Kicking off the Christmas Break

Tobogganing!!!  Not far from our house is a wonderful hill.  We were going to go yesterday (-20) and instead waited for those Chinook winds we've been hearing about and went today (+2).

Ter kept saying "this is the last run"... not sure how many times we heard that but he kept on going.  

Willow left the house reluctantly but once we got there she was begging to go down, and kept on going again and again.   

Kamo giggled all the way down and as soon as you hit the bottom he was ready to go again - after being dragged up the hill.  

Sundee came up the hill after many runs and said to me "get on my board" and I was hooked as well.

It's only a 5 minute drive to our house and had it been 6 minutes Kamo would have been asleep. It was one of the quietest drives we've had in a long time.

Time for the hot tub.

Morning Walk

Kamo and I went for a short walk this morning to see the beautiful frosty trees and countryside.  

Pretty as a Christmas Card!

Snow Day

The kids are back to school today.

Just had 2 days of blizzard and the roads are still not great but the buses are running.  Bundled them up this morning and off they went.  It's cold out there!

Had a lot of fun.  The days seemed so long- one day Ter was about to put them to bed and it was only 6 o'clock!  There were activities, movies, wii, science projects, baking, decorating... lots of fun stuff.

guess who's section of the tree this was?

Hint:  he also successfully hung up all the train ornaments we had!

Willow and Sundee's creation.

Lesotho Blankets

Our celebration last night was so special.  It was so awesome to celebrate these boys and I believe that for Ret it gave him and increased sense of belonging and security in this family. 

As I said in the last post we decided to present them with their Lesotho blankets.  They were so excited and quickly wrapped them around themselves as true Besotho boys would.  

Everywhere you go in Lesotho the men and boys are walking around with the blankets wrapped around them in this fashion - winter or summer.  The women wear them differently, mostly around their waists. 

Ret was so thrilled.  He came to me and asked me to feel his heart beat.  It was beating out of his chest.  This was a true sign of his emotions. 
Kamo couldn't wait to go to bed with it and it was the first thing he asked for this morning. 

One Year!

It's been one whole year today since we met Ret and Kamo at Beautiful Gate for the very first time.  

365 days.  

Wow.  Time flies. Yet there were times in the first few months when it felt like the day would never end.  Days filled up with a variety of emotions.  For all 6 of us. All from a different perspective.  Now that's a house full of emotions, sometimes bursting at the seams. 
At the end of these days we would celebrate the small victories.

Lots of laughter, tears, frustration....... above all love.  A few burned dinners due to dealing with issues, a few more greys on our heads.  

We have grown a lot in this year.  And we continue to grow. And grow. And get stretched.  And keep on growing.

Ret and Kamo have shot up in size, Kamo's english is greatly improving by the day. Ret's maturity level is at his age level.  

We have connected as a family.  We are knit together in a special way.

So today we celebrate this family.  Today we celebrate Lesotho and the 2 sons that we are blessed with from this beautiful country.

I am proud and honoured to have these boys in my family.  Some nights when I tuck them in and give them a kiss I am in awe that they are actually here.  Safe and warm in their beds and I can touch and smell them.  And to have the privilege of being their mom and watching them grow up into fine young men.

this is our 1st photo we got of them.  Taken in April 2012

These were taken on the day we met them.

Hard to believe that was only 1 year ago.

And here we are today!!

We will have a party tonight.  Ret has chosen to have tea and cookies for afternoon tea and for dinner - Chicken curry over rice with a salad and I decided to make a pecan pie for dessert.

After dinner we will present them with their Lesotho blankets.  We bought them for them when we were there last year and it is a tradition that they get them at certain significant times of their lives - like weddings, births, etc.  So I thought it would be nice to mark this occasion with a Lesotho tradition.

I'll post those photos later.

Christmas Shopping

Tis the season to be at the mall and get wonderful gifts for all of your loved ones.
We live in the land of plenty and I urge you to think of those less fortunate than us.

Here is a young girl with a vision. She is asking that you help her to build a new house for Beautiful Gate - one brick at a time.   I ask that you watch her video and think about helping her to reach her goal and making her dream a reality.

This orphanage is where are boys are from and we would love to see them blessed.  They are run by such wonderful people and the staff are so caring and loving to the children.

http://www.youcaring.com/nonprofits/one-brick-at-a-time/75564

Watch the video carefully and at around the 2min20sec mark you'll see Kamo with his friend.

Halloween 2013

Kamo ran like this the WHOLE night, with his bag wide open and everyone thought he was so cute they gave him heaps of stuff.  Willow was a little jealous.

go Spidy!

lil Miss Ladybug.

Super Kamo!  or Robin.

What a fun night.  Ret and Kamo had never done this before and they had so much fun.  It was a beautiful night and what a great neighborhood!  
Now we've got 4 huge bags full of candy to consume.  Guess I won't have to make dinner!!!!

Snowy Sunday.

Yep you heard me right.  It started snowing at 7 this morning and it hasn't stopped yet.

It's slowed down but it's still coming down and the ground is white!

this is last weekend. see the green grass.

 On Thursday it was 22 degrees.

this is what it looks like today.

the kids had a blast.  making snowmen, carving pumpkins, drinking hot chocolate (i think we're going to have a lot of that since everytime they are a little bit cold they think it's required).  we went in the hot tub which is my favorite when it's snowing, and topped it up with appy's for dinner.

if this is how they go maybe i'll love snow days.

(except for the driving)

week 2

We said good bye to the camper and are now residing at a hotel for one night.  Tomorrow we get our house!!!  So excited to see it.  Having a great relaxing day swimming in the pool with waterslide.  It took Ret a bit of courage but all he had to do was go once and then there was no stopping him.

Here are some pics of our last week at the campground.

Beautiful morning.

our beautiful (crazy) children.

fun at the farm.

on the water slide.  Not a great pic but my camera got all steamy.