Merry Christmas to all our friends and family!
What a wonderful year it’s been for us.
At the beginning of 2010 we celebrated two big milestones; Jonah’s 1st birthday and our 5th anniversary. What better way to celebrate such great occasions than a vacation! (Especially since Jonah had not yet started walking and still didn’t cost much to travel) So we took a trip to Spain in early February. We spent just under a week in Barcelona and then went on a 9 day Mediterranean cruise that took us to Morocco and the Canary Islands. It was quite an adventure and Jonah did wonderful! We’re looking forward to our next big vacation though it will probably be a while before we do anything as big as that one.
A few months later we found out that a very special person was going to be joining our family, and she has finally arrived! Rebecca Dawn Renshaw was born November 11th! She was 7 lbs 4 ½ ozs and 19” long. We already feel like she has been a part of our family for much longer than a few months. She looks a lot like Jonah did except that she surprised us with a full head of hair which none of us had when we were born. We fell in love with her the moment we saw her and it wasn’t long before we couldn’t remember what life was like before her arrival.
Jonah was not so sure of Becca at first, but he tolerated her pretty well and quickly grew to love her. He doesn’t like it when she cries and will try to help her get her binkie back in her mouth. It’s not uncommon to find Becca with a teddy bear in her swing that Jonah had put there.
Jonah has grown and changed so much this year! He's a very smart and fun little guy. He started crawling right before the first of the year and he began walking around June. He didn’t really have any sort of transition – he went straight from crawling to running! He loves to play with puzzles and shape sorting toys. He now has a large vocabulary that he uses all day long as he runs around the house telling stories and singing songs, even if some of the words that he says are words that only he understands. He loves to read books whether with our help or by himself. He also loves to put things together and is a great problem solver. His new favorite thing to do is put together seatbelts so we almost always have to unbuckle Becca’s carseat before we can put her in it. He is the sweetest little man who knows no stranger and loves being around other people, especially other children. We feel so incredibly blessed by our two special children and feel even closer as a family because of them.
Dwight is enjoying working for NASA . He is currently helping to retire the Shuttle and feels honored to be a part of the next step in space flight and developing the new program. He began his first semester of grad school at Florida Institute of Technology in August. He is working toward a Masters of Science in Space Systems. His first two classes proved to be challenging, especially since he was getting use to be back in school again. He feels like he learned a lot of valuable information and in the end was able to pull off A’s in both classes. Next semester will be another crazy one with classes in things like Astro-dynamics and other things that go way over my head. Between school and work Dwight keeps pretty busy, but he’s very good at making sure he spends plenty of time with his favorite little boy and girl. I sure married a great guy!
I (Peggy) finally feel like Titusville is becoming home which is mostly thanks to my discovery of the local community theater programs. It’s nice to feel involved and to make friends in the area. I was able to participate in several stage productions including Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat which I preformed while 5 months pregnant. It was the best exercise I could have asked for during my pregnancy. During the Fall I was invited to sing with several groups and had the opportunity to carol at Disneyworld earning 2 free tickets! I’ve also been able to work with a few clients giving massages. I hope to be able to find a part time job at a spa or health center in a few years when the kids start school so I need to give massages every once in a while to keep my license. I still have a few piano students and hope to continue teaching this next year. All of that makes it sound like I’m really busy, but most of my time this year was spent playing with Jonah and most recently, staring at Rebecca which is really all I want to do these days. I’m so grateful that I’m able to stay at home with my sweet babies.
We are really beginning to love our little community and our ward family. We’re looking forward to another wonderful year here in Central Florida, and we feel very blessed to be able to keep in touch with friends and family who live far away.
We hope that your family is also looking forward to a great 2011 and we hope that it’s not too far in the future before we’re able to get together with you again.
As always, if you’re ever in the area, you always have a place to stay with us!
Much love,
Dwight, Peggy, Jonah and Rebecca Renshaw
peggyrenshaw@yahoo.com
dwightrenshaw@yahoo.com
