High School Musical

Mum and Dad have been Down here in Bournemouth this week, but tonight the Girls (Minus Jenna) have gone out for a girls trip to the Theatre. High School Musical... the Musical!

day at the zoo

we took the girls to the zoo for there birthdays and we had a blast despite the 100 degree weather and walking 10 miles at least. We asked lauryn what her favourite animal was and she said the merry go round!! The zoo was great as it was very interactive. Lauryn was nearly intears at one point as she despiratley wanted to feed bambi but the goats kept getting to the food first. so this photo was taken after matt had thrown food at all the gready goats to keep them occupied! Elyssa on the other hand was more interested in eating the food herself!! we managed to aviod being eaten by the lions and being pooped on by the birds so all in all it was a great day.

Day At Tha ZOO

On Lauryn's Birthday we took the girls to the zoo. We endured 100F weather and walked for miles but had a blast.
At the end of the day we asked Lauryn what her favourite animal was she said the merry go round!!! She's sat on the elephant as she thinks its dumbo.
The zoo was really interactive which was great. Lauryn got quite upset as the goats kept eating the pellets and not bambi. this photo was taken whilst matt was chucking food at all the goats so that lauryn could finally get to feed bambi.
Then the

Temple

Thoughts from Mum and A. Jan

From: Janet Hough

Dear Family,

I wanted to write to all of you those in Australia as well and say how much l love you. Why am l emailing at this time, l don't know only that l want you to know l have a testimony of the Saviour and of his restored church through the Prophet Joseph Smith, and that it is the Kingdom of God for me and nothing else.

This morning l had a quick chat with Rich at church concerning a young man in the ward who is struggling to stay active, Rich mentioned that it was complicated! It got me thinking of the lesson l gave this morning to the new members and investigators. We read in John 8:28," When ye have lifted up the Son of Man, then shall ye know that l Am He, and that l do nothing of myself." I said to them," When you can't get out of bed on a Sunday and go to church l hope you remember that scripture, and that it was for you and me that the Saviour hung on the cross and did what he did so we might have eternal life, let nothing keep you from attending church. No it is not complicated if we focus ourselves and our families on the Saviour Jesus Christ

I have truly learnt that Jesus Christ is my Saviour, that through him and by him I can be made perfect. I love him, he has taken upon himself my sins and if I serve him and live up to my covenants I can be made perfect by him.

When I look back there have been 3 significant spiritual growth periods in my life. The first when I joined the church and knew it to be true, that experience is still as fresh in my mind as if it was yesterday. How grateful I am to the two missionaries who knocked on my door, and how precious that early testimony was.

The second was my mission where I learnt obedience counts, plus hard work. I learnt about being spiritually converted.

The third at the age of 50 when I truly understood the atonement. That I should not be discouraged with my imperfections but to keep trying to learn and grow. That above all the Saviour is my partner and friend. I feel at peace with myself I am coming to terms with who I am.

Some other things l have learnt, when we are engaged in the service of our fellowmen, not only do our needs assist them, but we put our own problems in a fresher perspective. When we concern ourselves more with others, there is less time to be concerned with ourselves!

We need to have a vision a perspective of what we hope to accomplish it will bring great blessings into our lives.

President Benson said to the single sisters of the church in [1988] but for me it applies to us all

Be fully involved in the church, reach out to others, rather than turning inward, forget self and really serve others in your church callings, in personal deeds of compassionate service, in unknown unheralded personal acts of kindness. If you really want to receive joy and happiness, then serve others with all your heart. Lift their burden and your own burden will be lighter.

I feel so greatly blessed in you my family no words can describe the joy it will be to spend the eternities together. Next year l am 60 years old and perhaps l did not want any more grass to grow under my feet without sending this. I hope you will save it and read it now and then and share it with the Grandchildren and G. nieces and nephews. I want to finish with the Refiners Fire l have sent it before but l feel it is a good reminder of life.

Malachi 3:3 says: "He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver." This verse puzzled some women in a Bible study and they wondered what this statement meant about the character and nature of God. One of the women offered to find out the process of refining silver and get back to the group at their next Bible Study.

That week the woman called a silversmith and made an appointment to watch him at work. She didn't mention anything about the reason for her interest beyond her curiosity about the process of refining silver. As she watched the silversmith, he held a piece of silver over the fire and let it heat up. He explained that in refining silver one needed to hold the silver in the middle of the fire where the flames were hottest as to burn away all the impurities.

The woman thought about God holding us in such a hot spot; then she thought again about the verse that says: "He sits as a refiner and purifier of silver." She asked the silversmith if it was true that he had to sit there in front of the fire the whole time the silver was being refined. The man answered that yes, he not only had to sit there holding the silver, but he had to keep his eyes on the silver the entire time it was in the fire. If the silver was left a moment too long in the flames, it would be destroyed. The woman was silent for a moment. Then she asked the silversmith, "How do you know when the silver is fully refined?" He smiled at her and answered, "Oh, that's easy -- when I see my image in it."

If today you are feeling the heat of the fire, remember that God has his eye on you and will keep watching you until He sees His image in you.

God Bless You, I send my love

Mum and Auntie Jan

It will be nice to have a tan in October!

ANOTHER Pina Colada; Jen beginning to bronze; Sam ready to snorkel.

The real Captain..Birdseye (",); Midnight walks on the beach; Chichen Itza

Hi all, we just had to tell you all about our holiday to Mexico. We had an amazing time!

Given that our honeymoon was to a freezing cold, sub-standard hotel in Tunisia (nobody go there!), we felt we deserved one last hurrah before we try and grow our little family. We booked Mexico one day before we left and never looked back.

Mexico is a paradise. We stayed in a 5* luxury hotel and you could really tell. The workers treated us like we owned the place. Uncle Sam needs to learn how to tip, though (Scrooge)! They would serve us drinks whilst lying on the private beach, as well as making us feel very welcome. Sam must have drunk two or three pina coladas per day, with Jen’s drink being the Miami Vice (sin alcohol of course).

The room was heavenly with a double king-sized bed and a double Jacuzzi. We had to shout to each other when in bed, just so we knew where the other one was!

We spent most of our time on the beach, around the pool, in the luxury spa and in the sumptuous restaurants. We are very brown, although Jen is the brownest by a long way. She has come home looking almost like a Mexican herself.

Our highlights included Chichen Itza and a snorkelling adventure on the second largest barrier reef in the world. The fish were breath-taking and would swim around you as if you weren’t even there. We felt we were in a tropical fish tank like in some shopping centres! Aunty Jenny definitely needs to grow her sea-legs though. Blimey! We also swam in an underground cave called a Cenote. We will have to talk you through it!

Chichen Itza is one of the newly classified 7 wonders of the world, along with Rome’s Colosseum and the Great Wall of China (that Lou saw this year). We should see if the Hough family can visit all seven! Only Peru, Jordan, Rio and India to go! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Seven_Wonders_of_the_World

Chichen Itza was built by the Mayan people who lived only 200 years after Moroni buried the golden plates! Whilst they were deep in apostasy with heathen gods for everything (sun, moon, fertility, famine, etc) they revered Kulkulcan, who was seen as the one true God! Based on his teachings, their calendar prophecies that Kukulcan will return on December 23rd, 2012. At that time, he will reign upon the earth, all knowledge will be restored, and He will usher in a generation of peace between Man and Beast (!!!) Uncle Sam says he is going to take the 22nd off, that year, and spend it repenting. Awesome eh? Apparently that year all of the planets line up too (verified). Pretty spooky.

Sam had to take his Blackberry with him and so could still answer Bishop emails. There is no out-of-office for a Bishop unfortunately. He says it is a lot easier though with a Pina colada in one hand and 5,000 miles of distance.

Finally, on the last night, Uncle Sam surprised Aunty Jenny by booking her a full-body massage (he had one too). It was incredible. It left us unable to speak for several minutes….but then we had to order more Pina Coladas!

Needless to say that we had a wonderful time and recommend it to everyone. We are extremely relaxed, very happy and thrilled to take on the next 12 months.

Love always, Sam and Jen. X

Jenna's weekend

Jenna's weekend

Jenna's weekend

Amber and her little visitors

Auntie AJ de-nitting Amber :-) Dont worry Amber, it's happened to the best of us.

The Girls

We always see lots of pictures of the little people, but here is a great picture of the grown up girls.

 

Lauryn's Butterfly

One of the many surprises of this year's Father's Day was receiving a smashing painting of a colourful butterfly from Lauryn.

It is so well done, and l still cannot imagine how hard it was to make it look so absolutely beautiful.

Well done Lauryn, from a grateful Granddad!

XXX

House (Bev & Matt)

From: Matthew & Beverley Tate
Date: 24-Jun-2007 14:19
Subject: house

So we finally have internet at home after several weeks.  So here are a couple of photos of the house that people have been nagging us for.  We are having problems with our photo program so these two will have to do. Its taken me 30 minutes just to do those two.  Plenty of painting and projects on the go.  I think trying to get some grass rather than mud in the back garden is going to be our next task although yesterday we pulled up the hall way carpet to reveil lovely hardwood floors and hundreds of nails and stapples.  That carpet goes through the living area to and now that we have started the project we have to finish it. It took us all day just to do the hallway, not sure we've got the staminer for the rest! Matts company paid for family tickets to a baseball game last night and $40 to spend on food. So we ate well have got very sick with popcorn and candy floss. Spent more time playing on the bouncy castle than watching the game, had some amazing fireworks which Elyssa and Lauryn both loved and after putting them to bed at 11pm Elyssa finally broke her 5am wake up and let us lie in until 6:45am!!! Hope all is well with Everyone. Love MAtt Bev Lauryn nad Elyssa

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Gifts from Louise & Father's day

Louise brought Amber (and Leah) some gifts from her recent Asian adventure. Amber was very, very excited and they both wore their outfits to Church today
Jenna on my Lap, in the hospital about 30 minuites old.



Here is just one picture of one of many father's day gifts I recieved.

Sam & Jen in Rome :-)

Finally, our first holiday since being married where it was just the two of us. Rome is such a wonderful place, we recommend everyone to go.

Here are a few pics for you to enjoy! Love you all

xx

Where are you baby?

Hi everyone, thought I'd update you with the latest saga:

Thursday night went to bed at 10pm and straight away started having contractions. This has happened before so didn't think too much of it. Three hours later decided we'd better call round Alan's parents and get hospital bag ready with last minute things. At 2am phoned the hospital. AT 2:30 phoned the hospital back to say the contractions were just a couple of minutes apart and we were coming in. Got to hospital at 3pm, had a few contractions and then at 4 they stopped completely. Was I mad! So we lost a whole night's sleep and didn't even get a baby out of it. Absolutely exhausted we returned home at 7:30 just in time to see the girls off to school. So just in case my pregnancy hasn't been bad enough now it seems the birth is going to be a pain too. I keep having contractions but nothing progresses. Seems like it's just too cosy inside and enjoying the chocolate too much! All the baby stuff is ready and I keep getting the house clean ready for baby and then having to do it all over again. With reference to dad's quip, maybe it's lost its boarding pass! The head's been down and engaged for the last couple of weeks which makes walking about lots of fun for my pelvis:) I'm not a very good advocate for getting pregnant am I? So anyway, not that I'm fed up of being pregnant or anything but I'd really appreciate your prayers for a safe and QUICK delivery.

Other news;

Recently we've been trying to teach Leah that it's more important to be honest and that if she tells us the truth she won't get in trouble. She's recently taken to drawing on everything. Mum's birthday card arrived with a £5 note (sorry I couldn't stop her from opening it, it was the morning we were in hospital). Well now she has a £5 with a queen that has pink hair, a colourful pink pattern everywhere and 'Leah' written on it (she should know better than to incriminate herself:) Luckily a girl at a checkout at Tesco accepted it anyway and we bought Leah a triple pack of Barbie DVD's, so thanks mum. Also today, Alan got the girls some library books. Unfortunately one was a puzzle book and left to her own devices Leah has filled in all the mazes and a little more graffiti besides. Poor thing, she ran upstairs and hid under the desk when Alan caught her. She obviously didn't twig that you're not allowed to write in library books. It took a lot of convincing for her to admit to that one, she's obviously less afraid of me because she'd tell me and not Alan.

We've decided to buy a Vauxhall Zafira so if anyone sees a good deal on a nearly new one let us know. Today Alan finally fitted the fireplace. The plumbing is nearly done and he just has to put a vent in the wall so I hope that by the end of the week we'll be ready to have the carpet fitted. The fireplace is very posh and big, not sure it suits the room but it's too late now! The bad thing is that it's so posh it'll make our furniture next to it look shabbier.

Well I'd better stop there or none of you with bother to read such a long email! Love to all, pray this baby out for me,

Katie xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Amber's Baptism

I have finally done a write up on Amber's baptism.

Lauryn runs the roost

Found in a file clearout:

FROM: BEV
DATED: 08 FEB 2006
--------------------------------------------------

In contrast to the adorable photos of Lauryn i sent afew days age i thought that i would send you some recent photos of the trouble that she gets into. She is a right little dare devil not afraid of anything. First is a photo of her not afraid to go on the sledge by herself, in fact she would rather go by herself.
Next the books never seem to stay in the shelf. Not satisfied with one at a time but she has to get them all out at once pluss all the toys. Next she managed to climbe up some shelves about 4-5 feet tall and help herself to a large pot of vaseline, which she spent the next 5 minutes plastering over herself and walls and sofas. Where was i you ask, well you have to go to the toilet some time and all this was done in one minute. Next i left the games and cd cupboard open when i got the camera out to take photos of the vaseline queen. Next thing i know the cupboard is empty and i spent the next hour seperating all the uno, face ten cards etc. Not to mention the cleaning fluid she drank yesterday from a locked child proof cupboard and a grazed face and lip from going down the slide head first!! And we have the adoption home study guy coming tomorrow to chech that we're safe parents and we have a safe home!!!! Anyway wouldn't be without all her trouble tricks and laughter love Bev.

Sam and Holly

We had a lovely day at the temple with our youth last Saturday. Here is a photo of Sam and his counsellors. The only problem with them both being oriental is that Sam looks like a giant against them, and they make him look very pale :-)

Christmas in Wellingbrough

I just found this picture which may bring back memories of Christmas 2006. Mum, what are you like?

This next picture of Leah is great, and since Christmas whenever she has been on her skates she always wears all the protective gear.

I just wish I had a photo of Louise with all her 'high visibility' jogging accessories. (NOTE: you can just see the ankle strap - but the effect is lost with out writsbands and harness)