I LOVE YOU

Deqlan, Keaton and Logs helping Grandpa blow his candles out

The stunning cake my mom had made!

What a lovely evening to be outside , under the stars and yes, Dee is up and about more each day!

Keaton and Conrad enjoying the firework display Nanna put on!

Look Nanna ! Fire!!!

Deqlan running around in excitment watching the sparklers

Nanna starting the 'show'!

Aunty Shea and Kristen

Megs, Aunty Shea and Ben

Chilling jacuzzi side

Deqlan and Logans cuddling up on the couch watching MNET of course!

Dee and Dalene creating a Punch and Judy show with the gorgeous puppets Aunty Sheila made for the boys - thank you Aunty Shea, they are gorgeous! Aunty Shea also brought Deqlan the alphabet to play with in the bath, and she made us the most exquisite tree skirt, for under our Christmas tree, with Father Christmas and the reindeer, embroidered with their names and Deqlans name - to stunning for words - unfortunately my camera is not working at the moment ( read below!) so i couldnt take a pic of it, but promise to post one when i can, thank you so much Aunty Shea, you are so so talented and we treasure all the beautiful things you so lovingly make for us

Mom holding the gorgeous advent prayer calender Aunty Shea made for her, to stunning for words!

Deqlan playing with the puppet Aunty Shea made, he says Bye bye and peek a boo, to cute!

Keaton enjoying his puppet

Kristen enjoying her Christmas gift from Uncle D and Aunty Bev! Thank you so much Chris, Dalene and Kristen for the awesome bubbles for the boys, they love them!

We really enjoyed all Dee's birthday celebrations and know he did to! Nanna even treated us to her own fireworks show which the kids loved. The boys spent most of the evening in the jacuzzi, Logan spent most of the evening playing swing ball with all those willing to face her and little Kristen just cooed and smiled and enjoyed all the excitement! As you can see by the pics Aunty Shea is her from Cape Town and its lovely to see her as always, and she has spoilt the kids as always, thank you Aunty Shea for your beautiful beautiful gifts of love!

Deqlan and Keaton recieved more Christmas gifts from Uncle Ken, Aunty Jenni, Keje and Jeran...two big CAT tractors and diggers each! They are gorgeous thank you so so much! Deqlan wanted them to all be linked together like a train, so was very upset when i took them out the box, but eventually calmed down and is now enjoying them thoroughly! Thank you also for my birthday gift, i know exactly what i am going to choose!

Logan went back to her Ouma and Oupa today and i miss her terribly. Its just a lot quieter, and i miss hearing her cd player playing Jonas Brothers or Hillsong kids and i miss her calling me to sit with her while she baths, even the tv shows she enjoys to watch our reminding me so much of her tonight...so you in two weeks Logs, we miss you , thank you for a lovely holiday . Deqlan misses you just as much , he is playing with all the things in your room...remember, you owe me breakfast in bed, cause Meggie is having a girl!!!!!!

We are all so elated and delighted at this news and cant wait to meet this precious bundle of sugar and spice and all things nice!

Deqlan has jumped plenty of steps forward in the past two days. He has started saying the alphabet again ! We are so happy about this, as we havent heard it in a few months and were concerned that he had 'lost' it - but its right there, he just need to watch and episode of Animal Adventures to be reminded of it again!

Mickey Mouse and Thomas and friends are the top top favorites at the moment. We watch Mickeys colour adventures a few times a day - when its not Mickey its Thomas, but the words and new words coming from the dvds, is all worth the while. Deqlan is dancing around when the theme songs come on and he hums and even sings a few words of the song to, its beautiful to see. Sometimes i wonder how much dvd is to much - but he is learning from them, and they are educational, its not rubbish , violent, no sense cartoons that are captivating him, its colours and letters, alphabet and numbers and animals

Deqlans other favorite thing is MNET - its a tv channel here in South Africa, and Deqlan will not let us watch any other channel besides MNET or Cbeebies...the new ad for Mnet involves a rainbow,so of course, that involves a new word of rainbow , and Deqlan is even more delighted to see a rainbow in his Mickey dvd to! He pages through his magazines and has the biggest smile on his face, when he see's an ad for MNET WITH a rainbow - pure joy.

We went to CNA ( a stationery shop here in South Africa) the other day, and Deqlan discovered a fire truck on the shelf - he picked it up and started walking with it as if we were leaving the shop with it - sorry my boy, i said, Father Christmas has already come, we cant take things every time we come shopping. The positive side, Deqlan can say firetruck now, the sad side, he had a bit of a tantrum and it took a bit of time and a trip to Mungolnastix ( an inside play park) to calm him down.

When the ad for CNA came on TV, Deqlan immediately started saying firetruck - he must know that was the shop we were in where he saw the firetruck - how amazing is that???

Deqlan has also learnt some more of the trains names from Thomas and can now say them in the order of the numbers on the trains

1 - THOMAS

2- EDWARD

3- HENRY

4 - GORDON

5 - JAMES

6- PERCY

new words:

purple

castle

silver

rainbow

firetruck

gordon

percy

james

edward

emily

salty

dstv

mitsubishi

puzzle

Mickey

come on!

great

time

fan

I LOVE YOU! - my mom reminded me today of the article that Loren did on Deqlan for Mammas and Pappas magazine- where i said 'EVEN THOUGH DEQLAN CANT SAY I LOVE YOU, YET, I KNOW HE DOES' Well, my dear friends, it happened this afternoon as i was putting Deqlan to sleep, he said I LOVE YOU. When I say I love you to Deqlan, i do it very slowly and sometimes he will try and repeat the I, and You - BUT TODAY out of HIS OWN, he said I LOVE YOU - what an absolute gift that was, what a stunning day to start the New Year, my boy can say I LOVE YOU!!!!

After that i started saying the alphabet, but between every letter, he pulled my face towards his , 'A' kiss, 'B' kiss, 'C' and a kiss, and so it carried on the entire alphabet, a kiss per letter, how perfect, how beautiful!

This evening we went to kfc to get dinner from Mark and me. As we pulled up to the window, Deqlan said KFC. Then 'chicken' and when we drove away ,'bye bye'! He understands that you get chicken from KFC!!!!! Another gift that has blown us away today!!!!

We are starting to get all we need for Deqlan for his new little school Little Leaps, which he stars 13 Jan......my tummy is full of butterflies, i am SO excited, DEQLAN IS GOING TO SCHOOL, Thank You Lord that my hope and dreams and prayers continued to be answered, but also anxious and nervous and worried that when Deqlan looks around for me, i will be nowhere to be found and he wont know who to go to for the first few days....but i know Ash is going to take the very best care of him, and most importantly God will look after our boy as he learns the ropes of school life - and me to, Mama will also need lots of people to hold my hand and God to strengthen me to know its the right thing we doing and Deqlan is going to learn so much and make some friends!

Cant believe tommorow night is New Years eve, time continues to speed up with each passing year - we will be spending it with family around the pool, watching the kids enjoy themselves to the full!

I also need to ask for your prayers for a precious friend in Australia- Isla, Isla has just had her 3 monthly check up scans, and has relapsed neuroblastoma. Please, please pray for these gorgeous little princess and her lovely family, that a new plan can de devised that gets Isla back to NED , we are thinking of you and praying for you, continue to trust in Our Lord and His miracles of healing. www.caringbridge.org/visit/isla

Till tommorow then, the last day of 2009

God Bless , all our love

Mark Samm Deqlan Logan

BE STILL AND KNOW THAT I AM GOD