So Blessed!!!

One of the biggest differences between living in the U.S. and in Canada is the pace at which the holidays come in the fall. The first couple years of living here I found it incredibly strange to celebrate Thanksgiving in early October rather than the end of November...so we just did it twice. This year I found I settled in to the Canadian rhythm and it felt right to celebrate Thanksgiving October 14, especially since we were doing a CEF Fundraiser Banquet and Dessert Auction on November 28, American Thanksgiving. My family in Minnesota is celebrating Thanksgiving today, while we head off to David's extended family's Christmas gathering...it's all the same food and the same intent - a reminder to be thankful for all that God has given us...so it all works out. As we all know, Thanksgiving isn't about a specific day of platitude gratitude but a reminder of how we should live each of our days - with thankfulness...something that too easily escapes me.

As much as I thought I might just shift to complete Canadian style, some things die hard when you grow up with them. So this year, my American Thanksgiving celebration was boiled down to 3 things:
1) Watching a live stream of part of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade (no commercials that way either =]) while dancing around trying to entertain a sick baby.
2) Making 2 pumpkin pies- one for the dessert auction and one for us to eat...that's really the best part of the traditional Thanksgiving meal anyways. We'll now have pumpkin pie for a week!
3) Sharing my "5 Thankful Corn" things on facebook today so even though my family may not even know it, I'm partaking in the Nydam tradition.

Since the point of Thanksgiving is to ponder those gifts which we don't always realize we're surrounded by, I thought I'd share a few things I'm thankful for...though the list could go on and on and on and on.

Teaching Children Effectively in Gravenhurst!

At the moment I am writing this, Nathan is in bed!!, laundry is running, the dishes are done and snack is ready for tomorrow's teacher training...while David is in Gravenhurst teaching weekend 3 of 4 of TCE 1 (Teaching Children Effectively Level 1). It is so strange to be at home while David is teaching the course, especially since the course is only 20 minutes from our house. It's ironic that after driving 3+ hours to teach TCEs since arriving in Ontario and coordinating courses around the province, when a course finally happens in our area I'm on maternity leave. =] This time our co-worker, Vance, has had the privilege of the long drives to the course. We certainly don't have the Toronto traffic, but the first weekend of the course Vance was greeted with snow (which has since left) and the next weekend we had a power outage at our house for 36 hours (Vance stays with us since the course is Fri night & all day Saturday). I think he should be safe this weekend...maybe. 

The really exciting thing about this particular course is that all of the students are already involved in ministry with us! They are so excited to learn and to see kids come to know Jesus! Last weekend they did their first practicum of telling the Wordless Book, as if to a child, while being evaluated. The next day Robin, one of the students, called to tell us that she taught Sunday School at her church and knew the lesson tied in with the Wordless Book. She prayed beforehand and told God that if there were any new kids in Sunday School she would share the Gospel using the Wordless Book. They usually have 8-10 kids but instead had 20 with several being brand new! Robin was so thrilled to be able to share the Gospel with them after having learned, practiced, prepared and prayed for it. 

We look forward to what God is going to continue to do in the student's lives and the lives of the children they are able to share with as a result! 

Nathan visits Slingshot Saturday

A couple Saturdays ago Nathan had his first visit to a Slingshot Saturday (an all day Saturday program for kids that need help in overcoming the giants in their lives). Even though it was a bit of a long day for baby and Mommy (Daddy was fine) it was really good to see the kids and let them meet Nathan. It was really exciting to see a lot of new kids and familiar ones. There were 17 kids that week and a bunch of the "regulars" weren't there. It is super exciting to see the number of kids increasing that are attending!!! The only downside is that so far the number of volunteers has not increased proportionally. Since the goal of the program is to develop relationships in smaller settings, like playing board games, etc having a good number of leaders is very important to keeping that intentional feel. Please pray for more leaders for this program! Next month (Nov 9) one of the small groups from our church plans to help out so people can see the ministry up close and have the chance to decide if they'd like to get involved long term.Our former small group leader, who leads another group now, is bringing his group because he got involved as a counselor at March Break Camp and caught the vision of reaching kids. He realized that it wasn't until he saw the ministry up-close that he caught the vision, so wants to give that opportunity to others. Isn't that a neat idea?!       Pray for people to open to God's calling to serve. 

Nathan got to sit on the sidelines watching the big kids play games. He loves being out and being around people. I'm curious whether this is a personality trait that is going to continue throughout his life or if it's just a baby-stage thing.

 Who wouldn't be enthralled by watching kids with balloons?!

 There's an elective time where the kids get to choose 2 different activities that are about 30 minutes long. That week the kids could choose: "Baking", "Crafts" or "The Guyatt Family". =] The kids loved playing with Nathan. One of the groups decided to lay on the floor and imitate all of his movements...pretty funny.

Nathan and the kids all did so well! It's a good thing he's a social little guy for all the attention he gets at these sort of things! 

Big Day for Nathan

 Our big day started out with going to the "Oro World's Fair" where David is working for the weekend with volunteers sharing the Gospel with kids. Nathan got to go to his first fair. Even though it was freezing cold he didn't complain.

Then, with the use of a friend's borrow car, Nathan and I set off to get his passport. Thankfully he slept/was happy for most all the driving that day (about 7-8 hours). I guess it was just a trial run for Monday & Tuesday's 18 hour trip to Minnesota.

 Here is the proud owner of a Canadian passport.

 Is that really me?!

 David just renewed his passport a few months ago and since that time they've change them...they now contain an integrated circuit...freaky!

"Yep! That's me! I can travel now and see all the family in Minnesota! I wonder what they'll think of me?"

Hello from Nathan

Hi! It's Nathan here. I thought I should say Hello since I'm 2 months old now (as of August 24).

 I'm pretty chill about it, in case you can't tell.

The day I turned 2 months I decided to roll over from my tummy to my back! I like being so strong. I can hold my head up with no problem. Actually, not to brag, but I could do that pretty much from the time I was born. Oh yah, I found my hands recently. They are amazing things to suck on!

 I thought you'd be excited to know that I can smile now...not just those infantile gas smiles either...real smiles and lots of them. Mommy and Daddy love seeing them so I just keep them coming.

 Yesterday I got to have my first experience with waves at Wasaga Beach. It was so hot I wouldn't have cared what Mommy and Auntie Leanne did to me.

 My mom thinks I'm cute even when I'm crying. Isn't she sick? 

I'll wave off now...until next time. I need to go take a nap now. Life as a baby is tough.

A few summer pictures

 Super-Brave-Courageous-Rescue Ranger and Gaffe - the summer skit - in Rocky Mountain Rescue.

The girls leading music.

 Nathan's first experience at camp. He had quite the following (this was the small crowd). David went for the week to do the chapel speaking and Nathan and I just went for the last 24 hours.

 The girls drew these pictures of the base team from the North.

The teams favourites foods. (The summer missionaries get very creative on long car rides between locations.) They listed David's as a "tractor tire" (honey cruller doughnut).

The acronym the girls came up with for David. 

Nathan Peter Guyatt

So the life of a new mom has taken over and this post is a month later than I'd hoped!
June 24, 2013 after 38 hours of labour, our little boy decided to arrive! Nathan Peter Guyatt weighed in at 8 lb 2 1/2 oz and 20 1/2 in. long. He has strawberry blond hair and a dimple on his right check.
We chose the name Nathan because it means "Gift from God" and that is what this little one is! Peter means "Rock" a reminder that God is our Rock and in Him we can trust. And Guyatt...well we didn't have to decide anything about that part of the name. =]

Our first family picture!

Presenting....Nathan Peter Guyatt

Getting ready to go home from the hospital

 Yay!!

 Ahh..the perfect newborn skin.

 1st Canada Day

 He's a Canadian citizen before me!

 He's so alert and getting more and more so everyday!

 Trying to work on some American pride on the 4th of July...as he'll be a U.S. citizen someday.

Mother of Quadruplets

While the countdown to our baby's birth is on (7 more days until the June 19th due date!!!) we got to experience an incredible surprise! I'll let David tell about it in his words:

"I went out this morning to start stacking wood in the wood shed. I started by flipping over the wheel barrow and to my surprise there was a snowshoe hare staring right back at me. I took a few steps back to let him get away but he just sat there looking at me. I watched for around 5 minutes then all of a sudden a baby bunny popped out! Apparently he was a she! I ran inside and got Sarah and we watched as she delivered three more adorable baby bunnies. It looks like our woodshed has become the latest bunny nursery."

 Do you see the baby nursing?

 Four little babies are underneath Mommy!

Do you see the feet sticking out? Apparently Snowshoe hares are named because of their big "snowshoe like" feet. 

So I am a little jealous right now as this Mommy only had to wait 35-40 days to have her babies and her labour and delivery certainly didn't seem to phase her. No birth attendants needed, she took care of everything...right down to eating the birth sack (ok so I don't envy that part!) We learned today (online) that baby hares are born with hair and their eyes open and can hop soon after birth.

This is the Daddy Hare. We saw him pacing all over the yard this morning. Everything made so much more sense when we realized that birth was happening. I'm thankful that David plans to be with me the whole time during labour and delivery...not running around like a worried snowshoe hare. =]

This was our observation point into the newly founded baby nursery. It's not just our baby that is going to get in the way of David's work!

Room Progress and Fun

 Yay for progress on the new office happening so that the baby room could be worked on and completed!

 David did a wonderful job painting everything and doing all the trim! He even did the chair rail for me that I wanted. It was fun to make a room have some lively colour.

 May 5, my last day to wear the "Harvest Kids" shirt for a while when serving. It's a good thing because I had already moved up to David's shirt and it wouldn't fit much longer.

 The lovely ladies of our church put on an incredible baby shower for us. We were so overwhelmed and blessed by everyone's love and how much work they put into it. 

Thanks to Tracy for the cake!

My friend Heather (on the right) had the ladies make an "ABC Scripture Book" as a surprise for me! What a treasure!

 We got to see the family this weekend at a cousin's wedding (Tara Lawson). (Rebekah is holding Caleb, one of Melissa's boys.) It looks like the kids all want to drool on the guys heads. =]

 Tonight David set-up the crib and hung the curtains in the baby room! We bought the crib/rocker/dresser set off of kijiji! I cleaned it all up tonight and can't wait to start putting things away and decorating a bit more.

 The crib set is also off of kijiji..the ribbons will have to go if we have a boy. =]

 The dresser/change table!

 The lady forgot to send the footstool...so that's still coming. 

 In order to have a baby's room David had to finish the office downstairs. It's definitely smaller (both our chairs don't really fit in at the same time...I guess that's a hint that it's time to go on maternity leave.)

 This picture wants to stay sideways for some reason...anyways it shows David's fabulous view from his desk. He doesn't have to face a blank wall anymore.

And...the most exciting part of the office...the storage room! David built shelves to fit the bins inside the utility room so we can finally stay organized and have a place to keep all the CEF stuff in one place. Can you believe that's all CEF stuff??? That doesn't even count all that's in the filing cabinet and on the shelves in the office!