! So much care and love and investment has been poured into making this happen. Matthew and I are growing every day, finding out what it means to be a true parent, discovering limitations within our ability to love and give. It's wonderfully hard.

Next week my mum is going to be workshop mother at a 7 day DP workshop and Matthew is giving the lectures for at least part of the ws. Maybe I can find time to help cook, that would be really good actually. On Thursday my Aunt Eve and Uncle Phil are coming to visit, see David again. On Saturday is Matthias Herzer's 1st birthday party (he and David were born within 48 hours of each other, isn't that cool?) And the following Sunday will be David's birthday party with both our families present. It's not often we get everyone together but I think it's really important to be close.

Hope everyone is doing well, feeling happy and full of hope and inspiration.