Hey Friends

Wow, where has the time gone?? Life has been super busy! Thanksgiving was super fun!! We went to a Christian Conference Center for a family camp. It was AMAZING. It truly is our families favorite place to be. I have never gone to family camp there before, i have gone there for Women's retreats, couples retreats and Jr. Retreats with my kids. We didn't really know what to expect. We went up on Thanksgiving...the food was amazing! Todd was leading the music at the camp during the teaching sessions. They had classes for each age group. I was nervous at first about putting the boys in the childcare. It ended up being wonderful and the boys LOVED it!! My girls made some good friends there too. 3 days of great meals (and NO cooking or cleaning!) It was a spiritually renewing weekend:)

Christmastime was a blurrrrr....I ended up working full time from the 8th -23rd at a non-profit organization The Family Giving Tree. I did it last year but wasn't sure how it would work with the boys home. Todd was in charge of the boys all week...during tech week of the Christmas musical! The boys schedule was pretty off that week!
It was hard being gone from 8-5!
We survived though:)
The Christmas eve candlelight service was a nice experience with Markenley...Solomon had to go to his class....way too noisy!! "I want to go to my Sunday School".
My really good friend Kim came to visit California with her 5 kiddos! It was great getting to spend time with her and her kids and hubby.

We also dedicated the boys to the Lord before our church congregation. It was great. we had our whole family up on stage:) As we were standing on stage Markenley asked "where's God?" Thinking he was going to see him on the stage!

Christmas was fun...ROCK BAND and Wii Fit were the super fun gifts...and the boys got spiderman scooters and helmets! They had been sharing a pink scooter and pink helmet:) My parents came and spent the day with us. It was fun hanging out with them.

After Christmas we went to Angels Camp with Todd's family. We stayed at the timeshare. We enjoyed time with his family...and got addicted to Wii bowling. :)Thanks Bruce!
We miss spending time with Todds family and they are so great...i miss them already!
We took the boys to the snow! They had a great time, until the end when they were freezing!

Then we packed up and went home, unpacked and then got ready for a new years eve party at my house! It was crazy fun. A bunch of High Schoolers, little kids and my friends...and lot's of wii bowling.

On the 10th of January Markenley turned 5!! We had a big party for him, and we also celebrated TJ's 10th birthday too. Spiderman party!! They had a big jumpy house! Knowing this was Markenley's first party...and all the struggles to get him home...it was very emotional for me!

The boys seem to be bonding quite well. They both love to snuggle. They definatly go to Todd and I for comfort. We are working very hard on teaching them the basics...obedience, being truthful, etc.

Markenley will still get overwhelmed and have meltdowns..we are working on getting him to control himself. It's hard...emotionally and physically....he is definatly getting better. Markenley still talks about Haiti quite a bit...mostly what they didn't have in Haiti...no pillows, no blankets, no socks, no toys, no cereal...nobody kissed and hugged him in Haiti. He said they had paper and made paper airplanes.
The boys are speaking only english...and are speaking VERY well! Developmentally they amaze us daily.
Solomon is learning to not scream....he is loud..he is funny, he is sweet. He loves Nana, his stuffed lion. It is a real comfort to him at bedtime...or after he wakes up. He is very coordinated and great at baseball, soccer....any sport. (he's only 2!!)
Anyway....that's it for now...
hugs,
Renee