Vacation

We just arrived home from "vacation" with the whole family.  I have to decided to unofficially, officially no longer call vacation, vacation when there are two children in tow!  We really did have a great time and that is evidenced by the fact that both Mark and I agreed the week long vacation felt like a whopping 3 days.  While preparing to take two little ones to the pool or Disney for the day are monstrous tasks, the smiles that ensue are worth the hard work!

Caroline was really the perfect age for our trip to Disney.  First of all, she was free!  More importantly, she was old enough to get excited about seeing Minnie Mouse or Mickey but not old enough to be sad if we missed riding the flying Dumbos (which we did).  We had a wonderful time with her and little Libby was a great traveler too. 



She mostly chilled out wherever we took her.

We started our trip at 4:45 in the morning.  Thankfully, Caroline is a little ray of sunshine in the morning!

All of the kiddies were decked out in clothes made by Gigi for the first day at Disney!  Although Libby only went with us to the park that night, she got a sweet dress too!  Thankfully, Mom watched her during the morning so we could have some time with just Caroline.



Daddy and his little princess on Main Street with the castle in the back ground.

Our first ride at Disney was "It's a Small World."  Caroline was in awe of all the scary people.  :-)

Caroline loved the tea cups and we still here about the pink castle.

Libby strutting her stuff with a glow in the dark bracelet from Aunt Lindsay. :-)

Speaking of Aunt Lindsay, she is the best baby hlder ever!  She was always offering to help with Libby and I was more than glad to accept the help.

Watching the Electric Lights parade.



We had two day passes so our second day we decided to go to Animal Kingdom.  It was defnitely a good decision for us.  We stood in line to see Minnie for only 10 minutes and could have seen other characters very quickly but Caroline was not interested.  Caroline also really enjoyed the animals and The Lion King show was awesome!

The days we were not at Disney we spent hanging out at the pool, resting, playing on play grounds and enjoying time with family.












We were all so grateful to Mom and Vern who took us on vacation. We could have never afforded a week long stay or two days at the Disney parks on our own. Thanks to some good budgeting, packing lunches and cooking in the condo we even came home with money left over from our vacation fund! WOOHOO!












Thanks for a great week!  We look forward to many more weeks in Orlando!

Friendly Farm

On our way down to Disney, our friends Dustin and Adrienne recommended that we stop at Dustin's Mom/Step-Dad's home for a visit.  They have a farm with all kinds of fun animals and other stuff that we thought the girls would enjoy. We had no idea at the time how neat the whole area really was and that the adults would enjoy it just as much as the kids!  It turned out to be a perfect rest stop on the long 8 hour drive to Orlando!

The girls and Heidi (Dustin's Mom) checking out the emus.

Mark and Caroline checked out the chickens who were munching on some pizza!

They also had bunnies, horses, birds, dogs and cats running around the farm.

A massive tree in their back yard. 

The branches were so long that they went down to the ground (sometimes into the ground) and back up again!

Just as it should, the tree had a great swing hanging from it's large branches.  :-)

Kelsey being the sweet dare devil rode one of the horses!

One of the neat things about their property is that they are partial owners of an underground spring that is right next to their property.  There were tons of scuba divers there that morning taking dives into the Devils Den.

On the other side of the springs, they have some friendly neighbors with some great treats as well!  We met this blind deer who was raised by humans so now it can be petted and loved on!

They also have this...

There is really no possible way to describe "this."  There was a limestone quarry in their backyard and they have turned it into this oasis.  The above picture is just a small portion of the whole thing.  There are gardens throughout with exotic plants and flowers.  There are portions with koi fish and other kinds of fish and other portions you can swim in!  It was like nothing I have ever seen before - maybe in pictures of some island nation.  It was unbelievabe.  I just hope we were nice enough to be invited back.  :-)

The whole visit made me really thankful for sweet friends.  It was so nice of Dustin and Adrienne to set that up for us and Dustin's parents were just great!  They were so kind and gracious, spending a few hours of their Saturday with us.  We were extremely grateful for the stop on our long drive!

Pumpkin Patch

Also known as a mini photo shoot...

Mark suggested that we get the biggest pumpkin we could find in honor of Grandpa Schoellman who used to grow 300 + lb pumpkins!  Normally we wouldn't spend money on such silliness but since we had some leftover vacation money I agreed and am glad to have a reminder of Grandpa sitting on our front porch.  :-)

Growing Up

I was talking to Mark the other day about our girls hair.  It's so funny to me that they both have such distinct (and yet unique to them) hair.  When we are out and about the first thing people comment on is their hair.  Of course, it's the "beautiful curls" with Caroline and the "where did she get that red hair?"  with Libby.  I really don't have much to say to folks but it's a reminder that they were fearfully and wonderfully made in the image of God - who is quite creative!  I truly love the comments.

However, these comments serve as a sweet reminder that we hope to be growing these girls up to receive other comments as well.  She is one smart cookie.  She has such a sweet, giving heart.  She is so loving and gracious.  She really loves Jesus.  Last night Mark and I had the opportunity to attend a seminar on how to share your faith with a toddler.  We both really enjoyed it and were encouraged and challenged by the leader.  I hope that we will be able to put some of the ideas into practice in our home.  We have already put one into practice...

Luke 10:27 "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength..."  While working on loving God we may work on loving ourselves a little less --- all the smudges are from Caroline kissing herself every night!  :-)

While we are thinking about our girls growing up I have also been challenged that I need to be growing.  I need to be living the life that God desires before I can really share that with them!  I have been a little down lately wishing that I had some wise, older woman to share her faith with me and encourage me on my journey.  Being part of such a large church has its joys and challenges.  I miss being able to interact with older women and seeing their faith.  I want to know the women whose Bibles are written in and falling apart from use.  I want to know the women who have raised children who love the Lord.  However, I know that I can't depend on others to be growing and challenging me.  I have to seek the Lord first and be diligent in prayer.  I have committed to doing this for myself first, for my marriage and for my girls (and I will be praying for a wise, old women)!  Growing up is hard to do!  :-)

Look Alike

I think we are moving into the awkward/embarrassing/totally fun toddler talking stage.  Caroline has been talking up a storm and likes to tell us everything she knows (and she knows really random things).  Everytime we see a Nissan Murano - "Kelsey's car."  Really?  How can she know that?! 

After picking her up from school today we pass a woman walking on the side walk, "Tessa's Mom."  Exactly.  We keep walking and are about to pass a man when she shouts out, "JESUS!"  Obviously not Jesus, but I will give her this, he looked just like the Jesus in her children's Bible. 

Thankfully the man grinned (we were in a church parking lot)! 

Hard Times

I'm not going to lie things have been hard lately.  Mark has been traveling a bunch, work has been tough, time with family and friends has been stressful and the girls are just a handful.  The girls are not bad by any stretch of the imagination, it's just hard toting two kids around by yourself 3 and 4 days a week.  There is also a great sense of isolation that comes with having a newborn...leaving dinner parties because your baby is hungry, being paged in Sunday School because your baby is crying, or trying to feed/entertain a baby while trying to pay attention to the small group you are hosting in your home.  All of these things have led to one drained mama!

However I see these sweet,



silly faces

and I remember that these times will pass (and I will probably wish for them back)! 

Habitat Road Race

This past weekend our Sunday School class was in charge of the Habitat Road Race at church.  Our church was building it's 30th and 31st Habitat homes and this was the 18th race that was put together to raise support for the homes.  I kept trying to explain to people what that actually meant and it's really hard to put it all into words.  The class was in charge of everything from fundraising, to organzing every last detail of the 5k (and other races) on race day.

Mark, being the servant that he is, volunteered to lead the fundraising committee when no one esle volunteered.  We were charged with raising $120,000 in order to build 2 new Habitat for Humanity homes.  We succeeded in raising $109,000 this year.  This whole experience was very humbling to say the least!  We certainly didn't do everything perfectly and we learned a lot along the way!

However, it was a joy to serve with our class.  Everyone took on responsibilities and things got done.  Thankfully, we had a fearless leader in Ashley (she's the calm looking one on the right in the picture below)!  She is not only highly organized and detail oriented, she had a peaceful and gracious attitude through everything.  It really is neat to see how everyone was able to use their gifts and shine in some way.  Prem and Jenna (center) worked the information table.  I can think of no better folks for the job.  Their smiles are sweet and they are always genuine and sincere in conversation.  Lindsay was even assigned to be the nurse for the morning.  We truly were a body of Christ.

We had close to 900 runners!  We heard over and over again from church staff that it was the best race the church had hosted so far...maybe they were just being nice...we have lots of ideas to make it even better.

We had a really fun day!

William participated in the Tot Trot.  I'm hoping that next year we will raise all $120,000, the race will be even smoother and that Caroline will be able to participate in the Tot Trot too!