winter wear

it's snowing here again!
just thought i'd post some cute boys in their winter wear..

this is what we wear when we go sledding!

continuation of previous post

It was a privilege to have my parents here visiting for this special occasion. Their Christ like lives and prayers have made me who I am today. I was reminded that generations will reap what we sow. As I looked around at my boys, I saw that the hand of God was in this from long ago. Blessings upon blessing is definitely the caption here. Raise your sons and daughters for Him and see your grandchildren raised in the admonition of the Lord. He is faithful to bring this to pass!

Baby Dedication

On January 9th, we had the blessing of dedicating our sons Daniel Lawrence and Ian Thomas to the Lord before the church body here at the Chapel.
What a privilege it is to offer back to God what He has given you as a gift. Children are from the Lord! We are only stewards of His creation and Thomas and I pray that we will honor our God as we raise them to know Him by reading His word to them. Our deepest desire is that they know Christ as their Saviour and then walk in that newness of life. Salvation by faith in Christ alone is only the first step in being made new. We have to use that same faith to walk with Him daily in order to grow and change. We want this for our sons!

Our pastor, James Devenish, was so kind to lead us in this dedication before the believers here.

Christmas catch up

A blessed Christmas with many gifts

Daddy helping with the toys

The boys gifts to each other... I think Thad wanted the gift he gave Ian. Isn't that always how it is?

Daddy's little Elf (t-shirt)
He is milk drunk here... at least that's what we call it ;)

Christmas: The day grown men get a chance to play with toys and it's not weird.

See what I mean. Christmas is were adults get to act like kids by playing with the toys they spent their hard earned money on for their children. Being the good father that I am, I decided my boys needed NERF guns. And by my boys, I of course mean me. If the last 72 hours have taught me anything, it's that everyone needs a NERF gun in their life. There is nothing more satisfying than shooting your kids and or spouse and releasing some frustration. Be sure to note that they will shoot you back, so be prepared.



The awesome thing about the guns we bought is that they have velcro on the darts thereby preventing your kid from cheating when you're playing dart tag. Memo to my kids and all the other little munchkins your age: We (people in our late 20's early 30's) make the toys now and we know what cheating little turds we were when we were kids. So, don't think for a second we would create games that would allow you to cheat us...we're winners...always have been, always will be. Believe that.

I believe the phrase the kids are using these days is "pwned." Take that boy.

I got Thad some cool looking toys made by LEGO called Hero Factory. Essentially, these are the LEGO version of Transformers, but for about 1/3 of the cost. You can also take them all apart and mix and match the pieces. I thought this was cool until the little guy created this...whatever "it" is.

Now I'm no child psychologist (although I did get a B in that class in community college), but I don't think you need to be to think there might be something wrong with the 5 year old that created this thing. Scratch that, this thing is awesome and I'm actually a bit ticked off I didn't build it myself. I love my kid because he builds stuff like this. It shows imagination. I mean, the kid is related to me so what chance did he really have of avoiding having some major issues?

Anyway, here's his explanation of how this thing "kills the good guys." Pray for us.

A Christmas Pageant...sort of

Tonight we had our church's Christmas Eve service. Part of the evening included a small play put on by the 3-5 year olds. They did a great job and it was neat to see Thad and Ian part of the show.

One of the things I love about my kids is that they are freaking weird just like their dad. When given the option of what animal he wanted to be in the program, Ian subsequently selected cheetah. Epic.

Hey, you don't know if there was a cheetah at the manger. Were you there? I didn't think so. Some may think the boy odd...I would call him eccentric.

Thad was a wise man. This was an easy task for him to perform given that he is from the Gardner family.

Merry Christmas all. We hope your Christmas Eve and

Christmas are as joyful and exciting as ours!

A Christmas Eve Surprise

Early presents from Nanny and Poppy.
Let the weekly photography updates begin.

(BTW, notice how festive we are by
decking out our kids in full Halloween garb)

More pictures

The Arrival home from the hospital.

Thad and Ian sang at church on Sunday. About 2/3 of the way through the performance Ian decided to just sit down. Life is tough for a 3 year old.

Daniel Lawrence Gardner

snow, snow, snow

Ian trying to crawl up the mound

Thad conquering the mound

a snow angel

December is HERE!

We've been up to quite a few things... Making funny faces is just one of them!

Kim, Joel and the kiddos came to visit us for Thanksgiving. We had a wonderful time as Joel cooked great food, the kiddos were kind and we got to go out one night to the Christmas markets alone :)

The four hoodlums. They are growing up so fast.

Yes, this was Halloween. BUT it was funny because Thomas told me he understood how it must feel to carry extra weight on the front only during pregnancy :) Well I'm not sure he can understand completely, but I am appropriately posting this as we're finally into our baby's birthday month. Daniel will be here soon and we are sooo ready!

Thanks for your prayers and keep looking for his arrival! We're down to 2 1/2 weeks more or less!

Here was the 5th goal of the evening.

Disallowed Goal

This was scored in the 3rd minute of play, but the guy was clearly offside.

Pre-Match with a view of the Ultras

The "Ultras" are the hardcore Rapid fans. Here they are chanting and getting things going right before the match started.

Rapid Wien Christmas

Rapid Vienna is one of Europe's most storied football clubs. They have a history dating back into the early 1900's and so it was a really cool thing that Thad and I got to go to a match as an early Christmas present to him. He thought the stadium was really cool but about 30 minutes into the game he asked when we were leaving. You can only ask so much from a 5 year old, right?

Here we are as the match was beginning. We had a great time with the other staff who went with us, and we're looking forward to checking out FK Austria (a rival club) sometime during the Spring. If I can get there, this will mean I've been to a match at each of Vienna's most famous stadiums.

Here are some videos of goals from the match that I caught. The match finished 5-0 to Rapid so it was no wonder I caught a few on camera. The videos will be in subsequent posts.

Halloween pics

We have Batman and Frodo Baggins this year!

Thomas' art work on our pumpkin. Thad picked out the word glory. It looks really cool in the dark.

Thad's singing part 1

Thad's fall program at school

Caramel Apples

I haven't vanished off the face of the earth... but rather trying to stay very much a part of it as I carry along this baby with me. I'm sooo tired. But I cannot wait to meet this little one and change our family once again! all that to say, I'm still here and cooking. It's just that I only cook once a week :)
The boys helped me make these last night for the season and I thought we'd share them with you! notice they both have their eyes closed while eating them. I guess they're just that good!

*Ian does lick off all the caramel and leave the apple :) Thad eats the whole thing just like me.

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MISSIONAL MOTHERING

Read it and be blessed.