Our biggest news is that Esther Miriam was born on the 3rd November. Rachel is delighted to have a little sister and has been busy looking after the new arrival and giving her cuddles. Deborah had a much easier birth than last time (if there is such a thing as an easy birth!) Andrew took her into hospital midmorning and Esther was born at 2.13pm weighing just a fraction under eight pounds. While we are all thrilled with the birth of Esther we are currently going through the stages of sleep deprivation! She has a very good pair of lungs on her and likes to use them, especially at about 3am! We’re looking forward to an improvement in Esther’s sleeping pattern in the next few weeks.

Rachel continues to grow up very fast; we can hardly believe how much she has changed even over the past year. She was two last June and is now a little chatter box as she continues to discover more about the world around her. This autumn Andrew took her to a local fireworks display and she kept on talking about the big fire and the various bangs and colours for quite a few days later. In fact at the time she seemed more excited about this than the birth of Esther. Rachel likes to go out for walks and is always interested in looking carefully at every flower or insect we see. As you can imagine we can take a very long time to get anywhere! We’ve bought her some arm bands and she is becoming very confident in the local swimming pool and also really enjoyed swimming in the sea during the summer. Rachel is also very much into books and loves her bedtime stories each night.

Deborah has been keeping busy with commitments at Church. She attends a weekly house group and has been helping to run a mid-week toddler group where Rachel has been making lots of new friends. Rachel also particularly likes eating the biscuits afterwards! Deborah has also been involved in the Sunday School and earlier in the year a weeks holiday club for the children. Mostly however Deborah’s energy and time has been looking after Rachel and now also Esther. This as you can imagine is demanding, but also great fun and very rewarding.

We went on a two week holiday to Scotland last summer where we had the use of a bungalow on the understanding that Andrew took the Sunday services at the local Church. The bungalow was in Perthshire and we used it as a base to explore the wider area going to places like Scone Palace, Sterling Castle, Dundee, Loch Tummel and Loch Tay. It was great to relax amongst the beautiful scenery.

Andrew has continued to thoroughly enjoy his job in the Navy; especially the chance to travel and get paid for it at the same time. Over the last year he has travelled to many more exciting places in support of his three ships. Some of the highlights have included a trip to Turkey where he saw the ruins of Ephesus and a stay in Athens where he was able to explore the Acropolis. Since last year he has been on a couple of trips to Egypt where he explored Alexandria and Cairo (a first class return train trip from Alexandria to Cairo costs just £3.40 and takes two and a half hours either way!) Another highlight was a trip through the Suez Canal and the Red Sea before stopping for a few days in Djibouti. From there the ship sailed to India where Andrew had a week exploring Mumbai. More recently he has had a week of sightseeing on the island of Corfu and a few days in Barcelona. His last trip this year will be flying out to join a ship in Sierra Leone from where he will sail across to Barbados before leaving the ship and flying home for Christmas. Another naval highlight this year was when Andrew had lunch with the Queen and was asked if he would say grace. Andrew has now spent over two years as a Chaplain in the Navy (doesn’t time fly!!!). He will be saying goodbye to his three ships at the end of January and beginning a new job as the Chaplain of the Naval Base in Faslane, Scotland. We won’t be moving to Scotland as a family until the right house becomes available, probably sometime in February or March.

We hope that you have a happy Christmas and a fulfilling New Year,

With love from Andrew, Debs, Rachel and Esther.