My Audience

So here I am after another huge gap.  Who knew I still had an audience?!?

So much has happened sine I last wrote but writing is what I feel like i need to do now.  Before I became aware that someone out there still looked for new posts on my blog, I had this feeling that I wanted to write more.

I believe my last blog was when Ross had his mission call.  Well soon after that he fell in love and brought a beautiful young lady into our lives, Harriet, more on her later.

Ross continued on though with his progress towards his mission and left us on July 4th 2017, our silver wedding anniversary. He loves his mission and we hear from him each week, he is not a big writer but we hear enough to know that he is safe and happy, learning and growing.  We have had two of our FaceTime calls, Christmas and Mother's Day, and he looks well.

So seven weeks after he left we welcomed Gareth home from California, in the two weeks preceding his homecoming I spoke with him about the beautiful young lady he met before he left on his mission. (can I just add here that there is a certain pattern to this in our family as Calvin and I met just before his mission too!)  He said they were thinking about meeting up when he got home.  Well to cut a not very long story short they met up in September, October, December and February and got married in April.  Karo is from Iceland so their meetings were spread apart and took place in different countries but they got engaged in Iceland at Christmas and married here in our beautiful chapel in Wales, before being sealed in the London Temple where they had first met back in May 2015.

We spent the time from September to April supporting Gareth at University in Telford and getting to know Harriet and Karo better.  Its been so much fun outnumbering the boys!!

A few short weeks ago we waved goodbye to harriet as she left for her mission to Temple Square in Salt Lake City, she will spend her 18 months giving tours and testifying of Jesus Christ to people from all over the world.

So here we are now, Calvin, Martha and I living in Wales, Gareth and Karo have settled for now in Shrewsbury and we await the return of Ross and Harriet next year.

I guess you might like some pictures of all that?

Ross and Harriet July 2017

Farewell Elder Ross Williams

Welcome home Elder Gareth Williams

The wedding of Gareth and Karo

Ross down under in the outback

Mother's Day and Ross Birthday 2018

Family time

Sister Harriet Woods, ready to go!!

So the last year and a bit has been quite an adventure and the experiences of motherhood just keep on going and changing.  It seems like such a short time ago that they were all small and now we are almost doubled in number!!  I am really looking forward to the experiences to come in the next chapter of our life.

Thanks for being there reader, you know who you are, thanks for always thinking of us and remembering our special days

xxxxxxxxx

No Way!

Huge gap, I know, but I have exciting news to share

Ross made the huge decision that serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is what he wants to do to show his gratitude to his Saviour.

With Gareth shocking us all with California, Roseville Mission two years ago, we decided to have a board for guesses this time.

We assembled a group of friends and family, both live and over the internet!  And ............

NO WAY!  Australia Sydney South Mission!

He begins on July 6th 2017.  

Flying Further Afield

Ross' flying is really taking off now (pardon the pun)

Last week he flew to Gloucester and Cardiff with his instructor.

I am still blocking out the fact that my 17 year old son actually flies a plane, in the sky, and at times on his own!!!!!!

I will have to get used to it as he will soon qualify for his Private license and then he heads off to America to build some flying hours.

Watch this space........

I wonder which license will be first, driving or flying?

All Change Again

Transfer week again and Elder Tout moved on.  Elder England is Gareth's new companion and we look forward to hearing all about him.

Garden Party

Calvin and I went away for the weekend and left Grandma and Grandad in charge.  As usual Martha and Ross had a full calendar so Grandma and Grandad became the taxi service (although to be fair Ross drove himself but he needed co-pilot)

One of the planned activities was the birthday party of a family from our Branch.  they combine their party when the weather is nice, great idea.  Martha and Grandma had the best time on the space hoppers and playing snakes and ladders and i think there was some kind of water fight!!!

Thanks for a lovely party and happy memories made.

New Friends and Big Blessings

Pictured here are Bill, Brayden and Ruthann, who came to Wales to search for some family history sites of Ruthann ancestors.  Ruthann and her grandson Brayden are members of our church and they had contacted us to let us know they were coming.  They were staying just down the road from us and we were able to meet with them and take them out looking at graves and places where her ancestors had lived and worked.We shared lunch and got to know them a little more.   It was a fascinating weekend and we were so grateful to have met them.  I asked one small favour of Ruthann and that was to mail Gareth a package when she got home, he needed new shirts (again!)

On their return they mailed the package (and some extra things which were an answer to prayers from our end!)  One of the things they sent was a copy of this picture.  They also sent us a package with photos from their trip and a lovely book and CD plus their heartfelt thanks.  We are so blessed to meet people like this who go the extra mile to lift and to serve.

Thank you.

This is the photo Ruthann took, Ross is holding the said package.

American Mother's Day and Gareth's birthday

It would be unusual to get to speak to your missionary on their birthday but as Gareth's fell on American mothers day we got to spend a little of his 19th with him.  We even had him blow out his candles!

It was a special day as both sets of Grandparents were able to be with us and talk to him.

The sounds of laughter coming from the dining room as these three joked about our parenting skills could be heard in the next village! 

They talked of a particular day when something got broken.  Quotes such as "don't play with things that aren't toys" and "That was a special gift!" could be heard as they joked that the said special gift looked like a charity shop reject!