A weekend away in Sun Peaks

A couple of weekends ago I went away with the Elders from LEFC - we had a weekend in Sun Peaks which is about 3 hours away and up into the mountains; We had a fun time talking about church, quad biking, and playing settlers (In no particular order!). Below is a little video of some of the fun we had.

Cute Phoebe video

So much good news!

This week we've been blown away by God's goodness! The new hospital is simply amazing and the staff are wonderful; The last 2 nights Phoebe has been looked after by a member of our congregation who is a nurse at the NICU there, and we met another lovely Christian nurse; Her husband had actually read about Phoebe on a prayer chain email that has obviously done the rounds at some point which was really encouraging, and very humbling.

We met Jen(the nurse) at church this morning and she gave us great news; Phoebe is now breathing completely on her own with no tubes or support at all; This is once again huge progress - they took her nasal prongs off yesterday afternoon and she has been coping pretty well. She is also now just 3 grams short of 4lbs which is incredible too - she has doubled her birth weight :-)

All in all, Phoebe is doing amazingly, and we are so thankful to God that he is in control of this situation.

This morning I spoke at church, and shared testimony and story from the past few months - I guess I'm biased, but I would recommend taking a listen here... The MP3 will be online I'm sure in the next couple of days. Below is the video that I played at the end of the service and of course some pictures!

Phoebe all cosy under her bunny

The characteristic 'Kingsley-Smith' double chin in great development!

Laura bathing Phoebe for the first time!

Kangaroo Care (in video)

Here is a bit of video from our trip to the hospital this evening...(This is a shorter but higher quality version of the video we posted yesterday. The full version is still available on Youtube)

Phoebe in Timelapse

Phoebe will probably spend much of the next three months in an isolette (incubator/clever plastic box) so I thought it might be fun to do a little timelapse video so you can see what goes on in there. This was about 30minutes in real time, and the nurses were doing some blood work on her; You'll see them prep her, take the blood, put some back, and then you'll see Laura's hand go in and calm her down once it's done... It's actually quite amazing to watch in real time, but fun to watch it in 2 minutes too.

Gracie's first snow!

More Singing...

The Tour Comes to Town...

I think I've been accused of saying that nothing ever happens in Bridgwater... Well today it turns out I'm wrong; Today the Tour of Britain hurtled past the pub at the end of our road for Stage 3 of the 8 day race.

We stood out to cheer them along, and to try and get a glimpse of our Olympic heroes Wiggins and Thomas - of course they were cycling too fast to spot, and quite frankly they all look the same to the untrained eye! We had a lot of fun though anticipating when they might arrive, and even got a bit of video of the Pelaton flying past!

Police blocked all the roads to ensure a clear path

The leaders coming past 10 minutes ahead of the Pelaton

The Second group

The 185km Stage 3 map

A Bit of Singing

A tour of our new house

Hilarious...

Kisses at Bedtime

Gracie just loves going to bed at the moment - the last couple of nights I've heard lots of laughter as Laura has put her to bed - tonight I got a little of it on film. Enjoy!

Gracie Giggling

Gracie Chatting!

Funny Video

Made me laugh!

We've been to the Zoo!

Well, today was my day off so we all went to the Auckland zoo, which is just a couple of minutes by car from our house... we had a great fun day...

Matilda met a giant elephant!

We saw some penguins

And some giraffes

And our firm favorite - the Seals; they just swim around and around in circles - it's so coo. Video below!

And of course Gracie was there - the cutest mamal of the lot!

Gracie Talking!

This evening Gracie was sitting with Rosie, and she just started babbling in a way that she hasn't done before - it was utterly gorgeous; we managed to get some of it on film - hope you enjoy!

Funny

Beatbox Fame Game
Uploaded by loranger

What's Up?

Hi guys, sorry it's been a little while since we've posted anything of any great substance. The last week, Laura has been pretty ill which has been a lot of hard work or us. She is on antibiotics, so should get better soon - it's made for quite an unsettled week though.

Gracie is utterly gorgeous - she is growing heaps and is becoming more and more responsive to us. We're now getting loads of smiles and some baby talk... very cute. Here is a little video of us yesterday having some baby chatter on the sofa.

And a cute photo of her sleeping in her cot yesterday.