Sibling torture

Shanay and Jess were home with the boys for a little while today...when we got home they showed us this video. Solomon is afraid of this little wind up toy...call it torture, or helping him get over his fears, i am not sure...what are big sisters for?? I love how polite he is at the end. We love him so much, he is a hysterical little guy!!

TJ's Batman Video:)

My son cracks me up with his wonderful acting skills!! Obviously he has seen the Dark Knight and loved it!

What a week..

My Handsome son's BEFORE PIC!!

This was in the ER after the swelling went down about 75%.

Black and Blue...a few days later!

Day Camp is over...and I am exhausted!!! We had about 90 kids in the camp and each day we had a fun trip planned. Day one, shadowcliffs...a man made lake...the morning started off by being super excited that we had my favorite bus driver from years past. Being a girl, and liking to talk, somehow on our short adventures I have gotten to know her a bit over the years. I was getting caught up and asked her how her hubby was... "he died last Monday"....ugghhhh...i felt horrible. I was sorda in a funk all day..sad for her...

Tuesday...Golfland water slides...HORRIBLE DAY!!!!!

The kids were all given their safety information from the lifeguard and sent on their way to play...the lifeguard forgot to say anything about the mini golf safety rules...the one about not swinging the golfclub above your knees...I can tell you I will NEVER forget that rule...not even 5 minutes after the kids were sent off MY SON (who was one of the kids in the camp) was brought back to me...his face was HUGE, he was bleeding and crying...it looked like there was a tennis ball on his face. I was starting to freak, grabbed a baggie, quickly grabbed ice...and Brenda (our CE director who just happended to come to pay for the day) drove us directly to the ER where Todd met us...Thank you Brenda..The vision of seeing my son that way was HORRIBLE...i will never forget it...his face was HUGE. We got to the ER and they did a CT scan...thank you Jesus...it was not broken. It could have been so much worse..near his eye or teeth.

The swelling did go down a lot...but was still awful looking. Thursday was opening day of Willy Wonka Jr. which TJ has a lead role in (Mike Teavee)...His last play he was in he got a fat lip (huge fat lip) by running into a girls head. He vowed to never do theater again.

I will post pics of his pretty little face...but these pictures are nothing compared to what it looked to at first.

I love Tj's spirit though..by the end of the week he was totally fine...dancing and singing on stage...praising God..no thoughts of his black and blue face.

Wed. Great America---Good day for the most part. It's stressful because it's such a big responsibility. 14 leaders keeping track of all those kids.

Thursday...Ice skating...Little sweet Sophia fell on the ice and our Senior counselor stopped to turn around and help her and her skate hit sophia's finger and cut it pretty bad...we had to call her Mom and Pam (my co-director of the camp) took her to the doctor...she had to get stitches. I just feel awful...I hate injuries...there was a lot of blood.

By the end of that day I was so exhausted. I felt horrible...

Then Friday....

Pool day...we have lifeguards....the counselors are in the pool with the kids..pretty safe...so you would think...

I literally had just scanned the pool and all was well, I had been getting on kids and counselors for goofing around too much.

Next thing I know one of our counselors, Alyson, who is also one of my daughters best friends and spends lots of time at our house was brought out of the pool with a bloody nose. We get her ice and sat her down....it is clear at that moment that her nose is broken. I had to call her mom and figure out where to take her. It was horrible. I feel so bad for her. At this point they are planning on doing surgery on Wed. after the swelling goes down.

I have been directing Day Camp for 5 years with only one injury (a kid was on stage dancing and singing and another kid fell on him and fractured his finger). This year 3!!!

We are thankful that they weren't more serious than they were. I am emotionally exhausted from the week.

One of my high school counselors reminded me that when you are doing good things for God bad things will happen and she said this was one of the best Day Camps ever..thank you Anna Kay.

God was definatly evident in the camp and there were amazing relationships formed and lives changed for God. We raised about $800 for an orphanage/school in Haiti. I need to focus on all the good that was done in that camp. I am blessed to be able to be a part of it. Thank you God! :)

It was hard being away from the boys so much...when i was home, i was tired. Now my busy season is over...i can spend time with the boys! :) Thank you to my sweet hubby and my wonderful daughter Taylor for caring for the boys!

Ok, we did it...we cut his hair!!!

WHAT DID WE DO??? We have been going back and forth about what to do with Markenley's hair. It is adorable au natual..but takes about 15 minutes every morning to comb/condition form the ringlets etc. When it's not conditioned it's super dry..when i over condition it it's extremely icky and greasy and we were all getting pimples from the products.
On the good days i say let's just keep it long...but it's been super hot and I feel for him..so recently I braided it, and like when he came home from Haiti, he was called a girl numerous times.
He also likes to wear hats, that was hard because his hair was so long and if he did take the hat off it looked funny. He also wears a helmet while riding the scooter... helmet hair...not cute. I also really wanted to get to his scalp and really see the condition of it. Solomon has a fungus on his that was treated and now he's fine. We didn't want to traumatize Markenley so we have waited. We cut Solomons hair recently and so we have been asking Markenley if he wants his cut. Some days it was yes, some days no. Recently he was asking to have it cut. We finally decided to just do it. We know it will grow back. This will give us a fresh start. This was so hard emotionally for me...but I do think he looks adorable!! When I first showed him himself in the mirror he didn't like it, didn't want to look...it was so sad. But now he is happy. Here are some pics of the new hair cut...and other pics too. :)

Lunchtime in the backyard!

Lunchtime for Soly too!

Taylors Umpa Loompa wig!

ADORABLE!

GUITAR HEROS!

Daddy is cutting my hair!! :)

LOOK AT ALL HIS HAIR!!!

HANDSOME MARKENLEY AND BEAUTIFUL SISTER SHANAY!

SOLOMON IN HIS TRUCK!

MARKENLEY LOVES TO HELP!! HERE HE'S TAKING OUT THE TRASH...
PRE-HAIR CUT!

KITTY CAT LOOKS CUTE WITH MARKENLEY'S HAIR!

SOLOMON!

I LOVE BASEBALL!!

VACUUMING HIS HAIR!

BROTHERS!

I DO LOVE HIS HAIR...I AM KINDA' MISSING IT!! :(

California's Great America

We took the kiddos to Great America today. It was the boys first time. We also took Zack..my friends little boy who the boys love. :)

TJ is great with the boys...and just the right height for the rides that the rest of us are all too tall to go on! I think he secretly likes it!!

Jessica...using the hydrant!!

Zack and Markenley

TJ and Solomon!

We ran into some good friends and her daughter Steffy rode with Markenley!! How fun!!

Too SHORT!!

It's a good thing the boys are blessed with RESPONSIBLE sisters!!

Update...

Hi,
Well..how is life, really??
Crazy...busy...but good....mostly.
Summer is super busy for me, which means my whole family.
We started off summer with Sports Camp, which i coordinate...then July 7-11 was VBS which I was one of the Directors. Todd did the music/teaching time and Shanay and Jess were leaders...Shanay was in charge of Markenley's group. Taylor was a helper in the preschool with Solomon. Our VBS was at night this year, due to the construction of our new building. This was great because I didn't have to drag the family to church at 6 am! The boys did pretty good...mostly....
On Wed. night (evangelism night) Markenley LOST it big time. He was doing this screaming thing..over everything! I am trying so hard to teach him to sit on time out. When he is in these moods he is just out of wack...i think it's due to the over-stimulation...i don't know for sure. I had to leave early...I felt horrible. I was in tears the whole night and just emotionally drained. Thank God for my team..they were all supportive.
On Thurs. I was just praying that he would be fine. He was GREAT. I did sorda' bribe him..he wanted a half a piece of licorice and 2 m and m's that i had and i said he could have it after VBS if he was nice to Shanay and was a good boy. That's like 3 hours to wait...and he did. Friday he did great too. I do try to keep tight reigns on him at church and I don't let him just run around and do what he wants...we are still working on boundaries.

I don't know if I have shared this or not..but as we were waiting for the boys I would often think of my love for the boys and our longing for them to be home in relation to God's love and longing for us to be with Him.
As Markenley was having a difficult time fighting me the other night and kicking and screaming and resisting my love...i thought about that...is that what I do to God?? Do I sometimes ignore what he is trying to tell me? Just as I know what Markenley should do...God knows what is best for me. I am thankful that he is always here for me..i hope Markenley will know God's love just as fully.

There are definite times where we feel like we are drowning...next week I am in charge of our Day Camp (it's an ALL day camp for 3-5 graders) and then I am pretty much done with the crazy schedule for a while and can be home all day. Hopefully that will help.

I do feel like the boys are doing good....then we will have little set backs. They are good boys.
Today we were all home and we were in and out of the house. TJ brought Markenley in and I thought he brought Solomon in too....and we were all in the house...after about 7-8 minutes I noticed we were all in the same room, except Solomon...AHHHHH
I freaked out and ran out in the front yard...there was Soly, all by himself on the scooter!!!!
Thank you God for keeping him safe. I can't imagine what he was thinking!! He was probably excited that Markenley wasn't there to take the scooter!

I do worry about attachment. I worry that I am doing the right things. There are times where Markenley will resist eye contact and closeness, other times he is all snuggly. I struggle with not taking it personal and holding back any love towards him..I constantly have to remind myself that this is new, and it will take time.

The boys are sleeping in their own room. They actually go to bed pretty easily now. Markenley is fine as long as he knows what is going on. He will ask if TJ is going to come sleep next to him "later, when he's finished". TJ does have his own bed on the top bunk, but prefers to sleep with Markenley. They went through a period of time where they would both(Markenley and Solomon) look out the window...they aren't allowed to do that!! Now Markenley will say "Markenley no touch window...Solomon touch window". Little tattler!

Markenley does learn fairly quickly. He likes to make us happy. He seems to be happy.

Solomon is a happy little guy...does have his tantrums...when he gets mad he hits, kicks, bites and spits....it doesn't take long to get him calmed down though. Those are just his orphanage survival skills kicking in.

We continue to take one day at a time..asking for God's help and healing. With 6 kids in the house life is crazy..and trying to meet everyones needs is tiring...but we are so blessed.

Hugs,
Renee

more pics

4th of July Pics! Proud little Americans!

I love this guy!!!

I LOVE HIS SMILE!!

TEAMWORK!!