Merry Christmas from the Dunlop Clan

We just recently sent out our Christmas pictures minus the annual letter this year. We have just been swamped with stuff around here and did not get around to writing one. Hopefully you have recieved our cards and are now checking out the blog to see what we have been up to. Here is our year in a nutshell.

This past year has been a busy one and an exciting one. The highlight of the year happened in April - our precious son Matthew was born! He has been such a joy and a delight! He is the cutest little thing, and no matter how he is feeling, he is smiling. He likes to kick his legs and chatters non-stop. He has had acid reflux and will cover you in spit up if you are not careful, but I think we are finally starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel on that...it seems to be less and less. He is growing so big, so fast. He loves to sit on the floor surrounded with all of his toys and play and play. He lights up whenever Isaac is in the room. He is not crawling yet, but I suspect it will happen at any moment. He gets into the position, but hasnt figured out how to actually get moving yet.

Isaac is growing by leaps and bounds. He is a smart little boy who loves to jump and play hide and go seek. He knows all his letters and their sounds and counts pretty well too. His favorite letter is G, his favorite number is 5, and his favorite color is blue. He is showing himself to be fairly musical as well and loves to sing and dance. When he goes to Grandma and Grandpa Basden's he loves to play Grandpa's banjo and Grandma's Mandolin....he is even starting to get some rhythm. Isaac is a sweet, sweet, soul who is very caring towards Matthew and others around him. He loves to laugh and have fun! His favorite thing to say right now is "Come play toys with me!"

I (Anne) love being home with the kids and feel so blessed that we can do that. This past fall I have taken a part time teaching job with a Theatre Company called CYT, Christian Youth Theatre. They hold theatre classes for kids after school, as well as produce 3 Musical productions a year. I fell in love with the company and have since been asked to be on their Board of Directors for the Portland and Vancouver CYT's. It is as if God handed me the perfect company to fit my talents and interests. I will also be directing for them in the spring and again next fall. This has been a tremendous blessing in my life, and fits nicely with our schedule. Isaac has really enjoyed seeing the older kids and learning some of the songs and dances. Good thing I get free tuition, I will need it when he is old enough to take classes!

One of the things that we do with the kids is to go visit my Grandma and my Auntie at their Retirement home for lunch. The people there just love seeing the boys, and Isaac spends most of the time dancing and entertaining them. He calls it "grandma's castle" because of the way the building looks and just loves going there.

Chris is still working in the mapping department at Oregon City, and doing taxes during tax season. He is an awesome father who spends lots of time playing and roughhousing with the boys. All of his pants are getting holes worn into the knees from crawling around on the floor with the kids. Chris is in a men's Bible study group that meets every week at a local coffee shop. He has made some great friendships with the other guys there, and looks forward to it every week. He is quite proud of winning the "Most Hideous Holiday Sweater" award last week at our Bible Study's Christmas Party!

We have settled into the house now and have spent the past year doing many projects around here. The biggest one being remodeling the kitchen. At this point, we still have no floor and most of the cupboard doors are just half painted. Hopefully when life returns to normal in the new year (ha!) we can get that finished up.

We hope that you all are having a Merry Christmas season and wish you best in the New Year! Bookmark our page and come back often to keep track of our growing boys!