Life is Beautiful

Christmas Letter 2011

2011-12-28T00:33:00.000-05:00

Here is our (mostly) annual Christmas letter and pictures. If you didn't get one in print, don't be sad! Stamps are getting pricey! But enjoy the free and eco-friendly version of our letter. Make sure to read the end about the transition we are making in the coming year.

Dear Family and Friends,

Merry Christmas! We hope this holiday season brings you gladness of heart and peace in your soul. Even though it is a challenge, we’re trying hard to keep the true meaning of Christmas at the forefront of our minds: “For God did not send his Son [Jesus] into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him” (John 3:17).

We’ve had a great year and the best part of it was the birth of our third child, Lewis Watson Kelsey, on September 1^st. After about 20 hours of labor, Lewis was born at 9:33pm. Even though he was born 17 days early he weighed in at 7 lbs. 4 oz. and doubled his birth weight by two months. He’s a happy little guy and he loves to smile at everyone. One of our greatest joys is watching Amelia (7) and Grant (5) taking good care of their little baby brother. They are both proud siblings and eager to help with Lewis.

Amelia is thriving in 1^st grade and excels socially as much as she does intellectually. As chatty as she is, we’re surprised she is able to focus on her school work at all. Each day is a new adventure in learning and a new story to tell about her conversations with her school friends. She loves her teachers at Norton Elementary and loves everything about school. Amelia is also in her second year of ballet lessons. She enjoys performing her new moves for us in the kitchen.

Grant is still the same happy-go-lucky kid he’s always been. Lark spent a lot of time teaching both kids how to read during the summer, and Grant continues to grow as a reader despite not being in preschool this year. He loves looking at books and showing off how many words he can read. When he’s not looking at books he’s pretending to be one of his numerous favorite heroes: Buzz Lightyear, Luke Skywalker, Peter Pevensie (from The Chronicles of Narnia), Spiderman, etc. He’s all sound-effects and verbal bravado. It’s awesome!

Lark thoroughly enjoyed pregnancy, expecting that it would probably be her last one (though we never say never!). Waiting until the birth to find out the baby’s gender brought a special excitement to the time and she relished preparing our home for Lewis’ arrival. Before she got too far along in her pregnancy we celebrated our 10^th anniversary by cruising to Mexico with Royal Caribbean. Over the summer she had a great time staying home with Amelia and Grant and planning fun things to do with them, soaking in the last few months of being a “two kid family.” Even in her last weeks of pregnancy, Lark was busy starting a new ministry at our church to Mothers of Preschoolers (MOPS). She planned the first meeting to coincide with the start of the new school year. Providentially, Lewis joined the family in time to attend the first meeting.

In July, after months of prayer and counsel Kevin decided that, after a decade of pastoral ministry, it was time for a vocational change. In January he will begin his new role as Campus Coordinator of International Friendship, a mission agency that serves the international student community at the University of Florida. By providing free English classes, “culture connection” dinners, and conversation partnerships, International Friendship is able to share Christ’s love with hundreds of international students who’ve never heard about it! Kevin is excited to use his gifts and ministry experience to help expand International Friendship’s reach on the UF campus. Kevin has to raise financial support for his salary from individuals and organizations who share IF’s vision. It is definitely a step of faith to trust God for our finances, particularly in a bad economy, but God has been faithful and we have already been extremely blessed by the generosity of a number of ministry partners!

God has been good to the Kelseys in 2011 and we are excited to see what he has in store for us next year. And we hope that 2012 is your best year yet! Cheers!

Decorating for Christmas

2011-12-11T14:38:00.000-05:00

The kids were so excited about putting the Christmas decorations out. I've been holding out until after Thanksgiving but once we got back from Jacksonville I knew I couldn't hold out any more, even if it did still feel like September weather. We got a little cold snap and we had some time on Wednesday afternoon so I started pulling all the boxes out of the garage. The kids were eager to help. I'd pull out a box and they'd start putting things where they were supposed to go. As I was out in the garage getting more stuff, Grant ran out with tears down his face. "Mommy! I was holding your snow globes and one of them broke!!" I came in to see the damage. My 2006 snow globe was all over the living room carpet and I was pretty ticked off. I wondered 'how in the world he could have broken it on the carpet?' He was so distraught and sad. I had to breathe for a minute and then I went in there to talk to him and ask him what happened. I just gave him a big hug and said, "I love you more than a snow globe." He said he was sorry and I forgave him. I tried to talk to him and figure out what happened. I think he had two in his hands and had banged them together somehow, because later on we noticed that 2005 was cracked.

I went back in the living room and Amelia was helping me dry off the other globes and put them where they go. She was telling me she was sorry too because she felt like it was her fault for unwrapping them out of the boxes. I told her not to worry about it and just let me take care of cleaning it all up. She had 2009 in her hand and was going to put it on the shelf when it slipped out of her hand and smashed on the kitchen floor. She immediately flew to her room crying and hid under her bed. I stood there for a minute and couldn't believe it. I had to laugh or I would just scream. I went after her and told her that I knew it was an accident and she hadn't meant to break it and that I forgave her. She came out and told me that she wanted to give me some money to pay for it. I started looking on ebay and there are lots of globes available for about $15-20. Later I told my mom about it and she said she thought she had some extra globes too. When she looked she had extras of 2006 and 2009, so we only need to replace the cracked globe.

The leftover globes

So a few days later the kids took to the back yard. I told them I'd pay them $2 for every garbage can of leaves they picked up (I drive a pretty hard bargain!). They worked one afternoon for a couple of hours. Well, they worked getting a big pile and then they jumped in it for a while.

They only got one can done that afternoon but they also got out in the yard with Kevin on Saturday and together they really accomplished a lot. They ended up both earning enough to pay for a new globe and they felt proud about getting so much done with Kevin. He's been working on mulching an area near their playhouse and our storage shed that hasn't ever grown grass well. It's going to look great when it's done and the kids are proud of themselves when they can say they've helped.

I just will be a little more careful when they help put up the Christmas decorations! And trust me, they know the snow globes are off limits now!

Thanksgiving/13 weeks

2011-12-03T13:11:00.000-05:00

This week was a fun-filled busy week for the kids. On Monday morning I volunteered in Amelia's class for their special Thanksgiving day. Here's Amelia in her bonnet as a Pilgram signing the Mayflower Compact

They got to read the story 'Stone Soup' and they stirred the pretend ingredients up...

Then they all got to eat some homemade soup, without stones of course.

They only had 2 days of school that week so we went to Jacksonville early. It was Lewis' first long car ride and he did great, he slept most of the time there and back. On Wednesday we got to visit with the Derstine family. Their baby Rylan is 6 months old, and he weighs the same as our chunker who is only 3 months old!

The boys were so cute together, we hope they'll be little buddies!

Their daughter Avery loved loving on the new baby in the house.

Grant and Amelia loved playing with all their kids' toys.

The girls are so sweet together

Later that night Grant fell asleep that night between the couch and the table.

Memaw loved seeing the kids. Every time I put Lewis in her lap she'd say, 'Oh! This is the first time I've gotten to hold him.' She'd talk to him and tell him all about the adventures he'd have in life: learning to play golf, getting a girlfriend, having kids and going to the beach with them, etc. She's so sweet, she commented on how 'healthy' he looked and what a good tan he had.

Thanksgiving day was nice just to rest around the house, play Wii with the kids and cook some yummy food. Mallory and Randy came over for dinner too.

After dinner it was time to plan the Black Friday attack. Dad and I weren't really impressed with the deals out there this year but Randy wanted to get a TV so we tried to help him develop a strategy. In the end we knew he'd probably get shut out but he did find an alternative TV that he was happy with.

Dad and I left the house a little after 4am. I got up to feed Lewis at 3:30 so it worked out just fine. We got our snowglobes from JCPenny together and then did shopping separately. I got some great $10 Wii games for the kids to play at my parents house and some new clothes and shoes for Kevin and me. I also scored some great clothes for the kids at The Children's Place. They had their Christmas outfits marked down, then 40% off that, then there was 30% off the whole store, then I had a 20% off coupon, and I got 5% off for using my Place card! I got about 10 different items for about $40! Including a gorgeous dress for Amelia to wear next year for Christmas that was originally $50, yay! For spending over $100 at the mall I got a free $10 gift card and at another store I bought a $100 visa gift card that they had discounted to $90. Got a free door-buster ornament at Sears and $10 off some clothes for the kids. At their Christian book store I scored some $5 CDs, some books they had 1/2 price and a Jesus Storybook Bible for $5. Dad and I met back up and he'd stand in line for me and helped me pick out pants that Kevin would like. We had a fun time together, mainly getting things we already needed or were going to purchase anyway, but at great prices. And I got to spend 7 hours of uninterrupted shopping without Kevin having to watch the kids for that whole time. He did take the kids out to Dunkin Donuts to get their traditional Black Friday breakfast. After shopping all morning I rested in the afternoon and then had to go back out that evening to shop with my mom for a minivan. We are hoping to find something we like by Christmas time and so we test drove a few different styles to get an idea of what we wanted.

On Saturday morning Lewis had a blowout diaper so we gave him a little bath in their sink. He was pretty fussy and cried through most of it, but actually started calming down when Meme took some pictures.

After lunch we had Christmas with my parents, Memaw, and the Millers. The kids were excited to open stockings from Meme and Poppa.

They loved their presents from Uncle Randy and Aunt Mallory. They got her a squinkie cupcake playset and him a set of Cars walkie talkies. When I told Mallory that the kids would take 2 of Kevin's deodorants and run around the house pretending they were walkie talkies she said they needed an upgrade, haha.

For Kevin and I the Millers were, as usual, super generous. They got Kevin a tailgate table and a cornhole game. That will be fun to play in the backyard with the kids. We played some with them in Jacksonville and they handily beat us, we had to split the Kelseys and Millers so it would be more fair. They got me some Gator servingware and a new Coach purse. Mallory loves to ensure that I'm stylish.

Meme and the sweet boy, who is getting a Bumbo seat for his gift. We had a great visit with them.

Back at home we got our Christmas decorations out and got our tree up and decorated.

And on December 1st, Lewis turned 3 months old! Love that he is so smiley now. He's starting to smile whenever you look at him, it's so precious.

12 weeks

2011-12-03T10:44:00.000-05:00

This week I met up with friends from Amelia's playgroup. We met when our firstborns were newborn and we met each week for a few years to have playdates. Now that they are first graders we don't get together often, but a few of us got together this week at Possom Creek park.

Amelia helped Grant on the monkey bars.

Lewis slept the whole time in the sling.

We also had dinner Friday night at the Curriers house. Kevin Currier was getting Lewis to sleep, he did a good job too!

The next day the ole Bailey Gardens Roomies all met up on campus with our gaggle of kids. Kristy, Sheri and I all lived together in apartment 22 and Kevin, Chris and Kevin lived in apartment 16. Now 10 years later, there's 13 of us together.

Amelia thinks Lewis is getting pretty heavy!

Trying to get a picture of all the kiddos...

We walked around campus for a bit to get the gameday atmosphere before the Cullers had to head to Orlando. Little Cleo is such a doll!

After being on campus we had lunch and then went over to the Malpeli's house to celebrate Brandon's 1st birthday! I can't believe it's already been a year. Sarah had the room decorated so cute.

Brandon even let her put the hat on him as he got his cupcake.

He cautiously touched it and got some icing on his hand and tried to get it off. Sarah gave him some off her finger and he wasn't too thrilled about it. He made the cutest little face.

11 weeks

2011-11-18T22:31:00.000-05:00

Lewis is 11 weeks old now and our big event this week was our Campout at the Curriers house. Unfortunately it was the only night in weeks that was going to be under 40 degrees at night so we had to scrap the campout and it became a 'camp-in' instead. We started the evening with a cook out with our One Another Group and then cooked smore's on their firepit.

Lewis was looking cute and staying warm in his duckie snowsuit. I love seeing him in outfits that the other two kids also wore. I'm glad he wears the same size in the same seasons as the two October babies did.

Grant always has so much fun at the Curriers. Even after spending the whole night and morning there he cried when we had to leave the next day. He loves playing with all their toys.

Mmmm. Crispy

All dressed in their jammies, time for bed at 10pm!

The girls slept in Cate's room, the boy's were in Caleb/Cameron's room. Kevin and I were in the guest room and the Williams were out in the loft area.

After the kids were in bed the grownups (or old people as some of the 'youngins' in our group call us) played cards and talked. The next morning the kids were up bright and early at 6:45! Breakfast was soooooo yummy. Kristy had made everything from scratch, pancakes, biscuits, sausage, sausage gravy, eggs, bacon...mmmm. I wish I had some more right now!

After a leisurely breakfast the kids played around the house and got started on the Wii. They were playing a 'sing it' game with Disney songs.

Brent sang to us about the Bare Necessities.

Kevin and I sang a duet, A Whole New World from Alladin. Then we went home and had lunch and then the Gator game started. Amelia crashed on the couch.

Then Grant fell asleep on the other couch. They were pretty tired.

Lewis fell asleep in the swing and the three of them were all snoring while we were watching the game, it was surround sound snoring.

After the game Travis and Brandon (and Sarah too) came over for a playdate and all five cousins got to hang out.

Brandon was being so cute with Lewis. He would reach out and touch him and then pull back and reach out to touch him again and pull back. He was being very gentle too.

The big kids were playing this game they call 'Leaping Trains'. They play it all the time at our house and I'm really not sure how it's played or what the object is but they go around the house like this in a train and then they say 'Leaping trains!' and then they switch positions. I think the goal is to be the engine, because Grant used to get upset if he had to be the "Caboosey MaMoosey", though now they all take turns. These kids are so creative and love to make up silly things together.

10 weeks

2011-11-11T23:11:00.002-05:00

We had a pretty uneventful week here in the Kelsey household. Lewis is growing and is loved by all of us so much. He's almost 14 pounds now, just a pound or so shy of being double what he was when he was born. When we say he's getting big, we really mean it. You can tell each week he is growing!

For reference:

Here's a picture of our sweet Little Lewis, at 5 days old in his car seat. So little his newborn outfit is just fitting and his head barely touches the headrest pillow around him.

And here is our chunky fellow in the same car seat at 1 month and 17 days old.

Seriously! This is the same baby, I'm not joking. Check out the double chin! And the rolls on his legs! And that was a month ago and he just keeps getting bigger. Seems like every time I put him in the car seat I have to adjust the straps to loosen them so it's not too tight on him.

Amelia is still in love with her little brother and is such a good Mommy's helper. She got out her own baby doll to sit with Lewis

and she loves to help with his bath time.

We all love to make Lewis smile. Daddy here was getting some good grins while he was playing on his mat.

On Saturday afternoon Grant was pooped out and he fell asleep on the couch while Amelia and I watched figure skating (I think he must have been bored). I put Lewis down next to him on the couch. Oh the cuteness of the little brothers!

Sweet dreams boys!

9 weeks

2011-11-05T22:20:00.000-04:00

Our little guy is officially not a 'newborn' anymore. It's hard to believe that it's been 2 whole months. It's strange to think that we didn't know he was a boy or girl just 9 weeks ago because it feels like he's always been a part of our family.

Friday was a school holiday for Amelia so the kids got some extra play time together. They spent the rainy morning out on the porch painting their pumpkins.

They enjoyed how they turned out

Amelia is still in love with her baby brother and is such a good little helper with him.

Friday we also had a visit from a friend of mine who had a little girl this summer, so she's only about 2 months older than Lewis. It was his first playdate! Here's how it went:

Hailey got on the playmat with him. At first, Lewis was oblivious and more interested in the rattle above him.

Hailey is interested, again Lewis pretends not to notice her and gives her the silent treatment...

So Hailey took a more direct approach...

But in the end they decided to be friends.

So Friday night they carved the big pumpkin that they gave us for free when we bought the two little pumpkins at Trinity's pumpkin patch.

This little guy sleeps so well in his swing.

We've tried putting him down in the crib, but he only likes to sleep on his tummy or all swaddled up.

And finally! I caught a smile on camera!

Monday, on Halloween, me and the boys went to a playdate with Trinity MOPS. Grant wore his Woody costume and Amelia's Bullseye costume too and went as Woody riding Bullseye. He galloped all over the room and the other kids chased him.

I tried to get a picture of him and his buddy Brock, but they wouldn't pose for me so I had to go with candid. Too cute! They are little buddies.

Monday night we went over to the Malpelis' house to do some Trick o Treating. And we finally got a picture of all 5 cousins together.

Lewis was dressed as a puppy dog. Originally I wanted Amelia to go as Bo Peep (in Toy Story she's Woody's girlfriend) and I wanted Lewis to be a little lamb. It would have been too adorable, and Amelia finally agreed to it because it would make me happy. But I couldn't ever find a lamb costume without pink on it. I looked for Bullseye costumes but online they were all like $60. Finally I found one in Jacksonville on craigslist for not too much and my mom picked it up for me. Amelia was super excited about it. Lewis was just going to go as a pumpkin in the 'My little pumpkin' outfit both the other kids wore until I found this doggie costume on sale for $4.99 at Children's Place. It was a 0-6 month costume, but you can see it was really big! We kept joking that he looked like a big fluffy pillow! At least he was comfy :o)

Travis was Harry Potter and was so funny, he kept doing 'spells' and Kevin played along.

Grant's cowboy boots even said 'Andy' on the bottom of one of them, just like in the movie. He thought that was so cool.

The two little animal cousins. Travis made a cute froggie.

My sweet nephew! He finally smiled at me! He's at that age where he knows his mommy and I'm not her, so I get viewed with suspicion most of the time. Love those eyes!

And our cute little doggie pillow, haha!

8 weeks

2011-10-28T22:19:00.001-04:00

Little Lew is such a sweet smiley guy now! But I haven't caught a smile in a photo yet, I'll try to do that this week. It's so adorable and makes sleep deprivation so worth it.

This week has been filled with Fall Festivities. Amelia's school Fall Festival was on Friday. We bought some tickets for them to play game and get goodies. Cotton candy, slushies, popcorn, ice cream sundaes, yikes! It's a good thing they'd already eaten a healthy dinner!

Amelia was so funny, she was not as interested in playing games as she was just talking to friends and saying hi to all the people she knew. Little social butterfly. Kevin told me that one time she was telling him, 'You know what's the worst thing about school daddy? I know most of the people in first grade, but I don't know hardly any of the people in all the other grades!' Another time he was dropping her off for school and she sighed and said, "Ahh, the sights and sounds of Norton Elementary." This girl loves her some school!

Kevin was signed up to help with one of the booths. Her class game was a little mini golf. Amelia tried it and got a hole in one on her last try.

And we had to visit the Plichinko booth from Amelia's teacher last year.

On Saturday Kevin and Grant had some "Boy Time" at Lowe's doing one of their Build and Grow Clinic. They made a Monster truck and Grant did a great job hammering in the nails and putting it together. He got to keep the child size goggles.

On Sunday we had the church Fall Festival and the kids loved getting candy from each of the games. Amelia filled up a half a lunch bag with candy from one game and Grant brought home one piece from pumpkin bowling. He wanted to be in the bouncy house slide more than get candy.

After getting her fill of candy she played in the sand for most of the rest of the time.

Lewis is our little pumpkin boy this year. Both of the other kids wore this outfit, but he's the only one who filled it out. The other two weren't even a month old in October and he's almost two months now. He's getting bigger every day! People who see him can't believe how much he's grown from the last time they've seen him. Such chunky cheeks and a little double chin!

Thursday the big kids had their yearly well visit at the doctor's office. Grant had to have two shots, get a flu mist and have his iron checked. He was NOT a happy camper afterward. I knew it wasn't going to go well when he started freaking out about the blood pressure cuff on his arm. He did great with the flu mist, was upset and crying after getting his iron checked and was positively wild when we tried to get his two shots done. I was holding his arms and body down while the nurse held his legs and gave the shots. He screamed! And when it was over he was so mad at me and said (at the top of his lungs) "I'm NEVER coming back here AGAIN!!!" and "I'm never loving you again, or daddy or my teachers or my friends!" Lewis was crying and Amelia was yelling at Grant to be quiet because she couldn't hear her Leapster game. So I was a bit stressed from that. Once we got in the car Amelia regained her senses and tried to calm Grant down and help him feel better. I decided it was time for us to do something fun instead of taking Amelia back to school. So we headed to the museum so they could play in the Wild Music. Kevin met us over there after his meeting and the kids had a blast in the Jamming Room.

We went to the Butterfly Rainforest and I got a little video of Lewis almost smiling:

After the museum we went over to Trinity's pumpkin patch and the kids got to jump in the bouncy house there for an hour or so and I got to take a fall picture of my three sweet kiddos.

Happy Halloween!!

7 years and 7 weeks

2011-10-22T20:10:00.000-04:00

This week was the birthday continuation. Friday we held the kids' joint birthday party. First we did presents with my parents and grandmothers. Amelia was stoked about getting roller skates.

Grant got a new helmet that also came with a bell. He was telling everyone how much he loved his new bell.

Both my grandmothers were able to come to the party, that was so great having them there. Mimi got some good great-grandson holding time in.

Poppa took the kids out to try their new things.

Then we all headed over to the party and the guests arrived. First they played outside, Kevin set up an obstacle course race for them to play.

Then everyone came inside and we had snacks.

Instead of having guests bring the kids a present we asked everyone to bring presents to donate to Operation Christmas Child. At the party the kids were able to pick out items and pack a shoebox to send overseas to a child in need.

I just didn't have the time and energy this year to make a big cake. But I do like things homemade so we went with cupcakes this year and I bought a new tip to decorate them with so it was still fun and they turned out cute. I printed out little pictures of all the different Cars cars with girl cars for Amelia's cupcakes and boy cars for Grant's.

Lewis slept most of the party on my dad's shoulder, love his 'little brother' onesie here.

Aunt Sarah got a little Lewis love in towards the end of the party.

On Amelia's actual birthday we took the kids out to SteviB's, an all you can eat pizza buffet. We'd gone there for Grant's birthday too. The pizza there is actually pretty good and they have interesting combos. I personally like the Taco Pizza and Loaded Baked Potato pizza. Mmm. The kids liked it because they have a game room where you can earn tickets for prizes. Amelia is apparently a whiz at skeeball. She racked up the points and tickets playing this game.

Grant really enjoyed this racing game.

Lewis slept through all the noise of the game room, and later he woke up and hung out in his car seat.

It was a fun way to celebrate their birthdays.

Tuesday Lewis and I went to the luncheon and I weighed him, he was 12 lbs and 6 oz! He is a growing boy for sure! One night this week I woke up around 4:30am to feed him and was thinking I'd gone to bed at 10 pm and I wrote down that was his record of sleeping, 4.5 hours! But then Kevin told me, no, you went to bed at 11pm, so we are still at 3.5 hours as his sleeping stretch. I hope that we can get a longer stretch in here soon!

6 Weeks

2011-10-14T23:11:00.000-04:00

This week was special for our big girl. She participated in the Library's contest called Million Minutes of Reading. We logged the minutes she read in September and she read the most minutes of the first graders at Norton. We went to the Literary Festival on Saturday so she could receive her ribbon.

She was so proud! Her name got announced on the morning announcements Tuesday morning and she was so surprised. She had been out of school on Friday and Monday and so she was so glad she was back for the announcement. She said her whole class clapped for her and she got shy and embarrassed.

Well, Lewis is 6 weeks old now and he really has grown! You know, sometimes it's not until you are away from something that you notice it changing, like the grass growing. But he's growing so fast it seems like each time we pick him up he's grown some more! We are calling him our Chunky Monkey. From Thursday to Tuesday, 5 days, he gained a WHOLE POUND! Many moms are happy if their baby gained a half and ounce or so per day and mine has been putting on 3 oz per day! I put him in the swing and it just looked like he really filled it out now instead of being a little peanut in the swing. And his cheeks! So plump and pinchable. And a double chin and leg rolls, so adorable.

And this is how I get laundry done. Fussy baby, have to take him along around the house with me, but need hands to do the laundry...Hmm, where should I put the baby for a second? That looks nice and soft...

We got a little playmat for him and he's enjoying looking up at the toys and having some tummy time. He's got great head control and loves to push up. When he's laying on our chest he throws his head back so he can see us.

We went to church on Sunday and Tuesday but other than that we were homebodies this week. Lewis finally caught the cold the family had so we didn't go to the new mom's luncheon. We did go to the doctor's office to have him looked at and checked for RSV. He was negative for that and so they said just to keep an eye on him since there aren't any medicines he can take for congestion, stuffy nose, and cough. Poor guy. We put Vapor Rub on him at night and put a vaporizer in the room with him to help clear the congestion. Hopefully he'll be better soon.

Sleep is getting a little more regular. We put him down around 10 or 11 and I get up at 1, 4, and 6:30 to feed him. He is still sleeping in the swing at night. During the day for naps he'll sleep in the swing or on the couch after falling asleep on my chest. I lay him on his tummy and he sleeps so well that way!

One big achievement this week-he's starting to smile! It'll be a while before we can catch it on camera but he's starting to smile on purpose for us instead of just for gas.

Holding Lewis

2011-10-14T09:46:00.002-04:00

I made a few changes to my blog so that hopefully videos are better able to be seen. Let me know if this doesn't work okay for you :o)
This is a video of Amelia holding Lewis the first time:

5 weeks and 5 years

2011-10-07T21:46:00.000-04:00

Well this week Lewis turned 5 weeks old and our sweet Grant turned 5 years old. Both the big kids were sick this week with some sort of respiratory bug that caused fevers, runny noses, and coughing. It's a miracle that Lewis and I haven't caught it yet because they have been hacking all over the place. Kevin succumbed to the illness and now has sinus pressure and pain.

We still aren't making a lot of headway in sleeping. Lewis eats every 1-2 or once in a while 3 hours. I feel like a zombie at night but somehow once it's 7am I'm up with the other kids and can make it through the day. I don't get a lot of naps unfortunately. It seems like one of the three kids needs me most of the time.

Friday Amelia stayed home sick and the big kids did a few errands with me in the afternoon without Lewis. It was my first time away from him. We went out and got Amelia's missed schoolwork from that day, stopped by the library and the bank and then picked up Moe's for their dinner. Kevin and I went to some friends' house for dinner that night and took Lewis along while the big kids got to have a babysitter.

Saturday October 1st marked Lewis's one month birthday. So we had to begin again our tradition of monthly photographs by the football. Conveniently it was a Saturday game day so he was already in his Gator gear.

We met my family at their tailgate for the UF-Alabama game. The game didn't start until 8 so our plan was to have lunch with them and visit most of the afternoon. My family got in some good Lewis snuggle time.

And we finally got another family picture with the 5 of us. I think Gator gear may be the only thing we can all wear and match together.

I just loved this little onesie.

Squeeze you? Okay!

So Monday Lewis had his 1 month check up appointment, but both the big kids were still sick and Amelia stayed home from school again so they took his appointment and we rescheduled him for Thursday. They got a round of antibiotics and hopefully will be 100% soon.

Wednesday me and the boys took a trip to a MOPS playdate at the Florida Museum of Natural History. No pictures there, but Lewis just laid on his blanket while Grant played with his buddies and I chatted with my friends. We saw a friend who just had a baby a week ago and her little 7 pounder looked so petite next to my bruiser baby boy!

And then there was Thursday. Lewis went to his doctor's appointment and was 10 lbs and 12 oz! That kid is growing so much, we can really tell he's getting bigger. Grant also came along on this appointment because he woke up saying his ear was hurting that morning. So we got another prescription of antibiotics for him if the last two days of his current treatment doesn't clear it up.

After the appointment we went to McDonald's to celebrate Grant turning 5 years old. We took our food over to Possum Creek playground for a special birthday playtime. He was so excited about turning 5. Everywhere we went he told people, 'today is my birthday!' He was sorely missing his playmate sister at the playground. He wanted me to come and play with him and so I did, really, how could I resist. Lewis was napping in the carseat and so I got to play with my big 5 year old boy. We sat in the top tower and snuggled and pretended it was our house. He pulled me down the slide by my shoe, it was a sweet time together.

Thursday night we went out to Stevie-B's pizza place. The kids really enjoyed it.

Amelia is apparently a skeeball queen! She racked up over 100 tickets playing this game.

Amelia's reading night at school and one another group at our house finished off a busy day.

The next day Uncle David took Grant out to walmart to pick out a new Cars car and later Kevin took him to Toys R Us to spend his birthday money. He's been talking about wanting a spy jet for months now! Weeks ago he cried and cried because he wanted it to be his birthday. When it was my birthday he cried because it wasn't HIS birthday, because he wanted to get the spy jet. Well, now he has it and it looks like he'll have lots of fun pretending to fly it around the house with the little Cars cars inside.

Happy birthday buddy!

Welcome October

2011-10-02T11:32:00.000-04:00

We have been sweltering all summer. People in town would complain at how hot it was and then they'd see me at 8 months pregnant. So we've all been looking forward to the fall and cooler weather.

Amelia in particular has been looking forward to fall. On the official '1st day of fall' she came home and told us it was fall and that she wanted to get our fall decorations down. It certainly wasn't feeling like fall at that point, but we got them down the next day and she decorated the house with pumpkins and pretty quilt hangings. She begged me to get the Halloween decorations down but I drew the line and said those had to wait for October.

Well she was sick and stayed home from school on Friday so for something to do we went ahead and got the Halloween stuff out and she got to decorate the house again, adding jack-o-lanterns and other items to the mix. We also got down the Halloween costume I'd picked out on clearance last year for Grant. I found a Woody costume from Toy Story and thought I'd get it for him, even if it was for dress up. From the second he put it on he was in love. He danced around to our Toy Story music and was tipping his hat and saying, 'Howdy' and 'Partner.' He wants to wear it every day now. He even wore it out to run errands the other day with me and the people at Moe's thought he was so cute. I need to find some cowboy boots, cause it looks a little silly with flip flops, ha!

So on Saturday we woke up to beautiful fall weather. In the morning we opened the house and let the cool air in. Amelia wanted to play outside and she was so excited about it being cooler and even got a jacket on. I overheard her say as she was about to go out, "October, here I come!"

4 weeks

2011-09-29T14:58:00.000-04:00

Well, I thought that this week had been a pretty slow week, nothing really happening. But then I looked at the pictures and realized we had a lot of "firsts" this week!

Friday, Lewis had his first bottle. He didn't really like it at first and it took some time for him to finally figure out what to do with it. We'll have to do more this week so that he can get the hang of it and mommy can get some rest at night, or so that Amelia can feed him. I'm sure she'd love to help with that!

We started Saturday morning by going to the Women's Brunch at church where he got held and cuddled by a few different ladies, one who literally 'stole' him away from another woman. After that we had a few errands to run near the mall. Then I realized my free birthday Starbucks coupon expired that day so we went through the drive through for that, whew, close one. He got a little fussy on the way home but calmed down and fell asleep so I thought it was a good time to pick up a few things at Publix. His first trip to Publix:

Unfortunately he got hungry with about 10 minutes left in the trip and screamed all through the check out. Poor guy, mommy needed to buy food before I could feed him too. Hopefully future trips will go a little easier, or mommy will time them better!

Sunday and Monday we spent at home and Tuesday we were out again. Bible Study at church, New mom's luncheon, picking up the big kids and then Walmart and the Party store. The big kids have their birthdays coming up soon so we had to look for Cars themed party supplies. At the luncheon I got to weigh him and he's up to 9 pounds 8 ounces! So he's grown two pounds since birth, and a whole pound of that was within the last week. Kevin said if he kept that up he'd be 52 pounds when he turned a year old!

Tuesday he also got his first bath. We wanted to do it when the big kids were up, but Lewis wanted to sleep so we had to wait until he woke up and they were already in bed. He was fussy but when we got him in the warm water he calmed down.

Then he got cold and was fussy again so we got him out and then he was MAD! Poor guy was cold and his little bottom lip was quivering and we tried to get him all dry and dressed quickly, but it wasn't quick enough for him and he let us know!

Lewis is starting to get into a more regular routine. I'm writing down the time tables of what he does and I'm starting to notice a pattern. He usually gets up and eats, then has a diaper change and plays for an hour or so before he's ready for a nap. Then he naps for an hour or so and gets up and eats and repeats that cycle all day long. At night he's more varied. On good nights he does a 3 hour stretch, eats, sleeps for another 2 hour stretch, eats, then sleeps for 1 or 2 more hours. Other nights he'll have a 2 hour stretch, eats and then he is up for an hour or so before I can get him back to sleep, then has a 2 hour stretch.

His favorite 'toys' this month are the black and white squares I printed out and taped up for him. I put them on his swing, bouncer, crib mobile and I put this one on his changing table so he'd have something to look at while getting a new diaper. It's so funny to watch how fixated he gets looking at these things.

Our little guy is 4 weeks old today. I've stopped calling him Grant for the most part, and it's still sinking in how much our lives will change now. I thought today about how crazy lunch time will be in a few months when Lewis starts eating solids, and how messy the kitchen will be compared to now...though Grant and Amelia do a good bit of damage at meal time, I'm sure Lewis will top them. I thought about how car trips will change...3 car seats in the back seat is pretty crowded!! But Amelia pointed out that pretty soon she'll be able to tickle him and he'll laugh with her. I think the house will be filled with even more laughter and joy because of our sweet lil guy.

Waiting for the Labor Pains

2011-09-25T12:34:00.000-04:00

Everything that happens to us, happens for a reason. It's not some trite saying. I truly believe that all things are ordained and scheduled. "And we know for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose." (Romans 8:28)

So when I was pregnant with Lewis I knew the time would come to give birth. I didn't know WHEN exactly that would happen, but I knew it would happen. As September approached I thought that it would pretty soon and started making all the preparations and letting family know that I thought it'd be soon. But I didn't know for sure when he would come.

Then it started happening. Around 2am I had one of those familiar 'different' contractions. With Amelia I felt one and she was born 8 hours later. With Grant I felt one and he was born 2 1/2 hours later. With this baby? I was sure it would be quick and so I had to be prepared. But I waffled back and forth as to whether we should get ready and get to the hospital because the contractions weren't very strong, or very consistent. I've always heard that, 'you'll know when it's time to take them seriously.' And in those early hours they weren't very serious. I could talk through them, walk fine, and even put on make up before we left the house at 4:30am. We got to the labor and delivery floor and everything was quiet, we were calmly chatting and laughing about how things went the last time we arrived there.

It was so different this time around, we figured we'd have a baby before breakfast. I wondered whether cheesecake would be on the menu for lunch. And we waited. And waited. My mom even arrived from Jacksonville. Lunch came and went. Then it was mid-afternoon. The three of us waiting for our baby to arrive, for labor to get going for real, for SOMETHING! We were starting to get testy, a little frustrated that things weren't going like we thought they would. Mom went to get the kids, would we have the baby in time for them to come back and meet their new sibling that day? And so we prayed. Why is this taking so long Lord? What should we do? We needed wisdom to make choices about if we should wait it out, break my water, or order pitocin to make contractions start. We felt better after praying and when we talked with the doctor around 4:30 we had her order the pitocin. And we waited some more. 'Dinner' came (for me that was more clear liquids again). We waited more. The daytime doctor left and then the night shift doctor came back, surprised to see that I was still pregnant after checking in that morning. Finally around 8:30 the pitocin came and the labor really got going. We didn't have to wait long after that, Lewis took his first breath around 9:30.

It was easy to get frustrated when his arrival was, in my thought, 'taking so long.' But it would have been silly for me to think he wouldn't ever come. If after 4 or 5 hours I just gave up and thought, 'well, I guess I'm not having a baby after all.' Right?

When I read passages in the bible about a woman's labor pains I really can relate to what it's saying. So today I'm home with the baby and I listened to a sermon online that Kevin preached back in July about the coming of the Kingdom of God from Luke 17:20-37. It was about how people were asking Jesus about when the messiah would come and then later Jesus talks about his second coming. Kevin also referenced the text 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11. Here's part of that:

"Now concerningthe times and the seasons, brothers,you have no need to have anything written to you. For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, "There is peace and security," thensudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. For you are allchildren of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness. So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake andbe sober."

So Jesus is coming and it's for sure, but like labor pains, you never know when they are going to start, but you know they aren't going to end without a baby being born. Just like that, we don't know when Jesus is coming back, but he said he was and he doesn't lie so we better be ready! Currently, I can also relate to the 'let us not sleep' part...

In other parts of the Bible, Jesus likens the day in heaven as a wedding feast. In Ephesians he uses a term for the Holy Spirit as a 'seal' and back then a seal was a signet ring that sealed an envelope closed. The imagery evokes the thoughts of the Holy Spirit in us as being like an engagement ring. Being here on earth now as a Christian, with the Holy Spirit living inside of us is like being engaged to Jesus but not knowing what day the wedding will be. We just have to wait.

And like us in the hospital, it's hard to wait. It is hard when you think things should happen a certain way or a certain time and God has other ideas. For me, I wanted so badly to be pregnant for the last few years, but we had to wait. In life we have all these expectations and plans but ultimately it's all in God's hands. Things might not happen as I thought they would, but I know that God has a plan for it all. I rest in that trust that nothing will happen to me or my family that he didn't know about first and allow to happen. He doesn't make bad things happen, but He'll use it all for good.

Another verse about labor pains is John 16:21-22.

"When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you."

And it's the truth. There is so much sorrow here on earth. I hate death for all the pain that it brings and for the fear it strikes in my heart at the thought of loosing a loved one. We have sorrow here on earth because things are not the way God intended them to be. Crap happens, people get sick, things don't go the way they should. But this life is not all there is. God is redeeming this life on earth to give us a better life with him and when we see him our hearts will rejoice and no one will take away our joy.

I so long for that day, it's my dream that Jesus would just come back and take us home. But I know that God is not delaying for no reason. 2 Peter 3:8-10 says:

"But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you,not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed."

So he has not come back yet because he's wanting more people to repent and turn to him. Who is he patiently waiting for? If you haven't committed your life to him, perhaps it's YOU we are all waiting on! Tell him you are sorry and invite him to control into your life. Then maybe it'll be time for him to come back and we can all be go and be with him. I can hardly wait for that day.

10 years later

2011-09-23T16:12:00.000-04:00

2001 was a big year for us. We got married in May, moved into Corry Village and Kevin started working at Creekside in September. It's hard to believe those things were all 10 years ago. I still think of the 2000's as not that long ago. A lot of other 10 year anniversary events will happen next year like my graduation from college and buying our first house.

But it's really hard to believe it's been 10 years since that Tuesday morning. I celebrated my 21st birthday Monday night by drinking a glass of wine with our dinner in our little student housing apartment. We didn't do anything big, but Kevin had planned to surprise me the next day by going up to Jacksonville to celebrate with my parents. Tuesday morning came just like all the others, starting my day by getting up and catching one of the buses over to my Psychology lab class that started at 9:30 and went for two periods. I remember the room and a little something of what we were discussing that day. I remember taking our break in between periods and seeing people chatting about something in the Psych building hall. The class got out around 11:15 and I headed over to the Reitz Union for some lunch before my 'Meat We Eat' class at 12:50. Things were kind of buzzy when I walked in the Student Activities Office to say hi to my friend Kristy. She looked pretty busy. I still remember our words. 'Heya, how are you doing today Kristy?' She passed me a sheet of paper and said, 'I'm doing better than people in the rest of the world.' I was quizzical but then looked at the paper in plain black and white at the top it stated, 'This is what we know right now...' That's how I learned about what had happened while I was in class. I looked at her and said, 'This is bigger than Oklahoma City.... Is this bigger than Pearl Harbor?'

10 years makes a lot of difference. The world was so different from today. Before smart phones, before Facebook and Twitter. News traveled so slowly then in comparison with now. I didn't even have a cell phone then. I watched the TVs they had set up in the Student Activities office, the news media all in confusion about what was happening. I was glued to it until it was time for me to go to my class. How could I think about cutlets of beef today? Would I remember anything from that lecture except exchanging sad glances with my teacher, showing that he too was informed while the co-eds around me seemed blissfully unaware? Walking out of class, somehow I heard that classes for the rest of the day had been canceled. Didn't matter to me anyway since I was done for the day. I got back on bus and held my sheet of paper so that others could read off of it, I was hungry for information and knew others hadn't even heard yet about what happened. I wanted to talk with people about it. I couldn't wait to get home so I could call Kevin.

It's funny, I don't remember talking to him or when he got home, but I remember just watching TV all night long. We'd switch channels to see if the other stations had any new information. Were there more attacks coming? Was it done? What had happened in Pennsylvania? Were there other planes unaccounted for? And over and over again I saw the plane crashing into the building. I sat there for hours, speechless, shocked. I couldn't pry myself away from the news coverage. Tears came when President Bush gave his speech that night and I so wanted justice for all the people who died. The country came together.

We didn't go to Jacksonville that night, sticking close to home was probably safer. For most people flying was out of the question if it wasn't totally necessary. All the football games were canceled. I still blame the terrorists for UF's loss against Tennessee that year. Well, the terrorists and Darnell Dockett. If we'd played the game in September we'd surely have won. But having it in December after Earnest Graham's knee had been wrenched by a foul FSU player and we couldn't get the win.

I remember crying a year later at our church's remembrance service, now everything was more clear. We knew who was responsible, we'd seen video of the terrorists arriving at the airport, we'd heard phone messages from people on Flight 93. They stopped showing the videos and pictures of people jumping from the towers because the networks were afraid of distressing people. By then we'd seen footage of the first plane hitting and security cameras showing the crash at the Pentagon. People had shared all their personal accounts and how many times did I cry?

Even today when I see a plane in the sky I think about that day. After having watched it happen over and over on all the news reports, I see a plane now and think it would be natural to then see it fly into a building.

So much has changed since that day. The world is not as naive as it was. I have changed since that day. Then I was just establishing myself as an adult. I can't believe that freshmen in college this year were in 3rd grade when it happened. Now I'm a mom of three (whoa!), have a mortgage and am no longer a newly married girl. I wonder at what kind of world I've brought these kiddos into and at what age they'll learn it's full of sin.

I'm reading a new mom devotional and thought the poem this mom wrote for her son was appropriate for how I'm feeling:

For Matthew
by Miriam Sieber Lind

Dear Little One,
Our newest, tenderest son,
What world we brought you to, we cannot know.

Neither did Hannah know
As on her happy heart sweet Samuel lay
A very Yes of God

Neither did Eunice know
As, prattling prayers, the tiny Timothy stood
Within her circling arms.

Nor did the saintly Monica forsee
If her Augustine's world should thrive or split;

And that unique Susannah, tutoring
Young John, small Charles,
She knew nor more than they...

Than I. But I do know,
As faith-filled they too knew,
That if your times be anguished or be still
It is God's will
That you should live therein to his high praise.

And so I singing hold you to myself.
In strong sweet faith I sing;
Our little son,
Dear, newest, tenderest one.

3 weeks old

2011-09-22T22:38:00.001-04:00

Well, we are getting a little routine down here at the Kelsey house. Lewis eats, is awake for a little while and then sleeps, and does that cycle over all day long.

Friday the boys and I went to the library and then took Grant for a haircut. We stayed home Saturday and just watched the UF-UT game. Can I just say how much I hate 3:30 games? That's got to be the worst time for people with kids to watch a game. The game goes right through dinner time and ends right when we should be putting them down for bed.

But anyway, the little guy has had a pretty busy week with me toting him around all over the place. Sunday we went to church and Monday we went to church again, this time to clean out a storage closet for MOPS. Tuesday we were at church for Bible Study, then we went to our first Postpartum Luncheon at North Florida. He weighed 8 pounds and 7 oz, already gaining a pound since he was born. He's moved into size 1 diapers and is almost growing out of his newborn clothes.

Wednesday we were at church again, this time for the first MOPS meeting at Creekside. I've had a vision to start this ministry at our church for some time now and I'm so glad to finally see it come to pass. Lewis wore his little MOPPETS onesie in honor of the occasion.

So here are some pictures from this week.

Entranced by the ladybug...

Sweet cuddle time with big sister, doesn't she look huge next to him?!

Grant wanted to hold him and he said, "having a little baby is fun!"

In his MOPPETS onesie before going to MOPS.

Play time with Daddy

Tummy time, starting to get that head up.

2 weeks

2011-09-16T21:37:00.000-04:00

This week has been a resting at home week for Lewis and I. While my mom was here I was running errands and going places, but this week it's just been me and the boys at home during the day while Amelia is at school.

We did celebrate my birthday over the weekend, though we all pretty much forgot about it until mid-morning. I enjoyed playing with my new little 'present,' the best gift I could ask for on my birthday. I also remembered that this week marked a year that we lost our little one in the womb last year. What a blessing to now hold our little Lewis. I can understand what my mom said about her miscarriage in that it was sad, but we wouldn't have my sister. We wouldn't have our sweet Lewis if we hadn't lost that baby. Lewis is not a replacement, but a wonderful joy to help mend a broken heart.

So this week I didn't take a lot of pictures because we were mostly just at home. We did go to church on Sunday. Lewis did great, slept through all the worship songs and then I fed him in the nursing mother's room.

Amelia is still in love with her baby brother. She is helpful, holding him whenever I need it. She was so tickled when he was wearing this bib, it says, "I love my big sister." Grant was jealous of course. Now I need to find an 'I love my big brother' bib or shirt.

Lewis is sleeping like a newborn. At night he sleeps a 3 hour stretch, a 2 hour stretch, and another 2 hour stretch. So some nights I get 7 hours of sleep....but not all at one time. It's amazing the difference that can make. I'd rather have 5 hours all in a row than 7 hours all broken up, but it will come eventually.

During the day he sleeps on and off, but is having more awake periods. He did have a 2 week check up and he'd gained 13 oz in only 6 days! So he's past his birth weight now and doing great with eating. Sunday the 18th is his due date, so he's doing pretty good for an early baby.

Birthday surprise for Mom

2011-09-15T15:24:00.001-04:00

So on my birthday Kevin calls me outside and says "Amelia has something to show you. You may want to bring the video camera." So I grab the camera and go outside where Amelia rides her bike out from behind one of the cars, without the training wheels!

Kevin was grilling lunch and she has been begging us to take her training wheels off for a while, but we just hadn't had the time to do it. He took them off for her and she rode her bike down the driveway and was really riding it. He helped her a little bit but she just did it all on her own. Afterward she told us that before she got on the bike she prayed that God would help her to try new things and to be persistent. What a sweet girl!

She's so proud of herself for doing something new.

Grant was not nearly as happy for her as she was...he was pouting and mad.

Let's zoom in a little on that pouty face, eh?

Oh Grant, your turn will come soon enough buddy. He gets that way every time Amelia looses a tooth. He wants to do everything his big sister does.

A good name

2011-09-10T12:11:00.000-04:00

Proverbs 22:1
'A good name is more desirable than great riches; to be esteemed is better than silver or gold.'

Well, I know it's a verse out of context and more specifically refers to how a good reputation is more desirable, but I've always thought that choosing a name for a child was a daunting task. I love my own name, Lark, it was so creative and unique and suits me so well that I wanted to gift our children with good names also.

With having a girl it was pretty easy. I remember being on our honeymoon on Amelia Island and reading some info about the island and finding out it was named for the daughter of a Spanish king. A name of a princess! I thought it was unique, but not strange. It had a good meaning (industrious) and it sounded good with our last name. We wanted to avoid a name that ended in -y or -ie because our last name ends in that sound. For her middle name we chose Grace for the biblical meaning, but also because I was clumsy as a child and always joked that my middle name was Grace.

With having a boy it was a little tougher. We'd finally narrowed it down by 7 months along to Grant and Addison. When I found out that a lot of people had started using Addison for a girls name we knew it wouldn't work because we didn't want a unisex name. We'd already known that his middle name would be Hewes as that's a family name and Kevin's middle name also.

So this time around we had to choose two names, twice the nerve wracking for me. For a girl we'd considered Georgia, Noelle, and Evangeline. We finally settled on Noelle, but were concerned that she'd forever have to add the extra -le to her name. For a middle name we'd picked Brynn after my best friend, I'm sad we won't get to use that name now. For a boy we liked Harrison, Marshall, Lewis, and Alden. For the middle name we wanted to use my dad's middle name, Watson. So Harrison Watson didn't sound right together and Kevin didn't like Alden and I didn't really like Marshall, so after Kevin's favorite author, CS Lewis, we chose Lewis Watson.

So that's how we got our little boy's name. We are thrilled to have him in our lives and are blessed with such a precious gift.

Lewis's First Week

2011-09-08T21:33:00.000-04:00

Lewis was born on Thursday night and we'd wanted to leave on Friday afternoon or evening, but they usually like babies to stay 24 hours after they are born. We'd been there for 20 hours already and were ready to get home on Friday. We had lots of visitors on Friday, my mom and the kids came by. Then Sarah and the two cousins, our pastor Steve Gregg, my dad and both grandmothers, then Kristy and Michele.

We kept hoping we'd be released that night but they heard a heart murmur and wanted to run some tests and have him stay overnight. They had him see a pediatric cardiologist and she said it was just an innocent murmur and that it would likely close up soon. The pediatrician saw him in the morning and said he was probably just fine and it was okay for us to go home that day. Kevin had gone home for the night to get some rest and I got to have some one on one time with Lewis.

Back at home my mom went back to Jacksonville and then Kevin noticed that Amelia was getting a rash on her neck along with the sore throat she had for 2 days. He called me about it and I asked the pediatrician when she came in to talk about Lewis. She said it was likely strep throat. So Kevin made an appointment for her to go in. It was strep throat and when there is a rash it's called Scarlet Fever. She never did have a fever and nowadays it's not the serious illness that it used to be. The pediatrician said it was fine for Lewis to be around her since children under 2 years rarely would catch that.

So we finally got out of the hospital around 1:45 and got home and Mallory and Kaleigh were there to greet us. We visited with them for a while and then the rest of the afternoon and evening we just rested and spent time looking at our sweet new little baby. Amelia wanted to hold him all the time and was just in love. She wanted to touch him and hold him and get her picture taken with him.

Sunday we had planned to go to church, but since Amelia had only started her antibiotics at noon on Saturday she was still contagious so we stayed home. It was a good time to all be at home and resting together. We got to play with the kids and take shifts napping and taking care of Lewis.

Kevin could get a little work done while he was holding him.

The Curriers came by to bring us a meal (Thank you!!!) and the adults and Caitlyn enjoyed seeing the baby. The boys were more interested in the toys, which made me feel better about Grant's interest in Lewis. He loves him and likes to see him, a little, but is not addicted to him like Amelia is. Must be a girl thing!

Monday morning was Labor day and so we had another day at home to rest as a family. Kevin got out and cut the yard and I did some laundry inside. The Malpelis came over to see the new cousin too and Uncle David got his first look at the new nephew in the family.

Our friends John Michael and Dominique came over to see the baby and they took the big kids out to go bowling and have ice cream. It was so sweet of them to think of doing that. Amelia and Grant had been stuck at home for a few days and it was great for them to get out and do something fun. We got to take naps and do stuff around the house.

Just big as Daddy's arm.

On Tuesday Amelia went back to school and so it was the boys first day at home together. Sweet brothers!

We had our first outing as I took the boys to Tuesday Morning Bible Study that was starting for the fall that day. Lewis did great and everyone there was so surprised when I arrived. He did great, I nursed him twice and changed him and he didn't fuss the whole morning while we were there.

I caught a little smile!

Wednesday was the day of his first doctor's appointment. Here he is, 'Daddy's little all-star'.

And here is what he was like a week before...

The check up went great, Dr. Mas said his heart murmur was gone and that he looked wonderful.

After the appointment Lewis and I went to run some errands and return all the baby girl clothes I'd purchased. The Burgins came over later in the afternoon to meet Lewis also.

My mom was at the house from Tuesday to Thursday afternoon. She cleaned almost every square inch of my house (for instance, she spent an hour and 1/2 cleaning the bottom tracks on the sliding glass door in the kitchen, whew!). She is very thorough and I appreciated the deep cleaning that she did.

Thursday morning I went over to a friend's house who is a photographer and she took these gorgeous newborn photos of Lewis. I am so blessed, what a sweet boy!

And that's how the first week of Lewis's life has gone. It's been a blessing for us, we are so in love.

Lewis Watson Kelsey

2011-09-04T15:04:00.001-04:00

Lewis Watson Kelsey
7 lbs 4oz
9:33 pm
19 inches

Labor Day!

2011-09-03T13:30:00.001-04:00

Thursday September 1st

1:50am- Feel first contraction, start wondering....'is this it?'
1:58- Second contraction, guess it must be time. Think we could be having this baby by 5 am!
2:30- Wake up Kevin, not sure if it's time
3:30- Call doctor, he says he'd rather see me sooner rather than later
4:00- Get showered, call hospital
4:30- Ready to go, call Sarah to come be with the kids
4:45- Take a picture and we are off to the hospital

5:00-Arrive at hospital and check in. Contractions coming at 4 minutes apart, but not serious ones yet.
5:30-In the triage room, remembering how quickly Grant arrived and glad we aren't having this baby in the car. Checked and I'm 4cm dilated. Called my parents to let them know today was probably the day!
6:00- Admitted to hospital, moved to our room.
7:00- Met with the doctor on call and told him I was feeling great.
8:00- Contractions are slowing down, not much happening. New doctor on call checks and I'm 4-5 cm now.
9:00- Mom leaves from Jacksonville
10:00-Wondering if we'll have the baby before lunch time because I'm getting hungry. Clear liquids aren't cutting it.
11:00- Mom arrives, never thought she'd make it before the 3rd baby came. Take a walk around to try and get contractions going.
12:00pm- Still waiting, some contractions. Kevin goes to get lunch.

1:00- Mom and Kevin take naps. I rest and have contractions. My doctor comes to check on me, maybe she will get to deliver one of my babies after all! Sweeps my membranes and I'm 5cm.
2:00- Getting bored, Kevin has played lots of rounds of solitare on my computer and I'm tired of watching TV. Pain is still not too bad, but it's exhausting just sitting around waiting on things to get going.
3:30- Mom leaves to go pick up kids from Malpeli's house. We are still hoping to have the baby before dinner so they can come meet their new sibling.
4:00 - Pray with Kevin that God would give us wisdom as to what we should do. Should we wait it out for days like this? Should we have them break my water and get it done? Should we order Pitocin?
4:30- Consult with doctor and have Pitocin ordered. She checks me and I'm 5-6 cm. Slowly but surely I guess.
5:30- Still waiting to get the pitocin, but 'dinner' comes. I am excited to get some broth until I realize it's a cup of hot water I have to sprinkle a beef packet into. I devour the popscicle, jello, broth, and juices.
6:00- No pitocin yet, but I start having some bad back pain and some contractions get going.
7:00- Back pain goes away, contractions stall. Am amazed that I've been doing this for 17 hours now considering Grant was born in under 3 hours.

8:00- Am totally worn out. Wonder if I can do this at all when the hardest part is still to come. Reconsidering having an epidural and just having them break my water and get it over with.
8:30-Pitocin finally arrives, they check me and I'm 6cm. They start me on the pitocin and get a birthing ball for me to sit on to help with contractions. Contractions start coming and are starting to be painful.
8:45-Up the level of pitocin and contractions are becoming more frequent
9:00- Contractions are serious now, painful and I'm having to breath through them.
9:15-I'm doubled over with pain and can't walk anymore.
9:27- Baby kicks and my water breaks. Doctor on call is paged to come up from the ER.
9:33pm- Lewis Watson Kelsey is born! The doctor comes in in time to see him on my chest. Thank goodness my nurse has experience delivering babies, she's in training to be a mid-wife.

10:00pm While I'm nursing the baby Kevin goes to McDonald's to get me a much deserved cheeseburger and fries. Mmmmm.

Getting ready for baby

2011-08-29T21:40:00.000-04:00

For the past few weeks I have been in full nesting mode. I've been thinking about all the things that needed to get done before the baby gets here and I've been busy crossing things off my to do list. All summer I had things planned for the kids to do and activities one on top of the other. When we finished our trip to NC then I could think about VBS, when we finished VBS I could think about our trip to Tampa, when we got back from that I started thinking about planning for MOPS, Amelia's first day of school, and then all the baby things I needed to do. I've been trying to get all the baby things done by September 1st, but it seems like things keep getting added to the list. So here's what I've been up to:

Got the car seat installed for the baby. The kids are in their booster seats next to the car seat. It is super cramped back there now! It's just wall to wall carseats! Note to self, put 'research mini-vans' on to do list.

Wash the stroller. A week ago I took it outside and gave it a good scrub down. Then I spilled coke on it a few days later. Putting that back on the to do list.

Get the dresser/changing table set up. Got Grant's clothes out of the dresser and was able to flip it back to being a changing table. Now it has onesies, blankets, burp clothes and all baby things ready. Realized that I didn't have as many girl and boy clothes in the smaller sizes as I thought I did. Put 'shop for baby clothes' on to do list.

Shopped for baby boy/girl clothes and organized closet. Grant and I have been all over Gainesville at different stores looking at baby clothes. I just wanted a few things that matched together like one pack of onesies, sleepers, and hats for a boy or a girl to have at home in the newborn sizes. Put "take back clothes after baby is born" on list for whatever gender clothes we won't need. As an aside, these girl clothes are so cute it makes me want to have a girl!

Have maternity pictures taken with the kids. They did pretty good but it took a while to get some good shots with them. Goofball Grant was in full effect during the session.

Set up crib and swing. Check! Kevin and I got it out of the attic this past weekend and cleaned it all up and now it's ready to go.

Pack for the hospital. This was something I was glad to get finally done. If this baby is born as quick as Grant was I'll need to be ready to go as soon as possible!

Still left to do:
-Find Big Sister/Big Brother shirts for the kids to wear, haven't decided if I should wait to get a set of three once the baby is born yet.
-Get a massage. Well, if I have the time I'd like to! We'll see what happens this week.
-Make some freezer meals. I've got one bag of soup for two in freezer, but I'd like to freeze a few extra things that I make this week to have a few things on hand.

I re-did the Everyday Display Board in the baby's room so that it had pictures of our maternity session instead of Baby Grant pictures.

Now we just need to find out, is it a Boy or a Girl?

First day of school

2011-08-28T19:59:00.000-04:00

Amelia had her first day of school last week and she couldn't wait. She was counting down the days. We met her teacher Mrs. Calfee on Friday and then Monday was the big day. She said she didn't think she'd be able to sleep because she was so excited.

With her cute missing tooth smile

A few days before I told her that Daddy would take her to school and Grant and I would stay home. She looked disappointed and said, "You aren't going to come drop me off too?" Kevin looked over and told me that there wouldn't be too many more years of her wanting me to be there for school drop off, so of course I ended up going along too and taking pictures.

Going to sit down at her desk, she's ready to learn!

She had a great first week and loves her new classroom. She had a few friends from her kindergarten class the year before and some friends she'd met from other classes. Still no luck on getting in the same class with her cousin, maybe next year. There are 6 first grade classes, so the odds were not very strong they'd be together. But it's good that a few of her friends from last year are in her class, it's nice to have familiar faces, and she's pretty extroverted so she likes to make new friends too. This year also starts her gifted classes and for first grade she'll go to another class during her math and science times and she is excited about that too. She loves science so anything extra for that and she's all over it. She loves school!

Summer fun activities

2011-08-26T20:24:00.001-04:00

I was really looking forward to spending time with the kids this summer and having fun together. During the school year there were a lot of things we weren't able to do and I made a list of fun things to do with the kids when they were out of school. Plus, this was the last summer before we are a family of 3 kids and I was wanting this summer to be memorable for them and I wanted to squeeze in time with the two oldest when it was just them.

So we started of the summer by having some water days in our backyard. I got this slip and slide on clearance two years ago but forgot to use it last year. They loved it!

We also had a fun time at the Church picnic, the kids spent most of their time getting snow cones and going down the bouncy waterslides.

We also did a 3 day VBS at Open Arms, with a Nazareth theme. I was their group leader in the morning (9 boys and 2 girls all 4 to 6 years old, yikes!) and they had water time fun in the afternoon while I got some time alone.

One afternoon we went to a juggling show at the Headquaters Library. It was a surprise for them because we'd seen this same duo the previous year at Open Arms VBS and they loved it.

We also went the next week to see the 'Science Mike' show where he had lots of fun illusions. Amelia especially liked the Magic Eye pictures. I didn't think she'd have the patience to see the 3D pictures, but once she got it she was hooked. She tried to get Grant to do it too and she persisted in getting him to stand still long enough and he finally saw it too! Then we checked out some Magic Eye books so she could see them at home.

Then they did a week long morning VBS at Trinity where Amelia used to go to preschool. She knew a lot of kids in her class and they enjoyed the 'sweet' theme of the Shake it Up Cafe VBS. They loved earning coupons by bringing in canned goods, memorizing their daily verse, or other things so they could exchange them for candy. They loved their art projects and snacks each day. I got some time at home and doing errands as I didn't help in this VBS.

I also took them to the mall playground one day. They love playing there but they are getting a little too big. But it was so hot outside and I had some shopping to do, there weren't many other kids there that day so it worked out.

Our church also hosted a pool party at Westside Park's pool. Grant was such a brave boy swimming with pool noodles and putting his face under water.

Amelia was a brave girl going down the big water slide. Grant went down it too twice, but I didn't even know he was going down the first time and the second time I took the picture too early so I only got his feet in it.

We also went twice to the splash park in Alachua, the kids have a blast there. We could stay all day and they wouldn't get tired of it. We went at 10 am and had lunch and didn't leave until after 1pm both times. They were nice and cool, but at 7 months pregnant I was sweating it!

We'd wanted to make the trip out to see the last space shuttle launch, but since we'd gone to the previous one and the weather looked so unfavorable we didn't make the trip. But the kids and I watched it on TV as it was raining outside to see if it would launch or not. Amazingly there was a small window of opportunity and the shuttle went up!

Grant had some 'Boy Time' with Kevin and they went to see Cars 2 in the theater. Grant has not always liked movie theaters, in fact, he's been pretty petrified of the big screen and I had to coax him into the theater last summer to see the VeggieTales movie we've watched at home. And at planetariums and things like that he is a little scared and wants to leave immediately and gets frantic if we can't get out fast enough. So after a few weeks of indecision as to if he wanted to go, Kevin convinced him it would be awesome and he got to go to his first real movie in the theater.

We also did VBS at Creekside, where I was in charge of the preschool area. Next year I won't have a 2-4 year old in the preschool area, so this was my last year coordinating preschool. It's a lot of work but also a lot of fun for the kids.

Amelia was in the 'Daring Dolphins' group of 1st graders and had fun each day. She said her favorite area this year was crafts. She made some new friends and also spent time with friends she already knew, like Payton.

For their program they had fun singing the songs and so many of them have been stuck in my head since then. "Jump, Shout, give a high five, Jesus is alive, Jesus is alive!" In the picture below Grant had to freeze in a pose at the end of the song, super cute.

Amelia did a great job singing and doing the motions to all the songs. It always gets me teary-eyed to listen to the kids singing praise songs.

One week after we'd had VBS one week and our vacation to NC we spent just a few days at home doing nothing and that was fine with me. After about the second day the kids got squirmy so we got out in the afternoon to use up the free skating coupons they'd gotten in their summer reading bags from the library.

We tried the toddler skates on them both since it was their first time but after once around the rink Amelia decided she wanted different skates. Then with the big kid skates on she was ready to go.

Grant wasn't really interested in skating all that much. We went around the rink twice and I held their hands but he didn't really like it. So his skates came off and then he found the soft play area and had a lot more fun there.

Amelia did such a good job, I was so proud of how she kept getting back up every time she fell. She didn't give up and had a lot of fun...and got a lot of bruises in the process. She went around the rink a lot of times by herself and fell so many times I couldn't count. And not just tripping or stumbling, but full on wiping out falls. She said she wished they made pads for your bottom like they do for your elbows and knees.

That was our summer! We did a lot of fun things and I enjoyed my time with the kids, all three of us at home enjoying them a little bit more since we will be adding another little one to the family soon. We stayed busy but had lots of lazy days in our pj's. It was a great summer!

Daddy Daughter Date Night

2011-08-25T22:34:00.002-04:00

Amelia loves to spend special time with Kevin. They go on Daddy-Daughter date nights and usually that consists of going out for some ice-cream at TCBY or Sweet Dreams. I just had to post these pictures because they are so sweet. They have such a fun time and I'm so glad that our Daddy's Girl gets to have special time with him. These make me smile.

She wears pigtails because she knows Kevin thinks they are cute. Anytime she wants pigtails she likes to surprise Kevin. We shut the bathroom door and I part her hair and put them in pigtails and then she goes out beaming to show him her surprise. He usually knows in advance because she won't let him in or tells him, "Daddy, don't look in here....I'm using the bathroom." She thinks she's fooling him, but he loves it anyway.

Front Teeth

2011-08-24T23:05:00.002-04:00

Amelia's front teeth have been loose for some time now and she's been really working on them with her tongue to make them even looser. She likes to stick her lip behind one of the teeth and it makes it look like she's got a buck tooth.

But right before our Tampa vacation she wiggled it good and told Kevin it was really ready to come out. So he got to pull it out and Voila, our toothless girl.

She was excited to get two Squinkies from the tooth fairy.

Tampa part 2

2011-08-23T23:09:00.002-04:00

It was enjoyable to just sit and relax out on the balcony and watch the sunset.

Once Mallory and Randy arrived the kids used a blow up bed in our huge walk-in closet. They thought it was awesome.

Friday was our last full day and so we got out early to get in some good beach time while the weather was still good.

Grant looked so thoughtful as he sat in the toy wagon and looked out into the gulf.

The boys got to throw the baseball around some more and I got to be the photo historian.

The afternoon was all about the pool. At one point there was a huge water spout cloud brewing that my mom ran up from the beach to tell us about. I may have gotten it on video but was too slow for the still camera. After a while the dark clouds came over our way, but it stayed sunny and there was no thunder/lightning so the kids swam in the rain. Then after 15 minutes or so it cleared up again and was hot as ever.

We ended the afternoon a little early so we could go get ready to go out to dinner. We ended up at a beach bar type of place that was pretty crowded and small for our party of 12 (with Mallory's friends). Unfortunately Grant started running a fever again and was hot and miserable, even though he'd felt good all day and played fine. So Kevin ended up bailing out of dinner before we even got our table so he could take care of Grant. His instincts paid off because Grant ended up throwing up again once they got back to the condo.
Once we got our table I ordered Amelia's kids meal (which she raved about as being the best fish sticks ever!) and some soup for myself and asked if both could be served with the appetizers. Amelia finished up her food and so did I and she was asking when we were going to go over to John's Pass for ice cream. I was worried about Kevin and Grant since I couldn't call them so I had Randy take Amelia and I back to the condo. It ended up being for the best even though the party of 12 had become a party of 8 before they'd gotten their meals.

Amelia and I walked over to John's pass to get ice cream and shop. She is so adorable, she posed like this with no provocation.

She picked the cotton candy ice cream...

I picked the lemon and apple Italian ice. Mmm.

After our treats we had some fun girl time shopping in the stores. She loved the pet store where you could buy oodles of souvenirs for your poodle....or whatever type of dog/cat you'd left back at home while on your beach vacation. She loved the stuffed pets and wanted to take pictures with them. I was feeling exhausted and the flip flops weren't exactly good walking shoes. We got a milkshake for Kevin and some other treats from the fudge and taffy place and then went back to the condo around 9pm.

Everyone else was worried about us because we were out so late and I wasn't answering my phone (it was on silent...oops!). The next day we got up early and the kids got to see the sunrise with Poppa and had a walk on the beach. Amelia found some shells and Grant found a sponge...not the sea type, but the green and yellow scrubby type you get from Walmart. So strange! But we had breakfast and got all packed up and headed back home.

Tampa part 1

2011-08-18T22:41:00.002-04:00

We had so much fun in Destin four years ago that we'd really wanted to take another group vacation with my parents and sister and her hubby. My dad, sister and I started looking around and making plans at the beginning of the year and finally decided that the Tampa/St. Pete area would be a good place. We had intended to go to Busch Gardens (didn't happen) and my uncle lives in Lakeland so he was able to watch my Grandmother while my parents were away.

On our drive down there was a torrential downpour and it really didn't stop once we got to Tampa. We'd planned to go to the St. Pete Children's Museum but Amelia wasn't feeling good and she got a sore throat and fever on our drive down. So we just had lunch, drove around a bit and checked into our condo early.

We didn't do too much that afternoon, just unpacking, going to Publix (which was awesome by the way, it had a parking garage on the first level then you got your cart, went up the elevator and the store was on the 2nd floor, crazy!) and we got the kids to bed. Dad, Kevin and I went across the street to John's Pass to find a place for dinner.

The next morning looked promising at first...

But then a monsoon came and even flooded the parking lot. We lost power for a bit, so we just spent the morning showing my parents home videos from the summer that were on my computer. In the afternoon it wasn't lightning or pouring anymore so the kids got out on the beach for a bit and went swimming in the pool.

They were little frozen ice pops by the time they got done and Amelia just wanted to snuggle in the bed with Meme. Then her fever came back and she didn't feel good again, but got some ibuprofen in her and she was better in an hour.

Kevin took the kids for a walk on the beach and when he got back we all went out to the shops across the street to look around. The kids loved the chocolate shop, and even wandered behind the guard rails when we weren't looking and we turned around and there's Amelia getting a good close whiff of the freshly made caramel apples on the marble slab, geee.

Amelia stayed out with Meme and Poppa to shop in the shops and she brought back some souvenirs (what are Grandparents for, eh?) and fudge for all of us to share. Grant was hungry so we went back to get dinner started.

The sunsets were beautiful.

The next morning the kids remembered what Poppa said about them being able to go with him across the street to see the sun rise. So they got up extra early but Poppa had already left, so instead of trying to get them back to bed I walked them over to where he was and we all watched the sun rise.

This bridge was right next to our condo and would go up for all the fishing boats going out into the gulf.

Finally it was a good sunny day! Mallory and Randy got there the night before and the boys got out early to throw the baseball around while Poppa and the kids got some beach time in. We'd planned to go to Busch Gardens on this day, but with the weather being unpredictable we didn't want to spend our one sunny day at a hot amusement park when we were right on the beach.

We'd planned to meet some friends who live in Tampa at Busch Gardens so we just invited them to come and play at the beach instead. Amelia loved playing with her friend, they have written notes to each other in the mail and have become pen pals.

I enjoyed getting some sun with my mom, sister and friend Heather (who took this picture).

The kids were fast friends in the pool. The girls paired off and the boys stuck together and they all made pretend 'codes' and were boys vs. girls.

Grant enjoyed the squirt guns that were in the condo.

For dinner we went across the street again to Bubba Gump's. Some of Mallory's friends joined us and we were a big happy party.

The kids loved that their meals came in a little fishing boat.

Kevin got a bucket of all kinds of seafood and made the kids laugh by being silly (his specialty).

The next day Grant was sick with a fever and some throwing up so I stayed in the condo with him while everyone else went down to the beach and built a big sandcastle (hence the lack of pictures). In the early afternoon Amelia went swimming the in pool and then later the girls all went out for pedicures. Amelia even came along for some girl time.

She got polish on her toes and finger nails and we all had a good time being pampered together.

North Carolina Trip Part 2

2011-07-25T21:19:00.000-04:00

On our third day there we went out to lunch at Firehouse Subs in Asheville

Since the kids love museums so much and we had the membership we wanted to take the kids to the museum in Asheville, The Health Adventure. I honestly thought it was going to be a lot bigger from what the website looked like, but the kids still had a blast. They had a room where they could take golf balls and roll them down ramps and try to get them to stay on the track and go in the cup at the end.

There also was an exhibit called 'Spin: The science of Rotation' where they could learn about centrifugal forces. They only actually learned that spinning around is fun.

There was also a health area to help you learn about the human body...

And I don't remember what this area was but it had this cool bubble thing where you lifted a big wand out and it made a huge bubble.

Amelia played cashier in the kids' pretend store

After dinner that night we cooked S'mores on the front porch. Mmmm.

Mom found these marshmallows that were huge! We had to cut them in half in order to fit them on a cracker.

The kids got to roast their own marshmallows, with our supervision of course. Mom found a cool disposable fire burner that was perfect.

One night Grant wanted marshmallows for a treat and I told him he could have two and he said he wanted four. When I got them out and realized how big they were I told him, 'no way, you can't have four, two is plenty!' He got the first one done and then about half way through the second one and said, 'I think that I should have just had one, I think one is enough.' Haha, he loved those but his eyes were bigger than his stomach!

Throughout the whole visit Amelia wanted to play with their cat Max. In previous visits poor Max has just stayed under their bed or the couch the whole time hiding from the kids. This visit Amelia made sure to be quiet and walk slowly and by the last day Max had warmed up to her enough to stay in the same room, and then she got down near him and got to play with him for a while. She loved it and was so happy that he played with her!

On our last day we stayed closer to their home and went to the Smokey Mountain Jumphouse. It was a place for kids with 4 different bounce houses. They tried each bounce house and loved the farm themed one where they could slide, and bounce and crawl.

They also loved the big slide. They took turns rolling down it.

When I told Kevin that adults could bounce with their child for free he was in there with them in a minute. They loved bouncing with Daddy, and he lifted them up to shoot baskets in the sports bounce house.

After that we had lunch in Waynesville and went over to the Mast General Store. The kids love looking at all the fun toys. Grant remembered his favorite toy and said, 'this is the store that has the chicken with the egg coming out.'

They also got to pick out a lollipop and Kevin got some bottled sodas.

We took a family picture downtown, again, proving that I was on the vacation too, haha.

Grant finally wasn't afraid of these statues anymore, though it took a little coaxing to get him over there.

In the afternoons we spent time with Granny and the kids enjoyed getting M&M treats from her house.

The mountains are so beautiful, any time of year!

And Amelia had to do a little last minute AccuCut with Grandma, making some foam shapes and letters. Grandma had a wreath craft for her to do while she was there and she finished it while we were in NC, so she got to take home a second wreath to do in the car on the way home. She loves being crafty with Grandma.

We had a wonderful visit and the kids are already asking when we can go back, and why we can't go more often. But with the baby coming soon we won't be doing much traveling at all after that, so it was good to be able to visit this summer and we look forward to seeing them again in the fall.

Summer Trip to NC

2011-07-24T21:04:00.001-04:00

What is summer without going to Grandma and Grandpa's house? The kids had been talking about going to North Carolina since before school let out. I had to make a calendar so that they would know what week we were going and how long it would be until we'd go. They were so excited to go to the mountains.

When we finally arrived after our long drive we wanted to do anything but sit so we got out and played in the yard. Grant and Amelia hit several 'home runs' into the neighbor's front yard and everyone had a good time being together.

Grandpa played catcher while Kevin was the pitcher. Amelia was the announcer, haha. And Grandma and I were the crowd as we watched from the porch.

Aunt Karen took us all out to dinner that night, but I forgot to bring my camera. The kids had a fun time coloring pictures on the menu and it was good to all be together. I snapped a quick picture of the kids with Aunt Karen before she left the next morning.

Mom and Dad have a great view, I loved seeing the kids walking together holding hands. They are best friends.

Then it was time for the kids to have a mountain ride in the convertible. They had a blast! They even were a little bit cold.

We had a lunch picnic at the Pink Beds park and played some more baseball on the big field. It was a beautiful view.

Then we went to the Trout Fishery nearby and fed the trout, they were hungry!

And the kids enjoyed looking at some of the animals in the aquarium area and looking at the educational exhibits.

Of course, they probably enjoyed going to the Rocky's Grill and Soda shop in Brevard, NC even more...

And then we went to an awesome toy shop down the street with a whole area of Cars cars and one big track where you could race McQueen and even some of the new Cars 2 cars.

On the way back we stopped at Looking Glass Falls. It's right off the road and you just go down some steps and bam, gorgeous waterfall. We just love visiting NC, there are so many different nature things to see up there that we want the kids to be able to enjoy.

And here's the proof that I was there too, 7 months pregnant.

Jacksonville Zoo and visit

2011-07-22T20:47:00.000-04:00

My parents needed someone to watch my grandmother for a few days while they got out of town to be together so I took the kids up to Jacksonville for a weekend. While my Grandmother was at the senior center on Friday I took the kids to the Jax Zoo. The weather didn't look favorable, but we went while we had the chance.

This picture perfectly shows the humidity of my cool camera in the bag to the hot steaminess of the zoo. Mmm, Florida summer humidity at 10am.

They had fun seeing the animals and playing on all the statues.

My favorite part was the new penguin exhibit where the kids could crawl under and watch the penguins from underneath. They thought it was pretty cool too and we got to see them being fed.

And they played on the pretend igloo huts...really, it's not making me feel any cooler to think they are made of ice.

In the bird area Amelia got to get up close and personal with this bird.

And then we ate lunch and when we came out heard the thunder rolling. Hurry to the splash park kids! They got in about 30 minutes of playing there before lightning was spotted and the splash area was closed.

Grant was pretending to put on his 'creature power suit' to become a whale, just like in Wild Kratz, a TV show on PBS the kids like about animals. I just love his posture and determination here.

Then he was trying to tell one of the Zoo employees all about Wild Kratz and she didn't know what the heck he was talking about.

After the splash park closed we went over to the kids playground area. It hadn't started raining so the kids had fun running around in there for another 30 minutes before the clouds let loose.

We stopped under cover and had a snack and visited a gift shop, but then it couldn't be helped. It was raining and we had to go back to the car eventually. After we saw the kangaroos it was splashing all over and so we moved on towards the parking lot and stopped by the Alligator exhibit, were I got to rest under cover. Then we saw the reptiles indoors. By then the kids were soaked so I was like, what the heck, let's see a few more things on our way out.

Finally we headed home and got some ice cream from McD's in lieu of getting a Popsicle at the zoo since all the street vendors had closed for the rain. I didn't know at the time, but I was super lucky that we even got home because the next day my car battery died and it it'd died at the day before I would have been stuck out there because I'd lost my phone in Gainesville before we left. Pregnant, dead battery, in the rain, no phone...I was praising God the next day that it died in my parents' driveway instead.

So, since we were stuck at my parents' house with no car, on Saturday, we walked to their community pool.

On Sunday Kevin joined us and the kids got to go to the pool with him and enjoy some water time with Daddy.

Amelia got to show him her new tricks, she learned how to dive into the water.

We used Jacksonville as a jumping off base to start out trip to NC the next day, it's fun to see all the family during the summer!

Museum of Natural History

2011-07-20T20:36:00.001-04:00

The kids really enjoy going to museums and we hadn't been to the one in Gainesville since last summer. So when MOPS was having a playdate we went. During the summer they have a 'Discovery Room' for kids that is fun and hands on. Amelia liked doing the crafts, Grant enjoyed the puzzles. They both had fun pretending to be turtles with this real shell (they like to play turtle at home by using boxes or each other as 'shells').

Their favorite part of the museum is the 'cave' where there is a replica of an underwater aquifer and it's dark and they crawl around pretending all kinds of things.

We got a year membership so that we could come back and enjoy the traveling exhibits and also to get the free reciprocal membership to the other museums around the country. They enjoyed the 'Wild Music' exhibit that is there currently. They got to play on stone and wood xylophones and see how sound waves are formed, listen to ocean creature sounds and all kinds of sounds from nature that can be musical. This exhibit below was where you could record yourself talking about a memory that a song brings to mind, but the kids just ended up singing Amazing Grace together and they had fun watching themselves on the camera.

Then, their favorite part, was the sound proof room where you could go and make your own music with all kinds of sounds from traffic noises, to animals, to bongos and more. They had a blast in here.

They were making up their own rock song and they both would sing into the microphone something like, 'I'm a rockstar, I'm a rockstar!'

Then we went over to the Butterfly Rainforest and they loved seeing the turtles and butterflies.

It was a fun day, the kids didn't want to leave. We'd packed a lunch so we could stay into the afternoon if they had the interest and we stayed after lunch and I had trouble even getting them home before the museum closed!

A fun fourth

2011-07-05T21:27:00.001-04:00

We are not so great at planning things in advance. We'd thought about 'what are we going to do for fourth of July' once it got to be July 1st. Then we thought, 'hey, we should have people over here and cookout.' So Kevin went to buy a grill on Sunday since the one he had been wanting was finally on sale. But they were out of stock and getting more the next day. So he picked it up on 4th of July but not with enough time to put it all together before a lunch time cookout. Luckily the Curriers were having some people over and so we ended up over there. It ended up being the Curriers, Kelseys, Williams, and Dryers. Another few couple couldn't make it and we missed them.

The kids always have a blast whenever we go over to their house. Always sad, pouty faces when we have to go home. I think they could live over there and be pretty content for about a week or so without wanting to go home. Kristy had fun games set up for them outside like waterballoons, slip n' slide and sports things to play with.

Amelia and Cate got water balloons and were carrying them around as their 'babies'. The girls paired off and played together, the big boys played together, and Cam and Grant were upstairs playing with cars and trains.

Kristy worked tirelessly to keep the water balloons filled and the girls helped tie them together. She also did a marvelous job with the food. Yum yum. Kevin cooked some fabulous burgers.

Brock got in the water balloon container like it was a baby pool.

Kevin Currier arranged some games for the kids to play, like this one a little relay.

And they also played a balloon toss game that lasted one toss each.

Then somehow the boys thought it'd be fun to play baseball with the water balloons.

They considered it a smashing success.

Then we had red, white, and blue frozen yogurt. Mmmm.

Dad's a Grad!

2011-06-16T20:43:00.001-04:00

We went to Jacksonville for my Dad's graduation ceremony. Our first stop though was to the Derstine's house to see newborn baby Rylan. He was so little, only a few days old! Amelia loved him and just wanted to be around him. Grant thought he was cool, but was more interested in Avery's toys.

Dad's graduation was on Saturday and we could pick him out pretty well because he is so tall and he wore a yellow honor stole because he graduated with honors.

The ceremony started at noon, an awful time for a 3 hour ceremony! We grabbed an early lunch and brought the kids some things to keep them quiet and entertained. They did a great job and were super excited for Poppa.

Shaq's mom was the speaker. We saw that 'Someone O'Neal' was the speaker and we joked that it was Shaq's sister, but we were surprised when it was his mom. She was also a University of Phoenix grad.

Dad said he almost cried going across stage, but he held it together. I was bawling when he first came out, Mimi and I had to grab tissues from our purses.

Uncle Randy and Aunt Mallory sat with the kids and helped them with their coloring.

After the ceremony it was hot outside, but we did get a few pictures of the new grad. We are super proud of you Dad!

He wore his dad's ring as a way to remember him on this day.

Mallory and Randy looked great, a handsome couple.

After we got back to their house we had a little grad party for him.

It's a big deal to go to college and get a bachelor's deal once your kids are grown. Whenever Dad was helping me with homework he'd start just reading my text books and telling me how he wished he'd been a better student. Well he made his wish come true and had a great GPA for all of his college courses. Congrats!

Amelia's Dance recital

2011-06-14T20:23:00.001-04:00

Amelia had her first dance recital in June. Her class were 'Camels' in the Prince of Egypt storyline. I think she made this brown tutu as cute as it could be.

With friends at the rehearsal, Cate and Allie.

Doing a super good job in the rehearsal.

Here she is in the final dress rehearsal, she was doing a good job smiling. At the real recital we could see her smile all the way in the back where our seats were.

The big night, we were all so excited for her.

Meme and Aunt Mallory came down from Jacksonville to watch her first recital. They were super excited for her too. It's a right of passage for a girl.

Daddy loves to do 'silly ballet' with her. So sweet.

After the recital I went backstage to pick her up and told her she did a great job. She saw a girl with flowers and she asked, 'why did she get flowers, mommy?' and I told her it was because someone thought she did such a good job. Then later we surprised her with flowers from us and flowers from Meme and Aunt Mallory.

They had cake and punch afterward in the dressing area and Amelia enjoyed seeing other 'big girls' from church. It was a late night but a fun one for the whole family.

Lunch with family

2011-06-10T19:53:00.000-04:00

We had a fun visit from Kevin's Uncle Bob and Aunt Karen for lunch one day. They were driving through on their way back to Sarasota and made time to stop and take us out to lunch. It had been so long since we'd seen Uncle Bob, we couldn't even remember the last time, but we were pretty sure it was before Grant was born. So needless to say, it was good to see them both.

They both got to see sweet Baby Brandon.

It was a great lunch catching up in person and hopefully our next visit all together will be sooner than the last one!

Field Day

2011-06-06T12:20:00.000-04:00

Every year in school I looked forward to Field Day. Amelia had her field day today and she competed in a running relay, hula hoop competition, and tug of war with her class. All the kids were so cute out there, half of them didn't know when to run during the relays and there were a few frisbees that went out of control, but they all had fun and ended the morning with watermelon.

Here is Amelia doing her hula hooping...

She was so proud of herself, in the three heats she won all three times! I'm going to go find her a 'first prize ribbon' or something like that. I still have all the ribbons our school gave out for field day.

Shuttle launch...all systems go!

2011-05-17T19:15:00.002-04:00

We decided (read: I convinced Kevin to PLEASE try again) to go to the shuttle launch on a monday morning. Since the launch was scheduled for a little before 9am and we are 3 hours away we'd have to leave by 4 or 5 am if we wanted to get there with some time to spare. Instead we found a cheap hotel in Daytona to stay overnight. We drove the kids out Sunday afternoon after church and they enjoyed a stop at a gas station where we picked up an Icee drink for them to share.

By the time we got to Daytona and checked in our hotel it was dinner time so we headed to the beach to eat. We stopped at the Ocean Walk shops and had dinner at Johnny Rockets. The kids thought that was fun, and got to see the people dance during our meal. Here they are on the overpass walkway before dinner.

And once again, it was a little chilly at the beach. This time because it was about 6pm and the sun was behind the buildings. We only stayed an hour or so, but the kids thought it was great.

We got back to the hotel and let them go in the pool/hot tub there at 8pm. They thought we were crazy and awesome for letting them stay up so late. By 9:30 we all piled into the beds and tried to sleep. The kids were successful, Kevin and me, not so much. But we all got at least a few hours of sleep and then we got up at 6 and left the hotel by 7 to make the hour drive to Titusville.
We got there and thought the whole city would be swarming, but it wasn't too bad at all. We drove right to the main viewing area (outside of the space center) and found a place to park for $10. We walked a few blocks and tried to decide if we wanted to watch it at the park or at the bridge. We figured we'd go check the bridge out and we found a decent spot to watch.

The kids playing around on the bridge waiting for the launch

We felt like we'd waited for a while and were worried all the while that it wouldn't go up. We were looking across the water, hoping that what we were looking at was the launch pad.

Zoomed in view from our spot

A regular view from where we stood

Then some kid started counting down from 5 and I thought, 'it's not happening yet, right?' and then I looked over and saw the red flames coming out. We got the kids up to see it, took a few pictures and then it went behind the clouds.

Amelia was pretty excited about it and said it was awesome. Grant had been scared that it was going to shoot into the bridge or be loud and so he said it was awful and boring. It wasn't until a minute or so after we couldn't see it anymore that we heard the rumbling sound of the launch.

We decided we'd let the crowds thin out while we went over to see Space View Park. We stayed on the bridge for a while packing up our stuff. As we finally started heading off the bridge we figured most people had already gotten off. I was so surprised to turn around and see this...

There were still SO many people on the bridge. We headed over to space view park to see what was there (not much really). Here's a view of the bridge we were on from the park.

I love this little shuttle Grant had gotten for Christmas, so cute!

There were a bunch of statues, a few fountains and a lot of astrounaut handprints to look at, but with little ones running around it was tough to keep their attention and read any of the plaques. They were more interested in swinging on the bike racks.

After the Space View park we went over to another park nearby, one with a playground. We let the kids play here for a while and they enjoyed getting their energy out.

After all of that we packed up and headed out. We got back to our car around 10:50 (2 hours after launch) and there wasn't any traffic. We made it to Daytona and got lunch at our new favorite Chick-Fil-A and then got back to Gainesville early afternoon.

I'm so glad we took the trip. The launch wasn't as spectacular as it could have been because of the clouds, but the experience was so good. We had a good family time and I have the pictures and video to show the kids once they forget we went. Hopefully they are thankful that we made the effort to do something like this. It's really something I've always wanted to do but figured there'd always be another time. Now there is only one launch left. Amelia asked if we were coming to that one and Kevin said, 'no honey'. And Grant was glad, but I told Amelia that maybe she and I could go together if she wanted to go. So I guess we'll see come July. I'm sure we'll watch it from somewhere if not there in Titusville.

Merry Christmas in April

2011-05-01T15:44:00.000-04:00

For Christmas my parents had asked us what we wanted and at the time I was thinking about needing more space in the house and told them I'd like a storage shed for in the backyard. So that's what they got for us, but we didn't actually go pick it out and purchase it until April. My dad came down on a Saturday morning and picked it up from the store and the boys went at it getting the foundation build and the building put together.

The kids, of course, wanted to help wherever they could...

It took most of the day, but they finally got the roof on and the main parts completed.

Merry Christmas to us! Thanks Mom and Dad!

Shuttle Launch 1st attempt

2011-04-30T13:52:00.001-04:00

When the government announced the space shuttle program would be ending, I realized that a part of my childhood was ending with it. Living in Florida my mom would always have us run outside to see if we could see the shuttle launches from our house. In 2005 when the shuttle went up on July 4th we were in Jacksonville again and we were telling Amelia what would happen and as we watched the TV coverage of it she kept saying 'Big shuttle going UP in the sky!'

So then I realized that my kids wouldn't have the experience of going outside to see the shuttle launches so I made every attempt to get them to places we could view them. I saw the last night launch from our backyard and it was too early in the morning to get them up for it but I had it on the TV before I ran outside to film it. Then the TV must have woken them up because they were both sitting in the living room watching the coverage of it when I came back in, so I took them out and showed them the trail where it had been.

Then last year and this past spring I took them to Paynes Prairie to watch it from there. Both times there was lots of cloud cover, but we could see it go through the clouds real quick.

Close up of Discovery's last launch.

Our view from the prairie.

Then I got it into my head that we should go to Titusville to see one of the last two launches. Since the final launch was planned for the summer I figured it'd be better weatherwise and trafficwise to go to the penultimate launch. It was planned to go up on a Friday afternoon a little before 4pm. So that morning we got Amelia out of school early and started driving east. We got some lunch in Ormand Beach at a Chick-Fil-A that was crazy busy with a couple of bus loads of youth. Then we started heading south on I-95 and got the call from my mom that the launch was scrubbed because of a problem with the shuttle. So we had to opt for plan B.

Plan B was to find a beach and spend whatever time we had in the afternoon out there. So we turned around, headed north and went to New Symrna beach. We stopped at a visitor center for maps and directions and the lady gave us a bucket, shovel, frisbee and beach ball for each of the kids. They were already more excited to go to the beach than see the shuttle launch and so new toys were icing on the cake.

It was actually a pretty cool day, in the 70's so I wasn't surprised when Grant got cold and wanted to come up and sit with me in the chair.

Amelia however, continued to have a blast playing in the sand.

After we were there an hour or two we got all showered off and went over to the Ponce Inlet Lighthouse. My dad had come here on a visit of his to Daytona for a Nascar race and told me about how neat it was. He'd wanted us to take the kids here sometime, but I had thought 'when in the world are we going to drive all that way to see a lighthouse?' This was the chance!

It is 6 stories up, the tallest lighthouse in Florida. My legs were burning after the trip up.

There were also some other buildings that included one with previous lights and period rooms that lighthouse keepers and their families stayed in. We kept telling the kids, 'now this is that people who have used for an iron back then, this is what the fridge looked like, this is what they would have worn back then.' Grant saw a TV playing a loop of a video about the lighthouse and said, 'is this what their TV looked like?'

They got a little flattened penny in the gift shop.

We spent about an hour there and then we went out for dinner and headed home. It was a fun little family day trip even if we didn't get to see the shuttle launch.

Strawberry Picking

2011-04-28T13:24:00.001-04:00

I'd wanted to take the kids strawberry picking for a few years now, but always missed the picking season. This year I was determined not to miss it. So one afternoon after school I surprised Amelia and Grant by taking them out to Roger's Farm. Amelia had been there in the fall on a school field trip.

At first Grant didn't want to go down the lanes because he was wearing flip flops and dirt kept getting into his shoes. Since he was bound to get dirty I told him he could just take them off and then he was fine.

It was neat to see the berries in the different stages. From flowering to green...

to growing and ripe!

Grant ate more than he actually put in his bucket. And he got over getting his feet dirty...

Then I let them play on the playground there for a little while while I rested at the picnic tables.

Amelia wanted to make 'sand angels'.

They were totally hot and pooped out from all that playing. Not to mention also very, very, dirty!

We ended up with about 6 pounds of berries. When we got home I took them out to wash them all off.

And I put the kids in the tub for a big bubble bath. I let them stay in there for an hour just enjoying the bubbles, soaking and getting clean. They thought that was as much fun as picking the berries and afterwards they were all pruney and wrinkled. It was a fun family day!

Easter

2011-04-27T08:20:00.000-04:00

Easter came really late this year, making for a very warm weekend. One great part about it was that Kevin's parents were able to come for a short visit. It was wonderful to see them, and for them to see Brandon again now that he'd grown so much. On Saturday before Easter we went to the Trinity Egg hunt. Amelia was off and running and so I didn't get any pictures of her looking for eggs, she was too quick for me. She got plenty of them. Grant didn't get any eggs because they were mostly gone by the time he came around, plus he just wanted to sit on the tree instead of run and get eggs. But the Currier kids saw he didn't have any eggs and they shared theirs with him, so sweet.

There was a lot of other stuff to do after the egg hunt. Bounce houses, egg decorating, peep decorating, jelly bean flavor guessing, little train rides, and petting chicks.

Amelia emptying her eggs and checking out her 'loot'.

Grant was doing his 'squackers' impression.

Half of Gainesville must have been there so we didn't stay for the whole thing. We saw Grandpa, Grandma, Travis and Sarah for a little while, but it was so crazy we couldn't all stay together. The kids loved climbing the tree there and then we called it a morning. Whew!

Later on we dyed eggs ourselves, a family tradition each year. Amelia loves to eat boiled eggs, so none of these went to waste. I have to cut her off at about 3 per day.

One of the days the Kelseys came over and gave the kids their Easter buckets. They were super excited about getting a second basket, this time from the other Grandparents. They loved all the M&Ms and little toys...

and especially the neat little chalkboard mats that Grandma had sewn for them.

She also made a beautiful school themed quilt with all the states and capitals on it.

One night while the boys were out at the baseball game we got to have 'girl time' at the Malpelis. Amelia at first was disappointed that she wasn't going to be going to the baseball game with Daddy and Grandpa. But then I told her we could have girl time and that Brandon would be there she was super excited! She loved having Brandon as a little playmate. She just loves being around babies. She'll be such a good little helper when our baby is here.

Grandma was showing Amelia how to thread a needle and Amelia was cutting pieces of thread to make little pieces in different colors.

Then on Easter day we got up and went to church, making sure to take a few pictures beforehand in the pretty Easter outfits. I even got to wear my spring maternity dress that I wore the last two times I was pregnant at Easter. Amelia looked so cute in her hat. She thought at first that her friends would make fun of her in the hat, but everyone said she looked so adorable.

Even Daddy thought her hat was cute...

"Daddy! That's MY hat!"

Kevin's parents joined us for the service and it was great to have our family with us for church.

In the afternoon I 'cooked' a big lunch/dinner for us all and we were stuffed! I didn't really 'cook' it as much as I bought it from Honey Baked Ham and then warmed it up. I did make a few sides to go with it, but it was all yummy, right down to the red velvet cake for dessert.

After eating the kids had an egg hunt in the backyard, we could hardly keep them inside while they waited for Kevin to hide the eggs.

It was a very nice visit from the Kelseys and a wonderful Easter.

Take me out to the ball game....

2011-04-25T16:25:00.001-04:00

We took the kids to a baseball game one Sunday after church during UF's dollar days. They also were having a promotion where all the kids could run onto the field and stand with a player to sing the national anthem. The kids got lined up and then ran to whatever player they wanted to stand with, ours picked the short stop.

"Grant, look at mommy!"

It was a REALLY hot and sunny day and so after a few innings we were wanting to get out of the sun for a while and get a bite to eat. Kevin went to the concession stand and the kids got to go to an art table where they could draw on white signs. Amelia really got into it and it was clear she was going to make her sign perfect. So I figured while they were drawing I'd stand in line for the balloon hats. They thought the hats were awesome.

And I took over Grant's sign and they both turned out great. The Gators scored a few runs right when we had gotten back into the stands and we left an inning or so after that and heard the final on the radio that we'd won the game.

A few weeks later while Kevin's parents were in Gainesville they had a boys night where Grandpa, Kevin and Grant, and David and Travis all went to another baseball game and had a fun time there too. It's great to have sporting events to go to here in town.

Spring Break

2011-04-01T08:13:00.001-04:00

My parents took care of the kids over spring break so that we could go on our 10th anniversary cruise. The kids were sad we would be gone, Grant particularly, but Amelia quickly reminded him, "Grant, we'll get to watch On Demand, and play Wii, and have dessert even after breakfast!" So, when we called them from our boat they were with Meme at Wal-mart picking up some food and I overheard Meme say to them, 'so you guys want the chocolate kind?' So we knew they'd be well taken care of and they'd have a ton of fun. We also knew that when we got back we'd have to do some 'grandparent detox'. They went to the beach with Poppa, they went to Chuck-E-Cheese, played in the community pool and more. I went to Jacksonville after our cruise was done to stay a few days with them while Kevin worked.

When I called them to say I was coming to Jacksonville I was so happy when Amelia said she'd missed us and she REALLY wanted us to come to Jacksonville as soon as possible. She said she couldn't WAIT until we got there. Then I realized that Meme had said they could open their Easter baskets once I arrived. Ah, the puzzle pieces fit. But they did miss us, and we missed them, but it's so good to get away and renew our marriage and do fun things just the two of us. I was a better mom when I got back because of our vacation.

On the night I got to Jacksonville, Kevin drove up also and we all went to a baseball game, UF vs. FSU was being held in Jacksonville and we'd wanted to see them play. The kids had fun, stayed up way too late and it was pretty cold that night! I hadn't packed anything but shorts for them. I'm glad I'd thrown in a jacket just in case!

Another day we met Brynn, Avery and Aunt Mallory at MOSH for a visit to see the new exhibit on Science. Avery loved the water table, such a cutie.

Grant and Amelia still love playing in the tree house there.

The exhibit was neat, lots of gears, levers, magnets and all kinds of things for them to mess with to see what would happen.

New Kelsey Addition

2011-03-04T19:25:00.000-05:00

ETA: September 2011

Snow in Jacksonville

2010-12-30T09:32:00.000-05:00

We were headed out to the Museum of Science and History in Jacksonville when Kevin called the kids outside. It was snowing! A white Christmas just a day late.

Really? See...it's snow!

Well, we didn't exactly get snowed in, but Kevin and Dad were pretty cold at the Jaguars game that day. Brrr.

Christmas

2010-12-29T08:41:00.001-05:00

Christmas Eve we were at home just the four of us and we enjoyed our family traditions of reading Twas the Night Before Christmas and the Nativity story...

and putting out cookies, milk and carrots (for the reindeer).

Christmas morning we woke up and opened our stockings. Grant was pretty excited about pretty much everything in his stocking.

Amelia loved her new cross necklace.

And we had pancakes of course, a Kelsey family tradition since before I was a Kelsey.

After breakfast we opened a few gifts under the tree before we headed to Jacksonville. The kids got to open their gifts from Mimi, which they were very excited about.

If Amelia can't have a real pet, at least now she can have a virtual pet with Pet Pals on her Leapster game. And Grant just loved Wall-E too.

Amelia loved her new CD player to match her room. She loves to listen to audio books during her quiet time.

And the Mater the Greater playset for Grant was a huge hit for him too.

We drove to Jacksonville and then did lots of visiting and even more presents there. The kids got LeapFrog Tag readers and books and maps to go along with them from Meme and Poppa. They are loving them.

Advent Wreath

2010-12-26T07:53:00.014-05:00

When I was a little girl I remember there was a fire alarm in my 1st grade bathroom. I was always so worried that it would go off while I was in there that I became super fast at using the bathroom. That has come in handy now because no one can accuse me of dawdling in there like a typical woman does.

I seem to have passed this fear down to Amelia too. She is afraid of fire drills because they are loud and come out of nowhere. She begs to go to school even when she is sick, but if she knows it's almost time for a surprise fire drill she'll say she doesn't want to go. Amelia's class also has a fire alarm in the bathroom and so she just tries to avoid using the bathroom at school and just waits until she gets home.

They read a book called Pet Heroes in the school library. It's a collection of true stories about pets who have saved their owners by alerting them to dangers or protecting them from other animals. She loved it because of the stories about dogs and we bought it at the book fair, but she wants me to skip the pages that have to do with fire.

We've been lighting the advent candle wreath on Sundays at our home. Amelia has been quite frightened of it and is always ready to blow the candles out. She doesn't want our home to catch on fire since we don't have any pets to save us. We were having this conversation about the advent wreath the other night:

A: Mommy, I don't want the candles lit, it's not safe.
M: Baby, we just have to be careful and it's perfectly safe. You know, before electricity, people used candles all the time to light up their houses at night.
A: Really?
K: Yeah, they couldn't just flip the switch to turn on a light. They had to carry candles and be careful with them.
A: Wow.
(then Kevin and I started getting nostalgic)
M: Yeah, and when we were kids we didn't have the internet
K: or cell phones
M: or even cordless phones in the house
A: Whoa! What did you do, use cans and string?

And at the Christmas Eve service, this was the first year that Amelia was too old for the nursery and so she stayed with us. She was very concerned about us lighting all those candles and you can tell here she's not super happy.

Grant seems to have no hesitations around fire though, as we caught him climbing up on the altar and blowing out the church's wreath.

And the rest of Christmas Eve...

Is it a family law that children must not be cooperative when it comes to Christmas pictures by the tree when you are in a hurry to get to church on time? At least Amelia has got the hang of it.

And our family picture try...

Gift Giving

2010-12-22T20:44:00.000-05:00

I was in Toys R Us the other day and saw a sign advertising their "Wish List Registry". It's billed as a great way to let others know what your child really wants this Christmas. You can register your child's wants and even update as a gift is received or make changes online. Something didn't sit right with me as I read the sign. I can't say it's not convenient, but it made me wonder what a strange thing gift-giving is nowadays.

Why do we even give gifts at Christmas? Isn't gift-giving a way to show someone we love and care about them, to see a need or desire they have and to fill it with a gift?

How do we go about picking out gifts? Surely Mary did not register Jesus for Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh. We must know someone well if we want to pick out a good gift for them, their tastes, their needs, etc.

I'm sure you've been given a gift that you didn't want, need, or like. What are your options then? You can take it back to the store, sell it, give it away, or just add it to the closet.

So you don't want YOUR gift to someone else to go unappreciated, but then, how do you pick a gift for someone when you aren't sure what they need or desire? Well we even have handy dandy gift cards to stores where the recipient can even pick out whatever they want, you just pick the store. Or should you just send cash because then they can pick any store. What if they wanted to give a gift to you? Should they just send you some cash too? And if you send them the same amount, is that considered 're-gifting'?

Where do we draw the line here? We could just start transferring money electronically to people's bank accounts instead of sending a card too!

Don't get me wrong, I love getting gifts and gift cards from loved ones. Really. I really like them. I also love that people will ask me what kind of things I'd like, and that is all fine and good. But I just feel like we are loosing the whole point of gift-giving when it becomes obligatory.

Long ago God gave us a gift. Wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger. It was perfect, exactly what we always wanted and needed, a SAVIOR!

But many people didn't think they really needed a savior. The religious elite of the day were hoping for a Savior, but this wasn't the messiah they'd registered for. They wanted a refund or to exchange for a savior who would save them from political oppression, not from the oppression of their own sin.

God is standing at your door and offering you Jesus. Now what do you do? You can't take Jesus back to the stable for a refund or exchange but you can reject the gift and never know the peace he'd bring into your life. Another option is to accept him as a gift and then just keep him in the closet. Basically smiling through your teeth saying, 'oh! what I've always wanted' and then putting him away and still you miss out on forgiveness and His peace.

OR you can wholeheartedly realize what a gift has been given to you, accept this gift of forgiveness, wearing it like a garment everyday. You can enjoy the peace that comes in knowing that no matter what happens in this world, your future with Him is sure. It's up to you what you do with the gift that is offered to you.

It's been some time ago that I accepted God's gift. It is THE most important thing in my life and I would be a totally different person without Him. I don't usually use my blog to encourage people to consider Jesus, But this is on my mind and if you haven't accepted this gift I am praying that you would, but it's your choice to make. If you'd like to know more about how to accept His gift, you can ask me personally or find out more at: http://www.ccci.org/how-to-know-god/would-you-like-to-know-god-personally/index.htm

Impromptu Christmas Play

2010-12-19T10:00:00.001-05:00

Yesterday morning the kids wanted to play pretend and do the Christmas story together. So they got everything set up from the innkeepers to the stable and got on their costumes and here's what happened. I think the best part is at 4 minutes in when Amelia becomes the angel. Almost made me cry.

Little Ballerina

2010-12-18T20:48:00.003-05:00

Amelia's ballet class had a special event on the last class before Christmas. The parents were invited to come during the last 15 minutes of class to watch them perform a little dance they'd been practicing during the fall. They danced to the Sugarplum Fairy song from the Nutcracker.

The teacher said they could wear whatever they wanted and so I let Amelia go through my old dance costumes. I found one with a big blue tutu that I though would be perfect. Then I saw the costume from my first recital, a red and white striped one that would look great for Christmas, like a candy cane! But she wanted the pink and white one. I think we were bunnies in the recital the year I used that because it had a little fuzzy tail. Now won't my mom be so proud that the costume she paid so much for when I was little is getting a second wind with Amelia. I've got to find a picture of me in that costume.

A video of their performance, I've got to get better at figuring out where to sit! My mom was a pro at filming us. I guess I just do better with the still photos.

Here are her teachers and whole class

Friends Riley and Cate

During the same week she also got to go to her first real live ballet performance. I helped chaperone the kindergarten field trip to the Nutcracker. I got a bit choked up as we were on the bus over to the performing arts center. I remembered when I was a kid and we got to go see the Nutcracker in elementary school too. I was so glad that I could be there with her and be a part of it. We held hands on the way over.

Here are her buddies Seanna and Emily

The show was really nice. We knew one of the dancers in it from church and we found her and she did great. I missed some of it because I had to take one of the little boys in my group to the bathroom. The performance was a condensed version so it wasn't as long. The kids were getting a little squirmy and Amelia was really hungry. She knew I had gum in my purse but wouldn't give it to her until we went outside.

It was a fun girl time thing to do together. Afterward we got back to the school she ate a little bit of lunch with her friends but then I was hungry too and so I suggested we blow that pop stand and head to McDs! So we did that, got a happy meal and meal for me and a big chocolate milkshake to share. Then we went home and painted our nails and did girl things together since the boys were out having lunch for boy time. It was great to be with her and a part of her school experience. But we are so glad it's Christmas break! Even more than she is. In fact I told her that it was the last day until the new year and she got bummed. But she's super excited about Christmas and we are too.

Christmas Program

2010-12-17T19:49:00.027-05:00

The kids' Christmas Program at church this year was really cute. Grant was excited to sing Go Tell it on the Mountain and Amelia had practice every Sunday morning between Sunday school and church. They got to wear costumes this year, girls were angels and the boys were shepherds. They looked so cute.

They climbed up onto the stage and ended up standing right behind some other girls, so I had to move to get a good view of them. They sang quite well, but were waving and winking a lot of the time. Too cute.

The video below is one of the songs that they sang. The best part is at about 1 minute in when Grant starts winking and waving. Someone else said that he was doing a 'pirate face'. Sorry about the shaking, I couldn't hold still while I was laughing.

Afterward Amelia got some pictures with friends, Trey and Maria.

My little angel in pigtails

Kids fighting

2010-12-16T19:43:00.000-05:00

For the span of a week or so I got all Holiday Homemakerish and went on a baking spree. Amelia and I made a Gingerbread house together (purchased last year for 1.99!)

Then I decided since I had icing I might as well make sugar cutout cookies for her ballet class because I was bringing a snack. And Amelia helped me with some of them, putting flour on the counter and cutting them out to cook. She had her hands all in my flour jar and was having a fun time playing and so I let her play and she was making a bit of a mess. Then I thought, well, she's had her hands all in the flour I don't really want to keep that flour anymore.

So I put the rest of the flour in two containers and sent both the kids into the backyard and told them to have a flour fight. After they recovered from their shock they grabbed handfuls of flour and went for it.

Poor Amelia was downwind, so she got the brunt of the fight.

But they had lots of fun

and got lots of messy

and I got lots of Christmas goodies out of it all. The house only lasted a day or so since the kids were eying it all the time and all the goodies on it.

Smells like Christmas goodies here!

Good Friends. Good Times.

2010-12-14T19:12:00.000-05:00

Kevin and I have so many good memories from our college days. Some of our most cherished were when were were engaged. We both lived in Bailey Gardens. I lived in with Kristy and Sheri in apartment 22 and Kevin lived with 4 other guys in apartment 16. Two of those guys just happened to be engaged to my roommates. So there were three of us couples, Kevin Currier and Kristy, Chris Culler and Sheri, and Kevin and me. The Currier's had gotten engaged in May and the Cullers got engaged in August, on the same day as we did. We started a weekly thing where the girls would all cook a meal together and then the 6 of us would eat together and then the guys did dishes. We girls all planned our weddings together and had such fun discussing all the options. The Curriers had their wedding in January and the Cullers and we had our weddings in May. The Cullers moved into Corry Village only a few buildings over from us and we all joined a Young Marrieds One Another Group at church.

We have had such good times with those two couples and others from our OAG in our young married days. We'd stay up late playing Mario Cart at the Currier's house or all just decide to get together for dinner dates. The girls would get together and scrapbook and the boys would play Risk. Such fun times.

Then one by one, everyone moved away...

Well, maybe not everyone, but it felt like it. And those of us still in Gainesville all had kids, so there went the getting together on a whim.

SO...we were super excited when the Cullers were coming for a visit after Thanksgiving. They were doing a Florida trip to visit family and stopped through Gainesville for a few days. We had a wonderful time getting together with them at the Curriers house, going out to lunch all together and then we had dinner together on Friday night.

The Currier and Kelsey kids eating at the kiddie table

Chris and Sheri's little girl Cleo was a show stealer, making us all laugh and getting lots of hugs.

To wind the kids down they watched a video together, Cleo wasn't as interested, but she knew right where the camera was!

I told you. Adorable.

So wanting to get a little back of the 'good ole days' we tried something new. A sleepover! We decided to try and see if the Kelsey kids could sleepover with the Currier kids. Here are the boys in the boy room.

And the girls were supercute on the blowup mattress in Cate's room.

After a hour of them playing, chatting, and listening to music in bed they all ended up falling asleep.

Then the fun began! We played Monopoly Deal and watched internet videos and in general goofed off and had fun. We talked and laughed into the wee hours of the night. I think we ended up leaving after 1am and calculated that we would have spend 80 bucks on a babysitter if we'd kept the kids at home instead of having a little sleepover. And the kids had so much fun too.

Ah, good times. Good times.

Christmas Time is Here...sort of

2010-12-13T09:18:00.000-05:00

During their visit Mom and Dad came over one morning to open presents with the kids. I don't know how they got all the gifts and their luggage in the car!

The kids got the Toy Story 3 DVD and Mater's Tall Tales. Don't ask how many times we've watched that already! Grant is in LOVE with Mater's Tall Tales, and they are hilarious.

They loved getting these little penguin ornaments.

And Grant got this adorable Fireman shirt from Aunt Karen who found it in Chicago.

A Merry Christmas begins!

Thanksgiving

2010-12-12T09:17:00.000-05:00

We started Thanksgiving day by getting the turkeys in the smoker. Mmmm. What a wonderful smell all day blowing by our front door. Amelia kept wanting to open the door to let the smell come in. After getting the turkeys ready we sat down to watch Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. The kids really enjoyed watching the floats go by. When Snoopy came on Grant ran over to the TV to touch him and give him a hug.

Amelia wanted to hold Hello Kitty's hand.

....and give her a hug.

Around lunchtime Mom and Dad came over with Travis. David, Sarah and Brandon were still at the hospital. We were hoping they'd be home in time to join us for dinner.

The weather outside was pretty warm, but it was breezy and so we enjoyed hanging out and watching the kids. I got my newspaper ads out to scour for the best Black Friday deals and plan my route for the next day.

And what Thanksgiving is complete without football? The boys watched football and Amelia wanted to snuggle with Grandpa and watch football with him too.

Grant just wanted to play underneath the table.

We ate dinner and the Malpelis came by after we'd finished and picked Travis up on their way home from the hospital with Brandon. They didn't get to eat with us but we sent home a good bit of the leftovers so they could eat their own Thanksgiving too.

Then Grandpa got to read a few stories to the kids. We love spending time with the Kelseys and wish we could have them come to Gainesville all the time! We certainly were spoiled with them this trip since Mom got to stay an extra two weeks and then Dad came back to pick her up. The kids want to go up to NC in February so we can see more snow, haha.

Baby Brandon is here!

2010-12-08T23:18:00.001-05:00

We were excited to have Mom and Dad come into town for Thanksgiving. They timed their visit this time because Sarah was due on December 1st. Well, they got here on Tuesday and Sarah went into labor on Wednesday morning. Good timing Brandon!

Dave and Sarah went to the hospital and we hung out with Mom, Dad and Travis. We had them over for lunch and then we went to a park close to the hospital (just in case!). But by 1:30 Brandon still hadn't made his appearance so we figured we should go home so he'd hurry up!

Cousins down by the creek on the nature trail.

Finally we got the call that he was here and we loaded up and went to the hospital to meet him. Travis got to meet his new little brother.

Amelia loved holding him and was so gentle and still while she sat there with him. She asked if she could give him a kiss and she just wanted to keep loving on him.

Of course, when she wasn't holding him she wasn't so quiet and still. The cousins were making lots of racket and playing in the room. The adults were trying to talk and enjoy holding Brandon while also keeping them from going nuts.

So after our visit we headed back home for some pizza and hoped that Brandon would come home the next day for Thanksgiving. We were so thankful that he had arrived safely and couldn't wait to see him again.

Last home game

2010-11-30T22:19:00.029-05:00

We have had the good fortune of going to some home UF games since we've graduated. And sometimes my dad gets seats in the skyboxes from his work. This time he got 4 tickets and Mallory came down with him and Kevin and I got to go to the game too.

It was Senior day and so we got to see the last home game for some of the guys, and Urban Meyer's last home game too, though we didn't know that at the time. The game was great, just the kind of game I like going to. Unstressful, lots of scoring by us, plenty of time to go back to the lobby for food (one of my favorite parts of the skyboxes, oh the food! I think I had 6 different desserts there!). When we went to the LSU game we were yelling so loud and I wouldn't have wanted to be in the skyboxes then because you loose a little bit of the atmosphere sitting behind the glass.

Probably our favorite part of the game was when some big senior walk on defensive player got to go in for an offensive play to try for a touchdown. They tried the first play and he didn't get in, or on the second play, we were rooting for this big fellow to score. Finally Reed got behind him and they all just pushed him into the endzone with the ball. That guy was so excited, he took off his helmet and was walking on the sidelines taking bows and blowing kisses to the fans. So hilarious.

We had a great time with my dad and sister and were so glad to just be able to spend time with them and enjoy Gator football.

Birthday Playgroup

2010-11-25T22:10:00.000-05:00

When Amelia was a newborn we went to the luncheons at North Florida and met some other mommies and newborns. We went every week for 16 weeks and then after that we started meeting weekly for play dates. We don't meet weekly anymore, but now our newborns are 6 years old and in kindergarten! Each year we've had a birthday play date for the kids to celebrate.

Amelia and Elizabeth

Grant got to come along and hang out with the big 6 year-olds and their younger siblings, like Raelyn.

We didn't get everyone to the playgroup that day, but here's our group shots.

After taking the group pictures two of the 6 year-olds and Grant went over and started playing with three bigger boys, probably 8-10 year olds. They were playing some combo of rugby and keep away. The three older boys were on a team and the three younger boys were on a team. I don't think they really had any rules but were just throwing the ball, running after whoever had the ball and trying to get the ball. There were three other moms sitting nearby.

I was chatting with some of the other playgroup moms and keeping my eye on both Amelia (who was on the playground) and Grant out on the field. The bigger boys seemed like they were nice kids and weren't playing too rough that I could tell. They were letting the younger kids tackle them and Grant was really getting into it and got really frustrated when he couldn't have the ball. He was upset one time and he told me that another boy had pushed him and he fell and hurt his lip. But there was all kind of pushing and shoving going on out there, tackling and grabbing and he didn't look hurt really bad. So I went back over to check on Amelia and came back a little later.
As I walked past the three moms, one of the older boys was coming over like he was hurt. I heard one mom say, "well, we'll go find his mom" and I told them I was the mom of the youngest boy out there. She told me that Grant had hit her son on the back (I didn't know until later he'd hit him with a big stick). I told her I'd go talk to Grant and as I walked away they were lifting up the boy's shirt and I saw a HUGE red mark on the poor boys back! It was like 6 inches long and an inch wide! I was in horror that Grant had beat up on some 8 year old!
So I went over and talked to Grant and he got all upset and I made sure to tell him that we don't hit other people. He told me that the other boy had pushed him and his lip hurt, but I said even if someone else hits you it's not okay to hit back and that if there was a problem he talk to the boy about it or come to me for help. Well, then one of the moms came over with the boy (not his own mom) to show me the mark that was left and to ensure that I realized how bad the boy had been hurt. She'd seen me taking pictures at the park and said, "Now THIS is what you should be taking pictures of!" I had seen it before they had and so I knew, I guess she was expecting me to be in shock and really punish Grant or wondering if I was just a bad mom. She left and the boy ran off to play.
Anyway as I finished talking to Grant (he was really upset at this point because he knew he'd made a bad choice) the boy came by and I called him over so Grant could apologize. Grant told him sorry and gave him a hug and the three moms cheered from their blanket. I walked over to them with Grant and explained that he probably wasn't old enough to understand when pushing and shoving is just playing and that he was getting frustrated. They said it was okay and told me that I should get him into baseball cause he had a really powerful swing!

I was shocked for a while and as I told the story to my mom later on it occurred to me that it was actually kind of funny. My little 4 year old was beating up on some kid twice his age, yikes!

Anyway, here are seven of the moms at the park, one had to leave just before we got this picture and there were some who couldn't make it at all that day, but it's great to have been with this group of moms, to learn from them, to share stories with and to raise our kids together. I love them!

Ballerina Girl

2010-11-16T23:05:00.000-05:00

Well, our little girl finally has wanted to take ballet! I've been hoping she'd want to take dance for a long time and my mom has offered to pay for lessons. For the longest time she's not been interested, but in October she saw some Angelina Ballerina and decided she'd like to learn ballet. So I got her enrolled where a few of her friends also take dance. She's in a younger class, but I don't think that matters too much at this age.

The parents got to come one of the days to observe the class. She was doing such a good job and she seemed like she really enjoys it.

So cute, ever the teacher's pet, loving answering every question.

Sweet little 1st position

The girl has hops!

With her friend Caitlyn after class.