As you can see, I haven't blogged for almost a week, and I haven't really blogged much since the news of a new little Thompson on the way...truth be told, it's just been a hectic season with it being Christmas and all, and on top of that I have been feeling pregnancy tiredness, which is taking it's toll. This week however I have managed to sort though a huge amount of toys, turning the girls play room into the new baby room. Why so early? Well, I know that next year is going to be a hectic year, Glen is busy and I am busy, and so I wanted to get things ready while I still had time and energy, so the girls and I spent the most part of yesterday sorting and moving etc. etc. and now have the room 95% ready for the new arrival, only to be expected in August next year...now if that's not planning, I don't know what is!

Anyway, for those who are interested here is what baby looks like at 6 weeks:

Facial features are visible, including a mouth and tongue. The eyes have a retina and lens. The digestive system starts forming, beginning with the first cells of the stomach and the intestine. There are small indentations in the head, ready for the development of facial features, eyes, and ears. The outline of the jaw starts to form.

Again, I cannot thank the Lord enough for all the blessings He has poured into our lives - my cup overflows!

As you can imagine, we are just awestruck at God's goodness to us. Baby Thompson is really consuming my thoughts at the moment. This is what he/she looks like now, 5 weeks old. I am enjoying this journey again, this time with two very excited little girls, seeing how God is knitting our little one together.

We found out on Wednesday that I have a

Baby Thompson No.3 is on the way - and of course we had to make sure with 3 tests!!! Praise the Lord for His goodness and His grace! We pray that this baby would grow up to know and love the Lord Jesus Christ and that God would use him/her for His glory! Hallelujah!!!

On Wednesday, our good friend Nina came over for lunch. Now you must understand that while the girls are awake, she is their friend, and only after they have gone to bed then she is ours....well you know what I mean. The girls absolutely love her because she just plays with them sooo nicely...anything from Barbies to hide and seek to catches, and even putting together a play for us...

This play was called 'Hannah Montannah and the Ducky'...Amanda was the singer "Hannah Montannah' and entertained us with a song about telling everyone that God made everything in the world...and Rachel was the Ducky - of course she had us in absolute stitches as you can imagine.

The girls got these swing cars from their granny the other day. Of course the girls are having a ball on them, but more than that, since we found out that they can take up to 100kg Glen and I have also had our fun on them.

It's great to get so much joy out of such simple things!

I did have a picture of Debbie and the swing car, but unfortunately she wasn't on it, but rather next to it on the floor....that's a whole other story - all I can say is that we all had a really good laugh - not AT her, but WITH her. I love it that she is so game to try anything!!!

Once again we are sooooo blessed to have Debbie with us! Ever since we moved down to P.E. from Polokwane a few years back, it has become tradition that she spends almost two weeks with us in the December holidays. This is the first year with her in Krugersdorp, our new home, where I am sure she will enjoy many more years with us over the December period.

Today, even though the weather was really groggy, we decided to take her to see the musical fountains at the Silverstar Casino. The girls had also been beggin me to see them and so today was the day...

Apparently, and I haven't checked these 'facts', but apparently these fountains are the second highest in the world. I must say, they were really spectacular, the afternoon was a real treat!

Enjoy the short clip...

"And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved..." - We praise the Lord for the salvation of these three brothers, Jacques, Jacques and Chris! What a blessing and example they have been to us of passion and love for the Lord - we pray that the Lord will continue to use them and bless them as they serve Him with all of their lives! What a joy for the family of Christ to be blessed with spiritual babies!! Children are indeed a blessing!!

Jacques Strydom

Chris van Zyl

Jacques Botha

As you know our friends Craig and Lara emigrated to Australia a couple of months ago. It was really hard when they left, but I must say that it is harder now that some time has passed...I think it's the reality of it all that is hitting us all. The girls really miss their best friends, and so when they heard that I was phoning Lara, they immediately asked if they could chat to Aidan and Paige - this has totally made their day.

As for me, it was so great to chat to Lara for three quarters of an hour and just catch up as it were - we are sooooo looking forward to seeing them towards then end of next year when they plan to come and visit SA!!!

It truly is wonderful to have such good...no extremely awesome friends - this is once in a lifetime stuff, for which I am truly thankful!

The reality of missing friends and having to say goodbye often in this life is ordained I believe to make us long even more for heaven when we will have the best fellowship with our true family forever and ever and ever and ever and ever....Hallelujah for the hope we have even in this difficult time - thanks Lara for this reminder!

Rachel has been battling to lose her top front teeth. She has had a few abscesses on her gum above her front teeth, and when I took her to the dentist to have it checked out, he said that the problem would be resolved when the teeth come out. Because they were a little loose already I opted for them to come out on their own instead of having him pull them out - this was about two and a half months ago... As you can imagine, I have been nagging Rachel to wiggle her teeth so that the teeth could come out and the gums would once again look health - well today, the first one came out and as suspected the new tooth is already peeking out. So, one down, and one to go.

The kids have been begging me to make play dough, and today, I finally decided that I should at least check if I had all the ingredients...for that I needed a recipe, and so I googled an easy one, which to my surprise worked like an absolute bomb. The last one I had you had to cook the dough....it was good dough, but a mission to make - this recipe was much easier and just as nice if not better.

Last night we had our Executive End of Year Dinner. We were spoiled with a dinner at 'Steak', a restaurant at the Silverstar Casino. We were all really impressed with their good service, great food and wonderful ambiance. Outside the restaurant is a huge pool where they have musical fountains every half an hour. This was a real treat to make the evening even more spectacular.

The executive has really worked hard this year, and so this was a well-deserved evening out. We look forward to many more years in service with all of these members at KBC.

Lilina, Melanie and Jay-Jay.

Alex and Janetta.

Jerry and Priscilla.

Alex, Peter, Jerry and Liliana outside for the fountains....

There happens to be a little funfare in town at the moment, and so we decided to take the girls for a little treat. It was really great because it was really empty when we went, so they didn't have to queue for a ride, and they went on rides they had never been on before. Their favorite rides were the shells and the swings. Glen was really nervous about the swings, but after careful inspection of each swing allowed them to go...it's great to see him taking his responsibility of protector to seriously!

I tell you what, the Sunday school doesn't play - play in the morning and this exhausting fun-filled afternoon of braaing hamburgers, jumping on jumping castles, and sliding on them...swimming, burning in the sun, eating ice-cream, burning some more, chatting, and burning some more...
Here the men are kindly cooking our delicious burgers in the Gilbert's garage.

Aunty Phil was able to join us, which was really a blessing! We so enjoying having her in fellowship with us the whole day!

Here, like usual Jacques is showing off his tricks....

An elder at Muldersdrift Union, Ryan, has a little magic act, which is not only entertaining, but also gospel focused - I love it when people use all they have to serve the Lord and preach the gospel - go Ryan!

In the evening we still had our 'Carols by Candlelight' evening, so we had a pretty hectic day! The girls as you can imagine were exhausted and Glen, was glowing....literally....he definately caught too much sun - sorry no picture of that one!

All in all another successful Krugersdorp day!

Every year the Sunday School puts on some sort of Christmas Play for the rest of the church family. This year the play was about the birth of Jesus, and how Santa Clause is just a myth and that the true gift of Christmas is Christ Himself.

Liliana loves spoiling the kids by making a really big fuss about them, and so they go all out with costumes, make-up, the works - the girls even got pretty sparkly nail polish put on. Not that anyone in the audience would see that, but the kids felt spoiled, which is really the blessing!

Tony the myth Santa.

The shepherd shepherd....get it?

And my two little angels - just gorgeous!!

I caught our pets doing unusual things today...

Here, Sugar is sleeping in the dog's water bowl - obviously there was no water in the bowl, but he obviously likes the way his body fits in there neatly when he is all curled up.


And here Bonny and Clyde are sharing one basket - I would never have thought that they would even fit in together, but if you look closely you will even see their little puppies snuggled up with them with room to spare...


Amazing how pets really add to making a house a home!

Yesterday the girls found four dead birds in our garden. They picked them up (with a spade) put them in a packet and after naming them and hugging the packet threw them away in the bin. The girls were really sad about these little birdies, and decided that they were going to stop this from ever happening again...and so their mission for the day was to find out as much as they could about different animals and to set up an animal sanctuary. They thought of tying a net accross the garden to catch any falling birds, but soon found this to be an impossible task.

Here they are, in the sactuary square, with all their research material (every animal book they could find from their bookshelf) in the tree. Rachel was listening intently as Amanda read interesting facts from various books.

They also said that from now on they were going to use their pocket money to buy food for God's creatures instead of buying things for themselves. (I don't think that this will actually happen, but they were really serious at the time) Too precious!!!

Saturday was a hectic day - we had a wonderful celebration at the church in the afternoon - a wedding actually! The whole church got involved in organizing this one as it was a quick wedding planned to honour God. The couple were truly lovely, unfortunatly I don't have any pics as I was filming the big day, but for such a quick wedding, it really turned out lovely. I love seeing the church come together - Krugersdorp really felt like a lovely family - Praise the Lord!

After the wedding we had our last session of 'Sheperding a child's heart' and then in the evening we were invited to go to Rachelle's place to celebrate her 25th birthday.

Don't ask me what Jacques was trying to do, but he asked me to take this picture of him...crazy guy - I think that he was enjoying himself.

Glen looking oh so handsome!!!

Vince and Jason playing rough in the pool...

All the boys and a girl watching the rugby - don't ask me who won, I don't even know who was playing, neither do I care!

Rachelle and the little love of her life...little Rogie, her big love was watching the rugby.

Happy Birthday for Friday Rachelle!!!