Ellie's tantrums have decreased immensely! She has thrown a fit over something here and there but the 3 hour, all out screaming, biting, spitting has stopped. I think she is getting more comfortable with her new life and with giving at least some control over to Erin and I. She is staying in bed at night and getting a full night of sleep, something that we were praying for since we knew that her sleep deprivation had a lot to do with her controlling her emotions. She is still quite bossy with Elijah and we are constantly having to remind her that she is not the mommy, but overall her behavior has improved leaps and bounds. We are so thankful that the difficult moments are few and far between and we are able to focus more on teaching and bonding with her rather than the constant disciplining that we've had to do to this point. She really is a very sweet girl and she makes us laugh constantly!

Elijah is doing well, his thyroid levels are still low so he started taking thyroid medication yesterday. We will be taking him to see a endocrinologist sometime in the next few months. Hoping that we see some improvements with how he is feeling soon! He is also a pretty funny little guy and we find ourselves struggling to not laugh even when he is doing something rascally.

On a whim we decided to take the kids to the beach for the first time on Saturday. We were only there for about an hour but both kids seemed to really enjoy it. Elijah was never too sure about the water but he loved snuggling with his mommy and watching everything that was going on around him. He loved playing in the sand, though Erin had to keep him from eating it on several occasions. Ellie LOVED the water! She and I were able to go out and play and splash in the waves. She laughed and screamed (the good kind of scream!) and was very sad when it was time to go. So glad that we had the opportunity to share this fun family time together, excited when we get to go back and stay a little longer. The one down side of our spontaneity is that our batteries on our camera were dead and we were almost out of space on the video camera. We've posted the few moments from that day that we were able to catch so you all could enjoy them. We also posted a few pictures we took around the house and a few from the kid's first pool day with the Beaumont girls.

We can't thank all of you enough for your prayers and encouragement! We are so thankful for all that God is doing in our hearts and that hearts of our children. We head out next week for a whirlwind tour of the midwest, giving the kids the chance to meet all of the rest of their family they haven't met and getting some much needed time with their grandparents! We are super excited for the trip but we know that it will also come with some challenges. Please pray for smooth travels and for us to not loose all of the progress we've made in discipline with the kids. We will try to keep the pictures coming!